unexpected

We ended up traveling to Duluth for the Christmas weekend. 

My Dad called last Wednesday afternoon and told me that my uncle Larry's organs were shutting down due to infection and they were moving him to Hospice care.  I immediately knew I wanted to go see him and it worked out that we could.  I am so grateful for that.  I was really nervous to go but once I was in the room with him I felt so much better.  Not that he was dying of course, but just that it was still my uncle and I was just so thankful to be with him one last time.  It was also so good to see my aunt Marlene and my cousins.  I wish I could be there more for them right now.  It is unbelievably sad. 


It was also good to see my immediate family and I am happy they are all still coming here starting on Thursday.  (my mom is at our house now.)

(We stopped at Bentleyville on our way into town and it was just as amazing as everyone says.  (pictured above))

We are relaxing this week and let me tell you, it feels good. 

(aside from the VOMIT! FEST! that pickles had last night.  No fever, we figured his dinner must not have agreed with him...what a nightmare.  Thank God for our new washer and dryer!)

I am out of blogging practice.  I will be back next week, mid-week, and ready to celebrate January with all of you.  December wore me out, friends.  I am so looking forward to the new year.  (after this week, of course.)

Happy New Year!  xoxoxo

p.s.  one thing I shouldn't forget:  Nicholas got one of Ruby's marbles tonight and when I saw that he had it I exclaimed and rushed towards him.  He saw me coming and shoved that marble in his mouth as fast as he could.  He knows!  The little stinker is already naughty. 

Oh, I love him.

:)

merry christmas to you

I just popped in to say Merry Christmas to all of you! 

Lots of Xs and Os heading your way.....

Stephanie

how I accidentally made some mittens and other strange tales

I really did accidentally make these mittys.  I saw some super cute handmade ones at The Glitter Workshop but couldn't afford them right now and figured I could probably make some.  I googled a bit and found this tutorial.  I printed the pattern and cut them out one afternoon last week.  Luckily it only took a few minutes as that is usually all I have.

And then on Saturday morning I had another few minutes so I sewed one of them up, in like 5 minutes.  And it all fit together and my sewing machine didn't jam up and nobody unplugged it and the baby didn't get any pins in his mouth and there was no swearing and it totally was cute!

I showed Patrick and he was surprised I had made it as it looks very professional.  (at first glance, to a man)  Not surprised in an icky way but like, "Wow.  Looks good bunny!"  So a few hours later I made the other one and then I had a new pair of mittens.  super cool.

I used the pattern as it was printed and they are a touch short for my hands...my fingers go right to the end.  Next time I am going to enlarge the pattern and make a double layer mitten with fleece on the inside.  I used an old sweater for these ones and they totally match my new jacket.  Happy.  A perfect little crafty pick-me-up...you should try them!

I slept funny on my arm (HAHA) the other night and it has been a big old achy mess ever since.  Makes me have a bit more understanding how someone with chronic pain would feel.  (thinking of you, friend!)  ouchies.  Last night Patrick heated up the rice bag I traded with Kari for and it felt soooooo good.  (Here is a tutorial for one of those but you totally don't need to piece the front or add essential oils.  Kari's is longer, too.  I love it.)  I took 3 advil this morning and they are helping a lot.

Nicholas is finally better.  No runny nose and our eyes are both better, too.  The stomach flu is going around our town hot and heavy and I am trying not to worry too much about us getting it.  :(  What can you do, right?  Just load up on the hand sanitizer, I guess.  (which we are)



Wendy asked me if I could watch her daughter for a couple of hours after pre-school today.  I said sure and then she offered to take Ruby home with them for a couple of hours when she is done with her meeting.  I said double sure!  (Ruby says "double" everything right now....she is double mad, double happy, double hungry.)  And then she asked if James would want to ride the bus home with her older daughter after school and play for a while.  I said, "Oh no, you don't have to do that" and she said, "I know, but I am offering."  And I thought, "good point" and so I said, "Sure!"  So this afternoon I will get another few hours with only the baby here.  What a gift!!  Thank you, Wendy.

