Recreating a skincare rut

When Sydney (now 8) was 3 months old I got a job with Clinque. I loved working for Clinique. I loved being educated by Clinique. I loved selling/educating for Clinique. Most of all, I loved using Clinique. During the time I worked for Clinique my skin was amazing. In all fairness I have never really had "trouble" skin. But never had my skin been so clear, even, and bright. 

Upon leaving the retail world of cosmetics I left my cushy discount and the benefits of new product samples. Ever since the last of my "good stuff" ran out I have been on a downward spiral. Jumping from product to product, never giving my face a real chance. 

According to Pinterest, I started pinning DIY skin care links 19 weeks ago. So, instead of letting those pins continue on to full gestation, I am going to get up and make what I need. I will be testing a DIY toner and a DIY moisturize. I know from past experience (and from Clinique) that to really let a product work and to see how ones skin is truly going to react a two week time period is needed. So I am going to use these products everyday (twice daily) for two weeks. I will report back at one week and then at two, at which time I will decide whether to continue what I am using or try something different. 

I desperately want to find that perfect skin care rut. I know that word usually isn't thought of in a positive light...but it is truly what i need. I want my daily skin care to be dull and boring. I need it to be a consistent easy aspect of my life, that doesn't cost much. Is that really too much to ask?

Elementary Schools and Taxi Cabs: A Cautionary Tale

Apparently May is national "Share a Story Month" therefore, I have decided to share a story with you...

The year was 1990. My sister and I were attending a school located in a blighted neighborhood on the east side of Kansas City. The neighborhood we lived in at the time wasn't exactly teaming with kids and the kids we did know attended private schools. Being the only kids in the neighborhood needing transportation the school district didn't think it was necessary to send a bus to pick us up. Instead we were picked up daily by a city cab. Now, there are many stories I could tell you about our time spent on the taxi cab. From the variety of students we shared it with, to hiding parts of our lunch in the back to eat after school, or even about the time our driver got pulled over and cried as soon as the police officer was gone. None of those are as good as the one I have to share though...

Over the two year time period where cabs were our primary mode of transportation my sister and I had three drivers. The first driver was an older man named Leroy. I really don't remember much about Leroy. He was a nice grandpa type man. He didn't have many teeth, giving him that signature "mush mouth" look so many denture-less people have. I remember him giving us this photo of himself one day. It could have been the last day he drove us. Im not completely clear on the reason now.  

Our second driver was a lanky middle aged man. I don't remember his name, honestly he didn't drive us all that long. Really, there are only two things I clearly remember about the man. First was the fact that he looked like "Marv" from Home Alone. Second was how quietly he cried after being pulled over. 

Our third, and final driver was a man in his 50's named John Brownsburger (we lovingly called him variations of Hamburger, Brownbooger, etc). This is really where the story starts. 

One morning my sister and I loaded in the cab. Alyson in the front, I in the back. Alyson was turned slightly in her seat leaning against the passenger door so we could talk (or more realistically finish fighting over who's turn it was to sit in the front seat). John pulled away from the curb and headed for our school. We had done this so many times. All of it. John was incredibly kind (from what I remember) and always put up with my sister and me (who, lets face it, at this point in our lives were just starting to really despise each other). This morning was different though, as John took the first turn to leave our neighborhood, Alysons weight shifted and that passenger door flew open.

I know what you are thinking at this moment, "WASNT SHE WEARING HER SEATBELT?!?!" -- Are you kidding me? It was 1990. There were seat-belt...but who really wore them? It wasn't state mandated like it is now!

The cab was still in motion when this all went down. Alyson somersaulted down into a grassy ditch on the side of the road. I remember watching her blond hair and pastel colored outfit fold over each other. John stopped the cab and the two of us (the two of us still remaining INSIDE the vehicle) got out to pick her up. She was crying and completely freaked out, but as far as we could see that was the extent of her injuries. After she was loaded back into the cab we turned and headed for the house.

