February is a good month for a Birthday

Happy Birthday President Washington & Lincoln


Monday, February 20, 2012
Day 267


Am I the only one who thinks it's a bit odd that we celebrate the birthdays of these two Presidents in February by giving us a day off of work and school so that big box stores can have big sales in an attempt to coerce us into spending our day off by spending lots of money? 


But even so, I caved and gave into the pressure to buy! buy! buy! this long weekend. But I didn't spend LOTS of money. Just a little.


I have had my eye on some of the spring wreaths at JoAnns for a little over a month but haven't ever caved into the pressure to buy one. Even with a 40% off coupon they were a little more then I was wanting to pay. 


But for the holiday weekend they were on sale for $16, a price that I was willing to pay. 


So, here is my new wreath. 







I like it.


Ribbon Galore
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Day 268


I mentioned last week that I was trying to find ribbon to match my curtains so I could make some cute tie backs and add a strip of ribbon on the curtains I wanted to lengthen. But I have been quite disappointed with the lack of ribbon choices. I've been to JoAnn, Michaels, Hobby Lobby and even to (gulp) Walmart and found exactly nothing I liked. I finally found a couple of choices at Costco but I only sort of liked them. 


Today while out on a completely different mission I drove past this store called Ribbons and Lace. I thought a store that has the word ribbon right in their name ought to have many more choices then what I had previously found. So we turned around and went back. 


And boy oh boy did they have choices!











Is more choices better or worse then less choices????


The answer my friend, is blowing in the wind
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Day 269


Today I finally figured out a way to display some wind chimes that I bought recently. I had these plant hooks that I moved from Utah with me but never had anything to hang on them because they were from the dollar store and weren't actually very strong so trying to hang potted plants from them was out of the question. 


But I discovered they are just right for hanging wind chimes from!


I bought this one on Monday at JoAnn when I bought my wreath.




Colorful, right? I LOVE it.


And I bought this one back in December at a Christmas boutique I went to.



And I actually took this picture a couple days later so it's kind of cheating to post it here, but my hibiscus had bloomed like crazy and I just wanted to show off how pretty it looked.





Homework
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Day 270


I realized the other day that I post a lot of picture of Harrison on my blog here. Probably because he is with me all day so I have lots of opportunity to snap pictures of him. And I also post pictures of Zoey quite often because she walks around doing her "take a picture of me" pose all the time. So I made special effort to capture a picture of Adam today.








One Year Older, and Wiser too
Friday, February 24, 2012
Day 271


Today was my birthday. It was low key. I mean REALLY low key. I wouldn't have even had cake except I babysat a friend's daughter this afternoon and the little girl's birthday was yesterday so her mom brought a few extra cupcakes over to share.





Mike tried to take me to lunch but the place I wanted to go the line was out the door and down the sidewalk when we arrived and I had to be home in an hour to babysit. Then we tried to go back again for dinner but the line was still out the door and down the sidewalk and we had waited too long to feed the kids so they were hungry and crabby and tired and so we thought it wasn't a good idea to wait that long to feed them.


So we ended up down the street getting frozen yogurt for dinner because there was no line.


Happy Birthday to me!


Jasmine
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Day 272


I sometimes feel like I should appologize for all the pictures of my plants. But then I remember this is MY blog which is a chronicle of MY life and that I'm really into flowers right now so all the flower pictures are actually very appropriate.  


I really do spend a lot of time with my flowers lately. Potting or repotting, watering, moving into or out of the sun, trimming off dead leaves, reading online about why they are wilting. I am determined to keep these plants alive!


So today at Costco I got suckered into buying yet another plant. I walked past the display of Jamine and they were SOOOO fragrant that I needed one. 








Invention
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Day 273


Adam was given the assignment to study and do a report on an inventor. He chose George Stephenson. I didn't even know who the guy was. But Adam had a book he was reading about lots of different inventors and this book said that George Stephenson invented the first reliable steam engine, The Rocket.






Of course, being the train enthusiast he is, this was right up his ally. 


He has been reading and working on it for weeks and today he finished his report.





Leave it to my 7 year old to teach me something new each day.

Blue, pink, and green

Return Flight
Monday, February 13, 2012
Day 260

Flying back to Arizona today and this view from the airport window was the only time my entire trip that the sun came out.



I enjoyed spending time with family and am so glad I made the trip to Utah but I am also so happy to be back home where the sun shines with much more frequency. If only there was a way to have the best of both worlds.....

Pink
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Day 261

Valentines day is typically pretty low key at our house. I usually help the kids send Valentines to Grandmas and Grandpas but last week was so hectic that that just didn't happen this year. Maybe we'll send Happy Spring cards?

The kids did prepare Valentines for their class.



And we had pink waffles for dinner.




I have a great blender pancake/waffle recipe that we love that uses whole wheat and oatmeal and flax and pretty much any other whole grain you want to throw in. I often also add a scoop of vanilla protein powder and to make them pink I simply added a handful of strawberries. All natural, super yummy!


Classy
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Day 262

I am not shy about admitting that Walmart is so not my favorite place to shop and I avoid the place as much as possible. But because they are such a HUGE conglomerate and have incredible buying power sometimes they carry random items that I can't find at Target or Kroger. So today, despite my best efforts, I found myself at Walmart.

I was amused by the art hanging in the little alcove as you go into the Women's restroom.



Now I am no interior designer but don't you usually hang the art above the chair rail? I mean you only needed to move the nail up a mere inch and a half.


Wilting
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Day 263

Part of me feels like I should  appologize for all the pictures of my flowers these days....but it's kind of become my newest hobby and what I worry about a lot so it just seems fitting to share my success and failures. Today I am sad because my poinsettias seem to be struggling.




Anybody know if a poinsettia goes dormant then blooms again? Or have I killed it completely?

X
Friday, February 17, 2012
Day 264

Today at the breakfast table, for no reason at all, Harrison stood up and declared "I am an X."





Spring Fever
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Day 265

When I was at Costco earlier this week I saw that they had a handful of bikes left from Christmastime and that they were marked down $20. So I picked up a couple and Mike finally got a chance to assemble them today.





The kids, as you can tell, were thrilled!

I had originally planned on saving them for Easter but the weather has been so perfect and is going to start heating up quickly after Easter....so they got them early.


Decisions, Decisions 
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Day 266


I need to lengthen the curtain that hangs on my slider. The curtain itself  is blue but I was going to add a green strip on the bottom to match the curtains on the facing walls. I thought it would be nice to sew a strip of ribbon to tie the two colors together then use the same ribbon to make tie backs for the other curtains in the room. So far these are the only choices I have found.




Which do you like best?

UPDATE
I found a ribbon store the other day. A RIBBON STORE. I mean an ENTIRE store that sold nothing but ribbon. Seriously. So I found a couple new options. Now which do you like best?