A Letter to my Angel

My dear sweet angel Paisley,

I just want you to know that even though I never got to see your sweet face that your Mama and Papa love you so very much and cannot wait to see you in Heaven someday!!

Mama and Papa were so excited to find out this summer that you were coming to be with us ...and your big brother Edmund, though he barely understood exactly what was going on, was pretty excited too.

Mama really wanted to surprise Papa on his birthday with the news of you, but she wasn’t positive that you were really coming so she had to wait a few more days!! Once she knew that you were really on your way to us Mama put a plan into action and wrote “Big Brother” in sharpie on a t-shirt for Edmund and had him run to Papa wearing the shirt and holding the positive pregnancy test. Papa was SO surprised!!

We started moving furniture around and talking about how we were going to fix up Edmund’s baby room for you and move him to a “big boy” room. Mama was just about to get Papa to climb up in the attic and pull out her maternity clothes and Edmund’s tiny baby clothes to see what we had and what we might need for you.

Mama’s belly started to grow a little bit and she wasn’t feeling too great, but she was so excited and looking forward to meeting you. You see, as you now know, you have a slightly older sibling in heaven with you. We lost our Riley very early in February. Mama only knew Riley was coming for less than two days before Riley slipped away to Heaven. So we were especially excited to know that you were coming to be with us.

Unfortunately, God knew better than us and knew that your place wasn’t here on earth...but up in heaven with Him and with Riley and with your cousins who we never got to meet as well.

You slipped away from us sometime between eight weeks and nine weeks. We saw your heartbeat when you were exactly eight weeks along and you were gone by nine weeks. It’s been so very hard and we’ve missed you so very much!! We know that God knows more than we do and that he had a reason for taking you home to him, but we still miss you and love you so very much!!

You would be sixteen weeks along today...

Project 333

Was just wondering if anyone else was doing this challenge also? Here is the website about it and the Facebook group as well...

I'm attempting to do this challenge, but it's proving to be a bit more of a challenge than I'd anticipated!! It's not because I can't weed things down to 33 items (which swimwear, workout clothes, pajamas, undies, and the jewelry you always wear do not count in this total)...but for two other reasons.

One: I actually can't come up with 33 items of comfy, wearable stuff (I weeded so much stuff out of my closet in January and hadn't replenished it a whole lot yet).

Two: I want to have cute and varied outfits each day but since getting home on Tuesday I haven't been anywhere except the doctor's office and the grocery store...and I've been dealing with a sick asthmatic kiddo and sinus/allergy crud in the Texas heat...so it's been hard to even get a shower, much less put together something cute!!

I'm hoping to actually take pictures of each and every item I have and post it to my Pinterest board for the project but this is what I have so far on my list.

1. DKNY jeans (stretch straight leg jeans that can also be worn rolled up to capri or flood pant lengths)
2. Old Navy black jersey long skirt (as comfy as pajama pants, but can totally be dressed up or down)
3. Metro 7 black jersey knee length skirt (I want to change up the handkerchief hemline if possible, but it totally works and is comfortable for at home mostly)
4. NY and Co. denim skort (UBER-comfy and cute...and awesome for hooping)
5. Marks and Spencer brown shorts (cute for out and about)
6. Arizona Jean Co. denim shorts (mostly for at home or hooping)
7. Blu Heaven aqua jersey dress (super comfy)
8. Cute Options olive cotton dress (cute for out and about)
9. Scarlett print dress (great for special Sunday services and date nights)
10. Mossimo white tank top
11. Mossimo blue-green tank top
12. Mossimo black tank top #1
13. Mossimo black tank top #2
14. P Inc. black top w/attached necklace (SOFT jersey and pretty cute banded top)
15. Perseption turquoise top (another soft jersey banded top)
16. Faded Glory green peasant blouse
17. Mama necklace (has the charms my sis gave me before the birth of Bug and after the loss I had in February)
18. Glass heart necklace with interchangeable cords
19. Long star earrings
20. Invisibelt (to be replaced with a good quality black leather belt when funds are available)
21. black wrap (for chilly situations)
22. Alfred Dunner big black purse (can carry water bottles, diapers and wipes, Kindle, and anything else I could possibly need in there, but carries nicely even when half-empty as well)
23. Old Navy cheapo flips (for around the house and swimming)
24. Old Navy chunky flips (to be replaced with nicer ones when funds are available)
25. Connie sandals
26. Predictions strappy heels (for dressy occasions)
27. SO chunky boots (to be replaced with Doc Maarten Darcie chunky boots when funds are available)
28.
29.
30.
31.
32.
33.

