A Healthy Kind of Day

The girls have been sniffly and allergy-ful lately. They also got to bed really late last night because we had some people over for Bible study. Yes, I would normally excuse myself and put them to bed but they were playing with the daughter of one of the guests.

AND to top if off we have a busy weekend ahead of us. So, not wanting to run them into the ground and turn sniffles into all-out sickness, I have called a preventative health day. We probably will do some school, but not much. We will mostly rest and lay around.

Sweetheart is watching a DVD of the book of Luke. "Jesus" has freaky hair, but it's a pretty good movie. Little Bit is playing after having a 30 minute wardrobe dilemma. She doesn't like to wear pants anymore. They "don't feel good." She only wants to wear skirts or dresses. Since we are having fake fall today in the form of 40 degree temperatures this morning from a cold front, that's not very practical. I bought her some black leggings, but they look weird with all her dresses. We finally found an acceptable outfit.

I think some of this would work well, but Land's End is not as cheap as I'd like it to be. Mind you, it's not outrageous...but it adds up. Children's Place is not very practical this year. What is up with their fall line? Like my daughter is really going to run around playing in those. And the skirts I found at Old Navy were all approximately 4 inches long. (Although, I totally found a long denim skirt for Sweetheart in the store even though they are supposed to be online only! I was very excited. They are nice looking and will go with everything!) And more than half the dresses on Old Navy's website were NOT in our store. Hmph.

I think I will be assessing her hand-me-down shirt colors and sewing some skirts on our week off!

I have 3 rounds of company coming this weekend starting this afternoon, so it's time for me to shine the house up and get ready!

Have a good weekend everyone!

The Only Cold Thing Around Here...

...are my icy stares as I survey the thermometer outside.

It's in the 90s again today.

I am REALLY ready for fall. Even fake fall, like we have here in Texas. I long to wear a jacket, wrap up in a blanket and read to the girls, drink hot chocolate, and most of all...

...stop sweating. That's what I'm really looking forward to.

I hear a cold front is headed our way this weekend, which is what "fall" consists of here where I live. Just in time for the girls to wear long sleeves with their poodle skirts.

Which, by the way, are beautiful!! I still have to sew the poodles on and put some ribbon to tie them on the sides (foregoing zippers--this is just a costume). But I really and truly sewed skirts--with waistbands!! Wonders never cease.

That's it really. I just wanted to tell you:

1. I sewed.

2. I'm hot.

Come On In!

I have proof positive that my house used to pretty clean. I mean, our bedroom would get pretty neglected and piled up with laundry and never dusted....but the main part of the house, when Sweetheart was a baby, was just fine.

I know this because all the pictures of her when she is little? The background looks GOOOOOD. I KNOW I did not pick up before I snapped one of the thousands of pictures I have of her. Also, we lived next door to some close friends and we were in and out of each other's homes all the time. My house looked OK.

I really can't pinpoint when the demise began. I remember the summer I quit work and I had 4 year old Sweetheart and 6 month old Little Bit and 15-20 boxes from my classroom stacked all over the house. It looked pretty bad then.

I really don't have people stop by much anymore. We, and all our friends, are far past the stage when you all have one baby and can still get together on Friday nights and eat pizza and watch movies together while the babies fall asleep. We are far past the age when you can just run by some one's house. We are at baseball and soccer and karate and dance and school and birthday parties and ACK!!! Plus there are just too many of us now to get together much.

And, we are here ALL the time. I don't send my girls off to school and get busy straightening up the house while they are gone. Although I do daydream about that sometimes.

So I don't keep my house very picked up. I think I would do better if I KNEW people would be dropping in unannounced. But they don't. I have to get with it. Plus, and tell me if you agree with this, our home is older and it just takes more for it to look good. Our old house looked good even with no furniture in a room becuase it was just newer and nice. It's harder to keep an older home looking good.

In a few weeks we have Little Bit's birthday party. The week after that we are hosting the salad portion of a progressive dinner for church. On Thursdays now we have 2 ladies coming over for Bible study.

I have to get with it. I cannot spend all my time doing emergency cleaning.

I have a slight panic attack when I think about those big events and having lots of people over. There is so much that needs to be done. I KNOW hospitality does not mean having a perfect house, but it has to be better than this!

Are you company ready? Are you best friend ready? Do you panic when you have a big event? Tell me. I want to know if I'm normal. :)

And also, if you know how I can get back to how my house looked in 1999, I would really appreciate that.

Costume Day 2010

Oh I love our costume day. The first year, Sister and I made the girls Native American Indian costumes. We had so much fun!

Oh they were so little!

The next year was our American Girl Tea Party. It was awesome!!

However, the group pictures were not awesome.

 Last year we had a Pioneer Day. The girls LOVED it.

Pioneer school day in our living room.

Most of these ideas came from Sweetheart, who is very opinionated about what she wants to do for costume day. She already has next year planned! This year the idea was from the moms.

We are going back in time to the 50s! This is an era our girls do not know too much about. I think that's because A.) there is no American Girl from the fifties and B.) they didn't grow up watching Happy Days. I mean, come on, that's how YOU know so much about the fifties, right?

It's exciting watching them form a little schema about the fifties in their brain. We are making them poodle skirts which are ridiculously easy in theory. In reality, I used a pattern for the second time in my sewing career and my MOM WAS NOT EVEN HERE! I know. I am so proud. I have skirt pieces laying on the fireplace hearth. I suppose sewing is the next step.

I have until Saturday--no worries!

In school, I am looking through a bunch of books about the fifties with them. I was going to go all out and do a unit study and lap book and the whole smash but unfortunately, no one made me a free lap book and downloaded it for me to print.

So there went THAT idea.

We looked at a book on 50s fashion today. We will be studying toys that were created or popular in the 50s, food people ate, and all that fun stuff. Also, we have to cover some harder things like polio and atomic bomb drills and school integration. There is a lot to cover in 10 years of history! The idea is to let them know what life would be like for a little girl in the 50s.

This is the first year we have really had to study before hand. They had good ideas about the other days we have done. Really their only experience with the 50s is a diner we ate at on spring break a few years ago. I'm not even sure they remember it all that much.

After Saturday, I predict they will have all kinds of ideas about life in the 50s.

I'm predicting a headache for me and Sister.

You Should Go Read This

I found the best new blog ever!! You'll love it. Especially if you are interested in eating healthier, cooking, feeding your family, etc.

Go check it out!  (Really....this was my Monday surprise!)

Then come back here later to hear about our costume day this year.