One Down, Two to Go

One holiday has come and gone - two more to come. I love this time of year when it feels like one holiday comes and the next is lined up. You have Valentines Day, St. Patrick's Day, Easter. But you don't usually spend the whole month looking forward to it like the Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas holidays.

Thanksgiving seems to get overlooked a bit though. Of course, Christmas decorations are starting to come up in the stores. I understand the whole ordering/setting up/being ahead thing that happens in retail. Just don't make a big deal of it though. Don't decorate your store yet. Don't put Christmas commericals on the TV quite yet. Don't play Christmas music yet.

Growing up we had a rule that there was no Christmas music until after Thanksgiving. We might sneak a song here or there when my dad wasn't around. But I liked that rule. It made the anticipation even better. It seems when you start playing Christmas music too early, you're sick of it by Christmas.

Back to Thanksgiving. I am thinking about doing a Thankful Tree this year. I had thought of the idea last year, but didn't get around to doing it. But this year two of my kids know how to write their ABCs. I don't know the exact way I'd do it. My plan though is to probably cut out large leave shapes from cardstock and punch a hole in it to hang it on a tree. Not sure about the tree though. I could find a dead branch or make something out of wire and brown tape. I'll have to give it some thought still.

Halloween

I had a lot of fun (and sometimes stress) making my kids halloween costumes. I have a Link (from Legend of Zelda video game), a Princess, and a Pea in a Pod.

I got a lot of compliments from people for the Link outfit. Even my husband was impressed with what I did. All the adults thought he was Robin Hood. All the kids knew he was Link.

I actually have a lot of fun making things. I'm excited for next years Halloween. I may have to stock up on halloween fabrics on clearance and check sales.

My son wants to be Indiana Jones for Halloween next year. (He has been playing Indiana Jones Lego video game.) That would be fun to make. Heck, I may just make it for dress up play.

It's Autumn Time, Leaves are Falling Down

I love Fall. I love the colors, the starting to cool down. I love sitting inside with my housecoat on and drinking hot chocolate. I love pumpkins. I love pumpkin cookies, pumpkin bread. It's even better when there is chocolate in it.

I guess I haven't been the best on keeping up the blog. My goal is to at least post more than I did in 2007. 2008 wasn't the best year for blogging, but I spent a little over 1/2 of that year living with my parents with dial up.

Can't think of anything that interesting to say right now. So at least I blogged. :)

Some of My Favorite Things

Just some random favorite things of mine.


Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. An online musical. Love it. It even recently won an Emmy. Check it out. **There is a swear word, and not geared for kids at all FYI**

Rainstorms. One, I don't have to water my lawn.... saves me a chore. Two, I just love the rain.

Sitting in my housecoat, drinking hot chocolate.

Imagining up great stories to write. I think I almost love it more than actually writing it down. If only there was a device to take what I imagine and translate it into dialouge and descriptions.

Napping babies.

Sleeping through the night. Even though my baby has been sleeping through the night for the last 4 months, I still get woken up often. Some days it is more by the 3 and 5 year old than the baby. On days that I actually go to sleep and don't wake up until morning, I am in awe.



Some things I DON'T like.

Thrillers. I watched one last night. I don't like them. I have an imagination already, I don't need to feed it with scary stuff. I covered my eyes half the time and asked my husband what was happening.

The heat. I don't like being hot and sweaty. I am excited for Fall to be coming. I like the cooler weather.



Ok, can't think of other dislikes right now. I do have more, but I guess I'm just in a more positive mood today.

Keeping Your Blog Up

I was browsing some blogs that I like to read and was thinking "how come they don't update with a new blog?" Then I come over here and check mine, and I haven't written anything for over a month. Oops.

Nothing all that new to update on though. The baby is getting bigger and cuter by the day. She can almost sit up by herself and is starting to get up on her hands and knees. No crawling quite yet, although she does scoot herself forward if she is just out of reach of an item. Which is another thing she does. She grabs anything she sees on the floor.

It's cute to see their little personalities coming through. She is 6 months old and already has likes and dislikes. She loves balloons, keyboards, and stroller walks. She dislikes baths and pool water. I'm hoping she'll like baths more when she can sit and doesn't feel as unstable as when I just have to lay her down and hold her.

Oh! One major change. I got my new front door finally installed. I love it. We went from an old white painted door to a new wood (just sealed, no stain). Such a nice door.

Ok, well baby is asleep. I better do something productive while she is sleeping.

"The Best Things in Life are not Things!"

(A quote I got from a Don Aslett book that I love.)

I'm once again dealing with the organization problem. I'm not a hoarder and I wouldn't even consider myself a packrat. The problem I have right now is that we have sold our RV, which has house a lot of our stuff since we had the fire. Some of it has been cleaned out, but there is still a decent amount of stuff in there.

It has to be cleared out by Thursday, which means my house is now cluttered and messy from all the boxes scattered.

