Overstuffed

Six Questions

2012-01-25T23:18:00.000-05:00

So I have a category on this blog called because I can't be original today I'm posting a meme. I haven't actually posted a meme in years. When I was new to blogging (nearly SEVEN years ago!) memes and tags were so exciting. Now I mostly ignore them, or have no idea they're happening. But, today I was tagged by my oldest blogging buddy, Hilary. And, since I can't be original, I'm taking the

Black & Blue January

2012-01-24T21:36:00.000-05:00

The world really is black and white in winter here. As proof, this picture is in color. The sky is usually white, the ground is white, and nearly everything else is black or grey. My red car almost seems out of place, like a colorized element in a black & white photograph. The spring is pastel, green and pink and a little bit of purple. Hopeful colors. A hint of bolder color to come, even

Brace Face, Metal Mouth, and Freakin' Adorable

2012-01-17T19:03:00.002-05:00

Bria had an early release day today, so when she got home things were a little more laid-back than they usually are when she steps off of the bus. So I thought, HEY! Let's do a little photoshoot! Bria was cool with it. But, she kept smiling with her mouth closed. "Bria!" I said, "Smile normally--I want some pictures of your new braces." She just rolled her eyes at me and told me she

In the Bleak Midwinter

2012-01-16T23:28:00.000-05:00

I took Chloe & Sophia sledding the other day. My friend has an awesome sled run right in her front yard, and the girls love it. I'm so glad they love the snow, because they inspire me to try... Like much of the rest of the country, we've had something of a strange winter. On New Year's Eve, we only had about 5 or 6 inches of snow on the ground. And while I realize that that seems a lot for

Between Interruptions

2012-01-13T09:49:00.005-05:00

I remember being close to delivering Bria, my first child. I couldn't wait to not be pregnant anymore, as I'd had enough of that, but to actually have to take care of a real live baby? That scared me enough to think that maybe being eternally pregnant might not be so bad. Of course, she eventually came (two weeks early!) and though I loved her intensely on first sight, my world was turned a

Asking for Good Behavior

2012-01-09T21:26:00.001-05:00

One year ago yesterday, we ended our Caribbean cruise. I thought I should maybe start posting the rest of the pictures. This is the girls getting ready to go to the beach on Grand Cayman Island. But, this post has nothing to do with the beach or the cruise or anything like that. It's a post about parenting those three adorable beach bums. Because I said I'd follow through with Project

Brain Dump

2012-01-04T19:54:00.000-05:00

I gained a lot of weight over the holiday. Too much. So, it's back on the wagon I go. So far, I've been very good, but it's only day 3. HOWEVER, I'm sick of this up and down crap and I have nobody to blame but myself. This year I'm going to lighten up the booty once and for all! ************ Except, apparently I am now going through some sort of detox because I've had a migraine for the

Lightening Up

2012-01-01T16:47:00.000-05:00

2012 is here. I don't know if it's my age, or what, but I have to say it feels like the years are flying by, and 2011 was the fastest yet. It was also the craziest yet. And while we're on the subject of 2011, I never made a single New Year's Resolution. Not one word, not one goal, not one thought towards how I could take that year and use it to improve myself somehow. I blame the (wonderful

My Favorite Christmas Moment

2011-12-28T14:11:00.000-05:00

This year the girls' Christmas lists looked something like this: Bria: Maybe a bed for my AG Doll Maybe some clothes Maybe some make-up Maybe some books (She's always been like this...very rarely outright says she wants something...kind of difficult to buy for!) Chloe: An American Girl Doll piano Mancala (Yep. That's it.) Sophia: A Littlest Pet Shop A Bed for Lainie A Barbie A Monkey

Christmas Present, Already Past

2011-12-26T22:28:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas! I hope you all had a beautiful day surrounded by loved ones and spent making treasured memories. We certainly did. Christmas really did sneak up on me this year. Maybe that's why I didn't really document it so well this time. Or maybe I'm just not on good terms with my camera at the moment. Or something. Whatever the reason, I took a very measly amount of photographs this

What Think Ye of Christmas?

2011-12-22T21:01:00.001-05:00

This year, I have felt a bit like Mr. Scrooge and The Grinch. Not so much that I don't like Christmas, but I have certainly felt too rushed, too obligated, and too busy to really enjoy it. I'm not really sure what it was about this year, but my goodness, we've been going at the speed of light around here! We did our Christmas baking. Now that we're on our third Christmas here (which is as

A Playroom Miracle

2011-12-16T00:03:00.000-05:00

When I first walked through this house while on my house-hunting trip, I was a little puzzled by the gigantic, low-ceilinged room upstairs. It was billed as a bedroom, and I suppose it could be used as one, but it was not your normal bedroom. However, I knew that it would make a perfect playroom for little people if we bought the house. And so a playroom it became. There were the usual

Not a Snow Day

2011-12-09T12:02:00.001-05:00

The view from my front porch this morning after the sun was finally up. The vent thing in the lower left is on my garage roof, which is strange, but we live on a steep hill, so my porch is much higher than the roof of the garage. I do love the view we have of the ski hill. The town was abuzz yesterday about the weather forecast. Maybe we'd get our first snow day of the year, or at least a

