Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Looking Ahead.

So, I finished everything Brandon needed for hunting and he brought us home tons of meat. It was great! The downside is after I tackled those heavy duty wool pants I was done and needed a break from sewing. Don't get me wrong, I've been knitting away like a mad woman, but I need to get my sewing done too. I made a purse since then for a swap and that's been it, in the last two weeks. I did make each of the kiddos a pair of clogs as well as myself. Yeah!

So, Caleb really wants to have a huge birthday party but with a birthday just days before Christmas I fear there would be few who showed up even after inviting his entire class. I just don't see many families having free time the Saturday before Christmas to run their kids to a party and then to pick them up and shop for an additional gift. I know as a parent I would probably pass on that party. Ack! Anyway, now I need something exciting for Caleb so he gives up on the party. He wants a DS thingy, I don't know what all it does, but it's about $200. Now before I get my panties in a twist I looked at the cost of a party anywhere except here and whoa! Expensive!!! So it makes the $200 DS look much cheaper. I feel bad buying him off though. Ack!

Anyway, I've got some fun ideas for Christmas and now I need to get moving!!! WooHoo!

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Wallet!

After I made my list and was downstairs looking at my fabric when I decided to look for a pattern for a wallet. This might help me use up some of my fabric stash and be perfect for my brother and other boys on my list. So I found a few patterns but nothing really struck me as awesome, until I ran across this http://www.craftpassion.com/2010/07/sewing-trifold-floral-wallet-tutorial-pattern.html. At first I wasn't impressed because I'm not really thrilled with that kind of thing, but with some adaptions and some creativity I came up with my own.




Inside. (It even fits a standard credit card!!!)

All folded up. You can kind of see the zipper with a pocket on the other side.

Caleb just had to model it for me and since he is so cute, here is the picture.

I think my brother will like it. He likes orange and skulls and plays the guitar. I assume he needs a wallet and I thought I put some $$ in there for him to buy his own gift. Now I need one more present for his birthday.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Adding to list!!!

Adding to list? Yes I am!!!

Grandma
Large size rag quilt

Mom and Dad
Purse/Wallet
Truck cover

Friends
5 purses
6 draw string bag things

Guess I better get downstairs and get sewing.

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

To do list!

Okay, so awhile back I posted my to do list, maybe a month ago. I don't remember what was on it but I think it was before we decided to do a handmade Christmas. Anyway, I want to put on here what I need to get done yet and what I have done already.

Caleb
1 bigger quilt
1 small lap quilt
Done! 5 -6- boxers
pencil case
lunch money wrist band
Done! Bag for winter clothes going back and forth to school
Draw sting backpack bag
Sleeping bag type thing, I have an idea
2 pair of fleece pjs
Done! Knit sweater

Joel
1 big quilt
Done! 1 small Thomas quilt
Done! 6 underwear
Thomas pillow or pillow case
Thomas crayon/color pencil roll up case
2 pair fleece pjs
Sleeping bag type thing
Knit Thoams hat
Knit sweater

Hubby (He needs some of his by Thanksgiving!)
Done! Wool pants
Done! Shooting mittens
6 boxers
Done! Cotton gun case

Daniel-(brother)
Pencil case
Done! Wallet
Denim quilt?? Not attempting this year.

Sunday, November 7, 2010

It's Been Awhile!

Okay so first let me say since this was my knitting or rather crafting blog that I learned how to do intarsia yesterday. I paid for a lesson with a very awesome lady and it was well worth it. She helped me pick out yarn and get me started and show me what to do where. I'm so excited! Without buying commercial stuff for Christmas I needed to know intarsia to make a Thomas sweater for Joel. Yeah!!

I have the paper for the advent calendar this year. I'm excited to get that going.


I finished my messenger bag and some hunting/shooting mittens for Brandon. Yeah!








The other day I got an amzing swap package. I love swapping on Ravelry.




