Ready, set, ....

Did you finish that sentence?
Did you finish it with "Go!"?

If you did, you don't have a "youngest baby" that just started school today.

Yup. Peanut had her first day of school today. She looks devastated right?

I have been fortunate enough to always be home with my monkeys. Even when I had to work outside the home, they always came with me (I was a bus driver for some time there), or they stayed with friends/family. Now that I run The Monkey's Treehouse, I am able to stay home with them as well. They never went to daycare. Not even for a day. They spent MAYBE 2 hours a day, if that, at the childcare center at our local YMCA (which we adore). So today was huge. I was nervous but Mr. Incredible and I knew she needed this. We knew she was ready. I'll be damned if we knew just how ready she was.  

Last night was a rough one in our house, but I was hopeful at 230am to get a little bit of sleep before the alarm went of at 6. Well, as I was dozing off, a very excited Peanut came about 2 inches from my nose and went "MAMA! I go to school today! Let's go! Get up!".

Hate to break it to you sweetheart but I'm pretty sure your teachers weren't there at 4am. 

Anyways, Peanut and Bugaboo go to the same school. He started last week as a Kindergartner. So he "knows his way around" the school. Peanut spent all day yesterday making him "pomise (promise)" to walk her to class this morning. It was adorable. Funny thing is though, come this morning, she didn't even give him a chance! Those doors opened this morning (it's a parents-stay-outside-if-at-all-possible drop off situation), mommy got half a one-armed hug, and off she went. She left Bugaboo in the dust going "I thought she wanted me to bring her to her class mom?" 

As I said, she was ready. 

So what is the point of all of this besides showing you more ridiculously cute pictures of our monkeys (see below)? The point is, we need to trust our kids. Even the 3 year olds. They know what they need and they will tell you if you listen. You may have to listen in a different way than you're used to, but they will tell you.  

Are you ready? Are you set? Go. 

Go listen to what your kids are telling you. 

Because at some point, 

THEY are going to be ready, 

THEY will be set, 

and THEY will go...and when that time comes, you might not be as ready as you thought.

More ridiculously cute pictures from this morning:

What do you look for?

What do you look for?

Seems like a simple enough question, but there are so many different directions to go with that question and the answers would not be at all similar.

For example:

Q: What do you look for in a home?
A: I look for enough space for our rather large family, yard space for the monkeys to play, a well-run/well-rated school system, and a safe location.

Those answers would not make as much sense if I said "What do you look for in a work space?".

But what happens when your home becomes your work space? Things overlap. You get distracted. There is school work, with business work, with paper work, with receipts...add to that children's toys, headbands, junk mail, bills, and some photos and you have a pretty good summary of what my desk usually (and currently) looks like.

When your work space is cluttered, you allow your thoughts to clutter your brain "work space" if you will. This is how we, as work-at-home parents, end up with 2700 different half done projects (yes, this is even true for the multi-tasking mommas...sorry ladies. I'm right there with ya but...we have to be honest with ourselves.) This is how our day (okay, morning) ends up looking something like this:

Wake up
Boil water for coffee
Make breakfast for kids
"Sit on your bum in the chair please"
Get drinks for the kids
"PLEASE sit down"
Continue making breakfast
"Get off the table, please"
Reply to customer email
Notice notifications from Facebook during response to email and check Facebook
See something cool on Pinterest
Realize that you have no idea what to make for dinner
Sit down to try and meal plan (who are you kidding...just trying to plan A meal)
"Mom! Peanut spilled her drink and it's all over her!"
Get towels to clean up spill
Realize that the water for coffee has been boiling for a while
Make coffee
Make a mental note to make a slideshow about your super cool coffee hack (coming soon)
Text that friend that you have been meaning to set a coffee date up with
Check calendars for school events, meetings, and deadlines for the business
"Would you PLEASE put your clothes on!"
Realize that you haven't had a chance to get out of pajamas yourself
Listen to monkeys screaming like banshees while you get "dressed" in 6.5 seconds

   

You get the idea. That's a pretty normal morning around here. Overwhelming. (And yet, I love every minute.)

Your business should not overwhelm you. Your business should be your passion. Unfortunately though, even passionate business owners (and parents) can get burnt out. Neither one makes for a happy person.

To be honest, the clutter in my brain was making it so that the 2700 half-done projects were from home, work, and play. By the time my monkeys went to bed I felt like I worked all day and got absolutely nothing done. It was like being on a hamster wheel. I was tired.

