Lost Teeth, Matching Silverware and Life

Kembia lost her first tooth.

She is extremely proud of it and keeps asking if she looks different.  We don't do the tooth fairy, but she had a grandma who said she would send her a couple of dollars.  Dollars?  I remember when we got ten cents.

I finally decided to be a grown up and got matching silverware.  Chris and I have been married for almost 14 years and never had silverware that matched.  He didn't want to register for them when we got married because he had some from his apartment.  Note to all men, register for anything and everything your wife-to-be wants.

Anyway, my crazy garage sale, unmatched silverware has been severely bugging me over the course of the last month or so, and I finally went to Target and had sticker shock as to how expensive it was. Oneida had some where you could just buy knives or forks, and we went that route.


The Savor series specifically.  The knives weigh a ton, but they give me a bizarre sense of satisfaction when I open the drawer and they all look so pretty lined up.

And my cleaning/organizing journey continues going strong after reading this book.  I've managed all the upstairs, minus Chris' clothes.  I think I am going to have to do it for him, and we'll see how that goes.  Then we have Ava (quasi-hoarder), and our laundry room/camping/misc. storage room.  I'm pretty frightened of that one.  So I'll leave it for last until I've perfected my organizing skills.

Red Button (and a blackmail picture for Moyz and Truitt!)

Owen has a notebook cover with the Avenger characters on it.  Something like this.



The boys play Avengers all the time and love the characters even though they have never seen the movies.  Truitt has an affinity to Iron Man.  The only issue is that he is certain that his name is "Red Button".  Because you push the button in the middle of his chest and on his hands.  Duh.  No matter how much Ava and Owen tell him that it's Iron Man, he will argue with you to the bitter end.

And just for fun, here's a great pic of the two littlest boys.  They are all manly all the time. Then I heard these cute little noises coming from their room.  When I went back to see what was going on this is what I saw:

A little surprised at my entrance...

Moyz loving it, Truitt starting to be distressed about being caught in a dress...

Not able to handle the stress of mom seeing him in a dress!

You know how at weddings they will often play a video of the couple growing up?  These are definitely making an appearance at Moyz and Truitt's wedding!

Cleaning the Hidden Monster

So I had (notice the past tense?) this dirty little secret under my bed.

Over time, it got filled with stuff I didn't know where to put anywhere else.  Bags of documents that I needed to either file or shred, Jillian Michael's weight loss set, books that accidentally got shoved under, a box of costume jewelry that I never wear, you get the idea.

I had started reading the book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.



I tried to get it from the library, but apparently I am not the only person who would like to change my clutter issues.  I was 9th on the list, so if everyone kept it for only the three weeks allowed, it would be my turn in 24 weeks.

I sprang for the $10 to buy it.

Anyway, I am reading this book, and I got impatient with my room.  Now I will tell you right now that is not the how the book says you should do things.  In the book you are supposed to organize by item.  As in take every item of clothing in the house, literally every single one, dump them in the living room and then hold everyone and ask yourself if it brings you joy.

I didn't do that.  But I did clean my entire room, including under my the bed- dust ball horror, under my dresser, and the closet.  I do plan on following her book the way she intends it to be followed, but that will happen once I finish it.  I just got excited and couldn't help myself!

Apparently her clients have never had a relapse, and there is a 3 month waiting list.

The question is, can I get my quasi-hoarder husband to go along with it?  Or even to answer which of his 37 tshirts brings him joy?

The Hairiest of Them All

Who do you think is winning?  Chris or Ava?

Every year Chris grows his beard for hunting/winter camping in the Boundary Waters.  It doesn't actually look this bad.  He combed it out with his fingers to see how far he could make it go....

Truitt at his first concert- The Newsboys.  Moyz was less than impressed.  The opening band was girls only and Moyz laid down on the stands and cried "where are the boys?"

The cake we baked at Christmas for Jesus.  Chris and the kids made it from scratch, including the cranberry cream cheese frosting with dark chocolate drizzled on the top.  I was super impressed!

What's Up?

Life is a little crazy for us.  Thus, not blogging.  I don't have time for it with everything we've got going on, but I can't decide if I am going to quit or not....

So here's what's new for us so far in 2015:

I read a book called It Starts With Food.  




Not for New Year's, the timing was just that it seems like I did so.  If you haven't read this book, do it.  Like right now.  It is frightening, and will have you thinking a lot differently about food.  I am now doing the Whole 30 challenge and seeing what happens.

We'll also be shifting our family towards zero processed foods, and getting rid of almost all gluten. Not because gluten is the enemy, but because of what food scientists have done to our grains.

We will however get rid of it completely for Moyz.  I can't get his eczema on his legs under control, it's the worst it's ever been and I am thinking it might be related to food.

This is going to be super tough for our family.  It's cheap and easy to toss bread at the kids, not to mention pasta for supper.  Chris' first thought was how expensive is it going to be, but I am hoping that since we won't be buying anything that is processed or has high fructose corn syrup we'll just transfer that cost to meat and veggies and fruit.  We'll see.

I cut off a giant portion of my thumb in a mandolin making apple chips.

Gross huh?  It took 2 hours to stop the bleeding.  I can't even look at the mandolin without clinching.

And I am reading these books:

       

I did not make New Year's Resolutions this year because I am terrible at follow through!