Welcome To Our Little Big House On The Prairie


Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Hhhmph! Its Hump Day!

Here we are in the middle of the week and what have I accomplished?

NADA.

What did I do Monday?  Nothing, but clean.  Is my house still clean?

NO.

What did I do Tuesday?  Ran my fool hiney off.  

ALL.  DAY.  LONG.

Eva The Diva's birthday is on Friday.  She's gonna be 7!  Wow!  

Eva wants a "Singing Victorious" Doll.  I've been hearing about this for the last 3 months. Repeatedly.  Yeah.  Who knew there was such a thing?  But there is...  There's also a "Singing Justin Bieber" Doll.  Gah!  Thank goodness she didn't want that!  I think I would have drawn a line there.

Via

I went on the hunt for Victorious, pretty doubtful I would find it her, but lo and behold, there she was at the "Big Red and White Bull's Eye" store.  Right next to Justin Bieber.  Gah!  Coupled with a new head-to-toe outfit, I think Eva will be pretty happy.  I hope so, considering this is her "Birthday Pardy [sic] List":

What?  Your children don't use cream card stock to write their lists?  LOL!

Let's just say the girl knows what she wants!

I'm assuming that "Vatrees" is batteries????

If this was her birthday list, I don't even WANT to see her Christmas list that is currently under the Christmas tree - sealed - for Santa's eyes only.
  
Ahhh...  A list maker.  She gets it from her momma.  ;)

Then, I headed home with a "small" stop off at the local thrift (which is technically out of my way, but whatever), where I scored a few things for under $40 - when I can't get out of the "Bull's Eye On My Bank Account" store for under $200, even when I try.  I'll be sharing those finds with you on Friday.  Next, we came home and then headed back out an hour later to get Greyson from basketball practice at 5:00, with a stop at Micky D's to feed the bottomless pit of my growing pre-teen.  I then drove Mach-10 back home to be here less than a minute, dropped him off, and headed BACK out to take the younger two boys to watch our first Varsity Wrestling Dual at 6:00 (Its 20 minutes one way to the school.) - and swung by to pick Scott up at his parent's where he was waiting for me to bring him clothes to change into, instead of him coming all the way out to our house.  Er.  Yeah.  Story of my life.

We didn't get home until 10:45.

Momma was T-I-R-E-D.

I'm really hoping to find some time to craft today...  Or at least work on some of the finds that have been accumulating in the corner of my dining room, just giving me the beady eye waiting for me to get around to doing something with them.  But first, there's business invoices and a gift exchange present to be mailed and our Christmas cards - which have been addressed since last Monday night.

Oh, you wanted to see how they turned out?

Okay!

{FRONT}

{BACK}

See the dollar on the ground in between Greyson and Eva in the picture that's on the front of the card?

Yeah.

That's how we get 5 kids to behave for pictures.

Bribery.

It's the money shot.

LOL!

And we left it in, so we could look back and laugh.

Landon must not have been too impressed with a dollar.
HA HA HA!

So, that's what I was up to yesterday - and what I'm going to be up to today.   I hope your day is full of crafting.  I'm hoping I can squeeze some time in for a little myself.

Until tomorrow...


Monday, November 28, 2011

Its Not Friday, But Check Out My Find!

Well, y'all...  Its the Monday after Thanksgiving.  I don't know about you, but I'm tired!  I have to admit that after all that family togetherness, I'm really enjoying the peace and quiet this morning.  :D  But at the same time, I'm sad that the holiday is over and we're in a head-long rush toward Christmas.  Its seems to just go so quickly!

A quick recap of how we spent our holiday...

Wednesday, I spent the day at home preparing for our Thanksgiving meal.  Thursday was spent in the kitchen cooking the rest of the food, sleeping off the turkey-itis in the afternoon, and then relaxing with friends that evening.  Friday morning found us up bright and early weighing in at the Columbus Black Friday Sailor Classic in W'loo.  Noah was hurt during the 1st period of his 1st match and had to injury default that one and the remaining two matches in his bracket.  Ian had a tough five man bracket and took a respectable 3rd after two really, really close matches and pinning two of his other opponents.  Saturday we pretty much vegetated...  Well, they vegetated and I cleaned up the mess from doing pretty much nothing as far as household chores on Thursday and Friday and worked on decorating my stair railing.  Its amazing the havoc that children can wreak on a house, if you're not going right behind them to pick it up!  Sunday, Landon had come down with a cough from the changing weather (It was gorgeous 60 on Thursday and by Sunday it was a chilly 35), so we didn't go to the new church we wanted to try out.  Scott took the boys at the spur of the moment to a tournament 2 hours away where Noah took 1st and Ian took 2nd.  They got two GINORMOUS trophies!  Finally, I fell into bed last night around midnight only to wake up late this morning and frantically shoo the kids on the bus.  Ahhhh...  Back to normal life.  ;)  I hope everyone had an awesome Thanksgiving break too!

