That Whole Resolution Thing

Do you do the resolutions? Do you resolve not to resolve? Personally, I set goals. I figure they are more attainable that way. I have some areas that I want to work on or continue to work on. Let me break them down for you.

House:

Keep it picked up - we have been doing a pretty good job at this one. I'd like to get it so we have the dishes almost completely caught up, the laundry almost completely caught up (I'm not deluding myself into thinking there will EVER be a point where they are both completely caught up, I live in a house of 7/8 people after all. Someone will always be using a dish or getting clothes dirty, it's the law of averages after all), and the office picked up.

Declutter/reorganize - This overlaps with a crafting goal because it means using materials that I have on hand, which will help declutter.

Deep Clean - The kitchen especially can use a deep clean and reorganization. This includes the back hallway/pantry area

Make progress on James' room. I'm not sure exactly what this will entail, it really will depend on our own funds, skill set, and when my dad is available to help us out. I know it will start with a deep clean of every surface in the room. It used to be a kitchen so it's kind of gross and wasn't cleaned well before we moved in.

Wall in the extra doorway in the Mid-Kids' (Jayden and Izzy) room.

Put up privacy fence. Fence materials will be bought with our Income Tax Return. We'll borrow a fence post hole digger from my dad.

Get a Super Yard Gate so that in the warmer months I can have the twins outside with me and not worry about them going where they shouldn't.

Gardening:

Get the gardens into the ground in a timely manner this year so that we can have fruit/vegetable harvests in the summer and fall.

Build at least 2 above ground vegetable/fruit boxes in the back yard. These will be for plants that grow above ground and/or take up a lot of room like melons and gourds, fruit, beans, and peppers.

Till the ground area for all below ground veggies (potatoes, carrots), tomatoes (they will use the fence for support), and other crops giving it a try like onions and garlic.

Plant at least one blueberry bush.

Seed grass early.

Till and maintain front flower and herb beds and back vegetable/fruit beds. This includes planting seeds and weeding as needed throughout the season.

Craft:

Use materials on hand to make the stockpiles diminish. I have plenty of yarn and scrapbook supplies and fabric to start and finish all kinds of projects.

Finish the multitudes of started projects and give them to the people I intended when I started it.

Learn to knit socks on DPN's

Have more pictures printed and scrapbook. I haven't scrapbooked in well over a year. It's something I enjoy doing but I just haven't done it. The kids also enjoy doing it and it's something we can do together.

Make more jewelry. I like doing it. Maybe at some point I'll start an etsy page, but we'll see how that goes.

Work on improving my knitting and crocheting techniques. Learn how to do 1 new stitch/technique each month.

Cooking:

Learn to bake a nice loaf of bread

Bake more

Learn some new recipes and get them in our monthly rotation.

Rotate the monthly shopping pattern with one month stockpile from Sam's and the next head to Meijer/WalMart to get what we need each week. This will allow us to use what is in our freezer over the next couple of months.

Cook with the kids regularly. This teaches them a good life skill, works on math and reading skills, and gets them helping.

Kids' Schooling:

Get them using the computer more. It's more interactive and engaging. This will be easier once I have a laptop (a planned purchase with our income tax return in Feb) so that I can work on the laptop in the living room and the olders can use the computer for schoolwork

Plan out a unit study and follow through with it at least twice a month.

Figure out how to use lapbooks and integrate them into our weekly work. This will go well with doing unit studies.

Work on the Feelings/Perspectives workbook.

Keep better track of their activities on the boards. This includes tallying points at the end of the week and having them "shop" in our prize box. I am also changing the board so that the week starts on Monday simply because we don't usually do any kind of "schoolwork" on Sunday.

Start utilizing all of the educational programming available with the Netflix. They usually find the programs really interesting and are learning things. Try to incorporate the programming into our weekly lessons.

Learn more ASL, even possibly take a class, and teach it to the rest of the family. Izzy is finally beginning to understand that motions are a way of communicating and I want to take full advantage of that.

Personal:

Work online more with either ChaCha or Amazon Hub. These two will allow me to get homeschool materials (that I have to pay for) as needed, get what craft materials I may need to finish a project, pay to print pictures, and help pad our income for expenses that come up between Jason's paydays.

Finish the SSI applications for James and Issac. Start researching SSI lawyers for when the denial letters come in.

