Ten on Tuesday

{1}

Its January 31st already?!

Yowsa!

Guess we'd better get crackin' on those taxes.

{2}

After nearly three months of 'flying by the seat of our pants' cooking, I have got us back on a meal plan.

{sigh of relief}

Life is so much easier when organized, no?


{3}
Speaking of organized...

Kendry has demonstrated a few distinct Type A personality characteristics lately.

I asked him to put some of his laundry away; when I found him a few minutes later he was ever so carefully laying his underwear in a neat stack in his drawer.

Then, while waiting for his clock to turn green one morning, he made the most of his free time and laid out his clothes for the day.

I couldn't be more proud.

Justin couldn't be more freaked.



{4}
Aren't those toddler Wranglers the cutest?!

Kendry picked them out to wear again yesterday; when I asked him to turn around so Mommy could take a picture he refused.

Party pooper.

{5}
GO GIANTS!

I'm a sucker for those Manning boys.



{6}

The kiddo has retaliated against his alarm clock a bit lately and, as I've mentioned before, he always comes to my side of the bed when he does this.

After one of these rough nights last week, Justin and I were feeling clever and switched sides of the bed so:

a) I could get a good night's rest without kiddo interruption; and

b) Justin could do some bad cop parenting.

Stupid plan.

I slept for nine hours but it wasn't good sleep; I was a grump all day long as a result.

And the kiddo? He never even came into our room! In fact, he overslept that morning.

Typical.

So yes, I'm here to tell you that waking up (and sleeping) on the wrong side of the bed does indeed have its consequences. No wonder they have a saying for it!

 

{7}
Said at the dinner table last night:
"I want to make you happy, Mom."

My precious child, you make me happier than you will ever know.



{8}
I fell in love with this printable on Pinterest this week and already shipped it off to be printed for me at Costco Photo:

(source)
The funny thing is, I have pretty much given up Diet Coke.

Are you shocked? Cuz I am.



{9}
Poor kiddo got his fingers bitten while feeding the neighborhood horses this weekend. He was doing a great job of keeping his hand flat but the horse got excited and thought Kendry's finger was the carrot. I'm not sure which hurt worse, his fingers or his pride. He loves those horses.


{10}
This Week's Blessing:
After keeping Kendry occupied outside for most of the morning on Saturday, Justin took him to a basketball game that afternoon. I cannot remember the last time I had so much time to myself in my own house.

My hubby is the greatest!

 

Whats in a Guitar?

Remember the guitar we made out of recycled materials a few months back?

Priceless, I tell you.

Kendry has enjoyed this guitar more than I ever dreamed.

Although its merely cardboard, duct tape, rubberbands and twine, this guitar has withstood toddler destruction better than some commercially manufactured toys - mostly thanks to the half roll of duct tape we have used for repair jobs once every two weeks.

Lately Kendry has upped his rock star antics to include jumping with the beat and finishing the song with a floor dive.

And you wonder why the guitar needs to be repaired so often?

This song is one of his favorites, and one of mine as well.

This is the chorus he is singing:

"Oh, happy day! Happy day!

You washed our sins away.

Oh, happy day! Happy day!

I'll never be the same.

Forever I am changed."

What a joy to explain to Kendry this song is about Jesus washing our sins away.

Kendry is practically devastated whenever part of the guitar breaks. He will hover over my shoulder while I repair it, watching with such a serious face you would think I was performing an actual surgery.

I dread the day the guitar is destroyed beyond repair - more for myself than for Kendry.

You see, what Kendry doesn't know is that his grandparents got him a real guitar for Christmas. 'Real' as in not made out of cardboard. I'm sure his cardboard guitar will be forgotten mere seconds after he gets the real one in his hot little hands. Such is the way it goes.

Sentimentalist that I am, it breaks my heart to even think of throwing the cardboard guitar away at the end of its life.

Am I silly for wanting to save it in Kendry's keepsake box?

