Tag: Spin Cycle

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Happiness Creeps In

Lily is five, but by the way she is acting I feel like she’s hit puberty early. She says things like, “I hate you, Mommy!” and “Mommy, you’re so mean!” She throws crying, screaming fits when I tell her it’s time to turn off the T.V. or that she can’t have dessert. (Give that kid sugar? No way!) She refuses to listen to my suggestions on how to do certain things. “I want to do it MY WAY, Mommy!” When I try to snuggle with her at bedtime, she’ll push me away and say, “Your breath smells, Mommy. Go brush your teeth!”

Lily was no angel before, but her willful behavior has suddenly escalated in the past two months.

Hmm…two months. Two months of absolutely, positively, horrible behavior. Two months since Lily’s grandma died.

In an abrupt contradiction to this behavior, Lily is very observant to certain things. “Mommy, why is your nose red?” she’ll ask. “Mommy, are you sniffing?” Yes, Lily, I’m sniffing, but I only have a runny nose, I reassure her as I reach for a tissue.

Two nights ago, I went into Lily’s room to tuck her in and kiss her goodnight. Instead of the usual “your breath reeks” comment, she asked me to snuggle with her for a while.

Snuggle? With Lily? YES, LILY, I WILL SNUGGLE WITH YOU!!!

I crawled into bed with Lily, my heart full of happiness. I held her close, smelled her hair, and kissed her cheek. Lily snuggled back.

And then she said, “Mommy, don’t breathe on me!”

Happiness is a state of mind at Sprite’s Keeper. Put your spin on it!
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A Cheap…ahem–what I meant to say is: A Frugal Fix

Spin Cycle over at Sprite’s Keeper this week is all about Arts and Crafts…and I have done neither in the past few years that don’t involved washable paints or crayons. Oh, and there was the ribbon project I completed a couple of weeks ago….

This project all started when Lily asked her daddy why there were loops on the ends of her handlebars. Her bike is a hand-me-down from a neighbor, and the tassels that used to hang there no longer exist. So after Ed explained that there used to be ribbons hanging from the handlebars, we all piled into the car, and drove to Walmart to find new ribbons.

The only bike tassels at Walmart came in a package along with a Barbie basket and bike bell. It cost around $8.00. Ed said he was thinking bike tassels would be more along the lines of two dollars, especially since if we bought Lily the Barbie basket package, we’d need to buy Emmy one too and would end up spending $16.00.

If I had been by myself (what was I thinking when I typed that? By myself…hmm, interesting concept…) Anyway, if I had been with just Lily and Emmy, I probably would have bought the baskets. I’m a sucker for my little girls. Ed is too, but he’s a little more, well, economical than I am.

So we traipsed on over the the gift wrap section, and bought a three pack of wrapping ribbon–pink, purple, and silver– for about two-fifty. “Now that’s what I’m talkin’ about!” says Ed.

When we got home, I had to figure out how to attach the ribbons to the bikes. I looked in my craft box left over from my crafty days, and found some pink pipe cleaners. Perfect!

I don’t know how long these will hold up, but the girls like the sparkle they add to their bikes.

Emmy posing on her tricycle. She hasn’t figured out how to pedal yet, but she still loves her bike.

Emmy’s trike–It’s been rainy and cold, so these haven’t had a chance to fall off yet!

Lily is showing me how sparkly her ribbons are.

Lily on her bike–with ribbons!

*Normally I am entirely against wearing flip-flops while riding a bicycle due to damage inflicted on my own toes when I rode my bike without shoes as a little kid, BUT we just came outside for a couple of minutes on a rainy afternoon, so Lily decided to wear shoes that COULD get wet, which just so happened to be her flip-flops, which she wore to the pool this summer. I just wanted to clear that up.

**Oh, and Lily refused to wear her jacket since we were only going out to get the mail, originally, until I saw the bikes, and then saw the RIBBONS, and thought of SPIN CYCLE, so I ran to get my camera and we were outside longer than I thought we’d be!