And so it begins

Our Advent calendar is up and I've we've really enjoyed our first two activities. I really am hoping that this will help me slow down and teach my babies about the whole season of Christmas. I don't want them to pass the years thinking that if they are good for three weeks out of the year they'll be loaded down with elaborate and ridiculously expensive gifts. I love the season of Christmas and I mean everything from the jolly fat guy and snowmen to the feeling I get when I see a Christmas candle light flicker and know what that means in my heart. I want my babies to know the sharing, hope, faith and love that is Christmas. I've never done this before, you know, seeing how I only get one go 'round at the mom thing. So, my plans are to emphasize family, love, giving and the history of Christmas through our Advent calendar AND to make this a handmade Christmas. I really, really want my kids to see that the act of giving has gotten too expensive and money is tight is an act of love and that when we invest our time and creativity into our gifts we are putting our love into them for our friends and family. I hope that this lesson will carry over into the receiving part of this tradition too, so we're not bombarding them with tons of toys. When they receive a gift that has been carefully chosen just for them, I want them to cherish it and know that it was given with love. I'm thinking that this would be hard to do if they have gobs of presents thrown at them in one day, so this year we're going to try out the "less is more" idea. Now, I'm not going lie; Last year both of them had a pile of gifts that Santa would be proud to show off, but it was disheartening when they ripped off the paper, showed a glimpse of joy, said their thank you's and cast the carefully chosen toy off to the side to play with the paper or move on to the next box. NOT what I was imagining the night before; And that my friends has been my motivation to change this gift giving/receiving process in our house. So without further ado, lets get started on our challenge this month. I'll be posting what's going on over here project-wise and please let me know what you've got going on. Remember, even if you just make ONE gift, I would LOVE for you to share it with us!

Our Advent Calendar

Day one: Decorating the tree. Check out the "socks" A has on.

Day two: Setting up and acting out the nativity scene.

Wrapping it up

Well, I really enjoyed my challenge last month. It took a lot of preparing and was a pain in the ass hard for the first week or so, but I walked away from it with a new appreciation for perseverance of small business owners. With stores like Target, Walmart and ToysRus out there, who in their right mind would want to operate a small business??? People who care about quality and tradition, that's who. I loved that this journey led me into conversations with people who have contributed to our city, buildings that are older than my parents, and the realization that THIS ::imagine me waving my hands in the air in a circular motion:: is what I want to be about. Hard work, hope, family, and meaning.

How did you do this week?

I know I've been missing, but I'm in a creating mood. Not only is my body sick and exhausted from all the million things it's doing to give baby a good start, but all the time I'm not sick or sleeping, I'm creating. I love it. So I'll get back here in a bit and share the head start I've gotten on next month's challenge.

Back to this this month's challenge... I think I did ok this week. My mom turned 35 ::wink,wink:: this past week and I found a beautiful jewelry set for her NOT in the mall! In Rice village, a wonderful store, Ten Thousand Villages , has beautifully handcrafted gifts from villages around the world. Really beautiful gifts at a reasonable price and all fair trade. You can't beat that. Right next door in the village, there is a shop called The Village Firefly, which specializes in art, and gifts from local Texas artists. I loved it!! I don't think I've had such good time shopping in awhile. The Village Firefly had these wonderfully unique ornaments that I'm hoping my earth loving friends will love just as much. Happy shopping.

Not much else this week. We hit the market again and then Belden's. I can honestly say that I'll keep the market after this month, but I might be headed back to either HEB or Whole Foods. Here are a few pictures from the market and of the yummy bakery across the street.

Yeah, this one's blurry, but A was headed out the door and M was gonna grab a box of cookies to go!!

Challenge: ok spill it!

So ladies and gents, how did the challenge go last week? It's Monday, so spill it. Post a comment or give us a link to your blog and tell us how you did this week and what you found!!

We did ok here. I caved and went to JoAnn's after only finding upholstery fabric stores. I really needed to get started on some of my holiday projects. Plus I talked to one of the ladies and she said that a few of their stores have shut down, so I'm glad I could give them some business. I also made it to a yarn store for a few projects. Nancy's knits was great. A and M were horrible and she was so nice to ignore their squeals and my mommy monster voice as I asked a gajillion beginner questions!!

