The Crocheting Mom

      Its that time of year again.  Super Bowl 48 is happening this Sunday.  Bronco fans and Seahawk fans will all be finding a party, or just a seat, in front of the tube.  Make these times even yummier with some great appetizers to snack on during the game.  Whether you are watching with your family and children, with a group of friends, or just by yourself while you crochet, everyone is sure to enjoy these quick and easy appetizers!

         My Lilly is growing up so fast.  She's only 19 months and she is becoming her own little person.      I watch a little boy a few days a week that is about 9 months younger then Lilly.  It is so amazing to watch Lilly play with him.  I have to do a double take because watching her reminds me so much of Ashley playing and taking care of Lilly!  Lilly is absolutely loving being the big kid when the other baby is around.  There is a change in her personality, like she is now in charge.

         I have been so busy lately with crocheting and blogging, that my housework has fell to the wayside.  Today I thought, "I'm going to put everything down, and just clean while my oldest is at school."      Ya, right.      About an hour in, (hey I did an hour straight at least!) I thought of a new blog idea.  I was thinking about how I wished Ashley was home so she could help me clean.  She's only five, but at that age children should have chores that they do regularly, as well as helping with general cleaning around the house.  When this thought occurred to me, I was doing laundry (my least favorite chore) and was thinking about how she just learned how to "fold" socks.

I love videos like this.  It really hits the nail on the head how I feel about both my babies!

     January is almost over and you know what that means!  Valentines day is right around the corner.   If you are like me, you hate having to buy those boring boxes of cards to have your child hand out to her friends at school.  There's nothing original about them, and they just get thrown away.  This year I have decided to not do these anymore, but instead, have Ashley make her own valentines to give out.  It will be so much more fun for her, and her friends will most likely enjoy them more than a mass produced little square card!  Here are some ideas that I have come up with on my own, and searching online, that would be great alternatives. 

   Are your children picky eaters?  Peanut Butter and Banana Smoothies may be my children's favorite breakfast, snack, lunch or whatever meal!  It disappears quicker than anything else I make them, and there is always a request for seconds.  My oldest is so skinny and very athletic, so I'm always looking for good fat-filled food for her.  The peanut butter is great for this.  I'm pretty sure my youngest would have this any day of the week.  First of all, she gets to drink out of a big kid cup with a straw, (woohoo!)  and second, because it just tastes so yummy!  Either way, it is definitely my go to drink when they are hungry.

Children, at an early age, seem to be very curious about Mommy and Daddy's phones.  Rightly so, since we are always on them, talking, writing, or just playing a game that makes cool sounds!    I have had the same phone for about three years now, as well as many of the same toddler apps.  There are a few that both Ashley, and now Lilly, especially like, that I don't think is a waste of their time.  I am going to pick three today to discuss. 1.   Peek a Boo Barn - This is the only app that I will talk about that I have paid for.  There is a "lite" version, but it only has 3 animals on them, sorry I can't remember which ones!  The paid version, a one time fee of $1.99, has 13 animals, and well worth it.  This is by far my favorite toddler app that I have.  In the background during the game you hear a upbeat musical rendition of Old McDonald Had a Farm that you can't help but start singing too.  Game play is just a barn that starts to shake, while one of the hi

     My husband, Lilly, and I went to the Indianapolis Home Show today.  We were able to put Ashley in after school care which was great since she is not a fan of walking around places that have no toys! We have gone to this same event for a few years now.   Each year there are mostly the same vendors, but some are new.   There are hundreds of vendors, so even if they were there the past few years, there is no way you can stop and talk to them all each time.  Each year we've gone, we've been at a different place when it comes to what we are wanting to do with our house.  So each year, it has been a different experience for us.      Each year they select a home builder to build a model home.   Yes build one....IN the building!   They make a full sized house decorated amazingly on the inside and out, with full trees and landscaping.   We have gone in the house, in the past, to see all the different designs and get inspirations.  This year, because of having the stroller, and t

     There are a ton of recipes online for home made play dough.  I am personally not a fan of the stuff.  I hate how it gets all crumbly and makes a mess everywhere!  That stuff hides and has legs of its own!  It seems to show up, in all the rooms, days after it was played with.  So, needless to say, I have never used any of the recipes before.      When I came across this recipe online, it intrigued me.  It is made with only 2 ingredients and did not have to be cooked like some of the other ones.  I said, "Okay, I'll bite."  As always, for the sake of my children's enjoyment, I decided to try this one out.

