A Little Bit of Life

Transparency

2012-01-18T13:15:00.001-06:00

Yesterday, I came across this written by one of my all time favorite bloggers, Karen Russell:
At church on Sunday, our pastor talked about the fact that in order to really 'love' people, you have to be transparent - even at the risk of being hurt or having the things you share used against you later. And though I don't think I've ever really had much of a problem with being transparent on this blog, please bare with me while I make all of us a little uncomfortable...

She proceeded to disclose some things about her life that blog readers may or may not know about her. Basically it was her way of showing she is not perfect and does not share things on her blog to "show off" or make others feel her life is better than hers.

I love this so much. I love the pastor talked about really 'loving' others. Remember love is my word for the year. I strive to be a transparent person. I don't try to hide the real me. Take or leave it. I do write this blog to share with others little bits of our life (I don't think I have very many readers especially since I haven't kept up on it in the last year and half). But really I write this blog for my kids. I need to publish what I have so far into a book for them. I want them to be able to look back and see into our day-to-day life and into my thoughts about them, our family, our lives, and myself. I have never wrote this blog to pretend I am anyone I'm not or that I am better than anyone else. We all have great points and imperfections and things to work on.

It also reminds me that there are little messages all around us. You just have to notice them. It seems lately I keep noticing little messages everywhere about truth and honesty. It makes me want to go back to church. We had just started going a few months before my dad passed away and then we spent so many weekends working on the farm, we didn't get to go. We tried to go back a few times but found it hard since we were out of the habit. I really want to go back, hopefully I can hear some good messages like the one above (although it is hard to hear them over the craziness of my children).

I think transparency is why Aaron and I have the relationship that we do. We lay everything out here (and in stores and the car and at restaurants and even in the yard). We tell it like it is to each other even though at times in public it can be embarrassing. We know where we stand on pretty much everything and yes, there is yelling and cursing and tears at times. But we are completely honest with each other. We seldom go to bed angry because we say what needs to be said when it comes up. We don't bottle up anything, there is no silent treatment here! I know some people would rather keep it their feelings bottled up rather than risk an arguement but how does that solve anything? I think most times just makes it worse in the end. Transparency is not always easy but being true to yourself and others is worth it. It can be hard for people to understand especially if they don't live their life this way. I hope to teach my kids that being open and honest is one of the most important things in life and the key to great relationships.

Better than I used to be

2012-01-04T18:25:00.001-06:00

This song would be the perfect accompaniment to my life at this moment. The new year didn't start out on the positive note that I was hoping. It's a good thing I have broad shoulders and good outlook, or I may have ended up in a pile in the corner crying. I am not perfect and will never pretend to be. I am a good person, I never intentionally hurt people especially ones I am close to despite what others think. I am what I am and I've never hid it here or to anyone else. This year will get better, even if it that "uphill climb" is going to be a lot harder than I could have ever predicted, but no matter what I will remain true to myself.

Happiness

2012-01-02T20:23:00.001-06:00

The last few days have me thinking about my life .... we don't have a lot of money or a fabulous home (rather 1 good home and 1 work-in-progress home). We don't drive nice vehicles or travel to exotic places or really any places at all other than the grocery store and Goodwill. We wear used clothes, the hubby and I could each stand to lose 20 pounds, I'm lucky if I manage to get my haircut twice a year and shower every 2 days. Most days I wear sweats and am up to armpits in kids and questions and projects and homework and bills and a giant mess at our house and days can go by where I don't talk to any other adults except my hubby. But ..... and it's a big
BUT .....
I am happy. Happy with things just the way they are, counting my blessings and loving myself and the life we have created.

love!

2012-01-01T00:01:00.002-06:00

I always choose a word for the year. It's my way of doing resolutions. The word is my theme (oh, how I love a theme)for the year. I incorporate that word into my day to day life to help me grow as a person in as many ways as possible. This year "love" sort of picked me so we'll see where it takes me but I have some ideas in mind already.

2011's word was strength. I can't think of a more perfect word for me for the past year. I kept hold of that word all through the year .... so much so that I may just have it tattooed on my body. There were some big rough patches last year but I stayed strong through them. I know that I am even a stronger person now than a year ago, I am so proud of myself for staying strong. I wrote on facebook today that I was blindsided a few times this year but hope my vision in 2012 is better. That vision is going to be filled with love.

Hope the year to come is the best possible for all of us!

Happy 2012!

Christmas time .... An Early Gift

2011-12-09T14:28:00.000-06:00

Christmas is here in full swing at our house. We've seen Santa twice ..... I think we are going to get to visit with him again tomorrow. Some people are very definite with their lists here and repeat it like lines in a play. Others {Addison} like to say a new item each and every time they are asked what they are hoping for, might be forgetfulness or might be a strategy.

Elfie is being "bad" according to the kids this year. He has been doing all sorts of crazy things around the house like wrestling Woody with lots of on-lookers, a snowball fight with legos, building a snowman out of marshmallows, and today he's driving a tractor full of dolls around on the dining room table.

One day he drew on one of family photos. I love the mohawk Aaron has here:

The girls and I made Christmas cookies. I have been invited to my first cookie exchange and I wanted to try out a new recipe. I am so excited about the cookie exchange. I think it's such a fun thing, I almost didn't do it because I was afraid I was over-committing myself (like I always do) but I think it's going to be fine.

It snowed twice this week. The first time was just a little bit but the kids were so excited so we went outside and played for a while. We made snowballs and even a pint sized snowman that Reese smashed before I got a photo. Today there was about an inch or so of snow .... snowboots were needed as well as snowpants ..... we had to make a trip over to the big house to dig out one pair of boots and all the snowpants .... I found them all. But Ethan took a pair of 3T snowpants to school when he really needs a 5 or 6 so I don't know what happened when he tried to put them on. Tomorrow snowpants for Ethan are on the shopping list.

I usually sew quite a bit for Christmas for gifts but this year with most of my sewing supplies over at the other house the list is quite limited. But I did make this new tree skirt for us. I have a few more things to make but time is running out.
I've have 75% of my shopping done and most of that I did on the internet. The only part of Christmas that I dislike is the shopping .... ugghhh. I like everything else: the decorating, the food, the events, the celebrating, the excitement, .... the gifts of what to buy, where to find it, how much we've spent, the limited time I have to shop and my hate for shopping in general is the yucky part for me. Of course without the gift what's the point of the tree with a big space underneath it or why would the kids be super excited? Enough of my Grinching!

And then today I got an early gift. It was a note from Ethan's special education teacher, Mrs. Collins. She was reporting that Ethan had made significant gains in the areas they were working on. Several weeks ago I had a report come home from school that wasn't so great and it looked like he was going backwards rather then maintaining or moving forward. Today when I read the note, I cried. He struggles so much, it's hard for him repeating kindergarten when his siblings are in 1st grade. He has to work so much harder than the other students and still it's not always good. He fights us at home to do work. But today shows that slowly but surely he will make gains. So the grinch is right:

"Maybe Christmas doesn't come from a store. Maybe Christmas, perhaps, means a bit more."

I thanked Mrs. Collins for the early Christmas gift ..... Christmas comes once a year but we receive "gifts" all the time ... we just have to look for them.

A Thanksgiving Surprise!

2011-11-24T22:32:00.000-06:00

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

From our house to yours, I hope your Thanksgiving was as wonderful as ours was. The food was yummy and I am glad everything turned out. I always have turkey issues normally it's not done on time. Well this year it was done 2 hours early according to the button that popped out but I didn't trust it and kept on cooking it and it was just fine. Aaron's parents joined us this year so it was a small gathering but very fun. We wrote what we were thankful for and did some art leaf pictures -- all 8 of us. We ate pie and ice cream and cookies even though we thought we couldn't eat anymore.

Addison took this photo of me pulling out my pumpkin pie yesterday. I've spent this entire week cooking our meal little by little and thinking about how this could be our last Thanksgiving in this house. Although I am ready to move to our other house, it makes me so sad to think of leaving this one. It has been our home since we were married and served us well, seen us through our struggles with infertility and bringing home triplets and then Reesey. As I look around, we finally have this house decorated the way we like it and now we are starting over. Don't get me wrong I know that many more exciting memories will be made in our new home and we can spread out a bit there too but good-byes are hard even with houses.

The girls and I made these cute napkin rings yesterday for our Thanksgiving table. They turned out so cute for using toilet paper rings and scraps of paper that I hoard (that my sister always makes fun of me for saving so much of that kind of stuff). I love doing stuff like that with the kids. It's so much fun now that they can help do little things like this with me.

The kids dressed up this week as Indians for a Thanksgiving feast at school. They look so cute!

I made the same paper bag turkey that I did last year. Aaron "carved" it. Ethan said "I hope it's cheese inside". But it was the same as last time: popcorn.

The yummy food, the togetherness, and the memories made for a great day. But I think the best part of the day happened by chance. Aaron left to have a drink with a friend for a bit and I decided it would be fun to put in the video of the triplets when they were babies. We've never watched it. It's very long and mostly a camera in front of a babies face for like 5 straight minutes with me talking in high pitched/annoying baby talk then moving on to the next baby. And then suddenly there it was: a couple of times I recorded the kids while my dad was here. And I got to see him and hear him talk, just briefly, but he was there just like he was every Thanksgiving. Then I remembered this photo taken on Thanksgiving 7 years ago when we only had 2 babies home and Ethan was still in the hospital:

I'm counting all my blessings this year, even my dad's "surprise" visit! Thanks, Dad!

Off to See the Wizard!

2011-11-17T14:32:00.000-06:00

I almost deleted my blog. I never ever update it. Seems like another obligation rather than a memory keeper. But I think I'll give it another go and try to get back on track. We just celebrated all the kids' birthday with one big Wizard of Oz bash. That's what our family costume theme was this year too: The Wizard of Oz! The kids were so cute!

We had 15 kids at their party and we played a lot of games/activities. It was fun (at least to me). But I didn't think ahead and get very many party pictures.

I made our pinata again and this time EVERYONE got a turn at bat. It was hard to break this time around.

This is Caden running in the witch relay race ... it looks more Harry Potterish to me but still cute!

Reese was the only one that wanted to wear her costume at the party. She has loved the Wizard of Oz for a couple years. She was so excited for Halloween and their party .... she still hasn't had her birthday yet .... couple more weeks and she'll be FOUR (how can that be?).

I worked on the party for weeks (as usual). Seriously I do love doing it. I love to think of ways to make things without buying them. The favor bags this year were made out of grocery sacks .... yes, I weaved 15 baskets from grocery sacks. I know, people are rolling their eyes, it didn't really take that long and it was free.

The rainbow cake turned out at 11:30 the night before it didn't seem like it was going to work. Each layer wasn't coming out the pan so nicely. I sure thought it would fall apart when I cut into it but it didn't and kids liked it and it tasted good.

I really love doing these parties and I hope the kids remember them but even if they don't, I know I will.

Back to School

2011-08-29T17:54:00.000-05:00

The summer flew by and so did the last week. The kids are back to school. I felt like we weren't quite ready but in just in the nick of time, I packed up all the backpacks and remarkably we had the correct supplies and Grammy took the kids shoe shopping about 4 days before school started. Good thing every one's foot grew lots and no one could squeeze into their old tennies. They are all in different classrooms this year. We've never had that happen yet. Before it was always 2 in one and 1 in another or all three in the same.

Addison is in Mrs. Wallace's 1st grade class. Addison loves school. She loves to stay busy, quite like her mama. She is so enthusiastic about 1st grade. She has been coming with lots of completed work and I had to talk to her about slowing down and making silly mistakes but the next few days I could tell she listened to me and her work was much better. She has been quite emotional this week in the evenings but I think she is just tired from the routine. I think she will have a great year.

Caden is in Miss Patterson's 1st grade room. Miss Patterson is a new teacher to our district. She is not new to me, she was in my 3rd grade class when I was teaching. Caden is super shy at school. I asked him on Friday after 5 days of school if he had talked to Miss Patterson yet and he said he hadn't. So we are going to work on that a bit and remember to raise our hand to answer questions and such. Caden is enjoying 1st grade so far and I think he will do well and hopefully talk to his teacher soon too!

Ethan is repeating Kindergarten this year. We have known since last January that he would need to go through kindergarten again. I was not surprised, but it is still hard. I taught for 10+ years and I've been on the other side of the table telling parents that their child needs to repeat a grade. It's hard no matter what position you are in this case. I don't think I would have gave it a second thought if Ethan was not a triplet. It's hard for everyone to see his brother and sister move on when he isn't. But it was evident he was ready for 1st grade at all. We couldn't just move him on just because he's a triplet just as we couldn't hold Caden and Addison back for a year because they are triplets and their brother isn't ready. Even though they came as a "group" they are individuals with different needs. It's been hard for him too. When we first told him that he would be redoing kindergarten at the beginning of the summer, he cried saying that he wanted to go to 1st grade with Caden and Addison. It was hard but he got used to the idea. He had a hard time getting used to the idea that he switched teachers too. We loved Mr. Sanberg and he did a great job with Ethan, and we love Mrs. Ray too so we know that this year will be good for him. He did really well the first week of school, no fits and getting going on his work right away is what Mrs. Ray reported. But he's still having a hard time understanding the whole situation. It broke my heart, a few days ago when I said it was time for school and he asked if he was going to 1st grade now and I told him no he'd been doing kindergarten all year. He said "But Mom, I already did kindergarten." He wants a puppy in the worst way and a puppy would be good for him so I told him if he worked really hard in kindergarten doing his work and listening and not throwing fits and we get our BIG house to a decent state, he could get a puppy.

I think it will be a good year overall not without challenges but I think there will be a puppy waiting for us several months down the road.

The Line

2011-07-08T08:39:00.000-05:00

Sometimes ......

you have to draw that line even if it means you are all alone on the other side.

My Team

2011-06-18T07:50:00.004-05:00

T-ball is wrapping up at the end of this month. I can really tell a major improvement in all 3 kids' skills and attitudes toward the sport this year compared to last year. Aaron is a coach this time, which I was not thrilled about because I was not about to be a "coach" when he couldn't come due to work conflicts and I absolutely did not want to sit in the dugout with impatient pre-k kids and kindergarteners. I'm a teacher .... I only do stuff like that when I get paid!

Addison is pretty good at the sport. She is only one of three girls on the team. Most girls play softball on a separate team in North Henderson. We've been asked a lot why we didn't sign her up with the girls' team. It's simple: I don't want to go to twice as many games. We have 3 games a week as it is .... that is a lot for us. I think playing with the boys makes her better anyway.

