I have a new obsession.

In case you missed the news, Instagram has finally come to android phones. I downloaded it the second I heard to see if it lived up to all the hype. You see I had listened to all the iPhone users for years rub it in our face that us poor android users didn’t have it (no I’m not bitter, why do you ask?). And now…..now, I understand.

I love Instagram. I love how it makes me feel like I can actually take a picture. I love seeing the gorgeous pictures other people take. I love the photo a day challenge. I love, love, love everything about it. There are probably a million other reasons to love it that I don’t even know about!!!

So tell me, what awesome things are there for me to discover on Instagram?

ps. I keep my Instagram private because I post a lot of pictures of my kids there so if you try and follow me and I don’t reply don’t be offended. Although you are missing gems like this one. I apologize.

Day 7 Instagram Photo a Day: A Young Me

pss. did you see that Facebook bought Instagram today for like a bajillion dollars? I am going to be so irritated if they ruin it right when I have fallen in love. Mark Zuckerberg. Don’t make me hurt you?

Mornings are a stressful thing for me. Take a non-morning person and pair her with her non-morning person child who has to get to school on time and you can imagine the delightful, loving, bonding moments that occur in the early morning hours.

Add in some strong opinions on fashion and we are lucky we survive.

My secret is a little method I stumbled upon back when Lily was in preschool (moment of silence for how long ago that was). It gives me main control over their clothing choices but gives them the illusion of control as well and has reduced 90% of our battles in the morning over clothes. I mean, nothing is 100% right?

Every Sunday night, we put five outfits in each compartment of a sweater organizer. I include underwear, socks, belts, everything needed to get dressed in the morning. I occasionally solicit input from the kids about their outfits but most of the time I put in what I would like them to wear.

While I get to pick the outfits, my kids get to choose when they wear them. No morning fits allowed. On the weekends they can wear what they want. And I would never take away a girl’s need to accessorize.

Nowadays I just use this method with Hannah. Silas doesn’t seem to care yet what I put him in and Lily is old enough that I let her do her own thing. She is a budding fashionista and I don’t want to cramp her style. She is independent enough in the morning that the battles over clothing have pretty much stopped. The battles over combing hair not so much. Who has a method for that one?

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Disclosure: Compensation was provided by Sprint via Glam Media. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and are not indicative of the opinions or positions of Sprint. This post will be linked up to Works For Me Wednesday at We Are That Family.

It only makes sense that the week I announce I am no longer going to run my own blog carnival I would link up to a new carnival. It seems like a very me kind of thing to do.

You see Jenny and Emily over at Mommin It Up have been blog friends for a long time and they told me yesterday they were going to start a brand new carnival called Pin For The Wednesdays where bloggers could link up posts about things they had pinned on Pinterest and actually accomplished. (you ARE following me on Pinterest, right?)

So I said to Jenny, “Well that is cool and all, but I am a serious writer now. No time for carnivals.” Ok so I didn’t really say that, but I did immediately think, “So wait, I am supposed to actually DO the things I pin on Pinterest?”

But then today as I was getting dressed I had a few outfits that I had pinned in my brain and decided to see if I could pull it off. I felt like I pulled it off well and loved the way I looked but then realized I had nowhere to go and was looking pretty spiffy. So I posted this to Facebook:

As you can see, Jenny wasted NO time pimping out her blog. That is kind of how she rolls. And since she has been so good about linking up to Things I Love Thursday over the years I figured I could repay the favor.

So here are a few pins I was inspired by:

For the FOURTH year in a row I am heading off to Blissdom. And I am so ready for it. I swear every year everything goes wrong around here right before I leave for conferences. It is like I am supposed to feel NO guilt about running off and leave it all behind.

Ryan leaned over to last night and snuggled up and said, “I am going to miss you so much.” I looked him straight in the eye and said, “I am not going to miss you at all.” Ok so that isn’t completely true, but this mama needs a weekend away with “her people.”

And that is what Blissdom is for me. It is where I find my people. Part conference, part party and BIG part girl’s getaway- I will say it again. This mama needs her people!

So as I cross things of my long to do list I thought I would revisit a post from a few years back about how to stalk your favorite celebrity blogger. We are going to ignore the fact that the particular blogger I happened to stalk back at Blissdom ‘10 stopped blogging shortly after. I am 40% sure it is just a coincidence.

If you have been reading blogs for more than 5 minutes, you have bloggers you idolize. They are your must reads. The ones you tell your friends about. The ones where when you comment and they respond, you squeal, show your hubby the email and save it in a folder marked awesome so you can pull it out and look at it on days when your traffic is low. No? You don’t do that? Yeah……me neither…..

Blogging conferences are the perfect venue for “in real life” blog stalking. But you TOTALLY don’t want to seem like the nerdy band geek (no offense to any band geeks, I was in show choir) going up to the head cheerleader and making a fool of yourself. You have to play it cool and act like it is totally natural to be meeting the first blogger you ever read who gets like 2 million hits a day.

The nice thing about Blissdom being my third blogging conference is that I knew a lot of people going in. So I was a teensy tiny bit less nervous this year about hanging with the big dogs. A little less. I even knew some of them before they were celebrities.

Here is what you must remember. Celebrity bloggers put their pants on one leg at a time. In the case of Scribbit, my new bloggy BFF, she puts her very, very long legged pants on one leg at a time. Oh and when you see your bloggity idol, you should avoid saying things like, “Wow, your really tall.” Um, yeah.

Look for an in. A better in than “OMG, I totally have read your blog forever and I am so excited to meet you!!!!” as you run and tackle them. I prefer a tweet:

I like a bit of subtlety. Keeps them guessing. Good thing is, my subtlety worked. I totally got to hang with Scribbit. And she was delightful. And gracious. And humble. Which made me love her more. And I didn’t make a fool out of myself. Much. Hopefully.

What blogger are you DYING to meet in real life?

I am really excited to be a Community Leader this year for the Parenting Niche. So if you are at Blissdom make sure to look for me and join my table!! Will you be at Blissdom this year?

This post will be linked up to Works For Me Wednesday at We Are That Family.

It is well documented that I am severely lacking in the “fun mom” department. I mean every once in awhile I have some sort of stroke of brilliance but those moments are few and far between.

BUT it is Valentine’s Day. And thanks to Pinterest I ROCKED some school Valentines. Ok, so full disclosure. I showed Lily some pictures on Pinterest and she made them. But still. FUN MOM.

So for dinner I felt I needed to step up my game. Off to Pinterest…..

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner and I have no idea what we are doing. I usually just buy some lame store bought cards and we call it a day. Then Pinterest came along and suddenly my store bought cards seem inadequate. Okay who are we kidding, I will probably still do the store bought thing, but for today we are going to pretend I am a crafty mom. Which one are you loving?

  

I have a whole lotta crayons in this house. I could probably make enough of these to give the whole school. They look easy. Then again, crafts and I don’t exactly go together like peas and carrots.

 

Aren’t these adorable. I have a STRONG affinity for the Tootsie Pop. But this one looks like it requires things like glue sticks and paper punchers. So it might be out of my

 

Perhaps this Tootsie Pop idea is more manageable. Hannah loves butterflies. And surely that is a stamp right? Cause I would DEFINITELY get a hand cramp writing all those words.

 

I think this is beyond adorable. And I am thinking this would KILL IT in the 3rd grade. And I am pretty sure I can still make a mean friendship bracelet. It is like riding a bike?

 

I have quite the thing for the mustache trend. This is CRAZY cute!! Can I do this and send out Valentine’s?

 

I feel like my girls wouldn’t be so into these, but I am keeping them in mind for when Silas hits school. All boys hit a pirate phase right? Right now we are smack dab in the middle of the planes, trains and automobiles phase (Those Aren’t Pillows!!!)

 

I think these are super cute. And they alleviate the embarrassment when you kid is the only one in class who didn’t stick candy in their Valentine (seriously, have you noticed this?). I am just wondering where you find all the shovels for a reasonable price. Any ideas?

 

Ok these are totally doable. My kids would pass out if I let them take goldfish to school. They are on the no processed food list. In fact, if I sent these to school with them they would probably sit and eat them all in the bathroom before handing them out…..

 

These seem easy too. And super adorable. So far they are majorly in the running. Plus they remind me of the Simpson’s episode where Ralph gives Lisa the "I choo choose you" Valentine. Classic. And totally unrelated. Anywho….

 

I think these are the winners. I simply print out a template on a printer (I can do that!!!) and my kids color them to look like their classmates. I just love everything about this. Mostly the idea that glue sticks aren’t involved.

What do you do for your kid’s class Valentine’s?

This post is linked up to Works For Me Wednesday at We Are That Family.

Last night at bedtime Hannah began coughing. This was some serious coughing. Really about every 30 seconds she was hacking. She hadn’t been sick and it kind of came out of nowhere (despite the bubonic plague going around our household). I should clarify that it wasn’t at HER bedtime. She was long asleep by the time it started. It was at MY bedtime. And mama was tir.ed.

I went in and woke her up to have her drink water. Nothing. We gave her a tablespoon of honey. Nada. We even steamed up the bathroom and sent her in for awhile. Not a thing.

So I remembered that I read somewhere about a secret cough remedy and turned to my friend Dr. Google. Dr. Google came through.

To cure a cough slather Vicks all over your kids feet and cover them with socks (their feet, not their bodies). Coughing should cease in about 5-10 minutes. IT TOTALLY WORKS!! And the affect lasted until about 9 am this morning when I had to reapply. But she hasn’t coughed since.

It should be noted that Mr. Diaper Diaries poo poo-ed the idea calling it “an old wives tale” until he saw it worked. Then he spent his time telling me all of his theories as to why “of course it works”. I think the theory he was looking for is, “you are SO right honey!!!!”

What “old wives tales” do you swear by?

This post is linked up to Works For Me Wednesday at We Are That Family.

Three years ago I would have told you we ate healthier than most American families. I never bought sugar cereal, my kids ate their veggies, I had them get apples with their Happy Meals and we only bought Cheetos on special occasions.

Two years ago (-ish) I went to hang out with a few local bloggers who I hadn’t met before at a new restaurant I had been wanting to try out. What I didn’t know is that it was a farm to table restaurant. Heck. I didn’t even know what that meant. And when they started talking about grass fed meat and cage free chickens and raw milk I was lost (and a little scared).

I had no idea what road I would head down pulling on the thread of what I learned. I started purging my house of all things with HFCS. Then came baking my own bread. Next getting all our eggs from a house next to my church with a cooler out front and chickens running about. Then visiting a few local farms to discuss purchasing grass fed cows and free range chickens.

More and more our diet changed. We stopped buying cereal (CEREAL!), started canning and freezing and joined a CSA. We get a small percentage of our food from a grocery store. I buy chickens with HEADS on them and save their bones to make broth. I make my own yogurt, granola, vanilla, and peanut butter. It all fits right in with my lack of shaving during the winter…..

It is the new normal and really feels normal. But I realize it isn’t. My kids frequently remind me that it isn’t. And I hope I haven’t become one of those preachy people. I just feel good, my family is way healthier than we have ever been and I like being able to pronounce the ingredients when we eat.

Today I listened to Joel Salatin speak on the connection between food and God and family. It was amazing. And here are a few of my favorite quotes:

We’re eating things you can’t pronounce, you can’t make in your kitchen, that won’t rot. If it won’t rot, it won’t digest.

Most people are far more concerned about the quality of the gasoline in their car than the food they put in their body.

Everything is eating and being eaten. And those who think we can have life without death have cheapened life.

Want to get started eating “clean”? It isn’t as intimidating as I may have made it sound. I started really small. Really, really small and things have just grown from there. I still don’t drink raw milk, ferment food or eat organ meat (all things true real foodies do). I still eat out at normal restaurants, buy candy bars in the grocery store line, and occasionally grab that bag of Cheetos. I live by the 80/20 rule.

Anyway, I have the greatest resource to get you started. My friend Tricia over at Once a Month Mom (seriously “real food” or not, you should be reading her) has launched a year long program to help you “Get Real”. She is working with some of the best bloggers around to take you through baby steps to eat clean in 2012. Give it a shot!

How “clean” do you eat?

This post will be linked up to We Are That Family’s Works For Me Wednesday.

Am I beginning to sound like a broken record with my laments about doing more giving this holiday season? Sorry, it is just where my heart is at this Christmas.

Actually I think we do a pretty good job of giving as a family throughout the year, but it is often hard to involve our children it. A lot of the giving we do involves writing a check and they just aren’t a part of that.

Last year, we tackled the World Vision catalog as a family and my girls (Silas was a baby) took their task very seriously. Lily has been asking this year if we will be doing it again. It made a really big impression on her. I can’t wait to see what they pick out this year.

But I want to do more.

I know I have been doing a lot of sponsored type posts this month (tis the season) but I want you to know I have tried to be VERY selective about what I say yes to. I say yes when I already love the product or know I will love the product. And most importantly when it is something I want my readers to know about.

So when Razoo reached out to me about their innovative way to give back during the holidays I was intrigued. When they told me they could help encourage generosity with my kids I was sold.

At Razoo you can buy gift cards for Christmas. But these gift cards aren’t to be used to buy things for yourself. They are used to give back to your recipients favorite charity. And it is super easy to do.

Razoo provided me a few gift cards to use with my kids. We sat down and talked about how we felt like it was important to give back at Christmas and this year we were going to let them pick where they gave to.

Lily was very intentional when I asked her who she wanted to give to. She immediately said “someone who is helping girls go to school.” We found a wonderful charity providing education to young girls from the street in Ethiopia. Lily is a little too young to have a “cause” yet, but she was excited to give her money to a local charity that our family is already very involved in.

They both LOVED having an actual gift card that was all theirs to spend. You can send people a virtual cards or print it out and give them a physical copy. You can choose any amount. Buying a gift card is very simple with no registration required.

If you are raising money for a cause you can also use Razoo as a fundraising tool. Simply register your fundraiser and people can contribute in one easy spot.

Razoo takes a small 2.9% of the donations they collect. I think that is incredibly reasonable. You know when those fundraisers call you on the phone and ask you to give to the police or veterans or whoever? They usually take about 80% of the money for themselves. Razoo has actually provided information about how they stack up with other fundraising sites.

Overall I had a really great experience using Razoo and feel like it gave me a great option for gift giving in the future. I would love to have a birthday celebration that used Razoo to donate to a great cause instead of getting gifts. Or simply provide someone who is hard to buy for a chance to give to a charity that means a lot to them. Really there are a lot of great ways to use Razoo!!

Razoo provided me with gift cards for our children and ourselves, but all the money was donated to our favorite causes. Including The Mercy House founded by Kristen who is hosting Works For Me Wednesday.