Kentucky Horse Park

FIELD TRIP!

We love field trips! The kids look at it as all fun, I look at it as a way to learn outside the home. If you have anyone in your family that loves horses, this is the park to visit! We were there off season so we missed seeing a lot of the shows and events they have throughout the year, but it was still a blast!

First thing we decided to do was grab the carriage tour. Horses with feet the size of your head pull a wagon around while someone tells you more about the park. Tip: Sit close to the front. There’s no speakers (for good reason… I imagine microphone feedback and horses do not mix well) in the wagon, it was windy when we were at the park and it was close to closing time so I think our guide was tired. It was really cool to get a quick history of the park and what every barn was right away though! Big help in our exploring.

These horses were awesome! We found them in the barn designated for world breed's. Marwari’s are very rare horses. I recommend you do a little research on these guys. They are tuff and TALL! Their ears touch together at the top of their head. This guy was incredibly interested in what was going on outside his stall but did visit with us briefly. All the people working that we came across were super sweet to the animals.

 

 The history lesson began in the museum. Paul Revere, Comanche and horses use in the World Wars were just some of the information we gleaned. It was really neat to see so much information about horses, breeds and how they have interacted with humans throughout the years. 

We loved seeing all the Secretariat memorabilia and the kids loved the Black Stallion section of the museum.

The museum is HUGE though! We did find ourselves not reading everything and hurrying through at the end. It was a lot to take in!

The Arabian area had a neat program to engage the kids though and they could “take a horse” through the displays with them creating a scrapbook page to email to themselves for later. It was the highlight of the museum for one of our kids.

All in all the museum and grounds were beautiful, fun to explore and a perfect place to use up several hours of your afternoon. Definitely check out the children’s barns! We had it all to ourselves and the kids loved just racing around in it and pretending they were horses over the little jumps even. We enjoyed our visit!

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The Groove

I have broken so many grooves and gotten into so many ruts it's just insane! I am working on a NEW groove though. How long does it take to settle into a groove? Isn't it a rule of thumb that it's a few months for new habits to set in but just a few days for the bad ones? HAHA! I am stuck in bad habits. Well not like BAD, bad habits. Things like staying up too late bad habits or taking on more than I can finish in a day and than getting mad at myself for not finishing it. The usual "mom" bad habits.

 At any rate, I see so much that I want to do but I am also trying to clear my plate so that I can get to that new stuff. I hate leaving projects unfinished. Drives me a bit nuts. Maybe I am OCD about that? I should blog more because of that shouldn't I? (Whoops! Did I just call myself out on the lack of blogging?) I have a few web sites that I am finishing up for some other people. They are fun jobs and not really stressful but the people I am doing them for have not been pushing to get them finished either. I want them done though so I will do that. I am having fun learning more about photography. I have a TON of things to post in my Etsy shop but I need to bring in a bit more income before I can warrant the fee of selling online. (Kind of stuck in a Catch 22 there!) I have some parties booked for my little direct sales business that I love. (That's where I intend to get a bit of my cash for the Etsy.) Still plugging away at homeschool with the kiddos. They are learning in leaps and bounds right now! Never fails that I feel I should be getting new curriculum in the winter to keep up with them instead of in the fall. (Hey! That might not be a bad idea for planning next year!)

And right at this very moment... it's lunch time. Getting three meals a day on the table is not my fav chore in the world. I like cooking and I can plan meals without an issue but actually getting into the kitchen to make them. Ugh... It's worse than doing the more mundane chore of dishes. Wait... making food makes dirty dishes. Vicious cycle!

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Free Halloween Printable

I do not like halloween. Do you? It's just not my favorite holiday. When my Hubby and I got married I already knew that he and his family LOVED halloween. It's a major holiday for them! And it's not because it's spooky and scarey and all that. It's just fun for them. When we started planning babies though I started talking to Hubby about halloween and what we would do about it. (To tell you the truth I only remember trick or treating once! I may have gone a few other times, but I don't remember. And the one time I went was my parents driving us to our grandparents. That is it.)

