Author Archives: artsyfartsymamadeb

Excited Over Pencil Deal

Many of you would think me hilarious for getting so excited over this. For some reason there was a post for a really good deal for colored pencils on my Facebook newsfeed today. I was able to purchase this set of colored pencils from Amazon.com for $3.97. I clicked on the link that was in my feed and it took me to instructions and a coupon on how to claim the deal. I’m sure the deal is no longer in existence because it claimed that there was only 29 coupons left.

Anyway, I was hesitant to click on the link but I’m glad I did. My youngest son and I love to color but the pencils from the Crayola set we are using are really hard to sharpen without their tips breaking. So I was really looking forward to purchasing a different set. This was great timing and I am hoping these will work out. For this price if they don’t work out for us then it’s not a huge loss. I just need to take a few minutes to write a review about the pencils.

I did check out the Facebook page that the offer was sponsored from. https://www.facebook.com/Amazon-Brand-Aware-Club-1603817996601610/?fref=nf

On the page is a button to sign up for their club. I’m looking forward to seeing what other offers they’ll have. I’ll be very selective and only choose those offers that will benefit myself or my family. Since we are trying to be productive in decluttering our home. I just figured I’d share this opportunity with all of you and to see if you have already participated in any of this company’s deals. If so, what are your opinions of the company? Here is the link to their sign up page. http://www.brandawareclub.com/

Question for all of my coloring friends: What are you favorite coloring pencils?

 

To Cookbook or Not to Cookbook

As I went through our very crowded dining room, in an attempt at babyproofing, I came across our cookbooks. I already paired down our cookbooks to two baskets a few years ago. So really didn’t remove much out of the baskets this time. There’s a grilling cookbook, which I purchased for my husband a few years ago. (It still looks pretty brand new.) There’s also a Joy of Cooking cookbook, couple of Pampered Chef cookbooks, a Betty Crocker Cookbook, and a few others. Some were purchased at yard sales and Goodwill, others were given to us as gifts and the Pampered Chef ones were purchased decades ago when I was a consultant.

I don’t cook extensively. What I do cook are very simple recipes. I totally regret not hanging out in the kitchen with my Dad and Mom growing up. It would have been nice to have learned how to cook all the yummy foods I grew up on. For the most part, nowadays, I utilize websites like www.allrecipes.com and www.cook.com or I just simply use Google.

The cookbook pictured above, Joy of Cooking, looks pretty worn and used but I can admit it wasn’t used much by me. I think my husband purchased this during my “Hamburger Helper” and Tuna Helper” days in an attempt to get me to learn how to cook healthier and more nutritious meals. I can gladly say I have graduated from cooking boxed meals.

Anyway, my tip for this post is… if you haven’t already checked out http://www.allrecipes.com, please do so. It is such a great site. I love that there is a way to save the recipes you are interested in. Also, all of the recipes have a rating system and most have great reviews. It gives you the chance to see what recipes have been tried and were successful for others, before trying it out yourself.

I know we have a lot of friends and family who love using their cookbooks but honestly, I don’t know why we are hanging on to our cookbooks. Decoration? Maybe we’re saving them in case we have an outage or lose our internet for some reason. Then at least we’ll have recipe options.?

How many cookbooks do you own? How often do you use them?

By the way, apparently the Joy of Cooking is still in print. Wow! The first edition was printed in 1931. Our copy was printed in 1962. It must be a good cookbook. I guess I really should open it more than once every 5 years.

 

 

My First Real Bullet Journal

I received the journal I ordered from Amazon.com in the mail yesterday. Decided to go with the Leuchtturm 1917 Notebook A5 Hardcover Dotted Medium Black and I love it! The journal opens flat and the weight of the pages is great.

I started writing in it today. I do have to remember to let the ink dry if I am to continue using the gel pens that I purchased from Walmart. I smudged a lot of my writing but figured I’d still post my first entries from this book to compare with future entries in hopes of seeing an improvement.

Again, I’m taking baby steps to being organized but in an artsy sort of way. Also working on building some better life habits and will use bullet journaling to follow though to my goals. So far so good but still a very LONG way to go!

 

Camping Craziness

Getting ready for camping, whether Boy Scout camp or our own family camping, is often stressful. No matter how many days in advance we insist on getting started on packing, we are usually not ready until the night before and sometimes the day of.

Boy Scout Summer Camp begins tomorrow. It’s our youngest son’s first time attending a full week of camp. Luckily, my husband and our second oldest son will be going to camp as well, but this means that all 3 needed to prep.

Our youngest son started to gather things and pack earlier this week, but he still had a few items missing, so with my husband’s help he finalized his pack tonight.

My second son is also still finalizing his packing tonight. He started packing in earnest last night. He’s a bit more experienced at getting ready for camping. I’m still praying and hoping he doesn’t forget to pack anything.

As for my husband (the Scoutmaster), he’s been working on gathering things earlier this week for the Troop but also had paperwork and emails to finish on top of a full week of work. He’s still running around packing his stuff while ensuring our youngest is ready. I think it’s going to be a late night.

This is just 3 out of 6 of us packing for a camping trip. At the moment I cannot imagine prepping for 6 of us and a dog to go on a camping trip.

We purchased a camper a few years ago. We pretty much got tired of the “blue tarp” camping. No matter how prepared you are to tent camp in Western Washington, you can always count on getting soaked at least a few times during camping season. While the boys have no choice to tent camp when out on scout trips, we felt our family trips should be as relaxing as possible.

