A Snowy Day~

It's been a while since a post, but honestly, my heart has been a little busy and a lot sad.

Last week we had parent teacher conferences.  This was late nights and a sad mom heart.  It also became apparent that we needed to make a change in our daycare situation for our children.  This was heartbreaking, as we had been with the same provider since Rowan was 6 weeks old.  I loved that she loved my children and took care of them in my absence, but it was obvious a change had to be made.

We gathered all of our paperwork, and I took Monday off to get the children situated in district daycare.  Change is hard for me, and there were LOTS of tears shed.  I felt guilty for working and heartbroken that my choices had put them in harm's way.  I've come to terms with some of this during the week, but it was a downright ugly week for me.

The upside is the kids seem adjusted to the new program, and the two moms who have so religiously taken Rowan to preschool for me, agreed to continue transporting him.  They are such a blessing to us, and my heart was eased knowing Rowan would continue at the school he already knew. 

Other than that, Alex and I celebrated Valentine's Day at the Row House last Saturday with good friends in the midst of our angst.  It was a blessing, and we so enjoyed the company and amazing food.  (No pictures-I was just working on surviving at this point).  

I"m still bopping along at the University with my undergrads.  I really like teaching them, and I'm enjoying the challenge of it!  They make me think:-)

The kids and I were home Thursday and Friday after we were left in the wake of the "Blizzard of Oz" and 9 inches of snow.  We played, baked, napped, watched movies, and just enjoyed the quiet.  I didn't put on makeup for two days, and I just let myself catch up.

Check out this bed head!!

Sassy sporting her boots!

Alex took Rowan to the circus on Saturday morning.  They had a great time, and Rowan was already chirping about going back today;-)

Genuine smile:-)

Today the kids and Alex made a snowman outside as it was in the 40s.  Sassy isn't a huge fan of the cold, but she loves her Daddy, so she stayed with him until the bitter end.

Our family mascot, Dixie!

We are slated to get 8-10 more inches of snow tomorrow.  I'm fully anticipating another snow day on Tuesday, and I'm giving myself some grace to just enjoy the day off and my kids.

This has been a bum week, but life isn't always easy, I guess.  We are finding a new normal, and my heart is a little less sad everyday:-)  Change is a fact of life, but it isn't always fun in the process.  That, I know for sure.  

Valentine's Crafts~

I've been crazy busy the last month!  Crazy busy!  While I love looking back at the blog, I just didn't have the energy to muster up a post.

I was hired at the local university the Thursday before classes started to teach an undergrad class.  I love it, but it has certainly taken up some of my time in the evenings.  We are working with the strategic planning committee at church which has also taken quite a lot of time, and I am on a technology committee at school which takes yet more time.  I can't say I don't enjoy any of these commitments, but it has definitely added a great deal of stress to my life.  I'm currently working on not taking life so seriously;-)  When faced with a new project, I jump in full body all at once.  I think about it, dream about, contemplate it in the shower, etc.  So, we are working on balance at our house right now;-)  Must find balance...

With that said, I did manage to complete a craft afternoon with a couple of girls 2 weeks ago.  We picked crafts, bought supplies, and then crafted up a storm.  It was fun, and stressfree;-)

Craft 1: Yarn Wreath
Styrofoam Wreath: $4.99
Grey Yarn: $4.25
Felt for Flowers: $2.00
Ribbon: I borrowed some from a girl who already had this, so FREE!
 Total: $11.24

 I wrapped my wreath beforehand which took about an hour and a half.  Then it took about 1 hour to make my flowers, and I literally hotglued them on.  I love the wreath, and it looks great against my white front door.