I got some fun yarn online that looked fun and now I don't know what to do with. Isn't it pretty?


Now, all I need to do is figure out what I need to make my parents and brother for Christmas. Those 3 are a bit more difficult. I have one idea though.

Monday, October 4, 2010

Getting things done!

Here is a before photo of my bathroom about 3 years ago, but still. We had a very big shower stall, and I liked it. But then it leaked buckets into the basement due to crappy work by the builders.Before my green phase and you can see I bought everything from thrift stores and rummage sales. Hehe! I still have this shower curtain because I like it so much.

So you see we finished my bathroom one week ago today. It was six weeks worth of work. Now granted we didn't work on it every single day, but we put a lot of time and effort into this stupid bathroom. It wasn't free either. Ack! Now there are no shower does yet simply because those will have to be custom.


So you see we knocked out the cabinets which now I realize how useful they really were even though the lower one was almost empty. Hah! Then we took out the one piece shower unit and threw that out. Ripped up the crappy vinyl floor, installed sheet rock and backerboard, built a unit for the tub to sit in. (Did you know you your tub needs lots of support including concrete underneath?) Then I spent an entire day putting tile on the walls. We then spent awhile trying to make the bottom panel as removeable as possible as that is where the motor and heater are for the tub. We figure we'll still have cut a hole in my bedroom wall if there ever is a problem though. Then I tiled the floor. During the weeks we grouted and caulked which wasn't any fun. Last week I picked out paint and painted. And now we've been using it for one week and I love it!!!
I even have the best husband who took the kids for two nights so I could have as many baths as I wanted. :)

Friday, October 1, 2010

Potty Training!

I want to say, "YEAH!" Joel is mostly potty trained. He can't make it long in the car yet, but he knows how to use the bathroom. Woot! Who knew it took so much work? I forgot over the years since Caleb.

Anyway, we are staying super busy. Turns out that the weekend we planned for our anniversary get away is the most busy weekend of the year for tourists and it's also a holiday weekend. Did you know Columbus day weekend you need to stay at least three nights for B&B's and two nights for hotels? Well, that's not an option so... we have a weekend with nothing. WooHoo! The bad thing is we doubt we'll have a make-up weekend so there goes our tenth anniversary with nothing.

But I also want to mention I got a wonderful swap package last week and in it was yarn, project bag, and pattern, with some goodies too. Well, I finished half of the project already. Yeah me!






Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Impressions

I'm sure we've all heard about how small the world really is. What is it... we know everyone by six people or something. Well, I always thought, "There is no way!" Turns out it's probably very true. So that got me to thinking...

How well do you leave an impression on someone? I was out the other day and ran into a parent of a peer in school. She remembered me very well and I never would have guessed her to even know my name. I only met her once at about 11pm at night. To make a long story short, I was on a school trip and there was a dance and roughly three girls to every boy. I was the first girl asked to dance and danced the night away, with all four of the boys. It was a fun last night to our three week trip. I didn't think anything of it, but always remembered the looks on the other girls faces when I was choosen first and by him. Needless to say I never talked to any of those four boys once back at school, but I thought about all of them often.

Anyway, when I think about that trip, I often wonder what they are up to and I even saw that one of them got married, and and another had a baby in the newspaper. It was the mother who saw me and came over to say, "Hello," where I really started wondering if maybe they thought of me too over the years and most likely even talked about me to their parents.

I wonder what would have happened if we stayed in contact and remained friends once back in school? It's crazy how things could have been so different.

So the moral of this story 13 years later is from now on, I intend on making a better impression on people and letting them know I want to keep in contact. For the most part I'm fairly shy, but I'm working on that. I've let too many possible friends slip through the cracks. It shouldn't take 13 years to teach me something.

Monday, September 13, 2010

Oy!

So all week we've been working on our bathroom for one week and it's still not done. I'm very sad because I wanted to use my cool new tub this week. However, since it's not done that means it will be MY project to finish. I hate following Brandon around getting stuff for him. It's not because he doesn't think I can't do it, it's just the rolls we fall into most.

