7 tips for Road Trippin' with Kids

My husband recently left for a month for work which meant I had a lot of time to fill up and a whole new motivation to stay busy. My sister lives down in Texas so i decided this would be the PERFECT time to travel down to see her. Considering my nifty little Hyundai is amazing on gas it turned out to be much cheaper to just drive the 10 1/2 hours through tornado alley. On my trip I developed some awesome tips for traveling with kids.

First thing is first, when you are driving anywhere that is farther than 2 hours away expect to make several stops. I tend to tack on about 15 minutes per hour of driving; so a 4 hour drive will probably be a 5 hour trip. (depending on time of day)
Tip number 1: Accept this fact, embrace it, and move on. My first trip down to TX was brutal and frustrating and long all because I let it bug me that I couldn't drive more than an hour and a half or two without stopping... on that note, no offense La Leche League but breastfeeding seriously sucks sometimes.
I have  a two year old and a 3 month old so I wasn't concerned about constant bathroom breaks, what was more distressing was how in the world I was going to keep my toddler entertained as well as preventing my infant from getting sick of the car seat.
Tip 2: Stop often but play it smart. I literally just followed the lead of my kids. When they slept I booked it, held my pee, let my stomach growl, and jammed out to my music; you better believe I didn't dare stop until they were awake and needed things.
Tip 3: When you do stop, make it worth it. Every time I stopped the rest was usually about 15 minutes and a few times it was longer. I ate and/or stocked up on snacks and drinks, changed the girls, and tried to get them out of the car for a while.
Tip 4: Rest areas and grocery stores are your new best friend. Almost every time I stopped it was at a Wal-Mart or rest area. Seriously. The snacks/food and anything else you need will always be cheaper than a gas station, cleaner bathrooms with guaranteed diaper changers, and it's the perfect place to let the kids stretch their legs because they're big and grocery stores have those silly .25 cent rides. *Plus, lots of Wal-Marts have CHEAPER gas.
---In terms of Lela, my 3 month old, I would wear her in my Ergo carrier. I literally walked around feeding her while letting Ava play. There was a few times she came unlatched and her sucking attempts to re-latch caught a few peoples attention but whatevs---
Tip 5: Invest in a portable DVD player and a plethora of long DVD's. It would be WAY too easy if the kids slept the whole entire trip, but they didn't and that DVD player seriously took off some of the pressure to entertain.
Tip 6: Don't set large goals, you won't reach them. My first trip I had planned to get there in 12 hours.... well it took 15-ish hours with the last two consisting of 4 stops and 45 minutes of crying babies, which leads me to my last tip.
Tip 7: Know your surroundings. Before I went on my trip I took a glance at what towns or cities I was going to be going through and whether or not they had stores, tourist stuff, or whatever! The first time I underestimated how little there really is in OK and TX which is how we ended up half an hour away from our destination and camped out in front of Target waiting for my sister to meet us.
I waited too long to stop and then came upon 45 minutes of pure NOTHING; no gas stations or rest areas, cowboys, or ANYTHING and of course my girls had a meltdown.... but hey live and learn. I stay in a tiny town with no Target near by so it ended up being a pretty sweet stopping point haha.

Over all I had a blast. It was my first long trip alone with two kids and the trip back home went more smoothly. I was exhausted and wobble legged when I got home but now I have this sort of  "I'm a badass let's drive to Alaska just because" sort of feeling.

We do have a flight overseas in a couple months. Bring it on.

Hakuna Matata: Being a Carefree Homemaker

*clears throat*
Hello everyone, my name is Noelle and I.... am a Pin-aholic.

It is true, I like soooo many other women in the world fall blissfully under the stereotype of the Pinterest loving homemaker. I can (and sometimes do) spend hours on there looking at things I plan to do (but probably wont) and meals to make and tips on organizing my life.

I have read literally dozens of blogs about creating a budget, a budget folder, a cleaning schedule, a meal plan, and a general life agenda.... I have put together bits and pieces from scattered websites to try and make my own system and I have gone through notebook after adorable notebook trying to line out my uninteresting yet somehow hectic life. NOTHING has seemed to work; I mean every time I start to get my flow going, life hits us hard with some crazy big event. (most recently it was giving birth, before that it was car problems...and in 2 months it will be moving to another country)
Being that I stay at home I have a good amount of time to think so I am constantly trying to improve myself.
Quite frankly being a housewife and SHM means much more to me than just wiping baby butts and cooking edible food; it means keeping track of everything so that my husband and children have little to worry about. I try my best to fine tune the budget and actually stick to it, make a plethora of meals that aren't just edible but actually satisfying, educating and keeping my children alive until they can generally do it for themselves, and even keeping myself decent so that my husband has something pleasant to look at when he gets off of work. You can imagine my frustration when life gets out of whack.