Eat more fruits and vegetables.

Exercise 3-4 days a week. This could mean going for long walks, yoga, pilates, or wii workouts. To start with, I'll be focusing on yoga to strengthen and tone.

Take more pictures of everything. I feel like life is slipping by and there aren't enough pictures to document it.

Blog 2-3 times a week. Blogging helps me sit down and take stock of what I'm doing, what we're all doing, how we're doing, where we're going. I think that is important.

Talk and listen to the kids, all of them. No matter what it is that they are saying and if it bores me to tears. I want them to feel like they can come to me with anything so I need to show that I am willing to listen to everything.

Spend quality time with Jason on our kid free weekend each month. This means more than just being in the house together. I need to make time to spend with him, doing things.

Is this the year to be debt free? I don't know. However I want to work on paying down our debt. I want to get us living easily within our means so that we can also start having some savings. We are already on the road to doing this so it's a continuance kind of thing.

Stop self deprecating. Appreciate my value and worth. Know what it is that I offer to my family, to the world as a whole. Acknowledge my talents and faults and work to improve them both.

Un-Christmas each month. We (Jason and I) have decided that instead of one huge pile of presents at the end of the year, that we will split that pile up to 1-2 gifts each month. This will allow the gifts to fit into our budget better. Seasonal gifts (like bikes, skateboards, bubbles, chalk, etc) can be used at that time. Also, with the kids getting older, it will allow them to use gifts with their current interests in mind. We have found that likes and interests change within a 6 month period so buying something in May to use in December is hit or miss as to whether it will be liked/used. I bought a very small table top tree (on clearence for 1/2 off) for the kids to decorate with hand made ornaments each month. They'll wake up one day (a day chosen at random by me) and find their Un-Christmas set up for them on the dining room table.

I suppose that is all for right now. I've been thinking about these things over the past couple of days. Last year I tried to keep the goals simple, and I think I was successful. However I wanted more specifics this year, to give me better direction. I know these are year long things and can't be accomplished within a few days or even a few weeks.

Prayers and blessings everyone. I hope you have had a wonderful holiday season and the new year finds you in good spirits and health.

Entered a Contest

For Westminister Fat Quarters on Fave Crafts. I love Fave Crafts. I get a daily email of about 20-30 free craft ideas and patterns. I often get emails with free e-books of MORE patterns and ideas. For someone who is always trying to think of things to do, this is a great resource for me!

So go check out Fave Crafts and sign up for their emails and start crafting!

Craft Giveaway

It's not a craft I'm making, it's one I'd like to make. I entered a contest to win one of these bracelet kits. I figure I can have Jayden help me out with them and she could give them to friends. Admittedly, if I knew how to make them, I wouldn't need the kit. I have plenty of stuff around here to make just about anything with.

I love favecrafts and the newslettes that I get in my email. I admit that I save them all there, for easy reference. Yes they all of the crafts that are listed are on the main site and I could search for them. Sometimes the ease of scrolling through the email and getting the ideas that way is nicer. I may be at a loss for an idea and I'll get the email and have an "AHA!" moment right there.

If you craft in anyway, I highly suggest you sign up for the newsletters. Prayers and blessings everyone. I hope you have a fun filled and crafty weekend.

New Hair and Balls of Yarn

I got my hair cut yesterday. If you look back to pics from last week you'll be able to get a good idea of what it did look like. It started out as just a trim, I swear it did. I've been toying with the idea of cutting it shorter for a while, I just wasn't sure what I wanted. With Katie's wedding coming up, I wanted something that would look nice, but that I actually liked and could handle.

I'm hoping that it doesn't grow too much before the wedding so I don't have to redye it before hand. It really is almost too short to do the highlights. I think I'll have to let it get "shaggy" to redo those and then get the hair cut again. The nice thing about the cut is it SUPER easy to care for. My hair looks a bit of mess in the pics. It would usually look more put together, however today has been VERY windy and I had to go out before the pics were taken, go figure.

My hair gets dry and split ends so easily and I find it so very annoying. I've had some suggest that it might be the coloring I do to it, however my hair would do it even when I did nothing to my hair at all. I thought about calling Katie and telling her I shaved my head, just to mess with her. I thought better of it however. After all, a wedding is no good if the bride is locked up in the looney bin!










