My first … garage sale that is

So, I’ve embarked on something new, something I’ve only helped out with once in my life. I’m having a garage sale this weekend. It’s the first time I’ve ran one of these things. Preparation began months ago as my husband and I cleaned out our basement and were in awe of the stuff we have collected over the years. My in-laws even contributed items that they were dying to get rid of. The boxes and piles sat in our basement until last night when my husband and daughter began dragging everything upstairs. Everything had been priced and organized according to category. This morning as I was showering to prep for the day ahead, I was excited. I’m really a sales person at heart, and to talk up your own stuff, sell it and make a little money, let’s just say, I’m in. We opened our garage door and moved everything out onto our driveway. The whole time, I’m trying to give our garage sale curb appeal, so I set everything up trying to lure in customers. Anything shiny or bright or of real attractive features was predominantly displayed.

As the sale began, people started wondering by and looking at our things. The first item I sold was a set of silverware from my college years. I smiled. I knew this was going to be a good day because my husband told me no one would be interested in said item, but I figured someone would buy it. And, they did. A nice older couple.

People have come and gone, some with arms full, some with nothing, and some with a cup of ice cold lemonade. The lemonade was an idea that I came up with for my older daughter to join the selling ranks by having a lemonade stand. It’s a time honored tradition for many kids, especially girls. And, so far it’s been a hit. She’s quite a little salewoman. More often than not when she’s offering her lemonade for 25 cents a cup, people are more interested in that than the items we are trying to sell. I think part of it has to do with the fact that it is quite warm out, but I think the majority of it is because she’s such a little doll. She’s even gotten quite a few tips and sometimes without even a purchase of a lemonade cup.

Now that we’ve been at it almost six hours, the crowd and sales have seemed to tapered off. We still have the occasional people stopping by and wandering around trying to find the item they’re looking for. A lot of bargain hunters, of course, that want to wheel and deal and pay the price they want, which is always lower than sticker. But, it’s fun. My husband has pretty much stayed in the garage and has let me sell our items. When someone is looking at something I immediately start giving its best selling points, like oh, look this part is new, or did you see how made this?

Now comes the real test as our main big ticket items have sold, and now it’s down to some of the other stuff we have for sale. I think it’s time I go revamp my tables to give them some added curb appeal….

Being a parent

This topic has been on my heart for quite a long time. I will admit I don’t have it all figured out, I mean who does? I’m going to make mistakes, I’m going to fail from time to time, but I have to what I feel is best for my children every single day. And, what that looks like to each parent is completely different. What am I talking about? I’m talking about parenting.

One of my dearest friends talks all the time about how her and her husband choose to parent their children. They have taken class after class, read book after book and from that they’ve devised a plan that comes directly from one of those parenting strategies. In about an hour’s conversation she shared with me the ins and outs of what their new type of parenting entails, how the day to day aspect looks, and what they will and won’t say to their children. If you take out all the techniques, if you will, the main focus is not yelling or raising your voice to your children. “Speak to them as you want to be spoken to.” That makes sense. I mean after all, yelling or getting into a screaming match with your child doesn’t really bring home the point of speaking kindly and thinking before speaking. And, besides, it can be very hurtful and scarring.

My friend also believes in the idea of letting each child make every choice for themselves during the day, and while that can be beneficial at times, I think there’s a point where as a parent you still have to take a stake in what’s going on. I find myself making choices every day that effect my girls - choices from what to eat to certain activities of the day to dealing with inappropriate behavior. My 3-year-old knows that if she does something against what she’s been told to do, or something that she knows is wrong, there’s going to be consquences for her actions. That’s one hard part about being a parent, dealing out the punishments. I’m here to teach her right from wrong, and help her figure out how to make the right decision the next time. The smaller things, like choosing an outfit, I give full reigns (unless for a special occasion) over to my children. And, when the time comes that they are ready to make larger choices in life, and are prepared to deal with any ramifications that come with their decisions, I will be willing to let up the reigns a bit. After all, I can only teach right from wrong so much, life experiences say a lot too.

