101 Ways to Avoid REAL Cleaning

And by REAL cleaning, I mean having your entire house clean at once. Having everything organized and tidy. Having NICE things displayed around your house. REAL cleaning.

1-10. start a blog. This counts for the first ten of the 101 reasons because you then need to: think of a topic each day, take pictures, sort the pictures, resize the pictures, edit the pictures, load the pictures, copy/paste code for the pictures, add captions to the pictures, edit typing, preview/post)

11-30. Have three kids. This has to count for at least 20 of the 101 reasons because there's the laundry, laundry, laundry, LAUNDRY, cleaning up toys, toys, toys, and MORE TOYS, milk spills, yogurt smears, PB&J disasters, cereal crumbs, broken items, poopy diapers, runny noses, lost shoes, knotted shoes, unsnapped pants, bedtime routines, and play-doh.

31-40. Enroll your children in activities. Between driving to the bus stop for Emily, preschool for Jared, and ballet for Emily (and soon to be Storytime for Connor), most of our morning is totally shot. Driving BACK to get Jared from preschool, BACK to the bus stop for Emily, and home from ballet (and soon to be home from storytime for Connor), most of our afternoon is shot as well. Oh, and get for get the drive to pick Emily up from art class and bring her back home. And Jared will be starting SOMETHING soon (gymnastics?).

41-45. Take up knitting. Between browsing the internet for free patterns and ideas, shopping for yarn, purchasing the appropriate style and size of needles, doing a swatch, then actually working on a project (which can take several hours of several days/weeks depending on what you work on!), you can really "waste" a lot of time. Knitted items are great gifts (can't tell you how many baby hats I've done over the last 11 months since I learned to knit!)

45-50. Have three kids. They get to count for some more, because it never fails that I've nicely cleaned up the floors, and someone comes along and spills something, tracks in dirt, etc. And it never fails that I've neatly organized all the toys and suddenly everything is stuffed up on the shelves and into random bins. And I'm forever soothing sad children about the missing truck, hair clip, sippy cup, etc that was RIGHT THERE the last time they looked. LOL

51-60. Get married (I didn't say these were in any actual particular order)... It never fails that I find whiskers in the sink after he shaves, shoes, wallet, and hats and socks wherever he chooses to leave them, dirty dishes on the coffee table, dining table, counter, or sink (when the dishwasher is full of dirty dishes), and he never makes his side of the bed.

61-75. Have an INHERITED clutter problem. I'm blaming this entirely on my mother. LOL Give me a flat surface and I will figure out a way to cover it. Craft desk? Too covered in card stock, ribbon, fancy scissors, glue dots, etc to actually SIT AND DO CRAFTS. Computer desk? littered with scraps of paper containing important notes, reminders, "to do" lists, drawings from the kids, CD's of digital pictures, preschool STUFF (since I'm in charge of the monthly working schedule). Kitchen counter? School projects, school reminders, pictures waiting to be mailed out, bills, coupons, etc.

75-80. Learn to sew. Buying patterns, material, embellishments, cutting/pinning, and actually sewing can take YEARS of your life (I should know, I just spent a total of about 30 hours working on Em's Little Bo Peep costume for Halloween once all was said and done). This almost NEVER saves you money, but it's something fun to do.

81-90. Make your own cards. You might save yourself a lot of money over time, but the time spent choosing card stock colors, cutting out several different things on the Cricut machine to test out on the card, coordinating ribbon, flowers, accent colors, getting it all laid out, reorganized, glued down, delivered, you can easily have spent a full hour (or more!) creating just the perfect card. And very often you have a grand idea and after an hour of going crazy trying to make that idea work out, you give up and move onto idea #2. (that's part of the fun for me, is having an idea and making it work, or seeing it morph into something entirely different than what I'd sat down to do). This is a worth-while way to spend your time because everyone appreciates the effort that goes into a home-made card, plus it's very satisfying to creat SOMETHING from NOTHING.

91-95. Own a computer. The possibilites are endless, but I can easily find time to check my email, update my blog, read several other blogs I've bookmarked, check in with my mommy websites/support groups, and look-up just about ANYTHING (I'm currently scoping out Halloween costume ideas ON CLEARANCE on several websites to get a jump start CHEAPLY for next year!)

96-100. Own a phone. By the time you coordinate playdates, schedule doctor appointments, call preschool families with reminders, talk with out of town friends and family, and call around for this and that, you've lost valuable time of your cleaning day that way as well.

101. Be good at making excuses. I'm totally NOT one of those people! LOL

Appropriate Reactions to Emotions

Emily got in trouble for yelling at me the other day, so I was very pleased yesterday afternoon, when even though I knew was she very angry at me (I made her throw away a broken toy because there was no hope of fixing it and it was something dangerous around the baby left out as it was), she calmly walked back to her room, quietly shut the door, and that appeared to be THAT. Until she came out and handed me this drawing and explained that first she was happy and I was happy, but then I was a big meanie and made her throw away her "FAVORITE" toy and then she was very angry at me. "And look at how loud I'm yelling at you mommy!"


I'm fine with her yelling at me in drawings... LOL

Halloween Party

We attended a Halloween party over the weekend at a friend's house, and had such a good time! NO KIDS. How often does that happen?

Here's the punch. Isn't it neat? We were warned about the punch from last year, but I guess this years' was different. I had a glass. It was GOOD. And I have no warnings for anyone about it!


Dan was supposed to take a nice picture of Lacy and I, but he kept taking pictures that did NOT include our faces, so Lacy decided to take our picture herself, at which point Dan decided to comply with taking our picture...