I know I haven't done a post yet about the ultrasound that we had last week where we found out WHO the babies are. We DID find out however. I'll be putting that post up in the next couple of days, and yes, it WILL be post dated for last week. You'll have to scroll back for it. You'll want to because I'll be giving away the names we've chosen as well! Until then, here is a teaser. These are the balls of yarn I'm using to make 4 sweaters and 2 hats. 2 sweaters for each baby and one hat to go with one of the sweaters.

Random Saturday

The thoughts meandering through my mind went a bit like this today...

I see the signs all over town "Pray for our New Leaders" and I have to wonder if the "conservative" guys would have won would those signs still be up there? I would think that ALL political leaders need our prayers, especially with the way this country is right now, don't YOU?

I'm going OUT on Friday with my HUBBY on a DATE! Like DINNER and SYMPHONY!! I feel so GROWN UP!!! I know that's funny, however I actually had to go buy a dress. Why buy a dress? Oh come on, you know what stay at home mom's wear. Jeans on a dressy day. Yoga pants on a non-dressy day. Pajama pants on a "Why the HELL did I get out of bed" day. I don't see "DRESS" in there at all.

So many projects to accomplish. I was hoping that I'd have the curtains for the house made by now. Um, I don't even have the curtains for the extra doorway in the girls' room finished!

I've been thinking of a list of things I'd like to work on in therapy. Just so I can give it to her. Part of the paperwork was asking what I felt I needed services for. I also asked Jason to write stuff down. He sees things differently than I do after all.

I'm making beef stew in the crock pot right now. The left over pot roast from last night, some fresh potatoes, and fresh baby carrots, all cut up. YUM YUM. At least I hope so. Tomorrow night we are having a whole chicken. Then I'll boil the carcass and have a nice good chicken stock in the freezer. I want to look for a buttermilk biscuit recipe online and make some from scratch and make chicken and dumplings from the chicken stock and the biscuit mix.

I need to buy my turkey this week. That is quickly approaching and I need to be prepared! I also need to figure out what else I am going to be serving. It will be just Jason's family joining us this year. My dad and Sue are going to be up north with her family. Her parents usually go south for the winter, but didn't this year, so they are going to enjoy the holiday with them.

Jason was supposed to call his sister about Thanksgiving. Oh well, I'll remind him again tomorrow. I need to send out my annual "this is our holiday schedule this is what the kids are in to" email to the extended family. Coordinating Christmas dinners for us is a plan that takes a month's notice. It's also why we do NOTHING on Christmas day aside from rent movies and get Chinese take out. From the 26th to the 31st we are running all over the state like chickens with our heads cut off!

Tomorrow is Almost Silent Sunday and I told Donna (a mommy on the Four or More board) that I would post pics of my scrapbooking stuff. She's trying to find some sense of organization in hers. I can understand that. I'm trying to find some sense of organization in ALL of my stuff!

Jason said he WILL take pics of me all GUSSIED up on Friday. I made a necklace to go with it. I'm working on a headband and a shawl. I'm wondering if I should go with barrettes instead however. I'll argue with the headband a little longer and see what comes of it and take it from there.

I am going to research Craftacular as a possible Etsy store name. I can always go with JDR. I like that. Simple and concise. It also happens to be the initials for BOTH Jason and I, so it easily describes that it is OUR stuff.

Prayers and blessings everyone. Try to stay warm, unless you are to the south, then try to stay cool. It's supposed to be cold and snowy for the rest of the week. It's about time, is what I have to say about that!

Make Up Post 101

This is the post to make up for missing out on Friday. I don't know why I didn't post on Friday. Oh wait, yes I do! It was an odd day, to say the least.

I had stayed up all night and I made the mistake of laying down on the couch to watch a movie, the 1st National Treasure. I fell asleep, and the kids let me sleep all day. James got food for Izzy. I think I woke up once to change a diaper. They trashed the house. Jayden ate way too much candy. James was on the computer the entire time. Well fuck me. When Jason got home, he was on the computer all night. Past midnight, so no post for me.

Today (I'm still on Saturday folks) was GREAT!!! I only spent about $30. I really didn't go to BUY stuff, it was more just to GO. Ya know?

