Mayhem

Pictures Day 2

2012-01-19T01:58:00.000-08:00

Salt writing! Kinda reminds me a of a primitive type of Etch-a-Sketch.

Tons of fun and Max didn't even try to eat it!

Lainie finding a new use for our stretch bands.

Cooking up some dried black beans.

And lastly, trying my hand at homemade crockpot yogurt.

There you have it, a little glimpse into our Wednesday!

'til next time,

me

A Moment in Our Day

2012-01-17T08:31:00.000-08:00

Taking a fun break! Please don't mind the chaos in the background!

Working together on Emmy's Hungary Caterpillar activities!

'til next time,

me

Starting Tomorrow

2012-01-16T17:05:00.001-08:00

A Picture a day......bring it on 2012!

'til next time,

me

Great Post

2012-01-05T07:33:00.000-08:00

I just read a great post by Mary over @ Owlhaven. She talks candidly about paying for college for her 10 children.

I really loved this because it mirrors almost exactly our feelings on paying for college for our kids. Go over and read it.....and then we can talk about it some more!

'til next time

me

New Boys in Town

2012-01-04T10:41:00.000-08:00

It's time to get my weight training on......we got ourselves a couple of Powerblock dumbells

We researched a few different kinds and these, while looking a bit strange, were the most comfortable to pick up. MUCH more comfortable than the ones that rhyme with fowblex.

And these came with a great deal and a free stand!!

Watch out world, I'm about to get my muscle on!

'til next time,

me

*give me a bit and I will get a review out on these bad boys!

New Year's Resolutions

2012-01-03T11:06:00.000-08:00

I believe in goals and resolutions. I think that they are a great way to help keep you accountable and on track for what you want. Unfortunately, I tend to set too many goals (resolutions) that make them hard to attain.

I say things like this is the year that I am never going to yell, go to the gym 6 days a week, plan perfect balanced meals and have all my homeschool plans made 6 weeks in advance. Plus, I am going to organize the whole house in the next 6 months and save a million dollars, plus take a trip to volunteer in Ethiopia. Ummmmm.....not so much. Usually by the next week I can be found yelling on the couch, eating bon-bons and buying things on Amazon!

This year I have exactly one resoultion! To make myself and my marriage a priority!

What! You say, how can you be so selfish? What about world peace and helping others and those 6 beautiful children you are raising? I am glad you asked. Of course I still care about these things. Of course our children will be well loved and adored. If by loved and adored you mean driving them back and forth to their millions of activities with minimal amounts of complaining.

I am not looking to dump off my responsibilities, just tweak them a bit. You know the big things, like, why does my teenage daughter have 10 pairs of jeans while I only have 2 (ok, 1) that fits. Why can't I remember the last time I said something nice to my husband or even the last time we went out on a date? It becomes all are you going to take out the garbage today or seriously how hard is it to pick your underwear off the floor? Or, just today I am going to run out in my pajamas....... until you can't remember the last time you got dressed unless you are going to see people you know.

Seriously things get so hectic and we get so stuck in the everyday, that the little things can get left behind. Kids and responsibilities are a lot like puppies, they will NOT let you forget them, they will jump up and lick you in the face, whine to be fed, ruin your favorite shoes, hell they might even wet on your floor to get your attention. They can also be soooo cute and cuddly that you don't want to put them down. Don't worry you won't forget them. I promise!

On the flip side it becomes very easy to forget yourself and your spouse. I am not sure why that is. Why does it seem important that the 4 year old have a new dress to go to the family Christmas but you wear the same sweater for three years straight? And, I would never let my kid out of the house without having showered for the past 3 days but .......ok, nevermind on that one.

When was the last time your man came down the stairs and you told him how good he looked? But you will bend over backwards to try and say and do the right things to help your children build their self esteem. Quick note: Men and Children need the same amount of build-up, I think there is a study on it somewhere!

As a mother I think that we find a certain amount of comfort in the "giving up". We feel we must be doing it right if, we are sooo busy making sure our kids are happy or (insert your volunteering of choice) thinks we are amazing, that we can barely sleep at night for all the things we have to remember to do the next day. It's almost a badge of honor to realize you have been so busy you haven't changed your underwear in a week. Just keepin' it real.

So for 2012, I say I pick ME! I pick that man I loved enough to marry, I pick making the effort to spend time and effort on myself. Get my hair did, find a hobby that interests me, make the time to shower. Go on dates with the husband, do something nice for him just because I can (wait until you hear the Hunger Games story), remember he needs to hear nice things too. Oh and communication! Remember I can't read his mind and he can't read mine. Shocking.

Make time for the Adults in the house!!!

I have a sneaking suspicion that if we can make these changes we will be happier and a little more stress free. Which will in turn make us better parents, partners, people.