Here's Dan!


Dan bobbing for apples (no easy task in a giant ape suit!)


He got one!


group picture of most of the girls in attendance


I wasn't going to share these figuring I'd shared enough Halloween pictures between ZOO BOO and Trunk or Treat, but I found myself with NOTHING to blog about today, so more Halloween pics found there way on here afterall. LOL

School Pictures

I finally realize how spoiled I've been getting the kids' pictures done at JCPenney's Portrait Studio! I have the say-so on what pose to order, if I don't like any of the poses, I don't have to order; and most importantly, I get to be involved in getting the REAL smiles...

The kids got their school pictures back recently, and I guess I should be really happy that even though I didn't get to be involved in getting the REAL smiles, and I had no say-so on what picture/pose I ordered, we still managed to get some decent pictures...

Emily (she's not AT ALL showing off that she lost that tooth the night before, is she?)


Jared (notice, no fresh wound on his nose? I had the photographer edit it out figuring if I was going to pay $35 for pictures, they should be WOUND FREE pictures! LOL There IS a color difference where it was, which you can see IF YOU LOOK FOR IT in person, but it's WAY better than the bright red scabbed up wound that SHOULD be showing!)


These were the pictures I had to cover up in the frames to display the school ones (as cute as the school ones are, you can see why I feel a little spoiled with the JCPenney's ones...)

PUMP IT UP!

The kids were invited to a birthday party at a place called Pump It Up. It was GREAT! There were two separate rooms with giant inflatables and you get about a half hour in each room, and then you end up in the party room for pizza and drinks, cake, and opening presents. The employees were fantastic! They run around with the kids, make sure everyone is involved in stuff, etc. They even made sure they were entertaining the two "babies" that were there bringing over balls, adn giving them rides in the Little Tykes car. My kids LOVED this place. LOVED IT! And I have to admit, I had a ton of fun, too! (that's right! They let the adults play, too!)

Here's the card I made for the birthday girl, Carina


Here's Jared going down a small slide after climbing up the climbing "wall" on the backside


Jared again! Out of control down another, longer, slide


Jared in the big boxing ring with the BIG boxing gloves


Here's Connor with one of the big balls they brought out for him and the other 16 month old little boy that was there. The boys RAN AND RAN AND RAN chasing these balls around!!!


I took Connor down the GIANT slide several times on my lap, which he LOVED. He would laugh so hard and then SCREAM when we'd get off at the end because he was mad and wanted to do it again. I got a little winded hauling him up the "ladder" so many times, so had Dan take him up. And Dan sent him down by himself! (which Connor loved!)


Then he came down with Emily on his lap


Emily and Connor and I all came down together


Here's Connor taking matters into his own hands and attempting to get up the ladder on his own (I stayed right behind him the whole time just in case)


See? I told you the employees were good at entertaining everyone! Connor got TONS of rides around the room in this car!




Group picture! (If you look closely through the netting under the "LML" you can see Connor, he crawled off Em's lap and then into the inflatable so isn't exactly in teh group pic afterall...LOL)

Trunk or Treat

Jared's preschool had a Trunk or Treat event Thursday night. Each family decorates their trunk and passes out candy to the preschoolers (and their siblings!) as they go around the parking lot trick or treating. The kids LOVE it and it's a fun/safe way to trick or treat, and it gives the parents an extra chance to visit and get to know each other better. The weather was PERFECT for the event. Mostly blue sky, not overly windy, NO RAIN IN SIGHT!

Here's our trunk:




Here's the kids posing in front of the trunk (notice how thrilled Connor is that Emily is gripping his hand to keep him from running off!)


Also, notice that Connor isn't a lion in these pictures! I tried putting the lion costume on him and he SCREAMED AND SCREAMED and squirmed and kicked and once I finally muscled him into it (thinking he'd be fine once it was totally ON) he just layed on the ground screaming and wouldn't move, so I had to give up on the lion idea and pull out the Superman costume Jared wore last year and put him in several layers of clothes to keep him warm (which is why he looks extra thick in these pictures!)

I told Emily to let Connor go and then snapped the picture without waiting because the second he realized he was free he'd have taken off and I'd have lost my chance. SO, two attempts at a nice picture and I wasn't successful...LOL


Emily attached herself to Ainsley, a little girl we'd met earlier in the summer at another friend's house. Aren't they cute?


Immediately after the Trunk or Treat event, we went to a MOPS event my friend Carole invited us to. There was a huge bounce house and a huge blow up slide so the kids went CRAZY running back and forth between the two.




The slide pictures are kind of blurry because the kids came down SOOOO FAST!




They also had a photo opp area, so I tried again to get a nice picture of all three kids. Jared wouldn't stop rubbing his eye and REFUSED to smile (PUNK!)


They had other stations of activities as well, but it was getting pretty late and the baby was really reaching his limits, and then Jared was REALLY graceful and ended up somersaulting himself backwards off the little blow-up platform for the bounce house and landed HARD on his forehead (oh, you should have heard the SOUND, it was pretty awful hearing the THUD of his head against the ground!), so we decided to cut our losses and head home!

It was a really great afternoon/night for the kids. And Dan and I have enjoyed several pieces of candy as our payment for the day (but SHHHHHHH, don't tell the kids! LOL)

busy!

A quick apology to my faithful blog viewers, there will not be a blog entry today... I've spent the morning at a funeral, have chores to do this afternoon, Emily has ballet this evening and we have a Halloween event later tonight. Trunk or Treat pictures from Jared's preschool should be up tomorrow!