Need a plan, have a plan

I am such a planner. I cannot function without a plan. I must know what I am doing for the day and if I know what I am doing for the upcoming week all the better. A few years ago I bought my first Mom's Plan It Planner from Amazon. My hubbie swore to me I would never use it and it would just be money wasted. Well, 3 years later I am planning on ordering my next one for the new year and am happy to say I would be lost without my planner. I also keep my previous planners too. Its fun looking back and seeing all that I did, seeing when the kids were sick and with what, and seeing the overall rhythm of our family life. Looking back through them I got to see when our "busy" times of the year were v. our times spent relaxing more. Unfortunately we are in our "busy" time now in the Fall which is hard because Fall is my most beloved season. I love Fall when the weather starts cooling off, the Fair comes to town, all the fall bdays in our family, fall decorating and of course my fav. holiday Dia de los Muertos. But sadly as school begins and Fall comes Christmas is here and I realize I missed yet another Fall season just from the hustle and bustle that Fall brings.

This year I am hoping to stick to my plans for Fall and continue on with my Fall traditions and hopefully get to enjoy them rather than be bogged down with details called life. So my plan is to go to the fair and visit all the shows, agriculture displays, and of course eat fair food. I actually look forward to this every year. I also want to go to the apple orchard and pick apples, buy a homemade apple pie, and buy some local honey from the orchard. Their honey is so good and eating local honey can help with allergies. Of course do not give honey to any child under 3 though! We have to go the pumpkin patch and corn maize too although this year I will not be going inside the corn maize. 2 1/2 hours inside one last year was enough to do me in...I realized I do not like enclosed spaces with no way out and no bathroom in sight lol! I am hoping to actually watch Charlie Brown's Halloween and Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving. Last year I managed to miss them all...but i have a plan this year to actually scour my tv guide and find the show times for Charlie Brown. There is just something about watching him, Snoopy, and Linus that puts me in a holiday mood.

I'm hoping that by having a plan and writing it down in my planner that this season will not pass without me partaking in it. I am consciously deciding that if I have to put the dinner dishes aside to watch Charlie Brown with my kids or postpone cleaning out a closet so I can carve a pumpkin then so be it. I am doing just that this year. I am going to make new Fall memories in our new home and enjoy the season while it lasts because it does fly by. October is already going to be here this week. Which reminds me...I have to get my Halloween decorations out now!

My Birthday, her birthday, and a pound gained

It's official. I have gained a solid pound. I stepped on the scale this morning in horror to see the number go up by 1. Do you think all that cake, cupcakes, pizza, seafood pasta, and all around food related bday stuff could really make my pants give me a squeeze and an extra pound on the scale? Ok don't answer that...time for weight watchers ha!

So, last week was a busy one for me. It was Mariposa's bday (she turned 7) and then the next day was my bday (let's just say I'm in my mid 30s now!). Honestly it felt like we were in bday mode all week eating, preparing parties and hosting parties. Fun times but I am officially pooped out! and my house...well let's just say it needs a good cleaning with elbow grease being involved. If only I had some energy to do it. Where are Merry Maids when you need them?

Mariposa's friend had a party on Saturday that we went to. For me it was like a high school reunion. I saw people there I had not talked to since then. It was surreal to say the least. We did a lot of catching up and it was nice to see that we were all still married and to see all of our kids growing up. One of them had gotten married while in high school and had a baby. Their baby is now in college! They also added 3 more kids into the picture. My other friend married one year out of high school and is still married with 2 kids hoping to add more. I of course graduated in May, was married in July and had my first child a year later. Now I have 4 and am still married to my high school sweetheart. It was just so nice to see that we all together beat the odds. Many people including our families all thought we were too young to have babies and get married. They thought we would not be successful or that our marriages would not survive. Fortunately by God's grace we proved them wrong and Lord willing will continue to do so. It was so nice talking with these "ghosts" from my past and seeing that we all succeeded in our own ways. The majority of us got college degrees and the others have found success in their jobs. It truly warms my heart to see that we made it. But I have to admit it was very strange to see all of us older and ok some of us a little wider ha! Talking to them was like we were back in high school all over again...but in reality we all realize we are the old ones and our kids are the up and comers. Our kids are the ones stomping on our old stomping grounds.

It's so weird...when did we become the old ones and when did our "babies" become us? Why do I still feel 18 in my mind but my body is screaming I am in my 30s. Case in point...I had Mariposa's party yesterday at a bouncy house place. We invited her little soccer team to play with us and those girls had me going on every bouncy house there was. I was climbing, sliding, and fearing the heights at the top of the slides. 2 hours into the party my knees were screaming at me. They needed 2 advil and a sonic coke to calm them down. I was in agony. As I was sitting with major knee pain I see *artist* running and chasing those girls down like it was nothing. Not even a drop of sweat came from her brow. Oh the joys of being young.

