Hack and Whack

The weapon of choice.

Evidence gathered from a crime scene.

 

Close up!  ‘Waaaaah!’ cries Mom.

The perpetrator is caught and taken in for a mug shot.

Then whisked away to the cheapest hair cut place I could still find open.  I guess I got what I paid for  - a cheap cut.

Sadly, the stylist spoke very little English and even after I kindly held up my hands to Hope’s hair (three times) trying to show her how short I would prefer the hair cut (to hide the evidence of a crime).  Well let’s just say I finally gave up trying to communicate and brought the culprit Hope home.   And here’s the uneven mess the hairdresser left me with.

Are you kidding me? 

How uneven can you get?  So seeing that I had no extra money to go find someone to cut it right.  Well let’s just say Hope had to pray hard I wouldn’t mess it up even more as I tried to fix the extra mess the hair dresser made. So, here’s my attempt at a fix.

And the front, which I must mention in my defense, is much fluffier when dry.

Dang, I miss her hair.

 

Snapped this picture the same day she whacked it all off.   Well at least it will grow.  Meanwhile the scissors are under lock and key along with the permanent markers.   I think it turned out as okay as any inexperienced, untrained person could have cut it.  And I have to say it matches her sassy personality quite well.

I think she chopped it off because big sis Princess recently got a shorter do.  Princess has a nasty habit of chewing on her hair when concentrating.  That and I could just see her gnawing on it at school so she got a cropped look too.  But I’m missing both my girls hair.

The other hack and whack we attempted today was for a National Day of Service to commemorate the Anniversary of Sept. 11th.  No we didn’t whack or hack anyone.  We, along with thousand of others in our area participated in service projects all over the community.  We ended up helping out weed a garden for a local non-profit organization Camp Korey.  Sadly, I forgot the memory card to my camera.  The whole family went and weeded for 4 hours.  Let me say, the time flew by and I have to say pulling weeds is much more fun when there’s lot’s of people helping out.

The spirit of  whacking was preserved long after we went back home.  We decided to attempt to fight the jungle out back.  We mowed down weeds taller than myself and have now started laying out plastic to kill them off so we can till up the ground next spring.  I want my garden back. 

Weed hacking I can handle.  Let’s just hope the hair hacking has come to an end.

Back to Reality – Darn it!

Many, many Thank You’s to all who participated and commented on our Mad Tea Party and Fairy Day Festivities!  I didn’t want the fun to end.  As a Thank you, I’ve posted a super easy and inexpensive tutorial of our Children’s Maypole.  See the How-To’s HERE.

So we’ve taken off our wings and wiped the whipped topping off our faces.  And all of the sudden summer is upon us.

This year the fairies didn’t leave us a fairy ring in the lawn (like last year), but they did leave a couple of trinkets in our fairy village.

 

A darling little measuring set.  Perfect for fairy sized concoctions.  Now, I’ve just got to find the perfect Fairy recipes that call for Smidgen’s, Dash’s and Pinches.  Why do I, I mean the fairies bring presents that beg explanation?

They also left a darling pair of nesting birds.  Just waiting for us to build them a fairy nest.

Then my daughters (namely Princess) noticed something familiar about the birds and the spoons.  Hum, are hearts the fairies trademark symbol?  My girls are curious now.  As am I, had no idea the fairies had a trademark, when I bought them at two different stores.  Swell, now I’ve got to be even more careful when spreading magic in the future.

 

Unfortunately the Monday following Fairy Day, someone found a can of black spray paint that one of my mindless teenage son’s had inadvertently left out and tagged the Fairies Tree & Village.

No Way!  They didn’t.

The Horror!

Left some homes looking like the aftermath of a raging fire.

Didn’t even spare the poor little wee furniture.

The Troll.

Uh, I wonder who did it?

Could it be?

It seems the culprit even tagged themself.

HOPE!!!!!!  Say it ain’t so?

