nice weather and a tale of a melted sleeping bag

the weather is gorgeous, it is currently 54 degrees in southern indiana...on december 31.

i love it!!

it means i could hang out a comforter that i had to wash (sick kid).
i do not like putting comforters in the dryer, call me crazy but i worry that they will catch on fire.

when i was 10 me and my brother each got a red sleeping bag for christmas. they were the first sleeping bags we ever got, mine was tan on the inside, David's was yellow.
we slept on the floor in our new sleeping bags for a week.
until.......
new years eve, my moms and dads went out and david and i stayed home with my aunt pat. david got sick and the sleeping bag suffered the consequences.

into the washer and onward to the dryer the sleeping bag went. everything from here on is fuzzy but the end result is that the sleeping bag had a hole melted in it and no longer zipped up, it stayed that way for years,used as a blanket under the bed spread, im sure my mom has gotten rid of it by now.

i always think of the sleeping bag when i put a bulky comforter in the dryer. and i never leave the house while its in the dryer.

notebook sleeve

yesterday when i got home from work rachel (super babysitter) and D were sitting on the couch, eyes glued to rachels Acer Notebook. when she started packing up her stuff, i asked her "dont you have a sleeve for that?"

she didnt. i grabbed my yardstick, took some measurements and filed the numbers away in my brain for later use. last night while drifting off to sleep, i was already assembling the notebook sleeve in my head.

i had an old nap mat from pre school just waiting to be repurposed into something useful.

it became the foam padding i needed for the sleeve. it took me about 2 hours give or take to finish this project.

and needless to say, i am very happy with the results.

stuff you may not know about me

i love mary jane style shoes

i sometimes wipe my hands on my pants instead of getting a napkin

i hate the texture of wet peanut butter left on the knife and soaking in the sink.

the only clothes i fold before putting away are my work tees and jeans, everything else i just cram in my drawers.

our pet spikey

friday night D and i were in the kitchen when i spied something moving near his foot, i pointed this out and D immediately jumped on to the nearest chair.

it didnt look like the spiders i had seen around the house, so i grabbed a jar, trapped the spider under it and carefully slid a piece of paper under the jar.

when i had him trapped securely in the jar D came over to look "aww, hes cute" says the boy.

i asked what his name was and he was dubbed Spikey.

we kept spikey in the jar saturday, and fed him a few ants that i found on sunday, gave him a few drops of water but by this afternoon Spikey didnt seem too happy.

we relaesed Spike in the bushes outside the house. he ran away immediately, i hope he stays warm because now its snowing.

nasty weather

well, it looks like im staying at moms for another day.

i got woke up at 6 to the sound of 40-50 mph gusts whipping around the corner of the house. i got out of bed and wandered down the hall where my dad was looking out the front door, my brother and niece were asleep on the couch. i looked out the big window in front and watched the wind blowing the powdery snow up into snow swirls and into drifts, across the road in front of the house. looking down the street the road looked like a sheet of ice.

i told my dad i thought i was going to have to wait until its light out to make a decision about when to go.

my dad's job as a service tech requires him to drive all over this side of the state. he told me even he hated driving in this kind of weather and thought it was too dangerous for me to drive. he also added that all the nasty weather was headed the same way i was.

so i guess we are staying for another day.

my mom is thrilled.

top ten of the day

10- sleeping until 8:30
9- finding out what a Squinkie is
8- getting a new pair of PJs for christmas
7- family photos taken at a studio
6- barnes and noble with Dominic and Stella
5- watching my brother use his infinite talent punching 2 punch balloons at once
4- cheese
3- teaching kindergarten AND first grade lessons
2- biscuits and gravy
1- happy kids

more adventures in teaching

todays "break-out lesson" (yep, thats my new name for distractions) consisted of my mom bringing an un labeled can into the dining room where we were working on our math lesson and shaking it, then announcing that she had no idea what was in it, but that it had cost only a quarter (a story backed up by the big orange 25 cent sticker on the top). she proposed that we try to guess what was in it and then whatever was in it, use it to make supper.

she was convinced before she even brought it in that it was some kind of cream soup. i shot that theory down pretty quickly by the slosh that it made when i shook it vigorously. dominic took it and shook it, turned it even sniffed it. then i decided we needed something to compare it to, so we dug through my moms cupboards shaking cans and comparing sizes of cans.

we determined by the sound (and the code TOMSC) that it must be tomato soup. then mom said "i dont really want tomato soup for dinner" and put it back in the cupboard.

my week of teaching

this week while we are at Mom's dominic is missing a week of school. his teacher sent home a packet of work and little notes to show what we should do on each day. and school goes off track fairly easily when im leading lessons.

