Beam Me Up

The sunrise recently was rather unusual.  Paul noticed it first, and directed my attention out towards our pasture.

It seemed, for that day at least, that there must have been something mighty special just over the ridge.

Readers, have you noticed the sunrise lately?

Five Years

Do you know what yesterday was?  It was my five year blogiversary!  Unbelievable.  I love that I have so many memories and photos from the past five years preserved here.  One day perhaps the boys will read it and laugh over their antics.  And I've enjoyed so much the friendship of other bloggers.  Those two things are what keep me posting day after day. 

I'm going to celebrate with a giveaway of one of my homemade soaps.  It's a santa soap, scented lightly with peppermint.  To enter, you must be a follower by GFC, and you must leave a comment.  That's it!  I will ship anywhere.  Drawing to be done on 12/15/14.  Winner must respond in 48 hours to be eligible.

Readers, why do you like blogging?  What keeps you going over time? 

Elf on the Shelf Holiday Decorating Craft with #Idelight #Holidaydelight

Our Elf on the Shelf is named Tulley, and he has been with us for five years now. He isn't sneaky and naughty like some of the elves. He comes around Thanksgiving and most nights moves from place to place, but he doesn't tend to play any pranks. One year he did give our beta fish a Christmas statue.
This year the boys and I decided to create a home for Tulley to come to. My husband has been drinking tons of the International Delight creamer, especially with all the fun new seasonal creamer flavors, so I thought I would try to repurpose one of their coffee creamer containers.

First I washed it out and let it dry. Once it was clean, I peeled off the label and then cut an opening just the right size for an elf. I used a knife to make the initial cut in the bottle, and then switched to scissors so that I would have more control on the curves. I used a spray paint white primer to prime the bottle. Priming is an important step, because otherwise when you add color it would run or be uneven.

I allowed the primer to dry, and then used a brick red craft paint to coat the whole bottle. It took two coats to get a nice even effect. Then I used an off-white and a small brush to paint the bricks by hand.
Once this is done, you can personalize your bottle. You could make a sign with your elf's name on it, or paint a little Christmas tree. We decided to put a wreath about the opening on ours.
We set out our new home and it only took a few days for it to bring Tulley back to our house. We were thrilled to see him again! And he seems to be happy to have his own place.

For more fun holiday crafts and recipes, check out the International Delight community. If you join, you will also have access to awesome giveaways and coupons.

Readers, have you done any crafts for the holidays yet?

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of International Delight. The opinions and text are all mine.

Turkeys and Indians

For Thanksgiving, the twins had a special performance at school.  I got to go eat lunch with them and watch them sing.

 The pictures aren't the greatest, because I was in the far back and had to zoom a lot, plus the room was a bit dark.  But you can see they were both really into it.

They were both so excited to have me there.  And we snuck Pierce out of his class so he could watch too.  Pierce was delighted to play hookey.  And to snag a treat off the dessert table.

Look at those happy faces! 

Somehow, I had thought I'd get to eat lunch with my boys more often this year, but with working two jobs it hasn't worked out that way.

So this day was extra special to me.

Norman Rockwell Gone Wrong

The other day I was at the library, and they had a bunch of old magazines for sell for 10 cents each.  I got a nice stack going for myself and a couple of other family members.  I found a kid's magazine I'd never heard of before called Jack and Jill.  I added that to the pile for Pierce, after flipping through quickly and seeing some fun mazes and puzzles.

That evening I was working with the twins on their dolch words for kindergarten, and I told Pierce he should read that magazine to keep him busy.  Pierce is the typical oldest child - very responsible and independent.  He did what I asked for a bit and all the sudden shut the magazine and announced, "Mom, I'm not reading that magazine anymore!  There's a boy showing his private parts!"

I felt alarm and guilt and shock.  How could I have brought home such a magazine?  What were they showing kids these days in magazines?  I asked Pierce to show me the picture.  And this advertisement is what he turned to:

 

I had to chuckle.  I could see why Pierce may have gotten that impression.  He has never received a vaccine in the bottom.  He has always gotten his shots in the fatty part of the thigh.  So I explained what the picture really was.  I don't think Pierce found it very amusing.  I guess I won't bring him anymore magazines for a while! 

Readers, do you have a favorite Norman Rockwell painting?

Baby Announcement (no, not mine)

I got a box of old cards from the 1950s from my grandmother's.  They had belonged to my great great aunt, May May.  I never met her.  But I have heard a lot of stories, and even read her journal.  There were many interesting correspondences in the box, but my favorite was this baby announcement.

 Wouldn't it be nice if stamps still only cost 2 cents?

 

Were these parents creative or what?

I particularly love the last line.

 

Wonder what Barbara Ann is up to these days?

Love Themes

In an effort to combat some of the inevitable oversurge of Christmas music, I downloaded some music and made some new playlists for my ipod this month.  I decided to make a mix for the boys as well, since we're in the car a lot, and they're at the age that they all have favorite songs.  We do a lot of driving.  And it's not that I won't let them listen to some Christmas music.  It's just that I don't think we need to listen to nothing but Christmas music for the next month.

Do you know what Pierce's favorite song is right now?  You'll never guess.  No really, never, ever guess.

It's the love theme from Flashdance.  Which is instrumental and just happens to be one of my favorites as well.  Which is how he knows about the song - of course he has not seen the movie (the movie is rated R and horrible - none of the characters have any depth and there's a whole lot of objectification going on). 

So, readers, how many 8 year olds do you know that say their favorite song is the Love Theme from Flashdance? 

If you've never heard it, it's definitely worth pulling up on iTunes for a listen.  To Pierce's credit, it is moving music.  Readers, what's on your favorite song list right now?