What possessed her to go from Fairy Friend…

to Fairy Fiend overnight?

 

I think she must have drunk some Troll juice.

Regardless we immediately dismantled the Fairy Village and are furiously giving them an Extreme Wee Home Makeover.  Hopefully we can finish before the Fairy Kingdom swears off us completely.

Now where did I leave that Pixie Dust?

Mud Milestone

Today is a celebration.  Four-yr-old Hope has finally learned not to wipe her muddy paw prints all over herself.

Now we’ve just got to tackle the beast of mud graffiti that she left all over the wall.  (And no she isn’t flipping me off, she’s just shaking dry her hands after she washed the mud off.)

Bah Humbug Averted

So towards the beginning of the month of December I was definitely channeling some Ebenezer Scrooge.  But thankfully, due in part to the multiple visits from various Spirits of Christmas, I finally caught the Christmas joy myself.

My first Spirit of Christmas came in the form of my wonderful husband who pointed out the whole dead dreams ordeal.  Thankfully that light-bulb moment has turned my whole direction around.  I am dreaming again – just not putting concrete time frames on those dreams – but definitely working towards them again.

My hubby also sent me to Idaho to visit my side of the herd.  The 30 plus hours in a car with 5 kids fortunately didn’t do me in, thanks in part to audio books.  And I got the bonus of seeing my kids dress up for a family nativity.  Abner, T-Rev and my brother Zippy make quite the impressive beardless Wise men, don’t you think?

 

Santa even made a surprise appearance and Hope had to bend his ear and then some… I mean the girl would talk to him non-stop, even as he was visiting with her other cousins.  She nigh near snowballed him with question after question about reindeer and his sleigh and everything Christmas.  But seeing her so into the magic of Christmas helped me gain a little bit of that magic myself.

Then it was back to the house to see how many grandkids it takes to tackle grandpa.  I got a workout just watching the mini-wrestling match.

All in all it was a wonderful trip, full of family visits, elf previews of Christmas, lots of nummy-yummy treats, digit numbing cold snow, Christmas lights, Iron port drink from the local drive-in, and Love.

Then it was back to our Pacific Northwest home for Christmas.  It was by far our most simple Christmas but the kids handled the low volume of presents with not a single complaint.

My husbands parents nailed me with one of the best gifts,  a dream necklace and CD full of dream songs.  I keep them right next to my dream journal when I’m not wearing or listening to them.  My kids thought I was nutty when I started crying when I saw the thoughtful gift, and they are right, I am nutty.  But it was the perfect gift.

Christmas day would have been perfect had the car not broken down.  But we are used to these unexpected bumps.  I have to say the downer of that break-down was more than made up for by this miracle.

Remember my redneck kitchen?

Well my friend Good Enough’s Angel Husband decided to help rebuild part of our missing kitchen.  We salvaged the drawers and door fronts from our old cabinets and he built them into some more salvaged bases and painted them for us.

Poor guy had to endure me sitting in the kitchen, watching the cabinets go in,  grinning like an idiot cause I was so happy.   Wow, it’s beginning to look like a real kitchen again.

I love all the angels that made this year so special amidst all the unbloggable stuff.  Thank you Angels.  I certainly hope that sometime in the near future I can pay it forward times ten.  I would just love to share the happiness that they gave to me.

Future Tattoo Artist at it again.

So THANKFUL that the marker mess was confined to this area and not the walls again.

Drat!  And I thought being 4 would mean she had outgrown this phase.

Money Talks

But all mine ever says is good-bye!

Oh well, I’m used to it. 

Remember when I tempted fate last fall by saying, ‘Because if I’m really curse then the  repairs will pile up faster than the savings.’   Only to discover how cursed I really was because  within a month me, myself and I: 1.)  put my foot through the roof…

2.) listened to the clothes dryer die a screechy death,

3.) discovered a $22,000 slow leak in the kitchen cause by a stupid dishwasher…

4.) lost the keys to the truck and had another vehicle break down, and

5.)  lost 5 years worth of family photos due to computer fussiness.

6.) Lost a freezer full of food and discovered a mongo leak beneath the master bath.

We guesstimated that we had over $42,000  worth of fix-up’s hit us in one month.  And since then hardly anything has been resolved.

Well guess what?

No nothing new broke down.  Thank goodness.  And yes I’m still washing dishes by hand in our Redneck sink.

However.  Today is a good day.

The work to repair the roof has started.  Only eight months later.  But it has started.

Nasty Rotted excuse for a roof isn’t it.

Can’t wait until it’s done.  Wa-hoo!

Consistently Inconsistent

I aspire to do great things, have a clean home, well-behaved young-uns, craft to my hearts content, read a gazillion books, oh and run a marathon.

Aspire.

Trouble is – to aspire to anything you have to have something called consistency.  Sadly the only thing I’m consistent at is inconsistency.

I’m really good with new chore charts, exercise or eating programs for about 1-2 weeks and then inconsistency rears it’s ugly head.  I fall off the bandwagon.  (where did that term even come from?)

But hey – I aspire to defeat inconsistency.  So I tackled another Clutter-monster war zone.  The dining room, or the room in which no one eats because it’s always covered with mom’s stuff room. 

I know you won’t believe it until you see it.

I dare you to find room to fit a plate of food for one, let alone eight, in this room.

And the china hutch and surrounding space?

 

So it took me the better part of the afternoon but finally I uncovered all the brown glory of the hutch.  Man, I sure do need to find some color.

 

Notice the lower left corner of the picture.  So the only negative with de-cluttering is it brings to sudden sight the imperfections of the home.  For example:  body-banging damage, of teenage boys, to corners and Picasso art of 2 year olds to walls.

 

But Hey, we can have dinner at the table now, and not on the floor like a bunch of farm animals.

And see I even pulled out some Easter Eggs Cause everything is screaming for colors other than brown.

Oh and the clutter you see in the background is Thrift Store Give-Away pile and school stuff.

So now the Dining room is added to my list of rooms that can be tidied in 5 minutes or less, along with the Master Bedroom, Front Room, Front Hallway and T.V.Room.  Wahoo.

Now to let you in on a little secret to my whole spring cleaning tactics.  In fact I’ll even let the skeletons out of the closet, or back room to be precise.  Sure I’ve purged the before mentioned rooms of all the extra clutter but it’s still around.  If I can’t find a home for something I’ve put it in the room of Probation DOOM!  The Last Chance Hole of all things clutter.  Once I hit every room in my home I intend to visit this room for a final time and deal out Judgment in the form of permanent home or banishment.  I expect I’ll shed some tears, say a few choice words like freaking, and crap. But I will deal with it.  I will be consistent this once!!!

Why?

Because I want my Craft Fantasy Studio and the only way to get there is to deal with the Pain of separation of stuff.

Behold my growing Mountain of Clutter.

And so your eye’s weren’t playing tricks on you.  Here’s a slightly different angle.

Notice it is so bad there isn’t even a path to the door.  You have to risk climbing over it’s treacherous peaks.

AHHHHHHHHH!  Don’t tell the fire marshal or I’ll be fined for blocking an access.

But hey, the rest of my home is beginning to look decent, and that should count for something. 

Waking Up from the Funk

I'm just beginning to discover the benefits of being unplugged.

Like...

   

Children make delightful messes when they have to use their imagination.

Fortunately, mom (unplugged) has more time to help them clean up their messes.

The weather has been lovely (around 50 degrees) so we've been spending more time outdoors in the afternoon.  Guess what Treasure Lea dug up in the lawn out back?

The portable pool keys (which have been missing since October).

 

Hooray, we can now use the family truck to take loads to the thrift store &  dump again.  We had the dealership replace the truck keys but the gas cap had a key lock on it so the truck was used , maybe 3 times in the last 3-4 months) until it ran out of gas.  I have a feeling it will be used a ton in the next couple of weeks.

