Dear Potty Training, You're Going to Break Me

At least, that's how I feel right now. As I sit here typing this, there's a loud fan going next to me to dry the freshly cleaned cushion from our rocking chair that my three year old peed on. In the laundry room, the washer and dryer are both going and a big pile of pee pee laundry is waiting for me to wash it. Our sofa has a lovely (sarcasm intended) white waterproof crib mattress pad on one cushion because this mama is done trying to clean pee off of our sofa cushions.

I hate potty training. I hated it the first time I did it when my oldest was two and a half. I remember the second day in I felt an overwhelming feeling of just wanting to go back. Couldn't we just go back? Diapers aren't so bad, right? I didn't end up going back then, but I still remember that feeling. And it's probably why I have waited so long to potty train my three year old. I have waited and put it off and procrastinated and come up with a hundred other things that I "need" to do first. But now we're in the midst of it and I can't help but think, "This is why. THIS is why I have put it off for so long. Because I. HATE. IT." It's so hard. And I'd like to just go back. Or maybe fast forward? When will this child be potty trained, WHEN?? I wish I knew the answer to that, but I don't. I need to continue on, hopefully moving forward a little day by day, until one day I reach the point where I can look back on this experience and say, "You know, we made it through. It didn't break me".

In the meantime, my sofa will look like this:


If you are potty training, I highly recommend getting one of these so your sofa can look as great as mine. Or you may already have one in a closet somewhere like I did. In all seriousness though, it's great because the elastic pretty much fits around the width of my sofa cushion and I just folded the excess under. It's soft so my son still has a comfortable place to sit, I don't feel like I'm being mean making him sit on the floor, and if he pees on it, I can just take it off and wash it.


I also recommend getting this stuff for when the mess can't be just put in the washer. I've been using this on our carpet and any upholstery that gets *ahem* peed on.


To any fellow potty training mamas out there, I feel you. And if I could, I would buy you this pin. I know I could have used it today.

On Being Dissatisfied

Last week I had this gnawing feeling of dissatisfaction with my life. That made me feel bad because I'm usually pretty happy with what I do. I'm so grateful and thankful to be a stay-at-home mom right now. This is what I wanted to do! This is what I prayed for even before we started trying to have kids! But sometimes I think looking around at other people and other moms too much leads me to think I should have something else. I should be a good stay-at-home mom and a successful "_______". Fill in the blank with whatever...small business owner. Illustrator. Blogger. Ministry volunteer. Just something else. And maybe I want to be recognized for that something else?

I opened up and told my husband about these feelings and how I didn't like them. We prayed about it together and the next night I picked up The Human Right reader, a newspaper-like pamphlet, that I had brought home from the last service of the Assemblies of God Centennial Celebration. I started reading the section titled, "Abandon", and at the end of the first page it said this: "We must be content with whatever level of influence He gives us. it may look different in your life than it does anywhere else. That's okay. Regardless of where His voice takes you, there is a conversation happening right now in Heaven and your name is part of it. God is summoning us and the next generation to hear His Spirit speak." Wow! What a good thing for my restless heart to hear. For more info on The Human Right, click here.

Then the next night, I read Alicia Britt Chole's blog. She's been doing a series called Seven Woes For This Generation, and this one was, "Woe to us when we crave fame. Do we possess the strength to be nothing?" She goes on to say, "We daydream of greatness and call it being visionary. We long to be publicly affirmed in the superlative and call it God’s favor. We boast of opportunities and call it faith." I love that she asks if we have the strength to be nothing. What a concept! To read her blog post, click here.

God patiently reminds me again and again that I need to focus on Him instead of looking around me and comparing myself to others. As Sara Groves sings in her song "This Journey Is My Own", I need to "live and...breathe for an audience of one".

