Spring Cleaning

I'm pooped! And I've only gotten 3 rooms out of 13 cleaned!
Brian cleaned up the porch this morning and Anna cleaned out the red wagon.

Landon having a little trouble pulling big sis in the wagon.

Now it's his turn to be pulled.

We discovered a birds' nest in the garage shelves so that part of the house will have to be left alone. They found a nice, little, cozy spot to build it and since the garage door has been broken and won't go down they can come and go as they please.

Tuesdays Unwrapped #2

This is one of my gifts today! The fact that I have Brian is the biggest part of this gift and that he takes care of the yard and mows the lawn is another. The sound of the lawn mower is such an association with spring and summer for me and that is another part of this gift. I love the smell of newly cut grass!

Thank you, Sweetheart!

Go to Chatting at the Sky to see what other gifts have been opened this Tuesday! (click on the button above)

Monday Morning Mess

The weekend was wonderful. I learned alot and made wonderful new friendships with some incredible women.

Unfortunately, this morning Landon has thrown up 5 times and can't even keep water down. He's just been lying around exhausted.


He really gave me a scare during one episode when he must have breathed some in and had a moment where he was having a lot of trouble catching his breath.

So this post will be very brief so I can go snuggle with my Baby Bug and try to comfort him somewhat. More on my weekend later.

Weekend away with Him!

Well, everyone (all 3 of you!), I will be gone until Sunday night on a spiritual retreat and I can hardly wait! I have butterflies since I don't really know what to expect. Brian thoroughly enjoyed his retreat last weekend and I could tell he was overwhelmed by it all and I am eagerly anticipating being able to talk to him about our experiences!

A few of our friends and family are a little apprehensive about us doing this but I assure you all I won't come back wearing ankle length dresses with turtlenecks and no make-up! If I suspect the Kool-Aid is tainted I'll wait to see everyone else's symptoms before I drink it. (jk)

Seriously though, I have been wanting to get alone with my God to just focus on He and I for several years now and I can not wait to hear what He wants to say to me when there aren't any distractions - namely my 4 children, a house that's begging to be tidied, laundry that needs to be folded, facebook, blogs to read, etc., etc. .

I covet your prayers for me this weekend. That I will be open and attentive to His Voice and that I will most importantly just enjoy time "alone" with my Love! (I John 4:6-21)

Pray for Brian and the kids, too! How can they possibly survive 3 whole days without me! *laughing out loud,... snort... oh! sorry...*

See you Monday!

for my debriefing on my weekend go here.

The Nesting Place Contest

Today Nesting Place is having a contest to win a Feather and Egg print from L. Herbert Designs. You have to show them where you would want the print to go or where you already display your collection to win.

This is where I would hang my beautiful print... (if I had one! *hint hint!*). In fact, I had these wreaths sitting on top of the TV armoire and I hadn't hung them until this morning! I purposely left a space for the print in the middle! Wouldn't it be beautiful in this spot? I even made my bed in order to take a picture of the space! That is nothing short of miraculous... or desperate, I haven't decided which.

Mom found this wreath at the Hallmark Store a couple weeks ago as a present for me for Easter because I fell in love with a bird/nest themed room in a model house down the road. I loved it so much I made... uh, er.... asked her to run back and see if they still had any more because I thought it would look great if I could group 3 or 4 of them together but they only had one more this size! Bummer!

This is Landon admiring my wreaths!

I wanted to get a picture of him looking pitiful or adorable to increase my chance of winning but he wasn't being cooperative! Doesn't he know how important this is?! Men! They just don't understand.

By-the-way, I did all this before my morning cup of coffee! side note: Why are my words being underlined here? I can't make it stop. Aarrgghh.
And this is the mess next to the bed where I put everything that had been on the nightstand so I could take a pretty picture! Well, the room has potential, right?

Now on to that coffee!!

Tuesdays Unwrapped

This is what my Tuesday looks like right now. I wanted to get some sweet pictures of the boys and their friend "J" from across the street. But six and eight year old boys aren't exactly into being sweet. As soon as they saw me with the camera they took off running and hiding from me.

Oh well, when they ask me why there are so few pictures of them at this age at least I'll have evidence to show them why.

And one of the best parts of my day I unfortunately didn't get a picture of. Hashbrown casserole and biscuits and gravy at Cracker Barrell!!!! Next time I'll be sure to have my camera with me!

"Just Say NO!"

Okay, so today I got an e-mail from the classroom mom for Parker's Kindergarten class about doing a birthday gift for Mrs. Cole, the assistant teacher, and end-of-year gift for Mrs. Houser. Mrs. Houser is pregnant with twins and the room mom wants to know if anyone makes baby blankets because she thinks this would be a wonderful gift to give her. Let me say, I neeaarrlly, very narrowly escaped in fact, replying that, "Yes! I make baby blankets! Please, please let me stress myself out trying to complete two blankets before the end of May in addition to the two I already have planned to finish before the end of May!" Yikes!! That was a close one.


I just kept the e-mail in the New Mail folder ~ just in case I actually want to reply that I may ... possibly ... perhaps ... have time to do said insane project!

Alicia Paulson

I read about Alicia Paulson in Hallmark Magazine sometime last year and since then I've been occasionally following her blog. ~I *heart* her blog!~ I love the way she writes, her pictures, the beautiful, delicate things she makes, the way she's decorated her home and I especially love to read her posts about her doggies! Her style is so sweet and if there weren't so many boys in my house this is how I would want all my rooms decorated! Maybe one day I'll get one room to decorate for myself - all in pinks and blues and green and pretty little florals! *sigh* .... one day...

Projects

I'm so glad to have picked up my needle and thread again!! I've completed two quilts lately and I've started on the third and have one more I need to finish before summer. These last two have been really simple just to get myself back in the groove but now I'm ready to do one that requires a little more from me.

And then there will be the poor neglected projects that have been sitting around gathering dust. Honestly, that will be the hardest part - finishing some that I'm not "in love" with. There are three that I started somewhere during the last two years and are in one stage or another that I just can't bring myself to complete. All of them are WAY past any sort of deadline and it feels kind of pointless now but I want to be determined to finish what I started.

Crab Pie

Is it 11:00 already?! And it's only Wednesday, right? You're certain it's not Thursday or Friday?

Landon has been incredibly crabby this week. Crying over the smallest things and most of the time I can't determine what has set him off. Two-year old angst, I suppose.

This morning it was this game that upset him; though, I still don't know why. Since he's been like this so often lately I took a picture of it. And then I sat with his squishy little self in my lap and took pictures of his sweet little hands caressing his blankie. Now he's downstairs content (for the moment) with a bag of fruit snacks, a chocolate egg and watching Nemo.

Easter

We had a great time at Harvest Baptist Tabernacle (Joe was on fire as usual!) and at Aunt Beverly and Uncle Tommy's house for Easter. I think Jason, Scott and I had as much fun hiding the eggs as the kids did finding them! I finally got a group picture of the family but Preacher wasn't feeling well enough to be outside so he's the only one not in it. I wish I had thought about that before I took the picture; we could have done it inside instead. Maybe then I wouldn't have had to run to be in it.

Elisa took this one of Anna and it's one of the best pictures of her EVER! Thanks, Elisa!

Easter Cupcakes

This is my second "Hello, Cupcake" challenge - "Rabbit Holes". I didn't have quite all the right ingredients (like chocolate covered sunflower seeds and white circus peanuts?!) but I think they turned out pretty good. I had to cover orange circus peanuts in white chocolate, used cut up pieces of black licorice for the pads on the bunnies' feet and coconut instead of white nonpareils for the tails, which was very messy.

Spring Break

We had lots of good intentions for activities for Spring Break but the weather put a damper on our plans - literally. We did manage to get in a trip to the zoo, a movie and a sleepover for Parker. Monday, Tuesday and Friday were chilly and/or wet so the boys played video games and we rented a movie Thursday night. Since there were only a couple of days of sun we weren't the only ones at the zoo Thursday. There were no parking spaces in either lot so we ended up parking at a friend's house about a block away; it turned out to be a good decision - not having to wait for a space or to get out of a crowded lot when we were ready to leave. The highlight of the day was finding a caterpillar and everyone but Anna wanted to hold it. Landon was so cute; he was cracking up the whole time because it was tickling his arm. This was the first time he got to go into the petting zoo. He was so cute telling the zoo volunteer to be quiet because the pig was sleeping! "Shhh...pig seeping." in his sweet little whisper.

Reality Check

Self-image,... Messy house,... Chilly Spring Break Weather,... My Hair... These have been my complaints lately. What are they in comparison to what my friends the Creeches and Howards are going through in their new homes thousands of miles away from what they are accustomed to?! PIDDLY!! PITIFUL!! So, you'll hear no belly-aching from me this week.

I love you, B and S! The song "More Than You'll Ever Know" is for you. Kisses and hugs from all of us to all of you!!!

April Fools!

I bought Karen Tack's book "Hello Cupcake" at the book fair at the boys' school the other day. I've been wanting to get it ever since I saw it mentioned in Family Fun magazine in an article where she had done several birthday cakes. The cakes are adorable but the cupcakes in her book are EVEN cuter! I'm not at all good at coming up with something like this on my own but I sure can copy someone else's ideas!

"TV Dinner"

"Chocolate Pudding"

"Peas and Carrots"

"Mashed Potatoes and Gravy"

"Chicken Drumstick"

"Spaghetti and Meatballs"

YUMMY!!!!