More Fall Photos

It may not really feel like fall yet here in Tennessee, but there are signs that it really is Fall.

Happy Monday everyone.

Gettin' Into A Groove

We are a month into first grade and so far so good. We have settled into our school routine. This year has been much easier on all of us. Harper has finally decided to like reading. She has a wonderful teacher that really has motivated her. We have to keep track of the number of minutes she reads each day. There is a friendly competition between all the first grade classes to see which class reads the most minutes at the end of the year. Harper is very competitive so this has really made her want to read.

Most of the time when I look at her, I can't believe how grown up she has become.

Then I see photos like the one above and realize she is still so little. I mean just look at those

chubby cheeks.

She still has her very own unique sense of style. I have learned to embrace it. She is starting to become more aware of what people think of her though, which does impact some of her decisions. It does make me sad to see her self confidence waiver, but I know it is part of growing up. For now we are just taking it one day at a time.

I sure do love you Harper!!

Happy 6th Birthday Harper

My baby girl is 6 today. Six. How is that possible? We are having a family party for her tonight. So I will have party photos up next week. Today I have this shot for you.

Nice, huh? I was taking photos of the garden and realized that I haven't taken any decent photos of the kids in awhile. The lighting was good. Why not try to snap a couple of close-ups of the kids? Harper was more than willing to pose for a shot. Just as I snapped the shot her finger went straight in her nose. The little stinker. She immediately asked to see it on the camera. She was most proud of herself. All the other shots she is sportin' some sort of fake grin. Sigh.

I was debating on whether to post this shot. I imagine it is one of those photos that will embarass her beyond belief in a couple of years, but you know it does really show her sense of humor. There is never a dull moment when she is around.

Miller was not thrilled with the idea of having his photo taken. At all.

See what I mean.

Harper, I hope you have the best birthday ever.

Happy Birthday sweet girl.

Monkey Mania

Happy Crafty Tuesday everyone. This last week has been a blur. We had a really busy weekend so I did not have as much time to sew. I also had to turn down a few last minute wholesale orders, which was hard but necessary for sanity sake. There are just so many hours in the day, right?

I did finally finish the monkeys. Yeah!! They even sat really still for me so that I could get their picture. Here's the free tutorial if anyone else wants to make one or five. These are going to be given as gifts. She also makes a sweet boy monkey pattern that she is selling in her etsy shop. Too cute.

I am going to miss have them around.

I also finished the other purse.

I can't believe that Christmas is only a few days away. Is everyone ready?

Something's Gotta Give

There are weeks when I feel like I conquer anything put before me. Then there are weeks like this one when I feel so incredibly overwhelmed. It seems like every new task is a difficult one. Meal planning, cooking, grocery shopping, the kids, work, sewing more cozies, blogging, editing photos and then the stuff that I just want to do for myself....it's all too much at least this week. So that being said I might be a little absent here this week. I need a little breather to regroup and make sure I don't go insane ;)

I have lots of things I want to share which makes it more frustrating because I just haven't had the time and energy to take photos, go through the photos I took this weekend and get posts together.

However, I will leave you with a slightly blurry, SOOC action shot of the kids Pumpin' Up the Party Now (Hannah Montana).

Yes, Harper is in her bathing suit and Miller is way into Pumpin' Up the Party!!!

Tree Huggin' Runs in the Family

Lately, I have been noticing more and more how much our actions are effecting our kids. The other day Harper had an empty plastic food container that could not be recycled and I asked her to throw it in the trash. She just looked at me and said, "But we could reuse it for something else." I like the way you think little girl!

Miller loves helping around the house and one of his favorite things to do is put food scraps in the compost bin. Of course, he also adds sticks and anything else he feels like throwing in too, but that is not the point. I love that the word compost is part of his vocabulary at the age of 2.

It is so rewarding to see our little tree huggers in action!!

