I’m Not Dead! (And Our Floors Are done)

I don’t think there were too many people out there wondering if I’d actually died or not, but I’m sure someone other than my mother was wondering if I was ever going to blog again.  I am!

I’d like to get back into a sporadic-regular blogging schedule, but we’ll let that work itself out in the future.  I have tons of stuff (by tons I mean about 5) to blog about, but I haven’t had the motivation to actually sit down and get any of it into word form. 

Anyway, I thought I’d update you on our floors.  They’re done!  They were done before Christmas, which meant we were able to host our annual family Christmas Eve celebration with my sister’s family and our mom.  I LOVE that Christmas get-together.  I love them all, really, but because this is the only one I host, it seems more special to me I guess.

Here is a look at our floors in the few Christmas pictures I could find that showed off our floors. I never took a really great AFTER picture, so these will have to suffice. 

This was the night that we actually finished.  I was in love.  We have since changed out the metal registers for wooden ones.

Here is the widest shot we have from our Christmas Eve party.  Those are my sister’s boys.  Jack (and the rest of us) LOVE them!   You can see how our dark coffee table and our dark secretary (in the back to the left of the tree) look with our dark floors now.  I like it. Though, I have my eyes on a light beige shag rug (that I’m hoping comes way down in price soon) to put under that coffee table.

This is our Christmas morning.  You may notice an absence of presents under the tree.  We usually stick to the rule of 3 presents for each of us, but this year, Rick and I decided to count our floors as our gift to each other, so we didn’t get gifts for ourselves.  I love how, on Christmas morning, I asked Jack “It’s Christmas morning, do you know what that means?” and his response was “Yeah!!  We get to get out the train!!” 

This last picture is blurry.  Too blurry to show as a good picture on a blog – unless you’re trying to show the length of the new floors you just put in, and you’re trying to protect the identity of the Plasma Car thief in our house.  It also does a good job of hiding the clutter in our kitchen. 

We love our floors, but it was HARD WORK putting them in.  It took about a week (or 2) longer than we expected, and we had two big situations that required us to pull up floor that had already been laid.  It was very interesting ad frustrating. 

Thanks for still hanging around my blog to see if I’m alive.  I appreciate all my readers, even the ones who never comment.  If you are so inclined, please leave me a comment today saying that YOU’RE alive, so I know if anyone other than my mother reads my blog.  I have missed you, blog friends! I hope to be around more often on your blogs as well as writing more posts for my own blog.

Happy 2012!

 

Friends With Blogs

Do you have a blog? This is for you if you do.

If you could please check your profile to make sure I can email you back after you comment, that’d be great.  I love replying to comments via email, but if your profile isn’t set up correctly, I can’t do that.  And if I can’t do it, think of the other blogs you’re leaving comments on that can’t reply to you.  You’re missing out on some great relationships that can be formed by simply leaving a comment on someone’s blog. 

Here is the link.  It’s SO SIMPLE to fix.  It will take you all of two clicks and three whole seconds. I promise!

You can leave me a comment to see if it worked for you if you’d like. If you get a reply, it works!!

Thanks!  Have a great day!! 

How Do You Find Time?

While I’ve never been asked this question, I’ve seen other bloggers who have answered the question “How do you find time to blog while still being a mom?”

While this is perhaps not the BEST way to get it done, it’s working for me today.  Jack loves playing in the sandbox, and I love being out here with him.  But, unlike him, I’m not a huge fan of playing in the sand.  So, while he’s building castles, grading roads, and dozing sand dunes, I’m getting caught up on my blog reading, Facebooking, and post writing.  It’s a good combination!

 

Welcome!

Hi to all of you who are stopping by from Happily Domestic today.  I’m glad you stopped by!

Take a while to look around and see what gems of randomness you can find.  Some of my favorites are the Growth Chart Moments posts, but that’s because I enjoy seeing how much my little man is growing.

I’ve written a few posts on how I’m a little bit Crunchy and other ways I try to save money for our family.

Take a look through my labels down there on my sidebar and see if there is anything that might interest you.

I’m honored to be featured as a cloth diapering mama, and I hope you have a fun time looking around my blog. 

Please Don’t Read This Post!

I want to tell you to disregard this post, because it’s about a giveaway that I want to win.  If I blog about Rachel’s giveaway, I get another chance to win.  And I WANT TO WIN this giveaway.  If you go to Dreaming of the Country and see how fabulous this giveaway is, you’re liable to take away my chance to win.  So, please, PLEASE disregard this post.

I don’t want you to go here and see for yourself the most beautiful bag that I want to win.  I don’t want you to enter as many times as you can.  I don’t even want you to still be reading this post about the best giveaway ever!

So, just disregard this quick note.  M’kay?  Thanks!

