Tomato Graveyard

You know, I’ve been married almost 17 years now & a mom for almost 13.  We’ve had tomatoes for a number of those years.  I don’t really like tomatoes, other than a slice or two here & there on a burger or salad.  My hubby & kids, however, LOVE those things.  They just slice ’em up & eat them with a little salt & pepper – or not.  Eww.

After all these years, I have finally learned one thing about tomatoes – when to pull up the plants.  Yep.  I’m a genius.  It’s not time, simply because the plants look like this –

How sad is that tomato bed??  The little blueberry bushes aren’t looking too hot, either.  But, I digress.

It is time to pull up the nasty things when you see THIS languishing on the counter top for WEEKS –

We just won’t even talk about what the bottom of that bowl looked like after I threw out the tomatoes.  If we did, your love for me would die an immediate & final death.  It was so gross.  Why do moms get all the gross jobs?  😦

It probably would be easier to throw the things in the garbage, but that leads to bugs.  I hate bugs worse than rotten tomatoes, so we don’t do that.  We send them to the Tomato Graveyard.

The dog sometimes decides to get one & drop it in the middle of the yard for fun, but he’s cute so we forgive him.  🙂  We don’t have to deal with the bugs or rotting veggie smell, because our yard is a little on the large side.  Here’s the top part –

And from the driveway –

Tomatoes are birthed on the left side of the pic & returned to dust on the right side, just out of the lens range.

Don’t you just feel enlightened by my sharing of our tomatoes’ circle of life?  You know you do.  Actually, I just still haven’t finished the fall decor & felt like writing a post anyway.  Fall mantle tomorrow….hopefully!  There are some sneak peek photos on Facebook.

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!

**For some reason this did not post when I told it to.  Oh, well.  Better late than never!**

Today is the eleventh anniversary of the arrival of our party on legs!  She has been a joy from day 1 & brought us loads of laughter.  She will not, however, be laughing when she sees that I wrote this post.  Definitely not an attention seeker like her mama!

  Yes, she looks kinda like Patrick Swayze.  No, I’ve never met him.  🙂

  How fun is that?!

  She used to love curly hair, sparkles, rainbow toes & pictures…

  Now she just loves running, loooonng hair, helping with special needs children and NOT getting her picture taken!  Yes, this is about as dressed up as she gets…..  I try.

Happy birthday, sweet girl!  You are growing into a precious child of God & I pray you continue to do so.

Halloween Costumes

Is anyone else as excited as I am about the cooler weather?  We actually need jackets & long pants this morning!  Yay!

I’ll post the fall decor as soon as I finish a couple of things.  While you’re eagerly anticipating THAT (I know you are), I thought I’d do a little early Halloween post.  The girls have been chatting for a week or so now about what they want to dress up as for Halloween.  Which means I need to fix the sewing machine….  Just in case your kids are the same way, I thought I would post some pics of what we have done in the past.

50’s girl.  There is a free & easy poodle skirt tutorial here.

A Who.  You know, from Dr. Seuss “Horton Hears A Who” or from “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”.  I just took 2 t-shirts & cut one off just under the arms.  For me, the tricky part was sewing the right side of the cut t-shirt to the wrong side of the other t-shirt.  Once the shirts were sewn together, I tacked on some glittery Christmas garland at the ends of the sleeves, the bottom hem & the bottom of the upper shirt.  The striped hose were from Wal-Mart, the earrings are actually plastic ball Christmas ornaments attached to clips.  The hairdo got a lot of attention for sure!  Just take a small plastic cup or (empty) water bottle (8 oz) and put it on your head.  Pull your hair up around it & secure with a ponytail holder.  I tied pieces of red, green & white ribbon to my ponytail holder before putting my hair up.  Yes, I had a LOT more hair then.  The slippers were a gift from years past.  Since they were blue, I just got some fabric spray paint from Hobby Lobby & sprayed them green.

 

The Ghost of Christmas Present from Dicken’s A Christmas Carol.  I made the cape using a tutorial similar to the one here.  Then just use Heat N Bond to attach the fur trim.  The white robe under the cape was made out of rayon lining material.  It is the devil to work with.  Just use cotton & thank me later.  There is a YouTube video “how-to” for the robe here.

