One of those days

Do you ever have one of those days where you are running here and there, dropping one off at a birthday party, going to visit a friend, answering the phone, dropping another with a friend, taking some food to a friend, trying to fit in your exercising, helping to plan a funeral, going to a school assembly, picking one up, going back home, picking another up, going back home...............

and then you get to the end of the day, and think,

"What in the world happened to my house this week?"

"I wonder why the maid hasn't done any of the laundry?"

"Who used all of those dishes?"

"The bathrooms are utterly disgusting!"

"Who are the slobs who live here?"

And of course this is also the day that your very neat and clean friend stops by, and you are just so embarrassed at what is everywhere, there is just no recovery possible as you see her pull up. You can't even load the dishwasher because it is full and running. So you shrug your shoulders, since she has seen it before. And you silently wish that she had come on one of the days in the previous 3 weeks when the kids' bedrooms REALLY WERE picked up.

Oh well, we do live here. We do try our best. A home is constantly flowing, and hopefully tomorrow it will flow towards clean. I'll clean off a few counters tonight, and maybe start a load of laundry :)

School Days

January is a good school month. A lot gets done with few interruptions. We've built water molecules, atoms, and played with matter. We've studied prepositions, linking verbs, subject complements, and practiced our blends. We know Thomas Jefferson a little bit better, read The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and enjoyed our time with Frog and Toad. We've cut and glued and cried over Old Dan and Little Ann. We learned that we are mammals, and definitely not amphibians, reptiles, birds, insects, or fish. We have delved into the Renaissance, the Egyptians, and Early American Culture. We have almost mastered long division, decimals and percents, and the art of subtraction. We became expert weavers, weaving on our homemade looms. It has been a learning month.

I love how each child is learning such different things, and yet we are all getting to learn from each other too. I feel smarter :)

You caught us.......sometimes we have a "pop" incentive program! We don't drink it with macaroni though, even though the box is there. I am SURE that was for the macaroni eagle art project :)

The Christmas Quilts

I never got to tell about my Christmas gifts to my mom and dad. First of all, they didn't get them until the first week of January because of a very busy December. I thought I could finish them in December, but then grandpa died, so a funeral, and a wedding and and and.......

So I had a sewing marathon between Christmas and New Year's.

My dad coached football, wrestling, and other sports for over 25 years. It was hard for me to ever get a date in high school because my dad was the head football coach. He also coached girls' softball, which was a lot of fun for me. All of my high school memories include my dad. I didn't realize (until a parent myself) how much he worked when I was growing up. But because we got to be with him during his "work," we didn't ever miss out on having him around.

Last year he retired from teaching, being an athletic director, and his career of coaching here in my hometown. He had an extensive collection of t-shirts, sweatshirts, and other EAGLE paraphernalia. I told him that I would make him a t-shirt quilt. As I started cutting them down last summer, I thought----I am going to add pictures! So I rounded up pictures of all of my siblings with my dad at athletic events from over the years. THAT is what made the quilt! I wish you could see it in person, it really turned out awesome and better than the picture!

It had the desired affect, my dad called me in tears. I am so glad he liked it!

Yes, the picture close to the middle is of my state champion softball team, my dad is one of the coach's in it too. Ryan said, "So you put yourself right in the middle?"

Well, I am the one who made the quilt!

And here is what my house looks like when mom doesn't do anything but sew for two days.

I did feed the children :)

Here is my mom's quilt. I love it. I wanted to do an antique, pioneer looking quilt. I stippled it pretty tight, and did a template design in the solid areas.

This is one I really wanted to keep for myself to hand on my quilt rack in the living room.