I remember the lot of us standing on the brick front steps relaying the story to my mom. She held Alyson, and after making sure she was, in fact (physically) unscathed, told her she could stay home. (For the record what happens next was not one of my finest moments) I am not sure what came over me at this point, but I was not having this. I immediately told my mom that I should be able to stay home as well. After all, I had watched the whole thing happen. Alyson and I proceeded to cry and hang all over my mom (techniques now employed by my own kids). Eventually my mom made us BOTH go to school. I think about this day now and wonder why I wouldn't just let me sister take a much needed mental health day all those years ago. I don't think any permanent damage was done, but wow. Somehow she still speaks to me. 

Friendly Little Reminders

Design for the better of mankind.  I recently came across these cool little print-outs from The Urban Etiquette Project.  A fun little activity by designer Christopher Rouleau that you can use to engage your fellow city dwellers and maybe even encourage some better behaviors.

This also reminded me of another gem I came across a while back called Signs of Affection by designer Paul Price.  Design should make the world a better place, even if it is in little, ordinary or unexpected ways.  Signs of Affection is a series of prints designed to paste up around your city to encourage and inspire.  

Christopher and Paul have surely inspired me.  I’ve created a free little download for you all here to brighten up your part of the world.  Intentionally, I also created this with some free and some name your price resources.  Fonts by Antipus and James T. Edmondson over at LostType, who’s one year birthday is today, and an icon from The Noun Project.  Hope you like it and if you make one of your own be sure to share it with us.

Enjoy - 8.5x11 PDF 

- Christian 

From shower curtain to wall map.

Last week I was looking at our school area, thinking about how a world map would be a nice replacement for our current standard sized(US) map. Maps arent super cheap (if you haven't noticed). I feel like paying ~$20 for a large piece of paper with a color copy on it is kind of ridiculous. Plus I really wanted something bigger! 

When we moved into our house we fell in love with this shower curtain from Target. We recieve so many compliments on it, and it makes it fun to be in the bathroom. So why not move it, and make the school area fun to be in? 

I love the amount of space the shower curtain map takes up on the wall! The kids have easy access to it, and there is no fear of it ripping it. We are also able to mark on the map with dry erase markers and then easily clean it off! Just this morning the kids found India (where Mary Lennox lived) and then found The UK (where Mary Lennox moved to once her parents died). Sydney and Ira stood at the map trying to decide the route she would have taken. It was so fun watching them! To ad to this little improvement I moved our table a bit farther from the school area. Now we have a lot of space around the map. I am thinking about making some large cushions so the kids could sit on the floor in this space if they wanted to. I love making simple changes to improve areas! 

It looks like Target is sold out of these shower curtains right now. Hopefully they will be restocked soon! 

Apparently it was Bird Week

We spent Saturday morning with our neighbors (the Both family) at Lakeside Nature Center. They were having an urban birding event! Which was a great follow up to our baby bird rescue extravaganza the day before. We arrived and found crafts, tattoos (the temporary variety), and loads of information about local birds. The kids really enjoyed doing some rubbings they have available. We had done them before, but maybe the kids were too young? I think since they enjoyed them so much we will head out to the cemetery to do some grave rubbings in the next few weeks. 

 

After watching a power point presentation about different birds to watch for in Kansas City we were ushered outside for a bird walk. We didn't see many birds (we did hear a lot), but that could have been because we were romping through the woods with 6 kids under the age of 8! At some point we got off of the intended "bird walk" path and ended up on a rather rocky hike. None of us were really dressed for hiking (including mama Both, who was wearing sandals) but we sure didn't complain because ALL 6 kids were having a ball making their way through the trail. 

My kids are all overly sensitive the birds around us now. We have been doing some little bird watches from our front porch and will be recording our findings at Celebrate Urban Birds! Which, by the way, what a cool site! The past few days has really inspired my kids, they get so excited when they see birds (when before they didn't seem to pay much attention to them) and even more excited when they are able to identify the species. 

As I was writing this post Sydney came in with a bird nest she found on the ground down the street from our house. She was almost in tears because there were cracked eggs on the ground next to it. She was even more disturbed to find out that blue egg shells most likely meant Robin eggs. 

I loved the way this little impromptu unit study came together. I really couldn't have planned it any better. This was a great example of taking life and running with it. Learning from the things around you and letting the kids really jump into something! This is absolutely my favorite aspect of home schooling.