Sheltered

Harper had soccer practice last night. During one of the water breaks, all the girls ran over to where the parents were sitting and grabbed their drinks. One of her teammates asked her mother if she could have a sip of her coke. The mother handed the little girl the coke. Harper promptly asked her what she was drinking. The girl looked at her a little bewildered. Then Harper asked her, "Is that root beer or sprite?" The girl finally answered, "No, it's coke." Harper responded, "Oh, my mom doesn't let me drink coke."

I just smiled and let it go as Harper ran back to continue practice. At first I was a little embarrassed because I just imagined that the other mothers were thinking I was super strict or a health nut. The truth is that my husband and I neither one drink coke. We do allow her to have soda if we are out at a restaurant, but avoid the caffeinated ones. The only time she has asked me for a coke was at a birthday party where other girls were drinking coke. I said no on this occassion because it was 7:30 pm on a school night.

The more I thought about it though the more I realized that I was kind of proud that she didn't know what the girl was drinking. It made me realize that she might be a little sheltered or naive, but hey she is only 4 (almost 5). Eventhough, I would prefer her to avoid soft drinks all together. I know that is probably not going to happen. I am just being realistic. All I can do is educate her and provide her with healthier alternatives so when she is old enough to make her own decisions hopefully she will make good ones. In the meantime, I think I will keep on sheltering her as long as I can.

We're Back!!!

Well, we made it back safe and sound. We all had a great time, but now we are exhausted. The kids were so excited when we told them we were leaving for Florida. (We surprised them) I have tons of photos to go through. I will post more once I find some time.

Presents, Tea, and a Giveaway

Here is a photo of my nice wrapping job for my brother's birthday present. Although not the prettiest present, everything I used was something that I recycled. Birthday season is quickly approaching and I am really trying to "green" my gift giving. Tucked inside the cereal box is an organic t-shirt and a stainless steel water bottle that we found at Dick's Sporting Goods. I made the bow from newspaper and finished it off with a Blue Moon bottle cap in the middle, since he is turning 21. He is into working out and nutrition so I thought the Total cereal box was fitting. I am working on a post about green birthday gift ideas so be looking for that in the next week or so.

Since I have been cutting back on my coffee intake, I have become totally addicted to tea. La Mama Naturale mentioned Mighty Leaf Tea on her blog awhile back and it looked so good. The last time I was at Whole Foods I noticed they had several different kinds so I decided to try the Orange Dulce. The tea is a little more expensive, but it is really good. I can't wait to try another variety. Plus the tea pouches are 100% biodegradeable and they do not use any glue or staples. They also use whole tea leaves. If you like tea, you really should try Mighty Leaf.

Since we are talking tea, I should mention that Celestial Seasonings is also taking strides to help the environment. For every box of tea you buy before March 31, Celestial Seasonings will sponsor the planting of trees all around the world—up to one million trees in all. You can also plant a tree in their virtual forest. For each virtual tree planted, Celestial Seasonings will sponsor the planting of one real tree, up to 50,000 more. Click here to plant a tree.

Anyone want a chance to win one of my coffee cozies? Mommy-Momo is hosting a giveaway for one of my coffee sleeves so head on over and leave a comment for a chance to win. The winner gets a coffee sleeve of their choice.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Me, According to My Kids

These photos have nothing to do with the post. I just wanted to give you something cute to look at.

I decided to play along with Christina and ask my kids some questions about me. I loved hearing their responses even though some of them are so not true (like my favorite place to go is the Fair and the Mall). It was still very enlightening and quite humorous. So here you go.

1. What is something I always say to you?
Harper: I love you
Miller: good words

2. What makes me happy?
Harper: When we listen to you
Miller: us love you

3. What makes me sad?
Harper:Being mean to you and making you angry
Miller: Harper (not often, but I guess Miller thinks so)

