The Wall of Fam!....DONE!

 

Finally finished my wall project I started a while ago.  Actually I finished it about two weeks ago, but whatever.  I really wish the pictures were prettier of it, but they were just taken with my iPhone.  Eh.  Whatever.  So this is about three different Pinterest pins at work here. One for the pictures on painted plaques, another for the signs, and a third for the fabric in the hoops.  Thank you Pinterest.  I adore the day I discovered you.  I should make a board for all my pinned successes....and other for the flops.  Pins of Fame and Pins of Shame. 

So the purpose of the wall of fam was to not only have these amazing pictures out and be able to enjoy them, but also I want my kids to eventually realize how lucky they are to come from a long history of strong and loving families.  This picture is of my mother-in-law's family at Sunday dinner.  She is the youngest of 14 children. 
Next is a picture of my mom with her brother and sister.  Outside.  Fresh air.  That's what you did back then.

My mom is the one in the middle.  Next is my dad.

There is a better one I could've used of his dad holding him when he was a baby, but I just fell in love with this one....his little face.  Next is my father-in-law standing on the roots of an uprooted tree that a tornado took out.  It's hard to see on here but he's the skinny pole standing next to the skinny pole. 

This next one is my mother-in-law getting kisses from her mom and dad.  It's so stinkin' sweet.

So much love in these families.  And so lucky to have these pictures to prove it.  Next....my grandpa Walter and his sister Bernadette.

 

I really have so many more pictures I want to put in but I did have to consider the scale of the project.  It could've gotten way bigger.  There's a gorgeous picture of my Grandma Reiter standing in a riverbank so carefree and wonderful.  There are more of my dad with his sister when they were coming over on the boat from Italy.  Some good ones of Tim making homemade noodles with his Grandma....

Maybe in the next house....right.  More room, more space...more pictures!!
I still need to repaint the bench underneath and get some cute cushions on for a really lovely space.  Someday....

Two boxes. A stack of magazines. An afternoon project!

So it was officially a snow day today!  I was supposed to have a test that I wasn't really ready for (partly because most of my focus the day before was on all the cancellations and not so much on organ transplantation and kidneys as it should have been.)  For the most part it has been loverly.  Payton did have to come to the realization that snow day did not directly translate into all day computer day.  But when I started the girls on making a house out of this box, he did quickly jump in. 

We've done so many project lately with the huge stack of magazines I've accumulated from my mom.  The girls decorated the inside and outside from their favorite pics from Cottage Living, Better Homes and Gardens, and Simple magazines. 

It was a lovely afternoon working on this with the girls.  Then the boy decided he wanted to try one.  He didn't want a full box but he did find and empty oatmeal container.  And what he did.....was....special. 

It's a buddy house.  ....for Buddy.  Um.  Nice.
So we pulled out another box and we tried to go a different way with all this craftiness. 
And with Payton you can never go wrong with garage doors. 

He wanted a bifold hanger door.  Done. 

Much better buddy.  Free project and two boxes out of the storage room.  Score. 

 

Wild Saturday night.

Tim was having a wild night out with the boys, so we decided to have a wild night downstairs.  Going caraaaazy cuttin' those mags yo'. 

Payt and I were chillin' like villains on da floor.  At first he was ripping out entire pages and gluing it to his notebook paper.  Then he saw my page and got a little more detailed.  Ya know bud, if you want to rip out each page and glue them in order back into your journal....that's...fine.  It's your project.  It's just going to be a more bubbled version of the magazine. 

He came up with several pages that looked like this.  All very centered.  All featuring airplanes with hanger doors in the background. 
These were Ella's pages....

She loved this outfit because she said,"her necklace was really pretty and looked like bobbers that we use when we fish.  And the bird is beautiful because she's waiting for the baby birds in the eggs and that is beautiful."

I was jealous that she got this one first.  Dangit.  Those colors are awesome.  This one was picked because she liked all the trinkets and colors.  Ah yes, I know you little hoarder, you. 
And this one.....Ella.....well she just liked it. 

These.....  These are chickens walking with a turkey who is playing the bagpipes.  I have no idea which magazine it came out of.  She was so proud of it.  She loved the hens because they looked quiet and happy.  Quiet?  I suppose anything would look quiet next to a damn turkey blowing bagpipes. 
These are Maddie's pages....

Cookies.  And.....

More cookies.  She found the King Arthur flour magazine and pretty much plowed through it cutting out every cookie she could find. 
And my page....

Pretty proud of that crap right there.  That's one heck of an awesome collage there.  We did a lot of collages on my mental health rotation of clinicals.  I'm sure there are subconscious reasons I placed the things where I did.  Don't care.  Just enjoyed the calm.  We finished up right when Tim came rolling in at the late hour of 9pm.  I guess one of the guys had to go pick up some chicks....50 chicks to be specific.  Chickens.  Wild times. 
And lastly this couch is at Hobby Lobby right now on sale for $350.  I knew better than to actually think Tim would ever allow this much...pattern into the house.  So I took a picture and I'll sip my coffee in the mornings and gaze at it.....

