My Mixed-Bag is filled with Chicken Pox!

Well, looky, looky! It's Mixed-Bag Monday! My favorite day of the week! After such a long weekend with so many calories consumed, I am feeling rather random, so this truly is a mixed bag!

First, let me just remind you that all of the kids have had the chicken pox. All of them. and yet somehow, mysteriously, each of them has come down with them AGAIN! Ack! Mind you it was Thanksgiving weekend, Black Friday, Superman's birthday...and I have a ton of family in town because my grandmother passed away, so we are also coordinating care for the sickies around my desire to be with my extended family, at the services etc, not to mention school and scouting activities and general errands that I am unable to run with contagious kids. Feeling sorry for myself? Yes, sir!

But in a way it has a bit of a karmic ring to it because it seems appropriate that my kids would be sick during the time I might otherwise be mourning the loss of my grandmother. You see, as a kid, I have lots of fond memories of my grandma, but because she had SO MANY grandkids and because my mom never needed them to babysit or anything like that (wonder where I get that, huh?) I did not feel so super-duper warm and squishy about her. KWIM? I mean, I liked her and she was my grandma...but I did not really have my own relationship with her...until I grew up.

I have the most kids in my family. By today's standards, we have a big crew, a team, a tribe...you get the idea. My grandma had 7 kids. So we always had that in common...motherhood, big families. She buried one child at birth, which I never fully appreciated till I was an adult. The thought of that now catches in my throat... She also adopted a 3 or 4 year old child who needed a home. I had heard the story many times, but I never realized the significance of that until I was an adult. She never distinguished between her bio kids and him either...not to me...not that I ever heard or witnessed. He is just one of my uncles. I think that says a lot about a person, about her.

Anyway, I think it is appropriate that our bond was forged over the growth of my family. She loved all of my kids. She always made an effort to see them when she could. I don't think they will ever forget that last Halloween she went out and got candy and stayed at her house (she was not able to live there at the time) until my kids came over in their costumes. She wanted them to trick or treat at her house so badly. And they loved it! They showed off their costumes and gobbled up the candy. It is a great memory.

So in an odd way it is appropriate that they have been such a huge factor in my participating in her passing. They were a big factor for her too.

So now I'm all bummed out. Ugh! Well, let's look at some pretties. My grandma loved color. And her late husband was an art collector, so how 'bout those clipboards??

This is one of my faves. I made it for Turkey. 'cause every 2 year old needs a clipboard!

(just kidding...stay tuned for what I am doing with it!)

This one, I actually made for myself. It was the first one I ever made..and experiment of sorts. But SO many people have commented that they like it that I may be making some more in this style. Yes, that is metallic gold tissue paper. I know. I rock! :)

Here is a sneak peek of some of the ones on the drying board right now:


And yes, that is the best puppy in the whole world on that one clipboard. I am making that one for MVP. Very boy-ish. Some of these feature hand-painting and elegant scrapbook papers. While others are made from tissue paper collages. I think I am going to do a wordy one next. You know how I love words!

My mixed-bag today also includes a few little items that are on my mind:

1) I am so in love with cinnamon scents right now! Yum! Can't get enough!

2) We have foolishly put up 3 Christmas trees this year. The kids are already bored and guess who is left to decorate them. Is it too soon to take them down for the year? j/k

3) Princess is really living up to her nickname right now with the illness. The boys have not made too much noise about it and every time poor MVP tries to, someone seems to be crying and I have to cut him off. Poor guy.

4) Coming up this week: The Mother of Invention, Mind You Own Business, Adventures in Advent and a few other goodies I am cooking up.

5) Thursday is my birthday. Here's what I want from you, dear reader: Send my link to someone new for my birthday.

6) Oh! And since we celebrate a week of fun for each birthday, Superman and I are living large since we are 7 days apart. Here is a shot of him celebrating. And last night I opened a gift from F-I-L and S-M-I-L (child of divorce, you know what I mean) I have been wanting one of those giant cupcake pans and guess what! I got one! You know I can't wait to make us a "halfway through the week" cake with it! AWESOME! (pictures coming soon!)

7) All this celebrating is not good for the waistline, just so you know. ;)

8) Just have to point out that I am getting annoyed with this font thing in Blogger. Maybe I will get around to the html page today, yeah right! LOL

Have a great Monday!

Harry Potter

I am sure you are all just holding your breath waiting to hear what I thought of

Harry Potter
and the Sorcerer's Stone
right? :)

Well, what can I say that hasn't already been said..? I mean, entire books have been written about this series!

As usual, I am reading from a mom's POV. Which is why I bother to review them at all...so you don't have to.

Well, here you go:
Frankly, after all the hype I expected it to be more....mature, I guess. It is definitely written for a middle-grade audience. (+) I will spare you my ramblings on her excellent writing skills and plotting...you've heard it all already. But I must say it is a joy to read a well-edited book. (on contrast to the one I am reading now...oy!)

