thankful for pinterest

There are things that I had never thought of doing myself until pinterest came along and then at first that didn't even make me really want to do them. But you can only pin things for so long before you actually need to start doing them or else let’s face it, you have become a hoarder it’s just with lists ;)
One of the best things on so many levels is making our laundry soap. I have no idea why I never thought to do this until stumbling across recipes on pinterest because not only is it easy but it’s so, so, so cheap. The last batch of it I made was on March 10^th and we just used the last of it September 19^th. This is doing laundry for a family of 6. I just made a new batch the other day but I changed up the recipe a bit. This time I decided to add the fabric softener straight into the soap mixture so that’s gonna stretch it by a good bit plus it gives us the nice smell and the soft feel without having to remember to buy more if we run out, or don’t think to put it in. The whole family, really just the adults, we were kind of leery of it at first but figured what does it hurt to try it. We try it, we don’t like it then we go back to buying detergent. Luckily though for us we all love it, and we really, really love the fact that it’s so cheap and it lasts so long.

        Another thing to add to the list of amazing things I wish I started making sooner are taco seasoning and cream of anything soup mix. OH.EM.GEE
The taco seasoning smells so much better than the premade stuff from the store plus it doesn't have all that junk in it to make it last. It’s just spices who would have thought. As far as cream of mushroom soup or cream of chicken soup or cream of whatever soup I just use one mix for all of those items. Once again super, super cheap and not all that junk that we don’t really know what it is mixed in it. 

Bibles

Ever since last Christmas when we traveled to Ohio and left random gifts for random people at random places we've continued to try to teach the kids about doing things for others. And it’s a little difficult to teach a 3 & 5 year old the reasoning behind doing something for someone else without getting anything in return.  Need to take a quick minute to explain how the kids get their money.

        **We also use a token system in our home for their behavior. They start each week with a certain amount of tokens. They have the ability to lose them based on their attitudes, their mouths and the like, but just the same they have the ability to gain more tokens based on their actions. If they do things without having to be told too, not fighting with each other or mom & dad they can earn even more. Each token is worth .25 cents. Yep, we are a cheap pay system here because in our opinion there are way too many kids that expect entirely too just because. They don’t have to earn it, they get it just because they say they want it or their friend has it and that’s not the way we work in this house.  At the end of the week their tokens are cashed in for money. They can only cash in whole $1’s though. Once the money is figured we start the dividing process. Automatically $1 comes out of whatever they have earned and goes into their tithing envelope then what’s left is split in half between savings and spending. **

        Alright, now since we've been teaching about doing things for others and they really don’t understand what it is to tithe we have kind of made that category for them a little different. We told them that they can take that money and they can give it to the church or they can use it to do something nice for someone else, but that someone else has to be a stranger. (we figured if we didn't put that rule in there they would try to outsmart us and buy things for each other based on the other saying oh I want this toy)
  The other day I was talking with Serenity about her tithing money and what she wanted to do with it and without hesitation she said she wants to buy bibles for people so they can learn about Jesus. It made my heart so happy that instead of buying toys for someone or paying for someone’s lunch she wants to make sure that people have the opportunity to learn about our Lord. We have since sat and talked about praying and asking who he wants us to buy the bibles for. I told her we have to ask if we are to buy them for young or old and if we are to send them far away or keep them near. I’m just so super happy that not only does my girl love Jesus so much she wants to make sure others do to. 

**Last night during bedtime prayers the last thing she said was "Jesus let me know where the bibles need to go." Oh how I love this little girl of mine. She is such a blessing.**

The butterfly

There are definitely some friends that your children have throughout their life that you wish they really didn't have and then there are others that you hope they will always be friends with. One of Serenity's close friends from prek is not in her class this year and she misses that dearly. today as we were walking out of the school we had to pass the car rider line and I pointed and said oh Serenity there is Lacie, she ran right over to her and gave her the biggest hug and as Lacie was hugging her back she said oh I made something for you and handed her a butterfly that she was holding. I said that's sweet but don't you want to take it home and show your mama? (let's face it most kids give to other kids spur of the moment and it's things that they probably really shouldn't) she was adamant that it was made for Serenity. So we said thank you and walked to the car. as we were walking Serenity turned it over and said mom it has my name on it, she wrote my name on it, it really is for me. Lacie is absolutely a little girl that I could see Serenity still having when they are seniors and beyond:)

Flashback Friday

talk about a flashback.
 does anyone else remember when our money had tiny faces? 

September Menu

One of the most productive things I actually accomplish 12 times a year is making a monthly menu. No one else I think really cares how often we eat the same things but I do. Not so much because I get bored eating it or get tired of the taste but more for the fact that I hate always putting the same stuff on the menu. Crazy reason I know, but that’s what it is. I know that some people think I’m nuts when I plan for a month due to the fact that a lot of people struggle at the thought of planning for a week. The biggest thing that helps me is being able to buy things when they are on sale and then having them on hand that way it’s easier for me to make the menu so far in advance. It also helps on those nights were we have gymnastics, dance classes, church or whatever school thing may be going on. If I’m so far prepared it helps make sure on those running around nights something super simple is already planned and whoever happens to be home when it’s time to start dinner can start it because the menu hanging on the fridge tells you what to cook. I have a binder that I keep the needed recipes in that are in plastic sleeves that really help for sitting on the counter while cooking, if a spill happens I just wipe it right off, but my actual point is that in the back of that binder there are over 60 different dinner ideas so that no one can ever say well I don’t know what I would like.
this has helped us out so much and although it’s usually drives me batty for 1-3 days making it in the end it’s so worth it.

September 2013

Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat
1	2	3	4	5	6	7
					Hot dogs mac & cheese	Pork chops scalloped potatoes corn Italian blend
8	9	10	11	12	13	14
Italian parmesan cube steak pasta green beans	Breaded ranch chicken broccoli bites corn mashed potatoes	Tamale pie salad gym/dance	No peek beef tips buttered noodles corn green beans church	Spaghetti pizza salad	Hot dogs mac & cheese	Taco dip Spanish rice
15	16	17	18	19	20	21
Spare ribs ranch potatoes corn on cob peas &mushrooms	Rotisserie chicken mashed potatoes corn brussel sprouts	Pork roast gym/dance	Sausage, egg, biscuit casserole hash browns church	Chicken & hash brown casserole corn green beans	Hot dogs mac & cheese	Cheeseburger & tater tot casserole corn green beans
22	23	24	25	26	27	28
catfish	Chicken tacos Spanish rice corn	Grilled ham & cheese homemade chicken soup gym/dance	Tuna casserole salad church	Autumn noodle bake	Grilled sausage mac salad French fries	Stove top meatloaf fried potatoes green beans corn
29	30
Church picnic	BBQ chicken parmesan potato halves corn cream onions

been quite some time

Where oh where did summer break go? It’s crazy to think that we have already been in school for a month.. The biggest factor I believe to summer break feeling like it went so fast was that it rained at least half of the time. We did get to do some fun things though. We had a couple great Friday evenings at Callaway Gardens to get some nice swimming in. We went to a couple new playgrounds. We had an awesome, awesome time at VBS.  We took an unexpected trip to Ohio and my nephew came down and stayed for a couple weeks. Overall it was a good summer just a really, really quick one.
      As we move into a new school year this means that our little bitty baby girl is now in kindergarten. Yes of course mommy cried it wasn’t as bad as pre-k last year. (Then I actually cried in the middle of the store as we bought her supplies) I was actually quite proud of all of us this year. The only tears that were shed were mine and they once again weren’t a lot.  Xavier did ok for about the first 2.5 hours that she was gone, but after that he was asking if we could go to the school and pick her up. When I told him that it wasn’t time yet he did get upset but he still never cried. By the second day he was pretty much over the fact that she wasn’t there. 
      As if school starting wasn’t crazy enough we’ve also added another item to our schedule. Skip got a job. It’s been a while since he has worked. He went to being a fulltime student and was getting unemployment but that stopped back in February. During this time we have lived off of some savings that we had and the help of Skip’s mom.  The only thing that made us even question if he should take the job was the fact that it’s 2^nd shift. But we prayed about it and we feel that God lead him there even if it’s only for a temporary time while he finishes school.  It is going to be a little tough for Skip & Serenity because those are the 2 people that will see the least of each other. We sat down and explained it to her though and she seems to really understand that this is what the best thing for our family is right now. It’s a big adjustment for me as well because for the bedtime routine I’m back to being to that feeling of a single parent like when Skip drove over the road. But I too know that this will be the best thing for our family in the long run and that there is a reason he is where he is. Somehow this job will play into the big picture God has mapped out for us.
      I too am having a rough time adjusting back into this only Xavier & I time. Most days I just want him to play so I can get things done but then I remind myself of how much time I spent with Serenity with her “high school work” at least that’s what she called it when she was 3. Just simple things like shapes ,colors,  & numbers, but more than that it gives us that 1 on 1 time with each other and that’s what I feel is most important with it.
      Here’s to hoping I can get back into the swing of blogging while everyone is at school and work.