When Life Hands You Balloons

Last Saturday we went to a park to have our pictures taken by my brother-in-law. I wanted to get some photos of the three of us as a family (since we haven't done that yet, *ahem*) and some of Avery. The day before, I had planned to go get a single helium balloon for Avery's pictures. The only place I know of to get helium balloons (the regular kind, not the foil kind) is on the other side of town and well, it didn't work out for me to go get one. Then that evening Josh was going to go get one and that didn't work out either as he had to worry about getting his hair cut and there just wasn't time. Oh, and did I mention that during this time we're juggling one car because our other vehicle decided to have issues again? Yeeeeah. We decided that if we had time in the morning, we'd go buy a balloon before getting our pictures taken.

Needless to say, we did not have time in the morning. After leaving later than intended, Josh asked if we still wanted to stop and get a balloon. "Uhhh, no." I said. "We're already running late!" I had been feeling frustrated that we didn't have time to get a balloon for Avery's pictures. And normally when I feel that way about something that is out of my control, I look around for someone else to blame to alleviate my frustration. I stew. I sulk. But in that moment, I decided not to let my normal reaction take over. I didn't want to make my family miserable right before family pictures! So I said laughingly, "Maybe there will be a man selling balloons at the park!" Josh laughed with me at the ridiculousness of that thought. But it made me feel better and, hey! It could happen, right?

We met my brother-in-law in the parking lot of the park and as we're walking away from our cars, we pass a young family with a baby getting ready to leave. And with them they are carrying a big bunch of...you guessed it...balloons! I think as they passed by, I said to my brother-in-law, "Ohhh! I meant to go get a balloon for Avery's pictures and I didn't have a chance!" I looked wistfully after them and thought, "Do I dare go beg them for one of their balloons?" Josh was on the same wavelength as I was and said, "Why don't you just go ask them for a balloon?" I looked towards them, trying to work up the nerve to go ask, and I see that they're looking back at us. So we started walking towards each other and the young woman said, "Would you like our balloons? I overheard you say you wanted some." My hand flew to my heart and I said, "Yes, thank you! I meant to get some yesterday and didn't have time! Thank you so much!" I walked back to my family with the balloons in hand. I couldn't believe it! Avery loved the balloons and I think we'll have some good pictures of her with them...not to mention a good story to tell when we look back years from now.

So to the dear, sweet family in the park that gave us your balloons: Thank you! This mama was feeling bad that she didn't have a chance to get a single balloon for her daughter's photos. You helped make our pictures and our day! And thank you, God...I'm sure you had a part in that, too!

The Tree Swing

I've been feeling a little off lately. Sometimes life doesn't go according to plan and instead you trip over a toy in the floor and break the two smallest toes on one foot, forcing you to stay off of it for several days. Then maybe you get a one inch long gash on the top of your head from an open medicine cabinet door and have to cover it up with your bangs so as not to gross everyone out or draw unwanted attention to yourself. And yes, I am very accident prone. Its amazing that I haven't broken anything else on my body yet. Add to that a sick daughter and everything that comes with that (high fever, melt downs, clinginess and feeling miserable), and well...it's easy to feel a little off.

Yesterday Avery started feeling better again, and since it was so nice outside we went out to the backyard after dinner. I mean seriously--who could ask for better weather at the end of July in Missouri??? I found a toddler swing for Avery a few weeks ago and Josh installed it on a tree branch that I knew would be the perfect spot for a swing. After playing in the yard awhile, Avery wanted to swing so I put her in. She was content to swing for a good long time and I was happy to keep pushing her. Something about the repetitive motion of the swing swaying back and forth, the perfect temperature outside, the creak of the gate as Josh went to water the garden...it was soothing. We listened to the birds chirping and the dogs barking and the leaves swishing in the wind. I looked up through the tree branches with all their green leaves and could see the blue sky. I knew that would be a perfect spot for a swing. What I didn't know is how much good it would do for me, too. Thanks God, for answering my prayer for a swing for Avery...and for me.

My To-Do List

I like to make myself a to-do list every week and keep it visible on the kitchen counter. I have to smile in amusement when I make my lists these days thinking of how different my tasks are now from what they used to be as a full-time office employee. As a stay-at-home mom, my lists now include things like, "Do Avery's laundry" and "Change out carseat buckle". My to-do lists help me remember the things I tend to forget about until right before bed when I think, "Oh yeah, I forgot to do ____."

