School and Such

I know that it has been a few days since my last post.  (Almost a week!  Gasp!)  But lately I've been using most of my spare time to get ready for the new school year.  Yep, just as traditional teachers are busy working to get their rooms ready for their students, this homeschool mom has been preparing her "classroom" too!

Thankfully our new curriculum has a pretty thorough list of materials and supplies that we will need this year.  My laminating machine has been working overtime preserving charts, cards, and games for Ty to utilize throughout the year.

I've also been working on a daily schedule for us.  Ty's probably not gonna like it, but he'll have to start waking up and going to bed a little earlier than he's used to each day (although it's nothing compared to what it would be if he were going to traditional school.)  Since Lucy's been taking long morning naps, I'm hoping to take advantage of this quiet time and have Ty complete most of his schoolwork while she's asleep.  (Yeah, right!  In a perfect world it might work out so smoothly!)  Then, when LuLu's up and about, I can tend to her while Ty works independently on his seatwork.  Another longshot, as I'm fairly certain this will be Ty's least favorite part of school.  He's not one to want to sit still and do worksheets.  As a matter of fact, he's not one to want to sit still and do anything - church, eat, haircuts, you name it!  But he's just gonna have to learn to deal with it.  'Cause there's always the alternative - 7 hours of sittin' still at "real" school.

Now comes the task of deciding where, exactly, to set up school this year.  Last year we were kind of here, there, and yonder, but this year I want a specific place for us have school.  I'd like to find a spot with a good bit of wall space to hang up some posters and charts and things, you know, to give us that "school" atmosphere.  And then there's the storage issue.  I need a place to keep all that stuff!

This problem has sent me into "purge and delete" mode.  To make room for the things that we have to have, I've been throwing away anything that isn't nailed down.

Okay.  Not really.

But I have been tossing a bunch of paperwork and a lot of junk!  I'm also considering paring down on some of the clutter around here.  You know, cutting back on some of the tchotchkes and what-nots.  After all, less is more, right?

I'll have to let you know how that philosophy works out for me.

Anyway back to the business of school.

As part of my trashing party I've gotten rid of some books and placed Ty's new textbooks here.

And remember I told you that I was looking for a little desk for Ty?  Y'all are gonna think I'm crazy, but I've had this desk under my nose the whole time!

From my childhood.  It's not that I hadn't thought about using this desk before.  It's just that I was thinking about getting Ty a "school" desk to sit in.  But, alas, that just wouldn't be practical for our setup.  Besides, this desk has some of the storage that I'm looking for, and I can pull down that roll top and instantly hide all the clutter!

So we'll be having school here every morning.

This corner of our living room has the wall space I wanted, and there's room to squeeze in another small cabinet or shelving unit to corral some more of our supplies.

In other news:  I've been working on some furniture facelifts.

See that chair up there?  This chair used to sit in my Mom's dress shop.  It has been in storage for years.  When I brought it home it was broken, dirty, and worst of all, it was painted peach.  Yuk!

Now look at it!

Mid-century modern, sleek, and cool.  Fits in perfectly with my new "Less is More" mantra.

(Boy, I sure do wish that I had the other 3 chairs and table that went with that chair!  But those seem to have, ahem, disappeared.)

I plan on putting this chair in Lucy's new room (keep your fingers crossed we get it finished).  I know that I told you I was going for a country cottage look up there, but I like the idea of mixing a little modern in with it.  Plus I think it will look great with a shabby, ruffly pillow tossed on it.  Sounds like another sewing job for Kathie Lee :)  In the meantime, I'll let Ty use it for his school work.

The Most Precious

I told y'all a while back that I was trying to catch up on some scrapbooking.  Well, this morning as I was going through some photos I discovered what could be argued as one of the most precious pictures ever.

What did I tell you?  How sweet is that face?

Anyway, I thought you might enjoy that.

Bargain Hunting

I finally had the opportunity to go to the Munchkin Market this week.  For those of you who don't know about it, Munchkin Market is sort of like an "upscale" consignment sale for children's things held twice a year over in Monroe.  My friend DT has been telling me for years about the nice things you can find over there, so last night we rode on over to check it out.

As soon as we (the Tool Man, monkeys, and I) walked in the building a lady stopped us and told us that no children were allowed.  She said there were 400 people in there (which was a lie) and that it was too crowded.  Well, I asked the fam to wait outside while I went to speak to DT for a second, but I guess the Tool Man and monkeys were looking awful pitiful out there, because they were finally allowed to come in.

