Am I the only one?

Does anyone else ever have this happen? My family either eats more banana's than I can keep in the house or theylet them get too ripe! I have finally gotten a bit smarter. Instead of just throwing them out, I have started to freeze them!(peel them first) I know that I could always make yummy banana bread. The truth is that I WANT to but it just doesn't ever happen. If I don't freeze them they end up going black and moldy waiting to be baked.

Frozen bananas are the best thing to add to a fruit smoothie. They are very sweet so you really don't need sweetener. They are frozen so you don't need as much ice. They are also very creamy, adding a wonderful smooth texture to your smoothie.

So, if you are like me---freeze those speckled bananas!

Oh, my daughter A Love's to eat them frozen! I would prefer them dipped in chocolate and rolled in nuts!!

Beauty

"Worry is not necessary. Spend an equal amount of time counting blessings. Start with your childhood. Take the time to remember to really appreciate each blessing, absorb it and think of all the good effects it has had on you and others. Don't overlook the ordinary. There are a thousand blessings in every moment, if you look. Each breath and heartbeat, every color, texture, taste,and smell. A lifetime of blessings, beauty, love. Thankfulness is like water. Allow yourself the release, the cleansing, the quenching that gratefulness brings.

~Mary Lee Bonasera Matthews

Letter Hunting.

I am on a quest.

I want to photograph things that represent every letter of the alphabet! This is not an original idea. I have seen it done before. I don't just want to find printed letters and photograph those. That is too easy. I want to find a letter in something else.

Here is an example: A telephone pole is a great T.

Slippery slide is an S.

Swing set frame is an A

These are a few of the ones that I have found so far. My husband thinks that I need to see a therapist. I told him that taking photos helps me to AVOID needing a therapist! I have gotten a little obsessive, however. I am constantly looking for a Q and a K. I have almost the entire alphabet. Some letters (S) I have more than one. I want to create a sampler type of layout. I want to have it big-and framed. I will put it on the wall in my preschool this fall.

I created this layout for a class I have been taking. This is my name. ROSIE---can you see it?

I was thinking that it would be fun to have the entire alphabet and then do all the children's names in my preschool as gifts for Christmas.

Maybe I do need a therapist!

Baseball

"What's more American than Baseball?" We have spent much of the last six weeks supporting M at his baseball games. Twice weekly games and one practice. He has been on a good team this year. They aren't the best in the league but they also are not the most struggling team. M has played 1st base mostly. He has been good at it.

This past Wednesday they played a team that had previously whooped them--twice! Well, this was a different night! The other team couldn't get a hit for anything. It was one of those times as a Mother that you are proud of your son and his team for playing so well. However, you are so sad for the other team. It is one thing to lose a game. It is entirely a different story to get stomped!

This is what the final score looked like!

Little bits of progress!

It is already June 25th! I can't believe it. As I type that, I realize that I missed my big sister's birthday! So, Happy Birthday Betsy!

We have been busy little bees around our house! My sweet hubby slipped in a pool last week and has injured his back. He has a bulging disc. That is not good news, however, the therapist believes that within a week or two he should be almost back to normal. Because of this injury he has been home for a couple of days. Sitting at his desk on Monday about killed him!

With him home a few little things have gotten done!

*Saturday I painted my garden bench. This bench is in my "garden of potential." It is a large garden spot that I have only dreamed about doing anything in yet. I usually try and spray the weeds at least once a year. It has so much possibility, I just haven't gotten there yet. I started out with the kids helping me paint. That was a good plan in theory, but a bad plan in reality! They were sloppy and didn't last very long. I worked on that bench for about five hours. I had paint everywhere! I decided to try spray painting (we had used primer) the final coats. Okay, that bench will never be brush painted again!

I have never been a spray paint person. I am now! It was so fast and easy! After I finished the bench--in about 45 minutes, I then painted three shelves for Miss A's bedroom! I have been putting all of those off forever! I am a spray paint believer!

