Goals 2010 Revisited

I listed my goals for 2010 on New Year's Eve, with every intention of revisiting it halfway through the year to keep myself accountable, so here's the update:

1) Become a Stay-at-Home mom, and do it well- Yay! In my first full week with this new title!

2) Take a cake decorating class, or two- I finish my first class on Wednesday!

3) Take a sewing class, and sew more- Yikes, not even close.

4) Make a quilt for Sweetpea's big girl bed- Finished my part, but still need to send it away to to have my quilt top and back quilted together by a pro

5) Finish landscaping our yards- Well, almost done with the backyard, but put on hold a bit due to #1 and #12

6) Read the Bible all the way through- Have started, but I'm not half-way yet, so I better keep at it!

7) Find a new home church, and get involved- Yes! And slowly getting involved, due to my enormous social anxiety!

8) Be a good friend and make connecting with friends more of a priority- Some...

9) Have a Girlfriends weekend with my college friends- In the works...

10) Have a weekend away with Gary- Does a night away count? We're heading to a resort locally for our eighth anniversary.

11) Call out of town family at least once a month- Whoops.

12) Have a baby- In the oven, due in October :)

13) Build L'alfabeto, my Etsy shop, and spend more time on it- My summer project...

14) Participate in two Christmas Boutiques- Hmmm, maybe not realistic because of #12

15) Find, and set aside time for, a couples Bible study with Gary- We're doing it! Consistently even!

16) Spend time with God, everyday- Getting better, but honestly, its not everyday yet.

17) Pray for the things in my life that are important, consistently- Yes!

18) Expect, and pray for, a miracle of supernatural proportions for Kate- Yes! Can't wait to hear good news at the end of her treatment this month!

19) Grow out these pesky bangs (Why do I keep thinking bangs are a good idea?!)- Boy, do I know how to sabotage myself or what? Read here to get the lowdown. On this goal, I failed spectacularly (at least I have six more months to maybe get it done!)!!

20) Laugh more- Oh yes!

Well, there are a lot of reds still up there, and quite frankly a few goals that I forgot I even made, Room to grow, yes. I feel good that I have accomplished some of them at least! Did you make a list? Have you looked at it recently as a little kick in the butt?

My New Gig

My secret dream was always to be a mom who got to stay at home with her kids. When I became a mom, that dream was so far off from reality, that I soon had to dismiss it completely, lest I be discontent with what God had provided for our life. Three years ago, I got the chance to teach part time, three days a week, rather than five days a week. I was thrilled, I felt completely blessed. Thanks so much Lord, for giving me more time with my own precious two, I prayed. With baby number three on the way, we decided to take a little (okay, maybe huge, but I'm not worried) leap of faith, and drop down to one income so I could stay home and be the full time mom and home-maker that I always yearned for deep down. Can I just say that I feel completely shocked and awed by how God provides, even "in this economy". We will make big sacrifices, financially... and perhaps won't be able to sock away a huge savings, but I am thrilled to be the mom I always hoped and prayed I could one day be. I do not take this job lightly, and I know that being a full time mom, and doing it to the best of my ability, is a big job. I'm up for the challenge. I was reminded last week at church of the old saying, "If Mamma ain't happy, ain't nobody happy". This is so true! It is my responsibility to set the tone for our day, remain calm, speak with love, use self-control, and teach my children through example how to respond to the unexpected... even the occasional jerk-o. I can't wait to see how God is going to use this new opportunity to change and bless our family!

Now I can check #1 off My List! :)

Piggy Paints

I really try to be smart about our family's exposure to chemicals. I buy organic when I can, choose my cleaning products carefully, use glass instead of plastic, and we don't eat lead (bonus, right?!). I always had a little nagging voice in the back of my head when I painted Sweetpea's toenails. After all, wasn't I painting chemicals right onto her little body, just waiting to be absorbed? Recently I heard about Piggy Paints, a mom-based business that creates nail polishes and other products that don't contain the usual suspects in normal nail polishes, especially created for little girls in particular. We ordered a few colors for Sweetpea, and we love them! There was no odor at all when we painted, and they look just as pretty as a regular polish. If you're interested, they have many shades to pick from, as well as some gift sets too. If you become a Facebook Fan of theirs, they post discount codes all the time. In fact, here's the coupon code for the month of May for 15% off all orders: MAYDAY15L. And what's a ballerina princess to do with freshly painted piggies? Dance with her brother, Ironman Batman, of course!