Boy, was there a lot of stuff in that place, a gymnasium full of children's clothes.  Not to mention separate rooms full of toys, furniture, and baby paraphanalia.

I jumped in looking for clothes for Lu Lu while the menfolk went to rummage through the other wares.

Here are a few of the things I found, some of which still had the original price tags on them.

There were tons of smocked dresses and jumpers for sale.  I had picked up several Christmas ones to choose from when I ran across this one...

...the only one that had anything to do with the true meaning of CHRISTmas.

And as a bonus it's blue.  I love the way blue looks with Lu Lu's eyes!

Then I found this LSU cheerleader suit.

You know football season is right around the corner.  How many days is it now, Uncle Jude?  I know you've got your calendar marked!

A pretty white sweater and a plain white turtleneck...

I just might have to pull out Kathie Lee and embroider something on that turtleneck!

And last but not least...SHOES.  RED ones!  Have I told y'all how much Lucy loves shoes?  Really.  She'll go to her (my) room and get a pair, bring them to me, and make me put them on her.  She loves to wear shoes.  She has a pair of little red Mary Jane's that she has almost worn the finish off of.  So when I saw these I had to get them for her.

Never been worn.  One pair for now, and one pair for later.  Every girl needs a good pair of red shoes!

And for those of you who were wondering, I did look at clothes for Ty, but, alas, no luck.  I always find it so difficult to find cute boy clothes.  Most of what is out there has some grungy looking skull or skateboard stuff on it, and I can't stand that mess!  Why can't designers make decent boys clothes?  I dunno, maybe there is some stuff out there, but I just don't know where to look.  Let me know if you find it.

A Surprise for Me! Yippee!

Wanna hear some exciting news?

I've got a brand new Brother!!!

No, it's not a miracle of modern medicine.  Ha!

I'm talking about a sewing machine.  Out of the goodness of his heart, the Tool Man decided it was time for me to have a new machine.  You see, my old machine was, well, a worn out piece of junk.  Don't get me wrong.  We had some good times together.  I've sewn curtains, pillows, blankets, baby clothes, you name it, with that thing.  Over the past 9 years I've gotten my money's worth out of that machine...all $99 of it!  Ha!  But there comes a time in a girl's life when she wants more than just a straight stitch.  I wanted something with a few more bells and whistles.
A couple of weeks ago, the Tool Man took me to a local shop to check out some embroidery/sewing machines.  After much deliberation we settled on this beauty.

Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!  Isn't she gorgeous?
A Brother Innov-is 2800.  I think I'll call her Kathie Lee! ;)

And here she is all dress up, ready to embroider some fantabulous design!

So now I've got a lot of sewing to do.  I haven't been able to sew too much yet, but as the pizza business begins to work itself out, I'm finding more time to waste spend with Kathie Lee.  (I am beginning to notice that I've fallen behind in my housework since her arrival.)  It's gonna take some practice for me to be able to learn how to use her.  She's a little more complicated than my last machine.

Here are a couple things I've created with KL so far.

The beginnings of a Halloween outfit for Lucy Lee.

Some wide-leg ruffle pants for you-know-who.

Is it just me or does Lucy seem to be getting the most benefit from this machine?

I've got a few more projects in the works, so I'll show you those when they're done.

P.S.  Did you happen to see the picture of the cute little girl in the background of the first photo above?  It's me circa 1984!

100

Have you been outside lately?

HOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And the worst part is...it's gonna be hotter!  Seven days of 100+ heat.  Drat and double drat!

So, I thought I would help you think cooler thoughts with some memories of our "blizzard" earlier this year.

How many years has it been since it snowed like this?  Nine, maybe?  When he saw these pictures, Ty told me he wants it to snow more.  Sorry, Ty.  It ain't happenin'.  Not here at least.

I got the monkeys all bundled up before we went out to play.  This sort of reminds me of the movie, "A Christmas Story."  "I can't put my arms down!"  Isn't that movie the greatest?  Love the leg lamp!

Lucy wasn't the biggest fan of the snow.  I guess the cold, stinging, wet drops of snow pelting her in the face wasn't her idea of fun.  Oh, well!

The Tool Man and Ty constructed a makeshift sled out of a cardboard box.  No, it didn't work too well.  The snow was too soft.  The "sled" just sank.  Maybe they should have done like some other folks I heard about and pulled the boat behind the tractor.  Can you say red-neck?

Of course we had to build a snowman.  This was the biggest one I've ever built.  My previous record was about 18" tall.  Had you ever seen so many snowmen in all your life?  There was at least one in every yard, and they stayed around for days!