Soooooooooo....  Back to the title of this post.

He hehe he he!  Guess what I found??????

Do you know how hard its been to keep my big mouth shut about this awesome find I got at our local thrift shop????  It was all I could do not to break my promise on not blogging until today!  And then I thought about not saying anything until Friday for the Friday's Finds post and thought, "There's no way I can wait that long!"

Tuesday evening, Scott took me out to dinner while the boys were at wrestling practice.  I begged him to make a quick stop at our local thrift, just so I could see if they had anything new.  He indulged me, as he so often does and I was not disappointed!  Although, he may have been because he had to dole out some cash.  LOL!  However, there was no way on God's green earth, I was walking away from it!  :)

While I'm excited about my new find, I also feel kind of bad about (okay, really bad) about the circumstances of how it came to be in the thrift store.  Evidently an elderly woman had been put in a nursing home and they went through her items and donated them to our local thrift and I'm assuming, kept some.  There were several items that had me oohing and ahhing, and I would have bought them all had it been financial possible....  An antique vanity circa early 1920s, a solid carved wood mirror, a wing back chair, two farm house chairs, and a corner hutch to name a few.  All from the same estate.  Well cared for and obviously loved, by how pristine their condition.

But of all the items, it was this antique wash stand that spoke to me the most.



I literally dragged Scott in from the entry way, where he had been waiting on me, and jabbering a million miles a minute told him I had to have it.  I had already checked it over pretty thoroughly to make sure it was in good shape and had good bones, but I indulged him sat tapping my foot impatiently with my arms crossed over my chest and waited for him to inspect it on his own.  And then started in on my sales pitch of why I had to make it mine.


I extolled the virtues of its dove-tailed drawers, the original rolling casters on its feet, the detailing, the pride someone had in their workmanship, the history it had probably seen...  I expounded how it was made in southern Iowa (still had the furniture tags on the back and the production number) and it had once been delivered to someone that lived in our town (that was written on the back too).  I talked about about how you just didn't see washstands like this with the mirror still intact (usually they've been replaced with a rod to hang towels on) and the fact that the mirror was beginning to age in spots made it all the better.


I talked about how great of shape it was in, how sturdy it was, and how the scratches and dimples on it just gave it character.  It was like trying to sell ice to an eskimo!


And finally after a good 30 minutes of discussion while I held my breath like a kid waiting to get the okay at the candy store... he consented to the $125.00 price tag.  YES!  (Probably just to shut me up!  LOL!)  I literally danced a little jig in the middle of the store.  ;)

We brought her home, gave her a place in our dining room, and it just looks like she's supposed to be there.  I felt like a kid on Christmas morning!  As I should, because to seal the deal I said it could be my Christmas present.  ;)

So, I dusted her off and Pledged her to death.  I am one happy momma!


Because everyone knows that when Momma's happy everybody is happy!  ;)

I will probably never touch her with a paint brush.  I think she's perfect just how she is.  Don't you?  :D



Tuesday, November 22, 2011

What Thanksgiving Means To Me

Well, since the kiddos are off from school starting tomorrow for their Thanksgiving Break, I decided that I too, will be taking a break and enjoy spending some quality time with my family over the holiday.

So, before I take my little vacay from the blogosphere, my last post until Monday (that's right, no Friday's Finds this week) will be about gratitude.