*Did I mention that Rachel lives in Aberystwyth, Wales?  And I’ve been there before.  And she’s awesome enough to allow us “foreigners” to enter her giveaway?  And she’s just plane awesome anyway?  But don’t let that make you go read her awesome blog.  Really.  Just wait until after the giveaway, then go see how cool she is.  'M’Kay?  Thanks.

Click to Help

 

Have you ever read that blog?  Well, if you have, hop on over quick and read about her huge family crisis that just came up last week.

If you haven’t read her blog before….hop on over and check her out.  Today’s post is about how her husband lost his job last week.  With 8 or so kids (I lost count), that is going to cause a LOT of cutbacks in their family. She’s sharing her plan with us and it sounds like it will help, but there is something we can do.

All traffic on her blog helps earn her money from her advertisers. (I’m not sure how it works, since I’m not dealing with advertisers.)  Also, if you are planning to buy something from Amazon soon, you can click to Amazon from her page and she’ll earn some revenue. 

In a time of crisis like this, it’s the least we can do to click over and read a few posts to help them out.  That’s what being part of the Blogging Community is all about – being able to help others, even if it’s just with a click of a button.

So, hop on over, read a few posts, hop to Amazon and buy whatever you were going to buy anyway.  It’ll help a family out for a while.

Thanks!

Subscribe via Email!

I was just thinking the other day, "how do I make it REALLY easy for my readers to know if I've posted anything new recently?" Well, I just happen to follow a fabulous blog called Rediscovering Domesticity, and she’s been periodically posting some ‘bloggy basics’.  Some of the information has been stuff I’ve known, some of it has been over my head – something this little ol’ blogger doesn’t need to know, and some of it has been exactly what I needed.  Today, I read exactly what I needed.

See over there….to the right….over my family picture? It’s a place for you to put in your email address and subscribe to my blog.  I’ve been hounding a lot of you who are my Facebook friends with “I’ve posted!” status updates.  To minimize that, I started my own Growth Chart Moments Facebook Fan Page (feel free to become a fan if you aren’t already!!) where I’ll update my status if I post and have promised not to put random status updates that will clutter your newsfeed. 

Well, here’s an even EASIER way to find out if I post. put in your email address in the subscribe box, and you’ll automatically receive the post in your email.  Now, you won’t even have to leave the comfort of your own Inbox to see what I’ve posted.  *Though, when you don’t come over to the actual blog, it doesn’t count as a stat, and it makes me feel good to have those stats go up with readers*

So, what do ya say??  Want to get my posts in your inbox?  Feel free to subscribe.

Thanks, and I hope your weather is as beautiful as ours has been recently.  The sun is shining, the wind is breezy, the temperature is climbing, and the smell of freshly cut grass is starting to permeate the air.  Welcome, Spring!

Blue

While I was sitting on the couch folding my laundry today, I was thinking, “What does a person blog about when they blog every day?”  I was drawing a complete blank on any future blog posts.  I recently had a blog explosion (5 whole posts in two weeks), and now I’m at a loss for anything else to write about.

Then, it hits me.  Actually, all I had to do was look down at what I was doing.  There was my inspiration.  Blue laundry. 

Exciting, huh?

I washed our comfy flannel sheets with my son’s comfy flannel sheets today.  Seems like a good idea, huh?  Well, it would be if all the flannel was even remotely close to the same color.  One is a dark navy blue set and the other a pale yellow.  Not a good match!

When I pulled everything out of the dryer, I had blue everything.  Actually I had blue and dingy green everything.  The crib sheet was a dingy green color, the green pillow cases were a dingy green color, and the blue sheets were as blue as ever.

The Color Catcher was a beautiful dark blue as well.  Maybe I should have put a few more sheets in.  You live, you do laundry, you learn.

P.S. A big sorry goes out to my sister who handed down those two pale yellow flannel sheets to me.  Somehow she managed to keep them yellow the entire time she had them for her sons.  12 years later, I ruined one of them in one wash.  I completely understand if she never hands anything else down to me again (though, I think she has given me everything she possibly could give me already!)  Thanks, Sis!!!

I’m So Indecisive!

This is what I’ve been spending all my time doing.  I’m close to figuring out a header!  But I may be so far away and just not realize it yet. I’ve thought I had ‘the one’ about 4 times now.  I just keep changing things!  How do designers do it??? 

I need your help.  If I knew how to create a poll (read: if I had the TIME to find out how to make a poll), I’d do a cute ‘click on the one you like’ poll.  But, since I don’t know how to do a poll, I’ll just number them and ask you what number you like the best. 

This is the chance for you to come out of hiding and give me your opinion!  I’d LOVE to hear what you think.  If you think they all stink, and I should go a completely different direction, tell me!  If you like one of them but think I should change a color, placement, or font, tell me!  I’m completely open to your thoughts.  I’m guessing most of you are more creative than me.   I value your input!

Ok, here are the options I’ve come up with so far….