One of the things I noticed when reading these other blogs about organizing your life is that every single one of them NEVER mentions flexibility. It's as if they all have children already in school which leaves them 8 glorious hours a day to get done what they need to. (with a bonus of being able to start and finish at the same time) This realization also left me with a dread that my life would be alllllll over the place for the next 4 to 5 years (when both girls will be in school). UHM HELLO?! Have you ever met a baby? or even a toddler? Life runs on their time and their time only which means that I can plan my entire week to the detail... vaccum everyday, laundry on Wednesday and Sundays, workout at 7:30 am, shower after, so on so forth; however, writing it down does NOT mean that it will happen and most likely won't.
This has been my life lately. Some days (thanks to teething) I am basically shackled to my child and get nothing done until 10:00 at night. I end up frustrated and resentful that I can't keep the house squeaky clean or that actually going to the gym is more of a dream than possibility and it's exhausting/depressing to be frustrated all the time. So, I have decided "TO HELL WITH IT!".

I put a lot of pressure on myself. Probably about things that don't matter to most people... It's just part of who I am. When I do something I like to be the best at it, but maybe it's time I look around and just give a shrug of apathy. After all, I get to be home everyday watching my children grow, I mean gosh, Lela is already 3 months old and Ava is saying "Bless you." when you sneeze. *giggle*

It might take a little bit to really learn to relax but I'm sure I will get there. "Hakuna Matata".

The Happy Homemaker

Happy *belated* 4th of July!!! I absolutely love the 4th, it's always been a very happy holiday in my family and the perfect time for good ole' fashion 'Merica fun. If you are related to the military in some way then you know that your military friends really do become like your family when you move to new places, this year I excitedly hosted a 4th of July BBQ (MY FIRST EVER) with some of the people we have come to know and love.
I love, repeat LOVE, to host themed get-togethers; so of course I went all out. I created a menu and supplies list about a week in advance and started making the decorations about 3 days in advance.

 Doing crafty things is something I've always enjoyed. To start I made some cute red, white, and blue wind chime streamer things.... they fluttered in the wind with amazing grace despite being made out of paper plate holders and cut up plastic table cloths.
 I also made this wreath.

Now this wreath was a labor of love. I literally hand carved the wreath form out of cardboard because Wal-Mart was out of the proper wire forms. (It took an hour) I also carved out the stars because, welll I thought it would be adorable; then of course the bow that I made and remade about 4 times.

Overall I am pretty proud of my little creation.

Next I made these super adorable and way too easy flower "vases". My stripes don't match up and the blob looking stars are faced away from viewing eyes but generally I thought it was a nice touch.

There were a few more bits here and there, some purchased, others made by yours truly... red, white, and blue cake, cocktail, and meringues (that I didn't put out because they didn't come out right), hand cut homemade star tortilla chips, so on and so forth. In this entire process from glittery-eyed start to tipsy-faced end I learned a very good lesson.... No one can appreciate the details and hard work the way that you can and that it is perfectly okay.
At first I was a bit bummed out that not a single person had any chips or that I was the only one that enjoyed the cake. And I was a little sad that a couple people left before the BBQ was in full swing. Quite frankly I was wallowing in self pity the next day because everything I had spent time doing went completely unnoticed... or at least unacknowledged; but then I got some great advice from my mom. She said "sometimes you just have to do it for yourself."and you know what? I couldn't agree more. Being crafty is not just something I enjoy but is part of who I am! Cooking and baking and challenging myself is something I have always considered a chunk of myself that is unique.
I am a homemaker and for a millisecond I almost forgot how proud of that I am.
I think this is amazing food for thought with every aspect of your life and maybe it's a bit silly that I am only just now coming to realize it but honestly, I spend SO MUCH of my days dedicating my time to other people: my two children, my husband, my friends, my family, or even my house (not a person but seriously....), I sometimes get lost in the mix I suppose. As a SHM or HW your main responsibilities are directly related to other peoples needs which makes it easy to forget that there are things you not only have to do but should do simply because they make you happy. For me it's making a big deal out of little details for casual get-togethers that no one will even notice.

All in all I had a lovely 4th of July and met some wonderful people. On to the next holiday :)