Sunday, July 26, 2009

Been busy

The past several days I have been trying to deal with some issues that Alex had at camp. It has not been a very pleasant 2 days. And my family wonders why I have stomach ulcers...At least, Pete was home today to help me try to deal with it all, He came home from camping with Danny last night. But my stress level is still through the roof.

I need these problems to end abruptly. I wish they would but I know that they are going to take a really long time to thoroughly work through.

Friday, July 24, 2009

My Secret to [One Day Maybe I'll Be A] Success

I saw this on one of my friend's blogs...I decided that I needed to share it as well. I think tomorrow I will try it in a modified version.

My Secret to [One Day Maybe I'll Be A] Success

Posted using ShareThis

I hope that this will help all of those procrastinators out there (including me).

Thursday, July 23, 2009

I've gotten some stuff done...

Well so far I've gotten the clothes and toys to consignment...just about finished steam cleaning the carpet (needed a break), but I havn't gotten anywhere with Danny's comforter. I have thankfully gotten advice from 3 people as to how to finish the comforter..so at least I now know how I will be finishing it. I will be using a version of hand tying, I will be using buttons instead of just the knot showing. When I'm done with rinsing the carpet I will start sewing. It needs to be off of Alex's floor by about 3:30pm tomorrow.

I probably would have gotten much further (on my list) had I been actually feeling better. For the last week my tummy has not been feeling well and it started getting worse yesterday. It is feeling a little better now so I need to get moving before it gets bad again.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

They are all gone now...

Well... I'm alone now. Pete has taken Danny for 4 days to scout camp. It will be weird being by myself for almost 3 days. Alex will be home Friday evening from his scout camp. There are a few things that I want to get done without the kids around...steam clean the carpets and bring a giant load of stuff to consignment, some of it is mine and some of it is the kids. The boys get any money that comes in from selling their old toys and books. They share all money, some things started off as Alex's, some as Danny's, and some of it they each bought for themselves...so in the end , they share it all. I also want (have) to get Danny's comforter mostly done. I need to get it off of Alex's floor before he gets home.

All of this means that I need to get off of the computer very soon! BYE!

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

I started...


Well...I started to lay it out...At the moment it is sitting on Alex's floor. When Danny saw it he asked "Why is it in here?", well..."Where else could I put it that I wouldn't have to move it for a week?" If you didn't read my other post...Alex is at scout camp for a week, so it can stay put until I'm ready for it.

The multi-colored stripe thing on the bottom of the picture is the pillow sham that I forgot to return with the original comforter, so I'm kind of using it as inspiration. I know I should probably bring it back to the store but if the comforter is damaged anyway, it's just going to get trashed...so why worry. I used to be a softlines manager at a large discount department store and I know that we used to have to shred things that we "damaged" and "wrote off" before tossing them in the garbage. And I figure...we should get something extra for all of the trouble I'm now going through because of their bad quality. No reason to just throw it in the garbage when I can get some use out of it. I know...I'm bad...

Monday, July 20, 2009

Frustration...

I just started making a comforter for my son...yes, a comforter. I bought this blue and green comforter at Target. Danny fell in love with it. We took 2 of the colors directly from the comforter and put them on the walls, bright blue and bright green. I washed the comforter, only to discover that the batting had shifted on the inside. When I went to exchange it the lady at the service desk told me to do myself a favor and return it and go look for something different. She had also had one and it did the same thing. I went looking for something else to use instead, and came up with only girly things, 5 girl and one boy. Great! Now what? Well I sew...I found the exact same colors of blue and green in fleece blankets, so I bought one of each. I'm gonna make him a comforter. I may be sorry...I just started cutting it out today. We'll see...

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Deadline...what's a deadline?

