Gimme an F; Gimme a U; Gimme an N!

The Mother of all Fun Blog Injections is back and it's your turn to share some fun with other moms who might need a new fun idea or a laugh. Please share your best fun moments from this past week in Mr. Linky. They can be messy, dressy or just plain weird. Write it, snap it, brief it, too.

Have fun with it!




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Where in the world was our FUN?

Fun was many places and came in many forms this week. Just in time, too, because both girls caught a cold late in the week. Hip Hip Horray for colds landing on a weekend! Fun this week meant trying to say yes more even when it might have been inconvenient to the schedule or to the Purse. We hosted a play date, went to Gymboree, went to two parks and took a long walk.

I saw a bit of a transition this week as I look back at our pictures. Jadyn and Liana are really becoming best friends and happy sisters. That is ... until they aren't and then, well, a girl has to do what a girl has to do: Check it out:

Here, Liana helps Jadyn after a slip at Gymboree, which the girls just LOVE to no end. I love it, too, actually.


Here the girls set up their chairs to sit in front of each other. Very cute, and best friend-like!


Then, at a local park they watched a fountain together.



Smelled flowers together ...


Later, they shared a snack side by side.

But then ... this happened:




Uh-Oh, as the girls say. Somebody got mad at somebody else for a little privacy invasion. J insisted Elmo be a part of our outside play, which I at first didn't agree with but relented nonetheless.

Turns out, it was kind of fun ... a girl without a playmate has to do something, right?










Later, after the sisters made up ... they created art together on our door. But, J wasn't about to push Elmo too far away -- just in case she crosses that privacy line, again.










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Chop My Grocery List ...

... Sounds like the title of a great new reality show featuring moms everywhere desperate to keep their money in their purses and the smiles on their faces ...

Truth be told, I am not consistently faring well with the whole cutting grocery expenses. Some weeks are very good. Others, I just want to give up, go on a huge shopping binge and then want to yak it all out afterward. It's a terrible feeling knowing that you should be trying harder, but truly just do not have the energy. And, these days, energy has been eluding me, for some reason.

And, just when I think I've kept to my budget ... something happens and I still need to go back to the store for something or two somethings. Maybe it's because my two 2-year-olds are so dang unpredictable. One minute they hardly eat a crumb and the next they are devouring a cart load of groceries per meal. And, heaven freakin' forbid it if a pea crosses the yellow line into the rice because then the whole meal is a total goner.

But, I have learned a lot and I do know that our grocery costs are down a good bit from this time last year when I really knew nothing about feeding toddlers.

We still shop weekly at Aldi, and I love that store so much, and I still CVS, but rarely since there aren't any coupons out saving extra since the prices there are pretty high to begin with. Mostly, I am trying to make my regular grocery store and Wal-Mart where I see the most decrease in costs.

Yes, I wrote Wal-Mart. The store that I detest beyond belief and now shop at now and then only because we need to save every cent possible right now.

But, my quest continues. Food is expensive. Lists seem to grow longer not shorter around here. We stockpile when possible, but it's just not always possible. I will say that signing up for freebies has been a great deal of fun. In fact, we've gotten some very cool things that are almost always paired with very good coupons.

And, sticking to the budgeted menu is helping. Though, not perfectly just yet. But, I like challenges. I'm up for it. I can do this. And so can you. We can beat them at their own game, right?

How about you? Anyone finding great ways to save on groceries since I confessed my addiction to The Art of Coupons?

And, to thank you for visiting today, please check out this link to save your own fantastic grocery list. And, this link for the latest Chunky Purse money-saving idea.

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Friends vs. relationships

As part of a project that Bella is doing, I recently examined my soul a bit deeper than I planned on during spring fever and spring cleaning. In fact, her questions sent me spiraling into a reflection of sorts. You'll see those play out on her blog sometime soon ... but for now I'm continuing my quest to figure out where I've been and where I'm going.

Since I wrote previous posts about the intense isolation I have experienced during motherhood (see here, here and here), I have come to terms with a number of things regarding the topic of relationships and friends.

I'm not sure that most new moms were left alone as much as I was -- and still am. I think most have their moms around more at least in that first year.

Regardless, I was alone way more than any new mom should be, especially with two crying babies. And, I'm still very much alone all week, but I do not feel as alone anymore and that is a big difference to me.

The reason is simple. You see, back in December when I took a couple weeks off from blogging I was sincerely worried about my life and how pathetic it seemed because I lacked flesh and blood visitors and friends. I did have one great friend, but I felt like I needed a bigger circle of friends, much like my single life included.

What I haven't mentioned is that soon after that, I went to the local library, and met another mom who just happened to be the head of a local moms group. She invited me out that very night for a moms night out. Desperate for friendships, I went and was instantly hooked.

I've joined moms groups hastily before so I wanted to move slowly into this one. In fact, truth be told, I haven't yet joined, but only because I'm lazy and unorganized not because I'm afraid.

These women were exactly what I had been missing in the first two years of motherhood. They are over-achieving mothers just like me, career-driven, smart, young and completely, utterly and totally laid-back.

And, 100 percent supportive.

They do not carry fancy bags, but rather talk about science and philosophy and writing as if it's second-nature. None of us dress nicely, and we can always be found down on the floor with our kids. If these women own cell phones, I have yet to see them using one. If they gossip, they do it well because despite being the second newest member, I've never seen them sitting in a clique, not even at Gymboree, not even after two months.

