Family Ties :)

 Tonight the eight year old and I did a little knot-tying project.  He's been driving me nuts with the ball of string I bought for him to use to make his reed boat for homeschool, so I figured a constructive use of the string was in order.  You know.  Something other than making a massive spiderweb in his room.

We made a couple of plant hangers.  (He took most of these pictures).

He did all the cutting, held the end while I tied knots, then helped get the plants into them and hang them up.

We had to take this one down a couple times and re-adjust our knots.  This was our first attempt, and it's still lop-sided, but it keeps the plant of the counter, which is what I was wanting.

 This was the end result on the first attempt.  you have to look kind of close to see where the strings are, since this pot has markings on the side which sort of look like string.

We enlisted the help of my husband to put up a couple of hooks for us.  By the way, if you notice the moose cutting board hanging on the wall in the background, you will see the orange paint card under his chin.  I'm considering painting my kitchen wall that color.  I love it, but it's pretty bold.  It plays really well off my black and red appliances though, so I think I'm going to go for it.  It's a deep, dark, almost burnt orange, not as true orange as it looks in the photos (at least on my screen).

Back to the string.  This was our second attempt.  We made this one with a lighter string, for a smaller pot - which is surprisingly heavy considering it's size. It went much better than the first attempt.

My eight year old had to stand in the sink to hang this one.

I think it came out really nice.  And it was a lot of fun to work with my son on this project.  Right after this, we were looking at pinterest (where I found the directions to make the plant holder) and found a recipe for 2-ingredient cookies.  They are made with mashed bananas and oatmeal, and you can add whatever you want to them.  The eight year old begged to go to the store immediately so we could make these in the morning.  It was after 10 pm, but we made a quick run and picked up bananas and raisins.  I think cinnamon and raisins will be perfect in these cookies.  And the nice thing is, you can eat 8 cookies and you will have only had one banana and half a cup of oatmeal (and a handful of raisins.)  Sounds good to me ;)  We're going to try them out on the daycare kids in the morning.

Get Out Your Sparkly Shoes, It's Monday!

 Aren't these just the happiest little shoes you've ever seen?  Perfect for Monday morning at daycare.  I think so anyway.  When the sweet little owner of these shoes showed up this morning, I was immediately jealous.  I need to get a pair of hot pink sparkly shoes to wear on Monday mornings in my daycare.  They set the perfect mood :)  (Incidentally, this little sweetheart has more cute shoes than Imelda Marcos ever dreamed of. And shes obsessed with them too lol.)

 This is a typical picture of my eight year old.  He is always drawing something.  See the rotten condition of the table?

Here's a better picture of it.  We're working on peeling off the laminate finish so we can sand, prime, and paint it white.  Then we're going to turn him loose with sharpies and then put a clear coat over the top of that.  It'll be the most awesome table ever! :)

I'm finally back to working on my hexagon quilt.  I got inspired when Karen over at Quilts, etc. started working on one using the same pattern.  She is a real inspiration to me in how much she gets done.  Hers is the only blog I read faithfully every day.  I had started sewing red hexagons onto the sides of the blues but realized that I'm going to have a problem if I continue that because half of them need the middle red one not to be sewn on or it will mess up my overall pattern.  So now I'm just focusing on sewing the blues together and then will join them all together once I get that done.  I only have 600 hexagon papers (and pretty much all of them are sewn into fabrics right now.  So I will have to connect a good portion of these so I can remove the papers and make more.  I forget how many thousand I figured I would need for the king sized quilt this will eventually become.  Suffice it to say it's gonna be a bunch.

 Strawberries were on sale the other day so I picked some up.  They go quickly around here - especially when I use them for the daycare.  My eight year old was pretty excited to find this giant one.

It completely filled his palm.  More like the size of a plum, with the bonus of not having a pit.

The baby is really into hats these days.  He tries to put on his brothers' football helmets, but always gets them backwards...

And they're really heavy.  My husband and I nearly fell on the floor when he tipped himself over trying to get this one on.  I was in the process of taking his picture, and just happened to get this great action shot.  He hit my daycare file box, but thankfully he had on a helmet *wink*.

He can't seem to get the hats on straight...

This one cracked me up.  We have these little prairie girl bonnets I had made when my daughter was young. They're in the daycare dress-up box now.  But, since they're a hat, I guess they're fair game.

Peek-a-boo!

 A second before I snapped this picture, he had the basket he's holding on his head like a hat. Everything becomes a hat for this kid :)

Oh, and he's figured out when he's getting his picture taken too...

So has the four year old.

Poser :)

 So after seeing several versions of carb-free pizza crust, I had to give it a shot.  Pizza is the thing I miss the most on this diet.  Well, really, it's the only thing I miss.  So I made some, using mashed cauliflower, egg, and cheese as the crust.  I have to say, it was pretty good.  Pretty close to the real thing.  But I do still miss a good deep dish pan crust.  Someday... But until then, this is a really good substitute.  I ate half last night, then reheated the other half for lunch today.  I put it in the skillet to warm it up, which made it even better than it was last night because it made the "crust" a little bit crispy. It was more like a good pan crust.  Next time I'm going to let it set, then cook it in a skillet for a couple minutes to get the crispy crust.

