I HAD a Dream

This morning Kendall said, "Mom, last night I had a dream I fell in a pool with a motorcycle." I was never able to determine if she had been driving the motorcycle but the thought makes me giggle.

She had a rough swim lesson last Friday, I think this dream may have been more of a nightmare from that!

Her Mother's Daughter

Clearly Kendall is my daughter. The other day she was asking me how to spell certain words while she was writing. She wanted to write: "I love this pen." HAA, I love it!

We took a little drive to visit a mall that has an "aquarium" in it. The girls were impressed even though it only had three tanks!

Kendall can't resist Kate's cheeks, usually Kate tolerates it... but not always.

RIP

Can we please have a moment of silence for my beloved sewing machine, may she rest in eternal sewing machine peace.

Scenes From Our Day

Serious eye lashes on a sweet little cheeky girl.

New big sticks for our living room.

How We Do It

This is what Kendall was doing instead of napping. This is why I pick out her clothes the night before on school days.

I like when the blogs I read show how they manage the running of their household, par

ticularly how they organize all the information that has to be juggled. I decided to show how I try to stay organized.Being married to Brian it is only fitting that I utilize Excel--Brian's undergraduate degree is Engineering, he is way more organized then me and the word Excel gets his heart beating faster much like paper products and art supplies do for me. I have kept multiple spreadsheets for organizing but recently combined them all into one large file with different tabs. Here is a screen shot. The first tab has my budget tracking, (I've removed the actual numbers).

Basically I try to spend within a certain amount in each of the categories, I can input expenses and see what I have remaining for the month. Everyone would have different categories, Brian pays the bills so those aren't shown in my expense tracking, he has a 'budget' just like me that looks differently (but we share the same allotment for the fun spending...clothes, cash for eating out). Next tab is a register, juggling two kids I don't have time to write down every time I use the debit card, I just keep the receipts and input them here to keep a running account of what is in my checking account.

Other tabs include calorie tracking and a grocery list. Usually I will print off this grocery list each week, plan our meals and then make the list. Only recently have I added this tab to the spreadsheet so I can add items as I notice we need them during the week.

I also like to collect images (digital images from various blogs and websites and physical images from magazines and books). They actually make software that you can scan all your images and organize them all on the computer but I like my binders so will keep using them. On the computer I keep different photo folders, I organize our folders by year and month and the downloaded images in folders as well: fabric projects, scrapbooking, cards, home ideas, holiday/party, teaching and "not mine" includes paintings, and various other things I want to make.

For physical binders my favorite is the Russell + Hazel Signature 3 ring binder with the 8 tab index dividers. I keep a binder for scrapbooking ideas, recipes, house ideas, and children crafts and learning activities. Actually right now I only have one of the Russell + Hazel binders but I have others on my Christmas Wish List so all my binders will be matching (the others right now are just regular ones you find at Target).

I

would love to use an online calendar system that can be shared between people (Google has a good one) but I'm too attached to my actual planner to do that. I do usually write our meal plan on it and what Kendall is doing in school that week in addition to the normal appointments and such.

Finally I use this little chalkboard in our kitchen so I can look at our meal plan at a quick glance and so Brian knows what to expect (although I don't think he ever looks at it).

That's it in a nutshell. I think this will be fun to look back at when the kids are out of the house. I would love to hear if any of you have a different system that works for you.

Inspiration

I collect photos from around the internet that inspire me. Here are a few that I'm loving lately. I'll give credit on the two that I remember where they came from.

Peg board from Fly Through Our Window.


Collection of paper goods (last photo) comes from Decor8blog.com. I must admit that this one makes my heart beat faster, I love paper supplies!

Routine

We're trying to get into a routine here with school now. I've found that as much as I would like to have the girls up and playing right after school it just can not happen. The last two days Kate has started crying from exhaustion as soon as we get home and Kendall would love to skip nap but our afternoons are HORRIBLE when that happens. I have decided that I do all that I can (including dinner prep) during their school and nap time and then spend the rest of the afternoon in solid quality time with them. We're still working on it but this was only our first week and we will get better. I'm going to ATTEMPT to include some blog time during those early hours so that I will more regularly update.

Did I mention that Kendall has started swim lessons on Friday mornings? She isn't crazy about it but I feel like it's important for safety's sake that she learn how. She's been doing great, and of course Kate is desperately wanting to go as well. I knew that Kendall would be resistant that is why we choose to go the private lesson route. I think that since she is constantly engaged the whole lesson it keeps her mind off of being sad a little more.

Oh, the girls LOVE to have their back scratched. They would love if I spent my entire day doing just that. I had to encourage them to take turns scratching each other's backs instead.

Kate-T Lou

Lou Lou has started school and she LOVES it. She marches right in and starts exploring. Today she even wore big girl panties to school and had no accidents. She is also napping in big girl panties, this is a first we'll see how that goes (she was adamant that she keep them on). Yesterday when I dropped her off she didn't really want me at all, she just wanted to check things out, I had to call her over to kiss me good bye. When I picked her up she ran to me yelling about her painting. Today she was excited to show me her "two thumbs up". Her teacher had drawn little smiley faces on Kate's thumbs, so cute.

