Archive for the ‘home’ Category
Lucas and Meredith’s preschool has a Yankee Candle school fundraiser every year, and I just love it. Who doesn’t enjoy Yankee Candles? You can’t beat them ~ I have yet to find a candle that’s as fragrant. I just went through the catalog to see what candles we might want to purchase for our own home. The Sparkling Cinnamon smells so good! I also like Home for the Holidays and Eggnog (one of my favorite holiday beverages). Hard to believe that we’re thinking about Christmas goodies already, but Christmas is only about three months away!
If you’re interested in making a purchase to help out Luke and Meri’s preschool, check out YankeeFundraising.com. Send me an e-mail or leave a blog comment to let me know what you’d like to order, and I’ll get it taken care of for you. (You can mail me a check, send PayPal, or whatever’s easiest). Every dollar that’s raised goes DIRECTLY to Luke and Meri’s preschool class to benefit THEM, which I think is awesome. It’ll help buy new toys, supplies, decorations, activities, etc. as well as help cover daily classroom expenses. And when your order comes in, I’ll get it to you ASAP.
Thanks for your consideration!
Can you believe that I’ve never been camping? Lots of people look at me funny when I tell them that. However, we want to take the kids camping sometime this summer. When Jeff and I got married, we registered for sleeping bags and a tent. And for Christmas last year, we bought a family tent with lots of room. The kids have cute “Lightning McQueen” and Disney Princesses sleeping bags. Not sure where we’ll camp, but I’m excited to experience it for the first time along with the kids. Jeff loves the idea of rv camping, actually. He has a dream of buying an RV and touring America with it, once he’s retired and the kids are grown. I don’t know what I think about that. Living in an RV? I just think about Lucy and Ricky in “The Long, Long Trailer” (or whatever that movie was called!). Could be fun, though, perhaps.
Allergies are annoying me to no end today. And my poor husband actually came home early from work yesterday because his allergies were making him feel incredibly miserable. (He must feel crappy in order to come home from work ~ usually he has to be at death’s door for that to happen!) Lots of other friends are complaining about allergy issues, too. Today’s weather is rainy and chilly (well, only 50 degrees ~ not bad, but sure odd for the end of May!). I’m walking around the house turning on all of our Sylvania lightbulbs in order to get some simulated daylight in here, LOL! :) Feels like a good night for chili or some kind of hearty stew for dinner, but I think that I’ll go with burgers because hamburger was on sale at the grocery store today. What are you having for dinner tonight?
Dude! It’s’ chilly outside! Our temperature says 54 degrees at the moment … and a high of only 63 today. The low … 39 degrees! Holy cow ~ I’m totally in the mood to snuggle on the couch underneath a blanket with a cup of hot chai tea and my latest knitting project! That’s *so* odd for May, right? Oh, today would also be awesome for snuggling and watching a fun movie, too. This weekend, we watched “Slumdog Millionaire” and “Fireproof.” (Jeff had to fix our tv stands ~ but now everything is fine, thank goodness.) I can’t believe that I’m in “blanket mode” during the month of May! We’ve had such high winds here recently, too. If we open our front door, it creates a vacuum that blows through the entire house and knocks everything down! LOL! :) Anyway, a very happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there!
Check out this neat snowman that Lucas created while I was in my moms’ group meeting yesterday! Really cute! And what a perfect photo for a day like today … the snow has been coming down ever since we woke up, and we’re supposed to have six to 10 inches by tonight. I sure hope that Jeff gets to and from work safely. Boy, it’s pretty coming down right now. I’m looking forward to staying inside all day and hanging out with the kids. Lucas said that tonight, he wants to build a fire in the backyard, lay down in the snow, and look at the stars! Wow, that sounds so awesome. It might be a little chilly, though! LOL! :) I’m thinking about taking the kids outside to play in the snow for a while today, but it’s only 16 degrees at the moment. That is just way too cold. I asked Luke last night before bed if he wanted me to make some hot cocoa today, and he shouted, “YES!” What can I say … our kids love chocolate! :) (They’re definitely mine …)
- Get the oil changed in my car (I keep putting this off, *sigh*)
- Take Meredith to the lab for lead testing (yes, this has been on my to-do list since October!)
- Drop off some files to a neighbor (today)
- Pick up our new bean bag chair today through Freecycle (yay!)
- Attend my moms’ group meeting on Tuesday
- Preschool
- PTA meeting Tuesday night at 6:30 p.m.
- Mail some birthday gifts
Oh yeah, and there’s cleaning the house, fitting in some knitting … whew, busy week (but Tuesday especially will be very crazy!). What do you have going on this week?
