Things I Love Thursday-Family Fun Magazine November 19, 2009

My mother in law recommended a magazine she saw in her doctor’s waiting room, so when my 4 year old’s school was doing magazine sales as a fundraiser this is what i picked to order.  Family Fun Magazine arrived in my mailbox last week and I read the whole thing in one sitting. I LOVED all of their ideas of activities and crafts to do with my kids, some fun recipes and food ideas to try, and even travel info/ideas. I was really impressed! I am usually the type to tear out articles or pages from magazines that I want to try or keep, but I found myself wanting to tear out every other page! I am anxiously awaiting the next issue, but until then I have plenty to keep me busy with my kids from this issue!

Head over to The Diaper Diaries for more TILT. She is also offering an awesome Yummie Tummie giveaway so be sure to enter!

Christmastime November 16, 2009

This year I am especially struggling with trying to explain and focus on the true meaning of Christmas with my kids. I think partly because my 4 year old is coming up with a lot of questions and it is hard to figure out how to talk about some of this stuff to a 4 year old and 2 year old!  In addition, our family is just so blessed that it seems ridiculous to even consider getting my kids gifts for christmas. Of course, we were still at Toys R Us last night doing some shopping and having lots of fun plotting what our kids might like to receive. I’m still feeling quite disatisfied with the selection at the chain stores and have been doing a lot of online searching trying to find some good things to get that are worth the money for our kids. All of this is really beside the point…it is so easy to become consumed by the materialism that this season can bring on.  The gimmies are crazy in my kids right now as the toy catalogs keep showing up in the mail and newspaper.

One thing I hope to do before Christmas is to find some sort of charitable work that our family can do together. At our MOPS meeting last week, we had a speaker from the Columbia Voluntary Action Center. She was a truly inspiring speaker. She was very passionate about volunteer work, especially for families and children and I feel called to find something for my kids to do this year. It is so easy to say that we will start doing volunteer work when our kids are older, but how exactly is it easier to suddenly start trying to get my kids to do volunteer work in 8 years or so?  Why not start now?

Back to Life

I am ready to get back to Life!  I have been missing in action in all aspects of my life as I finished up items for an annual craft sale in Lowell, MI my friends and I participate in.  Long story short, I was going to be attending and am not now, so I had to get everything ready that I could and ship it up there.  After over 100 Christmas cards, 200 Christmas gift tags, burp cloths, and onesies, I am ready to close the door to my craft room for a couple of days!  I enjoyed making all of these things, but I am exhausted and need to catch up on the neglected areas of my life.

I think my kids are glad to have me back! We had fun today making these Indian Corn Crafts.  I have a variety of other fun things in my head to do with them, but that’s what we managed today.   Right now they are playing in their buckets of black beans digging for “bugs”. Gotta love boys!

MY HOUSE IS CLEAN! November 6, 2009

Tonight we had our monthly MOMS Night Out for my local MOMS Club.  I was the hostess and we did a MOMS Night IN tonight!  With the holidays coming up we thought it would be good to plan something that did not cost anyone money to attend. So, we had a project night at my house.  I created a couple of cards for people to make as well in case they needed a project. People who came could play with my inks, stamps, supplies, cricut machine, etc.

Obviously having a group of people to your home is a great motivator to get your house cleaned.  I have been cleaning for 3 days, it seems.  Today, I spent the day finishing up my cleaning and telling the boys all day that they were not allowed to play with their toys and barking at them to “clean that up”.  I told them we could play tomorrow!

The thing I am most excited about is that I got my stamping/scrapbooking room cleaned up again. It had gotten pretty messy and out of control but after my cleaning frenzy last night it is in great shape again! I feel re-inspired and ready to tackle my many projects!

And the cherry on top is that I have about 80% of our laundry done!  I think I am about to see the bottom of the laundry hampers!

Stomach Bug Be Gone! November 2, 2009

Harper came down with a stomach bug last week (you may have read about it in my fight the frump post). I thought he had gotten better, but that was a fluke semi-healthy day, and for the past week he has continued to have some sort of nasty stomach bug (luckily no one else in the fam has gotten it).  It has kept me busy.  Laundry, lots of diaper changes, nasty diaper rash, 3AM baths, and a whiny 9 month old, who also is not able to sleep. Yesterday, he finally seemed back to himself….including his appetite. He is voraciously hungry now! The time change, is of course, not sitting well with my already early riser, but we are working on that. I am just grateful that life can go back to some resemblance of “normal” again and I can start getting something done besides holding Harper all day.

Paralyzed By My To Do List October 26, 2009

I made a to do list.   Is it really a “to do” list when it is like 3 pages long and you haven’t a clue where to start?  I think I am juggling way too many things!  I’ve got my stampin up classes that I need to complete my samples for so I can post them on my SU blog…I love doing this so I don’t really want to eliminate it! I have a variety of MOMS Club commitments that are coming up and I need to prepare for. I of course have all the typical household to do things like 65 loads of laundry, pretty sure my hubby has no more clean socks because when he opened his sock drawer this morning while I was still trying to steal a couple minutes of sleep, the drawer sounded really hollow.  I have stuff I WANT to do with my kids, like activities to keep them from driving me C-R-A-Z-Y!  Where to start? I think I am paralyzed. I am so overwhelmed I don’t even know what to tackle first. So, of course, I am tackling Blogs, Facebook, and Twitter first.

Great web site for you crafty people October 25, 2009

My wonderful friend, Emily, and her mom have started a new blog. If you are into cardmaking and paper crafting, you have to check this out. They are both so talented. I have had the pleasure if meeting Emily’s mom in person finally earlier this year, and have seen some of her work in person and it is just fabulous!!!!  Emily is one of the most talented and resourceful people I know…if I ever need an idea or need help with an idea, she is the one I ask first! Emily and I have known each other since our husband’s first year in med school and it was such a pleasant surprise when we found out that they had each gotten a residency spot in the same city so we would once again be living in the same location for 3 years!

Here is the site:

(on a side note, please lift Emily up in your prayers, her kiddos have been sick with probably H1N1 and she is preggo with #4 and also sick with the same virus)