Happy Halloween!

Happy Tricks and Treats, Y'all!

Ready or Not! Here Christmas Comes!

Yeppers, Christmas is less than two months away.

Are you ready? Have you started getting ready? Have you thought about it yet?

If you've never visited Organized Christmas, you have got to go check it out! The owner/author has several different plans to get you ready for the season so that it can be as stress-free as possible.

One of the plans, The Christmas Countdown starts this week! It's not too late to get started! The main focus of this week is printing their materials for a Christmas notebook and getting ready to plan.

My sister and I are doing it this year, by golly. We ARE doing it! I made both of us the notebooks. Um, okay, hers was her belated birthday present from July. See why I need a Christmas planner.

I'm one of those people who starts my Christmas shopping in January and get most of it done. It's the rest of the stuff that hits me all at once at crunch time and I flat out crumble. I cry, I scream, I stamp my feet, I just absolutely fall apart. I've been getting a little better the past year or two. I just love my family too much to ruin their Christmas every year with my procrastination and my Martha Stewart demands on myself.

So, want to join us in planning for a fun-filled, stress-free Christmas season?
Mama Said

Not Me Monday

Well, I absolutely have NOT been moody and hormonal at ALL during fertility treatment. No way! Not me! I have been SO calm and collected. I have NOT yelled at my family, NOT fussed at Rhett non-stop, and absolutely have NOT cried my eyes out over every little ol' thing. I have NOT reamed Rhett out so many times that he did NOT ask me if I was ready to leave him. That's how NOT bad I've been! Of course NOT! I have been the PICTURE PERFECT example of a meek and gentle spirit.

One Sunday morning, Rhett did NOT think he saw a skunk in the neighbor's yard. He did NOT spend the better part of an hour outside trying to decide if it was. And there's NO WAY he started to get his gun to shoot it only to discover that it was NOT the neighbor's little black and white shitz-zu! Whatever! He is so NOT trigger-happy.

The other day I NO WAY, NO HOW accused Rhett of losing one of our big soup mugs. Whatever! That is so NOT me! And I certainly did NOT spend 15 minutes looking through all the cabinets sure that he had misplaced it. And since I did NOT do that, I NEVER in a million years would have found the soup mug a few minutes later in the sink where I had NOT used it a few hours earlier. I am MUCH too with-it for that to EVER happen.

I absolutely did NOT spend an entire day creating Monster Mash videos of my family at Oriental Trading's Monster Mash-up. Seriously, who would spend hours on end doing something like that? It's NOT like I had anything else to do. And it did NOT make me so happy that I actually stayed in a good mood all day. Rhett was NOT relieved to have a break from all my fussing. That's for sure. So NOT relieved that he did NOT watch the videos over and over again with me. If you have NO desire to see what the Monster Mash Up is all about, I highly do NOT recommend you trying it. It was so NOT fun!

Happy Not Me-ing!

Mama Said

Muffin Tin Monday: Fall Harvest

This week's MTM had no theme. But as I gathered things together for BFG's tin, I just got the feeling of fall. So, I named her tin: Fall Harvest.

Starting at the top left and going clockwise, BFG had: Ritz crackers, leaf-shaped apple and banana fruit kabobs, a brownie, homemade chili, our sunflower seeds, and leaf- and acorn-shaped cheese.

She loved it! The tin, I mean. She still hates my chili. But at least this way, she tried it again.

Check out the other Muffin Tin Mamas over at Her Cup Overfloweth!

Happy Fall Ya'll!

Mama Said

2 + 2 = ???

Well, for those of you keeping up with my secondary infertility, I wanted to let you know that I did "have my monthly visitor" after our first IUI attempt last month.

So, now we are on Round 2. I went into today for the ultrasound to see how many eggs. I bet you can't guess how many? LOL! Okay, you got it: 2! One on each side. I'm really hoping this ups our chances. But I'm trying to stay grounded and focused on God's plan for us, not our wants. It's so hard with all the hormones to control this emotional roller coaster. But God's helping. He even put me behind a beat up little truck today with the bumper sticker: "Trust in God's Plan For You." And I do. My spirit and my heart do. But a reminder to my flesh and my emotions is always a good thing.

Pray for us please. This experience is really difficult for me. Three and half years of focused trying has just worn me out. I don't see how people try for ten, fifteen, and even twenty years. I was already emotionally drained and the ups and downs with these hormones are crazy. I'm anxious to be me again and to move forward with our lives. After trying with IUI and after the upcoming surgery to remove the ovarian cyst and uterine polyp, we believe we have done our part and want to focus on the blessings we have and move forward.

Let the mood swings begin!
Mama Said

Leaf Man

As a part of our leaf unit, BFG and I read the book Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert. We were just fascinated by the illustrations and decided to create our own Leaf Man book. All you need are some leaves, berries, acorns, etc., white paper, a camera, and photo album. I highly recommend the book, but ya'll could have tons of fun coming up with your own creations.



We took about an hour exploring outside and gathering up our leaves and other treasures. And we set to work seeing if we could recreate Ms. Ehlert's pictures. We had to get creative because we did not have the same type leaves she did and she used color copies of leaves which allowed her to do different things. But it seriously turned out great! Isn't the duck precious?


We did NOT glue the leaves down. BFG created her animal, we snapped a picture, and dumped the leaves back into the pile to start on the next "page". I think the cow is my absolute fave! The udders are just too cute!

The next day we ran to Wal-Mart and printed out our pics using the one hour lab. I put the pictures in a cheap photo album and went through them one by one letting her "write" her story as I typed out the captions. A little print-print here and a snip-snip there and we had BFG's very own Leaf Man book!

She is so, so proud of this book! The whole idea from its conception just thrilled her. She couldn't sleep the night before knowing that when morning came she would get to make a Leaf Man book.

She literally spent hours making the pictures--trying to copy Ms. Ehlert's and creating her very own. The next morning, the materials were still out on the table and she made even more pictures.

I hope some of ya'll try this and have as much fun as we did!

Mama Said (aka Leaf Mama)

WFMW: Chit-Chat While You Work!

It's the Works-For-Me Wednesday Best Cleaning Tip Edition!

I have to say that I learned one tip from a friend that changed my cleaning life incredibly. (Thanks, Casi!) We would talk on the phone for hours at a time. I would sit down to do my talking. But not her, she'd name off all the things she got done while we talked! It was amazing!

I dove into it and purchased a cordless phone that has a jack for a headset and a headset to go along with it. I wear an apron with a pocket to hold the phone and my hands are totally free to clean, clean, clean while I pass the time chatting with friends and family.

Not only do I get a lot more done, the chores aren't so tedious and mundane. If you do the rote chores (the ones you can do without thinking---um . . . that would be most of them) like making beds, loading dishwasher, cleaning the bathroom, etc., you can get everything done while talking and you can't even remember doing them! It's totally awesome!

Another added bonus with the headset is that you totally lose that ache in your neck from trying to hold the phone on your shoulder. That was a huge blessing for me personally.

Check out other cleaning tips at We Are That Family!

Happy Cleaning!
Mama Said