 He's also been all about reading books.  (The four year old has too).  The baby will come in my room, snuggle up on my lap, then say "get book."  I have a basket of our favorites next to my recliner in the bedroom, where we read stories before bed most nights.  All my kids love to read.

Speaking of reading, it occurred to me the other day that I have read four books in their entirety in the past week alone.  And it's not like that's all I've done either.  I've also kept up with the daycare (which is full now), kept the house clean, the family fed, and the eight year old on schedule with homeschool.  I love reading that much, but figure some of that time could be used to make progress on some sewing.  It has to be hand-sewing at this point, as it is what I do while the daycare kids nap, and while the eight year old and I work through homeschooling.  I haven't figured out how to get time to sit down at the sewing machine in ages.  So that's why I'm working on the hexagon quilt.  I have several more I'd like to do, but for now I think I'll stick with the hexagons and see what I can accomplish on that front.  I think it would be amazing if I could finish this top this year.  I may have to make that a goal.

Speaking of goals, I was thinking how funny it is that we create all these self-imposed rules.  Or I do at least.  For instance, with my reading, I'm forcing myself to finish one book at a time, and alternate between fiction and non-fiction each book.  I'm not allowing myself to read two of the same kind of books in a row.  It's a form of self-discipline I guess, because sometimes that's a really hard thing to accomplish.  And now I'm trying to make myself finish at least one blue hexagon each day.  Shouldn't be too hard, but it's just funny that I'm making myself do these particular things.  Okay, enough rambling.  Talk to ya later ;)

Hold Onto Your Hat

Hold onto your hat.  This is going to be a quick but long post.  Quick and long?  Yep, quick as in a quick look at a whole month and then some (since I've been slacking) and long because there's a lot to it.  So I hope you have some time.  I've been gone so long because I got a new computer at Christmas and it had nothing but problems.  I finally took it back and got a different one.  Had no choice really, since it completely quit working.  But I'm getting ahead of myself, so let's start at the beginning, with a Christmas trip to Ft. Collins. 

 So what better place to start than with Alpha and Omega - my oldest and youngest kids.  It was so nice to have our 22 year old with us this year. :)

 The one year old warmed up to him nicely ... after some jelly beans and a little book time.

 I can't tell you how happy I am that all my kids are book lovers.

 My Mom had all her little grandchildren around.  In fact, of her 6 grandkids, only one was missing (my 20 year old daughter who spent the holidays in Washington D.C. with her friend's family).

 Look at all the men (big and little) in this picture! We certainly have an abundance of them.

 The one year old thought he ought to get in on the dishwasher action.  His little cousin loves to do the dishes too.

 Okay everybody, put down your electronic devices. LOL. At the time I took this picture, I was using my new computer, playing with my new phone, and taking a picture with my camera. Yikes. Technology.

 All my boys are in this picture, but it's a bit like "Where's Waldo." Can you spot all four of them.

 While we were in Fort Collins, my four year old slept with me.  He's afraid of everything ... literally.  So he didn't want to sleep alone down there.  When we got home, he thought he would just move himself into our room.  We've been trying (only partially successfully) to get him to sleep in his own bed ever since.  He has the top bunk in his room, so I thought it might help to put some pictures up there.  I had an old 2008 Caterpillar calendar (the machinery, not the bugs).  So I cut it up and posted the pictures for him.  This kid is obsessed with heavy machinery and it wouldn't surprise me in the least if he eventually follows his grandpa's footsteps and becomes a mechanic.

 He loved the pictures, but like I said, he's not staying in his bed consistently yet.  He is doing better though ... especially since we started taking his ladder away after he climbs in ;)

 Remember how I said I was having problems with my computer all month?  Well, thankfully, my (very patient) brother-in-law is a tech guy - and actual "employed in the field" tech guy - not your standard - "hey my brother-in-law is a tech guy."  Anyway, he had to remote in to my computer several times, and when he does that, he will text me and have me check things once in awhile.  I was in the middle of doing laundry when he needed me to do something, so I walked away for a minute, then after that was done, I went back to doing laundry.  It turns out I have an opportunist on my hands.  The one year old loves the dryer.  Don't ask me why.  It's like he thinks it's his.  If I'm loading or unloading it, he has to be right there "helping."  I guess he thought it would be fun to get a closer look, so he climbed in.

He likes the washer too.  It has a glass top, which makes the whole laundry chore a lot more interesting.  I think at this moment, we were washing stuffed animals. Or maybe I should say our fluffy friends were having a bath...

 So what else have I been doing all month?  A whole lot of baby snuggling.  The one on the right is a new daycare kid.  My one year old has been a tiny bit jealous.  I call it my arm toning workout.

 And you didn't really expect the four year old to miss out on the action, did you?  Yeah. Neither did he.

