January 2008

February 2008

March 2008

April 2008

May 2008

June 2008

July 2008

August 2008

September 2008

October 2008

November 2008

December 2008

This year, 2008, the first day of Advent is Sunday, November 30th. Just a little over a week away! I’m intending to re-use the scriptures I set up last year. So, thankfully, I’m almost ready. I just need to sit down and make a list of family activities. I’d like to come up with one activity per day. Whether it’s a Christmas movie, a family craft, a special reading… I’m really excited about it.

My intention is to use this entry to update ideas and links.

~Homemade Advent Calendar - Using toilet paper rolls and tissue paper.

~Advent Themed Coloring Pages

~A Paper Advent Wreath - Perfect for Sunday School and for explaining Advent traditions.

~Make some Christmas Potpourri.

~A “This Day In History” to correspond with each day leading up to Christmas.

~A list of discussion starters. This list is Catholic in tone, but translates easily for Protestants. Plus, it includes a great list of fun activities to do together as a family.

~A list of books and movies that are Christmas/Christian themed.

~Create Cinnamon Ornaments.

~Make a Tin Can Luminary.

~Gingerbread House Decorating

~Pasta Wreath Ornament.

~Create a Prayer Chain. (source)

Activity: Create a prayer chain out of construction paper. Using red and green paper, cut strips 8 inches long for each day of advent. Using a dark marker, write names on each of the strips for people that you would like to pray for during advent. You can also pray for groups of people or missions. Staple the first strip end to end. Looping the next strip through the first ring, staple it’s ends together. Repeat until all strips are linked and your prayer chain is complete. Some families like to make the last strip a prayer of thankfulness to Jesus.

Closing Prayer: Close by thanking God for giving us this wonderful season surrounding the birth of Jesus. Thank Him for your family and all the blessings in your life. Ask him to help you keep your focus on HIM for the next 25 days.

~Candy Cane Reindeer.

~Snowman Soup

~Reindeer Food (from the same source as Snowman Soup. I couldn’t resist.)

~Snow-globe Craft from babyfood jars and miniature ornaments.

~Homemade Carmel Corn.

~Use a decorative hole punches to create luminaries out of white paper sacks. Additional supplies needed: Sand and votive candles.

~Personalize Ornaments.

~Homemade Garland:

Using Fruitloops

Using Paper Chains.

Using Popcorn.

~A 3-D Manger Scene.

~Angel Tree Ornaments.

but NaNoWiMo starts in just a couple short weeks. It’s been at the back of my brain, niggling my thoughts and prompting me to compose lengthy paragraphs in my head. Unfortunately, all this dreaming about actually writing a novel is not nearly as constructive as a person might imagine.

So, tonight I decided to do some research on how to go about writing a novel. Mainly because I’m scared I’ll start this thing, and never actually finish. Which, in my own opinion, is worse than having never started. (Although, I’m sure that sentiment does not mesh well with the “it is better to have tried and failed, then to have never tried at all” mentality. Go figure.)

Anyway, I ran across a site that talks about preparing to write a novel. He uses what he calls “the snowflake method.” In many ways, his method is very similar to the written plot/time-line approach I was taught in eleventh grade literature. Call me nostalgic, but it appeals to me to do something familiar.

The down side to it all is that his approach takes pre-planning and lots of time, and frankly I’m not sure if it’s within the rules of NaNoWiMo to do all your planning before November. Having said that, if I do all the pre-planning now, by November all I will have to do is the actually writing of the novel. Everything will be ready and the chances of me actually succeeding skyrockets.

But then, it’s my novel. I get to set the pace, and I get to set the rules. So I say all this snowflake-book-planning can be done before NaNoWiMo kicks off.

And that’s that.

I think.

Remind me later to tell you about the crash pad I’m building. It’s not related to writing a novel, and feels inappropriate to really get into within this entry.

It’s official. I’m pooped. This has been an incredibly productive and exhausting weekend. Beginning with my Grandma, Mom, and I painting the girl’s bunk-beds and then later that same day my Dad and I installed an extra shelf in my laundry room. Saturday, DD1 had her first dance class, and then today we resumed our remodeling efforts after church.

The plan is to tile the downstairs half-bath, install wall paper and trim as well as wainscoting. We even made some great headway. Dh and Dad primed the wainscoting, removed the existing tile, and my Mom and I hung the wallpaper. Tomorrow we’re installing the moulding around the ceiling and will lay the tile. Once the tile is down we’re going to add the grout, install the wainscoting and then put the trim around the doors. After that we’ll put the toilet, sink, and mirror back.

The goal is to have all this done before Dh goes back to work on Thursday. I’m keeping my fingers crossed, but know it’s no simple task to do these types of projects when four “littles” need lots of mama and dada attention.

Did I mention I’m exhausted? This project took on a life of it’s own. And now something simple promises to be quite consuming.

For the lazy:

How Martha Stewart teaches T-shirt folding, explained by videojug:

on a jet plane, don’t know when we’ll be back again…

O-kay, not really, we’ll be taking the van and I do know when we’ll be back. It’s just that every time I think about going on a trip, John Denver is my first default artist of choice. You know, for the soundtrack of my life.

Not to mention, if it were up to my eldest we would be taking a plane. She says planes are more fun than the van.

I’d have to agree.