We made a few compromises and I'm happy with the holiday now. It is fun for the kids and they love planning and/or making up their costumes each year. We don't permit anything gruesome, dead or dying. Only animal, plant, mineral, cartoon or real person costumes are permitted. No weapons are allowed. And my final push on the whole, "lets see how much candy we can take from everyone" was to give thank you notes back to the doors we stop at and limiting the amount of houses we stop at.

Each year what do the kids look forward to the most and fight over at each door? Not the candy being handed out. No... the honor of handing back one of our thank you note postcards that they have each decorated. We only give one at each door. Each kid decorates between 5 or 10 cards (depending on age and other factors... one year a few kids were sick so the others picked up the slack of decorating). Everyone who receives our thank you notes back loves them! Some houses that we visit tell us they still have the other card we gave them last year!

So now I would like to share with you our thank you cards for you to make with your kids! Click the image below, print on card stock, cut on the dotted lines and decorate! It's fun to use glitter glues, paint, crayon, marker and more. For us it depends on what we have time to work on. This year, I didn't have time for drying things so no glue and paint. The thank you cards really do add a twist to this holiday. Enjoy!

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What Happened

Last week has been nuts. The weeks to come look to be even crazier. My Husband's job has adjusted and may be changing more soon too. We don't know yet. I think the not knowing is worse than just starting to get used to the changes. This will be huge changes though. I'm not happy about it all. Again though... nothing I can do about it but suck it up and adjust.

I had a post all thought out about this last night. I did not make notes of anything though so now I don't remember any of it. Thinking it through to get ready for a post helped me to feel better about everything though. Is your blog a form of venting and processing information for you? It is for me. I feel like writing helps me to look over all the angles and work through a situation before I explode from emotion on it all. Really trying to work on the emotional explosions around here. I don't need to add to the drama of everything going on.

We have not seen the changes yet. It's all speculation. We are awaiting to hear from the powers that be to tell us what they decide. When will they do that? I don't know. I have started adjusting our budget and schedule to fit what could happen. The budget adjustment was pretty cool though because when I adjusted it I included the older two kids in looking it over. They now have a pretty good handle on how to setup a budget! I created worksheets for them to work on and we did them together. I am very proud of them for working with me and the insights they picked up along the way were very neat. They really do grow up too quickly! I am considering posting my "budget class" on my blog here and see if others might benefit from it too.

I'm very worried about a few illness in the family right now too. My Mom is sick and it seems like all the Doc's are doing is grabbing at straws. My second child has been mostly confirmed with an illness called Inflammatory Bowel Disease (more on that later) and we are treating it with medication as well as making huge diet changes to help out but sometimes nothing seems to help. My third child currently has a cold... or something... it doesn't seem to be a cold. I am thinking maybe allergies. I'm worried it may asthma. I will have to figure that out soon. I'm waiting a few more days because if it is a cold it should be wrapping up soon. And by waiting I feel that I may be messing up.

I have started up my home businesses again. I wasn't going to but we could use the extra money for some things. I have a few businesses to work with up my sleeve. I am a web designer, a direct sales consultant and I have a little Etsy shop. I love them all but they all take a chunk of my time so that leaves my blog out. I have two web designing jobs right now, 3 parties scheduled for next month and have stolen any moments I can in our den with my glue gun and sewing machine. I should have another cute apron and several new hair clips to post in my shop soon! I love hair clips and fun frilly things.

So what happened to me? I fell off the side of earth. All though we have studied a lot of Columbus recently and the earth is round! (gasp) So how am I falling off the side? I don't know. I feel like I am sliding fast though and nothing can stop me. I am praying.

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Bug Station

Do you have bugs? In your house? Do you have kids? Well.. if you have kids I am sure at some point in time you have had or will have bugs in your house. The kids will bring them in. They either want to share their new found friends with you or they have “fallen in love with this bug and can’t bear to leave it outside where it belongs.” So…. again… do you have bugs? We do!
I have several jars and containers of bugs right now.