Really, what is the true meaning of thanksgiving?  Not the day, but the word.  The dictionary defines it as:


thanks·giv·ing
\thaŋ(k)s-ˈgi-viŋ also ˈthaŋ(k)s-ˌ\

1 : the act of giving thanks

2 : a prayer expressing gratitude

3 : a public acknowledgement or celebration of divine goodness

The words that most caught my attention were "divine goodness".  Hmmmm... I don't know about you, but when I hear the word divine, I think of our Lord.  Although Thanksgiving, like most of our holidays, has been de-Christianized (for lack of a better word), the root core of what we are celebrating is thanksgiving to God for all his many blessings.  It is a time to reflect on the hardships we have endured and to be thankful that we have come out on the other side of it, maybe a little worn and tattered, but still whole.  Had not the Pilgrims endured terrible times before the feast of plenty?  Can you even begin to imagine what they went through that first year?  They had endured a long voyage, the hard work of establishing a colony, sickness and death throughout the previous winter and spring...  But the following autumn, they were so very thankful to the Lord for seeing them through it all and blessing them with the fruit of their labors.

So, this year at Thanksgiving, take a moment amid all the hustle and bustle to truly appreciate and to be grateful for everything that you have to be thankful for.  Take time to reflect on this past year and count your many blessings.  Thank the Lord for the good times and the bad.  It is the hard times that teach us to appreciate the good most of all.  Would the Pilgrims have been so thankful if they had not withstood the worst?  No, they wouldn't have.  Hard times teach us to be grateful.  It is impossible to truly be content, if we have not known adversity.

I think as mothers and the preparers of the feast, we get so wrapped up in the preparations that we don't take the time to really grasp the meaning of the day.  Let me give you a hint:

1.  Its not about a perfectly browned turkey, fluffy mashed potatoes, or the exact consistency of gravy.

2.  Its not about the candles, pumpkins, flowers, ribbons, and nuts you've used in your centerpieces.

3.  Its not about the place settings with the perfect chargers and antique silverware.

What is it truly about?

1.  Its about thankfulness and gratitude for our blessings.

So, if you burn the turkey (or like my Dad did on the last Thanksgiving we were all together undercook the deep-fried turkey)...

If your mashed potatoes are starchy and your gravy is lumpy...

If your table doesn't look just right...

Remember.  Its not about that.  Not by a long shot. 

It is gratitude for the love that our Father in heaven has for us and the Son he sent to save us.  It is about taking the day to appreciate the dear faces that are gathered around our table and fill our homes.  Its about the smiles and laughter that we share with each other. But its also about the hard times we have known, rested in our Lord's arms, and still stood again as stronger, better people.  Just as the Pilgrims did so many, many years ago.  For me, that's what Thanksgiving is all about.  A time to reflect.  A time to remember.  And a time to be thankful for it all.

So...

From our family to yours


Happy Thanksgiving!


Monday, November 21, 2011

A Start On A Prairie Home Christmas

I don't know about you, but I'm ready to kill the turkey and move on to Christmas!

Friday afternoon, I lugged all my Christmas goodies out of the attic and made another run to HL and J-A's Fabs.  A big thank you to Greyson who carried it the rest of the way downstairs for me.  :)

Saturday morning brought another wrestling tournament, but I sat this one out and stayed home with Eva, Landon, and my niece, Hannah.  It was time to get my Christmas on!  I'm happy to say that the living room is coming along slowly, but surely and I have at least one wall of my office done.  The dining room and the north wall of my office looks like the elves went on a bender, but oh well. It'll get there.

Yesterday, Scott took Ian to another tournament with Greyson and Eva along to cheer and I stayed home with Landon and Noah.  I can't really say I got a whole lot accomplished.  Guess I lost my decorating juju.  I made started on and then got bored with a few ornaments and started working on a banner that I got bored with too, and actually did finish up the office wall - sort of...  But that's about it.  I have to admit I got sucked in to Pinterest, Facebook, and blogland.  And I keep forgetting I can pin stuff now.  LOL!

All in all the decorating is coming along.  I have no idea what I'm going to do with the dining room.  It's as bare as a baby's butt. I've pretty much run out of decorations and I'm not buying anymore.  LOL!  I'm going to have to get really creative evidently.

If you're following me via Facebook, then you've already seen what I've accomplished.  If not, here ya go:

The Office:

I kept the office pretty simple...  Chicken wire provides the back drop to an old sled that I found at the local thrift.  On it is hung an old lantern of my mom's and a GW wreath.  The pear, bird's nest, candle sticks, frames, firewood basket, and rug were all thrift finds, as well.  The garland came from J-A's Fab.  The rest was stuff I scrounged around the house for.  Nothing like decorating on the cheap!  :D



Don't you just love the country hearts?  They're bangin'!  Not.


The Living Room:


I have to admit this is my favorite room of the two.  Might have something to do with the fact that the north wall of my office is filled with stacks and stacks of half-completed projects.  LOL!