I have yet another bday to plan for. Hubbie's bday is this week too! I really need to hold some restraint and not consume multiple portions of his bday cake as I did mine (I love my Harvey Wallbanger cake! Yummy!). I see where doing that leads me to...one pound gained and I refuse to gain another! We shall see next week if I was able to hold true to that.

I got an award! I'm so happy!

Michelle gave me a blog award! Woo-Hoo and this one is FuN! Here it is and the rules that apply:



Here are the rules..
1.) Say thanks and give a link to the presenter of the award.
2.) Share "10 Honest Things" about myself.
3.) Present this award to 7 others whose blogs I find brilliant in content and/or design, or those who have encouraged me.
4.) Tell those 7 people they've been awarded HONEST SCRAP and inform them of these guidelines in receiving.

Ok here are my 10 Honest Things:
1.) My all time fav. holiday is Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead). I know it sounds morbid but it really is not. In Mexican culture it is a day that we celebrate those whom have departed from us here on Earth. We celebrate that person by cooking a certain food they liked and especially remembering that person on this day. Where I live they always have a big venue with local art work, finger foods with punch, and ballet folklorico dancers. I look forward to this holiday on November 2 every year.
2.) I love Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. I don't have any of Frida's artwork in my home as *artist* is freaked out by her. I have loved her ever since discovering her in high school. I do have some of Deigo Rivera's work up though.
3.) I love tv characters namely Bree Van De Camp from Desperate Housewives and Charlotte from Sex and the City. I will actually watch these shows to watch them.
4.) I must, must, must go to Sonic happy hour everyday. I must get a medium coca cola at said happy hour. It must be medium because I have discovered through trial and error that in a medium size there is just the right amount of ice and coke. The large has too much ice and too little coke and the small is...well...its small.
5.) I hate feet including my own. I hate to touch feet. I hate for other feet to touch me. Exception: baby and toddler feet. Now those are cute, cute, cute.
6.) I married my high school sweetheart straight out of high school and no I was not pregnant ha! I graduated in May and married in July. (and yes we are still married. 16 years.)
7.) No matter how often I clean it my van is always trashed with something or another...food wrappers, scraps of paper, shoes. I swear sometimes I think I live in my van. I must say my home is better lol!
8.) I have OCD and I channel Jeff Lewis. For those who don't know Jeff Lewis he is the main role in Bravo's reality show Flipping Out. Oh my I love this show! He is so compulsively anal about every little detail and I could so see myself being that way if I did not have 4 kids. (not that I don't love my kids..I freakin' adore them and my hubbie of course!)
9.) My daughter's middle name came from the soap opera Passions. "Paloma" that I have mentioned in this blog is actually her middle name and yes I chose it from the character "Paloma" on the show. I just loved this soap opera and miss it now that its gone. (She is on Days of Our Lives now not that I watch it lol)
10.) I love going to Wal-Mart. I love that wherever I travel to I can walk into any Wal-Mart and know my way around. The same goes for Target. I can leave my city here and go somewhere else and go into their Target and feel right at home.

Thanks Michelle for this award. This was a lot of fun!

Dating my husband

I am having a date with my husband tonight. This is something we have just started doing after 16 years of marriage. Until now we have always had a baby or little one to care for and no one we truly trusted to watch them while we went out. Well I am happy to say that now that I have 2 older kids and the 2 younger ones aren't so young anymore that we feel comfortable leaving for a couple of hours to have some adult conversation and interaction without the constant "can you help my cut my food...is it time to leave yet?...oops I spilled my drink for the 3rd time tonight...". Yep, that does not leave room for adult conversation when you are refereeing the table.

So tonight my kids will be staying with my mom (they are having pizza and looking forward to it) and my hubbie and I will be hitting the town. We have yet to choose where we are eating...I was first thinking Olive Garden but now I am having a serious craving for some mexican food..i'm talking chips and queso and sopapillas for dessert. Yummy!