At any rate, we’re headed down to my sisters for a quick trip to celebrate my nephew’s birthday. The time away will be really nice, albeit short. I wish we could stay longer. In fact, we had planned to be there already. But Dh is working today, so our launch date was rescheduled.

It’s probably just as well. Staying here an extra couple days gave me the opportunity to plant the peach trees in my front yard. I need to go out today and soak them down again and make sure they’re staked properly. It’s a little late in Spring to be planting trees, so I need to make my best effort to help these little guys take root and grow.

Speaking of growing. You should see my garden. It’s really looking lovely. The squash, zucchini and cucumber are really doing well. My sage and red bell pepper looks pretty healthy, too. I’m a little worried about my tomato plants. I may have moved them too early. Guess we’ll see. Right?

I still have a lot of room the garden for more veggies. The lettuce type plants I tried to grow never sprouted and the bush beans withered away one hot day without shade. (I keep learning new things, too bad it’s at the expense of my plants! lol.) Dh is going to make me a small square foot carrot and parsnip growing box. As soon as that’s complete I’ll be sure to post pictures.

Baby is calling me and the girls are grumbling about being hungry, so I need to go. Just wanted to stop by and let everyone know that I’m still around, even if I’m quiet for a few.

Please someone remind me to find out the location to the free hearing screening for DD2. I called this morning and was told it would be on the 14th of February. But asides from a vague location called “Collier” I’m not certain where the screening will be. I have plenty of time to ask DD2’s speech therapist. I do not want to forget!

Edited to add: I think I may have found it! Link Here Oh, and apparently it’s Callier, not Collier.

I’m very aware of all the millions of little projects in this house that need tackled. It weighs on me sometimes. To the point where I do nothing. I just don’t know where to start! However, the new year is upon me, and at least for this moment, I am feeling inspired enough to actually do what I’ve been meaning to do for an entire year.

Organize my laundry room. It desperately needs it.

The laundry detergent tub sits on my washer because the shelf above the washers is stacked with random, unrelated household stuff. Mostly painting equipment, I think. I have no where to store my brooms and mops and I want a place to store hangers. So that when I am finished with a load of laundry, I can hang the items immediately.

So, yesterday, Dh and I wandered around Lowes brainstorming. Our conclusion is that we need to install an extra shelf, a hanging rod to store hangers, and something to organize my mops and brooms. I’d also like to have a wastepaper basket in there for throwing away lint and a three tier recycle bin system similar to this one. The three tier recycle bin is not something I’ll be able to do right away. It’s more of a “for when I have an extra chunk of change lying around dream.” So, instead I’ll keep using the blue ones from the city. At least until I figure out how to get myself a three tier system.

I’m getting really excited about the idea and as soon as Dh and I can get going for the day, I think we’ll start organizing my Laundry room.

P.S. My mom and I have grand plans for making ourselves one of these laundry hampers. We just have to figure out how to do the hooks on it.

Or something like that. We have January marked on our calendar as the day we’re giving up HFCS for good. It’s a bit surreal. And part of me wants to run out and buy a cranberry limeade. One. Last. Time.

Tomorrow is also when we purge our fridge of all HFCS products. After all, you can’t give up HFCS and then have HFCS foods lying around. Someone might get tempted and eat them! Speaking of which, anybody want a free box of random food? I am thinking about giving it to my parents, but feel sort of bad that I’m giving them food that I’ve deemed “not worthy.” *Giggle*

I have also spent today organizing a household notebook. I still have more work to do with it, but am satisfied with the progress I’ve made. For anybody looking to do something similar, you really should check out organizedhome.com They have a ton of free printable forms. Everything from an emergency contact sheet to calendars and to-do lists.

In the name of order, I also tackled the master closet today. It had become a dumping ground of laundry. Fat clothes, skinny clothes, maternity clothes. A nightmare. I’ve managed to wrestle it into a semi manageable state. There is the pile of maternity clothes that need tagged for the JBF sale in February and a pile of give-away clothes that Dh needs to sort through.

I packed up all my skinny clothes and have them boxed for later. I can’t wear them now. I will soon. But right now I’m holding on to too much pregnancy-related weight. (”Related” in the sense that it’s the weight I gained while pregnant. Not so much that it’s pregnancy weight.)

After I get my master closet back in order I plan on working on the laundry room. I’ve put it off for a year now. It’s time to really get serious about organizing.

Don’t worry, I’m going to happily post before and after shots. I just can’t resist.

Tonights dinner was Greek Beef over Potatos and steamed green beans. Both girls cleaned their plates AND asked for leftovers. (Wonders never cease!) My mom suggested I place a star next to the recipe and add to our meal rotation more frequently. May not be a bad idea.

Speaking of meals. My subscription to the Menu Mailer has expired. I’m more than a little sad about it. I LOVED that thing. I need to just bite the bullet and order at least another 13 weeks. Although, I’d LOVE to get a full years subscription. Maybe I’ll compromise and go with 30 weeks? Hmmm… Decisions, decisions. I could just cycle back through the 13 weeks I already had. Except, it’s been so nice having fresh new meals each week.

In unrelated randomness, tomorrow is LLL. I’m looking forward to the morning. Not sure what Dh will do. He isn’t feeling to hot-to-trot right now. I’d suggest he go to the movies with DD1 and see “The Bee Movie” but I’m not sure how he’d get there.