The only caution I have is that I thought the end was pretty scary for the age group. (MVP disagrees, BTW)

WHAT DO I MEAN BY THAT?

There is a scene where a spirit takes over a human body to perform its evil deeds. And the words "KILL HIM" are used more than once.

PERSPECTIVE

Last night, Princess, Turkey and I watched
Disney's Snow White.

In the beginning of the movie, the Evil Queen said something like like "YOU MUST KILL HER" (mind you, Snow White is a child in this movie.)

Then she adds..

"TO MAKE SURE YOU DO NOT FAIL, YOU MUST CUT OUT HER HEART AND BRING IT TO ME IN THIS!"*shows box*.

That's pretty darned scary, if you ask me. If I had read that in a book I would have likely said NO WAY! NOT FOR KIDS!

Funny, when you look at it like that, huh?

It' Monday Again!

It has been CRAZY busy over here this last week! Sugar has the Chicken Pox for the second time. Yes, you read that right. This time I am pretty sure we licked it because he was Super Duper sick and puny that first day or so.


Then he got like MILLION spots...


Luckily his little immune system is going strong and he is kicking it's butt. He is looking better every day and acting like himself again.


Take a peek at what I have been up to. (sorry about the flash)

CUTE, huh?

I have always been a clipboard kind of gal.

I have had at least one around since I was a kid.

When I was in college I was really jealous of the girls who received hand-decorated clipboards as rush gifts from their "big sisters". Back then the girls used paint pens to draw and decorate the clear plastic boards. I wonder if they still do that?

Well, here's my version, combining scrapbooking, decoupage and well, clipboards!

How fun!

I love that they are small and short projects because I love making all kinds of different combinations and themes. I will have to post more as I go.


I have also been busy making hairbows for Princess. This year she asked to grow her hair long. The deal we made was that if she grew it long, she would wear it back somehow at school so it wasn't getting in her eyes when she was working...or in her lunch when she was eating. yuck!
She agreed, so I have been in Hairbow Heaven!

Here is the MUM Hair Clip I made her that she likes. Cute huh?

Now, here is the MUM BARETTE I made her that she hates it because she does not like the color. Grandma GoGo told her it looked like a porcupine. I don't think that helped much. :)



I thought it turned out cute, but that's just me. I will have to find a little girl who has taste like I do. I even tried to put it in my hair but it is too small for my thick hair.

That's all from me today. Happy Monday. I LOVE IT!

The Boots are Made for Me!

It's Fashion Forward Friday, as you can see. :)
I had to take this chance to do a little shoe shopping. Don't we all love a great pair of boots? I don't consider myself a shoe diva,
but I could be turned into one!
With 4 kids, shopping is not the same joy it used to be.
So I am really a big fan of on-line shopping.
I get to do it on my terms and I can almost always find FREE SHIPPING! woo hoo!

Hands down, I prefer the look of a heel every time. The higher the better!
But with 4 kids, I just can't always do it, so here are a couple of the ones I might actually wear on a regular basis:

These little beauties here caught my eye right away.
Dark brown or black, please. Practical, warm and hopefully comfy.
(the image is linked but I'm not getting paid a dime.)

Living in the Midwest and being an almost-always-at-home stay home mom, I can't believe I have never purchased a pair of Ugg boots, but I haven't. They were IN...then went OUT...now I am seeing them again....this time I have decided that the Midwest is SO far behind the times that they may well be in style for a few years to come. I want some.
I want the tall ones so I can roll them down. I'd even take a knock-off as long as it had real shearling. None of that synthetic stuff! These are the perfect Carline/Grocery store/ volunteering at school boots, don't you think?



These next ones are not boots, but...
I really love these little Rocket Dog wedges, don't you?Yummy!

Alright, let's move on to fun...Yeehaw! Cowgirls! Giddy up! This first pair is my fave because it is not TOO authentic and it is about $100.

These actually make my heart go pitter patter. I can see me wearing these all over, IF they are comfy. The heel is not too high, toe not too pointy. They look delish!

However, if you like the more authentic look (not that I've even been to a ranch or anything) these are sweet and still very femme.

(again, images linked but I am not getting paid so feel free to shop around.)

These puppies will run you about $300. WAY more than I spend on...well pretty much anything that doesn't bear the label GE or Sony (you get the idea!) Still, look at that detailing. Maybe I'll get lucky and run across some at the Goodwill. :)



Here are some cute little wellies for the soggy days we have been having.

I have no idea what these are but for the price, I'd be willing to find out!

Lastly, I have to add in a little sexy because once in a while we all need that too!

Blog Hop: Romance in Writing

I am hopping on the "blogwagon" started by Bethanne at Romance in Writing.