Good day so far.

Little shopping with my mom. A nice day outside. New fabrics. Great day so far.

Effort

The weather lately has been pretty screwy. One day it's freezing cold, the next it's 65 degrees. So we've been taking advantage of all the nice days whenever we get a chance between all the homework, school, swim lessons, CCD, and shop days. It's nice just to stop for 20 minutes and soak up some sun.

Still trying to figure out how to balance everything this semester. Really trying to spend more quality one-on-one time with the kids without a screen in front of us, trying to keep the house cleaner, finish some of these craft projects I've started, recycle more, get at least 20 minutes of exercise everyday, and eat a cleaner diet all while trying to keep up with school work....and decrease our overall stress. Good idea, huh.







 

Yes. It looks disgusting. It was my lunch today and it was actually very very tasty. 2 handfuls of spinach salad, an apple, an orange, and a handful of fresh parsley. Yea it looks odd to drink something that color, but it's no different than eating a salad and fruit, but I really don't enjoy salads that much unless I have ranch dressing like a lot of people. The sweetness of the fruit and parsley make it completely yummy to eat without ranch and easier for me at least to get all the yummy nutrients from the foods. I had the shake and a cheese stick 2 hours ago, ran 2 miles, and I still feel full. So that's a good thing. Green and clean. I watch the movie Healthy for Change the other day on Netflix and it has really gotten me thinking about what we eat and what I gives my kids. For example, the cereal Total has a cereal called Blueberry Pomegranate. Sounds really healthy, but there are no blueberries in it at all. There ARE chemically enhanced blue nuggets that taste like blueberries, but really it's just laboratory created food. So yesterday I went to the store and did my best to buy items that only had ONE ingredient in the label. Almonds. done. Dried cranberries. Honey. One freakin item on the list and I can pronounce it. Sounds good to me. Stepping off the soapbox.

The frames are coming along. The first colors I had picked out really ticked me off because they looked good in the tube but as soon as I had all the frames painted they were fugly. They laid downstairs on the tarp for a long time and every time I passed by them I just sneered and sent them the hate in my soul. Then I repainted them. Brightened the green and changed the yellow from mustard puke to daisy flower. Changed one choral to hot pink and one to gray and left the third one. What a difference. Now I'm just waiting for pictures of my mom and dad and in-laws to finish it up.

That is me at my Grandma's farm in Iowa.

Little Tim. Payton was so confused by this one. It looked like him, but he couldn't remember getting a fish that big. No Payt that's daddy.

My Mother-in-law is the youngest one in this pic. She was 13 brothers and sisters!

My older sister and I with Grandad. It's been really nice getting these pics together. See kids....mom and dad were little too.

Bad Blogger.

I know. I have been such a bad little blogger. I would like to say that I've been too busy with being an outstanding mother, wife, house cleaner, student, community activist, saver of dolphins, and marathoner to worry about a trivial thing like blogging, but my number of pins on pinterest and my search rate on youtube would suggest otherwise. I have been a good little student. I'm 3/4 of the way done with nursing school and a couple days away from the start of my last semester. I've also been a good wife and mom (most days). It's just been harder and harder to sit and commit to forming an idea and making it beautiful on a computer screen. But the thing I really like about blogging is that it kind of keeps me on track in being the person I'd really like to be. My perfect day does involve a little bit of kid time, a little craft time, a little kitchen time, and a little me time. I don't know. It just seems like when you have the "pressure" of a weekly little blog, you end up trying to do something during that week that's actually blog worthy.

So I'm jumping back in. First of all, I had a very frustrating day the other day. Technology is really starting to bum me out. My kids are becoming very screen dependent. Payton is a little addicted to YouTube in the morning...it's like his morning cup of coffee. I hangs out in his pj's and plugs into the train crossings on YouTube first thing in the morning. The girls seem to "need" iPod's and iPhone's to survive even the shortest of car trips. So this last Friday we went back to the basics.  No screens.  Instead....

  Donuts.

  http://www.krissys-creations.com/2011/06/baked-doughnuts.html
This is the recipe we use for our donuts. I'd prefer a Dillons donut, but the kids had been sick all week so we were basically quarantined.

Donuts and crafts. Simple enough. Scribble on the paper, cut it into squares and glue it back in a different order. Simple. Sometimes when I think of craft time with the kids, my mind becomes like a sale aisle of Hobby Lobby....cluttered with too many big ideas. So I've really been trying to just go back to the basics. Glue. Scissors. Play-Doh. However....

http://www.smallchichome.com/2011/06/organic-bloom-frames.html

I have the goods and the wall. Just need to do it.  Now. 

 

 The frames are going to have pictures of my husband and I when we were kids as well as pictures of when our parents and siblings were little.  Precious, huh?  Yea, that's what I thought.  Okay....hoppin' to it.  Officially a WIP.