4. How do I make you laugh?
Harper: funny faces
Miller: tickle things

5. What do you think I was like as a child?
Harper: you were cute and precious
Miller: like Miller & Harper

6. How old am I?
Harper: 22
Miller: 2

7. How tall am I?
Harper: 20 feet tall
Miller: 21 2

8. What is my favorite thing to do?
Harper: love on us
Miller: play

9. What do I do when you're not around?
Harper: make things for us
Miller: play around

10. If I become famous, what will it be for?
Harper: a zookeeper
Miller: scaring things

11. What am I really good at?
Harper:taking care of us
Miller: playing

12. What am I not really good at?
Harper: you are not a really good writer

Miller: saying mean words

13. What is my job?
Harper: to pay money
Miller: playing

14. What is my favorite food?
Harper: birthday cake
Miller: salad, bread & noodles

15. What makes you proud of me?
Harper: when you feed me food
Miller: say I love you

16. If I were a cartoon character, who would I be?
Harper: Sally (from Cars)
Miller: Lightning McQueen

17. What do you and I do together?
Harper: love on each other
Miller: play wii bowling

18. How are we the same?
Harper: we have the same hair, same eyes, same noses, and the same everything
Miller: we are both big

19. How are you and I different?
Harper: we have different hair
Miller: different hair

20. How do you know that I love you?
Harper: you blow me kisses good-bye
Miller didn't answer this one.

21. Where is my favorite place to go?
Harper:the Fair
Miller: at the mall

22. What is one thing you wish you could change about your mom?
Harper: put stars on me (I am not really sure what this means)
Miller did not answer this one either.

23. What would your mom do with a million dollars?
Harper: take pictures of things
Miller: put it in your pocket

24. What do you wish you could go and do with your mom?
Harper: go to work
Miller: play at the mall

Feel free to play along and make sure you let me know if you do.

Happy 1st Blogoversary

I posted my very first blog post a year ago today. Wow! I can't believe it has already been a year. I feel like I have come so far in my journey going green. My interest in photography has blossomed. I even have another hobby besides blogging to keep me happy. I also have a whole year of my life documented. Pretty amazing. As a big huge added bonus, I have met so many wonderful fellow bloggers that brighten each and every day.

Here's to one more year.

A Little Bit of This And A Little Bit of That

This is a totally random post because I am feeling a little random today. I was looking at my bedside table the other night and the pile of books and magazines that rest there and thought I would share a photo. It's really out of control. I love to read. I never read more than one novel at a time, but do like to have other materials to read depending on my mood. I would love to see what's on your bedside table. Leave it in the comments or take a photo and share it on your blog. Let me know so that I can come take a peek.

Ok, on to other news. My Daisy owl was on the front page of Etsy or at least that is what I was told. I was not fortunate enough to see it for myself. I looked through the Treasuries to see if I could find it, but I didn't see it there either. I wish that I had been able to see how she looked, but it is still pretty cool.

The last bit of news I have to share is pretty exciting too. Are you ready for this? Miller is potty trained. Yep, he has been wearing underwear for the last several weeks with very few accidents. I am not really sure how it all happened. We had been talking about it for months. We started giving him a M&M every time he went. Then I made a chart with stickers and he filled it up in no time. So I let him pick out a toy. Then we bribed him some more to poop in the toilet and I guess it worked. Something must have clicked. I still can't believe it. I truly thought he would never get it, but luckily I was wrong. I haven't wanted to mention it in fear that I would totally jinx it and he would regress. I am pretty confident now that there will be no more diapers for us ever again!!! Yippee. I am so proud of you little guy.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Let It Snow

We don't get much snow here in Tennessee. So when it does snow, we have a tendency to freak out a little bit. Yesterday evening we received a nice dusting of really wet snow. Overnight the roads iced over and daycare was cancelled. As soon as Miller woke up he asked to go outside to have a snowball fight.

The snow is already almost all melted, but it was fun while it lasted.

Six Random Things About Me

Jennifer over at Little Green Secrets tagged me to participate in the meme 6 Random Things About Me. I thought I would play along. I am sure you are all busting at the seams to know just a little more about me, right. Before we get to that, how about a couple of pictures. Why not? This post is all about ME. Ok, mostly about me.

She is laughing because she pooted on my leg. I am not lying.

I am not sure what is up with Miller. I don't remember him being upset. I like to think he was jealous, but I don't think that was the case.

Ok back to the meme.