One Down

One of the project ideas on my list was finding a way to gather all the cards and small mementos that I've saved for each of the girls. Last night I put together this little book for Kendall. It contains cards she has received throughout the year, drawings she has done, show tickets and other special memories from the year. I included blank pages in the front and I plan to interview her and include, teacher and friend's names, favorite color, things to eat... I used my Zutter binding system to put it all together with some chipboard covers. I haven't showed her I know she'll be excited to have it!

First Tree Climbing!

The girls climbed a tree for the first time. It's funny how some things are just ingrained in kids. I don't think they've ever seen anyone climb a tree, they just knew it would be fun.

Around Here

Around here we had picture day at school. Kate doesn't officially start until Monday but we were able to go in and have hers taken. Her classmates were very timid, but I whispered a little encouragement in her ear (and possibly a little bribe) and she marched right up in front of those bigger 3 year olds, climbed the little ladder, positioned herself and smiled so sweet. The photographer, his assistant, and her teacher were all standing there with their jaws open and then broke out in big smiles too.

Around here we made a trip to Target to pick up big girl "pull ups" Kate spent all morning in big girl panties with out one single accident. We changed into a diaper for nap time and then she didn't want to put her big girl pants back on. Monday when she goes to school she will go in pull-ups and I have a good feeling fully potty trained wont be far behind.

Around here I have been working on the girl's Christmas list. I usually keep an ongoing list of things as I see a need or extreme desire. This morning while at Target I let Kate out of the buggy to roam the toy aisles and finished up the list. I'll be ready when the time comes for Christmas shopping now.

Around here we made the horrible mistake of missing Grandparents Day on Sunday!!!!! I'm going to work with the girls this afternoon (hopefully) to do some making and get that in the mail tomorrow.

Around here we've had a bit of a power struggle lately. Kendall has been testing boundaries and it exhaust me beyond belief. It makes my blood pressure rise and it makes me so sad and fear that I'm doing something wrong. It doesn't matter how "normal" it is, it's not acceptable and I feel a sense of failure as her mom.

Around here my break light has started coming on, the book says to have them serviced immediately, yuck. Brian is calling the dealer as I type this.

Around here I REALLY want to take this class by my favorite scrapbooker. Between the registration fee ($100) and the supply list I don't know if I will do it though.

Around here I'm making a list of projects to work on. Yesterday I took pictures of all of Kendall's artwork and worked on a book in Shutterfly to have printed like I did last year. I plan on making somekind of box to include all the cards and special notes they have received this year too.

Just living life around here. Doing the best we can to live it fully and blog about it sometimes too!!

Click Click

A sound my kids have heard since birth, the clicking of the camera. We are so blessed to have such a photographer in our family.

Kate hasn't been feeling well and has a horrible cough. Unfortunately she was quite the grump today. However, you can't tell from these photos. Looking at the whole collection is quite amusing...frown, evil eye, then huge smile (and click goes the camera).

They were rewarded tonight with a trip to the local ice cream joint. I'm exhausted!!

Playroom

I wanted the playroom to be as fun as a classroom. I love how teachers seperate the different centers by using rugs. I also love how they have everything labled with pictures so that the kids know where to put things. I wanted everything to be easily accessible for the girls. I also wanted to keep it simple, I took out a lot of the toys to rotate. I've found they play best when the number of options aren't too overwhelming. And things are always more interesting when they've been hidden for awhile.

First is the craft area. IKEA table, and a bookshelf full of craft supplies. The third photo shows the picture taped under the items.

This table will also be used for the puzzles and games like Dominoes, Memory...


Behind the white craft bookcase is our pretend play or kitchen area. Kitchen, laundry, play food, baby stuff.

Next to that is the train table that sits on the block mat. stored under the table are the floor puzzles and blocks. Here is a picture where I've pushed the baskets back so you can see the photos underneath.

This is the grand finale, this will send the girls over the top in happiness. The dress up area. Previously all the dress-up clothes and shoes were shoved in a hamper. Usually they were all over the floor because they were digging to find just the right pink skirt to match their pink shirt, shoes, and pink fancy hair bow. Check it out now.!

Show and Tell

I am waiting for the camera battery to charge. I have something really cool I want to show you...the playroom. Let me backtrack. I had a goal a couple of weeks ago to focus on one room of the house for a day and get it really really clean. Because usually the entire house gets 'picked up' and then I feel like I accomplished nothing because I never really get anything cleaned. I've actually been looking forward to the playroom but have been putting it off until Kendall went back to school. Lorie helped me today and it's looking AWESOME. But, I'm waiting on my camera battery.

I wasn't going to post but I have quite a few other pictures I know the grandmothers would appreciate.

Brian ran a half marathon on Saturday, we cheered him on and are so proud of him!

The next day he had a softball game, he blew out his cleat. On the way home he mentioned that they were kind of old anyway. Guess what his definition of 'kind of old' is, they belonged to his YOUNGER brother when he was in MIDDLE SCHOOL. Yes, that's right the shoes were probably about sixteen or so. I just think that's kind of gross. Stinky sweaty boy feet marinating for 16 years.

My sister Lorie arrived on Tuesday. We've been having so much fun hanging out together. She bought a bunch of fabric today and is currently making all sorts of dress up clothes for the girls...mermaid tails, wedding dresses with veils. Both girls looked at the fabric and said, "It's SO fancy!!"

The painter is coming on Friday or Saturday to paint my office and our guest bedroom, I can not wait.

Off to check the camera battery. If it's charged I'll post again soon, if not see you tomorrow!!