Crayons

I hate crayons and I love crayons. They are great for occupying time and fun to watch kids color things and be so proud of them. They are also a PAIN. Alyson was holding her crayons and straining. I asked her what was wrong and she replied simply,"It's not broken." The look on her face was "Duh daddy, can't you see what I'm trying to do." I have never seen crayons get totally used up before. I wonder what these execs. at these companies are thinking? Did they never have kids who would break the crayons so here I am to propose and idea that would revolutionize the crayon world -

Mini Crayons!!!!

Ok, I know that they exist but oh, the potential! A great marketing team could sell this. All you need is former parents who took an active role in the raising of their children.

I hate broken crayons!

Kids say the darndest things

It's dinnertime and our kids naturally hate everything they put in front of you but Alyson is fond of the bread family. We also had grapes and beef stroganoff but she was not fond of that. She ate most of her bread (dinner rolls) and didn't eat the hard bottom portion and asked for more. I get up, give her another piece, wait for a second and ask "What do you say?" She answers a curt "No" and goes about eating the piece of bread and Shannon starts rolling with laughter. I just kind of stood there with disbelief watching her chow down and thought, "Well give me back my roll then," but I figure, since she is eating, why bother her?

School!

Well, Jed and Alyson are very excited tonight. In the morning they are going to be starting "School" with a group of parents in our ward. We are switching off days, and we will be doing a letter a week. We talked about what the kids were excited about, and Jed mentioned that he wanted a back pack. Well, I'm kinda crafty, and I thought.... I have all this material, some of which is in characters that they both really like... I bet I could make them back packs! So, last night Jed, Alyson and I sat down and they picked out the fabric they wanted me to use. Jed chose Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Alyson chose Veggie Tales. Tonight I sat down at the table while they watched a Sunday friendly movie, and made two back packs. They are denim and the character fabric, and they are super cute. Jed came over and helped me make them. From start to finish, it took about an hour to do the project. I was very happy with the results! I have not done snaps or anything yet for the top, but I'll get there! Anyway, Jed and Alyson went running around the house wearing them, quite happy. (Alyson found her bed and passed out before I could get her picture, though!) Well, I just wanted to share our fun day!

It has been well documented that we are attempting to color our thumbs green with produce and we've shown some flat dirt that would rival Covil's from years back (brownie points to those that would get that) and some sprouts. Now it's time for results.

Our flourishing garden














1 of 4 cucumbers














Cherry tomato














Regular tomato not yet ripe














And some failures. Hey, nobody's perfect but I'll take the results we have.

Houses and Boo Boos

So, admittedly it has been far too long since I last did a deep cleaning of my children's rooms. Today, I went upstairs to do a thorough cleaning, and saw a few interesting things. Some things I learned that I had never known before:
1: Apparently the side of a dresser makes a great chalk board.
2: Houses get owees too.
3: Only the name brand bandaids get used on houses.
4: Chalk is easily smuggled into rooms.
5: Bandaids that have been adhered to carpet don't like coming up from said carpet.

This was the conversation when I discovered the first bandaid on the floor, stuck to the carpet.
"What's this, Jed?"
"The floor had an owee."
"Um... okay honey. But let's not do this any more. It's hard for Mommy to get them up."
He hung his head and left the room. As I worked more, I found out why. (Side note, I do make my children clean their own rooms for the most part. However, when it gets down to the end, I vacuum and dust myself.) I found a total of 20 bandaids stuck to various places on my carpet. I don't know if anyone else has done the math, but that's an entire box. How fun! While my first instinct was to call my son in the room and beat his butt, I thought to myself... he's four.... he's four... no beating... he's four... and counted to 10 about 20 times. Then I could see how cute the whole thing was. (Some were in the hall, most in Jed's room though. Makes me wonder what he's doing to cause so many owees.... :-) ) By the last one, all I could do was shake my head. A few remnants of sticky parts of bandaids are still on the carpet upstairs, but overall it's much better.
The mural on the side of the dresser was nice. He must have tried to erase it, because it was pretty much a blob when I got up there, but the dresser was covered in chalk. It's nice and clean now, at least! And we had a nice little chat about the fact that chalk stays outside.
Anyway, that was my morning adventure! Chalk and bandaids... who'd have thunk...

Scrapbooking...

Okay, so if you know me you probably also know that I am a scrapbooker. I love it. I love being able to express myself creatively through my pages. It's stress relief, it's fun, and I just adore crafting. There is an amazing giveaway/challenge going on right now on a friend of mine's blog, debbysdares.blogspot.com
Debby Lewis is an amazing crafter with a huge heart, and it's been such a blessing to get to know her and to be able to see her beautiful works of art. She's really been an angel, and I'm so thankful for her friendship. The challenge this month is about helping children. I encourage you to go there and check it out! And the giveaway that she's offering is absolutely mind blowing!

Homeowner thoughts

Being a homeowner of a new home has its perks but there are also things you wished you could have done differently if presented with the chance.

First off - Sod would go down the day I close. It would be written into the contract. The sod I lay down is beautiful and thriving, all because I took care of it when I laid it down. They don't insure sod because it's a "live product." Unfortunately, it wasn't a live product once we moved in.

Second - All doors will be opened and closed full and will latch and stay closed once closed. They will also make sure to fit.

Third - Things must match. The big window in our living room must have window panes that match. I know you're thinking "What?" The top portion that doesn't move has 4 panes. The bottom portion has 6. You don't think about that until you notice it, or Shannon does. That's it for today's edition. Until next time. Ingat Kayo.