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Swinger Sunday - Hardcore mom of four.

Hey guys! Yet another Swinger Sunday... and this week, the beautiful... amazing... hardcore mama of Tout-est-des-roses... read... comment... and love her posts like i do... :) Also... (when you finish here of course... scoot over and read this post... it may be my all time favorite blog post I've ever written. I keep it bookmarked in my toolbar. It was a huge inspiration to me and really helped me make some big changes in parenting and inspired our creative play Christmas... 

My name is Sara Sophia.
I have four children and I home-school, parent naturally and wear fairy wings while I garden.
I believe in being happy wherever you can, and with whatever you have--be that little or much.
I believe moments spent increasing faith and joy are the only moments worth counting.
I love babies.
I love ponies.
I love Jesus.
I love chocolate.
I love my husband.
I love organics.
I love life...kittens....butterscotch....

(not necessarily in that order)

And dude, I completely realize how hokey I sound. 
No--for real.

I realize that when you are a grown woman,
and you wear fairy wings in your garden,
that people think you have issues.
I realize that when all you really want to talk about
is love and patience and peace and joy--
that people think you are an idiot.
(Really, worse than that--
they think you are a self-absorbed, naive, ridiculous idiot)

But, I'm not.
I'm really and truly NOT an idiot:)

I am comfortable with who I am.
I am comfortable with my love of the whimsical and the childlike.
I am comfortable with the fact that I love my childrens toys
almost as much as they do (Etsy stuff is AWESOME).
I am comfortable with the fact that I will always be happy
wearing polka dots WITH stripes (Mother:).
I am comfortable with my beliefs
and my gratefulness for life and its blessings.

It is who I am. Candy fluff and all.

When reading the post  Kyle of Barley and Birch wrote for Amber the other day,
on how being eco-friendly was hardcore
(because all she basically does is work her butt off)
---it really hit home for me.
When you fight for what you believe in,
and stay true to your ideals---no matter how small,
YOU are making a difference.
You can change the world.
Just by being comfortable enough with yourself to say,
"this is how we do things".

And its all good.

Because being comfortable with who you are, is hardcore.



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Mentoring Mondays: Im Your Dad


 Hey guys! Welcome to a new segment called Mentoring Mondays... I was talking to one of my best buds adam the other night... thinking about how he MUST do a Swinger Sunday for me since he is such a great writer... but that turned into more and next thing we knew we were planning a weekly segment on my wide open Monday... ALLL about Adam's journey through fatherhood. And who knows, maybe we will even get Aymee to share a week or two! I love you both SO much and little Maddie too...  thanks for sharing with my readers and I... even though we're so far away... it will be like we've been there all along... :) p.s. you can find his blog here... follow him :)Mentoring Mondays Teaching you to be a lady while you teach me to be a dad.
I’m your dad.              Hi Madeline.  You don’t know me.  Hell, you don’t even know your own name.  (BTW it’s Madeline.)  But I’m your dad and by rights, in four and a half months I’ll be one of the two biggest influences in your life.  While I may just be “daddy” to you, that title means I’ll be engaged in a 24/7 job of raising you and somehow having to make it look seamless and effortless.  Don’t get me wrong; I welcome the challenge and the most rewarding part will be watching you grow from a helpless baby into an intelligent and confident woman.              There’s so many things I want to show you and tell you.  I suppose I have all of your life and the rest of mine to show and tell but let’s get two biggies up front.  These aren’t rules for you.  Those will come plenty soon enough.  Rather, these are constant variables.  Just like a science experiment.  I know you don’t know what science is yet but just bear with your old man for a sec.
Constant One:  I’ll always love you.The unconditional love between a parent and their child is the most pure emotion in the world.  The reason why is that both parent and child start with clean slates towards each other.  I haven’t wronged you and, until your first loaded diaper, you haven’t wronged me.  And even the whole diaper thing isn’t really your fault.  I, along with your mother…and I suppose by proxy, the doctor, will be the first people you meet.  And essentially for your early years, I and your mother will be the only people you’ll know. I’ll feed you and read you books and make funny faces just to make you laugh.  I’ll rock you to sleep and sing you songs.  As you get bigger I’ll buy you a bike and teach you to ride it.  When you get even older I’ll teach you to drive.  As these events unfold, you’re bound to make mistakes.  And that’s okay, Maddie.  Everyone makes mistakes.  My job as a parent is to help you learn from them.  You’ll leave your bike out and I’ll tell you to bring it in.  And if you take after your mother’s driving habits, you’re probably going to get in a car accident or three and I’ll tell you to pay more attention.  And you’re likely to think ill of me during these moments but they only exist because I love you and know that you can learn from what happened.  Through it all, I’ll always love you and I’ll always be your dad.
Constant Two:  You can come to me for anything.And when I say “anything,” I mean ANYTHING.  I will always listen to you.  While you’re a baby I’ll happily listen to you babble.  When you get older, feel free to come to me so we can converse about Big Bird or Yo Gabba Gabba or anything at all that your beautiful mind wants to talk about.  I’m always your ear.  Full disclosure: the secondary reasoning for this whole “come talk to me” stuff is for when you’re a teenager.  Things can get pretty hairy in your teens, and I’m not just talking about your body.  (Any excess body hair you might experience is all my fault.  Sorry kiddo.)  You and your friends/boyfriends/girlfriends are going to be turning into adults.  Your hormones and emotions will be going bat-shit and you’re going to often feel like a pinball bouncing around all corners of a pinball machine.  Sucky as it is, it’s all normal.  “What,” you ask?  “This is normal?!  This sucks!”  Yeah Maddie I know it sucks.  That’s why I’m here.  To help keep BS to a minimum and to help you stay your course.  And I’ll never ever tell you “Because I said so.”
Constant Three:  I’ll never ever say “Because I told you so!”I mean, let’s face it.  It’s a weak come-back.  It says “I don’t have a good reason for saying ‘no.’ I just don’t want you to do whatever it is you‘re about to do.”  If I do or don’t want you to do something, I will always give you a valid reason why or why not.  This is so I can always treat you as someone who has the ability to make their own decision about something.  Now I may not always agree with your decision and may try to direct you to more harmonious endeavors, as I stated above, part of parenting is helping you learn from mistakes.  That said, I’m not going to let you play a game of Russian Roulette.  Why?  Not because I told you so.  Because I would’ve already told you that Russian Roulette is a very dangerous game where the best you can hope for is to still be alive afterwards and the worst that can happen is that you’ll share a death amongst all Arkansas rednecks; one that starts with the sentence “Hey y’all!  Watch this!”  Bottom line is:  I’ll always give you a reason for my decision.
Well Madeline, that about does it for your dad.  We have plenty of time to go over this stuff again and this isn’t a test.  This is your life.  I’m committed to seeing it be a great one.  I’ll always be here for you.  I haven’t even met you yet and you’re the love of my life.  I love you Maddie.
-Your Dad

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Swinger Sunday - Pizza & Movie night by NiftyNappy!


So I am a guest here but I wanted to let you into our homes on a typical Friday night!  Even when we are away from home we have to have it. We are away this weekend staying with my sister.  Fortunately they like to have pizza and movie night also. Only tonight we are going to eat pizza and then go to a movie! Fun huh? the kids are way excited! Funny how traditions stick no matter what huh? My kids get upset if we say we are leaving town on the weekends. Even to go visit family!! "What about pizza and movie night?" or "We have to have pizza and movie night!" You'd think they would be excited to go see grandma or play with their cousins. We really hope this tradition sticks though AND that it is still cool when our kids are teenagers. They can have friends over and we can bake like 6 pizzas, but we will know what our kids are up to and be able to have fun with them. That is the end goal of this tradition!Want our recipes?  We have 2 that are the backbone of our tradition!
first the pizza the kids love:1 c. warm water1/4 c. sugar1 Tbsp. yeast(if it is active dry yeast it needs to sit and bloom here for a few min. -instant yeast press on!) 1/4 c. oil 1 eggmix all together, add1 tsp. salt3-4 c. flour till soft doughlet rise to double, roll out. Makes 2- med round or 1- 13X15 cookie sheetbake @400 for 12-15 min. until crust is golden brown
Sauce recipe8 oz. can tomato sauce1 tsp. garlic salt1/8 tsp. chili powder1/8 tsp. onion powder1/2 Tbsp. dried oregano1/2 Tbsp. dried basil1/4 tsp. peppermix and spread on rolled out pizza dough
we use the regular toppings: olives (lots of these)pepperonisausagebell peppersmushroomscheese  
This other pizza is super yummy!  We found it here online while looking for a healthier pizza, since we do eat pizza once a week!  Chicago Deep-Dish Pizza with Mushrooms, Peppers, and Onions*we also like to add a tiny bit of Italian sausage to spice it up!  :) 
SO, gonna try to have Pizza and movie night next Friday night?  maybe you don't like movies, try pizza and game night!  Our friends have "Fun Fridays"  they have Pizza and then watch a movie, only they have popcorn too!  But they mix in mini marshmallows with their popcorn!  (it is YUM!!)So, Party Friday night?  HeCk YeAh!  Thanks lady! What a rad post! (its me, amber again by the way...) What a great way to start off Swinger Sunday! Feel free to comment away... show us pics of YOUR pizza nights... and if you decide to try the recipe you MUST come back and share your thoughts with us!! Heres a pic of our pizza night (different recipe, but still yummy, and loads of family fun :)



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Note to Self Saturday: SWINGER SUNDAY!

Note to self... YOUR TOO BUSY! so I have decided to combine a few ideas that have been thrown my way... i love blogging... LOVE blogging... but sadly dont always have the time... so i was thinking about about a Swinger Sunday, where I swap out from writer to reader and have guest bloggers write in a post!? I think itll be ton of fun... Ill start a schedule... (starting tomorrow, so hurry). I dont care who you are... i dont care what you wanna write about (just keep it semi-clean...) parenting, heath, punk rock, tattoos, etsy, handmade, WHATEVER... I really dont care.... Just want to give others a chance to spread their advice... opinions... etc. Interested? Get ahold of me on twitter... email rockerbyebaby@gmail.com or leave a comment! Still need someone for tomorrow... and then we will book in weekly slots after that!
Thanks!!
Amber
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