Christmas 2013

Our Family Portrait
Christmas Eve 2013

To blog ... or not to blog ....

I went to bed the other night, and thought 'I need to blog ...  this and this and that'.
Then I recanted that thought.
Should I update my blog? Yeah, probably.
But shouldn't I want to? Again, yeah, probably.

I've been feeling a real lack of motivation lately.
In many, many aspects of life. 

And so I came to realize,
I blog for me.
I don't blog for sponsors or readership
(although, I'm very happy people want to read my little blog and know what's up).
When I blog, it's for me, as an outlet.
Something I need to say. Something I want to share.
Not something I need to do, or another chore on my list.
And that little realization made me happy.
My blog is my 'public journal' so to speak, and I need to treat it as so.
So I will keep blogging, on my schedule, as I want, for me.
If you want to join me - check back soon.

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18!

{OK, I am working on another PL/Scrapbooking post. I'm not going to leave you hanging. I just haven't scrapbooked in a bit}

Last weekend, my sis-in-law Brittany celebrated her 18th Birthday! WooHoo!
And of course, there was a party to celebrate, complete with family, food, and presents.

And, a cake.

Brittany happens to love all things Hobbit and LOTR. 

So, of course, a Hobbit cake was in order.
And, of course, I massively over-thought this and created quite the idea of a cake in my mind.

A Hobbit hole, chocolate tree forest, and of course The Lonely Mountain! 

Yup! Looks like a cake glacier coming to eat another cake blob.

So after some mangling of it by my husband, and the realization that I am not Buddy from Cake Boss (and that our cake would have to be tripled in size), we went with a Hobbit hole and the country side, with the Happy Birthday message written in Khuzdul, the language of the Dwarves.  

It was also tie-dyed inside :)

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Hello December

Hello blog readers,
I did not forget about you, or the posts I have been 'working' on ...
I've just been busy. With life and what not.
We celebrated Thanksgiving, did some holiday shopping, just celebrated my husband's birthday, and are celebrating my sis-in-law's birthday this coming weekend. Plus getting ready for Christmas. Yesh!

I leave you with a cute picture to enjoy:

My cute kid, eating 'Kwunchy Unyins' from the can.
He took the can from the food table and sat down with it.
He loves those things!

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Labor Day Staycation - part 2

This year we decided to try something new, a staycation during the week my husband took off work.
{It was Labor Day week. I try not to pre-broadcast our plans too much, you know, burglars and all....}
Now, we've stayed home before, that's nothing new - but we just stayed home.
This time we decided to do some more local day trips, and a little overnight getaway, nothing too big or expensive. And nothing too overwhelming for an 1 and a half year old. 

Here's part 2:
Read part 1 {here}

Labor Day Staycation - part 1

This year we decided to try something new, a staycation during the week my husband took off work.
{It was Labor Day week. I try not to pre-broadcast our plans too much, you know, burglars and all....}
Now, we've stayed home before, that's nothing new - but we just stayed home.
This time we decided to do some more local day trips, and a little overnight getaway, nothing too big or expensive. And nothing too overwhelming for an 1 and a half year old. 

Here's part 1: 

A Weekend Getaway

Back in the beginning of May my husband called me from work with an idea -

Let's go somewhere. 

Tomorrow, and the rest of the weekend.

Or, maybe tonight. 

Rough June

June (and May) has been a rough month here for us.

After our weekend trip (upcoming post) we came home to deal with life, heartache and sadness.

We lost my husband's grandmother, Nanny.

My Great-Uncle George,

and my Great-Grandmother, Grams.

I also celebrated my birthday in that mix (Family nights the evening before, Funerals the day of, and loosing Grams the day after), and my own sadness as well. 

To bring ourselves up, we celebrated life,
my Sis-in-law's Graduation,

And Father's Day.

Daddy, Grand-daddy, Baby J, and Papa.

A good end to a rough month. 

Hopefully it will stay that way.

Happy Anniversary ... to us

So, a month ago (yup) my husband and I celebrated our 4 year anniversary.
(Again, yup)
4 years!
In the last 4 years we've accomplished quite a bit, too:
My husband has had really good jobs,
I was teaching, then able to be a housewife after we married,
We rented a home for 2 years while we saved money -
Then were able to buy our first house,
We also started a family,
And bought a new car.

So, to celebrate our 4 year anniversary we enlisted the help of babysitter Grandma & Auntie B,
had a nice dinner at Outback Steakhouse, and did some shopping.
Hubs ordered himself his gift ahead of time (a personal protection item to add to his collection)
and for me:



Boom!
iPad mini.
White, 64 GB.

I'm spoiled, I know.
Although, technically it's a 'family' purchase.
It's just mine.
Hubs has a Kindle. And I'm not about to let a toddler play with it.

I debated the Kindle Fire, and the iPad -
iPad won.
I wanted something that could work with my computer, but not replace it, yet still give me some of the same functionality. The Kindle was just a bit too restricted for me. But a good 2nd choice (And very worth the price for its functionality. They both are).