I was perusing Facebook looking for more marketing opportunities to advertise The Monkey's Treehouse, and a sponsored ad came up for a business enrichment opportunity: Fired Up and Focused: 21 Day Challenge run by the lovely Racheal Baxter Cook. I clicked. I read. I joined...almost immediately. Now, I'm only on Day 2, and already I am more productive. Obviously these glorious 2 days has not been enough to show me a financial gain from this productivity and I still have quite a ways to go...but let me say, these last 2 days have been less overwhelming and more productive. Today's exercise was especially helpful in de-cluttering my brain.

It's called a brain dump. Try it. Grab a paper and pen/pencil. Set a timer for 15 minutes. Spend 15 minutes writing EVERYTHING you need to do. No matter how big or small it is; whether it's for business or pleasure, home or work...write it all down. When the timer goes off, take a couple minutes to write down anything else in your brain that needs to get done. Once it is all on paper, you can prioritize what is Urgent and Important (you want to eventually get to a point that this list is minimal), what is Urgent and Not-Important (necessary but you want to systematize these as soon as possible), Not-Urgent but Important (this is where most of your tasks should lie...this is where you will be most productive), and Not-Urgent and Not-Important (if nothing bad will happen by getting rid of these tasks...do that. Because quite frankly we all have enough to deal with daily.)

Now this brain dump was part of a business exercise, but what if you applied it to your life? If you were less overwhelmed and less cluttered, would you be less stressed? More able to focus on relationships with loved ones? Less anxious that not everything will get done? What have you got to lose? Besides loads of stress, of course.

This week, try and "dump your brain" at least once. Pay attention to how you feel before and in the days following.

I have been looking for calm, for clarity, for peace of mind. I believe that organizing life like this can get me there.

The question is, what do YOU look for?

(Image of monkeys on the bed courtesy of: www.clipartsheep.com)

It's been a while...

Good morning and welcome back to our treehouse!

We got swamped with orders and back to school shenanigans.

Four out of our five monkeys started school this week; Peanut starts next week. So far they have had a great week! Their teachers seem wonderful and they are all having a great time.

I think what took the longest (aside from the yearly mountain of paperwork) was writing our yearly beginning of school emails to the teachers. Every year, we write an email to each teacher explaining each individual child's strengths and areas of improvement. We also explain a little bit of their background and open the door to communication. If you want your child to be successful at school, they have to know that you care enough to contact their teachers. Our monkeys know that good days or bad, we will hear about it. Even our middle school teachers get emails. This is not just at the beginning of the year though, I am a crazy-person and email our teachers regularly to keep tabs on the monkeys and make sure that we are all on the same page. Let me tell you, the good teachers-appreciate it! Having been a teacher before I had kids, I know what it's like to have a kid in your class that you know nothing about and try to connect with them. Especially if they have a lot of transitions going on in their home lives...it makes it even harder. Knowing what they are coming from makes a teacher's job easier. It also lets them know that you are involved and invested in your monkey(s).

Another thing I do to ensure a smooth year, is I "grease the wheels". Yes, I am talking gifts. Nothing elaborate, just gifts of appreciation throughout the year. Between all 5 of our monkeys, there are usually anywhere from 17-25 gifts that go to school and usually my cost is under $20 for all of it. Now these gifts are not in any way shape or form a bribe. They are simply a thoughtful token of our appreciation for the time and efforts they spend on our monkeys. On the first day of school, our monkeys were all sent to school with homemade chocolate chip cookies (I love this recipe) that were wrapped in wax paper, then scrapbook paper, and tied with a string and the tag below. Last year's gifts included baked goods, flower writers, hand scrubs, personalized tumblers, and custom dry erase boards. The teachers very much appreciate the gifts and are more willing to go the extra mile for our monkeys when asked. Trust me, it works. (For our fans that attend regular IEP or 504 meetings, baked goods go a long way there too.)

I have to get our monkeys to school, but enjoy the day folks! Think about what you would like to tell your child's teacher about your monkey...maybe write a short email...or bake cookies. Appreciate the people that spend all day with your children. Your appreciation for them, makes an impact on your children's education.

Have a wonderful day!

Trying something new...

As kids, we are always encouraged to "try something new". Try new foods, try new friends, try new activities....just try it, what's the worst that can happen? You don't like it, don't do it again.

As an adult though, trying something new comes with a different set of risks. There is very rarely a cheering section as an adult saying "go ahead! give it a shot!" So do you try? Or do you stay safely inside the confines of your comfort zone?