Which brings me to thinking... Is this what we are teaching our children. I'm so thankful that my parents taught me so much. My mom spent hours in the kitchen teaching me to cook and my dad spent hours teaching me how to use tools in the garage. I want my kids to be just as well rounded, but I also want to keep them from falling to the stereo typical male-female rolls.

I'm lucky enough to have found Brandon who does let me take the lead and be in charge of projects at times too. I insisted I do all the tile work in my bathroom this week. He was really good about changing rolls and letting me take charge. Ideally this how I want my boys to work with their significant others all the time. But how do you teach this skill? Is it really taught or is it just something they have or don't have? Things to ponder.

Friday, August 27, 2010

Projects

Ohh, I'm so excited! I love knitting up fun things and sending them off, but with the heat of summer and the recent new sewing table and set up in the basement I can't stop sewing. I love sewing and there is nothing that makes me happier than sewing up something useful and knowing it will last.

So, things I want to finish sewing before it gets too cold in the basement.
-bag for swap
-undies for Caleb
-sweat shirt for Joel
-sweat shirt for Caleb
-sweat shirt for Me
-dressy pants for Me
-messenger bag
-2 long sleeve shirts for Joel
-2 pair pants for Joel
-winter cloths bag for Caleb

Then there is the Christmas list! I don't think I mentioned it yet, but everything we give for Christmas this year will be homemade. I got the idea from a friend. ;) We don't give to many people anymore so it won't be too hard. We are also planning to head out of town for Christmas this year and spend time together without the hustle and bustle.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Busy

So...

This summer has been crazy busy. I'm not entirely sure why, but we seem to have things going every single day. I couldn't even find the time to take the boys camping on my own. Usually, I take off and go camping a few days early and then Brandon comes and joins us for the weekend or the boys and I would head out Monday for a couple days or more. Oh-well.

Even our September is full and most people know what we will be doing in October. It's hard having everything planned out because I'm a fly by the seat of my pants girl. I hate schedules and appointments and all that other stuff.

So the perfect end to a busy summer is having found the perfect school for Caleb.

Anyway, it's noon already and I need to prepare for a few things today. Good times!

Happy Wednesday.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Bathroom

So, we have a problem. We were aware of the problem long before now so don't fret. Anyway, our problem is our shower floor is cracked in the master bathroom. No big deal when it wasn't leaking. However, it has begun to leak and leak something terrible. We were waiting until just the right time to fix it seeing as Brandon only has 13 days to take off from work. And we needed to save up money because what we want will require a plumber and maybe an electrician. We had planned on having it done for us, but with summer we couldn't come up with enough money. Gah! So to make a long story short we have already bought a really cool tub and some beautiful tiles and we are ready to go. I figure all we need now is a good time to get it done. I hate unfinished projects!!!

Well, that being said... I guess we start after our big vacation of the year, two weeks. Brandon has that Monday off and when we get home, he'll take the next 4 days off plus the weekend which gives us 6 days to totally redo my/our master bathroom. Before we leave I want to have the bathroom demolished and this faux wall/ledge thing constructed. Right now I have no where to set a bottle of shampoo and it's super annoying so we agreed on making a ledge thing about two feet up from the bathtub edge.

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Soap!

First let me start with, I really enjoy making soap. Holy cow is it fun. Who knew? When I was a kid about 10 my Grandma H. showed me how to make soap with leftover bacon grease and I thought I would never do that. Ewe. I remember even thinking, "That soap is going to smell terrible!" Turns out it didn't smell like anything and boy did it make a great kitchen/bathroom soap bar. It was super hard and cleaned really well. Now mind you she usually let it set in the bathroom attic for nearly a year to harden, but still!

