Overwhelming To-Do List

Well as I am waiting for some laundry to finish and taking a quick breather I thought I would document this lengthy list of "to-do's" before baby comes. My goal is to get these all done by the end of my winter break. . . so by Jan 2nd in other words.

Before Christmas:
Finish 3-4 purchases
wrap presents and organize stocking stuff
Clean House
put all kinds of "stuff" back where it belongs (why I can't do this part as I go each day is beyond me.)
clean the bathroom
clean the kitchen
clean all the floors
laundry, laundry, and more laundry (about 6 loads to be more accurate)

Before Jan 2nd:
Put away all the Christmas decor
finish nursery
paint the walls
place-arrange furniture in nursery
dye fabric for
rocker cushions
blanket
rug
and misc.
find 2 cheap curtain rods
make and hang curtains
make pillows for rocker
make crib sheet
make changing pad cover.
make/buy a wall hanging for the room
find some chunky frames
find pails or tubs for storage

Sometime before Baby comes:
put together the swing
put the carseat in the car
clean out the car
get a several must haves from store

I guess this is why I seem disconnected whenever people are talking to me :)
This list didn't just happen b/c I waited until the last minute but I am a teacher teaching a new grade that I've never taught and also a mother of two. It has also been a stressful year b/c of many other things too but nonetheless I will overcome and only with the Lord's strength and help I'll make it.

Now I'm off to check off some more things on the never ending list. Oh and I welcome any prayers for the ones that might be reading.

Announcing Boy or Girl!

I wanted to be a little creative with announcing the sex of this baby. I decided to have family over for icecream and cookies. I made blue goody bags and pink goody bags which each person chose according to what they thought it was. Then they ate there icecream with a hidden blue or pink piece of gum inside. That is how everyone found out what we were having. J.J guessed boy and I guessed girl. I thought it was a girl b/c I had a lot of similar cravings with my daughter. I also had a dream when I was pregnant with Jack that we had two girls and a boy. They both bring so much joy into my life that I really didn't care which one but Elaina really wanted a sister so I was kind of pulling for her.

It's been too Long!

Well like the title states, it has been too long since my last post. Life for me sometimes seems to be on fast forward mode and I wish I could slow things down instead. Teaching a new grade has been a real challenge for me. I sometimes feel like I'm a first year teacher again. And being pregnant on top of that is exhausting. I'm finally over the sickness and not nearly as tired as I have been, but since I don't exactly have a lot of time left I'm starting to feel overwhelmed with everything I have to do before he comes. Anyway, with God, I'm making it. I'm now going to post several short posts highlighting the past few months.

Miracle Child

This is my precious miracle niece. My sister-in-law published a picture of her today and I just had to share. A little background: She was born in early April this year at around 1 pound. I can't remember exactly if she was 1 lb 5 oz or 1 lb 7 oz. As you can see in the first picture she was tiny. The ring is a size 6 or 6 1/2 I can't remember that exactly either but it fit over her hand like a bracelet. The last picture is what she looks like today. She is now off all oxygen, weighs over 7 lbs, and is waiting for the day she can come home from the hospital. They are waiting on some test results but we are praying for her homecoming. I know her two sisters and brother are excited to get her home too. This has been such a long exhausting journey for them all but God is good. The Lord decided to take her two triplet brothers home to be with him one before and the other shortly after their birth. Though we are so saddened by the loss we are also thankful and blessed to be able to see the miracle of this sweet Charli girl. What a joy to be able to see fat rolls on a baby!

Welcome surprise

Yesterday when we came home from running around there was a long slithering surprise waiting on our front porch. . . a snake!! It caught me off guard and I thought for a minute that J.J was trying to play a joke on me. I didn't remember seeing it when we left so that made me think differently plus it just looked real. Well I backed away back to the car to call him and see if he was playing a joke. While I was waiting on him to answer the snake moved! I didn't know what to do. It wasn't extremely close to the front door but I still didn't want to take any chances especially since I had my kids with me and it takes a little longer to get inside the house while holding the door open with kids. You Know!? Yuck! I poked it with a very long stick and it barely moved. I thought it might be dying and felt a little safer to get the kids out of the car at that point. I told Elaina I thought the snake was dying so we should be o.k. but we needed to still hurry . . . and that sweet caring thing started thanking God for the snake like she really wanted him to help the snake or something. Doesn't really surprise me b/c this child isn't afraid of anything. This morning she was telling me that she wished we could have caught it to put in her room as her pet. LOL!