     Lilly is not saying a whole lot right now.  I know of other toddlers her age who are saying a lot more.  The teacher in me knows that it is completely normal for some toddlers to not have many words.  In fact, as long as they are babbling, there really is nothing to worry about.  Well, the parent in me wants Lilly to increase her language development.  There are only so many times that I can hear her say, "da?" or "eh?" while she's pointing at something. She is 19 months and here is a list of what she does say (and what it actually means): Mama Dada Day-de (Daisy, our dog) Dis  (this) dat (dat) dan (dance) thnk nu (This one is hard to spell out.  She makes sounds that actually sound really close to thank you) Dees (cheese) Die Die ( bye bye) Done      To reassure the parent in me, I went online to find some statistics about toddlers talking, and then some ways in which to help her progress.  The average 18-24 month old will say

     My family was craving pizza one day and my husband suggested making these!  We had all the ingredients in the house and they were quick and easy to make.  These are very delicious and even our children enjoy them.  Good for lunch, or double the recipe for dinner.  As always, with my recipes, I use approximations on amounts.  Have fun with it and be creative.  Here's the recipe.

     My children love bath time.  So when I saw a "recipe" for home made bathtub paint, I had to try it.  I was a little leery at first, afraid that the paint (food coloring) might stain the tub, or at least be hard to scrub off.  After reading reviews about it being easy to cleanup, though, I decided I would give it a shot for my kids' sake. Everything needed is most likely already in your home:

                                    Admit it.  You say "Good Job!" to your child daily.  If you are one of the rare parents that don't, I promise you, if you go to a park, the library, a birthday party, etc, you will hear the phrase over and over again.   Heck, even babies will get offered this phrase for kicking their feet or clapping their hands.  It has become second nature for adults to say this to children.      Many times parents will confuse positive reinforcement with saying "Good job."  Did you know that you are not suppose to do this?  Children are so hungry for our approval that they will often do whatever they can to hear this magic phrase.  In other words, children are learning to do things in order to get praise.  They are not learning to do something because it is right, or because it's something that they truly wanted to do.  This is forcing them to only rely on OUR evaluation of them, and not their own.

       It's that time of year again.  When the entertainment news is buzzing with which movie, actor or actress got nominated for a category on The 86th Academy Awards .      I thought that Jason and I had watched quite a few movies this past year, but there are a lot on the list that I have yet to see, or have even heard of, honestly!  Having two little ones running around, and not being able to go out as much, causes me to not be up to date on the movie scene.  Before having a family, Jason and I would go to the movies almost once per week and would veg-out on the weekends watching movies and TV shows from Netflix.      Anyways, I would like to put in my two cents about six of the category nominations.

     My oldest is an extremely picky eater.  When I say picky, I mean P.I.C.K.Y!!!!  So much to the point, if she's in one of her moods, she would turn down chocolate cake because we were telling her she had to eat it.  It has to be her decision, or it's a drawn out meal for us.

We have an app on our computer that does flash cards for all reading levels. We feel it is important that Ashley learn her beginning sight words. When Ashley reads a word, I also have her use it in a sentence so I know that she is comprehending what she is reading. This is what happened the other day. The word "be" came up. She said, "Be!" ...."Mommy is a Queen Bee." Well said, Ashley. Well said. (Yes I realize the word was not used correctly, I addressed it after my burst of laughter!)

     We have a pizza place in town called Pizza X .  We usually get the combo that includes two drinks, which are delivered in plastic reusable cups.  If you have a Pizza X in your area, I'm sure you have some of these cups lying around.  We have accumulated around four dozen since we moved here, 4 1/2  years ago.  We joke that we have "classy" drinkware in our house.  These cups are especially great if you have little ones.

Christmas break was two weeks for my preschooler.  They were suppose to go back to school today, January 6th.  Mother Nature wanted to be funny and gave us a snow storm yesterday, and negative temperatures today.  Schools all across Indiana were closed.  Heck, Indiana itself was closed!  With wind chills making it -30 degrees today, there was no chance we were going to make it out.  I pulled out one of Ashley's christmas gifts from Santa and we decided to do one of the science projects. This is what Santa brought her for Christmas.