So, over a year ago I did lots and lots of research and started making soap. It turned out lovely and super hard and made a super lather and had the perfect pH. Huh? This is pretty easy. While it is easy, it's also very dangerous!!! Maybe that's part of the fun. Hah! Needless to say I made many and many more batches and gave tons and tons of it away since I could not figure out how to make a small batch. The book I had called for 10 pound loafs. Recently I've got that under control.


Anyway, with yet more and more research I discovered I can do tons of way cool things with my soap. I went to my one of favorite stores, The Bulk Priced Food Store, and bought a bunch of bulk tea. One of my favorite smelling tea is Indian Spice, but I hate the way it tastes. Go figure. So I made a super strong tea and let it set out for at least an hour. Then I ground up a couple table spoons of the tea to make a reasonably fine powder. I used the strained tea to mix with the lye and then when the soap was done I stired in the powder. Finally, on top I sprinkled more whole tea on top. Needless to say, I have made one of the best smelling soaps ever, in my opinion. Woowee, do I love it.


Ahh.



Spiced Soap

So pretty all lined up!!!

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Continuation

So, where was I? I've been thinking about finishing this post for awhile now and I don't know if I have the right words to explain exactly how I feel.

Well, anyway we moved to Bosnia. I stayed there with my wonderful husband who tried desperately to make it feel like home, but it just never felt right. He knew after being there for six weeks without me that I probably wouldn't like it, but he hoped I would get used to it. We lived with a family, or above a family who was fairly nice. Most of them spoke English and it was okay. I just liked some of the creature comforts offered in the States. I like a shower everyday and drinking water to come out of the faucet and electric most of the time. Now I can live without these things for short periods of time and it's all good, but three weeks in the middle of summer with temperatures over 100 and I'm very cranky. To make a long story short, I left with our son to go back to the States and buy a house.

I come home and it's good. I missed my family something terrible and loved having a hot shower everyday. Right away I started looking for a house and it was all good. The paperwork turned out to pain in the arse simply because Brandon was still in Bosnia, but we had already prepared for that. So, after about 100 houses, I finally picked one and moved in. Here we are now.

Caleb and I have been here nearly six years now and Brandon has been here three years. That means he spent three years away from us in Bosnia and Iraq. While in Iraq he went to school and got a degree and I tried. I was too slow and had too much going on with being a single parent to get a degree in any sort of timely manner. I took ten classes and feel like I've learned a lot, but I'm now 28 with two kiddos and still not done with school. This is what saddens me. I've spent my entire marriage doing what a good 1960's wife would do while I want to be my own person. Sure I have done things for myself over the years, but never have I sat down and done what I need to do for me. Like I said, I'm 28 and have no real job skills and have no degree and nothing else.

While I love being married and wouldn't change the last ten years of my life for anything, but gosh darn it, it's time to spend some time and money on me.

I applied for culinary arts at the local tech college for January and what I got in the mail was annoying. I have a long to do list that needs to be done in just a few days. After making several calls and talking to lots of people, there is no way it can be done. Maybe I will start next fall. I sent a few emails to my advisor at UW-online and was told I have to reapply. I'm betting I can get everything in to start again in January, but jeez. Reapply! I already have 30something credits. What if I don't get in? I mean they told I wouldn't, but...

So how is it that I finally get the nerve up to do something for myself and this is how it turns out? Color me annoyed. I guess if you want it bad enough you'll work for it.

So here is to me wanting it bad enough.
Peace!

Saturday, July 31, 2010

Anniversary

So now that is one day till August I am once again reminded that our anniversary is coming up. This October 6th we will have been married for ten years. It was ten years ago tomorrow that I was talked into getting married, I was only 18.

With our anniversary coming up I should be happy and excited as I have in years past, but this year is different. Is it different because I think it should be extra special and I know it won't? I'm not sure, but what I do know is that I am sad. When I was 16 I knew exactly what I wanted to do with my life. I was destine to become a nurse and live by myself with my dogs in a cute apartment all by myself. My ideas about my future never included a husband or kids simply because my parents told me I would never find a guy and surely not one who wanted to have babies.