The baby has also started to babble his first consonants.  I adore this milestone and love to hear his tiny voice saying "babababadadadadamamama."  So sweet.

My life would be a lot less hectic without my baby but he brings me more joy than I imagined, every day.  I tell myself over and over throughout the day, "It doesn't matter.  It doesn't matter."  Sometimes it helps, sometimes it doesn't.  I am so selfish in wanting some time to do what I want to do and there is so little of that.  I always ends up being okay though, and I guess that is the lesson for me.  That stuff will still be there, whenever I get to it and I am definitely learning to take pleasure in a few minutes here and there.   (see miraculous mitten story above.) 

I would like to find a clever way to tie the above paragraph with the one about Wendy but I just don't have the time.  Do you see the connection?  I always get a little something that keeps me going...and sometimes a big something...like a quiet afternoon.

Nicholas - you better nap!

xoxo

yesterday afternoon

the eyes, they are pink

I just deleted a whole post because it was so long and boring. 

We are getting some snow soon and I plan on staying indoors for the next couple of days.  I am tired and am going to try and rest up a little before the family starts rolling in on Friday.

I can't wait!!  eeeeek!

I woke up in the middle of the night last night with pink eye.  ew.  Nicholas and I both saw the doctor today and were diagnosed with the bacterial version so we are now on drops.  Thank God.  I am so sick of the goo!  I guess it can start out as viral (no meds will help) and morph into bacterial.  Good to know, right?

Did I say I was tired?  yikes.  I need some sleep.  Hopefully tonight.  (did you hear that, pickles?)  ;)

I must sign off now and make some coffee.

xoxoxo to you

a few minutes with ruby

xoxo

it still makes me nervous

to see James with a slice of pizza in his hand.

It makes me happy, it's a step in the right direction I suppose, but I still don't quite trust it.

If he had to go back to no dairy I'd be fine with that...that's what we know, what's familiar.

I'm just glad he didn't have to back tonight.

It was so fun, and so strange, to see him dig into the pizzas with his friends.

Patrick and I said a little prayer as we watched him.

Thank you, Lord.

xoxo

p.s.  chuck e. cheese is flipping exhausting.  :)

lots of kids art, that is not your own kids art. I'm sorry.

I wanted the tv downstairs for a few reasons.

1.  I was sick of the noise it created.  There is enough noise in our house already.
2.  I thought the kids would watch less of it.
3.  I thought when they did watch it, they would be far, far away and it would be even quieter up here.

This is what happened:

It is quieter up here and I love that.  We listen to music more often or just have silence going under the sound of our own little tornado of life.

They definitely watch less TV.  A lot less.  Ruby will sometimes watch up in my room or we will all watch together on the weekends but no one really wants to go downstairs alone.

When they do watch it, and they are downstairs, it is a nice little break up here.

I was moaning to my mother how I thought it would lure them downstairs more often but it really doesn't.  My children seem to circle around me, wherever I am.  My mom said it was because they love me so much, because I am so much fun.  HA!  Has she seen me lately??  ;)

I know this is the kind of thing people will tell me to appreciate now, because it changes.  I really do.  I just sometimes *need* them away from me for a while and during those times I just make them play upstairs or downstairs.  (like when I'm trying to get dinner on the table or, God forbid, on the phone.)

One of the benefits of the TV being gone is Ruby and her art.  She is at the kitchen table at least 10 times a day coloring, cutting, painting, taping and gluing.  James usually joins her after school for a while.  I do love the stuff they come up with but don't tell...a lot of it gets recycled, too.

I feel kind of bad about that.

Moving on.

And so, to cement this as a post that only a mother could love, here are far too many pictures of Ruby's latest creations:

And one from James that cracked me up.  The first part of the sentence said, "I do not like..."

Oh, and that was by James G., not just James.