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The items of clothing that don't count in the Project 333 challenge but that I am still keeping track of are as follows:
3 bras
3 pairs of socks
7 pairs panties
2 sets (tee and pants) pajamas
2 bathing suits, 1 cover up, and 1 pr. board shorts
workout top, workout bottoms, athletic shoes
Everyday jewelry--wedding band, engagement ring, spoon ring, tiny hoop earrings, silver bracelet, black watch, star necklace

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So yeah, that’s what I’ve got. Hopefully it’s mostly cute and not too lame…and I totally plan on posting pics and I totally want feedback if possible on what else I should add to this list or what I need to change out. Technically I get a week from the start of the challenge to get the kinks worked out…but I’m giving myself two weeks because of the Independence Day weekend of travel and the whole sinus/head cold/allergies/asthma crud we’ve been dealing with as well!! So I’ve got till next Thursday night to get this all worked out, get my clothes in order, and go full steam ahead (even though I’ve already only been wearing stuff off this list pretty much).

Independence Day Weekend

We headed out for East Texas late Friday afternoon and it was very late before we arrived at the farm...and of course we then stayed up even later visiting before finally getting to bed!! Then on Saturday we spent most of the day visiting with Mom, Dad, Andrew, Grandma, Stephen, Syrena, and Lightening. Syrena saw Bug's tee shirt and realized that Lightning had the same shirt, so the cousins were dressed alike...which was really cute. We got to meet Patrick before he whisked Susanna off for a fun day out and later Rebekah came by with Little Rock. We then headed out for the B's late in the afternoon and got to chill out and visit with them for a while before finally heading to bed. On Sunday we headed out to church with the B's (practically around the corner from their house). After church we went back to the B's to get some food together and then we went and spent the afternoon with some friends of theirs...then headed back to rest for a bit cause we'd need it before the big party!! We really didn't do anything for Brack's birthday besides wish him a good one, but he'll share a party soon with Edmund!!

Wordless Wednesday

He’s discovered how to listen to music on Brack’s iPhone4!!

Wordless Wednesday

Too much cuteness for just one picture!!

Shopping can wear a little Bug out!!

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Fun at a neighborhood summer carnival put on by the library!!

Wordless Wednesday

Why yes, my child DID take Doggie out to play in the water…necessitating a “bath” in the washing machine later!!

Wordless Wednesday

Splashing in the wading pool is FUN!!

Wordless Wednesday

Bug packs himself for the Memorial Day Weekend!!

Wordless Wednesday

Bug with the flowers he picked for Mama…he was so proud!!

Wordless Wednesday

Bug and his friend A at the Fort Worth Zoo…with a metal friend!!

Wordless Wednesday

Who could resist this face?

Wordless Wednesday

Gotta have that morning cuppa (mint tea)!!

Shabby Apple Giveaway!!

No, not here on my little blog!! I ran across this giveaway over at Katherines Corner and am all over it!!

Those of you who follow my Essential Simplicity blog (which I am wanting to incorporate into this one soon) know that I am on a mission…a mission to come up with a reasonable basic capsule wardrobe…not too spartan, not too huge, and where EVERYTHING in it gets used on a regular basis!! I’m definitely not there yet, but I’m working toward it slowly but surely!!

I’ve been hearing of and perusing the Shabby Apple site off and on for a few years…and totally love the classy vintage look of their clothes. I think that people (myself included) have become too casual in our day-to-day attire. I want my new wardrobe to be clothes that I can be both comfortable in as well as look well put together. As a mommy, it is especially important not to let myself go. Wearing pajama bottoms around the house all day and ratty sweatshirts to do the shopping in definitely doesn’t cut it!! The clothes at Shabby Apple seem like just the ticket!!

So I am totally excited to enter the Shabby Apple giveaway over at Katherines Corner and I totally have my fingers crossed that one of my entries will be the winning one!! Wish me luck…and why don’t you try entering too?

Wouldn’t this be a perfect LBD (little black dress)?

