Valentines Day

Well folks, today is another "Extra Mom" post.  And it's going to be all about Valentines Day.

Buckle in.

Wait, sidebar.  Do moms get to be nuts?  I mean, aside from the "I drink too much wine because my kids make me crazy" stereotype of a mom, aren't we all supposed to be dainty and proper and wiping our kid's faces?

Heh.  Dainty and proper.  So not me.

Oh!  Another sidebar.  Trust me, this will become relevant in a minute.

So, I don't know if I've mentioned yet, but I'm kind of an Amazon freak.  *Amazon Prime - HOLLA!*  In my down time when I'm bored, since I'm not really much into TV, I search Amazon for unique gift and costume ideas and other ... random things.

Yeah ... don't judge.

Since I spend a fair amount of time messing around on Amazon, about a year or so ago all my bookmarked "discoveries" started to clutter up my wishlist and make it unmanageable.  So, being the OCD person I am, I decided to hack the system and create a list for all my various whimsies.  That meant quite a bit of new list creations and sorting - but in the end all the work was worth it, as things became much more easy to navigate: now if I'm looking for something, I just go to my list for Halloween costumes, or list for daycare "party favors", etc.

As it stands right now, I have 11 (yes, 11!) different Amazon wishlists.

Whatever.  I'm not obsessive.  I'm "organized".

Anyway, back on topic.  Valentines Day.

One of the things I had flagged awhile back on my Amazon "daycare party favors" list was a teacher's gift for Valentines Day.  It was a simple, base metal necklace with a CZ stone that looked something like this and cost a whopping $2.

While I liked this concept as a Valentine gift, I just left the necklace to rot on my Amazon list because I couldn't really stomach the idea of giving cheap jewelry, that may or may not turn your neck green, as a gift.

But then - I had an idea.  Lovely-Jewelry and Accessories to the rescue!

A friend of mine who lives down the street from me runs her own costume jewelry business.  Remembering she has direct relationships with a handful of overseas factories, and at least one of which who can do decent sterling jewelry, I decided to reach out with a bulk buy request (6 necklaces).

After a little conversation with her contacts - poof!  I was in the money, and a few weeks later I had put together this:

Disclaimer - only the necklace was from Lovely-Jewelry and Accessories, the rest I came up with myself.  Even the poem!

Also, one small disappointment of note: the card that I mounted the necklace to ... I thought was a bi-fold card when I purchased it.  I was a little sad when I opened the package to find out it was basically a single sheet of card stock.  Oh well, I guess ... what can you expect from a $1, 8 pack of cards from Target's "Hot Spot"?  LOL!  Despite the lack of a bi-fold, I punted, and I think the idea still turned out pretty cute.

Since the above necklace did come from a Chinese factory (and was $4 a piece, FYI, in case you want to contact my friend for your own), there was a little of down time between when I ordered and the necklace's arrival.  In all, I think it was maybe 2 or so weeks.

While I was waiting, I started working through what my son would use as his Valentines exchange with his classmates.  For that process, I had a few basic parameters:

1 - no candy or junk food (toddlers don't need that garbage)
2 - try to avoid plastic toys that may just end up in the trash, or break and become a choking hazard
3 - make the item somewhat reflective of my son's personality

Ok, seems easy enough?  Starting out, I headed on over to Oriental Trading and found this cute bumble bee:

For quite some time, I had planned on getting this bee.  It seemed like a perfect fit, since my son loves to sing the "Baby Bumble Bee" song, and I know they sing it at school quite a bit.

Honestly, I didn't decide to pull the plug on the bee until about a week or so ago when I realized my son's class has 15 kids in it ... which would require me to buy 2 dozen bees instead of 1 dozen.  At $19.99 per dozen, plus shipping, it just seemed silly to spend almost $50 on a stuffed toy that may or may not be well loved by the end recipient.  I mean, no matter how many times they sing "Baby Bumble Bee" at school, a stuffed animal is a stuffed animal.  And stuffed animals always seem to end up at the bottom of the toy bin after a few days.  So why sink $50 into that?

Meanwhile, over Christmas, my sister had given my son a hand crochet banana for his play kitchen.  Being that my son loves to eat bananas, this new toy (with peels and all) was a big hit for him.

Sudden inspiration!

As I've mentioned before, my sister runs an awesome Etsy shop with all sorts of fun, custom crochet things.  But unfortunately, in the wintertime her hands flare up with painful dry skin issues, and it makes finishing projects difficult.

Knowing my sister's hands wouldn't be up to the challenge of making 15 bananas, I headed back to Etsy and ended up stumbling across this amazing seller - Yeeli's Little Corner.  In a manner of a few days, I had this:

Ta-da!  Fifteen custom made bananas - good thing I know a bunch of little monkeys!

With my 3 point check list above fulfilled, I feel good knowing that this Valentine exchange gift will make for a great imagination building toy (and serve as a healthy eating inspiration to boot!).  The banana can easily fit into any child's play kitchen, or might even become the inspiration for a parent to get their child a toy food set in the future.  Plus, I cannot say enough good things about Yeeli, the shop owner, as she was so kind and responsive.  In the end, I have no regrets for dropping the bumble bee.  I am so glad that this ended up working out instead.