Day1:monday, there wasnt that much to do, a little bit of hand writing, a page of numbers and...oooohhhh, learning about peru, thats the day that we decided that we didnt know much about peru and ended up shopping at worlds window and drinking lattes (now thats a social studies lesson i can get on board with)

Day2: tuesday, there was quite a bit more to do, 2 handwriting pages, front and back. a math paper front and back, 3 pages of reading and more peru.
also many interruptions while he watched my mom taking food out of the freezer, re arranging the buffet and the like. we did todays lesson in our PJs and did our reading work with D on my lap. we worked reall hard on good formation of the lowercase f in cursive.

Day3: wednesday, should have been the quickest and easiest day, 1 handwriting, 1number paper, and a maze about peru. it took way too long, an hour, why you ask? because we started a conversation about George Washington Carver, what he discovered, where he was educated and his personal religious beliefs.
i now have him on a search of the house to find things that start with the letters P-e-r-and u. in addition to this learning time, we spent time balancing a pencil on our upper lip, trying to balance a pencil on one finger and discussing what the meaning was of the name Edward (?).

so you see, its really easy to get off track.

toy crazy (or how i felt convicted while writing my latest blog post)

my son is toy crazy. i understand this is a common problem at this time of year, but we really have never dealt with toy crazy to this extent. he wants everything!

in madison, indiana we have all of about 5 places to buy toys. the biggest and most visited being walmart, of course. the madison courier does not include ads from places we dont have locally, it consists of a CVS ad, a walgreens ad, and a penneys ad. we get a walmart ad in the mail once a week and since we dont have cable,, theres not much of an opportunity to have the young mind filled with the knowledge of everything there is to want.

we arrived at my moms, in waterloo, iowa on friday afternoon. by friday night Dominic was already asking for pillow pets that he saw on the cartoon network. he has been asking for one for a while but its easy to say no and change the subject when the kid isnt reminded about it every 20 minutes.
over the course of the weekend we got loads of ads in the paper, including the toys r us big book and the target toy book.
i never realized that theres so much rubbish out there for toys. there are so many huge items that look awesome on christmas morning but where on earth are you going to store it when the awesomeness has worn off and that wrapping paper tube has come back as your kid's prized possession?
i also have come to understand (but not embrace, mind you) how it is that adults can go so overboard on christmas. little eyes light up at the thought of millenium falcon lego sets (that never get assembled properly), a ride on plush dinosaur that really lumbers and roars (and runs out of battery power, thus no lumbering or roaring) or a full service mini hair and nail salon for toddlers (total cost after all accessories are bought, 130 dollars). we imagine our kid's face when they see this amazing toy and at the moment of purchase we deem it "all worth it". now you might disagree and it may be all worth it to you, but what i really strive for is something he will love, something he would notice if i sneaked it off to goodwill while he is at school.
i do admit that the pouty face when i say "no" "youre not getting that" is a little sad, who wants to disappoint a kid at christmas but fortunately for me my budget is tight enough to not fall for the theatrics.
the other thing that has been getting to me about toy craziness is that it would consume my son's thoughts if it were allowed to. i have to make a point at these teachable moments to bring up the fact that God gives us everything we need and ALOT of what we want. im also seeing how easy it is for the media to show us what we should have our focus on, and lets face it, it is in no way shape or form pleasing to God.

link up!

want to see what im up to?

check it out!! i updated Dominics blog , its just easier to send you there, so i dont have to retype everything.

will be visiting with family for a few days!!! im sure there will be pictures to show when its over!

the birth of a catch phrase

we have alot of catch phrases in our house.

some from movies "anaconda squeeze" for instance (Nacho Libre)

some from tv shows "my momma bought me that car" is one that gets thrown around for no good reason (from my all time favorite episode of Psych)

and some from the mouth of the boy.

this is where we get one of my FB catch phrases.

last year he came home from school with a street rhyme that his teacher had taught them

chicka, chicka whole potatah,

half past alligatah

bim, bam, boo, legatah

give three cheers for the dippy, dappy, happy, scrappy

readers!!

are we happy? well, i guess

readers, readers, yes, yes, yes!

the last line changed MANY times around here, it became chicken, chicken, yes, yes, yes.

it became bath time, bath time yes, yes, yes. it became pretzel, pretzel, yes, yes, yes.

it finally landed on

Coffee, Coffee yes, yes, yes.

and as the old news anchor paul harvey would say, now you know the rest of the story.

