Spring Break

 Tater Tot

 Mason Man

 Sissy, He He, Karsie, lots of nick name for Karsyn

 Ty Boy

 The wild child Kara

 DD# 1 gave me a oil class Sunday :) Lots of lotions and potions not all shown here

I packed all of this away with high hopes that they can be moved to the trash if the Natural lotions and potions work for us!!

We are off to the zoo today for some family fun!! Mason man is so excited, he wants to see all of the nice animals not the ones who bite "they not nice guys" so sweet. Taking kiddo's who's age range is between 8 years thru 10 month's old should be interesting. DD#1 helped me out with an oil recipe for a Stress roller ball just in case :)

We are trying to come up with little activities this week while they are out of school that won't break the bank or the nerves, Not an easy task!!!

More Signs of Spring

 The Camellia bush is loaded in blooms this year!!

 So pretty

 Nothing says spring better than the Cherry tree in full bloom

I am SOOO excited that my Living Young oil kit arrived this week!!!!!!! Hope to mix up some lotions and potions today.

As you can see I have lots and lots of recipes marked that I want to try!!!

 

Where did the week go? Lets see.....attic clean out, housework, laundry, lots of trips to Goodwill, some fun memory keeping, and Kara's first T-Ball game. It was a full week for sure.

 

For me the most exciting was to finally get my hands on an oil kit for here at home :) Let me share a little story. Last Saturday I woke up with a sore throat and a bit achy all over. No time to be sick, maybe it's just the pollen. By the evening I knew I was in for a killer of a spring cold, it felt like I had swallowed a Brillo pad, my ears were on fire, chills, aches, pains, the works.

 

I called DD#1 to mix me up a lotion or potion quick!!! We were on our way over. With a roller ball in hand filled with I have no idea of what and the diffuser working away with Lavender I was able to get some sleep. Sunday morning I was a bit better. By Monday morning that NASTY cold was gone!! It gets even better :)

 

I realized Monday morning that hubby had not woken me a single time in the night with his snoring or nose blowing, hum We have been at this nighttime dance of me kicking or pushing him to roll over, stop snoring for close to 40 years. I wonder......

 

Monday night the diffuser was moved to his side of the bed. One drop of Lavender was all it took for a TOTAL good nights sleep!!!! I am now sleeping like a baby and hubby is not using a box of tissue every night!!! That diffuser along with lavender oil will never ever leave his side of the bed :)

 

I have high hopes we will be able to throw out all of the OTC meds soon now that we have the oil kit!!! I do believe these young Moms are on to something :) While we have done our best to ditch every nasty food additive I can think of we still depend on OTC's for colds and tummy trouble sometimes, ditto for skitter bites, bee stings, and boo boo's. These young Mommy's have made a believer out of me :)

If your interested in learning more about this road down Essential oils we are starting you can check out DD#1 link. I will warn you I think it's not a very user friendly site :)

Off to mix a lotion or potion for a headache then off to Tyler's spring football game.

Winter Project Started

 I had clean out the attic on my winter must do list. Well that didn't happen due to hubby's travels so it was moved to February....still didn't happen due to his travels. Now here it is close to the end of March, better late than never right?

There is so much junk packed up there it's not even funny. Yesterday before we had to hit the grands game circuit I handed down a full days work for today. Most of the sorting for now will be baby related. Tater Tot is growing so fast I can't keep up with keeping him dressed when he is with us. I know I have things he could use mixed in these tubs somewhere.

 

Other happenings is scrapbook related. I shoved Christmas albums aside for now to work on another organizing related project. As well as a small endeavor scrapbook related...I will share soon :)

 

Is the time change kicking anyone else rump? I am a morning person all the way, by 6:00PM I am ready to call it a day. Getting up at 5:00 or 6:00 in the morning with the sun not showing its face until hours later has my internal clock all messed up.