I used varying sizes of grapevine wreaths to create an indoor snowlady - all thrift finds, except for the big one that I found at HL's.  Her scarf is burlap and ribbon with a bird's nest pick that has the cutest little cardinal in it.  That's what makes my snowman a snowlady!  LOL!!!  I'm sure you remember my barn door from the office.  The candlesticks are from GW, the bucket that used to hold my hydrangeas in my office is wrapped in burlap and tied with ribbon and a hemp string.  The foliage is from my yard with picks from J-A Fabs.  The snowman...  A hand-me down from Mom and the rest was around the house, as well.



Ahhhh...  My Christmas tree.  Decorated with a burlap garland, ornaments I either already had or some that came from a thrift.  The sleigh?  Thrift.  The chair?  Thrift.  The stool?  Thrift.  Books?  Thrift.  Coffee Table?  15.00.  Craigslist.  The suitcases?  Okay...  Ya got me there.  Paid out the nose for the bottom two at an antique store, but the top one was free.  ;)  Everything else?  Already owned.  :D



Still working on the the living room and the dining room, and the north side of the office.  Ugh.  Hopefully I get my Christmas mojo back today.  :)  Ian said that it was going to feel like Christmas on Thanksgiving and Noah asked if we could just do Christmas morning on Thanksgiving.  LOL!  Yes, definitely a departure from past years, but I'm glad I'm ahead of the game this time around.  I might actually be able to enjoy the decorations before I have to take them down this year!

And yes, I'm going to take the time to brag on my sons' wrestling prowess this weekend.  Noah took 1st on Saturday and Ian took 2nd on Saturday and 1st on Sunday.  WOOT!  Way to go, studs!  ;)

Well, time to get at it!  Merry Christmas!  Happy Thanksgiving!  ;)


Friday, November 18, 2011

Friday's Finds #10 and Friday's Favorites Linky Party!

TGIF and I mean it!  WOW!  What a week!  Busy, busy, but it really did fly by in a blink.  I can't believe its time to pick my Friday's Favorite and to share my own goodies from the week.

In fact, it flew by so fast that yesterday I realized I had bought nothing for today.  Oops!

So, after parent-teacher conferences yesterday evening (all of my little boogers are doing outstanding, with one on the Talented and Gifted watch list - WOO-HOO!), I headed off to the local thrift - which was sadly, sadly depleted.  What to do?  Well, an evening to myself is super rare, so I decided to head into W'loo to see what their Goodwill store had to offer, as well as pick up a few things from HL.  Alas, the store hour gods were against me and I only had 10 minutes in HL, by the time I got there.  BOO!  That's like a blink of an eye!  I could spend HOURS thinking up ideas and browsing.  After hearing the announcement that they were closing in 10 minutes, I frantically started filling my cart as fast I could think and still managed to walk out without the press paper letter I needed and bottle brush trees that I specifically wanted to get!  So aggravating - as were the looks the store employees gave me when I lugged my haul up to the front of the store 5 minutes after they announced they were closing.  Doh!  But really?  You're closing at 8 p.m.?????

Okay, I'll shut up now.  LOL!  Here are my finds this week:

I've actually had these for a couple of weeks now, but I keep forgetting to share them.


2 antique Zero fans that I found on Craigslist for $25.00 each.  He sold them to me for $35.00 for both.  NICE!

And it was candlestick holders galore at the W'loo Goodwill.  I nearly squealed when I saw these:


A little paint and they'll be gorgeous!  $2.00 for the small one, $4.00 for the large one, and a pricey $10.00 for the medium one, but it is HEAVY!

And then these brass ones for $5.00 for the small one and $7.00 each for the large ones.  They're perfect for Christmas decorating and I love their patina.


And for a Christmas craft that I have planned (which I needed the bottle brush trees for - still slapping myself over forgetting those), I grabbed these glass vases:

No, I haven't cleaned them yet.  LOL!
The large one was $7.50, the two small ones were $0.75 each, and the middle sized one was $1.50.

And because ever since I saw these two cute little owls from Tanya @ Make The Best Of What's Around, I've had my eye out for some.  They did have a large single one, but he was missing an ear, so I settled for this cute little trio for $2.00.  Who knew owls could be cute?  Tanya did and now I'm hooked.  ;)  These just need some freshening up with some white spray paint.


