The Start of Something Good

Starting this new blog has been a new beginning for me. It's a way for me to add some new defenses that will help protect my family as well as a clean blogging slate. My posting on the former blog was sketchy, to say the least, but I am going to be more consistent. Ideally, I will post something everyday (with the exception of special days that consist of travel, illness and/or other days where my internet and computer access is extremely limited). Sometimes I will post about our family life, other times I'll reflect on past experiences and draw tribute to those deserving of such and I may even throw in an opinion or two occasionally (okay, so it might be more than occasionally...that's what happens when one has many strong opinions). If you don't like what I post about...you don't have to read it. I welcome any and all comments -- please give some blog ♥love♥ every now and then. Feel free to leave nasty comments if you wish, but be sure to expect a snarky comment from me in return! :)

And since I'm a language expression junkie, this blog will also feature a "Quote of the Week" varying from religious to funny to profound or just insightful. Who knows? You could even get a poem or lyrics from a song. I hope you'll enjoy them as much as I do. So, here's this week's quote.

"Let us here observe, that a religion that does not require the sacrifice of all things, never has power sufficient to produce the faith necessary unto life and salvation; for, from the first existence of man, the faith necessary unto the enjoyment of life and salvation never could be obtained without the sacrifice of all earthly things."
--Joseph Smith, Lectures on Faith 6: 7

I'll Give it Another Try

In case I've never told you, my mother is a very smart woman. Really, she's amazing. She's taught me many a thing over the years: cooking, baking, crafting, patience, kindness, love, etc., etc. (you know, all the things a good mom is supposed to teach her daughters). One thing that has become well ingrained in my mind are her philosophies on cleanliness, such as, make your bed; it makes all the difference. It's so true! Take a neat and tidy room and leave the bed messy and guess what?...the room looks messy...the entire thing! Make the bed and voila! Now the room looks clean. Or, say you have a room that isn't really tidy at all and make the bed, suddenly things look much better. Not perfect, just better. I think of this every day when I make up my bed; it's great motivation...try it.

Now that I'm an adult and a mom myself I'm beginning to realize how much the philosophy on a made up bed relates to other areas of our homes. The kitchen for example. Have you ever walked into a house that was perfectly clean, all except the kitchen? It's a complete distraction. Nobody notices that you spent an hour dusting every hard surface in the house or that you have beautiful, healthy plants and streak-free glass in all directions. Nope! All they're gonna see is your pile of dishes, the crumbs on the counter and the sticky mess on the tile. Or, flip it just like the made bed. Magic happens in a mostly messy house when the kitchen is spic and span. There's just something about all those gleaming surfaces shining that makes you smile.

The kitchen is where my problem lies. For the most part, I am very much a clean freak, (I married the exact opposite, but that's completely beside the point for this story.) but when it comes to my kitchen cleanliness...not so much. I don't really know why, either. No matter the reason though; it's time for a change! A couple months ago I started looking for options to help me keep my kitchen clean. I knew some family members had tried and liked Flylady so I decided to start there and see how it went. Well, things didn't go exactly as planned and I made it about as far as...well...Day 1 --shining my sink. It lasted a day, maybe two, but neither Owen nor I were very excited about making it work. So it failed. Pondering on this since then has made me want to try again. So, I'm giving it a go and today I shined my sink...again.

Look at that sparkle!


















I'm excited to have a clean kitchen...all the time (rather than every couple days). And I'm excited to have it not be such a chore, which is what Flylady focuses on -- not having to deep clean everything, but rather, maintaining cleanliness by taking baby steps and only cleaning for short periods of time. Speaking of the Flylady philosophy...this also closely ties to another of my mom's words of wisdom. You won't have to spend all day cleaning your [house] if you take five minutes every day to pick up. She'd tell me this every weekend after I'd just spent all day cleaning my bedroom. And while this is also true; it's still sometimes a struggle for me to follow through with it. So, maybe I'm a slow learner!

p.s. Mom -- Thanks for being the best mom ever, even if it does take me a while to catch on to some things. :)

Owen A-B-Cs

Attractive. Adventurous. Amazing.
Busy. Beaver. Best Friend.
Caring. Chef.
Daddy-man. Daring. Dependable.
Entertaining. Exciting. Easy-going.
Friendly. Funny.
Genuine. Goofy.
Happy. Honey. Honest.
Intelligent. Interesting. Important.
Joker. Jovial.
Keeper. Kid-magnet. Kid-at-heart.
Loving. Loud. Lively.
Masculine. Mellow.
Nap-taker. North Carolinian. Noticeable.
Outgoing. Optimistic.
Priesthood Holder. Paintballer.
Quirky. Quilt-lover.
Rowdy. Respectful. Reliable.
Snuggle-face. Sensitive. Southern.
Talkative. Tall. Twin.
Understanding. Unique
Vibrant. Venturesome.
Worthy. Witty.
X -- hmm...how about eXcellent?
Youthful.
Zestful. Zany. Zippy.

A Mother's Dilemma

Sometime, a couple weeks ago, Miriam's forearms and calves suddenly became very dry. They've remained so even after considerable effort to get them moisturized again. Our first go 'round was to be more consistent with baby lotion. We've since tried baby oil, but went back to the lotion after that did little to change anything. I realize her baths could be causing some of the dryness, but I bathe her daily for a couple of reasons. First, it's part of her bedtime routine (who knows what will happen when the routine changes; it's possible that all heck could break loose) and second, she tends to get diaper rash (and super greasy hair -- not a normal baby problem, I know -- poor me) when she's not bathed regularly (in other words, every day).

So, do I let her skin continue to get more and more dry or do I risk having a seriously red, rashed bottom? It doesn't seem to bother her, but I still don't want my poor, little baby to have dry skin or irritation. Any suggestions? What have you tried? What works and what doesn't?

My Dirty Little Secret

Okay, confession time. My name is Haylee, and I'm a Fanson. What was that? You say you don't know what a Fanson is? Oh, well let me explain...

Once upon a time there was a ten (almost eleven) year old little girl.



















One day she heard a song on the radio. It was upbeat, catchy and suffice it to say...she was instantly hooked and reeled in. Not long after this she was at the mall with some friends and saw a poster of the musicians who wrote and performed said song. To be honest, though the band really consisted of three brothers, they looked like unattractive teenage girls.




















But that's not what this little girl saw. Oh, no! This boy-crazy little girl was star struck. Her particular crush was for the little one (Zac) and boy did she have it bad. From then on there was no stopping her. CDs, posters, videos, books, posters, clothing, hours and hours of MMMBoppity goodness and did I mention posters? (Oh how I wish this girl's mother had taken a photo of all the posters. The little girl had them on the walls of her bedroom...every wall, even in the closet...on the ceiling, in her locker, and on any other hard surface that pictures could be attached to. She was a bit obsessed.) Well, time went on. The band's popularity waned and the pecking comments and teasing became too much for the little girl. So, the posters came down and the paraphernalia was tucked safely away into a box where it still rests to this day. And although on the outside it may have seemed that the little girl had moved on the love of this unforgettable music remained.

Over the years, the little girl remained faithful to "her" band. She's never attended a live concert, doesn't own all their albums and isn't a member of their official fan club. (Only because these things all cost money that she doesn't have -- but if somebody were to give them to me ...I mean, her, I'm sure she'd gladly accept. *wink, wink*) She still loves their music, enjoys hearing what they are up to these days and gets giddy anytime she hears MMMBop. In fact, as the band's sound and songwriting abilities have matured, she's become even more fond of their music than eleven good ol' years ago. And, wouldn't you know...she's even converted her husband (although he's not a Fanson -- this term is strictly reserved for those certain fans who've been around since the beginning).

So, have a listen. Who knows, you might even like some of it. Oh, and they don't look like girls anymore.

Gaining a Little Empathy

My parents are currently serving an LDS mission in Nigeria. Over the past six months they have experienced many hardships due to the third-world conditions of the area. One that seems to be commonplace to them now is losing power and/or water. So, today as the Idaho winds blew and blew, eventually knocking the power lines to the neighborhood useless, my first thought was about them. Then, since it was morning and I was hungry, my thoughts quickly moved to our German pancake breakfast which was baking away in the oven. Hmm...what to do? No power=no oven heat. For any normal family this could be quite the dilemma. But we are far too resourceful to be normal.

So...voila!





















We used the grill; and other than having a few burn spots on the bottom (which were easily cut off) it was perfect. A little ingenuity can go a long way.

I Have Trouble Following Advice

For months I've been talking about cutting Miriam's hair. Every time I mentioned this to anybody I was always shot down with comments like, "Oh, she's just a baby; it's fine." and "But it's so long and cute. You should just be thankful she's got so much hair." Followed by some story about how so and so didn't have hair until she was five years old and went to kindergarten with a bow glued to her head. I think my favorite remark of all is, "Oh, it'll even out. Just give it some time." HA! I may not be an expert on hair growth or anything, but but one thing's for sure...I know that a two inch difference of growth will not just even itself out eventually!

So, I cut her hair.
















Now it's even and I think it looks much better.






















No more scraggly looking orphan child in this house.
















See? Now it's a nice little pixie cut. Better, huh? I knew you'd agree once you saw it.

Snuggle Up Under The Stars

Here's my most recent creative endeavor.






















This is Owen's Christmas "surprise". (Yes, he already knows about it -- in fact, he helped make it! I love having a somewhat domestic husband.) He's been asking for a quilt since...well, since I made his last Christmas quilt in 2005 (see picture below) and then staked claim on it for our "headboard". More recently it has become "my" quilt and I use it to keep warm at night.






















And, just so you know...No, the bucket did not stay turquoise. I painted it and now it is brown and bronze and very cute and rustic looking. This picture was taken shortly after we moved in and I was trying different ideas for the shelf.

Owen's request was for a rag quilt and I wanted to keep it cheap. I figured a jean quilt would be the perfect answer to solve both since we've had about twenty pair hanging out in a box. So, this past March I set out to find a pattern that wasn't just squares (I have issues with normalcy -- it bores me.) I was lucky and found this - Denim Rag Edge with a Twist. It was perfect! Rag, check. Denim, check. Anything but boring squares, check. Wonderful.

















I think it turned out pretty cute, and to carry out my need for originality, I changed three random squares and gave them three stars. See?...

















...Ahh, now it says, "Haylee made this."

And, since my mother always taught me that the back of the quilt is almost as important as the front, (The backings on her quilts are rarely one print -- she's known to do borders, checkerboard and even scrappy piecing. She usually says it's because she didn't have enough fabric to have it all be the same, but I know that she secretly just likes to have the back be worth seeing.) here's a glimpse of that too.

















I love the backing fabric. It's a brushed cotton (almost flannel-like) and in my opinion is cute, but not too girly...Perfect for my hubby's Christmas quilt.