Post-Christmas doings

Hello all! Hope your Christmas was as wonderful as ours.
 As you can see...I have already begun some of the updates to my blog. Today actually was mostly spent doing just that. I tried working on my own computer and finally had to resort to borrowing Ed's (bless him) as mine is just too slow. =(  Now I don't want to go back to mine. hehehe.
  Anyway, hope you all like the improvements as much as I do. I have lots more pics I plan to upload and hope to continue working on my "pages".
  I did manage to clean both my refrigerators top to bottom and do some laundry as well today, so I don't feel quite so guilty about spending all this time on the computer. It has actually been a nice, relaxing, lazy time since Christmas.
  We celebrated a day early (as in on Saturday) as Ed had to go to work Christmas Day, but none of us minded a bit. I had planned to have the kids matching p.j.s ready for Friday evening so they could wear them "Christmas" morning, but ended up sewing on them into the wee hours of the morning as they were my very last project to get done. It was fine...I just lined them up on the couch for the kids to put on when they woke up. I think I told some of you how I found this cute set of king size flannel sheets at Hudson's for $10 and knew immediately it was destined to be pajamas for the kids. I just made them all matching bottoms and picked up some solid tops from Old Navy on sale. They really did look adorable and the kids have LOVED them to death. Stockings and then the gifts. All of which were wonderful hits with each child. Then we had Aunt Carol, Josh, Rachel, and Anna Laurie for Christmas dinner that evening. I made turkey, dressing, broccolli casserole, corn and mini apple pies, fruit salad and cheesecake for dessert.
  The rest of the week since then has been spent in large part just recovering from the sleep deprivation (for me), and letting the kids enjoy their new toys.
  We are headed to Wiggins tomorrow for one last Christmas party and then hopefully soon I can get our Christmas pictures uploaded from all our festivities.

   Well, it's way late and I must say "Good-night". Later all!
                                                          

If I could have posted this....

 Hi All! I just came across this (definitely of the LORD) and wanted to share...because she says what I feel all the time. Really appreciated the reminder too. Anyway, here's the link. Please check it out.
                                            

Just had to post really quick

 As it happened... yesterday, I spent a lot of time on the computer (basically re-charging after a hectic weekend) and ran across some blogs I had forgotten about. Didn't really have time to pursue the links as much as I wanted to then, but this afternoon I've been looking again....drooling and getting lots of ideas, etc. So many great projects...Agh. Love it!
 Anyway, the point I'm leading up to is that I'm really, REALLY, hoping/praying/planning to refresh my blog come January. I know I don't share near the amount of pictures or things from our lives that I want to, so I'm hoping to change that. (We will at least begin with an update and go from there. =)
 Just wanted to give you all a little something to look for (and possibly remind me of, if necessary).
  Have a great week!
         

Now she's ready for bed.

A few pics of our doings

           Homemade hot cocoa, topped with whipped cream and stirred with a candy cane!

                                                        Kiss Pies! Pretty Yummy!

                                            Kids Christmas Calendar...in each pocket is a tag.

                                      Ed's Christmas Calendar. Something special on every card!

So much muchiness....

  I have been thinking several times lately of stuff I needed to post/blog about, or a project I want to share or some other tidbit that maybe only I would find interesting....but we've been so busy living life I haven't had time to write about it.
  Asher just had his second birthday (sigh..my baby), and it was a simple little family affair. Also Lyssa's was the week before that (complete with hot dog roast outside in freezing weather) and she is now 9. (sigh again) My babies just keep growing up!
  Anyhoo...besides keeping us in stitches and on our toes, Asher loves to play with our kitty, Smidge. In case I haven't mentioned her, we found her in a box beside our truck one Sunday morning after church. She was so tiny and newborn she barely had her eyes open, and we had to dropper feed her for a couple of weeks until she could eat on her own. (Oh yeah, just what we needed. lol.) She is quite healthy now and lurks about attacking unsuspecting persons. I'm going to try to upload a video clip of her and Asher right after this if my computer will let me. =)
  So, I do happen to have a couple of projects I've done that I can share with everyone... they are Christmas Countdown Calendars. I made one for the kids and then a different one for Ed. It was alot of fun. Basically you have a card for each day from Dec 1 - 24th and each one says something different. For the kids it is an activity, for Ed a compliment or something fun we can do together. (And on days Ed has to work, I will text him his card.)
 Besides all the Christmas projects, we have also been getting ready for the kids Joseph play at church. As in, Joseph-who-was-sold-into-Egypt. It's a cute little play and we have been working on it for some time now. Well, I got the "privilege" of doing all the costumes...I had volunteered to help, and wound up with the whole job. It wasn't as bad as it could have been since they are pretty minimal. Mostly just headpieces to represent different characters, but figuring them all out took some time. Still, I was pretty pleased that I had 90% of the materials I needed on hand. The play is coming off Sunday night so I will try to take pics of those too. =)
  Add in Gingerbread house attempts ( we have made it to the dough stage) and all the other goodies of the season...and yep... it's been crazy..I mean fun!