Then there was this large pear for $5.00 that I was like, "Ooooooo.  Now that's different."  I'll probably leave it red for the holidays, but I'm considering painting it white for year-round use or maybe wrapping it with jute.  Hmmm...  The possibilities. ;)




The color of this wall shelf caught my eye, and I'm pretty sure I'm  not going to do a thing to it - even though I do prefer silver to gold.  For $3.00 who cares, right?



Then, this caught my eye in a shopping cart behind the desk after I was done checking out.  Did that phase me?  Nope.  I asked if the items in the cart were for sale and scooped up this HEAVY little mirror for $5.00.


And then while nosing around you know where, I found these two goodies.  It never ceases to amaze me what you find stashed underneath a bunch of junk.


What's a good product to clean silver?


And another suitcase for my collection.  WOO-HOO!  Up to 3 now!  :)

And my final share is an antique frame that I have been looking at for - no kidding - 3 months.  I've watched the price come down from $45.00 to $40.00 to $35.00 to $30.00 to $25.00, before I finally grabbed it last night for $20.00.


To say it needs a little work is an understatement, however I have been drawn to the frame and the picture ever since I first laid eyes on it back in August.  Hopefully, I can fix it with some plaster of paris.  Scott thinks I'm nuts, but that's become the norm since I began lugging "junk" as he calls it, into the house.  I prefer to call it "junque".  Sounds better that way, doesn't it?  ;)

Friday Feature Find

Okay, now its time to pick my favorite find of yours from last week.  Although we didn't have a lot of link-ups since this is a new linky party, it was still so hard to choose!  Everyone had some awesome stuff that I would love to have in my home!  JEALOUS!  Why can't I find half as good of stuff!  NO FAIR!  ;)

However, the one that had my eyes just bulging was this find at a GARAGE SALE of all places, from Nicole at Davis Domestications.  



Not only is it an absolutely gorgeous piece, its also quite possibly has very historical significance.  Check out the hardware.  Do you see what I see?


Yep.  Scott saw it too.  Swatiskas.  Seriously.  Wow.  Needless to say, she's not touching it with a paintbrush.  And although I'm sworn to secrecy about how much she spent for it, just know that I would have beat the price by $100 and not blinked.  And not because I'm a closet Nazi, but just the history its probably seen.  I'm such a sucker for history.  Like, I watch the History Channel for fun.  LOL!  Nicole got it for a pittance.  It sure does pay when people are ignorant and would rather have money.  Someone should be kicking themselves for selling this historical beauty.  Great find, girlfriend!  Good for you!

So that's all for this week, y'all.  This weekend its Christmas decorating time, even though Scott said that as long as he was alive and not suffering from dementia I would not be decorating for Christmas before Thanksgiving.  (If anyone is looking for him, he's tied up in the closet with his mouth duct taped shut.)

And that's just what the table looks like!  LOL!

Until Monday, y'all!






FRIDAY'S FAVORITE FINDS LINKY PARTY

Okay, y'all so we'll try it again this week with BIGGER thumbnails this time, shall we?

You know the rules:

1.  Please link up your favorite find of the week.  It can be something you found yourself or something you found online and featured on your blog.  Please link directly to your post page, not just to your blog.  

2.  Please become a follower and help yourself to my blog button to let others know you've shared here.  You can either use my button or a text link, but please link somewhere/somehow on your blog to help spread the word.  Thanks!  :) 

3.  Please visit a couple of other shares that have been linked up and show some love.  We all love to hear compliments on what we've found.  You might even make a friend or two.  :) 

4.  Have fun, but please do not link up Etsy store items or any other commercial ventures.  The goal is to share, not sell.  Thanks!

5.  Be sure to stay tuned next Friday to see if your favorite find was featured as one of my faves - and of course, be ready to link up against next week.









Thursday, November 17, 2011

And A Little More Progress...

I don't know about you, but sometimes I just need a good cry before I can jump back into things and get something accomplished.  I had one of those mornings yesterday and then I attacked the upstairs like I was on a mission.  I've been feeling increasingly frustrated and overwhelmed lately with my lack of progress here and wrestling season just adds more things to do on top of a huge list of things that need to be done.  If I had my way, I'd probably hole up in the house and not leave for the years I know that it will take to complete things. LOL!

