In Which I Ramble On and On

Yesterday was such a great day with my family! I was definitely a spoiled birthday girl: special breakfast, great gifts, cupcakes, messages from friends and cards in the mail, dinner at PF Chang's and lots of birthday loving from my kiddos! I am one blessed wife and mama!

Of course we also had a full day of school and I was pretty tired (the birthday girl got to bed too late, as usual). But I did get a short nap in, too. Yes, I played the "it's my birthday" card:)

Since school has started I have been making a huge (for me) effort to get up very early (6 am). Now, I am very much a night owl by nature and wake up naturally around 8 am. So yes, this has been killing me. It's not so much that I don't want to get up. I actually like being up for an hour or so (usually) before even my early-bird son. This gives me time to have my first cup of coffee, read my Bible and have a little computer time while the whole house is quiet and still. I even enjoy seeing the sunrise! Then I get the kiddos up (well, The Princess because Mr. B is already up by now) and feed them breakfast between 7:30 and 8:15 or so. Then we get started on schoolwork by around 8:30. I like getting started around this time because it gives us plenty of time to get our work finished by around 2 pm or so (including a couple of breaks and lunch).

The only problem is that by 10 am I am already needing a nap. And I know the answer: go to bed earlier. A big problem for me. It's easier to get up early than it is to go to bed earlier. Why do I have such a hard time with that? Then as soon as school is finished, it's time to hit my zone for the day~thus eliminating any time for a much-needed nap. It's a vicious cycle.

And speaking of my cleaning zones...let's talk about how that's going. Last week (the first week I tried it) it went very well. Not perfectly, but very well. I really got down and dirty with things, sort of Fall cleaning. I know I won't be doing all of that every week, so last week was a bit of extra work. I ended the week feeling really good about the house.

This week? Not so much. It's now Wednesday and I haven't even done the zones for Monday and Tuesday. Yeah. I've got a lot to do today, huh? In a perfect world dust would not exist!

So there you have my ramblings for the day. Feel free to toss me your suggestions for how to have more hours in my day to sleep~or how to need less of it!:)

The Making of an Egyptian Death Mask

We are learning all about the ancient world this year with Story of the World I and loving it! We've been learning a lot about Egypt, of course, which is completely fascinating. Most recently we have studied the New Kingdom of Egypt, which includes the story of King Tut. So we decided making an Egyptian death mask in the style of King Tut's would be a fun project. First since it was too cold at the time to paper mache in the garage (it probably would have frozen instead of dried-ha) and it was too messy to do it in the house, we decided to pick up a couple of cheap craft masks at Hobby Lobby. Next we cut out cardboard shapes to complete the shape of the death mask, attaching them with hot glue. Vince even put a little detail on the *beard* with the hot glue per The Princess' request. Then the kiddos started to paint them with this metallic gold tempera paint. It worked okay for the cardboard, but would not coat the plastic of the mask. We thought maybe a second coat ...

Door Hanger Chore Charts

My kids have had a chore chart for a while. It's one of those magnetic boards and they share it. However, it's not by their rooms and often they (and I) forget to update it. Plus it's a little bulky. When I saw the concept of a door hanger chore chart on Pinterest, I loved it! It was compact, right there were the kiddos could see it coming out and going into their rooms, and it costs almost nothing to make. I headed over to one of my favorite stores: Hobby Lobby, of course. They have these little wooden door hangers for .79. I also grabbed a couple of packets of decorative buttons for $1.99 each. I already had the clothes pins and the paint so those cost me nothing. I began by painting the door hangers (I used tempera paints because that's what I had). Then I grabbed a fine point Sharpie and the clothes pins and started writing chores on them, making sure to write them correctly so they will ...

Fun With 4th of July Crafts: Part 3

I love my new patriotic front door wreath!! I had fun putting this together, although I must admit this is more of an adult craft than one for kiddos. I was inspired by this article in Family Fun magazine. I didn't have quite everything I needed for this one, but all I had to purchase was a few sheets of scrapbook paper and some double-sided tape. Then all I had to gather up were some scissors, regular Scotch tape, a ruler and some cardboard. First I cut four (5"x 6") pieces of each paper. Then by placing a piece of double-sided tape on one of the short ends of the papers, I rolled them into cones, pressing the seams together well. Then I cut a 10" circle out of cardboard and began to stick the cones on it. I used another piece of double-sided tape to stick the cones on, arranging them in a circular pattern. Next I used regular Scotch tape to attach them on the back to the back of the cardboard. After getting all the cones on, I was ready for my centerpiece. He...

my blessed life

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