In the middle is my “Genie”.  This costume was actually worn by ME in COLLEGE!  It was a little big in the waist on her, but nothing a safety pin couldn’t handle.  My word how fast they grow up!  We put a t-shirt under the top for modesty & because it was COLD.

My Indian came from Party City…..I think.  She had to have it for a school function & I just didn’t have time to sew right then.

My pictures of the girls as cats and the “Cat Princess” have apparently been lost.  The “cats” wore black leotards & tights with store-bought tails & ears.  The “Cat Princess” wore a pink sparkly gown with a tiara & sparkly wand.  Because they had no leotards in town in her size.  Sometimes you just gotta go with it.

So, what are your plans for Halloween?  We’re just in it for the candy & fun costumes.  Okay.  We’re just in it for the candy.  🙂

 

 

Recycling Ice Cream Buckets

So, is it recycling or upcycling??  I dunno.  What I DO know is that we go through a LOT of ice cream in this house & that leaves a LOT of ice cream buckets laying around!  Yes, I could send them to the recycling center, but since I have a small addiction to storage containers & the lids are pretty much air tight, I keep them.  So, here are some ideas for reusing your plastic ice cream buckets.  Ours look like this –

I tried painting a few of them with Rust-Oleum paint.  It worked fine – until I had to move in front of the A/C unit.  At that point, the paint started cracking – possibly because the unit was on & so the air dried the paint too quickly.

Most of them are still plain-jane looking, since I’m not so good at cutsey.  But, they would be easy to spiff up with some ribbon, lace, twine, vinyl letters from a Silhouette (that I’m STILL trying to win!), etc.  You cutesy, I’ll be utilitarian.  🙂

Here are some ways we use our buckets –

Corral travel mugs

  Cookie cutter stash

  Toys at church specifically for our special needs friends

  Pet care items

The uses are infinite!  Think small books, hair care, spray paint, craft paint, paint brushes & supplies, packing tape, safety glasses (in felt pockets – that’s for another day), small stuffed animals, ribbon (just punch holes in sides to pull through), party supplies, neighbor/party  gifts, etc.

Hopefully, that’s given you something to think about.  Make yours cute & send me some pics, so I’ll have a clue what to do on that end!

What I did today.

I’m sure you’ve heard the old joke about the man who came home from work one day to find the house upside down, kids running wild, food everywhere, etc.  He eventually found his wife propped up in bed reading a book and snacking.  Still in her pajamas.  “Honey, are you sick?  Is everything ok?”  She just looked at him.  “You know how you are always asking what I do all day?  Well, today I decided to NOT do it.”  And she went back to reading.
I love that joke.  (I especially loved it when we had 3 kids under the age of 2.)  But, some days even I wonder what I did today.  Now when I have those days, I sit down and make a list of everything I did during the day.  And then I cross off everything, just cause it looks more “planned & completed” that way.  🙂  So, today you get to see my list.  Yeah, I know.  Contain yourself.  Wish I had taken more pics, but oh well.

Today I:

*threw everyone out of bed when the alarm went off (I’m the only one who actually gets up when an alarm goes off, so I’m the only one who sets an alarm.)

*Made the bed

*Fixed hubby’s lunch

*Switched the loads of laundry

*Switched the loads of dishes in dishwasher

*Took the kids to school

*Stopped off in a drive-thru for some unsweet tea w/lemon because I have an addiction to that stuff & I hadn’t had time to eat, so may as well fill up on tea.

*Went to Lowe’s for a new paint brush (Isn’t it the cutest squatty-body brush you ever saw?)

Yes, I took that pic while in the van, but I was stopped at a light so it’s okay.

*Stopped by the cleaners to pick up hubby’s shirts (that were ready Tuesday)

*Stopped by the drugstore to pick up class pictures for one daughter’s class roster that I’m making (You can go to Walgreens.com and download pics, order them & pick them up at your local store SUPER cheap!)