This year my husband is still insisting we plan a family trip in the camper for this summer. I wouldn’t have to worry about packing for my husband and our boys but we also have our dog and our now one year-old daughter. We’ll of course need to take extra gear with us. For example: play pen, sleeping pad, things to keep her entertained, etc. This is on top of the dog crate and the normal camping paraphernalia. Our “just the right size” camper, I imagine, will seem very small.

Our controversial solutions are 1. Kick the older boys out to camp in a tent. 2. Sell this camper and purchase a bigger one. 3. Let’s rent a suite at the Great Wolf Lodge and pretend to camp. 4. Not go.

For one, while I wish we could sell our camper and purchase a bigger one, realistically it would not be a financially smart move for us. Two, renting a suite at the Great Wolf Lodge would be fun, but it would be great to take advantage and do awesome outdoor activities in the nice summer Washington weather. Three, it would be easy to just not go on a camping trip but I know I would fully regret not experiencing all the fun we could potentially have. Especially sharing our love of the outdoors here in this beautiful state with our daughter while making so many more wonderful memories as a family. So I think our only camping solution is to kick the older boys out to camp in a tent. Sorry boys!!!

Curve Ball

Two years ago God threw us a curve ball. We had a senior in high school, a sophomore in high school and an almost 10-year-old when we found out we were expecting our 4th child.

To say the least I was shocked. When the doctor gave me the news I cried. I was excited and elated that there was a life growing inside of me but a little crushed because it meant we’d be starting all over again. Life as we knew it was about to change. We were to become parents again. At my age of 43 the medical field calls it advance maternal age.

The shock eventually wore off. Due to medical concerns, the pregnancy was tough and a bit stressful at times but life began to brighten as we began to see our daughter grow and develop via ultrasounds.

Slowly the colors of pink and lavender began to inundate our home. We were finally blessed with the arrival of our first daughter, Jillian, in May of last year.

Having a little girl with 3 older boys has surely been interesting! The boys simply adore her but the boy adventures must simply go on.

Since the birth of our daughter many great things have happen. Our eldest graduated from high school. He earned his Eagle Scout through the Boy Scouts and is now a student at Pacific Lutheran University.

Our second eldest is now the Senior Drum Major in his high school band and is very active in his Boy Scout troop. He is currently working on his Eagle project.

Our youngest son has graduated from Cub Scouts and is now in the Boy Scout Troop. He is also learning to play the trumpet like his oldest brother. (It gets loud in this house.) He’ll be going to middle school in the fall.

It has been a very crazy year for our family. Jillian’s walking…ummm running now. It’ll be fun to see what kind of things she’ll be interested in as she gets older.

In all the craziness, our house at the moment has taken a back burner. This blog will be a great tool for me to help get things back on track.

Time to Cut the Cord

As I was washing dishes earlier today a thought came to mind. I remember growing up in Hawaii calling older acquaintances auntie or uncle, regardless whether there was any relation at all.

Moving from Hawaii to Washington was extremely difficult for me. I missed home and the weather was such a contrast to what I was used to. The friendships I made early on was my saving grace. The wives of the department my husband worked for in the Navy were some of the greatest of friendships I will ever make in my lifetime. We were all so very supportive of each other and during our husbands’ long deployments, our gatherings are what kept me sane.

During these years our families grew very close. Our sons called most of our friends Auntie (first name) or Uncle (first name). Till this day these very close friends hold their titles with our boys. It was a great comfort to have this tradition with them. Especially since I missed home so much.

In a conversation with our son a few days ago, he commented about helping our dear friend Cassy to rebuild a shed. When he mentioned her name, there was no Miss Cassy or Mrs. (last name). Most of you will probably think it’s strange for me to notice something so trivial. Often children will call me just by my first name and I don’t think anything of it but we’ve always taught our boys to refer to our friends as Mr. or Miss (first name) or Auntie or Uncle (first name).

I guess since our son is an adult I can’t hold it against him. He’s almost 19. It’s just odd, after all these years, to hear him not using prefix references for our friends.

What are some of the pet peeves you have about the changes in your adult children?

Effective Lists

Having an organized and clean house has always been a challenge for me. I was always great about making lists but not very good about using them. Lately I been trying a new attempt at list making. I first came across the idea of bullet journaling through Pinterest.com. I’ve just been using a plain ruled composition book for my daily lists but a bullet journal would work so much better. I just ordered one through Amazon.com.

So far my little fancy composition lists have been working. Plus it’s really nice to add little notes here and there about my day in my book. I’ve never really been one to journal so this is perfect.

Trying to motivate teenagers and a pre-teen is a chore in itself. I’ve been experimenting with “journaling” and jazzing up our childrens’ to-do lists. Above is today’s list for our 11-year-old. He got through most of the list. I think this works great for him.

Having a jazzy list for our 17-year-old is a completely different story. I’m sure there’s a lot more running through his mind than our 11-year-old. We’ll try it out for a few weeks to see if his motivation changes.

Do you organize your days with lists? What kind of lists work best for you and your family?

Here are a few links to a few blogs I found very helpful.

To-Do lijstjes die echt werken: Mijn Bullet Journal

http://www.bohoberry.com/craft-a-better-to-do-list/