The boys and I also took the time to sort all of our toys.  We literally dumped every single box out on the floor, then put it into the correct containers.  It took us a few hours.

I've really been on a decluttering binge lately.  Or maybe I should say purge.  I've made three trips to the thrift store each time with a car completely loaded with trash (er, treasure, right?)  So far I've gone through kitchen cabinets (still have a couple of those to do), toys, the top of my walk in closet, all the kids clothes in storage (I got more than a carload of treasure from there to donate), all of my clothes (and many of my husbands, shh), and the kids' room.  A pretty good start, but there's so much more to do.

 Goofball.  Wearing his dad's snowboots.

 Like I said, Goofball.

 As for the diet, I've been kinda stuck.  I haven't lost much and I have gained a bit but I'm pretty much just at the same place I was at Christmas.  I can't complain.  Dinners like this are nothing to complain about.  I just wish I could get off this plateau.  I think I've done it to myself.  I am trying to drink less diet coke, so I switched to iced tea sweetened with Splenda.  It says "less than 1 carb" per packet.  I guess though when I make a pitcher and use a cup of the stuff to sweeten it, then drink that whole pitcher in a day, I'm probably getting a lot more carbs than I realize.  And then there was the week that I snacked on nuts, thinking they were just proteins.  Turns out they have a lot of carbs in them too.  Even the ones in the shell with no processing.  Bummer.

 Goofball, yet again.  He was reading a library look, sitting in his baby brother's carseat.  HA. He keeps us constantly entertained.

 Re-read that last sentence again lol.  Dad got new skis and the four year old had to try them out, so he got his snowboots on and tried to hook into the bindings. He hasn't been skiing for real.  This is the kid that's afraid of everything.  I don't think he's ready for that much excitement yet. I haven't even made the time to take him sledding yet this year.  Maybe Saturday....

 See the way his feet go?  That's a family trait straight from his Dad :) I can always see where my husband has been. He leaves tracks exactly like this. : )

 I'd say he's got the form just right. What do you think?

 Here's the goofball doing his best impression of a hot dog.  See now why we say he's a goofball?  Actually this long narrow box was quite a few different things  - a hot dog bun, a canoe, a car and a coffin.  Not that the kids knew it was a coffin.  One of the daycare kids brought him a stuffed animal, and he held in next to himself and crossed his arms across his belly.

 Why says you need an expensive toy parachute?  I found this camo sheet at the thrift store.  It's been a cover for the cove (the structure behind the kids with the red canopy), it's been a tent draped over the table, it's been a sheet to nap with, a robe and now a parachute.  Pretty fun for under a buck.
 

 By the way, you may think daycare is a simple, safe job.  Not so.  See the bite mark on my arm?  In fairness I have to report that this was done by my own one year old.  He's never done that before and it really shocked me.  Stinker :)

 Now for my latest adventure in cooking.  I am so sick and tired of paying a lot of money for a skillet, and then having it warp the first time you use it, or having the teflon peel up the first time someone else uses it.  So I cured the problem.  I spent under $20 at Walmart and bought myself a cast iron skillet.  I love it.  It's the only pan I think I'll use for the rest of my life. As in this very pan.  It will last me forever, I think.  So far, so good .. as long as you don't mind a little smoke.  Okay, so a lot of smoke.  It's getting better the more I use it.  I think the smoke is mostly from it being new.  It doesn't seem to do it as much any more.  Also, I'm impressed with the fact that things don't stick to it.  It requires a much lower heat setting though, so that's taking some getting used to. And it cleans up like a dream.  Why didn't someone tell me about these pans years ago?  :)

Aah, the backwards horseman.  This kid is wild!  He already mastered bouncing and rocking as high as possible sitting the right way.  Now he does it backwards, and is crazy. :)

He's always making me smile!

I've also been spending a lot of time reading.  A LOT of time reading.  I challenged myself this year to finish a book a week, and to alternate between fiction and non-fiction.  Normally I only read non-fiction, other than quilting mysteries (sounds riveting, huh?)  I'm also keeping track of my inches.  I measure how thick the book is so I will know at the end of the year, if I had every one of those books in a stack, how tall they would reach.  So far, I'm over a foot.  I'm working on my 12th book, have succeeded in reading non-fiction, fiction, non-fiction, fiction, and am far ahead of my goal. This is the 6th week of the year, and I'm on my 12th book.  So that works out to two books a week on average.  Not too bad :)  As for the inches, I'm tracking that and putting a post-it note on the side of the bookshelf on my desk so I can see my progress for each month.  I'm anxious to see how high the stack will be at the end of the year.  I'm recording all my books in a Reading Journal, and I'm keeping a daily diary too.  So a lot going on...

Okay, so now we're up to speed.  I'll try to keep this updated more often.  It should be easier now that I have a working computer (and two new books to help me decipher all the intricacies of Windows 8 ... which by the way, I don't hate like so many people do.  It takes some adjusting, but I actually like it.)