Spinning the wheels

I thought that over the lovely extended weekend that I would be able to possibly catch up on what needs to be done at home. I don't know if it is over-ambition or unrealistic expectations or what, but here it is Monday and I feel no further than I was before the weekend started.
Sure, things got done...some loads of laundry, the tree decorated, some Christmas decs up, Josh's tool room organized and cleaned out along with added shelving, vacuuming, dishes, meals, shopping, visiting with family, a parade (that was a complete disappointment), organizing of closets, and other stuff...but here's some that remains...
Finish our Christmas lights, clean the upstairs, laundry, and a host of other things.
Yesterday, I felt like the wheels were spinning faster and things were getting done slower or not at all.
I think that for Christmas I'm going to ask for a helper elf. We have our lovely little "Taggie" Elf on a Shelf, but I need so much more than one that sits on a shelf.
Since I don't know where those can be purchased, I'm going to hold to the quote I heard from Josh the other day "work smarter not harder".
Do you ever fall into the spinning wheels problem?

Blessed

I don't want to rush out of this holiday weekend without again reflecting on the blessings.
God has sent blessings in unexpected ways. I have noticed it lately in the way of friends and family relationships. He is at work and I'm thankful for it.
It was nice to have a nice long weekend with the girls. I wish Josh had been able to be home a bit more, but we are blessed that he has a job and is for certain getting hours =). I don't mean that in any way to sound complainey...I just miss him not being here. Balance can be hard to find, but he does everything he can to help out at home when he is here.
This is may be a silly sounding way to feel blessed, but I feel like over the summer and fall, God really provided so many various "material" items that we needed/wanted at garage sales or just on clearance. It has saved so much $$. It also has changed my view of shopping. I'm more mindful of what a little extra change can buy (like the 10 cent full sized cinnamon Yankee candle that I've burned for weeks now).
God really does provide the needs and the wants.
Blessings are everywhere and sometimes I fail to see them. I do want to be more mindful and thankful!!

So sleepy

My house sits in holiday chaos. There are some lights waiting to be hung, candles put into windows, items to put away from stores, and at this moment...I don't care. I'm too tired!
For one reason or another we have been so busy and staying up later in the last two weeks. Josh has been working more with the holiday season. I miss him a lot because there's many lonely nights at home, but I'm not complaining either as it certainly is a job--something many do not have right now.
We tried to go to bed early last night because Josh had to be at work at 5 am and I wanted to do some shopping. Who knows why, but neither of us could go to sleep. Each of us got to sleep at 1:30a and got up at 3:15a--yep you read it right. That explains my running on low sleep especially today!
The BF deals were less than stellar IMO. I found a few things, but spent far less than usual--that's not a bad thing necessarily. I don't do Christmas shopping on BF, I pick up stuff that is a good deal that we need.
For e.g.:
pillow $3.23 x 2
towel $5.24 x 2 (these are nice ones)
8 pairs of princess undies $1.25
skirt, socks, shirt @ Gymbo $19.62
Honestly, I did better yesterday at Walgreens buying their Register Rewards items.
I went back later to spend some RR's and got the following:
Cottonelle 12 big rolls
Tide 32 load for HE
York Mint patties
Floodlight stake for outside
Paper towels x2
all for $1.90!!
So, yes as you can see not much spent, but stuff we need.
Oh yeah, I signed up for the Sunday newspaper so I can get all of those wonderful coupon inserts. I haven't EVER subscribed to the paper before, but if these coupons do well, I will keep on after the 13 weeks are over. To be honest, I HATE the newspaper because of the mess it makes!
Sorry, too tired for much else!

Prepping

It isn't even Thanksgiving quite yet, and I already feel behind. That may be simply because the commercials and the stores have been promoting "Black Friday" deals and shopping and whatever else for weeks now it seems.
I know if you don't "jump" to get certain items, they sell out so I've "jumped".

Yesterday was a fun time. I went to one of the Chicago 'burbs with some girls to just shop. The weather couldn't have been better especially since it is an outdoor mall setting. We had a lot of fun. Since Josh was at home working hard at work, I brought him some lasagna from Maggiano's (MMMMMM) and some cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory. It was so hard to choose the flavors of cheesecake. I ended up with Pumpkin Pecan and Caramel Turtle. WOW!! That was something else!

Today we are doing a few things to get read for the holidays. Josh has been trying to finish getting our outdoor lights and other items ready. We also enjoyed a beatiful sunny day while getting our Christmas pictures taken. Hopefully they turned out.

Now, we are on to more stuff...cleaning, more Christmas prep and who knows.

Cuckoo

I have been trying to get an idea of something that the girls would like for Christmas for a few weeks now. Aliyah had her mind made up weeks/months ago when Zhu Zhu's first came out, but Keirah not so much.

About two weeks ago she told me that she wanted a cuckoo clock. Umm, okay. I left that one alone because I figured she was being silly. After asking her several other times and even suggesting other things she may like we still have the "cuckoo" request. I never looked into it because my visions of cuckoo clocks are kind of that lodgy type look or German look. Surely, nothing for a little girl.