 OK...so in the middle of me trying to post the above, I got a surprise visit from my niece Abby (a baby sitter was needed for a few hours). I settled her and Asher with toys and attempted to get back on my laptop but then proceeded to spend the next little while chasing them and bringing them back where I could see them. It's just too dangerous letting Asher out of sight.
 In just a bit I realize I need to start supper, and forgetting that all the older kids are outside, I head for the kitchen. I've not been gone 5 min. (literally 5 minutes, no more) and Asher comes in the kitchen to get in the fridge and I see bright blue Sharpie marks ALL over his arm and shirt and lips. I have the only markers left in the house up on a shelf, well out of reach (or so I thought). Nope. He had climbed up (don't ask me how) to the bookcase and got the pencil holder down and proceeded to decorate the table, himself, a book, the floor, Abby....and anything else he saw. Oh and Abby meanwhile had emptied the contents of the wipe package. I suppose it was her attempt to clean up the mess? Anyway, I confiscated the Sharpies again, placed them both in separate chairs, IN VIEW, and went back to fixing supper. The clean-up would have to wait. Then I go to call the big kids in and to my utter dismay I find that Isaac and Alyssa thought it would be brilliant to start a mudfight. On Lela. Joy. And I thought the babies were bad.
 Dire threats being issued and mud dis-allowed inside, I head for the washer. I know there is no way we will escape with out washing all the coats. (And, yes, the weather is freezing right now). While I'm dealing with the mud mess, the babies have gotten down from their chairs and are trying to escape to join the fun outside. Oh yeah...and so the evening went.
 I finally managed to get the babies fed, Aaron pitched in and helped pull things back together, Lela took a bath. And Alyssa and Isaac are still cleaning the bathroom, as the mud fight was their idea.
  Whew!
 As a result I have no idea what I was saying or what I was planning to tell you about next, but I'm pretty sure this wasn't it... but hey, that's my life. =) And once the chaos calms, I can smile and say it's a pretty good one!

 Well, I'm out of time, but thanks for stopping by. Until next time....
                                                                                        

Just a little note

I've been so busy crafting away on my Christmas projects and taking care of my little munchkins that I haven't taken time to update...but I wanted to take a second to say Hi again.
 I'm excited about the progress I've been able to make, and, I promise, I'm taking tons of pics. Some days I do feel like I'm all crafted out, but then the next day I'll have an inspiration and it just touches everything.
 The kiddoes are really getting into the spirit of things and in between bouts of school and chores (and book reading) they are each planning their own gifts for whose-ever name they have drawn.
  In continual search of more and improved ideas for my gifts I have actually run across quite a few new blogs, but one in particular stood out to me tonight and I added it to my blogroll. It's for keeping your marriage full of creative and fresh ideas. I'm all over that. So I'll let you know what new ideas I've come up with, after the fact, for my man. (Gotta keep him surprised ya know. )
Anyway....gotta run for now.  Hugs.
                                                      

Lela's bag (her first sewing project)

 
 The pictures pretty much tell the story. I was right there helping and coaching, but I thought she did a wonderful job. We got it all done in around 2 hours. She is thrilled and says its going to be her main purse now. lol.
                      

Lela's birthday

Inspiration...=)

   I have been putting off blogging for a number of reasons....most of them centered around the fact that, with Baby 8 on the way, I've just not been getting everything done. I've also been hoping inspiration would strike and I could impress you all with my eloquence. Sadly, the times that I have felt remotely inspired I was nowhere near my computer...and you know pregnancy brain, I can never remember much of anything. That is probably the thing that bothers me the most during pregnancy, being tired is no fun but being scatterbrained is way worse for me. (Still can't complain though...my pregnancy's are good compared to alot of women...and we are so excited.)
  Anyway.....all that to say, I finally just decided to write or Christmas and New Year's will be here, and I will have nothing recorded about the process.
  I have been taking the past several days to 1.) prep for Duds for Doodlebugs again 2.) clean out and sort stuff, and 3.) plan for a homemade Christmas.
  I'm excited to say I have tons of ideas, and my cleaning out has been enough to also unclutter my creativity. I"m not going to post all my ideas as I'm not sure who all will be reading this ( I'll try to do an after Christmas post to let you know what all got done) and I don't want to ruin any surprises. For the kids, I would like to make pocket pillow shams and a set of new pj's around. The idea being that it will help them keep track of the pj's, so I'm not washing clean ones nor are they wearing dirty ones. =)  So that will be a big undertaking. Then, I have tons of other smaller ideas for stocking stuffers, more for girls than boys, but I'm still doing some research. Stuff like braided headbands and clothes. I can't go into detail about my other inspirations yet, but soon.
  Any ideas anyone wants to offer will be gladly received too.
 I'm also hoping to get some basic fall sewing done...so as you can see, my schedule is jam packed.
Well, I gotta scoot for now. Stay tuned. =)
                                                             

Ky getting her ears pierced

   Ed's Mom sent Ky a gift certificate to get her ears pierced for her birthday, and it just came in last night. She has been begging for awhile to get them done, so I wanted to not put it off any longer. Ed happened to be off yesterday so all of us girls ran off to the mall when it came in and got it done for her. And since the pictures tell the story pretty well....I will let them. =)

                                                   

Household tip #50

 Never give the pot with cream of wheat remnants to your young son and tell him to scrape it into the dog bowl. It will mysteriously disappear for about 3 days, then, when you see it again you won't recognize it, and lastly, cleaning it will take the better part of the next 2 days because you have to soak it so many times.
  Whew, glad to have that off my chest.

 So, in case I haven't mentioned, after much prep and organization we started school again last Mon. It was a good solid start, but in spite of my best efforts stuff just kept happening to derail us. By the time Thurs came around, I just quit for the week....
   First, Ed went back to work a day early (on Tues. instead of Wed.) So I was sort of disappointed to not have just the moral support of his being home a whole extra day. Then Asher started running a really high fever about halfway through the day. He wouldn't eat and just wanted to be held, and I was afraid it might be strep so I started dosing him with all my usual home remedies. Well, he slept with me that night so needless to day I didn't get much sleep. I think we finally both fell into a good sleep somewhere around 4 am so I was exhausted the next morning. I let Aaron fix breakfast while I caught a little more sleep, but then I did get up and we got another good day of school in. I had already decided I wasn't going to church with Asher running fever when Lela started feeling sick too. Long story short...every single one of the kids except for Aaron came down with the same thing over the last week/weekend. It's called hand, foot and mouth disease... a common virus in kids,  with fever and little blisters on the hands feet and mouth, and it basically has to run it's course. Well, I felt better about it not being strep, and found that peppermint oil at the base of the neck was a great pain reliever/fever reducer. They all got over it pretty quickly, but with it being highly contagious I still couldn't go to church Sunday ( I guess that was yesterday).
    Oh yeah, AND ( I almost forgot) ...Thurs morning when I was still going to try to do some school I had a run-in with the neighbor over our dog, first thing.  Maddie is a half Shepherd/half Boxer mix that we got  over a year ago as a puppy. She was adorable, but as she has gotten older she has gotten bigger and more hyper. I have not had the time to work with her so she is mostly lovable but untrained, and she learned to jump the fence. So, we put her on a run and she broke the cable, then, we put her on a stake and she pulled up the stake and broke the cable, then, we got a bigger cable which she had succeeded in breaking Thurs. morning and jumping the fence. Again. Aaron has just caught her and was bringing her back in the yard when the neighbor lady(whom I had never met) came marching over to speak to me. She informed me that this was the 2nd time my dog had bothered her dog who was in a fence and she was highly irritated. And obviously something was wrong with our fence and if we didn't do something about our dog she was going to take pictures and go to the law, etc.  I apologized as best I could explaining what all had happened but there was no appeasing her.  Sooooo...I had to tie Maddie up with a leash (praying it would hold) while I loaded up all my sick kids and went to Petsmart to get a new cable, before I could even start the day. Then I called Angie  to see if she and John wanted a dog. Thankfully they did, so at least I didn't have to call Animal Control. The kids were almost in tears thinking about it (I was in tears), but I knew there was no way we could risk a lawsuit. Anyway, it has all worked out...we got the dog delivered today and hopefully she will behave a little better over there....maybe.
     So here I am...the beginning of a new week... and we haven't made a whole lot of progress on the school thing. But I hope to try again tomorrow.  =)
                                                                 