Pull Up A Seat, Kiddo

One of my very favorite projects to date is the kiddo kitchen nook. Not only has the table been the perfect place for Kendry to sit for a quick snack or complete a craft, but we love the chalkboard. Kendry practices his budding artistic skills now and then, and at other times I use it to write something fun.

In the spirit of Valentine’s Day, this is my current message:

 

Best kiddo book ever, right?

 

The table has also worked perfectly as a kiddo seating area when we have dinner guests.

The only drawback is that we only had the little bucket seat.

 

I'll be the first to admit that as cute as this bucket seat might be, its not the easiest for kiddos to sit on. Its just a wee bit tall for kiddos, and if you don’t sit on it just right it can get a little tipsy.

So even before I finished the nook I was searching for more seating.

I found this little cutie at my neighbor's yard sale last June for just a couple bucks. It was just the right height for our kiddo table.

Can you say ‘meant to be’?

 

But the roses weren't really doing it for me. And Kendry is a boy, after all.

So I slapped a little paint on her.

Then, to give it a little more character, I drafted my own subway art in Microsoft Publisher, printed it out and stenciled it onto the seat using this method.

Time consuming, yes. Particularly when you don’t have a fancy set of fine-tipped artist paintbrushes. But it was worth every painstaking minute because the words turned out just as I had envisioned.

 

Here she is at home in the nook.

 

Ten on Tuesday

{1}
For those of you still waiting to receive our Christmas card...
you will be waiting a long time...
as in next December.

What can I say?
December got busy and my super cool Christmas card idea was thwarted at the last minute.
THIS was as close as I got.

Sometimes you just have to know when to throw in the towel.

I'll do better next year, I promise.

 

{2}

I have this thing about reading the book before I see the movie.

Chalk it up to my Type A personality.

More often than not I am then disappointed by the movie ("The Notebook" anyone?), but thats fine.

Its a good thing "The Help" is already out on DVD because I finished the book this week and can't wait to see how the movie plays out.

Very, very good read.

{3}

And speaking of books...
I got myself a Kindle Fire!

I feel so hip.

This weekend I made a simple cover for it. It didn't turn out quite as I would have liked - I screwed up the elastic a bit - but it is still cute and will work for the time being. Plus, I already had all the supplies so it was free. Yeah, baby!

Did you notice the cute little pocket on the left side?

I followed this tutorial.

{4}

Picnik will be no more come April.
I am so bummed.


 

{5} and {6}

The cutest baking partner ever,

and my super-cute (albeit ancient) KitchenAid beautified by the decal my sister bought me.

Love you, Jaim!

 

{7}
Buttermilk is my new best friend.
 Not only does it rock my Red Velvet Cake recipe, but it makes the yummiest coffee cake and incredible homemade pancakes. I can't believe I am 31 and only now realizing one should always have buttermilk in their fridge.

{8}

I attended a baby shower this week and had so much fun trying out a new gift idea I found on Pinterest.

My inspiration:

(source)

Those are baby wash cloths rolled up like lollipops and stuck onto a baby spoon.

So. Very. Cute.

Mine:

{9}
I love my evening craft time but boy does it make for lousy lighting in my pictures.
Sorry, folks.

{10}

This Week's Blessing:
Our local library has gone digital!
This means they do ebooks.
Yippee!
{A little shout out to Cassie for notifying me of this development. Thanks, Cassie!}

Stubborn to the Core

THE SCENE:

Its just another relaxing Sunday afternoon when the kiddo gets a little attitude and is instructed to spend some time in his room until dinner is ready.

We shut the bedroom door behind him.

He opens the door.

We shut the door behind him again.

He opens the door again.

This act of defiance happens two more times before he finally grasps that Daddy means business when he says "Keep this door shut."

Five eerily quiet minutes later we notice this.

Do you see it?

How 'bout now?

He obeyed Daddy and kept his door shut alright, but I'll be darned if he wasn't going to find some way to defy us by getting at least part of his body on the other side of that bedroom door.

To top it off, he was tapping his little fingers as though impatiently counting down the seconds until freedom.


That kiddo has got some will.