This picture is missing a plastic jar full of Roly-Poly’s too. They are my 3rd child’s favorite bug at this time. I call it, ‘The Bug of the Month’. I’ve challenged this kid to count their legs. (snicker)


Here we have Creepy Spider. (shudders) The kids are keeping this spider well fed with whatever bug they find. This spider does not discriminate on which bugs it likes to eat either. Great example of how to NOT be picky at the dinner table. (ugh) I have tried to leave some Roly-Poly bugs in this jar to clean up the scraps of this spiders meal but he eats them too. (ick)


The noisy bugs of the bunch is the cricket jar. We have one male and two females in there. The like fresh fruit to munch on best. The male will break out in song whenever he wants some company and my kids are finally starting to show that they are wearing thin of his racket. I have considered moving them into a kids room at night. Maybe these little crickets would be let go faster. (grin)


Somebody help me, we have baby mosquitoes too. I know! I know! What was I thinking? It’s all in the name of science here folks. We had to collect these nasty little squiggles from our disgusting dog water bowl.


No the dogs did NOT actually drink this water. (yuk) We had not been able to play in the backyard much due to rain and the dogs were drinking from their clean bowls in the garage. And NO I did not keep that syringe. (yuk! yuk!) It was a medicine syringe used to dose out a few prescriptions. We have a zillion of them so they are disposable to me.

The water bowl was the perfect collection site for baby mosquitoes. I even picked up an egg sack of them and we had a ton of babies everywhere. I am about as good at keeping baby mosquitoes alive (they eat algae!) as I am at keeping sea monkeys. The jar the babies are in is sealed and will not be opened until they are all… ahem… dead. Sorry! There are some bugs that will never make it back out in the wild from our home.

So… do you have any bugs?
I have plenty to share!
Want some? (snicker)

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Skort to Skirt Tutorial

This was one of my very first little sewing projects I tackled. Learned a TON from it! So glad that I have found sewing. It is really fun! I think the reason I like it so much is because I actually FINISH something. You know that I mean? I am a mom of 4, homeschooling, keeping up with the house, throw in a few critters and a busy Husband. Nothing I do ever gets finished. Except now I can say I finish things a LOT because of sewing. Woowho!

First off, this is a photo HEAVY post. First tutorial… I took pictures of everything and I only used half of them here! Ha! Secondly, all pictures were taken in a hurry with my phone. Some of them don’t look so well. Sorry!

Materials:
1 too short skort
1 old nightgown, dress
or approx 1yd of 60in fabric

PLUS:
thread
sewing machine
pins
bandaids <- - yes… get them

And the desire to have an adventure with your sewing skills is always a bonus.

Now to get to work!
Grab a snack while you contemplate your plan of attack.

Wait… no… you have a plan here.
Cut out the inside shorts of those skorts.

Be careful of the inside pockets!!!
Oh and my fingers look grotesquely bent in this photo. Weird…
At any rate, cut carefully along the inside pocket with scissors.

Now figure out what length you want to cut down your skorts. I wanted the back pockets intact. Originally I thought making the front shorter than the back would be cool, but I couldn’t figure out the logistics of the nightgown so I just went for straight across. Hehe…

Ta Da! Now you have some really, REALLY short skorts.
I used my handy-dandy-sewing-ruler-thingie (that’s the technical term) for cutting as close to a straight line as I could. You might want to use a fabric marker to make a line though. Might work better.

It’s the nightgowns turn on the chopping block. I didn’t want the strip of buttons down the front so I just cut straight across from that point.

This next photo shows how much wider the nightgown is from the skorts.
(Ahem... maternity night gown. Thank you.)
Time to pull out the iron and set up your hem! I made my hem about 1/2in because I wanted to make a ruffle. Use pins to hold it after you iron and be sure to have that box of bandaids handy now.
(You think I’m joking don’t you? Get the bandaids!)

Now, at this point I had a bleeding finger. (Thank you bandaids for protecting my white patterned fabric!) I wanted a little ruffle where the skort meets the nightgown, so sew your longest regular stitch at the bottom of your oversized hem that you just made.
(If this doesn’t make sense, just keep reading… you’ll see it. I hope!)

Not sure how to gather an item?
Check out this pinterest pin for detailed directions.

Here’s three steps in one photo. Are you ready? After you’ve done your gathering stitch pull on the bobbin thread (bottom thread) to gather the skirt together (A). Be sure to check the width of the gathering to the skort (B). And than tie off the gathering thread with a few knots to keep your gathers from skoo-tching (yes, another technical term) around on you while sewing (C).

