Letters to Santa

Nathan has been veeeeeery worried that he's not going to sit on Santa's lap....for almost 4 weeks now.  I have to admit that when I look at the calendar I'm a bit concerned myself.  I've told him he should write his list and we'll mail it and he does but it doesn't take the worry out of his eyes.  Last year he was super sad when Santa didn't bring him the one thing he wanted.  (In Santa's defense, the one thing he wanted was a bike but we were in dire financial straits due to the economy and there was no way we could afford even a very cheap bike.)  Still, we underestimated how much it meant to him because we were both surprised on the way to Grandma's on Christmas Day to see Nathan with big alligator tears running down his cheeks.  When asked what was wrong he said very quietly, "I'm sorry I was a naughty boy, Mommy."  I was shocked and said, "Nathan you are NOT a naughty boy!  Why would you think that!"  He responded, "Because Santa didn't bring my bike."  So you see I would do just about anything this year to make sure that Christmas is very magical and not at all sad.  Which would mean a visit to Santa so he could make SURE there was no mistake this year! 

But...reality and wishes don't always coincide do they?  Between speech, school, Christmas parties, Christmas programs, etc. it doesn't look like there is a "built-in" Santa anywhere.  Our ward is not having a Christmas party so he won't be there.  He won't be at school.  He WILL be at the City Hall Saturday where Eva is performing but the line is 3-5 hours (yes I really said hours) long and we are going to a family gingerbread party so we can't stay that long.  We could possibly stop at a mall and try but I think that takes a very long time also and I can't even get to a mall until 6:30 PM or later and only on a few nights.  Wal-Mart usually has a Santa but I can't figure out when.  Grrrr.  What's a mom supposed to do? 

So I was very excited to see these "Official Santa mail" kits and to find that they are half off today, although given the circumstances I may have caved anyway:

https://www.groopdealz.com/index/index/deal/72/ref/11880




I'm hoping they get here in time for Family Home Evening next week!  And REALLY hoping that it puts poor Nathan's mind at ease!!!

Bathroom Makeover!!!

 The kids (mostly Eva) and I spent the last 24 hours redecorating our front bathroom--and I actually had a great time!  When our bathroom rugs died I realized that I have had them since I was first married almost 15 years ago--yes I am excited to get away for this anniversary!  I took the shower curtain down to wash it and it was obviously in an advanced state of deterioration as well.  I found a shower curtain I liked last week and picked up some rugs and curtain hangers Wednesday.  (We had a difficult time getting an accurate picture color of the shower curtain--It is mostly brown like the circle picture and some of the squares are the color of the wall--I have no idea why it wouldn't photograph the color correctly.)  Eva and I made a trip to DI Friday after school and found some things to help: 

We think this picture is pretty cool!  We found a piece of canvas (an old painting) $1.50 and an old placemat $1.00 made of some sticks tied together.  The placemat was multicolored: bright yellow, blue, and green.  We spray painted the canvas and mat brown, cut out some circles out of paper which we laid on the mat and then spray painted again.  When we lifted the paper we had the fun design.  It's not perfect: the edges bled some.  I should have thought of a way to get the paper to attach and then lift off the mat somehow.  Anyway, we hot glued the mat to the canvas and here it is!



 We really needed a shelf of some sort for the kids to keep their stuff in.  This bathroom is so small and we only have a VERY small cupboard so Eva and I spent a lot of time examining stuff at the DI.  We found this boat thing for $4.00.  The kids love that it has a paddle which we attached to the side.  The trim was green but we painted it the same color as the wall (now blue instead of yellow!) and then antiqued the edges.  We went back to DI this morning to look for some basket/containers to put things in and found a little wooden box and a little basket ($.50 each) which we spray painted and put hair stuff and toothpaste in.

Here's a picture that kind of gives you an overall view.  You can see the paddle, some of the shower curtain, and our new piece of "art" on the other wall.  At some point I am going to try framing the mirror.  This may take a while, as I am still learning to use tools.  For this redo, though, I DID use a drill, wood glue, and clamps (we had to repair the boat a bit).  When you consider the creating, repurposing, designing, and use of tools that plug into an outlet this whole experience "stretched" me. 

Vince helped Ethan make a towel holder last month that we'll put under the circle art.  It's stained a light color but now Ethan wants to paint it.  I'm trying to stay neutral on the issue but I would really like it painted...I'm pretty sure Vince will want it to be stained...  For Christmas I am going to look for some chocolate colored bath towels.  I'm going to get a ribbon in their favorite color and sew it along the border.  Then they will all have a towel that matches the bathroom, yet is obviously their very own. 

The biggest part of  this makeover was the removal of the "teenage girl" stuff.  All the make-up, hair bows, products, ............  You know.  I got a full length mirror to hang on a stud in the "someday" bathroom downstairs, found an old nightstand/endtable at DI for $8.00 and moved her down there.  She has an outlet that Vince installed a few years ago when we did the wiring and there is a light.  AND a door to hang her over the door shoe hanger that she keeps "stuff" in.  It really is full.  The whole shoe hanger.  Every.  Pocket.  Everybody's excited about this--definitely a win-win.  At first the other kids expressed jealousy: "Why does SHE get to have that space?!!"  But I pointed out to them that they would no longer have to wait for her to get out of the bathroom when they needed to "go" and that, as they say, was that.

Eva and I also found two old yucky brass light fixtures for $5.00 each.  We washed them, took them apart and spray painted them.  One is a three light strip with nice glass shades for the bathroom and the other is a chandelier.  I want to find some cheap shades for the chandelier and I'm pretty sure we will hang it over the  kitchen table.  Right now they are on my bedroom floor.  The chandelier came with some nice glass shades but I accidentally broke one when we were "frosting" the glass so now I'm one short.  I think it works out to put fabric shades on them eventually anyway because I like that look much better!  I'm very excited because I've heard of people painting light fixtures but never thought it could be something I could do.  I saw another light fixture today that I think would be perfect to put over the stairs, but I decided to wait.  Vince seems skeptical about the first two.  He says they look nice (we hurried to paint them before he got home last night) but he's not excited about wiring them.  I've decided to wait two weeks and then I'm going to wire them.   

Then I'll post pictures!

A First For Me

The following is from Ivy this morning:

"Moooooommm, Ethan called me a tattle tale!"

Sometimes a Picture Says it All....

I sent Nathan to practice the piano and he came back like this....

Mom the Mediator

Sometimes I wonder if I am the only parent to experience angst over the silly little "things" kids think are important like: who is the real owner of the cheapie toy from some restaurant, party, teacher, etc. that has been in the house for many months. Or who gets to play with the little cheapie toy. Or who broke it. Generally, my response to these things is something like: "If I hear, smell, touch, see, or think about that toy one more time I will throw it away!"  Although I have thrown many of them away I can see that this response is wearing a little thin.  In other words, it's not really working anymore--I'm throwing a lot of stuff away :) but there is still always something to fight about.  Apparently.

Last night I was almost  losing my sanity.  I was soooo tired and it was soooo noisy and after over 45 minutes of 1st and 3rd grade homework and a couple of hours of music practicing, lessons, etc.  I was getting cranky.  Two kids were driving me NUTS arguing over stupid little flip flop key chains.  I was trying to ignore/avoid getting involved and it was quickly becoming obvious that I was going to get drawn in to mediate (throw something away) again.  I was thinking to myself "How ridiculous!  They don't even have keys they have to keep track of!  Why does Ethan even care about a stupid thing like that to engage in such a fight with her (Ivy)?"  Here's some of the conversation:

Me (very calmly and matter-of-factly):  "Let me see if I understand this correctly.  This big fight is over a little flip flop key chain?"

Ethan looks a little guilty and Ivy says: "But Mom it is about a BLUE flip flop key chain which is mine we got them from Mrs. Bird at the beginning of the summer and Ethan got orange and I got blue and Nathan got green and so this blue key chain is mine and he won't give...

I cut her off and say: "Ivy STOP!  Ethan--is this little blue flip flop key chain very important to you?"

At this point Ethan not only looks a little guilty but he looks a lot sheepish as he clearly does NOT want to admit that stupid little blue flip flop key chain is at all important to him--it wouldn't be good for his male ego and the blue flip flop key chain is returned.

