It is almost over!!

The holidays are almost passed, thank goodness. I did finish my grandmothers scrapbook, nothing short of a miracle by the way. I spent an entire weekend holed up in the house cutting and pasting and organizing. Then came the framed pictures with crocheted angels and hearts and a small cut out scripture. This one I had to have my husband help me with, and he is not the craftiest person you have ever met. So, a few choice words and a broken exacto knife blade later and we are just about done. That is until I realize that some of my pictures lay horizontal and some lay vertical, and I have glued all the angels and hearts and scriptures to the matting as a vertical picture. Very nice, NOT. I was able to get that fixed and get everything wrapped by Christmas Eve night, and I got into bed around 2am, not bad.

So, I am taking a break from making things for other people. I am working on some chair sets for the recliners in the living room. I have suddenly discovered that I like crocheting with thread, and I like making doilies and such. Still not into writing my own patterns, so you wont see any published here. I will post some pictures of some of my finished works one of these days though, perhaps of my chair sets when I finish them. I need to get a bigger house with one room for all my crafting stuff though, it is starting to get crowded.

My Craftiness

Well....here I sit still crocheting coasters at my desk. What in the world. Anyway, I am finishing this last coaster. This weekend I vow to not crochet anything. I will be working on the pictures, getting the matting cut out and everything glued on and stuffed in the frames. I will also, in my spare time (what the heck is that?!?!?!) be working on my grnadmother's scrapbook. It is my sincere goal to have it finished by Christmas and give it as a present. Now, whether or not this happens is beyond me. We have a birthday party tomorrow, church Sunday, and while my kids are at a play with my sister, me and hubby will be off to find a small bike with training wheels for my youngest and a bike/skateboard ramp for my oldest. So, between this and laundry I may be able to get those things accoplished. We did get everything wrapped that could be wrapped and put under the tree. So, once I finish making the rest of the gifts we can get those done as well. Hope everyone else isn't feeling the pressure of the holidays, however, I am sure most are. We just have to remember what the holidays are all about. I keep reminding my kids that it isnt about santa or presents, but about family and celebrating our Saviour. It is hard in this day and age, when so many find it fashionable to denounce the Christian faith. So many also find it so much easier to be politically correct than to stand for what the truly beleive in. So many retailers are so afraid to offend some client base that they fold under the pressure. Now, I know it is easy for me to say since I do not own my own business and do not have to deal with the whiners. However, I do deal with a couple of young whiners in my household. I know that it grinds the nerves, but when they understand the whining will not make me cave to their every whim they soon stop. They get the message. We, as a country, have given the message that even if you are not in the majority, the majority is so opposed to hearing the whining they will cave eventually. Off my soapbox until next time. Have a great weekend!!!

Crocheting Along

So, we got the lights hung, AGAIN...and they have fallen again, so we will be hanging lights again tonight. There is a brilliant invention here to be made, I just wish my brain could figure it out. I finished all the Christmas shopping I can possibly do right now. I am planning to try to make some truffles for both sides of the family for Christmas. I have been cutting the matting for the family photos (you know, that is much harder than it looks). All angels and hearts have been crocheted, and most have been starched and laced with ribbon. They look so nice. I even got one photo and frame put together with a nice scripture and the heart and angel. It will look real nice if I can get the backing to close shut (the mat is thinck, and that paired with the crocheted elements makes the back next to impossible to close).



So, with all of that done, I am bored. The only other project I have going right now is my husbands blanket. Being a stock broker in a call center, it makes my boss just buggy when I crochet large projects at my desk. He seems ok with the small thread crochet, but let me pull out an afghan or a large granny square, he just freaks. So, I have a lovely collection of mismatched coasters, doilies, and so forth at my desk. I did make a couple of extra hearts today for a lady I work with, she really liked them and said she wanted some for her tree. Of course, I haven't seen her since I finished them, so I still have them on my desk.



