Halloween in a nutshell

Here is our unruly bunch. Leah was the most proud and the most practiced Rapunzel since Mandy Moore. And Samuel was a cute little pirate named Jake. All we are missing is the cowlick. Audrey was my little Dalmation this year, as was Samuel when he was that age. I am pretty impressed with myself for sewing Leah's and Samuel's costumes, the Jake vest I made without a pattern. I did Jake for $0 and Rapunzel for about $15 (except for the hair...that was pricey). I also did a couple comissioned costumes this year--pictures coming soon, but that is why I didn't have time to make a costume for myself. Oh, well, it was fun, and we have 365 days to get ready for next year....



At our house we have the law of candy consecration, which means that all Halloween loot goes into one candy bucket from which all can pick their one peice after dinner. This serves a couple purposes: it helps us monitor the candy, it eliminates posessiveness and "fairness" of who got more tootsie rolls or pixie sticks, and most importantly it give the grown ups equal access to the candy.

New Blog Design and Header

So...do you like the new blog design? I got a super cute Supermom Mother's Day card this year from my mom and was inspired to use the cute designs (and "S" logo!) on it to make a new blog header and background, and here it is finally! It probably would have been much faster if I actually had the real photoshop, and not just Elements, and if I actually knew what I was doing in it. It has been fun, but I have now stayed up super late and will regret it tomorrow...Anyway, what do you think?

All in a day's weekend's work

This weekend we put together this:
















While the kids did this:

And resultantly fell asleep before dinner:

There was another one of Samuel reposing stark naked on the hall floor, but alas, it was inappropriate for Blogger.

I must say, experience has taught us much about working together peacefully. We worked for 5 hours in the hot sun and got most of the shed put together, stopping only to referee the kids. After dinner and putting kids to bed, we went back outside to work a little more in the daylight we had left. By then it was windy and chilly and buggy, and the pieces we were putting together got tricky. By 9:30, we were running the car headlights to see in the dark, and by 10:30 we were jump-starting said car by light of iPod. iPod doubling as access to jump-start instructions and flashlight. (What did we ever do before WiFi and portable devices?)

In a former life, this comedy of errors would have made us frustrated and contentious. As it was, we were really quite amused and cooperative. And spending all say in the hot sun doing manual labor makes one sleep like the dead, indeed.

To-Do List

Ugly Fence, meet Stain.

Assuming that we will start having nice days soon, do you think I will be able to put all five gallons of stain on the fence before having a baby?

Before you answer, here is what I did this week:

• Made a quadruple batch of banana bread and delivered loaves to friends,


• Took apart the drawers in the kids dresser and replaced the bottom wooden boards that were broken and tightened all the screws,


• Jury-rigged the bassinet with wooden dowels on the bottom because two out of four were missing (that one only took 1/2 hour!),


• Installed wooden-slat blinds in our bedroom (without instructions, and with two helpers),


• Washed all the bedroom curtains,


• Sewed black-out fabric onto the kids curtains,


• Moved the dresser and set up a baby changing station,


• And I'm still working until the semester is over!

(Phew! I'm tired!)

I have six weeks left, and I would go nuts if I sat around rubbing lotion on my belly and timing contractions waiting for Baby Sister to be born, so I made a to-do list. It includes things like organizing baby clothes, fixing the mailbox, putting together a shed, painting the trim on the back door and restaining the fence, making matching summer dresses for Leah and Baby Sister, organizing and dejunking our closet...and a few more. I'm not even going to bother planning my garden until after she's born, because its been known to snow here in late May. Who knows if the garden will even happen at all this year.

When I was at this point before Samuel was born, I scrubbed the couches and had Chris bring me every light fixture in the house so I could throw away the bugs and scrub away the dust. Maybe that should be on my list, too.

So, which do you think will come first? Five gallons of wood stain? Or Baby Sister? The race is on...

365 days to decide

Ever since (before) last Halloween, Leah has been periodically announcing what she wants to be for the next Halloween. Here is a not quite comprehensive list of the past year.

