She sews some more

Nothing much. Just a cowboy skirt for Esther (a cowboy PRINT skirt. NOT a skirt for cowboys! Haha!) and a pair of purple jeans. The skirt will eventually have an matching appliqued shirt and a corduroy vest. When I say eventually- I mean never. What I really mean is, it really should have those things, I have deamt them up in my head, but I will never get them done.

Also made her a very wrinkledy pair of jeans. These are a fantastic fit on her, unfortunately, these were made with a friend several years ago when we were part of a stash game (goal is to use as much fabric as possible in one month). They were made for her daughter who is now half grown. All they needed was elastic to be finished. We had a ton of those. UFO's. Unfinished objects. When I say a ton, what I really mean, is a literal ton. Two large rubbermaid containers worth of stuff in various stages of unfinishedness. Many that just need elastic. Or hemming. or buttons. Oh no! That does not bode well for Esther's coat.

She sews.

A sweet little coat from Esther. She loves it. I love that I bound it in fleece from her old baby blanket. How sweet is that. Hmm, I may have enough fleece for a pair of mittens!

Oh, it still needs toggle buttons. I haven't found the perfect ones yet. If you find any, let me know.

I'm evil

Or an angel. Take your pick.
I have been playing at matchmaking and enjoying myself thoroughly.

And I looked this up- just for you. Enjoy.



And, if you catch yourself dancing in your kitchen, or while doing your laundry... don't forget to thank me.

Happy Valentine's Day

These o'alls are going to be titled 'What was i thinking?" The fact was, I was not thinking. I could make a list of my unthoughtfulnesses.
1. Stripes. Ugh. Had to cut them out twice and because the repeat is so big, there was no way to line the stripes up with the bib and she looks like she has two different pant legs. She is a valentine's day clown.
2. I sewed the straps on upside down. TWICE!
3. They should fit her well in oh....three more years.
4. I didn't start them until yesterday which means I was up at six, sitting at my sewing machine.
But Esther loves them. She wants more. I think I will pull my heair our now and get the balding process over with.
A closeup of the straps. I like how these turned out. That's is Esther's naked friend Caroline. I made it for her last year sometime and she has ignored Caroline ever since. But, suddenly, today, Caroline just HAS to be in the picture. With no clothes. Esther's friends are all nudies.

THe boy got a cuddle bug, because he IS my cuddle bug.
Which he reminded me of very promptly. "This is not a cuddle bug." he says. I am your cuddle bug. THIS is a sleeping beetle."
He loves it. Which is good because ugly beetles that look like the love child of a frog and a crab need to be loved. Weston is the perfect little man for the job.

I didn't leave Marcus out.
A card of 'get out of Dishwasher Duty" coupons. "Is this what I think it is?" he asked. When he received the affirmative answer...
I thought his face would break from the smile. Nothing like the joy of getting out of having to do dishes.

Good Morning Monday!

A place for everything. And everything in its place. Thanks to my dad and thrity some odd years of practice, it's a lesson I have learned fairly well.
Everything in my kitchen has adesignated spot. If it doesn't have a spot, I don't let it in. I'm mean to stuff. Cruella DeStuff. I have a basket for my root veggies. I have a basket for the dogs this and that, and another basket for all our vitamins and any meds we are currently taking. T

he best way to make you life in the kitchen simple is to take every single thing OUT of the kithen and then put it back ion it's own perfect spot. Now, the perfect spot in my kitchen changes. All the time. I get bored easily. This drives Dustan bonkers as he tries to find his vitamins and they have moved from the cabinet by the sink to the pantry. One day, I will be old and crippled and won't be able to move stuff around, I will probably die of boredom. Anyhow, the point is, that it doesn't. It all still has it's own place. Until it changes addresses, it will go in that specific place. Everything needs a home.

And if it doesn't have one- this is what happens to it: I love freecycle. It's the best thing that happened to mankind. I'm too lazy for a garage sale, and so, I posted the following offer on freecycle today.
OFFER: Half a garage sale. Not the stuff I didn't sell, but the stuff I am to lazy to bother to sell. make some money on my stuff. Pick it up by noon, and take it ALL.

It was gone within half an hour. It would have taken me three times as long to pack it up, drag my kids out, and drive to the goodwill. I heart freecycle. It helps me to declutter my life.

THe best Valentine's gift ever

No. Not Esther. She didn't arrive until a few months after valentine's day. And the gift isn't even for her, but she dominates the day, yet again. How DOES she do that?

