Sitting At Our Kitchen Table: April 2011

Saturday, April 30, 2011

101 in 1001!

A week or so ago, I came across this fantastic idea over at Hunnel Happenings.

What you do...is come up with 101 tasks you'd like to accomplish. Then, you give yourself 1001 days to finish all of the tasks on your list.

I love this concept! It's perfect for someone like me...I've got a million things I want and need to do and I'm a pro at finding ways to put them off!

1001 days is an awesome amount of time because it equals about 2.75 years. It's enough time to do something big (major vacation or trip), to take care of seasonal tasks that might take more than one season to complete, to make real life changing habits (losing weight) AND to give some extra time to professional procrastinators like myself!

I've completed my list and I want to share it with you all! I'm also going to start a separate blog to chronicle my progress and help Me to keep track of Myself! I'm sure, though, some of that blog might leak it's way over to this blog and visey versa (that IS a word in my world!).

Start Date: May 1, 2011

End Date: January 27, 2014

(I apologize...I've got a hodge podge...I haven't categorized them!)

1. Start a compost pile

2. Write a letter to myself to open in 10 years.

3. Write a letter to each of my children to open in 10 years.

4. Write a letter to James to open in 10 years.

5. Watch 26 movies I've never seen starting with each letter of the alphabet.

6. Complete a 365 day photo challenge.

7. Give up fast food for an entire month.

8. Drink only water for an entire week.

9. Read 100 new books.

10. Write a short story.

11. Learn to knit.

12. Crochet a blanket.

13. Make my Grandma's Cinnamon Pickles

14. Make homemade bread.

15. Visit two states I've never been to.

16. Go to a Farmer's Market and buy produce.

17. Re-tile the shower in the main bathroom.

18. Make a homemade pizza...dough, sauce & home grown herbs.

19. Hose an Ugly-Christmas-Sweater party.

20. Take the family to the Wilbur Czech Festival.

21. Visit 5 museums.

22. Get a manicure/pedicure.

23. Take a class at the community college.

24. Eat a dinner with chopsticks.

25. Complete a cross stitch project.

26. Support small business. Find 10 local businesses. Buy a product from each.

27. Calculate our carbon footprint. Make a positive change to alter it.

28. Enter a walk/run/ride for a cause.

29. Put one dollar in a jar every day of this challenge.

30. Mail 50 cards/letters/postcards.

31. Visit a planetarium.

32. Do an Alphabet photography project. Make a book out of our shots.

33. Try 10 new foods.

34. Go Geocaching.

35. Visit five state parks.

36. Host a cookie exchange.

37. Enter a contest.

38. Learn to French braid.

39. Make homemade jam and jelly.

40. Lose 50 pounds.

41. Start Tai Chi.

42. Send something to my DH at work for no reason.

43. Visit three new zoos.

44. Take my Mom & Daughter on a Girls Only Vacation.

45. Visit our family in Washington.

46. Take the kids to see an ocean.

47. Go on a cruise.

48. Have our family photo taken professionally.

49. Go to see three live musicals.

50. Take the boys to a Husker game.

51. Try a new recipe each week.

52. Make noodles from scratch.

53. Do a "Day in the Life"...blog post.

54. Be a guest blogger on someone's blog. (HINT HINT!)

55. Start tweeting.

56. Do (at least!) one crunch every other night.

57. Post five book reviews on Goodreads.

58. Go to the Tulip Festival in Pella, Iowa.

59. Adopt a family for Christmas.

60. Go down a water slide.

61. Personally thank a member of the military for their service.

62. Join a woman's prayer group or bible study group at church.

63. Try five new cupcake recipes.

64. Paint the kitchen doors with magnetic & chalkboard paint.

65. Plant vegetables.

66. Tie Dye with the kids.

67. Do a freezer stencil shirt for each kid.

68. Cook a full turkey by myself.

69 Finish the Flylady's Baby Step program.

70. Do menu planning for a month.

71. Make a pavlova.

72. Take a cooking class to learn a new cooking technique.

73. Re-learn piano.

74. Go to a local fair/festival.

75. Build a snowman with the kids.

76. Finish my family tree. Use ancestry.com if needed.

77. Take silly photos in a booth with James.

78. Have a family game night once a month. Every month.

79. Do something about the nasty carpet in the house.

80. Remove all the bushes/shrubbery in the side and back yard.

81. Make a photo wall.

82. Catch fireflies.

83. Play putt putt.

84. Take the kids to see an imax film.

85. Make ice cream in a bag.

86. Make and fly our own kites.

87. Organize and burn all home videos to DVD.

88. Do the wii fit for one hour each week.

89. Go roller skating.

90. Memorize a poem.

91. Take my vitamins every day for a month.

92. Write a children's book.

93. Go to three outdoor concerts.

94. Write five reviews on trip advisor.

95. Try 10 new restaurants.

96. Answer the "50 Questions That Will Free Your Mind".

97. Learn belly dance basics.

98. Wire a lamp.

99. Eat 2 salads a week for lunch for 2 months.

100. Put together a recipe binder.

101. Get my moles checked.

SO! Nothing too Earth Shattering...but we should have some fun!