 

Last night it all came together for the perfect storm. The grands have all had colds, respiratory infections, bronchitis, the works. I woke up yesterday feeling like I had swallowed a Brillo pad, it was so bad even my ears were burning. I do not have the time to nurse a nasty spring cold for a week or two!!!!!

 

DD#1 and her buddy Becky to the rescue. They are healing oil gyro's :) I hit the bed with their lotions and potions at 6:30 last night. They ordered Lavender in the diffuser along with a roller ball of some sort of mix to rub on my throat and jawline overnight. I do believe they were right on target. I feel so much better already!!!! I am amazed  by what all they are doing using oils, so much so that I bought a kit so they can keep mixing up special oils for hubby and I.

 

Over the counter meds are a No No for me as they sometimes interact all wrong with my seizure medication. That opens up a whole new nasty can of worms :)

 

Off to the races (attic sorting) Hubby has made 2 more appointments with contractors I get to deal with today. I am soooo over all this getting quots I could spit :)

Big Spender

 Aren't these windows lovely? They would never do in the South. Full screens are a must for the swarm of mosquito's sure to show their nasty little faces soon.

So....hubby and I made a BIG purchase of standard boring but triple pane windows for the entire house yesterday, OUCH!!!! I am marking window washing off my spring To Do list. Why wash windows that will be long gone in 6 to 8 weeks? Holy cow windows are so darn expensive. We have been pricing them for over a year now. Should we just replace the ones who's seal has failed? Maybe just do a window or two at a time? It was all so confusing.

One of the problems of older homes is nothing is standard after a few years. It's custom this or that. Nobody makes wooden windows :( I Hate, Hate, Hate to give up our wooden windows but there just aren't any other good choices.

Now that spring window washing is off the To Do list I have added idea's for used windows to the list. While the price we are paying covers the cost of disposing of the old windows I really would like to hold on to a few for sentimental reasons :) These are the windows our own DD's would cover in fingerprints when they were kiddo's. They are the windows I would throw open when I needed to yell out "Dinner time" or " Get yourself in here right now" They are the windows the grands love to decorate for the different holidays and of course leave their own sticky prints on :)

I'm not very good with change, even worse with spending LARGE amounts of money :)

 This is how we spent most of our week. Basketball playoffs, after a perfect season they won the tournament!!! While Elijah couldn't play this year he only missed one game to have scans, He is the true winner this season!!!!!!

 Little Mason man on his first day of soccer season. He is such a little guy :)

 Big Sister Karsyn is on the team too sporting her pretty pink shin guards

 Blake and AJ had some fun this week as well playing with Nanny's scrapbook page protectors

If that's not enough today was the first game of spring football.

It's EARLY to bed for hubby and I, Keeping up with all 5 of these kiddo's and their multiple sports teams has done us in!!!!

 

 

Signs of Spring

 What a great surprise that many of our Daffodils survived the gallons of vinegar I poured on the front beds last summer to kill all of the ivy!!!

 It's finally time for some outdoor grilling and a fresh salad. This is a bowl of all the ends, bits, and pieces that use to go down the garbage disposal or just get thrown out back in the mulch pile

 No more of that!! They are now being composted in my Christmas gift from hubby :) He thought I was crazy when he saw this on my Christmas wish list. Our girls made sure their hubbies knew to NEVER ever think a composter would be an appropriate gift for any occasion. Ha

One of the million and one Honey Do errands this week was to take hubby's old leaf blower to the repair shop. After speaking briefly to the nice fella helping me out it was determined the repairs would cost almost as much as a new one. Executive decision....put the old one that is at least 15 years old to the curb. I drove directly to Goodwill after making the purchase to drop off his old blower. You see after almost 40 years I know my man. The retired leaf blower would have joined all the other worn out, won't work, maybe I can piddle with it someday tools stored in the garage. When I shared the fate of his old blower with him I saw a second of pure panic on his face....He got over it :)

 

I am still at the "let it Go" project in the scrap/sewing room. I have no room to knock hubby for tucking away his treasures in the garage. Why would anyone keep sticker packs that are 99% used up? Me   I am happy to report they have been tossed along with lots of other 99% used up stuff. 

