Alayna's Adventures

I have now cried most of my week away.  Staying up late crying.  Crying with the kids at home.  Crying while I'm cleaning.  And just so everyone knows, it's not because I'm pregnant... John is looking to make a career move that would include purchasing two car washes.  In Youngstown, OH.   It's a two hour drive from here, and he doesn't want to drive four hours a day forever.  So he wants to move closer to Youngstown.  Outside of Youngstown, or in Jamestown or Greenville, PA, where my parents are, are all places we could move to. And I'm devastated.  Absolutely heartbroken to the point of tears.   I love my community and the people we live life with now.  I hate change.  I love Pittsburgh.  I love my church.  I love my friends.  My friends' kids are awesome friends for my kids.  I love where we live.  There are hundreds of cool cultural attractions nearby.  I go to a gre...

Hey!  This one is for all the mommas out there! I just want to make you aware of a brand new blog that was launched on July 1, 2013 called Hello Darling .  It's a blog written by the mommas over at MOPS - Mothers of Preschoolers.  They have inspiration, recipes, tips, DIY, and more to help, support and encourage all the mommies with young ones at home!  And who doesn't need help, support and encouragement as a mom?!? MOPS is a regular meeting of moms throughout the school year to eat brunch, socialize, craft, study the bible and bond over motherhood.  MOPS groups are mainly sponsored and hosted by local churches, and each MOPS group sets their own regular meeting day and place.  I attend a MOPS group at South Hills Assembly of God that meets the first and third Tuesdays of the month from 9 am to 11 am.  You can find us on Facebook here .  The church that my husband and I regularly attend, South Hills Bible Chapel, also has a regular MOPS ...

Our world is going to hell in a handbasket.   (Warning graphic content!) Just this week, I ran across two articles that made me cry, sob even.  They made my heart hurt and stomach turn .    In the first article, a Chinese newborn baby, perhaps only a few days old, was extracted from a sewer line this past Saturday, where he had been heard wailing for two days.  The sewer pipe was only 4 inches in diameter, and the baby was stuck there after he had been flushed down the toilet in a residential building in the wealthy coastal province of Zhejiang.  Firefighters cut the pipe loose and took the pipe with terrified baby inside to the hospital, so that doctors could cut the baby loose.  He's being called "number 59" because of his incubator number at the hospital.  The whole c ommunity has reached out to care for this baby with donations and offers to adopt, while the Chinese public has been expressing a good bit o f outrage on...

Do you ever feel like you just CAN'T get your act together? The house is *still* a mess. The four bushels of clothes to fold and put away are staring you down. Your body is screaming at you because you haven't done anything even remotely close to exercise in two months. You just want to hide from your kids, watch an entire season of Friends, and go to the bathroom alone. Oh, and you haven't showered in days.  Do you feel me? I started this year with gusto and goals.  I composed many lists, things to accomplish, an everything to do list, a blog topic list, and even a "great ideas" list.  I subscribed to a blog about decluttering.  I was even working on an organizational wonder, my "homemaking" binder, which I promise is not as ridiculous as it sounds.  It is meant to be one spot to have meal plans, family calendars, to do lists, idea scribbles, and blog jottings.  How do you think that is working out for me?  Is my life or even my house organized y...

Confession time.  I'm not going to hold back, so here it it.  I have used the f-word many times in my head lately, especially in the last week.  Many.  And I used it in a text message to my husband.  Eeek.  If you know me, you know that I do not swear with any regularity.  If you knew me a long time ago, you may wonder what the big deal is.  But that's another story for another day.         In reality, it's been more than that.  I have been angry with my son.  Like, wanted to smack him across the face, angry.  I didn't, because I don't think it's right to do, but there were a few times that I really, really wanted to, and had to stop and breathe to avoid doing something stupid.  I have screamed at my children.  Like, I wonder if the neighbors have concerns about what is going on, screamed.    I almost always apologize, but that's hardly the best way to conduct myself when they dr...

Last year I discovered pick your own produce at several local Pittsburgh farms.  The wonderful farm that I have fallen in love with for pick your own is Triple B Farms which is tucked away 15 miles south of Pittsburgh at 823 Berry Lane in Monogahela, PA.  They have so many pick your own crops and festivals all growing season long, you can't help but love them!   Now is the time for strawberry picking at Triple B, which started around May 20 and continued into June with the Strawberry Festival on June 2 and 3.  Strawberry picking will wrap up mid June, just in time for red raspberry picking which starts June 9 & 10.  When I was a kid, my mom used to take us strawberry picking and then she would make strawberry freezer jam.  I saw a recipe for freezer jam on Pinterest and my nostalgia kicked in and I couldn't wait to make some!  So when I heard that pick your own strawberries were ready at Triple B, I couldn't wait to go! ...

It's been some time since I last lamented about our bedtime and naptime woes, and you may assume that it's all better now, right??  Well, it's not just yet.  Not to burst any bubble or sound like Debbie Downer, but bedtime and naptime are not a cakewalk yet.  Isaiah spent a lot of time in the last few weeks in a zombie like state because he was so overly tired, and yet he didn't want to lay down and nap or go to bed at a decent time without a major crying fit.  We have had more declarations of "I no take a nap" and lots of crying from my 2.5 year old son.  His assessment that he doesn't want to take a nap is obviously based on the fact that he knows best and knows just what he needs.  Right?  Right.  We have tried some new things with him, like sticking to a more firm sleep schedule and reviving our tried and true bedtime routine.  But the biggest new thing is locking his bedroom door from the outside.  I don't really like t...

So for a few months I have been on this kick where I want Isaiah and I to have arts and crafts time.  He is nearly two and a half years old, so he is hit or miss with following instructions well, which makes arts and crafts very interesting.  Enjoyable arts and crafts time is really a function of Mommy picking the correct project for him to do.  He enjoys gluing things, using paints, foam pieces, and glitter, finger painting, the laminating machine and googley eyes.  So any combination of those things in the form of a craft is very good.   And I love buying craft supplies, as evidenced by my rather large stock of goods.  I began buying craft supplies in college, with every intention of using them to do many crafty things, like making jewelry, crafting masterful paintings, scrapbooking and making fun photo frames.  I have only done a small fraction of what I've desired to do.  Jaime Horvat would back me up on this, as everytime she saw jewel...

This has been a very interesting week in the Richard household.  Isaiah recently began sleeping in his big boy bed in his new room on a regular basis.  We first attempted the big boy bed earlier in January, but it was an epic fail, and Isaiah ended up screaming in the middle of the night and then slept back in his crib.  On January 10, he napped for the first time in his big boy bed, and it actually went really well!  We did the normal bedtime/naptime routine and he went right to sleep.  So, it sounds like the change from crib to big boy bed is a success right?  Oh, so far from it.    On January 18, he began sleeping in his big boy bed every night.  It has now been a week and a half and while it is apparently a joyous milestone for Isaiah, it has been hell for mom and dad.  On Monday morning at 3:45 am, Isaiah decided that "I no take a nap" and was awake for the day.  On Tuesday, Isaiah got into the *childproof* Tylenol contain...