Barnes and Noble, helping people sin :)

Barnes and Noble.

Perhaps the most ruthless bookstore in the world. My husband mentioned a few days ago that they have successfully run almost every other big chain bookstore out of business. Walden books is in like NO malls anymore. Borders? Haven't seen one of those in forever.

Does this stop us from spending our precious child free Date Nights wandering around the shelves with our coffee in hand? NOPE!

So this is the first place I go when shopping...for anyone, for anything. I had finished my parade around the store and my arms were full of exactly what I came for... nothing more. Usually I can't get out without 3 things I never knew I needed. Z and I are standing in line waiting for the next available cashier and there on the strategically placed table is a little black book that reads...

 

  Well, I didn't have a choice! I grabbed it as the cashier called me over and I placed it on the counter with my other treasures. And MAN! Am I glad I did. It is a fabulous book. It's full of suggestions on ways you can be truly selfish. Personally? I don't know if I could get through the entire year. I might be able to pull off 1-3 a month. But, no matter, because I didn't keep this book. I gave it to my good friend Sharon. She will be braver than I in implementing some of the suggestions.

Suggestions like:

I could probably bring myself to do something like this. Silly and laughed off :)

I LOVE the 'rest for the wicked' warning on these 2.

This one I loved for the list of suggested routes at the bottom :)

Other note worthy ideas were:

Attend a religious service for the snacks.
play with your childs toys.
Fake an accent for a day.
Purposely fart during a major life moment.
Pretend to be single for a day.
Pretend it's your birthday.
Eat the last cookie.
Skip work and go to the beach.
Commission a self portrait.
Slide down the banister.
Follow an ambulance through traffic.
Invent a religious holiday to get out of working.
Eat only things that contain chocolate.
Eat ice cream for breakfast.

These are the ones I could copy down before Z yelled at me because the holiday wrapping party had suddenly ceased.

So if anyone is looking to be charitable this new years (or anytime during 2013 as we accept donations all year), please don't hesitate to email me about the newly founded "Hands off my moolah" club. It's a fabulous group of me collecting money for...me.

Happy new years.
ING
!jen

Christmoose Inspiration from Holland

Stockings...I strongly dislike them. From the time I was a kid and Grandma ALWAYS filled the bottom of ours with fruit.... I have disliked them. Not that fruit is bad... its just so...ordinary.

So when I came upon the traditions of Holland and setting out wooden clogs on December 5th... I was saved. I LOVE doing this with my family. It helps break up the month by putting a little gift giving at the beginning. And although it sometimes doesn't work out for my husband to be there when the kids wake (cause it's usually a weekday) and discover their shoes we still do it.

For me, it's more about lessening the 'gimme' affect. Not that Z has that problem but i feel these traditions we have adopted or created are, in part, responsible for her lack of 'gimme'itis. By the time Christmoose (it's our new name for Christmas) comes around she has been playing with or used up entirely whatever was in her shoe on the 5th and Christmoose morning is all about what is wrapped under the tree. And this is where she is JUST as excited to see others open what SHE has wrapped as she is to unwrap her own gifts.

Plus, the shoe is ALOT smaller and easier to fill :) and lets face it stuffing stockings is a nightmare for most people.

Zephira's clog 2012.

Icarus' clog 2012.

As you can see, we still have a hard time remembering HOW small the shoes are. We get a few things and it's overflowing. Icky is the year of the rabbit. so he gets more bunny stuff than the average child :). The grey mat is actually a road rug for the hot wheels in his shoe. The road rug was one of Z's advents earlier in the month.

My husband and I have clogs as well.  bigger, cause we are bigger :) and someday (I'm thinking when Icky is 5ish, cause Z is 5 this year and I think she could do it) we will paint them. Unless we have more kids then we'll to wait for the youngest to be old enough to paint theirs.

We also got one for Elle, our fabulous niece who was born this year. This is her first christmoose and we're making sure to bombard my brother and sister in law with our ridiculous and silly traditions. Elle just may get a zombie for christmoose... :)

Happy Yule,
ING
!jen

Advent Calender? Nailed it!

