Popsicle Stick Puzzles

Cameron has gotten a few cards lately that she absolutely loves. How could you not...they're "Mouse" her favorite thing in the whole world! I really didn't want to throw them away so I had the idea of making puzzles out of them. (Ok, so I actually got the idea from Pinterest, but still.) Here's how I did it. 

These are the things you'll need:

Greeting card

Large popsicle sticks

Masking tape

Exacto knife

Spray glue 

Cut the front side of your card off. Line up popsicle sticks to the width of the card. I used a straight edge to make sure the popsicle sticks were lined up evenly.  

Place strips of masking tape along the popsicle sticks to hold them in place.  

Flip the card over and go crazy with the spray glue.

Press the card onto the popsicle sticks immediately to ensure a secure bond.

Let dry according to the glue bottle instructions. My glue said to let sit for 1 hour.

 Flip card and sticks over, remove masking tape and use the exacto knife to separate the sticks. 

 Then you're done.

Wrap a rubber band around the sticks and you have a small little puzzle to go. Great for entertaining kiddos on airplanes, at restaurants, etc.

An In-The-Moment Mom

This was the cover of this month's Parents magazine...

And you know what caught my attention? The headline "Be an in-the-moment mom". To be honest I haven't even read the article yet, but just the concept really got me thinking. An in-the-moment mom. That is what I so desperately want to be, but what I so epically fail at every single day. I so badly want to cherish every moment I have with my girls. Really focus on them. Interact with them. Laugh with them. Appreciate them for who they are at that exact moment. Because tomorrow they will be one day older, one day wiser, one day closer to being all grown up.

But then life gets in the way. I get sucked into cleaning up the house, working on the computer, making my grocery list...all things that are important, but not nearly important as the little girls who are by my side begging for my attention. The worst part of it is I find myself getting mad. Mad at them for constantly interrupting my train of thought, mad at life for giving me a never ending list of things to do, mad that money doesn't grow on trees so I could hire people to do all the "stuff" and I could spend my time at the park, playing boo, etc. Unfortunately that's not the way it works.

I remember reading the results of a survey that asked a whole bunch of grandmas what they would have done differently if they could do it all over again. Almost every single one of them said they would spend more focused time with their kids. A messy kitchen, dirty laundry, a dinner of mac and cheese from the box, those are all things that are forgotten over the years. What remains are the memories. The moments.

So I'm challenging myself. Challenging you. Let's be in-the-moment moms. Let's let things go, redirect our focus, put the unimportant things aside and make our kids a priority. When my girls are grown I want to look back and say, "Boy that was fun, we raised some really great kids" not, "Boy, was my life neat and tighty all those years".

Are you with me?