So there you have it.  A heart necklace for the teachers, and a banana for all my son's classmates.  Happy Valentines 2018!!

And bonus to you - I'm posting this blog PRIOR to Valentines day, with plenty of time to order your own knock off of my cute gifts.  So, if you like either of these ideas, click on the shop links in blue above to go buy your own.  Trust me, I don't mind being copied if it means giving these two wonderful shop owners more business!!  (And be sure to contact the shop owners directly for volume cost discounts and lead time quotes.  For example, I think Yeeli only has pricing posted for up to 6 bananas right now - I would suggest asking her to quote you costs if you need more than that).

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Now tell me ... what are you planning for Valentines Day?  Comment below!

2017 Year in Review

Yikes, I am well overdue for a year in review post.

I suppose the reasoning for that is pretty obvious.  As you can tell, my fitness commitment for the last year has been ... lackluster, to say the least.  And being that this is a somewhat fitness oriented blog, it's hard to admit publicly that I"m not working out enough.

Sure, sure - I have a good enough excuse for my lack of fitness with a new child in the house and all, but still!  In the end, an excuse is an excuse, no matter how good it may be.

Disappointment in fitness aside, my life has been filled with a lot of other fun things ... and still a few races despite it all.  So ... let's do this.  Let's recap 2017.

2017, a year in review!

Races

For 2017, all my excuses left me with the smallest race completion list ever on this blog - a whopping 7 races complete in 2017:

Tri-U-Mah, more aptly named "Dumpster Fire"

Bay to Breakers, easily my best race costume to date

Rainbow Run, a tradition 7 years running (literally)

Freedom 5, where I passed the torch ... again ... and again ... and again ...

Lake Run, my first family costumed race

Howl'oween Kids Run, where I spent my day chasing burgers

Terror Trot, the last of my costume recycling in 2017

Total miles raced - about 23ish miles

Cumulative info:

     Races 82 - 88

     Bibs 78 - 83

Costumes

As you can see above, I was somewhat less creative here in 2017.  This is partly due to the fact that I've saturated myself with race costumes over the last few years.  I mean ... once you've run as a pair of stewardesses with a pilot, a mermaid, a statue of liberty (handing out torches, no less), a unicorn, wonder woman, a skeleton, a hamburgler chasing hamburgers, a robot, a mariachi, a rainbow with a pot of gold side kick, a sriracha bottle, a Christmas tree (of sorts), and a woman on fire ... 

Well ...

Plus, my budget for InkNBurn clothing, and generally race registrations as a whole ... with an 18 month old in 4T clothing (yes, I said 4T clothing, as in the size of a 4 year old) ... you know where my money is going.  And it ain't on race registrations and workout gear.

Keeping Healthy

Yeah, may as well skip this category in 2017.  

Last year, I didn't complete the year of the swim (hence my lack of final recap there), I hardly did any races - and the few I did participate in weren't competitive anyway, and I even let my group fitness participation fall to the wayside.

Rather than focus on the negatives of 2017, what I will say is this: I got sick of being disappointed in myself late last summer, and have therefore started to work towards putting myself back on track.  

Right now, I can confidently say I am doing 4 group fitness classes a week (two of which I teach), am committed to starting back on a running program next week, and have signed up for year of the swim attempt #2.  

And ... I'm hoping that this re-commitment to fitness will help me in the weight gain area, as I am not happy with where that is a year and a half post baby (almost two years ... in April!) 

Changes

Aside from my fitness regime changes (at first in a bad way, and then in a good way), I am also learning to adapt to this "mom" thing.  Or rather, this "extra mom" thing.  Because, you know ... Talk Like a Pirate Day and Halloween are just two of the many reasons through out the year that I can dress mini me in a costume as well.

And honestly, my change in a "bad way" has actually been a good thing for me.  By carrying some extra weight right now, and by being "lazy" and not working out as much, I have had to practice self forgiveness and acceptance - two things that I have never been great at, but have gotten a whole lot better at in 2017.  So chalk one up to personal growth.

In regards to things NOT changing, I'm pleased to be able to say that despite having a child, my family's love for travel has not been lost.  In fact, we were fortunate enough to take two adventurous trips this year: San Francisco in the spring, and a summertime flying trip that carried us in a loop from Escanaba & Mackinac Island / Niagara Falls & Toronto / Dayton, OH / Madison, WI and then back home again.

Finally

In all of my year in review recaps, I take a minute to revisit my previous years of blogging ... and not to pat myself on the back this year, but it's kind of nice to see how I've grown:

2013 was when I was peaking in my physical fitness, my life was finally coming together, and I was feeling great about things.

2014 was a year of struggle where I tried to cope with a miscarriage, some physical setbacks, and I still tried to maintain a healthy attitude and life balance.

2015 and coming into my mid 30's, I finally settled into a happy place in my life.  Some time around 2012 or 2013, I learned to accept things in my life for what they were, and to eliminate things from my life that didn't make me happy.  In that process, I found an authentic me that I've just become ... happy with.  Which means, I don't really go into a year expecting it to be AWESOME or BAD anymore, I just hope that I can continue to maintain that authentic me, and have a good time while I do it.  

So aside from becoming a mom in 2016, and growing into that mom role in 2017 ... I just continue to focus on being an authentic me, looking forward to what more adventures are to come!