The Hottest Fall Weekend Ever

Ok, so I'm not sure about ever, but with temps above 90 both days, it was kind of miserable since we weren't doing our favorite water activities that we'd usually be doing in such weather. Instead, we stood and sweated at a parade, ran tons of errands (while sweating as we ran to and from the car), and went hiking. Yes, hiking. We happily treated the minis to ice cream sundaes after dinner for rocking our four mile hike in through the mosquitoes and heat!

It always seems that quite a few September weekends are hot, which makes getting into the fall spirit a bit hard (especially for someone who could have summer all year long). However, it's during these fall weekends that I realize how much the minis have grown and changed. Sometimes it's hard for me to tell just how much they've grown until I think back on these yearly activities.

The minis were actually able to sit through the Beaverdale Fall Fest parade. They rarely sit through parades, let alone enjoy them. That hilly, four mile hike we took? We did it in an hour. An hour. I remember a time not too long ago that a mile hike would take us two hours just because we had to spot to examine every leaf, every stick, play in the dirt, etc. This hike was all business, minus a stop to pick up some fallen acorns. Part of me is bursting inside with happiness because life is truly getting easier as they grow and the other part of me is filled with complete sadness that my babies aren't babies anymore. 

It's especially apparent that they aren't babies when they request I take videos of our Saturday's and "not soooo many pictures." At first I thought doing an Instagram story would suffice, but I was quickly shut down. So, for most of Saturday, I carried my phone in front of my face shooting our life as it played out that day. I must admit, it was rather fun and I caught some great moments along the way (and I still took pics).

My parents live in the heart of Beaverdale, so we easily parked at their house and walked up to the parade just before it started. I didn't want the loads of candy that this parade brings, so we stood back against a building. It also didn't hurt that it was in the shade on this incredibly hot day.

Elizabeth wasn't up for pictures obviously.

The Isiserettes are my favorite part of every parade in Des Moines!

At one point I looked down at my purse (aka crap holder) and realized how ridiculously full it was: four water bottles, contact solution and glasses, candy, fliers, and coloring books from the parade, Band Aids, tissues, Advil, baby wipes, tissues, and more. 

I had planned on leaving as soon as the parade was over (or as soon as the minis were bored, whichever came first), but the three minions convinced me to stay for lunch to check out the food truck selection. We needed up with pad thai noodles, cheese quesadillas, a walking taco, and egg rolls. Not a bad unexpected lunch.

These pictures cracked me up. It started with Elizabeth sitting on Max's lap, but poking at him, getting in his face, being annoying just to get a reaction from him. So he started pushing her and annoying her right back. Then he saw me with my phone and instantly stopped. He didn't want a record of that so he couldn't get into trouble!

From the Fall Festival, we had to make a stop at the Des Moines Children's Museum to drop off things that I had been working on. Lately, I've been busy working on programming material, schedules, and events for the Museum. I absolutely love being a board member and the great group of people I get to be surrounded with. I can't wait to show everyone in the community what we have been working on and envision.

Our quick trip turned into play time for the minis as I caught up on projects with other board members. By the time we left, the littlest mini was wearing down big time.

Trader Joe's was a big stop for us, as we had a lot of shopping to do to re-stock our cupboards with some of the basics (that I'll only get from TJ's). I treated the minis to a trip to the used book store for their long day. We came home with new-to-us records, comics, and chapter books. The boys insisted on bringing their own money to pay for the comics they wanted. My favorite part of the day was listening to Harrison count out his money.

He figured out how much his comics were and counted out his change. He made mention of the fact that he only had xxx amount in quarters. I didn't think anything of it because how much spending money could they really have with them? Logical thinking on my part, right? We get up to the register and Harrison didn't figure tax into his total, so he had to look through his pockets for more change. More change are key words here.

To get to his change, that he insisted on paying with, he pulls out numerous bills ($20's, $10's, and $5's), sets them on the counter, then proceeds to pay with all change. When he said he only had so much in quarters to spend, I took that as the only money he had to spend. Turns out he brought along $75 in cash, $3 in quarters, $2 in dimes and nickels, and $1 in pennies. All in one pocket. I guess it's good that they can still keep me on my toes!

Although I was tired from our day of running around, I happily made soy chorizo (from TJ's and it is soooo good) and "egg" burritos.

My Saturday ended with movie night on the couch.

Oh how I love my sleepy Sunday mornings! Sometimes, when I'm so exhausted, I don't realize how exhausted I actually am until I hit a wall. I hit my wall and slept for 12+ hours Saturday night into late Sunday morning. I came downstairs to find my minis snuggled up on the couches with hot apple cider, watching a movie, and the pleasant surprise that the middle mini had gotten breakfast for them. It was all around spectacular. There are bit bonuses to having my babies age.

Since I got a late start to the day, we turned our feast of pumpkin pancakes, yogurt parfaits, and leftover chorizo and eggs into brunch to fuel our afternoon of adventuring.

We took some time to make more slime too.

We spent some time at the music store picking out a violin for the oldest (who began lesson last week). The other two spent the entire time talking about all of the instruments they were going to play. So far we've got drums, ukulele, and flute.

While the music store was fun, our big adventure for the day was a 4 mile hike through Browns Woods. It was hot, humid, and extremely mosquito-y, but gosh it felt good to get that hike in!

I love this short video of our hike. Hiking is actually one of the only things I can do with the three minis that is peaceful and rejuvenating. Plus, hiking in the fall is pretty much my favorite, so I'm hoping we can get quite a few hikes in these next few weeks!

Life As A Freelance Writer

This sums up life for me.

I once read that the best writers write what they know. That piece of advice has stuck with me throughout the years. I unexpectedly came into my daycare profession and I was unexpectedly good at it. Soon, I had people asking me for tips and to share my tricks to get kids learning and involved. That got me into the blogging business.

As one can figure, it's tough to make money with a blog. I honestly didn't get into blogging for money or finding future work. I got into it because it was easier to share what I was doing with my daycare, plus, I soon realized it was a great stress reliever for me. I've always loved writing and suddenly I was getting to do it for fun. I was combining two of my passions into "work." I wrote what I knew and that got the ball rolling into a side-career of freelance writing.

I soon got email requests from other blogs and websites that wanted me to contribute to their content. I began accepting more and more writing assignments, at first for free (typically this involved sending them already published pieces on The Kidsperts and giving them permission to use them) and then eventually I received paid writing projects. I (usually) took on whatever projects I could to build up a writing portfolio and gain experience.

These days I'm picky about what projects and assignments I take on. Some of these are time sensitive and I have just hours to write something (or as I say "throw shit together"). Other projects I have several weeks or months to write so I can do proper research. Either way, my laptop is carted around my favorite work spots in my house: the right side of the big red couch in the living room, my dining room table (I've worked through many family dinners), the deck in the backyard that overlooks the backyard, and occasionally I wind up in my office (that's a rarity however).

I rarely seek projects out; I wait for others to contact me and give me a topic to write about. From there, my assignments vary greatly on who has hired me and their expectations. Most projects I'm free to write what I'd like as long as I get the key points in. Some projects are picky and I have to watch how many words are in the article, copyright issues, and the tone of the article(s). 

Most of my weekdays involve a ten hour daycare day, followed by a night of writing. If I didn't love writing and use it as a source of stress relief from my days with kids (however, let me take a minute to acknowledge that some writing projects bring stress as well!), this would not be an ideal second career for me! This blog that you're reading, that so many of you have followed to see our daily lives, serves as a portfolio for my writing and a portfolio of my daycare career, my life as a parent, and most importantly, a recording of our family. 

Because one simple piece of advice stuck with me since eighth grade, I have been able to build a second career as a freelance writer. Having more than one career can be hectic, especially when I have multiple projects that require my undivided attention (multi-tasking is a must in my life). I've learned many valuable lessons since my eyes have been opened to the freelance world. I have had to put on my business pants to go over contracts, because who wants to sign a bad deal? I have had to learn to negotiate pay and project guidelines. These are lessons that I wouldn't have otherwise. I doubt I'll ever be able to make this a full time career choice (unless I was comfortable with a huge pay cut, which, I'm not), but for now, it's just what I need and want.