Jessie (again)
A dog

Ariel

Tinkerbell

A fairy

Snow White

The Incredibles family

Mickey Mouse

Dad

Cinderella

A pumpkin

...and lots more I didn't write down.

On October 1, I asked for a final answer so I could make her a costume. I asked her every day after that to make sure she still wanted to be that thing. And here we are: My little pink Unicorn!

Coming soon... Samuel the (nice) bat, and Jenny's oven.

Jumbo Zucchini

Jumbo zucchini, a plethora of peppers, one lonely stalk of broccoli, and a single gnarled carrot.

Bread

Some facts:

• Within 72 hours of milling wheat, 90% of its nutritional value has dissipated.


• All-purpose white flour has to have vitamins replaced which were removed in the milling process. Only the endosperm remains in white flour, while essential nutrients, oils, and fiber is found in the bran and germ.


• Any "whole wheat flour" you purchase at the store is missing lots of the nutritional value of freshly-milled-today whole wheat flour.


• When you buy something that is marketed as "whole wheat bread" chances are you are eating enriched white flour, and that it has carmel color added to make it darker colored (to trick you!) and of course, it has high fructose corn syrup in it. If you want true (store bought) whole wheat bread, the first ingredient should be "Stone ground whole wheat flour."

(source: http://www.healthbanquet.com/fresh-milled-flour.html)

Ok, so since I've recently decided to be uber picky about the bread I buy and eat and feed my family, I've discovered that there is no bread on the market (that I can afford) that meets my expectations. Hence, I have decided to make my own bread. Secondly, since I have decided that there is no wheat flour on the market that meets my expectations, I have also decided to mill my own wheat berries.

I have a great recipe (thanks to Aunt Sue for lending me Pantry Secrets, which you can make in just 1 hour!) and today I bought a grain mill (ok, the hand crank kind, but it's what I could afford for now...) I just baked my first loaves of fresh-milled whole wheat bread and they are beautiful and delicious. This bread is better tasting, has way more nutritional value and is therefore better for our bodies (I am a huge advocate of fiber!!!), and is infinetly cheaper than store bought bread.

(Ok, I confess that the milling was kind of a workout. It took me 20 minutes to grind enough flour for these two loaves, so I will definately be investing in a NutriMill in the near future, but for now Chris will do the milling for me, but not even a day in advance, mind you).

Ingredients: Freshly milled whole wheat flour, Sugar, Salt, Yeast, Soy Lecithin, Water. That's it!

I am hooked, and I feel so liberated!

A Rant on Luxuries and Necessities

Well. We crunched the numbers and realized that we were spending too much money. Thus, we decided that since Samuel has allergies, is still wearing diapers, and eats more than his older sister, and thus costs more to maintain, he would be the one to go.

Just kidding.

Actually, we decided to have a budget and stick to it. We figured that was a more permanent solution to our predicament than getting rid of one of the kids.

Here's what we did. You have to budget for things that only happen once or twice a year, so if you are going to have to register your cars for $350 once a year, then you have to put away 1/12th of that ($30)every month, same with clothing, car maintenance, etc. So then we totaled up our monthly expenses for our tithing, mortgage, household expenses, insurance, utilities, car maintenance, entertainment, personal spending, clothing, etc, and whatever was left would be our grocery budget. Oh, yeah, and that's while paying down those credit cards and trying to put a little away in savings while we're at it!

Well folks, magic number is $290/month. Does it sound that hard to feed a family of four on $290/month? It doesn't sound that bad. But looking over our expenses for 2010 thus far, we had been spending and average of $600/month on groceries. So, does it sound so hard to cut your food budget in half? Yes! That is a major change of lifestyle for us. I guess we just like to eat.


But what are necessities? Is dishwasher soap a necessity for people of my generation? Or do we have the patience to wash dishes by hand if need be? Do you have the determination to make powdered milk and homemade bread? What do you break your budget for that you absolutely cannot live without?