#2

wow, i feel like a blogging overacheiver today with post #2

another christmas gift,finished!! yay, me!!

this ones for my baby nephew and like the awesome aunt i am, i made a little lovey to go with it, just in case (not saying it will happen) this becomes THE blankie, so my sister wont have to carry a full on blanket around for 4 years, the lovey should hold up much better to washings as well, having not been actually dragged in the dirt.

but if baby Jackson is not too crazy about my gift and chooses a stuffed animal as his security toy, at least little stuffy will have a blanket too.

this took me about 5 hours of work time to complete, since its really my first big patchwork project and certainly of of the nicest things i think i have ever made, all bound on the edges, and whatnot. i do have to say i am rather proud of it.

the house has been on the market for 4 days, we have had one showing and the house is cleaner than its ever stayed for more than a day which i have to attribute to Ken's dilligence in picking up after dominic and sadly, after me as well.

we are going to look at houses this morning. theres one particular property that we have our eye on, the problem... its more than twice what we can afford.

it is an historic renovated fire house with a residence on the top floor and a 22x60 foot open work space on the bottom, we could have church there!

but the only way we are getting this is if God gives it to us, since its more than a little out of our price range.

the reason we are even looking at it is to see how well it would suit our needs, if it sounds like a good idea in theory but just doesnt feel right, we will forget about it, but if it looks like something that could really work, we will be praying for God to give us the fire house.

it has stared

i finished the first gift of the season!!!

i will let you see it but shh, dont tell my neice, Stella.

a mini chef hat and apron.

the hat was super easy

take an 18 x18 square, fold it in half then in half again, so its a smaller square. then make it round by cutting the open sides into a quarter circle.

make a 4x24 inch band by cutting an 8 x22 inch piece and folding it in half, i stitched a piece of scrap muslin sandwiched in the middle for a little added stiffness

sew up that top edge where the band is open. i left what would be the back of the band open but over lapped and finished off so the size can accomodate bigger or smaller heads add a velcro strip as the last step if this is what you choose to do

mark the band on the raw edge in 4 places evenly spaced, mark the circle as well, then pin the circle in on the matched marks the raw edges should match up.

start stitching, gathering between the pins as you go.

ta-da...

now is when you add a velcro strip or a piece of elastic.

the apron is completely free form, just do whatever you want, the only requirements are a string to tie it and a part that covers your front while youre cooking.

personally, i love this little inverted kick pleat in the middle of the front, its one of my favorite styles to sew.

so are you up for my buy almost nothing christmas challenge this year? tell me about your projects!!

and do not forget!! Sew, Mama ,Sew (on the side bar, under my blog list) has tons of great ideas.

im the worst blogger i know!!

i havent updated in 2 weeks!

but.......

all my time is being consumed by The Mission.

the mission is to show Gods love to the people of Madison, specifically the Walnut and East Street neighborhood. for all you non-Madisonians, thats where theres drug busts, domestic violence, meth cooking and even murders. theres also kids, young moms and men who have never had a dad so they dont know how to be dads. its also extremely transient and standard of living is alot lower than what we are accustomed to.

we as christians have been called to be salt and light. for our family this means, putting our house up for sale and moving there, to that dark place, letting our light shine, and allowing God to accomplish through us whatever he wants accomplished.

is it scary? yes

is it stressful? yes

God didnt call us to Africa, China or India.

