How Did We Get Here?

Jeff has been out of work since May.  It is a miracle that we are both still alive.

It’s been nice having him around to help out with the kids I look after.  Depending on who I have, I may be able to have an appointment or pop out for a quick errand at nap time.  He’ll get down on the floor and play trucks with the boys.  For some reason the boys are fascinated with the “big kid” in their midst.

The other plus is that Jeff has had time to do a home improvement project.  We have lived in this house for five years.  A three bedroom house with three kids may work for some families but not this one.  Since Lydia was born, she has shared a room with us, a room with her sister and then a room with her brother.  With Parker being 9 1/2 , it wouldn’t be much longer that he would put up with his younger sister.  In August we put new basement windows in.  We discovered that our basement wasn’t cold just from drafty windows but also from a lack of insulation.  A bedroom was built for Parker, walls were insulated, a heater put in and we are hoping to be able to use our basement much, much more this winter.  Here’s the final result:

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

We just rearranged our basement “rec”room and the Wii is down there.  With the new setup, the Wii has gotten alot more attention lately.  We don’t have room for recycling upstairs so I toss it down the stairs and the kids are supposed to put it in the proper bins.  It often piles up, I have to harrass them to do it and then it’s an arguement on whose turn it is.  I found a solution- if you want to use the Wii, recycling needs to be cleaned up.  I made a sign as a reminder, Hannah wants it on a shirt or bag.

It’s been working really well.  Parker always asks before he plays and the recycling is always cleaned up.

I buckled down and got some sewing done last night.

I made a stack of pillowcases last night. 10 pillowcases and 3 gift bags. Need to find the other page to cameron’s cloth book and make a couple more diapers and then I am done sewing. Why I don’t do this earlier, I’ll never know.
Finally figured out a gift for fil, girlfriend and her son. Whoonu- already had it in the gift box, a tin of sweets and some pictures framed.
Other than that, I am finished with gifts.  I’ve finished shopping and ready to wrap.  Tonight is a baking night and I need to label 50 cd’s.  Over the past few weeks, I’ve been recording our circle time at playgroup.  Dh burned it onto cds for me and they’ll be handed out to the kids at the Christmas party and potluck tomorrow.  How cool that they get to take home their own songs to sing along with.

I just got a card from my bestest buddy from Jr high.  Her boys are handsome.  Good thing they live so far away from us.  I might have a problem with Hannah if we saw them more than every few years.

I came across this advice today.  Sounds good to me.

It doesn’t really matter how much you want to accomplish today; your pace will likely be set by circumstances that are beyond your control. The best you can do is remain clear about your abilities and your limitations. If you don’t overcommit, all should work out okay. But if you take on too much, even the simplest jobs could suffer. Pace yourself, work hard, and don’t apologize for what you cannot do

 Do you like my Christmas countdown?  I stole it from Family Fun.    It’s not on the mantle though.  I’d have to have a higher mantle and matching socks.  I think I’ll try and collect Christmas socks in January.

 I’ve been crazy busy.  Our Home and School did a pasta fundraiser and it was going well so we decided to do one for our church as we are sponsoring a refugee family of 11.  I’ve learned that when you suggest a project, the project is yours. :)  The pasta was ordered Thursday, arrived Tuesday and I sorted the 180 bags during nap time.  Getting it out of the house tonight.

Tonight is a birthday party for Jesus at the church.  I made individual cakes for the kids to decorate.

Lots left to do.  Sort and wrap the kids gifts and pick up a couple of items.  I know, I know Helen, I should have it wrapped already but I need to visualize it.   I need a meal plan and list of holiday recipes.   Saturday, a friend is taking the kids for a couple of hours to make sugar cube castles.  I think she’s crazy but since I can’t remember us going Christmas shopping together, I won’t tell her.

I have my brother and sil’s gift ready to mail to Atlanta.  Cara is taking it to mail in the US. Faster and cheaper.  I need to pick up some more Christmas flannel to make more pillowcases as gifts.  Secret Santa gift is ready for the mail tomorrow.  My mom’s gift is done.  Mil’s is thought of, just need to get it.  Sisiters are done.  Nieces and nephews, just about.  Fil, no idea.  Teachers, need to wrap.

BTW, I ordered two Knights of The Lunchtable; The Dodgeball Chronicles to donate to ds’s school on behalf of his teacher and TA.  They came damaged from Scholastic.  I called the company on Friday and replacements arrived on Tuesday.  They have a 100% guarantee.

No matter what your personal or religious beliefs, you’ve got to admit that Christmas has become over commercialized.  Christmas is no longer what it started out as and it’s so easy to forget the true meaning of the season.  I’ve come across this video lately and thought it was good food for thought.  As I am part way through my Christmas list, it reminds me not to overinduldge.  I’m going to make every effort to refocus on our family this season and not the external forces around us that are saying spend, spend, spend.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVqqj1v-ZBU

Need some help on quality gifts from the heart?  Check this out.

http://www.rethinkingchristmas.com/

Yesterday the kids had the day off school for parent teacher conferences.
The kids and I stopped at Value Village. We were looking for a bag of plain Lego. Ds is having a Lego birthday and we wanted to put lego in the treat bags. We found a box of Lego with over 25 people in it and accessories. We also found a large box of K’nex AND an American Girl Doll 2008. The American Girl Dolls retail for $100. I got her for $2.99. She’s in mint condition with gorgeous brushable hair.   Lydia is in love with her new “girl” Claire.

Might not look like a lot of Lego but the pieces in it were awesome.

A few days ago I picked up a pair of Ugg boots for Lydia.  $4.  We’d looked everywhere for black boots and had settled on a pair of boys boots.  Well now she has a stylish pair too.

If someone could tell me how ot get the mothball smell out, I’d be more than greatful.

So if you know me, you know I love a good deal.  I previously worked at a Frenchies store and I accustomed to paying dirt cheap prices for clothing.  It causes me great pain to pay full price for clothes when it’s really just a waiting game.  I live 2 minutes from the mall and within 15 minutes of about 6 second hand stores and those are not consignment prices.  Being so close to the mall, I can  stop into The Children’s Place on a regular basis to watch for their Monster sale.  I have an Old Navy connection who likes to share Friends and Family discounts or sends out an alert on a good sale.

This summer a new used clothing store opened and it’s owned by a guy from dh’s hometown.  The Clothesline is much neater and I would say has better quality than most Frenchies stores.  Hannah needed new black pants and so we went tonight on a mission to find some.  It was our plan to go to The Clothesline, Superstore, Super Frenchies and then Old Navy.  I like to pay the cheapest price possible but I’m  not opposed to paying for a specific item.  We struck gold tonight at the Clothesline.  I found her mint condition black cords form the Children’s Place.  They fit perfectly and the embellishments on the pockets are stitched on and can easily be removed.  As soon as we walked in the door, I saw a white blouse for her.  A plain white blouse in her size is hard to find so we grabbed it.  I also found black dress pants for Parker, a red Children’s Place top for Lydia, A sweater for me, a great quality sheet from IKEA and a sleep sack for a friend.  The grad total was $20 and change.  Sweet.

Next stop was Old Navy.  I used my Friends and Family discount and got 30% off the jeans and dress I found for Hannah on clearance.  I paid $15 and change.  Woohoo.  Although nothing beats the year I hit a .97 sale just before her bithday.  She got 10 pairs of jeans, tops, pajamas….  She’s just now hit the end of that pile.

I think that’s just about it for holiday clothing for the kids.  Parker could probably use a sweater but it won’t be the  end of the world if I don’t find one.

It was a green Halloween in our house.

Growing up we never bought costumes.  We always found what we needed to make them and we were never allowed to be scary.  Them’s were the rules.  Pretty much the same rules apply in my house.  I have mixed feelings about Halloween.  Do I want to encourage celebrating a holiday that is associated with evil and gore?  Not really but do I want to ostracize my kids my not allowing them to have fun with their peers?  Nope.  There will be many times during their lives when they will have to stand for their beliefs.  I’d rather let them have fun and be kids while they can.

So Hannah went as a Recycled Halloween Costume.  She had bits and pieces from different costumes and a recycling sign around her neck.   People though it was clever.

Parker went as Indiana Jones.  I started working on his costume in June as he was into Indiana Jones with the movie coming out.  He had wanted to buy a whip at Walmart for $25 so I made him one for $1.   He had the coat, boots and pants and in the summer we found the scout shirt and water bag at Value Village.  The hat was my grandfathers hat.

Lydia wore the same costume Hannah wore when she was three.  Little Red Riding Hood.  It’s a nice warm fleece cape that Aunt Sarah brought back from Turkey.  When Hannah wore it, Parker was a baby and he went as the Big (little) Bad Wolf. 

I went as the Big Bad Wolf.  I used my butt ugly fur coat that I usually wear with my butt ugly owl hat.  (purchased 5 years ago on Halloween day when I was working at Frenchies)  I wore the same wolf ears that Parker wore.  That fur coat has kept me warm on halloween for five years now.  I’ll have to re-purpose it again next year.

Make a Smilebox slideshow