Just Another Manic Monday

So it’s been raining here like crazy since yesterday morning and I think Bug is going stir-crazy!! I’ve already determined that though we need to stick around home today and catch up with the stuff around the house that didn’t get done over the weekend…that no matter the weather we are getting out of the house for a few hours tomorrow…prob to the museum or the playplace in NRH. Bug’s been whiny and irritable and into TOO much stuff!!

So yeah, got the house all cleaned up in time for company weekend before last and was able to keep it neat all last week…but then kinda let it slide over this past weekend…oops!! Today I bagged up trash for trash day tomorrow, put away a couple loads of laundry and got a couple more washed/dried/put away, got the kitchen whipped back into shape, and had Bug help me to tame the scattered toys!! Tomorrow I can get everything swept, vacuumed, and mopped (besides going somewhere to get the wiggles out)…and then Wednesday I can continue working on dealing with the guest closet I started clearing out and organizing on Saturday (meanwhile I’m shutting the guest room door and pretending the mess in there doesn’t exist)!!

At some point I DO need to deal with some papers and such in the office so I can get to sewing again. Brack and I have decided that we’re going to get some coordinating fabric and I’m going to make all three of us some cool and comfy yet really cute swashbuckling pirate garb!!

So looking forward to naptime!! Just about half an hour more!! Then I’ll get to rest some too before it’s time to entertain a bored little munchkin again and get dinner started!!

Wordless Wednesday

Watching the neighbor lady mow the lawn while eating his breakfast!!

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Bowl head…totally his own idea!!

My Minimalist Wardrobe Wish List

Here is my wish list for what I’d consider a good basic minimalist wardrobe…now to get it together!!

*2-3 dressier tops
*5 lightweight tops that could be layered
*5 tank tops
*5 casual sleeveless dresses that hit right at/above knee
*2 dressier dresses (LBD and a fun print)
*1-2 cute knee length skirts
*1-2 long skirts
*1 pair black slacks
*2 pair bootcut medium wash jeans
*2 wraps (black and fun color)
*2 cardigans (black and fun color)
*1 black trench coat with removable liner
*3 pairs of modesty shorts
*5 pinafore style aprons
*1 pair chunky boots
*1 pair chunky flips
*1 pair ballet flats
*1 pair sandals
*1 pair cheap flips
*1 pair dressy heels

*1 pair good athletic shoes
*3 bras
*7 pairs panties
*14 pairs socks
*3 sets of three-piece pajamas (top/bottom/cami)
*2 sets workout wear (top/bottom)

*2 swimsuits w/coverups

Wordless Wednesday

Baby at play…

Wordless Wednesday

Chocolate pudding is the bombdiggity!!

Wordless Wednesday

Creative play…

Sunday Shoutout

Okay, this shoutout is a short one…but WAY cool!!
I have discovered Pinterest and totally love it!! It is such a great way to bookmark things because it gives you a visual image to jog your memory of just why you want to remember something.
Obviously, it doesn’t totally replace bookmarks because not everything has a good picture to post and it won’t pin video or just words…but for the biggest majority of things it is about the coolest way to “bookmark”!!
You can also follow other people…either individual pinboards or all of their pinboards…to see what inspires them.
Sometimes I just like to go check out my homepage and see what new stuff the people I follow have pinned or I check out one of my pinboards to get inspired.
You can see my Pinterest boards here!!

Wordless Wednesday

Watched “The Social Network” and it made me curious…so I checked and evidently I was an early adopter of Facebook. It opened to the general public on 9/26/06 and I joined 12/12/06!!

Wordless Wednesday

Mama, can I PLEASE have one of these?

Monday Memories

I was just thinking about laundry last night. We sure do have it easy these days when it’s time to do laundry!!

Brack and I were talking about what we’d need to “get the job done” as far as washing dishes and clothes if we didn’t have access to things like dishwashers, washers, and dryers. Well, since I never lived in a place with a dishwasher until I got married, that part wasn’t too hard to imagine. But surprisingly, I started thinking back to various times when we didn’t have a washer (much less a dryer) when I was growing up on the mission field…and then again when I was a missionary in Romania myself.

I started telling Brack about the last year my family was in Mexico…in the picturesque city of Zacatecas, where a big battle was fought between Pancho Villa and the Federales way back when. We lived in the bottom floor of a three story building…an area which had formerly been a dance club before the landlord and his family (who lived on the second floor) got tired of all the noise late at night. They decided renting to a missionary and his church would be much quieter, I guess!! The third floor was unfinished, but would be apartments later.