So this morning as I get home from taking Eva to school I walk into another argument about a stupid little pink blow up ball.  I promise I am not making this stuff up!  So I say to the boy (I think it was Nathan but it could have been Ethan also or possibly both of them--I didn't really want to know):  "Is this fight about a PINK ball?"  To which a boy responded: "We were playing with it..."  I cut them off and said:  "Let me get this straight.  You were playing with a PINK ball and you want to continue playing with the pink ball?"  Silence from the boys.  And then silence from Ivy as the ball was tossed out of their room.

Day 2: Late for School!

It's true.  We're not off to a really great start.  I have NONE of that time I was supposed to have since all the kids are at school.  The good news is that I'm not feeling as lonely as I was worried about.  The bad news is that time was supposed to be for cleaning the house, preparing dinner, exercising.  So none of that stuff got done yesterday.

The kids didn't get to bed until after 9:00 and they reminded me a lot when I woke them up for scripture reading this morning.  At least we're getting THAT done!  Practicing was iffy yesterday.  I woke up a little earlier this morning determined to get more done!  Everything was going OK until I woke the kids up...just kidding...kind of.  We read scriptures, I made whole wheat pancakes (I'm taking credit for every possible tiny little thing right now).  Eva had to take her violin to school for the first time today and wanted to put some cool things in her locker and wanted me to go with her.  Given yesterday's great results I was feeling a little rushed and wondering really why couldn't she just do it herself but I went because it seemed important to her.  We got there really early, dropped off her violin (I counted my blessings AGAIN for the free violin because it means that since we have had to upgrade we have two violins and she can leave one at school and we don't have to worry about the back and forth stuff), and I watched while she set up her locker.  A few times I noticed I was the ONLY parent and was feeling rushed and wishing I could get out of there but then I realized I was the ONLY parent....she invited me to school as a 7th grader and actually that's really cool and it means she likes me and wants me around and that's very special for a 12 almost 13 year old girl.  Then I felt a little teary and after a couple of minutes I said, "Eva I feel pretty special because I think I'm the only parent to be invited to middle school."  I was going to say thank you but before I could get it out she looked around and said, "Um, bye Mom."   I didn't hug her in the hall but I imagined it in my head. 

THEN I had to go to the store because we were almost out of bread and I had no time to make any yesterday.  There was a really long line (5 customers in front of me) and the person at the front of it had trouble and there was only one checker.  When I finally got home, Ivy and Nathan were in the yard with their backpacks like they were ready for school--an hour early!  But they weren't really ready  because Ivy needed to comb her hair and Nathan had put a shirt on that had syrup all over it from the other day (don't even ask my why...I didn't even ask about the pants because I really didn't want to know--they looked all right...I figure that's why I buy them pants that all look the same).  I told Nathan to change and Ivy to comb her hair and then went to work on some PTA stuff I needed to take care of when we heard emergency vehicles outside.  Concerned, but determined to stay focused, I asked the kids to see if they could see anything happening from the front door.  They could--there was a policeman and two ambulances at a neighbor's house so I ran over there to make sure everything was fine.  They were (I mean as well as a person could be who had to have ambulances over, I guess) and I left my phone number and talked to the mother of the household (she was at work in Salt Lake) and then came home to take the kids to school....late, of course.  But only by a few minutes really.

The really great part about it was that when they got out of the car at school I noticed that

Ivy didn't comb her hair...

Nathan DID change his shirt...

Into the one he wore yesterday.

So I guess tomorrow, Day 3, will be the day I get it all together!

Saturday night Eva and I got sick with some bug that gave us fever and chills, stomach pains and muscle aches.  We were miserable.  The rest of the family was so sweet!!

Nathan brought me an extra blanket from downstairs and a pan "just in case".  He also put a new light bulb in the lamp by my bed.

Ivy helped Eva come upstairs closer to a bathroom and got her a pan "just in case".

Ethan cooked dinner Sunday.

Vince got us medicine to help with the fever, brought us water, and washed the dishes.

I couldn't help but remember 5-7 years ago when I would get sick and have to putter around the house still trying to do what I could.  It's so nice to have a husband home and to have kids mature and thoughtful enough to help take care of things!