Cookies

him: Mama....I want some cookies.

Me: Go make some.

him: Really?

Me: Yep.

him: Can I wear an apron?

Me: Yep.

How cute is this? He did it all himself.

30 Hour Famine

My older boys participated in the 30 hour famine with our youth group this week. One way they raised money was this toilet. To get it removed from your yard, you gave a donation. For a few bucks extra you could send it to another house. They also went to neighborhoods and collected canned goods for our food ministry. That night they slept in cardboard boxes on the church lawn. Both boys have not stopped talking about it yet and Wyatt wanted to know when the next one was, he had so much fun! Thank you to our youth leader Bonnie, and all her helpers, for making it so enjoyable and memorable!

Mudroom Table

Y'all know that every so often I get the urge to paint something. I have been eyeballing the mudroom table for a while now. I think this type of table is called a telephone table. Here it is before.
And here it is after. I had some red paint (not sure why it appears pink in this shot) that matches my red Albemarle sign in the mudroom. I am so pleased with it I am now eyeballing an antique TV table that I have in the living room that I use as an end table. I am thinking yellow this time. What do you think? Do you like it old school or new school?

Cooking Project

One of Levi's elective classes is a cooking class. They had to do a project where they cooked a meal for the family and then made a power point presentation about it to show the class at school.
He had to plan out the menu, help shop for the food, clean up the kitchen afterwards, and none of the dishes could be "simple".
He chose meat loaf, homemade mac and cheese and baked beans. I really enjoyed this project and he did an amazing job. All my boys love to cook.
My favorite part was the kitchen clean up. Everyone enjoyed supper and his little brothers were impressed that none of us were poisoned or got sick afterwards, lol.

Giving Up

I finally gave in and learned how to use the bowflex. I have to admit I really like it. My first goal is just to tone my body and lose seven pounds. My wake up call was when I stepped on the scale three weeks ago, and I only weighed eight pounds less than I did the day I delivered Levi. Last week I lost two, and so far this week I have lost one. I stopped drinking soft drinks of any kind (my personal weakness) and started making better choices for meals and snacks. So far so good. I also want to start walking two mornings a week. If anyone is interested in joining me, let me know.

Mind Games

I have been making the boys pick a number between one and ten for a few weeks now after supper. The one closest to the number gets first choice of which chore he wants to do that night. They range from unloading the dishwasher, reloading the dishwasher, sweeping the kitchen floor, straightening the living room, you get the picture. So like I said, this has been working great because they pick what they want to do and there has been no complaining about who does what. Last night, S looked at me and said......"Mom? Is the number you pick always four?" All of a sudden I had three sets of startled blue eyes looking at me. S started laughing. Funny that the seven year old caught on and no one else did. The number was always four.

Baby Doll Project

The boy finally received his doll for family living class. These are the ones that cry, and you feed them, and change their diaper, and burp them. You get points taken off for head mismanagement or excessive crying, etc. He did very well with his baby girl. Only complained one time when it wouldn't stop crying.

Putting Up Lights

What is everyone looking at?
Yep, that is David on the tower. Landon has been wanting to light it up for years.
He drew quite the crowd of on-lookers.
Almost there.
It is hard to see, but at night it looks very pretty.

Par For The Course

We finally agreed on how to finish the living room wall. I know, I know......it has been a year. Yeah, a whole year with a plain, unfinished, white, sheet rocked wall. So I decided to tackle it myself. I sat down at my desk in the kitchen and googled "How to finish drywall". Landon came in to get something and leaned over my shoulder to see what I was doing. He asked me why I was looking it up, and I told him I was tired of the white wall and I was going to mud and tape it myself. He was on the phone with Chris two minutes later. The thought of me doing it was all it took. The wall has been finished now. We (and when I say "we" I mean I got the supplies at Lowes and Chris installed it) put beadboard on it and it has all the trim completed. Just think.....I should have googled that last January and it could have been done! Now.......do I paint the room, poly that wall, or finished the rest of the room in beadboard? Anyone see a pattern here?

Almost Done

Now all I need are curtains, and a new couch.

Playroom During

I did something different in this room, that I have never done before. I only used tape on the bottom piece of trim, the one that has never been painted.
I did the very top, decorative part of the trim, the wall color. Then I free handed the rest. No tape. No heartaches about bleeding paint. It was amazing. I also free handed the top trim, windows and doors.
You can see that without the new, white paint on the trim, the walls look pink. The former color was a more yellow-white. This is a problem with beige paint, but it looks great after you finish all of the trim. Stay tuned.

Playroom Before

Mudroom Update

Many of you know that I was looking for a sign to put above the chicken coop/shoe storage area of the mudroom. A few weeks ago I found my treasure. It was in a pile of signs at Clines. Only took me an hour of digging, but it was well worth it. And, the best part...it is from a local company. There are only two. The other one is in Yadkin Valley Steakhouse in Albemarle.
Porcelain, double sided and not even scratched. Looks awesome! Levi was with me. I am not sure who was more excited, me or him. I think picking is in his blood too. ;)

Interuptions

Things that will happen when you start painting......

Old friend will call

Kids will get off the bus

You have to go help move an auger

Play referee 233 times between the buddies

Get supper started

Remember that tomorrow is trash day

Get recyclables together

Kids will claim that their FAVORITE truck is in the playroom

Second bus comes home

Remind boy to feed and water chickens

Husband will come in and ask if you are going grocery shopping tomorrow

Yep, it never ends. This could take a while.