Daughter Date

J.J and I decided to take Elaina to see Toy Story 3 the other day just the three of us. Jack got to spend time with Grandma all by himself. The movie was super cute and b/c I'm so sensitive hearted I cried at several parts. I know I know! Crying during Toy Story is a little crazy but there is something about having children to me that makes things even more sentimental. My heart strings get pulled a lot more now that I have kids is what I'm trying to say, and when I see a mom hugging her son and getting emotional because she knows she'll miss him when he goes off to college. . . even if it is an animated character. . . well . . . it's just so sad b/c kids grow up too fast. I know with just a couple more blinks my sweet Elaina will be heading that way herself. Anyway, she loved the movie and laughed through the whole thing. We all three had a great time.

Go to sleep.

A while back a friend of mine tried to show me what her kids taught Jack and he would never do it for me. Well a couple weeks ago he did it for me kind of by accident. I told him it was time for him to go to sleep and he did it on cue. It is really adorable. Don't forget to pause the music so you can hear the video.

Kids and Technology

This is my son using my husbands ipod touch. I find this amazing because it took me longer to learn how to operate it. He's only 22 months! This video is actually the second one. The first one I tried to get to record so fast I just turned it on and off again and didn't realize it. Of course the first one was so much better b/c it showed him searching through the games and selecting different ones to play, but this one is still pretty cute.

Feeling Good

So it has been about a week now since I started my schedule. I'm feeling good ya'll! Here is a general idea of my schedule:

Morning Routine:

6:15 a.m wake up, take a shower, and get my self ready for the day.

(I know that's early to most of you but I'm usually up by 5:45 during the school year and I thought 30 more minutes of sleep each morning is perfect for now)

6:45 start a load of laundry

7:00 my kiddos start making their voices known about now. They're usually good to stay in their beds for about 15 minutes, so that gives me enough time to eat some breakfast and check my email. Then I get them up and feed them.

7:30ish I go finish getting ready (dry hair, fix hair, etc) while the kids watch a T.V show.

8:00 I put the clothes in the dryer and play with my kids for about an hour.

9:00 The kids have quiet time in their room on the bed with some quiet toys and books. This is when I start on one of the "To-Do List" items or eventually (hopefully) a fun project for the house or kids.

10:00-12:00 is pretty much unscheduled time I might run to a store, take the kids to the pool or sprinkler park, or the library, just something that gets us moving and out of the house.

12:00 lunch and T.V show

12:30 or 1:00 nap time for kids. This is my dedicated time for the Lord just Him, me, and the Bible. This is actually perfect timing for me b/c this is when I start getting tired and need a pick me up. Whatever time I end up finishing I then go fold the laundry if I haven't already and do another item on the "To-Do List."

3:00 ish the kids start waking up

3:00-5:30 another unscheduled time, I try to start dinner and just let the kids play a lot during this time. I might have to run somewhere during this time too.

5:30 Husband is HOME!!

Nighttime Routine:

Before I go to bed I make sure I do a couple things. I've been doing them before I sit down in the late evening b/c I know if I wait too long there is a high potential of me falling asleep on the couch. :) LOL then all I'll want to do is make it to the bed and go back to sleep. So anyway, I do these things:

I make sure all the dishes are out of the sink

I set the dirty laundry, that I'll do in the morning, in the laundry room

I fix my kids milk and juice cups

I lay out my outfit for the next day

I check my "hot spot" in my bedroom and put away whatever might have been left there.

I shine the kitchen sink

I know all that sounds like a lot but it hasn't taken me more than 10 minutes any night. I wake up in such a good mood too. There is just something to be said about waking up to a shiny sink. :)

So what all have I accomplished this week you ask? Well. . .