A somewhat tricky part. Remember how I wanted the cute ruffle (from above) peeking over the skort? Well, this idea breaks all logic (for me) of attaching a gathered item to a non-gathered item. So… here goes…

Line up your skort and nightgown hem. Both items should be wrong side out. Put the nightgown under the skort and pin. (In retrospect I think both of the items right side out with the nightgown on top would have made for easier sewing… live and learn. You should try it that way though. You can see the gathering stitch line better and cover it with the attaching stitch.)

Here I zipped away attaching them together, sticking myself with more pins and I did an overlap stitch at the bottom of my skort, but forgot a picture. It really isn’t necessary.

Oh and I also attempted to break my machine by letting a pin sneak past me. Don’t let them do that…. grrrrr…

And there you have it! (Notice, no bandaids on the fingers? It’s because I took this picture a few days later. Hehe… I did get to finish the project in one day though! Without interruptions I think this should take less than 45 min. Maybe… should… let me know! Hehe…)

PS- Yes, I made the upcycled tshirt in the photo too. That was my FIRST ever sewing project. Love it… but never wear it because it says “I Wanna Ride” all over the back of it. Hehehe… Whoops! It’s one of my Hubby’s unwanted motorcycle tshirts.

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Tummy Growls…

Remember my post about Is Noah Santa? Well… here you go again! Another funny little statement from Sweet Pea. Sometimes these happen so fast that I don’t remember to write them down. These might be from a few years ago but.. wow… Sweet Pea is something else!

The greatest thing is that Sweet Pea is dead serious when saying these things! Many of them just come out of the blue. We are all sitting around reading, practicing piano, working in our school books and BOOM! Sweet Pea makes a statement like,

Sweet Pea: ”My tummy is growling for Cake!”

Me: “Oh really?”

Sweet Pea: “No wait… my dot is snoring! That is just my dot sleeping.” (Insert the most endearing giggle here.)

And Sweet Pea is off to another Sweet Pea project that is always important and necessary but you never know where it will take you.

And just so you know, a dot is a belly button.

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Deployment Thoughts

We had a wild ride of deployments, training sessions, etc that kept Hubby busy and away from us during the beginning of the year. I wrote this post during one of those times and never shared it because at the time, I was IN it and just couldn’t bring myself to click publish. Looking over it again now I am glad that I vented it into a “journal post” for myself and I can rationally see that it was a passing moment. It didn’t last. Thank you Lord for always standing by me during those rough, dark days!

Now.. on to the post. This is something like what a deployment does to me (at times) and may help others to understand and relate better to those in the thick of it…

I am struggling with attending events. Not events where I have to watch my kiddos. I am struggling with attending events where I am expected to mingle with other adults. Like church. Adults ask me these relentless questions of, “how are you doing?” Such a simple question, isn’t it? I’ve never liked that question. NEVER. Weird to despise such an open ended question because it can have a nice tidy answer and that person will move on. But that’s the problem. I’m also tired of hearing, “I don’t know how you do it.” Right now, I’m not.

When you ask someone, “So, how are you?” What do you really expect from them? “Fine, how are you?” Right? What if you got more than that? Would you be a little caught off guard? I can pretty much be sure that over one-half of those who ask me that don’t really want to know. It’s a conversation opener. To me it’s like a smack in the face.

How am I doing? I am completely overwhelmed! Totally freaking out! Not sure how I am surviving to take my next breath. Incredibly in awe of my loving children who are suffering through this moment with me and showing me true love. This moment of perpetual sinking. I don’t feel like me anymore but I’m not sure where me is either. I cry easily. Get angry way too quickly. My heart hurts.

Is there a medical condition? Did I suddenly plummet into depression? Maybe… but the rational side of me can kick in and I know that there are some BIG life changes happening around me that won’t last forever. I’ve really only had the wind knocked out of me and it’s going to hurt for awhile. It will get better.

I just don’t want to hear, “How are you?” anymore though. Such a loaded question and I want to answer it…. but it’d be messy. Way too messy.

Don’t ask unless you REALLY want to know.

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Camping

We went. We survived. We will do it again!