Love & Laughter

2011-12-07T21:46:00.001-05:00

All you need in the world is love and laughter. That's all anybody needs. To have love in one hand and laughter in the other. ~August Wilson I haven't had a half decent photoshoot with all three of my offspring in a really long time. Like, maybe not since Easter 2010? I love how much they love and laugh together. It does a mother's heart good. Especially when the shrieking starts... PS

Pray Always

2011-12-06T11:14:00.001-05:00

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...with lots of fake berries and leaves! Last week I found myself in need of a new wreath for my front door. The one I made a couple years ago was pretty much destroyed in a windstorm last year, and I didn't see any way to fix it. Nor did I feel much like making something else. The thought of not having a wreath on my front door for Christmas was

A December Saturday

2011-12-04T14:29:00.001-05:00

The majority of our Saturday was spent getting the girls bathed, dressed, and then doing their hair. Because, guess what? I finally got around to taking photos of the girls for my Christmas cards, yesterday. This is one of them, but it isn't "the one," in case you're wondering. I really wanted to recreate this picture, but my girls (especially Bria) were just not having any of it. And then

The CHICK-tionary

2011-12-02T13:24:00.001-05:00

We girls have an entire vernacular that is all our own, and the males in the room often have no idea what we are talking about when we pull it out. Just ask my poor husband, who lives in a household full of girls who, young as they are, have already come a long way towards fluency in girl-speak. Enter The CHICK-tionary, Anna Lefler's new resource guide which includes 450+ words no woman can

How to Decorate Your Christmas Tree: Part 4Finishing Touches

2011-11-30T21:19:00.001-05:00

Here is my "finished" tree. I am not having a good light year apparently, though, because this morning, half a strand of lights decided to go out. It bothers me greatly, and I'm tempted to somehow fix it, but that would involve undecorating and redecorating, so I guess I will just live with it. How to Decorate Your Christmas Tree: Part 1 How to Decorate Your Christmas Tree: Part 2 How to

How to Decorate Your Christmas Tree: Part 3

2011-11-29T22:01:00.001-05:00

How to Decorate Your Christmas Tree: Part 1 How to Decorate Your Christmas Tree: Part 2 How to Decorate Your Christmas Tree: Part 2A How you deal with the ribbon/garland can seriously make or break the tree. And I know I'm a tree snob, but I'm totally serious. The most common mistakes with the ribbon/garland are 1) putting it on before anything else, and 2) just wrapping it around the tree.

How to Decorate Your Christmas Tree: Part 2A

2011-11-29T20:04:00.001-05:00

My three little tree elves adorning the tree with golden icicles, of which we have approximately 3 million 672 thousand. How to Decorate Your Christmas Tree: Part 1 How to Decorate Your Christmas Tree: Part 2 Technically, this post should have been included with Part 2. But I was having technical difficulties, hence Part 2A. This is all about the ball ornaments. (And I'm not sure which we

How to Decorate Your Christmas Tree: Part 2

2011-11-28T20:49:00.001-05:00

How to Decorate Your Christmas Tree: Part 1 All right! So once you have your lights, flowers, floral picks and bows up it's time to hide bare spots with your largest ornaments. There will always be bare spots on a tree: Either because that's the way the branches are, or because there aren't enough lights in an area and it causes a kind of black hole. I like to cover these spots up with

How to Decorate Your Christmas Tree: Part 1

2011-11-27T20:28:00.001-05:00

We got the tree up yesterday. It's one of my favorite parts of Christmas. But then, everything is one of my favorite parts of Christmas... Each year, when I post pictures of my tree, I get several emails with questions about how I did it. So, this year, I decided to take pictures during each step of getting the tree up and do a series of posts explaining how I do it. Decorating my tree is a

The Day After Thanksgiving(Still Thankful)

2011-11-25T13:55:00.001-05:00

This year we managed to fit 9 people at our Thanksgiving Table.The Day After Thanksgiving, Black Friday, is a day we associate with frenetic shopping, long lines, spectacular deals and gigantic crowds. And yes, while I do indeed take part in the insanity (though here is where living in a small town has its distinct advantages), I like to think how the Christmas season is always kicked off by a

Stepping Back and Enjoying

2011-11-21T07:57:00.000-05:00

Sophia and me walking up to the elementary school on our last day without any snow in the ground. We decided to walk because the car was getting snow-tired just in time for the real storms to fly. We now have a good 8 inches or so on the ground and won't see grass till May. The whole reason I started this Project Walking into a Hug thing in the first place was so that I could really learn to

Snowy Days and Thursdays Almost Always Get Me Down

2011-11-17T08:58:00.001-05:00

Ugh. It's snowing. And it's Thursday. Thursdays are the day that I dread. I have a little time in the morning to get things done (and look, I'm ignoring the dishes and the laundry and I'm blogging instead) and then it's off to the races. I teach 5 lessons back-to-back at the University, which is exhausting in and of itself. I love teaching, don't get me wrong, but it can be a bit mentally