I am a member of a Christian message board, and there have been a number of posts lately pertaining to child discipline. What is and what is not appropriate, to spank or not to spank. Do time outs really work, and so forth and so on. i have noticed, at work when we talk on breaks and such, that most of the people that have the most wonderful feedback on child raising have no children of their own. They have all the best answers, and know exactly what it takes to raise a child and make them come out normal in the end. I have in the past voiced some issues that I am having with one child or the other at home, and it is immediately met with a "Have you tried this?" or "You know what you should do?" Amazing that they immediately know what my child, whom they have never met, will react to and what form of discipline is best. I just nod my head and smile. What more can you do? My oldest son hates time outs, he was an only child for 3 1/2 years and finds it horrible to be in a corner all by himself, so this works for him. My youngest finds time outs to be just wonderful, as he has never known life as an only child and rarely gets peace and quiet. It all depends on the child. I hated being spanked when I was a kid, mostly it was the time leading up to the spanking, but the spanking was pretty bad. Never bothered my sister. She would just look at my dad after, so different forms of discipline were used for each of us.



Oh, enough of my soapbox here. Off to hang lights soon, and figure out how to get them to stay up once and for all. Perhaps a house of metal and a light string of magnet will do?? Or, perhaps I need to spend my time crocheting some sort of contraption that will hold them up, instead of all these dang coasters and doilies laying around!!

Whew

Well, the lights are hung, the tree is up, and now we just need to wrap and relax. YAY!!Of course I cant wwrap until the gifts are delivered, and that isnt until Wednesday or so, so I can realx til then.

The angels and hearts are coming along nicely. I starched what I had made and put the ribbon through. they look very nice, very antique looking. I may have to keep making these and decorate the tree with them next year. They are so pretty. I may try them in a gold thread though, it would be a nice contrast to the green of the tree. I always have these wonderful ideas, but end up procrastinating until it is too late, so we will have to see how this one goes. I did use a free online pattern to make some teddy bear blankets for my kids last year that turned out real good, and the kids LOVE them.

Now, my husband and I are also trying to pay off bills and be out of debt by the end of next year. No small feat I can assure you. So, why the urgency, you ask? So we can save up to buy a movie camera and go into the movie making business. WHAT!?!?! No, seriously, we are. We want to start with a "get your feet wet" ultra low budget horror flick. He will write the screenplay, I will help with the ideas and make-up. The money savings will be used for a digital video recorder and editing software. He is also looking at taking some film classes at the local college. So, here goes the next phase of the roller coaster of life.

The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year--Really?

Well, here it is, that time between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Time for shopping, cooking, shopping, hanging lights and decorations, shopping, cooking, shopping, seeing family, and shopping. I have found, in the last couple of years, that I hate going to malls and stores during this time of year. Parking half a mile away from the stores, fighting the angry mobs looking for that perfect Transformer gift, standing in endless lines. I began doing most if not all of my Christmas shopping online. Most of the time I can get a good deal on shipping, rarely have to pay taxes, and best of all, no stores, no crowds, no parking. It is all delivered right to my door. Now, I do have to go home before picking up the kiddos from day care, just to be sure that none of the gifts are delivered in boxes with pictures of the contents. That did happen one year, busted.

We decided that both sides of the family will be getting family photos we had taken this year. I am framing them and crocheting some nice angels and hearts in thread to put in them. I will be framing the 5x7 pictures in an 8x11 frame, matted and with the angels and hearts in opposite corners. I hope it will look nice. I used some free patterns I found online, since I have not found myself to be particularly gifted in the area of writing my own patterns. I will just be lucky to get all these angels and hearts crocheted...I started a bikini for my niece a couple of years ago, finally ditching the pattern and trying to get it together myself. I did get the suit all crocheted, but then couldn'd figure out how to sew in a lining, so that one got scrapped as well. I have a ton of partially completed projects laying around in the project graveyard that is my dining room.

So, as part of the holiday season, and having small children in the house, we hang up the decorations inside and out. Now, I am not one to coordinate everything in the house from the kitchen to the bathrooms. We have a few decorations we put out and we put up the tree. The fun part, the exterior of the home. Last year we did not put up the lights on the house, or in the bushes. My nephews had a friend who was putting up his lights and fell off the roof of his two story house. This 19 year old young man was paralyzed from the waist down. So, after all that we really did not have the want to put up the lights. This year, however, my kids are having none of the darkness outside, they want bright and shiny and twinkling lights everywhere. So we start to pull the lights that have been hibernating since Christmas before last and try to untangle them all. Of course, most of the bulbs won't come on. So, between shocks and small cuts from broken bulbs we try to figure out which bulbs need replacing and which ones are just not coming on because of the break in current. We have not really figured out an easy way to do this. Now, my husband is not really known for his patience in these matters, so he opted to just buy more lights. Fine by me. Of course, we get home and half the lights we bought are the multi-colored and half were clear. We are now about halfway through hanging everything outside, hope to be done tonight. My Christmas shopping is just about done, gift cards to be delivered to my mailbox. Then all that is left is wrapping and cooking and all will be well.

