little love trees

I was so inspired by the success of last weeks little craft-scapade that I spent much of the next week seeking out an additional love inspired project for my budding artists.  Presenting week two of valentines crafts;  the little love tree!

it's been piling up...

We have excellent intentions - every day, every week, every year.  We plan and scheme to make our lives go a bit smoother. We make resolutions to spend more time with family, with each other.  To exercise, to keep up with blogs (wink wink), to visit local churches, and - nobly - to keep up with the laundry.  

they're crafty

Man I love me some Pinspiration!  When it comes to holiday crafts for the kiddies, it's my go-to for some quick ideas that may help me occupy my favorite artists for a few moments on a given Saturday.  I came across this adorable little penguin craft a few weeks ago and it was just the inspiration I needed to get me back in crafty mommy mode after a long hiatus.  

Let's get this Ball Rolling... {Wedding Craft and Family Updates}

Oh!  Hi there... I'm so glad you stuck around through my 3 week absence!  Life... well.. it's been a-living and as such I've fallen tremendously behind in all things personal.  More on that in a bit, but I thought before I jumped into waxing poetic about the intricacies of my day to day going ons that you may appreciate seeing the one creative venture that I took part in over the last month and a half (if you don't count teaching and raising kids as a creative venture that is!)   The answer to my create needs was met in early June by the request to create a card box for a beach themed wedding reception.

Full Bloom

I'm sure that you're just about as sick of garden posts are you are puke posts - but what can I say - that's what the last few weeks have been - puking inside, garden outside.  Hurray for you though, this time, I pick garden. 

I can't say just what it is that I find so captivating about our little garden this spring.  Out of curiosity I looked back over the last few years of photo archives and as I suspected - not a one.  So why this year?  Is the garden better?  Perhaps.  It's certainly fuller - lusher.  Could also be that the last few years of my life are a blur, so I didn't actually ever really notice the garden aesthetically before.  But I think it's something more - if you'll forgive my blatant sentimentality, I think I associate the garden with my children.

Hit me with your best shot...

Epic mommy fail with the picture a day, but you guys, I was SO SICK!  Like sososo sick that doing anything besides sucking on an ice pop was complete and utter torture.  Basically, it shook down like this:

Emma did a little random spit up on Saturday Morning - but went on to nibble on her meals through the rest of the day.  So seemingly insignificant that I forgot about it actually.  Belle, Jack and Daddy all got various degrees of intestinal difficulties beginning on Sunday and Alex joined in the merriment on Monday morning.  I had to take off of work on Monday to help tend my troops (four puking and or pooping babies!) - especially since poor daddy tried to drag himself into work in his delirium resulting in him passing out around 3:00 PM.  I was feeling good, nursing my kiddos back to health (though admittedly I was not as sensitive to Tony's needs I should have been, but totally didn't grasp the scope of his agony until later) and feeling like this whole mess just may pass me over... and that, my dears, was my first mistake.

This and That

I apologize - Sallie and Mom, for not being up to date with my picture postings.  Goodness, I still have Moms birthday/Kentucky Derby Party to write about, and don't get me started on the garden pictures and cute kid happenings...

Things have been a bit crazy here, and by crazy I simply mean that I got distracted by life and forgot to take a picture of it.  It's mostly job woes.  Money is always an issue here, and come the end of the school year I find myself questioning my placement and wonder if there's a better fit financially somewhere else. It's not that I don't love teaching or love what I do - even where I do it... but somethings gotta give with this budget, and I think the cards are in my hand.

Touch A Truck

I had been feeling quite neglectful with the kiddos lately - like we never DO anything or GO anywhere... never mind that it is like preparing for battle just to leave the front door - I mean, will these kids have any memories of things that are not at the home of a family member?  Now they will!  Hurray!  Enter Touch a Truck!  A fabulously priced fundraiser from the Junior League tipped off to me by the lovely Mrs. Kaufmann who has helped organize the event for the last few years.

A bow or two...

It's a lovely rite of passage when your daughters decide that they will do YOUR hair, instead of you doing theirs... and boy {bow} howdy were they excited about this!  They went through their hair box very carefully, selecting each and every clip-able bow - and then they completely adorned the top of my head with them.  I'm not going to lie - I think I look pretty radical here.

Do Over...

So that happened... and by that I mean a ridiculous mess and by a ridiculous mess I mean the newly arranged closet organizer that my husband so kindly put back for me a few weeks ago during a particularly keen melt down pulled completely out of the wall.  I'd say it happened round about 4 am.  last Thursday.  One part of my brain heard the thundering crash and thought - that gosh darn closet organizer fell out of the wall again.  The other part of my brain heard the crash and yelled - clumsy intruder!  SCREAM! So I did what both parts of my brain said and then listened to Tony as he swore under his breath, rolled over and said, "well I'm not fixing it now..."  And so we wend back to sleep, hoping it was a dream.

A Little Bit Prep

My OCD comes out of the closet when I get the kids dressed in the morning.  It's a real problem.  Whenever possible, I like to dress all of them (and myself, if possible) in co-ordinating hues, trends, or layers as though we're all on our way to a photo shoot.  The shit of it is, I hardly ever manage to get a picture of all the kids together, so it really is a wasted effort on my part.  I can tell myself this, but when the opportunity arises, I will pull out polo shirts for everyone (skinny jeans and a navy izod sweater for mommy), and I will feel great about the organized and picture perfect start of our day.

Chocolate Syrup

Lately I've been intrigued by all of the DIY home goods that I've come across on the world wide web - namely from the One Good Thing By Jillee site.  That gal churns out ideas faster then I can keep up.  But since we stumbled on her homemade chocolate syrup a few months ago we've been hooked.

Eating the Frog

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*Disclaimer - this has absolutely nothing to do with my children and thus has no rightful place in this book/blog {whatever version you are currently reading}.

Last month at teacher in service I sat through a particularly un-inspiring session where in presenters that the school paid good money to present to us, in fact, had us present to each other.  The topic:  Priorities.  I was super interested in this session initially as the "pre-test" alluded to the fact that we'd be learning how to balance work and family - something I feel like I need lots and lots of help with.  In the end that never happened and I was a bit bummed.  The only thing that resonated with me was the 3 minute introductory video on eating the frog.