I went through just about everything in one of the "extra" spaces down stairs. It's been a mess since we moved in 5 years ago. YIKES! I started going through my "hobby" space too. Between the two spaces, I gathered 3 large containers of stuff/junk to sell in a yard sale and about the same amount of trash. Yeah me!! I'm also 1 load of laundry away from being all caught up on my laundry. This is just about a miracle. My laundry room was so piled with clothes there was stuff in there, at the bottom of the pile, I hadn't seen in months maybe even 8 months WoW! Another accomplishment was I cleared off the shelf in the laundry room and dusted it and painted a clear coat on it so it'll be easier to get the dust off next time. I won't say how long it had been since I dusted that shelf. Well. . . okay. . never. another Yikes!! I also reorganized the "junk" drawer in the kitchen. That sounds a little funny to say hee hee! organized junk. Let's see. . . what else have I done . . . I can't think of anything else major but I'm still very proud of myself. It hasn't been easy sticking to the schedule but I'm so glad I am. I've forgotten to set the timer each time too. Oops!

Here's what I'll wake up to in the morning!

Do you hear singing?! Maybe that's just me. :) hee hee!!

Summer Plans

I have some Big summer plans! It's not the beach. . . . or some crazy fun amusement park. . . . or the Grand Canyon . . . or any vacation at all actually. So what is it you ask? My house is going to get organized! I know you're probably confused right about now, but those are some BIG plans. You see, I never can do a quick, good job at cleaning my house b/c every time I go to put something away I notice that the closet or drawer or container I go to put "it" away in is disorganized or a mess. So then I start trying to organize it. I get so distracted and before you know it . . . an hour and a half later. . . I've got a bigger mess than I started with and my house. . . .NOT cleaned or picked up. Call it OCD . . . ADD. . . or what ever b/c I'm sure I've got something. It's bad ya'll. First, I'm going to make a daily schedule and stick to it. I'll post it here as soon as I finish it. I'll have things that I'll do as soon as I wake up and before I go to bed. There will be no if ands about it. The tasks will be 15 minutes or less. Who can't work at something for 15 minutes. I'm also going to do something I do for my students in my class that have a hard time staying focused. . . set a timer. After the timer is up I have to stop and do the next task. I don't think this will be a problem but I'm curious to find out. LOL I'll also have a "to-do" list. I'll have 2 times in the day that will be dedicated to knocking out something on that list. I will only allow myself to work for 30 minutes on these tasks. Some might only take 5 minutes. . . others might not be finished in the 30 minutes. It'll be hard to stop if the task isn't finished, but that's part of my frustration is spending hours on something and the day is gone. Plus I have two little ones who need me too. So, . . . again . . . I really don't know how all this is going to play out. But we'll all know soon enough. I also have "fly-lady" on my side.

My husband is taking off today so we can have some family fun so this schedule will begin tomorrow. I'm going to keep you up to date with my journey and I'm excited that you are following it. Please feel free to comment with anything that you're thinking. I love comments.

Mother's Day

J.J tried to get some quick pics of me and the kids like we do every Mother's Day and like every Mother's Day . . . the kids didn't want to cooporate. :) He did manage to get 2 or 3 good ones out of . . . oh. . . 45 pictures. LOL

Princess Party

Elaina has been so excited about her 4th birthday for literally 6 months now. She said she wanted a princess party (again) so that's what I did. . . again.

ladies and men consignment sale

One of my friends has started her own consignment business. It is a twice a year event and the first one is April 8th-10th. She will be selling clothing for women and men, accessories, and small household decorating items. If you live near Knoxville and would like to either consign some of your old items or just shop click on the link below.
http://flipflopconsignment.blogspot.com/

I Live for Spring Weather!

I absolutely love spring! We went straight to the park after church a couple weeks ago and had a blast. The pictures really show how much the kids enjoyed it. Elaina is such a hoot. She wanted to wear a dress but right as we are going out the door she throws a big fit. Neither J.J nor myself could understand what the fuss was all about. She finally calmed down enough to tell us, "It's not nice for my friends to see my underwear!!. . . I want my shorts on under my dress, so that will be nice." I tried not to giggle, b/c she was serious. Oh my little tomboy princess. Here we are at the park. Jack loved it when we chased him through the grass and pushed him in the swing. Elaina still likes going in the toddler swing so we can push her "to the sky."

