Christmas Crafts for Kids

We have been very busy the past 2 weeks with lots of Christmas crafts! SO MUCH FUN!!! We actually had more than I am going to show you but someone THREW THEM AWAY!!!!! ARGH!!!!!!!!









These are ornaments made from toilet paper rolls. Cailey used a little glitter glue to decorate her blue one. Unfortunately it didn't show up very well in the picture.









Here are their Santa faces. They used a pencil to curl his beard.









They free painted Christmas trees and dabbed on the ornaments with their fingers.











Here are their winter scenes, done in white paint on black construction paper.









We're calling these  mixed media works. ;) White paint, blue, black, yellow and orange construction paper, cotton balls, and white crayons.











Here are their construction paper poinsettias!



We are doing more and more Christmas crafts every day and as soon as I have another big grouping I'll be sharing them with you!





HAVE FUN CRAFTING!!!!!

Time to Catch Up a Little

Oh, my goodness!!! I have been gone almost a month!!!! Good grief!! How did that happen??? How have I not gone insane????

Well, we are all moved in but not quite settled. SIGH... I managed to fit my ginormous dining room table into our kitchen! There's not much space to walk around it but who cares??? Well, actually it seems that everyone cares except me. LOL BUT this is one time they are just going to have to lump it.

I have about 1/4 of my books and 1/4 of the kids' books on shelves. The rest are in boxes that are stacked in every available nook and cranny.

All my sewing stuff is packed away. I am going to HAVE to find a way to make that work.... There just HAS to be a way!! There has to be SOMEWHERE I can put all of it. I NEED to SEW!!! It's an addiction, I swear.



ANYWAY, my next few posts will catch you up on what all we've been doing. In this one I bring you......



THANKSGIVING! LOL







Here are Cailey and Colin in front of the our house right before we left to go to my mother-in-law's house.  And before anyone gets upset over the headdresses, The Hubby is about 1/2 Native American.  I think I'm around 1/16. LOL

Here are the crafts that they made for their grandma.







Cailey has some big ol' feet so we had to use 2 pieces of construction paper. ;) She's a petite 9 yr old but she wears 4s and 5s!!! CRAZY!!!





And here is an updated picture of ME!









I wish my hair color showed up better. It's actually BRIGHT red! LOL

Y'know, before I started taking "selfies" I never realized that one side of my face was smaller than the other! Weird!! One of my eyes is even smaller, although you can't really tell in this pic.



I have made my peace with the move and with the teeny tiny house. Probably with a lot of help from SAM-e. If you have fibro, I think you should take a look at it. It's an over the counter supplement and it has helped me TREMENDOUSLY over this whole move. Once I started taking it, I kept my cool the entire time AND my pain levels have been drastically lowered!



In my next post I'll give you some Christmas craft ideas for the kiddos!



SO SO SO SO SO SO HAPPY TO BE BACK!!! I can't tell you how much I have missed y'all!!!!!

Fly on the Wall - November

Welcome to a Fly on the Wall group post. Today 13 bloggers are inviting you to catch a glimpse of what you’d see if you were a fly on the wall in our homes. Come on in and buzz around my house.

Buzz around, see what you think, then click on these links for a peek into some other homes:

http://BakingInATornado.com                                     Baking In A Tornado

http://www.justalittlenutty.com/                                Just a Little Nutty

http://followmehome.shellybean.com                          Follow me home . . .

http://stacysewsandschools.wordpress.com/                  Stacy Sews and Schools

http://thesadderbutwisergirl.com                            The Sadder But Wiser Girl

http://www.menopausalmom.com/                                     Menopausal Mother

http://mooreorganizedmayhem.blogspot.com/                Moore Organized Mayhem

http://themomisodes.com/                               The Momisodes

http://spatulasonparade.blogspot.com/                      Spatulas on Parade

http://www.therowdybaker.com                              The Rowdy Baker

http://sorrykidblog.com/                       Sorry kid, Your Mom Doesn’t Play Well With Others

http://momsdontsaythat.com                            Moms Don’t Say That

http://www.juiceboxconfession.com                      Juicebox Confession



Sooo, if you were a fly on the wall in my house this month you would have witnessed LOTS of crying, screaming, ranting, raving and fit throwing and that's just by ME!!!!

Yes, we have moved... AGAIN!!!!!! Shoot me now.

I tell ya, I should buy stock in packing tape and boxes.