Well, I turned 16 and dated a guy for awhile and became awesome friends with one his friends. We enjoyed talking on the phone and talking about Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts. We had done several of the same adventures such as backpacking, and canoe trips. Needless to say we soon started dating. Sure enough a couple years later this same guy talked me into marrying him.

It wasn't long before he had me talked into moving to California with him. A couple years later, I still hadn't attended college because I had to work to pay for rent, and I found myself pregnant. It was good, all our friends had babies and most of them were younger than us. A few months after the birth of our first son, we moved back to WI. I was happy living near family again and working again where I worked when I was in High School.

While Brandon looked and looked for a job I kept working and all was good. We made it work while living above my parents. It was one cold night, when Brandon came to bed and asked if I was still awake. I was, and he asked, "Wanna move to Bosnia?" I knew it was in Europe and he knew I would do anything to get back to Europe. So we moved.

The rest of the story tomorrow!

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Tuff Week

First let me say we went camping and it was all good. We had fun. Both Brandon and I were tired and knew it was going to rain a lot, but we went with it and had fun in spite of. The mosquitos however, were something of another story. Uck! The best part was the beach and the beach we found was empty the entire weekend. The map said there were two beaches so I wonder if most people just never went on to find the second one. Oh-well!


So, last week I called my LYS and signed up for a finishing class (this after I feel I didn't complete the baby sweater as well as I could have). It's all good though. Anyway, I went yesterday to pay for my class and spend the $30 gift card they sent me. I had asked for banana fiber yarn or silk yarn about 4 months ago and they got it! Yeah!!! And in colors that I love. However, they cannot or will not get me Louet Kidlin yarn which bugs me. I don't know why it bugs me, but it does. I'm not opposed to buying yarn online since I'm still supporting little yarn shops, but the shipping annoys me. Call me crazy! Oh, the class! Duh! I'm very excited to go and thought it was today, but it's next week. Anyway, check out this yarn!!!

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Another Wednesday!

I'm so tired. I don't know why. Seriously, I'm just tired of it all and tired.

I hate cleaning the house, but I have to do it every single day. I hate running kids all day, but I have to do it every day. I hate making meals, but I have to do it at least twice everyday. I hate yelling at kids, but I do it all day. I'm just done.

I don't even want to go camping this weekend because that is more cleaning, more cooking, more running, more yelling, more of everything, plus I have to provide entertainment. You have got to be kidding me?

I would love to take a few days away from the kids and relax camping on my own. Have a glass of wine without the 7 year old yelling at me. Sit and mindless read or knit. But I'll never get that because where would the kids go? I won't leave them with their Dad because he works and works hard and doesn't deserve to have to take the kids for a couple days on his own. I can't leave them with my parents because well I can't. And there is nobody else. I don't know...

I'm usually a very positive person and people around me know this and tell me that's one thing they like about me, but it's very draining lately. And I can only be positive so long because I start to feel fake.

That was a very real post. Hmm.

Monday, July 12, 2010

California!

The other day we stopped at Steins to get a few things. While checking out a family comes walking up and they ALL gave us a dirty look. I thought, "WTF, whatever!"

The lady asked us for our zip code and I give it to quickly since surely she knows I'm from around town. The stuck up family continues to stare and look at us oddly. Then it's their turn to tell their check out lady their zip code. They say, "92054" very matter of factly. The check out lady says, "No, I need your zip code." But now I'm thinking, "Hey, we used to have the zip code silly woman."

Well, the the very tan family says they drove along way to buy flowers, and it finally occures to me that the zip code belonged to us when we lived in southern CA. Duh!!! I wanted to say, "Hey I used to have that zip code," but I feared the stuck up family would think I was even more crazy. Hah!

Needless to say I didn't say anything and CA family continued to stare are us. Uck!