*Came home & painted some of our new cabinet doors

*Removed hinges & hardware from old doors

*Loaded our old cabinet doors, ceiling fan, hardware & some other interior doors we no longer need into the van to be donated

*Answered some email (mostly room mom stuff)

*Took a shower (Aren’t you thankful for THAT!?)

*Headed to my 11:00am lunch meeting with some fabulous ladies who head up special needs ministries at various churches in our area.  So thankful for them & the encouragement they have been to me!

*Zipped over to Habitat Restore to donate our old cabinet doors, hardware, and interior doors

*Stopped in at our UPS store to fax a school medical form to one daughter’s doctor

*Dropped by the Dollar Tree to browse during the extra 30 minutes I had to kill

*Hit the car-rider line at the middle school to pick up the girls

*Ran in the school office before bell rang to pay for an upcoming event for one daughter

*Played with the dog while waiting for daughter #3 to get home on the bus from her school

*Published this post.

*I shall now do…..um….nothing.  Until time to cook the spaghetti for supper.  At least that’s the plan.  You just never know around here…
So, how about you?  You ever have days where you wonder where the time went & what you actually accomplished?  Write it down.  You’ll be amazed!  Now to text hubby to read this post so he can see what an awesome woman he married.  😉

 

The Fox & Hound Pub & Grille

Well, yes, I’m still alive.  Thanks for checking.  We’re just neck deep in forevermore drawn out projects.  If you have a project you want to share here, just let me know.  I could use the help filling in gaps so I don’t lose all 5 of you faithful readers!  :0

Today, the hubs & I had our weekly lunch date.  I purchased a Groupon for The Fox & Hound Pub & Grille because we had never tried it.  For 1/2 off, I’ll try just about anything – except Thai food.  I ate that once.  Definitely NOT a favorite.  Or even a like.  Anywhoo, we went to Fox & Hound today for lunch & I just felt the need to blog about the experience.  Not that F& H will in anyway ever see my opinion, but it should be shared.  (Yes, I did politely inform the manager.)  Perhaps I should have a restaurant review Wednesday….

So, we arrived at F&H at 11:45am and there were people at 2 tables.  No one greeted us.    After a couple of minutes of smelling bleachiness, we finally spotted someone who looked like she might work there.  She told us to just sit anywhere.  Literally 15 minutes later, we had not seen a server so I went looking for one.  The girl who told us to sit anywhere was getting the bill from one of the other tables.  So I asked her if we had a server.  She said that she’d be right with us.  Two other couples had been seated in the meantime, waiting.  Five minutes later she arrived and took our drink order.  I started to give my food order as well, but she walked off to get the drinks.  Almost 5 minutes later she returned with our drinks & took our food order.  Over 20 minutes later our food arrived.  Thankfully, it was good.  But, we ordered a burger & a chicken sandwich and both came dry.  So we asked for ketchup & mustard.  She went to 3  other tables before bringing the items to us.  The manager came and asked how everything was.  I told him the food tasted really good, but it took over 45 minutes for it hit our table.  And our drinks had not been refilled…  He brought my hubs a refill.  I waited….and waited…. Oh, well, I had a tea in the van.

So, if you have a couple of extra hours & WAAAAYYYY more patience than me, try it out.  You may want to bring your own drinks so you don’t get thirsty.  Just sayin’.  And to those who have obviously been praying for patience for me, please quit.  It only leads to situations that require patience.  The last time I prayed for Lord to grant me patience, He gave me 3 kids.  In 19 months.  So, quit with the prayers for patience.  🙂

Life & Projects are calling!

I’m still here,  believe it or not!  We’ve just been a little busy with life & projects – painting kitchen cabinets & drawers, getting kiddos back to school and signing monstrous loads of forms they brought home, attending Open Houses at schools, etc.  Whew!  I planned to have another re-purposing type post for you today, but when I went to do the sewing part, I saw this…

Aside from being a mess, there’s no longer a table in the craft room.  You know, a sewing table..and ain’t no way I’m sewing on the floor because I’d never get up or lugging that joker downstairs!  Nope.  Love you & all that, but it’s not happening.  So, the cute re-purposing of the ice cream buckets will have to be revealed another time.  (Because the craft room table is now in the office, but that’s a whole other post.)

