Crazy...Lazy....Hazy

Ok, wow, what a LAZY lump I've been!!!

I've not posted a single thing since January.  Shame on me!!!

In my defense, I have had a few medical issues with migraines and my eyes being sensitive to light, so I've not been on the computer much at all these past six months.

Let's jump into that for a moment shall we?  Ok, so, Christmas I started getting migraines about once or twice a week, and it would be triggered by the faintest glint of light in the direction of my eyes.  (Stinks for driving on sunny days, I'll tell ya that.)  I also had crazy ringing in my ears.  So I went to the ENT first, thinking I had an ear infection.  Nope, not that.  I was told my ears were fine, and there might be a problem with my eyes.  Since the light from the computer and TV hurt I took to reading, and my family swore that this was the cause of the headaches.  (Not so says the ophthalmologist)  It turns out I have excess spinal fluid putting pressure on my optic nerves, which is why I was feeling the pressure behind my eyes and the headaches in my eyebrows.  That makes for a non-sociable and sadly dysfunctional mama.  I was grumpy and took to the bed a lot to soothe the headaches and irritable temper.

Through several tests (MRIs freak me out!) and a spinal tap (got a spinal headache three days after that procedure and had to go to the hospital to have a blood patch-not fun), the pressure has been lowered, and several eye exams and neurologists visits, I have been diagnosed with a condition called Pseudo Tumor.  Basically I'm not eliminating all of the spinal fluid I'm making causing me to have the symptoms of a brain tumor, but there's nothing there.

The spinal tap hurt like a horse kicked me in the back!!  Whew!  It was a tough one.

Gag, right?! (Not a fun May)

(The MRI did find a tiny Rathke's Cleft Cyst, less than 1/4 of an inch around, that will need to be monitored the rest of my life, but it was actually something I was born with.  I've lived with that tiny cyst in my head my entire life, symptom free.)

My condition, Pseudo Tumor, is controlled (right now) with diuretics.  Which means I take several "fluid pills" a day.  Since the first draining of the excess spinal fluid, and the beginning of the meds, I feel significantly better, and can actually tolerate being on the computer for longer than 5 minutes, and actually enjoy watching TV with my kids.   (Not that I let my kids watch a lot of TV, but let's face it, when you don't feel good, a movie that will occupy little minds for more than 10 minutes at a time is a blessing.)

So it has been a crazy, lazy, and sometimes hazy half a year for us.

I am making more of an effort to be involved and get things going, but I will gladly admit, I've slowed down on the birthday parties for the kids.  This is the summer of the laid back birthday party.  And, it has made this recovery, though small, a lot easier to bear.

So for now, on with life.  God's grace will be sufficient for the rest ;)

We are potty training our youngest, making plans to sew new outfits for our cute Kindergartener (our second), finally going to organize the house (yeah right), and hopefully start some new home projects.  I will of course be making my notes to the teacher, and some other cute things, but as you can see, this year is a lot slower than the past years.  (Not that I ever posted much anyway.)

If there is something you've seen at one of the parties or on Instagram or Facebook and want a tutorial for it, please feel free to comment, and I'll try to get it going for ya.

Have a great rest of the summer and I'll hopefully keep you posted more. (whomever you are that reads this. LOL!)

I will post more about the kids' parties the next post.  Cheerio!

Making This Year Count!!

Happy New Year y'all!!  I am not one to make many New Years resolutions, but I have resolved to make a few this year.