Is Fishy Going to Make it?

After putting Elaina to bed I told hubby I was going to run to CVS really quick. When I came home he wasn't sitting on the couch and I didn't see him. Then I hear him coming down the stairs, and he has Elaina's bath towel in his hand. I find this a little odd since she was in bed when I left, so my first thought was she got sick or something. Hubby gave me this look and said I think she just killed her fish. I said "WHAT! . . . What Happened?" Well. . . these are now my hubby's words, "she wanted to feed her fish and I told her that I already did. . . .she got mad and said she wanted to feed her fish. . . I told her sorry and that she could do it tomorrow. . . . then went down stairs. . . . a few minutes later I think I hear her so I go up there to check on her" (we have always had this rule ever since she went to a big girl bed that she wasn't allowed out of her bed during bedtime unless she asked permission. . . you see we have heard horror stories about things that happen to the house, the kids, etc when you think they are asleep and all is well when really they are up doing something crazy sneaky. She has only broke this rule 3 times in 1 and a half years, so she's done very well if you ask me) anyways . . . back to my husband's words. . . "When I went in there I saw her kissing her hand and saying 'I love you fishy' . . . I thought. . . . . . surely not". . .

but there was poor fishy being squeezed by our daughter. I just put my hand over my mouth in shock and giggled and was a little mad at the same time. I just can't believe she would first get out of bed. . . then feed her fishy HALF the jar of food, and THEN take him out of the tank to love on in her BED! . . . Oh wait. . . this is Elaina I'm talking about. . . . yes I can believe it, but poor fishy. She is just sitting at the bottom of the tank. . . breathing. . . .but probably her last breaths. It's sad. I wonder if she's suffering? She swims around every now and then but in a slanted way. Maybe Elaina broke one of the fish's bones. Elaina was so upset though. I also feel sorry for her too. She kept telling me, "I don't want fishy to die momma". . . then she would cry out really hard. . . "Did I kill fishy momma?" I just tried to be as gentle as possible and say I think fishy isn't going to make it. Fish are supposed to stay in water sweetie or they'll die and people aren't supposed to hold them b/c they are very fragile. She said "oh. . . . I'm sorry I disobedient momma. . . I'll obey" Oh I just wanted to cry for her. She was truly hurt by knowing she hurt fishy. She has always been the child that has to learn things the hard way, so maybe she'll learn from this. I just hope it doesn't traumatize her for life. Yikes!

This was taken the day we got the fish.

My Husband is Wonderful!

My husband decided today, on his own, to clean out my car. . . it might have been that he was disgusted with the mess, the warm weather made him want to be outside . . . whatever the reason I know he did it b/c he loves me. . . even my slobbyness. For the ones of you that have followed my blog for a while might remember the annual car cleaning post a while back. Well he did such a good job with putting everything back right when he walked it that I didn't even get a chance to see what all was in there. He is so good. I would have just brought in all the bags of junk and they would have sat there for at least a week. I'm such a slob!. . . . no really . . . I am.

I'm about to go check it out. I'm so excited!!

New Blog

Hey one or two readers! :) I'm starting a new blog that will talk about and show the projects I'm working on at home. I'm hoping to get followers for this new blog so please share with everyone you know. I'll be doing a giveaway soon so that might be a time to really get the word out. I don't have much on there right now, but my plan is to do one post a week for now. Being a working mom of two I don't have much time to do that many projects but the ones I do complete I would like to have in one spot so others might get inspired and try things too. So go on over and check it out! Let me know what you think.