So Blessed

 Ever once in a while, I will look at someone else's life and feel the teensiest bit jealous. It seems they have it all together. Dream home, perfect schedule...etc. And then I look at my 7 blessings and am so ashamed that I'm not content with what we have. The Lord has blessed me beyond measure...and all the material things in the world could not take their place. We do have a cozy home...far more than many other people have. We actually have indoor plumbing and electricity. We have more than enough food to eat. We are healthy. And we have each other. ( I don't mean just our immediate family either, but all our extended family, and friends who are like family, and our church family...) Like I said...soooo blessed!
 Granted, I would not turn down a big old house (with more than one bathroom =) if it was given to us. lol. But truly, that is not what makes you happy. That comes from being thankful, and knowing you are right where you are supposed to be!!
 Even as I type I have seven wiggly little bodies all squeezing on my bed, with their newest library books, each one wrestling for the best position... and I can't help but smile.
                                      

Kids at BAM

Jessica at the BAM

Asher singing

Not creative enough for a title right now....

But I figured it was time for an update anyway. I think I mentioned we got back from vacay about 2 weeks ago now...

My time since then has just flown! I've been trying to get my house clean, been waging all out war on ants ( those industrious little critters are driving me crazy), been trying to get organized for school, and in random moments I've been learning about digital scrapbooking.

As would be expected, it took me several days to unpack and and do some basic straightening, but then I had to get down and do some deep cleaning. I think it must something with the weather but ants have besieged us lately. And although, yes, we have our fair share of crumbs, (7 kids will do that), it is only recently that the ants started coming inside. So I'm going through every room and every cabinet and drawer and wiping and spraying peppermint and mopping... Apparently all to no avail because they JUST KEEP COMING. And I've even gotten super vigilant with the crumbs. Don't get me wrong, I do clean regularly (and repeatedly)but I've found it useless (need I add, unhealthy) to obsess about all the dirt and mess kids can make. But I'm afraid lately I've been obsessing about every crumb. Not that that helps anything. =) I may have to find some kind of poison....but anyway. Lest I bore you, I'll move on.

Schoolwise I've been trying to take advantage of the back to school sales and I've stocked up on glue and pencils and notebooks, etc. The kids always enjoy this part too. I let them pick out their favorite notebooks and folders (in the $1 section=). I hadn't planned to start back so soon but we have alot of catching up to do. Mostly in Math, so that's our focus for now, but I'll be adding in the other subjects soon.

Then, I've been learning about digital scrapbooking, which ... honestly, has surprised me. I love the hands-on, creative aspect of scrapbooking and have avoided digital for a long time because it seemed remote and impersonal. But, thanks to my sister-in-law, Rachel, I've been finding out that: 1. there's tons of free stuff out there so no money is spent; 2. it's not messy so all I have to do is close my laptop when I'm done; 3. my pictures are already here, I don't have to print them off; and 4. it really is fun. I still prefer the other, but I don't have the time or space to do it at all right now, so with all that, digital is a pretty good substitute. And I'm getting my pictures scrapbooked. At some point I can either print the pages or make a photo book, but for now it's a great free option. I would love to share some of my creations but I haven't figured out how to do that yet. Still learning!

Well, I gotta run now! TTYL