Ty's favorite thing to do with the snow was EAT it.  He must have consumed a gallon!  We made snowcream too.  I'd never had any before, and I thought it was pretty good.  I still think it's a little unsanitary though.  I mean, you wouldn't wanna make lemonade using rain, would you?  I dunno, I guess once every nine years won't hurt you.

Well, I hope all this talk about snow has helped cool you down some.

One other thing.  This post is entitled "100" for another reason too.  This is my 100th post!  Yippee!  When I started this blog I wasn't sure that I would keep it up.  But here I am, 10 months later, still going strong.  I didn't know I had that much to say!  Thanks everyone for following along.  I love to hear that y'all have been reading.  And a special "Thanks" to Car-Car.  I really love getting comments!

What's For Dinner?

I told y'all that I would let you know how supper turned out the other night.  Remember I was making a recipe from the Pioneer Woman.  Murphy's Hot Hamburgers.  Well, they were GREAT!  I was especially pleased with how the oven baked fries turned out...CRISPY!  I like crispy.  I think it may have been because I used my convection oven for baking them.

So with one hit already this week, I was encouraged to try another recipe from PW's site.  This one was recommended by AR.  Make Ahead Muffin Melts.  It's basically english muffins topped with egg salad.  I have to admit that my first thought was "weird," but I decided to give it a whirl.

Here they are.

Mmmmmmmmm!  Mama like.  Daddy like too, but he's not the biggest fan of hard boiled eggs, so I don't know if I'll be making this again just for the two of us.

Since this dish was kind of brunch-y I decided to make these cinnamon bun pancakes I also found on PW's site.  Good, but I think the pancakes would have been better if I had made some icing to drizzle over the top instead of just using maple syrup.

You do know that that is sausage on the bottom, not little burnt pancakes, right?

What's Up Down by the Creek?

This morning we made a quick trip to see the doctor...again.  We were just in for Lucy's one year checkup last week (more on that later), but I had to take her back again today.  She's been running fever since Thursday evening.  Since she didn't really have any other symptoms, the Tool Man and I thought we should just wait it out before we took her to the doctor.  I mean, we don't want to be construed as paranoid parents.  Fever can be a good thing after all.  It just means that your body's immune system is working like God designed it, right?  Well, Sunday rolled around, and Lucy was still having bouts of fever, so we took her to the doctor today.

And the verdict?

Ear infection.

Another one!  That makes three!  Unfortunately, I was informed that four ear infections in 12 months constitutes a visit to the ENT.  Uggh!  I really don't want to do the whole tube thing again.  Ty's had two sets, and it's just a pain worrying with those ear plugs.

Let's see...what else has been going on around here?

Construction!

Yep.  We got a little bit more done on the rooms upstairs.  Maybe we'll finish the upstairs before the monkeys graduate high school ;)  I'm just about ready to kick little LuLu out of my room.  Doesn't that sound horrible.  But I really think that we would all sleep better if she was in her own room.

What else?

Shopping!

I was searching for some things for the new rooms this weekend.  I found this really great Dash & Albert throw for Ty's bed.  I'm going for a cottage-y/country look for the kids' rooms, and I thought this would be the perfect thing to dress Ty's bed.  It's so soft, and it's the perfect weight.  Not too heavy, but still warm enough.  I do hate to be hot at night.

My dear mother also talked me into buying some knick knacks for a project for Lucy's room.  I haven't decided on all the details for that one, but once I get it done I'll share it with you.

Scrapbooking!

I've really got to get on the stick with my scrapbooks.  Now that Lucy is one, I've been trying to get her baby book finished up.  I've done a pretty good job keeping up with all of her information for the first year.  Now I'm going back through all the pictures I've taken during the past year and designing some pages to fill her book.  I've only been doing digital pages lately.  I know it sounds lazy, but it makes me tired just thinking about pulling out all those scrapping supplies and cutting, arranging, pasting, etc.  Not to mention having to clean up all that mess.  Whew!  And remember my list?  Scrapbooking is not one of those things you can do while holding a baby.  So, for right now, digital is the way to go.

Return to "Normal"?!

Could it be that our home life is finally beginning to return to its "normal" pre-pizza state?

Maybe?!

I'm doing something tonight that I haven't done in quite a while...COOK!  Exciting isn't it?  (My mom doesn't agree.)  Inspired by my friend, AR, to visit the Pioneer Woman, I'm going to try out a recipe from her collection.  Murphey's Hot Hamburgers  The photo makes my mouth water.  I'll have to let you know how they turn out.

Well, off to cook!