Friday, April 29, 2011

Countdown To Summer Vacation

The big news around here, now that it's almost May, is Summer Vacation!

Louie figured out how many more days of second grade he has and then figured out how many more days John has left of preK.

What's a Mom and Some Kids to do with this information???

Make a Paper Chain!

With a link for each day left of school. When the boys come home they run to it and rip off the day that they've just finished. Easy. Fun! And...sanity saver. Instead of, "How many more days now, Mom?" being thrown my way a few times a day, I point to their chains and answer, "Count!"

I cut up some construction paper into strips. Then I pulled out the JUMBO Glue Stick. My kids think that any project that involves the JUMBO Glue Stick is the most important project in the world. We counted out the strips that each boy needed and I put them to work.

Kat, obviously, doesn't go to school. But she won't be out-done by her brothers. Plus she's a diva and demands, "Pik-urs, Mommy!" while posing for me. How can I say no to such a sweet request?

Here are the Kidlets with their respective chains.

ps...Yes. That is my angry & mis-understood middle child still in his jammies at 4 in the afternoon. Whoops!

Linking to these Parties:

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Skirts, Challenges, Mile-Stones...Oh MY!

First thing is First! This is my 100th Post!

Cue the Trumpets. Toot. Toot. Tootin' my own horn!

I really enjoy my little Blog World. It's slowly building up...considering I took 4ish months off! :) I'd really like to get crackin' this next 100 posts, though. Maybe do some guest posting...have a guest post-ee...get some sponsors! Baby steps!!!

Okay. Now. Down to business.

A couple of weeks ago (seems like yesterday) I did a post regarding Funky Polkadot Giraffe's "Bookmarked from Blogland" Challenge. We were supposed to pick a project we had bookmarked and get-r-done! Today we're meeting up over at Funky Polkadot Giraffe to Linky Up what we accomplished!

I picked this Adorable Scalloped Skirt from Ameroonie Designs. And...guess what???

I DID IT!

Toot. Toot. Tootin' my own Horn!

I'm such a newbie at sewing. But Amy {she is totally my new hero} has such an awesome tutorial...she made me look like I knew what I was doing!!! I want to give her a big virtual squeeze! Please go check her out...I can't imagine the amount of work she put into making this skirt tutorial. It is FANTASTIC!

Wanna see the result of her genius and my blind blundering???

Perfect Girly Puffi-ness!

Lady Kat is going to have a Cupcake Themed 2nd Birthday and she'll be wearing this!

Don't think my hall tree is doing it justice? Wanna see it on a live model???

Alright. Since you said, "Please!"

I couldn't get Lady Kat to stand still...even with Goldfish Bribery.

I, also, sorely need a new camera.

Okay...she will seriously be the Bell of her Ball! And if you look quick enough...doesn't the skirt almost look cup cakey in itself? With a dollop of pink frosting? And sugar on the top!

Monday, April 25, 2011

Nests Fit for Some Peeps!

Did everyone have a great Easter???

Ours was nice! The kids were bouncing on our bed by 6 am and found all their eggs about 10 minutes later! The Easter Bunny hides eggs around the house with change in them at our place. It's funny...if I would hand Louie $1.62 he'd probably think, "Okay. Weird amount." But if he finds that much in random eggs...he's ELATED!

Then we went to an early mass and sat by some great friends. I love watching the kids during service. The sun was coming in the stained glass windows and John and Kat were pointing at the beautiful colors on the wall. Our pastor was full of energy and the Joy of Risen Christ! Then we spent the rest of the day with our families...first mine and then my husband's.

Here is a cute and FUN treat my mother-in-law came up with. She got one last year from a friend and wondered if it would be easy to make some for the family this year. I, of course, said, "SURE!" So Sat. her and my brother-in-law's girlfriend (really. that's a mouth-full. can't wait till I can call her my sis-in-law! no pressure, though, guys!!!) came over armed with choco chips, butterscotch & chow mein noodles. And PEEPS! I bet you're dying to see what we concocted...right???