I'll answer that. Dish soap, homemade bread, powdered milk I can handle. But I've already learned that diapers must be in the budget because I cannot live without those (I mean, I can't live with Samuel without those, and we've already decided to keep him.) And WiFi. I don't think I can live without that. What about you?

So here we are. Buying potatoes because they are dirt cheap, foregoing the $2.50 box of fruit snacks because that's a lot for processed sugar(!), finding ways to put zucchini in everything because they keep appearing in my backyard garden (okay, I know I planted them there, but there are just so many...), and the list goes on. I find myself keeping track of how much money I have left while I'm grocery shopping, and I'm asking myself, do I want to spent $4 on a can of french fried onions, or do I want to buy toilet paper?

To live on $290 a month, we absolutely had to make a dinner menu. I got the basic breakfast foods and lunchy type things, but planning out our dinners and getting only those ingredients made a huge difference on how much I spent at the grocery store. Plus, I am more organized each night at dinner time because I know what I'm making, and we have lots of leftovers (hence, I also planned a leftovers night!) My latest victory is that I finally mustered up the guts to price match at Walmart and probably saved $15 on 2-week's menu. Way to go me!

So, that's what's been on my mind lately. End of rant.

Vacation Part 4: Project!!

What happens when you put two ambitious women in the same house for 2 weeks, one with a stylistic vision and the other with a credit card, and nothing to do but watch and entertain a bunch of little kids?


Redecorate the bathroom and hall!


The project consisted of stripping the wallpaper, scrubbing the paste off, spackling, sanding the spackle, masking the woodwork, painting the walls (3 colors) and the ceiling, selecting and installing a mirror, light fixtures, switchplates, drawer pulls, and lastly cleanup.


Total Cost: $250
Time: 4 days
Trips to the hardware store: 5


Mom trusted my vision of what would be a good look for the bathroom, took the leap of faith on some new, vibrant colors, and on painting the oak bathroom cabinet, and it turned out great!

BEFORE

(circa 1995)

Hall...


















Bathroom....

AFTER

Hall...




















Bathroom...

Leah's Cooking Debut

I was inspired by Michelle and Kyla's cooking show, so we tried our own. Cookies always take 3 times as long as they should when you have a little helper. I guess practice makes perfect!

Leah chose the title for the movie.

A little red

Project: Paint one half-wall of the bathroom.

Cost: $13 for 1 quart of paint

Supplies: Paint brushes, tape, drop cloths

Time: 4 hours start to finish

End result: Totally awesome! I don't know why it took me a year to get around to this. We wanted that wall to be red since the day we moved in. It's the curved wall in the hall bathroom, tiled on the lower half. It makes the little room defined, enclosed, comfortable.

The pictures don't do justice to my 1-afternoon project, since it is too small of a room and I don't have a wide-angle camera. You'll just have to make a potty stop to get the full effect!

Supermom meets Storage Closet

Before

During

After

What this means is that I desperately needed to put away Christmas but didn't have anywhere to put it all!

Description: Installation of wire shelving, including 2 horizontal hangtracks, 5 vertical shelf tracks, 4 shelves 16"wide and 47" long(and room for another), plus a 35" shelf, and 12 shelf brackets. This project essentially doubled the storage capacity of my under-stairs storage closet, and magnified its accessibility immeasurably.

Project planning: 1 hour

Installation: 2 hours (That's it!)

Cost: it's not important (okay, it was twice what I thought it would be, but sooo worth it!)

Tools needed: Stud finder, pencil, drill, level, measuring tape, screws. (I would recommend a stud-finder that is a little better than the $8 kind, especially if you have loathful textured walls)

Helps: a half-dozen guys at Home Depot (not all at once...) and this 5-minute YouTube video.

Difficulty level: This was surprisingly simple! It was very important that I measured and mapped the wall first so that I knew exactly what kind of space I was working with and how many shelves I would get and where they would go. Then once I got the stuff, it was seriously easy to install!

Ta-Da!