Since the floor we lived on had been a dance club before, there weren’t any real interior walls except for the bathrooms. One big unfinished partition separated our living area from the church area and another partition divided off my parents room. My sister and I had a “room” formed out of a couple walls and a couple wardrobes and my brothers just had an area that could be curtained off for privacy.

There was a “kitchen” of sorts in that there was a counter with a sink in it and a stove and tiny fridge over in one corner. When we moved in there was no hot water or way to bathe, but after we moved in a hot water heater was installed in a corner of the living room with a hole drilled in the wall to run a pipe through to a bathroom stall where the toilet had been removed and a shower head installed!! It all sounds so primitive (and in a way it was), but my mom knew how to decorate and make it feel like a home and all in all it was very nice.

The one real big difficulty in all of this really was the laundry. We had no washer and definitely had no dryer and with seven people in the family there was always plenty of laundry to wash!! So my mom put us to work!!

Washing all of that laundry strictly by hand would have been too much, so mom would run water from the shower into a big plastic tub, add clothes and detergent, and we’d take turns rolling up pant legs or tucking up skirts and hopping in!! Stomping around in circles with the clothes underfoot while singing our way through all four stanzas of a couple hymns would imitate the agitating motion of a washing machine. We’d then squeeze out as much water as we could from the various garments and rinse them out one at a time in a tub of fresh water…then once again squeeze every drop we could out of everything again and pile as much as we could carry into a bucket.

Why? So we could then carry that bucket out our front door, around the corner of our building, and back in another side door…to then haul up three flights of unfinished stairs with no rails to the clotheslines strung up on the flat roof!! It was quite a feat, but we much rather preferred to haul and hang clothes versus “stomping” them clean. We could dawdle with the clothes hanging a bit, getting fresh air and sunshine, people watching from high above the street, and occasionally pouring buckets of water down on siblings who would step out of our door to holler up at us to hurry up!! Sure, it was hard work, but since that was just the way it had to be, we didn’t usually complain!!

Thank goodness that was the most work we ever had to do to have clean clothes as most of the time at least a washer was available somewhere (even if we had to haul our clothes to the laundromat or a friend’s house)…and the period of time we had to “stomp” clothes clean was for less than a year!!

Kinda makes having a washer and dryer in the laundry room in our house seem like SUCH a luxury, though…doesn’t it!!

Please Vote!!

So I know it's kind of a long shot, but would you please vote for my luggage tag and help me possibly win an Ipad?

Just click on this sentence and it'll take you to the voting page!!

Right now with only 16 votes, I'm already in the top 100 (97th place, but still)!!

I think it's a cute picture for a luggage tag, don't you?

Wordless Wednesday

Mmm...rice and beans!!

Wordless Wednesday

I never held you, but I felt you. I never knew you, but I love you.

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28

Fun in the sun…and playdoh too!!

So today we were home, I had a decent amount of housework that had piled up over the weekend…but it was sunny (if windy) out…so I did NOT feel like doing it!! So I played hooky most of the day!!

We played with our homemade playdoh for a while…Bug really liked decorating his blue “snowman” with pinkish-red features. We got eyes, a mouth, and ears on it (as well as a hat from a bottle stopper) and I went to grab my phone to get a quick picture of it while Bug added a little something extra to one side…I guess it was a little claw-like arm? Anyway, he had fun!!

Then we went out in the backyard to hoop for a little while…which was a bit difficult in the wind, but still pretty fun. Bug also wanted the ducks to come over, so we scattered some pieces of bread along the shoreline of the pond, but they steered clear of the scary little baby who might chase them!! We ate sunbutter sandwiches and got some sun before having to go in for naptime!! All in all, we had fun!!

Wordless Wednesday

What a stylin' dude!!

Wordless Wednesday

What a ham!!

Wordless Wednesday

Yogurt love!!

Wordless Wednesday

Our pretty new car...isn't it cute?

If I had an anonymous blog…

I would probably be a bit more snarky, rant a little more, and come up with funny nicknames for everyone.