It helps that the bulk of their creations are done on paper from a free ream of dot matrix printer paper that we got from the library.

 We are set for at least 3 weeks.  ;)

We finally got our tree up yesterday afternoon.  The kids and I did it while pickles was napping and it was a lot of fun.  Ruby requested we sing Christmas songs afterwards.  You know, after we put on the garlic.  (garland.  hehe)

I am loving this felt garland I made either 2 or 3 years ago.  I had small strands to make a mobile but sewed them all together and got this:

How do you know how many garlands are too many garlands?  We are currently at six, not counting the ones on the tree.  I guess I love garlands.

And finally, a picture of my boys yesterday afternoon:

James' school concert is at 2pm so I need to go get ready.

Happy weekend to you all!

xoxo

love

One of my favorite things I made for the Craftacular last year were these little ornaments made from vintage Christmas light bulbs:

A woman emailed me last week to see if I could personalize 11 of them ASAP.  I considered it for a hot second but realized it just didn't fit into my plan to not stress myself out right now.  So I sadly told her no.  (I have some plain ones available in my etsy shop right now.)

But what a great idea!

At JoAnn's yesterday I used one of my coupons to buy a sharpie paint pen.  I love this thing.  (An older gentleman in the aisle recommended it over another I had in my hand and I'm so glad he did.)

If you'd like to make one for yourself, it's quite simple.  First get some old bulbs, I find they are plentiful at thrift stores at this time of year.  Second, cut thin ribbon into strips about 4-5 inches.  Hot glue one strip of ribbon onto the top of your bulb.  Next, find a cute wider ribbon (I used bias tape) and cut a piece to fit around the top of the bulb with a slight overlap.  Wrap this around, covering what you just glued on, and hot glue together in the back.  Next, get your handy paint pen, that you got for 40% off, and write a little something on your bulb.

Hang and enjoy.  :)



xoxo

we gave them their thomas

From my blog, 3 years ago:

"I'm not sure how to say this next part the right way. Annie & Thomas are two of my very favorite people to hang out with. Even though Annie was gone it still felt like a "family" Christmas, with me & Thomas. (and Patrick and Erin, but this is mainly about us.) Not that it wouldn't with our little family and my mom, or us & my dad, but it would definitely be quieter. (my siblings are so funny.) I think about James & Ruby and the future...if one of them can't make it home for something it might be nice if there was another. You know...2 outta 3 ain't bad. I'm not saying anything, mother, just that it might be nice. I feel like I might be depriving them of their Thomas, you know? xoxo"

8 whole months

Today I am celebrating 8 months with the chewiest little bundle.

I adore this baby. 

I adore his chubby body, his huge smiles, how he bounces his torso up and down when he is excited, how he grumbles, how he stops crying as soon as I pick him up, how he is curious about everything, his open mouth kisses and how he holds his arms up to me, his playboy pose (will try to get a picture of this), how he observes all of us around him, how he answers to pickles and Nicholas, how he loves the January Wedding song, and 1,000,000 other things that I cannot think of right now.

Thank God for Nicholas.

(even though he is not napping and I, therefore, am not baking cookies.)

(I am totally okay with that.)  (right now.)  ;)

xoxoxo

totally buff

Surprise, surprise, Ruby woke up with a fever in the middle of the night last night.  She is fine today (that seems to happen to her from time to time) but couldn't go to school.  I was very sad and discouraged at 2am (most everything except perfect baby snuggles are discouraging at 2am) and had to wake up and go to the dentist by 8am.

They ground and drilled at my teeth for nearly 2 hours and then I paid them over $1000.00 for the pleasure.

Yes, I got a crown for Christmas!  :)  A dental crown.  I have a temporary one on for the next 2 weeks. 

Man, that hurt.  Not at the time but now I am so sore.  Patrick brought the kids to me afterwards and it worked out well, having Ruby along, after all.  I got a couple of errands done that I wouldn't have had time for (if I would have had to be back to get her by 11:30) and now we are all back home.