But I love the iPad. I use it for pretty much everything throughout the day.
Since I basically just check my email, facebook and ebay/amazon.
So far I learn something new everyday still.
(I just figured out making folders on it)
I still haven't figured out how do my blog posts on it yet, I can't load pictures into the posts.
And it's nice not using my laptop all the time, since it goes slow, locks up, overheats, and the battery dies after 30 minutes.


I think I like my husband, I'll keep him for a bit longer :-D

It's Spring!!!

Ok, so technically it became spring almost a month ago, but it's finally getting gorgeous outside, and yesterday I went outside to find this:

My tulips are finally blooming! 

This morning the yellow one had opened, and a few more are starting to open.

And my lilac bushes have leaves! Little green leaves! 

It will still be a few years before they actually bloom, but they are getting there. 

I'm loving it. 

It was 92 outside today, according to my car!!! 

That's summer weather!

And of course we've been playing outside, taking advantage of the nice weather. 

We Survived ... the Snowquester!

We got slammed by a snowstorm!

We ended up with about 10" or so of snow, and no power for 2 days.

So we loaded up what we could into our truck, crammed in a car seat and us and some overnight bags, and drove to my in-laws to stay warm (since they have a kerosene heater, and little kids need heat). My in-laws live 1.5 miles away from us, however, due to all the snow and wind there were trees and power lines/poles down all over, which led to us needing to take the 'long way' over to their house - a 16 mile trip took us not quite an hour and a half. We also got to drive under a fallen tree.

Luckily the snow stopped later in the afternoon, and we were able to get back out in the truck to bring some take-out home for dinner, Chinese, Yum!
Chinese food has never tasted so good.

And we got power back Thursday evening, so we were able to come home and relax.

Medical Binders

One of my organizing projects for our family was to make Medical Binders for each of us.
I decided to make a binder for each person, but you could easily make a Family Medical Binder, with sections for each person in your family. Individual binders just work best for our family, and our medical needs.

And Then It Was Christmas ...

Around our house, we have 3 Christmas's.
Yup.
3. 

Well, technically 4. 

We have my family on Christmas Eve.
Then our little family Christmas morning.
We go to my in-laws around lunchtime,
and then to the grandparent-in-laws for supper. 

It's a big 2 day sweep of family, food, and gifts galore.

A June Wedding

Last weekend my brother got married to his wonderful girlfriend of over 5 years.

The whole weekend made for a perfect story they can tell their children one day.
(Note: This is a 'picture-heavy' post. No pictures in this post may be copied or used in any way.)

Getting Organized : Family Binder

One of the things I wanted to do to further organize our family was make a family binder. A go-to book of information for our family.

I Heart Organizing - Household Binder

I saw Jen at iheart organizing's post on a family binder, and it was perfect. It made the perfect inspiration for our binder. She offers the page printables in her etsy store :IHeartOrganizingStore, or if you're computer savy you could figure out what you want & need, then make your own. {I downloaded mine from her site awhile back, when she had them up as a freebie} I jumped off of her binder to make one that worked better for our family (example : She has warranty info. in her binder, but I keep ours in the files).

I used the printables, a 1" binder, page protectors, business card holder page and a photo holder page. I also googled and printed out monthly calendars on colored cardstock, and a 12 month calendar for the front of the binder. { This is the one I used : http://www.livinglocurto.com/2012/01/calendar/ } I just found these printables {http://anythingbutperfect.com/freebies/2012-calendars/ } I wish I had found them sooner. I may print them and switch mine out, they are just too cute!

I placed the calendars in page protectors, so I can write on them with dry-erase markers, or I can slide the page out and write on them, and not worry about it getting messed up. I use the business card page to hold business cards (imagine). I placed the cards for our mortgage company, insurance agent, doctors offices, pharmacy, and other businesses we frequent (like the gun shop), so we have their addresses, phone numbers and hours gathered in one place.  I haven't used the photo page yet (I had to get more ink for the printer), but my plan is to place in a 3x5 picture of each family member with their important information on the back. Things like birthday, allergies, medical conditions, etc...

So this is now our semi-organized go-to information station:

Our family binder, dry erase board for the grocery list, a weekly to-do table, an upcoming events table, and our bills that need to be paid (I keep them in a napkin holder).

And, as a bonus, here is the upcoming activities printable:
(.jpg format, just click, then save to your computer. )

After the Baked Chicken Dinner ...

So, I made that delicious baked chicken dinner a few weeks ago, and guess what happened the next morning? 

Yeah, I went into labor (on my own) and had a baby 7 hours later. :)
Now, I'm not saying the dinner made this happen, but it was a pretty awesome "last meal".
(Compared to the baggie of dry cinnamon toast crunch I ate the next morning)

So my blogging will be sporadic over here for a bit, while we get settled in.
You can follow our family adventures at MommaEmu .