I know because all the blogs and self-help books tell me so.

That is my resolution for 2012.

'til next time

me

M&M Fun

2012-01-03T09:35:00.000-08:00

We had some left over M&M's last night and I started wondering what kind of project Max and Emmy could do with them. I headed over to one of my favorite easy peasy kid sites Making Learning Fun and sure enough a whole heading for M&M's.

I quickly printed off a M&M pattern page that I thought they would enjoy and thought, DONE! Then Bri brought me the printed page, which showed that we were running low on color ink and the color of the M&M's was not anything close to what you could find in a bag of M&M's.

So I improvised! I quickly drew my own pattern's and cut them out and laminated them. And it worked out just fine this morning, even Maximus got into it!

Just call me a genius, I don't mind.

'til next time,

Happy New Year!

2012-01-02T11:56:00.000-08:00

Sigh. All the Christmas stuff is down, the house is back to normal. Normal meaning crazy and chaotic. School starts back up tomorrow. And it's 2012.

I am really looking forward to 2012 (as long as the world doesn't really end next December). I have some big things I am looking to accomplish and lots of fun ideas to make life interesting!

But for now I am going to spend this last day of vacation with my family, make some of Pioneer Woman's amazing Broccoli Cheese Soup and probably watched the first episode of the second season of NY Ink. Thank you DVR for remembering!

'til next time,

me

Shoe Gooooood.

2011-12-28T09:18:00.000-08:00

Today I helped the babies get bundled up so go out in the freezing temperatures because they were so excited to get out in the little bit of snow we have.

Because mom is nowhere as excited about snow and freezing temps as her children are, I laid down one ground rule. Don't leave the back deck. That way I could see them from the warmth of the house with a cup of coffee.

They definitely took the rule to heart and did not leave the deck, but that did not stop them from finding treasures! Like one of Bren's cast off flip-flops covered in snow and ice.

By the time I saw it I didn't have the heart to stop them.

Sorry they are number 5 and 6, apparently I have no more boundaries.

'til next time,

Not on My List

2011-12-28T05:59:00.000-08:00

Here is a product that is NOT on my list for 2012.

Squishy Baff, which is a product that is supposed to turn bath water to bright colored squishy goo and then back again? Ummmmm.....no thanks.

*picture from the squishy site.

Though I guess I could possibly see a fun application for this on April Fool's Day. Just sayin'.

'til next,

me

We Did It!

2011-12-24T13:18:00.000-08:00

We are home from our trip and looking forward to some fun family time this Christmas Eve.

We are going to see some Christmas lights, open a present or two, watch a movie together as a family, this year it's going to Home Alone 2, and maybe play some games or something! All in preparation for the big man to show up while we are sleeping.

This year I was a bit ambitious with our holiday projects, I thought since this was the first year that I had some of the kids home for school it would be fun. And it was!

We managed to finish the last of my project ideas today. Frosting Christmas Trees.

Here is a breakdown of what we did/ will do this year:

Frosted Sugar Cookies
Santa Hat Brownies
Peppermint Bark
Hand print snowman ornaments
Gingerbread Houses
Frosted Christmas Trees
Christmas Cards
Lots of Christmas Stories including this one which Ki loved. And this one which I love. And last but not least this one which Max and Emmy love (they love all the Llama books).
And a trip to Bronner's for a new piece to our Christmas Village
Crossroad Village to look @ the Christmas Lights

With all the projects, the parties, Emmy's birthday, our little get-away and our regular schedule this month has been a whirlwind so I just want to take a moment to say.....................

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas to Everyone from our Family to yours!!

'til next time,

me

Sometimes....

2011-12-23T07:26:00.000-08:00

Sometimes, they love each other.

Or she is trying to choke him.

You pick.

'til next time,

me

Happy Birthday Miss E!

2011-12-22T19:05:00.000-08:00

Today is my sweet girl's 4th birthday! I know every mom says it but I seriously can not believe that she is already 4!

It seems like yesterday that we brought home this tiny little 4 month old baby from Ethiopia. And now she is a big girl. Sweet and sassy, she is full of things to say and not afraid to let you know when she is mad at you. Loves all princesses and really loves her some Bubble Guppies (hello dangerous). She has the BEST hair ever and crazy good hugs. And couldn't take a decent picture if I paid her.

Thank you for adding your awesomesauce to our lives!

Happy Birthday baby, you changed our world.

Love,

Mom and Dad and your brothers and sisters...........

Not So Much Running Going On....

2011-12-22T07:10:00.000-08:00

At least not for me, Bri on the other hand is up to 5 miles (on the tread) @ an 8:06 min mile. We still hate him.