However, since the whole reason I blog is to share what is going on in my life with friends and family it would make it a bit difficult to be anonymous, I would think. I do blur out house numbers and license plates in pics, but I’m not paranoid about not being completely anonymous.

So yeah, while an anonymous blog would maybe let me be a little more of a smart aleck without having to worry about backlash…I much prefer my blog the way it is.

Wordless Wednesday

A fave pic from a few months back…lunch at the museum…

My first blog post…

My first blog post was written just before Christmas of 2005 on my Yahoo 360. I was a missionary in Romania at the time and about to spend my first (and only) Christmas without any family around whatsoever!!

The idea at the time was for me to kind of keep an online journal of all the stuff I was doing and then be able to refer back to it when sending out newsletters to my supporters back in the States.

I don’t know as I would have changed anything about that post looking back at it now…it’s just interesting to see what all has changed in my life and what I blog about now…just over five years later!!

Of course, the really observant of you will notice the dates of my blog posts and think “Hey, wait a minute…the dates on this blog go back all the way to March 2004!!” Well, at one point I went back and posted all my newsletters to my various supporters and back dated them…so that’s what that is about. I have on this blog all the posts I ever posted on Yahoo 360, Xanga, and mine and Brack’s Xanga blog (that got all of two posts on it) as well…all back dated to the date they were originally posted elsewhere. The only posts not included on here are posts on blogs I’ve started on Blogger since 2008…like Essential Simplicity, Fort Worth Mom Reviews, and Different Drum…and you can find links to those on here!!

“Necessities”

I ran out of sugar today. I cannot remember ever having run out of sugar in my adult, on-my-own life. Granted, the reason I ran out is because of a random infestation of weevils in my pantry a few weeks ago (must have brought home some bad pasta or something). I wasn’t buying up a bunch of new staples for a couple weeks in order to deal with the situation. Now I’ve got bay leaves and sticks of spearmint gum everywhere in the pantry to scare ‘em off…and am keeping all grain purchases in the freezer for a few days after purchase to stave off a re-infestation. So in all the putting off of purchasing staples I just let myself get too low and then didn’t feel like getting out over the weekend to the store.

All that to say that I just put the absolute last of my sugar into my mug of tea just now and need to get to the store to buy some more asap.

It struck me though as I put that last bit of sugar into my teacup that we in the US really do have it good. Yes, I know there are homeless and it’s always a good thing to help them out when we can. But overall, people in our country…even the poor ones on welfare…really don’t know what it is to go without. Sure, we may say “Poor me” cause we can’t eat out and have to pack a lunch for work…or we can’t go to Saltgrass and can only afford Taco Bell…or we are wearing clothes that we’ve had for years or bought at Goodwill when we’d rather have gone to the mall for clothes…but that isn’t REALLY being poor!!

My family were missionaries for 30+ years…in Mexico, Romania, and Peru. I have SEEN abject poverty. There was a family we used to visit in Mexico who lived in a corrugated tin shack that couldn’t have been more than 8’ x 12’ and there was a mom, dad, grandma, and at least 8 kids living there. I THINK they had an outhouse and there were a few scattered bits of someone’s castoffs scattered around the dirt by their house that the smaller kids played with, but that’s it. When we first went to Romania it was just over two years since the Revolution to throw out the Communist dictator…and while people were optimistic about the future, the lingering signs of a depressive/repressive regime were still to be seen everywhere. People still stood in bread lines and store shelves still sat more than half empty many times.

Suddenly even we…who while we had it hard at times in the US ourselves still seemed to depend on the availability of “necessities”…found ourselves without. Feminine hygiene products consisted of bags of cotton (like cotton balls, but in big clumps versus balls). Disposable diapers looked like giant sanitary napkins and were tied onto babies with sheets of plastic taking the place of plastic pants. Eggs could be scarce at times. Toilet paper was wound around without a cardboard tube, had no perforations, and was so rough that you could find wood chips in it the size of your pinkie finger sometimes!!

The most memorable thing about the lack of what we call necessities was the time my mom went to the store to buy some sugar. This wasn’t too long after we’d gotten there and while we’d somewhat adjusted to the lack of certain things, my mom certainly never thought about SUGAR as being something scarce!! After all, you go to the big supercenters here and they’ve got displays of bags of sugar fully 8 feet wide!! She asked the lady behind the counter for sugar and was incredulous to find out they had none. I think the lady felt sorry for her because she excused herself for a moment and came back with a tiny bag that had 3-4 tablespoons of sugar in it, tied tight shut with a rubber band. The lady took my mom’s hand and folded that little bag of sugar into it and whispered “Here, for your tea”!! She felt so sorry for the American that she actually parted with a bit from her own personal small stash to GIVE to my mom!!

All the above rambling just because I ran out of sugar for my tea? Well, yeah. But it does make you think, doesn’t it…about what even the poorest people take for granted in this country? I mean we are talking about SUGAR here!!

Goals--how am I doing so far?

Well, we are halfway through the month and so it’s time to check in on how I’m doing with my goals for the year!! First the stuff I talked about in my January 1st post, then on to the stuff I had in my actual Goals for 2011 post!!

Blogging--Well, I have gotten behind twice on posting to my blogs, but I’m trying to catch up/keep up.

Green Smoothies Health Challenge--I totally fell off the wagon when it comes to smoothies and soups!! I had a smoothie every day for the first week and only about 3-4 times total since then!! The soups, well…I still want to make them but so far I’ve only made up one recipe…a broccoli cheddar soup. It was pretty decent, but I don’t know that I’ll make it again. It just didn’t make me wanna go back for more and I want to add soups I LOVE to my repertoire. I am planning on getting to the store for more greens and fresh fruit and start afresh on Monday with smoothies. So there’s that.

Scheduling—Well, I now have an Android phone, so I can access my Flylady/Cozi app on it and get notifications on my phone when something important is coming up. I have also printed out my own version of Money Saving Mom’s Daily Docket checklist and keep a stack of them on a clipboard and handy. Still trying to get to the point where I can just sweep through the house and have it all spiffy in a flash…but with the clearing out / uncluttering / minimizing of stuff that we are doing it will get easier!!

Organizing—Moving right along with this one!! I’ve cleared out a bunch of kitchen stuff and we are working on simplifying our clothing wardrobes. The BIG thing we are currently working on is setting up our Brack And Julie Sell Their Stuff website…where we are listing all kinds of books, movies, and cds currently. We’ll eventually get other stuff on it as well…as we get pics taken and listings posted.

Different Drum—Not done yet!! Hopefully will get some pics taken this weekend and work on getting stuff listed as I can next week!!

Minimalist SAHM wardrobe—Working on it. Sunday afternoon I am going to be going through more of my clothes and hopefully cutting out the pattern pieces to make a dress. Once I weed out all the clothing I am not keeping, I will really need to push forward on getting replacement pieces…otherwise I will be washing the same couple of outfits over and over again!! :-P

Hooping—I’ve tackled a couple more tricks and gotten them down at least a few times…but of course practice makes perfect and not keeping up with it can make skills rusty…so I’m attempting to pull out my hoop and practice at least every other day.

Health—I am SOOO not doing well on the getting plenty of sleep thing!! As long as my little dude insists on waking up so freakin’ early I really need to make a point of getting to bed earlier!! Staying up late and then getting up early just is not working!! The eating healthy…well, as mentioned above…I am working on it. Getting fresh air and sunshine is kinda hard though these days, as it’s overcast and COLD out…and kinda wet too!!

Relationships…working on that too. Trying to make more time with my husband that isn’t in front of a screen…though that is hard sometimes!! I did go to the zoo with a neighbor and her daughter once on a pretty day, but I hope to really start branching out and having people over for playdates and coffee klatches in the very near future…but I’ve gotta get the rest of the big organizing jobs dealt with first!!

Enjoy every day with my little boy—Yup, been working on that!! He is SUCH a cutie and we have a lot of fun…even if he is getting into the terrible twos just a BIT early!! He still isn’t really talking, but is definitely jabbering a lot more…so he’s getting there. The learning of ABC’s, colors, numbers, and going potty are progressing….but SLOWLY!! He does understand a lot of concepts though, as he love to help out…fetching things, throwing things in the trash, washing up, etc.

So yeah…Some of the stuff isn’t progressing as well as I’d hoped, but I’m pretty much at least TRYING on all of my goals!! Here’s to the next 11.5 months being more of the same or better!!

I am not a Mommy Blogger

I realize that yes, I am a mommy…yes, I do blog…and yes, a LOT of my blogging currently revolves around my little boy.

