our visit from the crazy leprechaun

Happy one day late Saint Patrick's Day everyone!



St. Patrick's Day is one of those "holidays" I'm not quite sure what to do with. Sure, we wear green and generally eat something green and/or made with potatoes, and last year we even had a history lesson on who St. Patrick really was (they still remembered all about him this year, so I didn't see any reason to repeat THAT idea!). But what else, I wondered, can you do to have a little fun with this day..... just for the hecuvit?!



Then I read about Kim's great St. Patty's day tradition. It involves getting a visit from a seemingly deranged leprechaun. He comes to your house, rearranges all your furniture in a nonsensical kind of way, and maybe even drops a few treasures for you to find.

Of course, I didn't read her post until it was already St. Patrick's day morning--but I thought I could still make it work for us. After a quick trip to the store, I had all the boys play out back while I "leprechauned" our house. They had a great time searching out the treasure:

The leprechaun did a fine job of messing up our living room..... but it looks like he forgot that mint chocolate ice cream on top of the big upturned ottoman! (see it?) Finders, Keepers Mr. Leprechaun!

Oh!--looks like he got the family room too. And left a box of Lucky Charms next to our milk that he turned green!

And LUCKY US!--He even left his pot of gold behind!!! Who knew it was made of chocolate?

(He also"tinkled" green (food coloring) in our toilet--which the kids got a huge kick out of, but which I'll spare you the picture of :)!).

I think Ethan summed it all up when he said "I thought today was going to be boring, but now I think St. Patrick's day is actually pretty fun!".

I thought so too! Thanks for the new tradition Kim!

a little sad and a lot of happy

When someone says, "I have some good news and I have some bad news" which do you request to hear first? I always ask for the bad first, so that my mind gets to leave on something positive. I think we'll do it that way here too.
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The bad news is: Both of my tests came back positive yesterday for a heart virus. It is not contagious (thank goodness!) --but it is serious. Until it runs its course (usually 6 weeks to 3 months) I am in danger of going into cardiac arrest. I can go about my normal routine--I just have to do it slowly and rest whenever and as soon as I start to feel like I'm working my heart. I am not happy about this. It's going to mean accepting a lot of help from people I would rather be helping. It's going to mean some pretty boring days for my kids. It's going to mean trying to find another outlet besides exercise (which I have ALWAYS used) to deal with stress. I'm going to a cardiologist later this week and can give you more details when I find out. In the meantime, I figure being miserable won't do me any good--and so I'm choosing to focus on the happy things around me....



First of all...I FEEL GREAT!!! For the first time in almost three weeks, my joints don't hurt. I have gone from 110 mg of Toradol (anti-inflammatory) a day (the most a body can tolerate without overdosing) to a mere 10 mg (only at night). That is pretty amazing if you ask me! If I didn't feel the pain in my heart, I would be up and dancing today! It is an incredible feeling! I am so happy that "taking it easy" doesn't mean laying in my bed all day. The doctor stressed my ability to get up LIVE--just to do it very slowly, and plan on about a quarter to half of what I would normally do.
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Second, my kids can go OUTSIDE again! It was a bit cool and windy today-- but it wasn't too horrible--and it wasn't snowing! I got to be a very happy spectator to a soccer match, trampoline tricks, and sandbox art. My daffodils and crocus are popping up, and I don't even care that the melted snow revealed the poor shape the backyard was left in this Fall ;)!


There are PRETTY FLOWERS in my house.....

I got these when I thought Lee Ann was coming for a visit--but she ended up sick with strep. Thought she'd appreciate pictures of them anyway! And flowers always make me smile!
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I also got this cute Dick and Jane BAG from my homeschooling buddy Corrie.
She owns a really neat shop called Quilt Taffy (I'll link it when she gets her internet site up and running!), and she always has the best things in stock. She knew I loved Dick and Jane and got this over to me. Jane is on the other side riding a tricycle.
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Finally, I found a screaming deal on a CHAIR. I went out for the first time in weeks by myself last night, and VERY SLOWLY walked around the Homegoods. And what did I find but a buff colored, quilted leather chair sitting there looking all lonely. She needs a little touch of love though....photos coming soon. I loves me a good deal!
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Here's to finding random happiness all around you!

happy things

I'm back, I'm back, I'm back!!! How many of you were sick of looking at that frowny face and hearing that Simple Minds song? Whoa-ho, that's a lot of hands--ha! ha!

