I just don’t have it in me to blog lately. We have had the stomach flu (or something with similar symptoms) and well, life has just been so crazy that I haven’t wanted to share. Today I have been industriously cleaning my house in hopes that it will carry over to the rest of my life. While there have been a few external pressures that have been stressful; I also feel like it is a chance to take stock and set some goals to hopefully make life a little better from here on out. Allow me to share and promise a project in a few days.

1. Write down what I eat. (Not so much as a diet thing as a “getting control over anything I can actually control” thing.)

2. Pick up toys before dinner. (This is a perenial goal for me. I just think it would be nice for Mike to come home to a clean house-again still.)

3. Tell the girls one thing that I appreciated/liked about them during the day. Mike mentioned yesterday that I tell Emily she is cute more often than Megan. It made me realize that I need to make more of an effort with Meg. Emily tends to cuddle up to me, making it easy to share these things. I think this will be a genuine and meaningful way of letting the girls know how much I love them. It also seems like a nice bedtime ritual, something that I can share in a quiet moment. We’ll see how that goes.

One good thing about life is that I am painting again. (A benefit of taking a break from the book stuff.) I am really excited about what I am doing and look forward to sharing pictures soon. Now, there is a microwave waiting to be cleaned…

I love Halloween! With Mike’s birthday a few days before, this week is a par-ty! We added to the fun this year with a scary sized project of scraping and painting our giant chicken coup garage. We finished the manual labor in time to jet off to a night of partying, tricking, and treating. (Which, of course the girls took to with zeal.) Emily got her first couple of pieces of candy and wouldn’t let them go. She didn’t even want to put them in her bag. After a few houses, she realized that everything in the bag was hers and she was in. (Okay, everything is hers but the stuff we steal out of it. Come on, you know you do it too. It’s for their own good, they shouldn’t eat all of that junk.)

Here they are in all of their cuteness:

Meg as Sleeping Beauty for the 2nd year in a row.

Emily as a “pretty kitty”

Happy Halloween!

I saw something similar to these and had to make them for Megan to take to her class for Halloween. They only take a few minutes to assemble; and would be great for 5 year old+ hands to put together.

Materials:

(per spider)

sucker (I used Tootsie Pops)

4 pipe cleaners

googly eyes

scissors

glue (I used hot glue, but others would work as well.)

Directions:

1. Hold all 4 pipe cleaners against the stem of the sucker, right at the base of the sucker.

2. Leave the length of pipe cleaner desired for the legs of the spider on one side (about 3 inches) and wrap the other side around the stick until both sides are equal in length.

3. Pull the ends of the pipe cleaners tight. Then bend them upwards and into a 7 shape for each leg.

4. Cut the stick at the base of the pipe cleaners.

5. Glue on the googly eyes and get ready for some giggles.

Thanks for the tag, Tara. Sorry that it took me so long.

1. Affectionate gestures from either of the girls.

2. Sometimes Mike and I have these great talks–often in the car or late at night in bed. It feels so great when we really click and talk and really want to hear what the other one thinks. (Which life isn’t always conducive to.)

3. Finishing any project; whether it be art, organizing, weeding, or canning. I love that moment when I get to stand back and look at what I have accomplished.

4. Having a clean and/or organized house (sigh).

5. Hanging out with my sis, she is so cool. I have always really looked up to her; we just have so much fun together …and honestly, I just feel a little cooler myself when I am with her.

6. Good smells: freshly mowed glass, ocean (but not by ANY wharf), cooking, oxygen and acetylene, bleach…but my most favorite: early in the morning, when you can smell the season. (Yeah, I know it sounds crazy; but haven’t you ever walked outside and it just smelled like fall?)

7. Painting, especially mixing color. (You know what I am talking about Juli!)

8. Running to good music.

9. House stuff. If you know me, you know I am little obsessed with anything having to do with home stuff-from architecture to decoration. I especially love anything kitchen related–ask my Mom, even when I was a little girl, I loved kitchens and bathrooms.

10. Finally, watching my girls sleep. I love checking in on them and night and seeing their beautiful little angelic faces. It just makes me feel so happy. I think Heavenly Father gives us those peaceful moments as both a reward and a sort of renewal for those hectic days!

Thanks again, Tara. This has been fun to think about. I tag Michael (hehe, just do it, honey. It will be fun.) Pamela, Amy, MaryAnn, Kerrah, Kristine, Michelle and DeeDee.

I like to keep an eye on a blog called Grosgrain; mostly because Kathleen sews amazingly cool stuff and sewing is an area that I have no skill, but much admiration for. I was totally blown away when I saw this Marie-Therese dress. I can totally imagine Megan in it! The most unbelievable thing is how often she gives away what she makes. This dress included. Wow. Check it out here.

If you know me, you know that I love to decorate. You also know that I am all about doing it on the cheap. I wanted something for my picture rod, but these would look cute hanging from your porch or tacked on the casing of a window.  I love all of the different textures with the burlap and screening. The bonus is that it is pretty quick to put everything together and there is NO sewing involved. Although it would be cute to stitch around the pumpkins; I wanted to go for more of a folk art, simple look.

Materials:

Burlap (I used orange, a couple of yards will do it.)