flash back friday

busy summer making memories

we have so much to do this summer that I really need to sit down with a calendar and schedule it all out so that it gets done.we have 2 locations to choose super cheap movies from. one being Carmike in Lagrange and the other being griffin cinemas,the library has story time and a family movie day,our super cheap  bowling is back again (the bowling is actually free it's just the shoe rental that costs),we have free swimming at the beach at  callaway gardens, we have tickets for 2 nights of thursday thunder and I'm sure there are other things that are currently slipping my mind. i have everything written on the calendar but now i need to make it make sense :)
oh and of course we will be throwing in some camping in this summer as well.we will take our first camping trip next weekend. my mom,the kids,mariah and a friend of hers. gonna take a nice little trip down to SkidawayIsland to get some nice little beach time on Tybee Island.
 I can't believe we are already 2.5 weeks into summer and only have 2 more months of break. Life just goes so fast it's unbelievable most days. The kids grow up so fast I'm growing up at what seems to be a lot faster pace now and I'm just a little curious if that has anything at all to do with having kids ;)

I am really blessed to be able to spend so much time with my children especially in the summer when there is so much we can do together. I just hope and pray that those of you parents that work full time or don't have the money to go on destination vacations make the most out of all the time you have with your little ones any chance you get while they are on summer break so that you both have those great memories. One day I know we are all going to stop what we are doing while we are rushing around to prepare for that first driving lesson, or that graduation day or giving that pep talk before our babies walk down the aisle and instead of wondering if you spent enough money on them,took them to enough places and made sure they had the right things in life to make them "cool", I hope we can all instead know for a fact we gave them all the time we needed to,taught them everything we could about things that really matter,have memories full of the best stories and have trained them how to walk with God and how to become people in life that will make a difference for the right reasons.

our not so little project

so i started to put these in order but they kept getting all screwy on me so i just decided the heck with it. you get the idea. LOL
we have had the base for a while. it started off as a sandbox that was Serenity's present for her 3rd birthday from Skip & I. Sadly they didn't get to use it much that year due to some personal issues. Since we got it put up though they use it pretty regularly. we added the screened in snack area which you can read how that came to be here. and now comes the fun part. the mega playhouse that is big enough and sturdy enough that skip,mariah,serenity,xavier and myself have all been in it at the same time :) 8 foot walls that i thought were crazy high but then someone questioned if we would be putting a loft in it which at that point i thought we might as well. it's not a finished project yet but it's getting there. skip, mariah and I have been working on it for a week now and it's coming along great. 

birdhouses

When we decided that an art party was going to be the theme for Serenity's 5th birthday  I knew we had to come up with something awesome for the kids to do. I thought we can paint canvases. but then i thought well they are all 5 and under and that will probably be a lot more of just random colors than an actual picture. Then Skip had the idea of birdhouses.He suggested making them and then the kids could paint them. Needless to say he went above and beyond my expectations for these little kids to just paint all over them. He made one prototype and then once we got all the measurements we went ahead and cut pieces for at least 25 houses.so the picture below is step one. a whole lot of cutting.

once we had them all cut out, and when I say we I guess I'm referring to the mouse he had in his pocket because I honestly didn't really do a whole lot to help with this project. Skip was spending many a nights out in the shop to try and get these things done. but when they were cut out he started assembling basic frames for the houses. when putting them together some of the tips of the triangle pieces were snapping off so it was becoming more of an ok people really need to RSVP so we know how many of these need to be finished so we can fix parts if needed. 