Since I have done little to nothing of anything this week, I thought I'd at least group together the few tidbits and discoveries that brought a smile to my face in the midst of all the gloom.
First off, I got a few more Valentines Day decorations up. My flower tree was thrilled to have a little company. Not sure why I keep stringing holiday decorations across my front window--it just seems to work. (And yes, those snow swirl decorations are still up from Christmas--but it's been too stinking cold to go outside and wash my windows. Plus I decided they were wintery enough to stay up till the end of this month. Right? I need some backing up on this one so I don't feel too lazy! ) I actually painted the clothespins silver, but I don't know if you can tell in the picture or not. And I love ric-rac--that's what they're hanging on.

Look at these pretty flowers. It's so good to see Tulips again. They're some of my favorites. There are even a couple of purple Cala Lillies in there--more of my favorites. I'm not too great making arrangements, but I do love having fresh flowers around. And I love the hobnail glass vase that use to belong to my mom. I think it suits them!
IT'S THE YEAR OF THE RAT! Get out those traps......


Feb. 5 was Chinese New Year. Did anybody know that? The boys and I read all about traditions associated with the holiday online, including the very elaborate way you're suppose to sweep your house before, during, and after the New Year. Fancy sweeping.... that sounds fun. Then we baked a cake to celebrate. The red scribbling is actually the Chinese symbol for Luck--Zane put it on. And thanks for the fortune cookie recipe Emily--that's what those potato chip looking thingies all around the cake are. We made fun family fortunes like "You will win the Pinewood Derby" to put in them. I'll have to share my buttercream frosting recipe sometime. It uses marshmallow fluff and is practically the only frosting I'll eat. But right now I have more to show you.....

Look what I got in the mail today.. I'm sure hanging my nice gift off the drapery cleat was not the best prop modeling, but I was trying to capture the last bit of daylight!
These are just too cute for words! I got them from Beckie for helping her tackle painting vertical stripes on her playroom walls. The paper words are actually soldered (I think that's how you spell it--darn no spell check!!!) between two thin panes of glass--and she did it herself!!! How awesome is that? And they're hung on chainmail--be still my heart. I adore chain mail! **Thank you so much Beckie!** My favorite part was that they came in this cute little package that she hand decorated with crayon flowers. I'll probably keep that as long as I keep the necklaces :)!

Next, I don't know if any of you are aware that my birthday is coming up. Yes, in just 4 short months..... So, I'm putting in my order early. If any of you would like to get me one of these beauties, I won't protest. Don't these just look like something any self-respecting 21st century June Cleaver (that's me!) should have? I'd totally wear them over my jeans out in public. (I'm just kidding, by the way, I don't really solicite birthday gifts from people!--but I did want you guys to see them.)

And finally, this little guy always makes me happy...(except when he's infuriating me!---)
I realized it had been a while since I'd put a picture of James up, so I just wanted to throw this in. He is almost 21 months now and such a smart little stinker. The other day Liam and I were doing a dot-to-dot together and counting out loud as we went. We had paused at the 11 dot and were looking for 12, when from behind me I hear James pipe in "tweve, tur-teen, foh-teen". I'm sensing a full ride Harvard scholarship here.....

I hope I've managed to entertain ya'al a bit and to convince Lee Ann that I'm not dead! It's so good to be back.

upkeep

You know how you're advised to change your oil every 3 months or 3,000 miles? Put new batteries in your smoke detectors every daylight savings time? Replace your furnace filter every 8 weeks? All that stuff that occupies so much of our time and space on our to-do lists? You know....upkeep?! I noticed a lot of things around here today that needed some upkeep too....

For example, because I didn't keep up with cleaning at the same rate my children were un-cleaning, my house ended up looking like this:

Because I didn't keep up with the "monitoring" of Brad, Zane and Ethan in the hot tub, they ended up daring one another to do this:
brrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!

then this:
I don't get this whole "male bonding" thing!!!

