- Aileen Leave a comment

Saying ‘I love you’

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Do you tell your kids you love them everyday? Do you say ‘I love you’ or do you have something else special you tell them?

My daughter is an angel. Yes, an angel in the flesh. Let me explain… when I was 7.5 months pregnant, my dear sweet grandpa passed away. He was the kindest, sweetest, gentlest and strongest man. He helped raise me and acted in place of the father I did not have growing up (my dad was tragically killed when I was 4 years old). Grandpa took me fishing, game to every school event and taught me how to drive. I’m crying as I type this…Anyway, this amazing man died at the age of 90 while I was pregnant. Until this point in my pregnancy, Teagan did not move around much in the womb. I secretly and constantly wondered if she was alright because she was not as active as everyone said she would be. That is, until grandpa died. 

Starting the day after he passed away, and especially from the day of his funeral, my baby girl was in constant motion. She kicked and punched and flipped all around. Maybe it was the emotion stress that was the catalyst for all the movement. I prefer to think that part of my dear sweet grandpa’s spirit became part of my unborn baby girl. 

So that’s the story of when my baby became and angel. Since the day she was born, Teagan’s name has been interchangeable with “Angel” or “Angel baby”.  Every day, I make sure to remind my little girl that she’s an angel. I thank her for being mine. I tell her that I am so thankful God gave her to me. I tell her that I am the luckiest mama in the world. Our extra special exchange is “I love you to Saturn and back”. 

I hope these daily expressions of love fill her up. I want them to penetrate into her soul and become ingrained in her. My prayer is that these things will stick with her as she grows and battles the many challenges of adolescence and adulthood. I hope they protect her from the evils of negative peer pressure and society. 

So how do you tell your kids you love them? Do you have a special word or phrase?

Aileen 

Dirty walls, Cookies and Prayers

- Aileen Leave a comment

Gratitude 

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It is officially a blizzard in upstate New York. The forecast originally called for 16-20 inches of snow but now weather reports are predicting greater than 30 inches of the white stuff!! Holy cow! I don’t ever recall getting 30 inches of snow in one event! School declared a snow day late yesterday. Non essential employees were told to stay home. 

Today is a pajama day. And also a day to get caught up on a few things we’ve been slacking on (some homework that was missed while we were on vacation, a 4h presentation that needs to be finished, laundry, and most of all downtime at home with no schedule).  

There’s so much to be grateful for today but strangely enough I’m suddenly feeling anxious and cranky. Maybe it’s the list of things I should get done on this ‘extra’ time? Maybe, as a mom, I no longer know how to truly relax without guilt? Are these feelings normal or is it just me?? 

I know today I need to focus on the important things in life and forget the laundry, carpets that need to be vacuumed, etc. 

Today, I am grateful for my big presentation being over, my sweet husband coming to watch and support me, my beautiful daughter resting her head on my shoulder and loving me no matter how cranky I may get. 

Today, I am looking forward to a slower pace and no commitments,  maybe a nap, a long hot shower. 

This week I am looking forward to sewing class, the end of hockey season party. 

In the near future I am looking forward to spring. I love seeing the flowers emerge, new leaves and having baby chics. 

I hope you’re safe, warm and enjoying this day. 

Aileen 

- Aileen 2 Comments

DIY Stadium Seat

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Do you sit on cold, hard bleachers at your child’s sporting events? Are you tired of a sore backside after every game?? I hate being cold and I hate sitting on freezing cold bleachers. Life as a hockey mom.

Until I remembered the warm cushions my father used to take on hunting trips. Anyone remember this roundish, bean-filled, camouflaged things? I didn’t want camo and I think I threw away those old seats anyway. I decided to make my own version of a hunting seat cushion to bring along to hockey games and practices. 

So, here’s how I did it. As you can see, I’m not much for exact measurements. Also, feel free to adjust the size of the foam to meet your needs and budget. 

Materials:

1 piece upholstery foam 15″x17″X2″ from Joanns (purchased with a coupon, of course!)
2 pieces of fleece in any patter/color about 10 inches wider than the foam (I eyeballed it)

Directions

To make life easier, I purchased 1 yard of fleece and estimated all the measuremts and cutting. With the fabric folded in half and raw edges together, lay the foam on top of the fabric approximately 4-5 inches all the way around. Then cut the folded edge. 

Leaving the foam in place, cut a 4″ by 4″ section out of each corner. 

