Life, Kids, and the Pursuit of Sanity

Feb 8 2013

More Winter Fun!

by Jenny

When you have a house full of energetic boys, it’s important (for Mom’s sanity) to get them outside regularly to burn off energy. This isn’t too hard to do during spring, summer, and fall when the weather is generally pleasant. But when it’s consistently in the 20s, it just ends up being much easier to stay inside and stay warm! I’m finding that I have to put in a lot more effort to get everyone outside during the winter.

We have been getting the older 4 boys out about once a week to go skiing (at least until we all got sick last week-yuck!) but that’s been about it. So about a week and a half ago, while feeling particularly stir crazy from being cooped up inside, we decided to try some winter geocaching.

The bolt in Jordan’s hand here is actually a cleverly disguised geocache container found attached to a guard rail:

We have to be a little bit pickier about the hides we go after, as some of them are more difficult (or impossible) to get to or find with snow cover. But other than that, the boys are having a lot of fun getting out of the house for treasure hunts!

A green “bison tube” hanging in a tree, waiting to be found by eager seekers:

Jordan and Joseph testing the edge of a frozen, snow-covered pond near the above tree:

Josiah is so proud after discovering this camo-covered pill container in the woods. They get especially excited when they find containers large enough to have small treasures for trading inside:

Jordan with another container in the woods:

Hunting for caches isn’t the only fun, of course. It’s also entertaining to climb trees, especially big ones lying on their sides from recent storms. Not to mention the great exercise they get…I’d much rather they climb outside than in my living room!

King of the….upended tree roots?

Joey making faces:

We live in an area with many miles of abandoned railroad lines, that have been paved over and turned into walking and bike trails. They are also a favorite of local cachers. It’s fun to go for a nice bike ride, and be able to stop and treasure hunt along the way! The boys enjoy exploring other aspects of the trails as well, as you can tell here as Joey and Jordan were trying to skate (in their sneakers) on a little frozen stream under a bridge.

Joey under the bridge:

Jordan on the other side of the bridge:

Joshua and Joey getting ready to take off on their bikes:

So while we really do spend most of our time at home (staying warm!) when the temps dip well below freezing, we also make time to get out and enjoy the great outdoors, at least often enough to keep the boys from bouncing off the walls inside!

If you’d like more information on geocaching, visit www.geocaching.com. Setting up an account is free, and chances are there is treasure to be found very near your own back yard!

Categories: Outdoor Fun | No Comments »

Feb 7 2013

Valentine’s Day Quilted Mug Rug

by Jenny

After a couple of days of taking it easy, we’ve pretty much made a full recovery from the attack of the tummy bug. I’m even almost done with the laundry. For those of you who have not experienced this lovely combo, let me just tell you that a large family + a tummy bug = enormous amounts of laundry!

In the giveaway that I ran at the end of January, I promised a little surprise hand-made gift in addition to the conversation heart busy bag set prize. This is what I came up with:

Now I know I’m waaaaay late to the party, but ever since I saw those cute mug rugs popping up on various craft and mom blogs a couple years ago, I’ve wanted to make one. Not because they seem practical (they don’t seem so at all to me, lol) but because they are so stinkin’ cute! So I used some of what was left of my Valentine’s Day fabric, and made this little quilted mug rug. The scrappy heart in the upper right was done with my embroidery machine. I made one for me, and one for my giveaway winner.

I had another motive for whipping these up right now…I had just started the quilting on my table runner, and was trying to do free motion machine quilting for the first time ever. Trying to manipulate the runner while quilting it was giving me just enough grief that I thought a smaller quilt size to practice on might be a good idea. So yeah, this was also my guinea pig project. It’s, ummm, not perfect. But it’s pretty cute, right?

Here’s the action shot:

I have gone back and worked on the runner, and I’m making good progress. It’s almost ready for binding. My original goal was to have all my Valentine-y stuff done by February 1st. Now I’m just shooting for before Valentine’s Day.

I can keep it all out until the end of the month, right? It looks so festive next to the last few Christmas decorations that are still out. Whoever decided that both holidays should use predominantly red decor was brilliant!

Categories: Crafty Goodness, Giveaways, Holidays | 1 Comment »

Feb 5 2013

A Minor Delay…

by Jenny

Well, so much for all my promised updates of freshly-painted rooms, holiday craft projects, and general family activities. I’ve spent the past several days dealing with a nasty tummy bug that has now worked it’s way through 5 of the 9 of us. It is my hope and prayer that the 4 who didn’t get it won’t get it–ever!