Luckily, I did keep up with coloring my hair (I remember when I use to color my hair because it was fun to have a change, not because it was gray as a grandma!), whitening my teeth (hooray for Crest White Strips!), shrinking my pores (if you could walk on my face you might fall into one of them!), and bleaching my 'stache ( no one else seems to notice the thin gray mark above my lip--but I do, therefore it has to go!): I know I'm a very brave woman to put this picture of myself up, but if you can't laugh at yourself, who can you laugh at, right? Besides--you have to be impressed with my multi-tasking beauty skills!

So I wouldn't end up looking like this: Finally, because I didn't keep up with my cutie-pie niece Karli, she went and had a cutie-pie baby that I want to take home and call my own! {Alright, this one probably doesn't go along with the rest of the post, but I went to her baby shower today and wanted to make sure it got mentioned. Would you look at how yummy little Gray is?!}:



And I'm sure if I didn't keep up with this blog, you'd all be heartbroken,right?!

makeovers

I discovered a site the other day that I couldn't stop looking at. It's this one. It features pictures of several glamorous and well-known stars. They look gorgeous and toned and perfect in every way........as long as you keep your cursor off them. As soon as you put it on ---aaaaaagh! (when you get to the site, click on portfolio, then click on the thumbnail of the star you want to laugh at :) ). That is the miracle of photoshop my friends. I knew they used photoshop to brush away the occasional zit or stray hair--but this is ridiculous. Mouse on Beyonce' and watch her calf muscle get suddenly huge. Mouse on Kelly Clarkson and she gains 15 pounds. Mouse on poor Britney Murphy and she looks like one of those "don't do drugs or you'll look like this" ads. Mouse on Halle Berry, and dang! she still looks perfect! Anyway, you must go check it out----but first finish reading this!



I was so inspired by all the before and after photoshop makeovers, that I decided to try out before and aftering stuff myself. First I did my big boys' room. They thought it was clean,



But I made it better:



Then I told all the boys to turn off the Insaniquarium game and go pick up the family room. This is them before I gave this command:




This is them after:



Because they were naughty and didn't obey me, they had to be my makeover guinea pigs.


First I did Ethan:





Wow! A little product can do wonders!





Next I took on Zane:



My husband must never, never see this photo. He doesn't care much for me putting makeup on his boys, but I say :"who else am I suppose to give glamorous makeovers to?"

This is Zane's friend Kody before:

And here he is after:

This makeover was a bit more abstract, but I felt it had that artsy, edgy feel to it. Poor Kody was probably sorely disappointed, and a little freaked out, that he chose to come over the day Zane's crazy mommy was giving weird makeovers--but he was a trooper.

Finally I took on my hardest subject of all. How do you improve on this?..........

Like this!:.................

Who doesn't look better in a Nacho Libre mask, right?

*I give full credit for this entire post to my friend "Chatty" (actually her name is Emily but I have one Emily to keep track of already, so Emily #2 gets the "Chatty" nickname). She did a similar post based on the photoshop site--but hers was funnier. Go read it!

Make a slideshow - it's easy!

things NOT to give children

Along with sharp knives, permanent markers, the keys to your car, and Tickle Me Elmo, I am adding THIS to the list of things not to give your children: THIS is a voice changer. Not only does it amplify my children's already loud voices, it also warps them into various robotic sounds, each more annoying than the next. Zane and Ethan have had fun singing "Mr. Roboto" into it (yes, my children actually know the words to that song.....they are modern men with a secret, secret......). Liam just likes to scream, loudly, into it. Repeatedly. Early in the morning. And he's teaching James.
I don't know what my sister was thinking when she bought these for Christmas gifts, but I bet she was laughing when she was thinking it.

And she's so generous, she gave us two.

Come on dollar store batteries--
wear out quickly!

terrible children!

No, my children aren't terrible, though lately they've been doing a few things that make me want to pull my rapidly graying hair out. But each time I feel ready to start down the road to "yellsville" because of some crazy shenanigan or another, I have to stop and remember what a terrible child I was.

