We have lived in this house for eight and a half years. We had it built so it was brand new. When we moved into this house we had three children--8,5,1---we have since added another who is now 5. Today I was doing some cleaning, normal stuff, vacuuming, dusting, picking up the legos(again) and things like that. While I was vacuuming I noticed a slimy substance across the wall in the hall. I started to really look---every wall in my house has a layer of goo about 3 1/2 feet height. Mr. J is just that tall! So I got out a rag and started to wash the walls. While I was doing this I really started to notice. My house is really past new. Every wall needs repainted. The wood work is all chipped and there are dings and dents in quite a few places. There are marks from thrown shoes and toys that won't come off with a rag.

I need to repaint. This is a very difficult thing for me because I have an "all or nothing" personality. It is difficult for me to break things down and do them in baby steps. I look at the entire house and realize that the entire thing, every surface needs to be painted. It makes me cringe. Another difficulty that I have is that I have a house that has a very open floor plan. Lots of open space that just runs into the next space--so, How do I paint this? Then, I really like some of the new types of colors and techniques but don't know how to do them.

Where do I start?

(have you ever not payed attention to something and then noticed it and gagged? I looked to the ceiling in my hall and noticed the cold air return---it was totally coated in dust---ewwh! I had to get a stool and the vacuum for that one!!)

I ran again today. Not far-a walk/run of about two miles. Better than nothing. I am still wanting to run a 10K. I don't have a clue why I want to be a runner. I still don't consider myself a runner, I am not sure what it takes to be an official "runner". Is there a certificate program or something?

Ever have a ton to say yet nothing at all at the same time? That is where I am.

So--a few bullet points

*laundry-making progress(it is a constant struggle--why does it bother me so?)
*organizing
*dejunking-every closest, drawer and space in the house needs attention
*photography class-need more time
*I want a new lens for my camera
*photo/scrapbooking philosophy class---need much more time to devote to it.
*i want a laptop
*Dr. bill's---we have had more appointments and procedures in the last few months than the last four years combined.
* I want to go to Jamaica
*J has eye surgery next week
*I started running again -haven't ran since September-I went 1.5 miles-my shin is a bit sore
*hair-what to do with it
*so many things to learn-too little time!
*why do my female children have to be so stubborn?(don't tell me it is my fault? I just want help!)
*trying very hard to eat and feed my family healthier choices-I have always tried but really working on it for D.
*with my family getting older they are beginning to eat MUCH MORE! Our food bill has skyrocketed(increasing groceries by 20% hasn't helped!)
*received a little letter IN THE MAIL--with a real stamp on it!, from my Uncle Darrel. Need to write him again.
* I haven't finished my cute Valentine's--is it ever really too late to send someone you love a Valentine? I didn't think so, so a few of you might get them in July!!!
*Thinking Spring, spring flowers, rain boots, cute spring clothes
*finally found and bought myself a new purse! It is bright pink!!!
*working out---I really like it, but it is still hard. I wish that I saw more results on the back side.
*teaching Sunbeams(3 year olds) at church. They are cute little busy bees.
*I found cottage cheese that doesn't have carrageenan in it---one grocery store! I also found whipping cream--Costco of all places(for the cream)
*I have found that high fructose corn syrup is liquid death. It is in almost everything! We finally found some yogurts that DON'T have it in it, it is difficult to find things without it.

That was quite a dump!!!

Tired

I must have been tired! I went to tuck in MissE and then went to my own bed---at 8:30p.m.!!!

I slept until 6:30 am!!! WOW!

Lists

Ever want to scare yourself? Start making lists of all the projects that need to be completed in a house! I started one--I have only gotten through my kitchen and into my hall! I am already tired. I didn't even add the projects like painting to the list!

I have made these lists before. I am not sure if they help me or if they actually make things worse. However, I continue to make the lists. Why? Why do we do this? I know that in theory the lists take a bit of pressure off of the brain--you can write it all down instead of carrying around a tally in your head. I wonder however, if it is effective or not. Do I get more done when I follow the Master List?

Well, give me a few life times and I will let you know.

I am still working on the ping pong table. I told Mr. Sweetness that it would be cleaned off when he got home. I had to make myself accountable--it HAS TO BE DONE!


Different Subject: Anyone make a Love Notes box? We have been using ours, it sits on our counter so I see it often. As I figured, I am the one that uses it the most--which is okay. I need to make sure that I am telling my sweeties that I love them and am proud of them. They don't hear it in my voice when I am telling them to practice the piano, or put away their shoes! I haven't made each child their own box yet but I am still considering it.

Monday---or Tuesday?

It is Tuesday--however, yesterday being a holiday today totally feels like a Monday! I have a HUGE list that I want to at least make a dent in. To do that I must stay focused--something that is so difficult when there are so many fun distracting things!

So--a list--perhaps I will get a bit of it done!

*laundry, laundry and more laundry!(I have been slacking-not good, it always gets away from me)
* bathrooms-those can wait till children can help
*floors--same as above
*basement--the ping pong table has been full since-well it's too embarrassing--it MUST be emptied
*my bedroom--I have a corner that is becoming a catch all--a huge mound of books and yarn.

Those are immediate things--here is the big list
*office-floor, closet, bookshelf--total overhaul
*pantry--it has been a year since the last major overhaul-it is time
*toys-more to di
*kids books--I must find a better way to house them-a new bookshelf(or five) will be necessary
*preschool closet-awful
*my studio-continue working on this-
*hall closet, bathroom closet---okay--ever single closet and every single drawer
*garage--snow clothes mess
*movie/toy/blanket closet

That is just a few off the top of my head. I better get to work!!!!

Love, Love, Love!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Twenty two years ago on February 11 my Dad died tragically. It forever changed our lives. It also changed a simple thing such as Valentine's Day. For the majority of the last twenty two years I have felt a heaviness around Valentine's Day. Quite a negative feeling. I didn't make much mention of it. I would tell my Mr. Sweetness to not worry about getting me anything, it was just a commercial holiday made so men would have to buy women presents.

Last year I started to feel a change. I started to realize that I was allowing a tragic event in my life steal a holiday from me. Hadn't too much been lost already? I was allowing a special day that is dedicated to love to be lost.

This year the resolve was even stronger! I reclaimed Valentine's day! I decided that never again would I allow this special day to be tainted by a tragic event. I would forever more try and celebrate this day with gusto.

So---I decorated my house and bought vintage Valentine's(for me to send). I made and bought lovely desserts for my book club, even decorating the table for the season.

I found darling little goodies for my sweet babies--just little things to let them know that I love them. It became a P.J. party! I ordered matching p.j's for me and the girls a few weeks ago. I decided to get the boys in on the party. Well, on Thursday, I received a package----it was a PajamaGram!!!! My sweetie had sent me pajama's! It was wrapped in a lovely velvet bag with a sleeping mask and lovely dark chocolate. They were even monogrammed! It was totally going to be a Pajama Valentine's Day!

This morning was full of fun. We opened up our packages, p.j's for everyone!!! (I didn't get a picture of everyone) We made a super breakfast and just spent some time together before church. I was wearing my jammies from D but the girls wanted a picture of us in our matching jammies. I have never done the matching jammies, even for Christmas---I think that I may have to start!

It was a lovely Valentine's Day, spent with the people I love.

Valentine's Day will forever and always be a celebration of love and sweetness!


(p.s. some of you may be getting your Valentine's cards a little late. It has been a crazy week around here!!)

Tomorrow is a busy day. I have a wedding 1 1/2 hours away. Then I have a ladies book club at my house tomorrow night. So--therefore the floor has to be cleaned as well as the kitchen, dining room, bathroom, front room. I also need to have some yummy treats.

What I want to be doing is decorating for Valentine's Day! I have lots of ideas and not enough time!

I also want to make chocolate chip cookies--found 2 new recipes that I am dying to try. However, no time and also I am trying to not eat sugar or starch---been doing great but it is killing me-especially at Valentines Day!!!

Sometimes there are days that are just harder than others. The kids seem to fight more, the floor is dirtier and there is more noise.

Tonight was one of those nights. The problem with this night is MissE is the one that caused ALL the noise and frustration.

There are days when it is just a great thing that we all get to go to bed and have a "do-over".

Evidence of My Little J Man

Very often, I walk around my home looking at all the messes that just seem to mutate into even
bigger messes. I moan and complain because things are not where they should be.
The other day I actually walked around and took inventory of most of the messes.

what I discovered is that I have a five year old that creates 70% of the messes in this house!!

He is still little enough that he is home with me. He plays and creates all day long. Therefore,

he creates waves of clutter and chaos wherever he goes. I have always laughed when people

use the term "search and destroy mission" referring to the mess some children leave behind them.

This little man is certainly a one man show when it come to search and destroy.

Someday I will look back on this time of my life and remember what it was like to have a little

guy. I hope that I remember him crawling into my lap for a love or giving me a hug and kiss.

I hope that I can remember the little love notes that he taped above my bed. I hope that I will

remember hugging and kissing boo-boos.

So, for this moment I will look at all the evidences of This Little J Man and be grateful that I have his Lego's on the floor, popcorn on the counter, shoes everywhere and most of all that I have his sweet spirit to love.

Love Notes!

It is the month of Love!!! What better way to show our love than by little love notes!
I was reading Becky Higgins blog the other day and she shared an idea that she did for Christmas. I LOVED IT! She actually shared some downloads that gear more to Valentine's Day. I just loved the idea so much that I actually went right out and bought boxes and treats.
It was so much fun putting these little kits together.

The idea of the Love Note is to have a little place that has note cards, pieces of paper, a pen (and treats of course) so that members of the family can write a random note to another member of the family expressing their love, thanks or admiration. I am considering purchasing some more little boxes, one for each family member and putting the love notes card on the top--so that each person can have a special little place that they can save their notes. I just think that this is the perfect Family Home Evening for February. I hope however, that the little love note box just becomes something that we do all the time.

I made enough boxes to share with my Visiting Teaching ladies---I really got into this. Coolest thing? I actually just went and did it and FINISHED IT!!! For me that is huge!

If you are interested in making your own boxes for your family and others go to Becky Higgins and scroll down to yesterday and the day before for the downloads.

Here are the links to the blog posts --read the post to understand and then follow her links to get the downloads.
love note links 2
Love note links 1

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY! LET'S SPREAD THE LOVE!!

Lucky me

I walked into my bathroom a few minutes ago and got a great big whiff of this guy and his cologne that he sprayed on before he left the room to head out into the big bad world to slay dragons for me.

I am such a lucky girl.

Longing

I am ready for a little bit of this type of action!!!! Sunshine, Water and Sand!! Cute kids as well!!

(pictures from summer 2007)

Reason to continue

I have been going to the gym (again) faithfully since school started. Somewhere in the dark of the winter we started going to the early o'clock class at 5:00 a.m. We go almost every single day-up to six times a week. Every single morning I want to roll back over and flake out. It is still hard to go.

Yesterday my sixteen year old daughter told me that she liked me going to the gym early because I am happier.


I guess that is reason enough to continue going. Maybe even worth more than a smaller rear end!

I wonder if my children know that the toaster and the can opener get dirty and someone cleans them?

Busy Monday Morning

Where to begin on this bright cold morning.


It is February!!! We made it through January, there is hope that Spring will come!

Today is one of those days that I have tons of things that I want to do, even more that I must do and tons that are first on the list!

Here is a run down:

*4:20 am alarm--
*5:00 am exercise class--
*6:00 am wake-up call from the gym--
*6:15 second wake up for other two-
*6:30 shower
*7:00 am make sure everyone is moving along-homework
checked, notes written, breakfast consumed, teeth brushed
*7:15 am family scriptures
*7:30 finish getting ready
*7:45 take MissE to "Mom's and Muffins" at the elementary school
*8:30 come home--start loading dishes, picking up things left out. Blog!
*10:15 leave for M's ortho appointment
*11:45 have J at Middle school for M's childhood development class
*12 35 pick up J
*12 45 drop of J at preschool
*1:00-3:00 try to wrestle the rest of the clutter and weekend chaos!
start laundry and make plans for dinner!


That list is a bit nuts! I am glad that every single day is not quite so busy.
I actually want to just be a Stay At Home Mom a little bit more often!

Zumba

I remember about twelve-seventeen years ago that line dancing was all the rage. People went to clubs to learn to line dance. We had line dancing instruction at church functions. We all danced to Boot Scootin Boogie. During this time I realized that I have NO natural dancing rhythm or ability.


Enter children. When my now sixteen year old daughter was five years old I enrolled her in clogging. I wasn't a fan of jazz dancing or the little drill teams. My neighbors family was big into clogging(now known as The Fab Five from America's Got Talent) so I thought that it would be a good fit.

We now have two daughters that clog. They are really very good. They have rhythm and can learn complicated steps. They compete and are always rated very high. My girls can dance!!!

Me? I am still a bundle of two left feet. Our little gym has recently been purchased by a new owner so we have undergone quite a change of schedule. One of those recent changes is the introduction of Zumba. What is Zumba? It is a crazy exercise dance class that has some of the most fun music. There is an entire wave of Zumba classes popping up around the world. The theory is to make working out more fun by incorporating different moves and rhythms. There is salsa moves, hip hop , American hoe down , Calypso and a variety of others.

My friend made me go last week. She told me we had to try it at least once. I was not excited. Not even interested. In fact, if she weren't such a good friend to me I would have never gone. Well, I went and actually enjoyed it! We went again this morning. I sweat in this class as much as a spinning bike class! I am dripping wet when we are finished.

Guess what? I still can't dance!!!

This is life.

I am always saying that I am busy. However, I never really seem to get much accomplished. My dishes are always in need of attention, my counters need wiped clean-again. My toilets need scrubbed(thanks to a little five year old boy), there are Lego's on the floor, there is laundry to do(someday I am going to make everyone go around naked for an entire day so that I can have everything washed at one time!!!), homework to check, bills to pay, pictures to print and put in albums, walls to paint, closets to organize, baseboards to scrub. The list never really ever changes.

I am trying to accept that THIS IS LIFE! It seems that it totally stresses me out because I am constantly in motion but the messes and chaos are always still around. I need to get to where I know that as long as we are moving forward and we don't need an industrial sized dumpster(very often) that I am doing alright. Life is full of messes, we eat everyday, we wear clothes everyday. My little five year old boy will soon grow up and not have Lego's, shoes, coats, bears, swords and fish spread across my floor. I will always have dust and dirt that comes into my house. It is all PART OF LIFE. I need to accept that the messes that come because we are living are not because I am not doing my part. My part it to keep it to a dull roar. As long as we can walk and are trying faithfully every single day to teach our children to work and to be kind we are doing what we need to be doing.

Will someone please remind me of this when I am complaining again?

Tidbits of Information

(Mr. Sweetness and I on top of Chich'en-Itza-2003)

MissE brought home a Weekly Reader magazine. I have always loved Weekly Reader. I am an information junkie. I love to read articles about people and places, ideas and philosophies. I am one of those annoying people that will be able to tell you something about almost anything--at least that is what my husband and children think. In reality, I know a smidgen of information about a million different things. Jack of all trades, Master of none---as my Mom always tells me!

In this Weekly Reader magazine there was an article about the Mayan Indians and their way of life. It had pictures and descriptions of Chich'en-Itza'(Mayan pyramid) ---I have personally been there! I climbed up the ninety two itty bitty steps. I felt an actual earthquake while I was on the top of that pyramid! (I was the only one that felt it--it was reported about two hundred miles away) I was so excited to pull out a book that my parents bought thirty years ago when they went and share it with MissE. I opened up this book and had to look for a few minutes. There is more information than I can absorb in that book. However, knowledge grows knowledge. I have been to the top of Chich'en-Itza but I know so little about the culture and life. One more thing to add to my bucket list. I want to go on a Mayan Ruin Tour.

So, I will continue to be an information junkie. Perhaps someday I will actually learn enough about a few subjects that I can talk about them for more than two minutes---or I might become a master at something!!!

Where I sit

Been up since 4:30 am. Have been to the gym where I sweat like a gorilla(do gorilla's really sweat?). I have made breakfast for three, lunch for one, changed laundry( need to fold mt. washmore), showered, unloaded and loaded the dishwasher, checked email, read blog reader---

Now I sit here with wet hair half dressed. I still have a list a mile long-it is Monday(although my list is long on Wednesday and Thursday as well).

What do I want to do? Crochet or read my photography book!!

I better get moving on that Mt. Washmore!!