Anti-Aging Solution for Couches

~~Cleaning my microfiber couches!! All you need is isopropyl Alcohol, a spray bottle, & a white rag. I poured the entire contents of the bottle into the spray bottle and went to town. It took me about 4 hours to finish the ottoman, couch, love seat, and chair.

This is what the ottoman looked like... we've had these couches for about 4 years now... so admittedly this is 4 yrs worth of sippy cup spillage & attempts of spot cleaning. 


Totally GROSS!!!!!


I was SOOO ready to just toss these & get new ones but being the realist I am and having 3 kids 6 & under... yeah no... we are keeping these couches until they move out! HAHA

This is the ottoman after I scrubbed it a good 30ish minutes and let all the alcohol dry. Which by the way, in case you didn't already know, it dries super quick.

And this is the ottoman after scrubbing a 2nd time just over the areas that still had the water rings for about 15 mins. Looks SOOO much better. Now, not every single stain is gone maybe if I scrubbed some more and put more elbow grease into it I could get them all off but after 4 hours and seeing this much improvement I was satisfied. :) They only look about 6 months old now compared to 4 years!! WOOHOO!! Anti aging for the couch, who knew!

Dylan- 2.5 yrs

Is there some rule somewhere that says the baby of the family is supposed to grow up SLOWER than the other siblings? I know, I know it's just the opposite; they see their big brothers & sisters doing things and the "baby" wants to do them also. Sigh... he isn't allowed to grow up, we jokingly call his room neverland. :)

We are ALMOST out of the baby phase, only thing left to do is potty training. The older 2 weren't interested at all until they were 3, so I'm not rushing him, however 6.5 years of diapers I'm about done. He knows what #1 & #2 are, and will tell us when he goes in his diaper, so that's step 1 in the potty training direction, but when we tell him to go on the potty, "No Tank You!"

He has definitely entered the independent stage. "No, I do it!" or the other phrase that I hear 6x a day "No stwower(stroller) I wok(walk)!" He likes to do everything himself, climbing into the car & into his seat, climbing out of the car, putting on his coat and then zipping it down to take it off, he also wants to do a lot of things that he just isn't capable of doing and he gets frustrated.

Dylan is a smart little boy, but everyone calls him a cheeky monkey, because they know he's mischievous & curious. He is talking ALL the time now, some cute things he has said (with translation):

"Dinodaur in tie oww, he eat Wego!" (Dinosaur in time out, he eat Lego!)
"No I not do it, Derdek do it, not Dynan!" -Already putting the blame on his siblings
"Odiber you cuee, Odiber oww my woom!" (Oliver you cute, Oliver out my room!)
"No I no like dat I want chocolate nilk, no I no like dat chicken!" -We've entered the picky foods stage as well.
"I wanna ride on it twactor & a digger!"

Even more confused

So my impatience got the best of me again, dang it! I posted on FB how my heart is super happy for Derek, and it is but the more I thought about it my brain is more confused.

Last week we had an appt with a speech therapist to do her assessment on Derek. After 1.5 hrs she came out and asked if I'd been working with him over the summer, and continued to say he has improved tremendously since June, he only struggles when asked to repeat a sentence, she doesn't think his scores will qualify him to be seen.

Today he had an appt with the Occupational Therapist for his assessment regarding his fine motor skills. He barely passed, only 1 or 2 points made the difference. He struggles with his grasp while holding a crayon, pencil etc. and holding scissors. The OT said "There isn't anything wrong, or malfunctioning, in his brain, it's just the muscles that need to be strengthened so I will put in a recommendation, but can also give you ideas, tips, tools and exercises to do at home." GREAT!!

So overall my heart is super happy because the things we did over summer to prepare him for going to school full time, has worked! That was very evident, he has grown by leaps and bounds which is so exciting and I'm so happy for him. However in the back of my mind, I am still left with so many questions.

I spoke with the Dr at his 4 yr checkup back in March and expressed my concerns and was immediately referred to a bunch of people within the school system. All the details are in the other blog post. Now that the assessments are done, I'm still left with mostly the same questions and concerns I had before. I know this is just one of many steps, and I'm not sure what I was expecting them to say. There is no clear answer, and they aren't medical professionals so I definitely wasn't going to receive a diagnosis, not sure if I was hoping for one.

He really has improved so much in only 6 months, so I know some of it is maturity related. He starts school full time on the 24th, right now he's only going for 2 hours a day to get him used to the classroom etc. I am still nervous for him but not as much as I was 6 months ago, that's for sure.
I can't end the blog without some pics of my handsome boy:

Women

~~~Written a while ago
Just yesterday I was driving home, and I started thinking about a friend of mine who is going through some hard things in her life and I started thinking about how through her trials and her honesty about everything; she's actually helped me through some of my own trials. Then I started to think how amazingly strong she is and how I hope some day I can be an inspiration to other women as she has been for me. I got home fed the boys some lunch, and this friend was still on my mind so I decided to write her a message telling her just how awesome she is. Her response to my message definitely brought on the water works, and I will treasure that forever. I'm not taking total credit for that, God put her on my heart for a reason, he knew she was hurting and chose me to be the one to lift her up. Perhaps it's because her and I have so much in common, and it's that common ground that I could relate to, but whatever the reason this has changed me. I got to thinking, how come we as women don't do this more often?

Why is it so hard for us to write a simple message telling a friend how they've inspired us, how awesome they are, what a great mom they are. Yet, it's so easy to be judgemental, passive aggressive on a post on Facebook, or talk about each other negatively. I also just recently experienced how cruel words can be when feelings get hurt and miscommunications happen. It's time for a change, be the change you want to see in the world. Definitely!!

~~~So not sure why this never got posted, I was cleaning up the blog a bit and saw the big orange words DRAFT next to this post. Something to add to this post though... A few weeks ago, or maybe it was a couple months a friend whom I haven't gotten to know as well as I'd like, we just started getting to know each other and then BAM orders to England, anyway; she sent me a message. Her message was so uplifting and so inspiring, definitely brought on the water works and it's definitely something every mom needs to genuinely hear. Being on the receiving end of one of these messages is so humbling! I had no clue what to say to her other than Thank You.

I have a new favorite song, because I often question why does this matter...

"You're picking up toys on the living room floor for the 15th time today. Matching up socks. Sweeping up lost cheerios that got away.
You put a baby on your hip. Color on your lips and head out the door
While I may not know you, I bet I know you wonder sometimes, does it matter at all?
Well let me remind you, it all matters just as long as you do everything you do to the glory of the One who made you, Cause he made you, To do, Every little thing that you do To bring a smile to His face Tell the story of grace With every move that you make And every little thing you do"
~~One of my fav songs from Steven Curtis Chapman

So after receiving this uplifting message, I am on a mission. I have almost 400 friends on facebook, and hopefully by the end of the year I'll have an awesome blog post to write about. No, I'm not deleting anyone, not yet anyway. I accepted their friend request or sent one of my own for a reason, so instead of "deleting" I am "messaging". :)