Demolition

Last Saturday, the old straw barn came down. It was barely hanging on. Every time we had a storm the hubs would joke that THIS would be the day it fell down.
Turns out those old posts were doing quite well. He had to cut several with the chain saw before it could be pushed over.
We drew quite the crowd. Seems the male species are interested to know why the dozers are getting out.
Now the hard part. Getting all the tin off and the rest burned. Whose got a hammer?

Busted

Last Monday, we were greeted with beeping and backed up traffic, right after the middle school buses passed the house. It continued the next few days. And, yes, it caused the buses to be late in the afternoon.
I couldn't resist snapping some shots of the "workers" standing around. I mean, there were quite a few of them lounging and observing.
There were FOUR dumptrucks parked across the street blocking our feed customers entrance. Then two skid steers and multiple paving things and pick up trucks.
My favorite of the day. Talk about a set-up for a great D.O.T. joke. Guys...this was TOO easy!
Another fun one. How many men does it take to blow the trash off of the road? Three. One to work and two to watch. Are they hiring? This is right up my alley.

P.S. They will be back in 2 weeks to finish. Look for your kids to be late getting home from middle school again.

Spring Break

Well it is Spring break. Not sure it is a "break" since the boy has waited until now to do his math project. Part of which involves writing a FOUR PAGE research paper. Yeah.....I have GOT to start paying more attention when I scan something. It is Wednesday....he has two paragraphs written. One of which has to be redone. So technically we only have the hypothesis completed. I have threatened and pleaded, and am now wondering if a C would be so bad. Seriously! He has even raked the flower beds instead of doing this project. Apparently the "man mentality" is bred strong in him. You know the the one, wait until the last possible minute to complete something, and do ANYTHING but this thing hanging over my head.

So Much

So many things are going on right now, and time is flying so quickly. As many of you know, my sister Leigh and her husband have been serving at an orphanage in South Africa for a few months. She has written to us that the funding for the Door Of Hope is being cut, because of the World Cup taking place near there. They only have two months of funding left. This breaks my heart, because without this place, where are people going to leave these precious babies? It is simply what the title implies, a door in a wall where mothers can leave their babies and walk away. Above the door, are the words "Door of Hope". It is run by a church, and the workers are called Aunties and Uncles. These Aunties care for the babies as if they were their own. I know my sister has had life changing experiences these past few weeks, ones that she will never forget. She has loved babies knowing that she will never see them again. She has given selflessly of her time and energy. She writes that the Aunties and Uncles are on their knees praying for help. Please check out their website, holeinthewall.org.za, thank you.

Whew

Well, we finished the recycle project. The one that the boy had forgotten about. The one that needed a bi-fold presentation board to display on. Apparently everyone is doing projects right now, because finding a board was quite the task. The day he turned it in, he came home and told me he needed ANOTHER presentation board for the Math Fair. He tried to be helpful and suggest I get several so this does not happen again. I said I would have gotten several if I could FIND several. 3 Walmarts, 2 Dollar Generals, 2 Food Lions, 1 Family Dollar, 1 CVS, 1 Office Max, 1 Staples, and 1 Target later.....nothing. Everyone was out. Out of desperation I went to Hobby Lobby. I hit pay dirt. Boy, they had the regular white bi-fold ones, green ones, red ones, blue ones, and pink ones. I was so tempted to get pink ones and tell the boy they were the only ones left, haha. They also had accessories like title stickers and huge lettering. It was heaven. I chose five, and some title sticker strips. Chatting with the cashiers, I told them all about my search over the past week for these darn boards. We all shared a laugh about how hard math was, and how ridiculous kids are. (this is what we do in the South, we talk to complete strangers in the check out line) The lady on front of me even got in on it. Then the check out lady goes, "Honey, next time just come over here. We ALWAYS have these boards."

Twist my arm. ;)

Tot Trader Sale

This weekend is the huge Tot Trader sale at the Cabarrus Arena. I have to admit, that after being skeptical of having a large venue so close to our house, I love being able to get over there in five minutes. Our church volunteers to work at various events there and the money goes straight into our building fund. I worked the other morning, and had quite a bit of fun. Despite the bitter cold wind, blowing in one side and out the other, it was enjoyable and the time passed quickly. They check in the cars at one end, the people drive inside, park, and our guys unload the stuff for them. Big things go onto a cart and pushed over to the side, and we check the clothes to make sure they are okay to sell. I only had to turn down around 10 items total all morning. Runners then take the clothes to the correct rack. It all ran pretty smoothly, until a lady pulled up a vehicle literally PACKED with clothes. It took three tables to count them all. Total count that passed inspection was over 2,000. My favorite ladies were the first timers, they were so chatty. One even gave me a box of Girl Scout cookies. The two ladies on one side of me were pregnant, and promptly ate one sleeve, I ate the other. They were good, I was hungry. :) Yesterday I got to shop early. Got some great summer clothes for the buddies, and then got talked into some more vehicles. G was quite the little shopper, pulling out anything orange that he saw and saying, "I like this!" That only lasted about ten minutes and then he was all man, "Hurry up mama, how long have we BEEN here, ten hours?" Get over to the arena this weekend and shop. Sunday is the half price sale. Remember church people, tear down time goes toward the fund also. The more people we have, the faster we get finished.