I'm actually going to spend the better part of today getting ready for my date since it rarely happens. I have already done my toes up in a pretty shade of mauve. He loves mauve for some reason (maybe because its less showy and brings less attention to my oh so ugly toes ha!). Personally I love bright colors on toes but I must admit mine are not the prettiest toes in the world. 7 years of pointe in ballet coupled with a few ingrown nail surgeries and let's just say they are anything but pretty but I still insist on being girlie and doing them up. This afternoon I'm hoping to give myself a french manicure. I actually did one on *artist* last weekend and its still looking good. It was a treat for her as she has finally stopped biting her nails. I thought that she would never stop and was hoping she would as not only it is gross but unsanitary as well. With swine flu going around I could just see her biting her nails with swine flu on it. yuck. So, she asked if I could give her one and I have never done that before. We went to Wal-Mart and bought these stickers that you put on your nails to "guide" you for the french manicure. Then we used a "pen" to paint on the white tips and topped that off with a clear coat of polish. I must say her nails looked soooo good. Besides working on my nails I need to get busy with some tweezers. My gosh my brows are out of control. I used to get them waxed monthly but my waxer was getting "wax happy" and I was starting to lose all my brows. So, I've decided to just do my own and pocket that money (it was muy expensivo) and use that money for the house. The one thing I miss about waxing was that it was so quick. With plucking it takes me a good 1/2 hour to get the job done. I've tried those waxing kits at home but they never work well so I resort to Mr. Tweezer.

In other news...my garage sale last week went well. My goal was to make $200 and I did! woo-hoo! I also got to meet a ton of new neighbors. We are new to the neighborhood and many neighbors stopped by to introduce themselves and say hello. They were all so nice and welcoming and it was wonderful to see how tight knit this community is. Very nice indeed.

Junkin' and thriftin'

Junkin' and thriftin' are 2 of my favorite things...Yesterday we spent the whole day scouring our antique strip. We have one street in town that has a gazillion antique stores, goodwills, and resale stores. Going to these is like traveling in time. I see things that my Grandma had and used or what I grew up with and oh what sweet memories they bring.

So, in the above pic are my junkin' finds. The little frame has a vintage Halloween card in it. When I saw this distressed ghost at another store I just knew the 2 would go together so well. I am planning on setting these out October 1st when I put out all my Halloween decorations. Right now I have my Fall decos out and may I say they have been out since the 3rd week of August. I know its crazy to have Fall stuff out when people are still swimming in pools but what can I say...Fall is my most favorite holiday and I want to enjoy every second of it. The glass dish and cup is actually a 1950s snack tray set. I have been eyeing these for a year now and have been wanting a set so badly. I had first spotted them in an antique store where they were selling a set of 6 for $50. Way too much for my budget. Believe it or not yesterday I found a set of 4 at the goodwill for $8. Def. in my budget. I really wanted a set of 6 but I knew if I kept looking I would find 2 more snack sets. Well, wouldn't you know today at my thrift store that was having 1/2 off the whole store there were 2 snack sets underneath some other dishes!!! Oh honey was I so excited I almost screamed in the store and would have had there not been sooo many thrifty shoppers there ha! I am one happy camper having a matching set of 6 1950s snack trays. They are so cute. I plan on using them for sammies and the little notch where the cup goes I will put fruit or crackers there. I don't quite trust the kids with the glass cup but I do with the plate. Another reason why I like them so much is that they are glass. Plastic leaches out bad things and after my mother had cancer I learned so much about toxins and plastic is one of them. I have my share of plastic but I am slowly trying to build up my stock of glass wares that I can store foods in to keep it safe.

Tomorrow I really want to go back to the antique store and pick up a copy of Gooseberry Patch Autumn cookbook. They had it there for $5. My hubbie looked at me crazy when I wanted to buy it but after a full night of sleep I still really want it. If you have not heard of Gooseberry Patch they now have a website full of homey goodness: http://www.gooseberrypatch.com/ Oh honey their cookbooks read like stories. At the bottom of each recipe they give a hint or seasonal idea that goes with that season. Being that the cookbook I saw was a Fall season there will be all kinds of ideas on how to cozy up your home for Fall. I love making my home a refuge for my family and I love sharing the season in my home. It may be 80 degrees outside but inside you are coming home to the smell of apple cinnamon and the warm glow of lamps.

Soccer season is here...

and I'm not too happy. I forgot how demanding soccer is on the family and our schedule. Mariposa is on an excellent team and I truly adore our coach but I am hating our practices! As it is we thankfully only practice one day a week with one game on the weekends. That is most definitely doable but do we really have to practice after dinner time into the evening hours? Yes we do. Unfortunately I am the only sahm on the team and all the other moms do not get home till 6 so that means we have to postpone practice till later so the whole team will show up. uugh. (Sometimes I wished I was still living in Dallas where either there are more sahms or the nannies take the kids to practice right after school. At least that way you have your evenings free.) Anyways, our first practice is tomorrow from 6:15-7:30. That means I have to leave my home by 5:50 and won't get home until 7:50. I am out in the boonies now and its just far to get anywhere. I am panicking because I was getting such a good schedule down for my kids last week. We were eating dinner around 5:30, baths soon after, and in bed by 8. The days we have soccer that just won't be physically possible if we are not home to do our routines. Plus, Mariposa will most definitely need a bath after practice. (that girl can smell!) I am hoping that either hubbie or my mom can help me out with taking her to practice so that I don't always have to be gone. This way if they take her I can still be at home and continue with our routine with Paloma and the older kids can work on homework.