Alex, my 12 yr old, just left this morning for a week away at scout camp. Before he left he need to do 2 things...pack (obviously) and take care of prerequisites for his merit badges that he is going to earn this week. I have been telling him that he needs to work on the prereqs since school ended, almost 4 weeks ago. "I have plenty of time" and "I'm doing something else", were 2 statements I heard a lot of the past few weeks. When did he start to pack? Yesterday at about 5:30 pm. When did he finish his prereqs? He didn't. He was working on them furiously for the past 2 days, and getting totally stressed out and being a total brat about it.

My husband and I kept trying to tell him that he was probably doing 5 times the amount of work than any of the other scouts were for the same badge. He would not cut corners. He will see when he gets there and will hopefully learn from this experience and not leave everything for the last minute. All it ever does is stress him out and tick me off. I have a very short fuse (thanks, Dad), I keep trying to let things go but I guess that is where he gets it from...me. All day yesterday I kept telling him that it won't be that big of a deal if he doesn't finish it before he goes, he can always finish it later, and still earn his badge.

Being a perfectionist and a procrastinator at the same time does NOT work very well. He will need to learn where he can "cut corners" without loosing any points on his projects.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Where is the sun?

Why is it... that whenever I do have time to take pictures of my new items, there is no sun? Pictures just don't come out as nice when I have to use software to enhance them. I have 3 yoga bags waiting to have pictures taken so that I can post them. "Picture it" software is my best friend right now, I guess...

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Is it dangerous?

We had a fun afternoon planned yesterday. Once again my husband was off (he has several vacation days to use up before the end of July), and we were planning to go to miniture golf (they call it putt-putt around here), and then play tennis later on the town courts. It was beautiful, but cool, outside. Then, as Danny, my 9 yr old, was waiting in the driveway for the rest of us, he decided to ride his scooter. The scooter that he has wanted for 2 yrs that I talked my husband into buying. Mind you...he bought a trampoline, with a surround, without even consulting me. Back to Danny. We had each walked back inside for a second to do something, to suddenly hear a blood curdling scream. My first thought... he broke something. He didn't. He just scraped up his left hand really bad. I'm glad (1) he's a righty, and (2) his gymnastics this week doesn't really include using the apparatus, like it usually does. Of course, as soon as my huband reaches Danny (I got there first), he says "I knew the scooter wasn't a good idea..." So now Danny falling and hurting himself is my fault...lovely...

So, after I patched him up and gave him some tylenol (by the way we weren't yet positive that he didn't break something), he sat and vegged in front of the tv for a while. Then next thing we know Danny was having a fun noodle fight (you know those foam things you use in the pool). I guess nothing's broken. Then we finally got a chance to play tennis. We skipped the putt-putt, we figured that the club would be tough to hold. At least we got a chance to have fun...And Pete didn't mention the dangers of the scooter to me later. Personally, I don't think a scooter is any worse than roller blades. But I guess that's just me.

Monday, July 13, 2009

A nice quiet day

This morning I put an order in the mail, finished # 3 yoga bag to be posted (just need pictures), Danny had a friend over, Alex worked on stuff for his merit badge that he needs next week, came home to another sale (little, but hey, they all count!). It has been a very pleasant day. Virtually no yelling. If my son could learn to take responsiblity for his own actions there would have been none (yelling, that is) all day. I guess today was somewhat productive. It's been a long time since that happened.

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Woohoo...I finally sold a purse!

I have been wondering for a long time...Is it even worth renewing the purses in my shop? Nobody has ever bought one. Well, maybe it is. I actually woke up to a sale on a purse, not a yoga bag...A PURSE! Wow! I didn't think it was ever going to happen! I had, until now, only sold a handful of yoga bags (and one coin pocket). This has restored my confidence, a tiny little bit, but I am still not going to make any more purses until I can get tons more yoga bags made. OK...just needed to blurt...Thanks for listening.

I wish he would listen the first time...

