Right Now

I'm packing a bag for the hospital. I'm NOT going...but I just thought I might want to be prepared in case I need to go.

Purging a bit of junk and getting laundry done. I'm noticing all of Farmboy's clothes that I won't be washing for a long time. Bitter sweet. I'm sure that baby clothes will fill that gap quickly.

9 days to go before the little one makes an appearance.


NINE days. NINE.

'Tis the season

I'm not sure I mentioned that we had a garden, oh wait, yes I did. Well, do to the cold weather, we had to take all of the good stuff & not so ready stuff off the vine. We stuck the green tomatoes in our basement on crates to let ripen. It really does work. So as these puppies come ready, we begin the process which my sister CC absolutely hates (Nonna doesn't like it when we use such strong words so in front of her we'd say something like: She doesn't "prefer" ...canning). Well, the last couple of weeks, I've spent a few days helping Nonna & Aunt CC can salsa and tomatoes. We've got over 100 jars and many more still to do as those 300 lbs of green tomatoes in my basement become ripe. Ah! My favorite part is the red gook under my fingernails.

But as the Lord said, If ye are prepared, ye shall not fear...

We've got a busy week ahead of us.

Wednesday:
Visiting Teaching
Temple Sealings with Farmboy (find a babysitter)

Thursday:
Joy School/Daddy's Day @ the Farm
Enrichment, sing

Friday:
Halloween Mini-Shoot all day
Farmboy's family Halloween Party

Saturday:

2 morning shoots in Provo Canyon

Recital practice
Date with Farmboy (find a babysitter)

Find time to practice Flash shooting for Ward Fall Festival! Ah! I'm having the nightmares.

BTW: If anyone is still interesting in the Mini-Halloween Shoot this FRIDAY the 24. I have an opening. Email me or leave me a comment. Here are the goods.

I'm always behind

Fall has set my life into high gear! I don't know what happened but it's like we are busy doing something EVERY day. I like being busy, but sometime I need a little bit of down time. So, I took that down time today by photographing my front porch. But what I really came out to photograph was this:

Yes, it's HY's latest work of art. It's a bird feeder. Joy School was back at our house this week (I can't believe it's been 6 weeks since the first day). And I forget how much work it takes to prepare for just those 2 days---2.5 hours a day. I'm exhausted by the time everyone goes home. But, boy do we have fun. We sing songs, play, run around outside, and make very cool art projects like this one.

Things to do STILL:
Write talk for church on Sunday (Bishop called yesterday)
Dinner for a family in the ward tonight
Pictures for a friend's daughter
Can more tomatoes (yesterday we finished 26+ jars....that's about 1/4 of the tomatoes)
Housework that has been put off too long.

Wonderful moment of the Week:
Grandad took HY to Midway on Wednesday--the entire day! It was lovely. I can't wait to see all the pictures my dad took. He's so good with the grandkids. HY loved spending the day with him. They hiked a mountain, went fishing, fed apples to the horses, saw a train, went to lunch, went to the park, watched a movie and scouted out pinecones for the above Joy School project. Wheew...I bet Grandad slept all day today. No wonder HY cried when he had to leave.
Thanks Grandad! You are the best!


In other busy news, the bishop called last night and asked me to speak in Church on Sunday (even though I just sang in Sacrament Meeting 2 weeks ago). Sigh!

Schedule

I set myself a schedule about 2 weeks ago.
A cleaning schedule:
M: Laundry
T: Toilets
W: Bedrooms
Th: Vacuum/Dust
F: Floors
S: Sheets
And of course, the kitchen, dinner, and general pick up are everyday things.
I know they look pretty minor, but it's been hard & yet, easier. I don't worry about doing everything, everyday. And that is nice. So far, my schedule is working pretty well. All, I have the best helpers around. Mini-E loves to help me sweep, put away toys, change the laundry over, and clean toilets. She's a mom in training. I had to throw in a shot of her today.
See more HERE.

Madness Monday

Today has been CRAZY. I've been watching the little girl next door. She & HY are pretty good at playing well together, but still more demanding that I like my mornings to be. After cleaning both bathrooms, reading my scriptures, doing laundry, & playing outside, I did a little bit of this:
That's right, more lemon juice. Summer is coming. And I'm going to be prepared.

I also took a few pictures for the other blog & decided to take Tina's advice about getting underneath something to avoid background noise like garbage cans & cars. Thanks. I think that this shot is much better than this one. You can see more proof of spring here.

Here's a little something that I got at the recomendation of Tina (big surprise). It's a very cool lantern that hangs over my bathtub. I'm loving it. Can't wait to get some cool curtains up to match. When it's all finished it will scream (or perhaps quietly whisper) relaxing & luxurious!