One of my creative abilities includes nail art/design. I usually freehand designs and use a sponge for blending. I very frequently can replicate a design or something similar if I have the picture. (The Monkey's Treehouse does sell custom fake nail sets. Contact us to order yours today.) Our monkeys love getting their nails done, especially Belle. She had been asking for days if I would do her nails and yesterday we finally had time. We went on Pinterest (yes, I am creating monsters...very closely supervised monsters) and she picked out a nail that had a gorgeous pink and black swirl design on it. She fell in love (so did I). Then I realized, this was not a freehand design. This was one of those crazy "put the nail polish in the water and then dip your nail in it and hope for the best" designs (yes, that's what they're called...at least in this house). We watched 2 different tutorials on how to do it...and then we got our supplies and gave it a try. Belle asked if I had ever done this before. "Nope," I said, "but what have we got to lose? Let's give it a shot."

Well we tried six different times with different techniques and different combinations of polish...none of them looked like the gorgeous nails on the tutorials. Belle looked at me and said "It's okay. She (meaning the lady in the videos) just has a talent that you don't have yet. Can you just do my nails the regular way?" So we painted, dry brushed, and freehand designed her nails and they look incredible. She loves them, and I love her so that's all that matters.

This was an example of trying something new. Were the risks high? Not at all. We tried, we laughed, and then we decided to go back to what we know. You win some, you lose some. But what happens when the stakes are a bit higher?

Mr. Incredible and I started The Monkey's Treehouse to create a way for me to follow my dreams and be home to take care of our monkeys. I am grateful to him for giving me that every day. But owning a business is "something new" for me and for us as a team. It is a risk we chose to take, to try something new. Every day we ask our fans, our followers, and our families to take a risk on us, to buy local from our business instead of buying from a box store, to trust us with their imaginations so that we might create a reality. But we also spend every day showing our monkeys that it is healthy to take risks and try new things, that the results are often worth the work and risk.

When was the last time you tried something new?

The lull

There is always a time period in businesses when there is a lull...mine seems to be after a busy period. A couple of weeks ago I had 11 orders on my board...11!...this week: Just 2.

It's like life though...there are ups, downs, and occasionally you get a steady flow. Just when you hit that steady flow though, something happens to throw you off.

Sounds kind of like parenting now that I think about it...

With five monkeys in our treehouse, we have a daily routine. There are things within our routine that have routines to them...it sounds OCD...it's not...it's necessary. Our monkeys thrive with routine. They behave better, they have less attitude, and they have less anxiety. No matter how they behave or misbehave, they know what is expected of them and they know that life is full of choices.

We took a trip to Canobie Lake Park on Monday with the monkeys and some family. The tickets were a birthday present to all of us from the family that came with us. So anyways, we had 5 kids and 5 adults. Our monkeys were prepared to stay together as a family and they all knew that there would be rides that they would have to wait at while their siblings went on. Family members decided to split off and take the two little monkeys while Mr. Incredible and I took the big monkeys. The idea being that they "shouldn't have to wait". I disagree but nonetheless, we did split up.

We met back up later and Mr. Incredible and I spent another hour or so at the park with all five monkeys. During that hour, the kids were WONDERFUL at waiting and actually asked why we couldn't have all just stayed together. They had fun separated, but they are used to waiting for each other and are learning to be patient. They enjoy seeing each other have fun and having fun together and our monkeys missed that during the time they were separate. Don't get me wrong, all of our monkeys can get impatient at times. But they are learning and are probably some of the most patient kiddos you'll meet (unless they are with people who give them permission not to be).

I'd like to say that I'm not bragging, in fact I wrote that just now, and then deleted it. I want to be honest with you. I am bragging a little. I am proud of our monkeys. I am bragging to say that our monkeys lasted all day at an amusement park, past bed time, outside of their routines a little (we tried to keep as much of it as we could), and they did really well. We used yesterday as a built in "recovery day" and just had some down time during the day. That worked for our monkeys.

It worked this time...we are in a bit of a lull. That lovely period of time when the kids understand the expectations and the parents understand the kids. It won't last long...in fact tomorrow could be a trainwreck...and then we will once again have to adjust and figure out what works. That's what parenting, life, and business is all about. Figuring out what works...for now.

No method will work forever.

Life is too fluid.

I can't be certain, but maybe that is where the phrase "go with the flow" comes from?

Take a moment and look at your life, your own monkeys, or your business. Do you have something to brag about? Revel in it for a moment. Be proud.

Big changes...

Yesterday was a big day in our treehouse.
Bugaboo and Peanut were both officially adopted by Mr. Incredible, Peanut slept in her big girl bed last night for the first time, and she also slept without a diaper or pullup. Like I said, big changes.

Many blended families go through big changes, in our home we have had nothing but changes for the last two years. Some days we jell and other days...well other days are less jell-er-ific. Mr. Incredible and I have learned some very important things while blending our family.

1. No matter how frustrating life gets, we are on the same team! Sometimes we have to remind each other of this when life gets to be overwhelming.

