Mother necessity.

For reasons too complicated to explain, I am going to start using my formal dining table for every day dining.  Now the challenge this presents is that the seats for the chairs are fabric, and a cream color fabric at that.  If you have met my children you are fully aware that they are sloppy eaters.  (Well Lauren not so much, but Mark and Katie....they keep my washing machine in business.) 

Knowing the messiness of my children, without some intervention, I knew my chairs would soon resemble a calico fabric littered with all sorts of colorful stains and textures.  So this is what I did....

This is the plastic wrap that you see covering traffic patterns on carpet at home shows to protect it from being soiled as half a million people tour the house.  Well just in case you wanted to know, Home Depot will sell you a roll or two.   I first bought it two years ago, because the new Jeep I purchased has a light tan interior, and the third row seat in the back that folds down, had carpet on the back of the seat.  I knew the seats would primarily be folded down as I hauled stuff around, and that I would have black car carpet if I did not take measures to protect it.  Its worked like a charm for the last two years. 

So I thought why not cover my chairs?  I did just that.  It too worked like a charm.  I had to place it over the chair and then trim to edges to fit.  But now my chairs are safely protected from impending damage my children could do.

Katie loved the scraps I trimmed off.  She stuck them together and made a gate for the stairs.

This is the face you make when your brother sees your gate and decided to bust on through, breaking your gate.  (Can you blame him???!!!  Its wayyy tooooo tempting.) 

This is the victory stance when you have rebuilt your gate. 

As for me, apparently my actions of covering the carpet in my car, and the seats of my dining room chairs, makes me one of those crazy people who cover their furniture in plastic..... I would recommend long pants if you don't want to "stick" to my furniture...  See I am just encouraging people to be modest.  Really I am not crazy.

Cinderella

This is the big box of shoes.  Also know as the shoes Lauren has outgrown, that are waiting to be re purposed.

Cinderella (aka, Katie) was in need of some new shoes. She out grown all her others. So we got out the big box of shoes to see what would fit.   She loved this pink ballet slipper shoe, but it was a little too big, much to her disappointment.

Yeah, she has the attitude to pull off these shoes...., that scares me a bit.

This shoe fit her perfectly, she loved it, but alas just like Cinderella there was only one shoe in the box.  We are currently waiting for prince charming to come on over with the other shoe. 

Bubblishious

Love Macy's, can't resist a good sale.....definitely could not resist these fancy plates.  Now before you think I have gone all fancy schmancy, these plates are PLASTIC!  Yes I said plastic.  That fancy melamine dinner wear that my children can't break.  Its very easy to find in the summer, since it is popular for outdoor parties and picnics.  And right now all the stores are clearing out their summer merchandise in anticipate of fall.   I paid $1.80 per plate.  Now Macy's only had 6 plates at the store and I wanted 12, so they had to order additional six plates, and even at the reduced price agreed to ship to my house at no charge. 

The plates arrived last week, wrapped in bubble wrap.  I have to say I am not quite sure why plastic plates need to be wrapped in bubble wrap?  Isn't the whole point of purchasing this product the fact it is indestructible?

That being said, my kids LOVED  the bubble wrap.  After popping all the bubbles they could stand, the bubble wrap suddenly became a fashion accessory.  Katie wanted to sport a rooster tail.

Lauren went for the high end look.

Oh, yeah we got our model pose down.

This look resulted in Mark saying to Katie "Nice pioneer hat Katie."  Well he had a point.

Flowers

Home grown, and hand picked by my kids!
They love their mommy, what can I say, I have brainwashed them well!

Mannequin.

Katie is obsessed with mannequins.  As in she immediately seeks out the mannequins in any given store.  And really what's not to love?  They have the perfect figure.  They usually are elevated on a platform, dressed impeccably, and accessorized to the "nines" 

 Upon locating the mannequin she hops up on the platform and begins to pose with the mannequin.  Of course singing is usually involved too.  Its the ultimate in DIVA behavior, and lets face it, a DIVA she is.

 This time she got Lauren and Mark in on the act.

Oh yeah, hugging the mannequin.



I can't believe I talked Mark into a mannequin pose. 

Can you separate the children from the mannequins?

Oh a pretty dress.

We like casual too.

Swim wear, a must.

Finally a mannequin shorter than Katie.



She really wanted me to talk the Old Navy people out of their dog mannequin.

So anyone looking for a birthday gift for Katie, think mannequin, or better yet, just take her to the mall and let her engage in the DIVA behavior of posing with all the mannequins, while you photograph her.  Its cheap entertainment. 



The dress.

