Sisters

I know today is all about the Dad's, but I did not have the time to write all that I wanted to about that topic. More about the boys later. Today I am grateful for sisters. I have 2 wonderful younger sisters who I completely love. Now that we are "grown up" the years between us melt away and I am getting to know them more than ever before. Sorry Derek and Matt, I know we are closest in age, but brothers, you're nothin' like sisters! However, those brothers did get lucky and found really amazing girls to marry. I learn so much from them all the time. It has been only a few weeks since I saw them last, but today as I saw them all at family dinner, I realized how much I missed all 4 of my sisters. I love you girls!

Summer Projects

My Favorite Project...

Being a mom!

Sunday night I couldn't sleep. So many things were running through my head. The following week was extra busy so I got out of bed to reorganize my to-do lists and add a few new items. I also was stressing about "my" summer projects. Ha, ha you may say. How is a mom, home with all her kiddos supposed to get anything extra done? I had such high hopes for sewing millions of dresses over the summer. "I am going to be soooo organized," I thought. I had small manageable sewing projects scheduled for each week. Nothing too big, but just enough to help me stay on top of my projects! Ha!

I am now how many weeks into the summer and have not had time for a thing. I wondered if sewing all summer for a boutique in August was really the right thing for me to do. It was something I had been wanting to do for years. Something that I loved. So I took my worries to the Lord and gratefully realized that, yes, this was the right thing to do. So my next worry was how I could find the right balance for everything.

You see, I was determined to make this summer fun and not a total bore for the kids just because I wanted to sew all day long. I made a new summer job chart for them. We signed up for a couple of summer activities. I even calendared 2 "fun days" each week when we would do our extra fun things (thanks Sara Stoddard). I was not willing to sacrifice their summer, but with a 4 month old baby to top it off, how could I get it all done? How could I find the right balance? I racked my brain to no avail.

Then I got my answer- in an email. The sweet, sweet woman organizing the boutique informed me last night that the boutique would no longer be scheduled for August but for the beginning of November. November! Are you kidding?! This was perfect. It gave me extra time to sew during the school year when my two oldest would be gone. It worked especially well since the majority of dresses I wanted to sell were Christmas dresses. Can you believe it?! My prayers were answered. The overwhelming stress diminished and I took in a deep breath of relief. There had been no balance for my little situation, so the Lord sent me more time. I am immensely thankful that Heavenly Father is aware of my needs, my desires. I am so grateful that there can be balance.

Sunday Morning Criminal Damage

It's Sunday morning so we followed the same routine we always do: get up, get ready for church, leave for church around 7:30. But this time we had a little surprise!

Yep, that is what you think it is: red spray paint on the back of our car. I'm not sure what Redm means but I was a little ticked, obviously.

We were a little later for church than we like so we drove on to church and while I was waiting for Sacrament Meeting to start I looked up how to remove spray paint from a car. Luckily, there were a lot of answers!

The one I decided to use was WD-40 and a washcloth. After Sacrament Meeting, I went home to move the car inside the garage and get the paint off of it as soon as possible. It took about an hour but most of the paint is now off. The only paint left is anything that was in the scratches that were on the trunk of the car. I'll go back later tonight to use a toothbrush and try to get the paint out that way.

I did report it to the police and that's where I got the title of the blog post. When the police officer called he said, "You reported some criminal damage. I am calling to get your report." It made me realize how bad this really is. It's not just someone causing us a bit more work today. It actually is criminal! We made sure to talk to the kids about what happened, why it was so bad and why they should respect the property of other people.

Anyone else have something like this happen recently?

Double Duty

All I can say is...... 2 loads of laundry, washed and dried. One little brown crayon. Ugh. Any good advice?

okay, after the millions of little brown spots and streaks on every piece of cloths. Here is the solution I found online:

Pre-treat with Zout, double amount of Tide, 1/2 cup Borax, 1 scoop of oxi clean, all in the hottest water you can get in a double rinse cycle. IT WORKED!

Can you say...Child Prodigy

Adam's development has been so fun to watch. He can roll over each way and scoot himself in circles. His hand eye coordination is improving, though occasionally you might find him bonking himself repeatedly. He is even trying out his first foods. At 4 1/2 months old his language skills have gone from a gentle dove like coo to slobbery gurgles. Just about every day "we" (mom & son) practice words like: kisses, mom, dad, Emi, Josh & love you. During our routine I typically get a smile from ear to ear or even a little babble. Tonight though, tonight he became our very own child prodigy. Remember, only 4 1/2 months. He must get it from Daddy.

P.S.- Sorry about the end. He got so excited he puked.

I'm So Sneaky!

I am sooooo sneaky! Last night I decided to make that potato casserole that everyone makes. You know, grated potatoes, "cream of something" soup, grated cheese....Well since I don't know how to make my own "cream of anything" soup yet (which one day I hope to be able to do), I decided to add some fresh veggies to give it a little fresher flavor. I started to saute some onions, garlic and celery to soften them up a little. As I pulled my veggies from the fridge, I saw the sweet potatoes and zucchini in there too. That is when genius happened. I peeled and grated both, added them to the saute pan to cook them a little and then mixed all the veggies in the casserole. They were completely disguised! The zucchini almost matched the color of the potatoes and the sweet potato looked like cheese. Now my kids are pretty good about eating anything, even veggies, but I was so glad that I could make this generations-old recipe a little more healthy. The best part...NO one noticed the difference in the casserole! I am sooooo sneaky.

Mr. Smarty Pants

What is this, the first full week of summer? Yesterday, Josh begged me all day long to give him math problems to work on. When I told him I knew of a website I could get work pages from, he hit cloud nine. Yes, he loves it. Finally this morning I printed out 20 pages of math, word search, and language pages for him. I told him he could only do 2 pages a day hoping this packet would last him a good few weeks. His plea was this, "Can't I do 3 pages just this once?" He just can't help it. He loves to learn. He loves to know everything. What a smarty pants!