2. Bio, step, adopted...it doesn't matter. We are raising 5 beautiful monkies together and they are all ours.

3. We try REALLY hard not to call each other out if one goes overboard on a consequence. For example, "You are grounded forever and never doing anything ever again." Seems like a fair consequence...until 5 minutes later when we are talking and we go, "okay...so maybe that was a tad overboard?" Yeah...we talk about it after and process and then process with the kids. We never process in front of them, we back each other up and present a united front.

4. It is okay for us to tell our monkeys that we made a mistake (see #3). We are humans. We make mistakes. We teach our children to take responsibility for their mistakes by taking responsibility for our own.

5. We take time to calm down before distributing consequences for less than stellar choices.

Belle got caught lying yesterday (when will they learn that we always find out?). Mr. Incredible and I spoke with her about how it was unacceptable and how disappointed we were. A phrase we use a lot is, "We love you too much to let you grow up thinking that this is okay." Her consequence was not given until this morning. We told her that there would be a consequence but that she needed to give us time to cool down so that it wasn't unreasonable. When we gave her the consequence this morning (restitution), we talked again to make sure she understood that it was her choices that brought her to this place.

There are many other things we have learned but those are the huge ones. I am always looking for blended family parenting advice though. On Pinterest (I'm an addict), on Facebook, even just on Google...I'm always looking. Yesterday, as everyone in our family legally has the same last name now, I came across this blog post from The (Reformed) Idealist Mom. It had some great advice and was definitely a situation that many a frappucino family could relate to.

What's your biggest parenting challenge (blended family or not)? What's the biggest thing your kids have taught you?

Rain on my parade? I don't think so!

Last night before bed, I noticed we didn't really have anything scheduled today. I didn't really have errands to run. We didn't really have an activity planned. So I planned on having the kids get into bathing suits in the morning instead of getting dressed and we would go swimming at the YMCA.

I did not however, check the weather. Nor did I even consider weather as a factor. It is an indoor pool, the only time they cancel open swim is when there is thunder and lightning. Well, guess what I woke up to this morning. That's right! Thunder and lightning. (Well technically it was the squeals and screeches of Peanut (2) wanting to get out of her crib but...). 

So plan B. We are going to have a day at home. Those rarely end well. What to do, what to do. I needed to do some work, and the monkeys helped brainstorm the rest. They had breakfast, did their chores, and then Mister and Bean did their summer math assessments on TenMarks summer program. 

It is a free math program for First grade through Algebra 2. You register your children and then they take their assessment which allows the program to customize to your child. Belle will be doing it too but she hasn't gotten around to her assessment yet. 

While they did that, Bugaboo worked on some math and phonics games while Peanut and Belle played. Me? I got down to work and made Peanut a new headband. She loves to wear headbands and accessories like her sisters, but takes them off after about 5 minutes. So my mission was to make a headband that she would keep on. 

Introducing, The 'Tude band.

(Named such after Peanut modeled them and these are the photos I got.)

She kept the darn thing on all morning! The best part? I was able to re-purpose a pair of pants to make it! Get your own custom 'Tude Band here.

I absolutely love re-purposing things to fit our needs. It saves us money and gives us a unique product. Have something you would like re-purposed? Send us a message  and we will see what we can do for you! 

We don't just re-purpose physical items in this house...we do it with food too. A tight budget means that sometimes we get creative and use what's on hand to make something new. I like to think of it as "Chopped Champions: The Treehouse Edition". 

For lunch, Bean and Peanut helped me make Turkey and Cheese Pinwheels. Not a new idea, but also not something they have had before. They love roll ups with lunchmeat and cheese. They love pizza. We used our favorite pizza dough recipe (find that here), rolled it out on the table, and added chipotle ranch dressing, honey roasted turkey, and sliced american cheese. I rolled and sliced it like I do when I make homemade cinnamon buns (see the recipe I love and use here). We baked them and then let them cool slightly before eating them. Let me tell you, they were delicious. The monkeys loved them. I loved them. I only wish I had doubled the recipe so that I could have stuck some in the freezer. (Freezer cooking is a necessity with 5 monkeys, especially during the school year. I will post more on that later.) Next time you morsels of goodness, next time. 

It may be a gross, rainy day out today, but we will not let it rain on our parade. We are planning a movie night tonight complete with popcorn, cushions (from our other couch and the spare beds), and candy. At some point today I will probably lose my sanity from being caged in for the day, and at some point the monkeys will too. For now though, it's quiet time in our treehouse and my monkeys are sleeping or reading and we are all recharging. 

What happens in your treehouse when it rains on your parade?