I have always loved the idea of counting down the days with something other than a sharpie and a flip calender. Even if that flip calender DOES have horses on it (Z's favorite). But a little box with candies in it and perforated doors just isn't what our family is about.

A little disclaimer about Jen and the year 2012... I became addicted to Pinterest. It was accidental at first but now I'm on it ALL the time.

So I found, on pinterest, a ton of ideas for advents that were things to DO instead of things to get. Way back in November, remember November? I thought, I'll do something like this. Luckily my ipad makes whipping up things like this a breeze. I had the entire month of advents on 3 pages of business card templates and done in 2 days... and still managed to go to work and be productive.

I had to get creative as some ideas online were not conducive for CA. Like build a snowman in the front yard. I also had to be careful of the order some went in. For example: 'start Amish Friendship Bread' had to be 10 days before 'Bake Amish Friendship Bread'. And 'attend a holiday party or performance' had to be on a day that I knew of a few happening. So some took more planning and forethought than others.

But here we are at day 20 and we've only missed 1 advent and that was only because the supplies we bought were not as effective as we had hoped, live and learn.

I have had SO much fun doing advents with Z this month. some days I really didn't want to do whatever was on the card... but I didn't let myself poop out and I've been so glad every time. I hope that next year I have the resources to make an advent calender that is reusable from year to year (Z ripped open each envelope) and all we'll have to do is refill it each November.

In addition to the advents on the example page here's the rest of our list and a few I didn't get to put in or thought of too late :)

Have a tea party. (except we did a hot cocoa party.)

Make crafty ornaments (my husband and I started our ornament collection this way before we were married and now Z has added to it.)

Take a bubble bath.

Dance to loud christmoose music.

Watch a christmoose movie.

 Attend a holiday party or performance.

Cover a few windows with snow. (we bought the spray on snow from walmart)

Make a Yule log to burn on christmoose morning.

Wrap Graces presents. (grace is my sister and she lives with us)

Make and wrap something for Obichan. (Obichan is what Z calls her grandmother)

Make christmoose button art. (you know all those things on pinterest where they use buttons to make a letter for a girls room? we tried it and Z picked a moose shape, it was hard and took 3 days to finish, Z gave up after 20 min :)

Read 5 christmoose stories cause you are 5 years old. (Z was extatic to turn 5. her birthday was in July and we still have to do 5 of things regularly... cause she's 5 years old)

Stay up late and watch a movie.

Start Amish Friendship Bread.

Bake Amish Friendship Bread and gift to 3 friends.

Go see christmoose lights in the neighboorhood.

Go out to the mall and sing christmoose carols. (inspired by Buddy the Elf's 'the best way to spread christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear)

Go shopping for a daddy present.

Schedule a christmas volunteer project.

 Happy Holidays,

ING

!jen

Introduction

I'm Jen and I am the Indecisive Moose. What started out as a blog on photography... and maybe a little "other", quickly turned into a plethora of "other" topics. And I realized that my indecisiveness, though a joke in my house may actually be the downfall to my completing a great many unfinished tasks I have left in my wake. But that's besides the point... or maybe that IS the point :)

So for post 1, I thought I'd start with Photography...novel, right? This is my great friend Sonya and a fabulous shot from her 'Trash the Dress' session. She wanted to paint it... but how to get great splatter without ruining carpet or backdrops? The solution? a do-it-yourself carwash!

We hung the canvas (as a white backdrop), which made an amazing piece of art for their walls. You can see the green paint sailing toward Brandon in the lower lefthand corner. It took 3 paint splatterers to get a variety of colors and angles. Later Brandon learned not to laugh out loud... he got orange teeth :)

Once finished. We washed them off as best we could and placed the new art work in the car. luckily we had towels... cause no one thought ahead to how we would transport the still wet canvas :) But we're a role with the punches kind of group.

!jen