Things I always seem to make time for:
Sewing/Knitting/Crafting – at least a couple of times a week
Friends – If you stop by or call me and want to talk or hang out, I drop everything and we hang out. I’m there. (as long as Kody’s at work)
Family – Again, I’m there. I’m all about some family time, all the time! And, there are a couple of friends who fit in the family category.
Cooking/Baking – we have to eat, don’t we?
Laundry & Dishes – these are things that I don’t really like to make time for, but I do, everyday.
Church/Worship – unless we’re sick, we’re there.
Doing things for others – I like to help other people. With little children this is harder, but not totally undoable. This could rally go in both categories depending on the day.

Things that get pushed to the side:
Schooling – I know some of you might get on to me for this one, but it’s true. Some days school just doesn’t seem as important. My children are learning and they are doing well. We don’t always get our books out and sit around the table though. Some days we learn “real life.” I guess this really could go both ways too. Some days schooling really is important to me and we have to get it done.
Other cleaning – all those extra things, like dusting/baseboards/walls/sheets/curtains/blinds/etc., get pushed to the end of the list. If something starts to look extremely gross, I clean it. If it’s not too bad, it can wait another day. :)
Work – If I have custom orders for handmade things (even though they count as crafting) I shove those aside oftentimes in favor of something fun. I don’t like this, but I do it.
Blogging – There are so many days when I have something to say that I don’t say it, simply because I am too busy doing. I have the want, but other things seem to be more important. This is why you don’t see a new post every day.

I know the “Christian Priority List”- God, Family, Everything else. I like to think I have that down. Some days, I guess I do. Some days, I am lacking. We all have our own “everything else” and we choose what to do each day. Don’t be envious of what others seem to get done, until you know what they didn’t get done. Then take a look at what you did and didn’t get done. If your priorities need a shift then make it today!

sick feverish baby :(

During these sick days, when I didn’t feel like doing anything else, but had to be awake, I was able to complete a couple of projects. Friday, I made a notebook cover for my sister. A belated birthday gift; her birthday was January 25th and I didn’t get it done in time. Story of my life lately! Anyway, I hope she loves it. I want to make another just like it for myself, but I say that about everything, I guess. Definitely digging the ruffle. I wanted to put her name on it too, but I couldn’t figure out a way to make it look nice with the pattern and the two Fs were giving me trouble right next to each other. Fabric is My Paris by Timeless Treasures.

Today I managed to whip out this ds game folder of my own design. We just can’t seem to keep up with ds games in our house, so Kody proposed a library check-out system. I thought a fun place to keep all of them would be nice, so I drew a picture and made some measurements and got to work. There are 4 rows of 4 slots on each side, so it will hold 32 games. Unfortunately, a couple of the slots are a bit tight and a few are a bit loose, because I don’t measure perfectly, but they are all usable. I used a bit of 1/4 inch elastic and a big button for the closure. I just grabbed a couple of pretty fabrics out of my stash. Actually all 4 fabrics in these two projects are purchases from my January trip to Hancock’s. Love their remnant table!

Have any of you tried the new Peach Mango Kool Aid? I’m trying to decide whether I like it or whether it tastes like Albuterol syrup… Verdict is still out.

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday. If you need me I’ll be coughing and sneezing while I clean up the house. No real sick days for mommies.

There were a couple of weekends that had to be taken off because of birthday celebrations, but the walls are up and partly mudded. Kameron told Kody that he was a gouper, because he was putting on the goup. :) Kameron actually ended up wearing quite a bit of the mud and his shirt and pants were nice and white when they got done. He was a good little helper, but thought that the mud was actually paint and wanted to cover the whole wall with it. Anyway, it’s coming along nicely and Kody says it might be ready to paint soon! Yay!

Here’s the deal: I don’t mind getting older. In fact I embrace each birthday and new year with excitement. I don’t like my children getting older. Not because I necessarily want them to stay little and helpless forever, but because each year brings them that much closer to leaving me. It gives me less time to make memories with them. Less time to hold them and tell them that I love them.

