Nails on a chalkboard

The previous owners of our home decided that the living room needed some permanent and strange wall art in the form of this bright yellow square with a super glued frame around it. I thought the tree and flowers were glued up with some sort of wallpaper adhesive, so I've been avoiding trying to deal with changing it. We decided to put some bats on it for Halloween, and as I was pulling them off, the flowers came off with the tape. They're STICKERS. 

The whole thing peeled off in about three minutes. 

Ugh. 

I've been living with this weird thing for almost a year. It's not HORRIBLE, but it's really not my favorite.

As soon as I realized the time had come to stop living with this thing, we went to the hardware store and bought chalkboard paint and supplies. I was super gung-ho as I always am when it comes to a project, so I was all ready to throw that paint up and get it done. 

Turns out you have to wait 24 hours between every. single. coat. And you're supposed to do 3-5 coats.

Ugh. AGAIN.

The spot I was covering only took about ten minutes to paint, and then I'd have to wait until the next day. Finally it's all done! We primed it with chalk per many blog instructions, and today I finally had time to try some chalkboard art. I've been obsessing over it on pinterest forever and was so excited to finally have a wall to try it on.

I need some more practice for sure, but I found this so strangely relaxing and enjoyable. I can't wait to change it for every season! 

That yellow thing is in the background of about a thousand of our pictures. 

{That's Mason and Nana enjoying "this is the way the farmer rides" back in March.}

I love this quote from President Monson, and it seemed perfect for Thanksgiving week!

Don't mind the off centeredness and slantedness. I might use a ruler next time, buuuut I'm kind of lazy for that.

Lifelong Learning

I consider myself to be a new mom; I'm definitely still green and raw when it comes to real deal parenting. I feel like I've barely wrapped my head around how to parent a newborn which is SO physical (feeding, sleeping, changing, bathing,etc) and now we've headed into the behavioral and emotional parenting aspects of our sweet toddler. 

I grew up in a home where I literally never heard my mother yell or even raise her voice. I never knew how difficult that must have been for her until I had a toddler. Sometimes they just push all the right buttons in just the right ways, don't they? But I have promised myself that I will not be a yelling mom because I am so grateful to my calm and kind mother who showed me how effective gentle parenting can be. She was not a push over by any means, we knew when she meant business. And it was usually when she was speaking quietly to us that we were the most afraid. =)

Mason is really rather well-behaved for a two year old. But he's still a two year old, so we have our episodes and challenges on a daily basis. Our usual method of "discipline" has been timeout, the traditional sit on the stairs for two minutes (because he's two) kind of thing. I always have a little discussion with him after the timer has gone off about why he was put on timeout. But I somehow feel like it's just not allowing me to teach him in the way that I want. It's more like getting him out of my hair for a couple minutes rather than helping him learn to behave a different way.

I finally sat myself down to research some alternative methods to timeout. I came across this fabulous blog called The Hippie Housewife. I've barely delved into the material that she has, but I love her already. We're obviously planning on tailoring these ideas to fit our family and each individual child. But I can't wait to implement her suggestions.

 

She says: " The purpose of our parenting should be problem-solving and teaching, not behaviour-training through consequences or punishments."

I think this perfectly sums up the approach I've been searching for. So tonight we had a Family Home Evening lesson on her post called "Gentle Discipline Basics: Ten Alternatives to Timeout". 

We used this in conjunction with Rosemary Wixom's talk from April General Conference titled "The Words We Speak." I am in love with this talk and highly recommend reading and re-reading it. She has such a powerful message.

I've been seeking to create a more peacful environment in our home and also really loved Elder Scott's talk "For Peace at Home". Another wonderful reminder that we should approach parenting in a Christ-like and loving manner.

I'm grateful to have access to so many resources that allow me to learn and grow as a parent. I definitely need all the help I can get! =)

The most wonderful time of the year

I love October.

General Conference, my Birthday, Halloween, colorful leaves on the trees, crisp Fall weather, scarves and boots, Honeycrisp apples, I love it all.

Ashton gave me my first Birthday/Halloween present of the season today, and I'm pretty much
ecstatic about it.

A darling Halloween quilt!!














Yesterday I also got a little early Birthday treat in the mail. I used to be moderately anti-Uggs, but when a glitch in the Nordstrom computer made these $40 instead of $140, how could I not get them??



















My plans for the afternoon include sweatpants, those incredibly comfy boots, and my new quilt, on the couch watching conference.

There may or may not be ice cream involved as well.

Happy Fall everyone!!