So, I’ll just leave you with a funny (to me) story & head out to another Open House & meet more teachers!

The other day, it was my eldest daughter’s turn to load and run the dishwasher.  It was also the day I had chosen to NOT buy those little dishwasher detergent packets.  Yep.  Back to the box of powdered, pour-out detergent.  So, I’m sitting around eating bonbons and watching t.v. when I hear a frustrated call for help.  “Moooommmm, can you help me…….PLLLEEEAAASE?!?”    Um.  Okay.

I go into the kitchen and see this…

A box of detergent with the lid partly demolished.  I walked over trying not to roll on the floor laughing quietly and turned the box so she could see the side panel…

Yeeaaahhhh….

 

Have a great evening!  I’ll get that re-purposing  craft up eventually.  Not to mention finish the new office space and kitchen cabinet painting.  Thanks for bearing with me!

 

 

Family Trip to New York City (Part 3)

I know you are probably SOOO very tired of hearing about our trip to NYC.  But it was REALLY incredible & I am loving reliving it through these posts.  No worries, though.  This will be the caboose.  I think.

If you haven’t read the first two posts, you can find them here and here.  Well, you can find them if I inserted the links correctly….let me know.  Now that you’re caught up on that fun, lace up your running shoes & we’ll fly through the rest!  Ready?  Let’s go!

There are AMAZING museums! Lots of them!  The best part is that you don’t have to pay full price for the majority of them!  Wow!  The Museum of Natural History is a FULL DAY unless you have tweens who are tired and grumpy of crazy neat stuff.  Don’t forget the kids’ bathing suits as there is water for them to play in and around out in the courtyard.  I only had my iphone & no flash, so not many pics came out.  But there are plenty on their website.

DO NOT purchase your tickets for this museum online!  Don’t do it.  If you read closely, you will see that  you can pay whatever you want if you wait until you get there.  That’s right!  It’s actually a donation, so you can pay whatever fits your budget!  Awesome!  Lots of other places like that.  Most attractions, museums, etc also have certain dates & times where entry is FREE.   Do your homework & you can do a lot for a lot less$!

So much for a short post!  Oh well!  You can’t go to NYC & not go to Liberty Island.  Nope.  The statue is actually under construction until at least October of this year, but the island is wide open & the food is actually not bad at their little cafe.  The ferry that takes you to Liberty Island also will take you to Ellis Island so you can peruse that museum & see how the immigrants came through.  Be aware that your kids will probably be DONE in about 15 minutes, max.

And what would NYC be without Grand Central Station?!?  Crazy place!  I would have loved to just run through all the different terminals.  But, alas, it was not to be.  Instead I just stood on the 2nd floor & marveled at how much the scene of chaos reminded me of our home when the kids were little….

That 2nd picture is of the ceiling.  It had all the constellations on it.  Absolutely beautiful!  Does it mean you’re old when you stand around admiring ceilings??  Oh, well.

We did not go to the top of the Rockefeller Center, because we had already gone to the top of the Empire State Building.  I’m one of those people who only needs to see over the tops of buildings once.

This place is crazy BIG!  Love it!  But, we must move along!  We spent an HOUR on a subway train to get to Coney Island.  Just really not my favorite.  The beach was dirty & the rest was carnival rides.  The boardwalk was clean and nice & they don’t allow smoking anywhere around, so that was REALLY nice!  Of course hubs HAD to partake of a hot dog at the original Nathan’s.

We stayed just on the edge of Time Square with all the jumbo screens & of course the infamous ball!

We saw Mary Poppins at The Amsterdam Theater (pic on left)

and Zarkana (Cirque du Soleil) at Radio City Music Hall (above, right).  Mary Poppins was probably the favorite, but Cirque du Soleil was really good too!  We hoped to see Wicked, but failed to get tickets early & weren’t willing to spend $850 for one show.  That reminds me, get your tickets at a TKTS booth!  GREAT seats for up to 1/2 off!