Fun with Photoshop

Here is a little something I've been working on this week.

I was given the assignment to make invitations for Young Women in Excellence, and this is what I came up with! I think I will print the text on cardstock, and the torch and flames on vellum so that it can overlay the writing. I haven't tried it out yet, so I'm not sure how it will look, but its worth a shot.

Hand Stamped Christmas Cards for you!

I'm trying to make some extra Christmas Cash, so I'm selling hand-stamped Christmas Cards.

Elegant, embossed hand-stamped Christmas cards, using Stampin' Up! stamps, paper, and embellishments. $2 per card, or 12 for $20. Envelopes included. Choose silver emboss or white emboss. In your hands before Thanksgiving.














Colorful and whimsical hand-stamped Christmas cards, using Stampin' Up! stamps, paper, and embellishments. $2 per card, or set of 12 for $20 (set includes 4 each of 3 designs). Envelopes included. In your hands before Thanksgiving.




















Colorful and whimsical hand-stamped birthday cards, using Stampin' Up! stamps, paper, and embellishments. $2 per card, or set of 12 for $20 (set includes 4 each of 3 designs). Envelopes included. In your hands before Thanksgiving. Stock up for the coming year, or give as a Christmas gift!



















Call or email me today to order! jennyfosdickATgmailDOTcom
Order your own Stampin Supplies online 24/7 at www.stampinjenny.stampinup.net

Supermoms! Unite for Sunday sanity!

Kids in sacrament meeting. How do you do it? We have a few rules, like no snacks or activities until after the Sacrament, and they must sit on our laps or on the bench quietly during hymns and prayers. Then they can color or play quietly. We downsized from a big bag of Sunday toys to one toy per kid because it was just getting out of hand. One week was so bad, we actually practiced 10 minutes of reverent time and pretended we were waiting for the sacrament at home a couple nights throughout the week--the following Sunday showed marked improvment. But after that, we were back to our old, crazy, impossible Sacrament struggle. (Do you like my alliteration?)

Here is my latest One-Hour project. It is a one player bing0 board and the task will be for Leah to listen in the meeting and put a Sunbeam on the image when she hears the word mentioned: music, Holy Ghost, Missionaries, prieshthood, etc. You get the idea.
If she were older, I would have used more pictures with more complex principles.

The project consisted of sleuthing out some photos that represent concepts simple enough for a three year old to understand and putting them on a grid chart I made in Word. Then I printed it and laminated it and adhered a sticky velcro dot to each square. Then I did the same with sunbeams, and voila! It took me about an hour, so I made two. I even made a little pocket on the back to store all the little sunbeams in. Tomorrow will be the true test of its effectiveness.
Project break down:

• 10' roll of adhesive laminate: $20 (I'm so glad I didn't buy that $60 laminator, because this stuff works just fine for my purposes)
• 75 sets of adhesive velcro dots: $8.
• Of course, it helps that we already have a really good printer.

I have lots of laminate and velcro left, of course, so I want to make one for you! Here's how to get one. I want to hear how you keep your kids occupied during Sacrament Meeting. What are the rules you have? Do you allow snacks and activities? What kinds? If not, why not, and what do you do instead to keep order?

I'll report back after we've tried my new Bing0 game for two Sundays (So, July 12), and then I will pick a random winner among the commentors and I will make you your own bing0 game (and I will even put your family picture on it instead of mine!).

Happy commenting!

What you can accomplish on a rainy day

Leah likes to be a fairy, prefers to sleep in a nest of blankets next to her bed, continues to recite movie lines, has had great potty success lately, and reasons her way out of perplexing conundrums like "We're all out of popsicles" and "It's too rainy to go outside." ("I know, an umbrella can help us!"). She has absolutely no concept of "patience."

Samuel has had18 poopy diapers (and counting) in the last 52 hours, and consequently used an entire tub of wipes and half a tube of Desitin. Sir Poops a Lot can climb onto the kitchen counter and halfway up Leah's ladder. He can say two dozen words and hams it up when the camera comes out. He has learned that climbing into the dishwasher and playing in the garbage can will earn him a spank. (Oh, the tears!)

