Winter White and Coffee Stains

If you know me well you know I am extremely clumsy, especially with my coffee.  I drink and spill a LOT of coffee on myself, so white is usually not a recommended color for people like me.  A year and a half ago I joined Allison’s Style challenge, link, unfortunately it’s just too expensive now therefore I don’t participate anymore, but one of the items I dared to buy were white pants.  I have to say I LOVE them and to my surprise, almost a year later, I still have them without any permanent stains.  What I realized is that I am actually much more careful when I wear white and don’t nearly spill as often, though I did manage to dump a whole mug of coffee on my white skirt at work.  The good news is that by putting bleach directly on the stain, I got the coffee stain out (I don't recommend this but it's what I did).  A tip I have for clumsy people wearing white, is pack an extra top/bottom in your work bag just in case you have an accident at work. I know have several white pieces of white clothing including a lace top, white jeans, a white skirt and a white dress coat (courtesy of my sister’s closet).  Here is how I’ve been wearing white this winter. 

Valentine's Day: Kids Projects

I will be honest, I am not really into the romantic stuff for Valentine’s Day. Honestly, my favorite part is the 50% off chocolate the day after.  Logan and I tend to just continue our normal life and routine during this holiday and don’t do anything special, we don’t even get each other a card. 

As a mom and a teacher though, I enjoy the holiday and doing all the little things.   The girls love making cards for their school friends. We also like getting together with friends and having some special treats and playing some themes games.  For some super fun family/friends/classroom minute to win it games check this link out, link.   All five of the games are super easy to pull off and require very few items in order to play. 

This year for Anya’s class we decided to print off Valentine’s day candy wrappers, found here link, and use up all the full sized chocolate bars we have in our pantry.  Anya’s attention span is limited.  When I see things on Pinterest I get so excited that it’s sometimes disappointing when they don’t turn out quite as nicely.  A few times as she was cutting, I wanted to take over.  My brain was screaming, “STOP!  YOU ARE CUTTING CROCKED!  YOU ARE GOING TO CUT SOME OF THE LETERS OFF!!!!!!”  Instead, I bit my tongue, fought my urge and I reminded myself that the important thing was for her to do it, not for it to look like it belonged on Pinterest.    Sometimes as parents we want it things to look nice but that often results in us taking over rather than allowing our children to really be in charge.  I know it’s hard but it’s so CRITICAL for them to be in charge of their own work.  Below is her end product.

 

 

Halie on the other hand worked on her project for about an hour and will finish it off tomorrow after dance. She asked me to help her with the some of the cutting so that it looked “perfect”. She is much more patient, careful and really likes to focus in on the details. When she began school things didn’t always come to her easily so she has had to learn to work at things and not to give up quickly. At first, I found it difficult to watch her struggle but now I am thankful because she has learned a vital skill, not to give up when things get hard. Anya has not learned that yet and I am not sure she will anytime soon. Halie is also very artistic. She loves art, drawing, pottery, painting, sewing, singing, dancing, etc. She loved the tic-tac toe boards we made and has written carefully on each one. We used double sided tape in the end to tape the boxes to the back of the boards and that’s where she wrote her friends names and who it’s from. To get your own printable go here link. One piece of advice, get little bags and buy jelly beans, heart candy or something other than tic-tacks; they cost me $34 for 24 of them! (I know, I am cheap).

 

 A few of our favorite books are:

Fancy Clancy (Chapter Book)

 

Franklin's Valentines

Pinkalicious: Pink of Hearts

 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Faux Fur Fun

Yesterday I ventured out to Winners in hopes that I might be able to find a faux fur vest. I had been debating getting one since the fall and I ended up purchasing one for my sister but not for myself. As I was wondering around Winners I found this fur coat and it was on SALE, like $25 on sale!!! I tried it on, wasn't completely sure but picked it up anyway. Today I decided, what the heck it was $25 and I do like to play dress-up. I paired it up with my favorite purchase from this past fall, the suede skirt, stripped tee, a locket and white booties. I was ready for another awesome day presenting to the some of the people I admire most, teachers.

Coat: Winners
Suede Skirt: Smart Set
Stripped Shirt: H & M shirt
Booties: Nine West

January 2016 at a Glance

I have been looking for a way to make my children aware of all the wonderful memories we make as a family throughout the year.  In November I decided to make a photo book/scrapbook for each of my girls filled with memories and anecdotes of the past year.  Through the process I was overwhelmed with how many great things my children and our family are privileged to experience and be a part of. This post is co-written and co-created by Halie (9years) and I about our memories from January 2016. 

 

 TOP FIVE of January 2016

1.  Happy New Years from Cuba!  We brought in the new year with the whole Dautbegovic/Fazlagic family and it goes down in our record books as the best one we've had in a very long time. 

2.  Halie turned 9 years old.  She is a blessing to have another and her kindness, empathy and creativity are gifts she shares with us on a daily basis. She choose to go out to dinner at The Cave.

3.  Anya lost her first tooth!  Her tooth fairy, Jenny, left her $5. 

4.  We finally got to meet baby Will, our friend Shawn and Karli's baby boy.  He is perfect in every way and his arrival in October  brought us so much happiness. 

5.  Logan and I booked a spontaneous trip to London, England for July 1st!  More on this another time.  

Date Night: Staying Connected

Romantic Date Night by bojana-krienke featuring chain pendants

Logan and I have been married for twelve and a half years and have been together since high school.  Like most couples we have had our share of ups and downs, times of doubt and absolute happiness.  We have changed in so many ways since the beginning but throughout these changes we have also been able to support one another.  When people first meet us, they often see us as opposites.  I am chatty, outgoing and always on the go.  Logan is quieter  (until you get to know him),  go with the flow and very content to just live in the moment.  How does it work???  Honestly,  I am not sure that I know the answer to that but I think at the core we have always had similar values, wants and needs.  We both wanted a family, we love to be around people we love, and we value spending time together and open communication.  We both enjoying being outdoors, doing physical stuff and have complimentary parenting styles.  When we decided to get married we had already overcome some obstacles and we were aware and prepared to work on our relationship when things were hard. 

All of that being said one thing that has been extremely helpful in continuing to have a relationship and identity as husband and wife has been regular date nights.  We attempt to get out at least once a month.  Our dates vary from dinner, going to the theater (plays, not so much movies anymore), walks, golfing (which I am terrible at but do it for Logan), snowboarding, biking, etc.  My parents live in the city and are always willing to have the girls overnight J.  They are the BEST!!!  In fact, when we first become parents at 25 and were just starting out, my parents and sister, really encouraged us to continue to take time together as a couple.  This was great advice and I am glad they did.  We are fairly involved parents and enjoy spending time with the girls, but we have made a cognisant effort to not build our whole identity around being mom or dad.  As our girls get older, they will want to spend more time with friends and eventually will leave the nest (insert sad/sobbing face) and when this happens Logan and I want to still have a relationship that makes us happy and fulfilled.  Now, I know there are no guarantees in life but date nights are just one way of making sure that we continue to connect and grow as a couple.  I’d love to hear what other people do to stay connected and other date night ideas.

Saturday night we went to the Playing with Fire: The Theo Fleury  Story at our local theater.  It was PHONOMENAL!  Honestly, I was not sure about going to watch this because it deals with some pretty sad and tragic events but I was completely engaged for the full two hours.  If you don’t know the Theo Fleury story, the short version is that he was a great but troubled hockey player.  He was sexually molested by this WHL coach, Graham James, as a teen and also had a tough home life.  He was extremely determined and worked his way up to the NHL and was really talented but drugs, alcohol, gambling and the trauma his suffered eventually caught up to him.  He ended up spiralling out of control and losing his fortune and pushing his family away.  When he was finally ready to turn his life around he had to face all of his demons and pick himself up from there.  I knew the bits and pieces of his life but Logan and I were both so captivated by the play that we plan on reading his book, Playing with Fire (check out the review from goodreads.com). 

Here are a few pictures from our night out. 

Wine at the Office

Wine at the Office by bojana-krienke featuring 18 karat gold jewelry

No, no, no!  I would never drink wine at work, but I am having some right now :) . 

So what brought this post on?  Well here is Saskatchewan winters can be long and I always find mid-January and February I go into a somewhat of a hibernation mode.  Work is usually busy at this time of year, the weather is off and on, and when I leave the house in the morning it's dark and when I get home it's dark. 

Anyway, during this time of year I also start to wear a lot of black, gray, brown, navy, etc.  The other day I saw this post on What I Wore and I was immediately inspired. I love fun tights and I used to wear them  but hadn't this fall/winter season at all.  I work in a fairly conservative environment and I feel that dressing professionally is important.   I decided to take out my wine colored tights, I have pumps and a dress in the same color because I love it so much, and pair it up with my gray pencil skirt and my go-to navy, polka dot sweater.  It turned out okay.  If  I could substitute the gray pencil skirt for a fun, flair, black mini, I totally would but I couldn't for work.    This is what I looked like, sorry for the poor lighting. 

                               

Happy 9th Birthday Halie!

     Nine years ago I gave birth to an amazing little girl. I still remember the doctor saying, "Mom was right, it's a little girl." She handed you over to me and several hours of labor somehow drifted away into the distance.
    
     Since, that day Halie has grown into a very mature young lady. She loves horses, pizza, chili, dancing, singing, gymnastics, sewing with her grandma, drawing, painting, creating art projects, playing outside, socializing with friends and hanging out with us, her family. Halie is one of those kids that is quite but craves a lot of attention, specifically verbal encouragement and recognition. I am currently reading/listening to, The Five Love Languages of Children by Gary Chapman, link, and I've come to discover that her primary love language is words of affirmation. Words of affirmation basically means that she really depends on positive feedback from us in order to feel loved and secure in the decisions she is making. That being said, when we, or I, criticize her, that's the thing that also hurts her the most. She responds to the other love languages as well, but words of affirmation I believe is her primary love language. Through reading/listening to the book I also feel that my youngest daughter's primary lover language is physical touch, like cuddling, hugs, etc. and after reading the first book, The Five Love Languages, I discovered physical touch was also my primary love language, so it's no wonder that it's sometimes easier for me to connect with Anya. That all being said, Halie and I share our love of animals, and we enjoy crafting together, doing our nails, playing Barbie's/dolls as of lately, going for walks, and have even ventured out shopping a few times without much complaining. If you have children, I highly recommend reading the book, just to make you reflect on your child's personality and to make their needs, emotional ones, come to the front of how you interact with them.

      The BEST thing about Halie is her COMPASSION. She cares so deeply about people and their feelings. It doesn't even have to be someone she knows, but she is always asking questions about social issues which makes me IMMENSELY PROUD of her. Halie is open to all cultural groups and their traditions. She recognizes the hardships that people face in our own community and often offers to help others out by donating her toys, clothing, giving money to the homeless on the streets, holding lemonade stands to raise money for various groups, etc.

     I am proud to be her mom and to have an opportunity to watch her to grow.

P.S. Halie's favorite color is RED.