Yesterday was quite trying. My husband was camping. Both Danny and Alex had things I needed them to do. Alex was supposed to put away his laundry that has been sitting for the last 3 days. Danny was supposed to write a summary of the last book he finished. He did agree to write it, 2 days ago. Neither one happened. I was waiting and reminding but so far only half of a summary was written and there was lots of yelling in the house this afternoon. I was guessing it's never gonna happen. I'm just going to let Pete deal with the summary himself. It was his idea in the first place. We ended up going to walk to the local grocery store instead. We always try to walk if we do not have tons to buy. Since it had finally stopped raining, we would give it a try.
I'm giving up on making them do these types of things, the stress is not worth it. None of it is required, for now. I'll just dump Alex's clothes on his bed and he can just deal with it. And with Danny...I'll let Pete tell him what to do when he gets home. He'll probably do it the first time he asks. Thats what gets me soooo mad.

Friday, July 10, 2009

Something I would not do by myself...

I am NOT great with directions,(in college a friend called me "the navigator", 'cause I got us lost) so one thing I would not do by myself, let alone with the kids in tow, is to try to go someplace I've only been there from one direction and now try to find my way out in another direction. Did that make any sense? I've been to this one neighborhood by car coming from the west but today we were trying to ride our bikes out of it to the east after an already long bike ride. I would have been afraid to get lost and the kids get too "tired" to go on. My husband has (1) a much better sense of direction than me and (2) much more patience than me. I wish I was much better at both.

Today my husband bribed my kids to go on a longer bike ride by telling them that we would get to an ice cream shop in the middle of the ride. We started off on our standard bike ride, then took a different turn to head to the library, to borrow some movies (remember, I said I was cheap), then thru an unfamiliar (nice) neighborhood to the ice cream shop and then home. During this trip we went through a horrible intersection. I'm glad it had crossing lights or else I would have said "not a chance", with 2 kids on bikes who aren't yet ready to cross a busy street by themselves. I know that they weren't by themselves but even with us, they do not necessarily make the right choices yet. And these poor choices could leave them in the hospital or worse. Those few minutes were way too stressful for me to ever decide to inflict myself to again. I would rather jay"walk" a little way down the street instead, less cars and only coming from 2 directions. Is that bad?

I so wish that I was as laid back as my husband. Most things do not bother him. I wish I could say the same for myself. (Maybe that is part of why I have ulcers.) My husband is away for a camping weekend with "the boys", his college friends. I think this year it will be his 23rd yr. So the kids are all mine 'till he comes home sunday morning. "I will survive this summer. I will survive this summer. I will survive this summer." Sometimes I think that I would be better off with girls, I seem to have problems with "boys will be boys" but I'm trying...

Tomorrow, while the kids play video games for a little while, I'll sew...I hope.

Thursday, July 9, 2009

We love a hike...

Keeping the kids busy (cheaply) was very easy today. My husband had the day off so we went to the Niagara (Falls) Gorge. It's nice living really close to Niagara Falls. We get to visit without a long hawl (approx 25 mins). We packed up a lunch and set off. We were planning on exploring a section of the gorge that we hadn't been to before but they were repairing the stairs and taking the other stairs would have added another 2 miles to the hike. D would not have made it up. There are some 200 or so steps (never actually counted). I just know that everyone stops at least twice to rest on their way up. The path we ended up taking had caution tape on it so D thought we were gonna get in trouble for crossing the tape. Then we saw a few other parties of people who had also crossed over. He felt much better about not getting into trouble. After a while we bumped into a great spot near the water (off the path) that looked safe to go to. Again D thought we were going to get in trouble, there were signs everywhere that said that if you went off the path you would be prosecuted, so he was nervous. We decided to "cop a squat", Pete's words, (and A had never heard them before and was quite confused) and have our lunch there. It was beautiful. We got to watch both a loon and a gull go fishing for their lunch, while we ate ours.

While we were hiking my husband, Pete, came up with and idea about D and his reading. Since he is reading these great books during the summer, why doesn't he write a summary of each one now. He can use some of these if the genre is right, for his next school year. I know it is cheating a little but hey...he did read the book... and I think he will run out of time next school year to do all the reading they want from him. D is going to be going to gymnastics for 4 days a week (12 hrs). He will probably need to rewrite it to make it appropriate for the project anyway, his summary will just be a reminder for him. Is this cheating too much?