But I love my mom..........she can have it for now :)

Blog Book!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I made my blog into a book!!!!!! It really can be done, and it was so worth it! My blog hasn't been going on that long, so I put all of it in......which was 2009 and 2010, 2 years worth. And it ended up to be 199 pages. I guess I blogged a little better than I thought. I am just thrilled to have a printed "journal" of my life for the past two years---fun with family, projects, holidays, friends, and more. And much cheaper than scrapbooking!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My 199 page hard back bound book with full color pictures was $70.13 (shipping included!). It costs a minimum of $20.00 to make a 20 page color book on snapfish, costco, yorkphoto, etc. So I was feeling pretty good about the price. I WAS afraid that it would arrive and be cheaply bound, but it is VERY nice. The binding is hard cover book binding, the paper is thick, the pictures are clear, and it took me all of 5 minutes to have my blog loaded and ready to order as a book. You can choose your WHOLE blog, or even a window of time by choosing the dates. You can choose with or without comments. You can choose to edit or remove certain posts that you do or don't want included. You can also order a digital PDF version for something like $7.

There are many covers to choose from, and you add your own images to front and back. So here is the company I chose..........www.blog2print.com

And by the way, they do NOT even know I am typing up this little commercial for them. I don't work for them, nor will I be paid for passing on this knowledge :)

I just wanted to share a great thing!

Excuse the non-professional photos......I was so excited about it, I just used my phone!

There is even a table of contents with corresponding page numbers........automatically generated. A nice HARD cover with smooth laminated surface. My 199 page book is about 1 inch thick....about!

It keeps all of the photos in the order I posted them, and with their corresponding labels!

And a picture to grace the back cover!

Thank you Blog2Print for bringing all of my blogging efforts together so my family can enjoy them every day!

Free Throw Champion

Here is my 10 year old Free Throw Champion!

We just heard about the competition yesterday, so he decided to try it out! And he won for his age group, with 13 out of 15 free throws through the hoop! In all age groups only one other person made that many, and no one else made more!

We might have to pull away from our "Lee" genes, and go for basketball instead of wrestling! I hear the groaning of my father and brothers right now.

GOALS

Tonight we all wrote down goals for the year.  I have been writing mine for a week it seems like.  It is almost ceremonial for me--something I have to do to get my year off on the right foot.  

Some of the kids' cute goals were---

"Read the whole Book of Mormon by myself this year"

"Do 1200 push-ups by the end of the year--100 per month"

"Run a whole mile without stopping"

"Learn how to play basketball"

"Memorize all of the Articles of Faith"

"Read 9 books"

I am going to "Read the whole Old Testament"

and more...................

They were definitely fun to read.  We have been writing down goals for about 4 years.  Something kicked me up a notch in 2006, maybe it was having 5 kids and my life seeming out of control?????   That is the year I started seriously writing my goals and actually looking at them monthly (most of the time).  So now I have all of those lists on my computer, and they are so much fun to go back and read!

I have learned a very important lesson.  If I WRITE down a goal, I am 1,000,000 times more likely to achieve it, or at least work on it.  So we write them down.  These are the areas we choose goals in.  Some areas end up with several goals in them, and some with one.  Some are long-term goals, and some are for working on this month only.  Some even pass on to the next year if they aren't done, or drop off the list if they are no more desired.

 

MARRIAGE/FAMILY

INTERESTS & HOBBIES

FRIENDS/SERVICE

PHYSICAL

SPIRITUAL

EDUCATIONAL

and HOME/YARD PROJECTS

These categories make it easy even for kids to choose some goals.  What is a hobby you want to work on this year?  What would you like to achieve physically this year?  How can we make our family better this year?  etc. etc.  We have tried wall posters for writing goals, spiral notebooks, 3-ring binders........the options are endless, but the KEY is writing them down and getting started.  One method we have really like is when a goal is completed, writing it down on a slip of paper and putting it into a large jar.  By the end of the year, we have stuffed the jar (or jars) with accomplished goals.  We "give" the jar to the Savior for Christmas, by putting it under our tree---a symbol of what we have done to better ourselves for Him during the year.  We are going to try this method again this year as a family.  Kids love it, and it is motivating to talk each month and see if any of our goals are completed and able to go in the jar.

And then when the end of the year comes, you can look back and see that YOU DID accomplish something!  And it was a great journey!