Brown felt for stems (1/4 yards)

Roll of screening (found on the window and door isle at a home improvement store)

Scissors

Hot glue

Ribbon (if desired)

Directions:

1. Layout the burlap and sketch some jack-o-lanterns onto it. Then cut out.

2. Cut stems from the felt and glue onto pumpkins. Turn the pumpkin over and dribble glue on the top 1/4 of the pumpkin to help keep it flat when hanging.

3. If using ribbon to hang them, glue the ribbon to the stem and top of pumpkin.

4. Unroll the screen and sketch the desired ghost design; then cut out.

5. If using ribbon to hang the ghosts, you can push a hole in the screen with the tip of the scissors. Then thread the ribbon through.

6. Now hang your ghosts and pumpkins up, layering them so that they are overlapping in places.

* A note on the screening: I used the aluminum because I wanted the metallic color. It also comes in black and grey. The aluminum was a bit of a pain to deal with-literally. The little threads are much like slivers as you are cutting. If I were to do it again, I think I would settle for a shadowy grey. I think it would be a lot more pleasant to deal with.

We went to a pumpkin patch with Megan’s preschool class on Friday. The girls loved taking a hayride out to the field.

As soon as she was off the wagon, Megan announced that she would get her own pumpkin and headed out to the farthest reaches of the field with her cute little friend. They pretty much covered the perimeter of the field; and sure enough, Megan came back at snack time carrying her own pumpkin. She is Miss Independant!

Emily, on the other hand wanted me to carry her everywhere. I guess I should take it as a compliment. She was very serious about her pumpkin selection. You can see her here inspecting a potential jack-o-lantern candidate. We ended up looking at several before she settled on an excellent tall one. By all standards, it was a smashing success. ;-D

This is Michael just posting a quick note to let everyone know that Keersten is doing fine and is now home (and resting.)  The Dr. said it went “extremely well.”

Thank you to everyone for your thoughts/prayers/well wishes.  We have the best family and friends anyone could ask for.

…Yeah that is pretty much all I do now.  Oh well. I wanted to share a few of the fun things from these past crazy weeks. I have been super tired pretty much all the time (due to the heart meds I have been on.) Yet, when I look back, we have been up to some fun stuff. Megan started school, soccer and dance. All of these things are just too cute. She loves to stay in her dance and soccer clothes all day long. I think she knows she is adorable.

Meanwhile, I have been busy canning like a domestic crazy woman. Check out all of the peaches we got from our little 2 1/2 year old tree. That’s right, our little toddler tree gave us this table-full! Mmm. We ate a bunch, shared some, canned lots and even made some kick-butt peach applesauce.

I also put up apricots and have been doing batches of salsa every few weeks. Mike came up with ingenious summertime use for our sled. It is the perfect vehicle for carrying fruits and veggies, since it is long and shallow there is plenty of room to load everything in without stacking them up (which leads to bruising.)

Another idea worth sharing is how much kids love fondue. This seems so obvious now, but I just have to share that the girls had such a ball dipping bread, potatoes and carrots into some cheesy goodness. It was pretty quick and easy to steam the veggies and saute a little beef. It is going to be on the menu at our house a lot more frequently. Here is an easy alcohol-free recipe for you to try:

Cider Fondue

1 lb. Jarlsburg, Guyere, or Swiss cheese, shredded

1 1/2 Tbs. flour

Salt and pepper

~1/4 tsp. garlic powder

*Toss all ingredients together; then slowly add to:

~1 c. Heated apple cider (I actually used Martinelli’s, which was good–I figured it could use the kick.)

1 Tbs. Lemon Juice (if you use plain apple juice or cider.)

Stir cheese into heated apple cider mix and stir, if it is too thick add a little cider. (Too thin? Add some cheese; this isn’t rocket science… but it is delicious!)

Enjoy! We sure did. BTW, I have to plug our great Kitchenaid fodue pot, which is electric, so you can cook right in it. It is also non-stick and super quick to clean. (On a related note: Thanks Pamela, for the rockin’ fondue pot for Christmas! You are the best!)

And finally, for a little random cuteness:

Mike and Meg “working”

Meg in her “Bucket hat” playing the piano

The girls have been falling asleep together a lot lately, it is pretty sweet.

We also got to have a super fun picnic with our preschool friends. Our neighbor firefighters are so awesome! They came over with hats and dalmatian pins for the kids. Then they had us come take a tour of the fire engine. Here are a couple of pictures:

Emily was enthralled with the dials and hoses, etc.

I really am going to get back on top of things soon. I promise to post a project next week. I am actually going to have an ablation on Tuesday to take care of the heart problems I have been having lately. (They will go in through my legs and neck with scopes and burn off a little section of my heart that is causing that wrong heartbeat.) So, hopefully, I will be feeling good and happy in a week or two. Here’s to the miracle of modern technology! Thanks for all of your support, you great friends!

I received a request from an agency that I am really excited about today. Jeff Herman wrote the books that made this process doable to me. So, not only would I love to work with him, but I also have some (slightly weird) desire to impress him in a strangely paternal way. hehe. I also have a request from Sarah Jane Freymann who looks like someone I would really like to have as a friend, let alone agent. I am so anxious to get my proposal back from an editor friend and off to these two. I have really needed a optimism refresher for this whole book process and here it is. Hooray!