I DID get some really great beads. I'm a weirdo, I KNOW. I got 6 mood change beads that I'm going to make in to a bracelet for myself. I got some really pretty blue and white glass beads that look like they have little flowers in the middles of them. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with those yet, but I'll figure it out. I also bought a couple of multi strand clasps. They are pretty and the kind of thing I've been looking for.

Lately, I've been making barrettes. I was thinking about opening an Etsy store with them. I like the name Crafty Intentions, but I feel like I've heard it before in regards to someone else. I don't know if it was another Etsy store (I did a search and nothing came up) or a person's blog or what. I need to do more research to figure it out first. So I'm looking for suggestions on names. I don't want one that is specific to the barrettes because I'd like to eventually list Jason's Fimo creations and maybe some hand made jewelry. Did I post about this yesterday? I *think* so! Oh well, that is just how my mind works some times.

I am going to have Jason take better pics of the barrettes tomorrow, and have them in my hair, and in Jayden's, so I think that will be my Almost Silent Sunday post. Prayers and blessings everyone. I hope your weekend went well.

I Know I Missed A Day.

What can I say? I missed a day. Maybe I'll post 2 posts for today. I'll probably do that at some point this weekend.

Later today (because it IS Saturday now) I am heading on a road trip with MF Jenn. We are heading to Shipshewanna! It's not a short drive from here, at least an hour, if not more. It really isn't about the shopping down there either. It's the point of getting out and getting away from the day, something I REALLY need right now.

This past month has been SO much. I'm tired and worn out and ready to throw in the towel, and the holidays aren't even here yet! Those mean travel and family and coordinating visits with about 12 billion people and driving and presents and wrapping and shopping and and and...well, you get the idea.

To add to it all, I think I'm going to open an Etsy shop. Keep in mind, I'm really no where near having enough inventory to be able to do that yet. I'm working on making the stuff now. I don't even have a name!

I've started making these cute beaded barrettes (is that how it's spelled? Could it be barettes?). I'll take a pic of the ones I have done when it is daylight out. The current pics I have now just aren't good at all. So far I have three barrettes made and I'm working on a fourth. They are going to be sold as singles, not as pairs. Each one will be unique. To start off with, I'm going to use only materials I have here in the house. I bought a package of 30 "blank" barrettes last week, so that is my goal to start with. I'm thinking that at some point after the holidays I may have enough inventory to start up the shop.

I'd like to also list Jasons Fimo sculptures. If I can get him to make me more of them. We tried selling them on EBay once. I think Etsy will be a more appropriate forum for sale of those.

This post will be short and sweet. I need to be heading to bed shortly so I can be awake by 9 so I can get ready to head out when MF Jenn gets here at 10. I'll be bringing the camera. I don't know what I'll be taking pics of, however I'll share whatever it is I do see! Prayers and blessings everyone, I hope that you all have a wonderful weekend!

She's Doing It Again!

So much for just monthly drawings, hehe. Brandi over at Mountain Morning Homeschool is at it again! This week she is giving away a book on quilts. Me, I don't really NEED a new quilt book. I have at least FOUR.

I am, however, a bibliophile. Yeah, I admit it. There needs to be a group for folks like me. Like AA only BA, Bibliophiles Annonymous. Oh wait, there is! It's called the LIBRARY! Anyway, I collect books like they are going out of style, and I think with the digital age, they kind of are! I always knew Star Trek was a foreteller of the future!

I digress. I am supposed to post pics of my favorite quilt. I'm not sure I can do that because I have yet to even MAKE my favorite quilt. I can, however, post pics of the lap quilt that I made for Jason's mom. It took me forever. It was also my first non-baby related quilt. The first time I used "quilting tools" like the straight edge and rotary cutter and cutting mat. So here are the pics of those. I asked Jason to help make the blocks in to triangles, so he stacked about 10-15 blocks at a time and cut them all at once, so they turned out all different sizes. I made it work though. The color combo is not something I would have chosen for myself to keep, however Jason said they fitted his mom to a tee. Muted and colorful at the same time.


They aren't the best pics of it, however it's what i got at the time. The bottom one is of it streteched across the end of our bed, which is a queen, so that gives a good idea of how long it is. It's about 3 feet wide and around 5 feet long. I know, so precise, right?

Well there are my entries for the book drawing. Have a pleasent day everyone. Prayers and Blessings.