Purging

I am (despite my pathological need to buy books...and yarn, if we are being really honest) doing my best to downsize, simplify, and purge. This bookshelf is in dire need of rearranging. When the books start piling on the top it is time to rearrange. Unfortunately I don't think there is a single purge on the shelf right now. Most are newly aquired from garage sales and the thrift store and haven't been read yet.

I did get rid of two lunch boxes, 2 zipper bags, and a bread pan, and threw away a bunch of paper today. Yesterday I cleaned out a large part of the medicine cabinet and the magazine basket in the bathroom. Today I focused mostly on cleaning out my work bag and purse. I'll keep you updated on my purge progress.

Darth Copier

We got a new copier at the church. I think it looks big and scary, so I named it Darth Copier. My pastor made the sign, because he's just like that!

Vegetarian Daughters

New snack bag art! I forgot to photograph yesterday's bag.


I was giving the teen a lecture on social responsibility and if he was truly concerned with doing the right thing, he would go vegetarian since the amount of grain it takes to feed one cow could feed thousands of people, not to mention the environmental benefits and health benefits of a vegetarian diet. Apparently, the only ones listening were the twins in the backseat.

I was a vegetarian when I met my hubby, but got tired of cooking two meals every night so I finally gave in and became an omnivore (and in the process gained a bit of weight). So when the girls decided to give up meat, I thought what better motivation for me to jump start my diet.

However, I wasn't thinking about the school lunches. I do not trust that they offer sufficient nutrition for a vegetarian, so we have gone back to packing lunches. We went veggie on Sunday and haven't had any meat since.

It took awhile to figure out some good options for snack and lunch. So far we have had for snack:
1. Apple and juice box
2. Almonds and juice box
3. Cereal bar and juice box

So far for lunch we have had:
1. Mac and cheese, dried fruit, boiled peanuts
2. Cheese pizza, carrots and fat free ranch dressing, fresh strawberries
3. Blueberry bagel with strawberry cream cheese, grapes, yogurt

I am hoping this isn't just a fad for them, because I can see cooking two meals when it isn't just me that is eating the meat-free version.

Garage sales, sewing, and game night, oh my!

We got up early this morning to start off our garage sale shopping season. We love garage sales. This is the primary way I get new clothes for the girls and occassionally I get a nice find or two for myself. Thad usually gets a gadget or two as well.
We got a couple of things for the house:
This beauty, we intend to hang in the dining room. We have just the empty space for it.

These baskets fit so perfectly with our decor we couldn't pass them up. Thad thinks we should fill them with peat moss, potting soil and plants and hang them out front. I'm undecided.



Of course I found some books. And the sale benefitted a local library, so I was glad to oblige with some books for me and some for the girls.

Tris had to spend her hard earned money on this and a video game. They had great fun playing darts on the garage door once they figured out it was magnetic.

Tab was lured in by this marionette tiger.

We got several clothing items (great brands) for the girls this summer and this cute little bench to sit in front of their window. They can use it for overflow toys.


I got a beautiful silver tiny tea set that I just really wanted. The lady seemed upset to part with it for $5 but she finally did. I envision pretend tea parties with the girls outside this summer.


As part of my effort to destress my life, I finished a project that had been nagging at me. I finally sewed the cushion for our plowman's chair. I still have to add buttons, but it looks pretty nice. You can see it matches the pillows I made weeks ago that the teen is using to sheild himself from the camera.




Tonight consitituted our first official Family Game Night. I had bought Blokus for 4 players. We had a blast except Thad got mad at me when I kept heckling him even after I got out of the game. Hence the angry face. It was nice when the teen voluntarily joined in the game....


For Christmas, my mom gave the girls a butterfly habitat. Hubby pulled it down to order the cocoons. Right after he sent off the request, the girls found dozens in the yard...

13 chicks, 2 cats, a dog, 3 kids, 2 parents and a tank of fish walk into a bar...

So clearly we are up to 13 chicks. My husband had a coupon, headed back to the tractor store, and came home with 7 more chicks. We have 2 black, 6 brown, and 5 yellow chicks. Two of the new ones are Harriet and Manuel, though I can only tell who Harriet is because she is the tiniest. Muffin (the pup) thinks they look like so much fun to play with, and consequently must be kept away from them so she doesn't stress them out with her incessant barking.

So far all I've done is feed them and talk to them. I brought down a book from the craft room that I bought a long time ago and never managed to read:

Hopefully I will make time to read it and it will contain some usable information as well as a nice story...

I should have seen it coming when hubby insisted on getting this off the clearance rack at Pier I.

Today I was going to work on the craft room, but...

my husband had other plans.

He took off work early and invited me to lunch at Zaxby's. Yum.

Afterwards I did a little shopping- more on that later.

When the girls' got home from school, he took them to do a little errand and came home with these:



I can't yet tell who is who, but they have all been named. Carly, Shelly, Penny, Leonard, Raj, and Howard. And yes, Shelly is short for Sheldon. We love the Big Bang Theory around here. I'm afraid Carly is of iCarly fame, named by one of the twins.

Hubby is busy at work on building the coop:



I have wanted chickens for eons, so I am thrilled. I am afraid the Homeowner's Association will be less so. We didn't know we were part of a subdivision when we initially bid on the house and were dismayed to find out before it closed that we were officially, even though we are actually on the outside of the subdivision. Well, hopefully we won't start a war, though small battles have been going on since we moved in.

While the girls are busy driving both the chicks and my husband crazy, the teen is busy working on projects for the end of the year.



My shopping consisted of more yarn for shell afghan, embroidery thread to start embroidering panels for the quilt for the craft room bed, and some clothing. Since aquiring my mostest favoritest shoes of the decade:



I have realized how very little red I have in my wardrobe. I have realized that in order to wear these shoes more often without clashing horribly, I need to add some more red tops, or at least tops which go with red shoes, to my closet.

I have also found that while I did put a bit of weight back on since my massive (46 lb!) loss last summer, I am either too small or too big for most of my bottoms.

So I bought some bottoms, a red top, a red purse and wallet, a red mini-lap bag to tote this thing around, some red flip-flops, red headbands, and some tops for the girls. Not thrifty at all, but very fun! I think I went a little crazy!

Totally wondering if I could make something like these... myself

Available at the. for $95- a bit out of my price range...
Hopefully I can manage a trip to the thrift store and Michael's sometime this weekend to come up with some supplies to do something of the sort.

Found via Allsorts.