Has Anyone Seen My Brain?

A couple of weeks before the Valentine's class party for son #3 I receive a written request that I provide some supplies for the party. Not a problem. I sign the paper and send it back to school.

As the day approaches I look for that little slip of paper where I've written down what I am to send. It says 2-5 pound bags of flour. Hmmm...I was thinking that it was sugar, but I did write down flour.

It is now late in the evening the night before the parties. I am at the store buying party supplies for all three boys and still questioning my assignment for Caleb's party. To be safe I buy 10 pounds of flour and 10 pounds of sugar. The next morning before I send the boys with their supplies I email the teacher to double check my assignment. I find out that it really is SUGAR that I'm suppose to send. Whew, glad I decided to check with her before sending in the flour. That could really have messed up some party plans.

It is now the morning after the day of parties. I'm finally getting around to taking the grocery bags of flour down to the storage room. As I go to put them on the shelf, I pull out one 5 pound bag of flour and then...one 5 pound bag of sugar!

SERIOUSLY?

Can You Feel the Valentine's Love?

Copying the idea from Jessica Romney, I started doing the 14 Days of Valentine's a couple of years ago. I didn't quite succeed in getting a picture of each day, but here is a good sampling of some of the gifts the kids received each day.

Crunch 'n Munch

New shirts (red and pink)

New movie and licorice

Lucky Charms

Strawberry heart-shaped marshmallows

Little Debbie Valentine's cakes

Valentine's cards to give out to friends

Chocolate bar and note

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

Doing Laundry Just Got a Little Happier

I admit it. I am a sucker for vinyl signs. I think it might be because I need visual reminders to stay positive about daily life.

But whatever the reason, I'm loving the look of this new sign that I put up in the laundry room today.

First one that I've put on the actual wall.

That took some serious committment from someone who worries too much about the "what if's"!

New Pillows

I've made these pillows over the past couple of weeks.
One more project I can check off of my to do list.

Thanks for the push to get it done, Lindsey!
Now it's on to the curtains...hopefully.

Ingenious or Pathetic?

What exactly is this?

My strategy for keeping Porter from climbing up the stairs!


Oh, of course it is!


The blockade has progressed over the past couple of weeks.
It started as a couple of stools, but Porter learned to crawl under that within the day. So I turned them 45 degrees and that worked temporarily because he could only crawl under the stool in one direction. So he would enter the stool tunnel on one side only to come out at the other side instead of at the stairs. After another day he figured out how to crawl both ways under the stools and through the stools to get to the stairs. This is when we moved on to the basket/bucket combination, mostly because they were nearby one day. At first he was tipping the basket over so we added some weight to hold it down. A couple of days ago he figured out how to slide that even though there was 24 pounds of weight in the bottom. The kids have since collected all of the weights in the house and added them to the basket. The stool was recently added to keep him from sliding the bucket around.

The ironic thing about this all? He just climbed in the basket and crawled over the weights to get to the stairs while I was typing this post.

Maybe I should stop typing and start lessons on how to go down the stairs!

Honestly, I'm just really scared he's going to fall down the stairs. Paige fell down the stairs in our old house when she was just a little younger than Porter and it was awful!

Family Photo Outtakes

These photos were taken on Thanksgiving day, but I had to post a few of them because they make me smile every time I look at them. Enjoy!

It is always an experience trying to get the family photo for the Christmas card!