My Husband and I have a lot of fond memories of camping with our families. We have always wanted to continue these with our children. So once, a long time ago, we tried. It was a complete disaster! (More about that another time….) So we tried a few more times with backup adults around us and had more success. It was time to try a solo camping trip again with our little brood. They are all much older than the first time so it was bound to go better. Right? It started out with setting up the beast. Our tent. LOVE this tent. It has closets!

And a PORCH!

So yah… this is my kind of tent camping! (Note to self: Area rug would be better than a tablecloth. Next time…)

Hubby is an excellent campfire chef and had meals with little problems ready for us to eat. We ate pre-mixed gingerbread pancakes, hamburgers, corn on the cob, chicken kabobs, sandwiches and more. I packed way too many snacks but taking bottled water instead of coolers and cups was perfect! We also ate way too many s’mores. (Note to self: Pack screened in tent at all costs. The flies were worse beggers than our dogs!)

Our kids experienced freedom in the neat empty campground that they rarely get anywhere else due to cars, people, etc just being everywhere. They played at the park non-stop, we went swimming several times and the hikes to the bathroom weren’t grumbled against… except for the several times that my kids tripped on roots and scraped their knees. I guess we are better outfitted for flat ground?! (Note to self: Dark comes FAST at campgrounds. Always be sure to have flashlights handy and issue them to children when they head to the bathroom after dinner. OH and walkie talkies would have been very beneficial. Very.)

We did NOT try this slide.
Doesn’t this just say, “call 911” all over it?!

This was more than a 10 foot drop down. (shudder)

One of my younger ones brought this little tidbit to me with some amazing information:

“Isn’t this a syrup leaf?”
Wow… I guess they all pay attention during field trips! We are always impressed by the memory of this little one.

To finish off this rather nice camping trip (that did have maddening, yet funny now, moments of getting locked off the campgrounds, having unfixable hole in an air mattress, loss of food in the campfire during flipping, etc) we took the scenic route home and stumbled across this:

A purple martin sanctuary! I had never before seen so many birdhouses in one place. There were more on the other side of the house. Their mosquito population must be ZIP!

So what was your last camping trip like?
Do you camp? Tent or RV?

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Grand Opening

It's been open for awhile but I only had it open to test it all out. Now is the big day for my Etsy Shop and the day my personal life and online blog life come colliding together. (Breathing Deep) I'm very nervous about this, not because my online life is some super big secret or anything, but just because they've never mixed before.

I have prayed about it and thought about and thought some more and came to realize that this is a horrible, long sentence lacking in proper grammar I don't talk about anything on my blog that I don't talk about in real life it's just different. Not a bad different either. My blog is my journal for me and a place to be creative. A lot of people in my personal life may not know some of the things about me on my blog. It'll be interesting to see what they say or do knowing this stuff. Hehehe... I assure you all, I'm still crazy.

At any rate, on with the Grand Opening!!! I am so excited about my Etsy shop! It's doing well (for little 'ol me) and I love having the creative outlet. I don't have to only make for who I know, I can just MAKE! And trust me, I have plenty more ideas of things to make! Some of them are on the chopping block now but are in limbo because I am learning new things with everything I make and I need more time to make all I want to.

So check out my little piece of e-commerce world (look over there ---> and you will see some items in my shop) and let me know what you think. I even have a coupon code (If you do know me, you know I love coupons!!) that's available until 8/20/12 to get 20% off your order too! Use the code GRANDOPENING85 during checkout to receive that discount.

Take care!

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Was Noah Santa?

I could write a book on all the funny things my little Sweet Pea has done. When Sweet Pea was much younger (where does the time go?!) I made the mistake of not taking good notes of some of the little stories. I highly recommend that as SOON as any of your kids say something silly you write it down. On the calendar is the best place. A tiny note about what happened or what was said is usually enough to trigger the memory for me until I can get it recorded bigger. A lot of those cute stories end up on here, like “I’m glad I’m not a worm!”, “You’re the grown up, you do it!” and more! My kids always keep me on my toes!

Returning to the fun though, Sweet Pea is always coming up with things that take me off guard. You just never know what to expect. Do you have a kid like that? Well, while playing with some Little People Sweet Pea held up Noah and said, “This isn’t God! This is Santa!”