We moved from a city and house that I loved to a town and house that I DON'T love.... Trying to be diplomatic here. ;)

We are in temporary housing, read TEENY TINY HELL HOLE. Most of my books and all of my crafting/sewing are still in boxes. WAH!!!!!!!!! But we managed to fit it all in the house, sort of.  On the bright side, since we aren't unpacking everything we are already done! LOL But the draw back of not putting stuff in storage? Yeah, we will have to repack it all and move it all again. SIGH..... Did I already ask to be shot? Can you shoot me again? Put me outta my misery!!!

The kids are all doing very well with this move. THANK GOODNESS!!! You see, we used to live here about 8 years ago. We have tons of friends and some family in the area and that helps greatly!

Oh, you are going to LOVE this. We live in such a tiny town that we (ME) had to install the cable, phone and internet ourselves! CRAZY!!! We kept calling and calling trying to get someone out here to hook us up. Apparently they only have 1 or 2 installers out here. Eventually they told us to just go in to the local office, pick up the equipment and do it ourselves. Niiiiice... We did it, though. We have cables and cords running all over but at least we are connected!

Apparently we have MICE!!! MICE!!!! BLECK!!!!! I saw evidence of mice when we first moved in but I was very hopeful that it might have been old evidence... Not so lucky. One of the cats caught and killed one the night before last. Can anyone say EXTERMINATOR???? YILES!! I swear, if I see bugs, I'm out and I'm leaving everything behind.

During this entire move all I have heard is WHY do I have SO many books??? Wah, wah, wah, nag, nag, nag. Wimps. LOL

So, I bet you want to know the juicy details, right? WHY did we move again??? Well, here ya go. The owner of the last company was a lying weasel. It took him 6 months to get our insurance and we never did get our HSA card. Then there were all the perks he promised that he never went through with. The Hubby was supposed to get a $15,000 bonus this month. All of a sudden the owner starts talking about how there will be no bonuses. WHAT??? Then there was the company vehicle that never really happened. Oh, we had one for about 2 wks and then the owner asked for it back because someone else needed it. WHAT???? Then there was the odd behavior and strange rumors. Is the company going under? Is the owner on drugs?? He started stiffing some of the parts providers (one of those providers is a good friend of The Hubby's). Yeah. CRAZY!!! On top of all of that, he stiffed Jacob his last week and 2 days of pay. We may have to get the labor board involved. The Hubby was afraid this would happen, he had watched him do it to a couple of other employees.

I am so thankful that The Hubby has so many job opportunities. We are never stuck in a bad situation. It involves moving long distances but we don't have to take crap. ;) Besides, living in so many different places builds character. You get to see more of the country, meet new people, expand your horizons. Trust me, I should know! I've lived in 6 different states (or is it 7)! I've moved more times than I can count. Shoot, I went to 11 different schools when I was a kid and that doesn't count bouncing back and forth between the same schools. LOL

Wish me luck!

Secret Subject Swap - November

Welcome to the 26^th Secret Subject Swap. This week 12 brave bloggers picked a secret subject for someone else and were assigned a secret subject to interpret in their own style. Today we are all simultaneously divulging our topics and submitting our posts.

Here are links to all the sites now featuring Secret Subject Swap posts.  Sit back, grab a cup, and check them all out. See you there:

http://BakingInATornado.com                            Baking In A Tornado

http://www.theinsomniacsdream.com/                  The Insomniac’s Dream

http://TheGamersCorner13.blogspot.com              The Gamer’s Corner

http://momsdontsaythat.com                             Moms Don’t Say That

http://stacysewsandschools.wordpress.com/        Stacy Sews and Schools

http://www.homeonderanged.com                       Home on Deranged

http://www.juiceboxconfession.com                    Juicebox Confession

http://thisisdiscoveringme.wordpress.com/             Discovering Me

http://www.theblacksheepmom.blogspot.com          The Black Sheep Mom

http://spatulasonparade.blogspot.com                      Spatulas on Parade

http://thethreegerbers.blogspot.ch/                     Confessions of a part-time working mom

http://rantsfrommycrazykitchen.com                    Rants From My Crazy Kitchen

My subject is -

Find the craziest pumpkin recipe you can online and make it.  Blog it and give us pictures.

It was submitted by: http://www.theinsomniacsdream.com/

Soooo, let me start off by saying this - we are moving again. SIGH............. Today as a matter of fact. It was a very quick thing and we will be moving into temporary housing. It's not easy to find a house big enough for 8 and we just didn't have enough time. Soooo, most of my stuff is going into storage. All my books, the kids' books, my sewing stuff, etc. The good stuff! LOL

Anyway, I can't really say when I will be back to blogging full time. I just won't have the resources at my disposal that I normally would.