Today, when I got the mail a Pottery Barn Kids catalog came to us. I usually leaf through it to get decorating ideas or whatever. Can you imagine my surprise when I saw a pink and white cuckoo clock??? I guess Keirah's not totally off base in her request. I don't plan on paying the $129. PBK price for the clock, however there are some other very cute ones out there for less than half that price.
It seems we may be a little cuckoo this Christmas after all.
I asked her the question again today in the car and I got two answers:
a cuckoo clock & 3 Littlest Pet Shop piggies. What a funny girl!

Giving Thanks & #300

I finally made it to post 300!! I have noticed that it has been lurking close to 300 for awhile, just too busy to write I guess.

It's hard to believe the Thanksgiving and holidays are fast approaching. Almost so fast this year, it is sneaking up and will be gone before I realized it was here!

The "thankfulness" thoughts smack me in the face quite often, really. By no means have I attained or reached the level of perfect thankfulness, but it's certainly something to always strive for (or in human terms) remember to count those blessings.
It smacks me when I read of children and a local child who is fighting and seemingly losing their battle with cancer. It strikes me when people are losing their homes and jobs. It hits me when children in so many countries are ridden with disease, no parents, and no hope of a next meal. It stings me when I realize how fortunate we are in America. Things are plentiful here, not in Uganda or El Salvador or New Guinea or India and so many other places. It moves me to tears to see and hear of the hurt that is out there with so many people.

Many days, I come to realize the thankfulness in the "little things" (little by American standards)really because we look at them as the norm I guess. It was raining today and pulling into the garage I realized that I could use the new door going from the garage to the porch and straight into the house. The thought of thankfulness for that new luxury afforded me many more thoughts of thankfulness in that moment...my husband who put in the new door and closed in the porch so beautifully, my children who could frolic through the door and greet the kitty on the porch, my home that was an envelope of coziness from the cold, and the sheer enjoyment of these comforts of life.

Sometimes, the concept of thankfulness can be hard to teach little children who definitely "want not". Again, we have in no way attained perfectly thankful children, but we work on thankfulness. For Aliyah, those lessons are learned by giving to Operation Christmas Child and understanding that some children will only get that one gift that we are giving for their entire childhood. It is showing her pictures of a little girl who is battling a brain tumor at five years old and realizing that health is something to be treasured. It helps when we sell toys or work toward earning money to give to a special organization like Amazima Ministries.

So tonight I sit in awe and thankfulness at the luxuries and comforts that I have been afforded, for the family I have been blessed with, for health to enjoy life, for jobs to provide, and for a Savior who loves me.

O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good!

NO THANKS!

I was just reading one of the local newspapers online and saw the Mr. O wants to bring the Gitmo detainees to Illinois. He must be looking out for his state...oh wait a minute!!
I don't know about the other residents of the state of Illinois, but I would much rather have the Guantanamo prisoners stay where they are in Guantanamo! Don't bring them closer to my family and me!!
Yeah, yeah many people would say jobs, jobs, revenues, revenues...but c'mon at what cost here??!!??
We are already housing one of the 9/11 terrorists locally and that is beyond more than enough.
Nothing like making the state better, let's bring the world's most dangerous/hardened criminals right to our backyard. NO THANKS!!!
Keep them where they are and out of the US!

Laid Back

For the first Saturday in I couldn't even tell you when, we (girls) are having a laid back weekend. We didn't do any outside work, no major agenda just organizing things in closets and elsewhere.

I took a nap today. WOW, it's been awhile.

The toyroom was in desperate need of organization and de-cluttering. It has been done and looks very nice. I have a few more de-cluttering and organizing items that I want to do, but I don't think it will be a problem to get it done.

We need to figure out when to get family pics taken for Christmas. Josh has a very busy work schedule this week and next with not really any time off. I have a feeling that every weekend from now til Christmas will be full whether Josh is off or not.

Josh did tile the entryway on his day off this week. He did a great job. It amazes me how much he has picked up over the last few years on home improvement. The other thing that amazes me is his drive to get it done. He just does it!

We went to Lowe's the other day (yes, we do shop there for items not found at the other store =). We found a cool electric fireplace for our bedroom. It is wonderful and the ambiance is amazing. In true "deal finding" style, I spotted these Energizer 16 pack of AA batteries that had $10 off your next $50 purchase at Lowe's in them. Well, the batteries were $8.97 PLUS you got a free pack of Energizer Lithiums with the purchase. So, if you look at it the way I did, I got 18 batteries for free and was ahead by a few cents! As you can figure, we used the $10 off on the fireplace =).