While we were at Home Depot yesterday we purchased the spray paint and also brackets to put the shelf up in A's bedroom and also the brackets to put the satellite receiver on in my laundry room! It has been parked on top of my deep freeze for a year, which means that it is very difficult to actually USE the freezer.

Today we actually put those brackets up in the laundry room. I already had the shelf just waiting!

I am planning to actually get more paint so that I can paint the playhouse. This poor playhouse has been an eye sore for about 10 years! It was my niece's playhouse. My big brother built it but never quite finished it. They played and played in it. Well, 10 years ago we went to Idaho and brought it back to Utah. My hubby had plans to finish it. Well, it wasn't high on the priority list. In fact, it wasn't even on the list! Over the course of 10 years about every other year he would spend about 2 hours working on it. Well, this is the year it is going to look a little bit better! I am going to paint it even if it doesn't have a door! Perhaps painting it will make the door happen more quickly!

I will try and add some after pictures of all these things later!

Same thing different day

Last week I wrote about consistency. How did I do with this? On a scale of 1-10--10 being good. Probably about a 4! That is just not good enough!
Summer has really started (finally). The weather has been wonderful. This has made the children forget that they all still have responsibilities. I am not sure what I am going to do to remedy this problem but I have to do something. I have to have more control in my house! I hate the messes.
Will this ever change? This is something that really makes me crazy. I HATE constantly hollering at my kids to do the same things---again. It makes me old and ugly. I understand why women age so much worse than men. WE are the mother's.

I have heard of people actually picking up their children's things that are not properly put away and putting them into a garbage sack. I am considering this. I truly don't know if this would affect them one bit.

So in the spirit of Smart Habits Saturday I will continue to do the same thing again, and again and again. Try and teach my children to put their things away and help in this house. After 15 years of parenthood I am beginning to lose hope that anything will ever change. I try but I feel as if truly, I am the only one that cares at all. We could live in a complete sty and they wouldn't care. They would just think that I wasn't doing MY job.

Wish my luck. I need it. Maybe a few prayers would help also!

Check out the Lazy Organizer for more Smart Habits Saturday.

Help

I want to learn how to scrapbook digitally. Does anyone have any suggestions? I am planning on purchasing photoshop elements 6. I do not have the faintest idea of how to start.

My World

Tonight I was heading down to my laundry room. It has been ignored the last few days. As I checked on my little people I decided that it was much to beautiful outside to be stuck in my basement. I decided to walk around my little country neighborhood with my camera. I believe that most of us are too busy most of the time to take a moment and look, really look around us. These are a few images of the beauty around me.

For more Talk about Tuesday check out the Lazy Organizer.

Summer Nights

The Lazy Days of Summer

This is what summer is suppose to look like when you are a kid! Hanging out with your cousins with sleeping bags and popsicles! These kids had already built a fire and roasted marshmellows and hotdogs. They played for hours this evening without fighting! This is always a miracle.

Do you ever wish you could go back to those days? They seemed to go on forever. You played and played. The nights were warm(okay-here they are still nippy, you must wear a hoodie) and the trampoline was your paradise. I am glad that my children can have times like this. They disappear too quickly.

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day!

My sweet husband is one of the greatest blessings of my life. He is a wonderful husband, a great Dad and just an all around really great guy. I am so blessed to have him in my life.

I have been working on a project. One of the assignments was to do a layout about someone who is a "safe place".

So, in honor of Father's Day---

I love you, sweetie!

Summer is Here!

June is moving along quickly! It is already the 15th! The weather in Utah has been so strange this June. We have barely begun to have weather that actually feels like summer. It has been cold and rainy. There has been frost in the mornings.

Yesterday was a glorious summer day! We went out to the lake. We were on the water with very few other people-which is always such a great thing. The kids played in the water, in the mud and on the boat. My #2 child is a daredevil. He loves wake boarding. So, he did that for quite awhile. I was able to get some really good shots of him. I totally respect sports photographers. It is so hard to get a good clear shot in a moving boat with a moving target that you are shooting!

My sweet hubby and I are totally convinced that the memories we create with our children will be with them forever. Our time on the boat is almost always great. We have a few incidents of fighting (#3) but on the boat they are fewer and farther between, which is a good thing!

After we got home we had a great dinner. I had actually thought about it before we left---a small miracle! I put pork ribs in the crock pot. They were fabulous-they just fell apart! After dinner we sat on our front porch and just enjoyed the summer smells. After a few errands we sat on our back porch and watched the stars. Except for some major fit problems from #3 it was an absolutely lovely day!

We are truly blessed!

(#1 girl was at Youth Conference-we also had two nieces with us).

Smart Habits Saturday

My children have been home for summer break two full weeks. How has it been going? Well, until yesterday it has felt much more like March than June! We haven't had much outside time. However, that has now changed! Sunshine is on the way!

I have really been trying to keep my kids on track with their daily chores. Honestly, you would think that I had become the Nazi Mom if you listened to #3! She wails "why do we have to clean? It is suppose to be summer vacation!" In truth, we are doing pretty well. It isn't perfect(my house will never be) but they are all doing a bit better. The consistency is really helping to keep the house from falling apart around us. My #2 boy is frankly a terrible bathroom cleaner! I have to go back in every single time and show him where he missed. Usually, it doesn't even look like he touched anything. I have watched him--I think that he is a bit grossed out to touch anything! So, he needs much more practice! I have also had to add little tiny details to their charts. Things such as wipe outside, inside, behind, top and all lids. Take out the garbage, wipe the tub, sweep the floor. --Somehow he thinks that a bathroom is clean if you pour cleaner in the toilet and swish it!!

Another problem that I am trying to tame is towels. My kids like to take baths in my big garden tub. That is alright(I do hate that there are so many extra dirty clothes in my bathroom-maybe I need a hamper!) but they take the towels that are hanging up and then my hubby and I don't have one to use because of course they never bring them back.

So-last week we went to Shopko and bought towels. I told them they could each have two towels. They had to be different so that everyone would know who's towel was who's. Those were the towels that they were suppose to use. If they don't hang them up they will be wet and smelly!

This has worked for this one week! Hubby and I have had a towel every time we get out of the shower! I have also had much less towel laundry!

I am hoping to keep working on projects on bit at a time. My summer is going to fast! July is mostly scheduled out so the projects need to get finished in the next two weeks.

Consistency!!That is my goal!

for more Smart Habits Saturday check out the Lazy Organizer.

Coming Together

The blanket is almost finished! My girl has sewn it all by herself! It is going to be very cute!

She just has to finish the edge stitching and then clip and wash!!!

Clean Up Time!

This is what my workspace has looked like for the last little while! I have been working on a project and so I kept using the same stuff over and over. However, it finally got to where I had about a 8x8 inch working space!

So---I am taking some advice I have heard lately. Edit, edit, edit! My workspace is now looking more like a table instead of a garbage pile! I have also thrown away lots of bits of garbage and put all my ribbon into my ribbon box. I even put pins into many of the spools to keep them from unraveling!

I am going to try and focus some energy on my scrapbook studio in the next week. I want to get it back into shape. It is such a disorganized mess that I can't find anything and it is not a fun place to create. That has to end!

So, I am going to take little 10 minutes take-outs and work on getting this space back into shape!

Consistency!

That is a word/action that I struggle with. For years I have realized that being consistent in anything is what brings true success. If we want to lose weight we have to consistently exercise and eat well, not just once a week. If we want to learn a skill we have to consistently practice it, whether it is the piano, painting, photography, golf, etc.

This summer I am really trying hard to encourage my children to consistently help keep our house nice. Every morning(almost) I have had them clean their rooms and do their other chores from our chore chart. My #3 child balks at this every single day. "Summer is supposed to be a vacation, why do we have to do all this cleaning?" I keep explaining (sometimes nicely, other times not so nicely) that if we consistently pick up our house, put our things away, wipe the counters, vacuum floors, etc. then our house is always pretty clean. It isn't a HUGE project.

