Amy Beth

  • Rainbow Birthday Party

    About a year ago I was busy planning a 1st Birthday Party for my baby. I couldn’t believe he was already a whole year old and I wanted to make sure his birthday was special. Or at least looked cute in the pictures. Because, really, what baby remembers their first birthday?

    I knew this was probably the one year where I could choose a theme based on what I liked, so I chose rainbow colors! The party itself was kept pretty simple – just family, and cake, and presents. But the colors made it cheerful and fun. I thought I’d just share a few of the things we did.

    The Decor

    The decorations were very simple. Just several different colors of streamers hung around the house. Hanging the streamers straight down across a blank wall made for a really nice photo backdrop.

    Charlie's First Birthday!

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  • Why is life so hard?

    A while back I read a post on Steady Mom called “It’s supposed to be hard.” I especially identified when she said, “Instead of accepting this as the natural course of things, each time I noticed a difficult situation, I would push against it. Trying not to let it disturb me, I’d grapple and study and analyze it to death, looking for the “perfect” solution.”

    The post gave me a lot to think about in terms of letting go of the need to make my days run perfectly smoothly and accepting that this way of life called motherhood is a lot more complicated than I’ll ever be able to handle perfectly. There are no quick fixes or magic systems, try as we might to find them.

    But that still left me wondering, “why?” Why does life have to be so full of frustrations and disappointments and people (especially little people) who won’t do just exactly what you want them to do all the time?

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  • Snow Day Treasure Basket

    We had a snow day this week. Since I am no longer in school and don’t technically get “snow days” I now define a snow day as a day when the snow is deep enough to play in. These days can be rare in our part of the world. Often any snow we get is just a dusting. But we had a couple inches this week – just enough to play in. So, it was a snow day.

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  • Making Messes

    Over the Christmas holiday we made some sugar cookies. As in,I made some cookies that we enjoyed eating. But Charlie helped with the decorating. After I spread some icing on the cookie I would hand it over to him and he would douse it with sprinkles. Needless to say, it made a big mess and the dog got more than her fair share of sugar for the day.

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  • Beginning Toddler Chores

    20 months is an interesting age. It’s hard to tell sometimes if my Charlie is a baby or a little boy. There are so many things that he approaches with an “I can do it myself” attitude, until he decides he needs mama to do everything for him. I can feel myself on the cusp of what I know will be a lifelong journey of giving him just the amount of freedom and independence and responsibility he needs to grow and learn, all while being ready to step in as mama when it’s needed.

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    Early attempts at helping with the laundry.

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  • Goals for 2014

    Every blog everywhere is talking about New Year’s resolutions and goal setting right now. So, since I’m trying to be a legitimate blogger I figured I better jump on the bandwagon and inspire all of you to better yourselves in the new year. The problem is I’ve never been very good at setting helpful, realistic goals for myself. There are all kinds of rules and guidelines for how to make a good goal, but following such guidelines always sounded so stifling and boring. So I’m going to take a different approach: good old fashioned stream-of-consciousness list making. Here are my goals for 2014:

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  • Christmas Home Tour

    Today I’m linking up at Nesting Place for her annual Christmas Tour of Homes. Check it out if you want to see about a million other home tours.

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    I think God put Christmas in December because he knew we would need a reason to add warmth and cheer to our homes during the long, dark winter nights. (Ok, so he had some more significant purposes in mind when he sent his son to earth as a baby. But that’s one of the great things about God. He shows his love in the great big unfathomable ways, but also in the tiny daily details of life. Like giving us the opportunity to enjoy Christmas lights and garland.) If only it were socially acceptable to leave Christmas decor up through February.

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  • Treasure Basket Fun

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    I’m sitting in the living room, watching Charlie as he moves haphazardly between toys, picking one up, putting it down, getting something new out of the toy drawer, banging a couple together…you know, normal baby play behavior, when he goes over to the shelf, reaches his hands up and says “blah.”
    That’s his word for everything in the world. It generally means he wants something.

    I look up to see what he’s pointing at and say, “Do you want your treasure basket?”

    He grins, and stomps his feet around a few times (that’s his happy dance) and toddles over to a clear spot on the rug. He’s ready for some serious playtime.

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  • Activity Advent Calendar

    Our advent calendar.
    Our advent calendar.

    For about a year I’ve been planning to make an Activity Advent Calendar for Christmas. Despite the plan, I still didn’t get it done until 2 days after Advent had commenced, but no one but me really seemed to mind. So just in case you’re looking for some some late-start advent ideas, I thought I’d go ahead and share what I did. (Or maybe you’ll be cooler than me and tuck this idea away for next year and actually get it done on time!) Anyway, back to the calendar. I love the idea of being intentional about celebrating the season and creating family memories. I also knew that Charlie would be just old enough to enjoy some special activities each day. We are just beginning to form our family Christmas traditions, and I feel like this advent calendar is something that will grow with us through the years.

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  • Thanksgiving Inspiration

    Hi! I just wanted to stop in and let you know that this week I wrote a post over on My Sister Says with some ideas for your Thanksgiving. Whether you need to know how to roast a turkey or you’re just looking for some simple ways to decorate, I’ve complied some links that I think could be useful.

    Go ahead and read it now!

    Also, in case you missed it on Tuesday, I announced the opening of my Etsy Shop! Right now I have a simple 2014 Calendar Printable for sale, so if you’re looking for something to hang on your fridge to keep track of your appointments for next year you should check it out. It’s currently on sale for $1! I’m still taking requests for alternate color schemes if you have anything you’d like instead of yellow and gray.

    Take a look at the calendar here!

    That’s all for now! Have a great weekend!