Stair Slides

Today I was playing around on Pinterest, when I saw some pictures of slide/stair combinations. It sent me on a search. I love collecting things for my dream home, and I have found that while I want my dream home pretty, it must also be kid-friendly. I have discovered that in our culture we forget about kids, but the truth is that they are everywhere and want to be into everything! I would love to have a home that my children enjoy just as much as I do, and I figure with a bit of planning and creativity, it might be possible.


So, without further ado, I give you the awesome possibility of combining stairs with slides! I will start with my favorite.

Big enough for an adult? I should think so! 

I like that the sides are tall, so the children won't fall off... without some serious effort on their part...

This is my second favorite, for those who want straight stairs.

Well, there are my stair-slide picks for today! You can be sure I will add more as I find them!

The School of Life Mastery

With the craziness of school starting, I decided to take the leap and sign up for a class I have been excited about for 2 years. I signed up on Monday for the School of Life Mastery and I am loving it! These are the online classes for Leslie Householder, the author of the JackRabbit Factor. This book had a profound effect on my life, and I have since read all her other books. I have taken the Orientation class and Lesson One. I am wanting to really absorb the classes, so I am taking it slow (even though I feel like I want to run through them all and gobble them up!)

I am also rereading the JackRabbit Factor, since that is part of the "homework" and I am reminded what a wonderful parable it is!  So, for right now I am signing off to go on to Lesson Two, but I just want to say I think I want to teach this kind of stuff! I love it!!!!

Hurrah for Abundance...

Life and it's craziness

So, yet again it has been a long and crazy time since last updating my blog. Scott and I have moved to a two bedroom duplex that my brother, Nathan, bought. We moved in the weekend before school started, so it has been quite the last few weeks!

Danny is officially school age now, so I have been actively home-schooling him for three weeks. We are working on his reading and writing skills right now, and then I will be adding numbers and math next week. It has been a lot of fun to sit down with Danny (and Tiana joins in most of the time) and I am learning about how to keep it fun for a 5 year old.

We wake up in the morning, and after we clear breakfast down we do a quick clean of the house. Dishes and toys picked up, we have scripture study together before hitting the kitchen table for "school." Danny and Tiana are also doing a performance class called Stages once a week, where they sing and dance. So far, so good. All in all, school is usually finished by 10 or 11am, and the kids play and I unpack our home. I am just starting to put pictures up on the wall! Meanwhile, my camera broke, so pictures will be harder to post... I have to figure out how to do it from my phone.

The Mark of a Pen

The kids had just finished lunch, and I was washing up Loralei, when Tiana came in looking like this!

Danny had drawn on her to make her look like a cat, and he did it fast!

Even after I cleaned her up, the scratches remained.

This made me wonder if J.K. Rowling had a similar incident with a child, and if this was the inspiration for that evil pen in book 5 that left scars!

Whew, sometimes Life comes at you fast!

I finally published the last post. It has been waiting for me to press a button for almost 2 weeks now!

After Loralei was finally feeling better, we had 2 birthday parties in one day, followed by Easter, and FHE with my family. Then Chiya came down to visit, so we have been spending all our spare time with her. She is going to Virginia for the next year, and taking my sweet sister Cheyanne with her!

In the mean time, I am still trying to recover at my house. Flying away, trying to do my routine every morning before I jump in the car for more errands and other plans. The last place in my home to recover is the kitchen. I have a revolving mess of dishes that still hasn't been fully washed. I manage a load or two, but somehow cannot seem to get it all done at once. I am dreaming of the day I can live somewhere with a dishwasher...

I am very grateful for our place, it is cosy and is fast to pick up. The kids play, and there is grass and a little playground for when it is warm outside. I will look back on this time with many fond memories!

Well, that is my 15 minutes of computer time, now to see if I can get those dishes done!

Earaches, not fun.

What a week! Saturday night Loralei started having a fever, and it just kept getting worse and worse. Tylenol and Ibuprofen didn't work to take it down, and she was just miserable. Finally, on Tuesday we took her to Dr. Allen. He checked her over and didn't see anything obvious, but gave us something for her clogged nose and to help the fever. He wanted us to come in on Thursday, and told us that if she got worse to bring her in immediately. We gave her the medicine, and for the first time in three days, she acted normal. She crawled around, getting into everything and laughed! It made our hearts happy. She fell asleep, and slept all night long!

Then, she woke up miserable! I brought her into the doctor, to find her ear drum had burst in the night. Once we knew what it was, a round of anti-biotics solved her sickness. What a relief! I was beginning to worry that something more serious was going on.

