Organized? No, not me...

...but I did come a little bit closer today. I cleaned out Livvy's drawers and packed away all her 18 month and 2T clothes. I mentioned previously the spice cabinet was organized as well. I have now also cleaned my room (this was a CHORE-it was collecting everything that we didn't have time to deal with whenever people came over). I even cleaned off the dresser and put my sewing machine and other supplies up there so it isn't scattered all over the living. It felt good to accomplish so much today. Seriously I need like a whole week off to accomplish things that I have been putting off because I have no time. I have done a lot of 'work' today but it has been on my time, when I wanted to do it and not because it had to be done. So I am feeling pretty good about my day off. It's drawing to a close though which makes me sad-who knows when I will get another! The next day off I take though I am determined to take one while the kids are in school-though really they haven't been too bad. They are playing with playdoh right now-which is a testament to how I am feeling because I hardly ever let them play with playdoh. It's been a really good day. Really it's been a good week. I have felt so good this week-emotionally/mentally. I can feel God at work in my heart and I know that is a big part of the 'boost' in my mood.

Safe and sound...

Well so far no one has broken into our house-so that is a good sign!

It's about time to sit down and write again. Today I am writing with time to write. I am not writing because I feel like I should because I haven't blogged in a week. I am writing because I took the day off work (granted the kids were out of school so someone had to stay home with them) and because I have time to write! It's been a lovely day so far.

The kids actually slept until 8am which was wonderful! I slept until about 6:30, but still laid in bed until 8. Kris didn't get up for work until then either. Last night I asked him what time he needed to get up-he said the kids would get him up. While he didn't get to work until almost 9 probably, I'll bet he appreciated the sleep! I have discovered that if I take the Rozerem at night it doesn't really help me sleep AND I have trouble getting out of bed. If I DON'T take it, I am falling asleep easier than I used to at least AND I am able to drag myself out of bed before 7am. So I am going to stop taking the Rozerem. I have been going so much lately that I am exhausted by the time 10pm rolls around anyway.

I had breakfast with the kids today. It was nice. We had pumpkin chocolate chip muffins that I made last night. They were delicious! Then I cleaned my kitchen up a little bit and sat down and did nothing. Then I played with Livvy while the other kids were off entertaining themselves. And then I sat down and did nothing. And then I organized my spice cabinet. And then I sat down and did nothing. See the theme? Then I took the sheets off my bed and started a load of laundry--yes people--that's right. I actually started a load of laundry! I MUST BE FEELING GOOD!!! I folded a load of laundry too and put that away and gave the kids a snack. Lunch is started and one again I am sitting down and kind of doing nothing! I am hoping to finish cleaning the living room and take the kids to the thrift store-Katherine and Livvy need winter coats that fit them. And when I get back I am hoping once again to sit down and do nothing! Is this what a day off feels like???

We have started going to a new church. We have been two weeks in a row and really like it. Beyond that, Kris and I have decided it's time to find a place and settle in. I wouldn't have guessed we would wind up at a Southern Baptist church because neither one of us raised up Southern Baptist but it doesn't really matter as long as the core beliefs/doctrine are sound. And they are. And to top it off, they have programs for the kids on Wednesday nights. RA's and GA's that Katherine and Kaleb can get involved in. It seems to me to be like a church sponsored Girl/Boy Scouts which is cool. Abbey will be in Mission Friends and Livvy is too young so she will be in the nursery. We are going to our first ever Wednesday night church. I think it will be a really great experience for the kids and I am looking forward to getting to know this body of Christ. I really feel like God is going to bless us with relationships in this church.

And here's another one...

I am a bit worked up tonight...anxious. An 'interesting' thing happened tonight. Let me preface this by saying I am a skeptic and Kris always thinks the best about everyone. Put us together and we can usually balance one another out. So this guys comes up to our door this evening. I don't know how old he was-I didn't see him. Kris thought he was about our age, maybe a little younger. And he says his house got broken into today and wanted to know if we saw anything. He said he lived behind us and whoever it was came through the backyards. I immediately did not trust this guy. Kris immediately felt sorry for him. Completely different thoughts and reactions.

