Just for Fun: Reality TV Bracket

Friends, the world has changed exponentially in the last week. It feels like my social media feeds are full of nothing but fear, panic, advice, news, and articles about Covid-19. And that’s okay! It’s important to talk to each other, to still engage in community, and to find ways to help.

It’s also important, in my opinion, to make sure you have outlets for fun and joy as well. With March Madness cancelled, my desire for filling out a bracket has just not been met. So just to be silly and to have fun, here’s a reality TV bracket. Here’s how to this is going to work:

Fill out your bracket between today and Tuesday (3/17) morning at 8 am EST. Share it on instagram and tag me (@sasharoundtheclock). Alternatively, you can share your bracket in the comments below. PLEASE put your name on your bracket somewhere.

The winner of each round will be chosen by voting in my insta story. We’ll vote for the first four matchups on Tuesday, second four on Wednesday, Elite 8 (haha) on Thursday, Final Four on Friday, and Championship on Saturday. You’re in charge of scoring your own bracket, and I’ll ask on Sunday for your final scores!

Scoring: 2 points for each correct pick in the first round, 4 pts for each correct pick in the second round, 8 points in the third round, and 16 points if your final pick is right!

If we get 25+ people to play, there will be a real prize at the end for the winner. 🙂

Who’s playing?

Valentine’s Day Printable Cards – FREEBIE

Our small group had a special Sunday this week at church. We have been trying to add in projects and events that model showing love and serving others to our little ones. With toddlers, this isn’t always easy!

1. First, we invited the kids! My sneaky pete does NOT sit still. 🙂

2. We brought delicious treats from Bear Creek Donuts in Miamisburg.

3. We made Valentine’s Day cards together to take to a local senior center.

We had a great time doing this together. But preparing for this project was a little bit harder. Since we had pre-school agers, we wanted a project that would be easy for little hands to do. I searched the internet for simple valentine’s day cards, however, many of them had a “to” line. Since these are going to seniors that we don’t know, we didn’t want the traditional to and from lines. I wanted something the kids could color with images they could relate to, like animals! And I wanted sayings that were cute, but nothing too lovey dovey, because we wanted the cards to seem authentic. If you received a card from a stranger that said, “I Love You Beary Much” – you might feel awkward or like the effort wasn’t genuine. Okay, okay, maybe I put too much thought into it. So I found some free clipart (the websites said royalty free! Let’s not steal things!) and designed these simple and sweet cards in Canva. I’ve oriented them so you can fold them in half for card printing ease. And you can download them below in PDF form.

Here’s how ours turned out! What do you think?

ValentinesCards Download

If you or your little ones do print or color them, please share! 🙂 You can tag me on insta @sasharoundtheclock !

Don’t Make a Blizzard Out of a Flurry

You know that saying, don’t make a mountain out of a mole hill? I’ve updated it, both for the current weather and because who even knows what a mole hill is anyway?

New and improved saying, “Don’t Make a Blizzard Out of a Flurry.”

Have you ever seen schools, workplaces, gyms, churches, etc start cancelling events for a projected snow storm? And have you ever laughed when that snow got pushed back or cancelled all together? While it’s important to prepare (“We may have snow tomorrow, please check our Facebook page before heading our way”), it’s not necessary to live life as though the blizzard is imminent.

You’ve probably figured out that I’m not just talking about snow here. I’m also talking about life. As a “planner” personality, I am frequently guilty of acting as though the blizzard is guaranteed. It’s gotten worse as I’ve entered into motherhood. The frustration of starting a project just to have your toddler tear it apart (or potentially tear it apart) is enough to leave me quite literally frozen.

For example, while kiddo napped today, the hubby asked me to play a round of a video game. I said, “He could wake up any minute! I don’t want to start it and then have him wake up in the middle.” But then I took a deep breath and reminded myself not to make a blizzard out of a few snow flakes. We played for 20 beautiful toddler free minutes.

This afternoon I tackled a project that I’ve been putting off for years, literally. It was a simple-ish project – go through the 5000 pictures my sister took from our trip to Australia and post some on Facebook. Why have I put this off so long? It always seems so daunting to get started. I tell myself that when I have free time with my kiddo, I should be focused on him. How can I possibly start a long, intense project on my computer when I have mom-guilt and should be giving kiddo my attention?

Today, the living room was cleared and kiddo was playing happily on the floor with his cars and his new roadway rug. I put the laptop in my lap. And I just freaking did it. I still talked to kiddo and responded to his sweet chattering about mommy driving the police car. I was still near him. I had to set the computer down a few times to do stuff with him, but I kept coming back to it until it was done. All of that blizzard building avoidance for YEARS. It feels good to mark something off of my “hanging over my head guilt laden” list. Hoping to mark a few more off this year!

Mom guilt and priority mapping aren’t what stops me from starting projects. Blizzard-prepping avoidance, procrastination, laziness, anxiety. These things stop me from completing projects and mom-guilt is an enabling excuse.

It stops now. We can wrap ourselves in blankets and prepare for the cold – after all, winter is coming – but that doesn’t mean that life comes to a screeching halt. Even kiddo knows that.