Merry Christmas!

Wishing you and your's a very merry Christmas. I have my parents in town for a visit, so I'll be scarce over the next week or so.

What we've been up to...

I have been so busy lately that I've gotten in the habit of not updating the blog.  I doubt that will change until the holidays are officially over.  But, I thought I would share some pictures to show you what we've been up to.

First...the play.  We had 5 performances in November.  I played the mother in A Christmas Story.  This had to be one of the most challenging things I have ever done.  Learning that many lines was very tough.  I did it though!! 

 

Then there was Thanksgiving to get though, a brief break and return to some semblance of normalcy.  During this time I re-opened my website, stocked my Etsy store and began actively selling bows again.  Then along comes December...

 Adam, Haley and Ryan sitting near Lover's Leap at Rock City.

 

 Haley's choir group singing at Rock City.

Standing in front of the snowman rock at Rock City.

 

The boys both got haircuts...finally!  Here is a picture of just how long their hair was.  I had just cut Adam's hair and was getting ready to do Ryan's.

Sewing a Christmas outfit for Haley to wear for her choir performance last week.

Haley posing with her BFF Jaiden at their choir concert.

Haley performing with the entire Hilger Higher Learning choirs. 

CHEA (our homeschool group) Christmas party at Ruby Falls!

Karaoke fun at the Christmas party.

Fun and games...

Touring Ruby Falls!

They loved the falls!!!

So, that brings us up to date...as of last Friday anyway.  Over the weekend we finally got our Christmas shopping done.  Glen was off on Friday and did some shopping while we were at the Christmas party.  Saturday he kept the kids busy while I finished up.  My parents are coming to stay this Thursday and my guest room is buried under clothes the kids have outgrown that I keep meaning to list on Ebay, and tons of ribbon and fabric from my various bow making/sewing endeavors.  Busy week for me!!!

If for some reason I don't find the time to post again, I hope all of you have a very merry Christmas!!

Top Ten Things I Must Get Done ASAP

 Okay, I know I've descended into the realm of those that never post.  But, I've been really busy.  We finally got finished with the play.  It all went well and I'll share photos as soon as we get them.  As soon as that was finished along came the added stress of the holidays.  So, with that in mind, here's my top ten list.

1. Clean my house from top to bottom!!  With us being so busy lately, my house has suffered badly.  It is seriously gross.  
2. Decorate the bare Christmas tree standing in my living room.  My hubby's idea of helping with the decorations is to get down the tree, put it together, stand it up in front of the window and say "there, I helped".  Voila...instant Christmas.  
3. Get the decorations down from the attic and decorate the house for Christmas.
4. Buy presents for Christmas.  As of today's date, I have exactly 4 presents purchased!!!  
5. Bake a mountain of yummy treats to give to family and friends.  Oh, and for us to eat and gain like 50 pounds.
6. Win the lottery...rob a bank...knock off an armored truck...something like that to fund Christmas present buying.  See number 4 above.
7. With the extra money from lottery winnings/felony activity, hire maid to clean house.  See number 1 above.
8. Since I'll probably have lots of money even after buying presents and hiring that maid, I can simply hire Martha Stewart to come to my house and do the decorating.  See numbers 2 & 3 above.
9. With leftover money from lottery winnings/theft, hire Paula Dean to do all that holiday baking for me.  See number 5 above.
10. Spend remaining money on a several week stay at a fat farm from all the cookies/fudge/pies/cakes, etc. that Paula Dean made.  Oh, and I guess I'll have to hire a nanny to watch the kids while I'm gone.

And there it is...my grand list of things I must do.  How are your holidays shaping up?  I don't know why I do this every year.  You'd think Christmas was some kind of a surprise or something?  As my mother likes to remind me, "it comes the same day every year".  Why on earth do I always wait until the absolute last minute to do things?  Yes, I'm a chronic procrastinator!!!  I admit it!  I need therapy or something to resolve this problem.  So, with that said I'm off to attempt to further educate my children, and then clean the above mentioned gross and disgusting house.  Maybe, just maybe I'll even find time to do some decorating while I'm at it.

For more great Top 10 posts, head on over to Oh Amanda's blog.  She has a great post featuring some awesome do it yourself projects.  Just what I need...more fun ideas to distract me from what I need to be doing.

Just popping in for a minute...

Okay, due to the play opening on Friday, I'm taking a break from posting to the blog this week.  I promise to check back in next week and update you.  I simply have too much on my plate at the moment and blogging will have to wait.  Good news though, I actually remembered almost all of my lines tonight!  We also got our first look at the leg lamps we'll be using.  They are hillarious.  Can't wait to see the audience's reaction. 

Hope your week is going well.  Keep saying those prayers for me!!  Two more days until showtime!!

Week in Review - I think I'm losing my mind!!

 Well, I'm probably not.  If that were possible, I'm sure it would have happened years ago...like when my twins were babies...with colic.  This was a busy week for us due to me trying to learn my lines, busy practices, busy kids, house work, school work, set building, re-opening my website, etc., etc., etc. 

Monday Haley had her choir class, and the boys and I went to Sam's to pick up catfood and something for dinner.  We decided on what my twins call "ferris wheel chicken".  You know the ones (rotisserie chickens actually) that are in the deli department.  They love to watch them go round and round.  Really exciting stuff, right?  Anyway, they like to eat them almost as much as they like to watch them at the store.  Then it was home for a quick dinner and off to practice.  This was our final week of regular practice before we start tech week.  I'm feeling VERY nervous!

Tuesday we stayed home doing schoolwork, housework, and doing my best to learn my lines.  That evening we were back at the theater for practice.  We spent some time reading How to Train Your Dragon, Book 1.  Its completely different from the  movie which my kids love.  Good book so far though.

Wednesday was more of the same, with me also trying to figure out my website and us going out to dinner.  I let my website stay down too long and had to re-enter everything.  Since I had to do all that, I went ahead and changed the entire thing.  Now it matches all of my business cards, bow cards, and bag labels.  It really wasn't too difficult, but it wouldn't look as good as it does without the help of my friend Kris who lives in Canada.  She's a whiz at stuff like that and helped me tweek it.  Thank you Kris!!

Thursday we got all of the basics done, with nothing particularly exciting due to my having to work on my lines.  I also worked on adding products to the website.  I still have tons and tons of things to get listed.  I haven't even started working on any of the Gymboree stuff.  This may take me forever...  We had practice until late trying to get ready for tech week.

Friday was again more of the same but with daddy getting home earlier and grilling dinner for us.  He also built a fire and the kids roasted marshmallows.  It much be a guy thing.  Whenever the weather gets cool, he feels the need to make a fire.  Yes, we have a real fire pit in the back of my yard.  Lovely, huh?  The kids enjoy it though.  I stayed up late reading my script and working on the website.

Saturday we most of the day at the theater helping to build the set.  We got lots done and I can't wait to see the finished product.  You should see the antique stove I get to pretend to cook on.  Its hilarious!  I've never seen anything like it.  I almost expected to open it and see a place to stack wood.  Seriously!  The kids also convinced daddy to make a leaf pile that morning so that they could jump in it.  Apparently its something they look forward to all year.  They have been watching the leaves fall and discussing when it would be time for the leaf pile for weeks now.  It still wasn't quite time since there are still lots of leaves on the tree, but he decided to make them happy and give them a small one to jump in.  What are daddy's for, right?  Now before you imagine him raking and raking, stop...he used a leaf blower.

Sorry for the boring no picture post, but my battery died and I didn't know it until I tried to use it to take pictures.  Please say a prayer for me as we go into tech week.  I need all the help I can get remembering all of my lines.  The show opens this coming Friday night.  YIKES!!!  Hope you guys had a great week.  Be sure to stop by Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers to see more Weekly Wrap Up posts.

Bows a' la Mode is once again open

After being down for almost an entire year, my website is now officially back open.  Its still a work in progress, and doesn't have near the amount of bows and other items it did before, but maybe that's a good thing!  I will be continuing to add products over the next few weeks.  In honor of my grand re-opening, I'm offering a 15% discount to all my friends and family.  Simply enter FRIEND15 to see the discount in your cart.  If you don't see what you need in the store, just shout!  Oh, and I'm working on lots of Christmas bows that I hope to add over the weekend.  Keep in mind that I'm in the middle of a play, homeschooling my kids, keeping house, etc...  Things move rather slowly around here right now.  Go to www.bowsalamode.com to check it out!  Feedback welcome!  Oh, and if anything isn't working right, please let me know.  It never fails that I'll find a few glitches when I first start it up.

Wednesday Ramblings...

In history the boys have been learning about the Phoenicians from our Story of the World curriculum.  I find it so amazing that civilizations as old as the Phoenicians were able to do the things they did.  Not only were they amazing sailors, but they were amazing craftsmen as well.  How they were able to figure out how to turn sand into glass is beyond me.  The boys were particularly fascinated with the part about the Phoenician town of Tyre and how purple dye was made from sea snail..  I'm sure the smell wasn't though.  Yuck!  Boiled sea snails.  Anyway, after we read about how they invented glass blowing among other things, we made pretend colored glass using crayon shavings and wax paper. 

 

Adam worked so hard sharpening his crayon piece in order to get enough of the shavings.

 

Look mom, dirty fingers!  Ryan having his turn now.

Melting time!

And there you have it...Phoenician glass...or whatever you'd like to call it.

I offered to try the other project which was making our own purple dye.  Using blueberries, not snails, thankfully.  However, the boys decided the pretend glass was enough.  Darn...  How was your day?