Best Life II

A BIG Change

2010-03-22T09:21:00.000-07:00

Ladies and gentlemen....

the time has come.

After months of working on it our new family website is up and running!

After today, you will be automatically re-directed.

Come check us out!

The Pennington Point

My School Screen

2010-03-18T16:58:00.000-07:00

While we were building the Boy's room, I threw together a screen for the school room.

The idea had been rolling around in my head for a couple of months. I'm not sure what sparked it. I just know I am trying to find that balance in the school room. I want to display the kids' creations. But I also want it to look tidy and match the rest of the house.

So I designed (OK "designed" is a stretch, it was more like imagined and wondered if I could possibly make it) a screen that would lean against the wall. I have a spot by the write & wipe board that is right next to the hallway. I couldn't put anything there that sticks out from the wall. I guess I could, but James would crash into it a lot during the night. Don't ask me how I know this....you really should just believe me.

Here is what I came up with.....

Sadly, I was so crazed to finish the room that I didn't stop to take pictures of the frame in process. But it was so simple.

I used 1x3's and a 3" piece of trim. I built a frame with the 1x3's. Simple math, two short pieces the same size/ two long pieces the same size. I didn't miter those corners. I cut four triangles and glued then nailed them to the back. It's very sturdy. Then I used my handy dandy....NOTEBOOK! Oops! Sorry, too much Blue's Clues. I used my little staple gun to attach rabbit wire to that frame. Then I cut the trim (sorry, you have to do a tiny bit of math here to make it fit the base frame) and mitered the corners. I attached it to the 1x3 frame with my brad nailer and I was finished. Piece o' cake.

Wait! Is there cake? Sorry, my diet is getting to me.

I love it. I used florist wire to attach those clip thingys (I'm not big on technical terms) to the screen. I will attach more as needed.

Look how adorable these flash cards look on it. James got them for me on ebay. Can we all just take a moment of silence to remember the good old days?....

It's so great to get a little more organized in the school room and at the same time be adorable.

That's my motto: Adorableness at all costs. Even if it causes your husband to break a toe in the night.

I'm linking to Remodelaholic. She's got some great links today....go over and check it out!

Four Leaf Clovers

2010-03-16T23:09:00.000-07:00

St. Patrick's Day always reminds me of a time long ago.....

I was about 12 years old. Our next door neighbor had a spot of clover in her yard. Now that I'm an adult, I realize that it was probably a nuisance to her and she would rather have has grass in its place. But to me, a little girl, it was beautiful.

I used to lie down in the clover and stare at it. I would think about the world and ponder life. I'd stroke the tiny, soft leaves in my fingers and wonder where my life would lead me.

There's no time anymore for staring at clover. I don't lie in the grass and wonder about the clouds drifting overhead. I have too much to do.

Someone said to me today that she's heard that if you have two good friends then you are lucky.

I have so many good friends, so many women in my life that I trust.

I have an amazing husband and wonderful children.

I have a great extended family.

I joke a lot here on this blog about the messes of life, but I know truly how blessed I am.

Today I count you among those blessings.

What TIME is it?!

2010-03-15T15:32:00.001-07:00

I am pretty sure that the time change is a government conspiracy against me.

It is an effort to keep me from getting anything done, keep me exhausted and sleepy, make sure I am zombie-like by 5:00 in the afternoon so they can.....

....well, I don't know exactly WHY the government would want to do this to me. But I'm in a zombie state right now, so I'm not thinking clearly.

I'll figure it out in a week when I've recovered.

I am clear about this though....

it's gorgeous outside and my front porch needs some flowers.

See how sad it looks. The new wall is all tired and boring and....HEY! That's just how I feel.

Maybe my problem is a lack of flowers, and the time change, and the weekend's worth of laundry waiting to be done.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need a nap.

Blah-Blah- Wuh-Wah

2010-03-13T21:47:00.000-08:00

Remember how the grown-ups talked on Charlie Brown?

"Wuh wah WAH wuh wuh wuh."

That's how it sounds to me when the computer repair guy tries to explain something to me.

"Ma'am, your blah-blah-blah-blah hard drive blah-blah-blah power supply blah-blah-blah wuh-wuh-wuh-wuh can't be repaired."

I'm sorry....what? I keep telling you to speak English! I don't speak geek.

Anyway, what I did understand is that my computer has died.

There will be a memorial service tomorrow at 3:00.

Send donations in lieu of flowers.

While we work on recovering my pictures, here are a few snapshots of my four younger boys that my 12 year old daughter took with her camera. She gave them to me for my birthday.

They're all straight out of her camera. No fancy Photoshop. No editing.

She has a great eye....it just goes to show you that you don't need an expensive camera to take good pictures.

But when my husband tries to tell me that, all I hear is, "Wuh-wuh-WAH-wuh."

Buffesk

2010-03-11T19:45:00.000-08:00

Since I don't have my computer (I'm using one of the girls' computer), I don't have any of my pictures.

I was going to show you the adorable thing I built to hold the kids' school work and art, etc. But that'll have to wait until we get my computer fixed. You don't even want to know how many computer pieces were all over the school table today when oldest son and I decided it would be a good idea to take it apart. Not a good idea, for the record.

But that won't stop me from telling you what's swimming around in my head.

For a few months I've been planning to replace the four school desks that line one of our dining room walls.

Here are the problems....I need to add a fifth desk, they always look messy even though the kids do try to keep them neat AND they are in the dining room...which means when we have company for dinner it feels like we're eating in the school cafeteria.

When I saw this I knew just what I wanted to do....

The Old Painted Cottage. It's one of my favorite blogs for home decorating ideas. That back wall in her breakfast room is just the look I want. I knew when I saw it that my solution was one, long table/desk with some kind of storage below and shelves on the wall above that I could use for serving pieces.

The wall in my dining room where I will put the new desk/buffet is just over 15 feet long and I have 2 feet of depth. I have planned and sketched and plotted. It will have to serve as school storage, desk space, computer space, and a dining room buffet all in one piece.I decided to use something like these to make a drawer for each kid....

I already own one of these vintage locker baskets, but I'll need five, so OBVIOUSLY I need a trip to the flea market. I'm unselfish like that. I will go and find these baskets even if it means enduring days and days of perusing the streets of Canton.

After I find them, I will bring them home and figure out how to use them for drawers. I'm not scared, well, maybe a little. I always wonder if what's in my head will translate to wood and paint.

The rest is already in my brain. I've had several offers to buy the desks I have now, so hopefully selling them will pay for the new desk/buffet.

Maybe I need to come up with a better name for it.

Hmmm.....maybe it could be a buff-esk.

Or a desk-ay.

Most likely it will be called, "Hurry-and-clean-your-stuff-off-because-people-are-coming-for-dinner-in-ten-minutes-and-Mommy-wants-it-to-look-like-a-dining-room-and-not-a-study-hall!"

Computer Troubles

2010-03-10T22:17:00.000-08:00

Time sure flies when you're having fun.

I've heard that.

But I haven't been having fun. I've been fighting with my computer.

It's overheating and not following my instructions.

My Etsy Shop has been busy too, which is so fabulous, but it takes time away from blogging.

Hang in there with me. We're working on my computer and we have some new, exciting things in the works.

Aren't you ready for the spring? I need some color, flowers, sunshine.

Maybe that's what my computer needs....a little fresh air.

New Room Reveal!

2010-03-06T20:41:00.000-08:00

It was two weeks ago today that we started the new room. But we only worked on the room 7 of those days. The rest of the time we lived normal lives. OK, normal may be a stretch.

Before I show you the results, here's a reminder of what the front porch looked like 2 Saturdays ago:

And here it is today:

A closer look before:

After:

And remember the mess?

Gone.

Now, come on inside....

This is what the boys' room looked like before:

And today:

Here's the new room!

To take this next picture I was standing in the dining room. The door into the new room is the original front door on the house.

Because it opens to our living areas, I had to find a balance between fitting with my style, yet keeping it masculine and an obvious room for an 11 year old boy.

So I kept the colors similar with the rest of the house, whites with green walls and I added a touch of black. Although this green is not the same color I used in the living areas. I thought a darker, deeper green was better for a boy's room.

This is the wall on the left as you walk in:

I hung a framed chalkboard and wrote his morning chores there. Check out chore number 8. That's the most important one.

If you're wondering about the big, white thing on the wall over the bed....that's a giant paper airplane. This boy loves to make paper airplanes. I gave him a huge piece of paper and had him make it. I thought it was a good compromise of my taste (whites, clean lines and a little whimsical with a touch of vintage) with his personality.

Besides needing a bed for him, we needed storage for our enormous Lego collection. I used several different types of containers and labeled them. I told the kids to sort the Legos into the containers and make me a list of what the labels should say. I think it's funny that it looks so cute, but the labels say things like, "Weapons".

I used vinyl in my die cut machine to make the geometric shapes on the striped wall. To me it gives the room a modern, whimsical look, but it's maintenance free. Great for a kid.

These picture show the texture I did on the walls. It looks a little bit like linen. I really like it. And I made it up all by myself. But before you admire my creativity you should know, it was mostly born of laziness because I didn't want to go to the trouble of renting a machine and cleaning it up afterward.

The shelves needed something to soften the look. I came up with the idea of making giant Legos and covering them with vintage math papers. I'm working on a tutorial to show you how to make them, if you're interested in having huge, paper covered Legos in your house. Which I'm sure you are. I mean, who doesn't need that?

The wall to the right is the old exterior wall of the house. It is stucco. 80 year old, hard as a rock stucco. I probably could have drilled into it with a masonry bit and used wall anchors to hang pictures. But I move things around so much, that I didn't want to be limited by that. So instead, I hung eye hooks from the ceiling and used chain from the hardwork store and that is what holds the wall decor. I love the texture that the chain adds to the room.

The picture is of our five boys. My photographer friend took it for me. I wasn't sure what I would do with it, so I just bought the image file from her. I used my M CP actions to change it to black and white with just a touch of blue. Then I had it made into a 20x30. I just used a poster frame with plastic instead of glass. That way we don't have to worry about it being bumped into and breaking.

Down that same wall, past the doorway to the other boy's room, there's a tiny corner. I put a little dresser there that I had already painted white. The mirror is from IKEA. It adds to the geometric shape thing that's going on in the room. Again, it's hung with chains.

A closer look shows a framed report that my dad wrote when he was 12. It's all about where he lived and what he liked to do. It's one of my favorite possessions.

I got the bed frame at IKEA. It's just black with white legs. Very simple. But the box spring was going to show and I didn't want a dust ruffle. So I bought this fabulous fabric at our local quilt store and stapled it to the box spring. I am thrilled with the way it turned out.

Before I wrap up this ridiculously long reveal, I thought you might want to know a few of the nitty gritty details.

The room is about 12 feet by 6 feet. Very small and hard to photograph.

It cost just under $1,000. But keep in mind that is including everything. From the nails, sheetrock and Hardiplank to the curtains, pillows and mirror. The only thing we didn't have to buy was the flooring. We had just enough leftover from last year's project of installing it in the other three bedrooms.

As for time, you already know it took 7 days. But each of those days were WHOLE days....sun up to sun down. If it hadn't been for the front porch mess I might have let it last a little longer so I wouldn't be so worn out from it.

My only regret is the black rug I bought to put by his bed. It shows every little speck of dirt. I got it on clearance, so when I find something else I will get rid of it. But I just hate wasting money.
So that's it. I hope you enjoyed my little project. Keep checking back. I've got plenty more of them swimming around in my mind just waiting to get started!

For a full review check these out...

Day One: The Beginning
Day Two: Sheetrock
Day Three: Mom with Power Tools Day Four: Texture and Trim
Day Five: Paint and Floor
Day Six: Starting to Lose my Mind
Day Seven: The Details are Going to Break Me

I'm linking this over to Remodelaholics. It's a great blog, if you're looking for great ideas. :)

Alice in Wonderland Movie Review

2010-03-05T19:57:00.000-08:00

If you're here to see what's happening with the new room....come back tomorrow for the big reveal!

In the meantime.....

Occasionally there's a movie out that my kids want to see.

If you know me you'll know that we never...NEVER...let our kids see a movie we haven't previewed. I know this takes time and often it means I will have to see a movie twice. Usually it's a movie I didn't want to see in the first place. But it's always worth it. There have been many times that one of us previewed a movie and decided that the kids couldn't see it. "Avatar" for example.

So, at my older kids' request, I previewed "Alice in Wonderland" today. I thought I'd share my thoughts with you.

First, it's weird. But you have to expect that. It's a weird story.

There were clever parts and there were big special effects. It's done by Tim Burton, so it has a dark side. He loves those evil looking barren tree branches. This movie has no shortage of those.

The only real objection (this is only for my teenagers...it's too scary and strange for the younger ones) is that there's a bit too much chest showing on the female characters. No real cleavage, but Alice's shoulders and upper chest are bare throughout the entire movie. One of the very small characters has some cleavage, but it's shown from a distance and from very odd angles.

There's a weird relationship between the Queen of Hearts and her....I guess he's a knight. But nothing ever happens between them.

Actually, now that I think about it, the whole movie has an odd tone. It's an undercurrent, nothing I can put my finger on.

Anne Hathaway's characterization of the White Queen is great. I enjoyed her.

The Queen of Hearts is funny. I'm thinking of wearing my hair and make-up just like she does.

Alice is darling. It's not my favorite Johnny Depp role though. I never did quite "get" his depiction of the Mad Hatter.

There is also the whole, "Women don't need men" message at the end. I didn't like that, nor think it was necessary. And it's weird....did I say that already?

So all in all....it's an odd little movie. But if my older three kids (ages 19, 18 and 16) want to see it as a study of special effects and movie making then we will let them.

If I had to come up with a redeeming quality to the movie I'd say it's a classic David and Goliath story. It's good versus evil. Greed v. selflessness. Plus the story is a classic and they do some interesting things with it creatively.

But I won't buy it or rent it or let any of the other kids see it.

Now....back to our regularly scheduled blogging.....

Come back tomorrow to see the new room!

The Mess

2010-03-04T07:01:00.000-08:00

So many of you have been concerned about the pressure I am putting on myself to get the room finished.

I appreciate your concern. I am going to give myself a break. I listen to my advisors.

But there's something you should see.

Brace yourself.

You must promise me that you will still come to visit if I show you.

Here's why I'm in such a rush to finish.....

Welcome to the entrance to our lovely home.

Don't step on the electrical cords on your way in.

Believe it or not, I have been trying to keep it neat.

I'm so glad I took the time to hang my Easter wreath on the door.

My beautiful front door decor.

So now you know. It's a mess. We've already had company several times and they had to walk through that disaster.

I can't put any of it away until we're completely finished.

THAT's why I'm so ready to get this job done.

Day Seven

2010-03-03T18:24:00.000-08:00

Details, details, details! I'm ready to be finished with the details!

The new room seems soooooo cloooose to being finished.

I didn't work on it yesterday. I needed a break.

Today when I woke up I just KNEW that with a little elbow grease and some bribery for my 18 year old son I could get it finished.

But NOOOOO. There are so many teeny-tiny, miniscule, seems-like-they-don't-matter-but-they-do type of things that I didn't make it. I am STILL not finished.

Before you start to throw tomatoes at me and boo and hiss and declare me a failure, never to read my blog again....let me remind you:

This is an 85 year old house and there is nothing straight, even or level about it. Every miter cut is different. You can't nail or screw into the walls. I have so much liquid nail residue stuck to the tips of my fingers that I may never be able to do needlework again.

My sweet husband and son must have started to feel sorry for me. The crying may have helped. It's sad, but a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do.

