Day 18: poster frame.

I've had this huge poster frame sitting in the basement for a while. I got it on clearance one time and had some idea for it that I've forgotten about now. Thanks to wonderful friends and babysitting trades I've gotten to get out of the house without kids a couple of times this week, and while at World Market I found the perfect poster for my frame! Carson and I spray painted the frame white today. (It was brown.) Then we put the poster in. He's been asking me the names of all the countries. He is a super memorizer so I wouldn't be surprised if he learns a lot of them.

I love the colors.

And I didn't even notice until later that the state names of the US are hidden there!

I have absolutely no place for this poster in my home. After we look at it for a few days I guess it will go back to storage for some fun room in the next house!

Day 17: a big flower.

Well, I didn't get to do plan A for today's accomplishment, but luckily I had made this flower while playing with the kids this morning. I even finished the back! Usually I get lazy towards the end of projects and finish them up sloppily. Not when I'm THRIVING!

Since the flower wasn't made 100 percent for the challenge, I just climbed up a ladder and cleaned all the dust off of the ceiling fan in my bedroom. All right, that's enough thriving for today.

Note: here's a tutorial for this kind of flower.

Sunday after church.

Lunch on the deck.
When I got him after his Primary class at church, his tie was like this. He can't stand to have it up around his neck!

Here's the child who never eats any lunch. He's pretending to buzz his hair instead.

These two have been playing together soooo much better. They used to fight all the time or just do their own thing, but for the past two or three days I have been amazed at them doing puzzles and things TOGETHER. I hope it keeps up!

Working on that bush again. With something he apparently stole from the grill?

Practicing a Montessori lesson. Just kidding; I only wish I was that organized to be doing things like that. We just happened to have a pitcher and cups outside. 

"Huhhh?"

Faye is full-on crawling now. I thought I only made calm babies who didn't crawl until 8 or 9 months and didn't walk until after a year. This girl is different! And crazy!

Speaking of crazy, you should see her in the bath. She bounces, splashes, stands up, dives in, crawls around, etc. It's quite an experience, and I have to be right there wrestling with her the whole time. 

Big brother can handle her for a minute at least!

Sometimes I give the boys shaving cream to play with in the bath. They usually paint the tub and the wall, but I suggested they try painting themselves this time.

It was a nice Sunday!

Day 16: painting!

Finally! I have been meaning to do this for months. A while ago I got reallllly tired of my "gallery wall" that I had put up when we first moved here. So I took it all down. And then I was left with a wall full of big chunks of paint and wall that had come off with those lovely 3M picture hanger things. It really wasn't hard to fix; I just had to motivate myself to go get the paint color matched, caulk the holes, etc. So today I took most everything down off the walls in my living room and caulked and painted away.

I will admit, after looking at my bare walls I have spent hours today dreaming up new ways to decorate. I have to keep repeating to myself, "you are moving in less than a year. You are moving in less than a year." My taste in design has changed a lot since first putting this house together, and how I would love to start over! But I will try to enjoy the simpleness of blank walls for now.

Lovely self timer shot before I attacked the wall. I've got to move fast when I get a few minutes without kids!

Day 15: the Flip.

A while ago we got one of those cute little video cameras. As of yesterday it was completely full of videos and I had no idea how to get them on the computer or do anything with them. So, today became the day to learn how to make movies with the Flip software. (I think I am going to be one of those old people who is really slow about learning technology. I don't like to use Rick's iTouch thing because it confuses me, and although I'd like a fancy iPhone or something I'm a little afraid to learn to use one. My kids are going to have some good laughs at me when they are teenagers.)



I need to do "interviews" like this more often with the kids. This is from about 3 months ago, and Everett has already grown up a lot since then!

Day 14: headbands.

Lots of babysitting today, which was a great way to make a Saturday nice and busy. My Carson took a late nap and then stayed up late with me tonight. It was kind of nice having him by me doing his workbooks while I tidied up and cleaned.

My "extra" today is making headbands. I wanted to make some comfortable stretchy ones. I didn't have any great material for those, but then I hit the jackpot: my huge pile of clothes to donate to Goodwill! I started cutting up some shirts and tried to make up my own headbands out of what I had.

Now I remember that the bottom headband is made out of the shirt I wore on the day that baby Carson was blessed.

And here is a headband FAIL! I don't know why I thought this would be cute. I obviously took it apart and made it into the one you see at the top. We let Faye wear it around for a while so we could get some good laughs though. (Also notice me in the mirror getting Faye to smile.)

Day 13: magazines.

Losing steam a little over here. For today's extra I just cleaned out all the magazines out of my little corner office. Carson had to look through them, and Faye had to chew them up a bit before I either recycled them or boxed them up and put them in the attic.

This afternoon we made little "kites" and tried to fly them outside. When Carson would feel a little bit of wind, he would freak out and grab his kite to try to get it up there. Later I caught him in his room with the fan on trying to use that. Poor kid; I didn't really know how to make a kite so it's just paper!

The boys are wearing borrowed shirts and no pants from getting soaked playing at a friends' house this morning. They have an awesome creek in their backyard, and we had so much fun playing in it!

Day 12: the budget.

We've never been great at doing our budget. I pay the bills, watch our bank account balance and sort of monitor what goes in and out, but we don't sit down each month and plan out a strict budget. We usually use the excuse that we live pretty frugally, so doing a budget wouldn't really change how or what we spend. Well, the real reason is probably laziness! So, today I did a little work on that. I'm using mint.com, which is awesome! I spent a lot of time looking up accounts, figuring out forgotten usernames and passwords, etc. So, I'm not totally finished here and this might be my accomplishment another day as well.

Day 11: Loose change.

 

Today's "extra" was really fun. The boys and I went around the house and collected any and all loose change. (We really only had to look in a couple of jars and my diaper bag. This also prompted a spontaneous cleaning out of my diaper bag, which could be its own major accomplishment!) They lugged the bags of coins into the Food Lion and had great fun dumping them into the CoinStar machine. Then they each got a dollar and could pick out a treat. Mom got the other 47 dollars; isn't that fair? 

Tissue, anyone?

Boo-yeah!

With the goods. They're still young enough that I can totally guide their "choice" of what to get!

And this is what dinner looks like when dad's out of town. Lovely, isn't it?