Kristopher turned 10 today…a whole decade has gone by. I think he’s turning out pretty well. I am a bit partial, but I hope that others agree that he is wonderful. I’m having a hard time believing that he is that old. I thought today about where I was ten years ago. A new mom in a hospital room with a tiny baby boy. So exhausted from 21 hours of labor and then a c-section. Drugged and incoherent. Not knowing at all what to do. Surrounded by family, but feeling like I was alone and not supported. Full of love for the sweet baby I was holding. Ignoring all the people who said they grow up sooo fast.

So much has changed since then. Now I know so much more and I want to be an encouragement to others. I know how fast they really do grow up. I am still full of love for my boy, no matter how big he gets. Throughout the day a book has come to mind pretty often. Love You Forever by Robert Munsch is such a good book and I just keep thinking about how I really will love him forever. When you start on the journey it’s hard to imagine and know how much love you really can give. I’m here to tell you it’s a big bunch!

Okay, enough of a sappy long post. I’ve cried some, smiled lots, sought advice from others, screamed, talked, disciplined, laughed so much and been incredibly blessed in the past 10 years. I am so proud to be his mom and I hope that he is happy to have me. By the way he waves and smiles whenever he sees me I know he is. :) Happy 10th birthday to my big boy who is growing up way too fast!

So we decided to go shopping. I think this was during a Labor Day sale. That was helpful anyway! We had originally intended to purchase a blue set when we could replace the washer and dryer, but we didn’t realize that we would have to do that so soon. When we went to Lowe’s and started looking we decided we really liked the blue, but we also really liked the charcoal-ly grey color. Bonus points, the grey was in stock and the blue would take several weeks to get there. Since we really like having a dryer that was a huge deal. :) Of the dryers that came in that color we liked the Samsung 7.3 Cubic Foot Stackable Electric Dryer. It was delivered quickly and we were so excited to have a beautiful new dryer. The Lowe’s salesman assured us that that was a pretty new model and that the matching washer would still be available when we wanted to purchase it several months/a year down the road.

The dryer is easy to use, works great and even plays a little song when it’s done. After several months that still hasn’t gotten annoying. I like that when you set it for a normal dry it calculates the minutes required by how much you have in it and then if it thinks the clothes are getting dry enough it shuts off. However, one thing I have noticed is that if you put large blankets, comforters or couch covers in the dryer causes them to roll into a ball of sorts and then the dryer thinks they are dry when most of it is still soaking wet. The old one didn’t do that. So large items have to be stopped and adjusted several times during drying time. Other than that the dryer has been wonderful! It also has a steam feature that sounds really nice, but we have been unable to use since it requires a water line to the dryer and our washer and dryer sit opposite each other, not side by side.

On the weekend after Thanksgiving I was checking out the black friday sale for Lowe’s (looking for flooring and bathroom parts, actually) and I noticed that the matching washer was on sale for $500 off! We rushed to Lowe’s the next day to grab one, because who knows if it would ever be that cheap again. It was delivered while Kody was out of town and I had to stare at it in the sunroom for a whole week while it wasn’t hooked up. That was hard. ;)

So far I have really liked it. It has different settings for bedding and other load types. There is even a “handwash” setting, which I love! After you choose a load setting you have the option of changing the amount of soil or spin.

What I love most about this washer is that it is a High Efficiency washer and uses less water. Our clothes actually look cleaner than they did with the old washer too. I washed a comforter that I had washed in the old one at least twice since the kids stuck silly putty on it. The other washer had not been able to get the silly putty all out. It was not sticky, but left the brown silly putty spot. I thought it was never going to come off. But when I washed it with the new washer on the bedding setting it came out and now the comforter looks new again.

In conclusion, I would definitely recommend the Samsung washer and dryer set. Overall they have been wonderful. I am also okay with the fact that liking my washer and dryer so much makes me sound really old ladyish. At least my family has fabulously clean clothes!!

Can you see it? Here is the section a little bit closer:

Apparently, someone thought it would be funny to leave the little skeleton man hanging (by a sword) when they took the advent calendar, we did this year, upstairs. And…it was funny. I laughed for awhile. In fact I’m still chuckling over the little guy.

We also did some other ‘hanging around’ this week. On Friday we had 20 kids and 6 adults in the house for our New Year homeschool activity. It was a lot of fun even though we just did a simple goal sheet and lunch. The kids had a blast though and it was a beautiful day to play outside some. Everyone was in and out the whole time and I just enjoyed myself. I hope we can do it again soon because there’s really nothing like being with friends who share the same mindset (and have differences too). Love the people we share our lives with! I didn’t take any pictures of that day though, so you’ll have to imagine what 20 kids in my house looks like. :)

Have a great one, friends!

Today I worked on planning an activity for some of our homeschool friends. We are going to get together in a few days and I thought it would be fun for the kids to document some of their favorites from last year and make some goals for this year. I also found a cute paper for the mamas to make some goals. I hope that the little party I have planned will be fun, even if it’s a bit late!

Blessings to each of you and prayers for your 2012. Make a great start and keep it up. I am going to make it a happy productive year! See you soon, dear readers!

1. I was looking at Taylor earlier and thought she looks like she has a comb over. Her hair has been crazy since she grew it. It is always going in whatever direction it feels like. I know you have to “train” the hair to go the way you want, but I didn’t think it would take more than 6 years! She has the prettiest curls, but they like to stick out every which way and I wish they would lie right. I know she doesn’t care right now though. :)

2. Kameron wants to play green mario all the time. I’ll let you in on a secret. Greem Mario is really Luigi. Kameron apparently likes Mario, but his favorite colors are green and purple, and well there isn’t a purple mario. Every single time I typed Mario, I actually typed Marion and had to backspace the n…that’s crazy!

3. I made myself a pretty new camera strap yesterday. I have seen pictures of these that people sell and I just took a camera strap apart and did my own thing. I have wanted one of these for a long time and I can’t figure out why I didn’t make one sooner. It was so easy and now my camera looks so fancy. It’s the little things sometimes.

4. Kameron’s speech is getting so much clearer. He’s starting to sound like a little boy instead of a toddler. I’m pretty sure his thoughts are getting clearer as well. As in, he actually knows what he wants and is able to articulate it. So great, but sad at the same time.

5. Last Saturday was another work day on the bathroom. I didn’t take any pictures until this morning. What they did was drill some holes and put in the tub drain pipe and work on the framework for the walls. Now the bathtub has pieces of wood around it and is stabilized. The ledge is built so that the drywall can be built around it. (Don’t you just love how I really don’t know the right terminology for all of this? Sorry if it’s frustrating to read my descriptions of what is going on!) Starting to get really excited about seeing the finished product! Here are a couple of pictures I took today:

6. I just found a post I started the first weekend they worked on the bathroom with some funny things the kids said. Since I forgot to add those to my first post, you can read them now. My kids really do crack me up. They have such big personalities. (sometimes this a little embarassing, yes am the easily embarrassed mom.)

a. Grandaddy & Kody: Then the poophole will be exposed… (while removing the toilet)
Taylor yelling to everyone: The poophole will be exploding!

b. Kristopher (while pulling old tile off the walls): My fingers are stuck.
Grandaddy (after removing them): Now, then, don’t use your fingers as a crowbar anymore. (Then GD started prying at the tile/wall with his fingers.:) )

c. Grandaddy: Don’t touch that wax – it will get all over you and never come off.
Kameron (a bit later): What’s that stuff? Can I get yucky?
Taylor: NO KAMERON! That will get poop all over you. It’s poop! (it was wax.)

7. I am enjoying the Christmas decorations here and everywhere else we go. I will post about my decorated house soon. :) I am also enjoying friends right now and looking forward to visiting with family soon. I was immensely blessed by a card I received from a sweet family friend today. Christmas is about Jesus and what He did for all of us. Nothing else really matters and I’m clinging to that this year. Slow down, spend time with people you love and work on your relationship with The One Who Died for you. He’s waiting.

http://www.momlifetoday.com/2011/12/when-you-feel-like-giving-up/