Naptime Blog

I am so over the snow and cold weather. The saying goes “March roars in like a Lion!” Well, I am so ready for his roar. Everyone in my family has had little colds on and off. We have tried almost every over the counter medicine out there for cough & cold symptoms. I am pleased to share; that good old fashion Chicken Noodle Soup (Campbell”s ® of course) and hot tea still does the trick!

It’s really funny, because even Jayce our 14 month old (wow)  loves the noodle soup. I have been in search of a really good home-made soup recipe that would compare, but I still think that is one of my favorite comfort meals, with a grill cheese on the side.

For me warm weather brings thoughts of cool, crisp salads and smoothies out of this world! Our family is juicing a little bit now, so we are still experimenting with the best fruit & veggie combination. When we figure it out, I will share,,

I’m looking forward to the bright, warm sun shining on me as well. What do you love about spring?

~Shanta

I recently learned that my 9 year old has a girlfriend. I have mixed emotions about the whole thing. I ‘guess’ it’s normal to have a little crush in the 4th grade. I heard my son and his little friends talking about it and I didn’t pay much attention to it. Well, my husband went to his school last week for an awards ceremony and he saw the little girlfriend at the program. It was really funny, because my son was super embarrassed.
 
When the little girl’s mother realized who my husband was she came over to say “hello”. She said her daughter has had a crush on Jeromy for a few years now. “WHAT”!!!!

I am not sure if I am ready for this phase. He wants a cell phone too!! A cell phone and a girlfriend, that’s too much for mommy. He is a handsome little devil, if I must say so myself! Lol

You guys keep me in your prayers during this difficult time. LOL

~Shanta

I have never really considered myself the Martha Stewart type, but with things being so expensive now-a-days, I have gotten really resourceful when it comes to spending.

I am starting to gravitate towards those gifts that have a lasting meaning. I remembered a great vacation we took to Disney World and they had the cutest t-shirts from the Dr. Seuss book ‘Cat and The Hat’.

All these kids were walking around with Thing 1, Thing 2, and so on, shirts on. They were just adorable. I even saw twins with them on! Well, even though there is a huge age difference between my two boys, I thought it would be really cute to get them similar shirts. When I started looking for them online, I was AMAZED at how expensive these kids t-shirts were!

I looked on ebay.com and found a seller of the iron transfers for a really great price. I rushed to Wal-Mart and found some basic red t-shirt, Jayce’s was $3 for a size 24 months and Lil g was $5 for a size 14. I ordered a copy of that classic book to add to the kid’s collection and for less than $30 we had the best stocking stuffers ever,

I even made the t-shirt myself, which makes for an even more memorable gift.

Take a look

~Shanta

This is one of the coolest websites ever. You can create all types of greeting cards and announcements. It’s a free site with some awesome graphics. It’s really user friendly also. I bumped into this website when I was trying to create an evite. Unfortunately the evite website kept freezing up and locking me out. I became pretty frustrated with that and decided to google search other FREE online programs with some of the same and even BETTER features.

I am almost obsessed with it; I create cards and greetings for no apparent reason. I am going to attempt to insert some of the things I’ve create so you can take a peak. You can even make cute little videos with themed music, it’s so much fun.

Enjoy…

http://smilebox.com/playBlog/4d5451324e5459324d54413d0d0a&blogview=true

http://smilebox.com/playBlog/4d5451324e5459324d7a493d0d0a&blogview=true

~Shanta

I have been trying my best to save the life of my old laptop. It has been really good to me. She is about 4 yrs. old and lived a really good life. It’s an HP Pavilion, missing a few keys, runs hot, and the wireless card inside works sometimes.

The holidays were near and Jayce’s 1st birthday and I didn’t want to spend any unnecessary money.

Well, I have fallen in love with a HP mini netbook. It’s a special edition and only available on QVC. It is beautiful with an artistic design to it.

I have not purchased yet, but I have shopped around. (I am famous for that) I looked at all the comparable netbooks. Surprisingly, they are all on a pretty comparable level.

Hopefully, I can get her ordered soon; I am so excited about being able to throw it in my purse or even my diaper bag when we are on the go.