My husband and I never really sat down and said, okay, here’s the technique that we want to use with our children, so let’s move forward and go with that. I think we have pulled things from our childhood that we felt were effective combined with trying new things that we come up with as we go. The most important thing to us to is parent out of love for our children and to try to be the most patient people we can be with them. Does that mean that we’re perfect all the time and never falter? Goodness gracious, no. We make mistakes, we aren’t always the most patient people. Life happens. But at the end of the day, we always remember that after all, we are shaping lives here, and we take that very seriously.

I’ll admit that we do have very high expectations of our girls simply because we know what they are capable of and we expect that from them. Can we be too hard on them sometimes? Probably. But, it’s never in a demeaning and hurtful way. We’d do anything for our girls, anything! If we didn’t challenge them and encourage them to be the best people they can be, wouldn’t we be doing a diservice to them?

We enjoy spending as much time with them now as possible. You can ask any of our family members and they would vouch for this that we rarely leave them with a babysitter for an evening alone or just because we need a break. We only have our girls for a small amount of time before they will think it’s uncool to be hanging out all the time with mom and dad. And, we really want to cherish that time with them now. We want our children to look back on their childhoods when they are older and remember how much they were loved and how much we cherished them and were kind to them not just with our words but our actions. And, when it’s their turn to be parents we want them to remember to be kind, gentle and loving with their kids.

This thing called parenting isn’t the easiest thing in the world, most likely it’s the hardest, but it is the most rewarding. I always go back to what Elizabeth Stone said: “Making the decision to have a child is momentous.  It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.” It’s so true!

Welcome!

Grab a cup of coffee and sit down for a bit. Let me introduce myself. I’m living my last year as a 20-something coed who found love when she wasn’t expecting it, was gifted two amazing humans to raise, all the while, trying to find myself and make my mark on this world. Some say simply being a mom leaves a legacy, therefore, your mark on the world. And, yes, while I agree, I have to admit that I’m more than that. I am a woman who’s opinions can get her in trouble, who’s temper sometimes boils over, who’s very passionate about life, who loves with her whole heart, who’s actions speak louder than words…basically, I’m human. I’m not perfect, and I will never claim to be perfect. I make mistakes, I sin, but I know that my sins are forgiven thanks to my Savior who died on the cross for me. With each sunrise brings a new day full of fresh starts, possibilities and excitment, especially with my two precious daughters in tow…

I became a mother in 2005. The second I laid eyes on this tiny babe covered in goo, I was in love. She defined perfection from her perfectly round cheeks to her 10 little fingers and 10 little toes to her big beautiful blueberry eyes. Being pretty clueless as a new mother and completely in awe of this new life, I held her and kept repeating “It’s alright. Mommy’s here.” I stared and stared and stared at her some more for days and weeks on end just simply in awe that this tiny babe was mine. Little did I know then that those precious baby moments disappear so quickly. Soon my little girl was rolling, sitting up, crawling, walking, running, talking, eating… Oh how those days seem such a distant memory! Flash forward to today and my baby is no longer a baby but a big kid who’s fiercely independent with such a fiery, loving and outgoing personality.

Near the end of 2008, I became a mom again, to another princess. My whole pregnancy, I feared I wouldn’t be able to love my new baby with the intensity that I love her big sister, but I was totally and completely wrong. Again, the second I laid eyes on my tiny babe, I was just taken. I held her so closely and memorized every intricate detail of her from her little wrinkly old lady fingers and toes (she was a bit late) to her precious little lips that always form like they’re getting ready for a kiss to her eyes that smile when she does. This time I was more prepared for how much babies change, but still it pulls on the heartstrings a bit when I see my baby already starting to crawl and pull herself up at seven months. Her smile is her best feature and her laugh is extremely contagious!

Someone once said my girls have their parents wrapped around their little fingers, and I really can’t deny it. My husband and I are in love with our children and would go to the moon and back for them.

I’m excited to share all of my stories here at Adventures in Mommyland. I hope you enjoy the ride as much as I do…