28 Days of Love; Last Acts & Final Thoughts

As February comes to a close, I'm proud to say that I completed everything on my list (below) with only one replacement. Unfortunately, it didn't work out babysitting our friend's kid, so instead I sent one of my besties a surprise gift! Or I could have replaced it with letting the random, adorable 85 year old man tell me me all about his family for 10 minutes and show me 18 pictures in the grocery store. It was cute. 

My final five acts from this week: 

1. Filled the coffee and snack machines with quarters at the gym.
2. Paid for the persons order behind me at the 'Bucks.

3. Take a bouquet of flowers to the hospital for the nurses to give a patient. (I chose the elderly neurological wing figuring there had to be an old person there who needed something to brighten up their day!)

4. Smile at every person I made eye contact with for a day all weekend. 

5. Took quizzes on 4 sites that donate food/money to 3rd world countries.

Total Cost: $165 

(but $75 of that was splurged to adopt a rhino at the zoo!)

People Effected: TONS!

Lives Changed Forever: Definitely one at least.  :)

Final Thoughts

Warning: The rest of this post might be a bit boring to some as I look back on this challenge. It's more for my memories than anything.  :)

What started out as a small, fun idea ended up being an eye-opening, life-changing challenge for me. I never realized the tiniest actions could warrant such huge reactions nor did I fathom they could bring me to tears and humble me more than I could have ever imagined.

I created and spent a lot of time putting together my list of acts the last week of January and couldn't wait to get started in February. I have to admit, I jumped the gun on a couple of them as I just couldn't wait. One of the first acts I did was one that I absolutely adored the most. I was filled with energy when I took each crossing guard a hot coffee on that freezing morning. The excitement as I drove up to each of them was beyond words and the reactions I received when I told them to stay warm and thanks for watching over our children was priceless. With their smiles in my mind and the adrenaline speeding through my body, I had one of the best treadmill runs in a long time that morning.

But the day I went shopping at the Dollar Store to collect items for a few acts was a low point for me. It absolutely broke my heart to buy the cheapest of toothbrushes and realize that there were families in our community that could not afford them. It pained me to limit my purchases as I wanted to gather every single item off the shelf and take it to the homeless shelter. When I got home, I broke down to Derek. We stress over the silliest decisions for our children; what outfit to wear for the photo shoot or which color Stride Rite shoes look the best, yet I was buying soap for families who have nothing. Soap. That shopping trip was an unbelievably humbling experience for me and I'll never forget it.

My mailman loved the hand-warmers and the nurses in the maternity ward were so excited for my basket of snacks, but in the end, they weren't the ones to benefit the most. Nope. It's the person who never realized how much manly firefighters would love cupcakes or how much the food pantry would appreciate just a couple bags of food. I now yearn to win the lottery only so that I can do bigger acts. Knowing I probably will never win, I still plan to continue doing random acts throughout my life definitely on a monthly basis, but hopefully on a weekly basis.

Can you imagine how much different this world would be if we all did one random act of kindness a month? It gives me chills just thinking about it. There's so much we can do that doesn't involve a single penny and takes 5 minutes of our time, yet can really warrant a smile or touch a heart. Is there anything better than knowing you made someones day?

Taylor Swift, Goats & ABCs

Those 3 things have absolutely nothing in common other than I have two videos involving them.

Forget the Harlem Shake, I'm obsessed with goats screaming like humans. 

But what's better than that? Um, the new Taylor Swift video:

And then there's my little goat doing his ABC's. He's been doing them so well for a few weeks now, but EVERY time I go to video him, he won't do it. Typical toddler.

What you need to know BEFORE watching:
A) The kid doesn't slobber for months and months, but does during this video. {sigh}
B) That's a table behind him with a puzzle for Derek and I. Yep, we're dorks who love puzzling.
C) My kid distracts easily when he hears firetrucks.

Bottomless Pit

What's funny is that when I thought of that title to this post, I immediately wondered what was in our kitchen that I could go snack on. GoodLAWD I do not have self control when it comes to food. I seriously believe I'll have to continue using My Fitness Pal until I'm 87 years old thanks to my slow metabolism and constant hunger.