It was a pretty tiring day. After we got home we just vegged for a few hours. Vegging is good when you've been outside all day, even if it involves a screen. But actually the kids barely played video games when they came home, They mostly read. Tomorrow I believe it will be a long bike ride for the four of us ending in a trip to the ice cream shop. Yum!

No sewing today yet...maybe a little later...but I did finish another bag last night.

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

I am cheap!

I am cheap! I don't go to the movies too often, 'cause it's just too expensive. I normally pick and choose which ones would be better seen on the "big screen". If my husband and I don't feel it will make a difference...we typically wait for it to head to DVD. And when finally on DVD we don't usually go to Block buster (we only go there if we happen to have a gift card someone gave us), like I said I am cheap. Have you ever seen a "red box"? Only $1 for a movie for 1 night. Works for me! If we don't get it there then we usually borrow it fom the library (like I said, cheap). Today, however we will be heading to the theater itsself...

Do any of you have a Regal Cinema near you and have kids? They have what they call free family film festival all summer long (running when your local schools consider summer, so dates are slightly different). In my town, it is running every tues, wed and thurs morning at 10 am. They will play a G and a PG movie each week. They vary slightly from town to town. You should go to http://www.regmovies.com/ to check out what it's like in your town.

Last night A had a boy scout meeting and D had his last baseball game of the season, so they were both up late last night. Since the boys are tired today and it is gray and gloomy, we will be heading there this morning. This week they will be playing "Alvin and the Chipmunks" by us. Surprise, surprise...they both agreed that they want to see it. My 12 yr old wants to see a G rated movie! Will wonders never cease? I can tell you that I was shocked when I heard that one!

That should take care of half the day...

Monday, July 6, 2009

My first summer...

I have never blogged before but I thought I might give it a try...

This is the first summer that my 2 sons have had almost nothing scheduled. The 9 yr old, D, only has 4 days of scout camp which my husband is going to go with him. He also has gymnastics class for 5 weeks in the evenings, but his days are free otherwise. My 12 yr old, A, has one week of scout camp as well, he goes on his own, and he has one week of science camp at a local college. Other than those, he is totally free.

This is also the first summer since I have started Jeans and a Sweater. I am trying to balance keeping them busy and trying to create and post items for my shop. I don't think it is working too well.

My biggest problem is keeping them occupied with out them wanting to play video games. The weather has not been the greatest so far this summer. We spent our Forth of July evening bundled up in jeans and sweatshirts. That has never happened before. There was even dew on my blanket that I had only placed on the ground about an hour before. Kinda creepy...A keeps blaming it on global warming.

In good weather, there is the local pool, bike rides, our trampoline, water fights, and hikes. In bad weather, there is the library (and reading), science museum, renting movies (preferably from the library, aka, free), playing board and card games. After a while it all gets old. I'm trying to think of lots of new things to do before they start to complain that they are bored. I would also like to be able to fit in creating. But as you can see...I'm not doing that, I'm just playing on the computer.

I will figure it out soon, before I kill my kids or they kill each other, which is more likely. I love them dearly but sometimes they just drive me nuts!

Today we went to a library near a bike path. D was complaining he was bored until A showed him a tiny toad. We saw all kinds of beautiful things while we were there: 2 toads, dozens of snails and slugs (D had to move most of them to the side of the path, he almost stopped walking 'cause he squished one himself), a doe and her 2 fawn, a dragonfly, a bunch of dining needles, and some pretty flowers. Most of these things are now immortalized on my new cell phone's camera. There were a few ladies walking around on their lunch hour, totally getting a kick out of us and the pictures. I do have to say though...D took a picture of some tiger lilies that are now the wallpaper on my phone. So all in all today ended up pretty nice. With a great souvenir on my phone!

Yay! I hope a lot of days end up like today...My perfect day would have also had a bunch of sewing...maybe tomorrow...