Mr. Pickles is napping and I just gingerly chewed a sunbutter sandwich.  Ruby is working on Christmas gifts for some loved ones.  :)

If there is one thing I am discouraged about right now it is my cookie baking.  I am hoping that I'll get some time on Saturday to focus on this.  I'm going to talk with Patrick tonight to confirm his assistance with child wrangling for that day.  He has some stuff he is planning on doing (outlets downstairs...yay!) but I think we can make it work.  Hopefully Ruby will be fever-free tonight so she can go to school tomorrow.

Last night Ruby asked me why I picked Patrick to be the Dad.  I told her I picked him because he was so kind and funny and also very cute.  I asked her if I had made a good choice.  She thought for a minute and said I had.  She also said that she didn't think Riley at school would be her choice because he is kinda boring and not that funny.  :)

The kids and I did errands for 5 hours yesterday afternoon, a personal best.  We got home past Nicholas' bed time but he had slept in the van and was in a good mood.  Patrick cut arm and face holes out of a big box we have and was chasing the big kids around, acting like a robot.  Nicholas was totally bewildered.  He had the funniest look on his face...I'm pretty sure it was the baby version of what the...?  Patrick said he is going to go for a walk wearing the box on Saturday, just to see people react.  I hope he does.  (after I make cookies.)

I also hope you are all having good weeks.  :)  xoxo

ruby's tuesday

From the marker stained hands with the chippy nails to the cowboy boots, this is our girl.

Her smile is a little fake but that makes it even better.

Love you, bubles.

xoxo

{lately}

 {passing the snowy weekend hours}

 {they are fighting over who gets to put in baby Jesus already}

 {bunny ears and bed head}

 {wee pickles}

 {snowman tablescape}  (snort!)

{fudge sludge}

yo

My little pickle poppers is very sick.  He has a cold and pink eye and just seems miserable.  Teething, too?  His pink eye seems mild, more goo than pink.  Just thought you should know.  :)

I am baking cookies, this recipe, which is no fail but only makes 2.5 dozen.  No fail as long as I don't burn them like I burned nearly 3 dozen on Saturday night.  (a different kind.  sigh.)

James should be home soon and I promised him a game of MouseTrap.  Man, I hate that game almost as much as Battleship.  ;)  Maybe he will have changed his mind to Yahtzee?  One can hope.

Here is pickles, scratching my bum with his little fingers.  I must go now.  My poor little boo.

xoxo

oh yeah, Ruby is better and kind of sassy today.  I will link to the 4 year old info I found soon.

;)

addendum

I need to add something.  I linked to the cake stands made by Iacoli & McAllister but didn't say all that I should have. 

I was inspired by their idea and their cake stands are quite lovely.  Each piece has a hand polished corian top, not a thrifted plate.  ;)

They are definitely out of my price range but made by people, artists, and I should have given them more credit in my first post.

I didn't hear from anyone about this, just regretted that I didn't say more.

xoxo

holy cow, where did this all come from?

I haven't mentioned it (or maybe I have?) but Nicholas has been sick since last Monday.  He is either ferociously teething or picked up a little bug at church.  It hasn't been too bad, just super snotty (me=human kleenex) and a bit grouchy.  It was a bummer as he had just ended a cold, like, the day before but such is life.  I keep calling it kennel cough even though he hasn't been coughing.
Right now he is chewing on a frozen bagel. 

Yesterday afternoon Ruby came down with pink eye.

I felt so lucky when we didn't all get it at Thanksgiving when James had it.  :)  When I told her what it was she exclaimed, "Oh!  My friend Caleb has pink eye!"  The choices on the infectious buffet at preschool this week were pink eye and lice.

I'm glad we got pink eye.

Right now Ruby is up in our room watching cartoons and occasionally coming down the stairs to tell me what she wants when she is older.