Now, on to the SSS!!!

I know that I was supposed to find a recipe, make it and blog it. Unfortunately with all the madness around me with this move , I didn't get this done. So, instead I thought I would give you tons of unique pumpkin recipes that you can try yourself. Not quite the same, I know, but work with me here. LOL

Pumpkin Pickles from Reader's Digest - DEFINITELY out there...

Pumpkin Lasagna from Delish

Southwestern Pumpkin Burgers from Kitchen Daily 

Pumpkin Mac and Cheese from Better Homes and Gardens

Pumpkin Pineapple Cocktail from Cookie & Kate - maybe a few of these will help me get through the move?????

So, there ya go! Not what I was asked to do, but I hope it's OK.

Pray for my sanity, people. I'm going to need it. I miss creating and blogging! They are my outlets during all the craziness of life.

Taking a Break

I have thought and thought about this but I will be taking a short blogging break. ALL of my kids are sick. ALL 5!!! On top of that, I have been having some major fibro flare ups. On top of that, I have been so crazy busy that I have barely had any time to stop and collect myself. No time to get my creative juices flowing again. I have noticed that even my writing has been somewhat stilted and forced (what little bit I have been doing).

It won't be a long break, more than likely just a couple of weeks. I am hoping that will give me some time to get everyone better and get myself in a better place health wise. Stress is a major factor in fibro and I have been doing quite a bit of stressing lately.

You probably won't even notice that I'm gone. ;) But just in case I wanted to give you a little heads up.  I still plan to take part in Fly on the Wall and the Secret Subject Swap. I wouldn't miss those for the world. ;)

Hopefully when I come back full time I will have a bunch of great sewing, crafting and schooling things to share with you!



HUGS!!!!!!!!!!!



P.S. You can expect ONE more post from me this week. I will be posting pics of Cailey and Colin in full costume even though I doubt they will actually be well enough to go trick or treating. :(

A Day at the Pumpkin Patch

Last Friday we took Cailey and Colin to a local pumpkin patch. We had SUCH a blast! There was so much to see and do! Even though it was freezing that day we still had a really great time.



The first thing we did was hit the corn maze. We let Colin lead us through it. He loved it. It was a HUGE maze cut into the shapes of different animals. He lead us all through the frog shape and then decided we were done. Too much other stuff to see and do!



They absolutely loved the petting zoo. Even though we have had bunnies and goats in the past, they still loving interacting with them. I think this was their first experience with a sheep!



We took a lot of silly pictures. This is one of my favorites. LOL



We got to take a hayride. Since we were some of the few there that were not with a school group, we got the hayride and big pumpkin patch all to ourselves! FUN FUN FUN!!! Colin jumped off and grabbed the first pumpkin he saw! I didn't even get to snap a picture! Thankfully Cailey took a bit more time and I got the exact moment when she found hers.



This was one of their favorite parts of the whole day!!! I caught Cailey in mid-flip! LOL









Their pumpkin choices! :D





We did ALL kinds of stuff! Corn maze, hayride, pumpkin patch, corn tub, bouncy pillow, petting zoo, fudge, hot fudge cake, ginormous slides, and a bunch of stuff I know I'm forgetting. We are definitely making this a yearly tradition, but maybe we should go a little earlier in the season next year. We froze our tushies off!! LOL

Costume Preview

So here is a little preview of Cailey and Colin's Halloween costumes. I didn't do them up like we will on Halloween but I did want to show how they look so far. We will go full make-up and hair on Thursday. I can't wait!!! :D



BUT we are hitting cold season here at the house. My oldest, Jacob has a really terrible cold and now 2 of the other kids are getting sore throats! NOOOOO!!! Cailey and Colin missed Halloween last year because they were both sick!! We don't want a repeat!



In case you are wondering exactly what Cailey is this year, here is a picture of a Jinafire Long doll.









I used a pattern for the main dress but put quite a bit of my own twists on it. I matched the fabric up as best as I could. All in all, I am very proud of it.

Underneath the dress is a 2 piece gold lame outfit, made to look like Jinafire's scales. Hopefully it will also help to keep Cailey warm.



Colin's was a bit easier. I drafted a pattern for the pirate shirt and used eyelets for the first time. MUCH easier than I thought it would be.







HAVE FUN TRICK OR TREATING!!!