The boys came home from church (I was sick yet again) and I surprised them with tickets to.....
drum roll please...
thrrrthrrrthrrrthrrthrrhtrhthrhthrtthhhrthhhrthhhrthhrthhh...........



MONSTER JAM!!!!!! I mean come on! I have to be the best mother in the world. For those not in the know, Monster Jam happens to be a monster truck rally. DunDunDunDuh! Supermom! Right?

Wrong. You see, I was sadly mistaken when I thought that Essie-girl would rather have a night out with mama than to go to the Monster truck rally. So I only bought tickets for daddy, Weston, and Marcus, who, by the way, were spinning in giddy circles with excitement. Esther screamed her head off when she realized she didn't get the grand prize of all gifts.
"Come on sweetie,"I soothed. "You and mama are going to have a tea party.
I am ashamed to say that the child hauled off and hit me. She was beyond pissed off. I wish you could have seen her face. It turned from sweet pink, to green with envy, to red with fury, to black with brooding, all in the course of a few minutes.
She calmed down after a while and I assumed she had forgotten.

Then came Esther's prayer of blessing for our lunch.

"Dear God,
Thank you for my food.
thank you for my mommy and my daddy.
Thank you for my wonderful princess surprise gift!
Amen."

I stared at her.
"What Princess surprise gift are you talking about, Esther?" I asked.
"Member Mommy. You are going to buy me a wonderful princess surprise since I can't go to the monster truck race place."

First off, I promised her no such thing. Secondly, who taught my daughter to be so manipulative? Thirdly, this child went from monster trucks to.....princesses? She is so confusing.

And she is brilliant. I am already brainstorming what kind of Princess surprise gift I can get for her. (of course, perhaps, this is more indicative of her mother's stupidity that her own genius.

A Birthday Skirt for a Good Friend

I am way late on this gift, and since, because of our illness, the birthday gorl had to cancel her party, I wanted to make it extra special. I think she will big, fat, puffy, heart it.
Two layers of goodness, with a little special detail, just for Margeaux. She deserves it...she is an awesome kid. I think the fabric "best friends" is especially sweet because her mama is my bestest friend, and because Margeaux is such a special friend to Esther.

Speaking of Esther:
She is a wee bit jealous. Just a tiny bit.

The question is:

Will blogger let me post pictures today?
I guess the answer is yes!
Okay, well now. Here are the pictures of what we have been working on in school. oceans. That is a model of the ocean floor you see there. Look close. That's the continental shelf. I bet you haven't heard that term since grade school. I had a bit of brain pop when I first said it aloud. All of the sudden my brain flooded with multiplication facts, roller skates, and candy cigarettes. It is funny what I have to teach my kids, things I can make seem oh so important, that in reality I haven't thought about for a single day since the day in third grade I first heard of it. It will probably remain important to my kids though. especially the one who wants to grow up and be a polar bear.
I end my daily post with a picture of Marcus doing his math exercise. There are several bonuses of doing a math lesson this way. I will list them for you.
1. You won't have to listen to three hours of screaming over 5 itty bitty math problems.
2. You won't, therefore be tempted to a. send your kid packing to public school, or b. throw him out your window.
3. Your child will get a practical knowledge of fractions when he has to add 1/4 and 1/4 because you force him to make two boxes of brownies.
4. Instead of an end product of papers, you will have double chocolately Giradelli Brownies.
5. Even if he never has to add 1/4 and 1/4 ever again, at least he will know how to crack an egg

Learning Adventures

Well, I had this whole post on what we've been doing in school lately, but Blogger adamantly refused to accept any other pictures ecxept the one above.  There is a T-shirt designing contest at our karate dojo and so we buckled down and designed a couple.  The one on the left is Marcus.  He really wanted the tiger to be attaking a zookeeper and all the zoo animals to be watching, but after spending the entire day on just this part, he altered his plan.  He was about to hand it in when he noticed his tiger had no tail.  Fortunately, Sensei Penny let him add one reallly quickly.  the funny thing was, when we veiwed the other entries, none of the tigers had tails.  Anyhow, this was one of our learning adventures.  Weston and I posed in our karate stances while Marcus sketched out our basic shapes on a piece of paper.  Then he traced those shapes into forms, and then traced again, one more time, adding details like a karate uniform and tiger stripes.

The one on the right is my design.  And Weston's too.  Here's what I did.

Take a picture of Weston's belt.

Mess around with the printer for over an hour trying to print it.

Finally print it.

Trace the ooutline with a sharpie.

Turn it over and retrace, to make sure the knot was on the correct side.