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!

Thanksgiving Eve

Well, today is the day before Thanksgiving. I am sitting at my desk at work crocheting angels to frame with family photos, trying to figure out how in the world we will fit all the prepared food into my fridge tonight. Both mine and my husbands family live fairly close, and since we have young children, we are expected to cart from home to home while still cooking much of the food. My parents live close, so that isn't a big deal. His mother, on the other hand, lives about an hour away. His family also likes to wait until the last minute to announce all holiday plans. So, I had him call his mother two weeks ago to do two things, first, tell her I will be cooking much of the food for my parents Thanksgiving dinner, and second, ask when we are having dinner there. I told him to do this in that order, which he did. When he asked what time she wanted to have dinner she promptly announced she would be serving at 1pm. How nice....naturally. I am so thankful my parents are flexible. Now I will have to deal with the pouty faced in-laws when we have to eat and run. If we only had a bigger place, and a live in maid, we coudl just invite everyone to our place to save on the headaches.

I was smart though, I got food that the whole family can help cook. We will be cooking as soon as I get home from work. I got a ginger bread house for the kids to decorate (a little early I know). This may be messy, but will keep them away from the stove while all of my concoctions are splashing about. I am planning to make a cherry pie, which I have never made before. While at the store last night, though, I of course forgot, of all things, cherries. Now, I am assuming, being a novice, that these are a necessity for a cherry pie, so I will be fighting the crowds at the store this evening. I made this mistake last year, trying to buy ALL of the food the day before Thanksgiving. May I say that most of the time women are the gentler creature, until it comes to this time of year. I was literally rammed with shopping carts. I could certainly understand this if I had stopped in the middle of an isle, as I would love a rocket launcher on my cart to clear the way sometimes. However, if I am at a shelf taking items off the shelf to purchase, there really is no need to ram me.

Another thing is this, I will go to Wally World most of the time because it is the closest grocery store that isn't stocked like a convenience store. They built this store with about 35 cashiering lanes, however, they only stock it with about 8 cashiers. Why would this be? I have to assume the management of the store is performing some sort of sociology experiment. Surely with 8 cashiering lanes open and 200 people waiting to check out there will be some sort of reaction, right?

So, at the end of the day, when the cooking and cleaning and shopping has been done, when the kids are in bed and I am able to relax (seriously, what is that) I think of all I am thankful for. I have a wonderful family, and anyone who knew me before the age of 24 would be so surprised that I even survived to have a family of my own. I have been blessed with parents and a sister that I love not only as family but as friends. My husband and I both have jobs that pay us well, and this allows us to provide for our family and help out my sister when we can. We have healthy members of family, all around. Overall we are very thankful for everything right now, we have no major worries, and when we get them our support system kicks in and helps us move through that catastrophe and wait for the next.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving everyone, and I hope your blessings are as bountiful as mine!!

The First

Well, this will be my first post in my first blog. This blog will just be random thoughts from time to time about how my life is going. First, an intro....married mother of two, work full time outside the home, need to lose weight, need to clean my house more. Sometimes happy with where life is, sometimes not so much. My hubby is a huge sports nut, so are my two sons (moreso my oldest). My hubby is also about the LEAST romantic person you could meet, and if I want romance I have to set reminders in his e-mail calendar with specific instructions. Takes the spontanaeity out of the romance, but what can you do. I do crochet quite a bit, and try my hand at various other crafts. I have been working on a scrapbook for my grandmother for about 6 months, and just hope to finish it before she passes on. I will try to post here quite a bit, and it will probably be mostly rants and raves about my daily life, and my daily life is probably not much different than most to be honest.