Grocery shopping when MUCH better this week. Last Sunday, we hit Canino's off, 610 and Airline and it was great!! Lots of fresh fruit and veggies. I even found flour, spices and eggs. Then I picked up my odds and ends at Beldens. This weekend, I hit the Urban Harvest market with a friend. They have all local produce and lots of yummy things like cheese and chocolate, but I don't think that I could "make groceries" as some of us southerners say, from this market. Overall, I'd say I'm really happy with the Canino's and Belden's combo and I'll stick with it.

If you guessed our surprise from my last post you might get why I'd rather throw my family under the train that is eating out, rather than cook. I feel like my stomach is on a constant food strike. Really it's ridiculous and my hubby thinks it's calculated, but my nausea attacks in full force starting around 3:30pm and lasts all night! Can't cook, can't bathe the kids, can't finish chores so basically I'm worthless and throw in a little grouchy, emotional and crazy lady then you can call her Crisa!! All that to say, we ate out a lot.

Mexican - great breakfast (Don Carlos),
Pizza - good and cheap (Firehouse Pizza),
Coffee - My new favorite coffee house and hubby liked it too!! (Fioza),
Burgers- good burgers and Greek food (Roadsters),
Sandwiches - I think this one is too new for reviews, but it's on the corner of Bissonet and Hillcroft (Hoagies) **Great Vietnamese sandwiches!!**

So yeah, that is a lot of eating out. Buuuuut we did eat lots of yummy fruits and veggies in between. Two full drawers

Oh and I did manage to cook ONE meal this past week. Fried rice with LOTS of veggies.

This month's challenge

Ok I know it's late, again but all the election stuff and traveling pushed this post back. This month's challenge is to buy ALL of our stuff from small businesses. Everything from food to toiletries to clothes. There's been a little bit of a debate as to what qualifies a business as small and I think after I explain the motivation behind this challenge it might be clearer than if I tried to make concrete guidelines.

So, in the past few months I've been dragging people into conversations sitting and talking with friends and family about the issues that were important to me in the recent election. The economy dominated most of our conversation and it was almost certain that the issue of saving small businesses was important. After all the hair pulling and slapping political banter, I felt like most people thought I was not on the side of small businesses and I was frustrated because I felt like we hit a wall and there was no going over it. After a few months of walking away with the same frustrations, I decided to put my money where my mouth is. I think that the state of our economy sucks right now and I'll spare you guys my reasoning. It upsets me to think that some businesses are going to have to close their doors and it frustrates me to think that there isn't anything I can do to help. But wait.... when I felt this way about the lack of responsibility for the quality of toys coming into the States, I DID something. And even though, no one thought it would make a difference on a large scale, I stuck with it and spread the word. Things changed. Maybe I, along with the millions of moms across our nation, can pull together again and make a difference?? Putting my money where my mouth is and that's into small business.

So COME ON MOMS!!!! Join me in my challenge. I'll post the places I visit during the week and for all of my family and friends who live in Houston, join me and share your little hole in the walls and mom and pop shops. Lets let give our economy a little boost. So if you accept my challenge, add me to your list of blogs that you follow and your link will show up on the right under "I accepted the challenge" and then we can keep up with you.

So now to catch up.

Groceries - On the way home from the Valley we stopped at a roadside stand and bought some fruit, and veggies. I even bought a jar of jalapeno jelly. Yum. I also tried a local Sellers Bros for the rest of our groceries. To be honest, it was really hard and I was telling my self the whole time, "Local is better than organic." Eek. I don't think I'm going back. My plan for next week is to hit the Canino's farmer's market like I was planning on and then going to Belden's for the odds and ends. Belden's is a little pricey so I'm hoping to just get most of my stuff at the market. Great article if you have time.

Eating out - Ok I slipped up once on a rainy day and went to Chickfila, but I'm back on track. Let me just say before I go on that Hubby HATES this challenge, because of this part. He wants to eat at the same restaurants he always does and he pitched a royal fit this week. blah. Anyways, we ate Chinese to celebrate election day at Happy Lamp. Don Carlos with my family for breakfast. They have GREAT pancakes. New York Pizza for our weekend dinner out.

