Mommin' It Up!

June 13, 2011

Pinterest Interest

Because I needed one more website to become addicted to, I recently joined Pinterest.

Pinterest is essentially online bulletin boards – a place to stash ideas you may want to come back to later. In their own words, “Pinterest lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and organize their favorite recipes. Best of all, you can browse pinboards created by other people. Browsing pinboards is a fun way to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests.”

I have boards for books I want to read someday, clothes I like, vacation ideas, food & drink, and stuff to do with my kids. I’ve found it to be really handy – now I don’t have to search through the entire internet looking for that cocktail recipe I came across the other day. I pin the picture to my board, and it automatically links to the original website or blog, so I know where to find it. Brilliant!

Here are a couple things I’ve pinned recently.

2011 Summer List

Painting with corn syrup (Sam did this at school and it was really neat!)

Crescent roll hot bacon poppers (I made these this weekend and zomg they were so good.)

Vacation memories in a jar.

It’s social in nature because you “follow” other people’s boards, and it integrates with Facebook and Twitter so it makes it easy to find your friends. When you see something you like that someone else has pinned, you can “repin” it for yourself so it shows up on your boards as well.

Very cool!

Are any of the rest of you on Pinterest? What do you like about it?

Right now Pinterest is invite-only, so if you’re interested and want me to send you an invite, leave a comment below!

June 9, 2011

Outsourcing

A couple amazing things happened today.

My house became sparkling clean.

My back deck got stained.

And I had nothing to do with it.

Let me back up for a moment.

A few months ago, I read this post from our friend Susan at Working Moms Against Guilt. When I read the opening line (“I am a big fan of outsourcing. Cleaning and landscaping are two of my favorites. There’s something wonderfully freeing about coming home to a clean, fresh-smelling house or a neatly trimmed lawn in the summer.”), I was immediately intrigued. Susan’s point was that we all have so much to do, and sometimes it’s nice to outsource the tasks we dislike most, so we have more time and energy to do things we like.

That, coupled with the experiences Jenny and several of our friends have had recently with EcoMaids of Dayton, convinced me that it was time to start outsourcing. I asked around town, got some recommendations, and found someone who comes in once a month and does an absolutely amazing job cleaning my house and it makes me so happy. It is worth every single penny.

Similarly, all last summer Andy and I talked about how badly our deck needed to be stained, and somehow we managed to not get around to doing it. That kind of thing is not our forte, and we were intimidated by the size of the job. So, we hired a good friend of ours who knows what he’s doing, and it’ll be done by Friday.

I have to tell you, this has been liberating! We are having a cookout over the weekend and it’s great not to have to worry about getting the house ready to go. I just have to find a way to keep my kids out of there until Sunday. Details, details.

So, what’s something you outsource – or wish you did?

June 7, 2011June 7, 2011

Fort Rapids Memories

Over the weekend, Jenny and I had the opportunity to take our families to Fort Rapids, an indoor water park in Columbus, Ohio. We had a great time, and it was so fun to all go somewhere together!

We stayed in the Bright Angel Villa – here’s the description from the website:
The Bright Angel suite features a spacious living room w/ sleeper sofa, kitchenette and fireplace, 2 bedrooms one with a king bed and the other offers 2 queen beds. The additional loft offers a king bed and private bath and a bunk room with bunk beds.

I think the kids would have been content to stay in the “apartment” as they called it all weekend – they had a blast running all over the place and playing hide and seek. The villa sleeps 12, and (unfortunately) we pretty much had the opportunity to try out every. single. sleeping combination possible, as our kids could not get it together at bedtime. But that’s another story!

Once we hit the water park, though, the kids never wanted to leave.

The kids had a great time, and we did too. We all enjoyed watching the kids have fun together – and we loved the water slides as much as they did! And when the kids finally went to sleep and Jenny, Bobby, Andy and I started playing board games… well, I haven’t laughed that hard in a long, long time.

Big thanks to Fort Rapids for hooking us up with a place to stay and with water park passes!