artsy fartsy

Rainbow Lego castle, built with Collin. See that lone pink Lego? That's me.

Modern art project I taught in Parker's classroom.
Kids all hated it despite the awesomeness of the final product.

Pumpkin cream cheese muffin goodie bags!
I made them from scratch, yup, I am fancy like that.

Spotted this crow in the tree in our front yard. Kind of like Poe's Raven, eh?

good advice

"...it's the only way to become unstuck and make room for whatever lies ahead. "Ask yourself what you want your life to look like over the next few years," Grufferman writes, "and you'll come up with a vision for your future, which will be your personal theme. Once you have your theme, you can work on getting rid of everything in your life that doesn't fit the theme, and you will be prepared to let go of the clutter."
According to Grufferman, who cites organization and time-management guru Julie Morgenstern as her inspiration, there are different kinds of clutter in our lives -- not just objects but obligations, habits and, yes, people. "People can be just as de-energizing and draining as piles of newspapers and magazines," she writes. "If there's someone in your life who drags you down whenever you see her...maybe it's time to reconsider the relationship." Granted, sometimes a complete break isn't an option. If that's the case, Grufferman advises figuring out a way to minimize the amount of time you spend together. When it comes to shedding objects, she suggests that after we pick the treasures we want to keep, we decide what to give away, sell, recycle, or donate and then do it."

This was part of a newsletter I receive from Seventh Generation cleaning products. Good stuff.

thanks

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, and confusion into clarity.... It turns problems into gifts, failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow."
                                                                                                                  -Melody Beattie

Isn't that a great quote? Love it. Today I am grateful for all my near & dear ones, a cool new way I found to edit photos, & I scored Adobe Photoshop last week online for just $45! So the pictures around here should be looking much better or maybe just funkier.

more kitchen pics

Not really a before shot, more so, a year-into-this-100-year-old-house-we-are-trying-to-deal shot. If I can find it, I will scan in the flier for the house when we bought it. The kitchen before is NASTY, and they used it as a selling point!

I was waiting for all the stars to align, for the magazine worthy shots. But hey, after a few weeks of wear & tear, these shots I snapped of our kitchen redo look amazing!

Most of the work still to be done is caulking & painting that baseboard. I have a feeling that will require another coat of paint to put on the chalkboard wall, then at long last, the boys can get to doodling.

The Blur

            Moving through the happy blur that is our life. Stay-at-home mom, & loving it more than ever.

                        Sportin' some Scooby footie pajamas & backward "unnies." To each, his own.

                                                              Parker has a mullet. It is RAD.

 

Collin loves to snuggle these days. In our bed, but with his favorite blanket & pillow. He suckers us with this request every time when really, it is just a ploy to swing from our ceiling fan. Yeesh....I DO live in a zoo. But someone keeps feeding the animals & the groundskeeper has not shown up for work in a long while.

The public have spoken

The boy's blogs are updated. They (as we all do) cherish your comments. The links are on the sidebar, enjoy!

Da Bears

 Who cares that they lost, these Bears fans are the best. Also, the awful mix of ugly uniforms that the Superbowl teams will wear this year, hurt my eyes. All that yellow. Gag.

Top Student

Eeee!

I cannot even put into words what has me squealing in delight. It is just a feeling of excitement & good things to come. I feel inspired. I feel like there has been a recent gathering of ideas for Matt & I. And it is all pointing to some amazing things ahead. Like I said, I can't really put words to it, I'm just jazzed.

And here's some random, Thursday pictures.

See, clean game closet in the hall. Ya baby, they all fit! That has not happened since 2007.

Gettin' my craft on for the pinkest of all holidays. Love me some pink.

On Making a Difference

 I felt some guilt about the holiday yesterday. You know, we did not volunteer in a soup kitchen or an after school program, & what-not. But what a day. Gorgeous 50 degree weather with blue skies. A January gem, to be sure.

Then, upon review, we did fight some injustice. We cleaned our house. Anyone that has kids gets that. Also, we navigated CostCo with said kids. Saying no to almost every impulse of our children. (us too) Choosing magic foods like tomatoes & organic beef. Stuff that I feel good looking down at when the person at the door checks your receipt. And, we made it reasonably close to the budget. We had loaded a huge bin full of unused games/toys in the van so that was dropped off at a 2nd hand store. (My hall closet is clean!)

Ours boys napped or read when we returned home. Even the 11 year old. They say pick your battles, well naps are one of mine. (Thanks, Mom.) After, we got to the really great part. Sucking every bit of that fresh air down into expectant lungs. A walk to TCBY to redeem reading coupons the boys had earned & then to the park. There was this weird group of people at the park that our boys navigated so well. Just makes a mom proud, you know?

So today I am feeling good. I really believe raising 4 strong boys is our part in bettering this world.

Oh, and thanks for sharing some of your memories with me. I am holding out that our boy's will be happy 1st memories but it seems more often than not, that is not the case.