Craft 2: Felt Pennant
Felt: $4.24
Ribbon:$1.99
Total:  $6.23

I cut out the pennants and then the letters.  I hotglued the letters to the pennant, and then hotglued the tab on the back down over the pink rope.  It worked like a charm!  I really like it against my yellow chevron too:-)

Craft 3: Canvas Art
Felt: $.24
Canvas: $7.99 for pack of 2
Buttons: $4.99
Black Paint: On hand!
Total:  $13.22

This project was my favorite.  Alex painted the chevron pattern for me to match my kitchen curtains.  Then I cut a large red felt heart and hotglued it down to the canvas.  Then you just hotglue the red buttons to cover the heart.  It took the better part of an hour to do the buttons, but I think it turned out great!  I hung this in my kitchen, and I know I'll have a hard time taking it down after Valentine's Day:-)

So, there you have it.  Life's busy, I was a little crafty, and we are trying to find balance at our house so we still like each other and ourselves;-) 

Rowan turned 5-Batman Style~

 Rowan turned 5 on January 9 at 4:05 p.m.;-)  It was a school day, so we were up and at 'em early!   We did presents before school.  That night Rowan and Alex had church, so that was the extent of our celebrating!

Happy Birthday!

We celebrated with Alex's parents and sister on Saturday!  Alex had the camera, so we have no documentation of said relatives;-)  They helped us enjoy a Taco Bell dinner (Rowan's choice) and some Orange Leaf for dessert (also Rowan's choice)!  It was fun, and he got a really cool gun and Batman figure;-)

Then we were ready for the friend party on Sunday!  We had our neighbor boys and another friend over for Batman Training Camp!  I made each child a personalized cape and mask, so we were ready for training!

Ready to be superheroes!

The neighborhood gang (minus Hayden-he ran late) plus Isla!  I could tell our house was safe the moment they all came in;-)

The prettiest superhero!

We played games then in our costumes!  The first one up was "Vaporize the Villain!"  That is code for shoot the bad guys with silly string.  This was MESSY, but the kids had fun!

How many bad guys did you hit?

 Then we started to retrieve the anti-venom from the Bat Cave to help our friends.  Alex made an obstacle course that led into a tent.  We turned off all of the lights, and they were retrieving glow sticks.  It was fun, and this kept them entertained for a long time!

 Then we were on to Bat Planes.  The kids made paper airplanes, and we launched them to see whose Bat Plane could fly the farthest!  Colin's was hands down the best.  That thing flew!

They were so eager!

 Last on the list was cake! We sang, and then the kids dug in.  Rowan had requested  an ice cream cake, so we went with it!  It was delicious and stress free;-)

A great big wish made!

Eating our cake and drinking our Power Punch!

The party was fun, and I'm confident they had a good time!  Rowan was in bed at 6:20 tonight, so I know I wore him out;-)  We had a great time celebrating the blessing of our now 5 year old!

Big Girl Bed~

Sigh.  It happened.  My sweet Isla went from this-

To this.

We took the side of her crib off this week and made her a toddler bed.  She's amazing, and it hasn't changed her sleeping habits at all.  Big girl at this house~

A Little Bit Crafty~

Over winter break, I dug out my crafty materials and accomplished a couple of projects around the house!

This is a shower curtain I bought for the kids' bathroom almost a year ago. I loved it, but I couldn't find art to put on my bathroom walls to save my life.  I finally gave up and decided I would have to paint something myself.

So here is what I came up with!  It is simply a canvas with minimal acrylic paint.  It took me a couple of hours one afternoon to paint, and I am satisfied with it.  It looks good in the bathroom now, and I can stop looking for owl paintings;-)

 Materials-
Canvas size 16x20 (2 pack for $7.99)
Acrylic Paint (I already had)
Paint Brush ($.47)

Total: $4.46 and a couple hours of time~

I also had my kitchen painted grey over the break.  I had black curtains up, so I decided they needed a makeover.  I found this fantastic yellow chevron pattern at Hobby Lobby.  Alex actually whipped up the curtains since he is the seamstress in our house;-)  I love them!  They make our kitchen look much bigger, and they are a bit funky!

I also made the EAT sign on the left!  It adds some more color to the room as well.

Curtain Materials-
2 and 1/2 yards Chevron fabric ($12.47-I had a coupon)
4 packages of curtain clips (2@$4.97 and 2@$6.47)

Total:  $35.35

Sign Materials-
3 Cardboard Letters ($2.47 each)
Acrylic Paint (I already had)
Paint Brush ($.47)

Total: $7.88

I loved the letters so much I also did them in my laundry room.  It is painted a mustard yellow, so I painted grey letters to spell WASH.  I think they really fill in the empty space I had next to our door that leads to our garage.

