Today's Small Successes

It's Small Successes day over at Faith & Family Live - you can read other moms' successes here. My successes:

1) On Tuesday, Goose and I headed to my parents' house for a brief visit. I intended to stay a couple of days, and leave Goose there for a few more days. (At Grandma's, when Mama is gone, it's ALL CARE BEARS ALL THE TIME.) After hearing the weather report, I decided to cut my visit short and head back yesterday. It has snowed and slushed all day so far, so I think I made the right choice.
2) Since I am Goose-less, I have been working hard to get ahead on my 40 bags in 40 days challenge for Lent. I have worked so hard on our spare bedroom today that I haven't even bothered to eat lunch - and I am NOT a girl that misses many meals. :>)

3) I *finally* found a new purse! I have been looking since Goose potty-trained and I was able to give up the diaper bag. I needed something pretty big and I didn't want to spend much money.

The only thing it lacks is a shoulder strap, but I think I can take care of that myself - I bought some heavy duty needles and thread yesterday, and I'm already plotting in my head. Or maybe I'll leave it. I definitely like being able to pull the strap over my head and across my body when we get home and I have a bunch of stuff to carry in from the car.

(Though from the size of this baby, I can put half the stuff I need to carry in directly IN the purse...)

And a bonus #4 success . . . I didn't get out of bed until after 8:30 today. Hubs is gone, though his alarm went off at six AM, so it's not like I slept straight through the entire time, but it sure was nice nonetheless!

Anybody else having a successful day?

Very, Very Small Successes

Today is the day to celebrate small successes over at Faith & Family Live. Mine are very, very small today.

1) I have accepted the fact that the toddler and I both got up before we were ready to be done sleeping. (Her choice to get up, NOT MINE.) I'm really looking forward to naptime, though!! She missed a nap day before yesterday and has been quite "TWO" ever since. It's so hard to get her caught up!

2) I (mostly) kept my cool when there was a potty incident because she was messing around while on the potty. There was a brief exclamation of surprise, which I think is reasonably acceptable considering the circumstances.

3) I'm focusing on the fact that Goose recited the last half of her beloved Snow White book that she got a week and a half ago *from memory * while we were washing her hands.

and I have a bonus success:
4) After the stomach bug, Goose is finally back in her regular "under clothes" and seems to be back to normal. I kept a diaper on her just in case since then, though she did great at telling us when she needed to go potty most of the time. (There were a few incidents that woke her up from her naps - I can't blame her for those!)

Click the link above to see more moms and their small successes.

100th Post Giveaway - Something for Everyone!

Edit: I'll leave it open until midnight central time tonight!!

I am celebrating some small successes here today. (To see more mom successes, visit Faith & Family Live). (and I've re-arranged the post a bit.)

1) I've been quietly collecting stuff to give away in celebration of my 100th post. Because I don't want blogging to take up too much of my time, let alone my money, most of it is thrifted (cough*used*cough) or homemade. (Please note that I've dinked around with the formatting for way too long . . . and this post will look different on the page versus in a reader versus in e-mail anyway, so I'm waving the white flag! Please excuse any extra white space and/or other wonky formatting!)

Without further ado, here is the list of goodies:



A pair of my homemade baby & toddler leg warmers. Go here and tell me which pair you like best, and chances are good that I'll be able to accomodate you. (Guide: it goes Animals, Girly-Girl, Solids, Plaids, Stripes, Argyles, Boyish, Christmas, Misc.)






A homemade taggie blanket - as you can see, it's pretty gender neutral. It is seafoam green minky fabric and ivory fleece. There is one pink ribbon and one blue ribbon, with the rest neutral.







A homemade bathtub fishing game - directions on how to make your own will be in an upcoming Frugal Friday post! The foam sticks to the tub and floats so your little fisherman or fisherwoman can catch them with the included homemade net (with no handle, so no one will be in danger of losing an eye). Goose tried hers out last night and had a pretty good time.







The fairy wings still aren't quite done. I have redone them, but I still can't quite figure out how to put them together. No worries, I'll enlist my MIL's help on them if I don't come up with something and they'll rock your socks. You'll have to stitch them on something your fairy already has. I'll update again when I do get them finished. And, if you happen to not care for my flowers, they're SUPER easy to re-do - I'll let the winner know how.

The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding: Sixth Revised Edition. There is a 7th edition out, but this one still contains TONS of great information. (Happy World Breastfeeding Week to any nursing mamas!)



Better Homes & Gardens Patchwork Projects - 15 Full Size Patterns, including ones for each season. The quilt pictured is the only one included, I think, so lots of other stuff!












The Woman's Day Book of Granny Squares and Other Carry-Along Crochet - with 31 projects, a section "all about granny squares" and 50 ideas for using granny squares. Whoof!












Avon's Beautiful Holiday Ideas (apparently collaborated with Better Homes and Gardens on this one!) - with chapters on Deck the Halls, Share the Fun, Open Your House, Enjoy Tradition, Wrap it up, and Celebrate the Day (recipes). Use the make-up tips from 1980 at your own risk! :>)









Better Homes and Gardens Homespun Christmas Crafts - includes stuffed fabric small animal ornaments, fabric mantel bells and a garland, weaving straw, embroidered stockings, wreaths with natural items, quick and easy wreaths, a VERY CUTE storybook pillow, and painted fabric ABC blocks.












Selected Tips from Heloise - chapters are Creative Cleaning, Sprucing Up Your Home, Tackling Laundry Days, In The Kitchen, At Your Leisure, On The Road - And Off, and Personal Best.









A set of repurposed tins - I picked these up at the thrift shop and covered them with scrapbook paper (from this reading the whole internet post) Disclaimer - to get the lids to come off and go on easily, I had to trim a bit of the paper, so some of the old design shows near the top when the lids are off.




So, how do you win??? First, please have a US shipping address - it doesn't even have to be YOU . . . but I don't have the budget for international postage, sorry! (Unless you want to paypal me the shipping charges, I guess . . . ) Then check out the categories in my sidebar and tell me which of them is your favorite or that you'd like to see more posts in. It's that easy! To make things a bit more complicated, though, I'll let you CHOOSE what you'd like to win - up to three things. I'll number your comments and use Random.org to pick numbers. The first number will get their first choice. The second number will get their first choice if it's still available; if not, they'll get their second choice - and so on.

Want more entries? Do one of the following and leave an additional comment or comments:

* blog about this giveaway (please include the link)
* tweet it if you're on Twitter (please include the link . . . I don't do Twitter but I'd like to see it anyway!)
* share this on Facebook (honor system since I wouldn't be able to see it)
* subscribe to me in a reader or via e-mail (again, honor system . . . and believe me when I tell you it took me ALL of one day's LONG naptime - thank goodness it was long - to get the subscribe by e-mail box here) or follow me from your blogger profile.

It's your choice as to whether you list the same thing(s) that you want or change them up in subsequent entries . . . but what you have listed in the comment number comes up is what I'll go by to award the goodies.

The giveaway will end Thursday, August 20 at noon central time. Winners will be notified via e-mail and I'll post it, too, so you can see who the lucky people are.

Please PLEASE make sure there is a way for me to contact you, either via your blog, or leave an e-mail address (you can use the cryptic form of yourname at domain dot com if you wish), and please indicate what you want - up to three things, and leave separate comments if you help me publicize this as noted. If you have a question about something that I've made too complicated or would like a bit more info on any of the prizes, please feel free to e-mail me at the address in my sidebar.

And seriously, I have a big stack of fun vintage craft books earmarked for giving away but one of my proofreading paychecks is going to be blown on the postage as it is. Maybe I'll give away one a month or some such . . . any suggestions?

You probably have already forgotten, but at the beginning of the post I was mentioning my small successes. The others are:

2) I have managed to stay relatively calm while the toddler insists the ceiling fan (last night) and light (this morning) in her room be OFF! then ON! then OFF! then ON! accompanied by lots of crying and thrashing about. Believe me when I say I'm *thisclose* to yanking the whole thing out of the ceiling.

3) I scored some very fun things at the rummage sale yesterday for a grand total of $7.70. They can be found here.

And a Good Time Was Had By All!

My small successes this week are all related to a fun time yesterday.

1) I *finally* got together with a friend in one of the nearby "cities". We've been saying "we need to get together" for well over a year.

2) Said friend began teaching me how to knit! And was so generous as to give me a pair of her knitting needles to boot!

3) Goose ended up not napping yesterday - I thought for sure she'd conk out on the way home. While I wasn't as patient with her last night as I should have been (especially during the HUGE cannonballs she was doing in the bathtub while I was working on my laptop next to it), I have been patient with her this morning. Right up to the time she walked out the door with Hubs to go to my MIL's since I have to work this morning. (It's much easier to be patient when there's a light at the end of the tunnel, eh?)

Here's hoping for a good nap this afternoon! For more moms' small successes, visit Faith & Family here.

A Few Small Successes

1) I managed to survive the two-year-old yesterday with my sense of humor intact. (It helped both of us that she took a much-needed 3 hour nap yesterday. For those of you coming over from FFL, do click through. You'll relate.)

2) I have walked most every day this week, even going for two walks a couple of days. We go over to the post office and get the mail in the morning and loop around town (it's a small town, people) and then in the afternoon we use the jogging stroller to go to the farm. No jogging, though. There would have to be hungry bears after me for such things to happen.

3) I am almost 100% caught up entering our bookwork on the computer. I started the year with Microsoft Money, then lost the file when my jump drive crashed. I then started on Quickbooks but found I'd rather slam my head in the door repeatedly than figure that program out. So I went back to Money, and just have a few receipts to square away. Whoo!

For more moms' small successes, visit Faith and Family Live.

This Week's Small Successes

1) Of course, my first success was actually launching my blog. I've been thinking about it (and over-thinking it) for far too long.

2) I finished planting the garden, except for pepper and tomato plants (which are toughening up during the day and spending nights in the garage for a few more days yet) and potatoes, since I've not yet found good seed potatoes yet. I have a few left over from last year that I'm about ready to cut up and use, but I'm not sure how well they'll work.

2a) Two related successes are that Goose just sat and played in the dirt while I planted. The first is that she didn't run off to where I couldn't see her (at all, let alone constantly - which happens sometimes) and the second is that I let her get good and dirty. I'd rather just keep her clean, but that's no fun for her!

3) I re-organized Goose's closet, bagging up all her 12-month clothes, and getting out the rest of her 24 month/2T/3T clothes. With her big, fluffy, cloth-diapered bottom, I'm finding the 24 month/2T stuff doesn't fit. And some of it is even too small with a disposable diaper! She's in the 10th percentile for weight at 23 pounds, for heaven's sake.

You can see more moms' small successes here.