Here are the rules:
1. Link to the person or persons who tagged you. 2. Post the rules on your blog. 3. Write six random things about yourself. 4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them. 5. Let each person know they’ve been tagged and leave a comment on their blog 6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

Here are 6 Random Things About Me:

1. I have been wearing the same pair of tennis shoes for over 4 years. I think I might be due for a new pair soon.

2. The Indigo Girls are my all time favorite musical group. Eventhough I haven't really listened to them in years.

3. I am currently reading the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon. I am almost finished with the 4th book. Man, these books are good.

4. The Office is my favorite TV show.

5. I work with my mom, dad, and brother.

6. I am totally addicted to coffee.

So there you have it. I am tagging six lucky ladies.

Gina at The Cotton Girls

Joanna at Worth-It-All

Kimberly at A Growing Violet

Killashandra at Southwest Photo Mementos

Cara at Mia Due Bambini

Jaimee at These Small Wonders

My Favorite Things

The high today was in the low 70's. It felt incredible outside. For dinner we grilled out and let the kids play outside a little longer than normal. It was so cold out my daughter insisted on wearing her warm cozy jacket. I couldn't convince her that it was cold because she had her bathing suit on.

As it grew darker and the sun was setting, I noticed the sky looked amazing. I walked to the end of the driveway to get a better view. I am sure that cars driving by thought I was crazy, but I didn't care.

For some reason I just couldn't get that song from Sound of Music out of my head. I kept singing....these are a few of my favorite things. Anyway, it made me think it might be fun to share with you a few of my favorite things. Simple every day things. So here you go:

• Snuggling with my kids first thing in the morning when they are all sleepy and cute
• A fresh cup of hot coffee
• The few minutes of solitude in the car on the way to work
• Reading right before bed
• An ice cold beer preferably on tap or a margarita (either will do)
• Mexican food
• Loading my photos on the computer and discovering that one of them is actually pretty good
• Discovering a great new recipe
• A big hug from my husband (he always knows when I need one)
• My daughter's neverending imagination
• My son's obsessive compulsive behaviors
• And of course, blogging and reading blogs

Just to name a few. What are a few of your favorite things?

Tuesday Tidbits

I had nothing of real significance to blog about today so I thought I would just ramble on about some things going on in my mind.

First of all, I played around with the Through The Viewfinder technique that Christina talked about a couple of weeks ago to process the photo above. I was messing around last night and realized that I could see my reflection in the back door. None of the photos came out that great, but thought it my work well with the TTV look.

Next, my daughter is in love with the site Totlol. I heard about it from the Jumping Monkeys podcast. It is basically a compilation of You Tube videos that are appropriate for kids. My daughter can scroll through the videos and click the ones she wants to watch. She feels so independent and there are some cute little videos on there. I don't want her to get in the habit of sitting in front of the computer for hours, but it is a good option every now and then.

Also, I have been tinkering around with the idea of making our own yogurt. We go through quite a bit of yogurt at our house. Anyone tried this? Have any advice? We recently found out that our recycling center does not take #5 plastics, which is what are yogurt containers happen to be. I knew we were messing up the system.

Lastly, I wanted to update you on my progress with the no new clothes challenge. Besides a new pair of shoes and a leotard for my daughter, I have not purchased any new clothes for the kids or myself for that matter. This is good for me. I am still holding strong.

Identity Crisis

Here's the thing, I am having a bit of an identity crisis. When I first started this blog, I was all about going green. I had read so much and collected so much information. I felt the need to share. I also wanted a place to share with family and friends all the fun stuff going on with the kids.

As more people started reading New Green Mama, I felt a little uncomfortable about having the kids stuff on that site so I separated the two. Well, I quickly realized keeping up with more than one blog is just too much for me to handle right now. So that did not really work.


Because I felt like each post needed a photograph, I started taking more photos. Which in turn peaked my interest in photography. (I promise I have a point. Stay with me.) I stumbled across all of these lovely blogs, which made me want to improve the photos I was taking. My husband bought me my DSLR for my birthday and the rest is history.