Then of course we went to Wall Street, China Town & Little Italy.  We saw the Brooklyn Bridge & the Manhattan Bridge.  We rode the Staten Island Ferry.  Oh!  And we ate at Carmine’s.  Yes!  You simply MUST eat at Carmine’s.  It’s expensive & a family of 5 can not finish one main course plus one side.  Seriously.  We took leftovers to the apt & enjoyed them the next day!  Yum!  And go see the wooden escalators in the original Macy’s!  Very cool!

I also got a feel for NYC life by doing laundry early in the AM at the coin laundry on the corner.  And, you really should have been a fly on the wall to see me trying to help a couple from France use the washer!  Yes, it involved charades & lots of laughter from both sides!

Aaackk!!!  I wanna go back SO BADLY!!!  Someday I shall return!

I hope you’ve enjoyed helping me relive our trip!  There is so much more I could share, but you’ll just have to go see it for yourselves!  Have enough cash for your initial taxi from airport to where you’ll stay.  From there grab a Metro Card, comfy shoes & get movin’!  (If you have a southern accent, honey, get ready for people to keep you talkin’ just to hear it!)

 

 

 

Family Trip to New York City (part 2-fun for kids)

It’s FRRIIIIDDAAAAYY!  Oh,  yeah!  Hope everyone had a great week & is ready for the weekend.  We’ll have to get back on our kitchen remodeling.  And painting.  Hmmm, let’s talk about NYC shall we?  🙂

The first thing we did was try to figure out how to use the public transportation.  WAAYYY cheaper and faster than taxis!  If you are headed to NYC, I highly recommend loading the MTA app – especially if you’ll be there on the weekend.  We did not do this right off & when the weekend hit, it was crazy.  Weekends are construction time on subways, so all trains don’t run.  Some trains have altered routes.  Load the app.  It will save you frustration in the hot (but beautifully tiled) subways.  If you can’t load an app, look up mta.info and print some maps before you go.

I was very surprised at how pretty some of the subway stops are.  Here are some examples of the mosaics:

The subways are very well lit & we never once felt unsafe.  Do be aware that there will people who get on from time to time and want to “entertain” you.  For tips.  I believe it’s actually illegal for them to do this, but it happens.

If you are traveling with the kids, be sure to see FAO Schwartz (largest toy store), Toys R Us (has a ferris wheel inside), M&M World (personalize your own M&Ms), and Dylan’s Candy Bar (world’s largest candy store).  We’re not big picture-takers, but I found a few:

Thought you might figure out where the 2 above pics are taken.  The next few are Toys R Us:

That Hulk done in Legos is HUGE.  My hubby is just under 6′, although his awesome stance required some bending… There are also other incredible buildings and the Statue of Liberty done in Legos.

Dylan’s Candy Bar & FAO Schwarz are both on the Upper East Side, which means they are on the East side of Central Park in case you (like me) did not know what that means.  It’s a great place to check out & be sure to head to the top floor for ice cream.  The will also give you cups of water for free, which is nice when it is scorching hot!  These are the only 2 pics we got in there;

I mean, really, you’ve got 2 floors of nothing but candy & a floor of yummy cafe & ice cream.  And you want me to take PICTURES??  Sorry, my hands (and mouth) were full.  🙂

If there’s lots of energy left in your kids, check out Central Park.  It has great playgrounds, ball fields, paths, statues, a zoo (remember the movie Madagascar?), boats, amphitheater, castle, the list goes on.  You can rent bikes, but I don’t recommend it until your kids are older.  Lots of pedestrians and there are some major streets that cars use through the park.  Here are a few of Central Park:

Well, my assistant is wanting to play, so I’ll do museums, Statue of Liberty, plays, Times Square, etc later.  I’m tellin’ ya, it is an AWESOME place!  If I were 20-something with no kids, I never would have come back!  Well, until it snowed.  I don’t like slushy coldness.

Have a great weekend!!