Accomplishments:

1. sweep & mopped the floor (only to have a pixie stick spilled all over it)

2. did mounds & mounds of laundry

3. decluttered my kitchen

4. returned items to the basement

Things I still need to do:

Ah.....forget about it....I'll do them tomorrow.

If this doesn't make your mouth water...

...then I don't know what will! Okay, CONFESSION time. This is my Number 1 Guilty Pleasure:

That's right baby. Lemons & Salt. I grew up in Arizona---we had lemon trees galore. I know it's horrible for my teeth & all that, but I just can't help myself. Sadly, I have turned many a friend, sister-in-law, & child (minus the salt) over to this guilty pleasure. Just looking at this makes my mouth water.





But that's not what I'm gonna talk about today. We've been very busy doing this today:
Queezing lemons for summer lemonaid. Doesn't that just sound divine? HY decided that he had to taste the results.... (If you are asking yourself why HY has a piggy tail in his hair, it's because he wants to be like Mini-E)





But even before we took on the task of queezing our home grown Arizona Lemons (thank you so much Grandpa S), we did a little rearranging of HY's bedroom. I don't have a surpluss of cash to decorate his room the way I want to, so I just move the furniture around that that holds me off for a few more months.





So now, HY is taking a nap & Mini-E is doing this so that I can get a bit of blog time. What more could I ask for? Thank goodness for toys that after having been put away for a month or two feel like new again on the re-entry.

Of course, some of you may be thinking, "well, that's just what she's done today---what's she been doing since Monday?"...and if you ARE thinking that...then you check the blog way too much & you need to get out more (no...just kidding--but that is a bit weird). I have been working on a few of these bows/flowers for Mini-E. What do you think?

And this tutorial helped me show them off.

Just waiting for CrazyMama to do a bow tutorial...hint hint.

Pay it Forward is still going on--visit Bethie's blog

In the Process

Lately it seems like I'm always..."in the process" of something. This morning, while I was trying to upload my blog topper & it was giving me problems

...I was in the process of doing a few loads of laundry (get that started & you feel like you've solved most of your cleaning problems)
...I was in the process of cleaning the kitchen....as well as--vacuuming (thanks HY for helping me out)
...I was also in the process of decluttering each room (that's definitely a process)
...I was also in the process of sorting through a million scrapbook pages...still not out of my head & on the screen.

You get the idea.

Thank you Tina for helping me process the topper. I chose the Sneaky HY because the ones that were my absolute favorites are going on the Christmas Card & I'd hate to not have everyone surprised. I love surprises. I never opened my Christmas presents early. That's just the kind of person I am.

ToP TEn Tuesday

Here are the top ten things that I'll be doing or already have done today (sorry no pictures, who has time for pictures when you've got a list like this?):

10. Cleaning up the basement. I spent 2 hours on it yesterday & another 2 hours today. Sadly...it's not done YET.

9. Catching up on blogging. I can't devote hours everyday to blogging (I know, you are surprised) so I try to look at everyone's blog at least once a week. A few everyday...

8. Drop a load of junk off at DI! (please see #10)

7. Read to HY his favorite Tractor book

6. Change blog topper (picture from Miss Sparkle)

5. Clean the kitchen

4. Vaccum

3. Laundry (you'd think that after I did it yesterday that it would STAY done)

2. Do my hair & makeup!

And the #1 thing I'll be doing today (and I'm the most excited about)

Going to Midway for Dinner & Cowboy Theater

compliments of my sweet Dad!

It's gonna be one funnnnnnn day!

A mother's work is NEVER done

Sorry about yesterday's late posts. I was doing a bit of this again. Only this time it was less squash & more pears & apples. Won't Mini-E be so pleased? All this was accomplish while watching this {{one of my absolute favorites}}. Today, I did the dishes, made Grandma Suz' Oatmeal Pancakes for breakfast, vacuumed, mowed the lawn (this isn't my normal chore, Farmboy has been very busy with work & school--I thought I'd help him out), more laundry, read books to the kids, & now it's nap time. Not for me, but for the little people. Maybe I'll get a bit of scrapbooking done today. We'll see if I'm feeling creative enough.

And to answer CrazyMamma's question: Yes, I am totally trying to make the AZ people jealous by displaying the awesome Fall colors. And Fall clothing is similar to AZ winter clothing...except that you actually leave it on most of the day. Winter clothing is actually wearing sweaters with COATS over the top. BIG HEAVY Coats. Oh, & we wear scarves & hats for warmth not just for fashion. Does that answer your question?