Remember last week when I was oh so excited about getting over 2 miles in 32 minutes?

Then this, don't mind the crazy kid in the foot picture, who wouldn't want to be in my foot picture, right? Left ankle relatively normal and right ankle a puffed up mess. It didn't so much hurt as ached for a few days, and I did notice that I was favoring it a bit.

Holy crap my feet are ugly! Must lotion, must paint toe nails!

I have been taking it easy for the last week and its seems to be pretty good. My pride though continues to take a beating while Brian does crap like accomplish 8 minute miles (refresher-16 minutes is good for me).

I think that I am ready to get going now, we have had to split up our times so Brian will be doing the morning workouts and I will be do the later evening ones. Tonight I am going to test out this ankle by seeing how fast I can do a mile. I am hoping that it can be better than 16 minutes. Seriously, my pride needs this.

'til next time,

BINGO!!!

2011-12-21T09:53:00.000-08:00

I always knew bingo daubers were fun, I mean, hello, I play bingo!

Yes, I am only 34 and I play bingo, shut up. I can still hear you.

Occasionally I get the daubers (bingo language for the markers that "daub" the spots, shut up) out for the the kids to mess with, you can get some fun printables at Making Learning Fun.

Today, my almost four year old genius, Emmy found my magnetic bingo chips (shut up) and started using them to fill in the space on her Christmas tree! Genius!

Never thought of that myself, honestly I probably wouldn't think of showering if the smell didn't start to bother me.

The amazing thing about using the magnetic chips is after you make a huge disaster you can wave the magnetic wand over them for easy clean up! (shut up)

'til next time

Repurposed

2011-12-20T11:34:00.000-08:00

Egg cartons? Who knew?

I know, everyone, but you still get a blog post on it!

We go through a lot of eggs around here, between the scrambling and the baking and the breaking, I have found that it is better for us time and cost wise to go with the industrial box of 10 dozen eggs from Sam's Club.

The eggs are protected (sort of, I had 5 broken eggs last time) by these supersized egg cartons.

For easy paint clean up I a cut one up and filled it with paint for a fun painting session! Emmy actually had more fun painting the egg carton, than the paper.

And the clean up was MUCH easier, except for where Max went all Jackson Pollak spattering paint everywhere! That boy LOOOOOOOVE him. Sigh.

Quick Lunch Idea!

2011-12-20T09:50:00.000-08:00

Today, since we are on vacation, we got up a little bit late. Which made for a later than usual breakfast, which brought lunch time around way to soon. And after lunch time follows NAP TIME!! I love nap time!

In order to keep ~~nap time~~ us on schedule I threw a quick muffin tin lunch together. I knew no one would be that hungry so this worked out great!

We had some grapes, pepperoni, provolone cheese, and of course, goldfish cracker. The kids thought this was awesome and picked it clean in minutes!

'til next time,

me

So Sweet

2011-12-19T14:19:00.000-08:00

We may have told a certain almost 4 year old a bit too early about her birthday trip to Kalahari Resorts.

As this is how we found her last night when we went up to bed.

I heart this little girl.

'til next time,

me

Sunday Snapshot

2011-12-18T07:20:00.000-08:00

I am going to participate in Sunday Snapshot this week! It's my first time.I have been stalking Stephanie's blog Ni Hao Ya'll for quite a while now,

Ummmm, hi, my name is Jillienne, I'm a blog stalker.

OMG I feel so much better now!

Seriously though, if you have a chance (all 8 of you) take a minute and check out her blog, she takes amazing pictures, has amazing amounts of energy, a really gives back in big ways! Plus, she totally has more kids than I do, which is cool.

On to the snapshots!!!

My babies from Christmas 2 years ago!!! Why, why, why must they grow up so fast? Look at those little chubby babies, now Emmy is going to be 4 (next week), Max is a wild and crazy 3 year old, much different than the wild and crazy one year old he was in these pictures. My Bren is almost a driver, Griff is 13!!! And Ki and Lainie, so sweet.

Merry Christmas!

'til next,

me

Linky Love

2011-12-17T06:55:00.000-08:00

Happy Saturday! Links for you today! Have a great weekend!

Recipes:

Chocolate Bread Pudding from Lynn's Kitchen Adventures -going on my Christmas menu!

Creamy Coconut Cake also from Lynn's Kitchen Adventures- I have made this and let's just say YUM! Helpful hint though for those of you who can't figure out where to find the Cream of Coconut, like me, look by the Pina Coloda (sp?) mixes. Don't wander aimlessly through the store for hours. Not that I did that, not at all.

Christmas Craft Ideas:

We will be doing both of these this week!