But back to the original reason I started this post; our bottomless pit, a.k.a. Drew. This kid is by far the opposite of so many picky toddler eaters I hear about. It's funny when I see other blogs discuss "typical toddler" and their bad eating habits. Unlike his peers, Drew is quite the endless appetite these days. In fact, if he isn't hungry, we know he's sick and we're about 7 for 7 with that pattern.

It might be a growth spurt, sure. But it might also be that his daddy and I fought being overweight or "husky", as Derek says, for the majority of our lives. It's in our DNA. We weren't blessed with the ability to eat whatever we want and not gain anything. In fact, I can just look at a cookie and feel like I gained 2 pounds. Thankfully, my running has curbed my weight and Derek has to stay fit for his job. Drew, on the other hand, doesn't understand portions and is constantly begging for food.

For example: we'll finish with our Einstein bagels and head towards the car when 3 seconds later he starts asking for a 'snack'. Or he'll eat a HUGE plate for dinner and ask for seconds and thirds of everything on there. Memories of some TLC show where a 7 year old is 185 pounds start popping into my head as I quickly try to wipe his hands and get him away from the table. I don't want our baby to fall victim to the childhood obesity epidemic and you can bet your a$$ I won't be an enabler on that front. Derek and I are trying really hard to keep snacking to a minimum and load up his meals with healthy fruits and veggies. And the good news is that he loves most fruits and veggies!

I'm sure others with picky eaters might rather be in our situation so please don't read this as I'm complaining in any way. It's not a bad position to be in at all, more just cracks me up that he loves food as much as we do. I mean, he's a 6th of Derek's size, yet eats only half as much as him. Crazy, right?

Yogurt Chips

I saw this idea somewhere within the world wide interwebs a long time ago but wanted to make my own version for Drew. He loves sweets, and definitely cold sweets like ice cream. Unfortunately, that sweet tooth can lead to obesity later in life, so I'm always on the lookout for 'sneaky' treats.

The little guy loves these! He thinks it's like little bites of ice cream and that he's getting a really sweet treat. He adores yogurt, but I get tired of plopping spoonfuls on his plate and wanted to find another creative way to serve it. These yogurt chips are quite yummy and perfect for even much younger babies/toddlers as well! They also take NO time and 2 steps!

Ingredients: sandwich baggies and yogurt of your choice. 

Step 1: spoon all of the yogurt into a bag.

Step 2: cut off the tip of the bag and squeeze into dots on a cookie sheet.

Place in the freezer for a few hours and voila... Yogurt Chips!

Random Acts Recap #3

I'm still having a BALL doing small acts around the city and really can't explain how good it feels to knock items off my list. I would just urge you to try something small yourself to see what I mean!

Here's what I did within the past few days...

1. Donated some books to our pediatrician's office.

2. Donated gifts to grow points to the 4 charities Pampers supports.

3. Left a $5 target gift card in a shopping basket.

4. Left a $5 bill in an envelope taped to a gas pump.

5. Sent our soldiers a box of needed toiletry items.

6. Sent an expecting mother a surprise Babies R Us registry gift from 'anonymous'.

7. Surprised a blogging friend with a visa gift card.

8. Donated a basket of snacks to the maternity wing nurses where Drew was born.

9. Made and took a couple dozen cookies to a local retirement home.

I only have few items left on the list and can't wait to complete them all!

And just like I always ask...

Have YOU done any random acts this week? 

If so, leave a comment with what you did!

Rainforest and a Reminder

This past Monday, Drew's daycare was closed so I took off the morning for a bit of mommy-son time. We decided to spend the morning in the warm rainforest part of our zoo and invited our new friends from library group and Gymboree class! Charlotte is just a few months older than Drew and she is a little doll.

Is there anything more adorable than two toddlers walking hand in hand?

Here's Drew trying to put the charm on Miss Charlotte before he spotted a huge gorilla he had to hug...

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Reminder: Order your St. Paddy's Day Banners Now!

Jess, owner of the Lyladee shop, on etsy.com is still offering an awesome discount for all of you lovely readers! 

