organization...

so this time of year always makes me want to be more organized and i have tried especially to do that in our small cramped, very multipurpose den room. it has the computer/printer and desk in it, a book shelf that is full, my sewing table and two large sterilite plastic sets of drawers with fabric in them that are stacked on top of each other, two folding chairs...also our washer and dryer are in one closet as well as vacuum and other cleaning stuff in another closet...and all of our stuff for our various church callings we hold right now. okay, so the room is overtasked...but my sewing table was getting to be a bit ridiculous and non-functioning because it was beseiged by RIBBON! so i decided to do something about it.
before:


after: inside (2 boxes)

outside

we must give props to martha stewart and team (you don't think she comes up with that stuff all by herself do you?) Her Ribbon Dispenser is where i got the idea,

i didn't cut slits in the outside of the box for the ribbon because it is such varying widths. i am content to unroll it from inside the box and then tape the ends back down. although one day when i have actual wall space to call my own, i really like this idea using metal gutters.

the best part of this was that Michael's was having a sale and i got the boxes (reg. $5 or $6) for only $1.50.

my other organizational project i am doing right now is compiling all my recipes into one place. I bought a photo album and almost 300 recipe cards and i copy one or two recipes when i sit down at the table....it's slow going but i am excited about that one as well.

best thing since sliced bread....

really seems to be sliced bread. we went to the grocery store on thursday and got bread. then that day we made three sandwiches for going to the park, i made kendall two sandwiches to go to school, ethan had one sandwich for breakfast, then TWO for lunch, and avery had two slices of plain bread....and with that...one loaf of bread is almost gone, just the flat ends left. good thing we got two loaves yesterday and not just one. what will it be like when ethan is a teenager....man, i don't even want to think of it right now....

new fabric and a blanket...

i just got some new fabric for the shop (All Sewn Up) and i love love love it so much...i want to keep it...shhhhh...don't tell anyone, but i won't. the bright flowers are going to be nursing covers and the blue flowers are going to be slings.....so pretty!

i just recently finished this blanket for my sister (in law) katie's friend who is having a baby soon. it's one of those flannel, super soft, clipped to an nth degree of it's life and my fingers...blanket. so cute. i like the way it turned out. i like my diagonal animal print-ish blocks in the middle.:)

(click on picture to get the full effect if you wanna)

treatments...

we call the medicine the kids have to have in the nebulizer a "treatment." maybe everyone does, i don't know. i know i call it that because Kara (kendall's mom) calls it that and all her kids had to use this when they were little...so we call it a treatment and it makes it easy for our kids to know what we are talking about. sometimes i call it the mask medicine. they are both doing well with doing the treatments...we let them watch a movie or something while they do it. avery doesn't like the elastic strap on her mask so i hold her on my lap and hold the mask for her. it works. they are feeling better. avery still coughs a bit and sounds like she has a lot of crud in her lungs...i think i'll call the doc when our 7-10 days of treatments are over and see if he wants to see her again. but here's the kids...ethan calls it his darth vader mask sometimes:) lots of fun

inch by inch....

so as you can see in the picture....i'm measuring my hair:) i am going to donate it, and i just wanted to see how much i had going on here...and i am pulling it out to the side a bit, so i think it is actually 9 inches, not 10. but i am excited. i'll probably go a bit longer and then i'm going to do the Pantene Beautiful Lengths donation. i thought initially that i would do Locks of Love but after doing some research, i discovered that Locks of Love primarily makes and distributes wigs to disadvantaged children, lots with alopecia, and of course from any other illness that makes the patient lose their hair including cancer. Pantene primarily gives to women with cancer, and since that is how i started out this crusade...in the name of my mom, who battled breast cancer herself in the past year and a half...i'm going to do the Pantene thing. That being said...i'm excited:) thanks for all the support from friends and family...i'm on the home stretch:) and thanks for sticking with me through the NA-HA-HA-ASTY growing out phases. that alone MIGHT deter me from doing it again anytime soon;) maybe:)

6 of 6...

today kendall began his last semester of law school! way to go baby! i'm so proud of him. he's doing a great job and i know he will continue to do so! good luck at school today honey! happy last semester!!!

love
wifey and kiddies

to the doctor we went...

and little miss has bronchitis.

little mister has bronchitis and an ear infection.

we are now the proud owners of a nebulizer.

wow.

pop goes the weasel...

i wasn't sure when this give away was going to pop up...but it's here. At Precious Peas we are doing a give away of one of my slings....check it out. you have until jan.29 i believe. lots of fun things going on:)

sickness...