I don't know if this guy's house really got broken into. If it had happened during the day, surely he would have called the police. If he had, I would HOPE that the police went around asking the neighbors if they had seen anything. Of course we wouldn't know about that because neither one of us were home before 3:30. But my next question is why is this guy coming to our house now, after the fact to ask if we saw anything. If he got broken into, surely the police would have already tried to track down some witnesses. Second, if he had just found out about it, then he should have called the police, been talking to them and let THEM ask us if we had seen anything.

I told you I am skeptical, not to mention just a little bit (UNDERSTATEMENT OF THE YEAR!!!) paranoid. So I immediately think that this guy is checking things out so that later when we are not home, he can break into our house. I always tend to think the worst in this kind of situation. Kris at first thought me absurd. And he actually told this guy that neither one of us saw anything because we were at work. I don't blame him. He's a nice guy and wanted to do what he could to help. He couldn't know how my crazy mind was going to twist it-though after 10 years he could guess! Anyway...so now I am anxious that when we are not home someone is going to break into our house. And it isn't about possessions. I don't care about 'stuff'. It's just that I don't want to go through that feeling of violation and fear again. We have been robbed twice and it is not a pleasant experience. And maybe I am totally overthinking the whole thing and the guy's house really did get robbed. He mentioned to Kris he wasn't the first in the neighborhood-which if that were true then it seems all the more likely that the police would be 'canvassing' the neighborhood talking to people.

Anyway...I just needed to get that off my chest. Kris is emailing the police chief, mostly I think to make me feel better because he can hear all my anxious sighing over here and knows neither one of us will sleep if I can't calm down.

What's wrong with me???

I've gone a whole week without making a quilt-what is wrong with me?

Oh yeah...I have pretty much worked non-stop! The only day 'off' I had was Friday and I spent the entire day cooking and cleaning getting ready for Abbey's birthday party. On Saturday, I went to a wedding and worked for 4 1/2 hours. I went to church and then worked again for 4 1/2 hours on Sunday. And I feel like I haven't stopped since. Tonight I decided I wasn't going to work extra after I got home and that I would cut the pieces for Abbey's quilt (which is going to be really cute by the way). Well, I didn't work...but I didn't cut material either. Maybe tomorrow...

I haven't felt like blogging lately. I keep coming up with cute/funny stories from my children and think "I need to write that down" and then I just don't do it. It annoys me now that I can't remember any of it. I do have a funny picture though. When I got home today Katherine had decorated the house for Halloween. Outside the house, that is. We did have to scold her for coloring on the side of the house with chalk, though her pictures were cute. The second picture you will see was just really a strange and funny site. You have to understand, Katherine is constantly bugging me to buy Halloween decorations. She seems to really like that holiday in particular. Well, apparently we didn't have enough decorations so she created some of her own.

Another quilt, another blog...

I promised there wouldn't be another blog about Brandi's quilt. And to stay true to that promise, this is not about Brandi's quilt, but about Katherine's quilt. She turned 8 on Sunday and I bought her some material to make a quilt for her. She loves Tinkerbell, so of course that is the theme we chose to use. There are a TON of imperfections in this quilt. I am SO thrilled that I didn't run into the same problems on Brandi's quilt-really-it's about Katherine's quilt! I swear! I had a lot of trouble with this quilt-between my machine being tempermental and somehow ending up with extra material on the top of the quilt, which led to 'bubbling' as I call it. In addition, the top stitch I chose was very tricky to work with and I probably will not use it again without a significant amount of experience with it. And on top of all that, the batting was pinned down when I started but somehow along the way I lost a pin in one corner so the batting bunched up...anyway...I am thankful that I was making this for Katherine and not for someone outside of my immediate family because I fear they would be disappointed with the outcome. Forntunately for me you cannot really see the imperfections in the pictures so I am posting them. Kris and I are both pleased with the pattern we came up with and the colors really represent Katherine and what she likes. Overall and from a distance I really like the quilt. It is just up close that I am pretty disappointed with it and am not skilled enough to really know how to fix it and I am certainly not patient enough to take it apart and start again!!

What do you think?

Lucky for you...

...this is probably the last post about this Very Hungry Catepillar quilt. But since I just finished it, I wanted to show off the finished product. I can't wait to give it to Brandi!

Different views

Here are some other quilts people have made with the "Very Hungry Catepillar" material. Personally I am not a fan of any of them, though I can at least tolerate the first one. I like mine better.