Use a pencil to trace onto ANOTHER piece of paper.

Write in the words.

Here is what Weston did:

Trace over my pencil lines with a darker line.

Come up with the center design and trace over the words.

But he says he did it by himself.

Today, in class, it was shown as a great example of thinking outside the box (because everyone else used our name -Three Tigers- and drew tigers) and I was proud.

Of Weston, I guess.  Cause he made me put his name on the back and tell Sensei Penny he did it.  I told Sensei Penny he "helped".  If we win, I am going to pat myself on the back.  okay, I'll pat him too.  He is a good tracer afterall.

I am sure I bored you with all this.  I wanted to tell you all about our ocean floor project, but even it would have been boring without pictures.  Maybe Blogger will be behaving itself by tomorrow and I can show you what we did.

Meantime, I will leave you with this really cool random fact:

A Blue Whale's TONGUE weighs more than an elephant!!!!

Hospitality is not a gift I have

Everytime we have people over, I panic. I always forget the little things, like asking if they want a drink, or cleaning the toilet. One time I walked into the guest bathroom after our visiters had left and found a giant green booger on the mirror. I doubt it was left there by our guest. I just stink at thinking of things...like looking at the mirror (which I have never actually forgotten again).
Anyhow, this year I set out to learn to be hospitable. I wanted to learn the art of hostessing, and I use my mother in law as my prime example. THAT woman has a gift. It's rather supernatural in my opinion. She knows how to decorate, how to cook for large crowds, and how to make sure that every single person feels inportant. I have a long way to go, but I have learned a lot from her.
One thing I have learned is to have a party routine. Pam cooks the same meal every Christmas, and puts out the same party platters for every party. She knows exactly what to do because she has done it so many times before. So. When I volunteered to host our Sunday School get together, I went to my party standby.
Make-Your-Own-Pizza-Party. It works well. I make the crust and let it rise while everyone visits, then I just fill bowls with a variety of toppings and call everyone into the kitchen to make-their-own. This is the third time I have done this, and it was a relief to have everything already practiced out before hand. It was easier to remember everything.



I still have some perfecting to do though. I forgot to push start on my oven and the pizzas sat in a cold oven for about thirty minutes when I finally wondered what was taking them so long to cook. One step at a time. Right?
That's our Sunday School teacher. Nick. Yep, he's young. But is mature in the Lord. And he's looking for a wife. And I like to play matchmaker. And I think it's probably a good thing he doesn't know I have a blog.

Pretzal Party

I am finally catching up here on toasty toes blog. I have finally after a couple of hours of uploading pictures, reached the pinacle of the year. Christmas Day.
By the time the Christmas pretzal party time arrived, I was sick as sick could be of being in my kitchen, so I begged my daddy and Dustan to head up the task. I just snapped a million pictures, cringed at all the finger licking, and laughed at the crazy candy combinations they came up with.
Also, you will perhaps see reason number 523 why I have not blog posted in so long. Work day never actually did end. It's still going on. In fact, it went forward even today. Dustan is busy laying flooring as I type and I am busy waiting for my freshly painted pantry door to dry so that I can move it out and start painting my basement door. You will see our new cabinets, and new paint color. You will not however see any window coverings, or a countertop. The countertop will be here next week, and the floor will also be done next week. I have lived in a quasi kitchen for over a month (we started this at the beginning of Nov., and I am ready to have a kitchen back. for those who may be wondering why we got new cabinets when the old, lovely blue ones were so cheery and pretty...well, the best explanation is that we will be selling the house. Which is reason number 524 for the lack of posting. I am mourning my lovely house- But, God has big plans for my family, and the first step is to get this house sold. So, I am no longer making decisions based on my own likes, but the possible likes and desires of the "everywoman". I am not everywoman, and this has been quite a grueling task for me.

But without further ado, here is pretzel day: (oh, and blooger pics is broken at the moment and so I had to use photobucket- which means I can't control the size. if this causes your computer to have a stroke and die- I am sorry. check back later and hopefully blogger will fix their issue AND I will have time to add smaller pictures.)

All about me

Perhaps the reason my blog went south for the winter is that I ws busy writing my second novel. It was national novel writing month in Novemeber, and I focused my time into writing. This year I managed to write something readable and after a couple of re-writes and a professional editing job it will be on its way to an agent...or 50 agents. My goal is to get 50 rejection letters by nano time next year.
I rewarded myself, or I should say that Dustan rewarded me, with an early Christmas present. Yes. It's real. I researched my artist for over a year and chose someone who does beautiful feminine tatoos, all without outlines. She was an artist with a brush long before she found she had a skill for skin art


here is the artist gallery in case you are interested.