I am hoping that by summer's end they will have a better understanding of WHY we do a little everyday. Perhaps then it will continue into the school year and they will be on their way to understanding that a little bit all the time is much easier than a lot everyonce in awhile. It also makes for a much happier momma!

Sewing

My 15 year old daughter is sewing! This is amazing because she has had no interest in this type of activity-ever!

I made my cousin's new baby girl a darling "rag" flannel blanket a couple of weeks ago. (The fabric in the picture-I forgot to take a finished picture!) It was so cute that my girl wanted one for herself. We looked at a couple of stores for fabric to no avail. Everything was very baby or plain. Yesterday we went to JoAnn's fabric and found what she liked. This afternoon we have been cutting squares and sewing them together. I ended up rotary cutting the squares for her. She had never used this type of cutter before. I have had her sewing the squares. I figure that this is a good introduction to sewing. Nothing too complicated or precise. I think that it is going to be a really fun blanket for her to wrap up in. She will love it even more (hopefully) because she made it herself.

Tired

I am exhausted. I am waiting up for my 15 year old. We went to the lake today. It was cool but still sunny. Hopefully, tomorrow I can add some pictures.

One week down

I am still here. We have officially had our first full week of summer vacation. It hasn't felt like summer, however. It has been cold, dark and rainy. It has made all of us tired. It is 11:50 am any my little guy is still asleep. His big sister (#1) was up early with me to go to the gym. The she went back to sleep also. #2 got up and went back to sleep. They are all just exhausted.

We have been trying to stay on top of the messes around the house. MissE isn't too happy that we have to clean all the time. "It is supposed to be summer vacation, Mom!" Well, MissE, there will always be work to do! I am trying to teach her the concept that it is easier to clean up little messes than to wait for it to be a big mess. She isn't getting it. In fact, she needs to get back into her room and make her bed.

We have been looking for cute flannel to make a blanket for my big girl. We are having no luck. I is all baby or plain. We have a couple of other stores to check out.

I am in the process of a new creative craze. I am trying to find letters in odd objects and photograph them. Hubby thinks that I need therapy!

Progress

Summer has begun! We have started off on a good note. I sat down with the kids and we had a talk about my expectations. The things that they needed to do everyday to maintain order. I hope that we can continue. I explained that there were some projects that we would be doing all summer long that I would be expecting their help with. Yesterday we started the garage. It had become a dumping ground. We have a corner that is supposed to be for coats. There are hooks and shelves for shoes. Well, Mr. #2 and Miss #3 have been HORRIBLE this winter about putting anything away. Truthfully, I decided to ignore it. It made me angry every single time I had to push shoes or coats out of the way. However, I didn't want to deal with it. Yesterday was the day. It isn't finished yet but we are making great progress. I am trying to decide what system would work better. Lockers? I don't know. I just know that I don't want to continue with the horrible mess that it has been. I also need to go through all the other shelves in the garage. We have some great shelves but a few of them seem to not have a specific purpose laid out. Therefore, they become the home to anything that doesn't have a home. So, I need to work on that. My sweet hubby is usually pretty organized, however, if things aren't labeled with a specific purpose even he just sits things. So, that is one of my next projects.

My project list is long. I am compiling it. It is probably depressing!

Reading Challenge

A new Book of Mormon reading challenge is going to begin on June 3rd! I am going to do this again! It was so good for me to have a goal and a way to chart it. If you are interested in this challenge visit the Hinkley Challenge site. It is free and easy. It is also a way to help us do what we already know we should be doing.

Last time I finished the entire Book of Mormon in 95 days! I am so proud of myself for doing this! I hope that more people will join in!

Pigsty

I am tired. We are home from church. It was a small miracle. We made it to church and we walked in the building TEN minutes early!

I am going to take a little nap and while I am resting I am hoping that the little cleaning fairies come and clean up the pigsty that has overtaken my house.