     Giving up a family pet is one of the hardest times that a family may have to go through.  I am writing my experience with our first dog to maybe help those who are having to go through the same thing.  It is not an easy choice, and their will be backlash among family and friends.      When my husband, Jason, and I moved to San Antonio, we were very much newly weds.  Knowing we wanted to start a family, we decided on getting a family dog first.  I mean, if you can't take care of a dog then you probably shouldn't bring children into this world, right?

      I personally can not stand regular gloves or mittens.  You will see me outside scrapping the car windows with red hands, because I will not put anything on.  For me, taking gloves on and off is just tedious.  This may be because of the fact that I am, unhealthily, attached to my iPhone!  I'm sure there are others out there that have the problem of not being able to work your phone while wearing gloves.  I know there are gloves for that, with the little white fingertips, but they do not work for me at all.  I was super excited when I had gotten them for Christmas a couple years ago, and then equally disappointed that they only worked 10% of time for me.

                                  Ashley brought this home from school a couple of days ago. I thought it was sweet and wanted to share.  She wants to crochet like Mommy!  Apparently she doesn't resent my hook and yarn for taking so much of my time!

     I have been asked a few times why I decided to change the name of my business.  The short answer; we needed to expand, simplify the name and make ordering more efficient. Long answer...

                                      If you have a young girl I'm sure you have heard about the newest craze; the Rainbow Loom!  For those of you who have been living under a rock, or are just not lucky enough to have it in your home, it is a plastic piece with pegs on it that you place rubber bands on.  Placing rubber bands on it in different ways will give you different styles of bracelets.

Use a size H hook and worsted weighted yarn.   All hat sizes are marked in BOLD . The directions that are separate from the numbered rounds are ONLY added if you are wanting that size as the finished product.   For example, if you want size 18m-3yrs then you would do rounds 1-7 and then the added 18m-3yrs directions.   

Today is National Bubble Bath Day.  Did you know that existed?  I sure didn't!  Tell me you don't want to hop into that tub right now, close the door, close your eyes, and just R E L A X.

About two months ago I had attended a craft fair.  I was approached about making a pig hat for a business.  The man who owns " Carson's Catering & BBQ " was looking for something fun to wear, that wasn't girly.  Let's face it, most pigs are pink. So we chatted about colors and decided on making an orange pig, with some black (which matched his business colors). This is what I came up with.

 The passing Of Uncle Phil (James Avery) from "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" had me thinking about the sitcoms from that generation.  I tear up so much more watching the shows from the 90's.  Don't get me wrong, I tear up at the newer shows too, but it's because I'm laughing so hard!  The sitcoms from our past generations were much more heart wrenching and they really hit a lot of tough topics including abuse, the death of a child, and infertility. Here are a few examples that make me tear up every time I watch them.

There are lots of apps on my phone, as I'm sure most of you can relate. I realized the other day, that I have none related to crocheting!  How can that be?  Besides my family, crocheting takes up most of my time, and I have no app for that?  So I went looking.... I usually only look for free apps, unless it comes to specific games or learning tools for my children.   It is the same with patterns.  I will only pay for one if I absolutely can not find a free one, and I'm not able to figure out the pattern on my own.  There are hundreds of patterns out there.  In my years of crocheting, I've only had to pay for a handful of them. That being said, if you are advanced at this craft, there is money in creating patterns that are not out there yet.  But I digress... Here are some free apps that I found in the app store for crocheting.

At the New Year's Eve party, my husband and I were part of the "Newly Wed" game.  Although we have been married over 8 years and are not considered newlyweds anymore, we did not do so well!  I believe we ended up in last place! LOL It was all about the technicalities with us.  I know..."excuses, excuses."

Toddler-hood strikes again!!! Our neighbors had invited our family over to bring in the New Year. Of course I had to reply with, “We’d love to come, but we may have to leave early!”  That’s the typical response when you have little ones, right? YAY WE’RE GOING TO A PARTY Lilly, my youngest, goes to bed normally at 7pm.  With the party starting at 7:30, we decided to wiggle her sleep schedule around to accommodate.  When I had woken her from her nap, she felt warm to me.  I pulled out the thermometer….placed it under her arm….and waited for the beeps.