Craft by Number Christmas Tree @ No Time For Flashcards

Handprint Snowman Ornaments @ Confessions of a Homeschooler

Homeschool Stuff:

Make Your Own Place Value Chart from Smockity Frocks (I am looking forward to making this one)

Taking a Holiday Break from Simple Homeschool

And last this has been inspiring me lately, make sure to read from the beginning!

Ben Does Life

Teenage Driver

2011-12-16T12:11:00.000-08:00

Now that Bren is 15 she has, of course, taken Driver's Education. Which, by the way, was hours of my life driving back and forth that I will never get back.

But anywhoo, her and I have a pretty good system going for getting her mandatory driving hours in. It goes like this, I don't let her drive me anywhere. Perfect.

Her father gets the pleasure of helping her meet her driving goal. Love you honey!

Eventually we will pass from the land of parent led driving into a full on drivers license and that's when I believe we will have one of these made

with her father's phone number on it of course. Take that teenage driver!

'til next time,

New Shoes

2011-12-15T18:58:00.000-08:00

Today Bri and I went out and had our feet fit for new running shoes. Bri said that his shoes were fine, except for, ooops, his shoes were literally blown out on the sides. So I insisted! The last thing we all need is for him to hurt himself. At the store he tried on a few pairs and found one that he liked. The Nike Zoom Structure +14. He was relatively easy and only tried on a couple of pairs and ended up getting the first pair that he tried on. On our way out of the store he did make the comment that he didn't realize how uncomfortable the other shoes were until he put the new ones on." Uh-duh!

Then came me, I had gotten fit for a pair of shoes months ago and really never liked them, of course I didn't realize it until it was too late to take them back, but they just always felt big and clunky, sort of heavy. And lately, when I try to run/walk I have been getting bad cramps in my arches. Back to the drawing board.

I had really been drawn to all the new types of minimalist shoes but alas my wide, fat feet will not fit in them. So after trying on about 8 different pairs of shoes, I finally settled on the Brooks DYAD6. They are much lighter than my last shoe and the arch support isn't as aggressive, also the back of the shoe is lower and not as annoying on my achilles.

We will see how we do tomorrow! I fully expect to be able to run my 5k now that I have these shoes. Ok, maybe not but it would be nice to beat my sad little record. I will like to hit 2 miles in 30 minutes.

'til next time,

me

National Cupcake Day

2011-12-15T10:53:00.000-08:00

Happy National Cupcake Day!!

How fun, the kids and I have been taking it easy with school for the holiday season but when I saw it was National Cupcake Day I thought we could have some fun! I did a quick search and found this cute cupcake craft on the Money Saving Mom blog (which by the way is kinda awesome), grabbed some felt and off we went.....

Our creations

I had Ki and Lainie cut out and put together the "cupcakes" and put them in big baggies. Now when the babies get up from their naps they will have a ready made project for them. I was actually a bit surprised about how much Ki and Lainie got into it. Then we read about the history of the cupcake.

And that was about as long as I could hold their interest on that project, but I call it a success!

'til next time

Running

2011-12-14T11:03:00.000-08:00

I thought I beat my record this morning but no. Last run I did 1.97 miles in 32 minutes. Today, 1.95 miles in 32 minutes. My right shin is still a bit tender. Not ok with that, I am going to try icing it later.

Bri ran his 5k today in 25:40min. We hate him.

On another note Brian picked up some vitamins and pre-workout products from GNC. I am little nervous, some of my pills are REALLY big and I REALLY hate pills!

'til next time,

Santa Hat Brownies

2011-12-14T06:35:00.000-08:00

Finally a project in the kitchen that turned out! And were so yummy! I brought these to Lainie's Christmas party at dance and I think the adults liked them as much as the kids!

Recipe:

boxed or homemade brownie mix

mini muffin tin

strawberries

2 cups of white chocolate chips

Instructions:

Prepare and cook brownies (according to package) in mini muffin tin

I love to use my mini scoop from Pampered Chef. Perfect for filling all the little spots.

I believe my brownies took about 11 min. @ 350 degrees

Let the brownies cool

clean the strawberries and cut off the stems

place the strawberries upside down on the brownies, smaller ones work best!

melt the white chocolate chips most recipes call for using a double boiler for this but I am just not that good so I microwaved them. Watching them carefully and stirring every minute or so until done (about 4 minutes)

Then quickly place the melted chocolate in a frosting bag and pipe the around the outside of the brownie and a quick tip on the top!

And done! Cute little Santa Hats!

A word of caution, PLEASE if you decided to go the microwave method with the white chocolate chips, be sure to use a microwave safe bowl, and check every minute or so. Benefit from my mistakes otherwise you too could could have a smelly gooey mess and a ruined bowl. It's not pretty, not at all.

'til next time,