He called us downtown, just 10 minutes from here, where we dont have to leave our friends and family, where theres running water and no rats, where we dont have to fear for our lives.

but is still scary, people dont get why we are doing this, it doesnt look like missionary work to the masses.

but there are the few, that are on board with us.

the few that will meet with us on sunday evenings as we build a church family by eating praying and learning.

the big change in Church In the Grass was announced last week. Wednesday nights are kids night at our location on east street from now on.

sunday nights are for building family and raising some money so that within a year we can be a sunday morning church, with a building.

so PLEASE pray for us as we begin the gatherings this sunday night, we need a house, we need a building, and we need to be persistant, tenacious, strong and courageous.

this weekend

the cleaning out of the pumpkin, probably the thing i hated most about halloween as a kid. my mom has multiple pictures of me making faces similar to this one.

as most of you might guess...i ended up cleaning out the pumpkin.

saturday was house cleaning day. it was gorgeous outside and i took it as my last opportunity of the season to hang out blankets.

sunday, ken preached as a substitute preacher at kent baptist, i took it as my first opportunity of the season to wear some of my goodwill winter wardrobe. paisley A-line corderoy skirt 3.95, eggplant top with cute french cuffs and just the right amount of stretch, 2.95.

the tights i paid full price for and cost almost as much as the rest of the outfit put together, which is nuts because, if im going to not lie to myself, i MAY get 4 wears out of the tights before they have a run too big to hide.

i also discovered today that my coat needs dry cleaned and 2 buttons are ready to pop off. good to know. i dont want to lose those buttons, the coat only came with 1 extra.

field trip to the pumpkin farm

the K5 tooktheir annual field trip to Montgomery farms on thursday!! fun stuff, they got a hay ride and each picked their own pumpkin

dominic helped daisy in her quest to find the smallest pumpkin

dominic and noah chase eachother through the mini corn maze with sticks...its what they do, they love the sticks, dominic almost cried when i told him to leave the stick at the farm. then he got distracted by feeding the goats and forgot about the stick.

heres the pumpkin i tried to convince daisy was the BEST pumpkin, she wasnt having it. later i convinced Miss Simpson that it was the best pumpkin and it found a home at last.

not MY kid

yep, MY kid. Ken and i had our eyes opened this morning. we went to see Dominics class perform their little sketch and song about the 12 men who spied on Canaan and saw how drastic his behavior change from home to school was.

i knew that he has trouble sitting still, he has trouble with making noises and talking and often doesnt listen and obey....

but the willful disobedience and out right rebellion to his teacher that we witnessed this morning was something i did not expect.

i thought if we could train him to not talk and make noise, if we could channel the need for constant movement he would do better in class.

he told his teacher 'no' when she gave him directions this morning! WHAT??!

we had NO idea! rebellion and disobedience to this extent did not come up in the meetings and e mails with his teacher. i want to know when my kid is acting a fool in class!

in the last 2 weeks we let up a little and tried to think of better ways than nightly punishments to get him to behave in class. we made up reward systems, i offered him a silly band in exchange for a note of good behavior. his teacher offered him stickers and prizes.

The party is over, we are back to nights of extended periods of nosey tosey (time out with your nose, toes and hands on the wall), sitting on the bed, not doing anything fun, having toys taken away, no tv and yep, even spankings.

there has to be a better way, i just havent found it. i am however open to suggestions.

where has the month gone?

since the 14th, when i made my last post i have had a CRAZY wild time, there was good stuff and really bad stuff:

the good stuff included telling our whole family and all our friends that we were expecting, the really bad was that a week later we had to tell them all that i had lost the baby.

also during that time i:

took a trip to Ohio which included a visit to a pumpkin farm, hay ride and all, the discovery of Kettle brand salt and pepper ship (yum), the drinking of a Yeungling (also yum), a caramel latte, carving pumpkins, TRYING to teach Marci how to knit (didnt go so well, im NOT a born teacher).

had lunch with the in laws at Boneyard Grill.

had dinner with prospective core group members who would partner with us during Church In the Grass's BIG change (more on that later)

cut my hair

super cleaned the house and conquered the laundry mountain for all of 3 minutes

took D to a halloween party where he debuted his jedi costume and ran into Cora from Kent Baptist.

went to the library no less than 5 times

went to Walmart no less than 15 times

and oh how could i forget!??

gave a long distance welcome to my brand new nephew Jackson!!!