1. Red title, green description, all striped background, red bo5der

2.  Brown title, brown description, all striped background, green border  

3.  Red title, green description, stripes and dots background, red border (this one needs something in that empty space, and I’m not sure what-suggestions?)

4.  Crayon background (before I knew how to make borders)

5.  No change what-so-ever.  It’s the standard, no header, simple template.  This is what it’s been up to this point. (I did take away the standard borders because of all the headers I’m trying out)

I know they’re kind of hard to see, but I’m hoping you can get a good idea of what it looks like by these screen shots.  Thank you for giving me your opinions!  I really feel stuck. 

Please Pardon My Digital Dust

 

I am experimenting with Photoshop and headers.  I would love to design a cute header for my blog, but I’m not sure exactly how to do it.  It’s all trial and error!

My blog header may change every other time you come visit.  It may be the same for a long time, even if I don’t like it, because I have a one year old and a husband and a house and a kitchen and laundry and toys everywhere…you get my drift.  I’d like to sit forever and play with different designs, but life keeps getting in the way.

And there is that little thing called “I don’t  know what the heck I’m doing!!”  Photoshop is still a mystery to me.  Everything I’ve learned, I learned from YouTube tutorials.  I am determined to create a cute header that I’m happy with, but until then, enjoy whatever header is up for the moment.

Thanks for your understanding while this blog is under construction. 

Check Out This Blog…

One of my bestest friends in the whole entire world started a blog! 

(that’s Heather on the left)

She is in the beginning stages still – finding great backgrounds, making buttons and headers (I’m working on it), figuring out how Blogger works, and gaining readers.  She is a fabulous Christian woman who loves her kids and husband to death.  She has  been my encourager, accountability partner, kitchen organizer, and singing partner. 

Here’s a fun story for you:  We met way back in 1999 when she was training me at my new job (I was a temp).  We were back in the file room, which was a small hallway-like room that held boxes and boxes of files, organizing the boxes.  (she’s always been big on organizing!) For some strange reason, we both started singing/rapping lines from a DCTalk song “That Kind of Girl".  It was so obscure and so funny, that we immediately became friends.  Recently, she just found that song as a ringtone, and we’re both using it on our cell phones for each other.  “The other night I met a girl and she looked at me so nice… “

Here’s another fun story for you:   She met her husband when she threw me a surprise birthday party.   He and I were best friends in college, and when they met at this party, they hit it off right away.  It was so fun for me to have two of my best friends marrying each other.  So, she can blame me or thank me, but I’m the reason she’s married to her hubby :)

And now, in our ‘real lives’, after having gone so many years of not getting to spend time together –me always teaching and coaching and her raising two kids and a husband – we work to spend every Friday together, trying out new recipes and ideas.  Sometimes she watches Jack while I go to the Chiropractor, but most Fridays we HANG OUT!!!  How fun is that!? 

 (Heather with Jack a year ago!)

So, check out my friend Heather’s new blog The Diary of a “Disciplined” Mom.   Expect it to change often as she goes through the ‘construction phase’ of getting it up and running.  Her latest post was about using a Neti Pot!  FUN!  And GROSS! 

Thank You

To my 17 followers, most of whom are family, thank you for reading my blog.  It isn't a flashy blog, and it isn't one that is kept up on a regular basis, but it is a place for me to be creative and connect with people.  Like most mothers, I enjoy showing off my child.  Thanks for letting me do that with you.

Construction

Because this blog is still so new, and because I'm anal, this blog may be acting a little funny for a while. It may look different from day to day as I try to pick a really groovy background. It may post previous entries again as I edit old mistakes and tags. You'd think I would work out all these kinks before I 'put it out there', but not me. I like to be difficult. Really, I just didn't know what I was doing when I started. I've learned a little since starting, and I'd like to put my new knowledge to good use.

So, please forgive me if I randomly change my look or randomly post previous entries again. Like my title says...RANDOM thoughts... I got that right in the beginning!

Thanks

What the heck?

What the heck? I have a blog???

I thought I'd try it out for a little while. I LOVE reading other people's blogs, so I thought I'd try out my own blog. And away we go!

Sooooo, HI. Are you wondering what this blog will be about? Me too! My guess is it will most likely be about Jack, my baby boy. It could contain a little ranting now and again. I'm SURE it will have a lot of rambling in it. That's what I do. I ramble. If I get it all figured out, it will have pictures too. Maybe I can use this as a place to update friends and family about my friends and family. :)

Here's the newest growth chart moment: Jack just rolled over from his back to his tummy this morning!! Actually while I was typing this!! He's been rolling from front to back for a month or so, but rolling from back to front is much harder for him. And he did it!!! Just this morning. And I didn't have my camera with me. Maybe there will be video to come. :)

I leave you with a picture of Jack from July 1st. The hat wasn't to keep him from getting too much sun but to keep him warm! It was freezing!!! (or at least it was super cold for July)