So... To make a long story short, Brandon and I confirmed in the car that the reason we left CA was because of the people. They flat out suck and we didn't want our children around that.

And on that note, we are planning a trip for either next year or the year after to drive out to CA. LMFAO!

Friday, July 9, 2010

Fair Isle knitting!

So, I wanted to learn another something new. The ladies at my LYS wanted to charge me $20 for one hour to teach me how to do Fair Isle knitting. I said, "Hah!" So, I went to KnitPicks.com and bought a book and then decided to use a bunch of left over wool yarn and knit a hat from the book. The colors don't work, but for my first project I wasn't getting picky.

So for my next bigger project I have a pattern for some knit Fair Isle pants for Joel. Too bad he is potty training right now though. LOL! I'm still making him the pants because they will be easy on and off for him. Yeah! Now I can even pick out a wool blend so they last longer. We shall see.

For tonight's dinner we have to eat salad with tomatoes and peas. We have so much of these things growing, that it's crazy. I think I'll whip up some fish to go with it even though we're doing a fish boil on Sunday, I think. Yummy! We should eat more fish anyway. Guess, that means I must go to my one of my favorite stores and get some olive oil and balsamic.

On that note, I also joined a group on Ravelry to help support weight loss. Maybe sitting on the computer though isn't helping. LOL!

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

I'm on Ravelry! I'm doing it and doing it all wrong. I joined my first swap on there and no where that I saw was it a secret swap. I got two emails from ladies and one of them was telling me she was my buddy. I was so excited that I then emailed my buddy!!! Remember the thing where it was a secret??? Yup, well the fun is done then. At least, I'm sure my buddy thought so, but I still get to send her a bunch of blue stuff. The other swap I did, we had to have contact with our buddies so, that may have also been part of my confussion. Anyway, that is my sad story for the day.

Today the weather was crap and I wanted to do so much. We spent most of yesterday cleaning and playing cards. That was fun, but now I want to get outside and go and do again. LOL!

On the bright side of the crumy weather I finished my KAL dishcloth. I can't say I like it even a little bit. It's down right ugly in my opinion, but pink isn't my color nor are flamingos. You guessed it, it's a surprise KAL (knit along) so we don't know what were knitting and we only get 6-10 lines of pattern a day. I should have guessed it was going to a flamingo based on the color of yarn and and time of year. Hah! Anyway, pink is also the next color needed, but this time it's just a stitch pattern rather than a picture. Yeah!

I ordered stitch markers from etsy and one arrived broken. I really like them though so I won't hold it against the lady. Those are pink too, but I like shiny and these are cool. Woohoo!

Monday, July 5, 2010

Yarn

I have recently found the desire to find the perfect yarn colors. I want bright and colorful and fun. Since to purchase a hank or skein of the yarn with these colors costs upwards of $45 I'm thinking I may try dying my own. I've seen blogs where ladies use unsweetened drink mixes and the wool yarn from online. I think I can do that!

Anyway, I just hope I don't end up messing up a bunch of yarn. Eep!

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Socks! Socks! Socks!

I've had two sock classes now and I love it. I cannot wait to take more knitting classes to learn more things. My plan was to sign up for a knitting weekend here in town, but then my husband had finally come home with his work schedule and he has to work the exact weekend. Oh-well. I do plan on taking several classes come fall again, but that's along way off. I'm excited to spend the summer making some gifts and such.

So, we've been invited to two weddings and I'm very excited about both. I have an idea for gifts and I'm not sure I can make them, but I see I can buy them on Etsy. It kind of sucks when someone has already made lots of money on an idea you have. Well, it wasn't my idea, but I'd seen it at Hobby Lobby and thought I'd give it a try. Oh-well.

Anyway, so I'm off to the great world wide web to find more ideas for right now.

Monday, March 22, 2010

Scrubbies

I'm rather new to knitting, but I've got ideas.

First, I want to make plus size cloths that actually fit. That one will be much later as I become a better knitter.