This week I had an unusual "task" on my to-do list...to write a letter to a friend. This is the only way I have of communicating with her right now in her current situation. So last night instead of getting on Facebook or Pintrest like I usually do after my daughter is in bed, I decided to sit down and write to her. I dug out my stationery box (yes, I actually do still have one), but I had to dig down to the bottom under blank cards and unused stickers until I finally found some stationery paper. It's pink and I've probably had it since I was 12! After writing for awhile, I thought about how rare it is for me to write anymore. Occasionally I'll force myself to sit down and write in my journal, but even then its usually about what new things Avery is doing or saying and not really about my thoughts or what's been going on in my life. Even emailing someone seldom happens anymore. Why email when you can just send short texts while you're busy doing something else? Who has time to sit down and write? Not me. Oh yeah, but I do have time for Facebook and Pintrest. Hmmmm...

So this evening of writing to my friend instead of getting on social media made me think...I don't have to always check Facebook. That should not be something on my mental to-do list. And speaking of to-do lists, I don't always have to have one. Sure, they are nice to help me remember things and it feels so good when I get to cross something off. But life isn't about just crossing things off my list. Playing with my daughter and giving her my attention isn't something I can just do and say, "Check! That's done for today." Spending time reading my Bible and praying isn't something I can do and then say, "Check! I've been a good Christian for today...now I'm done." And I have to keep reminding myself of that. I don't want to let my to-do lists, whether mental or actual, control me. So if I made an actual to-do list inspired by this blog post, I think it should look something like this:

-Spend time being present, whether its an actual place or in someone's company
-Pray without ceasing
-Spend less time on social media and more time writing and drawing! :o)

What's on your to-do list right now?

When Pies Go Bad

I made two strawberry meringue pies with lemon curd for Mother's Day and things didn't exactly go as planned. When I baked the crusts, they shrunk down into the pie plates and bubbled up really big in the middle. Nice. But after I assembled them, I thought they looked good enough to snap a picture of, so I did:

What I didn't snap a picture of was the next morning when I took them out of the refrigerator and the juice from the strawberries had soaked into the crust! They were a mess. One of them even leaked onto the backseat of our car on the way over to my parents' house. But despite all this, they still tasted pretty good. And my husband (who is not a big fan of pie crust) said that it was the best pie crust he had ever had! Note to self...strawberry juice-soaked pie crust is good!

Sketchbook Peek Saturday

I've been thinking about doing a feature here where I share something from my sketchbook every other week or so. I think it will be fun and hopefully it will also keep me motivated to draw on a more regular basis! Ok, so this isn't exactly from my sketchbook, but here's just a little something I worked on last night:

It's pretty simple and it really didn't take me that long to do. It's for a little project I'm working on. Hope you enjoyed this little "peek", and happy weekend!

The season for growing

Our lettuce is growing! We planted spinach, red leaf, and just some regular stuff about a week and a half ago. The last time we planted spinach from seed, none of it came up, so we were pretty excited to see those green sprouts popping up this week. Hopefully we will be eating some yummy salads in a few weeks!

I'm thinking we need to plant some tomatoes, too. Aren't they so much better home grown than store bought??

Weekend Project

This weekend I finally worked up the motivation to start a project. I've had so many ideas rolling around in my head that I think it's been hard for me to decide which one to actually start with!

We've had this media shelf for probably about 4 or 5 years; I think we got it at Big Lots. It was super packed with dvds until we weeded some out and my husband went through and recorded some digitally to our computer. There ended up being some empty shelves, but I couldn't get to them because of the spot in our living room we had it in.



See how it's really crowded with that end table there? By the way, I took this after I had cleared off about 3 shelves and then realized I would probably want to have a "before" picture. I never liked how the lower shelves weren't that accessible, and the black backing with its black hole-ish, sucking-the-rest-of-the-living-room-in quality was really starting to bother me. After seeing some ideas on Pintrest, I decided I would scrapbook the back of our media shelf!



I used Mod Podge to glue the paper to the back and then brushed another layer of it on top to seal it a little. I also moved the shelf to a different spot so it would be more accessible. And with the dvds more spread out, I was able to put some other little things in amongst the dvds to make it look more home-y.



Ta da! I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. My husband didn't like how "frilly" the paper was that I chose, but he did approve of the way I arranged everything. :o)



Yay for weekend projects! What projects are you hoping to get done soon?

The blank page

source

It's been a long time since I've posted and, I'm ashamed to admit, even longer since I've sat down to do some sketching in my sketchbook. I always seem to run out of time between working, making dinner, laundry, etc. There always seems to be SOMETHING ELSE that I need to do.

Then it dawned on me today: have I been stalling? Not necessarily making up things to do, but putting more importance than necessary on other things and purposely trying to FIND other things to do so that I don't have to deal with the the scaryness of a blank page? Hmmm. That had never ocurred to me before.

I finally sat down this evening to sketch, and I have to admit it was hard. I stared at that blank page for a long time. Then I remembered something one of my art professors told me...he said that he always doodled and scribbled on paper until it began to vaguely resemble something and that's how he would come up with his drawings. I tried that and it helped loosen me up somewhat. I hope that I can continue to take 15-20 minutes on a regular basis to just sketch...and see what happens.

Dear Spring, please stay!

Josh and I went to my favorite downtown park not too long ago and the flowering trees were in bloom...so pretty!

The weather has been so beautiful here. Yesterday we went over to my mom and dad's for awhile and their wisteria is GORGEOUS! This was what it looked like two weeks ago when we were there for Easter...


and this is what it looks like now...


Isn't it amazing?! It smelled sooooooo wonderful, too. I am loving the green leaves everywhere and love hearing the birds chirping. I am ITCHING to buy flowers for our yard! I think some hydrangea bushes would look lovely in front of our house. Maybe if I can talk my husband into it? :o)

Long Easter weekend...

Josh and I had a long weekend over Easter and it was GREAT! We started it off by going to a place here in town we had never been to before called Aunt Martha's Pancake House. It's been here since 1959!




I should have taken a picture of the huge pancakes on my plate...mmmm! Then we went to a couple flea markets where I found these pretty coasters:


and this sweet old book!


Oh my goodness, I just love it. It's a book of poems for children that was published in 1937. And it has these cute little illustrations in it, too!


We spent the rest of our weekend with my family celebrating Easter. It was fun and the weather was gorgeous! I made these cute carrot cupcakes for everyone:


Spring has officially arrived...I am enjoying the flowers and the green coming out everywhere! Hope you're having a good week! I'm going to go have a leftover cupcake. :o)

Fabric hunting

Saturday I went to a local fabric store with my mom to hunt for some pretty spring fabric to cover the pillows on my couch and loveseat. The pillows that came with them are red and brown and have a rather generic design on them. I liked them really well when we bought the furniture about three years ago, but last spring I really started craving some soft colors and pretty designs and ended up staring at them rather resentfully for the whole season. So! Since my mom is teaching me how to use a sewing machine, I decided it was time for some pillow covers. We searched and searched and dug and dug through the fabric and I just didn't really find anything that I loved. We eventually dug through the overstock under a table and I found a fabric that I hadn't seen out on display:


It wasn't really what I had in mind, but I fell in love with it so I bought it. :o) I think we'll get started on making the pillow covers next week. I can't wait to see how they turn out!

Inspiration Board

Hi there! Is anyone else glad it's almost the weekend? :o)

I wanted to post some pictures of the inspiration board I finished for my Indie Biz class. First of all, I should say that it's a little different looking. When I went looking for the appropriate sized bulletin board, I was annoyed at how expensive they all were!! I ended up buying some cork squares from Walmart and then bought a canvas from Hobby Lobby. The lesson we had suggested painting clouds on the bulletin board, so I decided to paint the canvas like a cloudy sky:


Then I stuck a couple big cork squares on and painted it like some of the clouds were overlapping onto the bulletin board part:


And then I made some paper butterflies out of white cardstock to put on it and found some of "my favorite things" to attach as well:


I'm pretty happy with it and hopefully it will serve it's purpose...to inspire me!

Have a good weekend!

I'm still alive...

Obviously I haven't mastered the art of blogging on a regular basis. Ahem! Moving on...

Week 1 of Indie Business class went well; although I am finding it challenging to fit time in for everything I want to accomplish. I am also not the type of person who can just leave the dishes piled up in the sink or let the laundry get out of control. I like to have a picked up house. Aren't artists supposed to be messy and not mind those types of things? Hmmm....

Here's what I've been working on lately (and yes, I was a little behind on getting it done). Our first project was making a binder for our Indie Business workbook. I could not find the type of binder they suggested that you can paint on, so I decided to create my own drawing for the cover. I'm pretty happy with it...it's sort of a self-portrait.



Have a great week!

New computer and bag

I wanted to post a picture of my cute new laptop...I am very happy with it so far!



I wanted to buy a nice bag for it, but I wasn't quite satisfied with the look of the one I bought, so I added some fabric yo-yos that my mom gave me to make it a little more cute.



Sorry that my pictures are rather washed out...here's a closer look at the yo-yos:



I think I want to put yo-yos on more stuff...they are just too cute! Here are some things I found on Etsy that have yo-yos...


You can find this cute baby hat here.


And here is a really pretty yo-yo necklace:


And I LOVE this purse that is covered with yo-yos!


You can find it here.

I just love them. I think I'm going to be hunting for more things in my house to put yo-yos on!

Happy March!

Can you believe how fast this year is already going??? I can't. Well, I need to head off to bed, but I just wanted to post a picture of my now *completed* apron! I still can't believe I made it.



I think the next project my mom is going to help me with will be some pillow covers for the pillows on my couch and love seat.

Tomorrow evening I'll try to post a picture of my very own NEW laptop! It is cute and I am very happy with it...more happy than I thought I could be with a laptop that is not a mac!

Sew what's new...

When I was little, my mom used to make outfits for me on her sewing machine. When I was about 10, she and her friend used to say that her friend could teach me how to sew since we were both left-handed and my mom could teach her daughters how to sew since they were right-handed! A good idea, but it never happened. When I was about 12, my mom found sheets that matched my bedspread and wall paper and sewed them into curtains for my windows to avoid buying the overpriced matching curtains from the store. I thought she was a genius!

Somehow even though I loved having things that my mom had sewn for me, I never learned how to sew myself. So for the past month and a half, I've been going over to my mom and dad's house about once a week so that my mom can teach me how to sew. Right now she is helping me sew an apron; it's almost done. I get excited just thinking of all the possibilities that will open up to me knowing how to sew! Pillow covers, curtains, hand bags, skirts...the possibilities are endless, right?



I'm so glad I am finally learning how to sew and that my mother is the one teaching me. I'm learning on the same machine that she used to sew things for me when I was a girl! It will be fun to see what I can accomplish as I learn more and more each week. And maybe someday in the future, I can make things for my little boy or girl, too! :o)

Here's a closer peek at my almost-finished apron:

Learning

I am so excited to be a part of this class:


I have had so many questions for years and have never really known where to turn. When I saw this class advertised on a blog, I knew I had to sign up even though I was scared. And still am!

Then last week, I learned about this new book:

How exciting is this??? It sounds like exactly what I need. I haven't purchased it yet but plan to very soon! You can find the book here.
Obviously I have a lot of learning to do over these next few months!

Hello, my name is....

..Tiffany and I am an artist who hasn't been doing much artwork lately. I have a Bachelor's degree in Art and graduated in 2005, but have been struggling ever since to develop my own style and get my stuff out there. The artwork I did for my college classes was so different from the artwork I did on my own that it's hard for me to mesh the two together.

I have been married for almost 5 years to a super sweet guy named Josh, and we have one fat cat named Ziggy. Two years ago, we bought our first home; a cute, itty-bitty (I prefer to call it cozy) house built in the 1920's. I love drinking hot tea, exploring downtown Springfield, MO, watching old movies, and fleamarketing.

Oh, and drawing is more my type of artwork. Cutesy drawings and greeting cards. :o) Here is an example of my work; this is my Valentine card from last year: