The City Peach

bad virus

2010-06-19T11:20:00.002-05:00

Hey all. I'm on my husband's work computer because my computer is no longer working, due to lots and lots of bad viruses. Hopefully it'll be fixed soon and I'll be able to get bloggin', but until then, I'll be a no show. Boo.

laughter

2010-06-14T20:26:00.001-05:00

This day is nearly over (mostly because I like to be in bed by 9pm...or I should say, if I'm not in bed by 9pm, I am so not very delightful the next morning) and I am pooped. I've got no time to blog today (mostly because my computer doesn't like me) but I wanted to share this photo. I think it's my new favorite one of Kayla. She's so weird, it just cracks me up. In this photo she was telling us a story (thanks to my husband, my kids can make up some darn good, long, interesting stories). It had to do with Crabo - the Crab from outer space. :) And, as is typical of Kayla, she's laughing at something she just said in her story - far louder and goofier than any of us listening - because...we didn't get the funny. But then, of course, we laugh even harder at her. She always finds herself to be quite hysterical. So glad she can laugh at herself easily, although sometimes we'd all like to get clued into what exactly she found so amusing. :)

she & him

2010-06-13T10:00:00.004-05:00

We went down to Millenium Park in Chicago this week to hear one of my favorite groups, She & Him, perform a free concert. We were shocked with the amount of people there. We got there about two hours early and barely got a sliver of grass to lay out our blankets. We couldn't see the stage at all, but the sound quality was excellent, and She & Him were amazing. We did learn a few things about taking our kids to concerts, however. I've divided what we've learned into stages.

1. They get easily bored when they can't move. They are shockingly quiet in this stage. Kinda sweet, even. This is the shortest of stages.

2. They need food. Equal amounts sugar and healthy.

3. They know how to get un-bored fairly quickly. It involves ninja moves and tackling. This is the not-so-sweet-and-bordering-on-driving-mom-insane-stage. They feed off of each other and manage to draw the stares of many curious onlookers, and at a shin-dig like this, there were many. Next time, will probably limit the sugar consumed in previous stage to near-normal amounts. They needed a de-tox the next day.

[Notice that Daddy gets involved in this stage. Barely noticable, but ever obvious to Mommy, who therefore gets even more flustered than she would normally when her children behave like delinquents in public. They had help in this stage. They don't need help. They are darn good at it by themselves. Hmph.]

4. The concert starts, it gets dark, and the kids are so excited they either fall asleep (the boy, aka the instigator of the ninja moves) or sit quietly, listening to the music (the girls, who thankfully knew many of the songs). I took no photos of this stage because I was in such a stage of shock as a result of the previous stage that I just plum forgot. And friends showed up with wine. Wine makes me forgetful.

So, there you have it. Lessons learned. The kids want to do it again. Soon. Oh goody.

computers, fishing, and strawberries

2010-06-12T18:31:00.000-05:00

Arrghhhhh!!!!

That comes out of my mouth every time I try to use my computer this week. It's having issues. As in, it takes me 10 seconds to type out a word. And then I lose it because it freezes and I have to restart. It's frustrating. It's still not solved, but I'm determined to get at least one post up this week.

We have been so darn busy these past two weeks since school has been out. I had to go to Michael's today just to have some quality alone time away from the kiddos. We've been downtown twice, to the zoo, to the pool several times, to friends' pools several times, strawberry picking, to the farmer's market, gone fishing and bike riding, had play dates, and generally...just been on the go constantly.

I love it.

Well, I'm tired to the point of going to Michael's for peace and quiet, but I hate being bored. So, it's been good. I just need a bit more down time in the coming weeks. I don't think that'll happen, but we'll see.

Before the computer shuts down on me, I wanted to share some photos of what we've been up to. Kayla got to go fishing for the first time with a nature group that she volunteers in, so that was extremely exciting for everyone. So exciting that we had to pull out my old fishing poles and tackle boxes the next time we went to my parents' house, just so we could practice casting in my parents' backyard...where there is only grass and lots of trees to get the line tangled up in. It was swell fun, of course.

We also went to a local farm that we visit multiple times each summer for their yummy vegetables. They also come to our local farmer's market each week. We were able to pick strawberries on our visit. Of course it decided to rain the entire time we were picking, but we had fun. We all just enjoyed some homemade strawberry malts and smoothies, courtesy of this lovely place.

So, that's all for now. Let's all hope I get to see you soon. Otherwise you know I'll be throwing things at this dang computer. :)

scenes from the last few weeks of school, part 2

2010-06-04T08:02:00.001-05:00

scenes from the last few weeks of school, part 1

2010-06-03T08:51:00.000-05:00

drive-in

2010-06-01T13:10:00.000-05:00

We went to the drive-in on the last day of school for their end-of-school treat and saw the latest Shrek and Ironman II. Ijah and I fell asleep during Ironman, but the girls and Denairic managed to watch the whole thing. We didn't get home until after 1am, so the kids were super excited to be out after midnight. It was a great night.

My kids are completely unable to stand still for two seconds for a photo.

And, being the crazy collectors that they are, they decided to spend most of the time before it got dark starting a new collection. Super, duper gross. Thankfully, once it was dark, I managed to sneak the box away to the garbage can. But don't tell them that. They think we accidentally left it there.

Gross.

watercoloring flowers

2010-05-31T14:19:00.002-05:00

Today is Memorial Day, and it's dark, windy, and rainy. I love it. We haven't been home for a whole day in....I don't really know. It's been awhile. So, with no BBQs to go to and the inability to go outside and work on the yard or the painting of my porch railing, we are stuck inside. Oh, happy day!

We've been working on our summer project list (I'll share more on that another day). On that list, we decided to include journaling as something we wanted to do. We went to Michaels and bought some watercolor journals that we will journal in, paint in, scrapbook in, and whatever else. We are both going having scheduled journal writing time with the family (purposeful writing) and they can also write in it whenever they want. They need to continue their writing skills through the summer and I want them to be able to pour out whatever they're thinking into words. The kids want to put in photos of the little trips and adventures we take throughout the summer - which is actually really great because the photos I take just sit on the computer. I'm terrible at printing them. So, it's going to be a multi-purpose journal that will hopefully chronicle our summer.

Later in the week (or next week) we'll work on individualizing our journals, but we decided today to break them in with a little watercoloring. I like crafting, and the kids do too, so we bought these special watercolor journals knowing that they will hold their paintings as well as their written work this summer. After reading this a few days ago, I knew it would be perfect for our first journal project. The kids worked on it for about two hours straight - a new record for us I think.

The basic steps for this were just pencil, sharpie, paint. Simple.

Ijah's after he used the sharpie.

Ijah

Mine

Mielye

Kayla

The paintings have already dried, and Kayla and Mielye have already grabbed their journal and started writing. I hope their enthusiasm lasts, and that it transfers to Ijah. He doesn't like to write, so I'm hoping this project will get him interested rather than push him further away. They all have other journals that they very infrequently write in. I'm hoping that doing this together will help them be more dedicated to journal writing. I'll let you know how it goes. Does anyone have any other tips to getting kids to write regularly? I'd love to hear some.

Well, that's all for now. We'll be grilling BBQ ribs in the rain pretty soon. And eating lots and lots of watermelon. Because Memorial Day wouldn't be the same without BBQ and watermelon, right? The sun is optional. :)

sunflower contest

2010-05-29T19:38:00.000-05:00

[source]

Sorry it has been awhile since my last post - things have been crazy here. I thought that once the kids finished school, things would get less hectic, but we're pretty much booked solid through the first few weeks of June. Crazyville. I am determined to post more than I have been, but bear with me.

We spent the day at the zoo today to celebrate my little godchild's 3rd birthday, so we're tired, hot, sweaty, cranky...times ten. Rather than jump into the shower when I got home, I decided to first plant our sunflower seeds (and blog too...I still really, really, really smell) because...my family is having a sunflower contest! My mom bought every family some seeds and we're seeing who can grow the biggest one. We still haven't discussed the specifics (when we measure, what we're measuring...height? flower?, etc.), but the kids are determined to win! We've been so busy that we haven't had time to plant the seeds until now...so I think we're about three weeks behind. We're even going to ask my lovely neighbor to borrow some of her worm pee to jump start these babies!

Now I really must shower. I really thought I'd share this with you in case anyone wanted to join in our little contest, or give you an idea to plant some sunflowers with your kids this weekend. I'll post photos of ours as they grow, and share some of yours if you decide to plant them. Have a lovely weekend, and hopefully you'll see me here again real soon!

spying

2010-05-22T09:02:00.001-05:00

Found this on Mielye's desk this week. Cracked me up. "We are spying on Mom. Mom is on the computer. Mom is cleaning the house." I never noticed any spies, so they must have been good.

looky what i made

2010-05-18T09:21:00.004-05:00

Look! A place to hang coats, backpacks, and all the other crap that three little dears throw on the floor on a daily basis! Yee-haw! And the best part is that it only took two days to finish. Well, I still have to fill in the holes from the screws and touch up the paint, but it's fully functional and up on the wall and everything. I cannot tell you how happy it makes me to have somewhere to put all those blasted backpacks. I was getting panicky during the past week to think that for yet another summer, the unused school backpacks would sit collecting dust in some corner of the house. And I just loathe the daily throw-the-backpack-on-the-floor-immediately-after-walking-in-the-house system that we've had going on for...four years now?? Yikes. I have been looking everywhere in the past four years for a great old vintage wrought iron coat tree for this very purpose, but have never found the perfect one, until this past Saturday when I saw it at a thrift store. The absolutely most perfect coat tree ever made. And it wasn't for sale. Ugh. Made me mad, so I decided to just make something myself, gosh darn it! The husband bought me a 2"x6" eight feet long, I slapped three coats of white paint on it, and the husband helped put these old door knobs from my parents' house that I swiped out of their garage a few months ago. Super easy, should have done it years ago...but it's done now and it makes my life so much more pleasant. I'm happy. Still want a vintage coat tree, but this is quite perfect for now.

Our next soon-to-hopefully-be-completed-project:

Painting this really ugly maroon (why maroon????) wrought iron railing on my porch white. We've been here 6.5 years, and it's time. Denairic has been working on sanding off the rusty paint, and we've been sealing it and starting to paint, but the rainy weather and the kids' busy schedules have made it slow-going. But soon! I want to be able to look out into all that loveliness and not gag. I can't wait!

i love my japanese snowball tree

2010-05-16T10:10:00.004-05:00

kayla's solar system project

2010-05-15T10:14:00.000-05:00

Kayla's big third grade project revolved around the solar system (get it? revolved? *snickers*). She chose to research Ceres, a dwarf planet (never heard of it before she started talking about it nonstop...and now we are all experts). For her visual aid, she wanted to make a banner out of fabric and fabric markers and paint. I taught her how to iron (not too well, I know) and the rest she did herself...except when she nearly broke my sewing machine. I had to intervene to save my machine. But other than that, she worked very hard on it and it turned out great...and she got an A!

my mother's day gifts

2010-05-14T10:09:00.003-05:00

The kids and the husband made me some Mother's Day lovelies that were just so perfectly sweet. The first is this little money tree pot. The card attached was so sweet, and stated that as always, their gifts to me for Mother's Day conveyed the theme of nurturing and growth. So, the money from this money tree was to be used for a membership to the Arbor Day Foundation and to buy...trees! So simple, but just what I wanted. After opening, we went online and ordered lots of goodies....none of which will arrive until November. Drat. Missed the spring shipping season. Oh well! I ordered lots that I have wanted...English walnuts, Japanese maples...I can't wait! We got more than 20 trees...some of which won't take, but hopefully most will - and then this house might have some shade (and some green!).

As I was opening the second gift, Kayla blurted out, "We made it with our body parts!" Uhhh.... We laughed until the tears rolled. Sounded gross, but they did make it with their body parts (well, elbows to fingers). And it is oh so not gross - it's very beautiful and I love it.

Can you see their arms, hands, elbows, fingers? So sweet.

They also helped me make another canvas as our Mother's Day project. We made my sister Grace a canvas for her birthday a few weeks ago, and I loved it so much that I wanted one for myself. So we did it on Mother's Day, and it turned out perfect. The balloons are all of our fingerprints.

The two canvases are already hanging in my bedroom...on one ginormous blank white wall that I have spent the last six years trying to figure out what to do with. So, they are up and the rest will follow...eventually.

The rest of the day was filled with lots of other sweet little treats, like my favorite breakfast, my choice of dinner, and all of them helping me clean the house for two hours (that was my favorite part!). The one thing I wanted that neither Denairic or I had any energy to go out to get - sushi - will be had tonight! Yum!

mielye and her style

2010-05-11T06:00:00.000-05:00

This is how Mielye went out to play last week...such a stylin' little girl.

She gets really pretty irritated with me when I take her photo, but I tell her they are necessary.

For blackmailing purposes.

She'll be a teenager soon. I need to be prepared.

the boy can draw

2010-05-10T11:01:00.000-05:00

special person day with kayla

2010-05-10T10:56:00.002-05:00

I know it's been awhile since I've posted...I've no excuses other than life has been crazy. But the good news is, I've got lots to share this week...although I fully expect life to be even crazier this week. I'll try to keep chugging along. We shall see.

Last Friday, I had the honor of being Kayla's "special person" for her classroom's "Special Person Day" breakfast/lunch/recital/event. Kayla made the most perfect book for me, filled with pages all about me, her, and our relationship. It's a keeper. A treasure. I cannot even tell you how much I love it. I'm not someone who cries in public, but I was thiiiis close to bawling my eyes out.

I'm not going to share everything that's in it, but I did want to share the following essay she wrote. I know she has a creative heart, but I was blown away by this. It makes me laugh and cry and...just stare at her with awe. I don't know where she came up with the words she used, but let me tell you - wow. Where does she come up with this stuff? Not to diminish the efforts of her classmates, but several of them read to the class what they wrote, and they were all pretty typical third grade essays. "I love my mom because she takes care of me" and "My mom is the best because she loves me" and all that. I fully expect my other two kids to fall into that catagory - and I will treasure those as much as Kayla's. But hers is just so...unique that it just blows me away. In a really, really good way.

Disclamer: She is totally not describing me. Really. I'm nothing like this. It's almost embarassing...but gosh - she wrote it, you know? Kinda makes me feel good. (When I'm not blushing furiously.)

I would share another essay she put in her little booklet she made, but essentially, she calls me 1. flakey and 2. a clutz, so I'm just gonna pass over those. Although they made me laugh so hard I nearly peed.

After going through her book together, she and her classmates recited some poems and we got to share a special breakfast together. (Super healthy - they picked it out.) It was a perfectly special morning together and I shall treasure my gift always. She's got such a lovely soul.

may

2010-04-30T20:46:00.001-05:00

Tomorrow is May Day, and our dear neighbor friends surprised us this morning by dropping some May Day flowers and treats on our doorsteps early this morning (and then they ran and hid unsuccessfully...their mom was parked in the driveway). One of these years we will surprise our friends with treats on May 1st...but right now, we are too busy. It was a fun treat and a great way to start our Friday.

Tomorrow is also my youngest sister's birthday and we've been working on her birthday gift. So, Gracie, my darling pain-in-the-rump sister, here's a sneak peek at what we've been working on. I hope it tormets you so, until we meet again.

And, by the way, our ode to Gracie will indeed be coming...but it may be late. We want to make it good.

rain, rain come this way

2010-04-28T18:05:00.000-05:00

It has been so dry this spring that the mud on our boots (shown above from a few weeks ago) has dried up and fallen off. It's April for crying out loud! Our gardening boots usually don't get clean until July at the earliest. Sheesh. We need some showers!

new pjs in action...

2010-04-27T19:14:00.000-05:00

...and of course, when you're a ninja, the action needs to happen on the coffee table.

Maybe it should say summo wrestler??

pippi needed a pocket

2010-04-27T16:03:00.000-05:00

The other day, Kayla asked me if she could borrow some of my sewing supplies. An hour later, she showed me what she made: a pocket for her Pippi doll. She's turning into my little crafter/sewer. I love that she can figure out what she wants to make and how to make it, without asking for help. I would like her to learn some legit sewing skills, as I have none to teach her. I just make things up as I go along. :) Any of you know of any great learn-to-sew books that teach basic stitches, techniques, etc.? But for just making it up on her own, didn't she do great?

mielye's new pjs

2010-04-26T17:47:00.002-05:00

We are a hugely competitive family. It's very, very bad.

I blame my husband.

And his family.

Who can eat the most popcorn before throwing up?
Who can ride their bike the fastest?
How much water can you drink before you throw up?
Who can irritate Mom the most? (That's Ijah's favorite one. He's really good at it.)
How many times can you spin in a circle before you throw up?
I can run faster than you!
Who can gargle the longest without throwing up?
I can finish my homework before you can!
Who can drink a 44oz cherry slurpee without throwing up?

See the trend? It's annoying. But they are very, very good at throwing up.

Weak stomachs.

~~I blame myself.~~

I blame my family.

Anywho, sometimes their competitive spirits actually benefit them. Rare, but it does happen. On Saturday was one such time. We I ~~dared~~ ~~challenged~~ offered the kids a chance to eat a decent portion of my extremely veggie filled omlet, promising them a ~~bribe~~ ~~reward~~ ~~special treat~~ super awesome educational experience afterwards. Now, my kids eat their vegetables. But not in eggs. They hate eggs. Well, Mielye loves eggs, but she likes them plain-Jane. They all decided to ~~be wimpy~~ eat their cereal instead, except for Mielye. She tasted and ate a sizable amount ~~and LOVED IT~~.

"Don't ever ruin the eggs like that again, Mom."

~~On a side note, I am so enjoying certain blogging features today~~. Oh, nevermind.

On another side note, I'm sure the whole conversation I just had with myself about their uber-competitiveness really wasn't essential to this blogpost, but I thought you should know.

I'll be okay. I'm seeking help.

To continue on with the moral of this story, in exchange for her super vegginess, she decided that she wanted to use a fabric screen painter kit thingy that she got for Christmas and make herself a new pj shirt. She designed it herself and worked on it with her Daddy and my help. It turned out very cute, and very Mielye.

She's going to wear it to school tomorrow. It's gonna be great.

And no, it's not pajama day.

Thankfully, it doesn't make it quite to her knees. She can pull it off as a ~~dress~~ shirt, right?

magnolia tree

2010-04-23T18:51:00.000-05:00

Look! There's a bloom on my magnolia tree! It's about 2 inches off the ground, quite miserable looking, but it is there! Since we live on a street with a similar name and just about everyone on the block has mature magnolia trees in their yards, about 4 years ago I planted this single tree with the hopes of it looking oh so very lovely in the spring. Each year, it looks dead. It has never bloomed. The leaves tend to just come barely off the ground, which lets me know that the roots took and therefore it would be sad to cut it down completely, but they never get very high, which leads me to believe it partially dies every year and...it is just the saddest tree around, okay? It is only a foot off the ground and it is so very pathetic looking, but it has a bloom and it makes me incredibly happy! Perhaps tomorrow I'll show you my other sad and pathetic tree (affectionately referred to in our house as our "Charlie Brown Christmas tree"). It looks like it wants to live, but it's still deciding. Will keep you posted.

church friends

2010-04-22T15:00:00.000-05:00

Gotta love good church friends who spoil my children with lovely green things rather than candy, right?

the 'stache shirts

2010-04-22T06:00:00.002-05:00

The boy child has a bestest buddy and they have been into the 'stache for a few months now. For his friend's birthday, Ijah insisted on making 'stache shirts. The photo did not turn out too great (and the shirts aren't perfect either), but they were cute. ~~They are wearing them to school today.~~ (They were wearing them to school today until I totally forgot about it and he stayed home sick anway.) And on the friend's bday, they both wore them to a minor league baseball game, and they got loads of compliments (and free baseballs - whoo-hoo!).

lilacs

2010-04-21T18:20:00.000-05:00

The lilacs are blooming and they are just perfect this year. The kids have been cutting them and taking bunches to their teachers. I think the only flowery smell more lovely than the lilac is jasmine. I've got to find some for my garden this year.

spring is here, and so are the dandelions, week 1

2010-04-21T16:19:00.000-05:00

Oh, how I hate dandelions. They just won't go away, no matter what I do! Anyone have a fool-proof way to get rid of them? Well, the garden is coming in lovely this year, but it is so dry, and it's April! The ground is cracking like it's August. I had to water the ground with the hose to pull some weeds yesterday. We need some rain! I think all we are getting is a frost, coming tonight. Loads of fun, Mr. Garvey.

i love chicago

2010-04-20T09:37:00.000-05:00

mielye quotes

2010-04-19T10:05:00.000-05:00

Mielye's been on a roll lately with her one liners and odd-ball, off-the-mark comments. I think I shall really, really love it when she's in full-day school next year.

"Mom, I am right, you are wrong. But I still love you anyways."

The two times in her entire life when I have won an argument with her, it's because I've resorted to ending said argument by yelling, fists clenched, "Because I said so!" Naturally, she responds with crossing her arms in front of her, shaking her head and rolling her eyes, and then turning on her heels and stomping out of the room. She usually wins our daily spats because - while she seems to have no need for academic knowledge, such as learning how to read - she is well gifted in persuasive speech. Or, rather, in the course of relaying her side of any argument, she usually leaves me speechless.

One time I was left speechless in the last week:
"Mom you know those foot things?"
No...
"You know those things on my foot?"
What??
She points to her toes.
"Your toes, Mielye?"
"Oh yeah, those! Well, they're tired."

As Mielye is carrying one of her purses-loaded-with-so-much-crap-that-she-can-barely-lift-it upstairs to her room, she tells my husband, "Ooh......I'm getting too old for this."

My husband had surgery on his knee last week, so several days later, Mielye gets off her chair, groans and holds her knees as she stands up to walk, "Oooo...I'm getting legs just like Daddy." And then off she went, limping on both knees, out of the room. I'm really not sure how someone could limp on both legs, but she definately had it down.

But she's so gosh darn cute that no matter how insane she makes me, I just have to love her to bits.

Easter memories

2010-04-11T07:44:00.000-05:00

Easter egg fights explained

2010-04-10T15:16:00.004-05:00

My kids went through about 9 dozen eggs this Easter, give or take a few. My sister made the following video that explains what we do with these eggs. It's truly fabulous (the video and the egg fights). Too bad she didn't capture the one egg fight between Kayla and my mom where the egg flew up in the air and hit the window. Makes me giggle just thinking about it.

crazy compostin' fools

2010-04-10T13:39:00.000-05:00

Dearest Daddy made the little munchkins turn the compost this morning (while I slept in until 10:25 a.m. - yeehaw!!), after it has been sitting there all winter, unturned. We do a sort of cold composting, since the summer sun does not get it warm enough to do much composting during the summer months (partially our fault, since we put it in the only semi-shady part of the yard). The waste has broken down quite a bit, and we've got loads and loads of worms in it. Pretty soon we'll have skunks in it again, I'm sure. Yum. Anyway, the girls had lots of fun, tromping around in the muck, while the boy got a sliver right away and spent a great deal of time crying. Just after I took these photos, little Mielye got some slivers and screamed so loud that you could hear her on the moon (or so I'm told).

(Must stop and fix pants.)

Yep. Those two big weeds in there are compostable too.

spring is coming, weeks 5 & 6

2010-04-07T14:45:00.000-05:00

One week goes by and - wow! Too bad it's supposed to snow tonight.............

kmay got new glasses

2010-04-06T19:44:00.000-05:00

Here is the little fashionista and her latest pair of glasses, which we just picked up today. She looks slightly '60s-ish to me. Whaddya think? We love 'em. And I love that she has to have a 'little bit funky' in her life.

opening day

2010-04-05T15:27:00.003-05:00

The kids all wore their Cubs' gear to school today, and they're sitting by the television right now, organizing their Easter candy and waiting impatiently for the game to start. We had a crazy busy spring break and a lovely Easter, and I've got loads of photos to share, but I've got no time today. Tomorrow, I promise! And no more harassing me for the lack of blog posts, please (you punks!)!

ode to great mary

2010-03-27T17:32:00.000-05:00

Dearest loveliest Greta -

We love the way you laugh. It makes us smile.

We like your really sparkly sunglasses.

We like it when you take us to the store sometimes and we get smoothies.

Some of us like it that you have two dogs.

The rest of us like that you have an apparent obsession with 'pretend' dogs.

You are very, very funny.

You are awesome.

Ijah thinks you are so cute. (Just kidding.)

We love the way you are always stylin'.

We love it when you put makeup and nail polish on us when mom and dad aren't paying attention.

We like it when you do our hair, too.

We love to play the Wii with you, and American Girl, too.

We love our Little Miss and Mr. books for Christmas. Classic.

Some of us are glad that you got your driver's license.

You are a smarty pants.

We love that your birthday starts our spring break.

We hope you had a lovely birthday.

Without us.

We weren't invited.

But Happy Birthday.

We love you.

More than the sun.

Love,
Pippi, George Washington Saga of the American Revolution by Rubber Ducky, and Davy Jones

the annual maple fest

2010-03-25T11:02:00.000-05:00

Every year, our local nature center holds a Maple Fest to celebrate the arrival of spring and maple sap season. The kids love it and never tire of the same demonstrations, stories, and presentation. And while all last week it was nice and sunny, on Saturday we woke up to snow. Yep, snow. Grrrr. But we dug our snow boots out of the basement, put on gloves and hats (after wearing flip flops the day before), and braved the snow and cold. And as usual, we had lots and lots of fun! They all got to help with the demonstrations, and we got to have french toast with maple syrup. A perfect way to start a snowy morning in March.

growing up

2010-03-24T16:04:00.000-05:00

Kayla is starting to use my sewing machine all by herself. She started making her own creation, without my help at all. Then she wanted to iron her creation, but wanted to wait for her Daddy to come help her iron. Apparently, I'm inadequate with the iron and I'm becoming obsolete in my 9 year-old's life. I feel old.

spring is coming, week 4

2010-03-24T15:58:00.000-05:00

Green is lovely, isn't it?

kayla gets funky...again

2010-03-23T06:00:00.002-05:00

This is how Kayla went to church on Sunday. She needed to look "funky." When she doesn't wear all black or all navy blue, she needs a little funk. Quite original. Several ladies came to me after our service and asked me if she picks out her own clothes because they couldn't stop admiring her from across the church. :) Nothing like some funk, huh?

unauthorized reading

2010-03-22T15:54:00.000-05:00

It was 6 a.m. this morning, and the boy wasn't awake.

I was concerned.

He's always up before me, and everyone else.

Where was he?

Momentary panic.

He's always up by 5:45 a.m.

Always.

Must check on him.

Go into his room, and this is what I find:

Unauthorized reading.

The stinker.

Called him on it when he did wake up.

"So, enjoy your reading?"

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"Your reading. In bed. With a flashlight."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

Uh-huh.

spring wreath

2010-03-22T15:47:00.000-05:00

I've been seeing so many lovely wreaths around blogland (like here and here and here) that I decided to attempt my own. It didn't turn out quite as I envisioned, but it's still pretty enough to hang. I think I would like it with less color, maybe just one butterfly color. And I really don't like butterflies, so maybe something else instead? It was fun, easy, and pretty quick. I made one for my Mom too, and I think I like hers better. :)

debra lou is old

2010-03-20T14:17:00.001-05:00

Dearest Debra Lou / Debra / Lou / Lou Lou / Deb / Oldie Pants -

You are old.

You are a weirdo head.

We love you because you are funny.

We love you because you take us to the pool and the movies.

We love you because you give us piggy back rides.

We remember the day that you did not get dressed the whole day.

You are a very good TP-er.

We remember when you set your alarm clock for 7:30 p.m. instead of a.m. and you were late for school. It still makes us giggle.

It's no fair that you get a lot of days off of school.

You were the only librarian we knew without a library card.

We were proud of you when you got your library card.

We are so proud that you got your job for a librarian because you read to kids.

Happy Birthday to you. (chachacha)
Happy Birthday to you.
Happy Birthday to Debra.
Happy Birthday to you!

We love you more than the sun.
Love,
KMay, Rubber Ducky, and Miles J. Davis.

my kids can stop traffic

2010-03-19T19:06:00.003-05:00

On the walk home from school today, the rat boy and the little girl Mielye were arguing with each other over my water bottle.

"I want a drink!" says one of them.

"I'm still drinking!" says the other.

"You're taking too long, there's going to be none left!" as the one grabs it from the other's mouth.

"Hey! Stop! That hurt!"

"Well, I want a drink!"

"I'm not done yet!"

"Give it to me!"

"Stop pulling it!"

"I want it!"

"Leave me alone!"

By this point, they were wrestling each other closer and closer to a larger street that we had just crossed not too long ago with the help of a crossing guard. They had gone off the sidewalk, into the grass and onto the curb. Naturally, the cars on this busy street didn't want to hit either of my children, so they stopped on their own accord. Five cars deep stopped.

They stopped because my children were taking their wrestling over my water bottle too close to the street to drive safely past.

My children stopped traffic.

My children are delinquents.

My sister sent me this from The Office to make me feel better:

Jim Halpert: "See, you're always saying there's something wrong with society, maybe there's something wrong with you?"

Michael Scott: "If it's me, then society made me that way."

It didn't make me feel better.

There will be no more water bottles on our walk home from school. It is now a law.

mielye's garden

2010-03-19T18:53:00.005-05:00

Every single gosh darn time Mielye goes into a store with me that just so happens to have a garden section, she insists on going to see the seeds.

"Oooo...this one is so pretty."

"This one is my favorite."

"Wouldn't this look so perfect in our garden?"

"Ooo...I just love these beautiful flowers, don't you?"

"Oh gosh, I think I like this one the best!"

And so on and so forth, etc., etc., etc., ad nauseam.

So today, when we just had to visit the seed section at Target or we would most certainly die, I finally lost it and bought her seeds.

I'm a great mom, I tell you.

So, after school, in the fifteen spare minutes we had before we had to leave for something else (in which it might have been possible for me to eat lunch or pee or something), we had to put the seeds in the dirt or they would die!

Gasp.

Do you understand the immediacy of the situation?

They would die if I peed!!

I had to save them.

So the little string of sanity that I was holding onto at 3:00 pm on Friday afternoon slipped just a little bit more out of my grasp, and I helped give the seeds CPR.

Anything to save the seeds.

Anything.

Well, hopefully now we won't have to visit anymore garden sections.

I won't hold my breath.

Oh, and did you notice the red snow toys in some of the photos? We haven't put them away yet, since it's supposed to snow this weekend. Sheesh. Gardening and snow in one weekend. I need to move south.

spring is coming, week 3

2010-03-18T19:08:00.000-05:00

It's getting greener! Now I've got to pull out dead weeds and twigs and clean everything up. We're supposed to get rain/snow all weekend, so maybe that will buy me some more time??

The kids are playing with cornstarch and water (how is it that my husband has never played with cornstarch and water before??), but my camera doesn't seem to want to work. Blast.

Look for photos tomorrow of my first ever blog giveaway win - yay!!

great loves

2010-03-17T18:12:00.002-05:00

My children have two great loves:

Footlong hotdogs and...

...mustaches on a stick.

These two loves sustain us through troubling times, birthday parties, holidays, library visits, and moments of complete and utter boredom.

We're not intellectuals here.

But some of us are crafty.

Introducing...

...leprechauns on a stick.

Brought to you by Kayla May, on this day, the 17th of March, 2010.

santa is dead

2010-03-16T18:56:00.001-05:00

This is what my driveway looks like. I'm pretty down in the dumps over it. It looks so very, very, very trashy. I thought the corroded asphalt looked bad before, and was always embarassed over it. Now, I can't handle going outside. It's that bad.

Two weekends ago, Denairic changed the oil in the car, and because I was making Kayla's birthday treats, ran with the car to the store behind our house to get some eggs (I would have borrowed some from a neighbor, but I already did. That day, actually. Felt bad asking for more. Which reminds me, I made some cookies today and after placing them on the cookie trays, realized that the small little brown pieces that looked suspiciously out of place in the green spirals were actually egg shells. From brown eggs, of course. That was the highlight of my day.) Anyway, he calls from the store saying something's wrong with the car. He walks home. There is an oil trail from our garage to the store. Some part of the thingy that holds the oil blew, so all the new oil in the thingy drained out.

It's horrid.

I cannot handle it.

He's soaked it up, used chemicals on it, and then used chemicals and a pressure washer.

And it's still there.

It's in the garage, down the driveway, across the sidewalk, into the street, makes a little curve where you can tell he reversed direction, and continues on down the street.

Do I have to tell you how many people have commented on it?

How many more have had comments that I have not heard?

I used to like going outside, but I hate it now.

I hate it. I hate it, I hate it, I hate it.

And it's spring and I want to be oustide.

But outside there are play dates and kids on bikes and kids walking across our sidewalk and they all stop and they look up and down our driveway and point to the street and I cannot handle it.

And it makes me very, very crabby.

I can't get over it.

I'm very, very angry about it.

And don't mock me, because if it were your driveway, you'd be obsessing over it too.

Because it's ugly.

And if I go north out from my house, I get the added satisfaction of following the oil trail.

I'm so lucky.

I'm going to have a nervous breakdown.

Seriously.

On a positive note, the deflated inflatable Santa that has been dead on my lawn since December is now gone. And so are the Christmas lights. (Because before the oil spill, we weren't trashy at all.)

You're welcome.

I'm gonna go cry me a river.

have you ever?

2010-03-15T19:30:00.000-05:00

Have you ever had a boy child scream bloody murder in your ear for thirty minutes after receiving two shots that he's gotten at least once a month for one and a half years followed by three insane children talking so much in the car that you give them a "no talking at all" mandate until you arrive at home, but then, being devilish children, they are even more obnoxious when they decide that no talking means the ceasing of nonverbal noise only, and so they feel obligated to make many, many other undefinable sounds so that by the time you arrive at home and hope to eat the deliciousness that you took your lunch time preparing and placing in the slow cooker so that you ended up not eating said lunch and therefore being the reason that your stomach is growling incessantly, but that is not at all cooked through so that you have to wait only to eat so much when it did finally become ready that your stomach hurts but yet you find it necessary to eat two pieces of Red Velvet cake afterwards because you deserve it, darn it?

No?

Really?

Hmmm...

i had an itch

2010-03-13T14:54:00.001-06:00

I woke up with an itch to make stuff. So, I made chocolate rice crispy treats, red velvet cake, homemade french bread, and some eggs (I was hungry at that point).

Then I saw this sign outside my son's room:

Privacy I am playing my DS!

I then had an itch to get crafting. It's an ugly, rainy day outside, but it's Saturday and Saturdays are not meant for playing a DS.

So, I pulled out some supplies and we made some lovelies. In our pjs, with bed head, so don't ask.

I don't think my husband particularly enjoys these itches. ("Did you get it out of your system yet?")

But we make cute things when I itch.

I made the pretty ninja. And I finally used that canvas I prepped a month ago.

Now, if I could only get an itch for folding laundry, doing the dishes, or cleaning up the mess.

I'm going to curl up in bed and finish watching Mansfield Park instead.

Because it's raining. And that's what you do when it rains.

friday funk

2010-03-12T16:20:00.002-06:00

It's been a long day.

Fridays are always long.

Why is that?

I look forward to them all week, and then they come, and it takes a long time for it to get over with already.

Ijah didn't want to go to school today. Shocking.

Kayla has been arguing with me all week that she needs to bring her change to donate to the St. Baldricks' Day celebration today at school. I asked her how the money will be spent. (Really, these elementary schools ask for so much money from the parents and the students that I don't let them give anything unless they know how it is being used.) Of course, she didn't know and it took her a few days to find out, all the while begging to bring her change and she promises to find out, eventually. So she asked again, explained to me where the money was going, and so I said she can bring her change.

She brought three dimes.

$.30.

All that arguing and back and forth for $.30.

Ijah still didn't want to go to school.

Kayla has also been super forgetful this week (combination birthday week and ISATs being over perhaps?), and today she first forgot her backpack. Then she forgot her lunch. Two extra trips back into the house before school even started.

Sheesh.

Ijah is not going to school today. I'm not, Mom!

Mielye decided she was too hot to wear her mittens on the playground this morning (I told her it would be too hot but did she listen??). So, I guess she threw them on the ground. Somewhere. Spent quite a bit of time looking for the one mitten (and they were her good wool ones too). Didn't find it until later, when I actually went into school and searched through the gross pile of lost and found. Yuck.

Ijah didn't want to go to school. Again.

They all went to school.

Thank you.

I had a lovely chat with some ladies from my book group in the afternoon. It was really, really overdue. It was nice.

Then I decided to walk to school to pick up the kids.

I always forget that when I walk to school to pick up the kids, they have to walk back.

All three of 'em. With all their stuff. And their attitudes. And we're tired, Mom.

As soon as we're home, they all have loads of energy and have to go bike riding up and down the block, immediately. Mom has to carry all their crap in. But, hey - that's easy because Mom already has two arms loaded with stuff that they could not carry home. Because they were tired.

Mielye sees some fourth grader boys riding their bikes across the street. Naturally, she has to show off. And then she tells me all about it. I haven't gotten excited about it yet, but she still insists I need to know.

Wearing a super wide grin, she tells me, that she was riding her bike in a standing position across the street from some boys "and the boys were like 'oh my gosh look at her she's amazing!'"

In other words, she was showing off. She got noticed. Oh my oh my oh my. Super.

She went back out to ride some more. Came back in, even more excited. She rode her bike standing up IN THE GRASS and they said, "Oh, dude - look at her!" She is beaming. And just ran back outside.

A few moments later, I found her down the block a ways, on her bike, standing talking to the boys who decided to cross the street, sit on the grass and chit-chat with her.

I really, really don't know what to do with her.

Other than make her get in the house. Immediately. But, Mom!! I'm having fun!

Ijah's playing his DS.

Kayla is at the nature center. I have to leave soon to pick her and her two besties up, drive them home, feed her, and then get her ready to go back out with another friend from 6:15-8:45.

So, maybe at 9:00 I will be able to relax? Maybe?

Does anyone else have Fridays like these? Am I just special? Or is this typical and quit your pity-party, Karla?

I think I'm crabby.

birthday craft

2010-03-11T06:00:00.030-06:00

Kayla is my crafty little lady, so every year I try to come up with a craft to do with the family during her party. I have seen this going around blogland, so I decided we could do something sweet with it for Kayla. I grabbed my stash of old fabric scraps, all the colorful cardstock and scrapbook paper I had, some black pens, glue, and scissors, and laid them all out on my parents' table, and ordered (you have to order my family, really you do) everyone to make themselves out of the material, and put it on a large piece of poster board and sign it. And they did. Boy, did they! Even the ~~good for nothing boys~~ gentlemen who usually preoccupy themselves with the television during family parties. They actually turned out to be very anal about their "people." Seriously, they sat there forever, the little perfectionists. Anyway, it turned out quite lovely and it is now hanging in Kayla's room as a little reminder of those that love her verra, verra much.

spring is coming, week 2

2010-03-10T18:19:00.000-06:00

Remember this? It's been only one week, and it is getting just ever so slightly.....GREEN!!!

There's hope, people!

birthday party recap

2010-03-09T13:00:00.003-06:00

On Saturday evening, we celebrated Kayla's birthday with my family at my parents' house. It was loads and loads of fun, and we ate loads and loads of food. If I don't see orange chicken again for the rest of my life, I think I'll be okay. We ate, made a craft (which will get its own post), ate some more, opened gifts, ate again, and went home totally and utterly exhausted. Here are some scenes from the evening:

Ashlyn's first birthday party!

Papa and Ijah being punks.

Duct tape.

Cousins - all of 'em!!

Such a talented Aunt!

She will have her own Etsy shop one day.

Oh my. Pistachios. And Mielye. Together.

birthday flea marketing

2010-03-09T08:53:00.001-06:00

Kayla and I had a girls' day on Saturday to celebrate her birthday together. We went to the flea market that comes to our local county fair grounds one weekend a month. This was the first weekend that it was open for this year, and boy oh boy was it crowded. And very, very muddy.

Of course, the mud just gave us something to giggle about together as we walked around the grounds, our toes squishing in our shoes.

Despite the mud, the sun was shining and it was just the perfect day. We had lots and lots and lots of fun, and the birthday girl found lots and lots and lots of treasures to take home.

I'm so glad I have a daughter who enjoys doing things with me, and who enjoy doing the same things I like to do. It was just a lovely afternoon.

birthday morning

2010-03-08T09:24:00.000-06:00

Every year on Kayla's birthday, she has to be woken up at 6am to go get donuts for the family from her favorite bakery. I don't even know when this started, but we've done it every March 8th for years. I tried to convince her this morning that maybe we don't have to wake up quite so early, but she insisted! So, courtesy of sweet Kayla, we all enjoyed fresh donuts this morning. My Little Miss Birthday had a lovely morning, and now she's at school taking more ISATS (blech!). "But it's the reading part, Mom! I love that part!" Only you, Kayla....

my kmay is nine

2010-03-08T06:00:00.011-06:00

Dearest Kayla May / KMay / May May / Pippi,

In the past year, you've taught us how to be better stewards of this earth,

how horses can sometimes give you poison ivy,

and how awesome it is to go to a Cubs' game for the very first time.

You showed us how kids grow up so very, very fast,

how quickly one school year can end,

and another begin.

You showed us that you're able to handle responsibility (with your first pet ever - a lightning bug named Glowy).

You've showed us how incredibly talented you are,

and how beautiful, too.

But most of all, you've showed us how incredibly blessed we are to be with you,

each and every day.

You make our lives full of joy and happiness,

and laughter.

and we love you.

More than the sun.

a new sling bag

2010-03-05T17:31:00.001-06:00

It's been a doozy of a day. Everything started out okay, but then there were pretzels rising on the table, counters full of flour and eggs, sewing machine out, fabric scraps everywhere, and the dreaded phone call. The school nurse pressed number one on her speed dial and all of a sudden there I was at school, picking up sick little Mielye with a 99.5 temp, rosy cheeks, and a brain that "moves up and down and squishes inside" when she moves. Oh my.

The husband came home and bailed out the kitchen, I took Kayla to her nature club at the local nature center, and the sick girl went with her brother....outside. To play. I know, I know. But she took some medication and was bouncing off the walls and what can I say? I think she had a sinus headache or migrane or something non-contagious like, and she started whining that she had to go outside. What's a dysfunctional mother to do in that situation? (And a little fyi, as I am typing this, she is driving me bonkers trying out her various laughs. All of them. "Do you want to hear my evil laugh?" No. "MuAHAHAHAHAHAHa." Thanks. And now we are onto the laugh-so-hard-we-have-to-roll-on-the-ground-laugh. I'm enjoying each laugh. Really. Just took some Tylenol to help me enjoy even more.)

Anyway, I'm tired. But before I send the kids to their showers and early bed time (it's 5:20pm) and help myself to a glass of wine, movie, and date night with the husband, I thought I would share what I made today. I was bored (it was during the part of the day previously defined as "okay" - I don't know what I was thinking...why didn't I just take a nap or something??), and I really, really wanted to walk to pick up the kids from school (it's a decent trek to school), and I wanted to bring them a snack and drink to have on the way home. I thought I could quickly figure out how to put together a sling bag to carry all that junk, and I think I did manage to put it together without too much trouble. It doesn't look fabulous (especially if you look closely), but it's functional and now I know how to make one. So next time it will look fabulous, promise. I think. Anyway, here are some photos for you to admire...or smirk at...or whatever.

Have a lovely evening!

ijah's daily bedhead

2010-03-04T07:32:00.000-06:00

The boy has some hair. Some thick, coarse, unruly hair. I don't actually know why it is as long as it is, maybe we're too lazy to cut it? Every morning he wakes up with it sticking up all over the place. We have to totally wet down his entire head every morning to smooth it out enough so that it's not too crazy for school. Of course, sometimes we don't have time, and I have mothers emailing me saying, "Ijah was showing off his hair to me today - he was quite proud of it. He was trying to figure out how many inches it was standing up." Lovely, huh? So, each morning turns into an small argument (or friendly banter?) of whether or not he has to wet his head.

"But, Mooooom, I like it! It looks like a rock star's!"

"You look like a chia pet."

"But I look gooooood!"

"Uh, no. No, you don't."

"But it looks cool!"

Back and forth, every single day. Makes me laugh every morning, even if I want to wring his neck at the same time.

here comes the sun

2010-03-03T18:39:00.008-06:00

The sun came out today - it was beautiful - just streaming into all the windows, making everything bright, warm, and lovely. I wanted to just lay in it all day long. But then I went outside, and brrrrrrrrr!!! Spring is definitely not here yet. But the sun still felt oh so good on these pale cheeks. I found myself several times today just closing my eyes, soaking in the warmth. I looked out at our flowerbeds, and - oh my.

Definitely. Not. Spring. Yuck.

We put in this river rock a few years ago to make a little path around the side of our house. The kids love it because it fills in with ground cover and makes what they like to think is a "secret" path. Right now, it's dead looking and oh so very depressing. I decided today to start taking photos of it every week until it's nice and lusciously green. Hopefully I'll remember to do that, and to share it with you here.

To slightly less depressing matters, today Ijah and Kayla had their annual check-ups right after school, which of course, brought them endless joy. Also bringing them joy was their homework, which I made them do in the waiting room. Or was that me giving them the joy?

That's his "Mom, you're irritating me so I'm going to smile and hope you disappear" look. Such a sweet boy. They were ecstatic to discover that, as they are now getting to be of a certain age, they need paper gowns to preserve their modesty in the exam room. Once Kayla got over the fact that these paper gowns were indeed destroying the earth, they decided to wrestle in them. Maybe it was the crinkling sound they made, maybe it was because they were trying to see whose would fall off first, or maybe it was because they learned that they did not have to have any shots today, but for whatever the reason, it was a jolly old visit to the doctor's.

Me: "Would you stay put for just a cotton-pickin' second for crying out loud??"

Finally made them stand still by threatening them with no more sugar for the rest of their lives if they didn't. Notice that they each had one had behind them, which was still interlocked in a death grip, and wrestling resumed after the shot had been taken.

The doctor then came in, the kids settled down, and all went well. Ijah is only 46.5" (he was 46" last year), and he NEEDS to be 48" by the time summer comes or else he will not be allowed on the slide yet again. And all his friends will. They already have last summer. Poor kid is just too darn short. But, lest you worry, he has vowed before me and his siblings to try his darndest to grow one and a half inches before the pool opens. After that, he gives up. Says he.

And so, here's where we took a wrong turn. No shots - yes. However - they needed to do their annual finger prick to test for iron. Kayla did well - even laughed, "Hey, that didn't hurt one bit!" (Mielye gets as close as possible to the action here to watch every little move, because gosh, "I just love blood, Mom!" The nurse looked concerned, I just smiled.) Then it was the boy's turn. He squeezed his eyes shut as tight as possible, started hyperventilating before the nurse even took his hand, and then the tears. The tears with the full-out cry that sounds like a dying frog. It's quite horrible. He wouldn't let me take a photo of the glistening in his eyes and the dampness of his cheeks, but I tried. For you, I tried.

And Kayla tried too, but that darn boy has got some guns on him. Short, little, stocky German boy with muscles. Pools need to be more inclusive, I think.

Then he finally showed himself, just to let his terrified mother know that it will be okay. He has survived. He will live.

The little Mielye, though she did not have an appointment herself, did not leave the doctor's office unscathed. She left bawling her pretty little eyes out. Mommy wouldn't let her have a sticker. Because she didn't have an appointment. Because she didn't need one. Because it is now a new rule, enforced diligently by mothers everywhere with children who have accumulated too much stuff.

But, no matter the trials or tribulations we faced, we made it home. Safe and sound. With band-aids. Lots of them. And we are okay. Healthy, in fact. And so, we ate this carrot cake with the enormous amount of soy-based cream cheese frosting, as the last of the day's sun came steaming through the windows.

The end.

But, wait! There's more!

My dearest three friends and silent stalkers (yes, I know who you are but you shall remain nameless...for the time being) - there's another super fantastic giveaway that you must check out as soon as your little mouse can click. The lovely lady (~~who shall also remain nameless until I figure out her name, can't find it anywhere, darn it!~~ named Jodi, which I know because I am so smart and looked at her blog's URL) over at Passport in my Pocket is having a lovely giveaway:

A scarf. From Anthropology. Need I say more? Yay!!! Do you think I'll win it? Because I'm getting tired of not winning things. Yet, I still enter every little thing I see. And when I lose, even if there are 26,000+ entries (it was a Kitchen Aid - I had to enter!!), I still get bummed. It's a sickness. But I shall endure! But, really, maybe if you enter for me, then I'd have a better chance? Thank you, my dears. Anyway, go check out her blog. She travels. I'm jealous. I still don't have a passport..........sniff, sniff.....

And now I shall crawl into bed with Jane Austen, carrot cake and some wine, and cry me a river of tears.

Goodnight.

great giveaway

2010-03-03T10:31:00.000-06:00

In case any of you love packaging supplies - there's a great and fun giveaway going on over at oh, hello friend that you must enter. I enter so many blog giveaways and I have yet to win anything, but they're all so much fun that I just have to enter each and every time. And I am really hoping to win some more Japanese masking tape and some mushrooms, and some tags, and ribbon, and twine..... Hope you join in on the fun!! (Someday I will have my own giveaway... I can't wait...maybe it'll be three little munchkins....)

i hate isats

2010-03-02T19:22:00.000-06:00

Kayla started ISAT testing yesterday, and let me tell you - I HATE THE ISATS! I think I need to make a shirt with that logo. She's a nervous wreck, isn't sleeping, has had an upset stomach for 48 hours and counting, and there's nothing I can do to help. I promised myself I would not rant about it here, but I HATE standardized testing. Blech!!!

Anyway, we're just on day two. I don't know how we'll get to day 7 or 8 or whatever we have to get to. We found some good music to blast on the radio (thank you, Jet), we've been reading good books, watching great movies (thank you, Miyazaki), and we've been trying to keep everything very cheerful at home, but gosh - it stinks!

To de-stress myself and to make her laugh, I found some great stuff on Etsy (as always) to mark these two weeks.

[Sources: Because Stress is Bad; Nerves; Don't Worry about a Thing;

Relax; Imagination; There is Nothing to Fear but Fear Itself;

Secret Agent Rabbit]

Well, sometimes life is just plain ol' stinky, but at least we can laugh through the stench, right? (I am recovering from smelling a nasty skunk yesterday, I'll get over the sniffing comments soon, I promise.)

And now I will have to leave you because my children have been discussing upstairs as to whether or not their mother is more of a coo-coo-head or if she's awesome. Apparantly the discussion turned into ~~an arguement~~ ~~yelling~~ screaming at each other because they are each RIGHT gosh darn it. They are supposed to be showering. It's not happening. Oh wait, my son has come down to tell me that they have resolved the issue themselves (I love it when that happens). I am a coo-coo-head because if it took Dr. Seuss 27 times to get a publishing company, it would take me 137 publishing companies and therefore, I am not awesome. It has been decided with pure logic (sigh).

dinner converstation

2010-03-01T22:14:00.000-06:00

Kayla, holding up her pointer finger, flexing and pointing it repeatedly: "Mom, what's this called?"

Me: "Weirdness."

Kayla: "No, what's it called?"

Me: "Freaky weirdness?"

Kayla: "MOOOOOM!!! What's it called????"

Me: "Uhhhhhhhhh....."

Kayla: "Isolation."

Me: "What?"

Kayla: "It's when you isolate all your other muscles and focus on one muscle movement."

Ijah: "Your mouth is still moving."

yesterday

2010-03-01T15:21:00.001-06:00

kayla's first reconciliation

2010-02-28T10:00:00.040-06:00

This afternoon, Kayla will celebrate her First Reconciliation. I wanted to do something special for her to remember the day, and originally planned to make a canvas stenciled with the maxim she's been learning at her formation sessions. Since that darn oil based paint is still not dry, that will have to wait for another day. I searched Etsy for some ideas, and found this. I decided to make my own, and did my best at making it something that Kayla would like, using a beautiful pool blueish paint. I didn't bother with fabric paint, just used the acrylic that I had. I printed out the letters on freezer paper that I had cut to fit my printer and used an exacto knife to cut out the letters. I then painted on two coats of the paint, peeled off the paper, and fitted the linen to the hoop. I think it turned out lovely in an old, worn-out kinda way. The letters are ragged, which I thought was a nice touch. I hope she likes it.

Sorry the pictures are so dark, it was quite late by the time I actually got them done. Anyway, after making this, I made her another hoop with a flower and a blue button (she's been a button collector for just about forever) that I had bought specially for her. I'm not quite satisfied with how it turned out, but it'll do. I really need someone to teach me how to make various types of fabric flowers. I love how other people make them, but for the life of me I cannot figure them out. Oh well. I think she'll still like it.

The linen I used for both of these hoops is from the linen used to make her First Communion gown. She's my sentimental girl, so I know that will be special to her.

We'll be taking along these cookies that I made yesterday. Green and yellow are the colors she picked out. She wanted pistachios along the edges of the cookies, and I tried a batch of them, but they didn't turn out. Then we were going to use some sprinkles, but we didn't have any. Oh well! They look pretty, and it took me half the day to make, so there! That's all that matters. ;)

Well, I hope you are enjoying your Sunday. Kayla picked pizza for her special dinner at Oma's house after her First Reconciliation, so you can bet we'll be enjoying our day! I'll leave you with the maxim that Kayla's been working on for a few months now. She has it taped to the wall beside her bed. I love her. :)

Then Peter came and said to him,

"Lord, if another member of the church sins against me,

how often should I forgive?

As many as seven times?"

Jesus said to him,

"Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy times seven."

Matthew 19:21-22

As the math-boy-genius will tell you, that's 490 times. In other words, a whole gosh darn lot.

keeping busy

2010-02-27T16:22:00.001-06:00

I've been keeping myself busy, busy, busy today. These photos are a sneak-peek at what I've been up to. I'll post more about it tomorrow.

Hope you're having a lovely Saturday!

a very long friday with no school

2010-02-26T16:44:00.000-06:00

We had no school today.

Just me and the kids.

Alone.

All day.

In our pajamas. See, it wasn't that bad.

But I am really quite exhausted.

And so we begin:

Woke up to find that the canvas I had prepped last night with my first-ever tube of oil-based paint was still wet. Huh. Checked online, and oil color takes up to two weeks to dry. Drat. Needed to have this project done by Sunday. Now what?

Kids decided to make their Dad his first piece of art work on his new chalkboard canvas that they made for him and which he finally hung on the wall. They drew our house.

I'm still craving spring, so I made myself some iced tea lemonaid.

Then made the kids some pretzel dough.

While I worked and while the dough was rising, they played house and took some pretend snoozes in the sun.

Dough was ready, so we shaped them and let them rise yet again.

They decided to play with playdoh while watching some movies.

I attempted to do a bit of reading,

..but this was just staring at me...

The pretzels were done, so we had a lovely little meal of pretzels, iced tea, and lemon curd. Weird combo, but very, very yummy.

These two amused themselves while Kayla went to a friend's house (yes, I made her get some clothes on before she went).

[Notice the boy is playing the computer while also playing the DS. Multi-talented, isn't he?]

I finally decided the laundry must be conquered, so I folded while a certain little 5 year-old watched one of her favorite movies. Where's Waldo, Mielye style.

The husband just walked in the door with The Time Traveler's Wife, a date night dinner for us (ingredients for sherried tomato soup and a spinach and tomato deep dish pizza to go with the wine he bought last night), and hopefully dessert (???). Maybe that's too much to ask for. Oh well. A lovely, long day to end with a lovely meal, movie, and the wife falling asleep on the couch half way through the movie. Classic.

fyi - contest

2010-02-25T20:05:00.000-06:00

A very cool blog - Making Chicken Salad - is having a contest, to head on over and check it out. (I learned how to finger knit because of this blog, so it's near and dear to my little heart.) And if you win, share the tape and coloring book with me, please! :)

lunches and homework and moms, oh my!

2010-02-25T19:48:00.002-06:00

Two days ago I received a phone call.

"Ijah was a hit at the lunch table today. He got the whole table to stick their straws in their fruits. He stuck his in his apple and said, 'Apple juice!' and made the whole table roar with laughter."

Then they had straws in grapes, bananas, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

Class clown, lovely.

Yesterday I forgot to put a juice box in my son's (and my daughter's) lunchbox.

Got another phone call from a friend.

"You were the hit of the first grade table today because 'Ijah's mom forgot to put a drink in his lunchbox! Hahahahaha...!'"

Loser mom. Lovely.

Today, I put my daughter's homework in my son's folder, which prompted the first grade to laugh hysterically at Ijah's mom for messing up. Again.

He returned the homework to the third grader, which prompted the third grade to laugh and for the teacher to let me know how funny Ijah was bringing over Kayla's homework because "Mom messed it up."

Then, to actually be on-purpose-funny, I packed Ijah two drinks in his lunchbox.

Thinking I messed up again, he crossed "to the other side" of the cafeteria.

To the other side.

Gasp.

"Why are you here?!?!?!"

"To see if you are missing your juice. Mom messed up again."

"She's probably just wanted to make sure she didn't forget it again."

"She's weird."

"I know."

etsy loves

2010-02-24T16:18:00.000-06:00

[Sources: The Black Apple, Ninja Girl, Blancucha, Earmark, thelittlereddoor, Tim's Sally, Rosy Designs]

evening

2010-02-23T17:27:00.000-06:00

I have a big batch of white chili simmering on the stove, cinnamon swirl cake in the oven, and I'm listening to a mixed CD made for me by one of my loverly seesters. The house smells....wow....the homework is done, the sun is going down, and I'm so ready to fill my belly and go to sleep. If only there wasn't such a thing as laundry...

sick day craft

2010-02-23T15:20:00.000-06:00

I saw this post yesterday and I knew it would cheer Mielye up to have it in her room. I worked on it last night after she went to bed, making the pom poms and cutting turtles out of scrapbook paper. No butterflies because "they are bugs, Mom!" Turtles, turtles, and more turtles. One of these days I'm going to count the turtles in her room. That would be something. Anyways, then today we took some time together and she designed it as she wanted, and I put it together. I had seen some flickr photos a while back with an artist that crocheted branches in the most beautiful patterns and colors. Of course, now I can't find those photos to save my life. I had Mielye pick out the colors and I did my best at making "tree socks" (Mielye came up with the name). I have yet to complete a single crocheted item since learning how to do it a few weeks ago, so I guess these "tree socks" are my first finished project. I had no idea what I was doing, and they look like it if you look closely, so don't. They are perfectly loverly "tree socks" for a 5 year-old. The completed "spring tree" is now hanging in the window by her bed, and she loves it. I think it's rather cute myself. And now, my task for the rest of the day: try to get that girl to eat something. Wish me luck!

my daughter the genius

2010-02-22T15:41:00.003-06:00

Kayla's third grade science homework included the following question: "Can you answer this question: What weighs more, a pound of steel or a pound of feathers?"

Her answer:

"A pound of steel because it has more buoyancy."

??????

Huh???

After trying very unsuccessfully not to laugh, and then explaining to her the error of her ways, she wrote on her homework page the following:

They weigh the same. (I got it! It's a trick question.)

I snorted when I read it.

And up for tomorrow: An expository essay on why her family is special. She had to write her theme sentence today:

"My family is special because they are funny."

More snorting.

Seriously.

no snow day, just sick day

2010-02-22T13:43:00.000-06:00

We didn't quite get the snow that they were predicting...more like 3 inches rather than 10. So, no snow day. Oh well. And, lucky me - I've still got one little kiddo home with me anyways. Dear little Mielye decided to have a nasty sore throat and that she didn't like her hot dog for dinner, so she had to visit the sick bay (aka, my bathroom sink) during the night.

I won't get into how that smelled.

You may thank me later.

She's been pretty miserable all day, but after taking a nearly two hour nap, she seems slightly better. That sore throat still doesn't sound too great, but at least she's got a smile on her face now. So, our Monday consists of laying on the couch, drinking Sprite, and watching lots and lots of movies.

It'll have to do.

why is it?

2010-02-21T21:00:00.003-06:00

Why is it that it can be so very miserable all day long - cloudy and rainy, and now snowing - and the song I can't get out of my head the entire time is "Here Comes the Sun?"

i asked for it

2010-02-21T20:07:00.002-06:00

"Ask, and it will be given to you;

search, and you shall find;

knock and the door will be opened for you.

For everyone who asks receives,

and everyone who searches finds,

and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened."

[Matthew 7:7-8]

So, I'm thinking I asked for it. You can all thank me later.

Like after you shovel 10 inches in the morning.

Whoops!

So very sorry!

Muahahahaha!!!

And looky here - see what else I asked for??

I'm really quite amazing.

saturday cooking

2010-02-20T17:24:00.002-06:00

I woke up this morning to a light dusting of snow, and beautiful light flakes still falling. The sun was shining nice and lovely, so it all melted quickly, but it made me hope ever so briefly that we'd be getting that snow that I have previously mentioned.

Ah well. Another day perhaps?

In any case, it got me in the mood to cook. And since we had nothing else planned, that's what I did. Eggs in the hole for breakfast, marsala chicken without the chicken for lunch (I love mushrooms and wine, what can I say?), dinner rolls with butter and rosemary for a snack (just go with it), and for dinner, chicken cashew lettuce wraps.

The rolls did not turn out well, but they were still delicious.

Well, I thought so anyway.

"Even the tops are burned. Look!"

"Mine is crunchier than yours - listen!" (Knocking it against the table.)

"I'm going to break my tooth on these!"

Such little dears.

The lettuce wraps were very, very good, but very, very messy.

I am full.

The husband is doing the dishes.

I'm having a glass of wine.

Anyway, in between all this cooking, the kids cleaned up their rooms a bit - goodwilling some stuff, trading others, and tossing out bags full of trash, after which I noticed garbage all along the stairs and floors from their rooms to the large kitchen garbage. So, note: If you, too, have genius children, be sure to tell them that if they take the garbage bags down the stairs, it is best to carry them right side up. Otherwise, when questioned, they might answer, "But you didn't tell us that part!" [Again, note: It was "us." Group effort was involved. Communal stupidity.]

And guess what the best part of the day was?

This came in the mail:

I can't wait to peel off that ecologically-unfriendly plastic wrap.

Soon.

Must make something for dessert first.

Suggestions?

yummy vanilla

2010-02-19T15:30:00.001-06:00

I think vanilla is probably one of my favorite things in a kitchen. I love the smell, the taste...yum!

After finishing up our super awesome Mexican vanilla several years ago (which - at the time - I didn't feel the need to save the label so I can search for it to the ends of the earth and therefore have been hitting myself in the head over it daily for thinking that every store must carry said super awesome vanilla), I've gone from one blah vanilla to the other.

It's really, really very hard to find great vanilla.

Great and affordable vanilla.

Thus, my life since the last drop of Mexican vanilla has been one big bitter disappointment.

It's very sad.

Well, no more!

After coming across this, I decided, with the help of my good ol' neighbor and trusty sidekick (it's my blog, so she's the sidekick), that we can make our very own super awesome vanilla.

We hope.

We're gonna try.

Bear with us.

We went to The Spice House, bought us some Madagascar "Bourbon Islands" vanilla beans, used some vodka donated by my lovely mother (are you reading this Mom?) and made us some vanilla.

Booyah.

(I don't normally say "booyah" but my kids have been saying it incessantly, and it's rubbed off. Did I use it appropriately?)

Well, anyway, we almost made ourselves some vanilla.

It takes awhile.

Two months.

Come April 19th we will have ourselves some vanilla.

It's gonna be the super awesome kind.

In the meantime, I'm not going to wash my hands because they smell like the vanilla beans that I split apart.

I love blowing my nose.

morning

2010-02-19T09:00:00.002-06:00

Mielye, 5 years: "Kayla, stop trying to look prettier than me!"
Kayla, 8 years, and Mom: "What??" [Kayla is the girl who doesn't like looking girly, and on most days, she refuses to brush her hair.]
Mielye: "She's always trying to look better than me!" [Mielye is the girly girl.]
Ijah, 7 years: "No, I'm always trying to look the best."

Ijah: "How do I look?"
Mom, Kayla, and Mielye: "Not normal."
Ijah: "This is as normal as I get, baby."
Mom: "Ijah, what do you think you look like?"
Ijah: "I look good."
Mielye: "A fweak!"

snow and spring

2010-02-19T08:00:00.007-06:00

As much as I'm overwhelmingly anxious for spring to come (I've had spring fever pretty bad lately, even going so far as to make some iced tea lemonade three times in one week), I'm also panicking that we won't have another great snow to seal winter's end, and to have one last winter memory to pull out come the heat and humidity of July. Is that weird?

Give me one last hurrah, winter, and I'll let you go. Promise.

pretzels

2010-02-18T15:35:00.000-06:00

I made some pretzels this afternoon for the kiddies to munch on when they got home from school. They were yummy. Find the recipe here and enjoy!

boys

2010-02-18T13:55:00.001-06:00

My son used to be cute.

Now he's just a stinker.

He had his DS taken away from him last night because he wasn't listening.

Losing DS privledges used to be quite the effective consequence to misbehaving.

It just made him smile last night.

This morning, instead of finding him in bed playing his DS, I found him reading his DS manual.

Who reads a DS manual?

Strange, abnormal child.

remember what green looks like?

2010-02-17T14:00:00.000-06:00

It's the most beautiful color. And I miss it.

more from india

2010-02-17T13:00:00.000-06:00

who am i?

2010-02-17T11:06:00.000-06:00

Mielye and I read a new book from the library yesterday, Looking Like Me, by Walter Dean Myers.

We both loved it. It talks about making an "I am" list.

If you look inside a mirror, what do you see?

So, for "homework," Mielye made a list of things that describe her. I thought she'd write one or two and be done with it, but she kept adding to the list all day.

Her list:

I am a tennis player.

I am a sister.

I am a person.

I am a reader.

I am a student.

I am a ballerina.

I am a singer.

I am a daughter.

I am a dancer.

I am a kicker.

I am a fighter.

I am a writer.

Who are you?

shots

2010-02-16T16:01:00.005-06:00

The boy gets shots once a month for his allergies.

Today was that one time this month.

He screamed and screamed and screamed.

Did you hear him?

And then he screamed some more because he saw he was bleeding.

There was one drop of blood.

Mielye was with us. I wish I had my camera to capture her face.

Silent fear.

It's awful to see in your child's eyes.

Brows furrowed, eyes wide, jaw hanging open.

Everytime the needle got close to her brother's arm, she squeezed her eyes closed as tight as possible and swallowed very slowly.

And when we actually got to go home, I let the injured child with the ice pack and non-functioning arms press the elevator button.

(Because on shot days, we are "paralyzed" and cannot move our arms without screaming unless, of course, we accidently forget for a moment that we are injured and move it normally until something triggers our memory and we recall the trauma.)

Mielye sat in the far corner of the elevator pouting with a scowl on her face.

I have a headache.

Only 4 more years of shots left.

some treasures from india

2010-02-16T08:42:00.000-06:00

More to come!

found

2010-02-15T13:24:00.001-06:00

I just came upon Katie Daisy's etsy shop The Wheatfield and gosh - nearly every single print reminds me of Kayla.

I love them all, but here are some of my favorites:

birthday ideas

2010-02-15T10:14:00.001-06:00

Kayla has a birthday in a few weeks, so today I'm trying to figure out what to get her. She loves going downtown for a birthday weekend treat, so maybe we'll do that. Or maybe hit the county flea market that weekend since it's only once a month and it will be the first time it's open since December. That would be a great girls' day.

Hmmm. So many ideas.

Anyway, she has asked for: art for her walls, clothes, fabric, a number 9 sign for her room (she'll be 9!), and crafty artsy stuff. And she loves buttons. And she's asked me to make her a quilt. I don't know if that will get done, but we'll see.

Pretty simple, considering she's only 9 and she's not asking for "blah blah stuff" as in "things" as in "stuff that will be soon discarded."

Which makes it ever so much more difficult.

Here is some art that I think she'd like.

(But in blue, because pink is so gross.)

(In brown and tan)

[source for the above]

[source]

Now I've got to find her clothes.......any suggestions? She doesn't like to wear too much color, prefers black, and doesn't want to wear something someone else might wear.

Is she really only going to be 9??

happy valentine's day!!

2010-02-14T08:30:00.000-06:00

I love Valentine's Day and I hope you do too.

This year I decided to make each of the four most important people in my life a handmade Valentine. Nothing too special - just a lot of thought, time, and love.

I've been seeing a lot of the quirky little "You are the BLANK to my BLANK" sayings just about everywhere for the last few months. So, I thought that the kids would think that was kind of cool. The hardest part of this whole project was working out the phrase for each kid. I brainstormed with friends, looked up ideas online, and just about drove myself crazy trying to get each one perfect. I think I did.

I hope I did.

After deciding what phrase to use, I couldn't figure out how I would present them to the kids. Shirt? Card? Bag? I finally decided on using canvases. I think I used 16"x24." Each one is different from the next, because each of my children is entirely their own individual.

I just love that.

I basically painted each canvas and used Mod Podge to adhere the letters and to seal the canvas. I like the look of matte, but the kids love glossy everything, so I used gloss.

My friend Kristi helped me with Kayla's. She is an awesome crazy scrapbooker and has a Cricut, so we got together (actually, I volunteered her services and her machine, invited myself over and gave her all of 15 minutes before I walked into her door with my three kids and she actually let me in - she's great!). I originally wanted to use pages from Kayla's favorite book, Pippi Longstocking, and use the machine to cut out the letters. We had major issues because the paper was too thin for the machine, so we switched to magazine pages of gardens. The paper was still too thin, but we finally got all the letters we needed. It turned out amazing, and I love it.

I picked "You are the green to my grass" because Kayla is my green girl. She's always trying to save the planet, one green little step at a time. She wrote letters to the principal so that he would get recycling bins for every classroom, and he finally pulled her out of her class and told her that he got her letters and he will take care of it and she can stop writing him letters now. And he took care of it. She taught her class how to compost, she put up posters in the copy machine room saying to use both sides of the paper, and she's got signs in each room to turn off the lights.

She's going to do great things someday.

I am so proud of her.

Then there's my son, Ijah. He makes me laugh each and every day - usually by being a complete pain in the butt. His laugh is infectious. I love him to bits. He is peanut butter crazy. Big time crazy. Like 1/4 cup of peanut butter in a sandwich. Every day. It's gross. I hate peanut butter. I cannot stand it. The way it sticks to your mouth, the smell, the texture...yuck! Everyday he asks for peanut butter and I ask if I could please, please, please put some jelly on it. Nope. I think I like how this canvas turned out the best - it's simple, just like his tastes.

I love my son and hope he keeps that sense of humor and crazy laughter his whole life.

He makes me happy.

Well, my Mielye. Such a loud, bright girl. Extremely noticable. Demanding...domineering? A spitfire.

Very, very, very loud. Have I said that yet?

Anyway, her favorite book is Heidi. Well, it's her favorite book to collect. She hasn't read it yet and doesn't want me to read it to her. That's just who she is. And yellow. Her favorite color is yellow. Always has been. It's bright and noticable. Sense a theme?

So, this canvas I went crazy on. It had to make a statement, and I think it does. Heidi pages in the background, a big yellow sun made of magazine clippings of yellowy things. And her phrase:

"You are the yellow to my sunshine."

Perfect.

So, these were their gifts today. I hope they love them. I sure do. They aren't perfect (look at those air bubbles!), but they are just right.

And for the husband? Well, the kids decided that he needed a chalkboard canvas. They love chalkboards, and they love him. So, that's what we did. Here's a terrible photo to give you some idea. We'll post more when it's hung.

It's really, really big.

Mielye picked it out.

Happy Valentine's Day!!

more valentiney fun

2010-02-13T15:50:00.008-06:00

We'll be celebrating part of Valentine's Day tomorrow with my family. The kids have been working for the better part of the day at ~~completely destroying the house~~ making some fun little Valentines. They decided to make some little bottle cap magnets and some clothespin people.

The bottle caps are still wet so they're a little foggy, but you get the idea.

I think I mentioned this already, but on Thursday, the kids celebrated Valentine's Day/President's Day in school. They had lots of fun and got lots of treats and ended the day on the biggest sugar buzz of the year, but hey - it was worth it, right?

I went home, took some Tylenol, and had a banana.

Here are the cuties:

Yes. Mielye put together her outfit.

She's slightly eccentric.

She had to look beautiful that morning. I didn't have time to curl her hair "real curly" but I did braid it, and let her wear a skirt. She twirled it all day.

Yes, he needs a haircut. I'm not perfect.

I was responsible for putting together the spread for Kayla's class, which consisted of sugar, sugar, and yet more sugar (they requested it, so what's a room mom to do?).

Kayla, ever so very different from her younger seester, had to wear black to school and insisted that I put her hair in a ponytail - "not a nice ponytail - I don't want to look pretty."

Ying and yang.

This is Kayla saying, "You're the best, Mom."

Okay, I made that part up.

snow fun

2010-02-13T15:33:00.002-06:00

One day this week we had a lot of snow coming down. Since the snow shoveler of the family was in India, I made the three amigos shovel. They were not happy with me.

They scare me sometimes.

let's go to the movies

2010-02-12T14:17:00.000-06:00

The kids had the day off today, so we decided to go to the movies on THE FIRST DAY that The Lightning Thief came to theaters. That's not too shabby, I must say. I don't remember the last time that happened. If it ever happened. I'm just not that kind of mom.

Anyway, I read Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians series last summer, and they were excellent books (five books total). Kids books are just the best. So, I suggested that Kayla read the books. She said, um, no thanks, Mom. Too busy reading Harry Potter.

Then I saw that they were turning the first book, The Lightning Thief, into a movie. And it was coming out near Valentine's Day. We usually try to see a movie around Valentine's Day every year, mostly because there's usually a good children's movie coming out and the kids think it's a super treat because we never, ever go to the theater. Kayla's very big about reading before viewing. She had to read the book straight away so we could go see it. So, she did. She's on the second book of the series and loves them.

It was a really great movie. Kayla loved it, but loved the book more, of course. The other two thought it was an awesome action movie. It was just so nice to go out together. And no school - yippee!!

Well, Denairic did make it home from India yesterday afternoon (yay!). The kids also got to see their new cousin last night (yay yay!!). And tonight's DATE NIGHT (YAY YAY YAY!!!). Hopefully over the weekend or on Monday I will post some photos of what treasures made it home from India, and what I've been working on for Valentine's Day.

HAPPY FRIDAY!!!

i heart wooden spools

2010-02-11T08:00:00.000-06:00

I have a thing for old wooden spools. I buy them if I ever see them at thrift stores, and my sister-in-law recently gave me her Grandma's old stash. I decided to turn them into a little art piece instead of just sitting in an old copper bucket. I had intended for it to be a Valentine's decoration, but I love it so much, it's staying up all year round. Or until I get bored with it.

To make this, I bought copies of my children's favorite books (or books that remind me of them). I used Mod Podge to adhere pages from all three books that I picked out to a left over photo frame backing (I had used the frame for another project). I think mine was 16x20". After about three coats of Mod Podge (with at least an hour's drying time in between each), I let it dry over night. [Note: I usually make my own Mod Podge using glue and water in a 3:1 ratio. However, my kids love the glossy shine of Mod Podge, so for this project, I used the real stinky deal.] The next day, I used my handy dandy glue gun to stick my spools on in a heart-shaped patten. I then used a thrift store hanger (using furniture pads stuck to the inside of the hanger on each side so the board wouldn't slip) to hang it on the wall. Easy peasy!

And yes, there are bubbles in the paper. I'm not a perfectionist. I do my best and don't stress about the small stuff. The texture adds character! Any other good ideas out there for wooden spools?