To add to the fun, Jeremy was gone all week on business in Austin and L.A., so I got to deal with sick kids alone, which was especially fun when I was sick myself…yuck! It started Thursday when I had everyone up bright and early. Three of the kids had dental appointments that morning, and one had an appointment with an allergy specialist later that afternoon. Yep, you guessed it…just as we pulled into the parking lot at the dentist, Josiah threw up. Fun. Nothing like calling the dentist to cancel 3 appointments, telling the receptionist that you’re sitting in their parking lot with a kid who is barfing.

The rest of us were fine until Saturday. Then Joanna started (as we were leaving Jon’s basketball game in the car, of course…why is it that kids always seem to get sick when they’re in the car?), followed by Joseph, Jeremiah, and finally me within the next several hours. Let’s just say we were a pretty miserable bunch! Thankfully, the worst of it didn’t last more than about 12 hours. Thankfully!!!

So, if you were wondering why I’m so late on updating any of the projects I’ve been posting about, know you know why. And now you also probably wish you didn’t!

Categories: Family | 1 Comment »

Jan 30 2013

Joanna’s Pink Princess Room: “Before” Photos

by Jenny

Before I do the big reveal (hopefully this week end) I wanted to share the before pics of Joanna’s room. Her walls were a basic beige with a predominantly orange and black tropical sunset mural painted on one wall…unfortunately I didn’t get a picture before I painted primer over the mural. This picture is looking from just inside the door over to the far wall.

This picture looks from that far corner back towards the door:

And here is the view from the corner where the bed was, looking toward the opposite corner:

Looking from her armoire back towards the closet:

Joanna wanted to help paint SO badly:

More helping. The dark horizontal line is the guide line I measured to install the chair rail; the lighter squiggly lines are kid art. We really are trying to discourage art that is NOT on paper, especially now that we’re painting!

So far the chair rail is up and the main pink and gray colors are on the walls. I still need to do some touching up of the trim, and add some darker stripes to the gray section. Then the bed frame will get a couple coats of white paint. I still haven’t decided if the armoire will be painted, left alone, or moved out of her room entirely. I’m so excited to finally get done with all the painting, because then the REAL fun will start–doing all the fun little girly decorations! While I love fresh paint on the walls, I’m not a huge fan of actually DOING the painting.

Almost done…lol! Stay tuned for the “after” pics!

Categories: Decorating, House Projects, Joanna | 2 Comments »

Jan 30 2013

And the Winner Is…

by Jenny

…Brandi! Congratulations! I will be contacting you shortly for your address so I can get your Valentine’s Day conversation hearts busy bag set and hand-made surprise (which I will actually post a photo of here tomorrow) out to you!

For my next giveaway, I’m going to try out one of the more automated giveaway programs out there (such as Rafflecopter). This will make it easier for you, my readers, to enter while also making it easier for me to randomly select the winner! Thanks for playing, everyone…we’ll do this again next month!

Categories: Giveaways | 1 Comment »

Jan 23 2013

Baby Micah’s Adoption Auction

by Jenny

Hey y’all! I’d like you to meet Tim, Juli, and Micah Shafer. Juli is the sister of a good friend of mine. She and her husband are in the process of finalizing their adoption of little Micah. Isn’t he adorable?

I am honored to be able to help by donating one of my handmade items to an auction to raise funds to complete Micah’s adoption. You can help too…by bidding on any of over 100 great items generously donated by other stay-at-home-moms and small businesses at Tim and Juli Shafer Adoption. Please “like” their page, then scroll down and browse all the fun auction items.

Here is their story…..

Dear Family and Friends,

As many of you know, it has been a desire of Tim and mine to have a family. For 11 years we have trusted God to provide that family for us when He saw fit. This August Tim and I had talked about following through with testing and seeing where that would lead us. We also talked about the possibility of adoption.

Then a miracle started to happen. On October 13th we had a lad…y in our church approach us asking if we knew anyone who could help a young lady she knew who was pregnant. Tim told her to talk to me, as I grew up volunteering for Bethany Christian Services, a Christian adoption agency. I gave her all the information I had and also my phone number. I let her know that I would love to answer any questions this young lady may have.

On October 21st the pregnant young lady came to church and wanted to speak with me. I went over to introduce myself and we went into a room to talk. As I explained about the adoption agency and how the process worked she just sat quietly. After I got done talking she looked at me and said, “I know you two have wanted to have a family and don’t have one yet. I want you to take my baby. I’m due November 9th and it’s a boy.” I just sat there in shock. My only reply was, “I will talk to Tim and we will pray about it. We will see if that is what God is leading us to do. But if I don’t feel led to take the baby I will help you find the perfect home for him.” She looked at me again and said,“I want you to have my baby.”

From then on it has been a whirlwind of emotions and praying. Trusting God to do what He felt was best. I contacted a friend of mine named Bonnie who used to work for Bethany Christian Services. I told her about the conversation that had taken place earlier that day. She agreed to meet with the birth mom on Monday, October 22nd. Bonnie talked to the birth mom for 3 hours and got her background, her emotional stability, health situation, etc. After meeting with her, Bonnie looked at Tim and said, “How serious are you?” We knew at that moment our lives could be changed forever.

Tim and I talked for hours about this new possibility of being parents. We prayed and sought God’s will in the whole situation. We felt God telling us this was His plan for us and the baby. A peace came over us and we knew from that moment on we were going to take this baby.
On Wednesday, October 24th I went with the birth mom to an ultrasound appointment. The doctor performing the ultrasound said that everything looked good. Then he dropped a bombshell on us. He told us that her water had broken and that the baby was coming tonight. I was in complete shock. We were barely ready for a baby coming on the 9th of November; we were not ready for a baby 3 days after meeting this young lady.

I texted Tim that the water had broken and the baby was coming tonight. Needless to say, he freaked out a little. Then he drove down to the hospital and was there waiting with myself and Bonnie.

Well, long story short, Micah Timothy came into the world at 9:40pm October 24th, 2012. He weighed 5 lbs 15oz and was 18” long. Talk about being instant parents. We had nothing for a baby, we thought we had a couple weeks to prepare, but God’s timing is perfect and He knew that we could handle Micah coming that night.

As we look back over the last few weeks we can see God’s hand in the whole situation. We serve a powerful God who wants His people to have the desires of their hearts. We believe that God has called us to raise this baby and that He will ultimately provide for our needs.
Thanks so much for journeying with us as we start this new phase of life. Please do not feel obligated to give money. Your love and prayers are a great support to us and are much appreciated.

Love,

Tim and Juli Shafer

The Shafers still need to raise $7000 to complete Micah’s adoption. Again, please go here and check out what the auction has to offer. You will find great handmade items at great prices, AND help this precious family at the same time. I call that a win-win!

And don’t forget, our giveaway here is still going on…please check out this post for information on prizes and how to enter. You just might be our next winner!

Categories: Fundraisers | No Comments »

Jan 22 2013

Giveaway!

by Jenny

Alright folks, here it is…my promised giveaway! This one is going to be a little bit different than my last giveaway, because it’s going to include a surprise! So, without further ado, this is what you’re playing for–the fun conversation heart color matching/number counting felt busy bag set I posted about last week:

I’m also going to include a box of conversation hearts and some small felt hearts your preschooler can use when the candy runs out, or when YOU just think they’ve had enough. (Because we all know THEY will never think they’ve had enough!)

And now for the surprise! I’ve been working on several fun little projects, all Valentine’s Day themed. I’m going to include a surprise item, hand-crafted by me, that will be something a mom will enjoy. Are you super curious about what it will end up being? Me too! LOL!

So now that you know about the prizes, here are the rules:

You must have a U.S. address to enter.

You must be at least 18 years old at time of entry.

This giveaway opens for entries on 1/22/13

This giveaway closes on Monday, January 28th. No entries will be accepted after 1/28/2013 11:59 p.m. (Pacific coast time)

I will use Random.org to select the winner on 1/29/2013

By entering you give permission to use your name in the blog post announcing the winner of this giveaway.

To enter, simply leave a comment in the comments section of this post. After doing that, you can earn up to 3 extra entries by doing any of the following: (1 entry per action)

“Like” our Facebook page. (Use the super-cute heart-shaped “F” button at the upper right of this screen to get there, then click “like” once you get to the page.) Then leave a comment letting me know you did.
Share this post on Facebook. Then leave a comment letting me know you did.
Subscribe to this blog, using the form at the upper right of this page. (Don’t worry, I will never share your email with anyone else!)

You have the opportunity for 4 total entries. I wonder if YOU will be the winner!

***It has come to my attention that I need to clarify the extra entries process…you need to leave a separate comment for each entry you want to make. I will be using Random.org to choose the winner, and the way that works is I enter the total number of comments, (let’s say 30 for an example) and then Random.org will choose a number between 1 and 30. The comment that corresponds with that number (counting from oldest to newest) wins. So if you want the maximum (4) entries, leave 4 separate comments. Also, if you already like our Facebook page, or are subscribed to our blog, you can still count those entries…just leave comments telling me you’ve already done those. Thanks! ***

Categories: Crafty Goodness, Giveaways, Pre-School | 28 Comments »

Jan 21 2013

Valentine’s Day Decorating

by Jenny

Now that (most) of our Christmas decorations are tucked safely away in the attic, I’m turning my attention to decorating for Valentine’s Day. I’ve never been really good at decorating for holidays other than Thanksgiving and Christmas, but last year I started making some themed garlands to hang from my fireplace mantel. I made it all the way through St. Patrick’s Day. Yep, I was a decorating force to be reckoned with–for about 2 months.

So this year I’m adding on to my felt hearts garland (which, by the way, is still hidden somewhere in my attic) by making a table runner for my formal dining table, and decorating the rest of the mantel. I’ll post pics as things get completed!

For my table runner, I’m using most of what’s left of a fat quarter bundle I bought right after Joanna (3) was born. I’ve used it for her first Valentine’s Day outfit, the patchwork twirly skirt I made her last year for Valentine’s Day (followed by a tutorial here, with a different fabric) and now this table runner. I figure I’m getting my money’s-worth out of this one, folks!

I’m making 5 disappearing nine-patch blocks, and using white for sashing. Since I have a long, thin scrap left of each print, I’m thinking about making a pieced border, but I haven’t decided that for sure yet. Here are my 9-patch blocks:

And here they are after being cut and quickly rearranged. I’ve left each set of 4 pieces from each original block together here, but I will be rearranging them so that the dark red is more evenly dispersed. I was counting the white with red dots as a “red” fabric when putting the squares together, but looking at them on my wall, it’s obvious they don’t have nearly the color saturation as the other 2 dark red prints. So I’ll mix them up a bit more.

We dragged the whole family to Home Depot on Saturday and bought the supplies needed to start turning Joanna’s room into a pink princess paradise. We purchased chair railing to divide the walls, and will be painting the walls a light gray below the chair rail and a light bubblegum pink above them.

I actually put together several combinations of shades, and the little diva herself made the final decision. She chose the lightest combination I put together…I’m hoping it isn’t too light once it’s on the walls. I’ll post before pics tomorrow, and hopefully get the after pics up later this week!

Oh, and one last piece of exciting news…I’ll be hosting another giveaway, starting hopefully tomorrow! Stay tuned for more information!

Categories: Crafty Goodness, Holidays, House Projects | No Comments »

Jan 17 2013

Valentine’s Day Themed Conversation Heart Preschool Busy Bag Set

by Jenny

Yes, I know it’s a bit early still, but I’ve been working on some busy bag activities for my preschoolers for Valentine’s Day. Every year, I buy each of my kids a box of those ubiquitous conversation hearts. Those are the first thing I think of when I think of Valentine’s Day. So of course my Valentine’s Day themed busy bag activities must be centered around those little candies.

These are really super simple. I made a felt heart in each of the 6 colors that the candies come in, and wrote a different word or phrase on each one. Add a box of conversation hearts, and there you go–lots of color matching, sorting, candy-eating fun.

I cut a heart pattern out of paper, then traced it on thin plastic. The thin plastic inserts that come in the bottom of $.99 supermarket reusable grocery bags are perfect for this. For some reason, my bags get destroyed by the kids, but those inserts stick around. They’re great for cutting out traceable pattern pieces. I traced the plastic heart onto felt with a disappearing ink pen (that I only own because it came with my sewing machine, but it has come in very handy) then put two layers of felt together and sewed over the traced line. Then I cut out the heart with pinking shears. For a no-sew version, just cutting hearts out of one layer of felt would work perfectly fine as well…they’d just be a bit thinner.