Yesterday I made the girls a special list when they got home from school.  Same chores as normal with magical descriptions and they loved it.

 

Evo-man even begged me to make a Jedi list for him. 

The best thing about this month is what Prince Erik is doing for me.

Kind of like the 12 days of Christmas.  He's doing the 14 days of Valentines.  Every evening he gives me a simple card with a single word to go along with a small gift.

On the first day of Valentines My True Love gave to me.

1 - Communication (Another phone so that when I'm gone I can get a hold of the kids at home.)

2 - Health (A cute pink water bottle) to take on my workouts.  I was so inspired.  I put in 5 (very slow) miles yesterday.

3 - Gold (A perennial flower)  Cause I kill everything else.  He knows that working in dirt is worth more than gold to me.

The gifts might not seem like the most romantic things ever but my man knows me like no other.  He knows I'll chew him out if he brings me the traditional cut flowers (because they always die) and chocolates (even though I love them) because I don't want to turn into a fat cow again. 

My favorite Mother's Day gift was when he tilled the garden for me one year.  My favorite birthday gift from him was a Lawn Mower another year.  I know they would make someone else's worst gift list but for me they were Perfect.  Gifts for a farm girl at heart.

How did I ever luck out with such a thoughtful great guy?

On the Third Day of Christmas...

Prince Erik has been doing his darndest to keep the Christmas spirit alive and well in our home. Today he took the half of our kids who weren't bed-ridden, with the cold-to-end-all-colds, out to hack down a tree. I've been wishy washy about the whole tree thing all month. Vacillating between cutting down a tree in our own yard that is way too big, getting a cheap artificial that looks like well - CHEAP and of course paying an arm and a leg to get one from the tree farm.

P.E. couldn’t wait any longer and I’m glad. I would have probably just not got one but the kids need one. So he bought the least expensive one he could find at the Live Tree farm. Once the tree is totally decorated, hopefully before Christmas, I'll take some pic's and share them with you.


We’ve decided our theme for Christmas this year is ‘Sweet and Simple’. The Simpler the better, as long as it’s given with sweet love. But we need to definatly keep it sweet for the kids.



Yes, Our Mischievous Little Christmas Elf visited us again this evening bringing three of the most beautiful ruby-red delicate glass ornaments along with this darling tag which reads.


Night 3 arrives, but clearly we aren’t in France,
And 3 French hens certainly don’t come by chance!
So for your family we have chosen to give to thee,
3 red hens to put on your tree!

Thanks again for playing this game,
Because without you as friends life wouldn’t be the same!

I immediately hung the darling’s right at the tippy-top of the tree to prolong their existence in our house full of klutzes. And why would I do that? Because today has been a particularly damaging day courtesy of my destroying angels.

First an object made contact with Evo-man while he was swinging something or another. The angel of this nativity took a nose dive and lost her hand.

I still can’t find where her decapitated hand flew off too. This one I don’t mind as much because I bought it through the mail and when it arrived all the pieces were firmly glued in place. It appears that Mary is worshiping the Wisemans shoes and not one of them is looking at the Baby Jesus. Joseph, in particular, is staring at the back wall. They are all just spacing it. I was thinking of thrifting this set anyway, Let someone else figure out how to unglue them and position them right. I guess I could just turn them over to Evo-man, he could probably help me re-configure them.

The second angel that bit the dust was courtesy of Princess.

This one was a bit harder on me because I love the set. Princess was tossing a towel to Prince Erik and her aim was off, say by about 15 feet. Remind me never to sign her up for T-ball. Anyway, down fell the angel of this lovely set. Fortunately I think both beauties can be saved with a little bit of super glue. Our family should take out stock in the Super Glue Company. We alone could keep them in business.

In spite of the mishaps it was a great day. Thanks to Prince Erik and our Secret Christmas Elf.