And, since I'm the only member with twins, I'm a bit of a lucky girl. They help me out -- a lot. I'm always outnumbered and they always jump in to help, whether it's spotting one of my girls on a piece of equipment or helping them upstairs. They don't ask; they just do. Those are my kind of friends. They just happen to be moms, too, and like me they put that first in their life.

What's great is that there is something to do with them every week. Every week, we have plans even if it's a simple gathering at a park.

Now, do I tell them I'm a blogger or not? What about you? Do you have a moms group or a supportive group of moms? Tell me about them. Do they know that you blog?


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That F-Word Project

Did you have any fun this week? Extra special fun? The kind you are willing to share, proudly?

This weekly project is designed to help all of us stay awake to the fun in our lives and maybe even go out of our way to have a little more even when there's a really long list of things to do.

If you're new here, or you just didn't have any fun last week, perhaps you'll pick up some ideas for next week here among the F-U-N posts.

Please leave the link to your URL of your FUN post in Mr. Linky. Thanks!





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Can you say Messy?

This is my 301st post. A year ago this week, I started posting regularly on this blog and much of my posts were related to toddler activities like this one, or this one. Kind of like it is right now, actually.

Spring fever has settled in and this is my version of trying to stay sane, I guess. I've been setting our days up like a preschool day since the girls were 10 months old. But, this latest project is new in that I've never sat back and truly sought out the fun worth sharing with real life people.

I learned a lot this week as I put our level of fun under a microscope. I had lapsed into a bit of Mom-coma over the winter and forgotten to take my shoes off and stay a while. I also realized that some parts of our days, no matter how hard I try, are just not fun at all and that's because I have two 2-year-olds. In fact, there are parts of our days that are just plain awful and we really are spending 15 minutes arguing over who gets to wear THOSE yellow pants or when you turn your head and the next thing you know you have two toddlers completely naked for the fifth time that day.

And, then there's pee-pee inside the ottoman.

But, I also realized that we do have fun and much like I figured this project would highlight, it's also all about how the mind is willing to sit and soak up the fun. OK, so some of the fun might not have been my idea of fun, say, two or three years ago. But, it's still fun.

Fun took shape in a few forms this week.

While it was still cold all but one afternoon, we managed to get outside for some sunshine. On Tuesday, when it was warm, they splashed in a mud puddle. I true mud puddle. And they got dirty beyond belief ... which led to their very first shower, which was another mess in itself. But, they had a blast with both and so did I. Could I have been more fun? Yup ... I could have jumped in that puddle, too. But, I didn't. Maybe next time.

We also did some projects this week like puffy painting -- which was such a messy activity that I was only able to take one picture. This one:

But, the Fun I'm highlighting this week is the fact that we participated -- a wee bit late -- in another project I stumbled upon thanks to one of my new readers, Michie. The Unplugged Project is all about stepping away from the TV and doing something creative with your children. I'm all about that since we don't really watch TV here during the day except for one half hour.

Each week, Unplugged Mama picks a theme and you are supposed to do anything you want with your kids related to that theme. This week's theme was rocks. Next week's theme is books. Cool, right?

So, rocks. Yeah, my girls love rocks. And, we have a ton of them in our driveway. I stole our idea for this week's theme from Toddlebits, another participator in the project, which is a bit of a cheat ... I realize, but I knew it would work for us.

And, it was a real blast.

When Jadyn and Liana stopped drenching the rocks with paint, they painted paper towels, which turned out nice enough so we moved on to construction paper -- six sheets of it!

The girls had a great time with the paint -- as you can see. Yup. We had F-U-N this week!



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Mama-Stay (AKA: Namaste)

Yet another of my million goals for this year was a combination of focus on one thing, and one thing only and to meditate.

This intersection of wanting to accomplish so much, yet never really accomplishing anything is the No. 1 flaw holding me back from reaching my fullest potential. I know this.

And, unfortunately, I haven't progressed in this area as much as I would like. In fact, I've done very little meditating since I wrote that post. Maybe I haven't needed it; maybe I'm fooling myself.

In fact, my mind is still a racing machine with thoughts about my fictional characters, freelance sources, new publications, which closets need straightened and what needs packed before the house goes back on the market and, above all, what we're going to do today. And, it's all urgent. It all needs addressed right. this. very. second. One of Jena's recent posts at Bullseye, Baby! spoke to me in this regard.

I have, however, been better at juggling only a couple tasks at a time at certain days of the week. For instance, naps are always to work on deadline work. Weekends are for finding new freelance work. Mornings are devoted to my novel. That still leaves a lot of other stuff that's being squeezed in or left out.

But, this week I am wearing just one hat. Well, two, I guess.

This week, I'm just being a mom. OK, a Mama with dreams and a novel, but I'm taking this week off from all other obligations. And, it's the best thing I've done for us in a long time.

One of our favorite activities lately has been doing Yoga at home. Jadyn and Liana love, love, love this fun exercise.

"Yo-wa! Yo-wa!" they yell out in anticipation. The Yoga Kids: ABC DVD walks us through a motion for each letter, like Alligator for A. We lay on our bellies with legs straight and arms out in front, chomping like big teeth.

"Chomp. Chomp. Chomp."

It makes us all giggle and for the last three weeks we've been hooked and doing it almost daily.

Today, just before N started, they started chanting

"Mamastay. Mamastay."

And my heart wanted to melt. In fact, I think it did right then and there.

For the Namaste song, we sing and bow down with hearts in prayer fold, learning that the light in them is the light in me and that they are a part of all they see.

No, I'm not really hitting my mark with this goal or my other one, but the one goal I didn't list -- Being an Awake Mama -- is definitely accomplished this year.

Namaste.

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