But I was a blogger long before I was a mommy. In fact, until I started this dare (funnily enough through Bloggy Moms) there were actually very few posts about being a mommy or about my little guy…simply because I was so busy BEING a mommy that being a blogger took a backseat.

So, with that in mind…I do plan on having some posts this year that have absolutely nothing to do with my child or mommyhood mixed in with plenty of posts that do!! Because after all, I’m not JUST a mommy…and I’m not JUST a mommy blogger!! :-P

Recent Cuteness

In honor of Bug having reached the grand old age of 18 months today...here are just a few random cute pics of the little guy since the New Year!!

My Routine

So yeah…the blog prompt was a couple weeks ago and I am just now getting around to posting it? Bad Julie!!

Seriously, though…I do need the accountability of having my routine posted where the world wide web (should they really care to) can see what I need to be getting done each day!! So here it is!!

dress/make bed

tidy bedrooms/bathrooms

start load of laundry

make breakfast

tidy kitchen/prep dinner

switch load of laundry

make lunch

tidy kitchen/run dishwasher

feed cats/clean litterboxes

exercise/shower

devotions/prayer time

write blog posts

fold and put away laundry

tidy main living areas

vacuum house

unload dishwasher

make dinner

tidy kitchen/prep lunches

tidy nursery

Obviously this is just the basics...I've got prob 3-4 things assigned to each day of the week to accomplish as well, plus any outside activities and grocery shopping or other errands to accomplish. Not everything ends up getting done every day, but if I try to at least get as much of my list as I can crossed off every day I don't end up drowning in housework!!

Wordless Wednesday-Babies at Play

Introduction to Playdoh

I had to go today to get the registration done on the car and get some groceries…so we headed out for a few hours this afternoon. The registration didn’t take long at all and the lady just cooed over Bug. I swear that kid is gonna grow up with a big head, as much as people fuss over him!! He already knows how to work a crowd!!

While we were at Walmart I decided to stop by the toy section to check on a toy kitchen. I figured it was still gonna be out of my comfortable price range, but I thought it wouldn’t hurt to check. Well, we didn’t make it home with a kitchen, but since a single container of Playdoh was like 88 cents, I figured it’d be something fun to introduce him to. They really had mostly cheesy colors in the single packs…lots of pink, purple, and teal…but they did have one black, so I grabbed it.

Once back home I didn’t introduce it to him till the “witching hour”…that time just before dinner when he seems to start having a meltdown from hunger and tiredness. I popped him in his little seat at the table, got a tablecloth on the table, and let him have at it with a baby-sized tableknife, a biscuit cutter, and a sewing tool that poked little holes in the Playdoh. He was fascinated, only tried to eat some twice, and all in all had fun and was kept occupied enough for mama to get some stuff done!!

Fantasy Faire

So this year I really wanna go to Fantasy Faire at Middlefaire in Hillsboro. It isn’t too far away and the tickets are fairly cheap. But of course I wanna go in garb…so we shall see what I can come up with on the cheap.

I totally wanna go as Codex, but since Twig’s look is prob a bit more doable with what I have on hand (well, except for the wings), I might go that route.

Brack totally wants to go as Altair or Ezio…which definitely require more work, but if he goes with Altair’s garb, then he’d also be able to wear it to Sherwood Faire…since it’s set around the time of the Crusades as well. If I manage to get his garb done it will definitely be the most work. But though he would like to have garb like Altair or Ezio, he is cool with going in his mundanes as well. He’s not quite as gung-ho as me to “garb up”--to twist a Barney phrase a bit.

Anyway, it obviously all comes down to time and finances…but it would sure be fun!!

My Hungry (Messy) Toddler

So Bug must be going through a growth spurt!! He actually ate THREE bowls of homemade apple cinnamon oatmeal at breakfast…and probably would have eaten more if it hadn’t been finished off!!

Then at lunch he attacked his bowl of spaghetti with a vengeance and THIS was the outcome of that!! Needless to say he went straight to the bathtub after that!! What a funny boy!!

Twas rather a quiet day otherwise. I even got a nap in!! It was pretty cold and grey outside, so it was a perfect day to snuggle on the couch. We even saw snow…but it didn’t stick. It DID make Bug point and squeal and Ami and the kitten go dashing from one window to the next to watch it fall, though…so it had some entertainment value!!