And Army of Peeps setting on their eggs! What came first, the Egg or the Peep? These cracked me up...but here's a fun and interesting twist...Rita Jean over at Country Maverickess posted these same treats on Sat.! Great minds think alike!

So if you like my blog...head over to her's and I guarantee you'll like it, too!

Anywho...here's what we did. We melted a giant bag of chocolate chips and a regular sized bag of butterscotch chips. I added some oil so it wouldn't be too thick. Then in a fit of genius...I started throwing some peanut butter in. My MIL looked kind of worried, but chocolate + peanut butter = YUMMY in my book. When it wasn't lumpy any more we added the chow mein noodles. A whole bag. And mixed it up carefully trying to not break up the noodles. Your basic Haystack No Bake Cookie recipe would work wonderfully. I was just winging this.

Then I spooned little blobs of our gooey mixture onto waxed paper. Lindsey (my b-in-law's g-friend. seriously. no pressure!!!) followed me by pushing in three malted candy eggs and then my MIL followed her by dipping each Peeps bottom into the chocolate and setting it on top.

Proud Mama Peep.

It's as if she's saying, "What you lookin' at?"

Then...we ran out of Peeps. So some of the nests had to go Peep-less.

Which is okay by me...I'm not a Peep Fan. Please no hating.

Saturday, April 23, 2011

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, so that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16

CHRIST IS RISEN!!!

Have a beautiful and Blessed Easter!

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Palm Braiding

This past Sunday was Palm Sunday.

It's a pretty big deal in our church, as we celebrate Jesus' triumphant entrance into Jerusalem. According to the Gospels, Jesus entered Jerusalem riding a donkey and the people celebrated his entrance by laying down their cloaks and branches (palms) in front of him as they sang the Psalms.

At our church, the palms are blessed outside of the church before service. This year a procession started at the back of the parking lot and wound its way inside. After mass, the palms are given to everyone to take home. A lot of people can do some pretty fancy stuff with their palms...make crosses and what not. We braid ours. Pretty plain, but easy enough for my three year old to do! Then we display them...usually behind the cross that each person has in their room.

Here are the palms we brought home.

And here they are after we braided them!

It's a very simple thing to do, but it brings back so many great memories of doing this with my Mom. It makes me smile to be doing the same things with my kids!

I've dropped the...Egg?

So I realize that I've dropped the ~~egg~~ ... ball with keeping you up to date on our Easter Countdown Tree! Sorry about that!

No excuses.

I'm just LAZY!!!

But I'm going to remedy that and get you up to speed!

Day #4 was a slice of soap. #5 was a piece of red cloth. Then a nail and finally dice.

And, since I totally own up to being lazy...I'm went ahead and opened up the remaining eggs after the kids fell asleep and here are the remaining eggs!

Day #8 is three small stones, Day #9 is a piece of white cloth, Day #10 is a large stone and Day #11 are sweet spices. I put cloves and cinnamon in a snack zip lock baggie.

We'll read #11 on Saturday night. Easter Sunday morning we'll read #12 and...

The twelfth egg is left empty, just like they found Jesus' tomb!

Sunday, April 17, 2011

EGG-Stravaganza

I'd like to dedicate this post to our little oval friend, The Egg.

I'm going to start with these little beauties we bought on vacation last weekend.

Aren't the colors amazing??? It's an old German process they use with furniture glue and dye. The glue preserves the eggs. As long as the shells don't crack, the inside dries up and you can use them year after year. Here is a little more about them.

On to another type of Egg. Friday night it was just the Kidlets and me. Everyone was a little restless because the weather here has turned cold...again. If you don't like the weather in Nebraska, just wait five minutes! Anyway, I declared, "Craft Time!" Before I really had a plan in mind. Here's what we came up with...I know I've seen this idea floating around...and we specialized to for Easter.

Our marker tub went in the middle of the table. Everyone got a coffee filter and full marker access...much to Kat's happiness! I just told the kids to decorate their filters.

Then I grabbed the water spritzer and told them to shoot!

You can just see the water action going on! We let them dry over night. Then I traced an egg pattern on them and cut them out. Here is our result:

I really like how the colors bled after being squirted! This is something we'll do again for different holidays. The kids LOVED the squirting process.

Finally...yesterday my hubby's family had our Annual Egg Coloring party! This is something we do every year...even before we had kids! SO much fun! My mother-in-law uses the Paas Colors. We roll old-school!

John checking out his first egg about a second after putting it in the dye.