Oh dear me… remember the Mixed Up Nursery Rhymes? Where am I going wrong with these kids and their story learning?

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NEVER say OK!

You have to really be paying attention before you give a blanket permission of anything with the word, 'ok'. Especially to small children...

Quite awhile ago I was sitting outside the church sanctuary with my unruly adorable little one when a cute little toddler came up and started chattering away at me. I would say we had a conversation, but have you ever chatted with a toddler? There is no conversation. It's all about our world but in a way that we no longer understand. They are so cute!

At any rate, I was nodding, smiling and giving my standard responses of, "really", "you don't say!" or "now that's really something". The mom soon located her wandering little one and came over to apologize for the interruption. I explained that I have four of my own and it was not a problem. She asked me about my little ones and we started a polite conversation. Soon her toddler was babbling away at her and I heard her say, 'ok'. And the chase began! That poor girl was trying to contain that little guy but it just didn't work. I am pretty sure he was asking permission for something because of his pointing at the time that his mom agreed with him. She had not totally paid attention to her little man and was just trying to keep him happy. (I've been there and done that!) And she said.... ok... without knowing what she agreed too.

After awhile she ended up over near us again because her little guy was interested in the toys I had for my little one and in a joking manner I said, 'you agreed to something you didn't understand didn't you?' She gave me a funny look so I explained how I don't say ok to my little one's until I have more details about what they are talking about. I told her about a few times I said ok to my first born and what a mess it got me into. She started laughing and totally understood where I was coming from.

I think this might apply to more than just toddlers though, don't you?
Gotta pay attention to those kids of mine and get the details before I say, 'ok'!

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Locked Out of Our Car

A few weeks ago I was the cool mom and the freaked out mom. We went to the zoo to have a fun day of hanging out with the critters. Wait. Why did I go to the zoo? I can have a great day with the critters right here at home. Silly me...

Anywho! It was a fun day. I decided to not let it end and took everyone to play at the park near the zoo. There's tons of equipment to run, scream, chase, slide and swing on there. A really cool park! In our hurry to exit the vehicle in complete chaos to see who would get to the swings first an orderly fashion I set the keys down to help a little critter out of the van and left them. Not the critter... the KEYS! (Insert silent scream here)

Fortunately this did not hinder our fun at the park because I didn't realize I'd left the keys in the van until we were preparing to leave. I did have my cell phone on me so that was good. I had also (AMAZINGLY) left all the van windows cracked. Not incredibly cracked but they were open. I never do that! Never! So began the brain storming...

We soon came to the conclusion that no one who could reach their arm thru the cracked window could reach the button inside to unlock the van. I could have reached the lock if the window had been more cracked but alas, they weren't. Enter my wonderful, dear, sweet Mother to the rescue! (She had come to pick up one of my critters to take to another appointment later. See, we only have one vehicle and with four kids every now and again three of them have to be in different places around the same time. Can we say eep?! Yah... I mis-schedule things a lot around here. Eep!)

Right... the story... where was I? Oh! To the creature rescue! Wait.. too much Wild Kratts. My mom pulled an umbrella out of her car and my second child (who I can still lift and had the best range of motion after reaching thru the cracked window) became our hero by using that umbrella to push the unlock button and get us back in our van.

So, the moral of the story is:
Always be sure to crack your windows but in case of rain
take an umbrella with you so you can get back
in the car when you lock yourself out.

OR

Don't lock yourself out of the car in the first place.

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Winning is a Gift

My kids love to play games. My kids hate losing. Their attitudes make me not want to let them play board games together. We have our moments when we all sit down and have a BLAST with a board game. I treasure those moments. And then there are nights where the one losing ruins the game for everyone else.

So what do you do in moments like that? Well, I convinced this kiddo to quit the game. That wasn’t their top option, but I was at a loss for what else to do at the moment. I was tired. I did not feel like reaching a teaching moment. I feel bad that I didn’t right there though because I wonder if it would have turned out differently?

Even still I did get a moment later with this child. They were still mad about the game. This anger seeped over into everything else not going their way during bed time. I’m pretty sure these moments are from God and not from me. I talked with this child about how winning is a gift. Earlier that afternoon this specific child had hurried a gift together to give to someone. They were so happy to give that gift! I reminded them of that moment. Winning is the same way. Sometimes we all have to lose a game and give the gift of winning to someone else.

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Real Life Blogging

I have a ton of posts in draft form just waiting for me to tidy them up and click publish. Yet, I don't. I'm not sure why I don't on some of them either. Quirky blogging habit I suppose.

At any rate, I visit blogs a lot. Probably a lot more then I should. Like right now there's a sink of dishes looking at me, 3 kids need bags packed for the day and my garden outside is panting for water. What might you find me doing instead? Reading blogs. I love them! It's like reading a bunch of little books all at once. I love reading. When I come across a blog that is apologizing for not posting I think, "Preaching to the choir there sister (or brother)! Preaching to the choir!" We all have moments were we cannot find time to blog. You know what I say though?

STOP!

I give you full permission to not blog. Yes, you might miss out on something in the bloggy world. You have articles that need submitted and maybe it's your job. (Obviously if it is your job and lively hood you should disregard me right now and get back to writing something though... right? Hehehe....) But think about it. If you are not blogging, what are you most likely doing? Myself I am finishing up chores, projects or spending time with my man or the kids. Now... isn't that life? Isn't that better than sitting in front of the computer like i am right now instead of what I should be doing all day? PLUS... and this is the big-ie! Would you have something to blog about if you didn't live and take some time to NOT blog?

Hehe... That seems kind of like a catch-22 there doesn't it? I want to blog but if that's all I do, I don't live life so then I have nothing to blog about. EEP!

I already run in circles enough so I'm stating right here and now (and I hope I will remember this too... remind me if I don't...) I may not blog every week and that's okay. If I'm not blogging, you'll find me living life with my family. I may live life so much that I forget to tell my computer all about it. I will still have my blog around though for when I happen to pop in and write something about all this living I'm doing. I don't want to feel anymore guilt then I already do in my life so I'm going to try to stop being guilty about blogging.

Have a great day! Blogging or not! :)

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Can God Help?

I was eavesdropping. I do that sometimes. Do you have children? Well... they are the most fun to listen to in conversations with someone else. I was listening in on a conversation between my adorable (and growing up too quickly) Sweet Pea and my occasional house cleaner. (I'll admit it! I cannot keep everything in my house as clean as I would like without help. I highly recommend every mom get a bit of help every now and again. It's not as expensive as you would think!)

Anywho, here's how the conversation went:

Sweet Pea: "Mommy is going to make me clean my room."

Helper: "Ahwww... Are you going to?"

Sweet Pea: "I asked God for help, but He lives in my heart and I don't know how I am going to get Him out."

I couldn't eavesdrop anymore for all the laughter... From me!

I love my Sweet Pea!

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The UNShopping Trip

An evening of bad errands was not a fun way to end the day. By bad, I mean BAD. I was only supposed to be 15 - 20 min tops in the store. My list was sour cream and lettuce for our tacos and an attempt at finding a coupon from a tear pad that I really, really, really wanted.

My first mistake was using the restroom. UGH! How disgusting!! If I hadn't had to go so bad, I would have walked in and walked right out of this restroom. Broken locks, no purse hook, yuky seats that I cleaned with my own handy wipe (I'm SO glad I saved those restaurant alcohol wipes in my purse!) and a hand dryer that didn't work. The only good thing about that restroom was leaving it.

UGH! UGH! UGH!

Second mistake was looking for the coupon FIRST. Duh! This blew my mind on my list. Yes, a two item list and looking for a coupon totally made me forget why I came to the store in the first place....

Oh look, a coupon! Now what was I saying?

Hehe... Just kidding! This time... Sometimes (I'm such a ditz) this would be reality!