We got some snow yesterday so I went out and shoveled this morning.  Patrick and I ordered a few gifts from Amazon earlier in the week and we seem to be getting packages almost daily.  I didn't want our sweet postman to have to trudge through the snow.  Once I was out there it felt so good that I did our sidewalk and most of the neighbors.  We are totally going for a walk today.  It is gorgeous out.

Right now I am sitting here in fresh jammie pants and my favorite sweatshirt.  (Mt. Wachusett!  woot!)  The coffee is dripping and the snuffly baby is gnawing happily next to me.

Oh, this is funny:  Wendy is normally at our house a few times a week, if not more, for preschool pick up and drop off.  I'd say 95% of the time Nicholas is in his high chair when she steps in.  :)  I promise he is not in this thing all the time!  She just happens to come at his meal times a lot and it is so funny.

My sister is completing her first semester of RN school.  I am so proud of her.  She has done an amazing job at both becoming a mother and school, worked so hard.  Yesterday when I talked to her she was making cookies with Jacob in the Moby wrap.  (don't worry, mom, she took him out before she leaned over to put the cookies in the oven.)  (yesterday I totally leaned over to put cheese breads in the oven with pickles in the bjorn.  he was fine.)  Anyways, Congratulations Seester!

My brother and his girlfriend are completely moved into their new house.  It is gorgeous and they have done an amazing job decorating and designing.  Thomas did all the tile work.

 Gorgeous, right??  I told him I wanted to move in and he said I could!  See ya, family!  ;)

I also loved this picture he took of their backyard.  This makes me want to be in Minnesota every time I look at it.

Love.

What I don't love is that a favorite uncle is in the hospital.  They just found out he has Leukemia and we are all waiting to here more news from the Mayo Clinic.  Please pray for my Uncle Larry if you think of it.  He is the warmest man and I love him so much.

How can I segue from cancer to cookies?  I can't.

I bought all this earth balance (vegan margarine) for cookie baking when I can totally use butter this year.  Oh well.  I do like earth balance but will use butter in the shortbreads as nothing beats that flavor.

James ate 3 slices of pizza the other night.  Regular pizza with regular cheese.  It was on his birthday actually, and I had a moment.  At 6 months we found out he had food allergies...at 7 years he ate a slice of pizza.  What a long road and while it isn't over, this is still a wonderful and happy progression.  Last night he had cheese toasts and complained that there wasn't enough cheese.  hee!  He can tolerate melted and baked cheese.  I see tuna melts in our future and told Patrick we'll be having pizza every week for a while.

Maybe next year I'll be able to use eggs in my Christmas cookies?  Who knows.

I might be done catching up.  See what happens when I don't post much all week?  Thank you if you've stayed with me all this way.

And just because I think they are darling, I will share one more thing.  I recently saw these little cake stands in a magazine.  I ripped the picture out and had it stuck to my bulletin board.  $120 for a cake stand made out of a thrifted candlestick?  That is so not my world.  At the dig a while back I found most of these components (I got the red plate at Target for $1.49) and made my own for about $1.50 each.  (I figured in the cost of the tiny bit of E6000 I used.)

(they are not glued all together, this is two individual cake plates.)

This is what I started with, two candle holders and 2 dinner plates:

They make me happy, just sitting there on my counter.  Right now they have bananas and muffins on them.  Soon there will be cookies....


xoxo

give away!

I have had a few etsy sales recently and it is so much fun!  One of them was a custom order and that made me feel so professional.  :)

As a little treat this week I am giving away one $10 gift certificate to my etsy shop.  Please leave a comment on this post and I will pick a winner next Monday. 

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

Thursday already?  wow.  How has your week been?  Ours has been very nice.  James' birthday was fun and yesterday was nice in that the children got their hair cut.  I love when they have fresh hair cuts.  They are so much cuter, don't you think?  :)

I printed myself out a special calendar for the month and am finding it very helpful so far.  I "scheduled" 30 minutes sessions for myself for things like sending cards, gift wrapping, decorating and cookie making.  I listed other important scheduling info on there as well so everything is easy to see throughout the day. 

30 minutes doesn't seem daunting at the end of the day, I can do most anything for 30 minutes, and I can accomplish a lot within that child-free time frame.  Last night we wrapped gifts (we meaning ME.  Patrick wrapped one, bless his lazy little heart) while Top Chef was on and it was fun to get started.  I also searched through my recipes and found 10 cookies I'd like to make.  I will probably narrow it down to five but it's going to be hard.  Today I am working on decorating for a half an hour this morning and am going to wrap kids' gifts for another half an hour.  It's so nice to have these hours in the morning with no big kids home...so easy to wrap their presents.

I also get the pleasure of crossing things off this way.  Love that.

Another little thing I'm doing that is helping me is keeping a small notebook with various lists in it.  If I think of something I need or note something we are out of, I write it in there.  I grab it whenever I leave the house so if I somehow end up at Target, I know what I need from there.  I hate getting home and realizing that I forgot the darn batteries AGAIN! 

Don't you hate that?

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

That's about it for me.  I'm enjoying this quieter week.  My surroundings (read: children) are definitely not quieter, but I feel a bit quieter inside my head.  At least in bits and pieces.  Gotta take it where you can get it, right?

Three kids is definitely busier than two, which makes sense, but I didn't know how that would feel exactly until it happened.  Now I get it.  I also know that this first year will probably be the hardest in terms of sleep deprivation, etc.  I wouldn't trade this time with my baby for anything, though.  I am so glad God gave him to us.  So glad. 

I will be honest and tell you how I sometimes daydream about next year when Ruby will be gone to school all day.  I know.  Isn't that awful?  It will be so quiet here, though, with just pickles.  Of course he will be into everything (not that he isn't now) by then but when he naps every afternoon?  Ahhhhhhh.  Quiet.

I think that is what I crave more than anything.  Quiet.  My brain needs it.

But I try to stop myself.  I don't want to wish this time with any of them away.  (except sometimes.  haha!)  Ruby is so perfectly adorable right now and even though she can be so challenging, she is SO much fun. 

((A note on that:  I read a bunch of stuff about 4 year old development a couple of weeks ago and it helped me a lot.  I feel like I understand a bit better what she's going through and it's always good to hear that the obscene things your children do are still within the realm of "normal."))

I'm done now.  That kind of got away from me for a minute.  :)  Have a good day!

xoxo

just about 4 minutes of our life yesterday afternoon

Pickles shows up at around 2 minutes and then a while later shows off his crawling. James was feeling very much in love with me (because I helped him with his new Lego ship for a long time) so he was talking baby talk. Ruby makes up songs like that all. the. time. I love them but sometimes wish she had an off switch.

(I have double checked to make sure. She really doesn't.)

xoxo

peek a boo

today he is seven

There were 7 golden balloons, presents opened and played with immediately and fresh blueberry muffins for breakfast.  

Happy Birthday, James.

Oh my gosh, do we love you.

xoxoxoxoxooxoxooxoxoxooxoxooxoxoxooxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxooxoxox

I find it hilarious

that last Friday afternoon I was so calm about everything.  Because on Friday night?  Forget it.  I found myself hunched over my sewing machine, swearing, and made myself stop.  That is not how I want to spend the next less than 3 weeks.  Sewing at night is fine if everything goes well but not so fine when things go wrong, as they often do when I sew.  I don't have the patience to deal with it when I'm tired and it immediately becomes un-fun.

So.  That's that for the handmade Christmas.  :)  If I get to something, I get to it.  If not, there's always the rest of the year to send someone a little surprise.

Saturday night I tried going to do a little shopping by myself.  About an hour after I left Patrick called and said Nicholas woke up and was not happy.  sigh.  I grumbled to myself and slouched out into the snowy night to head back home.  I passed by a horrible accident with 3 cars and 2 firetrucks and 5 ambulances and just started to cry.

I asked myself what is most important to me this year, in these next few weeks?  Here's what I decided:

1.  Almost the first thing that came to my mind was baking cookies for James.  I have a life long love of Christmas cookies, especially the ones my Grandma made, and I have a strong desire for him to experience that beautiful cookie tray, too.  (okay, beautiful might be a stretch.  my grandma's were beautiful, though.)  This might sound strange but I can't explain it any better.  When I thought of what was most important?  There it was.  For me, cookies = love at Christmas, I guess.

2.  Talking about Jesus with my kids and going to church with my family.  (second only to cookies.  :)  )

3.  Finish shopping in one more well-planned daytime excursion.

4.  mailing cards and presents

5.  wrapping gifts for family with Patrick while we drink wine or hot chocolate

6.  put up tree and watch a Christmas movie together

That's it.

Of course I want my house clean before my family comes but my mom is coming early so I know she will play with pickles while I vacuum.  (thanks mom.  xoxo)

So now I am trying to stay true to that stuff and forget the rest.  There is a birthday party in there but that should be easy as a certain Mr. Chuck E. Cheese is taking care of most of the work. 

You all must know by now that I love my blog and posting here every morning.  If I don't get to it I feel like I might be letting someone down but honestly, I'm sure no lives are hanging in the balance.  :)  So, please excuse slow or no posting here for the next few weeks.  Thank you.

What is on your list?  Pray or meditate on that and then go for it.

xoxo

p.s.  I did somehow find time to take 150 photos of this monkey bowl we thrifted last week.

I wish all my dishes had cute little monkeys hanging off the edge.

Oh wait, no I don't.  So hard to stack!

i've been diagnosed with CADD

It's fairly common among the crafty set.  Like depression, it can come and go and leave you feeling unsettled and slightly like a maniac.

It's Crafting Attention Deficit Disorder.

There is so much stuff I want to make!  I even made myself a list and then I went and started something new!  FOCUS, Stephanie.  Focus!  gah.  I wish I could run away to a cabin in the woods for 3 hours a day and just finish this stuff.  My bedroom at night is fine but it's not the same.  There is this bed and this husband and a tv and a stack of books and it's just too hard.

The good thing is that I'm not feeling stressed about this.  I just want to make it because it is fun for me right now, not because I feel like I have to.  Will little Jacob be sad if he doesn't get a stuffed rhinoceros*?  I doubt it.  (Unless Andrea told him which I specifically asked her not to!!)

Wendy invited us over this afternoon so I am trying to get my business together so I don't have to come home to a house that looks like a bomb went off.  Pickles just went down for a nap, Ruby is watching TV, I am going to shower and then quickly do the following:

address envelope for mailing (sold 2 wine bags on etsy!  woot!)
wash small dishes left in sink
put laundry in dryer
start a new load (well, collect it all and bring it down first)
give Ruby a bath
gently direct and assist Ruby in picking up her toys in living room
feed us all lunch
brush and floss
pick up pickle toys
start van
poop

Sorry, had to add that last one just because.  I hope I made at least one of you choke a little or spit out coffee.

*I was kidding about the stuffed rhino.

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

Liz is the lucky mobile winner!  Ruby picked your name out of a bowl a bit earlier...please send me your address and I will send this off to you.  :)  I love Liz's blog and always enjoy her posts on Advent.  She encourages me to celebrate this special time in simple way.  Thank you, Liz. 

I have a couple more items I'd like to send to someone.  I hope to do that next week.

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

The dirt cake was a hit.  Patrick and James came home and showed me their snowflakes they made out of coffee filters.

??  What ever happened to building fires?  Ha ha, I laughed at Patrick cutting out coffee filter snowflakes.  That cracked me up.

And one more gratuitous pickle shot:

Have a super weekend everyone.  Here's hoping my palms stop sweating so I can get this house picked up.

Can you say too much coffee???

xoxo