Lately

Good morning.  Did you survive the Superbowl food coma?  We didn't watch one second of the game.  With Nick being gone, the kids really don't have an interest in it.  Dad always makes football more interesting and I knew I couldn't live up to his excitement.  So we watched The Greatest Showman.

Doing a 'lately' on a Monday so I can get caught up from last week.

In school on Wednesday, Sterling had to write about something special she has done with her dad.  I guess watching scary movies with him is pretty special.  Never knew.  I get a kick out of some of the things the kids have said in their journals.  Like, when Xander had to write about something special he's done with me, he said playing tickle monster.  I guess all our fun trips do not count.  Guys, just stay home and tickle your kids all day.  Save your money 😂 

My favorite part of Sterling's entry..."it was scary but I got over it" ha!

We finished beginning sounds in phonics.  I knew we'd fly through them since she has her beginning sounds down.  This week we'll move onto middle sounds.  I think this is where she gets hung up.  But, she's been reading so much better when she slows down to sound out the bigger words.

In their journals on Friday they wrote about why they wanted to groundhog to see his shadow, or not see his shadow.  Both of their wishes were right.  Spring is coming early.

I started organizing new lessons.  Both kids are moving up a unit in grammar, and then Sterling is moving up in math today as well.  Xander moved up last week in math.

Xander made me a flower in a vase.  Love it!

Nick ordered the kids and I a king cake.  When he ordered it he assumed it was a large cake.  But it was just a piece.  For $13!  It looked nasty to Sterling and I.  It wasn't a normal cake, it reminded me of cookie crumbs on the bottom and was very wet.  Eww.

But Xander will try anything and he liked it.

I went out on the ice while the kids were in lessons.  They were so excited when they saw me.  I haven't been on the ice in years so I took it very slow.

After class, they showed me some of their new skills.

Sterling was obsessed with toting Lulu around in the tote.  Lulu actually liked it.

On Saturday morning, we headed to Home Depot for the kids workshop.

The kids loved it and want to go back all the time now.

But I just wanted to sleep in because on Friday we were up super early because I had an appointment super early an hour away.  

I'm glad we went though.  I just won't schedule an appointment so early the Friday before the next one.

After getting home, the kids played outside for 6 hours!  It was beautiful out.

They were nature collectors and wanted to see road rocks for $10.  I told them to try at 25 cents.  In the end, they decided to not sell them and put them on display instead. 

I finally finished cutting the last pole for Sterling's parallette bars.

I caught them working together.

And laying in the sun

We cleaned house on Sunday, watched the new Nutcracker movie, The Greatest Showman, and played Connect4.

It was a good time

Finding selfies of the kids is a fun surprise to end the week.

I've been having some issues with replying on comments, not sure what's going on with blogger, but hopefully I can get it figured out soon.

Hoping this week will be uneventful outside of our norm.

Have a great day!

Getting Organized in January

One of my goals to get better at in 2019 was to get rid of the clutter.  I wasn't too sure how I would tackle such a task, because it's daunting.  After I was digging in my linen closet for something and knocked my nail stuff all over the floor.  It motivated me to get it started, and it frustrated me that we had so much crap shoved in a closet.

I've watched all the episodes of Tidying Up, read the book, but decided that I wouldn't go that extreme.  I'm not that ready.  

Remember the kids and I skipped school on a Friday to go shopping two weeks ago?  Well we hit up The Container Store as well and picked up some goods to help make things easier to tidy.

This little bin was the culprit that activated "clean the closets" mode.  

I snapped some before picture of the closets to take with me to The Container Store.

I also measured the space of how I wanted the bins to layout on the shelves.  The kids loved getting the tape measure out in the store, lining up the bins, and seeing if the number was more or less than our goal number.

I emptied out the pantry and laid it all out on the counters.

I ended up tossing a garbage bag full.

After.  I've actually added 4 more OXO containers and removed the popcorn maker.

The linen closet was actually fun to do.  I laid everything out on my bed and sorted the bins by face, body, hair, feminine, oral, medicine, first aid, travel, and misc.  What a difference having everything have a space.  I'm not knocking anything over and my bathroom counter is cleaned off.  When I need a hair product, I use it and put it right back.  So much nicer.

The culprit after.  No more little bin overflowing.

I tossed 2 bags of garbage from the linen closet as well.

I dropped off all our donations from January on Tuesday.  I went through my closet and Sterling's drawers.  8 bags + two store bags and bins.  I'm still not done organizing in my closet.  That is a work in progress that will hopefully get done in February.  I'm just not sure what I want to do in there yet.  I am loving the open floor space right now!

It's so freeing getting rid of things that we're not using and they're just taking up space.

In February I will tackle our storage room.  I think if I can get this ginormous task done, the rest of the house will be a breeze!  Not joking, at all.

Have a great day!

Selfie hater

What a title to a post, huh?!  It's true though, I really hate selfies.  They're just awkward.  And these were the only pictures I took yesterday.  Sigh.  I love our Tuesday's though.  While Xander's at gymnastics for 2 hours, Sterling and I run errands and pick up groceries.  Go home, unload and pack us all a quick lunch.  Grab Xander, run to Walmart or the library to kill 45 minutes (so we don't have to come back into town), then take Sterling to her gymnastics lesson.

Typically the kids will play outside for an hour after activities, but yesterday it was raining when we got home.  Because I washed my car just an hour prior.  Of course.  It wasn't supposed to rain until after 5.  So we did school earlier than normal for a Tuesday.  

Onto those awkward selfies...

Two straight hair girlie's

And one with my favorite boy

So, the color is still darker than I'd like, but hopefully on the next appointment it will get lighter.  This is only my third time with this beautician, so she has to figure out my hair and the chemical balance I suppose.

Have a great day!