The Mother Lode

Crafts and Crochet

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Episode 20: Favorite Children’s Books

Little Blue Truck. O My, O My, O Dinosaurs. Pippi Longstocking. The Gruffalo. Strega Nona. The Kissing Hand. The Day the Crayons Quit. The Tawny Scrawny Lion. Digging Up Dinosaurs. Marty and Priscilla discuss these books and SO MANY MORE! We love reading and it is important to read to our young ones! They gain so much and it takes such little time and effort to make an impact! 

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How to Move with Young Children and Live to Tell the Tale

  1. Firstly: relax your standards about everything. There will be more TV time. There will be more chicken nuggets/pizza. There will be difficulties! Accept it from the get-go and you’ll be fine!
  2. Split responsibility. If you are a two parent household: one person handles logistics and planning and another handles actual packing of all the things. Obviously, you work together on these, but it worked for our family to have the details worked out by my husband and the packing taken care of by me. 
  3. ASK FOR HELP. You can’t do it alone unless you are some kind of mega awesome superhuman, in which case you wouldn’t be reading this anyway! We had our parents watch the kids for the actual moving days. They took them the first weekend our old house was on the market for the showings. I even had a friend play playdough and read to my kids all afternoon while I packed.
  4. Start packing ASAP. Pack away what isn’t being used as soon as you know you are moving.
  5. Schedule a Purple Heart Pickup! Gather up all the things taking up space in your home which you don’t need and have them picked up at your door to be donated without having to load them into your car where you will forget them and chauffeur them around for a few weeks.
  6. Plan ahead as much as you can with meals. Easy things you can throw together with a couple of sheet pans or skillets are best! You don’t have time to be Ina Garten right now! Honestly not even Rachael Ray was happening in our house for a while there. Mostly we rocked the Cookie Monster and Chef Gonger from Sesame Street style. Oh and we ate many sandwiches. Blah. 
  7. Coloring books. Paper. Crayons. Playdough. Get out all that stuff and keep it an easy access spot. Kids love these and they are easy to supervise while packing/discussing moving details/making dinner.
  8. I have improved my penchant for procrastination over the years, but still I’m here to say that if I can do it, you totally can, too! I am NOT renowned for my planning abilities! Now go pack up a box of DVDs. It’s a great place to begin because they are easy to pack and it will feel like you got something accomplished. Yay, you did it! Only 137 more boxes! 

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Episode 19: How to Survive the Why Phase with your Honesty Intact

Listen as we express the importance of giving honest answers to tough toddler questions. We may or may not provide some hilarious anecdotes from our own lives! 

 

Check out these resources: Parenting.com and DrGreene.com

Seriously the Dr. Greene article is great!

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Guide to Quick Kid Costume DIY

Halloween is coming! I love dressing the kids up in fun costumes. (I may also enjoy dressing us all up as a family.) This year I admittedly wasn’t into it. We recently moved and My sewing supplies are completely disorganized. SO we are going with a re-wear for my youngest with an alligator we had and a hand-me-down lion costume for my oldest from my in-laws.

My 3 year old son on the other hand is determined to be a ghost. Everything I could purchase is too scary, so I knew I was going to break down and use the sewing machine. I thought I had a white fleece blanket somewhere in my giant pile of fabrics to be recycled and it was NOWHERE to be found. I moved to Plan B and found the bride of Frankenstein I had made on the fly for myself two years ago. It was an old long sleeve white t shirt with a long strip of fabric attached at the shoulders and two long pieces attached at the back. I basically trimmed it to fit my son, hand stitched a felt face on, and made a VERY fast white hat. DONE. It was seriously a total of 45 minutes to accomplish this and he loves it. Here are my tips for easy ways to throw your own costume together!

  1. Re-use old costumes in a different way (Like I did, cutting up an old costume and adding different elements.)
  2. Think about what everyday items you have on hand that could be used. I’m thinking cotton balls (steam, animal fluff), aluminum foil (candy, robot), plastic bags/newspaper (to stuff and reshape clothing)
  3. Search the house for old clothing that no one is wearing. What can you do with that old pair of pink corduroy pants? (I turned mine into a piglet costume a few years ago for my then 6 month old.)  
  4. What fun costume only requires regular clothing and a headpiece that you could make with hot glue, some felt, and a cheap headband or hat from the dollar store? I’m thinking animals and TV characters.
  5. Hot glue and felt are your friends. I made Tigger and a honey pot one year solely by hot gluing felt onto old clothing. (We had a Winnie the Pooh theme, clearly.)
  6. Hats are unbelievably simple to sew. Cut two pieces from the pattern and run through the sewing machine four times. That’s it! Here is the link for an easy, free, downloadable pattern from Fleece Fun. I made fleece ones last year for my kids Pokémon costumes and yesterday whipped up a white one with scrap pieces of knit and that worked, also! 

