Serious Scores at the Mother's Market

My mom and I hit up the local Mother's Market today. If you don't have one in your area, here's the lowdown: It's a huge indoor yard sale but only for gently-used kid stuff (and some pregnant mom stuff, like maternity clothes, breast pumps, etc.), put on by a local mother's group (in this case the group is ABC/After Baby Comes). Now I'm really not much on mother's groups--I don't want to hang out if the only thing we have in common is that we have kids, and I'm socially awkward in the first place (hence the blog name). I tried attending a mom group meeting once for Stenni's sake (there was a playgroup at the same time) and it just went horribly for all involved. But at any rate, ABC in my town is a big thing, and twice a year they hold a huge Mother's Market at the local middle school. Local moms can sell whatever their kids have outgrown, and there are tables set up all through the halls and in the lunchroom. Shoppers have to wait in line outside to get in, and it costs a few bucks, but it is sooo worth it. There are some serious deals to be had if you know what you're looking for. There's even an "oversized" room (the middle school gym) where people sell strollers, carseats, furniture, Exersaucers, outdoor play stuff, and things like that, and it's all in reasonably good to great condition. Some people are trying to make some serious money and their prices reflect that, but other people just want to get rid of stuff and they will take next to nothing (or sometimes actually nothing) to clear some space out of their houses. In the past, I have purchased an entire storage container full of clothes for $10 and a stroller for $20 and gotten so many great deals on things I'd have paid 5-10 times as much for anywhere else. It's a bargain hunter's dream, and with a ton of little girl clothes but nothing for little boys, I really needed to make use of it this time around! 

Despite the ridiculous heat inside the school, the over-crowding, and the physical labor/digging (sometimes you really need to get up in those storage containers that people bring to find anything worthwhile) I came home with bags and bags of stuff, but here are some of the real highlights:

A cute button-up and sweatervest combo for Cuatro, given to me for free by a nice lady I knew from Jazzercise who just wanted to clear out her closet!

These brand new jammies, see how they say $2 on the sticker? Well they retail for like $8, and I bought them for $1. YAY!

Of course my little man needs corduroy pants and a flannel. He'll be lumberjack like his papa!

Best score of the market? This L. L. Bean ski jacket and pants set. My mom snapped it up for $5.

My mom also bought a newer Graco carseat for $10 (which is a huge score). When all was said and done, I brought home 4 shopping bags full of stuff...and paid about $35-40 for it all. I also got Stenni a pair of tap shoes, because Lord knows I obviously need something to keep me up at night besides the kicks in the gut and ever-flowing bladder. But she loved them so much that it almost didn't matter. And I was/am so proud of myself for all of the bargains! 

On not missing the boat this year: Earth Day 2013

Let me just start out by saying, happy Earth Day! And let me follow that up by saying that for me, last year's Earth Day was an unqualified disaster. I pretty much forgot that it existed and so made no plans beforehand. I was determined not to let that happen this year.
This year, I wanted to make sure that Stenni got a chance to celebrate and get to know what Earth Day was all about. Also, our family started working on at-home preschool about two weeks ago, and I felt like Earth Day would be a great opportunity to learn about all kinds of things that we use and do all the time. So we did lots of super fun things. We talked about recycling, littering, what goes in the trash and what goes in the compost bin and what recyclables go where (she even lectured her papa about recycling when he got home!!!). We talked about re-using "garbage" around the house (like the egg cartons we use to start seeds, and the paper scraps we keep for crafts). We did some cool Earth Day-related worksheets, including some tracing of letters (F for Flower, E for Earth, etc.) to work on preliteracy and fine motor skills. Then we planted a fairy garden, which was really awesome and a lot of fun for both of us (and the other total plus was that we got to hang out outside for a little while). Actually, I planned the garden as an Earth Day surprise for Stenni since before Easter, and bought her a giant pinwheel, a pretty hyacinth, gardening gloves, and a tiny gnome for her Eater basket. We even talked about starting seeds and dragged them all out to look at, but since the temperature continues to fall below freezing here at night on the reg, we didn't plant anything because we don't want to lose it! All in all, it was a pretty good day, and I'm glad that we got a few lessons in.
I hope that you all enjoyed your Earth Day. Did you do anything special to teach your children about stewardship of the planet, or is this just my hippie nonsense side coming out?