Now, cut 1″ wide strips all the way around, stopping 1/2″ away from the foam. 
Make a sandwich out of the foam and fabric with once piece of fabric on the bottom, foam in the middle and second price of fabric on top, making sure the right sides are facing out. 
Finally, double knot the corresponding top and bottom strips all around. 

Voila!! A comfy, cozy stadium seat to keep your bottom warm and happy! 

If the fabric on your stadium seat gets dirty, it’s easy to untie and throw in the washer. 

The entire project cost about $10 and took about 30 minutes, including tying. 

**note that fleece is not the best material to use if you anticipate using your stadium seat in wet or snowy weather. For me, it works excellent for the multitude of indoor hockey games and practices each week. And it will be great for softball season as well.

Let me know how yours turned out!!

Contact Me!

DIY Carpet Deodorizer

- Aileen Leave a comment

Gratitude 

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Sometimes after a vacation, it can be difficult to adjust back to every day life. Today I am not feeling super well and I think it’s the adjustment from bright sunny Florida weather to cold, snowy New York.

I didn’t sleep well last night, had a near migraine yesterday and stomach pains and anxiety over an upcoming presentation at work this morning. Still, I know things could be a lot worse. Regardless of what I’m going through, there’s always a ton of things to be thankful for and to look forward to.

Today I am thankful for:

1. My sweet, beautiful daughter. 

2. Wonderful memories from our family vacation in Disney World. 

3. Great colleagues to push me to be A better person, help me grow, and provide constructive criticism. 

I am looking forward to:

Today: a good nights sleep!! 

This week: my big presentation being over (I really hate public speaking.); full moon adventures this weekend. 

In the near future: Spring! 

I hope you all have a blessed day and weekend!!

- Aileen Leave a comment

Real Life Wednesday 

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As much as I try to keep my car clean, most of the time it looks like the photo above. This is an actual photo of the floor of the front of my car. 

We brought some pretzels and Cheez Its to sewing class last weekend and they are still there. One morning on the way to work this week, I was starving, reached for the box of Cheez It’s (not realizing it was open) and Bam! Cheez It disaster everywhere. 

Then there’s the iced tea bottle from somewhere. And a Girl Scout cookie order form. And some random mail. 

At the current moment, most every inch of the car looks the same. The seats, the floor, the trunk. There’s even two sewing machines clunking around! Why is it so much easier to carry everything to the car but a total pain and nearly impossible to bring these same items back into the house?!? I have no idea…

Keeping a clean car is a huge struggle for me. Again, not sure why but that’s just the way I’m wired, I suppose. 

- Aileen Leave a comment

Sleighriding fail?

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Upstate New York has received nearly two feet of snow in the last 14 days. Lots of snow, lots of cold weather. Last Sunday when we got out of church, it was snowing like mad. The beginning of the week continued with a few snow flurries and seasonable temperatures. 
Saturday the temperature was incredibly warm. At 9am, we grabbed our snow gear, sleds and snowshoes for some winter fun around our yard before the craziness of the day began. We showshoed around the yard for a bit, threw snowballs then went sledding down my moms hill. It was so warm, even I was sweating and had to take my coat off. 

Since the weather was amazing and it’s a three-day weekend, I decided we needed to find a much bigger hill to sleigh ride down on Monday. The day before, the temperature reached a balmy 60 degrees! Crazy for February!

Again, we got all our snow stuff together and this time loaded it all into the car and headed for the big hill. Super excited, we pulled into the parking lot (the hill is actually a well known hiking spot) and…


Serious disappointment. There was barely any snow left. We almost didn’t even get out of the car. We sat and pondered the hill for a few minutes while eating the snack we brought. 

Eventually the excitement from the last two days of anticipation got the better of us and we braved the muddy parking lot, icy path and climbed to the top. The first run down, we both got stuck on grassy patches and thought sleighriding was over. 

Adjusting our path down the hill some, we managed to squeak in a piece just wide enough and steep enough to propel us over the grass and continue down the hill. This area was actually quite icy but that was perfect! We slid even further down on the grass and though it wasn’t a hill, it was still super fast and super fun. 

Initially, this was a total mom fail. I’m glad we convinced ourselves to give the hill a try. We had a blast, giggled a lot and made some good mom-daughter memories. 