Happy Belated Halloween

Hahaha! For some reason, posting all these belated greetings crack me up. I am easily amused, which is a good thing I suppose.


The boys made their own glow in the dark skeleton costumes with very little help from mama. I have very creative little boys.

Work Day

Weston is such a helper.

He even lays down flooring. It's like having our own personal slave,

who takes continuous breaks for dog licks and snuggles.

"come on Heidi. Time to get to work now. Out of the way."

Heidi scoffs at our attempts to move her and lies down right on the flooring we are trying to lay.

And she says, 'I ain't movin'. Just try to make me."

Good Morning Monday!!!

Fall is here and the skies have become gray. My Monday morning pep has gone the way of the Canadian geese. South.

It happenes every year. Fall is my favorite season but I can hardly enjoy it due the the foreshawdowing of winter. winter is cold, gloomy, and lonely. And every year I fret that my trees will not burst forth in new foliage come spring. By the time winter gets here I am tired of gloominess and seek out medicinal help. It happpens every winter. You would think my doctor would see a pattern and diagnose me with seasonal depression. or whatever it's called.

But, because I have a goal to declutter my life, and because gloominess has no room (I filled it up with smiles, and laughter, and soft-voices remember?), I am going to be proactive. I have heard that there are special lightbulbs that can help with SAD (seasonal affective disorder- I just looked it up) and I plan to buy some. It can't hurt. I also plan to do some research and see if there are some herbal remedies that may help.

Do any of my readers suffer from SAD? Have you heard of it? Do you know of any non-medicinal remedies? Let me know.

no picture today because blogger is broken. How depressing. I think I will go back to bed...

It's Friday

and time for Show and Tell.

Today I want to show a before and after. And this is the second SnT that I will make my sister cry (the first was a gigantic spider web). This one is not as frightening.
Before:


After:

I am not a fan of dark wood, and I adore painted wood. So paint it I did, and I love the way it turned out. I used the directions I found at (oh boy, I forgot where I found them and a half an hour search has tuned up nothing) Anyhow, I also colorcoded my books which is something else I saw on a blog somewhere. Blogs are great for ideas.

Good Morning Monday!

Let's Simplify our lives shall we?

These Monday Morning posts come to you from an effort to make my life less cluttered. Read this post to understand better.

Todays tip is:
Slow down your morning. Take at least the first hour of your morning and press the sllllloooooowwwww button on your life's remote. There is no need to zip through your morning routine as if your life will pass you by unless you hurry hurry hurry. actually, I have found it to be the opposite. Life passes you by while you hurry and scurry doing things that don't really count as living. However, if you slow things down a bit (ok- a lot) you will find that you have time to do a lot of living in those simple mundane moments.

Choose something you love for that first hour of the morning. If you have a task that MUST be done, find a way to enjoy doing it. Do it slowly with reverence and calm for the gift of a new day that God has given you.
*Make your bed and take a deep breath. Sigh with pleasure about crawling into a nice soft bed after a long day.
*Take your dog outside and don't hurry him. Even if it's raining. Take time to enjoy the rain. Take a deep breath.
* SIT DOWN with a cup of coffee and your favorite magazine. Take a deep breath.

I want to also say that in this age of rushing, rushing, and more rushing our children are likely feeling as frazzled as we are. Let them slow down too. I payed close attention to my mornings for a week, and I noticed that when my children sat down to curl up on the couch, went outside on our deck to snuggle with Heidi, or laid down on the floor for a good old fashioned stretch, I was quick to give them a barrage of to-do questions.
Did you make you bed?
Have you gone to the bathroom?
Did flush the toilet, wash your hands?
Marcus, take this washcloth and wipe down the bathroom sinks.
Weston, bring down your laundry baskets so I can do the laundry.
Esther, go straighten up the shoes in the foyer.
all of you, get over here and eat your breakfast.
Are you done with that?
I need to wash these dishes. Hurry up.
Lets' get our school work started. Sit down. get your glasses on. Go get your math book.

And on and on and on.

No wonder it felt like our lives were cluttered

Our new mornings are clear from all this garbage for at least one hour. We have things we have to get done. Breakfast has to be eaten, the dog has to be taken out. But we slow it down, and we enjoy each other while we do those things. Anything that can wait until hour two, waits until hour two.

For those of you who have to leave the house in the morning- you will probably need to wake up and hour early for this to work. I homeschool and can allow ourselves an extra hour in the morning. However, I have found myself getting up earlier in order to extend the morning calm. Now I usually have at least half an hour of time to myself before the kids wake up. I slllloooowwwwwly make myself a cup of coffee and stand on my deck watching all the suburban wildlife scamper through my yard.

This slow time always feels a bit like camping. Which hapens to have been the point.

And because it's Monday: Here's my weekly menu

Fennel-Crusted Pork Loin with roasted potatoes and pears
Roasted pacific cod with olives and lemons
Spanish chicken and rice
Easy Shepherd's Pie
Chicken Picada
Tamale Pie
Autumn veggie Minestrone (Crockpot meal)
2 14.5 oz cans vegetable broth
1 18 oz can crushed tomatoes's undrained
3 medium carrots -- chopped (1 ½ cups)
3 small zucchini -- cut into 1/2" slices
1 medium yellow bell pepper -- cut into 1/2" pieces
8 medium green onions -- sliced (1/2 cup)
2 cloves garlic -- finely chopped
2 cups shredded cabbage
2 teaspoons dried marjoram
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 cup uncooked instant rice
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil

Mix all ingredients except rice and basil in a 3 ½ to 6 quart slow cooker. Cover and cook on low heat setting for 6 to 8 hours or until vegetables are tender. Stir in rice. Cover and cook on low heat setting for about 15 minutes or until rice is tender.

Per serving: WW Points: 1; 195 Calories (kcal); 2g Total Fat; 7g Protein; 39g Carbohydrate; 1mg Cholesterol; 1198mg Sodium

House Guests are coming

And you know what that means. Yep. Time to get all those nooks and crannies cleaned.

Here's a recipe for window cleaner- in case you don't already have one. Personally, my windows need to be gone after with a power hose but this will have to do for now.


Homemade window cleaner

1 cup rubbing alcohol

1 cup water

1 tablespoon vinegar

Using isopropyl alcohol and white vinegar together makes a quickly evaporating spray glass and mirror cleaner that competes with national brands. This can also be used to give a nice shine to hard tiles, chrome, and other surfaces.

Good Morning Monday!

Happy Monday Morning to you all! Why am I chipper this morning? Because being chipper is less complicated than being grumpy- and I am on a mission to simplify my life. Wahooo! Exciting isn't it? So every Monday, I plan to share a tip on life simplification. Join me on my mission to unclutter our lives. Today is such an exciting day that I am going to give you two tips. TWO! Yay! Free tips! Wahoooo!

Tip number one: Don't answer the phone. I spent a day calculating how much time I spent running after that annoying ring. Ridiculous! I would stop everything, reading, doing dishes, laundry, helping kids with work...everytime I heard a bdddrrriinnnnnggg. Stupid me. No more. Now I am smart me. Now, if I am in the middle of something, I ignore the phone.
I have voice mail. Next time I walk by the phone, I can look and see who called. Bonus is that I don;t have to talk to anyone I don't want to. So. if you call me and I don't answer, it may be that I am home and have chosen to ignore call in an effort to de-clutter my life. haha! Just kidding. I will call you back. Promi...

Tip number Two:
Make a menu. I make a very loose menu. There are seven days in the week and I make seven dinner plans and make sure I have all the ingredients on hand. This way, when it comes to dinner time, I can look at my list and make whichever meal sounds good that day. I make sure to include several "lazy" meals to use on those days that things are nutso in my house. I post this menu on my fridge and every morning I look at it and decide what meal would fit best for today. I write that meal on my dry erase board so I don't forget it. My memory is worse than my typing. Here's a peek into this weeks menu. They are all weight watchers menus and come either from client websites or from the cookbook Flex and Core.

Apple Crusted pork with sweet potatoes
Cheesy Mushroom Burgers with steamed broccoli
Chicken picada with green peas
Summer Corn, bacon, and Potato chowder with salad
Dijon Beef Stroganoff with artichokes
Chicken Souvlaki with rice and yogurt sauce
Tex-mex turkey Meatloaf with coucous and green beans


PS, I added a sweet early morning picture to cheer you up. And freak my sister out- because freaking her out cheers ME up!!!!! happy Monday y'all!!!!!

Just another day:

A busy busy day.
But oh so good. We had friends over for some school time and craft time. All while the lovely new carpet was being laid. We decoupaged little wooden pumpkins and they had a blast!








While I fixed lunch, Marcus read a book to his friends. He read with expression and made his mama proud. he got some of my genes afterall.