(and FYI it does not make me sad or otherwise upset to see picture of my new baby nephew just a week after miscarrying, im so happy that he is healthy and surrounded by loving family, and i cant wait to meet him! Lindsay will be a GREAT mom and Chris, if Uncle Sean has faith in your madd Daddy skilz, then so do I))

so thats a breif overview of the last 2 weeks, i hope to be a better blogger this week.

my young padawan

i finally did it! hooray!! i got the jedi costume made.

this little padawan was well pleased and posed for as many pictures as i wanted to take.

the finishing touch will be khaki pants and hopefully boots (if they can be found at the thrift store)

what?

a holiday? noooo..it cant be a holiday, theres no food attatched to columbus day.

someone suggested that maybe we should eat italian, another suggested that perhaps a candy should be synonymous with colombus day. maybe little chocolate ships?

i know some of you lucky, lucky readers get tomorrow off, that makes it a "holiday" for you.

just what ARE we "celebrating"? a dude who got lost on his way to india and ended up on the other side of the world. hmmm...interesting.

i will continue to hold fast to the no food=no holiday rule.

its finally here! fall is finally here!!! actually, 2 days ago when i took this picture it was 80 out...but now, right now, its raining and 50...yes!!!!!!

the first rain we have seen in months.

and im crossing my fingers that its enough to clean up the air so Tricia can come back and visit me :)

thursday thirteen

im the queen of distraction, and in honor of the not so desirable quality i give you thirteen things that i have started and not yet finished:

1) the dishes, actually Dominic and i started them this morning, theyre about 3/4 of the way done.

2) putting away laundry, this has been going on for weeks now.

3) a knit hat, yes i still have my sister's round needle, from the begining of august

4) my studio, i think i have a good excuse for that one ( i have alot of other things that should be finished first, right?)

5) last week's Chuck, i wanted something funny, it was too "relationshipy" i turned it off and watched Psych instead.

6) my sons birthday thank you's (enter this under hiding my face in shame)

7) the table cloth makeover, i promised you pictures of that months ago.

8) the Anne of Green Gables set of books that Rachel loaned. me im up to the third one.

9) my coffee from this morning.

10) my fall crafts.

11)

may da force be wif you

i have been comissioned by D to make him a jedi for halloween. i have found several particularly interesting costume tutorials.

and i must say, there are alot of Star Wars fans who take a jedi's costume VERY seriously, apparently theres a discrepency as to whether or not there is a seam up the back of the robe or not, im on the no vote since it will make the costume construction much easier. fortunately for me my pint size Star Wars geek only cares about the illusion of being jedi. he knows there must be a tunic and a robe with a hood that you can pull down over you eyes and most definitely somewhere to keep you lightsabre.

wow, it has been almost a week since i posted!! this has been a super fast week!

what i did? you want to know what i did? well, saturday and sunday were spent painting D's room and ripping up his nasty 1970's carpet and re assembling the room quickly so he could sllep there sunday night. and boy was i sore.

monday: work, work work, deal with a boy who cant get right at school

tues: (see monday) and hatch a plan to help said boy get right, and e-mail teacher to have her help me, help boy get right

wednesday: celebrate success of said plan with happy meal, mcdouble and chocolate shake (gastric upset free with purchase)

so today....today, i set about to do what i planned to do last week but which turned into painting D's room...set up my new studio space in the spare bedroom/junk room.

my sewing machine has been in the living room for about a year and a half now and its not the optimum location i have to stretch the cord across a traffic path which could potentially trip the less graceful members of my household. i have to drag out the iron and ironing board every time i set out to create. not condusive to impromptu creativity.

im imagining organized fabric stash, jars of ribbon remnants and this which i plan to make, a spool holder!! yep i love my threads, but the love each other, too much, way too much which means i have to un tangle them from each other when i need one.

i will show you when im done, not before, K? so it may be a couple of weeks

its friday!

the day i have historically had trouble holding fast to my challenge to buy nothing that is not consumable. one week i bought books, the next week it was a pair of earbuds.

this week, i will try really, really hard NOT to do that!

my plans for today are

clean house, i dont just throw the phrase pig sty around a la my loving mother (love ya mom!) but this place is a pig sty, i have been under the weather, Ken has been under the weather, dominic stays true to his mini tornado self and thus i found a piece of a nacho chip in the couch coushion, under a pile of books, newspapers, tissues and a blanket which is as we speak, in the washer.

