DIY: Jumpstart on Christmas!

So we joined the local YMCA last week and have been going during what used to be "nap time," seeing as how Miss Ava decided that she's all done with naps. I LOVE the Y, it is fantastic for the kids and I get a great workout and some time by myself. What more could I ask for? But since we've been going every day since we joined, I've done almost NO craft projects around the house! Well, I got myself into gear and finished this fun and easy Ornament Wreath this morning. This is an idea from My Backyard Eden, one of my favorite crafting/DIY blogs. It's been done and re-done and there are so many fabulous wreaths out there! I decided to go very simple with a red and silver wreath, and I still need a bow to hide the hanger at the top, but as it turns out, I can't make a bow to save my life! The next thing on my DIY list, for sure, lol.

I've also been crocheting Christmas presents! I've been making these fabulous rope infinity scarves with flower brooches, and I love them. I've made a few long, so they can be work almost like necklaces or doubled over to be very cozy, and I've made a few short,thicker, cowl-like scarves as well. I need to make another trip to the yarn store soon! I'm also working on a new design for a flower scarf, I'll post it once I finish one!

Happy crafting! And go make the ornament wreath, it's so easy! I used $8 in ornaments (eight tubes for $1 each from Target) and an old wire hanger. That's it!

Halloween Roundup: picture post

This is mostly a picture post, so I'll make it brief! A few of these are probably repeats, but I figured I'd toss in all of the "Halloween" pictures I have. I am such a bad mom, I only got TWO pictures of the kids in their costumes! They sat with their friends for a group photo on Halloween night before we left to go trick or treating, but none of mine turned out. Oh well.

The kids had a great time on Halloween. Ava was Jessie (from Toy Story 2 and 3) and Aiden was the Red Power Ranger. We went trick or treating with friends and despite the coooold weather, the kids had a fantastic time. I am having a hard time accepting that it is November already, lol.

Crochet!

I've been wanting to learn how to crochet for...forever, it seems! I finally decided to teach myself from books and youtube tutorials, and I LOVE it! It's so easy once you know the stitches and it's very relaxing. I'm excited to start some bigger projects, but these are my first two projects. Ava is modeling my very first scarf--a simple single crochet scarf. Next I made a neck/ear warmer that can be worn two ways: around the neck as a neck warmer, or on the head as an ear warmer. I made a cute crochet flower and attached it to it also. I like how it turned out!

My Dirty Little Secret

In light of my friend Carolyn's Momcenter blog post today, and this sister post about dirty houses, I decided to "come clean," so to speak, on my blog and admit something that some of you might know, but a lot of you probably don't.

I am a complete neat-freak.

Not a clean freak, as in germs make me crazy or anything like that, but a NEAT freak. An "everything-must-be-in-its-proper-place-or-I-will-likely-develop-a-nervous-twitch" freak.

Like most people with a strange tendency, mine manifests itself in a compulsive need for order and cleanliness, a desire for every possession I own to have a place and a need for nothing to be OUT of place. Strangely, though, I really only care about the OUTWARD appearance of things, such as everything in a room needs to be put away, but not caring at all about the actual order of items once they are inside a closet or a drawer. Subsequently, my house appears to the casual observer to nearly always be freakishly "clean," but if you actually opened my drawers or closets you would likely find things to be unfolded, balled up, in a heap together or even just lying in a pile on the floor. Yet outwardly, all the beds in the house are made, the kitchen counters are wiped clean, the dishes are put away, the couch pillows are fluffed, the floors are vacuumed, etc. It is an odd behavior that only seems to be getting worse with time, and having children compounds it.

Watching shows like "Hoarders" on TLC literally makes my skin crawl. Not because I am judging these people by the way they live, but because I literally lack the ability to comprehend how they could exist in an environment so cluttered and chaotic. I wrestle internally with the compulsion to simply follow my children from room to room, picking up after them the entire day. I don't want to be this way, I think about how much more enjoyable my life would be if I could successfully suppress the constant urge to "tidy things up," but at the same time I have absolutely no idea how to break a habit that is so rooted in my life, my upbringing. It is, admittedly, a daily struggle.

But posts like Carolyn's DO make me stop and think. I am wasting valuable time with my children by spending so much time cleaning, and more importantly...I do not want this life for them. I want them to be able to pick up the tv remote, then put it back in a completely different spot and not think twice about it. So I am trying. I am learning to relax my standards for their benefit. For the most part I only clean up the playroom every few days or so (even when being in there makes my hands itch to put things away). I try to save the majority of my wiping and sweeping and vacuuming for first thing in the morning or while they are resting. It doesn't always happen, sometimes my tendencies still get the better of me, but I am making a conscious effort. Baby steps, right?

"A clean house is a sign of a wasted life." ~Anonymous. Maybe not necessarily words to live by...but definitely some food for thought.

Picture post

I haven't done a picture post in a while, so here is what we've been up to the past week or so. You'll notice immediately that nearly ALL of these pictures are of Ava. I promise it's not me being partial, but Aiden just doesn't want his picture taken much these days. :(

Aiden is home sick from school AGAIN today. Please send some well wishes his way. He's a very grumpy sickie, lol, he definitely gets this from his mama.