Check it out; let me know what you think about the HP brand.

-Shanta

I am excited to see how this tax season will help our family. Things are so tight today, w/ cost of living steadily rising, but salaries staying the same! Often at the end of our bills there is not much check left. I am hoping & praying for one of those big refunds I hear other moms bragging on.

For forever we have only had our 1 son to claim. Now that our family has grown a little more, I hope our tax refund grows a little too. I will be honest; I don’t know much about taxes or the IRS rules and regulations. I do know that my husband & I both work very hard at least 40 + hours per week and our checks are TAXED to DEATH.

I Googled some information about the current tax laws that may help you and your family out.

http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=217826,00.html

Happy Tax Season guys…

~Shanta

It’s that time of the school year again, “Science Project” time. I have to say as a mother, I dread this time of the school year. As a teacher, you would think this would be a piece of cake, NOT!

My son usually comes home clueless about he needs to do. His instructions are very vague and the topics are out of this world for 4th graders. I have a hard time with the kids not getting much guidance on what is required and the kids are allowed to pick ANYTHING they want off of a list of 100 various project.

We are doing something with “light bulbs”, not sure what, but “light bulbs”. If our project comes together nicely, I will share pictures later.

 Moms, please pray my strength and patience on this one…

~Shanta

I can’t believe that he is ONE already. Time sure flies when you’re having fun! I have been dreading his 1 yr. well check. I knew they were going to fill him up with more shots. For the most part the well check visit went well. His weight is in the 50% percentile, head circumference and height all are within the 50th percentile.

When it came time to discuss the vaccines, I must admit I became a little defensive. As a public school teacher I see a wide range of illness and disabilities. I guess you can say, I have become a bit paranoid! I am fine with him being vaccinated; I just disagree with so many different shots at one time. The doctor attempted to go back and forward with me about my decision to stretch them out.

He saw he wasn’t going to win the fight, so he dropped it. Jayce left with 2 vaccines that day and I will pop in a few weeks from now to get the remainder.

~Shanta

My husband and I have always been the type to jump up and go. We love a quick weekend road trip!! When we added a new baby to the mix it slowed us down a bit. Well this past weekend we woke on a Saturday morning and decided we were going to make a quick trip to Raleigh, NC to visit some family. It’s about a 2 ½ hour drive for us, so we thought we would spend the day and come back home late that night, Well, that WAS the plan!

First of all, our family members were SOO excited to see us. They practically begged us to stay the night. We repeatedly told them next time we would stay longer and we weren’t prepared for an overnight stay. They never accepted no for an answer. Before I knew it, it was 10:00 at night and we were laughing and having a good old time. The only thing was, we had about 4 diapers, no changing clothes, no toothbrush and very little milk  for the baby. What were we thinking? By 11:00, Jayce was winding down, he had 2 diapers left and we lost his ONE paci somewhere in the house.  By 3 am, he was back up, very fussy and was down to his last diaper

Short & sweet version, we had a BALL!!!  I hope we continue to do those spontaneous trips, but maybe next time I will be a little more prepared…

Here is another holiday picture of my boys for you to enjoy!

~Shanta

It always goes so fast! I think many educators will agree that Christmas Break is one of those many, well deserved breaks. I love the Holiday’s and this year was extra special because it was Jayce’s 1st Christmas. He recently started walking, so it was extra fun watching him stumble around the house on Christmas day. Because we have 2 kids now, we don’t do much visiting on Christmas day. We like to be at home so our children can enjoy good food, family/friends & gifts. We cook a big meal, similar to a Thanksgiving meal, with all the fixings.  We often have family members stop by for good food and fellowship.

I try to relax as much as possible during my 2 week break from school. I work in a very difficult environment and some days are better than others. But it seems as if the last few days of my break always speeds by! It is very important to take time out for yourself to just relax and DO NOTHING. I know as mothers many of us find that to be a difficult task, but trust me: we have to do that! I feel like a better wife & mother when I take some me time out to treat myself. Make sure you find some time during your busy week to put yourself 1st; you will thank me for it…

~Shanta