Politics, Stories
Sarah Holland
Campaign Update: March

"How's the campaign going?"

It's the question I get most often. It's also the question I'm never quite sure how to answer.

Good? ... Great! ... Your guess is as good as mine. ... We'll see May 17th!

The truth - I suppose - all depends on what you're measuring. 

Campaign Update: March
Celebrations
Sarah Holland
Felix's Winter ONE-derland

This weekend we hosted a Winter ONE-derland party in honor of Felix's first birthday. Considering this child was born during a snow, it seemed like an appropriate theme. Well, the weather had other plans and it was 70 and sunny! I could have hosted the dang party outside! 

Felix's Winter ONE-derland
Stories
Sarah Holland
Ruby

For my 30th birthday, I created a list of 30 things I wanted to do. One was to write a historical fiction short story. This is the story and as Ruby keeps calling to me here lately. I thought I'd share it here. 

Ruby
Food
Sarah Holland
Nicholas's Freezer to Crockpot Meals

One of Nicholas's New Year's resolutions was to try freezer meals. He'd prepped meals for the week on and off through 2015 and wanted to see how it would work to prepare an entire month's worth. Then, we could just pull a meal from the deep freeze, throw it in the crockpot, and on a busy day dinner would be waiting for us.

Nicholas's Freezer to Crockpot Meals
What I Learned
Sarah Holland
5 things I learned in January

Dear 2016, Slow. Up. I just picked my word for the year and finished off my New Year's Eve champagne like five minutes ago and now it's two days until February!

Whew.

5 things I learned in January

Parenting

Zero Tolerance Parenting

This post originally appeared on Salt + Nectar, but I've been thinking about it a lot lately as I tackle the same decisions with baby #3! 

Cloth v. Disposable, Breast v. Formula, Co-sleeping v. Ferberizing...

These are the debates that keep us judging, keep us feeling guilty, keep us up at night. 

I remember reading and researching all these issues while I was pregnant with Griffin. I just knew it was imperative that I pick a side. It felt like sorority rush, once I revealed what jersey I had on there was no going back. 

If I was going to breastfeed, I was going to breastfeed. Nothing but the breast for the first year as recommended by the World Health Organization! If I was going to use cloth diapers, then I better decide which brand was best and stock up so I'd never be caught without clean diapers. 

If I was going to co-sleep, then I pictured my snuggly little baby curled up next to me for the foreseeable future. 

Until I realized, I could do both...or neither...or whatever worked best for me that day.

The Mommy Race

Recently, a dear friend asked for my advice about a parenting dilemma. Not the Mommy Wars, this is what I’m going to call the Mommy Race (although dads are just as guilty!). It’s that moment every parent has when they feel compelled to engage in a sort of baby one-upmanship. Particularly prominent with first-time parents, an honest pride in baby’s newest milestone suddenly morphs into something a little less pure.

The Last Baby

Y’all. I’m falling so hard for this baby.

Even with the middle-of-the-night feedings, I’m still completely enamored with him. I’ve always loved my babies when they reach this age. 

Don’t get me wrong. I LOVE newborns, but it’s mostly because they are so soft and cuddly and sleepy. However, then the newness sort of wears off and you’re stuck with this completely dependent being who is just trying to figure out how to be a human and more than a little bit frustrated by the task.

Then, the skies clear. 

They start sitting up and LAUGHING and eating solid foods and being seeming particularly fond of YOU - the momma.

I just love it, but it’s more than even that.

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The Secret to my STRESS-FREE Holiday Season

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This is a guest post by my dear friend Jessica on an exciting co-venture we're launching!

When it comes to parenting, I get quite a big wrong. My kid eats mostly sugary food for breakfast. He asks for dessert after EVERY meal. Last year, I handmade pretty awesome “Camp Ryan” birthday invitations (complete with old maps cut and folded into envelopes) and then forgot to mail them. And recently, I tried teaching him that if you’re smart, you should probably find other ways to express yourself other than using adult words (i.e. profanity); so now whenever he hears a four letter word, he blurts out, “Mom! That person isn’t smart.” 

Oh geez.

I realize these aren’t exactly end-of-the-world parenting failures, but they’re not necessarily things I’m proud of or like to publicly acknowledge. 

Luckily, there are a handful of things I seem to get right. Planning for a memorable and less stressful holiday season is one of those things. My type-A personality combined with a history of infertility fuels my passion for ensuring we wring every drop of magic and excitement out of Christmas.

While there wasn’t anything specific that happened, I just remember being very frustrated that the joy of the holidays continually lost out to the rush and stress of this busy season. My initial plan was to cut back. For two years, my husband and I didn’t exchange gifts. Then, I didn’t host any holiday meals or get togethers. Maybe we saved some money and a little bit of frustration, but ultimately, cutting out items moved me even further away from any Christmas joy.

A few years into cutting back, nothing seemed familia

The Marshmallow Test: The Amos Version

In the late 1960's, psychologist Walter Mischel led several experiments on delayed gratification involving four year olds and a bunch of marshmallows. The premise is simple and I explain at the beginning of the video.

The characteristic these experiments test - basically self-control - has been to be a fundamental predictor of success in life. I've always said I'm going to test all my children in when they reach four years old - not because I want to see how successful they will be as adults, after all to think one can truly predict that is hopeful at best and ridiculous at worst. 

Basically, I just wanted to see which children I might want to keep a close eye on. I tested Griffin at four and now it's Amos's turn!

Would you ever perform the marshmallow test on your child? Or do you already know what they will do? How important do you believe self-control to success? 

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#SeedlingSummer - the Paducah Way

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As you know from my summer list, we take summer seriously around these parts. Simply put -summer days are in short supply and I want to make the most of them.

Recently, The Other Sarah from Salt & Nectar joined the awesome team at Seedling, where they also take the fun of the summer season pretty seriously. TOS sent the boys a sampling of Seedling's all-in-one activity kits and asked me to share what summer looks like in our neck of the woods.

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Unique birth announcements for boys

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When Griffin was born six years ago (SIX!??!), beautiful photo birth announcements had only recently become available to the masses. I spent a half an hour getting the perfect shot while he napped and ordered my sweet little birth announcement from Tiny Prints. 

By the time Amos arrived two years later, I wanted something a little more unique. I fell hard for the "Hi, I'm...." design on WestWillow and had my friend Emilee take the beautiful shot of Amos. 

Fast forward three and a half years later and the Hi/Hello motif is EVERYWHERE. I wanted something unique and something that spoke to Felix's third brother status. After months of searching, I finally decided to design it myself! So, the beautiful photo was taken by Brad Rankin and the announcement designed by your's truly!

Did you send birth announcements? Got a great source for unique designs?

Sidewalk Chalk Spray

Inspired by a post at Infarrantly Creative, I decided to take our weekly play group to the next level with some sidewalk chalk spray.

First, add 1/2 cup cornstarch to a small container, preferably one  with a spout. I used a simple pyrex measuring cup.
Next, add one cup hot water.

Then add one teaspoon tempura paint.

Last, add a small squirt of dishwashing detergent and mix well. Pour in your squirt bottles and your good to go!


As you can see, the spray was a huge hit at the play group. The bottles were pretty much empty when it was all over and my driveway looked like a Jackson Pollock painting!

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