Love/Hate Relationship

It is that time of the month again, the time I do my weight watchers post.  I have to say I am not really going to this month.  Why?  Well because I am losing the battle at the moment.  After my last WW post I was pretty proud of my accomplishments and feeling pretty good about myself-this always gets me into trouble.  I began to slack even more on the exercise and my food choices have gotten worse and worse.  Doughnuts, peanut butter pancakes, milkshake, cheeseburger, cookie dough, pumpkin bread....these are just a few recent foods that come to mind.  The strange thing is at this point I am still feeling okay with myself.  I know it won't last and in the very near future I'll go to put something on and I'll regret it all so much.  Right now though I don't.  Here is a sample of some of the self talk which gets me into trouble.
"I feel so carefree and happy not worrying about food all the time."
"I am a mama, my girls don't care about my weight, Mav loves me no matter what.  I don't need to try to be someone other than who I am."
 "Life is too short and denying myself the things I want just makes me grouchy, I am a better mama/wife when I am happy."
None of those thoughts are untrue.  Yet the even bigger truth is being heavy is not healthy for me nor a healthy model for my children.  Yes Mav's love is unconditional, but that is no excuse to give up being attractive to him.  The biggest truth is I see throughout my thoughts is that some how I equate food with happiness.   I'd like to deny it, but truthfully when I am with my family eating yummy foods it does make me happy.  I have struggled with anger and depression issues for years, anti depressants have saved my life.   So denying myself something that makes me actually feel and act better is hard and makes me wonder why I would.  I know food will always let me down in the long run.   I know it is a rocky relationship, abusive even.  But I keep going back with the hope this time it will be different.

A Time For Overalls

I just ordered a pair of overalls.  I feel like I am confessing.   I am completely aware of how unflattering pants are on me, let alone overalls.  My one asset is my waist and they completely hide that.  But I couldn't help it, I just really want a pair.  I think they are cute, not to mention fully functional for mamas.  I considered ordering from Freddies of Pinewood (can't try on a pair first) or having some made by NudeeDudee (really was leaning this way but I'd rather have a dress made and hope to soon), so in the end Dickies won out.  I also ordered this great pair of PF Flyers.  Dorothea Lange was the inspiration for my stay at home mama uniform this season.  Goodbye cotton housedresses, see you in the spring-but don't worry I'll still step out with you occasionally.

Sorting Pretties

My 5 year old is especially reluctant to doing "school work".  I am always trying to discover ways to educate her with out her realization that it's happening.   She is the girlyest of our girls and loves to dress up in frills and sparkles.    I have all my jewellery crammed in a hallway drawer, everything from gumball rings to diamonds and pearls.  It is not a pretty sight. 

I decided to ask the girls to sort through this drawer.  Of course they were excited to discover all the pretties and try them on.  Sorting is foundational for math, taking note of what similarities objects share, how things are alike and how they are different.

I really wish I had been better about taking pictures of this process, especially that I would have gotten one of everything spread out on the table in groups. 

The end result was pleasing to us all!

Bears and Bows

My love of bows began with the skirt pictured here.  It is the best skirt in the world!  That picture was taken in '92.  I still have the skirt and it is in great shape except for a small tear where I used it to twist open a bottle once.  Although I know the seeds for loving pink bows began years before when as a little girl we would visit Disneyland.  I loved the Country Bear Jamboree.  I loved it for Trixie.  She was amazing.  She would swing over head singing something sultry.  At a very young age I knew that was something I wanted to do.  Seriously.  I wanted to be Trixie and a Solid Gold dancer.  Little did I know then there was a whole profession dedicated to such a combination!

I didn't get my "big girl swing" until my 24th birthday.  Of course it has now been packed away for years.   When the children are grown maybe we'll hang it back up.  Let's see I'll be 55 years old by then....

Blushing Bride

"Aunt Neva's wedding" is all this says on the back.  I found it in a stack of old family photos.  It just cracks me up!

Spinning the Color Wheel

One of first our back to school projects has been having fun with color theory!  The photos are pretty self explanatory as to how we have been doing this.  (yes, cupcakes-what did you expect from the pink house gals?)  The last one, mixing varying shades to match paint swatches (the kind you pick up for free at paint stores) is on our list to do this week.  I also discovered a great reference tool from, my favorite, Eric Carle.  

Complimentary colors, primary/secondary/tertiary colors, warm and cool colors, hue and shade are some of the vocabulary we used.  

8:52am

Winner Dress

I won this dress from The Vintage Housewife.   I simply love me some gingham and cross stitch in a good ol' cotton dress.  If I had a choice between a glamorous 1940's rayon dress and a simple cotton frock I would choose the cotton every time.   This dress screams "wear white socks!" to me and it is a dilemma.  Why?  Well, because at 38 I feel too old to wear them.  In my younger years they were a staple in my wardrobe.  Of course I know I could still wear them, but I'm not so sure I should.   I want to be graceful in age and never appear like I am trying too hard for youth.   I did a socks and nonsocks photo and one from when I was actually young enough not to give it a thought.

What do you think? 

The Emperor Is Naked

Here are a few pictures from the food cart post I had planned.  Then I remembered if I don't have anything nice to say not to say anything at all.  I will say Portland has well over 500 carts so I only was able to sample a small percentage.  The second picture is the Grilled Cheese Grill.  I would recommend it if you are taking the kiddos along.

Life in the Pink Tower: Classification Cards

We aren't really what one would call an "outdoorsy" type of family.  We do not camp, of course I love a picnic or bike ride in the sunshine, just nothing you would have to shop at REI for.   We also are not wild about gardening-actually we do not like it.   If your a regular reader this may surprise you because we are outside in nature so much.  Yes, we make ourselves because we want the girls to love the outdoors more than we do and develop a healthy lifestyle as a result.   As summer ends I have just the thing to solidify the observations they have made of garden creatures through out.  My daughter's Montessori teacher shared her classification cards with me and one set is "Garden Creatures".  Perfect.  I have printed them and will use them with the three youngest- even our 11 month old.  I plan to have a few on her shelf (3) in a small dish and show them to her while saying each name.  I will pick the ones I have pointed out to her in real life.  For my 5 year old who isn't reading we will work on the beginning letter sounds and she will want to draw a creature or 2.  My seven year old can read each label and match it to the correct picture.  For more ideas or to understand better go here.   If you don't have a teacher to share her resources with you don't fret.  You can go here for free printables.

You also could make your own.  I do this by taking pictures when we are out.  For example at the fair I got shots of different animals and can print them.  I try to use cards to build vocabulary of things the girls have seen in real life first.  At the fair I would take the baby to a cow and say "cow",  simply giving her the name as clearly and crisply as I can.  Then I do the same thing with the card and a connection is made, bringing a little more order and understanding of the world around her.

Also if you email me I'd be happy to share a few of my sets in PDF.

coedith@gmail.com

Pie Trees

It's harvest time in the pink house.  Our garden wasn't very fruitful this year, but our apple trees were great.  I love having the opportunity to help our girls follow their food from earth to table.  (Of course my preference is pie.)  Above are my favorite books to go along with our process.