I've been giving a lot of thought to my stuff. I'm sick of it, I don't want it, but I have been having a hard time getting rid of it. My latest thought about it is this: I want to have a yard sale, but I don't want to deal with one. I want to make money from the stuff I have, yet I just want it gone. Let's say I was WAY lucky and got $1000 for the things I'm getting rid of. I don't care. Holding on to this stuff just drives me crazy. I can't really focus on the things that are important to me with all this stuff. If I really wanted to, I could make $1000. But not with all this stuff. It just weighs you down.

I absolutely love Don Aslett's books. I would recommend his books to anyone (unless you are the perfect homemaker with the perfect clean home). Even if you don't have a clutter problem, he has a book all about getting help from the kids and husband. His books about cleaning/clutter are to me like the Book of Mormon is to the gospel. The man is my hero.

My goal this year is to be clutter free by the end of the year. I don't want stuff. The things that are important to me: my family, my health, my wanting to write novels, the church, friends. My wants in my life are: I want a bigger home. I want more room, but not more stuff. I want to wake up everyday feeling refreshed, not worn out knowing that I have clutter to deal with.

I have some pictures of my house the way it is now. I am not posting them yet. But I love before and afters. Maybe I will post them when the after part is achieved.

Okay, now if the rain will ever slow down I will take 2 of my DI boxes out to my car.

Life is busy

I have been getting long gaps of time between posts lately. Of course, there is a lot on my plate right now. Three little kids (one a baby), remodeling house, springtime outdoor chores, planning a camping trip, organizing stuff, etc. Doesn't like a lot of time to think.

I have however been thinking about writing again. Of course, thinking isn't doing, but it's a start. I actually thought of ways to better my novel that has been in the works for over a year. I know there will be a time in my life that I will make the time for writing. It just isn't top priority to me right now.

I have been reading blogs written by other writers. I enjoy reading about others successes in the writing business. There are lots of books I am excited to read someday on my list. A few of them:

Agent in Old Lace by Tristi Pinkston. Tristi is on my facebook friends, and although I have never met her in person, I have enjoyed getting to know her somewhat online. She's only about 2 hours away from me. Maybe someday our paths will cross.

My Fairy Grandmother by Aubrey Mace. I read her Spare Change novel and really liked it. (It also won a Whitney Award for Best Novel.) It was her first published novel, so she's off to a good start. :)

English Trifle by Josi Kilpack. I've enjoyed the few books of her's I've read. I also read Lemon Tart and liked it. I'm sure this one will be just as good.

Another author I have really enjoyed is Robert Farrell Smith (Not the nicest layout format on a website, but it shows his books.) Anyway, he is a funny guy. I love his books. I've read his newer ones and some of his older ones. I had to check some out from the library, but they are worth the read.

Okay, well enough of the blogging. Time to actually go do something productive like cleaning .... :(

Contest Link

When you have a CTR 5 and a daughter who will be a sunbeam next year, you can use all the help you can get. Anne Bradshaw has a contest going to give away a free "Tiny Talks" book. Go to her website to find out how you can enter too.

My son hasn't yet given a talk in Primary. The one time he was assigned last year, we were all sick that weekend. I'm not sure he would have stood up in front of everyone and talked or not. But I am pretty sure he'd do it now. He gets nervous doing new things, but he'll usually try new things when his mom is by his side.

Baby Blessing

We blessed our newest little one yesterday. Afterwards, we had friends and family come over to our "small" home for a lunch. My home is around 1200 sq foot, 1 bathroom. There were 19 adults and 15 kids. Wow! I really didn't think that many would fit in my house. It was a lot of fun though.

She has been almost sleeping through the night since she was around 3 weeks. She'd sleep from 9 to 4 a lot. But here and there wake up an extra time. Last night she slept form 9 to 5:30. I can live with that. I don't like mornings or being up that early. But it's better than being up at 11:00, 2:00, 4:00, 6:00. I was hoping the new baby would sleep through the night around 7 weeks, because my other daughter slept through the night at 7 weeks. I don't know how I got so lucky to have it actually be true.

Now I just need a few more days of the whole night sleeping, and I may have the energy to do most everything I want to do... unless of course the baby decides otherwise. :)

Life's Getting Crazy

I haven't written on here much, because life is getting more busy for me right now. I had a new baby on Jan 9th. I'm starting to get adjusted (as much as one can) to the sleepless nights. I'm a zombie for a few hours in the morning, and then my body wakes up the rest of the way after that.

I'm also feeling good enough now, that I am starting to clean and organize the house again. We are still working on remodeling the back bedroom. For now, my son and daughter are in one bedroom, and the baby is in our room. The back bedroom just needs muddding, painting, carpet, and trim. We knocked down the plaster walls, updated the electrical, put in new updated windows, and put up new walls. Well, I didn't, I was 8-9 months pregnant when the project was started.

I've decided I like a simple clean home. You may not know it by looking at some of the piles in our house. But I am going through everything and trying to objectively look at stuff and decide if I really want or need it. The DI has been getting stuff from me weekly, and I feel good getting rid of stuff.