First:  Spend more actual time with my kids.  I tend to get focused on the house and my duties as mom and wife.  I've got dishes & laundry, dirty floors & dusty blinds.  I love having a clean house, but it rarely stays that way for more than five minutes.  I forget that they are my reason for doing everything else.  They need a clean floor to play on.  They need food in their bellies.  They need clean clothes to wear.  But, they also need to know that mama, being the clean and crazy lady that she is, will stop to tie that doll's bow for the hundredth time.  Or put that slipper on Rapunzel over and over again.  I'll move the couch so they can reach the Legos that slid under there (and then I'll go get the broom and sweep all those dust bunnies and crumbs I missed!!).  I need to sit down on the couch and watch a movie, even though the crumbs on the couch need to be vacuumed up, and I've got a load of laundry to fold and it's getting more wrinkled by the minute.  They are why God made me a mama (and wife-thanks honey for being such a big help with the kids and understanding my crazy brain more than I give you credit for).  They need me and I need them, and those little breaks, more than I realize.  And, it's in those little moments, when I get a hug and a kiss from out of no where, and the little voice telling me "You're the best mom ever." that I remember they are my reason for being this crazy lady.  If I focus on them, then the rest of my resolutions are basically ways I can do that and make more time for them.

Second:  Get organized and keep it that way.  This is where working for Thirty-one Gifts will come in handy.  Lots of totes and baskets to get closets, playroom, laundry room, etc. organized.  This will not all be done in a short time, and I plan to use those moments in my blog.


Third:  Utilize my time and make my Thirty-One Gifts and Sweet Salutations Cake businesses actually make money for us.  In this time and economy we need a little more than my husband's one income can provide.  This will help with the little things like, paying off some bills, and hopefully pay for Soccer and Dance fees, and going out to dinner.  Mama needs a break some nights.  ;)

Fourth:  Blog more.  I have not been as frequent a blogger as I would like to be.  Honestly, I'm busy with four little kids and learning to navigate all that come with being a mom and wife.  But, I've had an idea.  Even if it's mundane, I'm going to post something at least twice a month.  I like to know that I'm contributing something, even if it's just for me.

Fifth:  Exercise!!  Get a membership somewhere and go workout with my friends.  I need to make sure I'm around long enough to see all my sweet babies have their babies, and I won't do that by sitting on the couch all day drinking Coke.  (like I get to sit down!)

I'm putting all this out there so I can be accountable, even if it's just to this blog.  I'm setting these goals so I can look at them and attempt to attain them.

So, here's to a new year and the resolutions we make whether we keep them or not.

What are your resolutions?


Next up:  Tea Party time!!  Little miss had a birthday at the beginning of this month and she wants a girls only tea party.  I'm going to show you how to make some adorable fascinators (The little hats/headpieces that sit on the side of your head when you wanna wear something fancy.  Thanks Pinterest!), and make a small budget make a big impact.

School Daze!

Ok, today was the first day back to school.  I am determined to be more organized and on time this year.  As well as helpful to my son and his teachers.  (I am not so sure if I will succeed, but I will try! LOL!)

My first attempt was to get up early (-er than usual), take a shower, and to be ready and making breakfast by the time Riley was supposed to get up and get ready.  I had all his little photo opportunities ready, and an idea of what I wanted to wear as well as cook.  This did not go quite as planned....

Our new little puppy had gotten up at 4:00 a.m. and it took me a few minutes of feeding, taking outside and coercing to get her to go back to sleep.  This is prime, mama sleeping time!  Doesn't she know this?  Sheesh!

So, I am trying to catch a few more zzzz's when the alarm goes off at 6:00 a.m. and I don't think about anything but snoozing!  Needless to say I was about 20 minutes later getting out of bed and in the shower, thus a harried morning for mama.  Everyone else was fine!

Matt took a half day off of work to be here with the other kids while I took Ri-guy to the school and registered him, and met the teachers and whatnot.  He got Riley in the shower while I started breakfast.  Little Finn wanted biscuits with his sausage and eggs, so I whipped up a quick batch of those (not too bad, but they were too crumbly and fell apart when he tried to split them for a sausage biscuit sandwich = sad Finny. I didn't kneed them enough. I was in a hurry, ok!)  I ended up almost burning the sausage because I left it with Matt to watch and said I'd be back in a few, after I put my makeup on.  That took a little longer because Baby Jude wanted to play in mama's makeup too!  Breakfast got fixed, Riley ate, I squished an egg sandwich together and hastily fixed my coffee, and we were out the door!!

I had a little page of questions I wanted to ask Riley for his little book.  I didn't get to do that. (sad mommy)  But, I can do it now that he's home and it's still around the same time I did it last year.  I quickly grabbed his little 1st day of 1st Grade poster and took him outside to take pictures.  Then I did a few more shots on the porch because it was starting to sprinkle.  We ran back inside got the teacher's gift and his backpack full of supplies and headed out.  Only 15 minutes later than I wanted to be.  (Stupid sleepy mom!! I should have gotten up when that alarm went off the first time!)

(I've attached my little back to school questionnaire for y'all to see.  I found several and combined them to make my own.)

Got to school, met his teacher, and saw his room.  Signed up for PTO, talked to some folks.  Riley wanted to stay the day even though he didn't have to, but I let him.  Hey, he's not gonna want to stay at school one of these days and I'll have to drag him here, so I took my opportunity.

I forgot to take a picture, but I made her a Back to School Emergency Kit.  I filled it with little things she might need the first day/week/month at school.  Here's the list: nail polish, polish remover, cotton balls, bandaids, glasses repair kit, mani/pedi kit, ibuprofen, wipes, tissues, bags of Flips white chocolate and dark chocolate pretzels (wasn't sure what she'd like), a little can of Pringles, hair spray, deoderant, mouth wash, and floss thingys.  Most of this was purchased at the dollar or travel section at Target or The Dollar Store.  (I love those places!!  Oh! and, The Dollar Store now has cute, little, stylish nail polishes-that I didn't know!)  I put them all in a big bucket, like I used for the boy's food table at their last party, and wrote her name on it with a Sharpie.  I really wish I'd taken a stinking picture!!  Oh, well, you get the idea.

Not a bad start to the morning/year, but I know me.  I will sleep until the absolute last minute, throw breakfast together, shower quickly and rush everyone out the door just in time to be there before the tardy bell.

With that in mind.  I wanted some little "notes" to keep in the van.  Just a little something for those mornings when I forgot to write an excuse or send a note to the teacher about something.  I found a few on Pinterest and Google-ing, but I didn't quite love them, so I put them together and made my own.   I've attached them in my freebies page.  You're welcome to use them as you'd like!

I plan on making more little thank you notes and things like that, but not today.  Today I'm spent, and I still have to make supper and clean the house!

So, now that I've done all that, and everyone is currently taking a nap, it's time for mama to have a little "me-time" and ask Riley some of those questions!  Have a great school

A (angry birds) Pirate's Life For Me!!

This month my oldest: Riley (6) and my third: Finn (3) children have birthdays!  One wanted an Angry Birds birthday party, and the other a Pirate birthday party.  I had every intention of giving them their own birthday party, since we combined their birthdays last year.  I remember one combined birthday from my childhood, with my sister (13 months difference), and I did not like it.  Mainly because when her birthday rolled around she got another celebration, and I had to share mine with her.  This was not acceptable at the time especially since I was around 10 or so, and I craved my independence from everything!!  (I love my sister dearly, and now would never mind sharing any occasion with her.  She is one of my dearest and best friends.)

But I digress...Ok.  Due to a bug infestation in our house, (while we were gone on vacation!!!) I had to cancel the Angry Birds birthday party and push back the Pirates birthday party.  So, after talking to the boys and making sure they were ok with it, I combined the birthday parties once more.  Coming up with an AngryBirds Pirates theme.  Of course, this is the one theme I could not find a lot of pins on Pinterest or any other sites so I had to make up my own.  And, since we had to pay for an exterminator to come out I was on a very tight budget.

The boys put their input on what they wanted the birds to look like, and I knew I wanted to do a life size version of the game, so I went to Wal-mart and bought the cheap playground balls.  The large balls were only $2.50 and the small ones were $1.00.  (Luckily we knew earlier in the summer that Riley wanted an Angry Birds party so I purchased the balls then.)

Of course, being a mom of four little ones, the youngest being only 14 months.  It's a little hard to get your house back in order, and cleaned and prep for a party.  I spent the first week after vacation simply cleaning and re-arranging the house.  Normally this is when I would start preparations for the party and do a few little things in the evening after the kids would go to bed, but...you get the idea.

So, the week before the party came, and I had not done anything but doodle ideas on what kinds of food to make and how to draw the birds and pigs.  Not my typical planning self!  I recovered quite nicely and began the Monday before the party prepping little things here and there.

Monday I started on the balls.  I drew the regular Angry Birds' face on the ball with a Sharpie and then added pirate features: an eye patch, a bandana, a hat, a hook, or a combination.  Then I took my acrylic craft paints and colored it in.  This took a little while because I had about seven balls to color, and several coats of paint in some areas.  I went outside and painted the boxes.  (Thankfully it was right after the fourth of July and one of those little fireworks tents had left a ton of boxes out there.  So, I grabbed some up and brought them home.  Then the day of the party I drew little wood details on them, quickly, with a Sharpie.)

So while the paint dried, I started on the goody bags.  I was expecting about 20 kids so I was trying to have a little variety in the birds and pigs.  My problem was finding the right colors of paper bags and then making the paper accents to cut out.  I found these little buckets 4 for $1 at The Dollar Store and for only $5 I had 20 little buckets that the kids could take home and re-use instead of throwing them away.  You can see some of them drying in the picture above, but here is how they got started.

You can see they weren't very big, that way I didn't have to buy a lot to fill them up.  (I'm on a budget here, remember.)

I did the same as I did on the balls, except I used my colored Sharpies to draw and color the birds and pigs.  Plus, if I messed up on the buckets I could use nail polish remover to take off the marker and start over again.  (Make sure the bucket is completely dry before you start coloring again.)

(I bought other buckets too, for the food table.  All in all I spent $20 at The Dollar Store and I got the goody bags for the candy in the buckets, serving cups, and food items for the party too!)

The buckets and the balls took me a few days to finish.  So, while things were drying I made the banner and food tents.  I found an Angry Birds font and made a striped pattern in PowerPoint.

As I mentioned in my Beatles birthday post we have access to a large scale printer so I just made the birthday banner and sent it off to be printed.  (This helped keep my costs down, but before the printer days I would have purchased scrapbook paper on sale at Hobby Lobby and gone from there.)  The "ribbon" holding the letters up is actually black streamers.  I used the blue sticky stuff (like teachers use on their walls) to put up the streamers and then stuck the letters over it.  This saved me time cutting and stringing, which I normally do.

I made the food tents to look like maritime flags.  They're not the right colors but I wanted to use some of the familiar symbols.

I bake cakes on the side, and always make my kids birthday cakes/cupcakes.  While thinking about the cupcakes, I thought it would be really cute to serve them in little ships.  So, I went to my parents house to make the sling shot and cupcake holders.  A big rainstorm came up that week and to save trouble and keep everyone from being cramped in my ever shrinking house I moved the party to our church fellowship hall.  This meant the sling shot was a no-no.  (I didn't want any holes in the walls.)  So, my dad, mom and I put together these little ships from some scrap wood that daddy had lying around.

Not too shabby, eh?  Of course this is the Birds' ship, with the sling shot on it.

Then my sweet husband took all of the kids while I was decorating cupcakes and spray painted the ships.  Of course the Pigs' boat was supposed to look shabbier than the Birds'. (Spray paint $4 per can, I used three cans, one for boats, one for boxes, and one for gold eggs.)

Of course with the ships having masts I had to make sails and flags.  (again, on PowerPoint)

Now, for the cupcakes.  Each boy got to pick his favorite flavor of cake and frosting.  Finn picked chocolate with buttercream, and Riley chose cheesecake with cream cheese frosting.  Thanks to www.thedomesticrebel.com for her recipe on quick and easy cheesecake cupcakes recipe.   (Not a fan of the language, to each her own, but she is a good little baker, and I thank her very much for helping this busy mama out!!)  If I could modify the recipe a little.  I would suggest making a little divot in the middle of your cupcake when you're pouring the cheesecake batter in.  (She might have had that in the notes and I was probably too distracted to read it right)  They were the Angry Birds cupcakes and everyone ate them up!!!  All the cake ingredients cost me about $20 frosting, fondant, and all.

So it took me, from start (baking) to finish (putting them in the cupcake tray), about 15 hours to make these.  Honestly this is the longest time it's ever taken me to make cupcakes, the second longest being my rose/peony cupcakes I made a few weeks before.  I'm better at cakes, less tiny details, LOL!!!

This is a pic of my first little piggies and birds.  Every little detail you see is marshmallow fondant, no painting on these guys.

So, I think that's all the little details.  Here are the pics of the party.  Enjoy!

The party plates were from Wal-mart $0.97 per pack, one pack of red, one pack of green.

One pack of aqua colored napkins $0.97

The food items were as follows:

Bad Eggs - deviled eggs

Very Angry Birds - chicken nuggets

Bird Food - mud pie

Pigs Be Warned - pigs in a blanket

Pig Slop - "white trash" my own recipe

Piggy Shark Food - goldfish style Whales from Wal-mart

Swashbuckled fruit - fruit on a wooded skewer

The party food cost about $35 at Wal-mart

(My finger got caught on the little piggy on the left and I messed him up a little.)

(My favorite pigs were the piggy-sharks!)

(I used the balls as centerpieces for the tables before the games got started.)

(Everybody lined up to take their shot!)

The Angry Bird poop was plain M&Ms!

We got little foam swords from Hobby Lobby, and I painted some Easter Eggs gold for treasure eggs, and put Swedish Fish in them for a little treat.

All in all I think we spent a total of $100 for the entire party, maybe $125.  And, it was the best money ever spent.  Everyone had a great time and the grown ups even had a little fun too.  

If you have any questions or need any recipes feel free to ask me.  I hope y'all enjoyed our little paaarrrrty!!!  :)

Hey Jude!

Well, the time has come and gone, and my baby, my youngest child, my little booger boy, has turned one!  We did a Beatles "inspired" birthday party, since his name is Jude, and went with some rather fun decorations and signs.  It was really fun to plan and only took a few hours to set up.

I found a lot of the printables and inspirations from Pinterest.

I made the submarine out of three big cardboard boxes from Sams.

Lucky for us we had a connection with a big printer and it only cost me the time to create the posters and banner, and cut them out

We gave everyone moustache lollipops and Beatles bubbles.

I made the submarine cake myself!

Found these "Happy Birthday to You" plates at Target!!!  Thanks Shopkicks!!

Of course we used the green apples to accent the food table!  To represent the Beatles' Green Apple label.

All my little ones in the submarine having fun!!

Little Jude enjoying his chocolate moustache lolli!!
and afterwards playing in the streamers duting the cleanup.



For the food I found a few blog posts and used some of their ideas for Beatles themed foods and made a few of my own!

Here's the list:

Let it Be-L-T bites - BLT mini sammies
Honey (moon) Pies - mini moonpies
Sgt. Pepper-oni pizza - pizza bites
Strawberry Fields Forever - strawberry jello with strawberry slices
Teddy Boy grahams - teddy graham cookies
Here Comes the Sun-chips - Sun Chips, of course
Free As A Bird Nuggets -  chicken nuggets

I found the A Hard Days' Night, Bootles, and Yellow Submarine fonts through Google.  I honestly don't remember the website.

The paper lanterns are from the Dollar Store and Hobby Lobby (Love those 40% off coupons!!!)

The food pedestals are records from Goodwill hot glued onto large candlesticks I already had at the house.

I made his first birthday shirt with yellow fabric paint and a sponge paintbrush.

If there's anything else you can't figure out from the pictures and wanna know, please feel free to contact me!  Enjoy!!