Coming clean about organization: Stenni's room "before"

This is legit what my daughter's room looks like right now. I know, I know, it's awful! The other day the changing table/dresser combo that we had been using since she was born (which was second hand then) finally gave out and no amount of rigging and praying would fix it. So after I threw the offending drawer across the room, I started looking for new furniture. (Also, I suspect that even though she loves her crib, that little girl is going to outgrow it very, very soon, whether I like it or not, and she'll need a big girl bed.) Hubs and I found a ton of stuff I loved but everything was so expensive! While we could have easily gotten a whole little girl bedroom set for like $800 new, I wanted something space-saving so Stenni would have so much more room to do activities. We looked for one of those all-in-one loftbed over dresser combos and we found them and they are awesome, but guess what? I don't have a $2500.00 budget. It's closer to $2.50! But thanks to my enterprising hubby, who found a set almost exactly like what we wanted on craigslist, the new furniture will be here on Saturday and I'm so excited! It's not the best color (white) but I think we can work with it!

So this weekend will be spent re-doing Stenni's room. I will try to make separate areas for art/music, and a library and reading area, besides where she sleeps. Also, we are trying to use as much stuff that we already have as possible because...well because I can't buy everything brand new! And I will try to make it easy to organize with plenty of drawers, shelves, etc. since this room is always a mess despite my best efforts. When I set up the nursery almost 3 years ago now, I was not thinking about long-term storage solutions, and unfortunately it shows now!

Look out next week for a make-over reveal!

the easiest halloween/fall decoration EVER

so since stenni and i stayed inside for most of the day yesterday, we did a lot of artwork. we did a ton of printable coloring pages (including these really cool, inventive fill-in-the-blank style pages from http://saynoodle.com/) and went for a walk with the dog and picked up leaves and talked about fall and read a book about pumpkins baked some pumpkin-apple muffins (a variation on the 2-ingredient pinterest special. i just added 2 chopped up apples and some pumpkin pie spice as well, and used yellow cake mix) and did every other thing i could think of.

but then i realized that since fall kind of snuck up on me, i hadn't decorated at all. not one bit. no pumpkins, no apple-related items, no dead cornstalks tied together on the front porch, no leaf wreaths, nothing. but right now, all my decorating stuff's in storage and though a scavenger hunt sounds fun, a scavenger hunt through boxes in a dirty basement with a toddler in tow does not. time for a little imagination.

when i was at target the other day and everyone in my house had a cold, i bought a bunch of boxes of tissues. one of them had a cool orange owl on it to match my orange bathroom. and because everyone had a cold, the box was quickly emptied. i spied the box, unfolded, in my paper recycling pile. 

a quick search around the house yielded one of those "invisible" frames that just has glass in the front and nothing around the outside. i think i bought it as part of a two-pack at the dollar store a while back.

so, cut out owl from tissue box. stick in frame. done. if i had some cool patterned orange scrapbook paper, i'd have put that behind the owl in the frame. but as it is, i think it makes a nice bookcase decoration. what do you think?

 

make yourself useful and...

sort through your seasonal things.
you know, May starts tomorrow. I know, I know, it's shocking. this means several things. firstly (and most importantly) it means my birthday is right around the corner. but more on that another day. it also means that it's time to dig out those spring and summer digs that you should have appropriately stored some time in October (or November, or even December if you're like me and want to really hold on to those flip-flops for all they're worth). It also means it's time to put away winter coats, hats, gloves, ski apparel, and all things winter, despite the fact that here in nj it dropped below freezing last night and we've still been lighting the woodstove every night. that being said, there will most assuredly be no more snow tubing, skiing, snowboarding, tobogganing, or any other fun winter sport that i've never participated but can think of the name of at this moment. so put the gear away! remember to label appropriately, and if space allows reserve one of those air-tight storage bins for each family member and one for general purpose items. giant pink fuzzy blanket? that's one for the all-purpose winter bin. my gazillion scarves? those go in my bin. stenni's head-to-toe snow suit that makes her look like a starfish? she's got her own bin for that. you get the picture. i like to label the bins with index cards instead of writing on them so that i can change them up seasonally, but how you label is of course up to you.
if anything's too ratty or should have been tossed a few seasons back, now is the time to part with it. another 2 seasons in storage won't do it (or you) any good. also, if something's in perfectly good condition but you've got no use for it, you really shouldn't hold on to it. they have scary tv shows about people who do that, you know. you've got a few options here. you can:

• toss it
• repurpose it
• give it away to someone who needs it more than you do

i like to repurpose old t-shirts into headbands because it looks cute and require absolutely no money or crafting skills, but if you can think of something better to do with them, please be my guest! i also take hubby's old shirts and rip them up to use as ties in the garden and rags for cleaning. if something's in good condition but you don't need it, take a second and think if there's anyone you know who does. if your mom needs your old snow boots, fork 'em over. my church usually has a big rummage sale the first weekend of June, so it's the perfect time for me to look through and see what I no longer need and also raise a little money for my church. anything they don't take i give to Goodwill (make sure to get a receipt. it's never too early to start thinking about tax time, my friends).
but now comes the fun part. you get to dig out the spring and summer stuff! but remember that the same rules apply when looking through these things: if you can't use it or it's not usable, it's gotta go.remember to wash anything that's been in storage even if you did it before you put it away (you don't want any surprise critters or anything funky smelling) and to have fun in your shorts and flip flops. nothing says warm weather like a nice sundress and a pair of sandals...i know you have them somewhere, so go find them!
think of the excitement!

I missed the boat on Earth Day

Because we were up in Cooperstown (which was AWESOME, btw. You should check it out if you like beer, wine, baseball, or delicious cheese), I missed Earth Day completely. This is a little troubling for me. I've got to admit, for having a hippie hubby, I've slipped off the earth friendly bandwagon recently. Yes, I still do the normal stuff like recycling everything I can and reusing things for a long time and using eco-friendly non-toxic cleaning products and whatnot, but I know that I'm not doing all I can. I've slipped in recent years. I no longer make my own cleaners. I don't hang my clothes out to dry (this is really because of my fear of the cave crickets in my area, who are huge and gross and crawl inside everything and would give me a heart attack if I found one in my sleeve). We occasionally eat red meat, and haven't had tofu anything in MONTHS. I even leave my computer on when I'm not in the room. I know, I know, that should be punishable by death. But let me tell you what happened, because I think it's a common story.
My kid was born.
Yeah, that did it. Before Stenni came around, I thought I would exclusively breastfeed and cloth diaper. Well, I mostly breastfed, with some pumping and a little bit of formula because the pediatrician really pushed for it at first when Stenni was really little. Cloth diapering? Yeah, not so much. My parents, who watch the baby a lot, wouldn't hear of it, and when she was born I had trouble finding small enough cloth diapers! Then I just gave up, despite knowing how easy it was supposed to be. Maybe I'll try again the next time around.
But there were other places where I gave in when she was born too. My mother-in-law came over with a Costco-sized case of paper towels and a million paper plates (along with pizza and beer, which were obviously appreciated), which had both long been banned from my house. But they just seemed so EASY! They made things tremendously effortless. So I jumped on the paper goods bandwagon, and still haven' t jumped off. We generally use them as kindling when we light fires, which I suppose is repurposing but certainly isn't perfect. I keep depending on these things, especially paper towels, even when I know how easy it would be to stop using them. I admit I've cut back, but they're still haunting my linen closet.
For Earth Day this year, I'm not going to buy paper towels anymore. Not on this trip to the store, and not on the next. And paper plates? Forget them! It takes 2 seconds to wash a dish. It won't kill me. Probably.
However, I can't promise that this effort will continue once the new baby is born and well-meaning in-laws come over with crates full of paper goods.
As an added Earth-Day bonus, me and Stenni are going to bake some banana bread with some old brown bananas that my hubs won't touch. Plus, then I get to eat banana bread. It's a win/win!