What would I do with a MILLION DOLLARS?

I have been thinking about it before I sat down. Here is what I would do:

**************************

MVP:Sugar:

Princess:

Turkey:

And lastly: a maid 4 LIFE!
**************************

Now. Just for fun, she adjusted to 5 MILLION for inflation. LOLSo...
**************************
let's take all of that! PLUS...

My personal chef.

A closet like this.

I think Superman deserves one of these:

(This a team of Lawn guys called First Chance Center which employs people with disabilities. I was just planning to point to the fact that he could have a crew of people doing the work for him like I would, except this seemed like a great idea so I figured I'd advertise for them while I am at it. They are in Indiana. Image is linked.)

I am not sure what else I would do except buy a lovely pair of boots and shop at Hanna Andersson and maybe J. Jill till I passed out.
I would probably open a book store in my sad little town and read everything I could get may hands on.

I would take my hubby and kids here:

And I would support these charities:

Oh! And there is no way I could pass these up...probably even with just ONE MILLION:

(I was trying to point out the hardwood floors, which I secretly covet (and miss!), but while I am here, I guess I'd take the whole thing...it's *dreamy!*, though I have a feeling doing that might cut into those Uof I educations a bit, dang it!)

Now it's your turn. What would you do? Leave me a link to your answers in the comments section.

Tithe by Holly Black

This is a great book. A neat story, but dark. There is far too much "innuendo" and hinting at darkness (for lack of a better word, sex, violence, etc) for me to say I could recommend it to a teen. Let alone a tween! However, for adults: it's what you would expect from a YA book in terms of the reading level. The story: WELL-WRITTEN, GREAT PLOT. Content: MATURE.

Talk it Out Tuesday: Holiday Goals

I am going to be blogging about my class at JessicaSprague.com for the month of December I guess. To be honest with you, my head is a little foggy and as I read all these directions I am thinking there is no way I have time for this, BUT I am pushing through... I really want my kids to have a great collection of memories from me. And even though in a perfect world, the celebration of the birth of our Savior would be only about His birth, Christmas itself has come to mean different things to different people. Since we tend to be somewhat religious folks, we are not in danger of forgetting Jesus the other 364 days of the year, so I am OK with it. But that's just me. :_

To me it is all about the kids. I am hyper-aware that these years are fleeting. That makes it both sweet and a little stressful for me. One year my husband and I ate Christmas dinner at a restaurant. I always think of that when the stress mounts because you know what? It was NO BIG DEAL. Really. We are both blessed with great families who are both supportive and loving, so the actual celebrating of that Christmas was done somewhere else. It is a fond memory to me because I never felt cheated or left out. We still had a great Christmas. We just celebrated with our families on others days as I recall. And of course, we went to Mass. But now that we have kids who are at that magical age: it is all about the wonder and beauty of it all to me. We keep Easter pretty Religious, so at Christmas, while we do read about Jesus and go to Mass (not to mention Catholic school), we also look forward to visiting Santa and doing other fun things.
Back to the class: So I am supposed to make a list of words about what it all means to me.(not what it means to you or anyone else) I am going to just make a list of stuff I love and hope to not miss each year.

Here goes (randomly and in no order):

MEMORIES
FAMILY
LIVING NATIVITY
DRESSING UP
PICTURES
DECORATING THE TREE/S
PICTURES OF CHRISTMAS PAST (I love picture frame ornaments!!!)
SUGAR COOKIES WITH SPRINKLES
CHRISTMAS CAROLS
WRAPPING PRESENTS
COLD NIGHTS BY THE FIRE WITH THE KIDS...HOT COCOA...POPCORN...MOVIES, GAMES
SNOW!!!!!
MADRIGAL DINNERS
THE READINGS AT MASS
POINSETTIAS
THE GREAT SMELLS
LIGHTS
LEAVING COOKIES FOR SANTA
WATCHING THE KIDS OPEN THEIR PRESENTS
BABIES--ANY BABY AT CHRISTMAS
CHRISTMAS CRAFTS
MAGIC
HOW EXCITED THE KIDS GET



I am probably still forgetting a million things...

Awesome Find!

Look what I found today!

You probably already know how much I LOVE chairs...so...well this was too cute to pass up!

It made me think of this:

"If I had friends like these," she sighed.
"Who'd stay a while with me,"
"I'd sit them down on silken chairs
and serve them cakes and tea."

If you know where this quote is from, post a comment. You could win a fabulous prize! ;)

Are You Ready?

It's less than two weeks until Thanksgiving. Are you ready?

I decided to take a class to help get me ready for the holidays.

I know what your thinking:

Are you CRAZY??

Well, yes, but that's another issue. LOL

This is the year (last New Year's, actually) I decided to work on the kids pictures...to assemble them, to scrapbook them...
What I found out is that this is a much bigger job than I thought it would be.
It is not something a person can do in just one year.
Especially when the kids are still here running around, making more memories!
It is impossible to catch up!

