~Smartest Thing I've Done In A While~

I happen to have a mud room. It's just now, three months into our move, getting my attention.
I found a great burlap covered pin board with cute little nail head push pin things around the edges.

I'm sure I could have covered a board myself for a little less than my Tuesday Morning purchase but let's be honest. I have to have serious motivation, extra time, a burst of energy, and a really great idea to make myself attempt a craft or DIY of any sort.

Case in point:
A friend's daughter spent the night with my girls recently and excitedly asked,
"Ooh! Mrs. Stacey! Can we do a craft later?!"
I just smiled, chuckled, and replied, "uhm, probably not."
In my head, I said,
"Child! You are asking  the wrong Mama! This is Mrs. Stacey here. I can think of another Mama I can drop y'all off with to do a craft. Then you can come back here for popcorn, a movie, and a great bedtime story....But that's about all you're gonna' get from me."

See, it's not that I hate to do crafty things....I actually enjoy it when the mood strikes but that is not a weekly occurrence.

So this mud room. The #1 thing I must have is a calendar. Since I have an aversion to stark white, I really hoped to find an alternative to a white dry erase board and I really wanted to somehow attach it to my cutesy burlap board.

After my Pinterest research and I saw three dozen DIY calendar ideas involving frames, fabric, ribbon, magnets, sharpies, glass, tracing, gluing, and stapling, I'm thinking,
"Please. Can't a girl just get a brown calendar somewhere that will magically hang on a burlap board?!"

My next move was to quit thinking about it. Then came a quick stroll through Target.

There it was. A semi cute flip calendar that goes from July 2013 to July 2014.
Not too heavy (might hang on my board) and not solid white (won't feel like I'm in an office).

Tadaaaa!

Like I said. Smartest thing I've done in a while. Calendar for a year costs $10 and about 7 seconds.

~stacey

~Beach 2013~

I know God didn't create summer break per say, BUT, I'm convinced He knows I need it and that He enjoys my enjoying it. 

I mean. Just the break from the hurry up is beyond wonderful. 

Nothing is ever all done all the time and the summer affords me the luxury of not being a complete stress ball because I'm a panic stricken, almost always behind mother at least 85% of the time.

Okay, so maybe panic stricken is a bit of an overstatement but at the very least, I am less than thrilled with never being all done and my "have to do" list is MUCH longer between August and May.

I think I'll be a wonderful grandmother. May be better at that than I am at being Mom. :-) 

Moving on.....

Is it weird that I enjoy the beach pictures ALMOST as much as I enjoy the beach itself?
I mean not quite, but pretty darn close. And it's not like I have a camera glued to my face the entire time but I just love these sweet faces and feet, moments and memories. ....especially the ones I catch when no one is looking. 

 

 

Proof that I was actually there.

 

Doctors are everywhere on our beach trip. 

Dr. Chris is so good, the girl can eat ice cream, DURING a splinter removal.

That is some serious skill.

Jumping. 

It's what we do. 

Some people do the duck bill platypus face.

We jump.

At the beach.

Every chance we get.

~stacey

~The S Word~

I just put on facebook that I do not do critters of any sort.
All in one day, thanks in part to Brad clearing out an old wood pile, (at least I hope that's what it was) I saw TWO, got that? TWO scorpions IN my house.
a bird, building a nest IN MY POOL BAG IN MY GARAGE,
and a flying squirrel IN MY KITCHEN.
This is NOT, I repeat, NOT okay.

This beautiful new house we have that I love is quickly losing it's luster.
Just yesterday, I said,
"Brad. If I see ONE snake. Just one. Don't care what kind. Don't care how big. Just one.....and I'm getting a cat." And he half heartedly agreed.
This is a monumental statement because........

We are not cat people. We thought we were dog people but found out that we are definitely not even that. Sad but true.

Brad said it best.

"We have kids. Not dogs."

Four kids is plenty. Don't need anything else to care for.

But. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

He killed a snake IN our garage today.

Never mind that it was small.

Never mind that it was a "friendly" rat snake.

I don't have rats.

I have no use for a rat snake.

We're getting a cat.

I'm not one to do something without the husband's okay......old fashioned, maybe.....but that's how it is.

However, I've declared out loud today, no less that 8 times,

"WE ARE GETTING A CAT." (determined that the more I say it, the more I will wear my highly allergic husband down because I'm c.o.n.v.i.n.c.e.d. that cats keep the s word away.)

That's all.

~stacey