Hmm...it's hard to believe that Thanksgiving is less than two weeks away. The tree will be going up before long. I think we will finish putting out our Christmas decs outside next week. We've gotta do it before the weather gets too cold and the ground gets frozen. I'm transitioning outside decorating styles as my decorations break/burn out. Believe me, it doesn't take long (sometimes only a few weeks) and rarely do items last longer than one season. As my items break/burn out, we will move to just doing more greenery, floodlights, ribbons, wreaths. Those items do not burn out or break (except floodlights). I have promised Josh that no more "large" outdoor Christmas decs will be purchased. Don't get any odd ideas about our decorating, but stick trees, spiral trees, deer, etc...take up storage space in the basement. The only thing we plan to purchase (and only on BIG clearance) is a new tree. We really do not like our tree and want a different one. We bought it for $20 before we got married. It has lasted 10 Christmases and yep we are ready to move on. We also aren't ones to pay $200-300 for the new ones either. The one I liked was around $300 or more at Lowe's. Now, I'm kicking myself for not buying the one that was similar at a garage sale in Sept. I have been ever since.

Well, time for a little dinner and more organizing. I think I will go turn Pandora back on. I signed up for that today. I've heard of it before, but never looked into it or tried it.

Time: Ever Elusive

Since this is Josh's only weekend off in November and it is a busy month ramping up for the holidays, we had items on our list to complete. I didn't think they were overly lofty goals by any means, but somehow there never seems to be enough hours to squeeze in all of the different items--whew! Sitting here right now, I'm tired.

We had an enjoyable Friday evening out as a family. Dinner at Chili's was yummy as always. Our two other stops were Target and the mall. Target is competing this year quite heavily even before T-giving on the toy sales. They had so many items on sale and coupon books to use!
Aliyah was able to buy the item she had been saving for since it was only $10!!!!! That was half of what they normally are. She is loving it and takes it everywhere with her (like always).

American Eagle had some great sales as well. They had an additional 30% off clearance PLUS we had the big bad 40% off your entire purchase coupon. Bearing that in mind, we picked up MANY items!! Josh got some jeans for $12.58 and some shirts that he needed for $10 and under etc...

We slept in today until 8:30. Whoa! I feel like the painting queen. Painting queens are messy in case you didn't know. Painting the foundation has been on my list for awhile and since we have done extensive yard clean-up of Wrigleyville (that's my term for the ivy that we have that grows everywhere). We like to trim it back to nothing. Well, since it was the MOST GORGEOUS November day ever topping out at a balmy 76, I painted the foundation. It is sparkling white and looks great. I also painted the door on our porch. Oh yeah, our porch is offically completed!! Amazing isn't it??!???

We cleaned up leaves and we cleaned up a TON of the 95 y/o neighbor lady's leaves. We had to stop because there simply wasn't anymore room.

The cars are washed (thanks to automatic) and oh yeah....we began "decking the halls" on the outside. Don't worry, they won't be turned on til Thanksgiving evening. It is just much more pleasant to put up lights on a roof and dormers etc...when it is in the 60-70's than in the 20's or 30's and your body is screaming at you. That meant, lay all of the lights out in lines in the front yard and then test each one. I don't care if they worked last year when you took them down and they were only used that season, it doesn't mean they will work this time around. We threw away three strands. Fortunately, we had a back-up of 90% off clearance decs from last Christmas.

Okay, now I will bore you with pics of the finished product. I apologize for the blur...I was in a hurry. Chaney is pretty happy with his new digs!

Singing

Right now, I am listening to three little girls singing various songs. Two are my little girls and the other is me (as a five year old). About a week ago, a relative sent me a CD of me singing at age 5. This was pretty cool since I don't have anything else like that. We all enjoyed the many, many minutes of hearing the little 5 year old Melissa sing.
The girls have since taken over the CD and listen to it at bedtime (their doing). Funny thing, they have learned all of the songs that I sing on the CD even though they didn't know many of them prior to last week.
I really need to record the little girly trio that is coming from the bedroom.

Treasures

One of the greatest gifts God bestows on us is that of our children. The last few minutes, we have been putting away items around the house. Aliyah has been talking to me asking how the day was and so on. She has been so sweet. As I sat down on the couch, she continued to say her little sweet things to me. She doesn't know the expanse of it really, but I so appreciate the treasure of love that is stored up in our little children.
Keirah was tired and went to bed awhile ago, but she to does sweet and loving things. A typical evening at some point, will find her sitting right next to me and sometimes Josh if he's at home with her arm tucked through ours right next to us in the chair or on the couch.
Moments like these are moments sent by God to treasure and thank Him.

To-do

Today we made big progress on our to-do list. This is the time of year when fall requires a lot of yard clean-up to get ready for winter. We also try to get our lights up on the house while the sun still shines with a bit of warmth.
Since the items that our girls want for Christmas seem to be on the "hottest toy" list, we went out today to find one of them. Actually, Aliyah is saving up money to buy one of her own. She gets $1 every week at Sunday School from her teacher if she gets a ribbon. She gets a ribbon by saying her verses (3 or more). So far, she has $11 and is pretty proud of it. I like this because it teaches her saving and money skills, plus helps her appreciate working for something. Aliyah has no idea that we already bought one of these items, but we did so that they would not be sold out like I anticipate. When she has enough, she will pay us (reimburse us).

We cut out more bushes--yay, trimmed ivy, picked up leaves with the mower, and cleaned out the garage. Tiring work!