By the way... I wasn't paid or compensated AT ALL for posting this!! I just really like Piggy Paints and wanted to share a healthier product for our little gals :)

My Moral Dilemma

To flush, or not to flush... that is the question. I am in full blown spring cleaning mode and nothing, nothing will get in my way. I am purging all unwanted items, and organizing any thing that doesn't get obliterated in the process. Well, unfortunately for the guppies and plecostomus that are Goofball's pets, they are on the chopping block. Why? That stupid, humongous fish tank that takes up a third of the entire floor space in his room. That tank is bound for the garage sale this Saturday. So why flush? There are simply no takers for these rabbits of the fish tank world. Seriously, new babies everyday... yowza. The plecostomus sucker fish on the other hand, is truly frightening to me. This guy is no less than 8 inches long and has the strength of a grown man ('s hand). I'm not sure I have the stomach to try to flush that thing. He would probably cling to the inside pipe and flourish for the next 5 years, growing to a freakish world record length and come back up the pipe at 3am to seek it's revenge on my backside. I shudder to even consider the possibilities. So he's a different story. Does Petsmart take in stray sucker fish? Maybe I could pack him up all cute like and leave him at the doorstep at opening time. They wouldn't turn him away would they? But then I would somehow have to manage to wrangle him out of the tank, which incites a whole new slew of fears. I really want nothing to do with him.

Then there's the very un-PETA-like option (as if the first option was pro-PETA), of digging a hole in our garden, then just tossing them in to die, albeit nourishing a very tasty cucumber plant in the process. I'm afraid this will lead to many a nightmare.

What's a mom to do? These guys have got to hit the road no later than Thursday. Dead fish walking (or swimming).

Today's a Great Day...

... For slipping and sliding!

Gallery A La' Krull

I love love love a good shadow box, but I'm really not too fond of super traditional ones. I saw pictures of an artist's exhibit of her personal memorabilia in shadow boxes, and just fell in love with their eclectic, modern, and nostalgic feel. I took some things from around our house, and created our own little gallery of memories.

1) I took a ton (well, 48 or so), of those flat clear marbles and modge podged faces of family members on the back. I used up a bunch of those reject photos, from the non-digital age mostly, that had at least one "good" face on it. Then I traced the small circle around it, cut it out, and modge podged. I then hot glued them into a square.

2) I used a cute picture of The Crazies, mounted it directly onto the glass of the frame from the inside, then mounted several pairs of the their sunglasses onto foam core as the background(a couple I supplemented with party favor glasses, still cute, but I had to at least leave them each with one useable pair!)

3) Goofball is in his impressionist phase of artistry, so he so graciously allowed me to frame this masterpiece. Next, I hot glued the actual water color paint box to the front of the mat that came with the frame. The paint was just about gone, so it would have been trash anyway.

4) Sweetpea, my own self-appointed princess, posed with a gaggle of her many necklaces. I used an exact-o knife to cut her out of the picture, mounted her directly to the glass on the inside of the frame, then filled up the shadow box with most of her necklace collection. Bonus, they are now not strewn about the house, but contained in one adorable piece of art.

5) These two photo-booth picture strips are from our blissful dating life. We actually used them on our wedding invitations too. I took the strips, headed to Kinkos, enlarged and color copied them. Next I cut them out carefully, spray-mounted them to black foam-core, and hung them from the inside of the shadow box at the top with small ball chain links and eye-hooks.

Maybe I'll add more boxes over the years, maybe not. But I just love how they turned out!

p.s. The frames were pretty affordable, because I got them from my favorite place to buy frames :) FYI

Easter Celebration 2010

Another great Easter! Besides spending time with these two Crazies, my brother was in town from Detroit. My kids ADORE him, and we were able to spend most of the weekend with him.

Second Annual Egg Toss at my parents house... it has definitely become one of the favorite events on Easter. Gary and my cousin Bryce won for the second year in a row. My dad and I came in third, after I was the recipient of the splat and egg goo.

This boy is crazy and smart and ridiculously busy. And yet not so much of a pro at the art of the egg hunt. He stopped to look at each egg or prize to decide if that was one that he really wanted to put in his bucket... he actually passed up some because they apparently didn't meet his stringent quality standards.

Sweetpea on the other hand, was an egg hunting fiend. She took her Uncle Michael's advice that quantity was the goal, just run and grab. I was literally running to try to get ahead of her to get a picture of her face but she kept dodging in and out and this is the best I could get!

I'm starting to feel much better and can see the light at the end of the all day sickness tunnel. I'm actually starting to feel crafty again and hope to share some pictures soon!

"The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things." -Luke 24:46-47