Oh the joys of sports and I know them all too well. *Artist* was on a select competitive soccer team a few years ago and I learned then just how demanding it can be. We would travel almost every weekend and would have many practices throughout the week. It got to the point that me and the other moms would take turns dropping off and picking up girls. Now that I live so far out that is not an option anymore. I would have to give people gas money ha!

I will just have to grin and bear it as soccer season only lasts a couple of months. Thank goodness! I truly love the girls on her team. And the team as a whole is like a second family to us. We are really close with each other. We have been able to keep them together since the very beginning at age 4 and being that they are turning 7 that is a huge accomplishment.

Enough griping...I am off to go to my favorite thrift store. They are having the whole store half off today for labor day! Woo-Hoo! I can't wait to see what kind of goodies I can find. After that we are heading to my aunt/uncles' house for a wonderful bque and fellowship with all the family, cousins, and friends. It should be a nice relaxing holiday for us and much needed before the hustle and bustle of the week takes over.

Where have I been?

Holy cow has it really been almost a month since I last blogged??? I'm afraid so...My excuse...getting kids settled and into school. God bless I have 3 kids in 3 different schools at 3 different drop off and pick up times. Need I say more? Yeah, I thought not! hehe.

Besides that what have I been up to? I have been planning a garage sale and going through my entire house. Even though we had a garage sale at our old house and sold what I thought was all my junk (other people's treasures) when we moved here I realized how much more I had. I was storing 7 years worth of what I thought were treasures in my attic. I am officially a recovering hoarder. I swear I cannot believe the stuff I was keeping. Holy moley was it a lot! The problem was I was so organized in keeping all this STUFF that I never realized I was hoarding. sheesh. So I am doing what any sane person would do (haul it off to goodwill is what I would like to do) and have a second garage sale. Yes another garage sale in less than 3 months. I wanted to do it this weekend being labor day holiday but hubbie and I just could not get our act together. We have yet to get tables to set all our STUFF on. So, this week my mom has so generously offered to rent some tables at the party store so I can for sure have this garage sale this week and being able to park in my garage again ha!

As if going through 7 years worth of STUFF was not enough, my youngest Paloma has decided she is not going to preschool. I am still sad about it. She was set to start last week and as of last week we were still having problems potty training her. She would literally look at me, go in her pants, then tell me she didn't want to go to school. I think she was doing that because *artist*, Alejandro, and Mariposa would tell her she couldn't go to school unless she was potty trained. So, I think her refusing to train had a lot to do with mentally not wanting to go to school. I ended up visiting with the director of the preschool about this and her and I both agreed that at this time she was just not ready to go. I was in tears. It was like my dream was deflated. I really wanted her to go and follow in the footsteps of her brother and sisters. But, I also know that its not about me, its about her and her needs come first. If she is not ready than so be it. As my sweet hubbie said its not like I NEED her to go..I am a stay at home mom and I do love spending time with her and she will be in school for the next 12 years if not more including college so why not enjoy her another year. So, with all this happening I am going to kinda homeschool her in my own way..nothing real structured but just making sure that I do work with her everyday. On the potty front I must say or shall I shout out that she is now POTTY TRAINED!!!! I swear the day after I gave up my spot at her preschool there were NO MORE accidents! Even at night she is staying dry and when we are out running errands she tells me when she needs to go. I really think that she was feeling my stress and pressure about her being trained in order to go to school and when we took school out of the equation the stress just went away and she trained. In her time.

That is the biggest lesson I have learned these past couple of weeks. I was humbled by my child (aren't we always..our Lord makes sure of using them to humble us and later strengthen us) by forcing me to realize that I cannot live my daughter's life. I am here to enrich her life and guide and lead her in accordance to her needs. Right now it looks like her needs are to be with me and honestly I am happy about that. Its nice having that time alone with just her while everyone else is in school. Its nice playing puzzles with her on the couch without any other distractions. Its nice going to storytime at the library and being able to solely focus on her. I am learning so much more about her everyday and feeling more blessed each day.

Now that the kids are back in school I am slowly trying to form routines that work. I am getting there and once there I will share them. Right now I'm still in the trying to get everyone dropped off and picked up on time and dinner cooked and everyone in bed at a good hour routine. I really need to work on a cleaning routine and will be starting that soon.