Second, I want to make a scrubbie for dishes. I've seen flat ones, but I want a big round one or one thick like a sponge. I've seen some patterns that call for tulle so I think that will be my choice of material, but from there I'm still thinking. I'll let you know when I've come up with more. :)

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Just keep going!

I finished my first knit sweater yesterday! WhooWee, I'm excited! Now if only Joel would put it on so I can see him in it. Hah!

Today we are going to the dentist. Eek! I would rather give birth than go to the dentist since I was blessed with terrible teeth. I have never, not once, gone and had a cavity free visit. I brush and brush and get lessons every time I go, I get special tooth paste, I've even gotten special stuff to put on my teeth before bed. Yup, none of it worked and I still have cavities. The best part is, I don't drink soda or juice, I don't eat candy very often, and I drink my milk and water with flouride. Why the cavities then??? Well, my Dad was 20 when he was blessed with dentures and my mom has terrible teeth as well. I'm going on 30 and seem be getting along okay, but still it sucks.

The worst part is... Is that Caleb got my terrible teeth. He couldn't get Brandon's fancy teeth which are cavity free and he never brushes. Caleb is now going to hate the dentist just as much as I do and for reason other than life sucks! Stupid teeth. I hate that he gets yelled at for eating crap even though he only gets soda at Grandma's and juice only sometimes and candy is even more rare.

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Cooking

So this week I decided to cook and cook and cook. It's all good because I love it. I made 3 batches of cookies and dinner every night. I had gone to one of my favorite stores and got awesome blueberry balsamic and some good Tuscan herb EVOO. Awesome!

But to make a long story short, my cookies did not come out. Same recipe, same type of flour, same everything. Just this time they were flat and really crispy. Eek! the only thing I can think of is that the brand of flour is different, but wheat flour is wheat and unbleached is unbleached. Yes, I know they can be drastically different, but hey

And I'd like to mention that the sweater I started on Monday should be done by this weekend. Should being the key word. I'm excited to see what it looks like when it's all done.

I like to leave on a positive note and that would be that we are getting away for the night to visit some family. Then the rest of this week Brandon has off. Yes, 9 days in a row off!!! That doesn't mean he'll stay home, he'll end up going to work at 3 of the 5 work days. That's why I love him though, he won't throw his co-workers under the bus during projects ;)

Monday, February 1, 2010

Schooling

So, after two years of talking homeschooling with Brandon he is finally all in. And I mean all in. He is ready to go with it and knows I'll do a good job and he's ready to take on teaching as well. Way cool right? Well, now I'm freaked out. I have to be the teacher and parent and with both kids all the time? Some of that sounds good, but then some of it doesn't. I can image all sorts of fights starting over getting homework done because I know I'm not ready to do unschooling just yet. Eek!

On the bright side I found some good stuff for homeschooling. I'm also pretty sure there a group out there we can join. I'm also certain that we will meet lots of parents at homeschooling swimming lessons and such. WooHoo. I was in GS with a large group of girls who were home schooled and they were so nice. I also know growing up I wish I had been home schooled because peers were just so mean.

Now I'm rambling on and need to stop. Overall, it's time to make a change again. I'm excited to move forward with the journey of raising kids.

Oh-one positive thing. Caleb read an entire chapter book all by himself and then was able to tell me all about what happened. He missed some parts, but heck, he's only in first grade. I'm so proud!

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Crafty again!

I spent the better part of today online trying to figure out pattern to tie dye my brothers sweatshirt. Then I realized there was a woot-off going on so I looked at that. Of course one thing lead to another and before I realized it I was online for nearly an hour and a half.

Anyway, I did get the laundry started, kitchen cleaned up somewhat and the sweatshirt tie dyed in what I hope to be is an acceptable pattern. If it doesn't turn out it's all good because he was going to throw the shirt away anyway.