You can purchase a banner with 5 triangles for only $10+ and she charges only a few bucks for shipping! (Or even FREE shipping if you spend $40!) Extra triangles are a tiny additional charge and she can customize them however you want.

Don't forget to take another 15% off!

Click HERE for Jess's shop and enter this code for the discount: 

OURJOURNEY

St. Patrick's Day is coming up March 17th so get your orders in NOW for an adorable shamrock banner!

The Jump Yard

Our original plans for today consisted of going to an ice festival about 30 min away but because the wind child was -1, we opted for an indoor activity. I didn't really feel like risking hypothermia just to see people carve bears out of blocks of ice. But to celebrate our 3 day weekend, we wanted to try something new instead of the usual weekend play spots.

You'd think a city with long, cold winters would have tons of indoor playgrounds right? Well, apparently we don't. The nearest ones I could find were all 20+ min away, but with an entire day open, we plugged in an address on the Garmin and away we went.

I love watching kids at indoor playgrounds. Not in the creepy way, more in the amazement way of how different little ones can be. Ultimately, I came to the conclusion that there 3 basic types of personalities that come out at these playgrounds.

A) The Hyenas

These are the crazy kids who can't even contain themselves enough to get their jackets off before sprinting to the nearest inflatable, knocking small children over along the way. Parental hyneas are generally on their cell phones 95% of the time and not concerned with the fact that their cubs just pushed a deer off the slide.

B) The Deer

These are the polite children that were taught manners of how to wait in line although their insides are bursting with excitement. They listen to their parents and mind rules but if you cross them or cut in line, they snap and will run for adult help faster than you can blink.

C) The Turtles

These are the kids who walk in tentatively, studying their surroundings and making conscious decisions before considering what to play with first. They don't over-excite and prefer not to get involved with the Hyenas, but can outsmart one any day of the week.

Any guesses on what Drew is?

If you guessed turtle, you're definitely an observant follower! Yep, my little guy is a one mellow man who's already showing major signs of being an introvert. I would have considered myself growing up to be a deer, but Derek was also more of a turtle. These two pees in a pod prefer to sit back and watch the craziness while finding an activity off where there wasn't a lot of fuss going on. Or at least solo activities like skeeball.

I consider Drew to be a very social baby, but a daredevil? Absolutely not. He's not one of those kids who will try anything and we had to bribe him for quite some time before he entered an inflatable bounce house, only to take one lap and nearly throw himself out.

The epitome of our time at the playground today was about 40 minutes in when someone spotted a train table. 20,000 square feet of inflatable fun surrounded by arcades, rides, slides and other money-sucking games and my little guy heads straight for the one activity where you sit and ponder. The one activity where brains overpower brawn. 

And this momma couldn't be more proud. My little turtle might not be the fastest toddler on the playground, or the most nimble, but in a battle of the brains, I think he'd be tough competition. 

Husband vs. Wife

Although our blog is titled "Our Journey", if you're observant, you'll notice our blog url is "Sarah and Derek". That's because way back in the day when I started this in 2008, I had thought Derek would be writing posts from time to time. Want to take a guess at how many posts he's written?

That would be a big, fat zilch.

He does get some brownie points though, as he reads the blog daily and even suggests topics from time to time. I'll take what I can get people.

But then on Vday, I saw Sara from You and Me are We post a fun topic that Derek could be a part of! I put the questions into Word and had Derek answer them and then I answered them without seeing his answers first. Here's how it ended up.

Derek's answers are in blue and mine are in pink. Some commentary is in green.

1. How long have you been married? 

7 ½ years. 7.5 years

2. Where was your first date? 

Kappa date party. At a lodge for my sorority's date party.

3. Where was your first kiss? 

Dance floor. On a dance floor.

4. Who first said, "I love you"? 

She did. Derek did.

This cracks me up. He must have completely forgot he said it first.

5. What were your wedding colors?

Grey & Peach? A dark gray and spring peach tones. 

Can't believe he got this right!

6. What is her most commonly used phrase?

I love you. I don't think I really have one?

7. Who is her celebrity crush?

Ryan Reynolds. Channing Tatum.

I'd take either. :)

8. If she was ordering drinks for both of you what would you each get? 

American Honey and diet. Derek - manhattan on the rocks and me - something fruity.

9. What is the best meal she has ever cooked you? 

Pizza spaghetti. He loves my meatloaf and my lasagna.

10. What is the worst meal she has ever cooked you? 

Nothing. I don't think anything has even been horrible and he'll probably say nothing to suck up.

11. What is the most-played song on her iPod? 

Lady Gaga. Right now? The Calvin Harris remix of Florence Welch's Sweet Nothing.

12. What would she say is your most annoying habit? 

Clicking of my tongue before I fall asleep. Clipping his foot callus with MY clippers! EWWW.

13.  What is the last thing she does before she goes to bed? 

Kiss me. Set my alarm.

Technically, I set my alarm after I kiss him, but it's a close second.

14.  If you could throw out one item of her clothing what would it be?

Nothing. Probably my nighttime sports bra cause he'd prefer me bra-less at night!

15. What would you say is your favorite thing about her? 

Her genuineness, her loyalty, her passion, her intellect, her beauty, her maternal instinct, her caring, her poise, her honesty, her everything. I think he'll say how I am with Drew and how beautiful he thinks I am.

Swoon.

16. What's her go-to drink at Starbucks?

Cinnamon dolce latte. Skinny cinnamon dolce latte.

17. What's her blog's name?!

Our Journey. Our Journey.

            And on a side note, I have to post a pic of Drew's Valentine's Dinner. I've never considered myself uber crafty or "pinteresty", but was excited that my heart foods turned out pretty decent! 

Random Acts Recap

Here's a quick update of some of the items we knocked off our list this past week!

1. Made cupcakes for the local fire department.

2. Donated canned food to the local pantry.

3. Donated old running shoes to Soles 4 Souls.

4. Donated a bag of clothes to Goodwill.

5. Bought a women's shelter some toiletries and stickers.

6. Clipped and spread $25 worth of coupons at the grocery store.

Oh, and you wanted to see some outtakes of our vday pics? Well here you go!

Happy Love Day!

Mommy Confessions

Lately, I dread picking up Drew from school.

There. I confessed.

And before you stop reading and assume I'm a horrible mother, let me explain. You see, Drew's daycare is awesome. He loves it there and now that he's settled in the toddler room, he's among older kids, cooler toys and does even more fun activities. When I drop him off in the morning, he generally gives me hug and kiss and is off. Love this.

But picking him up isn't as sweet for me. I know other mothers have had this experience and I'm hoping it's just a phase, but I used to not be able to wait until the clock struck 5pm so that I could rush out to get him. Now, I maybe run an errand before getting him or at least take my time finishing up work. I even mosey into his building, filling out the sign-out sheet and grabbing his jacket before letting him see me.

And then he spots me.

Our eyes lock and he runs over to me with his arms open wide and the biggest grin on his face. He squeals with delight as I pick him up and spin him while squishing his warm body. We walk down the steps and out to the car holding hands and chatting about his day when he looks up and says 'I luv you mommy'.

{cue sound of record screeching to a halt}

I WISH! But unfortunately that's my dream version. Here's how it really goes down:
Our eyes lock and there's no expression. No excitement to see me despite my huge smile to see him. Not even acknowledgement that I'm there sometimes, he just looks away and continues play. Awesome. He continues to play as I try to entice him to come to me and get his jacket on. No luck. I have to peal him away from whatever he's playing with, force his gloves, hat and jacket on all while he's starting to get upset and pulling away from me. I manage to get him out of the room, but the dreaded steps are next. Here's the conversation 95% of the time:
       Drew: Walk stairs
       Me: Ok baby, you can walk
       Drew: Take elevator
       Me: Ok, let's take the elevator then
       Drew: (gets upset) WALK stairs
       Me: Ok then walk.
       Drew: (more upset) TAKE ELEVATOR
       **Repeat the last 4 lines about 3 more times
       Me: Ok Drew, you need to decide because on 3 I'm going to pick you up
       Drew: (no movement)

I then proceed to pick him up and the screams begin. Loud cries followed by 'NO MOMMY' with flailing legs. I can feel the eyes from other parents on me as I walk out with this possessed child. I worry some of them will head straight to the office and report a stolen child as it definitely looks suspicious. Finally, I quickly get him in the car and it's over. No one can hear him anymore or see how upset I am and we can finally head home.