Kat was pretty patient! She sat there munching on Grandma Linda's Chocolate Krispies while her eggs dyed!

Louie showing off...and smiling as only a seven-year-old boy can smile! I tell him, "Show me happy!" and this is what I get!!!

Finally...a family of Eggs! You can't beat writing your name in white crayon before dunking your egg and then seeing your name magically appear! Never gets old!!!

Saturday, April 16, 2011

"Bookmarked" Challenge

I've mentioned before that I'm a Blog Hoarder.

I've got a TON of blogs and posts bookmarked. So many that I've started to add them to their own special page along my tab line. There are a virtual ton of great ideas and fun & funky crafts that I want to get my hands on!

So when I read Kyla over at Funky Polkadot Giraffe's "Bookmarked in Blogland" Challenge...I thought to myself,"Game On!" If you already read/follow Funky Polkadot Giraffe, you know what an awesome blog it is. If you don't, you seriously need to go check her out! :)

Kyla is challenging us to pick one of our bookmarked ideas and complete within the next Two Weeks. Then she wants us to all meet back at her blog to share! FUN!!!

My "official" choice is this...

...absolutely ADORABLE scalloped skirt by Ameroonie Designs! I'm going to attempt to make this for Kat to wear at her Second Birthday...fingers crossed...wish me luck! Amy has a great tutorial and I'm hoping her awesomeness makes up for my newbie sewing skills! Side note: don't you want to squeeze those cute little legs??? Let's hear it for adorable models!

Egg #3 From the Egg Tree

I was all excited last night about receiving the Versatile Blogger Award...

...and I forgot to post a shot of Day #3 of our Easter Countdown!

Sorry, bout that! Here it is...

Friday, April 15, 2011

An AWARD!!!

Good Evening, Everyone!

I'm so excited to be writing this post, because I've been awarded...

Insert Drum Roll, Please!

The Versatile Blogger Award!

Isn't it pretty? I can't wait to stick it on my side bar!

With every honor comes responsibility...and here are the rules I'm to follow.

1. Thank the person who gave you the award and link back to them.

This lovely award came from Rita Jean over at Country Maverickess! THANK YOU, Rita Jean! I'm still smiling, because it makes me feel good to know that crafty creative ladies, like yourself, take the time to check out my rambling! If you haven't visited Rita Jean's blog...you need to!!! She got me hooked with these cute little crochet (get it...hooked!) flowers.

2. Tell seven things about yourself.

I'm an only child. And so is my Mom. I broke the mold by having three kidlets!

I majored in Early Childhood Education with a Music Specialty. But I didn't finish. But I'm okay with that!

I can't watch Dumbo with out crying. That part where they play Baby Mine and Mrs. Jumbo is rocking Dumbo through the bars...turn on the waterworks.

I blogged a few weeks ago about my Dive into Knitting. Ummm...I'm pretty confused by it, so I've set it aside for awhile. I think it will make a great project to dust off next fall!

I'm a non-practicing member of Weight Watchers. I need to hop back on that wagon!

I watch Phineas & Ferb when my kids are asleep. DooBeDooBeDooBah!

I want to do an Angry Birds theme Birthday party. For myself!!! Just so I can cut that nasty grin off the green piggies face. I'm not bitter.

3. Pay it forward and award the Versatile Blogger to 15 recently discovered new bloggers.

Lady Crafter 14

Pam's Party & Practical Tips

Who's Watching the Baby?

Sass and Frass Crafts

Moore Babies

CountingBunniesToo

Living Craftily Ever After

The Polka-dot Umbrella

4. Contact your everyone and let them know they've been awarded! That way everyone can check out everyone else's blog and spread the love around! Followers and Comments always make me smile! I'm sure they make you smile, too! It's a great way to find some new inspiration!!!

Mini-Vay Cay to Amana Colonies, Iowa

Before I tell you about our Weekend Getaway...I wanted to share Day 2 of our Easter Tree:

SO!

This weekend, my Handsome Hubs thought we could all use a fun weekend away and booked us a room at the Clarion Hotel in Williamsburg, Iowa!

We're BIG fans of the Amana Colonies and it's a quick three-ish hour drive East of our home. I've been going there with family since I was little, and it was the first vacation James and I took together. It's an old German settlement made up of small villages. Now it's a great place to do some shopping, wine tasting and meat & cheese sampling! The Clarion is just off I-80 and they have a small indoor water park called Wasserbahn. Our boys love playing in the water, but aren't big-time swimmers, so the smaller size of the water park is perfect for our family! Here are some shots of our trip: