Parenting Principles from Potty-Training

Last week I started trying to potty train Alexa...again. See, I tried back in May for a day and a half and promptly gave up deciding between James being 2 months old and our moving plans, diapers would just be easier for a while longer.

So I began again, really going at it Wednesday with a half day of work on Tuesday. So far I have decided/learned a few things as a parent through this whole experience:

1. Potty training is the WORST!!

2. It's going to take Alexa more than a half a day or a week to really get it down, no matter how much prep or research I do, but I really hope less than 2.5 years like I've heard of it taking other kiddos.

3. You get what you deserve as a parent, I suppose...so over breakfast I bestowed "A Mother's Curse" upon Alexa to have an extremely strong-willed child when she becomes a mom. I maybe a bad mom now, but it made me feel a lot better!

4. Sometimes you have to stick to your guns and really drive a point home, like no biting, even when potty-training.

5. And sometimes you have to let things go and at 5 o' clock, after cleaning up way too many accidents, put the kiddo in a diaper, really laugh with your girl, go on a walk as a family, and just begin fresh tomorrow.

6. How quickly your child toilet trains is not a reflection of your ability to parent said child...I just need to repeat this to myself 80 times a day.

7. There are far more important things than potty-training, like getting your son sealed to you on Saturday. In the big scheme of things, this little challenge really doesn't matter at all -- assuming that I use it to shape mine and my daughter's character in the best way possible.

8. It's far more important what comes out of my mouth than what comes out of Alexa's bum...and where whatever comes out ends up.

And just to inspire us all this week, a couple quotes I really like!

(All these are pinned, with sources, on my Wordy Pinterest Board -- the embed feature was not working)

A Little Project: DIY Window Seat

Nick has been working late pretty much every night for the last 3 weeks...and a girl can only read so many books (especially when she's in a bit of a reading slump -- more on that later). Anyway, as I've been clearing out our home of stuff not going to New Mexico with us, I came across a little shelf in the garage, decided it was serving no practical purpose and decided to re-purpose it. This is what I came up with:

And this is what it looked like before:

 My thought was that if I'm going to try my hand at upholstery, I wanted it to be a no regret situation, just in case it went south. So this is actually a Walmart shelving unit we bought years ago for our specific needs and has been collecting dust and junk in our garage since we moved to our condo. If I ended up destroying it, nothing lost!

Which brings me to what I did and how I did it. Well, I followed this tutorial which was featured here and then I adapted it to my needs (like sanding everything down and then painting the unit because there was scuffs and chips and exposed particle board on the bottom of each shelf and the unit itself...we're cheap like that).

About the paint: I got a quart of Glidden Smooth Stone in Satin from Home Depot which ran me about $13. I wanted the color to have both grey and cream in it so it would mesh with whatever room we put it in (and there's quite a bit left in the can). I also took the 1/2 yard of fabric I got at Hobby Lobby for $2 so I could see them side by side.

The rest of the project was just like the tutorial, except I did end up buying the 1" thick roll of 6' long foam from Hobby Lobby, and using my 40% off coupon it ran me like $11. So the total cost for the project ended up being about $30, which I can do on my budget. Plus, I'm just pretty excited about how it turned out!

I know it's nothing really to write home about, but it filled two needs in our house (de-cluttering the garage and a small place for a few books in Alexa's room). It also filled a creativity and exploration bug in me, so now I'm cured for a while (until we move into a new place hopefully). Plus, with all that extra foam, it looks like I'm going to have to try another upholstery project!!

And now I can say I pretty much can woman-handle a drill. BAM!

AND I also proved once again that Pinterest can actually be a useful endeavor! YAY Pinterest!

(Speaking of...did you see our new social media buttons I put up on our sidebar?? Now we're a little social!)