"Spring break"

Oh the life of a young mother…

While I was in grade school every year for spring break I would go visit my sister in Denver. Spring break always falls very closely to her twin daughter’s birthday so that was an added bonus. We typically would plan our trips around the weather. Sometimes it was nice out, other times we were stuck inside thanks to the blizzard that was out running amuck.

The times that it was nice out we would spend our days at the zoo, aquatic center, shooting, shopping, and so forth.

Here is just a small chunk of our great big family:

Well, this “spring break” being a new mother and a full time student I decided to camp out at a friend’s house for the week while I hid from my grandmother who came into town to visit.

Yeah, yeah, I’m a terrible person for hiding from my family big deal.

This semester for some reason my teachers also decided to take their spring breaks on different weeks so I, in turn, didn’t really get a break.

BUT hiding out turned out to be really nice. Every night after I put my little one to sleep my friend and I would sneak off to the hot tub, blast some music, and spend a couple hours talking about who knows what. And even though now I am still trying to catch up on my sleep it was definitely worth it, especially with this sunset every night.

I even got to spend  lots of time snuggling with my baby boy!

and creeping on my wifey (:

Next spring break will be a whole new adventure! I will start making more memories with my son; perhaps we will go visit family, or go hide out somewhere just the two of us. I will definitely be taking advantage of these times that he still wants to hang out with my while I can before he grows up and hides from me at his friend’s house! 

Next spring break will be a whole new adventure! I will start making more memories with my son; perhaps we will go visit family, or go hide out somewhere just the two of us. I will definitely be taking advantage of these times that he still wants to hang out with my while I can before he grows up and hides from me at his friend’s house!

All in all, spring break has never really been where the parties at, at least not for me. It’s always been about the summer break where the word ‘break’ actually means break.

Summer has always meant baseball, four wheeling, water fights, bon fires, late nights, and real vacations.

In July we would go see our Rockies play.

One year we took a spontaneous trip to Las Vegas, NV (but because my mom didn’t go with us we don’t have any pictures, go figure!).

 I’m sure for the years to come I will spend my spring breaks getting in all the quality time I can with Jaxon and save most of the adventures for the summer time; with the perks of being a teacher I can actually do that too!

Blogs For Mommies / Momming today

I know that just about all blogs have been tough of when it comes to parenting and momming so I will try not to beat it to death.

Parenting today is so different now from when I was little, and far more different for each generation before mine. When my mom was a little girl, car seats were just shallow plastic buckets with a thin piece of plastic covered foam; today car seats are heavy duty, crash tested contraptions decked out with a five point harness for safety guaranteed. Even play grounds are so different.  Then playgrounds were metal or wood on top of grass; today they have all kinds of safety nets on top of a nice foam landing just in case.

So of course now of days there are all kinds of different resources and new ways of doing things.

As soon as I discovered I was pregnant Pinterest became my go-to for EVERYTHING. I’m not one for reading blogs… they make me feel nosey. But, during my pregnancy I found quite a bit that were beyond helpful to me so here they are!

Cloth Diaper blogs:

http://cgmrb.blogspot.com/2013/10/cloth-diaper-washing-myth-busters.html?m=1

http://nickisdiapers.blogspot.com/2012/08/getting-most-from-your-best-bottom.html?m=1

http://just-making-noise.com/homemade-natural-baby-cloth-wipes/

http://oneorganicmama.blogspot.ca/2013/04/keeping-poop-out-of-your-diapers.html

cloth diapers then and now:

I loved these blogs- I knew from the beginning I was going to be a cloth diapering mama. There are so many benefits to cloth diapering. For starters it is cheaper by far, your babies are much less likely to be allergic to them, supposedly they also make potty training easier, they are super freaking cute, and it’s better for the environment.

If you think, “oh gross I don’t want poop in my washer!” well just remember that back in the day, there weren’t washers and moms were washing those poopy diapers BY HAND. So what’s grosser? Also, if you plan on having more than one or maybe two children, that’s a lot of money, you’re throwing away using disposables. You could spend all that money on other things… just keep that in mind.