Family Day Out

We went to the Fort Worth RV Show today. It was at the Convention Center, so it was all indoors…which was good, cause it was pretty cold out!!

We saw lots of cool RV’s there…popups, those campers that sit in a truck bed (WAY nicer than back in the day), Airstreams (modern with a retro look), huge motorhomes that are close to half a million dollars (eesh!)…just a LOT of cool stuff!!

The COOLEST thing we saw though was a toyhauler with a patio!! Wouldn’t you love to have something like this?

What amazed me was that Bug actually fell asleep in his stroller!! He hasn’t fallen asleep while out and about (except in the car) in forever!! He must have been pretty tired!! So the last hour or so that we were there, Brack and I took turns popping into the RV's to check out the stuff we wanted to see while the other stayed just outside them with the stroller.

After we left the show we decided we wanted Mexican food and wanted it authentic…so we headed up Main Street till we saw a little hole-in-the-wall place. It was pretty good (except for the salsas) and Bug just LOVED trying chips for the first time. He got his own taco and thought he was big stuff!! All in all it was a fun day!!

Our Decorated Nursery

So, I had grand plans to have Bug’s nursery all ready for him before he was born and I DID get stuff up on the walls and the furniture put together…but never got curtains, bedskirts, and the like sewn up till this past week…and he will be 18 months old next week!!

Better late than never though, right? I am fairly happy with how it all turned out except for the light blocking curtain. It just looks too plain and blah hanging there and I also think that there are just too many stripes in that corner. So I think I will borrow an idea from OhDeeDoh and make hanging book holders out of the curtain instead…and hang them in the space between Bug’s name and his toy carpet.

So here is Bug’s nursery in all it’s glory!! I love that while it’s cute it isn’t cutesy and can grow with him. I also love that we were able to incorporate some family touches into the room. The silhouettes on the wall above his bed were actually copied from one of me in the second grade and one of my little brother in preschool. I resized and pasted them onto cardstock which was then pasted to scrapbooking paper and framed. Some other family touches: the bedtime prayer plaque between the two silhouettes was mine as a child, the little green music box in with his toys was also mine, the stuffed dog on the far right in the back on the table was my DH’s, and the Buzz and Woody were Bug’s Uncle A’s when he was little.

What Happens When a Crayon is Unsupervised…

I swear my child can get into mischief in a split-second!! I have no idea how he comes up with things to do but just this week I’ve had to clean up the following messes:

Pots and pans he’s dragged out of the kitchen cabinets, paper towels he’s shredded onto the kitchen floor, xbox games he’s pulled out and scattered around the living room (twice), toys he’s pulled out and scattered all over his room and half the house (a given), etc. etc.

The crayon scribbles happened yesterday and I have no clue how I’m gonna deal with the one that has the most scribbles…cause that is the ONLY one that can’t just be turned around (I cut out the back of that one to accommodate some of our cables and such for the xbox, tv, and dvd player)!!

Then, to top it off with the grossest thing yet…this morning he came running up to me holding the measuring cup we use to scoop out our kitties food and handed it to me. I looked inside it and there was about 1/8 of a cup of KITTY LITTER out of the litter box!! Yes, my child had scooped up litter and was wanting me to give it to the kitties!! Where does he come up with this stuff?!!

Yes, I know you mommies of older children are snickering…but it seems we have now reached the milestone of toddler mischievousness!! Fun, fun!!

I choked…or why you shouldn’t check the video monitor while drinking water!!

Funny kid fell asleep like this tonight…and no, the gate was not open when he was laid down for bed!!

Master Closet

So today I tackled the master closet…and won!! There is still more to do really, since DH has finally decided he is going to weed out some of his clothes as well. This will actually be the first time he has decided to do so on his own with absolutely no prodding from me…so I’m pretty happy!! He is pretty good about weeding out stuff generally…but his clothes and books are held onto a little tightly by him!!

As you will see in the pictures, I now have NO clothes in there!! Since I am in the process of trying to come up with a suitable yet minimalist wardrobe I just pulled it all out and will only put back in the things that will readily incorporate into my new wardrobe…which basically means 2 dresses, two pairs of jeans, and a couple tops so far (I really am down to very few things that will work for me clothes-wise at the moment)!!

Anyway…onward and upward as they say!! Next thing to deal with is the laundry room!!