Danny's Style.

Yesterday my children were still in pajamas, so I told them to get dressed and we would go check the mail. Excited at the chance to be outdoors, they both ran laughing to their room. This is what Daniel was wearing when we went outside. I laughed so hard!

Notice that his Spiderman Suit is under his clothes...

Tiana, in the background, was also the picture of style!

My Little Photographer!

Daniel had been stealing my camera, and taking some pretty awesome pictures! Here are just a handful, for your enjoyment.

Tiana

Me

This is an awesome balloon. We have had it for a month now, and it is still floating!

Our lamp. I didn't do anything special, this is what it looked like when he took the picture!

These are Danny's super hero guys. He arranged them for the camera.

15 Minute Increments

Once again, I am going to praise Fly Lady! Today I downloaded a timer app to my phone and set it for 15 minutes. I went through my home 15 minutes at a time, and cleaned. I did the Zone Mission for the day, and I made my kitchen sparkle! As a reward, whenever I finished a 15 minutes of housework, I relaxed at the computer or played with the kids. I feel great.

I didn't even have to do it all day long. I know that total organization of my home is going to take some time, so I just did the basics so that it will be easy to maintain as I tackle dejunking.

I did school with Daniel too, and he is really getting into reading. Right now, I am really enjoying teaching him. He gets so excited and yells and jumps around, but comes right back to finish the sentence! So Cute!

Well, I am trying to make it to bed at a decent hour, and I have my bedtime routine to do...

The Triforce

This morning I woke at 6:30am to see my husband off. He has been doing a radio show on the college station since September, and it has won an award in the national college radio something or other. They will find out exactly what award when they arrive in Las Vegas later today.

The show is called The Triforce, and they are "Cedar City's source of Gaming News, Reviews, and Other Stuff!" It has become pretty popular down here, and they are getting callers every show. They are on air Tuesdays and Thursdays from noon-1. Our out of town friends can listen in on the web at those times here. For those locally, the station is 91.1 FM.

They are thinking about doing podcasts and stuff, but are still learning how to do it all.

Meanwhile, today is Sunday. I admit that while I am excited for Scott, I am not thrilled at the idea of taking my 3 children to church by myself. I am planning on getting there early enough to get a side bench so that I can block the one opening. Really, my kids are usually good at church, but it is always nice to have an extra set of adult hands.

Brian Regan and Bucket Lists

Last night Scott and I checked off an item from our Bucket List. We went to see Brian Regan, who came to perform in Cedar City. We have talked about going to see him for years, and every anniversary I would look up his itinerary to see if we could make a show. He sells out so quickly in Salt Lake, that it was never an option. At one point he came to St. George, and we were so sad we didn't have the funds to see him. This time, our tax return and the miracle of having him in our little town allowed us to buy tickets early.

While we sat there, we talked about how wonderful it was to be doing something that we have talked about for so long. Right then and there, I opened my Cozi app, and created a new "To Do" list, and we started jotting down things that we want to do before we pass on to the next life. I had one in college, but I have misplaced it. It was so much fun to sit next to my sweetheart and think of random fun things that we want to do. Right now, most of them involve seeing places and hiking to the tops of mountains, but we will be adding to it...

If I could only remember...

I have been so blessed to be Queen of my home for the last 6 months! It has taken some getting used to. For 2.3 years before that I have either had other people living with me, or been living with other people. There is so much that falls through the cracks and so many habits that I fell out of.

It is different, being the mother of three. The last time I had a home to myself I was a mother of one. I am learning all over again how to do things, like have a decent schedule that I set, and isn't dependent on anyone else. How to motivate myself, and how to do it all and still spend time with my children.

Scott and I had a great talk yesterday. Things are pretty crazy, he works nights and goes to school during the day, and is in the Elder's Quorum presidency. This means that his days off are usually Sunday and Tuesday (except for this month, but I will get into that another time.) Sundays tend to be filled with church meetings, and more church meetings (I am a Ward Missionary too...) and between our families there is usually a gathering of some sort for a birthday. Tuesdays are filled with school, lots of it, and errands that we need to do together. Tuesday nights he has visits with the Elder's Quorum and another meeting. Just writing about it makes me out of breath!

So, about our great talk... we talked about organizing our time! (I have a few friends that are laughing about now, yes it honestly took us six months to discuss this!) He asked me to ponder how we could be better, so that we could optimize the time we do have together.