our little friends here are sick...not really contagious as far as i can tell (except that both of them have gotten it) but the rest of us haven't. ethan had a cough for a couple of days and then it got worse. he might have had a low grade fever. now his cough is loose and in his chest but controllable and doesn't keep him up at night, which it did a few nights ago. enter avery, who is very ambitious at just about everything, and she gets a cough just as ethan is starting to come down off his, and now she's keeping us up nights and early mornings, because she's still little and doesn't know how to help herself, of course. so we haven't been getting super a lot of sleep. it's a cunumdrum (how do you spell that word?), because at the same time you feel like you want to go to sleep at 8:30 and sleep as much as you can, right this minute, you know she is going to wake up in about 30 seconds with coughing or just agitation because she does have a fever that isn't super high but is, just the same....so here i am...wanting to sleep but not sure if i really do because i'll just have to get up. does that make sense? crazy. so hopefully she'll come out of this soonly and be back to her regularly scheduled crazy-haired girlness.

she has learned to say "no" and for all that it is defiant...it is super cute:)

ethan is in love with kung fu panda (i may have mentioned this before) but he spouts of random quotes from it all the time, so funny! he also gets a kick out of asking avery," hey avery can i talk to you for a minute?" and hearing her proclaim, "NO!" apparently i am not the only one who thinks it is cute:)

so i think we'll be fine if we can all get some sleep. we went to surprise for a couple of days and had a fabulous time with the grandparents. we went to the wildlife zoo..which now has a stunning aquarium..very cool, but also pricey, so thank you nana kay and papa jerry for taking us and enjoying it with us:)

so the small ones are coughing but okay:)

smoothies...

(excuse my messy counter behind the blender...doesn't that just look great?)


oh man, i have a new obsession. smoothies. i make them myself (see three posts ago...I'm a maker okay?) and i haven't made one yet that i didn't like! i use sherbet (right now we have orange, we started with peach, next i want to try pineapple! yum!) and i use frozen berries, and cranberries, canned peaches, and canned pineapple, not all together...but the one i made last night was maybe my favorite! it had some orange sherbet, frozen strawberries (but i thawed them on defrost for a minute or so so it wouldn't be so loud trying to crunch them up as the children were sleeping), frozen cranberries a handful of blueberries and raspberries (also frozen), and to make it more liquidy, i used pineapple juice this time (usually i use milk). man it was great! i also made one the other day that had peaches and strawberries with peach sherbet...also very tasty. the kids like them and i like them and i like that i don't even have to add any extra sugar and the sherbet is really low fat...it's a great snack and i may have to make some more tonight. wouldn't it be fun to have a smoothie bar at some party or get together? (maybe we could do it for book club) you could customize your own smoothie and have the deliciousness that you want....there are definite possibilities.

GIVE AWAY!!!!

hey all,
the good people over at the gift closet are doing a giveaway TOMORROW, WED. 14th on my tag lovies!!!! go check it out!

does it get any better?

there may only be two things better to do with my quiet time than what i am going to do right now...snuggle up under a blanket and read...i have always loved doing this, since i was a little girl.

right now i am reading Eldest, by Christopher Paolini, the second book in the Inheritance series, starting with Eragon, that i finished while kendall was on his campout and ending with Brisingr, which i am on the waiting list for (for the third time!) from the library, as we speak.

ah...bliss..

the first better thing would be to spend time with kendall and the second better thing would be to eat some of the AWESOME chocolate chip cookies i made last week, but alas, we ate them all already, and kendall is being a hard working man at school....so book and blanket, here i come:)

i'm a maker...

that's what i am...a maker. i have always been one. i love to make things. seriously, people would ask my hobbies or i would have to fill out the questionnaire at church when you first move in and it asks what are your talents...and i just put, i make things.

*i make food: i love to bake and cook and try new things, although i'm not super adventurous without a recipe but then sometimes i make up my own....
*i make lists: kendall jokes that i make a master list of all my lists...i just like to stay organized and a list is the way i do it, plus if i don't write it down...it doesn't get done because i'll forget:)
*i make things: i love to sew, create...do....just make. i make bags, baby things, make things new again (repair broken clothing items etc.)
*i like to make my house pretty. although right now...i feel uninspired about the house because, let's be real, we are moving in 5 months SOMEWHERE...don't know where yet, and i just don't want to deal with this house much more right now;)

but i am a maker. i love to handmake presents and gifts, for christmas or anytime...it's fun for me and relaxing and cool when i see the result. so that's my self-revelatory moment. thanks for that:)

what are some words that you associate with yourself?

newest sunbeam...

ethan, on sunday, became a sunbeam at church. he used to be in nursery which is for 18 months to 3 years old and then with this new year, he's a sunbeam:) so cute. his grandma and grandpa wilson gave him some new duds to wear to church...he kept saying, "i look just like daddy!" how true that statement is:)

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and here is our little avery girl, on the verge of going to nursery herself! this was the "christmas dress" sunday...the sunday before christmas that we were out of town:)