go grocery shopping, all of our sorta easy dinner food is used up, all our snacks are obliterated and due to some unusually wild antics in the classroom Dominic is officially OFF of sugar for a time which means no juice boxes, no cookie packs and absolutely no marshmellows will find their way to my sons lunch bag.

move my sewing desk into its own new studio space!!!! this one is super exciting for me, but it also means alot of work in cleaning up the super big walk in closet/junk room /guest room, which will be my studio space and just maybe painting it, i would love to paint it, but im still tossed up colorwise. (suggestions welcome)

the last thing on my list today is to attend the Chautauqua poster signing reception at Nice Shots Photography. the poster photo was taken by professional photographer and good friend of ours Stephanie Hellmann she has a shop/studio on main street. stop by tonight if you can.

well, that looks like a day busy enough to keep me from shopping.

um...YUM!!!

because my love affair with caramel apples goes way back to like, 2nd grade may i present the snack i will be calling....

"what i did on my fall vacation" or "i ate them all before you got home snacks"

(well...click it already)

seriously!! what a BRILLIANT idea!!!

delicious dish

isnt this great? im not buying...im saying, ya know, maybe you should.... check out all kinds of beautiful on etsy!

almost!

i wanted some pretty colored teal and purple bobby pins, i resisted

i considered some sidewalk chalk that was on sale for like .50 , i managed to walk on by

magazine in the check out? no thank you

but have my 5 year old strip off all the rubber from my Apple earbuds and i will cave under the pressure. i bought some new ones , i had to (says me) i cant screen print shirts all day long, all week long with no music. the cost was 7.99. they were a cheap off brand but they work and dont put uncomfortable pressure on my ears.

friday seems to be the day to go off track, i will try really hard next friday to NOT buy any non consumbale goods.

chill in the air

nights have started getting a little chilly here on the hilltop. i quickly noticed that dominic had only 1 pair of pajama pants, since in the summer large tee shirts were is pajama of choice.

i though, oh no! im going to have to buy...but wait...i can make pjs, they dont have to be fancy, so thats what i did.

i used an old green curtain panel and voila, they look just like scrubs.

i was surprised at just how easy it was, all i did was trace around a pair he already had which i folded in half, cut through 4 layers of material and found out that its super easy to assemble lounge pants.

doing well

the challenge went well this weekend even though we spent sunday in civilization (indianapolis).

lunch on sunday was at the Olive Garden, Ken and i shared a plate of shrimp and chicken carbonara, this combined wit the salad and bread sticks was all the food either of us needed. Dominic got his old stand-by, macaroni and cheese.

after lunch, as Dominics birthday present, Aunt Rachel and Uncle Halbert treated us all to a day at the indianapolis childrens museum! what a great birthday gift! there was a dinosaur exhibit and a star wars exhibit. the day at the museum ended with everyone exhausted and not even a second glance toward the gift shop.

for dinner, since we all were so extremely tired and in need of proteins, we had A&W grill burgers, D and i mostly only ate the meat, plus some yummy crispy deep fried fries. and even though this A&W was located at the mall, tiredness kept me in my right mind about not buying anything.

the ride home did include a stop at Target, in Columbus, IN. we were in need of shampoo and litter box liners, which i deem an item we are allowed to buy, and with good reason, the other alternative would be to try to give Fatty away....hmmmm, theres an idea, anyone want a 24 pound cat? Kidding, i kid....

DOH!

blame it on this little guy. i did.

i had a fail day on my challenge thanks to this fuzzy friend. i am definitely going to have to steer clear of the Village Lights Bookstore this month if i want to live up to my own challenge to not buy any non-consumable goods.

well, theres always starting over today..i will not go to the bookstore today.

this was a skirt yesterday!!

moving clothes around in my closet i found this skirt, i love the fabric, but the fit was not so flattering, lets just say even Olive Oyl would need a control top panty hose to make this skirt work.

i decided this would work MUCH better as a shirt, and it did. although with one of these skirt to shirt projects last month someone asked Ken if i was pregnant, im not! but i dont care! these shirts are so comfortable i will let people ask if im pregnant and promise not to get offended.
i also modified these pants, they were american eagle flared pants, i LOVE american eagle jeans, so soft and comfy, and the top fit beautifully, but im just not into the flare anymore.