Last year I had to drag Ethan out of the van, onto the field, bribe him, yell at him .... just to get him somewhat involved in the game. This year he has declared several times, "I quit baseball" when he realizes that we have a game. But he has gotten out there every game. He has even hit the ball off a pitch a couple times. He gets so excited when that happens. One game when he was on third base, the ball rolled his way and he picked it up and handed to the third baseman before he ran home.

He does sit in the outfield and play in the dirt which drives his dad crazy. He takes dirt showers, tasted the dirt once, and even lays down making dirt angels (which did stop a ball once). He did try to slide home at the last game. Big progress for him.

Caden is very serious about baseball. He has quite the batting stance and runs very fast to the bases.

He is a pro slider. He is quite brave to do that in my opinion. He always has the dirt stains on his pants to show it.

I'm very proud of our little team. I can't believe that next year, we'll be moving on to a new chapter of regular baseball with more than 2 innings, pitching only where they count the fouls and strikes, and keep score. Yikes, I don't think I'm ready for any of that but I'm sure my team will be!

She

2011-06-17T08:15:00.000-05:00

She is cRaZY. She is 3 and a half. She can go from 0 to 60 in one second. She says funny things. She won't let me come her hair. She doesn't really listen to me and does what she wants. She is cute. She fell asleep on the porch as we were getting ready for a t-ball game a couple days ago.

I really wanted to leave her there and stay home from the ballgame but I was afraid she roll down the stairs. She did look so sweet and peaceful for a few minutes of her life.

Then today, as we were riding bikes to the post office she fell head first into a mud puddle. I told her not to ride through the puddle (I told you she doesn't listen.).

Doesn't she look so pitiful? In the end she was happy because she got to take a bath all by herself in the middle of the day.

She drives me crazy but I love her and that crazy personality.

Crack house

2011-06-16T14:33:00.002-05:00

Things sometimes get worse before they get better. Our new house is no exception. My mother-in-law and I took all the wallpaper off the living room walls on Tuesday.

Sort of looks like a "crack house". I have to say the 1992 peach wallpaper was doing a lot for this giant room (indcluding holding some of the walls together!). 4 garbage bags of peach wallpaper decorated this room.

All we are really missing is some homeless people. It's getting really hard to picture my Christmas tree in that window now. And the scary part is ... it's going to get a lot worse than this. Deep breath. After talking to a previous owner, I am realizing that this poor house hasn't had much, if really anything of major importance (other than paint, wallpaper, carpet, a counter top) done to it in 25 years or more. Isn't that sad? Everyone calls this house the Van Fleet house because the prominent Van Fleet family lived here at one point and anyone who had been in it said it was quite a house in its day. It's just like a person, if you neglected your health, body, and appearance for 25+ years, what kind of shape would you be in? I'm going to think of it that way, like a person, it needs some TLC ..... maybe we'll even give it a name

We could go with the more Au natural, and give the house the Tuscan look: leave some exposed walls, paint some green and browns .... old Italy. Second thought, no, but the Tuscan look is at least a few steps above the crack house look, don't you think?

I would rather

2011-06-08T13:41:00.000-05:00

scrapbook, go shopping, swim, go out to eat, plan a party, have a clean house ...... anything other than what needs to be accomplished. Of course, isn't that how it always is, if someone said I had to scrapbook right now, I'd probably find some other endeavor I'd rather do.

2 houses and things to do at each is very overwhelming. Aaron was laid-off on Friday so now we will have some time but he's helping out some people right now .... so I'm still on my own. We made a smaller list of "to-dos" at the current house, it didn't even fill up a piece of construction paper. I'm scheduling 2 weeks! Then we MUST get this house on the market and get to working on the BIG house. I'm coming to terms with things at the BIG house. After scraping some paint on the stairs I will be living with mostly white woodwork, which is very trendy right now .... I'm even tempted to rip up carpeting upstairs and have painted pine floors for a while until we can afford new hardwood. We'll see .... It's going to be a work-in-progress for a loooooonnnnngggg time! It will be okay. I'm try to pack up "extra" clutter and stuff here and take it to the BIG house but that is also a slow process for me. I'm just slow! I seem to be more motivated when my hubby is here. I also am not sure where to put things so they are out of the way and I don't have to move them several times. Speaking of which, I have moved these banana boxes no less than 30 times. They've been on my porch in several places, in the house, in the yard, on the sidewalk, in the backyard, depending on what project I'm working on and where they have to go for a while. They did come in hand when I painted the porch .....

paint drying baracade! Of course, I'd rather build things out of banana boxes than do what needs to be done!

Tomorrow

2011-05-31T00:03:00.000-05:00

It was a long day. I was woke up at 4:45 am by my husband, who after he went to the bathroom and drank loudly from a water bottle said, "I'm wide awake", then he promptly crawled back in bed and fell asleep in about 2 minutes. Then I was wide awake. Both sisters and families spent the night and I didn't want to get up too early so I watched TV in bed until 6 then started my day. My day involved: a Memorial Day Parade with complaining kids about being hot and thirsty, craziness at Lowe's while trying to decide what flooring we will be using that included a child knocking over a cart onto himself and spilling a shake, leaving Galesburg with no groceries because we were too mad to take them into another store, lots of yelling at home about what the heck we are doing with that house and at children who are not helping matters when we are trying to talk, painting around windows, power washing the porch, and cutting tile for the laundry room (that would be all stuff at the OLD house not the new). In all the commotion and yelling and discussing what did we figure out: we don't know what we are doing. No plan .... I don't work without a plan ... it drives me crazy. It stresses me out and makes me feel overwhelmed. After the kids were in bed at 9:15, I had to go buy groceries. I had to weigh it out: going to the grocery store at night when I'm tired or taking 4 kids there tomorrow. I think I made the right choice.

So we in trying to do something "right" today, I read bedtime stories (on our summer list). I'll admit I don't normally do it because by the time bedtime rolls around I am D.O.N.E. with kids, not the right attitude at all. In Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse it was right there:

"Today was a difficult day;

tomorrow will be better."

That sums it up doesn't it? It will all work out, we'll figure out what flooring to get and how to pay for it. I'll decide if I am stripping the stairway railing and steps, we'll get out current house ready and it will sell. We'll come up with a plan when Aaron isn't completely exhausted from working these long hours and someday soon I'll get a few hours to myself where I can think clearly without people talking non stop. I'm off to bed .... tomorrow is almost here.

Lists!

2011-05-28T18:44:00.000-05:00

I'm REALLY into lists. In February when we decided we needed to get serious about buying a different house (we've only talked about it for 5 years), I sat down and made this huge list of all things we need to do to sell this house.

Aaron made fun of me for making a GIANT list but I said if we wrote on a small paper we'd lose it and if we don't have a list we will forget what needs to be done. We've accomplished a lot on the list and as soon as he is finished with this temporary job, I think we will be able to finish this up in a reasonable amount of time.

The kids and I brainstormed for our summer list. This is all the things that Aaron and I (or just me) want to do with the kids. It makes us keep "fun" in our summer. With so much still to do at the farm and all the work on the new house, I didn't want the summer to slip by and realize we hadn't done much family stuff. The kids are excited (and so am I).

I so overwhelmed by the BIG house that I want to make a list but where to begin is the question. And truthfully I can't make a list by myself; it's something that Aaron and I need to be on the same page. If I ever see him again, maybe we can make a list. Here's my start:

Seriously that says it all, if I wrote down everything it would be a novel. I think we need to think first things first. If we could get some electricians over to look at our wiring that would be a good start. It's so overwhelming. I need a foreman over there to boss me .... that will where my hubby steps in next week, I hope.

The Last Day

2011-05-25T09:29:00.001-05:00

This is the kids last day of school. As usual I feel like I should spend that very last day doing something just for me, like have a spa day. But I don't see that happening on any last days of school around my house. It's so busy with programs and trips going on at school. Then add to the fact that I have sick one here. Ethan has an ear infection and bronchitis. I am referring him to as Neb Man.

We've never done nebulizers at our house, much to my doctor's surprise. The nurse warned that most kids don't like the mask and they never put the mask on just hold it up to their face. Not Ethan, he's all about wearing the mask and even wants to have it on his person at all times by carrying it around in a bag. He's missed the entire last week of school. All the fun stuff happens then, I feel bad that he missed it but he doesn't know and doesn't feel like doing anything either.

I was able to sneak away yesterday to see Caden and Addison in their Mother Goose Plays:

Caden was Old King Cole.

Addison was Jill from Jack & Jill:

There were so cute.

So no spa day for me today. On the agenda instead is:

*Giving the Neb Man his treatments every 4 hours.

*Cleaning up our house. Every since I had to give up the cleaning lady in January when Aaron got laid off, my house hasn't been completely cleaned. When I had my cleaning lady, I picked up everything every 2 weeks, now it's so out-of -control plus doing home improvement projects makes it impossible for us to keep things in order. I have to get it cleaned up today because these children of mine are going to help keep it clean this summer and we should start with a clean slate. (I cringe to think we own 2 houses right now and once we begin moving stuff we will have 2 messy houses)!

*Take a shower .... I don't think I've had time yet this week!

*Clean out my purse, I think someone put a cookie or two in there and they are crumbled to pieces.

*Think about teacher gifts ..... we go back to get our report cards on Friday. I sure do think all the teachers my children had were fabulous and I want to thank them for all their patience and hard work!

*Laundry .... there's always laundry here.

*Work on my summer school program. Yes, we are doing school work here this summer almost every single weekday. We have to, so skills aren't lost. I'm including fun snacks and art projects, games and computer time so it won't be that bad. My kids are also going to have jobs and I'm implementing a rewards program for their schoolwork, jobs, and behavior.

Looks like I better get going on my day, summer will be here in 4.5 hours!

Yesterday

2011-05-23T14:22:00.000-05:00

Yesterday we went to the BIG house (as the kids call it) to receive a delivery .... which made us both question each other why are receiving a big delivery when we aren't in any sort of position to do so ... in remodel world. Of course we both said it was the other person's fault, thus began the first fight about the BIG house, more to follow I'm sure.

While waiting for our delivery to be completed we worked on the endless removal of nails in the subfloor and started to peel off wallpaper which so far has revealed some nicer wallboard not crazy plaster problems (YET!). The kids even helped with this for quite a while. Previous dwellers of the house have written on the walls ... lots of names but some funny things too like: Let's watch T.V. and My brother loves Bonanza!

These two decided to do some of their own work. Holding a nail for your sister to hammer is very brave .... it reminds of me of Lucy and Charlie Brown. I can't remember if this is before or after he punched her in the face; thank goodness he didn't use a hammer to hit her.

We found another resident at our house .... I'm hoping this is the only other "critter" we find.

Our first family portrait in front of the house.

This photo is for my sisters ..... I know they will find it ironic and funny!

Code Word

2011-05-21T20:58:00.000-05:00

Potential is a good, positive word. However it really is code for WORK! We bought a large old house with potential. This is how I spent about 3 hours the first day, crouched down like this:

Doing this about 1 million times:

I should have counted how many 3 inch nails I pulled out of a 4x6 piece of subfloor. After about 3 hours I got one piece done .... only about 11 more or so to go in this room. I'm trying not to the think about the other rooms the carpet continues in.

Aaron ripped up the 1980-something carpet to find someone let their dog/s pee on every possible inch of carpeting.

Here's what we found ... we think it's 5" pine plank floors. I worked solo today to find some not so pretty spots .... that we think the room was once 2 rooms and they tore out a wall and patched the floors with whatever was in easy reach. Not sure what to do about that. I'm going to let it soak in and of course keep removing the subfloor hoping that there are no more surprises. I search the internet for inspiration photos hoping that with some good patching, sanding, and some stain we can have nice wood floors. It's really overwhelming, when you don't know what you are doing, working without your sidekick (he was at work) to at least talk about it, and listening to my children scream and fight every 5 seconds.

There is potential ....

Wouldn't a Christmas tree look great right there in the middle of those windows?

Won't my dining room look pretty painted a creamy yellow color? Gasp, I think these paneled walls are the only nice walls in the entire house.

Some "nice" kitchen cabinets would be beautiful looking peeking through the doorways.

It takes every ounce of resistance not to start ripping out all these old mismatched,some homemade cabinets.

Or to tear out the bathroom cabinets ... who needs this much storage in a bathroom????? What do need besides towels, soap, shampoo, and a few medical supplies. I guess I could become a member of Sam's Club again and buy the biggest toilet paper pack they have.

I'd love to go buy some paint remover and see what this banister looks like au natural. There are chips that peak into it's old beauty. But once again I get ahead of myself. We promised ourselves we would not start a bunch of projects at once on this house. We would make a plan and finish projects/rooms before we begin another. Still it's hard not to start more than once thing. Oh the potential!

Yes, I'm 3!

2011-05-10T07:09:00.000-05:00

Here's a regular quote from my 3 year old: “I CAN do it MYSELF!” I, too, feel like I need to scream that announcement at this time. I can do almost anything on my own and I want to do it myself. I don’t usually need people to help me. I love doing things on our own and prefer it that way. I am not looking for problem solvers or decorators or social events planners or financial managers or nannies (or so maybe now and then I need a babysitter) or life coaches or decision makers or therapists or personal shoppers…. I’m not trying to be superwoman or supermom or super anything. I’m just being me. I am a very independent person (just ask my husband). I like to do things on my own at my last minute pace which is how I work best. I very seldom jump into anything, big or small, without a long thought process to weigh everything out, and I can say that I hardly ever regret anything. I’ve run across people who find my independence a fault or view it in a negative way. What can I do about that? Nothing ….. I’m just going to keep on truckin’. And I do understand that people are just trying to be nice by offering, but they should not be offended when their offer is declined: "Thanks, but no thanks!" So at this moment in my life when I feel our plate is very FULL … well maybe it has overfilled at this point and it's making one big giant mess on the floor ….. I still want to keep being me and doing it on our own. The ending accomplishment makes us happy! When we need help, we will ask. Until then you will keep hearing me say or possibly yell, “I CAN do it MYSELF!”

Missing Him

2011-05-05T14:44:00.000-05:00

One year … that's how long it's been since my dad so surprisingly passed away. It seems so long ago and yet it seems like just yesterday. He wasn’t sick, he wasn’t unhappy, he was busy, he was farming, he was taking care of his dog, Daisy, he was going to dances, he was involved with all 3 of his daughters and their families …. He was here one moment and gone the next.

I saw him a lot …. He was here at my house at least every 2 weeks if not more. He almost always showed up unexpectedly {which drove me crazy} bringing us soda and treats for the kids and sometimes dinner. I think about him alot ... more than every day .... more like several times an hour. I am a lot like my dad … I’m a loner, I can be very quiet/shy at times and very loud and obnoxious at others. I’m a rule follower. I love old things and reusing things …. I can be a saver and a hoarder. I’m a procrastinator and not the best housekeeper. These are all things I would say were qualities my father had. I think family is pretty important just like he did.

I’ve noticed over the past year how much Caden is like my Dad. He has the same beautiful blue eyes as my dad. The way he smiles and after seeing some of my dad’s childhood photos, they looked almost alike at this age. Even the way Dad was standing in old photos is Caden to a tee. Caden will suddenly say something out of character that remind me of things my dad would say from time to time.

At Christmas time, I was digging through my cookie jar in the kitchen and I found a Christmas card from my Dad. It wasn’t dated and he had handwritten all our names in it and it said something about remembering the blessings at this time of the year and then he signed it Love, Dad Grandpa Spike. It was like he was here and I think it was his way of showing it and a reminder that I need to be present in the moment. All through the past year, I see signs of him everywhere …. He really has carried me through this deep dark time. There were many many weeks when all I wanted to do was sit in my bedroom and watch mindless TV hour after hour, it was hard to do anything else. I know he was right there with me. I needed that time to grieve and be alone and figure out things. I know now that he was my strength when he was here even though I didn’t realize it and he continues to be my strength after he’s gone.

Being out on the farm is hard work but it’s a way to be close to him and his land and our family. We all seem to pull together out there. It’s been a rough road for us sisters too, we are close, but I know for me I’ve had some not so glamorous moments. Everything is different and I felt like we all had our little place in life but with my Dad’s passing it was like someone put us all in a can and shook us up and dumped us out and now it’s all different and for me I’m just trying to find my new place in our relationships, our family. It’s still good to get out there and work together …. It’s are own special therapy. After a day or two on the farm, I’m much too tired to be overly concerned with the unimportant minutia that sometimes overcomes me. I just ordered a quote for my wall that says “Happiness is a Journey” which is very true … this part of life’s journey is not happy but the memories of my dad and closeness that I share with my sisters and their families is part of the happy part. So one year down the road, I am wiser, I am appreciative of my dad, I am missing him more with every passing day. I think it was my sister who said she read somewhere that when you lose a loved one you never get over it, you just get used to it.

Miss and love you, Dad!

Hanging in there!

2011-04-17T19:21:00.002-05:00

I know it's shocking that I am going to post on my blog. I wanted to about a million times but it just never happened. I'm sure everyone was sitting on pins and needles to see what exciting things we were up to.

I turned 40 and am still happy about it, so far it's been really good. I'm definitely getting better with age!

It's been a year with a lot of changes for my family and for me. I've definitely had some not so great moments in dealing with my dad's death and if you happen to be one of the unfortunate ones on the wrong end of my emotional/mental breakdowns, I apologize. However, through all the tough stuff some really great things have happened too and I think I am becoming a better person. Enormous things put it all into perspective, although some days I have a clearer perspective than others. Definitely, life goes on ...... lots of changes here at our house and on the horizon.

We had a bump in the road with Aaron being laid off for 3 months, but he's headed back tomorrow. We've gotten a lot done while he was home and even though it through a huge wrench into my regular day-to-day, it was nice to have him here and the kids enjoyed it a lot. Plus I think he's almost mastered the Wii game Lego Star Wars (yay).

The kids are learning to read. I taught school for over 10 years (1st grade the majority of those years). I remember lots of people asking me "How do you teach them to read?" Everytime I was asked that I never had an answer, because there's no formula or certain things you do, it's tons of things and exposure and continuously talking about letters and sounds and words and rhyming and the other million things you do. I remember that I used to tell those people, "That it was like magic." And it was ..... I was always amazed by it because there would be kids I would think I don't know if I'm going to be to teach that child to read but they always did to some degree. And when my own kids starting reading a bit a few weeks ago, the magic was there again. I am amazed again.

And this guy, has made huge strides in his learning, behavior, and development this year. We still have a ways to go. But overall we are so proud of him and the teachers and staff at the school that he has worked with. Born at 2.6 lbs and hooked up to every machine, I sat my his hospital incubator wondering what would be in store for him and what possibilites he would have. I would say the sky's the limit at this point.

So yes, I'm still hanging in there, sometimes barely and other times I have a good grip. I'm looking forward to the future and whatever it brings!

My scrap space

2011-01-23T14:35:00.000-06:00

I'm on an organizing spree. Seriously ..... one of my goals for this month was to touch EVERYTHING in my bedroom. I know that sounds weird but our bedroom is the place where many things go when I don't know what to do with them or don't want the kids to mess with them. Our bedroom is a decent size but not so much when it's stuffed full of clutter. So I wanted to go through EVERYTHING in there. I don't have a long attention span for big projects so one area a day: one drawer, one surface, one whatever. I've kept up. I've gottten rid of a lot of things. My scrap space is in our bedroom. I know .... people are gasping but I actually like it there.

We have a little spot with a window ... it was big enough for Reese's crib and when she moved out, I moved in. It's 4 feet long and 5 feet wide, yes, very small. It's tight I have a table that we discovered in Dad's attic a stool to sit on.

This is a little piano bench across from where I'm sitting that holds some items waiting to be put away or used.

Underneath that piano bench is this paper rack. I made this from this idea. I like it.

I bought these stacked drawers for my embelllishments at Target. It's not pretty but it does the job. It sits right next to my stool and I keep my most used tools and things I would take to a crop (if I ever went to one) in that bag.

This is the drawer in the table. Some fun stuff in here.

A lot of stuff stored under the table including another paper rack and a set of 3 plastic drawers. Keeping things labeled helps me find it easier.

I have another stack of the Target drawers for embellishments under my sewing table. Keeping my sewing machine out all the time has been life changing for me in sewing and scrapbooking ..... I probably use my sewing machine every single day .... before when I had to drag it out I wouldn't I hate doing that. My sewing table is around the corner from my scrap desk.

This is part of the top of the table. Seeing this reminds me that I have to go through some more stuff. That's an old drawer I bought and turned on it's side. I love my frame inspiration board although it needs to get cleaned off too.

I love old jars and other containers to keep some stuff handy. I think it's true that you will use more of your stuff if you see it rather than in a drawer. But since my space is limited I just have to rotate or limit what can be out.

More stuff out on the table. I have photos in that blue breadbox.

When we drywalled our bedroom a few years ago, we discovered this empty space so we put shelves in. They are perfect for some canvas bins and hold thickers, paint, chipboard pieces in bags, and my punches.
Someday I would love to have a little more space to spread out and more vintage looking containers but until then it works for me and my goal of scrapping 10 minutes a day has been productive.

Another One

2011-01-09T08:04:00.000-06:00

This 10 minutes a day this is really getting me back into scrapbooking, in a whole new way: I'm faster and using supplies I was previously hoarding (why I don't know). This is a sketch from A Million Memories. This is for my 2009 photo of the day album again. I have scrapped 14 photos for that album this week, I'll be done in no time at this rate, ha ha!

Having Strength in 2011

2011-01-07T10:35:00.000-06:00

Here's how I plan to incorporate my word for the year into my life in 2011.

I am so glad that I made a layout about it. I can't even remember last year's word. I am going to hang this up front and center in our bedroom when it can be a daily reminder of what I want to achieve!

These little embellishments were a last minute thought but I think I love those labels the most as they seem to have great meaning to what I hope this year brings!

Creative Strength

2011-01-04T15:04:00.001-06:00

One of the ways I plan to use my word for the year, "Strength", is to flex and strength my creative muscles. I really haven't done much in the past 8 months, just a handful of layouts, mostly ones that were for gifts. I love to make stuff even when it doesn't turn out. I plan on working creatively at least 10 minutes every single day, NO MATTER WHAT! So far I've done it, so 4 days into it and I have 4 layouts completely done too. I have been working way more than 10 minutes a day, but I know that won't always happen. I've also decided I have to finish my 2009 picture of the day album ... no, that's not a typo ... 2009 is right. I did take all the photos and 90% of the photos are printed. I also am trying to get back to challenges and sketches. I saw this challenge sketch at the Stuck blog so here's my layout.

I only have 199 photos left to scrap for my 2009 photo of the day album ...

One Little Word

2011-01-01T19:50:00.000-06:00

Christmas is gone (this year I say "Yay!") and 2011 is here (which I say "Yay!" to also) . I always pick one word as my theme word for the year, I don't take it lightly. Sometimes it's hard to pick and sometimes it's easy, sometimes it's easy to keep using that word throughout the year and sometimes I have actually forgotten what my word was. It was a hard year for me, with my father dying. I feel like I am finally on my way to climbing back up the enormous mountain that I fell down in April. I still have a ways to go but I think I can see the peak at this point. As I thinking about my word for the year, the word "inspiration" kept jumping out at me in various places, however it just doesn't seem to fit for me right now not that I can use some inspiration as this point in time but inspiration is not my word this time. To be honest ,I didn't even know what my word would be when I started this post but as I type it seems clear to me right now. My word for the year is:

STRENGTH

"You never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have."

Creating Cards

2010-12-15T16:08:00.000-06:00

Somehow this:

plus this:

and this:

and these:

becomes our Christmas cards. I'm working away on them ... check your mailbox soon!

Visiting with Santa

2010-12-04T20:50:00.001-06:00

We wrote our letters to Santa so we could deliver them today because we went to our town's Christmas celebration. We had breakfast with Santa and Mrs. Claus and one of his elves, Jingle, were there too. The kids all loved it and talked to Santa.

She wants a pig game where you feed hamburgers to the pig.

She wants scrapbooking stuff.

He talked Santa's ear off. Of course he wants Toy Story toys especially a Buzz Lightyear, pay no attention that he already owns 2 BIG Buzzes and numerous little ones.

Caden wants a video game of course, what else?

There was a parade and our kids were invited to be in it as part of the summer reading program they were in. Caden chose not to be in the parade but to watch. It was lightly snowing.

I think they had fun in the parade even though it was pretty cold.

Then we went back to the library where the Claus' read us some stories. It was a fun time.

Christmas is in the Air

2010-12-02T19:52:00.000-06:00

The advent calendar is up, the order has been decided (reverse birth order), and they are asking me every second of everyday if it's time to do the stocking.

Elfie has returned and he brought us a treat yesterday. We had a hard time locating him this morning as he was up high in the dining room. Reese keeps calling him Sophie and Healthy. I don't care what they call him as long as they remember they need to be extra good during this magical time of year.

Reese helped (watched) me put up our tree and put the lights on it.

The kids helped decorate the tree wtih the exception of Ethan. He left as soon as he tried to sneak off with Aaron's antique family reindeer ornament and I snatched it away.

We had some fun with the timer on the camera ... and I got some cute smiles.

The tree is done minus the star and tree skirt. I like to do things in sections so tomorrow I'll bring out some more stuff. I'm starting to feel in the Christmas spirit a bit and maybe this weekend I'll start thinking about shopping and making my gifts .... I got plenty of time!

In my PJ's at 3:40 pm or why I don't have a "paying" job

2010-11-30T16:29:00.001-06:00

I subbed for first grade today ... the whole day. I started that this year and I like it but I'm low man on the totem pole and I don't get called a ton and mostly I've done half days. Today was different and I KNOW why I don't go back to teaching on a everyday basis.
*My children did not get out of bed until 7:30. Normally they are up before 7 not today. I had planned on leaving at 7:40 ... that did not happen.
*My cleaning lady was coming today which means I have to have all the clutter put away ... did that yesterday but I also need to have as much as possible off the floor so she can mop. So this morning most of that had to be done.
*I didn't eat breakfast .... I had planned too and I wasn't worried about feeding my children because they were eating breakfast at school but instead they all insisted on cereal bars and bowls of cereal which meant I got zilch. I gobbled down my school lunch hot dog and peach half like it was a Thanksgiving feast.
*Getting everyone ready for the day even though I laid out all our clothes the night before is extra stressful when I WANT to be at school and see what I need to do.
*I am exhausted .... and I wore the wrong shoes so my feet hurt. It was 3:40 pm when I put my PJ's on.
*I have $15 left over out of my sub pay after paying Reese's sitter and the cleaning lady. That won't even cover the pizza we are going to order because I'm too tired to cook.
*Working with the kids even subbing is rewarding, I do love that part ... but thank goodness, I don't have any papers to grade or lesson plans to write.
The main reason I don't get an outside job is right here

my family is the most important thing to me!

Happy Thanksgiving

2010-11-24T19:49:00.001-06:00

One of our little turkeys was picked to bowl in the school turkey bowl. He chose a cornish hen rather than a turkey. He scored a 32 in his 4 frames .... got a strike on his last turn. He was the high scorer on his team.

I was going to cook Thanksgiving dinner however I believe I can hand it over to the almost 3 year old. She is quite the cook this week.

I especially love her outfit in this one ... the perfect chef's attire.

Having my little chef even gave me some time to make a last minute Thanksgving banner .... well start it, it's not finished -- waiting for glue to dry.

Yes, I am glittering and gluing and sewing on my bed. My scrap table is full of Reese's birthday party projects.

From our Pilgrims to yours, Hope you have a great Thanksgiving ... be sure to count all your blessings! I know I will!

Gumdrops, Glue, and Glitter

2010-11-18T16:07:00.000-06:00

Lollipop lollipop

Oh lolli lolli lolli

Lollipop lollipop.....

Today has been filled with paint and cardboard and glitter and gumdrops. I love making stuff for birthday parties .... Reese loves helping me.

I'm in a creating mode ... which is good since it's that time of the year for birthdays, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Yesterday I even scrapbooked .... GASP!

A Monster of a Party

2010-11-13T19:29:00.000-06:00

A week ago we had the BIG #6 party for Addison, Ethan, and Caden. It takes me this long to recover to post any photos. Our theme was monsters. Here's the decor and food:

Here's the birthday kids with their shirts I made them:

Here's some pics of our games and activities:

We made monsters with foam stickers, played pin the eye on the monster, read The Tickle Monster book, had a monster stomp relay, and a monster pinata. I think all 14 kids had a good time.

Here's the birthday kids blowing out their candles:

There are very few photos of the gift opening part ... which is extremely chaotic and I never see most of the gifts. I am still finding things and saying "where did we get this?" They loved their party and I love doing it. Although I'm not so good on the clean-up part .... we still have some decorations still hanging up. They will be coming down very quickly as Reese turns 3 in a couple weeks and we are already working on her party:

She's a good helper!

Hello World

2010-11-12T13:39:00.001-06:00

Traffic cars, cell phone calls

Top video screams at me
Through my tender window I see
A little girl, rust red minivan
She's got chocolate on her face
Got little hands, And she waves at me
Ya, She smiles at me
Hello World

How've you been
Good to see you, my old friend
Sometimes I feel, cold as steel
Broken like I'm never gonna heal
I see a light, little hole
In the little world
Hello world

Every day I drive by
A little white church
It's got these little white crosses
Like angels in the yard
Maybe I should stop on in
Say a prayer
Maybe talk to God
Like he is here
Oh I know he is there
Ya, I know he's there
Hello world

How've you been
Good to see you, my old friend
Sometimes I feel as cold as steel
And broken like I'm never going to heal
I see a light
Little grace, little faith for the world
Hello world

Sometimes I forget what living's for
And I hear my life through my front door
And I'll be there
Oh I'm home again
I see my wife, little boy, little girl
Hello world
Hello world

All the angels disappears
I remember why I'm here
Just surrender and believe
I fall down on my knees
Oh hello world
Hello world

Toy Story Crew

2010-11-01T21:07:00.000-05:00

Halloween was fun ... so fun we went trick or treating twice. A little much for the parents. Our costumes we completed in time and I only went about $5 over my $60 budget for all 6 ... not bad. The kids have loads of candy .... and we had more than 180 trick or treaters at our home on Saturday.

I hope your Halloween was fun!

Eye, Eye, Eye-Eye

2010-10-26T13:33:00.002-05:00

*Eye almost have the birthday invites finished for the almost 6 years olds (the above pic gives a glimpse)

*Eye am still working on Halloween costumes but 6 all are either completed or very close

*Eye finally put up our Halloween decor items on Sunday .... I really didn't even want to but was glad I did after the kids were so excited. We started our Halloween advent tree .... thank goodness it's only a week long.

*Eye am in the middle of changing out summer to winter clothes ... 3 kids done, 1 to go. It's so much more challenging when kids are in-between sizes .... so many decisions to make.

*Eye have a sick husband at home today ... not sure what his exact ailment is ... he's been asleep ALL DAY.

*Eye am making beef stew for dinner .... hopefully the husband is hungry by then as I doubt the kids will eat it.

*Eye wish my bedroom and my basement would become self-cleaning .... the clutter is unbelievable.

*Eye had to walk around the neighborhood this morning is my PJs as the hurricane force winds knocked both our giant (96 gallon) recycle bins over. I didn't find much of our stuff so my neighbors are loving us right now.

*Eye think my kids are pretty great but lately they're fighting is at an all-time high.

*Eye think I'll enjoy the peace and quiet until the kids come home from school and Reese gets up from her nap.

The ocean of grief

2010-10-24T22:20:00.000-05:00

Grief is like an ocean, sometimes calm and quiet. Thoughts and memories can enter my mind without too much commotion.

I can have perspective and see the beach and the other beach-goers and yet realize that I am still in the waist high water . I can easily wade back to the shore or swim out further into that endless ocean.
Sometimes the waves get bigger. And the tides take me places I don’t want to go. I can go out so far that the beach seems miles and miles away and the other people on the beach don’t even appear to be people any longer. If I were to scream, no one would hear me.

And without notice a violent storm can appear. I panic and don’t know what to do. The tidal waves take me too far out. I can’t even see the beach any more.
No one knows you’re in the middle of the ocean and need help. They would help me if they knew where I was but there’s really no way to tell them.
Then just as suddenly as the storm arose, I am back in the middle of the calm and able to swim ashore and no one knows I was even in trouble for a while.

Grief is like that. Right now I’m back on the beach but who knows when I’ll decide to wade back out there again.
But the one thing I do know that will always be a constant is I sure do miss my dad. Six months seems like a lifetime to me.

Home Schooling

2010-10-21T21:18:00.000-05:00

I was a teacher for over ten years. I loved it. I loved the kids, I loved watching them learn and grow. It was amazing to see the changes and progress in just 9 short months. It was challenging too. Lots of work preparing and grading and writing up lesson plans and theme units, decorating the classroom, and hanging up their work, figuring grades, keeping tabs on who needed extra help, keeping in constant contact with parents, and dealing with behavior issues (with children and parents) on a day to day basis .... it was hard work but super rewarding.

Now I read a lot of blogs of moms who home school their children ... many of them have 4 or more kids. Seriously I don't know how they do it. Just keeping up with looking through my kids book bags, looking over their work, keeping track of and reading 3 library books, sending back notes and things they need for class is a lot to deal with most days. But working with them almost every night on practicing their writing and letters has left me drained and exhausted to say the least. Ethan has almost mastered writing his name ... but now instead of leaving out the "h" he is leaving out the "a" or combining the "a" and "n" into one letter. He needs to work on his fluency with the alphabet so I am doing flashcards with him .... he continues to say "8" for many of the letters he doesn't know. The teacher sends home extra worksheets (by my request) for us to work on. I'm trying to get him to do them but his stubbornness takes over and he screams and refuses to do them most of the time ..... Then a worksheet was sent home today that stated he is having trouble distinguishing beginning sounds to tell when they are the same or different and that we need to work on that at home. Seriously at this moment I don't even know what to do to help him with that .... I've taught 25 people to learn how to read all at one time and but to help Ethan work on beginning sounds, I'm at a loss. I'm sure homeschooling is even more rewarding than teaching in a classroom. However, will I be homeschooling? I think not.

On a sidenote, Ethan's drawing skills have evolved from his SpongeBob like self-portraits to include suns and wind.

Swagbucks

2010-10-18T13:33:00.001-05:00

Do you know about Swagbucks? Basically it's a search site (like Google) where you can earn swagbucks for searching the internet. Why do you want Swagbucks? For free stuff of course. In the last 2 months I have earned SIX $5 Amazon gift cards. That's $30 bucks in free stuff .... whatever I want from Amazon and since I always look to buy stuff on Amazon that has free shipping ... it's is really free. In the next day or two I will have enough to buy another $5 gift card too. Of course there's other things to get with your swagbucks in their store and there are contests to enter too. I just like the Amazon gift cards for myself.

How does it work? Just go to Swagbucks and register and if you use this code (it's completely free):

JoinTheFun for 20

you will get 20 swagbucks to get you started (I think the code is good until 6 pm). I downloaded the Swagbucks toolbar so I can remember to use it when I search. You also are rewarded every day with 1 swagbuck for having the toolbar. I also do the Daily Poll every day for another swagbuck, and if you visit the the survey part you get another one just for going there each day. Sometimes there's a video to watch to earn swagbucks and I've submitted 2 ideas for daily polls and got 100 swagbucks each for them. There's special codes you can enter to earn more too. Of course you can win them when you do a search, but you don't win everytime but I have won 9, 10, 12, 27, 50 (once) at different times. I usually win a couple times a day depending on how much I search. Since I haven't been doing it all that long, I don't know all the ins and outs. I don't spend much time doing it but the $30 in gift cards I've earned so far has been great.

So if you want some free stuff sign up today and get some free stuff.

For Paul

2010-10-17T00:32:00.000-05:00

Last weekend when we went to Dad's farm, we stopped to see our favorite neighborhood farmer, Paul. He said he was test driving a BIG combine and that we should take the kids out to see it.

He wasn't kidding when he said it was big. My kids look like little ants in front of this massive machine.

We let them crawl all the way up too. I believe it has all the "options".

Then in usual fashion someone had to take a potty break in the field. At least we travel with a potty. Hopefully the traffic on the road didn't take too much notice of the large family who pulled their van into an open field in front of a brand new combine with one kid sitting on a potty. I'm almost certain Paul wouldn't mind.

What I've been up to

2010-10-13T20:20:00.002-05:00

Things have been happening around here. With four kids there's always a million things going on and with upcoming Halloween and all 4 kids having birthdays in November, there's lots to do right now. I like to start projects as I've said before .... the finishing part I'm not so good on. I also have a short attention span so I must have about 10 ongoing projects plus I find if I sit down without anything to do .... I fall asleep no matter what. Here's what We've been up to lately:

We went to pumpkin patch/apple orchard with Aunt Ashley and the cousins last weekend. It was a nice day, almost hot and we had fun.

Our friend, Trudy, gave the kids a ride on the four wheeler. They thought this was a blast.

Mallory let the kids go a couple rounds in the combine while she was picking corn. The girls would have done this all day. They miss Mallory since she started her teaching gig, we don't get to see her as often.

Here's the current BIG project: our pantry/laundry room. It's really small. But we are on week 3 of all that stuff that was on the shelves scattered about the house. I am painting and it seems to be taking a long time even though it just might be the smallest room on earth.

The kids and I have been enjoying the nice weather. One day when they didn't have school we played at the park for a while.

Aaron and I took a weekend trip alone to Springfield, ccourtesy of Aaron's parents. I think it was the first time since we've had kids that we went away on our own. It was so nice. I thought it was cool that the hotel had robes and yes, I used mine. Actually I could have just went to the hotel, put on the robe, and stayed in bed the whole time.

I went with the kids' kindergarten classes to the pumpkin patch. It was fun. It's fun to go on field trips when you're not the teacher.

My days seemed to filled with paint rollers, paint cans, and paint brushes. I don't mind painting but I just wish it would be one of those things you could start and finish in one (or even two) days.

We celebrated PaPa's 60th birthday with a pizza party. It was a good time and nice that the whole family could get together.

One of the many birthday party projects I got going. There's a pinata that's ready to paint too and many more things on the list to still make.

The kids' Halloween costumes are just about finished .... I have to start Aaron's and mine but I think they are turning out really great for homemade costumes. I'm trying to only use sutff I have on hand or from resale/thrift stores. So far, so good.

It's the little things

2010-09-24T17:39:00.001-05:00

5 months ago today my life changed forever .... the day I discovered life without my dad. I’m pretty sure I think of him on an hourly basis at a minimum. I never knew how different my life could become or how hard it would be to go on but it is. That’s just the facts. I am trying my best to keep myself busy with all kinds of trivial things such as making 6 Halloween costumes, substitute teaching, cleaning up a farm, planning 2 fun birthday parties for the kids, jumping head first into home improvement projects, scrapbooking, cleaning my basement, and making 4 quilts for the kids. Yes I am doing all this stuff simultaneously, just a few things to keep me busy and to keep me being creative. This is hard and stressful but I don’t know what else to do. Everything is different for me now: my relationship with everyone I know feels different. The way I see myself is different I used to see myself as a strong and easy-going person. Now I think I am anything but strong and any slight change in anything throws me into a tail spin of stress and anxiety, certainly not the definition of easy-going. Trying to remember to breath deeply and watching for all those little signs of my dad. He really is everywhere … the other day when we were leaving for school, upstairs Reese’s singing bear broke into song in the middle of the song “I hope you dance” all by itself ... it's never done that before and I've never heard it start in the middle of the song either . Another day the rocking horse in our dining room rocked forever all by itself, even got a little faster for awhile before it stopped. I got in the van today and the song Aaron and I played at our wedding “Keeper of the Stars” was on the radio. We had a dumb fight last night and this kind of put things back into perspective for me. Ethan loving school and doing so much better and wanting to go …. It’s my dad being there right along side him not that we aren’t working hard with him and he’s not doing anything but I know he’s getting a little guidance from his grandpa. There’s little things like that all the time …. Then a while back while I was cleaning I discovered a true gift. On Thanksgiving I had each person here for dinner write what they were thankful for. I took everyone’s photo and I was going to make a little book, of course I never got around to it. I looked through the stack of thankfulness and there was my dad’s card, in his handwriting. I don’t think I read it when he wrote it.

I'm thankful for my Grandkids, kids, friends, good crops, life, still can dance. - Spike

It’s like mail from heaven. A special gift that shows me he was happy and enjoyed his life and knew what was really important. Life goes on …. even when it's really hard and I’m glad I have those little things to help me through it.

This day

2010-09-13T21:46:00.001-05:00

I spent the weekend celebrating Grammy's birthday, having a sisters' day out, and working on the farm. It was a busy and fun weekend.

Here's some of my "finds" from garage sale/thrift store shopping.

I have a dual purpose for most of these items that involve a birthday party and my laundry room ... what a combo!

I filled up Dad's truck with hog shed shingles once.

Once by yourself takes a long time especially when you are interrupted every 5 minutes by crying children. Their cousins keep them busy when they come to the farm .... but when it's just us there's so much fighting.

Reese has croup again. Last winter, I think she had it at least 4 times so here we go again. I let it go for about a week thinking she'd get better or when I'd go into her bedroom at night I find that 100 lb dog that was barking so much. She didn't get better and I never did see that dog, so we went to the doctor today to get a round of steroids.

I made this Pioneer Woman recipe for dinner: Beer-Braised Beef. It was pretty good ... although I think next time I'd do it in the crock pot.

I love May Flaum's philosophy on a minimum of 10 creative minutes a day with keep your creative muscles in shape. Sometimes weeks or months go by where I don't do anything creative. I can find 10 minutes a day.

I am finishing by Daily December Album from 2008!

When Keely was here on Saturday, I think I dug out about 5 unfinished projects. So I am going to start finishing some of these projects even if I just work on them 10 minutes a day.

I start substitute teaching this week. I threw my name in the hat at the kids' school. So this week I have 2-1/2 days (all in a row) to start. I'm not too nervous about it. I don't think I'll be eaten alive or locked in a closet but you never know. It's been over 6 years since I've taught ....I hope it's like riding a bike.

I'm really into Miranda Lambert and her song "Airstream". Life hasn't been all that kind to me lately and even though I'm not really a big camper I could totally see myself camping in a vintage airstream. We've camped at Dad's farm quite a few times this summer ... in a tent ... in a sleeping bag ... on the ground. My brother-in-law, John, borrowed his parents pop-up camper this weekend and camped out there with Aaron. I didn't stay in it but it's quite the upgrade from a tent. I would love to own a vintage camper like this:

How fun do they look? I imagine they are just as neat on the inside as the outside. I'm also sure the price tag is pretty neat too. But boy I really would love to take a break from everything for a while in one of these .... maybe someday I'll live like a gypsy in one of these.

This Weekend

2010-09-03T08:51:00.000-05:00

It's the last "official" weekend of the summer so on this {3 day} weekend we are:

*Moving the boys downstairs to their "new" room. {requires a ton of deciding where other furniture will go in our house}
*Finding new homes for toys that used to live in the playroom (decluttering!)
*Spending some time on the farm
*Taking the kids to McDonalds .... they are begging
*Cleaning up my scrapbooking and sewing table .... what a mess!
*Sewing .... quilt tops, beanbags, a couple gifts
*Scrapbooking .... needing some creative time
*Watching a parade .... we usually go to the Labor Day Parade. The kids love it plus it's a good place to get a bunch of candy to put in birthday pinatas (how bad is that?)
*Having at home "movie date" with my hubby
*Make a yummy treat ... what I don't know but pumpkins bars sound good
*Cook breakfast .... bacon, eggs, pancakes, hashbrowns .... I don't think I've done since before my dad died over 4 months ago!
*Locate a positive attitude for me ... somehow it's become misplaced, maybe in my messy house and with the start of school
*I would love to go to the scrapbook store ... I have gift certificates just to get away but not sure if that is in the cards for me and if not that's okay .....

I'm looking forward to a long weekend, getting things accomplished, relaxing, creating, and eating. I hope the same for everyone else too!

The ties that bind

2010-08-26T22:43:00.000-05:00

Grammy generously bought the kids tennis shoes for kindergarten. Caden wanted something superhero and Ethan was looking for anything Toy Story related. Addison and Grammy were determined to get on the fad bandwagon of Twinkle Toe Shoes. They found them. If you don't know what Twinkle Toes shoes are it's Dorothy's ruby red slippers on crack: Rhinestones, foil, glitter, and blinking colored strobe lights that could be used to find a kid in the thickest fog. The boys' shoes were velcro but Addison's had shoe laces. A few weeks before school started I worked with her a bit on learning to tie her own shoes. She did okay for her first time.

Then a couple days before school started, Aaron announced that they had to learn to tie their shoes before school started or they couldn't go to kindergarten. "'We' aren't even working on it!" is what he said.

I explained to him that you didn't have to learn to tie your shoes before kindergarten started like when we were 5 and that we, meaning Addison and I, were working on it. The second time we practiced, she got it.

She was so proud! She's been tying her shoes every day before school.

She does need Mom to tighten them up but I am so proud of her for learning this.

One down, three kids to go!

Kindergarten Trio

2010-08-25T23:36:00.001-05:00

Today was the first (half) day of kindergarten for the kids. I surprised them with a little gift bag of a new shirt to wear today, cool ice pack for lunches, backpack charms, and a swirly straw and fun fizzy drinks.

The backpacks were filled with:

3 sets of Crayola water color paints

6 boxes of Crayola crayons

3 boxes of Crayola washable markers

3 packs of dry erase markers

3 erasers

3 plastic school boxes

24 glue sticks

6 bottles of white glue

3 pairs of scissors

3 2” 3-ring binders

3 back packs

2 boxes of sandwich Ziploc bags

1 box of gallon Ziploc bags

3 pairs of gym shoes

6 boxes of Kleenex

They were ready. Even cooperated for the photos.

Ethan: no crying going into school today .... I hope this is the new daily trend for him.

Caden didn't seem as nervous as he usually is for new things.

Addison was typically excited! She even tied her own {twinkle toes} shoes today.

Reese wants to go to school too! She only has three more years until kindergarten.

I walked them in to sit in their class lines in the gym. This is the point where the tears started to well up for Mommy. I was really surprised by this because I didn't think it would be emotional for me at all. I had to gain composure or I was going to be a total mess in front of the entire elementary school.

Here's a glimpse at all three of them ... Ethan is in the background sucking his thumb, he was a bit nervous once we got to school.

He did fine though (I think). They said they liked it and each earned some Toto Treats (school wide reward system). They didn't have much to say but told me that they liked their teachers! When Daddy got home there was a lots of talk about Long Johns (the donut ones) which was mentioned in some assembly today .... I think it had to do with bus safety and the morning breakfast program but all they remember is the Long John part then they asked me what Long Johns are.

I think they are ready to go back tomorrow for a full day.

I know I am ready .... I got an entire closet cleaned out in 3 short hours today and tomorrow I am painting an entire room! I love school!

Down on My Knees

2010-08-22T00:58:00.000-05:00

I’m not a worrier. Really I don’t see the point … things work out the way they are supposed to work out is kind of how I look at it. It’s just added stress and I don’t need more of that in my life. However, the worry is starting to set in about kindergarten and Ethan.

Maybe it’s more than worry …. Could be panic. Sure, he’s been going to preschool at the same school for 2 years. Completely full time last year. He had the same teacher and aide both of those years. Now he has a brand new teacher, a male teacher. I think a male teacher would be good for him …. But the “new” thing is a little scary for me. Every teacher has to be new once. As a matter of fact I’ve been a new teacher several times: new school, or new grades several times. I keep saying I hope this isn’t Ethan’s teacher’s first and last year!

My concerns are long. Will he listen? Will he stay with the class or wander off and get lost? Will he be able to keep up? Will he throw fits at school? Will he learn to write his name, his alphabet, his numbers, colors, to read …. I think they learn to read in kindergarten now!? Will he hoard all the toys and small game pieces? Will he just zone out and lay down and suck his thumb when he should be paying attention? Will he be lost because there isn’t an aide in his room this year? This is where I start to hyperventilate a little and the tears well up. Kindergarten is the BIG TIME ….. This is the real deal. This is where attitudes about school are decided and can affect an entire lifetime of learning.

Then as a breathe into a paper bag …. I think about how much he has changed this summer. He is a lot different. He is asking questions more …. His favorite is “what does that mean?” sometimes he’s serious when he asks that, sometimes he does it as a joke. He’s playing more imaginatively than ever.

I find him setting up toys and I hear him talking for them and playing out scenes. He is being more interactive with his siblings too, playing games and “house” sometimes with him being the initiator. He can almost dress himself all the way. He seldom throws a huge fit. He argues less about things and gives in much quicker when he’s being defiant. He can buckle the top part of his carseat …. We’re working on the bottom part now.

He has written some of the letters in his name all by himself. He's learning to follow multi-step directions.

He’s getting pretty good at using scissors. He doesn’t run off in stores any more. He will listen to Aaron and me when we tell him to look at our eyes. He asks for things rather just taking, like apples and snacks. He’s growing up and maturing.

I think some of his delay is due to lack of maturity and part is from his extreme stubbornness. I will keep working with him and talking to him and watching him …. I talk to him almost everyday about doing his best in kindergarten. But there’s only so much a mom can do.

I have to sit back and let him do the rest. It's a bit reminiscent of the NICU after he stabilized ... it was his job to eat and grow. He did on his own terms ... just like potty training FIVE and a half years later. All I could do was sit back and watch him grow ... and pray.

He has several teachers helping him: speech, a hearing aide itinerant, and new this year: a special ed teacher and an occupational therapist. He has a lot of people pulling for him …. Still his mom is worried and down on her knees praying that he works hard and is a successful kindergartner … I think I’ll be on my knees a lot this school year and if you have a minute feel free to say a little prayer for my boy.

Our Version of Hoarders

2010-08-18T21:27:00.001-05:00

Have you seen those shows about the hoarding people? There are a few. I don't watch them on a regular basis but I've seen an episode here and there. If not, it's people and their STUFF that is about ready or already has exploded outside their home. Their houses are just packed and usually they are walking on their stuff to move around. These people usually seem "normal" to the the outside world, are clean, dress nice, have friends, and hold jobs, then enter their home and it's a bizarre scene, thus exploiting them on TV. It amazes me how exhausting it would be to live like that with stacks of things in every room, barely having room to eat or sleep or even walk.

Tonight I decided I would clean up the kids' room. Pull out the beds, vacuum behind them, pick up stuff that falls under the beds, etc. Tonight I realized one of our very own family members might be a future hoarder "star": Addison. She has stuff stashed everywhere.

She collects bags, suitcases, and containers then fills them with random things: lip gloss, yo-yos, play coins, sand shovels, bits of paper, candy, used straws, pet shop figures, an ignition switch (yes, I found an ignition switch with the key in there), markers, socks, folded up blankets, etc, etc, etc .... Some things are hers, some things are community owned like markers and crayons and toys, and some things aren't hers at all like the ignition switch which I believe somehow she snuck home from Dad's house. Am I surprised? No, not really.

I have issues with stuff sometimes. I am doing lots better lately. Trying not to save every single thing because someday I might need it or want it. I've been taking at least a garbage bag a week to Goodwill. Of course, it probably is genetic. Dad was a hoarder. He saved EVERYTHING and then some. He loved to shop for clothes at Goodwill. We found a couple of rooms of Goodwill clothes when we were cleaning out the house .... most he never wore ... tags were still on them. That was just one of his hoarding tendencies. I don't fall for the whole "people who hoard are depressed or have issues" deal. Some people who hoard are depressed or have things wrong just like some people who are neat and uncluttered can be depressed and have issues. Some people who hoard just like stuff or think they are going to need it again.

Tonight as I was going through Addison's closet with her and discussing why she was putting things here, there and everywhere .... I think I realized she just needs her own space a bit more. Sharing a room with 3 other people and not having some of your very own space to put your stuff is probably a big part of her problem. A problem I need to get a handle on so it doesn't get worse. So I need to get moving on getting the boys moved out of the 4 person bedroom and downstairs to their room and creating some space just for her and Reese. I'm sure all the kids need this a bit.

Of course she comes by it naturally, but an ignition switch??????? Even I wouldn't save that.

Creative Juices

2010-08-13T23:26:00.000-05:00

Last week, I found some motivation and some time to scrapbook. I wondered if I'd really ever want to do it again. After Dad died, I just really had no desire to do much creative stuff. So after about 4 months, I was a bit rusty. So I do what I always do when I'm stumped: copy somebody else. Here's the original .... I really don't know who's page this is .... I think it's a Lisa page meaning Lisa Day or Lisa Truesdell or Lisa Dickinson ... boy, do I really a lot of scrapbookers' blogs whose name is Lisa?

Then I invited my friend, Brenda, over and we spent an afternoon cutting and pasting. I copied a layout from Lynn. I couldn't find her original on her blog but I pretty much did it exactly the way she did.

Just like riding a bike ... copying other people's work that is. I am ready to do some more "fun stuff" around here too. I think I am going to paint a room or two. We're getting ready to split up the kids into 2 bedrooms so some decorating and redecorating will be going on. I never finished any of the quilts from when I redid their room last year. I have all the fabric and some things started and I have lots of ideas, just been short on time with all these kids running around here so in a couple weeks when the big ones go back to school, I'm going to be busy with painting and sewing, I'm so looking forward to it. After all, I've found lots of ideas for their rooms to copy, I'm really good at that!

A Super Party

2010-08-11T09:02:00.001-05:00

Our Super Hero party was almost 2 weeks ago .... I thought it was fun. It was simple and I loved that we had it outdoors. Since ALL my children and my hubby have birthdays in November, outdoor parties aren't usually an option but we planned to do their party in the summer. I had so much fun making the decor. Really it was no stress at all. I had all my ideas compiled and I have come to the realization in life that sometimes you just have to drop some stuff off a list and it doesn't matter. I also simplified other people's projects to make them easier, less time consuming, cheaper and it didn't matter one little bit.

Backyard Bar-B-Que, red, blue, and yellow decor, a borrowed bounce house and popcorn machine from the grandparents, a personalized cape and mask for each superhero and a simple obstacle course and it was hit with all 10 kids (all cousins to my kids).

The kids decorated their capes and masks with felt star stickers.

Our obstacle course was small because our yard is small. I just used stuff we had around the house.

The barbell offered up some fun photo ops.

It was really heavy!

Jackson really got into his inner superhero.

The kids and I made the pinata. It really was homemade looking but I liked that about it.

Unfortunately the part where it the twine attached wasn't as strong as it should be. Then we played pinata ball.

Which worked and everyone got a turn.

Most of our superheroes ... I think they had a good time!

Our Summer so far ....

2010-08-06T12:25:00.001-05:00

I've been doing my best to keep the FUN in our summer to go along with all the WORK we have been doing at Dad's farm. Our Summer To Do List is getting completed.

We've ate some yummy sweet corn from Aunt Ashley and our friend Paul.

She asked me "Do I have a little butter on my face?" Ummmmm .....yeah.

I've been enjoying cooking with fresh tomatoes, green beans, zucchini, and cucumber .... generously given to us by friends and family .... I've made about 5 batches of my homemade salsa that I LOVE!

I'm for sure having a garden next year!

The kids have spent a lot of time on the sand pile at Grandpa's. We used the sand to fill some dangerous "holes".

We've been doing some artwork at home.

We went to Oneida Days and watched a parade and entered the kids tractor pull.

Addison won in her weight class. She was so happy with her prize.

Caden lost his first and second tooth a few days apart.

Potty training is going well .... we're almost there.

We had a fun cookout with our farm friends, Paul and Trudy.

We went to our first baseball game ... where we have never been so hot!

Visits to Paul and Trudy's farm is always fun .... "Look, Ma, I found an egg!"

We've had some large fires at the farm.

Collecting metal is what we mainly do there right now.

We've had a lot of fun swimming at different pools.

And at home.

Our pool is still holding up ... believe it or not. Next year I think we need a little larger one.

Our superhero party was a fun event ..... more to come on this later. I have LOTS of SUPER photos from this party.

Hope your summer is as fun and busy as ours!

Blogging Break

2010-08-04T14:24:00.000-05:00

Break from blogging: not because we're not doing anything ... actually doing lots lately. Today's a down day and it would be the perfect time to "catch up" on blogging but naw .... I think I'll search the internet for more birthday party ideas (for November!) And look at all the creative craft and scrapbook blogs I'd ignored for months. I'm getting the itch to scrapbook and sew and do projects. We painted today and that's about it. Reese and Ethan are napping and I think I might just join them .... then have a margarita ..... sounds like a relaxing day .... I need one once in a while.

Today ...

2010-07-13T14:29:00.001-05:00

...today and tomorrow may I find laughter, strength, happiness, and those little everyday miracles.

A Little R&R

2010-07-12T08:06:00.000-05:00

We decided we needed a small break from farm work and a little family time this weekend. So Sunday we gave ourselves the "day off". We took the kids to Empire Park in East Moline. It had a big wooded play structure with lots of mazes and other fun things to play on.

As always Ethan spent a lot of time on the swings ... some things never change.

We got some ideas for our giant tire pile at home ....

This tire path was a real favorite for Ethan and Reese.

It was by the Mississipppi River and we walked down to take in the view. We saw "herds" of tadpoles sunning themselves where the light was hitting the water.

We were starving so we headed to our favorite restaurant, Red Robin. Everyone ate well and was happy.

Later in the day, we went to the Monmouth Swimming Pool with the Mother 2 Mother group. I joined this group back in January but have never made it to one event yet for one reason or another. They were having a family swim for a couple hours.

The kids were so excited when I told them we were going. This is quite the change from our blow up pool in the back yard.

It was a little chilly but not too bad once you got in.

Ethan would rather walk the length of the "baby" pool a thousand times then get in the big pool. It was only 2 foot deep in the shallow end of the big pool. He came in there a few times but pretending you are swimming by walking on your hands is big on his list.

Aaron took Addison over to the diving board where she jumped off no problem. Caden and Addison also went down the little slide a bunch. Ethan and Reese were going to also until they got up to the top of the ladder then changed their mind.

She put her head under the water and swam quite a few times.

And look who learned to float with her floaties on. She was loving the water espeically the deep part where she could still reach. It was a nice day of fun family time .... and the kids slept really good!

Summer 2010

2010-07-07T05:45:00.001-05:00

I can't believe it's July already. The summer is flying by as usual maybe a little quicker for me than normal. We've spent so much time working on my Dad's farm. There's so much to do and I'd rather be doing it now than in the cold. My friend, Trudy, wrote me an email the other day that reminded me that it was summer and time to have fun with our family and friends. It really made me think .... I didn't want this summer to become the summer we only worked on Grandpa's Farm. We need to make time for the fun stuff too. So I made a chart of fun things for us to do this summer. I thought up most of them but the kids gave me some input too.

It's hard to find time to do a lot of these things but I want to try to do as many with them as I can. It's hard some weeks we are at Dad's farm more days than we are home. So when we are home I have to play catch on all the regular stuff of laundry, cleaning, bill paying, grocery shopping, etc. These things are not high on 5 and 2 year olds priority lists. Their first question every morning to me is "What are we going to do today?" then during the day, "What are we doing next?" and at night, "What are we going to do tomorrow?" EX.HAUST.ING!

We've done a few things already

Grammy took us to see Toy Story 3 on Monday. It was really good and all the kids sat through the whole movie with no problem (even Reesey).

A couple weeks ago we went to swim at the little pool in Lincoln Park. It was fun. We may go back and do that again before the end of summer.

Here's our first Muffin Tin Monday ... although it wasn't a Monday and today we did it on Tuesday. They love eating lunch this way. I bought cocktail forks and let them stab their own food. It's super easy clean up since there's no dishes and today they ate everything except one measly little baby carrot. They also think it's fun when I let them use the teapot to pour their lemonade.

So our summer is shaping up ... lots of farm work is getting done and we're still making time for the fun stuff too. Although I'm not sure how I will fulfill Reese's request of "Go see the dolphins" but I'll figure that out. Hope you are taking time to stop and smell the flowers this summer (although these are Trudy's flowers ... no time to plant any flowers here this summer .... it wasn't on the list!).

Animal Fun!

2010-07-06T08:24:00.003-05:00

After looking through my photos from the weekend, I saw lots of cute animal photos.

Tippy and Ethan .... I think they have the same smile!

Addison has taken to Otis. While Aaron and I were working in the barn I noticed these two walking all over the place together. I think these two are now good friends.

Maybe Tippy is a good impressionist, he has the same look on his face here as Reese.

Snickers wearing Paul's hat.

Addison sitting on Snickers almost all by herself .... pay no attention to those legs behind the horse.

Ethan giving Snickers a try.

And just to prove that I do have 4 kids ... here's Caden. He's so cautious about everything .... and he's unwilling to try out things like sitting on horses .... he needs to get over this .... he's missing out on a lot .... we'll have to keep encouraging him. But he is getting good at taking photos ....

He took this one of Tippy and Ethan playing ball.

Straw

2010-07-05T22:20:00.001-05:00

Paul had 1000 bales of wheat straw to put up in his barns this weekend. I was glad he was working on putting it away this weekend when we would be able to help him. On Saturday, John and Aaron were able to help them get about 600 bales in the barn.

After the kids t-ball game we went to watch for a bit so I could show them how it was done.

Mostly they were concerned with how Daddy got up that high.

They were able to get 600 put away by 1:00.

Mallory lifted the kids up onto the hay rack. Ethan apparently thought he was the "straw boss".

The girls liked to throw the straw. After all the work, Trudy treated us to a delicious lunch.
Paul still had 300 bales in the field to pick up and be put away. He was going to call us when he was ready to put more straw in the barn. Later he said, it would have to wait until Sunday. John and Monica weren't coming back on Sunday. Brett and Mallory had other commitments. I wanted to help but I didn't know if I was strong enough to lift straw bales so like a dork I practiced with the straw bales we had in Dad's barn. Yep, I could pick them up and carry them.

So as proof that I really did help put 300 bales of straw away, I had Caden take some photos.

Look at this cool attachment Paul has for his tractor. I don't know what it's called but I'm going to call it a Hay Hook. I kind of think tractor accessories are like scrapbooking tools .... they make all kinds of things to make things easier. I'm sure there's a whole catalog of them and when you look at that catalog you want to buy them all.

It was a couple hours of work and really not too bad. I can even move today. I've done worse things ... like lay in a hospital bed for 11 weeks straight "baking" triplets.

Taking 4 kids to the grocery store is far more work than this .... and way more stressful. I liked it so much I hope I can help more on their farm ..... a true farm girl at heart!

His Last Crop

2010-07-01T23:53:00.002-05:00

On Wednesday, Paul called me and said he was cutting Dad's wheat. He had 20 acres this year. Paul had told me that he'd call and see if we wanted to come and ride along for a bit.

I did! I think Dad only had me ride in a tractor once or twice that I can remember.

In Paul's BIG combine, all 5 of us fit, so with Paul that was 6 people ... that maybe a world record, I believe.

Here's the best photo I could get from the inside. The big windshield gives you a great view. We went up and back once and Addison wanted to get out. I was going to stay with her while the other kids rode with Paul but when I got out they all wanted to get out. Since it was the end of the day they were tired especially Reese who hasn't had a real nap in weeks. So we got out. I was a bit disappointed they didn't want to ride more.

Then Aaron came and Reese and the boys rode with Aaron and Paul while he cut the rest of the field. Reese fell alseep.

Addison and I hung back. Then Trudy and Mallory came and we talked for a while. Addison found lots of pretty wild flowers {weeds}.

Addison calls Mallory, "Trudy's sister".

I'm not the "mamarazzi" anymore ... not I'm the "farmarazzi" with all the photos I am taking of machinery and buildings and farm related stuff. I'm sure Trudy has never seen anyone take as many photos of people farming as me and my sisters. Too bad we didn't do it while Dad was farming.

Here's Dad's wheat in the semi truck. It filled the front half.

Thanks to Paul, all the wheat is now done. I even got to ride again. Paul knew I wanted to ride, he said something about it being Dad's last crop and it was nice that I was there while he cut it.

I picked some of the wheat and took it to the cemetery and placed it on Dad's grave. I know he is happy that it's done and that Paul was the one to harvest it for him. It's hard knowing that part is over and I'm a little sad about it today .... but like Keely said, "Life goes on ...." even when you don't want it to.

A Farm Tour

2010-06-25T20:13:00.001-05:00

Last Sunday we were lucky enough to get another fun farm tour. We interrupted Paul and Mallory's hard work but they were patient enough to let all the kids gather old eggs. Some people don't know about the fragile-ness of eggs yet when putting them into a bucket.

All the kids were lined up, in front of the Wilbur the Pig's pen. Wilbur eats eggs like jellybeans as Paul describes it ... that is if Jellybeans are all gooey inside like eggs. The kids love watching Wilbur gobble up the eggs as much as Wilbur enjoys eating them.

Look at all those smiles!

Then we were able to feed the timid cows.

And Mallory showed us Snickers the horse. Reese remembered the Snickers' name and I asked her was the smaller horse's name was and she said "Little Snickers" which is funny but it's name is Cowboy.

Jumping on the hay bales and finding hidden eggs in the barn was fun too.

Then we went down to the other farm and to see a calf and some other cows.

And a goat named Barb.

Ethan felt the cattle were extremely hungry ..... won't be long and he can help with chores.

Another special treat was getting a ride in a HUGE combine. Look they all can fit up there.

Won't harvest time be fun? Probably depends on who you ask.

Our kids think the farm is great just like the people who own it!

Hiding out

2010-06-23T16:44:00.000-05:00

I'm hiding out in my bedroom right now. At 4:30 pm I really cannot take one more request, cry, whine, fit, beg, scream, fight, or mess. These kids have been quite the "gems" the last 2 days .... yesterday they spent time with Grammy and PaPa and I don't know what their deal is but I had to announce after 2 hours of being home with them that next week they would not be doing their Grammy Day because of their behavior (I did not mention that Grammy is not available to have them over next week, but they don't need to know that). It continues today with wildness at the eye doctor, where the doc said Addison didn't have to patch anymore at this time; however, he just shakes his head and says we have a lot going on here. I ask if surgery is in her future ... no, she's already had eye muscle surgery and everything that could be done probably was so we just keep checking every 3 months ..... hmmm.
Yes, it's raining again and people are upset they can't swim .... when I explain you can't swim in thunderstorms, I am told that it's not raining. whatever. Who are these people? Does their brain start and stop working throughout the day?
I have been trying since Monday to clean up .... impossible. As soon as I pick up anything, 14 more messes are made.
I listened to Ethan scream the word "APPLE!" at the library for an hour. Did I mention our library is the size of our bathroom?
I would just like togo to sleep right now until morning. Not going to happen. Probably should see my hubby today since it's our 9th anniversary. Celebrating tomorrow, we even have a babysitter. Need to make my friend, Kim, a camera strap too. So maybe I will hide upstairs in my bedroom sewing and cleaning afterall. Next 2 days I plan on spending fun time with the kids .... hopefully I can stand it, if not I may be back to hiding out.

I Never Thought ....

2010-06-09T21:40:00.001-05:00

I’d be checking the soybean prices to see when to sell my dad’s grain.

I’d almost cry at my children’s baseball game because my dad didn’t get to see them play.

I’d wonder if each person I pass in the grocery store knew my dad.

I’d enjoy working on the farm especially the hard outside labor stuff as much as I do, even in the heat (that's Keely at the equator of the farm).

I’d be thinking about the weather as much as Dad did and hope it’s good for growing crops even the ones that aren’t mine.

I’d have trouble letting things go that were Dad’s especially pieces of paper with his handwriting on it even when it’s just a phone number or a list.

I’d realize how much I am like my Dad in the hoarding department.

I’d see how messy my house can be on a continuous basis because I don’t have the time or energy for picking up.

I'd think Dad was watching me when I see beautiful skies especially at the farm.

I’d bring procrastinating to an all time high by dragging my feet on so many things because getting more Dad stuff done just brings us closer to having nothing to do for Dad …. That seems like a weird sort of purgatory.

I'd get so much use out of my rain boots which are now my work boots .... thank goodness I bought cute ones!

I’d walk and drive through cemeteries seeing what other people put up and how headstones are decorated so I could get ideas for Dad.

I’d think so much about my own mortality and how I would like to be remembered and what kind of funeral I would like to have.

I’d long for the day when I can raise chickens (with Jackson) and possibly think that raising calves might be a fun thing.

I’d see my motorcycle-loving husband wear a cowboy hat while driving a tractor and wanting to learn to farm (seriously).

I’d get into an argument with my farm-loving husband about chicken raising. (Argument part not so much of a surprise).

I’d almost cry driving to Keely’s house last weekend remembering that last time I went there, Dad was there too for my nephews’ birthday party. Firsts are hard.

I’d listen to the CD of songs we all picked to play at his funeral forty thousand times and still not be sick of it.

I’d get to spend this much time with my family on the farm and no one has yet complained one bit about the hard work.

I’d feel like our cash renters were like family in less 6 weeks.

I’d be able to hear my dad saying things like he was standing next to me talking …. Knowing the exact words he would say in certain situations.

I’d want to throw all my scrapbooking stuff out the window … I have no desire to “create” anytime soon.

I’d treasure everything I’d see on the farm, even stuff that is “scrap” or that I have no idea what it is.

I'd long for my children to grow up on a farm like I did.

I’d continue to think of my dad so much every single day while missing him more and more … it’s definitely not getting any easier at this point.

Enough

2010-05-27T23:39:00.002-05:00

So I've been doing some thinking the last couple days and I've decided it's enough. Enough of the grief taking over my life, although I know it's not a switch I can turn on and off .... I need to change my attitude and I know that would help. Why now? because although it's only been 5 weeks .... it needs to be enough because my husband needs his wife back .... before he files for divorce, because my kids need their mom back .... before I yell their ears off, because my house needs to be somewhat organized and cleaned .... before we are buried alive, and because I need some a little sense of normal .... before I completely go over the edge. I'm going to try harder, I'm going to try to celebrate my father's life and the great things he did, the funny things he said, and how much he loved us. I have been thinking lately of how much I am like him in so many ways .... one way I know we are the same that if the situation was reversed and I was gone and he was still here .... that he would be doing the same as me .... practically drowning in grief, doing all he can, but feeling so overwhelmed that it was difficult to go on. I know I would be watching him wishing he would remember the happy times, the fun times, the great times, and to take advantage of the now moments. I know my dad is looking down on us now and wanting us to go on and enjoy the now and not drown in our grief. I never realized how people can become paralized by the death of a loved one but now I do. I can see how easily it is to succumb to the grief and become depressed or dependent on alcohol or drugs or just not move forward in life. The hard thing to do is to push forward through the pain and despair. It's not to say that I won't still be grieving or that there won't be sad days but for the sake of my family I must try to find a little bit of my old self. I know it would make my dad happy.

And on a lighter (and really snarky) note, at least I know I am a real girl since I have feelings unlike other unnamed family members who must be robots or androids or something who can't even acknowledge that my father died or that me and my sisters are in pain .... yeah, I'm a real live person and I'm going prove it by living and celebrating my dad's life just like he would want me to do.

My New Life

2010-05-25T22:24:00.001-05:00

I've pretty much given up doing much of anything that was my previous life. For sure that list includes cleaning my house, cooking, blogging (except right now), reading blogs, grocery shopping, scrapbooking, or doing the thousands of things that should be done but now seem like the most trivial things ever. Eating seems to fall into that category ... sometimes it's because I'm not really hungry other times is I just don't have time right now. How can paperwork take up so much time? I guess because the paperwork stuff is not here ... it's here, there, and everywhere I'm not. I've become all too familiar with the grief police ... meeting a couple members ... not a big fan! Truth be known, I'd like to lock myself in a room somewhere for like a week but the 4 kids and husband seem to put a damper on that idea. So I go on .... These 2 girls are right there with me .... so glad to have them ....

so glad we get along ... so glad we aren't petty about stuff .... so glad we can laugh about Dad and things only we truly understand .....

so glad we will be spending tons of hours together this summer .... so glad we talk each other down from the "cliffs" and the crazy moments .... however I am still getting a tattoo .....

Change

2010-05-11T23:15:00.000-05:00

Talk about a complete turnabout in my life. I used to spend my days doing household chores, scrapbooking, running errands, tending to kids, browsing blogs, organizing all my "stuff", etc Today I spent my time looking through boxes of paperwork, calling various insurance companies, learning stuff about farming, trying to make sense out of my dad's paperwork. It's draining and confusing. I think I called one sister no less than 5 times and emailed both sisters several times.
It's hard to deal with this type of stuff when you just want to grieve and do nothing else. It seems like our life has stopped and it will never be the same again. All 3 of us girls are having major life changes and it's a lot to deal with but at least we have each other. I say in the end we can write a book about this. Funny things, sad things, memories, drama, and unbelievable things people say to you at a time like this. I've learned to "brace myself" if someone says "I don't mean to be rude but" ... you know something's coming out of their mouth that probably should have gone unsaid. It's amazing how some people step up and are there .... people we didn't even know before Dad died. It's those people that are helping us go on, give us support, and share wonderful stories of our dad to keep the good times. I know life will continue to go on and things will be less overwhelming as we get it together. We have plenty to keep us busy in the mean time which I think is a good thing .... maybe.

Happy Birthday, Dad

2010-05-08T23:28:00.001-05:00

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Today was my dad's 68th birthday. I wish I could have told him "Happy Birthday" and celebrated the way we always did. I can't believe it's been 2 weeks since he died. It seems like the moments have crept by and yet where did 2 weeks go? It will be a long road for my family to travel without him. Happy Birthday, Dad!

Too Much

2010-04-23T13:24:00.000-05:00

Too much of anything is bad … clothing, talking, eating, time (although I can’t say I have ever had too much time), TV, toys, money (yes, I totally believe that …. I NEVER want to win the lottery), stuff .... the only exception is you can’t have too much LOVE or too many kids (well, some days I may disagree with that statement) but not today.

Happy Earth Day!

2010-04-22T09:00:00.000-05:00

I've been trying to be more responsible when it comes to our family's carbon footprint. When you have a large family, sometimes it seems like we make a HUGE impact on the environment in many ways. This past year we starting to recycle. I used to save our recyclables and take them to another town to drop off. What a pain! Finally our town (after much upheaval and controversy) made it possible to have curbside recycling. Of course the upheaval and controversy only made it possible if you paid for recycling. For $7.50 a month, we can get a bimonthly pick up. It's totally worth it. We used to have 4+ overflowing 30 gallon trash cans each week to be hauled to the landfill. Now we only fill 1/2 ONE 30 gallon trash can. Our recycling 45 gallon bin is completely full or overflowing every two weeks. I feel this is making a difference even if we do have to pay for it. You pay for it one way or another. I wish the majority of our town could see this.

I made reusable napkins. One yard gave us 6 napkins. I made them a little smaller than what I saw other people in blogland doing but this size works just fine. I have 2 more yards of fabric to make into napkins too. It only took about 90 minutes. We don't normally use napkins or paper towels but the kids like to wipe their mouths and hands on their clothes so hopefully we learn some manners as we use our fun napkins.

I hate plastic water bottles. I really don't see why we have to buy water when we can get it out of the faucet for pennies. However my husband feels differently. The kids follow his lead. I am really going to try to get rid of the plastic water bottle usage this summer. We found aluminum water bottles on sale a couple weeks ago and everyone picked one out. We are going to use them on vacation and throughout the summer. Everyone knows their color and I'm hoping it will cut down on the number of cups we have to wash every day too by using the same water bottle throughout the day.

Happy Earth Day to you!

Mickey .... We're gettin' ready

2010-04-21T12:40:00.000-05:00

Won't be long and we'll be visiting the Big Mouse at his house. The kids are so excited. I'm trying to get ready but I still need to finish my lists of what to buy, what to pack, what we're going to eat, etc. Our tickets came the other day .... that made it REAL (Reese doesn't have a ticket since she's under 3, she's "free").

I made these bags for the kids to keep their autograph books, pen, and other souvenirs they acquire. The plan is to have them carry their own bags. I made the straps long enough to go across their body like a satchel. They love them, they were easy, and I think they are cute. The strapping was the most expensive part of the whole project. Of course, since Mickey himself made it he feels the need to charge $6 a yard, and I needed 4 yards, but thank goodness for 50% off coupons.

Here's the little autograph books I made. I used a paper plate that I cut on the front. Bought some black cardstock and some bright colored scrapbook paper. I sewed the pages onto the cardstock for sturdiness.
I could have made them more detailed but figured since the kids are so young the books wouldn't hold up. I think we will go back and add photos to the pages and maybe a few embellishments after our trip.

I've been reading books about Disney World. I'm such a planner and scheduler but I've never been. Anyone have any tips for us .... I need all the help I can get.

Back on the Patch

2010-04-14T15:39:00.004-05:00

Another round of eye doctor appointments a few weeks ago, our new doctor determined that one of Addison's eye's was becoming weaker so he wants her to wear an eye patch 4 hours a day, for the next 2-1/2 months. We've been through patching before. Ethan's done it several times ... used to be to use a sticky (like a band-aid patch). They're hard to keep on and sweaty and hurt to be pulled off just like a real band-aid. Last time we got a patch for Ethan to wear on his actual glasses. It's so much easier and doesn't really bug the kids much. Ethan's fabric patch that I bought covered left eye and Addison needed hers for the right eye. The doctor gave me a brochure to order patches .... very cute ones with different colors and little designs. They were made of felt. They were $13 and we'd have to wait for them to be shipped. I thought I can make one of those and googled it and there was a tutorial for it right on the internet for free. Here's my first attempt. It's a little rough but it does the job ... I like the little owl but Addison would prefer a butterfly so I'll make her another one but she's happily wearing this one for now so much that today we accidently left it on for 5 hours instead of 4 ... ooops!

P.S. I love her missing teeth smile!

Some of our Days

2010-04-14T10:18:00.000-05:00

The Story Matters has a sketch challenge this week.

I turned it and changed it up a bit. I found the April kit really challenging for me to work with. I crave bright color so I added all the yellow paper and letter stickers (from another TSM kit) and I made the little flower.

Yes, I'm still working on 2009 Picture of the Day album. If I keep going and doing 2 or 3 layouts a week, I may be able to have it done by the end of summer.

Where'd it go?

2010-04-09T16:15:00.000-05:00

Easter came and went in the blink of an eye. My 4 bunnies enjoyed their egg hunts, easter baskets, visiting the bunny, and sharing a meal and fun times with family. And just like that it hopped away.

When we grow up ....

2010-04-03T06:51:00.001-05:00

Addison will be an explorer (like Dora), Caden wants to Spiderman, Reese will be Elmo, and Ethan says when he grows up he'll be BIG. They're growing up right before our eyes ....

Too Much Fun?

2010-04-02T15:32:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was the kids' first day of spring break. So I thought we'd have tons of fun. I made bunny pancakes and sausage. Then we headed to do a bit of shopping then they wanted to see the Easter Bunny but he sleeps in so he wouldn't be at the mall until noon so we loaded back up in the van and off to the park to play for over an hour. I also made them trek over to the lake. It's a ways to walk but they need to get wore out. I thought we'd get subs and have a picnic lunch since it was so nice but they wanted McDonalds so I indulged. Then back to the mall where we saw the Easter Bunny. Reese was terrified and they wouldn't let me take any photos unless I bought a minimum purchase and I had left my purse in the van so no photos. Then I needed a couple things at the grocery store. Ethan didn't want to go at all. He screamed all the way in and fought with Reese through the entire trip. We got home which was followed by more complaining and crying and fighting. So I decided let's do a really messy art project. Then they played outside with the neighbor kids for a few hours and by 7 all of them were dirty and way over tired. They went to bed at 8:20. No staying up late. I had enough of it all. It was too much to do in one day.

Today we're taking it easy. Everyone (including me) is much calmer and happier!

Here, There, & Everywhere

2010-04-01T07:30:00.000-05:00

I've been list obcessed lately. My weekly to-do list which gets a ton a attention on Mondays then seems not much happens until Saturday when I look at it again and then do a bunch more on Sunday to feel like I actually have some things I can cross off. Making lists of things for our Disney vacation: what to buy, what to pack, what we are doing.

Thinking of how lucky I am and how easy we have it. My friend, Candi, whose 3 year old is at Mayos while they try to figure out why she is sleeping 20+ hours a day and still not rested and why her motor skills are continually declining.

Tons of tests, uprooting their whole family (they have 3 little ones), the unknown problem, worry, worry, worry. I hope the reason why she is so sick is discovered soon so a solution can be put into place. And my friend, Sue, who I used to teach with ... her husband was the victim of a hit and run last week while he was riding a bike.

He's had a ton of surgeries for broken bones and various other things. The man that hit him has been arrested and I just hope Doug recovers quickly. When I start feeling sorry for myself or annoyed with the kids .... I put myself right back to being thankful for all that I have at this moment.

The house hunt is on. We went to an open house last weekend. I loved it. It was old and had hardwood floors and built ins and 4 bedrooms and the perfect little spot for a scrapbook space and this awesome walk up attic that Aaron already had remodeled in his head. The price was superb and it had a nice little yard that was fenced in. The main problem not in the school district we are currently in. Switching school districts isn't out of question or the end of the world but I feel like I might start to hyperventilate when I start to think about it. With Ethan's special needs and both Aaron and I familar with the teachers and staff because he went there and I used to teach there, it just feels safer right now. We've found several houses in the same town we love at great prices but our next house is our last house so unless our realtor has the super power of picking up a house and plopping it down in our school district we aren't going anywhere too soon.

I've been scrapbooking up a storm lately. Fitting in here and there. Trying to use up some of my kits I've bought. I love doing it so much. Cleaned up my space a while back .... so much easier when I have space to work.

The kids are on spring break. I have projects and excursions planned, keeping them busy is important so there's less fighting and they are really tired at bedtime.

Maybe I'll get back to blogging ... it's on my list everyday .... I have lots to share and say but getting it done is another story.

More Scrapbooking

2010-03-31T08:59:00.000-05:00

I've managed to get more scrapbooking done. Trying to work on last year's picture of the day album while using kits I have. Challenges are perfect for this to get me jump started and give me a deadline to complete a layout or two. This one is for The Story Matters Challenge to use 4 or more photos on one layout. I used some of their March kit to complete this one. Simple but I like it.

Here's another picture of the day layout I created using The Story Matters March kit. I also used some fun vintage letters and playing card that Keely gave me.

The Story Matters Sketch Challenge

2010-03-19T14:14:00.000-05:00

I have a lot of Thanksgiving photos to scrap. When I saw The Story Matters March kit, I thought the colors were perfect for some of these photos. This is for my ongoing Photo of the Day album from 2009. I turned the sketch on it's side. I don't scrap photos of myself often enough and I'm glad I got this one done. There's still time to enter if you have the March kit.

Finally!

2010-03-11T14:27:00.003-06:00

Nice weather to get outside and blow the stink off the kids! They warmed up the swingset, begged to play in the sandbox (I said no), cried when I told them their bikes and scooters were locked in the garage and Daddy had the key. We went for a walk around the block.

And they talked me into taking them to the park where they played and played and played!

And got extra dirty!

Welcome back, Spring!

Sharing Happiness

2010-03-07T14:43:00.000-06:00

We watched a netflix recommended moive last night, Into the Wild, which was one of the longest movies in history and although I wouldn't advise any one else watch this quirky and true movie it's message was so true and awesome.

Happiness is not real unless it is shared. -- Chris McCandless aka Alexander Supertramp

Hope you are sharing some happiness today!

my 39th

2010-03-06T22:14:00.007-06:00

My 39th birthday was over more than a week ago. It truly was one of the best birthdays I have ever had.

The preschool class surprised me singing "Happy Birthday" and giving me treats, a card, and scrapbooking goodies. It was a sweet surprise.

Aaron and I enjoyed a dinner alone. I chose Buffalo Wild Wings. We eat there often and I do like it. I even had 3 wild lemonades (they were yummy). Aaron's mom and dad watched the kids for us and then we came back to a little party with a pretty lemon cake and decorated table. The kids were so excited.

Keely, Monica, and I decided to go shopping on Saturday. We went to the junk store where we found awesome pitchers of buttons

and I got an old quilt to sew into something. We had lunch at Red Robin and then went to the fabric store and the scrapbook store. I was a little disappointed when at 3:30 they were ready to head back home. We seldom get time away from kids and it's unheard of for the three of us to get together without kids. I figured Monica wanted to get home and they were both just tired.

Keely was calling Jeremy when we got into town to tell them we were almost there. I asked her why she did that. She told that Aaron said to park in a different place. I got in trouble with her because I turned on the wrong road. I couldn't figure out what the big deal was. Monica surprisingly said she'd stay for dinner. We gathered all our stuff out of the van and "Surprise" everyone was inside. My husband organized a surprise party inviting all our family members, having pizza and cake, and keeping it quiet the whole time!

I was in such shock the whole party. It was really sweet and such a great memory.

I still can't believe he organized it all by himself and watched the kids all day and kept it quiet.

I love this guy!

Where am I?

2010-03-04T11:31:00.005-06:00

I have a lot to blog about just no time to do it .... I'm still here. This week I've been sewing away ... finished binding a quilt I made for Addison (2+ years ago) and I have been working on these pillow covers ...
a special order from Etsy for a dentist office. Aren't they fun? I would totally take my kids to a dentist with these pillows ....

I've added a bit more to my Etsy shop but things keep selling ... so hurry if you want something or you can always email me and I'll make some special just for you. And if you want to help out a good cause I donated one of my tooth fairy pillows to The Macs to help a preemie's family get through NICU Hell. If you want to check it out here, lots of cute stuff on the auction/giveaway block.

I'll be back with more exciting blog posts in the next few days.

I love scrapbooking kits

2010-02-20T17:52:00.004-06:00

I have a thing about scrapbooking kits .... and I am seriously considering stopping buying any separate scrapbooking products and just buying kits. I love the mix of products and manufacturers and it's a challenge to try to use products together that I normally wouldn't combine myself. The Story Matters is my newest kit. They just started and I have already made 3 layouts with it (you can see them here and here). They had a sketch challenge on their blog this month and here's my take:
I have plenty of stuff left to do more now I just have to find the time which is actually the biggest challenge of all.

2

2010-02-20T02:08:00.003-06:00

Being 2 is hard {on her and her mama}, she wants to do everything herself ... she can do a lot of things herself, her emotions are here, there, and everywhere .... one minute she's so sweet
and the next she's screaming at the top of her lungs and flinging herself on the floor .... it will all pass way too quickly. The thing that she says right now that always makes me smile is "whoopsie".

Clipping .... errrr Creating Away

2010-02-11T20:33:00.005-06:00

This week has been one busy week.

We have been working away

making valentines

that would be 114 total valentines

She couldn't be left out!

We made 3 valentine boxes for preschool that coordinate with our homemade valentines.

In between creating times, we make the kids do push ups

and I like to chase them around with rolls of paper.

I squeezed in another layout from The Story Matters {first} kit when I was supposed to be cleaning. I even used the distressing powder that I know nothing about -- it's the houndstooth, a 25 cent stamp I bought at Michael's. I am not a good stamper so the distressing powder "hides" my mistakes and there's many.

I made one camera strap for my etsy shop .... more to come next week ... I hope.

I am almost done with a custom rag quilt .... I always forget about how much clipping there is to do ....

I'm taking a break by blogging instead of clipping.
Aaron got creative with his parenting skills one day when Ethan refused to get dressed so he threatened to let Reese wear his clothes and he followed through so then Ethan put on Reese's clothes

isn't this the perfect "embarrassing" photo for when he's a teenager?
Oh and did I mention we're going to my sister's house tomorrow so I can go to a crop at the store she works at. I haven't begun to pack anything, I have cookies to make, and a layout to make for a challenge for the crop ..... better get to creating or clipping or something.

A little out of it ....

2010-02-07T01:15:00.004-06:00

with scrapbooking that is. Ever since I started doing sewing projects, I find it hard to find time and space to scrapbook. I have a scrapbooking table and a sewing table in our bedroom but when I work on one the one I'm not using tends to get buried with stuff. I love doing both but there just isn't enough time to clean off a table and sew or clean off a table and scrapbook at the end of the day. Tonight was the night though, I quickly cleaned off the table and opened my new The Story Matters Kit (they have more available here). It is their first kit and Aaron picked it up for me after work and I wanted to get something made. I seriously sat on my bed for over an hour trying to get something figured out. I haven't scrapped much in the last 4 months and boy is it hard to get my mind going again but once I finally decided on a photo and what the journaling would be I got going. Here's what I did:
I like the results. I have other layouts brewing in my head but we'll see if I can find the time to get them done.

Our No Spend Month .... sort of

2010-02-05T10:53:00.000-06:00

#20 on my 40 Things List was to have a “No Spend Month”. I got this idea from Rachael at Small Notebook. I’ve been reading her blog for a couple years and once a year (I think June) she has a no spend month where she sets an amount to live on. Her last goal was to stay under $250 for the whole month! This is only for groceries, gas, eating out, and spending money on things outside of your utilities, house & car payments, etc. I am going to say $250 is very low but Rachael had only one toddler (now she has 2 kids) and she lives in an apartment in a larger city in Texas where she can walk to shop.
When I set my goal I knew there’s no way we could live on $250. I thought we would spend more on gas than that since Aaron has an hour commute each way to work and we live in the middle of nowhere so we have no choice but to drive to most places. I decided that we would try to live under $550 for the month. We did well at the beginning. We didn’t even eat out until Jan 9. However I didn’t think about groceries. I stock pile groceries all the time. I only buy what’s on sale and I stock up on sale items we use frequently. I mistakenly thought we could live out of the fridge and freezer mostly but I didn’t take into account that with the holidays in December that I didn’t do a lot of grocery shopping so there wasn’t as much food as I thought we had. This month we spent almost $520 on groceries. Which when figured out for 6 people is only $2.80 per person per day! $2.80 won’t even get you a value meal at McDonalds and it sure won’t fill you up for the whole day. Aaron takes his lunch every day and the kids take their lunch about 3 times a week. So we definitely didn’t make it under $550 we more than doubled it, spending $1186.
The break down was
Groceries: $520
Gas: $181
Eating out: $128
Other: $357

We definitely could have done better on the “other part” and we ate out 6 times for the $128 which is remarkable considering normally we spend about $40 every time we go out unless it’s McDonalds then it’s $25.

Once I realized we went way over the goal, I was mad and thought it was stupid to even try to do it. Then the more I thought about the more I realized it was a good learning experience for us.

1. We can find lots of things to do that really don’t cost money but it takes planning. Normally on the weekends, if we don’t have anything going on we tend to go out to eat then go to Walmart or Target and before you know it, we’ve spent an unplanned $100. Aaron took the kids on a play date one Saturday to his friends’ house, we had a Wii party at our house with Ashley & Steve, we saved up gift cards to use for our monthly date. I even had passes to the Children’s museum that we didn’t get to use yet. We weren’t deprived of doing things.

2. We can eat McDonald’s for $10. We bring it home. The kids share an adult chicken nugget meal (we save Happy Meals as a special thing), Aaron and I each got $1 sandwich and split a large fry. Aaron said he was still hungry but I always say it’s not your last meal and I guess we could have splurged for another $1 sandwich.

3. We didn’t charge one thing on credit cards. We hadn’t been charging for a long time and almost had them paid off. Then we had major vehicle issues that we didn’t have money for so we charged it, then it was Christmas and we charged more. It’s easy to get into that habit. I think this month broke that cycle for us once again.

4. I had grand ideas of spending less this month and having extra to sock away and there wasn’t. Aaron’s work has been slow and he’s had his hours cut and even had to take about 4 days off (unpaid) this month. Even though our savings didn’t increase, I realized that we weren’t in the negative this month and we had paid extra on the credit cards too.

5. Putting off buying things can make you change your mind. I really thought I need a pink tree to decorate for Valentine’s day. Now that I waited I don’t think it’s that important.

6. I “go” more than I thought I did and way more than I need too. This month I usually spent 4 week days at home and went to get groceries the other day. Putting all my errands together rather than going several saves time, money, and I get a whole lot more done at home.

7. Having to keep track and writing down everything you spend sure makes you think twice about your purchases. And gives you a real “snapshot” of what you are spending.

8. I lost 4 pounds just from eating out less! Whooo Hoooo!

And even though the “No Spend” month is over, I didn’t go out the next day on a spending spree …. It’s still going. I’m thinking that maybe we will do some “No spend Weeks” here and there throughout the year and maybe another “No spend Month” again this year (September?) and aim to keep under the last amount …. I should be able to do that huh? …. And this might just become an annual thing for us in January.

Piles

2010-02-04T14:44:00.003-06:00

We have piles of laundry and valentines in progress

and now the teacher wants each preschooler to bring 100 things to school next week so soon we'll have even more piles

and here's one more pile:

crayon wallets that were just added to my etsy shop. Go check them out!

Progress

2010-02-01T22:13:00.002-06:00

Here's where I am on my 40 Things List:

13. Eat healthier we have definitely ate out less this month -- doing our no spend month (#20) has helped a lot. I've been eating a lot more healthy side salads with my meals too. I have a long ways to go on this.

15. Do some random acts of kindness three special packages go out tomorrow to three special people

16. Do monthly date nights with Aaron we had our first date on Saturday. Ashley & Steve watched the kids for us and we went out for drinks, dinner, and a little clothes shopping for me.

18. Organize our basement we have started, the plan was to work 15-30 minutes every night in the basement after the kids went to bed, so far we only done 2 nights, need to get going on this and it would easily be done in a month.

19. Open an Etsy store Yes! I've sold a few things too. I need to get more stuff in my shop but it's a little hard to find chunks of time to sew but I'm pleased with what I've done so far.

20. No Spend Month January was our no-spend month. It definitely didn't turn out as planned but I think it was very revealing. I'll save all that info for another post.

21. Go to the Dentist I went to the dentist in November and figured out I hadn't been in 9 years -- how sad is that. For the most part, the dentist said my teeth were in really good shape for not going that long and look Mom, no cavities. However, I had the beginning of gum disease which requires extensive cleaning in stages. My first cleaning was today and I have another in a couple weeks.

22. Finish my picture of the day album for 2009 I ordered more of my photos but there's some "lost" because of my computer crashing. Not sure how to handle that ...

23. Read a whole book I am reading an adult book but it's for #38, I want to read a whole book more for fun than information

26. Organize my recipes This is started but there's a lot more to do.

31. Do $1 week food drive Doing it, going to explain this in a later post to see if I can get others to join in.

36. Make a scrapbook about me I signed up for a Big Picture Scrapbooking Class with Lisa Day. It's started but I have a long ways to go.

This will be an ongoing project ....

38. Become debt free (except house and 1 car payment) I'm reading Keely's copy of the The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey.

This is totally doable for us ....

I think it's a good start on my list!

Strange People

2010-01-29T21:55:00.002-06:00

I live with some strange people.

This is what Ethan looked like for bed tonight. He has started to wear Aaron's work stocking cap to bed every night. Tonight he wanted his pajama top left mostly unbuttoned, Aaron asked him if he wanted to be a "player" ....

it's hard to be mad at him for coming down the stairs for the bazillionth time asking me to fix Buzz's wing, when he looks like this He's very odd.

Here's another odd duck. She went upstairs and carried down a stool all by herself. She walks past me as if this was an every day occurrence. I go to see what she was doing. She was helping herself to another piece of pizza on the kitchen counter.

Notice the no pants

but that's not true when you pull up her shirt you see she took off her pull-up and put on some of Addison's underwear.

She walks around like that .... looks so comfortable, doesn't it? (She's also wearing 2 pairs of socks.)

And here's where it comes from --- their dad. We are in the process of cleaning the basement (#18 on the list). Aaron didn't work today so he worked in the basement some. After the kids went to bed, I went down to help. It's hard to watch him go through his stuff ... oh the things he owns. And in his defense he is getting rid of more than I thought he would but seriously what is with collecting beer bottles and matchbooks and coasters and Nascar cars and posters ....

oh if you could see the posters he has. He did throw some away but he's 37 not 17! I asked him why he was keeping them and the answer is sometime he is going to hang them up. I wanted to know where because most homes aren't going to have that much wall space ..... ever! He thinks he will hang them in a garage .... hmmmmm, won't that be pretty? After I went through a huge container of video tapes that he said he wasn't getting rid of any of them at all ..... and then he okayed to get rid of about half of them, many of them were movies taped on blank tapes ... luckily he decided all those could go, as well as, the entire Lethal Weapon series. Now if I could just get him to get rid of the Nascar tire we have in our basement. Yes, that's right we have a real racing tire bet most of you can't say that ... very strange.

Me in the Shower

2010-01-27T13:18:00.000-06:00

I know everyone is dying to see what I look like in the shower. Anyone that lives in this house loves to come watch me take a shower. I never get to take one alone ... there's always someone visiting with me at the shower curtain ... some people like to see what I'm doing .... some people come just to make small talk ... some people come to ask for a snack {hello????? I'm in the shower!} Apparently, I've been viewed so much that now I'm the subject of artwork.

So here's me in the shower:

as drawn by Addison, now you all have seen what I look like in the shower so maybe I can now get at least one all alone .... or sell admission tickets?

My Favorite Quote

2010-01-27T03:05:00.000-06:00

Last Friday I watched the final episode of The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien. I'm not a faithful watcher although I think he's really funny and I'm totally on team CoCo. I loved the musical performance by Will Ferrell with Conan. I remember discovering Conan when the kids were babies and had to be fed every 3 hours. On nights Aaron had to work the next day I didn't have him help so I had to feed all three of them by myself ... on good nights it took 45 minutes ... on bad nights it took 90 minutes ... the time went by faster when Conan was on. Sometimes I saw him twice because his show was replayed at 3am. I thought he was hilarious ... of course it was 3am and I was very sleep deprived but now that I have caught up on my sleep I still think he is funny. The best part of the show had to be his serious good bye and this quote. I think it is very true and a good motto for all of us.

Time Out

2010-01-26T18:10:00.002-06:00

I put myself in time out tonight. I took Reesey shopping today to buy paper to make the kids' valentines and to go buy an ironing board. Did you know that if you iron on a quadruple folded bath towel on your hardwood floor, the finish will wear off? Well, if you did you should have told me. I hate those giant ironing boards they're so big and I sew in my bedroom so there's not enough space for one, I found a brand new table top one at the Salvation Army for $2. New ones were $30-$40. I have been loving going to thrift stores and have found some really good stuff.

I had to go in time out because I hauled all 4 kids to the vet after school. The lovely Snoopy started peeing in other locations besides her litter box so we went to have her checked out hoping it was something medically that can be easily fixed .... we had to wait about 15 minutes in the smallest room ever .... then they moved us to another big room where we waited another 10 minutes. It didn't look like anything was wrong but put her on an antibiotic anyway. The kids were too busy and too loud and fighting and opening the door every 2 seconds and fighting ..... then on the way home they were so loud .... even with the radio turned up .... they are too loud. Sometimes I just need quiet. I'm appreciating that my hubby is letting me lock myself in our room for a few hours .... I don't know what I will do ... possibly nothing ... how I would love to scrapbook but my desk is covered. I love my kids and am thankful for each and everyone of their outgoing and energized {and loud} spirit but mommies need breaks.

Here's another good deal I found today at the thrift store,

Yes, it's a cowprint skirt and no, I don't plan on wearing it. It will be cut up and you'll see the fabric again in our Halloween costumes ... yes, I know what our costumes will be ... you have to start early if you have 6 costumes to make and want to get everything without spending a small fortune.

Maybe I'll just sit and stare at my ironing board and cowprint skirt ....

1 down, 39 to go

2010-01-20T15:46:00.005-06:00

Number 19 on my list is "open an Etsy Store". If you don't know what Etsy is, you'll be sorry I ever directed you there, if you love handmade or vintage items like I do. There are so many great things on there, I could browse all day. So I did it. Actually I opened my store last week but kept wanting to make more "stuff" to add to it but there's only so much time in the day. I've even sold a few things .... okay, they were to my friends Candi and Penny but they saw my stuff and were interested enough to purchase an item or two.

I have BIG plans like making more coloring wallets, list takers, and buntings and I would love to make some bags and quilts and camera straps and about a million other things I've thought of. There's only so much time in the day to sew though. I figure if my stuff doesn't sell then I have lots of gifts for birthdays and holidays.

Go check out my little store, Sew Happy. And if you're local I'd be more than happy to deliver anything to you to save you shipping fees (email me before you pay so we can work it out), if there's something you can't live without.