Storage blogs:

Though babies really don’t need a whole lot, they come with a whole lot. You’ll want everything organized in an easy way so that putting everything away isn’t too difficult or out of your way. These were blogs I used.

http://12oaksblog.com/2014/01/29/the-nursery-reveal/

http://onethriftychick.blogspot.com/2013/09/quick-fix-closet-organization.html?m=1

http://www.organizinghomelife.com/my-favorites-friday-3-toy-organization-storage/

The fun stuff:

Be fun. Do all the fun things, it may get messy but you can always clean a mess. Don’t let them grow up too fast. Here are some awesome blogs that have great ideas that I can’t wait to put to the test when my little bug gets to be big enough!

http://littlecrunchymama.blogspot.com/2011/12/getting-crafty.html?m=1

https://familydaystriedandtestedblog.wordpress.com/2014/03/18/family-days-50-things-to-do-before-or-after-youre-11-34s-a-tried-tested-guide-to-making-childhood-magical/

http://www.growingajeweledrose.com/2012/03/outer-space-themed-bath.html

Play grounds then and now:

Today you can figure out how to do just about anything, it’s important to use all your resources. Take advantage of all the things you can do now as a mom like making glow in the dark bubbles, bath tub crayons, cloth diapering made easy and the amount of organization we have available to us. It’s still okay for your child to fall too, even though we have the elaborate padded play parks it’s okay to stop and take a ride on the old death trap marry go round

Perhaps Italy?

Recently I have been presented with the opportunity to move to Venice, Italy for the next three years. What a chance of a life time!

I was born to two very young parents. My mother being only seventeen and my father at nineteen, growing up this meant we pretty much got by but typically didn’t get to travel much. Luckily I had grandparents who took me to various states within the U.S. to visit family but aside from things like that places such as Disneyland, let alone another country, were a no. Most of my high school career I spent learning German. Let me tell you it is hard to maintain a non-native language! Fortunately each of the years I spent in the class there was one or two exchange students which in a way helped. My sophomore year I made friends with girl named Reena. I had the best time teaching her how to drive, going shopping, learning about German traditions, and so forth.

So now being given this chance to experience the world of course I want nothing more than to jump into it! I think right now the biggest thing holding me back from committing 100% is my family. I’m afraid that if I go they will be very upset about me taking their newborn grandson on my big adventure (they aren’t very understanding with things like this). Another thing is I’m not really sure what to expect when it comes to government, weather and the types of crimes there.

On the other hand how amazing would it be to travel through Europe? The answer is freaking amazing! It would be so wonderful to be able to give my child things I wasn’t able to have at his age. If I chose to go, I think that the thing I am most excited about is learning and being a part of other cultures. In Europe you can jump on a train and go to France, Germany, Spain, or Romania and so many more places for a new diverse culture. I believe that these are experiences to help better individuals and help their understanding of one another.  

Pros:

• -          Touring Europe
• -          Gaining a new perspective and understanding of the world (being a better parent because of it)
• -          Perfecting my German
• -          Learning other languages (being able to add that to my resume)
• -          Getting  a visa

Cons:

• -          Isis
• -          Not the United States (less security)
• -          I would probably get lost constantly
• -          Difficulty communicating
• -          May be too “touristy” (disliked)
• -          Upset parents
• -          Uhm ISIS hello that’s a huge one

Would you go?

Have you been?

What would your pros and cons be?

One last thought, as I have been debating this the past few weeks, I was watching the news a couple of nights ago and they were talking about bombs being pointed at, or dropped near Italy. That’s such a horrifying idea! This world can be such a beautiful place and it terrifying to think that if we wanted to travel across to the other side of it we would fear for our very own lives!

To people who live in Germany and Italy it’s probably not a very big deal and they probably feel moderately safe but for Americans it’s sad that we would feel so threatened to experience other parts of the world.