That's really it for us this week. I think next week I'll hit the fabric store and I'm going to need some odds and ends that might be hard to find. Fun!! Really I'm loving learning about the history of business in my city. Don't forget to let me know of your small business finds!!

The challenge review

Last week was great! We did some crafty stuff, but A was also able to let loose and be artistic.
Here are some of my favorites.


Craft stick shape book - I placed a bunch of different size sticks and glue in front of her and she decorated it how she wanted. Then we talked about what she did and she told me they were shapes, so we labeled them.


Pocahontas head band - I asked her to paint things that Pocahontas likes and the results were birds, water and a racoon.


Bird feeder - This was an activity we did in playgroup and M and A LOVED it.


Scarecrow - This was more crafty, but we talked about hay and what it's for, what pretend means, and the parts of the body. Doesn't A look thrilled??? After all the "itchies" and Momma's sneezing fit, they were done with the scarecrow.



So we've one more week to go. I know we're going to paint pumpkins and make monster pet rocks, but I want to go out with a bang, so does anyone have any great ideas??

Homemade

The challenge is going pretty good this week. I actually have crafts planned and I'm looking forward to them. Yay! I've also decided what my challenge will be for next month. Well, I wanted to do it this month, but I needed to do some leg work to be successful. I'm going to buy everything from small businesses. I feel that with all the craziness going on in wall street, the one thing I can do to help out is to give our money and business to the people who really need it right now. So what does that mean? NO Target, NO HEB, NO large fast food chains or restaurants. Eeek!! Here's what I've got so far...

Medical stuff - I found an old fashioned pharmacy near buy that I'll check out very soon. I also have to see if they accept our insurance.

Clothes - Will all be from the second hand store. We do have lots of boutiques around here but we don't have the money.

Gifts and toys - I'm sure we'll have at least one birthday and I'm going to try to make most of our gifts, but there is a local toy store that we can support.

Crafting supplies - I'm on the lookout for a small business material and craft store. If all else fails, I'll order my supplies online from a small business.

Toiletries - I'm at a loss here. I can make most of my cleaners and I'm hoping this pharmacy will have toothpaste and stuff, but what about toilet paper??? Who's going to replace Target????

Food - This has been a toughie. We can hit the farmer's market for fruits, veggies, eggs, cheese and even flour and spices. We won't do organic, because what they have is just too limited, so we're doing local instead. Milk is still a big concern. Also any prepackaged stuff is almost non- existent. The market does have a few homemade goods, but stuff like cereal, crackers, chips, pasta, and jam aren't abundant. So, I've been searching for recipes that are simple and can replace all the box stuff we buy. This week I'm trying out a few of my recipes and I have to say that I'm pretty pleased with my honey graham crackers. We might have just booted Honeymaid out the door.

The challenge

There are many moments in my life when I have enough time to sit back and reflect on the decisions I've made, what is says about me and the person it makes me. When I was younger, I would reflect on my friend choices and the seriousness of the sins I confessed. In college, I would think about the classes I was taking and events I was participating in and how it would effect my carrer and my mark on the world. In this era of my life, most of my reflecting centers on my role as a mother and the choices I make that effect who my kids will grow up to be. Some days are not so good and other days, I lay down, very proud of the decisions I've made. I know the ups and downs are very normal for motherhood and most every mom I know goes through something like this on a regular basis. I just read Life with Boys this morning and Becca was talking about cherishing the good moments and wanting to erase the not so good ones. I KNOW exactly what she is talking about!

Ok, so the result of all this reflecting is crazy husband a monthly challenge!!

This month (I know it's late) is to do something artistic with my kids everyday. Last week we had a playgroup at our house and a friend of ours brought REAL watercolors! Not the crusty-and-impossible-to-paint-with-dollar-store paints. The kids loved it!! I was inspired so I've made an effort to pull out some sort of craft every day since then and my children's inner artists are flourishing from all the attention.