i set about cutting and stitching, and un stitching, and re stitching and cutting a little more and stitching, and pulling out loose threads from the unstitching and then stitching a little more, it was a trial and error project, but im happy with the end result, even if they are a little long.

challenge

heres my challenge. if you choose to accept it. go one month without buying anything that is not consumable.

we are going to do it and i would love for you to join us

what you can buy:

food, of course

drinks

gas

medication

health and beauty supplies

diapers and wipes

paper products

light bulbs

batteries

what you cant buy:

clothes

shoes

toys

books

home decor

tools

gifts

craft supplies

linens....

you get the idea, if you dont eat it or use it for energy of some kind, its a no go.

need a birthday gift? youre going to have to make it out of something you already have.

need a shovel? youre going to have to borrow one.

beg, borrow, barter, trade or make. thats the name of the game.

i will update as close to every day as possible during the challenge. please, e mail me or facebook meaasge me your updates. oh, and tell your friends.

thank you dollar tree!

because, how cute are these glasses? honestly! a dollar each!

it would have been a shame to pass that up.

a cry for help!

the help i need is the birthday party kind.

Dominic and 3 friends are going bowling for his birthday. the birthday boy has proclaimed that it shall be a Star Wars party, so i need easily transportable, treats, that the boys can just take from the serving dish and eat, there will be no ceremonial cake cutting, and i like to keep frosting to a minimum. other than star shaped cookies im at a loss.

so throw your Star Wars birthday ideas this way.

the puppet show

i was treated to a puppet show saturday afternoon, an original production. very original

not too much of a plot, but it was groundbreaking in technique. and there was alot of silliness.

and then we went out for a little walk.

its finally cooling off.

i guess i can get out and take some new pictures now.

stay tuned...

its so easy to find simple sewing projects for girls, for boys however...not so much.

heres one i came up with to keep D's swords put away

it has space for a couple more swords or light sabers and a loop on the back to hang it on the wall.
i would also like to add that it was made completely with scraps that i had cut off of pants legs when converting them to shorts. waste not, want not i always say.

home alone

i remember the days before i was a mom, i took being home alone for granted.

now when im home alone it means i get to take a shower for longer than ten minutes, eat cookies without trying to hide them in the folds of my sweatshirt to avoid having to share and possibly my favorite, sit undisturbed for a half hour...or even longer if i feel like it.

i said today was going to be cleaning day, but now im not so sure, i might just enjoy the silence, and maybe even paint my toenails.

first day of K5

the first morning of K5 (thats kindergarten for age 5, some of you know he was in K4 last year at the same school) went off without a hitch. it was a rather normal feeling morning, nothing different than what we did last year there was no excitement, no feelings of butterflies in the stomach, just another day at school. look how much hes grown though!

what i have always wanted part 2

thanks to the men in my life, Sean's know how, Ken's sweat, Dominic's desire to help....

my brand new fire pit!!!!!

are ya jealous?

the family arrived on thursday afternoon ! yay!

thursday night we grilled some dogs and after dinner, went to the pool for a couple of hours and then got out the sparklers and with some close adult supervision allowed the little boys to have some fire work fun.

yesterday , it was Sean's day again, which included a trip to the bat factory and time at the batting cages. this after lunch at The Old Spaghetti Factory in Louisville, their lasagna was good (not as good as yours mom) and so was the spinach tortelini that Ken had.

todays agenda includes breakfast at the farmers market, biscuits and gravy, YUM! and taking the kids to paint pottery.

something i have always wanted

ok, so its probably not what you would have picked out with a CSN gift card but i have ALWAYS wanted one of these, i always thought ot would be so awesome to have my own continental breakfast cereal dispenser.....

and now i have it! well, in a couple of days i will anyway.
this clock/kitchen timer is the other thing i picked, i thought the timer would come in handy to help The Boy in getting ready for school in a timely manner, we will see how that goes.

i spent HOURS trying to find exactly the right thing to buy with my prize "money" after searching aimlessly for a long, long time, i was relieved and excited to find 2 things i thought worthy of my prize "money".