Until tomorrow at least.

I KNOW there has to be other moms out there that have been through this. Please tell me it's just a phase and I should feel more fortunate that he loves school that much. I just need reassurance that he really does love me and is excited to see me, he's just not showing it. What's funny is that about 1 minute into the drive home, all is well again and we're chatting as normal. I know it could be worse, but it's tiring and stressful every day and I pray that it ends soon!

Today I'm linking up with Megan and Heather for their Mommy Confessions link party. 

My Instagram Birthday

So yesterday was my birfday and I had a wonderful day with my two boys. It involved relaxing, amazing food and a dinner/movie date with the hubs. There's nothing more than I'd ask for.

Here's a quick recap seen through the eyes of Instagram.....

We started off the morning with our fav pumpkin pancakes!

Derek got me a cookie cake for the 10th year in a row!!

And then Drew had Gymboree.

Once he woke up from nap, we visited Sweet Moses and I enjoyed a yummy root beer float!

Then the babysitter came and it was off to a date night with the hubs!

We had a delicious Brio dinner and then saw Zero Dark Thirty!

Hope you're having a great weekend as well!

Burlap Banners And A Sweet Discount

I've always wished I was more crafty when it came to decor around the house. My mind races with cute ideas and pinterest-worthy projects, but they never come to fruition, or if they do, they always look like something Drew would bring home from daycare, rather than by a woman in her early 30's. {sigh}

That's where Etsy comes in.

For all of us craft-challenged peeps, this is our website. I love that you can support people who can create beautiful pieces while finding reasonable deals there as well! My newest decor is this inexpensive, yet totally awesome Valentine's Day burlap banner! (And yes, I know, my mantle looks super bare and really needs more vday decor.. it's on the to do list people.)

Want your own?

Jess, over at the Lyladee shop specializes in burlap banners and can make them for any and all occasions. I love my simple hearts for Valentine's Day and can't wait to hang my St. Patrick's Day Banners!

You can purchase a banner with 5 triangles for only $10 and she charges only a few bucks for shipping! (Or even FREE shipping if you spend $40!) Extra triangles are a tiny additional charge and she can customize them however you want.

And who doesn't love a good discount?

Jess is giving ALL Our Journey readers 15% off!

Click HERE for Jess's shop and enter this code for the discount: 

OURJOURNEY

(Plus, If you order TODAY before midnight, Jess ensures that all Valentine's banners will arrive before the 14th!)


Don't forget St. Patrick's Day is coming up March 17th  so get your orders in NOW for Paddy's banners!

Happy Banner Shopping!

Plugged In

You know those weeks where you just feel good about everything?
Like when you peel a clementine perfectly, but on a larger scale? 

This is one of those weeks for me. 

Despite a couple frustrating days picking up Drew from school (more on that later), it's only Wednesday and it's been a great few days. I met some lovely ladies who I can't wait to get together with again Monday, I've been knocking off 28 Days of Love items and lastly I'm organizing an alumni watch party up here for my Cleveland Jayhawkers in March.

On top of that, the sun has been pouring through my windows while I work and the winter scenes picturesque everywhere. I know the icicles will melt and events will come and go, but I just feel like the world is hugging me all around this week. 

Nothing feels better than going to a new event and hitting it off with others.... except maybe surprising people with random acts of kindness and seeing happiness take over their faces.

The world is working for me this week and I'm going with it.

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Also wanted to share a quick update on this week's acts!

1. Adopted a rhino at our zoo.

2. Surprised freezing crossing guards with hot coffee.

3. Took a bunch of dimes to the library to help with late fees.

4. Signed up to be an Ohio organ an tissue donor.

Have YOU done any acts of kindness this week?