Score!
Found this lovey beauty of a dress on clearance at Dillard's for $24.99.
I think she looks fabulous! Not that I am biased or anything like that......

Bananas.

Before.

After. Yes it was a yummy as it looks. (I put two loaves in the freezer, so someone better come to my house and help me eat this problem.)

Activity Days

Lip Gloss. (homemade)

Feather woven into the hair.

I am wondering what exactly its going to take for Lauren's activity day leaders to believe that I am a 10 year old girl eligible to come to activity days. Seriously. They do the coolest stuff.

I WANT TO PLAY TOO!

Last week Lauren came home sporting a feather woven into her hair, and they made homemade lip gloss. The theme was grooming, and learning how to take care of yourself.

Sometimes being an adult sucks. (Ok, well at least they sent the lip gloss recipe home, so if lip gloss mysteriously arrives on your door, you know I have been playing......)

My new cleaning lady.

She does sinks.

She does toilets.

She does not complain.

As I mentioned last week, I am a busy person. I have lots of demands on my time. I hired a chef, and now I have a new cleaning lady. Although she is a little young, she is always willing to help, and with supervision she is actually pretty good.

The compensation is the best part. She is willing to work for sugar. Any sugar will do, whether its in the candy form, cookie form or ice cream form.

Now if I could find a child willing to do laundry......

Needing some imput....

4-H grand champion clothing construction, August 1985.

First place, Humorous Interpretation, National Forensic League, April 1986, (Qualified me for the national tournament)

4-H grand champion fashion review, August 1984

In high school I was know to have a trophy or two, between speech and debate competitions, and 4-H. I have long since parted with all my trophies but three. I am now trying to decided what to do with the remaining three.

Recently I have been working on down sizing my life. I have been sorting and cleaning like no-ones business. I want to live with less stuff. I want to manage the stuff in my life and not let stuff manage me. I want to live a more simple life. I want to focus on the moments, the memories, not the stuff.

So in the process of cleaning I came across these three trophies. They have been in a storage room in my basement, basically collecting dust, and over the course of 20 some years have become broken and scratched.

Of course in high school I had them prominently displayed in my bedroom, and was quite proud of my accomplishments. But since then I have gone on to do all sorts of other things, and while I am still proud of my accomplishment, it does not define me as it did in high school.

So what the heck do I do with these trophies????!!!!!

Clearly its not something I use. Clearly its not something I show off. But they do represent a memory, a memory whose value is primarily to me.

So I am asking you, what do you think I should do? The way I see it I have several choices, although I am open to any other ideas that anyone else may have....Here they are:

1. Throw the trophies away.
2. Keep the trophies in the storage room in the basement, waiting someday for my kids to throw them away.
3. Throw the trophies away, but use the picture to write a story about each trophy and the memory associated with it.
4. Give the trophy to the Deseret Industries, and let some other person re-purpose the trophy and wonder about the story behind the trophy.

What say you?

Fingers

Fingers are good for a few things....including puppets.
How many can she get on?

Oh, yeah Mark needed to be involved too.

A personal chef.

I am a busy woman. I really dislike having to cook and fix food. I decided to employ the services of a personal chef. (We are still negotiating compensation.)

Here is the breakfast and lunch menu choices.
Of course, drinks, and the sides. This chef is a little particular and temperamental. She refuses to make desserts. I am on my own for treats.

Meet my chef!

This is the first meal I ordered. A lunch of peanut butter toast. Complete with a floral garnish. I am so stinkin spoiled!

The fort.

The Fort.

Ingredients: Chairs, blankets, couch cushions, and pillows

Directions: Arrange chairs in a circle, place blankets over the top of the chairs. Carefully arrange couch cushions, and pillows on the bottom. Invite friends and siblings.

Don't forget the snacks!

True Colors

The end of summer always brings new crayons with the start of school. Well I decided the start of summer should bring new crayons. So Lauren, Mark and Katie all got a new tray of crayons for the summer. I do have to admit it was an obscene amount of money to buy three separate trays of crayons, but I weighed that against all the disputes I would have to mediate, and decided the price of my sanity was exactly $14.99 per tray. And trust me at that price the tray contains EVERY color made by Crayola.

This is my favorite, purple mountains majesty. Every once in a while I can swipe it out of someones tray and fulfil my own coloring fantasy.

It has inspired all sorts of creativity. This is a mask Lauren made.

These are Katie's self made scriptures, stapled together of course.

One side effect I didn't anticipate, the amount of letters I would receive. And of course the funnest part of the letter is putting in the envelope and sealing the envelope.

On to Staples, I need more envelopes.....