The air conditioning is up and running, the sprinklers are sprinkling, (the weeds are growing), my compost is composting (I hope). We are enjoying season 4 of House (although I am lost without LOST). Chris got a calling teaching Elders' Quorum, I had a Discovery toys party yesterday and made new friends (hence, the cleaning of the house...), decided its just not worth it to take two kids to the water park by myself, and am working on matching dresses for Leah and cousin Jessica. Prototype L:

And the living room and kitchen have not been this clean since we moved in! Here are the final views of projects completed. Notice the new chic paint and completed curtains, new microwave in the kitchen (I guess 6 years was enough for the $40 one to call it quits...) and yes, that is freshly baked bread on the counter :)

Stay tuned for an accounting of our trip to San Francisco, the zoo, the carnival, bike rides, and everything else we've done in the last month.

Happenings

Okay, there are a million things to post about: our trip to San Francisco, a visit to the ER on the way to San Francisco, the zoo, progress on the house, etc. But all I can really think about right now is

KALEIDOGARTEN

Never heard of it? That's because I created it today. I'm going to start up a Children's Museum in Provo. Click the link and watch the progress of me attempting to write a business plan and start a non-profit organization. It will be so much fun! You can also make a donation!

Invisible progress

This week was productive, but you probably wouldn't notice. This week, I:

• Paid nearly-due bills(including accidentally paying the gas bill twice).
• Applied for several rebates and mailed them in.
• Removed existing curtain rod brackets and replaced them again, this time with drywall anchors.
• Touched up the paint in the living room.
• Instituted the Quicken program for keeping track of our finances. (In an unprecedented turn of events, I called my technologically challenged mother for tips on how to use the software)
• Transitioned the kids clothes from an ineffective dresser system to a closet hanger system.
• Instituted a bin system for the toy cabinet--one bin at a time.
• Installed cabinet locks in the kitchen, something only the children will notice.
• Pulled ten square feet worth of weeds in the backyard--it only represents 5% of the weeds that remain undisturbed.
• Identified nine sprinkler zones in the backyard and programmed them to water automatically.
• Started taking care of my skin with Mary Kay miracle set.

See? What'd I tell ya.

Finished Project #1

The Kids' Room: The Final Product. Here's the work in progress.

This means that Leah constantly wants to be a princess now. You know those McDonald's commercial where the little girl is at the restaurant in a Tutu? That's my kid in a Princess dress. Everywhere we go. Man, I thought we could avoid this phase, but how wrong I was.

I took some of these photos to submit them to a magazine for publishing, so no, the room is never that clean, the bed is never made, the decorations would never get left undisturbed for more than 10 seconds, the books are usually pulled off the shelves, but I thought it would be worth it for the picture.

I am kind of getting sick of project mode. I have several underway, and none of them are actually done. Project #2: The Playground (meaning the tools are still out and there are still some assorted boards all over the grass waiting to be installed). Project #3: Painting the living room (meaning that right now, all the furniture is in the middle of the room and their are dropcloths everywhere, paintbrushes in the sink, china on the kitchen counter). Project #4: the living room curtains (completion of which is contingent upon the completion of the painting project and the arrangement of the curtains before I know how long to make them). Project #5: the bushes on the kitchen counter that need to be planted in the backyard. Okay, so, why did I start so many projects before finishing the first ones? Because it was raining one day and I couldn't keep working on the playground? Because it was raining and the kids were awake so I couldn't paint? The list goes on...

And of course, once those projects are done, I am seriously going to crack down and ORGANIZE! I need to finally get into a system of cleaning the kitchen, scrubbing toilets regularly, putting away laundry, getting rid of clutter, having a routine for dinner and bedtime and showering, going to the gym and to work and on errands, paying bills on time, taking care of my kids and taking care of myself. AHH! I am so sick of limbo!