On another bright side, while on the world wide web, I discovered that for around $2,000 we can get Brandon a newer/nicer car. His car has taken a beating and keeps just keeps going, but now I think it will cost us a good amount to get it working again after his accident yesterday. It's all good because we can use the parts off the car. Thrifty! I just don't think buying a brand new is a good idea just yet. We'll see.

Saturday, January 23, 2010

We will miss you Sprynger. You always put a smile on my face.

Friday, January 22, 2010

This crazy week!

While this week hasn't been too crazy, it's been reasonably long. Every night we work on Caleb's dino project, have dinner, work on the project more and then watch a TV show or two while Joel nurses. Joel caught a cold so he is nursing much much more than he did last week, but I'm loving every minute of it since I'm not sure which time will be the last.

So, with the new year we've taken on a new healthy resolution which was to stop eating any processed food. Yup, I'm talking all fast food and anything at the grocery that is already prepared. So those cans of soup or frozen pizzas we all have in our cupboard are off limits to us now. Surely this will be a process since I ran out of homemade chicken stock and needed to open up a box to finish off my chicken dish earlier this week. Overall, we are doing really well because we've decided once or twice a week I would provide us with a homemade dessert as well, but I'm having a hard time coming up with ideas.

On the other hand we eat so much yogurt, that I've learned how to make my own so it's not packed full of sugar and other processed food ingredients. I was also finding that a lot of the yogurt I was eating had diet ingredients which I was my fault for not reading the label, but I get terrible headaches from NutraSweet and the like. So, now I know exactly what is my yogurt.

My yogurt was 4 cups milk scalded and cooled. Mixed in 1/2 cup organic plain yogurt with live active cultures and then put into a warmed oven for 5ish hours. I took it out and cooled in the refrigerator overnight and for breakfast we had a nice yummy bowl of yogurt covered with homemade granola and homemade raspberry jam. Thinking about it is making me hungry.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Like I said, I've taken on knitting again. It's going well. I joined ravelry.com today and I think I'll really like it. I had been looking to knit up some sweaters for the new puppy and I found some cool patterns on there today. Woohoo.

As for this puppy I mentioned, he is doing really well. I officially named him Sparky simply because he looks so cute running. Haha. Sparky went to the vet and did wonderful, but they are telling me I must get him fixed at 6 months. I thought I'd wait till he was bigger and find a different vet. DH has a cousin who is a vet and I would trust him much more. Anyway, we had Lex fixed when he was 6ish months and it didn't go well. Lex came home the next day and had an infection and was really sick. Ugg! So... those are my thoughts on that!

On another front, I have been thinking about homeschooling more and more. Caleb has been working on a cool dino project for the last few weeks and it's driving me mad. I guess I would rather see him start from the beginning. I would have handed him a 1st grade sized book and have him find the answers to some basic questions just to learn how to do research. Then I would have write a report from that and so on. Nope, he needed to use 2 sources of his choice for research and was given some very specific questions to answer in his written report. Best of all he needs to also come up with a presentation to share with the class. Heck, when did school get so ahh...

Monday, January 11, 2010

Good times!

So, I didn't get any of my sewing projects done for Christmas like I planned, but I have started knitting again. Fun times! Hopefully, I will get to putting pictures up sometime soon since I took them. Haha!

My goal for today is to finally finish laundry that was started on Friday and get the kitchen clean. I wanted to start a chore chart so everyone knew what rooms I was cleaning on what days, but I found that I spend so much time just picking up that I don't know how that would work.

Puppy! We/I got a new puppy for Christmas and it's doing really well. Lex loves the company and it suddenly very playful. Maybe now he will lose some of that winter weight he put on last winter. I named the puppy Sparky simply because you have to see it run. Haha! Caleb liked the name Ace and so for now it has two names. Sparky already got his first groom and looks more like a dog now. I'm just excited to see how big he really gets. We were told he would top out at 4 pounds. Woohoo!

So for now we will keep trudging one and I hope everyone is doing well!