So after I remember what my list was while in the back of the store, I decided to get the lettuce that was in the front of the store and a head of broccoli because that's needed with tacos too right? Ah well... we've been wanting broccoli for awhile now. And once I was at the front of the store I remembered that I needed sour cream which was in the back of the store. (See a problem here?! This is a pretty big store too!) ERGH! Then after locating the sour cream and headed to the check outs at the front of the store I come across an awesome clearance rack of cereal! Yes... CEREAL! How was I supposed to pass that up? So now I feel pretty smug that I remembered to bring in my coupon box (that I wouldn't have needed for lettuce or sour cream in the first place) and start digging for a coupon that I knew I had for this cereal. Where was it? Hmmm... I couldn't find it so I picked up two boxes of cereal because they were a favorite treat to have and I don't usually get them because they are so expensive.

Are you still reading this?! Wow! Thanks!!

The mistake that hurt my heart the most was not trusting my memory in what I have in coupons. See, I can't remember a two item grocery list, but I can remember what coupons I have. I can't remember where items are located in the store to plan a route, but I can remember what I have in my box of over 200+ coupons. I had a coupon for the boxes of cereal! It was $1.50 off of 3 and it was in my wallet. ARGH! Remember that I only picked up two? Can I throw myself against a wall now? This coupon would have made 3 boxes of cereal less than $1.20 each, which isn't a great bargain because I used to get cereal for less than $.99 each but now-a-days that just doesn't happen.

Soooooo...

My final mistake was my checkout lane. I had problems at the self check-out that I chose (shocking!) because by now I knew I'd been in that store for a crazy 40 minutes and I needed to get out. Pronto! I thought the self-checkout would be faster. But guess what... the clearance cereal would not scan correctly. (Hold me back!) I was about to loose it. 

Long story short:
Awful bathroom trip, forgotten list, bad store route planning, lack of coupon usage on items not on my list in the first place and items not on my list not scanning properly = What was I thinking?!

I think I need help. Would a therapist even listen to me with this story? I think they'd be laughing me out of their office by the time I reached the cereal boxes.

OH and in case you care to know, I never did find that coupon in the store either. This is how NOT to shop, okay. Glad you learned something here. Moving on....

Have a great day!

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Ultimate Blog Party 2012

I love a good party and 5 Minutes for Mom’s annual Ultimate Blog Party never fails as a GOOD party. As a matter of fact, it’s a GREAT party! If you are reading this post during the week of April 13-20 YOU still have time to join the fun too.  
I joined the Ultimate Blog Party back in 2010 and made sure to jump in again in 2011. I’m a little late getting in on the party this year, but that’s okay. This is a great motivation for me to get back into blogging!

In thinking back to the previous blog parties most of what I remember is my complete and total surprise at how many people stopped by my blog. It was so much fun to meet so many new people and I found a TON of blogs that I had to add to my reading list too. In 2010 I had a terrible time figuring out what to say about myself in my party post but did a giveaway. I think it was my first giveaway on my blog ever. I don’t think I’m very good at them. Hehehe…
In 2011 I had a lot of fun running around our house taking pictures of things to include in my post! I decided to repeat those images this year to see how things changed. 

I still love gardening and I did get a late start on my plants indoors. They are doing really well though. For more information about how I start plants inside, come back tomorrow for a detailed post.

Our homeschooling has adapted and changed a lot. I outgrew our little shelf from 2011 and am even beginning to expand with more shelves this year already! With our second child experiencing bouts of CVS (Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome) and other symptoms I’ve had to keep adjusting things. It’s been a tough year but we are going to make it. Through school and through life.

I’m not so half-baked with my CRAFTS anymore. I feel like I am with everything else though… I took on a part time job this year and then had to quit. It was the worst feeling to have to do that but it really made me re-work my priorities and work out a schedule that worked for all of us. I get a lot more side projects done around the house and fun projects with the kids. What’s suffered now is my blog. SIGH! Everyday is a reminder that I can’t do it all.
Something I am hoping to work on again would be my coupon classes. I’ve not taught one in such a long time now. I really miss them! I also am so wanting to redesign my blog! I took a new profile picture and everything for it… just never enough time to put it all together these days.

And in the spirit of my, “I wish I could get to this…” lifestyle right now I am going to go attend the Ultimate Blog Party twitter event going on RIGHT now! I wanted to join earlier but we had a string of doctors appointments today that have my head spinning and it’s developed into a lovely headache. I forgot all about this until JUST NOW. Talk about real time blogging. Your getting it right here.

Take care!

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