Comment with some of your ideas for easy costume DIY! 

Our family as Winnie the Pooh (re-used from my hubby’s childhood), Piglet (made out of old pink corduroy pants), Tigger and the “Hunny” pot made from old shirts, felt, and hot glue. 

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OOPS

I know it’s Friday and I am supposed to have a blog post ready. Guess what? I don’t. Sometimes in life you fail. I failed this week at getting content ready for you! Take some time to listen to one of our latest podcasts today instead! I just uploaded them to the website. Have a great weekend! 


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A Letter to my Mother

Dear Mom,

Now that I am a mother, I owe you an extremely long thank you note:

Thank you for every stinkin’ thing. Thank you for cleaning my little baby body. Thank you for singing the same ridiculous song over and over just to hear me laugh. Thank you for convincing me to eat vegetables. Thank you for teaching me to tie my shoelaces on our front porch. Thank you for separating my sister and I when we misbehaved. Thank you for braiding my hair, playing Barbies, and letting me watch I Love Lucy, I Dream of Jeannie, and Bewitched on Nick at Nite on warm summer nights. Thank you for walking me to school, driving me to school, and picking me up after band practice, debate team meetings, French club: the list is endless. Thank you for buying me a purple paisley shirt at The Gap which I wore so often I think it wore out in a couple of years! Thank you for taking me on long walks through the woods all over the county. Thank you for every day you let me stay home from school just because. Thank you for every formal dress, cool pair of jeans, and new school shoes. Thank you for taking me to Mass and countless fish frys, Christmas in Julys at the nursing homes, and other volunteer events. Thank you for teaching me how to drive because daddy made me cry every time. Thank you for valuing my education and making the transition to adulthood fairly easy. Thank you for raising me with the ability to cope with life and handle being a mother myself. There is no earthly way I could do what I’m doing without the knowledge that you did it, too, and came out on the other side awesome.

Being a mom in today’s world is TOUGH. There is a constant struggle to find what’s right for you as a parent when it is so quick and easy to see what others are doing. I know that I flounder less because you are such a great mom and I take so much inspiration from you and knowing that what I remember from growing up are the things listed above. I don’t remember being yelled at, being grounded, the times we were late for things (ok, I do remember being late but it was never a deal breaker.) I was always secure in your love for me and that keeps me going on the worst days I have as a mother because I know my kids will say the same. What else matters?

Love,

Priscilla

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Episode 16: Finding Your Tribe

Marty and Priscilla discuss the very real necessity of mom friends. Who do you text 10 times a day when you are ready to pull your hair out over nursing woes, potty training, and temper tantrums? Everyone needs a tribe to get through this difficult, beautiful, amazing experience of motherhood. Listen for a few tips on how to develop your mom tribe! 

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7 Powerful Phrases for Talking with Toddlers

  1. “Say it with different words.” Let’s face it, sweet little kids sometimes have trouble being understood. If I can’t figure out what they are saying, having them repeat it over and over is just frustrating for both of us. Getting them to use different words usually helps me crack the code.
  2. “Let’s try again.” This can be in reference to your child trying a task again with your help, but I also use it after a conflict where we have all lost our tempers. It’s so powerful for kids to see parents owning their mistakes.
  3. “How can I make you feel better?” I think this is incredibly important. Often we think a smile and a hug will solve everything in their little world, but that isn’t always the case. I also encourage my kids to say this after a disagreement (okay, after they get physical with each other, IT HAPPENS.) I always say it is polite to say “I’m sorry” but it doesn’t always help or make up for what happened. I suggest to the kids making silly faces, giving hugs, and resolving to be kinder next time as better ways to apologize.
  4. “Please” and “Thank you.” It seems silly, but I sometimes need to remind myself to say these to my kids! I get so used to being the boss that I forget to use these words (and then get frustrated when they don’t use them!)
  5. “Take a deep breath.” We use this in our house to help our kids stop in their moment of deep emotion. I prefer it to the more vague “calm down.”
  6.  “You have 5 minutes until _______” My kids NEED this warning before bedtime, before we need to leave the house, when it’s almost time to leave the playground, basically many times a day to ease the transitions in our routine. I also like to remind them to pick one more thing to do so that they don’t beg for more time!
  7. “I need some help.” “I don’t feel good.” “I’m sad/tired/cranky.” That’s right, these are phrases parents should say! Obviously, we should not burden our children with our troubles, but young children aren’t skilled at detecting emotions yet. Showing them yours is a great way to teach them to be empathetic (you’ll probably even get extra snuggles out of it!)

I hope these suggestions help you to communicate with your little one!

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