The two of them offered to finish putting up the exterior siding (don't forget, we have to finish the exterior porch section as well as the inside) for me. So today they finished that and tomorrow the girls and I will paint it. Then we'll trim the new window and paint the trim.

I am so close I can taste it.

But I can't lick the taste of victory off of my fingers or I just might liquid nail my tongue to the roof of my mouth.

Pictures by Saturday....I promise!

Amazing Race, episodes 2 & 3

2010-03-02T08:50:00.000-08:00

I've been so busy on the new room that I haven't told you all about our exciting adventures on the Amazing Race.

To keep us caught up, here's a photo recap.....

Milking our goats prepared us for this task

But our horse never prepped us to do THIS

Oops!

Phil waiting for us at the Pit Stop. We're ready Phil.....are we still in the race?!

Second place AGAIN?! If only there was race to finish decorating a room. I'd come in first for SURE!

Building a Bed

2010-03-02T02:19:00.000-08:00

I sat on the living room floor putting the new bed frame together.

"I'll help you Mommy!" says a little voice.

Eight years old and eager to use the tools.

I was in a rush. I had a lot to do and I needed to keep the pace going.

But he gave me the look. The you've-been-working-on-the-room-for-a-week-and-ignoring-me-too-much look.

"Here, you hold this part still while I screw these pieces together."

"Mommy, I can screw those screws in for you."

I'll admit it. I wanted to get this job done. I didn't want to wait for an eight year old to turn a dozen screws. I was about the task of getting this job done.

But, I thought, HE is about the task of becoming a man. And I need to stop and let him.

So I waited while he intently screwed in each and every screw.

I bragged on what a great job he did.

I thanked him for being such a big help.

He showed his accomplishment to each person that walked through the room.

I have to work hard every day to keep it all in perspective.

Day Six

2010-02-28T15:13:00.001-08:00

I didn't make my own personal deadline of finishing the new room in a week.

It was just too much. Today I felt like I was possibly losing my mind and nothing was going right.

I was the only person that could measure with reasonable accuracy and the only person that could use a saw. That meant I was in-out-in-out-in-out over and over and over. And, well, a cold front came through and I just got tired of the whole thing.

I am down to details now. I ran out of trim, even though I really thought I measured carefully. Isn't that always how it goes?

So another run to the hardwork store tomorrow. Plus I have a little more sewing and embroidery to do. I can't have a new room without monogramming something for it.

Here are a few teasers to make you want to come back in a couple of days and see the finished room.

Finished or not, the boy WILL be sleeping in a bed tonight.

No more girly light.

I can't wait to show you what I'm doing with the shelves!

If you decide to come see it in person, bring a Diet Dr Pepper with extra ice and some Tylenol.

I'm gonna need it!

Day Five

2010-02-26T20:02:00.001-08:00

Another long day of working on the new room. It's going to be great!

I'm glad there'll be a bed in there so I can fall upon it and sleep for three days after this is all over.

We got it primed (pe-yew!) and then started painting.

I decided to paint stripes on the short wall. I saw the idea here and I knew it was just what our tiny room needed.

Then my floor crew took over while I stayed outside with the power tools.

They'd hand me floor boards through the window and I'd cut 'em. Between cutting their boards I worked on the shelves for the striped wall.

All I had to do was cut the boards to fit the space and attach the brackets where the studs are. I can build a whole room....but I tell you, building those shelves was a mess. I kept making mistakes. It got really frustrating.

I did finally manage.

And we got the floor done.

Tomorrow I have a lot of details to finish. Trim around the floor, ceiling, shelves and the opening between the rooms, touch up paint.

Plus I've been instructed that the light is too "girly" for a boys' room. So I need to change that. Can't have a girly-light.

Then it's one more day after that. We still have the exterior to finish.

Next week I need to think about decor. That's the best part.

It's like the icing on the cake.

Day Four

2010-02-25T22:02:00.000-08:00

Whew! I spent the day working on the new room.

I textured the walls, painted trim, cut, painted the ceiling and door (Painting doors is my LEAST favorite painting job).

I didn't want to deal with renting a texture gun, so I decided to design my own texture pattern. This can be dangerous. Sometimes these ideas work great and sometimes (most times) they don't. I say this because I want to stress that I mess this stuff up all of the time. But it's no big deal. Just scrape it off and do something else. Don't be afraid to try!

But I think my texture job is turning out great. I'll post more on that later.

I just have a few pictures to post before I hit the sack. I've got to get those walls primed and painted tomorrow. Plus we're hoping to get the floor in tomorrow afternoon.

It's getting so close.....we're very excited.

I still need to add a trim piece below the window sill. But I want to wait until I finish the walls.

Here's something that made the whole job a little easier. The front porch had a bead board ceiling already on it. So I just scrubbed it and painted it. It's perfect.

It seems so odd to me that for the past 85 years that bead board was outside and now...it's part of the inside of the house. You just never know where something will end up, huh?

That's my deep thought for the day. Free of charge and just for you.

Thanks for hanging in there with me.

Resting Days and Birthdays

2010-02-23T17:49:00.000-08:00

I've got to take a short break from the construction project. Working that hard for too long will kill me. Or at least maim me.

We have a couple of birthdays this week plus I have to do a few pointless things to do like cooking. And laundry. And school.

So the construction will re-start on Friday after all of the partying. We are partiers around here. Oh yeah man.....it's a laugh a minute.

For birthdays we like to start the celebration off right with what we call, "Birthday Breakfast." The birthday person gets to choose anything (I mean anything as long as it's commonly considered a breakfast food) they want. Let's just say, there are a lot of carbs involved.

On Thursday I have a boy turning 7. He wants, "A cereal I've never heard of, powdered sugar donuts (like the Little Debbie kind), bacon (everyone chooses bacon, it's nature's perfect food) and scrambled eggs."

And that's just what he'll get.

Then they get to do pretty much what they want all day and the other kids came up with the idea that they will do the chores for the birthday person. How sweet.

It blessed me that my kids love each other so much. They are always so happy when one of their siblings is blessed. It does a mamma's heart good.

It's a few days off and then back to work.

Have a good few days. And have a powdered sugar donut on me!

And head over to Family Favorite Fridays for more fun family ideas!

Mom with Power Tools

2010-02-22T10:29:00.000-08:00

So far so good.....

I got math done, piano practice started, co-op class preparation underway and I was off to work on the new room.

We had to remove the window between the boys' room and the new room. This is the view from inside of the boys' room....

You can see the new room on the other side of the window. That's a piece of sheetrock leaning against the other side of the window.

And by 1:00 it looked like this.....

A couple of kids are cleaning up the debris while Mommy "takes a break" (read: collapses on her bed with the door closed).

There is stucco on the outside wall. And that had another layer of siding behind it. It took all of my strength and then some to get that opening cut. But I did it. If I could move my arms I'd pat myself on the back.

These are some of the nails I was up against....

Moms and power tools, we don't always do it right, but we get the job done.

I couldn't find any safety goggles, so I used my "onion chopping" glasses.

And of course there must always be a Diet Dr Pepper nearby.

I'm at a stopping point now. I have used all of the materials I bought and now I have to make another run to the hardwork store.

Then it's texture, prime and paint. SWEET!

Day Two...

2010-02-21T18:35:00.000-08:00

Last night I couldn't move my arms.

Tonight I can't move anything...my arms, my legs, my hair...

I'm not sure what happened, but the size of my crew diminished significantly.

Yesterday there were six of us working plus the occasional floater.

Today this was the insulation team:

When we started putting up sheetrock another daughter took pity on us and jumped in to help, so there were three.

But by the time night fell and dinner was being served and it was time to tape and float,

there was one.....

The walls are up.

Tomorrow afternoon, if we can get school finished in a timely manner, we'll cut the opening from the other room and then it'll be officially part of the house.

I wonder if there will be anyone left to lend a hand.

Day One....

2010-02-20T16:03:00.000-08:00

The first day of the new room project is over. I'm having trouble typing...

I can barely move my arms.

Hammering nails into concrete is really difficult. And I hammered at least four of them before I passed the job on to someone else.

My parents came to help. It was so sweet. They drove four and a half hours to be here. Although I am a little worried about Mom. This is what she was wearing on her feet.

Are you OK Mom? Do you need to lie down? Maybe hammering in a few cement nails will help you feel better. Here, take my hammer.

We built a frame inside of the old arch....

And cut OSB to fill the opening.

The hard thing about doing remodeling on an old house is figuring out how to work with what's already there. How to attach everything, what to cut, how to cut, why to cut....

We spend a lot of time discussing.

Ever heard the saying, "Too many cooks spoil the broth"? But everyone has to express their opinion. Then we do it my way.

We worked for about 8 hours and we all pooped out.

The outside is closed in and the window is up.

The inside is all framed and ready for insulation and sheetrock.

I know these pictures make it look like they did all of the work. But I hammered in a few nails, remember? Plus I was right in there arguing for my way. Don't underestimate my contribution.

Hopefully we can get the insulation and sheetrock done tomorrow. But my parents won't be here, so it's questionable.

We will have next weekend to finish putting up the siding and outside trim, cut out the old opening inside, lay new flooring, paint, trim out the room.....

Oh my arms are too tired for all of that! Who wants to hammer in a few nails for their tired, old friend?

To be fair, I'll give you the same wages I gave my parents......

A Room for a Boy

2010-02-20T05:48:00.003-08:00

This weekend we're working on a big, BIG project.

My poor little (or not so little...sniff-sniff) 11 year old doesn't have a place for a bed. We re-arranged the bedrooms a couple of months ago and since then he's been sleeping on a sleeping mat while we figure out where to put a bed for him.

So today we start the process of enclosing a part of the front porch to make him a place. It'll be a small place, but it'll be his and he's thrilled. When you are 1 of 9 siblings, a room to yourself is a treat!

Yesterday he helped me make the master list of materials and we went to the hardwork store (he named it that when he was three) to get what we needed.

I hate going to the hardwork store. Especially when I need a jillion things and all I have is an 11 year old to help me. I wish there had been a video of us trying to get 8 sheets of sheetrock. It would have been fodder for "America's Funniest Home Videos."

Here's the way the front porch looks now....

We're closing in the arch. I won't miss it. I've always disliked that thing. It was the original front porch to the house. Then we added on a huge porch and now it's just a little wasted space where I keep a table no one uses.

We'll remove the window, which looks into the boys' room. So his little room will be a part of the room where his two younger brothers sleep. Plus the old front door (to the right) will be his access to the room when his brothers are sleeping.

It'll be great. Stay tuned......

A Room for a Boy

2010-02-20T05:48:00.001-08:00

This weekend we're working on a big, BIG project.

My poor little (or not so little...sniff-sniff) 11 year old doesn't have a place for a bed. We re-arranged the bedrooms a couple of months ago and since then he's been sleeping on a sleeping mat while we figure out where to put a bed for him.

So today we start the process of enclosing a part of the front porch to make him a place. It'll be a small place, but it'll be his and he's thrilled. When you are 1 of 9 siblings, a room to yourself is a treat!

Yesterday he helped me make the master list of materials and we went to the hardwork store (he named it that when he was three) to get what we needed.

I hate going to the hardwork store. Especially when I need a jillion things and all I have is an 11 year old to help me. I wish there had been a vidoe of us trying to get 8 sheets of sheetrock. It would have been fodder for "America's Funniest Home Videos."

Here's the way the front porch looks now....

We're closing in the arch. I won't miss it. I've always disliked that thing. It was the original front porch to the house. Then we added on a huge porch and now it's just a little wasted space where I keep a table no one uses.

We'll remove the window, which looks into the boys' room. So his little room will be a part of the room where his two younger brothers sleep. Plus the old front door (to the right) will be his access to the room when his brothers are sleeping.

It'll be great. Stay tuned......

A Tiny Change

2010-02-18T21:27:00.000-08:00

Call me crazy, but I'm still tweaking my bedroom decor. I moved a few things around.

I moved a shelf from the nursery into the bedroom and put it next to the love seat. The baby doesn't need that shelf, right? I mean, what's he gonna do with it anyway?

But it needed something....some little detail. These baskets needed some attention.

On top of the cabinet I put this stand. It used to have a glass dome on it. Oh it was so pretty, until one of the kids broke it. But I'm not bitter....at least not since I found this cute cage at Hobby Lobby to replace it. I've forgiven the child by now. See what a good example of Christ's love I am? Inside of the cage is a little wooden box that my 18 year old son painted for me for Mother's Day when he was 6. It's one of my prized possessions (even though he's the one that broke the glass dome, but don't tell him I told you).

This bride and groom sat on top of our wedding cake almost 24 years ago. And they were the toppers for my parents' cake 45 years ago. This tiny couple has seen a lot, and they're still going strong.

Yikes! Someone needs to dust that fake plant! Any takers for that job? No? Great, now I have to do it.

I added some ribbon to the baskets; it was leftover from other projects. I know it seems like nothing, but I think it makes a difference. For one thing you can't see the junk in the baskets anymore. Score!

The bedroom is coming together. I think it's the little details that make all the difference.

By the way, since I took the pictures a few days ago I have taken down the mirror. I can't decide exactly what I want there. Art? A bigger mirror? Family portrait? Hmmm....

Blah

2010-02-17T16:38:00.000-08:00

It's been a hard few days.

I'm not really even sure why.

No one is complaining. Things are getting done. The kids are fine with their school work. But I can't shake the feeling that I am not really doing my very best. I feel like I am falling short in everything.

Is this something every mom feels? I'm torn between the baby, the older kids, school, home, meals, my Etsy shop, husband, church, homeschool group....and that's just what you see on the outside. Forget about my diet, dreaming of extra projects, taking my vitamins, showering......

I don't feel overwhelmed. I just feel like I could do better. The problem is not my circumstances. The problem is my mood. Blah.

Is it mom guilt? Hormones? Just plain tired? No one talks about it.

It can't really tell....do I need a break? Or do I need to work harder?

Or maybe I just need to snap out of it.

Amazing Race, Episode 1

2010-02-15T20:10:00.002-08:00

Can it be that we are already off on another adventure of The Amazing Race? My husband and I are thrilled to be able to run our faux race along with the other 11 teams. We started by flying from Los Angeles to Santiago, Chile. We are racing against cowboys, married couples, father & child, and previous Big Brother contestants just to name a few.

Right away we were sent to do a Road Block. One of us had to walk a high wire 120 ft above the city. My sweet husband said he would do it. He says he's got experience because he's done a ropes course with the scout troop. The wind howled and he had a rough time, but he made it.

Then we rode on a funicular. Have you ever heard of a funicular. We hadn't. But we're smart, so we figured it out. But another team went right past it and got a penalty because of it.

The next task was to finish painting a house. I am good at painting, so we sped right through that.

Then it was off to the Pit Stop. We made it right behind the second place team, but they got that penalty, so we were second. Wahoo! The Big Brother team got there first.

The poor married couple that got eliminated were so sad. He just couldn't do the high wire. He should have taken tips from my guy.

We're off for the next couple of months of running the race. It's gonna be great!

The Sun is Shining!

2010-02-15T10:05:00.000-08:00

The sun is shining!

We haven't seen the sun for days....many days.

It reminded us all of "The Long Winter". That winter that lasted for months and the Ingalls family had no food or light or heat. Thankfully we had frozen pizza and the Wii. Otherwise it would have been almost exactly the same.

Isn't it sad how we think we're suffering when we have so much? That's what I loved about reading the "Little House" series with my kids. We could all see how we are blessed beyond measure and probably, if we'd admit it, with too much.

Don't ask me how many iPods we have in our house. It's embarrassing. I wonder what Caroline Ingalls would have thought of that. Each kid listening to their own music while taking care of the animals.

I'm so glad we have the farm animals to keep us grounded. There's nothing like cleaning up goat poop to give you humility. Or the chicken coop....don't get me started on the chicken coop.