once the basic frames were put together he then measured for the sides,base & top. he drilled the holes in the front pieces then started attaching everything. and of course even including a piece of a dowel into each so a little birdie could take a breather if needed :) 

like I said, he went above and beyond with these things for the kids to just paint how ever they wanted. he made sure they had great base coats and the kids would be taking home awesome functioning birdhouses not just some junking cheap things.I'm so thankful Skip put in the effort to make such great memories for our daughters birthday :)




if you are interested at all in reading about her party then just click here and if you would like to see pictures from it then click here

Friday afternoon

flashback friday

me & my mama

start of summertime

Summertime is a lot different now than when I was a kid. OK, that's it. I'm officially my grandpa. When I was in school I used to walk uphill both ways in 5 foot of snow. Well ok, maybe I'm not exactly my grandpa but when I was in school I wouldn't already be on summer break. Serenity's last day of prek was friday and it was bittersweet. I can't believe she is going to be in kindergarten in the fall. it makes me crazy,happy,& sad all at the same time.  We have definitely enjoyed our first few days of summer. She had a great last day playing with friends and taking pictures with some so that she can put them up near her bed. When we got home from school on Friday (we were all there to play on the last day) Skip & Sis went to the store to get some crickets for fishing while Xavier stayed home with me to help me fill up the pool she got for her birthday along with some water balloons and I made & hung this sign

Serenity thought having a water balloon fight when she got home was super cool and then of course to go fishing afterwards was down right awesome but of course what made it super was her catch

flashback friday

in honor of my precious baby girl's birthday i thought a flashback of the last 6 years of  May 14th would be a great idea.

MAY 14th 2008

MAY 14th 2009

MAY 14th 2010

MAY 14th 2011

MAY 14th 2012

MAY 14th 2013

An Entire Hand

This little munchkin is 5 today. an entire hand. when in the world did i blink for so long that i missed her becoming a whole entire hand?? it's hard to believe. as i tucked her into bed tonight i told her how it just feels not that long ago that her tiny face was being pressed against mine as i met her for the first time and now she is becoming such a grown up little lady. Happy Birthday to my wonderfully sweet, exceptionally smart,super caring,always inquisitive 5 year old princess. I love you as much.....

Mother's Day

mother's day is usually a great day for moms and usually a not so good day for women who wish they were moms. those of us with kids don't always think of how this could be such a gut wrenching holiday for those who for whatever reason don't have or can't have children. but just the same i think probably goes for the childless woman thinking that mom's not only get to have children but we also get to have this holiday where our children make us presents or our husbands spoil us. but that isn't always the case. for me, mother's day is still a little rough. In 2011 i experienced what was to me the worst mothers day in the world. something that i'm not completely healed from but slowly working on. a feeling that may honestly never completely go away but i'm trying. and on this mother's day there was finally a little proof that it may in fact get better and better yet. my awesome daughter brought me home the sweetest card from school. it had a flower pot on the front of it with 3 crafted flowers in it 1 of them with a picture of her on it. inside she had written happy mother's day. I love you. it made my heart melt. both the kids happily told me happy mother's day mama. then it was off to church for me and the kiddos while daddy stayed home to work on a project. when i picked Serenity up from children's church she had drawn a picture of me and also had a book mark with proverbs 31 on it. then when we got home from church we got into the car with daddy, nana, and mia and all went to lunch. when we got home skip went back to the shop to finish up on what at this point i was pretty certain was my gift and finally the kids called me out there to see the wind chime skip had made me. it's super big and super deep sounding chimes and it's what i call the perfect wind chime :) overall it was a pretty good mothers day especially in comparison to the past 2