My oh so little free time has been spent making cute stuff with my new Cricut Artbooking cartridge by CTMH. As I am cleaning out, decluttering, updating, and rethinking my scrapbooking stash I am trying to get away from embellishments that I can only use a time or two leaving me with more STUFF to store. Investing in a few Hard tools that are versatile and won't go out of style seems the way to go. The fact that I was able to purchase it at 1/2 price of course sweetened the deal :)

Today is the FIRST day in forever that I don't have to go any where!!!! Our days and nights have been filled with errands, ball games, and meeting with contractors for some home repairs. Today the contractors will be coming to me :) Basketball season finished up last might with a nice large first place trophy for Tyler's team.

My plan.......Something for the crock pot, home made bread, a sweet for desert, and working on  Halloween scrapbooking pages. I love stay at home days!!!!

Kindness

 DD#1 has been looking for labels to use on her Young Living make and takes. Cricut and chalkboard vinyl to the rescue. After I did a sample for her to see if it would work got a message back, YAAA It's great I need 50 of all 5 styles :)

 Little by little I am working my way down the To Do list. A gallon bag of shampoo, conditioner, lotion, and soap is off to the soup kitchen.

 Ditto to this pile of soap as well. Hubby has been trained well, he knows he better collect every single bottle and bar when he is in a motel, they are perfect for the shelters. Note to self get the sittings right on your camera :)

Our Ty boy blocking at their last of the season Basketball game (#11) Ty is going to be VERY tall just like his Daddy.

I seem to be running from one little must do to the next, it's hard to get the big stuff done with so much little stuff piled up. I was able to knock out a bit this past week, hopefully next week I can stay on track.

Sweet story....stick with me :)

We had Tater Tot and Kara today, after chasing them around all morning and feeding them more food than 2 little kids should be able to eat it was time to leave for Ty boys game. We got this

Wash Blake up, find his socks. Check  Pack diaper bag, wash out bottles, clean outfit in bag just in case. Check.  Where is his blanket, ahhh wrapped around Bitty Baby, got it. Check  He is ready to go!!

Brush Kara's hair, wash her face, go potty please. Check  What's that smell? BLAKE!!

Hubby, put Kara's shoes on Nanny, change stinky boy.

We are off just in the nick of time.....

Kids are fussy but finally fall asleep, piece and quite, love that

Kara starts coughing, more coughing, and even more. Crap, Kara just threw up from coughing.

Hubby pulls over to a safe place.

Get Kara cleaned up with $100.00 in baby wipes (not really just seemed like it) Back in the car little lady, we are going to be late. Did I mention it was raining? Nice

She looks at me and says "Nanny Elijah won't love me today I smell like frow-up" Aww. Honey Elijah will still love you.

So I share the Kara story with Elijah at the game. He is such a sweetheart, he goes over to Kara to talk a bit so she doesn't feel bad. When he came back over I complimented him on how sweet that was. He just smile "Ya, I am having a lot of problems lately with the girls, they all love me"

This is one special boy. He is in the fight of his life with this nasty cancer but never ever not one single day does he not think of others. He has and still is teaching all of us to love a little more, be kind even if we have been pooped on and thrown up on.

Hubby and I have been blessed with the ability to give financially to others. That is nothing compared to Elijah's small act of kindness. His few sweet words to this 4 year old...Now that is a true act of kindness!!!!

Resocking the Pantry and Freezer

 This was one of our freezers before delivery day for my Sister, enough meat for several months collected and all bought on sale.

 Lots of canned and boxes goods, a small crock pot, a few new shirts for winter, and some used books for the cold nights. I am so thankful for a hubby that not only never complains of where the money goes but encourages me to keep giving with a happy heart.

Tater Tot has advanced to the pots and pan cabinet :) He is such a sweet little guy, loves hugs and kisses, as well as snuggly cuddles at nap time.

 Time out Teddy and I are moving along, slowly we shall get it done. Shelf is now clean and tidy.

 Buttons

And more buttons

 

In my endeavors to clean up the sewing/scrap room I put together a LARGE box filled with lots of new but will never be used stuff to give away at the scrapbooking retreat. It didn't take long for the giveaway table to be cleaned out YAAAA

It's a cold rainy morning today....tomorrow sunny and in the 70's, Yes please!!!! I do believe Sunday dinner will be a cookout with the family.

 Today will be action packed as we have Tater Tot and Kara. We will be packing them up to watch Karsyn and Mason man in their first Soccer game followed by Tyler's Basketball tournament in the afternoon, oh my!

It's going to be a crock pot day for sure with an early bedtime for all. I will be so glad when my body adjusts to the new time change!!

 

Time Out Teddy

 My one errand yesterday was to pick up a pair of jeans for Mason man. DD#1 is crazy overworked right now with catching her students up at school from all of the snow days, Spring sports starting for all 3 of her kiddo's, mandatory plans every night this week after work, and still keeping up the house, meals, laundry, you know the drill. I was happy to help out.

 Well don't you know I spent more than planned. The store was running a 50% off sale on their spring collection. What the heck might as well pick up the grands Easter outfits/photo shoot clothes. Tater Tot and Kara will be sporting coordinating outfits that are sweet, durable, and can be worn all summer.

 Tyler and Mason Man got matching shirts in spring colors of yellow and navy blue. Karsyn a dress in navy blue, throw a green hair bow on and she is good. Again everything can be worn spring and summer, casual enough to wear everyday. As a bonus I have some Gymboore bucks to use next month.

 I have been working on ribbon organization for over a month. Every time I get started something comes up to pull me away. Some days I just didn't get very far, my mojo just wasn't there. This morning I took the phone off the hook and set my Time out Teddy for one hour. After finishing this rack over my desk I moved on to the next area.

 This is an old shoe rack that I have repurposed to hold yet more ribbon.

The last of the ribbon stash :) I did reset Teddy for an additional 30 minutes so I could finally FINISH this gone on too long project. Needless to say I have WAY to much ribbon, between sewing, scrapbooking, hair bows for the little girls, and who the heck knows why I will NOT go down another ribbon isle for many, many years. Is this all you ask? No, blush. All of the Christmas ribbon is on my Raskog cart.

We are being blessed with beautiful weather this week, today's high was 80 degrees, what a difference a week makes!! I have high hopes with the windows open letting in some fresh air I can move forward a bit more on problem areas I have started but can't seem to finish in the sewing/craft room.

I am making sewing/scrapbooking my first Spring cleaning projects. The rest of the house can wait for a bit. I can keep up pretty well with everything else, its the creative areas that always suffer.

Time Flies

Tater Tot is growing like a weed. He is fast as lightning, into something all of the time, always with a smile on his sweet face.

This is less than a month ago on Valentine's day just learning to stand up even on hardwood floors no less

And now he is walking along with some heavy lifting :( Thankfully he loves to be rocked and cuddled so we still have a baby :)

 Yesterday's trip to the grocery. I HATE buying milk when last weeks 1/2 gallon has hardly been touched. Note to self, drink more milk!!

Hubby celebrated a Birthday yesterday. He requested an Ice Cream cake, yuck! Knowing that the rest of the family is not a big fan of ice cream cakes I figured I better pick out some cupcakes for the rest of us. Dirt desert cupcakes!!!! I haven't thought about dirt desert in such a long time. The reaction on the grands faces was priceless.


Does anyone else remember dirt desert from back in the 80's? For you young bucks it's nothing more than a chocolate cake with white frosting. Sprinkle with some crushed Oreo's on top then add Gummy worms. I made sure to push a few into the cake so it looked like the worm's were working their way out way back when.

Yesterday I decided to not kill anyone. I had a few people on the list.

 As I was brushing my teeth in the morning preparing to hit the road on some errands for DD#1 I got that is someone looking at me feeling. I looked up and there stood DD#3, it's hard to scream with a mouth full of foam, but inhaling it, no problem. Since she is the mother of two of our grands I allowed her to live.

I called hubby to remind him he would need to leave a bit early from work so we could make it to the restaurant for his BD dinner at 6:00, yep no problem. I was working away in the sewing/scrap room and lost track of time. Holy Moly it's 5:30, the BD boy was not yet home. I made quick call to see if he was stuck in traffic.
Me - Where are you?
Him - Right here waiting for you
Me- Holy crap are you in the den?
Him - No at the restaurant
Me - !#@$ What!! You were going to come home so we could ride together, grrr
Him - I must have gotten mixed up

On the way over I called our DD's to let them know I would be late, go ahead and order don't wait for me. The grands can only sit still for so long, no need to make them wait.

I pull into the parking lot, hubby comes out to the car.......I knew something was up....

Me - What are you doing? You guys should be eating
Him - We are waiting for a table
Me - We had a  reservation for 6:00, it's already 6:30
Him - Well I changed it from the dinning room to the grill
Me - WHAT!!!!!
Him - The grands love the show
Me - OK buddy boy, it's your BD, as long as you keep biggy sizing and going for the deluxe package you may never get to retire.

I did not kill him. Slap an additional $100.00 onto the bill when we eat at the grill, I give up :)

Only one errand for today Yaaa  Hope to spend the rest of the day continuing to clean up/out the sewing/scrap room

Where in the World is....

 I am back :) At least I hope to get back to regular blogging! I took a very unexpected break for some me time, catch up, get my act together and basically rest during what has turned out to be a real winter here in the south.

 Compaired to the weather North of the Mason Dixon line our winter was nothing :) But for us it has been a really big deal. The kiddo's finally had their first full week of school last week after 6 weeks of missing a day or more each week, crazy!!

 I had a mini me vacation thanks to a wonderful Christmas gift from a dear friend. Four days and three nights at a scrapbooking retreat!!!!

 Throw a few ice storms into the mix is a sure way to get some quite time. Ain't nobody going nowhere in this!

 My main concentration each day has been to get the grands scrapbooks updated. Lots and lots of layouts, pocket cards, and pages completed.

 One of my main goals was to use what I have on hand. Being snowed/iced in helped with that goal.

 Mixing traditional scrapbooking

With pocket page scrapbooking

 Makes for some very, very messy days

And ink stained hands :)

 

I never intended to take such a long break....It happened so quickly....I was all set to make a drive down to my Sisters to deliver a freezer/pantry full of food when hubby was called out unexpectedly to the field. With this quick change of plans hubby did my delivery on his way to the job site. Me....I got into a funk :( Just when we think he will be home for a good long time it always seems to happen. This time I decided bury myself in scrapbooking while he was gone.

 

Since our/my plans/goals for February went out the window I figured it was a good time to dig deep into working on Christmas albums for our DD's families. I had not updated Christmas albums since 2009. In my mind I figured I could whip through those pages in no time at all. WRONG!!!! Our DD's have added 4 babies to the family in 4 years. Add to that I am on my 3rd PC in the same time frame. Finding photo's between all the systems and back ups, editing, deleting, enlarging, printing, cropping, oh my!!!!

 

After spending hours and hours on electronics I couldn't make myself sit down each day to work on a bogging post. On days I could finally pick up photo's at the printers all I wanted to do was create pages, lots and lots of pages. No time to blog and really would anyone be interested?

 

In my quest to complete the Christmas albums and use what I had on hand there has been a WHOLE lotta downsizing, organizing, and donating. Thankfully not much spending, what little bit I have spent was on what I consider hard tools :) I will share later.

 

Now here we are 6 weeks or more later, are the Christmas albums complete? NO Are they close to being complete, maybe. Is the sewing/scraproom all clean and organized? Not a chance :)

 

I am obsessed with getting these albums updated!! Hubby has finally returned home. Finding a balance between the two....It's a work in progress :)