If you think we're spoiled...you should meet our chickens. They each have their own iPods too.

I wonder what they're listening to.

I'll bet they like Rascall Flatts as much as I do.

"Me and my gang....it's a brother and sister kinda thang...."

Happy Valentine's Day!

2010-02-13T10:14:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentine's Day!

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

To everyone I love!

That's YOU!

Perfection

2010-02-10T15:24:00.000-08:00

My beautiful, picturesque bedroom....like a magazine.

For five minutes.

Five minutes after I took this picture:

I walked back in and found this:

There are pirates in my bedroom. Pirates and some giant farm animals.

A sign that a two year old lives here.

A two year old and some pirates.

and a giant orange chicken.

Now the room is perfection.

The A Game

2010-02-08T19:54:00.001-08:00

We have different little games we play with each of the kids. A private joke, a game of pretend, something silly we only do with them.

They all need some special attention sometimes.

This one has an amusement that keeps us in stitches.....

I will send him over to Daddy's office to deliver something.

"Here, take this mail to Daddy for me"

A few minutes later he'll come back to me....."Daddy said thank you. He will open it and if there's any money he will use it to buy something for himself."

The game has begun.

"What?!" I exclaim in horror, "We need that money! Please go tell Daddy that he has to save the money or we won't have any food!"

He runs away giggling. He is the messenger and he LOVES it.

He returns panting and grinning...."Daddy says that he will use it to buy you a Star Trek DVD for Valentine's Day, hee-hee-hee-snort."

I wish you could see the grin. It's priceless. And the more shocked I act the more thrilled he is.

"Oh no! I don't like to watch Star Trek! WHY would he buy me that for Valentine's Day?!?!?!?!?! Please go tell him I am crying and crying because I don't want to watch Star Trek."

More running and lots more giggling.

Back again....."Daddy says you will like it because you can sit by him and he will put his arm around you at the movie."

He could play it for hours. Running between Mom and Dad and having them all to himself. I hear that Daddy lets him help with the ideas of what to say to Mommy. He loves to shock me.

Little boys are the best, aren't they?

So easy to please.

But seriously.....I'm not really getting Star Trek for Valentine's Day......am I?

Go to Grateful for Grace's Family Favorite Fridays to see other great family stories!

The Royal Bed

2010-02-07T09:00:00.000-08:00

Oh my goodness gracious wonderful heavenly day, I am in LOVE!

I am not talking about my husband here. I mean, he's a great guy and I am crazy in love with him. He pampers me.

But I have fallen head over heels for the new pillows on my bed. They pamper me too. They make me feel like a monarch in the lap of luxury.

You all know I love a discount. I frequent a couple of designer fabric stores in the area. They know me. I head straight for the clearance bin. Most of the time there's nothing good. But then there is that day of days when I find something so wonderful, so dreamy that it makes my heart go pitter pat.

Like the faux silk dupioni I am going to show you. It is the most luscious copper color and they had 6 yards of it for $35! This stuff sells for $25 a yard. I quickly nabbed it before someone realized their mistake!

And I brought it home and married it to the brown velvet I found on clearance the month before. These two are the perfect couple. Texture, luxury, richness. I'm drooling already. Where's the royal chin wiper?!

Let's take a look. But first, here's a reminder of what it looked like right after I re-did the bedroom last fall...

And now....

I used the faux silk for the backs of the pillows, two king sized pillow shams and....

I had enough of the it to make a dust ruffle.

And these pillows....oh I can't tell you how queenly they make me feel. They are such a great match with the cream colored canvas pillows I made last summer. I love the combination of textures.

These two are MFEO.

And see what happens when royal fabrics get married? They have the sweetest little baby pillows.

I think everyone needs some luxury in their life. I mean, if only to have a place to put your crown.

For more great ideas, go visit Metamorphosis Monday over at Between Naps on the Front Porch!

Wrapped in Love

2010-02-05T17:00:00.000-08:00

My favorite part of having our little monogram business is the opportunity to pray for the people that will be using my products.

Because each thing is personalized, I can lay out the designs and choose colors while thinking about that person. I pray that they will be blessed by this gift and that they will know that God loves them.

This blanket was for a woman whose family sent me words that they felt described her. I monogrammed all of those beautiful words onto the blanket.

Her name starts with a "J".

This is my favorite word on the blanket....

I feel like I know her

Even though I will probably never meet her.

And she'll never know that I care about her and spent a whole day praying for her.

Isn't this the perfect way to wrap yourself up in the love of your friends and family?

I hope you all know that you're not alone.

Someone loves you and prays for you.

Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. 1 Peter 4:7-8

I Need Your Help

2010-02-03T09:21:00.000-08:00

I have made a plan. A weight loss plan that is. The rest of my life is planned for me.

I try, but really....when there are dirty diapers and goats and "Mom this paper is due today and I forgot!" things happening all around you....planning is futile.

"Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated." I love Captain Picard.

Anyway.....

I seriously need to lose some weight. Plus Dad is now losing weight and I can't let him win.

So my friend and I have a plan and I need all of your help.

We are going to start eating four 4oo calorie meals a day. Actually, I was thinking about starting with three 400 calorie meals and a 200 calorie snack. Plus exercise (yuck).

I will make my menu plan on Sunday when I make the family menu. Then I will have a list of what I can eat each day and have the ingredients all prepared. This eliminates my biggest problem.....thinking of something to eat quick because I'm too busy so I eat junk.

I want to lose 20 pounds by Easter. Actually, I want to lose 75 pounds by tomorrow, but I realize that this may be unrealistic.

Here's where you can help. Ask me. Hold me accountable. Point and laugh and ridicule if you see me cheating. Say things like, "You said you weren't going to eat that." Unless you're my husband. Don't do any of that if you're my husband. If you're my husband (and most of you aren't so you can skip this part), tell me I'm beautiful no matter what and act like you have no idea why I'm on a diet at all. Husbands are allowed to lie to their wives about this one subject. I'm pretty sure it's in the Bible somewhere.

So that's the plan.

Dad, you may be 14 pounds ahead already....but I'm gonna catch up!

A 6 Year Old Will Not Boost Your Confidence

2010-01-30T18:05:00.000-08:00

"Mommy, why is your chair so small?"

"Well.....I needed a chair for sewing and this is the only one I had."

"But, it's so small."

"Yes," I say giving him a big squeeze, "but that's OK because I am so teeny tiny." (not)

He stares at me.

"Wellllllll. Ummmmm."

"Why do you look confused? This chair is fine for me because I am such an itty bitty mommy."

"If you say so. But you are still a lot bigger than your chair."

Who raised this kid?

Me and My Shadow

2010-01-28T15:06:00.000-08:00

Strolling down the aaaaa--vuhhh--NU. ♫

All day every day I have a two year old with me. He goes where I go. He sits by me during school time; he plays at my feet while I'm sewing; he brings me plastic food when I'm hungry.

Today, as I was photographing some new items for my Etsy shop, he wanted in on the action. I was taking pictures of this guy....

He is modeling my new doggie bandana design. I mean, how long can a dog go without a new bandana? And if you're saying to yourself, "My dog doesn't need a bandana," then keep in mind that there are other uses for it. I have a couple of them on my boys' stuffed animals. That way there's no question which bear belongs to who (or is it whom?)

Anyway, baby boy kept saying, "I sit down," and, "Mommy take my picture."

That's too hard to resist. So I let him climb up on the bench and we shot a few of him with the bear. It is his bear, after all.

He looked so cute I thought about letting him pose in the bandana. But it just seemed wrong to put a dog accessory on my child.

Not sure why, but I could just picture myself on Oprah trying to explain that.

My shadow and I have several new listings on Etsy in addition to the super cute doggie bandana that everyone needs.

Our plush baby blanket is so cozy I want to snuggle up in it! It is monogrammed with the baby's name on one side and the birthdate on the other.

And this burpcloth is almost as sweet to look at as the baby I made it for.

Come by the shop and take a look.

In the meantime, I'd better get back to work. I am supposed to be eating this plastic plate of spaghetti.

Arrivederci!

Just Say No

2010-01-27T07:23:00.000-08:00

I'm making a sharp turn today in my topic. I know I tend to jump from one thing to another. I'm working on a new blog design that will make it easier for you to peruse the topics that you are interested in and ignore the rest. But for now, it's what's in my head and today it's child training.

GULP. I am not afraid to write about child training. I am not afraid to write about child training. I am not afraid to write about child training. No matter how many death threats I may get. I speak the truth.

I ran into a friend yesterday that has a wild and out of control three year old. She is desperate and wanted me to give her some advice. He was running around and he ran up to her and asked for something (candy maybe....nothing important). I said to her, "Tell him no." (I would normally not say that to another mom, but she was asking for my help)

She looked at me with an astonished expression. "I can't," she said, "If I do that he'll start screaming and all of these people will hear. I always just give it to him."

Bingo. There's her problem.

My dear friends, any child at any age should accept no as an answer. It's that simple. If they don't, it's because you have taught them that they are in control and they, at the age of three, know what they need better than you do.

It's not about control. It's about love. The real kind of love. Love that is willing to make the hard choices for the greater good of the child.

It is best to teach this at a very young age. And it is a constant process. My two year old understands that he has to accept what he is told. But occasionally he will decide to express his opinion by pouting or fake sniffling to let me know that he doesn't like being told no. At that point I very gently and kindly tell him, "That's enough of that. You don't cry when Mommy says no." Usually he stops there because he has been taught that I mean what I say.

It is a very hard concept at first, no matter when you start. At two or twelve, if a child is used to getting their way they will NOT like the new order of things. But be consistent. They'll get the message soon enough.

You are not being mean (and a child should NEVER be permitted to tell you that you are mean). You are not hurting them. You are not making them feel better when you give over to them.

You are giving them boundaries, teaching them they can trust you, letting them know you love them enough to do what is right for them.

A child that throws a fit because he doesn't get his way is just crying out for someone to love him enough to stop him. He doesn't have control over his emotions. He doesn't understand them. (Hey, I barely understand my emotions and I'm almost 45 year old!) He only knows that he wants a piece of candy now and no one will let him have it. It's up to you to teach him that he can control himself.

Your purpose as his parent is to keep him safe and prepare him for life. How are you doing that if you give him everything he wants?

Trust me folks, it's possible to have a two year old ask for something, be told no, say yes ma'am and go merrily on his way. It's possible to tell your three year old, "Sit right here," and they just sit there waiting to be told they can get down. No fussing. No protest. No whining. Just a happy kid sitting with a book while Mommy makes dinner.

I know I'll get a lot of questions about this. I am happy to answer.

And if you are really angry with me right now because you think I am a terrible mother not to give in to my child's whims, I challenge you to spend a day with us. You'll see that we are a joyful, fun-loving family. Lots of laughter, lots of hugs.....could that be because we all trust each other? Could that be because no one is having a screaming fit and ruining everyone else's good time?

I HEART Valentine's Day (pt 2)

2010-01-25T17:53:00.000-08:00

The Valentine's Day decor is finally all out and ready to love on each and every person that comes to visit our home for the next month. If you come over, be prepared to have a paper doily wrap its lovin' arms around you and welcome you with a big, wet kiss.

Oops. It seems that I'm losing my mind.

Or it could be that the cuteness of my home has gone to my head. Plus I might be on a sugar high from eating too many nasty, chalk-like conversation hearts. I don't know why I eat them. I can't stand the taste, but I feel some sense of obligation that started in childhood. I think I need therapy.

"Doctor, thanks for seeing me on such short notice. I need to figure out why I feel compelled to eat those horrible conversation hearts even though I don't like them. Where did I get them you ask? Well I took them out of the little jar that I decoupaged with paper from old books and wrapped in red rick rack then printed out a vintage seed packet to add to the front. What doctor? You want to see me twice week? OK, but if I'm coming that often I will have to make you a pillow with hearts on it for your psychiatrist couch."

Here's the proof that I am not normal......

Remember the mantle that I made last year? Well here it is all decked out for February (my favorite month). Our newest family portrait, my little cages full of paper strips and candles, and tons of Valentine's Day love.

I keep the cages there all of the time and just change out what's in them. There's always paper in them though. I love old paper. It makes my heart go pitter pat.

James + Lisa = LOVE. Are you gagging yet? No, well I'm not finished.

The other side of the mantle.

I thought you needed a closer look at the jar. It's just a baby food jar (my compulsion to keep these occasionally pays off) that I embellished for FREE! Now you'retalkin' my love language.

This one holds a chocolate heart on a stick. I use a lot of ribbon. Confucius say, "He who loves ribbon loves life." It's a fact.

I made several more of the jars. These I filled with baby's breath. I will put roses in them when V-Day gets closer. But I love this look too.

On the main dining table are boxes I made a few years ago. I put heart playing cards on my printer and made the paper, then used it to cover the boxes. It's playful.

The pot has "flowers" I made with old silverware and some vintage seed packets. There's a similar centerpiece on the other table in the room.

The table runner was an afterthought. I had a piece of red canvas left over from another project. So I took a sharpie and drew hearts on it, wrote a few words and just set it on the table. No need to sew. It cost nothing. I can toss it out when I'm through with it.

Since you're probably tired of my crazy decor by now, I'll just show you a few of the things I did in the living room....

More candy. Here's the thing with candy (let's pretend that these m&m's will still be here by Valentine's Day)....it's cheap, it's colorful and it's cheap. Did I say that already?

Here are the doilies that will welcome the guests. I added pages from the book to the center of the pink hearts. Here's where I have to ask you a favor. Please don't try to actually READ the paper. The book I used is an old nature encyclopedia and these two pages are about the kind of ointment you should use if you touch a certain fungus and get a horrible rash and you'd better do it before your skin falls off. Happy Valentine's Day to you.

Some pillows I made last year. No embroidery machine necessary. It's just wool felt, plain and simple.

If you're still reading this and you haven't gone into a sugar coma from all of the sweetness, leave me a comment letting me know your favorite Valentine candy. Maybe I'll add it to my decor and put your name on it with a little heart.

Gotta go, I have an appointment with my shrink.

Go check out Between Naps on the Front Porch for lots of great ideas!

I Heart Valentine's Day (pt 1)

2010-01-23T19:02:00.000-08:00

Have I told you before how much I LOVE Valentine's Day?

My Dad loves it too. No, wait a minute, I think I'm confusing him with Mr. Hallmark. That's right. Dad loves Mom, but he does not care for Valentine's Day.

But I see it as an opportunity to tell the people I love that I am madly and passionately crazy about them and that my life is complete because they are in it. Oh, and also I get to decorate the house. With red and pink and little hearts. I mean come ON. How can I resist?

So this has been our quarterly, "Lisa Needs to Rearrange Everything and Put Out Fresh Decorations" weekend. My family just loves it. My 18 year old son lives to hear the words, "Hey, come here and help me move this piece of furniture!" My little boys can't wait for me to tell them to stand right by me for the next hour with a broom and dustpan so they can sweep up the stuff from where the sofa used to be. And don't get me started on the older girls and how they adore these great teaching moments..."See honey? If you move this half an inch to the left then it is in better proportion with the piano."

Go ahead and say it. I'm a great mom.

I have been sewing and rearranging and swooning over the ribbons and decorations we have been using. Oh, I have some wonderful things to show you!

You must be wondering where are the pictures. It's pretty cruel for me to tell you and not show you, right? But I am still in the process.

You can't rush a masterpiece.

Pictures will come shortly.

Maybe tomorrow....if I can just find someone to help me move the table. If I didn't know better, I'd say they were hiding.

It's a Choice

2010-01-21T21:25:00.001-08:00

Do you ever notice how much energy people use getting upset? And how they drain the energy of everyone around them?

Like today when the woman in the parking lot spent five minutes yelling at me because she thought I parked too close to her car and I COULD have hit it.

But I didn't hit it; she backed out just fine. Nothing actually happened to her. And she yelled for five minutes.

Or the man that was furious with his son because the little boy kept hitting him with the shopping cart. I mean furious.

But the man never just took the cart away. He kept expecting his rage to make the boy stop.

Or the guy behind me in line at the fabric store. He was berating the clerk because she was struggling with the cash register.

But she was trying really hard.

I had my own potential energy drain first thing this morning.

I had planned to leave really early so I could get all of my errands finished and be home before dinner. I got up early, made myself all pretty, gave out instructions for the day and then....my car wouldn't start. DUH and number one son spent half an hour working on it while I stood there. My plans all laid to waste. No early errands. No home before dinner. I could have slept later! I could have had breakfast with the kids.

I guess we all have an idea of how life should be. It seems like we want it to be easy. We don't want anyone else to inconvenience us.

This morning when I felt tempted to get upset I told myself, "Let God decide. Let your own plans go. He knows better."

I choose not to waste my energy spreading anger.

It is a choice. I make it over and over and sometimes I fail.

But one thing I know for sure, practice makes perfect.

The Bookshelf

2010-01-19T21:36:00.001-08:00

OK, it's time to lighten things up around here.

Whenever I need to get my mind off of things I do what everyone does....I redecorate something. Huh? What do you mean everyone doesn't do that? Really? But it's so relaxing! How can this be?

Sadly for you, this blog springs from the inside of my mind so you're stuck with it.

I'm sure most of you have left by now, but if you're a die hard and you're still reading....it does get better from here.

You may remember my big Labor Day bedroom makeover marathon. I completely redid my bedroom in four days. But there were a few things I wasn't completely satisfied with. I mulled and toyed with different ideas. And over the past few days I've made a few, small changes. I'll show you some of the others later, but here I want to talk about my bookshelf.

This is what it looked like right after the makeover....

Bad, right? I know. I didn't like it either.

But I was so tired and I had other things to do (like raise children and do laundry) so I left it the way it was. My mom suggested switching the two white shelves. I did that and it helped. I took out the chest below the TV cabinet (which may have been her suggestion too...it all blurs together) and that helped even more.

But I still wasn't crazy about it. So I added crown moulding to the short white cabinet and that's when things started looking up. Really people...it cost less than $7 and took about 15 minutes. Don't be afraid of crown moulding!

But then I realized what was bothering me. The books. They were too busy and colorful and loud.

So....this is where you see the extreme weirdness in my brain....I wrapped them all in brown packing paper. OK-OK. I paid one of children to do it. Same difference.

And I love it! Let's see what you think.

The crown moulding made all the difference.

I wrote the names of the books on the bindings.

See the picture on the right? That's our wedding day. 23 1/2 years ago. Yes, I was a child bride.

I tweaked a few other things in the room also.

Stay tuned for more....."Insanity by Lisa".

Head over to Remodelaholic for more great ideas!

In What are You Increasing?

2010-01-18T19:19:00.000-08:00

In what are you and your family increasing?

I heard this question recently and it made me wonder.

DUH and I are very purposeful with our decisions. We know our goal, to glorify God. We understand the rules, God's Word.

In what are we to be increasing?

For us it is to grow closer to Christ and be an example that draws others to want to know Him. I want to increase in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

Often times that means being different from most of the people around us. We don't play sports; for us that would take time and money away from our more important goals. We don't attend traditional church; we have always found that it draws our family apart instead of together. We don't watch much of what the world considers entertainment; we see most of it as, at the very least, a distraction from what we should be doing.

We do have fun...and lots of it. We play games, sing together, watch movies occasionally. We aren't sticks in the mud. We really love sitting around the table talking with the whole family. We enjoy being with our friends.

But we aren't casual about what we do. It should have a purpose. Sometimes that purpose is simply to rest our minds and our bodies. In everything we try to consider, what is the purpose of this?

Sometimes, when I am not sure about a decision, I picture myself standing before God. How will I answer for this, I wonder. This helps to take away the pressure I may feel from family, friends and society.

I want to be increasing in my relationship with Him. I am willing to risk being liked or admired for the sake of this goal.

Sometimes it's hard. But I know in the deepest place in my heart that one day I will be glad I lived in such a manner. I will spend eternity with the God that I know now only by faith.

I am so grateful for Him that strengthens me.

The Invitation

2010-01-15T22:40:00.000-08:00

Invitation by email.

"We were wondering if you guys would like to come over for dinner tonight."

You guys. You guys? What does that mean? Just husband and I? Or the whole gang? It would seem like you guys would mean our family. But our family hasn't been invited to dinner at someone's house since.....well....I don't remember. A long time.

There are eleven of us. There are children. I feed us all every night and I still am not sure how to do it.

But, after I checked and re-checked, she assured me that she wanted us all. All eleven. All. Eleven.

So we went. We forged through the rain and mud and cold and went. We're like the mailman.

She didn't seem too stressed when we arrived. She had spaghetti, salad, cake. It was easy and nice. The kids played games. The baby played with some toys she set out for him. The grown-ups talked around the table.

If you know a large family, I hope you'll bless them by inviting us....er....I mean them over for dinner. Don't be intimidated by how to cook for them or how to entertain everyone.

If you are a large family, teach your children how to behave at someone else's house. Then you will be a blessing in return.

I know my friend blessed me tonight.

Thanks friend.

Giveaway Winner

2010-01-14T21:17:00.000-08:00

My Etsy Giveaway is closed and we have a winner!

Thanks to all of you that entered....I really appreciate your comments.

And the winner is.....STACY!

Congratulations Stacy!

Just send me an email letting me know which one of the four new items you want along with your mailing address and I'll send it right to you!

Taco Soup

2010-01-12T22:57:00.001-08:00

Some days you just need to throw dinner together. For me, feeding 11 people every night (plus there are often extra people here), can be daunting. So I keep a list of things I can make in a flash that don't cost a lot and are pretty healthy. If the girls can make it it's even better!

Tonight it was taco soup. The great thing about taco soup is you can toss whatever you have into it. Got beef? Great. No beef? Try chicken. Easy breezy.

Here's how I made it.....keep in mind that this fed 15 of us and there were leftovers, so adjust as necessary.

I'm going to give general amounts, but it really is just throw in what you have.

4# ground beef, cooked and drained
1 onion, chopped and sauteed
4 cans diced tomatoes
4 cans ranch style beans
a medium size jar of picante sauce
2 cans of corn, drained
2 cans of hominy,drained
4 cans black beans, drained and rinsed
3 pkgs taco seasoning
3 pkgs ranch dressing mix
2 cans of beer
chicken broth as needed (you all know my passion for "Better than Bullion" so I use that)

OK, do I have to say it? We don't just have cans of beer around. We are a dry household...no moonshine in these here parts. So we have to draw straws to see which one of us has to go up to the mini-mart and try to buy beer without anyone in this small town noticing. But the soup tastes SO much better with the beer that we do it....just ask for a brown bag.

Mix it all together and let it simmer for a while. Your house will smell a bit like a brewery, but it's worth it. I recommend not making this if the preacher is coming to dinner, unless you're Episcopalian.

Serve with shredded cheese, corn chips, sour cream, I like a little avacado, but my little boys aren't into avacado, so I didn't do it tonight. I tell you, I don't understand boys. How can you not like avacado?!

Try it...serve it to company, take it to the next potluck. I promise you'll love it!

Giveaway!

2010-01-10T21:08:00.000-08:00

Yikes! I just realized that my comments were turned off! How do I get through the day?! I am going to add an extra day to the giveaway. So sorry!

One of the things I really wanted to do before we start back to school tomorrow is get some new things listed on our Etsy Shop.

So I spent all day today working on it (OK, I did a few other things too but that doesn't matter right now). I actually managed to list four new things....three of them are for Valentine's Day....one of my favorite days of the year.

To celebrate, I want to give you all something from my Etsy Shop.

If you'll go to Shop 24 and look around, then come back here and leave a comment telling me what is your favorite thing in my shop....I'll enter you once in my Giveaway. If you send a friend and they enter the giveaway (they have to mention you in their comment) then you will get another entry.

Just think....if you tell two friends, and they tell two friends, and so on, and so on, and.....OK. You get it. I'll stop.

What? Did someone raise their hand? Hey. I'm trying to talk here and....huh? Oh. What am I giving away? Oh sorry. I guess I should mention that.

The winner gets their choice of any ONE of the four new items I listed today. The Mom Apron, the Child's Apron, the Valentine's Day Necklace or the Neck Wrap. Now come on....that's exciting!

The Giveaway will end at 9:00 cst on Wednesday night, January 13. One comment per person. It's now THURSDAY at 9:00 cst.

Good luck!

To recap (for those of you that are slow, like me):
1) Go to My Etsy Shop and look around
2) Come back here and leave a comment letting me know what you like in the shop.
3) Tell two friends to go do the same thing
4) Wait by your computer on Wednesday night to see if you won!

Don't Blink

2010-01-09T09:33:00.000-08:00

How did this happen?

Happy Birthday my Sweet Sixteen Girl.

I love you!

Being Different

2010-01-07T21:23:00.001-08:00

There are places I just don't fit in.

As a dress wearing, homeschooling mother of nine.....sometimes I am just plain out of place.

At the bank...what am I doing there anyway? One look at me and you KNOW I don't have any money.

At the car wash. Please. My car hasn't been washed since the Clinton administration.

The gym. No explanation necessary.

And today.....when I went to....

The mall.

My daughter asked for a calendar for her 16th birthday. OK, I was running errands anyway so I stopped at a calendar store in the mall. There must have been 1,000 calendars there. All tasteless, tacky, offensive or all of the above.

When the goth, 17 year old salesgirl finally noticed me and asked if she could help me find something I told her what I was looking for. She said, "Oh. You HAVE to get her a Twilight calendar!"

"No thanks. We aren't into that."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, we don't do movies."

"Huh? Well.....(not sure how to respond)....there's a book also."

"No. Thank you. We don't watch or read that stuff. I'll just take this calendar with kittens on it."

As I handed her my money she had the strangest look on her face.

It was is if I had just told her my arms were made of cookie dough and she could eat one if she wanted to.

She finally said it, "I'm sorry. I don't understand what you mean when you say, 'We don't watch or read that stuff.' What do you mean?"

"What is it that you don't understand?"

"Well, EVERYONE likes Twilight."

"Not everyone."

"But, your daughter HAS to like it. All kids like it."

"Not all kids."

"But. She's seen it, right? I mean, everyone has seen it."

This was going nowhere.

I told her that we didn't see vampire movies or movies about forbidden teenage love. I said that it doesn't matter to us if it's popular. We believe in keeping our thoughts pure and not filling our heads with things that will draw us toward evil.

She stared at me blankly.

"Well, how about a Harry Potter calendar then?"

I paid and left.

I'll go back to the places where I fit better.....

Home Depot, Walmart and the flea market.

Or maybe I should just stay home.

The Right List

2010-01-06T20:22:00.000-08:00

Things I had planned to do before starting school again on January 11th:

1) Have all of the Christmas decorations put away.
2) Clean out the storage building while I'm putting away Christmas decorations.
3) Organize the school area.
4) Clean out my closet.
5) Add 20 new items to my Etsy shop.
6) Start exercising and losing weight.
7) Sew new pillows for my bed.
8) Have birthday gifts all wrapped and ready for kid's birthday this Saturday.

Things I got done:

1) Put away most of the Christmas decorations
2) Cleaned off one shelf in the school area
3) Took a shower.

Why do we do this to ourselves?

I've decided that I used the wrong list.

This is a more realistic one:

1) Hug my kids.
2) Laugh at my husband's jokes (this is the hardest one!)
3) Make lots of soup and bread for my sickies.
4) Pray for the people I love.

I did it all and I'm satisfied with that.

New Scarf Idea

2010-01-04T08:08:00.000-08:00

Wow! Is it Monday? My mental calendar is all messed up! It will be weeks before I know what day it is without looking at a calender 20 times throughout the day.

I keep asking the kids, "What's today?"

"It's Monday, Mom. Still Monday from when you asked me 10 minutes ago."

Sorry. But my brain is telling me it's Saturday and it won't stop.

Hey! I should make some scarfs, like I sell in my Etsy shop. Remember the underwear we had when we were kids? With the days of the week on them? I could have days of the week scarfs!

I could master the art of glancing down ever so subtly at my scarf to see what day it is. I might look weird, but that ship has sailed anyway. In this small town I'm pretty sure there isn't anyone left that doesn't think I'm at least a little strange.

So that's it....I'm going to make myself some days of the week scarfs.

Hmm....while I'm at it I'd better put the date on them. 2010 is pretty hard to remember. And as long as my mind is slipping....I could make some for my kids to wear. I do often hear myself saying, "What's your name again?"

I knew this monogram thing would come in handy someday. Stay tuned....I'm going to label everything!

An Unexpected Trip

2009-12-31T19:25:00.000-08:00

I usually don't post twice in a day.

But as life goes....things change.

Last night my father had some serious chest pain. Mom called an ambulance. Off they went. Happy New Year to them.

I got the text at 4:00 AM. Dad was having a catheter (not sure of the medical term for this) at 9:30 to find out what was causing the pain.

By noon we knew. 90%-95% blockage in three arteries. Three stents and plans for more in a few weeks.

My oldest daughter and I made the four and a half hour drive and were here by 9:30 AM. But we had some car trouble and heavy fog along the way.

Tonight Dad is sleeping. At least sleeping as much as you can in CCU.

We are sleeping at my parent's house. At least as much as you can sleep when someone you love has had a near death experience.

We'll be here for a few days. Dad should be fine....it's a wake up call for all of us.

I hope Dad doesn't mind if I tell you....he had been having this pain for a while. He just didn't want to tell anyone. If not for a mysterious incident with one of their dogs, he might never have told us. We came close to losing him.

I am making my first New Year's resolution right now.

If I am having chest pain, or anything that might be something serious....I am going to tell someone that loves me.

Promise.

update: Dad is back home and resting. Thanks for all of your prayers!

second update: Dad had more chest pains inthe night and is back in the hospital. Keep praying! :)

Ode the the Oughts

2009-12-31T00:01:00.000-08:00

Dear 2000-2009,

Farewell. I can't believe you are over. You gave and you took.

You gave me my last three children. All boys. The 8 year old is a little weird, but I'll forgive you for that. He's sweet.

You took many of my loved ones. My grandmother in 2003, a baby the same year. My precious brother in 2004, my wonderful mother-in-law in 2005 and my beautiful sister-in-law in 2006. It was rough.

You aged me. But I don't mind. With age comes wisdom. Hopefully.

You weren't much help in the weight department. In 2003 I lost 100 pounds. By 2005 I had gained 75 back. I hope the next decade will be more of a help than you were.

There were IRS battles and a CPS investigation. Sickness and struggle. But also there was so much joy, new friends and building our 80 year old farmhouse into a home for our family. Goats and chickens, trips to Canton and acting in plays.

Sadly, I'm still driving the same van I was driving at the beginning of the decade.

Through it all, you helped me grow closer to the Lord. It was your hard times and your suffering that drew me to my knees. So I can't be mad about it. God knew what I needed.

Good bye 2000-2009.

You will be remembered.

Empire State Cookie

2009-12-28T19:29:00.000-08:00

Filmmaking.

A dream of my older two kids.

They have spent the day working on a contest. A 12-Hour film competition.

From 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM they have been frantically working to complete a 1 minute film.

One minute people. Do you know how long it takes to make a one minute movie? Longer than I thought, that's for sure.