Serenity's party was a success

We have been pushing and pushing and pushing to get things done around the house for Serenity's party and it really did pay off. The weather app on skip's phone was still calling for rain but the radar wasn't showing any,but we decided to play it safe and go ahead and set up her party in the shop. I know Skip really isn't a big fan of having parties out there but he was a trooper and helped get it all set up. Serenity was an awesome helper this year and actually told me how she wanted some things decorated and since most of her ideas were close to what i had in my head i didn't have to pretend to like her ideas ;) Skip finished 16 complete birdhouses for the kids to paint. he had the pieces to do more but we decided unless we had more RSVP's (which people kill me with not knowing what that actually means, but that's an entirely different post) even though we held the party out in the shop the weather was nice and it held off until just about the end when we started opening presents. the kids all seemed to have a really great time and thankfully my mom had my camera in tow so there were lots of pictures to choose from :)Serenity was very pleased with her party and that alone made me very happy. the one thing i was super sad about was that we didn't get our annual picture of Serenity and 2 of her friends. one of them had their party the same day :( but even without the picture it was a great time
The kids started off by picking out an apron and then designing it to look how ever they wanted. once they were done with this they had a little food and then were off in the yard chasing each other which left a great opening for me to start clearing the tables for their next craft,painting birdhouses. I'm so thankful to my hubby for building these birdhouses. not only was it very budget friendly since we had everything already in the shop, but they were very cute and much sturdier than some kits we could have purchased. we poured the paint then placed a birdhouse at the seats for the kids then called them in to get started. once they were done we moved them to another table to dry and they were off again. it's so great that they enjoy running around so much because it made the transitions between crafts so much easier. cleaned up,well fake cleaned, i smeared the paint all over the table cloth we were using (which was just brown paper at the suggestion of my hubby, that they could also draw on as they sat) and then got the cupcakes set up. Serenity's request was tie dyed cupcakes but i decided that as a kind of "craft" i would just frost them with white icing and let them each go to town decorating their own and boy did they. especially my daughter. with the cupcakes we served homemade strawberry ice cream, another request of Serenity's. after the cupcakes we went onto the presents where she received lots of wonderful things and then that wrapped it up for the day. well at least for the fun part, next was just the clean up but luckily Serenity was entertained with one of her new presents so she stayed out of the way while we got that done :)thanks so much to nana for her new bike. to see more pictures of her party make sure to go to our photo page

dress up closet pin completed

so when i came across this dress up closet pin on pinterest I was like oh we need this for all those dress up things we have and all the accessories that go along with it all. so i followed the link to the original pin to see if there were instructions on how to build it. I really liked the original pin but was thinking it was a bit big for the space we have so i was happy that when i went to the  original that it was a tad different and smaller which was perfect. Well needless to say it's one of those things that I pinned who knows how long ago and it was more of a yeah it would be nice to have it but probably never will. but then in one of my journeys to the goodwill I ran across an old microwave cabinet (well, that's what the tag said on it at the store so we will go with it) I called Skip in to come look at it. -He doesn't love the goodwill as much as i so he opted to stay in the car- I shared my idea with him and then sent it with him to the check out.  one of the wheels had been broken off and put back on so simply that it fell off again when Skip put it in the car so he put a new bottom on it and reattached on the wheels onto a much sturdier piece of wood.He also had to put the pieces in the bottom so the drawer could move in and out. You can see a difference b/c the top drawer had the original plastic pieces but there was nothing in the bottom so the drawer wouldn't work right so he fixed that. I loved the idea of having the drawers much better than the design I had found online just b/c this way there was a way to have each of the kids items separate and not just thrown in the bottom of the clothes. since i have 1 girl and 1 boy they have different accessories for their dress up clothes. she has a drawer full of purses,necklaces,& shoes while his is filled with swords,shields and such. This was what it looked like to start with. Just plain and brown and boring and a cabinet for your kitchen.(please ignore the beyond disorganized/messy/dirty shop)

home from the goodwill and the
wheel has been fixed

just a basic white prime coat over it

our awesome lime green color that just screams fun :)

You can see in the green picture that there are hangers hanging. since it was in theory just a microwave stand before it needed a bar to hang clothes from so Skip attached one of those as well and we didn't even have to buy it we made it. well kinda. about a month ago the top of our trampoline frame got smashed during a storm and had pieces bent up,if you didn't see it you can check it out here. so those bent up pieces were just gonna be trashed when I suggested hey can't you cut one to fit in this stand to hang the clothes up and voila he did it. He still has to put the finishing touches on it which are the handles for the 2 drawers but besides that here it is all nice and finished.