- Aileen Leave a comment

Gratitude 

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This week has been a struggle. A battle at every turn with lack of patience at home with the little one and my sweetheart, a battle to focus at work, stomach issues, lack of self confidence, stress over our upcoming trip, and on and on. If I had written this post yesterday, I would have struggled to with counting my blessings. Today is a little better but the blues and other nonsense is still hanging on. Regardless, I live in a country that has so much more than others. Even on my worst day, I still have more than most people in the world. 

Today, I am grateful for:

  1. My family-I love them all no matter what’s going in in our lives 
  2. Unseasonably warm weather
  3. Sun shine
  4. My Friends 
  5. Having a job that tolerates even my most unfocused, unproductive days 

I am looking forward to:
Today: getting outside after work

This week: a satirsday morning not yet full of commitments 

In the future: our trip to Disney is less than 1 week away!! (Still so many things to accomplish. I sound way more excited than I feel.)

Blessings to you all. 

- Aileen Leave a comment

Confessions 

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I promised Adventures of a Real Mom wouldn’t be all big happy smiles and a clean house. That isn’t at all what my real life looks like. So I thought once a week I’d try to share something in my life or house that is far from perfect. (Trust me, I’ll never run out of material!!). I know this is long and may not seem like a fail at first, but stick with me and see if you find several Real Mom fails along the way. 

Today, I’ll share the story of my foyer. My foyer has always been a pretty plain area. Nothing special. The front door is a big metal door original to the house from the early ’80s. I’ve struggled with this area since I bought the house. It’s so boring but I wasn’t interested in spending much money or time on this area because in my house, it’s a very little used space. Unless there is a rare guest, we all use the downstairs door that leads to the driveway and vehicles. 

Now that my daughter is having friends over more often, that means the occasional parent coming to the door and inside the foyer to pick up their children. I figured it was time to tackle this little space. Last summer is started to slowly work on it. 

First, there were two enormous boxes containing window treatments I had ordered a year before (yes, they say there for over a whole year).  The guys graciously installed the blinds to get them out of the way. Second and completely unplanned, while at Walmart, I found a nice tall tapered planter and a few bunches of artificial bamboo and other plants. Off to a nice start, anyway, and I was happy enough with that for a few months. 

The banister and stair rail are original and have certainly seen better days. I love Rustoleum Caninet Transformations and still had some leftover from another project. One rare Sunday, I knew everyone would be out of the house so I decided to tackle that. A few days before I stripped off the old paint. When the weekend arrived, I painstakingly painted everything trying desperately to get the little margin between the wood and carpet but not get any on the carpet. I was able to remove the stair rail and painted that up as well. Since there was nowhere to keep a wet painted tail and associated hardware, it sat on a shower curtain in the front lawn for a few days. I squeezed in a few minutes here and there to get a second coat and top coat on. I thought it would be a much quicker project but I always underestimate. 

The one wall along the stairs going up had a nasty, greasy handprint on it which had also been around for a year or so. I had tried several cleaners to remove it but all I did was lighten it a little and start removing paint. One day I got ambitious and painted the wall. Again, leftover paint from something else and way more time than anticipated. But, I love the buttery look and it changed the whole feel of the space. 
Yay! A mostly freshly painted area! And just in time for the holidays. I love a deviated banister for the holidays. I just feels so festive! We’ve been decorating ours for several years now but it’s always a pain. The greenery dies, looks ugly and there’s long white pine needles on the stairs. This year I found decent fake garland at Joann’s during their Black Friday sale. I also found an adorable light up Christmas sign. It took a little while and finagling but the banister, sign and new fake holiday stems look awesome! I was so proud I just wanted to stay in this tiny space forever! The only few square inches in my house that were not a disaster. 

Minor fails along the way (huge boxes and greasy handprints for years…). But now let me share one little secret about myself. I love getting decorations put up around the house, especially Christmas decorations but I despite taking them down. The house looks so bare and sad once the Christmas tree is down, the lights are off and gifts are put away. This is where my real life and Mom fail really happens…today is February 23rd and still the same Christmas garland, Christmas sign and Christmas stems are in the foyer. I even decorated right over the Christmas garland with a Valentine’s string of hearts!! 

Honestly, I’m a little afraid to take the decorations down. Winter is dark, cold, and dirty when the snow melts. There’s no green plants anywhere. It’s utterly depressing!! Maybe once the weather improves I’ll be able to force myself to take down the Christmas garland.