In order to assure they didn't start early, the host of the competition included security elements. These are things that have to be in the film. At 8:00 this morning they learned that they have to include in their movie...candy, the line, "I've never seen that before" and a time lapse camera technique.

I was in charge of props. And cleanup. And laughing at their silliness. These are all important jobs. Here's the prop crew....

(I have to stop here to point out....I did not realize that I have such a huge head. I know she's 12 years old, but seriously. Standing next to her I look like a cartoon character!)

Sorry, it was too distracting. I'll get back to the movie making now.

Here is one of our beautiful props. Aren't you impressed with my abilities as a prop mistress? I think I missed my calling.

Huh? What do you mean, don't give up my day job?

Checking the website at 8:00 AM to find out the security elements.

Storyboarding (don't ask me what storyboarding is. I just live here)

The star of the movie....

It was a mess. There was flour everywhere!

Will it ever be clean again?

Doubtful.

But that's OK. It's all for the good of mankind. Or the ten people that will see the movie. Whichever.

Here it is. The finished project. Enjoy!

Post Christmas Clean-Up

2009-12-26T10:57:00.002-08:00

Christmas trash and messes and leftovers.

They're everywhere.

For a neat freak like me, it is a hard time. I want the kids to enjoy it all, but the Legos. Everywhere. Legos.

It's what moms do. We set aside our own need for order and sanity for the love of the children.

Today we are taking down the Christmas decorations. It is my way. I like it gone the day after Christmas. I like the furniture to go back into its place and the best part....everything gets a good sweeping under it before we put it back.

I love knowing that the floors are all clean under the furniture where you can't see it.

I know I'm a freak.

I told you that from the beginning.

But I am telling you the truth when I say that I have not said much yet. I have not complained about the Legos all over the floor. I have not fussed about books and candy lying about the house. I have not lost my cool over the stocking stuffers strewn about.

I'm not completely good. I have gone around picking up every little piece of trash that I see. The part that makes me good is that I don't make them do it. I can only let so much go. I'm not a saint people!

We had a wonderful Christmas. Everyone has something new to do, including me.

Sadly, cleaning up the trash keeps me entertained and as I wander about the house I get to interact with the kids and enjoy what they're up to.

It's Christmas. Do what makes you happy. Me, I'm going to organize the new toys.

Ooh I get excited just thinking about it!

Merry Christmas

2009-12-24T06:44:00.001-08:00

Thank you all so much for being so supportive of our family over this past year.
It has meant the world to us.

May the joy of our savior, Jesus Christ, surround you this season.

Merry Christmas!

Cloud Storms

2009-12-23T07:49:00.000-08:00

I just realized that I have been singing the wrong words to a Christmas carol all my life (and that's a LONG time!)

From "I Wonder as I Wander"

I'm just singing along....La la la la la....."When Mary birthed Jesus 'twas in a cloud storm...."

Huh? What? What did that just say? A cow stall? Seriously?!

Oh. That never really made sense to me. A cloud storm? What kind of cloud storms did they have in Bethlehem on a night that was so clear you could see the stars in the sky?

I'm a dork.

A Christmas Lie

2009-12-22T14:15:00.000-08:00

It's OK to lie at Christmas, right?

"What darling? Oh no. That tote bag with your name on it isn't for you. I monogrammed it for a customer. She must have a little boy with the same name as you!"

Uh oh. What happens on Christmas morning when he opens that tote bag and realizes that his mother lied to him?

Will he be ever believe me again?

Will he be scarred for life?

Will he grow to doubt my every word?

Will he even notice that it's the same bag....thus nullfiying my worries?

Is nullifying a word?

Why yes actually. I am positive it is a word. (see, I'm getting better at lying)

I guess a little Christmas lie is OK. As long as I tell the truth the rest of the year.

Or get better at hiding the tote bags.

Eighteen

2009-12-20T09:12:00.001-08:00

Our first born son, the one who will inherit our riches, the one who will take care of me when I'm old, the one who can't remember to take out the trash.....

is eighteen today.

Eighteen! How did this happen? Time sure does fly. It has been such a joy to watch him grow into the young man he has become.

Everyone wears the hat. Because humiliating the ones I love brings me joy.

This year he will graduate from our little homeschool and begin to carve out his niche in this world.

He's not threatening to punch me. He's showing his new watch. At least I hope so....

Eighteen is a big deal. And we are so proud of him.

Now this is more like it....

Bad Days Are Still a Blessing

2009-12-18T20:58:00.001-08:00

Everyone I meet tells me the same thing...

"I am so busy!" "I am going crazy!"

Yep. It's a busy time of year.

But today tops it all for me....and if you don't mind I'm gonna tell you about it.

I was up until 2:00 AM the past two days finishing up a whole truckload of monogram orders.

A friend calls at midnight last night and needed my help. It was a genuine emergency. Her son broke his arm and had to have surgery. I was up and out the door early, early this morning to do what I could to help her.

A quick trip to WalMart for some things I forgot to buy yesterday.

Home by 4:00 and try to finish up the last of the monogramming.

Try to clean the guest house for the company that is to arrive tonight.

Get a call at 6:30 that husband had a car accident in a city 2 hours away. I must drop everything and drive to get him.

As I go to get the kids in the car one of them throws up. Joy.

I hope you're still here because there is a good part.....

Broken arm boy is doing well. I had the $50 I needed to get my groceries. One friend offered to be on call for my kids so I could go get my husband. DUH is sore, but fine. My wonderful sister and her family went and got him and met me halfway. Another friend talked to me on the phone for an hour to help me stay awake. My other friend prayed with me and kept praying all evening. I just finished the last monogram order. The guest house is all clean and ready.

The world is right again.

Above it all.....no matter what....God is so, so very good to me. That thought never leaves me. I am blessed beyond measure. These are just bumps in the road. He loves me. And that, my dear friends, is enough.

The Open Road

2009-12-15T20:53:00.000-08:00

I like to drive. A few years ago I piled the kids in the car and drove to Ohio. From South Texas. It was fun!

The trip I'm on now is much shorter. On Sunday I drove about 5 hours from my house to visit my parents. Tomorrow I will drive home again.

The kids and I talk and sing and play games. They have my full attention....except, of course, when I am paying attention to the road. But that's just a technicality. I assure you I am paying more attention to them than I am to my driving. I know where my priorities should be.

If I start to get sleepy I just stop at the nearest Sonic for my secret weapon. A Diet Dr Pepper with extra ice. It keeps me going. It makes me feel alive. Too much of an exaggeration. OK, sorry.

The kids already made plans. They take turns sitting next to me. They want to sing Christmas carols with me and tell me their hopes and dreams. I want to sip my Diet Dr Pepper and listen. Oh yeah, and watch for oncoming traffic.

I like to drive. I should do it more often.

Big Girls Don't Cry

2009-12-13T20:59:00.000-08:00

My new friend, the Pioneer Woman, she gave me a gift. A gorgeous, beautiful, stunning t-shirt. Yes, she gave a t-shirt to everyone that came to her book signing. Even though I was one of thousands....I feel sure I was the most special. Now you know why I love her so. She loves me too. My t-shirt proves it.

But there was one problem. It's a small problem. Very small. So small that my 12 year old could wear it.

And I'm not a small girl. I'm a 1x. That meant that my precious PW t-shirt wasn't going to fit. No siree.....not even if I didn't eat one piece of pie for the rest of the holidays.

But I couldn't let it go. It's too special to me.

Now, my mom taught me to respect my things. She would never let me write in a book or break china on purpose. But I'm a rebel. I cut up my Pioneer Woman shirt with no guilt at all.

I sewed it to a man's khaki shirt that I had in my closet and never wore.

The back is the best part.

I adore rick rack. I add it to everything. That's probably why no one is calling me to make haute couture.

I used the extra pieces to make a ruffle for the collar

and new cuffs.

I couldn't let one perfect bit of the shirt go to waste. I used every scrap.

Since I have an embroidery business, I added swirls. And in honor of Pioneer Woman, a couple of butterflies.

Thanks for the wonderful shirt Pioneer Woman. I love it!

Galactic Eggs

2009-12-12T23:27:00.000-08:00

When you buy eggs at the grocery store, do you know where they come from?

Who manages those chickens? Who takes care of them? Does that person care about your health or the well being of the chickens?

When we eat eggs that have been laid (or lain...which is it?) by our chickens, we know they are well cared for. You might even say....

The force is with them.

Who better to care for our precious birds than the enemy of the Rebel Alliance wearing blue Crocs?

No one dares to bother our chickens. No one would stand against the protector of this Empire.

Those eggs are mine.....all mine. The chickens know it. It is their destiny.

May the force be with you.

@Santa-where did the time go?

2009-12-09T08:11:00.000-08:00

They say Christmas is a time for miracles....

And I need one, man. I need a miracle. I need for God to streeeettttcccchhhhh out the days so I can have some more time. Please God, do that teensy thing for me?

My little Shop 24 workers are cranking out orders. I just know this is how Santa feels. So much to do before Christmas Eve when he carries all of the gifts to all of the children around the world.

I wonder if he Twitters while he's doing it. I can see it now...

"Just left with a sleigh full. Man it's gonna be a long night!"

"Stopped at little Johnny's house. Noticed he was bad. No gifts."

"Rudolph's already getting tired. He should have done the treadmill like I told him."

"Thanks Mrs. Clause for packing the Alkaseltzer. Had too much cookies and milk."

"Ho-ho-ho Tweets!"

"Merry Christmas to all! And to all a good night!"

A Night of Christmas Fun!

2009-12-07T21:59:00.001-08:00

We had a few people over for dinner on Sunday night.

It's a lovely bunch, wouldn't you say?

Here's just our family.....

We need those other people back to make us look all Christmas-y. We don't have enough red in our picture.

These are all of the people that homechurch with us. We usually meet in two different groups, but we all thought that we needed to be all together for Christmas. It made sense until they all got here. Then I started wondering what medication I had been on to think this was a good idea. That RobitussinPM is strong stuff!

The kids played outside. The moms heated up the Mexican food that we each brought. The dads.....hmmmm. I'm not sure what the dads were doing. Why is it you never really know what the dads were doing?

This guy, while he doesn't belong to me, needed me to take his picture. He is so charming I couldn't resist.

And forget it if you think I could resist this.

Or this.

After we stuffed ourselves we took the tables out and gathered in the living room and sang carols.

It was delightful until one of the kids begged to sing, "The Twelve Days of Christmas." I won't say who, but one of the moms tried to cheat and start at the end.

Here's my guy. He melts my heart. And to the left is my son picking his nose. He gets that from his father.

This is what happens when you have two bloggers in one group. "Hi Grateful! You're as crazy as I am!"

As I was putting the baby to bed, I could hear all of my friends in the other room singing "Away in a Manger." It made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Kinda like RobitussinPM, but without the hangover the next day.

It was a great night. Prayer, friends, Mexican food, Christmas carols, hot chocolate and children everywhere. It's as it should be.

Snow!

2009-12-05T02:00:00.000-08:00

Snow Snow Snow Snow Snow!

We are stunned...positively shocked over the snow flurry in our yard!

The kids ran immediately outside and started squealing.

But there was a problem. Every stinkin' year I get caught by surprise. Someone doesn't have what they need for the cold weather. Keep in mind we're in TEXAS. You Kentucky, Minnesota, Ohio people won't understand. It was hot last week....like sandals and t-shirts. Why would I be ready for cold weather? I wasn't expecting it yet! And, OK maybe I am not the best at the whole silly, "everyone needs shoes" thing. I'm not too proud to admit it.

Here's the whole, crazy bunch one at a time.....youngest to oldest....

Baby's first snowflakes. He kept saying, "snow! snow!" but I don't think he had any idea what it meant.

This little guy is the silliest kid. He never cares if what he wears belongs to him. If he sees it, he wears it. He will wear his oldest sister's crocks outside with Daddy's socks. He's really funny.

But THIS one really keeps us in stitches. He's extremely literal. So we like to mess with his head. Confuse the boy. What else can you do with a kid that wears a Santa hat 24 hours a day for weeks? Anyway, what's the fun of having kids if you can't use them for your personal entertainment every once in a while?

This guy is growing up way too fast for his mother's liking. He's all permanent teeth and big boy math and making smoothies. He loves to help me. He'll jump up and run to me if he sees I might need his help. Very, very nice boy.

Isn't she pretty? Really, how do I stand looking at these pretty girls all day? She's a brainiac, this one. But she loves the Lord and tries really hard to obey, even though it can be a challenge when you're smarter than everyone else. ;)

Mini-me. She's organized and tidy and funny....she's the jewelry maker. She's been like an adult since she was 3 years old. Don't make her start to giggle....she'll be out of control giggling, shaking and covering her mouth for 10 minutes. It's one of my favorite things to do, make her giggle and then act shocked that she can't stop. Which makes her giggle more.

This little girl makes everyone happy. She's a ray of sunshine. She would do anything for anyone without hesitation. She is cheerful, but sometimes very emotional. She talks so fast it's hard to understand her. But she's working on it.

My animator....18 years old in two weeks. Hates the cold, hates the rain, hates it when Mom drags him outside for pictures. But don't let the expression fool you. He made this face for me on purpose. He's very playful. He doesn't laugh often, but when he does he laughs hard. It's a personal challenge for me to make him laugh once a day.

My firstborn. My rock. She inspires me every day to be a better mom and a better woman. She holds down the fort when I'm gone and she desires to honor God in any way He leads. She loves the baby.....I have to remind her he's mine. She can't have him.

I guess my snow post turned into a love fest over my kids. I can't help it. They are such a blessing to me. I'm glad it snowed. I'm glad I stopped to think about each one of them and how special they are.

The Pioneer Woman Cooks!

2009-12-03T23:50:00.001-08:00

2:00- Grateful for Grace and I leave the house. We leave our children, our husbands, our chickens...and we head off to Austin. It's a two hour drive.

4:10- We arrive in Austin and decide to treat ourselves to some Chick-Fil-A. After all, this is a road trip and we deserve it.

4:30- We arrive at BookPeople in Austin and we are directed upstairs where we get our bracelets.

4:45- We walk next door to Anthropologie where we pretend shop and pick out all of the cutest stuff for ourselves, but buy nothing.

5:00- We head back to the bookstore, up the stairs and plant ourselves on the floor right in front of the podium.

Ok, this is where I must impress upon you my dedication. I am 44 years old, overweight and my neck hurts pretty much all of the time. But I sat on the floor. The FLOOR people. I sat on the hard, wooden floor for over two hours. This is big. I don't even get on the floor to play with my babies. No, no. They can get up in a chair like a normal person.

5:30- The crowd is growing. Grateful and I discussed it and she thought there were around 300. Me, I thought it was more like 500.

7:00- Marlboro man and the punks arrive. Cameras start to flash all over the room. The excitement is in the air!

7:30- This is it. The moment we have been waiting for all our lives, or since 2:00. Whichever comes first.

It's The Pioneer Woman!

Now, this is not a great picture of her. She is much cuter than this. You will see a better one later, but I had to show at least one of her standing there. You might not believe me otherwise.

8:00- She goes up more stairs to sign cookbooks....hundreds of books, maybe thousands. Some people had armloads of books. Grateful and I had one each.

8:15- Grateful stops PW's sister and starts a conversation. Grateful is like that. If she can't stalk PW, she'll stalk her family. It's embarrassing. Remember the Voddie Baucham incident? It's a sickness. But not so embarrassing that I didn't take a picture of it. Anything for you, my friends.

8:45- It's finally our turn. We are next. Grateful was giddy and we were all ready with our books and our cameras and....what? PW has to go to the bathroom?! How dare she?!

One of her offspring took the empty chair. It's a future Pioneer Woman right there.

8:50- PW returned from the privacy and quiet of the bathroom and was ready to get back to business.

She was lovely and kind and everything you'd expect her to be. I thought she seemed a little overwhelmed. It couldn't be that she had already signed hundreds of cookbooks and would probably be signing them for the next three hours and it was probably 90° in there and that she was admittedly wearing Spanx that were too small and that she had been traveling all day.

I did give her one my Etsy scarves. She said it was pretty. So we're friends now. I'll show you the scarf I gave her in another post. It's not important right now, so please stop asking.

We felt like the whole trip was totally worth it. Even though I won't be able to move my legs for days and we missed the whole evening with our families, it was worth it.

But will you indulge me for one more second? I just have to tell you what we did on the way home.

Our drive took us through Johnson City (population 55,000). I don't know if you've ever been through there at Christmastime, but their electric co-op is lit to the nines (is that how you write that phrase? It's funny, I've never written it before). We couldn't resist stopping to take a picture.

We had the bright idea that we could get out and snap a few for fun. The instant we got out, we were freezing. I mean shivering, chattering teeth, the works. I would have cried, but I am sure the tears would have frozen to my face. So we did a few poses because we are devoted to you, our dear friends. We just had to show you the spectacular lights.

I know we look a little bit scared in these pictures. But it was really, really cold! And we were waaay underdressed.

We did stop a woman that was walking past and asked her to take our picture together. She looked professional. She had a whoop-de-do camera on a tripod and looked like she was about to do some serious photography. She took several pictures for us, all while smoking her cigarette and acting like she had never seen a camera before. All of her pictures turned out like this.... (and yes, she was wearing hat, gloves, scarf and heavy coat. this was NOT the result of her shivering)

So we tried to take one of ourselves.

I know. We're dorks. But we do have a good time. We giggled for the next 20 minutes about how freezing we were. It really doesn't take much to entertain us.

At least I can show you how cool the trees look. It is worth a trip out there if you're not too far away.

And the Pioneer Woman is worth the drive all the way to Austin. No matter how bad your legs hurt afterward. And her cookbook is fabulous! You must get one for yourself and all of your friends and future friends..

11:45- Back home and off to bed. What an adventure. I hope I can move tomorrow!

Small Gifts

2009-12-01T20:29:00.001-08:00

As the weather gets chilly and the Christmas lights on the porch shine their soft glow through my bedroom window....I start to feel ready for the holidays.

We don't do much in the way of gifts. The kids get a stocking and sometimes (not this year) we get them a group gift. This year, with money being tight, the Lord has provided some sweet things for their stockings. What a delight to see what God would give them when I step aside and let Him bless us.

Just today I got a package from a friend in California full of figurines that my 15 year old daughter collects. This friend noticed, during a visit here, that my daughter collects Beatrix Potter figurines. She'd been wanting to clean out her house, so she sent me a bunch of them. It was so sweet. Thanks *S*, for your generosity. My daughter will LOVE them!

Another friend gave me a couple of old Nancy Drew books. My 14 year old adores Nancy Drew. How fun it will be to see her pull them out of her stocking on Christmas morning.

My aunt gives the kids school supplies and another friend gave me an address book that my 19 year old will love. She has so many pen pals and it will be fun for her to have a book with all of their addresses.

God is so good. He gave His son for us and now, in such a small way He continues to show His love for us by providing little gifts for our kids for Christmas.

Now, does anyone have any gift ideas for an 18 year old boy? If I could come up with a gift for him....that would be a real Christmas miracle!

Close to You

2009-11-29T16:54:00.000-08:00

It's been a long weekend of coughing and not sleeping and coughing some more.

Why is it lasting so long? Why is my house such a mess? Why do bird suddenly appear every time you are near? Why am I singing Karen Carpenter songs?

I think I'm high on Robitussin PM.

I hope you all had a fabulous weekend with family and friends. I hope you shopped 'til you dropped and got some amazing deals.

Me, I rubbed oils on my chest and had weird dreams about my etsy shop strangling me with personalized scarves.

Stay well my friends. Lucky for you germs can't be passed through my blog.

Just like me...they long to be..close to you......

Shop 24

2009-11-26T19:42:00.001-08:00

It's up....

It's ready......

Drum roll please........

Our etsy shop is up and running.

The name of our place is Shop 24.

The name is based on Proverbs 31:24, "She makes linen garments and sells them, and supplies the merchants with sashes."

The girls and I will be adding and changing our items often, so keep checking back.

I wanted to offer you, my beautiful blog readers, something extra if you make a purchase through our etsy shop this weekend.

So if you make a purchase by the end of Monday (12:00 CST) I will give you a free, white, 2 1/2" personalized ornament.

When you place an order order, just put in the "message to seller" box that you came from my blog and what letter you would like on your personalized ornament and I will add it to your order.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend!

Come visit us at Shop 24.

Letting Go

2009-11-25T06:02:00.000-08:00

T’was the night before Thanksgiving, when all through the house
not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse
(which is good ‘cuz mamma is terrified of mice);
The turkey was thawed in the new Frigidaire
in hopes of tomorrow when friends would be there.
The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
while visions of mashed potatoes danced in their heads.
Mamma making lists, preparing her nest
had just settled down for a long evening’s rest.
When out from her bedroom there arose such a clatter,
Father sprang from his office to see what was the matter.
He rushed across the driveway and through the back door
his bare feet padding over the new floor.
He pushed past the dining room and all sleeping boys
into the bedroom to see what was that noise.
And what to his wondering eyes should appear,
but the one thing that was his very worst fear.
His wife made the sounds, and the worst of it
was that she was having a huge coughing fit.
Her chest heaved and her eyes watered as she tried to breathe
it was so hard to watch, he wanted to leave.
Poor mamma’s cold had gone into her chest
but what worried her was her expected guests.
Tomorrow they expected a Thanksgiving meal,
and her coughing would be very hard to conceal.
Her disappointment was obvious as he looked in her eyes
she knew she couldn’t make gravy and pies.
No, she’d have to stay in bed and let her body heal
instead of making the beautiful Thanksgiving meal.
He told her he’d give the guests a call
and she should go to bed once and for all.
So she stopped making lists and put down her pen
and went to bed sad for her invited friends.
Where would they go for their Thanksgiving feast?
the ham, corn and deviled eggs, rolls made with yeast.
But finally she gave over to her husband’s words
she knew that trying to cook this meal was absurd.
She went to bed praying for God to make a way
for her friends to still have a wonderful day.
The lesson she learned through her prayers from that night…
Let go and let God, for He knows what is right.

Thanksgiving

2009-11-22T20:30:00.001-08:00

I thought you might like to know what our Texas sized Thanksgiving will look like.

I will post after pictures, but for now....here's a written plan.

My parents will arrive the night before. I am planning to have most of the prep work done before they get here so Mom doesn't have to work too much. It's her turn to be waited on. She has made many a delightful holiday meal.

We will have the linens pressed, the china washed, the onions chopped and everything ready to prepare our delicious Thanksgiving dinner.

Mom is bringing a pre-cooked turkey from some place in Houston that she swears has the best turkey ever. It's ok with me because that means I don't have to get up at 5AM to put the bird in the oven.

After a breakfast of coffee cake and fruit, we'll start setting the table. I have gorgeous chargers and china. The centerpieces will be pumpkins and candles. I will use a few of my grandmother's serving pieces along with some that I have collected over the years.

Some friends are coming to join us for dinner, which will make for a festive time. We will have a houseful of people whom we love and who love us. What's better than that?

The menu:
Turkey
Ham
Dressing (it wouldn't be Thanksgiving without my grandmother's dressing. If I didn't make it I might have a mutiny on my hands)
Mashed Potatoes
Rolls
Gravy
Green Beans
Broccoli Casserole
Creamed Corn (made from fresh corn on the cob...yum!)
Deviled Eggs
Fruit Salad (don't mistake this for healthy...this will have whipped cream and marshmallows in it...no healthy here people. It's Thanksgiving!)
Lemon Pie
Pecan Pie
Apple Pie
Chocolate Pie
Pumpkin Pie

I'm not sure why we need so many pies. I think it's because, for some reason, we don't make pies any other time. It's our one and only chance to have pie for another year, so we're going for it.

Most of it can be prepared ahead of time, so Thanksgiving day should be easy.

The most coveted recipe is the dressing....passed down from generation to generation. It took me a long time to figure out how to make it. It's not like I had to send it off to a lab to be analyzed. It's just that every time I asked an aunt or my mom, the conversation would go something like this....

Me: Hey Mom, how do you make Meemaw's dressing?

Mom: Oh, you just make some cornbread...

Me: How much cornbread?

Mom: Oh, I don't know, just some. Then you chop some onions...

Me (pencil in hand): How many onions?

Mom: Oh, maybe a couple...whatever. Then you chop some celery....

And on it went. It took me several tries, but I finally worked out my own version of the recipe. It has become a family favorite. I'd give you the recipe, but it really is like they said....just a little of this and a little of that.

I hope you have a wonderful holiday.

I'd love to know what some of your Thanksgiving favorites are.....

In the Hood

2009-11-22T06:22:00.001-08:00

One word.

Unabomber.

"Mommy! Really."

I know, I know. But it IS what passes through my mind every time he pulls the hood up.

Bye.

The Perfect Red

2009-11-20T11:54:00.001-08:00

I had a great need.....I mean a great!

Red lipstick.

The perfect red.

It is evasive....that perfect shade.

I decided I needed help, so I headed into Ulta....the place to buy overly priced make-up for desperate women hoping to hide their age.

I wandered around rubbing red lipsticks onto my hand....some were too pink, some were too orange. Finally I asked a young salesgirl, maybe 25, what she suggested. She thought I should wander around rubbing red lipsticks onto my hand. Thanks.

After a few minutes she said, "Let's ask Cathy. She is really good with tones and colors. Oh Cathy! Can you help us over here?"

I turned, expecting Cathy to be a lovely, toned, tastefully dressed woman.

No.

What came toward me is hard to describe. Large woman, maybe 40 years old, bright pink hair.....big hair. She had on fake eyelashes. Like the ones you see for sale on Halloween. Just above her horrendous blue eyeshadow she had five sequins glued to each eyelid. To top it off, she was wearing the brightest pink lipstick I had ever seen.

If you know me, you know I am not good at hiding my true thoughts. I muttered something like, "She's good at tones and colors?"

But Cathy took charge. She asked me a few questions and she led me to the perfect lipstick. She explained that it was exactly what I needed with my skin tone. It was obvious that she knew of what she spoke. Even if she did look a little like a clown rock star.

I ended up with "Leading Lady" by Lorac. She promised it was not only the best red for me, but it is a new formula that is long lasting. She wasn't kidding! I tried some on in the car and then I ate a whole pear and drank a soda and after all of that my lips were still the perfect shade of red. Now that's long lasting!

So there you go. I'm all ready for the holidays now.

What we ladies won't go through for beauty.

If you're looking for that perfect shade....go to Ulta.

Ask for Cathy.

Boxes and Bottles

2009-11-18T06:51:00.001-08:00

Why do we love the things we do?

I mean, I know why I love my kids and I know why I love books and I know why I love chocolate.

But why do I love weird things?

Like bottles.

I love little glass bottles. Amber bottles and blue bottles and glass jars....they get me going.

When I have to buy bottles for my herbs and oils, I have to resist the temptation to order 100 extra bottles that I have no use for. They intrigue me.

I see the little apothecary bottles and immediately visions of a pharmacist of the olden days, mixing medicines for the little lady standing at his drug counter start running through my head. I want to touch the bottles and have them near me. To remember. To see ahead. To be present in the moment.

Today I was ordering boxes for my etsy shop (which is almost ready....announcement coming soon!).

Those cases of boxes were getting my juices flowing. I keep going back and looking at what else there is to choose from. There's a feeling of hesitancy as I push the, "Complete Order" button. What if there are more boxes I didn't see? Maybe I should look one more time.

It's the same, days-of-old feeling. Like new school supplies. The smell, the crispness, the untouched. I am so excited about getting those boxes. It connects me with the little girl down inside....yet at the same time it links me to the future. Why? How can a box do that?

Surely I am not the only person that gets excited over something weird. What does it for you? Shoes? Cars? Cleaning products?

Chip's Challenge

2009-11-17T06:24:00.002-08:00

It was time for a day of family togetherness. DUH and the kids had the grand idea that we should have a game tournament as soon as this last tax deadline was over. We deserve a day off right? DUH has been working extra hard between work and his law studies. The kids have been carrying an extra load while I work on my shop orders.

So we all took a day off. While I would have chosen museums, shopping, picnic at the park....I went along with their plan.

We would have a Chip's Challenge tournament.

Chip's Challenge is a "tile based puzzle video game" that DUH and I used to play when the kids were very little. We had no money and nothing to do but stay home on a Saturday and play games while the babies napped.

But now those babies have grown. Grown and learned to beat us at video games. Something is wrong with that.

The kids were all excited. They wore green shirts in honor of Chip. The game was installed on everyone's computer and we were ready go to. Get a drink, go to the bathroom, make yourself comfortable. You're going to be sitting there for a long time.

9AM. Ready. Set. GO!

We were off. All of our computers in the same room. All of us racing through the levels. Each time we would complete a level we would jump up and run to the write & wipe school board to change our level. That way we could all see how each person was doing....sum up the competition.

We'd call out challenges, "Hey Daddy! I'm on Level 11! What level are you on?" To which he'd reply, "Be quiet."

It wasn't long before the oldest 2 were pulling ahead of the rest of us. I was doing OK....not shaming myself anyway. But poor DUH, he wasn't faring as well as he had expected. At one point I heard him mumble, "And I thought I was going to have to be stopping to help you all because I would be so far ahead."

No dear, we're getting too old for this stuff anymore.

It took him so long to get through Level 33 that he got way behind. When he finally completed it....we all rejoiced.

At noon it was fend for yourself. Some of the kids had pre-prepared their lunches so they could eat while they played.

The funniest joke that popped up throughout the day came from Level 24. It is called, "Oorto Geld". It took me a while to finish, so every time anyone asked me what level I was on I would say, "Oorto Geld" to which they would reply, "Why? What is wrong with her?"

It turns out they thought I was saying, "Poor Jo Gail." (Jo Gail is my wonderful aunt that regularly reads my blog and will get a kick out of this story) So for the rest of the day someone, out of the blue, would say with a sympathetic tone, "Poor Jo Gail". And anytime someone would lose a level we would all say, "Poor Jo Gail." It washilarious.

By 2:00 my head was hurting and my eyes were having trouble focusing.

I stopped. They kept going. Another fell by the wayside around 3:30. So she and I took the baby and went to the grocery store. When we returned home at 6:00....they were still playing.

When they stopped for dinner at 7:00 the games were over. There was a clear winner. 17 year old son was 10 levels ahead of his 19 year old sister....and she was 12 levels ahead of the rest of us.

When DUH and I finally sat down together at the end of the day, his words were....

"Not my best idea."

We did have fun, but we won't do it again.

My cankles can't take it.

Next time I get to choose.....and I choose shopping.

They won't like it but, oh well....poor Jo Gail.

For a free download of Chip's Challenge go here.

Purpose

2009-11-12T21:04:00.001-08:00

I drove by one of our small town Mexican restaurants last week and here's what the sign said....

We now serve biscuits

Maybe it's just me, but I have never gone to a Mexican restaurant and thought to myself, "I'd really like a biscuit."

If I want a biscuit I go to Cracker Barrel.

Can I get an amen?

I'm a person that sees a message in things.

Things like signs.

I see signs in signs.

That makes me smarter than...well...no one.

To me, if a Mexican restaurant is serving biscuits, they don't understand their purpose. Which is, of course, to be sure I have a constant supply of tamales.

I know my purpose. I am a wife and mother first. I am to manage my home, be a helpmeet to my husband and as a Christian....a friend to the friendless.

After that I will do for others. After my family's needs are met. After I do what God has put right in front of me.

My purpose is not to please everyone. I can't worry about whether people like me. I won't be drawn into drama. I love my friends and neighbors dearly. I love the 6 of you that read my blog. But I know my first call. I know who I am.

Christian, wife, mother.

And.....I serve biscuits.

My Homies

2009-11-12T08:37:00.001-08:00

These are my peeps.

My homies.

I know they're all white. They're still my bros.

Every Sunday night we have a gang in our crib. Fellow Christians that long for deeper relationships. More love from the 'hood.

I love these people. There's a whole other group that comes on Wednesday nights....I love them too!

I love everyone! I'm like that....me and Tiny Tim.

Why is my 6 year old pulling his ear?

Is something bothering him? Is the singing off key? Probably. That's how we roll....off key and proud of it!

What do you think these guys are singing? Ahhhhhh-Ohhhhh-Holy Night!...........

We sing that a lot here in the ghetto. Christmas carols in the fall. Or hymns. Whatevah.

And what's on the board behind them?

"Natural Law" and "π r²=a"

Huh?

Did you know π is an irrational number? It fits in perfectly around here.

Oops....I mean.....'sup dawg?

"Mom! When are you coming back to sit with me? And why are you talking like that?"

Sorry kid.

Peace out.

Guilt Free

2009-11-10T14:59:00.001-08:00

It's funny. For the past couple of days I have been a little tortured. The break-in of my van keeps running over and over in my mind.

At first I had a clear memory of putting the GPS on the floor before I got out of the car.

But as time passed I started to wonder.

"Did I do it? Did I remember? Or did I forget in my haste to keep up with my friends?"

"What if the whole break-in was my fault?!"

I remember doing it. I do it every time I get out of the car. Just ask my kids. They laugh about it. Just ask my friends that have borrowed it from me. That's my only condition for borrowing it....hide it when you get out of the car.

I don't know if it's the trauma of what happened or just self doubt, but that first night when I went to bed I started wondering.

Did I?

Didn't I?

But then God touched my heart with the truth.

It doesn't matter!

It was MY GPS, sitting in MY van, all belonging to ME.

Even if I left it on the hood, all lit up with signs pointing to it, no one had the right to steal it from me, much less destroy the window of my van.

What kind of world are we living in where the innocent feel guilty and the guilty feel innocent.

God's Word is clear.

Right is right. Wrong is wrong. There is no middle.

"Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy; they will sing before the LORD, for he comes, he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his truth." Psalm 96: 12-13

We are all judged by the same truth. We will all face the same God. We all have to live with our own decisions.

God knows our hearts. He is the Truth.

I am going to stop worrying about whether or not I forgot to hide the GPS.

It doesn't matter.

I've been redeemed.

14 Steps to a Great Adventure

2009-11-08T09:49:00.001-08:00

If you want to have a big adventure, here's what you do....

1. Put 8 women in your 15 passenger van and drive them to San Antonio to eat on the Riverwalk for one of their birthdays. (You can use your GPS to find your way).

I don't recommend The Republic of Texas restaurant

2. Sit by the water and ask the mariachi band to play happy birthday for your friend, not knowing that they would charge you $8 for the 27 second performance.

The guy on the right looks so happy to be there.

3. Do something to keep the cigarette smoke at the next table from bothering you.

The Frito Bandito

4. Order dessert. Don't skip this step. You're going to need the comfort later. Just trust me.

5. Take the riverboat tour, which costs considerably more than they advertise on their website.

A lovely bunch....loud, but lovely.

6. Avoid hanging any limbs over the side of the boat. This is to keep from getting your arms broken by the next boat which is trying to pass you because your boat has stalled halfway through the tour.

Our captain pretending to repair the broken motor.

7. Be careful not to fall in the river as you transfer to another boat.

Good-bye cruel world!

8. Wander around San Antonio until you end up at the Alamo.

Texas history right there in front of us.
Could we have a moment of silence?

9. When you're finished looking at the Alamo, visit some hotel lobbies. Try the elevators in all of them. Use all of their bathrooms. But whatever you do, don't leave your camera with your friends while you go to use the bathroom.

I didn't take this picture, but it looks like they are putting on some kind of a play.

10. Leave your friend with sore feet in one of the hotels while you and four others walk back to your van.

Do you think they were wondering if we would really come back to get them? They look worried.

11. Be prepared to stay calm when you discover that your van has been broken into. The driver's side window is smashed out (leaving the inside covered in shattered glass) and your GPS has been stolen. Resist the urge to slap your hysterical birthday friend. It may seem like it will help, but it probably won't.

The glass was everywhere!

12. Try to stay out of the way while a policeman 10 feet away from you holds a man to the ground at gunpoint.

The khaki heap on the ground is the perp in handcuffs.

13. Find something to do with your hair so you can drive home without it whipping you in the face, since you have no window anymore. Don't count on your GPS to help you out of the city....you don't have a GPS anymore either.

♫ Sunrise....Sunset....

Be prepared to be deeply touched by the loving sympathy of your dear friends.

14. Give up on the effort to keep your hair from blowing everywhere. Stop at Walmart at nearly midnight and buy what you need to cover the window with plastic.

Scrapbooking skills put to the test.

That's it! Follow this recipe to the letter and I guarantee you will have an adventure you won't soon forget.

Wanted

2009-11-07T12:34:00.001-08:00

As you probably have figured out by now....I'm a little OCD.

It's sad I know. I know what you're thinking....just make it stop. Come on, admit it. You think I should be able to drown out and ignore the noises and messes and tapping-tapping-tapping-TAPPING....oh. Sorry. There I go again.

The quirks (yes, I call them quirks, stop laughing) also manifest themselves in my fear....my one true fear....of mice.

When you come and visit me you will notice an inordinate number of cats hanging around. Or lounging is more like it. Lounging around expecting their food to be served to them on little silver platters in the exact spot where they are standing or they won't eat it.

But I cater to them. Why? Because they kill the mice. The cats do what I dare not do. They are my heroes.

In the past couple of weeks, two of my sainted kitties have gone on to that great beyond. The place where there are no crazy farmer ladies crying in the corner and begging you to catch the mouse when instead you'd rather be licking your paws.

It has been hard, losing our cats. There have been tears and kitty memorial services. Yesterday, in honor of my champions, we watched "The Aristocrats". It seemed fitting.

Oddly, we're now down to two cats. One for the front door and one for the back. This will never do...not with my paralyzing fear of mice. Someone has to guard the barn, the storage building, the guest house and the stable. And if I could have my way...one just for under my bed. To protect me at night.

Because if I see even one mouse around here....I will be forced to move to China and change my name.

But since you never know if a cat's a good mouser before it lives with you for a year and eats all of your cat food and by then you are stuck with the little moocher....

I think I'll put a sign in the yard,

Wanted:
One crazy cat for mousing
Must have references.

If You Give a Mom a Storage Building....

2009-11-05T19:25:00.000-08:00

Oops!

I'm sorry I'm so late in telling you who won my ClickinMoms giveaway.

I did draw early this morning, but then I got to cleaning out the storage building, which I thought wouldn't be that big of a deal.

But most of the kids were helping and when I looked out there was our stuff all over the yard.

Then I had to show them how to divide it into piles which turned into a lesson on sorting.

Which turned into a sorting competition with light sabers and everything.

That lead to teaching the baby how to use a light saber....on the trampoline.

Which made me stop my storage building work and teach another lesson on the dangers of trampoline sword fights.

Which made everyone stop and get back to work....even though we weren't sure what to do with all of the stuff.

So we called a friend that needed stuff and she came and took some of it.

But not all of it so what could we do?

But put it back in the storage building.

Which made me exhausted so I came to sit in my chair and check on my blog.

Which reminded me to.....

Announce the winner of my ClickinMoms giveaway!

And the winner is.....

Grateful for Grace!

Whew! I need a nap!

Where's the Beef?!

2009-11-04T13:01:00.002-08:00

You know the phrase...."When life gives you lemons, make lemonade!"

Well what do you do when life gives you beef....and lots of it?

My two (count 'em....two) upright freezers are completely packed with cuts of beef in all shapes and sizes. Really, you'd think we were kings and queens around here. On Sunday night we had steak. All eleven of us. Just because we could.

So tonight, as I make dinner for fourteen of my closest friends (OK, it's a Board Meeting so they're all forced to come, whatever) I will make beef. Beef stew to be exact.

There are a couple of vegetarians in the bunch. What do I do with that?! I have beef. That's probably not on their diet.

Here's a question for you....

If vegetarians eat vegetables, what do humanitarians eat?

Hoo hoo ha ha ha. I crack myself up.

I will make my delicious lentil soup for my veggie friends. It's a winter staple around here. It's hard to give you the recipe because I kind of just throw it together. But I'll try.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lisa's Lentil Soup

Chop celery, carrots and onions. Toss them in a pot with a little bit of hot oil and some salt and pepper.

When the onions are almost done add minced garlic and a few cups of rinsed lentils, a bit more salt and pepper.

Stir for a few minutes and then add three or four cans of chopped tomatoes and a bunch of chicken broth (today I used a vegetable based broth).

Let it simmer all afternoon. You will have yummy, inexpensive soup for dinner and your house will smell heavenly.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We sometimes add sausage, but for my vegetarian friends I will leave it out. I'm thoughtful that way.

The carnivores of the group will have beef stew. Also on the menu is yeast rolls, chocolate cake and apple pie a la mode. How's that for a winter meal?

My new saying.....When life gives you beef, make fun of your vegetarian friends.

Don't forget to enter my giveaway!

Where's the Beef?!

2009-11-04T13:01:00.001-08:00

A Giveaway!

2009-11-03T05:43:00.000-08:00

I love taking pictures. Oh! I have so much to learn. So much to glean from the experts.

One of my favorite places to go to learn about photography and Photoshop is clickinmoms.com. They are a group of photographers, both professional and amateur, that share their wisdom and knowledge of photography.

You have to subscribe, but it's very inexpensive. I learn something new every time I go there.

So today, for those of you that are interested in photography, I am giving away a one year membership to clickinmoms.com.

Just leave a comment answering this question.....

Of what is your favorite thing to take pictures?

(notice the proper grammar? That's DUH's influence)

I will do a random drawing on Thursday night.

Here are some pictures I played with after reading on clickinmo ms.com about how to add textures to your photographs....

Before: (my little cutie pie)

After some of the great tips:

Straight out of the camera: (lovely already)

After some of my new ideas:

The front porch:

How fun!

The rules:

Leave a comment about what you like to take pictures of.

You cannot already be a member of clickinmoms.com to win.

I will announce the winner on Friday morning.

Fall Table Runner

2009-11-01T15:06:00.001-08:00

If you know me at all (and sadly for you, you know me better than you ever wanted to) then you know I LOVE me some fall decorations.

Really, I love changing from one season to another.... Fall goes into Christmas. Christmas morphs into winter. Winter to Valentine's Day. To spring. To summer. And back to fall.

And of course, I need a table runner for each season. I mean, life isn't complete without it.

But I didn't have one for fall. I know. Shocking. Sad.

But don't you worry about me. I remedied that situation.

Again with my passion for free/cheap..... $3.99 for the whole thing.

I found this fabric at Walmart. It was pretty shiny, which wasn't what I wanted. So I turned the fabric inside out and used the "wrong" side.

If lovin' you is wrong, I don't wanna be right.

I embroidered words on it. Fall type words like "Fall" and "Autumn". Does my cleverness amaze you? I thought so.

I also put our last name on it and other words that make me feel all warm and cozy inside.

Since I made it, I could have it be any size I want. I was in complete control, which of course is my favorite position to be in.

After I embroidered the words I quilted it. I just followed the swirly pattern on the fabric and did a fun, swirly quilting stitch. Did I mention swirly already?

Then I bound it and I was finished. Easy peasy.

I really should make one for the other table in the dining room. Then they would be twins. They'd be so cute, like Mary Kate and Ashley.

Or I could just get started on runners for Christmas. Because, like I said, it's all about the table runners.

The Sweater

2009-10-29T15:00:00.000-07:00

"Mom, what should I do with this sweater? It was a hand me down from older sister. I don't want it anymore and neither of the younger sisters wants it."

It does have a stain on the front, so we can't take it to the thrift store.

Hmmm.....I have been looking for some new winter pillows for the couch. The color is perfect....

Hey! I have an idea!

I will cut up the sweater and make a pillow. What's more winter than a sweater?!

I had to work fast while the motivation was hot. That meant no going to the store. No buying anything. Just use what I have and be content with it.

I used muslin to line it. If I didn't line it then the sweater would stretch too much when I stuffed it. I turned the stained piece inside out and the stain is gone.

I found a scrap of cording and some leftover fabric from the piano bench. I used those to make covered cording to go around the outside. Then I popped it into my embroidery machine and put some snowflakes (more winterness) and our last initial on it.

And voila! Old made new again.

Even though most of you can't embroider something or whip out a pillow....I want to encourage you to look at your old things in new ways.

The point of this isn't to get you to go make this pillow. It's to encourage you to remake what you already have instead of buying new.

It's fun!

Portraits by Jenn

2009-10-27T13:00:00.000-07:00

It's time to take another family portrait. Well, past time really.

The last real family portrait we took was ten years (and three kids) ago.

We did take a casual one right after the baby was born.

He's two now.

Seriously, look at this group.....don't they require a professional touch?

So I called upon my new friend/photographer. Her name is Portraits by Jenn. But I just call her Jenn. We're close like that.

She was terrific.....very creative and encouraging.

She'd say things like...

"You guys look so great!"

"Perfect!"

"Mom, you need to put away the rag that you are using to wipe away the incredible amount of sweat off of your face or it will show in the picture and we're trying to make it look nice and sweaty rags just won't do"

OK, she didn't say that last thing. I just hid the rag behind me while Jenn gave me a grin that said it all without words.

She kept telling us how great we looked. DUH, in his usual style, took all of the credit. He'd puff out his chest when she complimented us like he had shopped and sewed and labored over these little darlings.

How about my boys? Aren't they da bomb?

Jenn had the idea to give the baby an apple. He was delighted. When you're the youngest of nine...you never get a whole apple to yourself.

I think the other boys were jealous.

She took the girls out into the street to take their picture..

Now, I've lived on this street for seven years and I have never even though about photographing my children on it. Of course, that's probably because I knew what would happen.....DUH was yelling the whole time, "There's a CAR COMING! There's a CAR COMING!" even though there was no car coming. He's a little nervous about his children playing in the street....go figure.

Jenn went to great heights to get the perfect pictures (ba-dump-bump).

Soon we'll have a new family portrait over the mantle. We previewed the pictures today and let me tell you....they are fabulous! I wish I could get one of everything, but alas....I do not have a truck load of money. So we'll have to pick and choose. It'll be so hard.

While you wait anxiously for our new pictures to arrive, go out and get yourself a new family portrait. If you're in the area....call Jenn. You can even use our house for free....street and all!

Texas Conference

2009-10-25T20:46:00.000-07:00

At long last I am finished with all of my world travels. OK, maybe not WORLD travels. But for sure Texas travels. And as far as this pure-bred Texan is concerned, that's the world.

I have just returned from the Texas Home School Coalition Leadership Training Conference (try saying that five times fast!). I tell you friends, I could not have imagined how full my little head was going to be. My mind aches from the huge amount of stuff that was crammed into it in one weekend.

Everything from building a home school website to managing a support group to deep personal conviction. So many subject were covered that is all a jumble up there. Don't believe it when they say everything is bigger in Texas. I think the real saying goes something like this..."Everything is bigger in Texas, except Lisa's brain. It has trouble these days."

That's not even mentioning the time spent with my two dear friends that tagged along. I/m pretty sure that they thought it was going to be a breeze....just go and get some cool new ideas for our group, some free food and come back refreshed from a weekend away from the kids.

Instead we were each challenged in our own walk with Christ. We spent late nights deep in conversation about what the Lord is doing in our lives. There was confession, openness and forgiveness.

God dealt with each of us differently. He gave us a renewed vision for our little homeschool group and He was faithful to gently show us our weaknesses and to lovingly remind us each of how much He loves us.

I am excited to see how God will use this in my own life, but also the lives of my children and our homeschool group and our homechurch families.

But I am also looking forward to getting back to a more normal schedule. Hanging out with the kids, fixing food for my hard working husband, cuddling my baby and just being home. I'm even looking forward to those pesky old goats.

After a long month of being away so much, being home for a while sounds like a dream....a big ol' Texas sized dream!

Two Years Old

2009-10-22T07:23:00.000-07:00

My precious, adorable, sweet two year old is a delight.

Except....

that all he says, all day long, day in, day out, over and over and over, is this,

"whath's dat?! whath's dat?! whath's dat?!"

"Mommy! Whath's dat? An' whath's dat? An' whath's dat?"

Half the time I'm not sure what he's pointing to. Is it the clock or the book? Is he asking about the stove or the pot?

Oh the pressure! What if he means the clock and I say, "It's a book!"?

Will he be scarred for life? Years from now when I tell him to read a book, will he have the urge to say, "12:30 PM" and think he's finished?

Really friends, the honest truth is, I don't love this stage. Don't get me wrong, I love the discovery, the delight for life, the way he loves his mommy more than anyone in the whole world. But the constant questions, ever curious, never stop talking stage. The stage when they absolutely must have their questions answered. I am not kidding you, he will ask the same question for 30 minutes straight until I answer him. (he probably would go longer, but I have tested him on this and couldn't take it anymore!)

Am I horrible? Or am I just the mom of a precious, adorable, sweet two year old?

Just when I think I am at the end of my rope I look down and see this......

And I melt.

So I just pat him on the head and say,

"Yes baby? Oh that? That's a clock."

My Dirty Dogs

2009-10-20T18:45:00.001-07:00

As the weather cools....the kids play outside more and more.

"Mommy! Can we go outside?!"

"Mommy! I'm done with my math. May I go outside?"

"Mommy! Shhhh.....she's asleep. Let's go outside."

But even though it's cooler (for my northern readers....we think it's cool because it's 80°), they still sweat.

That dirty dog smell is permeating the house.

So it's off to the bath every night. I don't know about you, but my boys HATE the bath. It's a true test of their obedience because they are told to be still while I wash their hair. But it is obvious that it takes every ounce of their strength.

Tonight after the dreaded bath, I told the 6 year old to go into the nursery to pick up the toys before dinner. He isn't the quickest one in the bunch, so he was taking a bit too long. His freshly washed 10 year old brother rushes in and says, "Hurry up! Dinner's ready! Mommy says if we don't hurry we might miss dinner!"

Then I hear the thing that makes my day. The sentence that makes all of the dirty dog smells worth it. The one that melts my heart.

"Oh," says the 10 year old to his little brother ,"you know what? You go ahead to the table and I will do it for you. I love you and I don't mind."

That's what it's all about right there.

"By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." John 13:35.

I'm Ba-ack!

2009-10-17T19:25:00.000-07:00

Take me hoooooome.... ♫

♫ Country roads.....

To the place....... ♪

I BELONG........ ♫

That's what I was singing at the top of my lungs as I headed back today. Back to my little family, in my little house, in my little town. (oh the girls LOVE it when I belt out old 70's songs while we're in the car!)

I had enough of the big city to last me....well....a really long time.

But the International Quilt Festival was wonderful and the girls and I had a great time together.

This is just a tiny bit of the show floor....

We shopped 'til we dropped. Then I went back the next day for more.

Plus there was a huge exhibit hall.

This was one of our favorite quilts....

I'm not kidding you. Someone made that. Out of fabric. Teeny, tiny, itty-bitty pieces of fabric. The detail on it was amazing. We had to pry ourselves away from staring at it. But we had to. There were more important things to do. Money to be spent.

We brought home a few little projects to do and some new things for the girls to learn. Maybe someday we can actually do some of it.

Right now I just want to sit outside with my babies and sing to myself....

Sunshine....on my shoulders....makes me happyyyyyyy...... ♪

Rest Ye Merry

2009-10-12T20:19:00.000-07:00

Wow it's been a loooong few days.

Lots and lots and (did I say lots?) of company. Visitors twice a day and thrice on Sunday.

Thrice? Is that a word? Clearly I belong in the Middle Ages.

Hold on. Did they have company on Sunday in the Middle Ages? I'm confusing myself now.

Dost thou have difficulty following my train of thought?

So sorry....

The next few weeks are full to bursting with travels hither and yon.

No rest for this weary mistress.

Why do I keep doing that?!

Oh well. I just wanted to let you all know that I will be traveling for most of this week.

And for much of the next fortnight.

Prithee think of me as I consort with my maidens at the International Quilt Festival this week.

Whither I shall take illegal photographs and be prepared to report my findings back to you....my loyal followers.

Until Saturday.....

Here Comes Trouble

2009-10-11T15:43:00.000-07:00

Here it comes......

The answer to all of our problems.....

OK, maybe not our money problems, or our time management struggles, or my weight issues....

But it is fun.

And it is loud.

And it picks up things.

The more I think about it......

It's more for the boys than the girls.

When our dear friend offered to sell us his tractor, we jumped at the chance. That's what small, family farming is all about....going in debt for equipment you don't need, to build fences to keep in the animals that drive you crazy, to move rocks that make the place look messy, to till a garden that will take up every second of your time in the spring.

But mostly it will keep the boys occupied and busy.

Here it comes....

Trouble.

The Brendons

2009-10-10T14:32:00.000-07:00

I love a full weekend.

It's especially great when it's filled with friends and family.

And don't get me started on how great it is when there is something like this around....

I can't be left alone with her.

I keep wanting to take a nibble.

She's too delicious.

She loves being lifted high....a challenge for us moms over 40.

A few of her sibling came too.

The little girls love playing with my 12 year old.

These two can't be separated.

They just came for a simple visit. Kids played and moms chatted and my older girls happily took care of the meals.

Perfect weather, good friends, more family popping in, brownies....

Seriously?

It's a dream weekend.

You Can Never Have too Many Pumpkins

2009-10-07T10:40:00.000-07:00

A friend said to me, "I know someone that needs to get rid of two 14 foot long pews. I thought maybe you would like to have them."

Seriously?!....uh...yes!

Pews are just the thing I wanted for my front porch. They invoke the feeling of worship and peace. At least they do it for me.

These aren't exactly like the pews I used to sit on with my grandmother when she took me to the First Baptist Church in Waco, Texas. These are homemade. But they were free and I love them!

We put them facing each other. Now we can have family church the Amish way....men on one side, women on the other.

But I can't stop at 28 feet of pews....I have to add some pumpkins and bows. It wouldn't be fall without them.

A little vignette of pumpkins and one of my favorite flea market finds....my milk can.

The front door. Since I don't have an entryway inside, I use this as my entry outside.

I never scrapbook anymore, so I am glad to find uses for my old scrapbooking tools. I made vinyl die cuts for a bunch of the pumpkins.

I made one with our last name and another with our address....but I can't show you those. If I did, this message would have to self destruct.

I do love the fall.....it's easy decorating, cool weather and it leads to the holidays.

And now I can sit on my pews and enjoy it.

For more great decorating ideas....check out today's Hooked on Houses. It's her last one....so so wave good-bye. :::sniff-sniff:::

I miss 1978

2009-10-06T09:27:00.000-07:00

Remember the olden days when the TV set had a speaker built right in and an antenna sitting on the top?

I miss those days. When someone would have to go stand by the set (which was sitting on a cabinet in the corner, no entertainment centers) stand next to it and hold one of the rabbit ears juuuust right to get the reception so we could all watch "The Brady Bunch." Sometimes we even had a wad of tin foil on the end of the rabbit ears to help.

Things are different now.

The speaker stopped working on our flat screen TV. So we got a new speaker. I, in my antiquity, thought, "Piece o'cake. Just plug it in."

wrOng.

I tell you, after you manage to get the TV down off the wall, you read the 17 page booklet that comes with the new speaker and THEN you start trying to figure out which of the 73 cords that came with it are the one you are supposed to use....you start to wonder why you care what's on TV anyway. Maybe I'll just go back to radio.

Kids, this is for you. Have you ever wondered why we use the term, "change the channel?" That's because your mommy and daddy used to have to actually get up, walk over to the TV and turn a dial. That's right kids, there were no remote controls in the olden days. Sometimes they even had to jiggle the dial for a few minutes until it settled in just the right spot. And they didn't have shows about inappropriate things. No, kids, their shows were about 7 castaways stranded on a desert island that ate coconut cream pie at every meal.

But I digress......

Ahhhh......

Now I have three remote controls....four if I want to use the DVD player.

The speaker (thanks to my super genius DUH) is now working and the TV is back on the wall (thanks to my super strong 17 year old son).

I hope nothing else goes out.......

At least nothing that a wad of tin foil won't fix.

Aunt Mary

2009-10-05T09:21:00.001-07:00

My father's sister.

My aunt.

She's a treasure.

People came from far and near to celebrate her 70th birthday.

Each person was asked to choose one word that best describes her.

My word was "encouraging." She has always made me feels like she thought I was special. She has always been an encouragement to me.

Since my girls and I do embroidery, we took all of the words and put them on a blanket....or maybe it was more like a throw.

It was a blessing to us to be get to know all of the words and see how special she is to everyone.

At her party we each shared why we chose our word. Then she opened the blanket. How special to have so much love to wrap around yourself.

Happy birthday Aunt Mary!

You don't look a day over 60!

Happy Birthday Sara

2009-09-30T08:02:00.000-07:00

Today is Sara's birthday.

Normally I wouldn't have a picture of my friend on her birthday, but we already celebrated. So now I can torture her on the actual day.

It was a spontaneous party. We quickly decided to go see a movie and it escalated from there. We got the party room at the theater...you know, the one reserved for 8 year old's birthday parties?

We felt so immature using the room that we all decided to surprise Sara and look like little girls....

This was mostly an effort to embarrass Sara. She seriously dislikes public displays of extreme silliness.

A text went out to let everyone know to wear their hair in dog ears. In honor of Sara.

Some of my friends may not appreciate me putting these pictures on my blog. But that's what you get for looking so ridiculous. Oh...ok...fine.

Here...does this make you feel better?

I am a true friend, willing to humiliate myself in the interest of fair blogging.

The movie wasn't great, but we still had a great time.

In case the enormous chocolate cake wasn't enough, we wandered over to Cracker Barrel to bother the poor waiter.

I made notes of all of the things we discussed. I was going to blog about them, but I can't. This is a G-rated blog.

Suffice it to say that we are glad for our friend Sara.

Happy Birthday....we love you more'n our luggage!

ed note: Sara fussed that I forgot link to her blog from here. So I have now remedied that. There are 14 opportunities in this post to link to Sara. If you go there from here...please leave her a comment letting her know that you found her through me.

More on Shoes

2009-09-25T07:21:00.000-07:00

I hear a little, 12 year old voice wandering around the house, "Can I borrow some shoes?"

"Do you have any shoes I can wear?"

"Please sir. Might you have a pair of shoes for my poor, tired feet?"

The youngest girl has no shoes. Didn't we go through this like....last week?

Apparently her feet grew overnight because I am almost positive she was wearing shoes yesterday.

But none of her four sisters wants to loan her anything. Between you and me, she doesn't take the best care of her wardrobe. She has the opposite of the Midas touch. Things turn to dust when she uses them. Her last shoes (you remember, the ones from yesterday) are so scratched and scuffed that you can't tell their original color.

So I went into my closet and pulled out a pair of shoes for her to wear.

"Be careful with them," I said uselessly, "these were expensive."

"Oh thank you Mommy!" she exclaimed.

So I drew her to me with a hug and I said, "I will get you some shoes tomorrow, but I need for you to stop growing. It is too hard on my pocketbook."

She gave me the look of ,"What in the world are you talking about crazy momma?"

She has no idea what a pocketbook is.

"You know, it's like a little handbag."

Blank stare.

"A purse-ish wallet."

She smiled and walked away....tolerating my un-cool phrases and antique words.

It makes me sad.

The last girl is growing up.

My language skills are circa 1972.

I need a good cry.

Does anyone have a handkerchief?

The Secrets of Jonathan Sperry

2009-09-22T15:21:00.000-07:00

If you get an opportunity....go see "The Secrets of Jonathan Sperry"

I previewed it yesterday in preparation for taking some of the kids to see it. We want to support Christian movies being made, and this one is a winner!

It has a slow pace, which might not keep the attention of a younger child. We are letting our 10 year old through our 19 year old see this movie.

There is a storyline about a boy having a crush on a girl, but this is there to show what happens when you lead your own life and don't let the Lord be your guide. The outcome is innocent and sweet.

Click here to find where it's showing near you.

Go see it. You won't regret it.

Tips for Dressing Your Daughters

2009-09-20T20:24:00.001-07:00

I've had several people ask me lately for advice on clothes. Stop snickering. That's not nice. Stop it.

In the conservative, homeschooling, reformed circles that I travel in....many of the women are still wearing the denim jumpers of the early 90's.

The girls and I try to stay with the trends a little....but we don't sacrifice modesty to do it. So I thought I'd post some of our tips for dressing modestly without sacrificing style.

1. Make a list of standards.

We always stick to the standards we have set. Skirts or dresses only. Below the knee. Nothing tight or form fitting. No sleeveless. No low necklines.

We came up with these by noticing what was attractive to men. We don't want to draw the eye to our private areas. We want to be noticed for our countenence and not our bodies.

2. We don't do thrift stores.

I know this one will throw people off. I know that most of my friends are doing most of their shopping at second hand shops. But those are the same friends that are asking for my advice, so hear me out...

I find that when I shop at thrift stores I end up with a big pile of clothes that we don't use. Instead, I shop sales, clearances or at stores like Cato. We don't have a lot of clothes, but instead we have a few things that we really like.

3. Mix and match EVERYTHING.

The girls and I like skirts and shirts because we can change around our outfits. We each know what colors look good on us and we try to stay with things that will go with a lot of other things.

Every morning the girls come out in something fresh because they put together something cute that is a new combination. We like to experiment with our outfits....play around with it.

It's important to have some basics.....black and white tops. Solid skirts and basic shoes. Lately we are into brown. Brown goes with everything. Then it's easy to add fun stuff to the basics.

4. Know your style.

Each of the five of us has a different personal style. The oldest likes a very tailored, simple look. A couple of the girls like to be more trendy, one likes a western look. Myself, I like a vintage touch. Knowing what it is that you like and what you feel good in helps to weed out most of the merchandise in a store. I let the girls explore their own styles, as long as they stick to the list (#1).

5. Less is more.

I know I kind of said this already, but sometimes you just need one or two things to update your wardrobe. Notice what is new out in the stores (like now it's scarves) and add that instead of changing everything. If leggings are in....get a pair and wear it with what you already have. Keeping one current trend keeps you looking updated without breaking the bank.

6. Be creative.

For us, we like jewelry. A cute, fun necklace or a fun headband can make an outfit. A funky pair of shoes can add a spark to your outfit. Don't be afraid to experiment.

That's it. Happy shopping!