Sign Materials
4 Cardboard Letters ($2.47 each)
Acrylic Paint (I already had)
Paint Brush (I already had)

Total: $9.88

I'm working on curtains for my purple living room as well!  Stay tuned~

Goals, Goals, Goals...

I haven't always set goals. There were days in my life when I just went with the flow and used the mantra, "What will be, will be." You can read how our life worked on this mantra here.:-)

 Goals help focus me in a direction. They give me a challenge to aspire to meet, but there is a problem. They stress me out:-) Goals not only give me something to work towards, but they also create an expectation within myself to meet said challenge. I'm competitive in nature, and I would rather not lose at my own game;-)

Here are last year's goals Alex and I set together. The last update is from September. 

1. Get PMI taken off of our Home Loan -Done in February!

 2. Pay off Alex's small student loan ($641.00 to be exact)-Done in June!

3. Save enough money to replace Jolie's car by November 1, 2013 in cash! I was able to add to this fund in September, and we are up to 47% of our target at the moment.  If I add in the value of our car, which we will either sell or trade in, I am up to 67% of our target.  Not bad!  Accountability sure helps the results;-)  Hopefully next month I'll have good news too~ 


 We conquered the first two pretty quickly, but the third goal was boisterous to say the least.  I got frustrated with it, and I just quit on it for a while. Life happened, I threw my hands up in the air, and I believe my exact words were, "Goals are stupid!"

It is not true.  Goals are not actually stupid.  They simply place the expectation in front of me, so I am more prompted to take actions to move myself in that direction.

So here we go for 2013!  I need a challenge, I guess;-)

1. Save enough money to replace Jolie's car by August 1, 2013 in cash!
Currently, this fund is at 59%.  If you look up above, you will notice it is actually 8% lower than in September.  Yep, that's right!  I borrowed from the car fund for various car repairs on both vehicles.  Life happens.  Sad face, but it is true. Only 41% to go!  We'll be positive~

2. Go on one family vacation for at least 5 days out of the state of Kansas paid for in cash!
We didn't go on a vacation last year, and Rowan noticed.  We're going-somewhere!  Anywhere but here would be fine by me:-)  

3. Read 23 books from January 1 until December 31!  
This is very attainable, and I love to read as long as I have something good on hand;-)
 
That's it!  I'll update monthly for accountability.  That helps me know I'm being monitored;-) 

Christmas 2012~

Christmas came!!  We had our little family Christmas on Christmas morning.  It was just us, and it was just perfect!  The kids had so much fun, and I love that they get to wake up in their own bed and see that Santa came to our house:-) 

Santa came!

Sweet boy~

Sassy and I waiting our turn~

Sassy loved her cradle that Santa brought her!

 Next we headed over to Grandma and Grandpa Darby's house for lunch and Christmas #2!  We spent the afternoon there and had a yummy lunch that Grandma Darby made!  The kids were blessed again with many presents!

Rowan and Grandma cuddling!

Rowan got a real drill from Grandma and Grandpa.  He's excited to work:-)

Aunt Reesa reading Pete the Cat!

Rowan schooling Grandma on his Nabi tablet!

Cuddling up with Grandpa!

We had a couple of days playing with our new toys before my family came to our house on Friday for Christmas #3!  It was fantastic to have my parents and all of their kids and grandkids together!  We had fun, ate prime rib my brother made and played cards!  It was truly a fantastic day!                                                                                                                                                 

Sassy with her stack!

Dad, Tyler, and Kemper!

Heather and the kids with their piles;-)

This girl loves her Poppy!  It is so sweet!

Rowan stacks all of his presents.  Makes me laugh!

Uncle Tyler showing Rowan how to shoot his new bow and arrow!

All of the cousins!  Kemper, Rowan, Tayte, Isla, CJ, and Kynlee

Silly faces!!!

We are so blessed and fortunate to have our families close and to be able to see them for the holidays!  It was a fabulous holiday season at the Darby house!

Now on to 2013!  It's going to be a great year!!