I write like
James Joyce

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

three analysis out of five said "James Joyce". i dont think i have read any Joyce. maybe i should.

its super simple, click the green link on the badge, paste in your latest blog entry or sample of your writing and click analyze...voila, you write like....

what does yours say? leave a comment and let me know!

who's the big winner?

ME!! thats right. now how to spend it? which got me thinking of getting gift cards as a gift.

do you have trouble deciding what to buy with your gift cards?

i always feel like i have to make just the right choice because when its spent, thats your gift. so why is it harder to pick out your own gift? if the gift giver had just bought you something you would be thrilled to death with whatever you had received. now, dont get me wrong, i LOVE gift cards, LOVE them. its just so hard to get THE thing and not feel like you missed something. like the thing you really, really could have used escaped your mind at that crucial time of making the final decision.

with this little peek at my sometimes indecisive pea brain, i ask you....with 70 bucks, what would YOU pick? CSN stores

who's the big winner?

i almost forgot!

go here visit Tricia for a chance at a 70 dollar CSN gift card!!

cabin fever

i figured out that it is possible to get cabin fever in the summer. to a lesser degree of course.

since its been upwards of 95 degrees for the last, like, 3 weeks, and now its pouring down rain, i havent really left the comfort of air conditioning very much. let me just say , it doesnt feel like summer in indiana, it feels like summer in Dallas, TX. so much so that when i complained that my tomatoes werent growing, Ken said "well, ya tried, if they dont grow, you can always go to H.E.B (grocery store chain) and buy some." ok, kids, i havent laid eyes on an H.E.B store in about 8 years since i left Ft. Hood, Texas. but apparently its hot enough for Ken to think we actually ARE in Texas.

i really want to sit out on my porch, i want to go for walks downtown, i would just love to sit at the playground and watch D play. i want to drink lots of HOT coffee.

anyone out there experiencing mid 80's? send them this way.

go away!!

the ants are trying their best to take over my kitchen...again! i thought i killed them off with a little cocktail of sugar, borax and the snack that smiles back. but they fooled me, they backed off for a couple of weeks until i got lax and began to leave little bagel crumbs lying about then they kicked it up and attacked on the other side of the kitchen, where i might least expect them. so im back to feeding my goldfish crackers to the unsuspecting pests.

and while we are on the subject of unwanted pests, does anyone know how to get rid of a backyard full of gnats?

in-cog-nito

how does a barette making craft evolve into this?

well, it all started when D thought the lime green bow i had just stitched would make a great mustache.
then got a little sillier as i cut a mustache from a scrap of felt and taped it to his lip. it didnt stick very long. so i went in search of printable mustaches. but lo and behold, the printer WOULD NOT do its job.
in the end we found that a repurposed food box colored black made the perfect mustache masks.
an un sharpened pencil held on with a bit of duct tape worked well as a handle. now its masquerade time.

what i did on my summer vacation

my birthday always coincides with my annual fourth of July trip to ohio to visit marci and her family, they got a new member this year, their new baby girl is 3 months old. so i got to play the doting aunt. it has been determined that Auntie Monica is too cold for the baby's liking and although she liked playing with me and smiled at me, for cuddles, i just am not warm blooded enough.

we took the kids to the Franklin Park Conservatory on saturday, it was a great big family affair that took up almost every available space in Marci's mini van. it was the last week of their blooms and butterflies exhibit. D and M got to hold a butterfly, very exciting.
is she about the cutest thing ever?
are we telling jokes? i like jokes.

cranky old man

i told The Boy to go get his shoes and socks on. i had to contain my giggles when he came out in navy socks that are 2 different lengths.

almost...

this photo was taken back in march when D got his bike, this was his first ever bike ride.

he is doing so well that we took the wrench with us to practice last night, just in case he wanted the training wheels off.

he told me at dinner tonight that i better bring the wrench again.

fourth of july craft

this is one of the easiest crafts i have done in a long time, it was super quick, i finished it and hung it in about 45 minutes. i cut one triangle to a size i liked and used it as a pattern for all the rest. then just stitched them all together, added 2 ribbons for hanging and Viola!

the red check fabric is an apron from the dollar tree that i cut up, 2 actually, the dark blue is something i have had in my stash for a while and the blue stripe is my man's old shirt which i snagged last month when i noticed the collar and cuffs all frayed.

a fun and festive touch to my front porch id say.