February: A Full Month of Illness, Visiting, Crafting, and Creating

Isa, Ty, and I visited Aunt Jen and Cousin Connor when Uncle Jim was out of town. Aunt Jen looooves baby Ty Ty so much! She grabs right for him (and for that matter, so does Uncle Jim) every time she gets near him! Connor thinks that Isa is the best. She read him a few stories at dinner time and he kept saying "again, again". And isn't that picture of them sitting at the table adorable?

This kid is so stinking cute and such a big ham bone! I could gobble him up. He's only 4 months old and weighed in at a whopping 19.1 lbs! Here, too, is a picture of Ty with GG.

----------------------Creating and Crafting for February---------------------------------------

You may be wondering "this lady has 4 young children where does she find the time to create and craft?" Ok, maybe you're not, but I posed that question to myself many times because I love doing crafty things, but could never find the time in between household chores, errands, doctor's appointments, after-school activities, ect..., so I came up with a plan. I abhor doing laundry. I'm not even sure if that's a strong enough word for how much I detest it. It's never ending and I never feel a sense of accomplishment because there's somehow always more waiting in the wings. And for this goal-oriented "check-list" doing gal, that just doesn't work for me. But, I do have to do it, so I've made myself a deal. I bought 2 small craft tables for $12 each and put them in my sitting room in my bedroom where I fold all of my laundry anyway (we have 2nd floor laundry). Once I had the tables and space and space that was located on the same floor as my laundry room, I came up with an idea. For each load I fold and in between waiting for the next one to finish, I get to work on something that I enjoy. Sometimes I scrapbook, sometimes I paint, sometimes I make gifts for others, or get the kids stuff ready for a school party. But, whatever it is, that is my time. It's my hobby time, my have a check list and get to the end of it time so that I can have some sort of sense of accomplishment when the day is done. Otherwise, there are moments when I feel like all of the housework, cleaning, cooking, errands, ect... could draw me into a deep dark hole and I may not return! I do have to admit that this time does interfere with my house being as clean as I usually like it, but right now, I'm taking the trade-off. I keep reminding myself that I can have it all, but I just can't have it all at once. Right now, I'm choosing to forego the clean house in lieu of carving out some much needed "me" time.

If you're a certain Grandma who may be in FL right now reading this, ignore the picture! Our first project, home made golf balls for Grandma's birthday next month! The kids used Sharpie markers to decorate them. We have 1 set of 4: 1 to represent each child. There are 2 sets because the kids decided that we couldn't make a set for Grandma and not Papaw!

Cost = $0 (Had golf balls, cleaned them using the Magic Eraser, had Sharpie Markers, Used that adorable box that Aunt Jen gave Carter an Xmas present in, used a label that I had and some random string that Isa found in her room). Perfect!

Found this at Hobby Lobby (reatil: $15, clearance $1), changed the ribbon, added magnets to the back of my binder clips, and made some labels for the projects that I'm working on. Total cost for a "pretty" to-do list = $1

We made V-Day gifts for the teachers. They were cuter in person, but oh well. I don't believe in re-creating the wheel, so I must give credit to http://www.bethproudfoot.blogspot.com/ for the Hugs and Kisses labels, and I can't rmember where I got the XoXo labels....thinking http://www.skiptomylou.org/?