Fruits of the Forest 🌳

Hi! 1 made 2 flower arrangements today. Thi is "Stay Strong" flower arrangement. I made jt for a friend, she really loves flowers and let's face it, we all need to stay strong

The second bouquet I made is called "A Mother's Love" floral arrangement. This is dedicated ro my daughters

There you have it, my fruits of the forest.

Kitten Eden🐱

I am a mom of 2 cats and 2 kittens. Let's start by introducing Maui, he is male and is my daughter's cat. He is set in his ways, won't take no from anybody... He even pees in the bathroom where his litter box used to be at😼 an then ther's Mimi, she is female and 6 years old like Maui. She used to be my cat (then we adopted 2 kittens , one is naughty and kept quarreling with her) She is disabled, she only has one eye. And then there is Moose, one of the kittens and is my dauters cat. He follows his "brother" around. They are both male and is less than a year old. And finally, there is hos "brother" Milo, he is naugthy, rambunctious.... he is in "terrible two mode". There you have it. My kitty eden😻

The flower of love

Happy New Year! i have dreamt to be a flower arranger like my mom. And this is my first flower arrangement, I call it "Earth laughs in flowers" Enjoy!

blinged out backpacks

Today, the girls and I decorated their plain black backpacks. Fist up was the youngest one entering Kindergarten, we cut out felt shapes....her sister made one, I made one and Emma made some too! we even put googly eyes in some of them then I remembered I had premade felt shapes. Then for the zipper pull, I made a smiley face out of perler beads and attached it with a ribbon.

Then for Maya, I gave her some lace and she ran with it, she actually covered the front of the backpack with lace. I made her flower rosettes with a bead setting n the middle. She made a little glue mess on the edges of the backpack , which gave me a teachable moment. I gave her some rhinestone strips and fabric tape to cover it up. Contrary to what her father says, I still believe in beautiful oops...there are no  such things as mistakes in crafting, you can cover it up and it will even be more beautiful.

If the Shoe fits...

Today we went shoe shopping before school starts. Kids in elementary school go through shoes at warp speed. My eldest daughter muddied and soiled all her shoes in summer camp and she will be in dance class this season, which qualified her because of her age so she needed more shoes and sturdier ones. The younger one is entering kindergarten and just learned to tie her own shoes so we got her a pair of shoes with laces. Also she had more shoes at home that are unused. The fact that one of them got two shoes does not reflect on favoritism, it is because of necessity and appropriateness.

Also, the older one wanted name brand sneakers, I wanted to go on a tirade about when I was a kid, I only had tretorns which I bought with my own money because that is how my parents brought me up. Later I also got K-swiss , again from my own money. But I refrained from doing that because I see a more disturbing issue here, I think she wants name brand shoes because her friends have it, and I am very much against just going with peer pressure. One of my philosophies is to go against the flow, and I want them to learn that.

Super Simple Dinner Fix: Slow Cooker Chicken/Beef BBQ

A lot of times, I have no energy to make an elaborate dinner after running around , playing with the kids, appointments, chores, etc. What I do is I put the chicken/beef (even if it is frozen) straight from the freezer to the slow cooker, well after unwrapping it and rinsing it. I set the slow cooker on high with the protein and a little bit of water (like 2 tbsp.) , that's about 7 a.m. then I go about my day fixing breakfast, take the kids to school, appointments, etc. then when I get home for lunch at 12 p.m. I lower the slow cooker to low. Then proceed to do chores, errands then pick up the girls. When I get home, the chicken is falling of the bone and I can just pick the bones off or the beef is so tender, I take a fork and spoon and shred the protein , sometimes I take it out of the pot but that's extra work, so I just poke through the meat in the pot LOL.Oh oil and juices will accumulate in the pot so just pour out the liquid. if you took out the meat, put it back in the pot. Then the magic happens , I sprinkle the meat with BBQ sauce (store bought). Voila! Shredded Chicken/Beek BBQ!

Summer Friends

Today, my daughters had a play date with their friends from camp. First I was nervous because I did not know the families, the girls had arranged the play date themselves. They told their mom who talked to the counselor and the counselor gave me their number so I texted them, I don't know why LOL.
The play date was awesome! The other mom brings up a good point that it is nice to have camp friends because when the girls have bad days in school, they know they have other friends to turn to. They are diversifying their social life. Another great thing about the play date was one of their friends had two dads, and I suddenly realized that this is the first time they actually became friends with someone who had two dads! I pride myself for being a city mom with city kids and enroll them in art and performance classes with gay instructors and we watch the gay pride parade, but to be exposed to a different family other than ours is a great experience.