Homemade Apple Sauce

I was hoping to hold out on an apple sauce post until further into fall, but, oh well.

It's cooled off here, soon the leaves will be changing, and I had some apples I needed to do something with,

so, we get apple sauce.

My apples came from the grocery, but hopefully later this fall I'll get to go up to the orchard and pick some apples. I loved going to the orchard with the class I used to work with, it was beautiful up there.

{If you live in Central VA - check them out: Carter Mountain Orchard }

Homemade apple sauce is pretty easy to make.

I make mine in the crock pot, but you can do it on the stove as well.
You'll need apples, cinnamon, sugar, nutmeg, water and lemon juice
(or you can use apple juice, or orange juice). 

Wash your apples, peel if you'd like, remove the seeds and cube them.
Then put your apple cubes into the crock pot to cook.
(Set the crock pot on high for faster cooking, or low for an all-day cook)

 I used 5 apples (2 granny smith, 3 fuji) and added 1/2 cup of orange juice.
I also added just a dash of cinnamon. I love the smell when it's cooking.

After sitting on high for 2 hours, you get this :
(or on Low, for about 4 hours)

mmmmmmm .....
Doesn't that look yummy?!? But it's not ready yet.

Turn it down to low and let cook another hour.
Now is the time to add your cinnamon, and sugar, nutmeg, and anything else you want.

After about an hour on low, your apples should be soft enough to puree or mash into apple sauce,
or you can eat it how it is - just let it cool a bit first. 

Also, the former educator coming out:

Look at that apple seed starting to sprout.
I save my seeds to plant, in the hopes of growing my own apple trees.

Now, enjoy your apples.

And some pictures from my past visits to the orchard.

Blogging to be blogging ...

I hope everyone's 4th of July went well. We had a fairly good day. But, the holiday is over and it's time to return to our normal lives. I have been working on keeping the house tidy, and slowly unpacking things. Getting the rooms organized, sorting through what needs to be put away, what need to be stored. Etc, etc, etc ... I have been making progress in the office, slowly, and trying to work on our 2nd bedroom.
This is what I've done in there (and, what the room will be used for) :

Any guesses? :)  Here - I'll show you the top shelf :

Yup!! Our little family is (finally) expanding. Our little blessing will be here in January, and we can't wait.
I'm excited to start working on the nursery and getting everything ready for him or her.  I just need to clean out the rest of the room now, to make way for all the baby stuff. And now, I need to go get a snack. We're hungry! :)

Ugh - April?

So, it's April. And I suck at blogging. Neither of these should come as a surprise to anyone. I'm not finding blogging to be as stress-relieving as I thought it would be. Probably because the number 1 source of stress to me, is something I'm not going to blog about (or, well, really talk about). So - I will blog about other things.
So, it's after the end of March ... and .... we still don't have a house. Maybe the end of April? Maybe? (please oh please, the end of April!) ... We've been dealing with a bunch (and bunch and bunch) of bank junk. Getting a simple home loan shouldn't be this complicated or take this long - yet, if you're young, and have super-little debt - they make it so much harder for you. I'm sorry we believe in a debt-free lifestyle. Our bad.
So, I guess we just get another month of waiting around, and deciding on big house decisions. Like flooring and paint colors and where my garden should go :) . Yup. Garden. I've been working on starting my seeds, so that by the time we 'move' I will have little sprouts I can plant. Tomatoes, Peppers, Melons, Squash, Corn, Flowers - I'm trying an assortment of things. But no root veggies or Lettuce. I'm not sure how easy those are to grow. Any advice on those??   And, any house suggestions? :) We're going to need all the advice and help we can get. Just good advice and help though :-P On the bright side, I've started (slowly) packing up the things we're not going to be needing. I also don't have room to store the things I'm boxing up. Dilemma.

Hmmm ... I also started "exercising" today. Yeah, random day to start. We got this Wii game for exercising (not wii-fit) that I did : 15 min Cardio, 15 min Yoga, then went for a 20min walk at the park. Felt pretty good to get up and moving around. It also made me feel like a lard-butt : I could barely keep up with the game, and it was on easy :(  Oh well, I know I will get better in time. And this aching in my legs will eventually subside. Tomorrow will be an easy day - 15 mins and a walk hopefully, after my orthodontist appointment.

I haven't done any good crafting in awhile. We've been dealing with house stuff and such - I just haven't felt like doing much. My americana quilt is just sitting in the dinning room, waiting for the other half to be pieced, so I can bind it and be done. 3 baby blankets are just waiting for top-stitching so I can put them on ArtFire, but I have 0 motivation there too. I'd love to make a ton more, and sell at a craft show sometime, if anyone would actually buy them.

I wanted to leave you with something awesome, and I was going to link to a cool Easter project (it involves glitter) but instead .... there is this :
Household Binder : IHeartOrganizing  a wonderful family organizer. It makes me want to reorganize everything.