Family Trip to New York City! (Part 1-where to stay)

I know, I know.  I haven’t blogged in a week.  BUT, I have not quit, we were just on a fabulous family trip to NEW YORK CITY!!  NOW I know why people are always wearing those “I (heart) NYC” shirts!  It. was. AMAZING!  I was seriously sad to come back home.  (Is it bad to say that??)  Aaannnyyyway, let me share some of our fun with you, beginning with our accomodations!  (‘Cause you really just came for the pics, right?)

First of all, it is HARD to find a place to stay for a family of 5 (or more).  Very hard.  After exhausting hotel options, someone mentioned to me that we should consider renting an apartment.  WHAAATT??  So I looked into it.  It was a good deal cheaper (though not cheap) to rent a 2 bedroom apt IN TIMES SQUARE than it would have been to stay in a hotel.  Mainly because we would have needed 2 hotel rooms.  The apartment option also gave us a kitchen, which meant less eating out.  So, we went to Trip Advisor (here) and selected “Vacation Rentals”.  You can limit your options by location, date available, price, # of bedrooms, and so on.  There are other sites such as Home Away and airbnb but I just prefer tripadvisor.

Here are some pics of our apartment, which was on 8th Avenue & 48th Street West:

This is looking in from the entrance.  The sofa folds out into a bed, but it was broken so we just used the air mattress that we found in a closet.

This is the view back towards the entrance.  That’s a small closet.  The entrance door is to the left and bathroom door is to the right.  For some reason, it appears I didn’t take a pic of the oh-so-tiny bath.

This was our kitchen.  We mainly used it for PB&J, ice cream and grocery store muffin consumption.  The dishwasher came in VERY handy!

This was our “master” bedroom.  There is a reach-in closet and little bedside table.  The window is a view of other windows, unless you look straight down & then there is a children’s garden.  Just know to close the curtains prior to changing clothes.

This room housed 2 of our girls.  The beds are Tempurpedic adjustable beds.  The window goes out to a fire escape and overlooks 48th street.  There is also a closet to the left.

New York City apartments may be small, but they are WAY bigger than a hotel room & we LOVED it!  Everyone had their own beds & therefore slept MUCH better with NO arguments at 2:00am.  They even slept through most of the sirens and traffic noise!

If you are planning a trip to NYC, I highly recommend checking out apartments.  There are a few things you SHOULD do when checking into apartment rentals:

1.  Make sure you ASK if the apartment pictured is the apartment you are getting.  I learned quickly that it usually is NOT.  We were blessed to get an individual who only had the 1 apartment, so we knew what we were getting for the most part.

2.  Make sure it has AIR CONDITIONING and that you can control it from within the apartment.  Some have no A/C and some have A/C that is controlled elsewhere in the building.  NOT a good option!  We had one window unit.  It was okay, but the 2 bedrooms got stuffy at night even when it was running full blast.  The rest of the apt was comfy.

3.  READ, READ, READ.  Read the reviews & note how old they are.  Read what is included – some don’t have linens or paper products (ie: no toilet paper!).  Read the contract.  Read the types of payment that are accepted.  We were able to take a certified check instead of cash, but some want cash.  Some want the entire week payment in cash & some want part of the week in cash.  Some take credit cards.  Some are individuals & some are companies.  Know who you are dealing with & don’t deal with someone you have iffy feelings about.

4.  Ask how you will get the keys.  I noticed some reviewers of other properties mentioned the hassle they went through to get keys – especially when arriving late at night.  We were met at the apartment by friends of our lessor.  They were there before we arrived & super nice.  I had contact numbers so I could text when we landed & were en route.

5.  Walk through the apartment before paying.  We walked through but failed to check the sofa bed.  The people who met us there were gone when we realized it was broken, but I was able to text the lessor the next morning so she would know that we had not broken it.  (I could have texted that night, but to me it’s rude to text or call after 9:00 unless it’s an emergency.)

Hopefully, these tips will help you if you have a trip to The Big Apple coming up.  Feel free to pick me up on the way!  🙂

Since this is already a lengthy post, I’ll share our subway/bus fun and excursions later.  It is just such a cool city & there is no way to see it all.  Ever.  So hopefully we can go back some day soon!  Have you been to NYC?  What was your favorite part?  Funniest experience?  I’d love to hear about it!