After we talked, and he headed to his next class, I took a few minutes to be quiet and think. This was when I went back to my blog. I knew there was a time when I felt on top of things, in control and capable. My home ran smoothly, and I kept on top of most clutter. Through this process I made some wonderful discoveries that I shared earlier. I also remembered how I did it all: FLY LADY!

I rediscovered her site, and felt empowered! I also found that she has recently teamed up with Cozi, and made my job a lot easier! I am still learning how it works, but I love having a checklist on my phone and computer. I will probably go into it more as I learn how to use all the features. (If you decide to sign up with Cozi, and you want the flylady stuff, she has a link from her site.)

For today: I have already gotten dressed, fed the children, wiped down the bathroom, done my hair, and posted on my blog! Yay!! My shiny sink greeted me this morning, and even though I had a kink in my neck from sleeping funny, I felt great!

What it means to fly...

I realized this morning, that I have let time get away without recording it. I am 30 now, and time brings more perspective and also a harder skin. I care far less about what people think. I have always done what was right, regardless, but I have also been quiet about it when I might be misunderstood. In my consideration of others, and trying so hard not to offend, I didn't post anything here. In the end, it meant that I have missed out on sharing the wonders of this past year, and I feel the loss. I apologize to my readers for allowing myself to become so closed, but mostly I apologize to my Sweetheart and my children. If something had happened to me this past year, they would have been left with so little.

I don't know if I ever explained the name of my blog, but today I wanted to give my perspective on how to live and love life.

I have always been close to God. It is a gift that I feel everyday, and it sorrows me when others seem lost and without that connection. I wish I could give to all the comfort and security that it brings to me. No matter the storms that rage around me, there is in my life a peace and delight that makes the storm seem insignificant and almost unreal. It reminds me of the parable of the house built upon a rock. Solid, immovable, those who live in such a house remain cosy, warm, and able to look out upon the storm and appreciate the beauty of the lightning. Add a cup of hot chocolate, and it becomes a beautiful evening and a wonderful memory.

I have always felt like I fly through life. I follow the current, go up and down, occasionally landing to catch my breath, and then take off again. When I look back, I find that even hard times are just a blink in the vast experience that I am gathering. This perspective helps me when those difficult moments are on top of me, but it also helps me capture and remember the beauty that is all around me. The blessings of friendship, love, and the natural beauty of God's creations make everyday a real joy.

Going forward, I am going to try harder to capture my joy more completely. For today, here are my little joys:

Christmas Miracles

We had a wonderful Christmas! It was a stressful month, financially, but we were showered with gifts and thoughtfulness from all the wonderful people around us, making this one of the best Christmas' Ever!

One of the cool things that happened was that someone chose us for the 12 days of Christmas. It was so much fun to open the door every day and discover a gift. They usually came really early, because the gift was usually there when I opened the door at 7:30am.

I would like to be able to do this for a family someday, and so I am going to write down the cute notes that came with the package each day. I am missing a couple, so I will just tell you what arrived.

Day One: "On the first day of Christmas outside my door was found a Christmas Cake, and no one was around. . ."

Day Two: We found two pretty Christmas Ornaments for our Tree.

Day Three: "On the third day of Christmas before the sun could rise I found 3 loaves of bread much to my Surprise!"

Day Four: "On the fourth day of Christmas right outside my door - was a basket of 4 fruitsnacks now who could ask for more?"

Day Five: I cannot seem to remember what day five was. . . I will ask Scott. . . but it was awesome!!!

Day Six: "On the sixth day of Christmas my pal I do not know Left 6 warm muffins and some Mistletoe . . ."

Day Seven: "On the seventh day of Christmas we felt curiosity - 7 paper towels were left - it is a mystery . . ."

Day Eight: "On the eighth day of Christmas I spied 8 Candy Canes - but who left them a puzzle still remains. . ."

Day Nine: "On the ninth day of Christmas 9 rolls of toilet paper were left here But nobody was seen. . ."

Day Ten: "On the tenth day of Christmas in the afternoon, 10 cookies were left. . . Oh - What a Great Boon!"

Day Eleven: "On the eleventh day of Christmas 11 oranges by our house, Whoever left these is as quiet as a mouse. . ."

Day Twelve: "On the twelfth day of Christmas 12 cupcakes we did find - We want to know who left these gifts behind?!"

Chrismas Day: "You must be special people, of that there is no doubt, with someone you must carry lots of clout! We hope these 12 days have been meaningful to you and know your're thought of all the whole year through!" (this came in a card, and had a wonderful gift card in it!)