The words were written free-hand (as I’m sure you can tell) using a squeeze bottle of puffy fabric paint. Easy peasy.

Since I do like to limit the amount of candy my preschoolers eat, I also cut out some small felt hearts, traced from a scrapbooking stencil, in each of the 6 colors. This way they can use this set longer without going through boxes and boxes of candy.

And finally, on the backs of the hearts I used the puffy paint to write the numbers 1 through 6, so that they can count out each number of conversation hearts or felt hearts and match them up that way.

These were very quick and easy to make, and would be even quicker without the sewing. I’m happy with how they turned out, and I’m sure my kids will love them when I pull them out. I’ll get some “in action” photos soon.

I was originally thinking of making these with quilting fabrics in tiny prints of each color, and adding the words with my embroidery machine. Those would take a lot longer, though. If I have the time, I might try that anyway…I do tend to complicate things. Hahaha.

I’m still trying to figure out some fun decorations for my home as well. It looks so bleak and boring around here now that all the Christmas decor is gone. I guess that will be my next project! One can’t have too many projects going at once…right?

Categories: Crafty Goodness, Holidays, Pre-School | 2 Comments »

Jan 14 2013

Mud Room Improvements–Step One

by Jenny

A loooong time ago I blogged about needing to make our mud room more functional. Two years later, we are finally making some progress. Yes, I did say at the time that this was going to be the first house project I attempted, and yes, I HAVE made progress on many other things in the past 2 years, including growing a whole new little person. We’ll ignore for now that said whole new little person is now 18 months old (where DOES the time go?) and I’m just now getting to this project. Ahem.

Anyway, here are a couple of before photos, if you don’t want to bother reading the original post linked above. The walls were a flat sage-y green/gray/brownish color (depending on the light) and we had one little rack of 5 hooks to hang coats, scarves, snowsuits, etc. for lots of kids. We had some (ugly) black plastic milk crates on the floor for hats, gloves, etc.

I wish I had some before pictures that showed what it looked like after everyone had played outside in the snow–boots (in puddles) all over the floor, snow suits and coats piled on the hooks and sliding off onto the floor–it was a MESS!

Here’s what we’ve done so far:

We repainted in a warmer, brighter color and used semi-gloss paint, both to make cleaning easier and to protect the walls more from wet things being hung on the hooks. We replaced that dinky little bar with 5 hooks with a nice shelf and hooks we made from two 10″x1″ hardwood boards, cut to size, stained and varnished, then mounted with antiqued corner braces and hooks from Hobby Lobby. It’s hard to tell the length from the photos, but this takes up most of the wall length, and gives us essentially 24 hooks (6 pieces with 4 hooks on each piece) and a shelf above for storage.

Here it is with all the coats and snow suits hanging on it…they all fit, and nothing falls off onto the floor. Yay! My original intent was to do wicker baskets on the shelf for hats and gloves (as you can see in the photo) but it turns out this plan doesn’t work very well. None of the kids except the oldest 2 can reach the baskets, so I have to put all the hats and gloves away after they drop them on the floor. I’m thinking about hanging something on the opposite wall (narrow mesh baskets, perhaps?) for the hats and gloves. Anyone have any ideas?

Once I get the gloves and hats storage off the shelf, I can use that shelf for decorative stuff instead.

The rubber boot trays do a great job containing any melting snow, so that the floor stays drier. And for all of the non-boot shoes, we bought this little cubby shelf at Lowes:

It sits just inside the door, and is the perfect place for all of the kids’ sneakers, etc. to be stored. We’ve had that for a few months now, and we’re almost to the point where most of the kids remember to put their shoes in it.

So there you have it…step one of our mud room improvements. So far, it is much more organized and usable than it was before! I’d love to hear what y’all think…and if you have any ideas for storing those pesky hats and gloves!

Categories: House Projects, Organizing | 2 Comments »

More Winter Fun!

Valentine’s Day Quilted Mug Rug

A Minor Delay…

Joanna’s Pink Princess Room: “Before” Photos

And the Winner Is…

Baby Micah’s Adoption Auction

Giveaway!

Valentine’s Day Decorating

Valentine’s Day Themed Conversation Heart Preschool Busy Bag Set

Mud Room Improvements–Step One

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