Sleep Lessons for Baby...the sweet sound of success

We officially have an all night sleeper! Oh how sweet it is. A ten to twenty minute bedtime ritual followed by hours of uninterrupted sleep. The only drawback? Zion being asleep at 8:45pm means Zion waking up at 6:45am. Sigh....but I'll take what I can get.

30 Day Raw Food Fast

So, somewhere in the last few weeks, I got the bright idea that a raw food fast would probably be a good thing for my health and general well being. Tomorrow marks day one of thirty. I figured I would post my progress here because I think this will make me more accountable for what I put in my mouth. I do have to admit that this last week has been like the feast before the famine (so to speak), but I'm looking forward to the next month. I've done raw before, so I know how time consuming it can be, but I also vividly remember how much better I felt everyday. I'm clinging to that memory as motivation. Keep your fingers crossed because I'm going to need all the support I can get....

Spring Cleaning...the girls' room

Round two of spring cleaning takes me into the girls bedroom. My seven year old and three year old share a room and we FINALLY got them bunk beds. Yay, bunk beds! The bunk beds are really simple and I will probably spruce them up at some point, but for now, they are the greatest thing since sliced bread. With the addition of the new beds I had to rearrange the entire room (well, I probably didn't have to, but I'm OCD like that). There is finally storage space for everything and the room can be easily kept neat. Life is good. I tried to make sure that their shared space is not too "little kid" for Ashni, but still little kid friendly enough for Bijou. I think it works well for the two of them. I think eventually I will build some storage boxes on wheels to go beneath the bottom bunk for storing pajamas, but at the moment they are tucked away in the closet and that works for me too.

The paper lanterns are left over from the Mad Hatter birthday party a few weeks ago.

These little flower shelves are a Goodwill find from a while back. They work for holding small objects like glasses and small artwork.

The art is a mixture of my art, the kids' art and that little mushroom painting (from the Salvation Army)

This white shelf was given to me by a friend and all of the bins are from the Dollar Store (my favorite one stop shop for storage containers). The orange cloth bins we've had for years.

The new play kitchen area.

Next up, my living room/office...

Double Decker

This past weekend was Double Decker weekend here in Oxford. Double Decker is an arts festival held every year in the square. There's local art, music, food, activities for the kids and all of the people watching you could ever want. This year the girls demonstrated some ballet steps with their ballet school. Kids in the audience could participate, so Bijou and Zion joined the party.

Ashni seems to have misplaced her ballet shoes, so she had to go commando.



I'm really proud of the progress the girls have made in ballet this year. They've both been placed in the next level ballet class for next year. The school that they attend typically requires two years of each class level, but each of the girls is being advanced after one year. I am particularly proud of Jena who is the youngest in her Ballet III class this year and had been placed in Ballet IV for next year (I think most of the girls in that class are 12 and Jena is 8!). Good job, ladies. I think I see Alvin Ailey in your future!

Happy Anniversary....

....to me. Yesterday was my fourth wedding anniversary. Hooray for us! It has been an interesting four years full of transition and change. It has been fun and stressful and joyous and trying and fulfilling and I'm looking forward to a lifetime of more anniversaries. To celebrate, I made a fancy brunch for us all. We had spinach, portabella and Gruyere quiche with fresh berried and whipped cream (all made from scratch. Well, except for the berries because, well, I just don't have those skills). I even put the fancy tablecloth and place mats on the table.


Then the hubby and I got a much needed day without a single child! We drove to Memphis and really just hung out. The hubby really wanted to go to Bass Pro Shops (um, yeah okay). So we did that and got some stuff for him and the girls to go fishing. I equate Bass Pro Shops to Hobby Lobby for outdoor enthusiasts - aisles and aisles of tiny packages of brightly colored "stuff". He had a blast and fulfilled a childhood wish (yes, childhood...). Then we went to The Great American Homestore. This was my default destination. I really wanted to go to Dixon Gallery and Gardens but we left Oxford too late and they were closed by the time we made it to Memphis. We took a short trip to the mall. (I know this all sounds really lame, but we don't have any of this stuff in Oxford and before Oxford we lived on an island and didn't have any of this stuff there either. So yeah, it's lame, but we had fun).
Our actual anniversary celebration was dinner at a FABULOUS restaurant called Flight. The experience was amazing (after we finally found the place, anyway). The food was delicious and the staff was SO nice. I can only rave about this place and can't wait until we go back. The food...I will be thinking about that food for weeks! If you're in the Memphis area (or will be at some point), pop over to their website to check them out and stop in for a bite. You will not be sorry (and there's complimentary valet for their patrons).

Sleep Lessons for Baby, Part Deux

Well, it has been a week of no night nursing, no nursing to sleep and Zion going to sleep on her own. Still, so far so good. The one thing that we're still working on is getting her to sleep in her own bed. She is not a fan of her crib, but she does sleep most of the night with us. For some reason though, she has decided that once the sun starts to come up it's her queue to climb on top of me and sleep on my chest. I'm not really sure where that came from, but we'll work on one thing at a time.

Do Not Disturb

So I'm sure lots of parents have this problem, but my kids have no concept of knocking on the door before coming into our bedroom. It seems to be one of those things that they need to be reminded of every morning and as the day goes on their memory gets foggier and foggier. I decided to make a couple of door knob hangers to gently remind small people to knock before entering (or to not knock and go away).

I got a couple of wooden door signs at Hobby Lobby (for a whopping $.47 a piece) and some cool scrapbook paper. A quick Google image search and some cutting and pasting in Word and there you have it. (The cloud paper is for my mother. I am forcing her to make her own. You may notice that there is no picture of her completed project...)



I figured while I was at it, I would make one for the kids' door. We have an open door policy in our house when it comes to their room, so there's no need for a "please knock" reminder. Instead, their sign lets them know if it's quiet time or play time. Hopefully this will help keep the peace when the baby (or Bijou on those rare occasions) is napping.