So I have {another} ongoing job. For me, this is just part of my style of parenting. I want the kids to have lots of memories. I want to make that happen by keeping things for them like photos and teeth and trinkets that meant something to them.

If you feel that way too, hop on over to JessicaSprague.com to sign up for her free Holidays In Hand class.
But hurry! Registration closes tonight at midnight!

Taking the plunge

Well, one of the things I love to do here in my little CRAZY world is to review books for kids. You may have noticed, though I'll admit, I sometimes forget to post them. (duh!)

I realize the world doesn't need another review of anything J.K. Rowling, but in case you have been living in a trash can for the past 10 years (see Oscar the Grouch reference below and the one where I became Oscar!)like me, I have decided to take the plunge and am reading the first Harry Potter book. So far, it is just OK. But remember, I am a really slow reader in comparison to some of you speed demons out there. Plus, I have to make time to craft...er...cook and clean the house! LOL

Anyhoo--be watching for that. Also, if you know of any other sites that review YA and middle grade books, LMK. I am one of those controlling types that wants to know what they are reading. :)

Happy Weekend!

Do you ever get really frustrated and say something stupid to your kid? I sure do!
In fact, I may be the queen of stupid things said in frustration.


This morning MVP and Sugar were fighting loudly and physically while I was trying to style Princess's hair and get Turkey and I dressed for Mass. They were driving me CRAZY!

As with every other morning, I made the suggestion that Sugar burn off some of his energy by taking the dog for a little run. She needs the exercise anyway. Well of course, he had been too busy fighting to realize he was still barefoot at 5 till, so it was too late. *sigh*

So I told him to settle down and get his shoes on. Unfortunately he could NOT settle down and the loudness continued, the dancing, the banging on things...my blood pressure rising.

Finally I whipped around the corner and yelled at him. I cannot remember what I said, but I was THAT mom this morning.

At the end of the tirade, I heard myself say: SINCE YOU HAVE SO MUCH ENERGY, I AM QUITE CERTAIN YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO MUSTER THE STRENGTH TO ZIP UP YOUR FLY ONCE IN A WHILE!!!!!!!!!

No, it doesn't sound so bad here, but the tone, the yelling...I'm pretty sure I just won another entry into the worst Mommy of the year competition.

Time to add a little cvodka to the OJ in the mornings? perhaps.

Attraction

Well, I never solved the question as to why, but nevertheless, now and then something catches my eye and I think I might possibly NEED to have it.

Sugar would say: "Mom! Need is a very strong word!"
He's right, but remember I am still reading The Shoe Queen about shoes and Obsession.

So today I innocently ran into these shoes.

I decided I MIGHT need them.

What do you think? They're hot aren't they?

Where in the world would I wear them?

My Moral High Horse

I love my moral high horse. Don't we all. Don't we love to think that we have all the answers...no matter how wrong that notion may be?

Yesterday I was in the mall (I know, that alone is shocking!) as I am rushing through the aisles I overhear yet another grouchy parent talking to their child.

"Austen!" (insert Momma Grouch's shrill voice) "You get over here and help me shop!"

I turn the corner to see poor Austen. He is about 5. We are in the ladies sweater department. He looks like he in in a coma, or wants to be. Apparently mom, dad and big sis, who is about 7, are trying to buy a Christmas gift for someone. Clearly, there was a lot of pressure to buy this particular gift, given that Christmas is coming SO SOON. Ahem.

Unfortunately, I had to shop all too close to these folks for more than 30 seconds so then I get to hear Mr. Grouch loudly sigh and say to the the two darlings "WHY DO YOU EACH HAVE TO HAVE A CART????? WE ONLY NEED ONE!"

Let me tell you, it took all the strength I had not to look him in the eye and say:

"BECAUSE THEY ARE KIDS, Oscar!
That's what kids do: they try to entertain themselves when they are bored out of their minds! Why don't you climb out of your trash can and take those little angels over to the playland that is a whole 50 yards away and let them have a little fun while Mrs. Grouch gets her shopping done!"
(can you hear me yelling? I was SO yelling in my head!)

Aaaaaarrrrrrrghhhhhhhh!

I just don't get it. I can barely shop at the mall because I am always running into these folks or their evil twins. It's one thing if Mamma is alone and in a hurry--we've all been there--but this lady had her "other" right there! My favorite is when people take a baby out at like 9 pm and then get pissed because the baby cries. Sheesh!

So what do you think, should I actually say something? I kind of have a policy of not getting involved, but let's face it: some people NEED a glass of cold water thrown in their face!. After all, the poor kids can't really defend themselves.

Maybe it would be the wake up call Oscar needs.
What would you do?