http://embellishmentsandthings.blogspot.com

Photo Booth

I've started thinking about ideas for my sweet Elaina's third Ooops did I say third I mean fourth birthday coming up in April and I am having such a difficult time. I've seen lots of cute ideas, but I just can't make my mind up. Elaina says she wants a princess party which she had, basically, last year. But when I ask her which friends she wants to come she names like 8 boys and 3 girls. LOL I've tried telling her that boys will not want to come to a princess party, but that's what she tells everyone when they ask her what kind of party she's having. One thing I know I'm going to do is the photo booth idea that I've seen everywhere lately. I had never heard about it until by sister-in-law told me the photographer at her sister's wedding did it and it was so much fun. I thought it was a crazy cute idea and within weeks I noticed that idea all over the web. It's basically where you set up a place with a simple backdrop (sheet of polka dot or striped fabric works great) and have the guests stand in front of it and smile or act silly. It looks like they are in a photo booth. So far, that's the only idea I got. Any ideas? She's girly . . . but in a tomboy kind of way if that makes any sense at all. She likes to dress up, but them a second later she is running through the house trying to catch "bad-guys" and telling me she needs a Monster Truck like Jack. . . . That's my girl!

Sweater Pillow

I don't know if you remember the leg-warmers that I made earlier out of the sleeves of an old sweater, but one of my sweet friends from "happily home" told me I should make a pillow out of the rest. What a great idea! So I did and I am so pleased with how it turned out. I did it the short way and did not sew in a lining, so it only took me about 20 minutes. Slip stitching took me over half the time. I'm going to go browse my closet for some more old clothes to do something with. Yippee I'm excited.

Pants too short?

Elaina had these pants that fit her in waist but not length. They were about two inches too short. Well, she doesn't have many spring and summer clothes, and we have cut our spending budget a lot. I have gone through her closet many times trying to find pieces that I can refurbish. Pieces that I wouldn't get much for at the consignment sale. All I had to do was measure her from the waist to her knee, cut straight across, turn under twice, press it, then sew all the way around. This was about a 10 minute project.

I don't like to waste anything, so I took the left over pieces and made cute flowers to pin on one of her shirts. I'm not sewing them on the shirt for two reasons. . . the flowers won't hold up in the wash and it's an easy way to have two shirts in one ;) All I did was cut out 3 imperfect circles, folded them in half and half again, stuck a needle through the pointed ends and tightened them by going through the pieces several more times. It was really easy! I'm not claiming any of these ideas as my own because I'm sure they came from somewhere just not sure where.

Twinkle in My Eye

After coming home from grocery shopping today my husband told me something so sweet that our precious Elaina said while I was gone. Seriously she must just watch too much t.v. or something cause I don't know where she gets this stuff y'all. Here is what she said,

"Daddy. . . you know how I'm your little monkey? . . . Baby Jack is my little monkey." Then a little later she said, "you see this twinkle in my eye? . . . it's b/c you let me play." I got teary eyed and about lost it. These moments really keep me smiling.

Junk Room Reveal

This room is one of the "extra" spaces in our downstairs. I've always called it my craft/junk room. It has needed a cleanin for a very long time, but for some reason I never cleaned it up. I decided today to take it on while my sweeties were napping. I couldn't get it all done of course, but it looks so much better. Don't you think?

BEFORE

AFTER

My Day Off

Yeah for snow days! I love being a teacher. I love being a mom even more which makes snow days that much sweeter. Not only do I get to stay home from "work" I get to spend time with my kiddos.

During my youngest child's morning nap I got inspired and worked on a very short project. I was visiting some of my favorite "make-stuff" blogs. You can find them on the right side of the screen under "my blog list." I had this old sweater that has been in the "good will" box forever and I just didn't know if I really wanted to get rid of it or not. It didn't fit me right so I knew I would never wear it. Well, I had an idea after looking at the other blogs. Here it is.

I cut the sleeves off first. I turned up the wrist end and sewed it. I turned in the upper end and sewed elastic around it. I haven't sewn with elastic for a while so I don't think I did it the best way but it'll work. And there it was . . . leggings. Sometimes Elaina doesn't want to wear the stuff I make for her :( but she liked these.

Then I got another idea! The leggings kept slipping down and I thought. . . leg warmers! So I pinned an adorable crocheted flower a friend made me (handmade baby gifts link under blog list) just below the knee. CUTE! I don't know why I think these are so cute but I just love them. Total time invested? 18 minutes! Can you believe it? It took me longer to post this than make the leggings if you can believe that.