I’m feeling kind of “eh” today. Nothing in particular, just blah. Probably PMS is to blame, but I’m not sure. (That’s nine days away.) My anxiety gets bad when I feel “blah” like this ~ and I’m hoping it’s nothing. Anyway, I’m finding myself wishing that I had the entire day to myself here at home ~ alone. That’s just not going to happen, though. The kids have trashed our house, and I just can’t keep up. I’m very tired of cleaning ~ seems like I never get to do anything else. Going around the house cleaning all day just makes me insane, even though I enjoy cleaning and seeing things organized. When I get one thing cleaned up, the kids have moved on to something else. It’s hard. And if I say to myself, “I’ll just leave it … I’ll get it some other time,” it makes me nuts to see the mess. I guess that I’ll tackle our kitchen and living room first, because that’s where we spend a good amount of our time. I had to buy more Magic Erasers yesterday because Meredith colored on our living room walls again. :(
At least I’m able to stay here at home today (for most of the day, anyway ~ just dropping Luke off at preschool and then picking him up, which is five minutes away). I keep thinking about where I used to work (a bank) and all of those people with finance jobs ~ and it’s days like these when I’m glad that I don’t have to go into an office. Before having kids, when I worked outside the home, today’s one of those days where I probably would have called in and then spent the day relaxing here at home. :)
How do you relax at the end of a long day? Well, let me clarify that question ~ which piece of furniture is your favorite for stress-relief and relaxation? Do you have a particular spot in your house where you flop down and just veg out? Here’s the reason why I’m asking … I was surfing the Internet and happened across a neat website offering Conservatory Furniture in the United Kingdom. It was so awesome to see some decorating ideas from a different country!
I’d have to say that my favorite places to relax in our house (besides our bathtub, of course!) are the futon in our bonus room, in front of my computer (a no-brainer there, LOL!), on our living room couch, and sitting in bed with some pillows behind me and the covers over my legs ~ knitting, of course! :) I haven’t had much experience with wicker, cane, or rattan furniture, but … that style would look absolutely perfect in our future sunroom! (We’d like to have one built off the back of our house someday. Our neighbors have one, and I’m completely envious! I know that we’d spend most of our time out there if we had one.) U.K. Conservatory Furniture Specialists has some great pieces that would look wonderful in a sunroom. A room like that would surely cure the winter blahs, I would think! But they also have a wide range of furniture for every room of the house.
U.K. Conservatory Furniture Specialists is having a big January sale right now ~ 40 percent off some styles. They have 32 different fabrics, and you can request free samples (however many swatches you’d like) by phone or e-mail. They have free brochures and an online showroom. If you’re in the market for some unique furniture, definitely check them out! You really don’t have to spend a ton of money to furnish your home with gorgeous pieces.
And now, because I have been feeling kind of stressed out today (trying to clean the house, needing a break, etc.), I’m going to go flop down onto our living room couch and knit for a while! :)
Our kids absolutely adore clementines. They’re kind of expensive (about $6.99 in most of our grocery stores), but they’re well worth it. I seriously think that Meredith would eat them all day long if we’d let her. And they’re great for kids because they’re so easy to peel and don’t have seeds (well, most of them, anyway). Clementine crates are also really pretty! A while back, Martha Stewart explained how to create a gift planter by using a leftover clementine box. I’ve been wanting to do that (just put it on my “someday when I have some free time” list!). (We are actually using a bunch of old clementine crates as storage bins in our master bathroom! I’d love to sew pretty liners for them ~ another item for the list!) Anyway, just a while ago I looked up some clementine recipes. This cake by Nigella Lawson looks super yummy! These Christmas clementine squares also look fantastic. Hmm, maybe I can find a good clementine recipe to make for my next moms’ group meeting ~ or maybe I’ll just sit out a plate of clementines with some yummy fruit dip! Here are some more uses for clementine crates, in case you’re interested:
I finished this knitting project last night for my mom. She asked if I would make her a bunch of kitchen dishcloths, which made me really excited. (Maybe she’s just humoring me, LOL!) They’re incredibly fast and easy. Sometime I’d like to try a tip that my friend Marilyn recently told me about. Wal-Mart’s craft department sells this threadlike stuff ~ it’s intended for a ballerina tutu or a wedding gown, to make the material somewhat pouffy. (I’d never heard of it before, but Marilyn bought some that’s green and said that there are different colors.) She holds this thread along with her yarn when she’s knitting a dishcloth, and it makes the dishcloth very scrubby. I felt one of her dishcloths, and it was like an exfoliant! Perfect for scrubbing dried grime off dishes (and probably lots of other household uses). I’m going to find some of that stuff the next time I’m there. One of my next knitting projects will be an Indiana dishcloth, and I’m very excited about that!