I didn't mean to be terrible--perhaps just overly creative with too much time on my hands. My mom was widowed and so she had to work long hours to support us all. Until I was about 8, my brother and I went to a babysitter. I can't really remember why we stopped going, I just remember suddenly having a lot of time to ourselves after school. Time to do things like this:

Once I had a yard sale. Only I never asked, I just went around the house finding stuff I didn't like or didn't think we needed--none of my precious stuff mind you--but dishes, a lamp, some of my mom's clothes, my brother's winter coat with the pointy hood that bothered me---you get the picture. Needless to say my poor mother had to do some hunting around to our neighbors to get our things back and return the dimes and quarters I'd sold everything for.

Another time, I remember my brother and I drug our family's big beanbag outside. Then we got out the ladder and climbed up onto our roof. You can guess what's coming next. We had a jolly good time repeatedly jumping off the roof and onto the beanbag. We even invited a few lucky neighborhood children to join us!

We swam in the canal that ran through our neighborhood. We played with fireworks and caught my mom's bed on fire. We called the police when we saw 'strangers' in our neighborhood (little old people out on a walk). We loaned out expensive tools and fishing gear to our friends. We experimented with our own 'potions' in the kitchen. How we are still alive, I do not know. I can only attribute it to the fact that it was the early 80's and maybe every kid acted like that......maybe?!?!

So when I feel the need to punish Liam and the "spawn of Liam" as we so affectionately call James, or to ground these two amigos that seem to outsmart me at every turn--
I just remember my own mother who laughed (and cried!) and managed to get me through my childhood feeling loved and of worth------and I think I can try and do the same.

*I would LOVE to hear some crazy stories about anyone else's childhood. No teenage stories though please--because those can get really ugly :).

How to make a gingerbread house

First you need a few dishes of candy--you can try and snack on it if you like, but you may break a tooth.
Next, you need some cereal to make a charming cottage roof.
Then you need two boys willing to do a little decorating work.
All of this yields one cute gingerbread house.........
and one very messy kitchen.

We had a great time making this today. We worked mostly when James was napping, making the whole project a bit less hectic. Poor Liam wasn't able to help. He has had the stomach flu since midnight last night--this is his 4 th bout with it in about 8 weeks. We're going to the doctor tomorrow to make sure it isn't some kind of food allergy or water-born virus. Wish us luck!

pizza night with my strange children

Last night was pizza night --one night a month always much anticipated by our family. I had placed the order we were waiting and waiting and waiting and I guess my big kids must have gotten bored, because they both wandered off for a bit, and when they came back, Ethan had put all his clothes on backwards and drawn a face which he had taped to the back of his head.

"I am backwards man!" he said.

"and this is my sidekick, Zane, but he doesn't talk."
(Zane begins gesturing with his hands and spelling
various words with the sign language alphabet).
We smiled.
And so we ate dinner with backwards man and his
mute friend who gestured wildly to let us know he
wanted Oreos for dessert.

AND IT WAS VERY, VERY delicious!!!!
and entertaining.

*This evening sponsored by Pier 49's Embarcadero (pesto chicken pizza), and my two oldest children who are still capable of generating their own imaginative play, apparently.

What artistis we are!

For a field trip the week before last, the older boys and I went to the local paint-your-own overpriced ceramic workshop (o.k. so that's not its official name!). I'd never been before, so it was new for all of us. Our 'creations' were ready to pick up this weekend and here they are! Zane painted the BSU mug, Ethan wanted his mug to look like the circus, and mine is the one with various numbers stamped all over it (there are 3's and 4's on it too that you can't see in the photo--no significance in the number choices, I just like the graphic statement of numbers!). I thought they turned out pretty cute. I love that mine is more like the sipping bowls they have in France--big enough to keep your hands warm while you drink. I've had several cups of hot chocolate and cream, and apple cider in it too. Fun, fun, fun!!!

Zane and Ethan: Leaf Rakers, Inc.

Each year, my boys get SO excited to rake leaves. Then they always seem to rake up just enough to make a pile for jumping and burying themselves in. Good thing they're so cute doing it!