It's not mine...

Kris had to remind me that the quilt is not mine. That's right Jamie. It is NOT yours! It is Brandi's. She bought the material. You cannot keep it. No matter how cute you think it is!

I am about 1/3 of the way done with the top stitching. It's getting really close now. My hip was starting to hurt though so I decided to stop for the evening. But here are some pictures of my progress. I am quite pleased with how it is turning out.

An almost finished quilt

I made really good progess the last two nights and have the top of Brandi's quilt done. I have quite a bit of work left still between putting the backing on and all of the top stitching but it feels great to have accomplished my goal and 'finished' the top of a quilt again. It's been over 3 years since I have been able to say that. What do you think?

My funny funny girl...

All of my kids have this ability to make me laugh. Things they say, things they do...they are just funny. God designed them this way. Today's funny story is about Katherine. Last year when she lost a tooth and wrote a note to the tooth fairy I posted pictures on my other blog so everyone could enjoy her thought process regarding her lost tooth. The tooth was literally LOST. We could not find it. Here are her notes to the tooth fairy-one was taped to her bed and the other on the dresser. This story sets up the next one.

(In case you can't see it, it says "Dear Tooth Fairy. I Lost My Tooth. But When I Noticed I did I Could Not Find It So I just Wanted To Tell You. Love Kat."

With that in mind, let me just tell you what happened this weekend. Katherine lost another tooth. She actually lost the tooth on Saturday and we came home and put it in a ziploc bag for safe keeping. At bedtime she thought about putting it under her pillow, but decided she wanted to show it to people at church on Sunday. And then she decided she wanted to take it to school to show people. So finally, last night, she decides it is time to put it under her pillow. When she went downstairs the tooth was in a normal ziploc bag.

Before going to bed, the 'Tooth Fairy' went downstairs to exchange her tooth for the highly inflated fee of $1. She (the Tooth Fairy) grabbed the bag and put the $1 under Katherine's pillow. As I (I mean she) was coming back upstairs Kris said "You should've just put the $1 in the bag and left the bag" or something to that effect. I shrugged it off and then immediately something on the bag caught my eye. Apparently when she went downstairs for bed, Katherine decided it would be necessary to write the Tooth Fairy another note. Here is what she wrote on the bag with her tooth in it. There are so many things I could say, but I really feel it needs no explanation.

Let's talk about passion...

There is something to be said for passion, or for being passionate about something. Take me for instance. I am passionate about The Pampered Chef. I am passionate about food. I am extremely passionate about the dessert 'section' of food! I am passionate about my children. And yes, sometimes I am even passionate about my husband! ;-)

But one thing I am NOT passionate about, besides the obvious choice of laundry, is vacuum cleaners. They just don't 'do' anything for me. And if a vacuum cleaner demo takes 2 1/2 hours, what does that tell you about the vacuum cleaner? IT'S COMPLICATED. If I can't sweep it across my floor (or have my kids do it) in 5 minutes, it is SO not worth my time...and moreso...my money. And if you want to accuse me of being an irresponsible parent because I use a dry filtration system over a wet filtration system, well...go right ahead (well, please don't because I might just cry). You aren't going to hurt my feelings (yes you will). So, I am sorry Direct-Sell-Rainbow-Vacuum-Cleaner...you are just not the vacuum cleaner for me...and you really don't fit into my budget (perhaps a toothpick would fit). Don't get me wrong-I will support the Direct Selling industry whenever I am able and if you have a LOT of time and energy to spend assembling and disassembling, filling and emptying water, adding this and adding that...IN ADDITION to the actual time it will take to vacuum the floor, well then perhaps the Rainbow IS the vacuum for you.

What we need is a vacuum cleaner that is LIKE the Rainbow with all of it's features and attachments, COMBINED with the technology of the Roomba that will vacuum the floor for lazy people (like me and Kris)...you put those two together...and count me in!

I realize I haven't blogged for a while, and actually have more I wanted to share, but Kris is eager to watch House. We're almost finished with Season 3. We only have time for one episode tonight and with this infection I've been fighting for over 10 days I really SHOULD go to bed, but I just can't resist watching at least ONE tonight. Hopefully I will update beyond the scope of vacuums soon.