But seriously...  All the beautiful homes/rooms that I see on the net and throughout the blogosphere just make me even more at odds with things and I'm not the most patient person to begin with (and that's an understatement).  So, I've decided to cut myself off from pouring over all the prettiness out there and focus strictly on the house and what I can do, not necessarily what I want to do.  Please tell me there are those of you out there that are also a deep shade of green with envy over some of the homes out there! (Thou shalt not covet, Laura!)  Besides, how can I get anything accomplished when I'm spending so much time online?!  Right?  Right!  :)

So...  Eva's room (Yes, Gina.  I have finally done something).  This sucker has been a nightmare from the get-go.  What started out as a simple paint job with new room accessories, ended up being a complete overhaul because the old paint started peeling off the walls in sheets. when we started the prep work to paint.

Before:
(It used to be the boys' room.)



In the midst of peeling all the paint off the walls...


Now granted, it still needs to be painted.  And I still need to figure out if I'm going to paint the floors, redo them, or just put carpet back in, but I just couldn't handle Eva not having a bedroom for another night.  The poor baby has been either sleeping in our room or bunking down with her brothers.  A girl needs her space!

The painting will be started on Sunday and I'll just move everything to the center of the room and cover it.  She, however, is super happy that she has a room of her own again and doesn't seem to mind one bit that the floors are a mess and the walls need paint.  Plus, I feel like I have accomplished something. BONUS!

All the items in her room, with the exception of her bed and bedding was picked up at garage sales, the $1.00 bin at Target, or was 50% off at Hobby Lobby.

Today:

No kidding, I got that little TV for $8.00 at a garage sale!
This corner actually has a hope chest with a padded seat that will go in it,
but I need Scott's help to get it up the stairs.
The little "crap catcher" is getting tossed.

I had her name embroidered on the shams, which she thought was so cool.  LOL!


I thought I might have a little bit of a problem with Landon because he and Eva shared a room until this summer and the boys' room has always been considered Greyson, Ian, and Noah's room (they are collectively referred to as "The Boys" by everyone).  But he took one look at the bedding and said, "I not slweppin' on gwurl polk-dot sheets!"  I got a good laugh out of that (while simultaneously breathing a sigh of relief that he now realizes that pink and polk-a-dots are for girls.  I was kind of getting worried for a while there when he went through a stage of wearing Eva's clothes to "dress up".  LOL!)

And I didn't stop with her room.  After I was done, I went into "The Boy Cave".  Their room, by far, is the closest to being completed.  The only thing left to do in there is to order their two bunk bed/futon combos and add a few more things to the walls.  Oh!  And I have to finish Ian's chest of drawers, but that's just a matter of taking the time to do it.  Its ready for primer and paint.  But until yesterday, they still had nothing hung on their walls and were using whatever bedding I could put my hands on (not to mention clothes baskets that were filled with their "junk".)

Before:
(It used to be Eva's Room)



"The Boy Cave" Today:

To give you an idea just how big their room is, that's a 46 in. flatscreen and it looks tiny!
The sign I made back in September will finally be hung tonight, since Scott wants it bolted to the walls.
He said my puny nails just weren't going to cut it.  LOL!


Poor Ian.  Still dealing with that dresser.  He's being so patient!
I probably should have organized their books for the picture, but oh well.  :P

This will eventually be two bunk bed/futon combos, but that will be after Christmas.
Santa is going to bring that to them
and then I can figure out what portion of the walls need something made for them.
So, this is where these rooms are at today.  I'm considering painting by hand athlete's inspirational quotes around the top of the black portion, so its not just nothingness between the black and gold.  We had an Iowa Hawkeye border, but these plaster walls...  Grrrrr!  The adhesive wouldn't stick and it all fell off within a month.  Don't you love it when that happens?  What a waste of $60.00!

This makes me feel a little bit better when I see I am making some progress.  Not a whole lot, but a little bit.  Now if they can only keep their rooms clean!

On the agenda today:  Cleaning up the downstairs that got utterly destroyed while I was in my frenzy on the upstairs.  Not to mention the huge mountain of laundry I found in the boys' closet.  I was wondering why it seemed like I wasn't doing much laundry.  UGH!  It never ends, does it?  LOL!

And on that note...

Don't forget that tomorrow is Friday's Finds and I'll be picking my favorite of the finds that you linked up last week!  Although we didn't have a lot of link ups (being new and all), the items that people shared are going to make it pretty difficult to pick just one!

Until tomorrow, y'all...