So here's my point. I am still very green. I am still trying to improve the way I live and my impact on the environment, but it does not define me. I have such a wide range of interests and my blog is about so many different things. Not just being green. So I don't feel like the title New Green Mama does the blog justice. Besides, the term "green" is so overdone these days. I want a new name and a new look. The thing is, I just can't seem to think of a fun, creative, and defining name. I am also afraid that if I start from scratch I will lose readers. Not that I have tons, but it has taken several months to get to this point.


Any advice? Anyone else gone through this before?

What a Labor Day Weekend

The kids did not have daycare on Friday so we had a four day weekend. And boy did we make the most of it. We started the day off with a trip to the park.

My son decided a snack was more enticing. Don't you love the little crumbs on his face?

Then we went to the library and picked up some books and movies. Our next stop was Target. Yes, I was bad and my family gave me a really hard time about my Target spree. But that's ok. I can take it. My daughter really needed some new shoes. For the last several years she has had the same shoes, which were of course from Target. She has wide feet so it is hard to find shoes that are comfortable and that she will wear. She has high fashion standards. Anyway, the ones from Target have been a favorite so my intention was to get the same shoes. I just was not sure of the size. Ok, so I am rambling trying to justify my Target trip, but that is ok. Well, she did not want those shoes. She wanted the Hannah Montana (she has never watched the show) shoes. She was persistent and very determined to walk away in these shoes instead. I gave in. Maybe they will be comfy. I will spare you on my other frivilous purchases. No need to go there.



On Saturday, we received our first delivery from Plumgood Food. They are a grocery delivery service. We had a coupon so I thought we would try them out. The biggest hit was the dry ice that came in the totes to keep the groceries cold.

I coerced my daughter into getting all of her hair chopped off. Doesn't she look cute?


That night we went to our friend's house and the kids had a blast.

Who wouldn't?

Sunday was the family reunion. When we got home, the kids were pooped out. We did not do much that night. Just hung out at home. On Monday, we made another trip to the park. My daughter has been WAY into Star Wars lately. My husband and daughter have been bonding over their love for Star Wars. It is sweet in a strange kind of way. So when the kids got up from their naps on Monday they had a little surprise. My husband went to Wal-mart and bought them Light Sabers. My little girl has been begging for one all weekend. He sent them on a scavenger hunt and told my daughter that some Jedi knights came while they were sleeping. Oh, my gosh. This was by far the highlight of the weekend for my little girl. She even slept with her Light Saber last night. What have we done?

We ended the weekend with dinner at my in-laws. Great Grandpa is in town and the kids were so excited to see him. Whoa, now I feel like I need a nap just from recapping our action packed 4 day weekend. Thanks if you stuck with me through this forever long post.

Check out this outfit

This is what my son was wearing when I picked him up from school on Wednesday.

Ok, before you think I am an awful mother. He had a change of clothes in his cubby. His teachers said they did not know, but I think they really wanted to put this outfit on him for a good laugh. Ok, obviously we have not updated his change of clothes in a very long time. Well, at least it provided a good laugh.

I couldn't resist including this picture (eventhough it is pretty blurry) because it looks like he is giving me the finger. He has started telling me to put my camera up when I start taking pictures of him. I have tried to back off a little bit, but this outfit warranted a photo session.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Best Shot Monday- Butterfly Weekend

We went to the zoo again on Saturday. We are really trying to take advantage of that membership. The big huge playgroud was closed for renovations, which was a little disappointing. I did not take too many photos because I felt like I had already taken so many in our previous visits. There was a farm and garden that we had not seen before and I took a couple of shots there. There were butterflies everywhere and for some reason I love taking pictures of them. When I first looked at the photo below I thought it was okay and then I looked closer and noticed the proboscis (butterfly "tongue") all curled up.

On Sunday I was outside with kids and I saw a couple of huge butterflies. They were the biggest butterflies I had ever seen. I was able to get really close to them. The photo below was not cropped at all and I took it with my 18-55 mm lens. That's how close I was to it.

I just love the colors in this one. So I am choosing it as my Best Shot Monday. Head on over to Tracey's and see the other great images captured last week.