livelovecreate

Show me the monkey!

The movie, that is!

For our monthly Mom & Daughter date, we went to see the film yesterday and thought it was charming and loved the music. Thank you Amazon.com!

And, to celebrate our monkey business outing, I made Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins while she was at school. Mmmmm. (photo courtesy of Rebecca Cooper! I'm good, but not that good!

And since I am in the sharing kindof mood, here's the recipe!

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

1 3/4 cup flour

1/2 cup sugar

3 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup chocolate chips

1 egg

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup milk

3 mashed bananas

Mix all ingredients, fill mini-muffin pans 3/4 full and bake at 375 degrees for 15 minutes.

Happy Friday!

Whole lotta flingin' goin' on

The 27 Fling Boogie, that is. :)

For those of you not entirely aware of the FlyLady and her mission, I'm pasting a definition of what a 27 Fling Boogie means:

   

What is a 27 Fling Boogie?

This is a tool to help you declutter your home. Do this assignment as fast as you can. Take a garbage bag and walk through your home and throw away 27 items. Do not stop until you have collected all 27 items. Then close the garbage bag and pitch it. DO NOT LOOK IN IT!!! Just do it. Next, take an empty box and go through your home collecting 27 items to give away. As soon as you finish filling the box, take it to the car. You are less tempted to rescue the items. If you have two of any item and you only need one, get rid of the least desirable.

I think the most difficult task at hand for me simply is decluttering and letting it go. It's all about control. And, boy, do I have issues with control and letting go! :)

Believe me, it was so tempting to sneek a peek into the garbage bag or box after the fact and have "flinger's remorse", but I took the high road, grabbed a twisty-tie, dumped the closed bag into the garbage and sprinted back into the house before I could act upon my remorse finally feeling vindicated.

Apparently, nesting is settling in a wee bit early this time around. But it's gotta get done so that two kiddos can reside comfortably, peaceably and clutter-free in their shared living space. Emma's closet is next....surely I'll be able to 27 Fling about 10 times over. :) Pics to come soon!

She absolutely adores her new quilt and I had to bribe provide an incentive, a.k.a. a fun-size bag of Skittles, to get her to let me wash the silly thing a few days later. I never got the chance to wash it to begin with once Em figured out it was going on her bed. Now we just need the bigger mattress (still shopping around for the best quality/price) and Papa's headboard and we're set.

I'll leave you with the best piece of inspiration I've come upon lately for the last project I have left to complete for Emma's "new" room, courtesy Kellicrowe. :)

 

    

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

Butterfly art

Isn't this the sweetest art project?

We get to purchase magnets, tee shirts, bags, mugs........whee!

I am so very happy to know that Emma attends a school that knows and fosters the importance of art and creativity!

Happy Thursday!

Paging Dr Chocolate, STAT!

It's an emergency! I have GOT to stop eating the stuff.

In the last few days I have single-handedly polished off (and without a sliver of guilt, mind you):

• A gallon of chocolate milk
• The remaining chocolate left over from Halloween. You know, the secret stash you hide form the kids, right? It's GONE.
• Hot fudge sauce, straight from the jar. I know it sounds icky, but when your craving hits you, you'll do just about anything to get your fix.
• Baked and entire batch of Pilsbury's Mini Break and Bake chocolate chip cookies. And I did not share! :)

So I guess the next time I start gushing about how well I am doing with controlling my weight and cravings while pregnant, I'll just stop before I get ahead of myself!

Meesh, I know you know exactly what I am talking about. Hee hee!

Oh Yes, Oh Yes, It's Springtime

Happy first day of Spring 2006!

Here's to wishing and hoping that the bluebonnets will be just as gorgeous as in '04!

There she goes

That's the song that plays in my head every Tuesday/Thursday when Emma gets out of the car and walks right into the building at church. She is becoming so independent that it makes my heart swell with pride. She loves to walk up to her classroom "all by myself".

I usually get a quick wave about 10 feet from the car, but not today. And that is ok with me.

Hibernating, but in a really good way.

And now I am feeling writer's remorse. Or rather, non-writer's remorse.

I/We have been silly busy the last few weeks, so much so that I really did not think I had anything important to post. But then I thought to myself that what I think and ultimately write is important, if nothing else, at least important to me. And/or maybe it had a little to do with smart cookie Mi'Chelle and her timely reminder urging herself to slow down the computer frenzy and enjoy the moments with Brie. If I haven't told you lately, dear sweet Meesh, you are a genius.

So, enough mindless chatter. Here's the rundown:

• Emma accompanied me to my monthly OB check. We heard the heartbeat. Hooray!
• I'm officially out of the first trimester and NO more sickies. Double Hooray!
• Spring Break happened last week-enough said :)
• finished up a few crafty projects that I can't share, just yet
• finally returned to work-ugh, blech (I'm beginning to wonder if its really worth it anymore)
• scoring on Emma's new bedding for her coming-soon twin bed
• If I could actually draw nicely, I would love to post a pic of the headboard Papa is making for said twin bed. Got the fabulous idea from HGTV's Room by Room. So instead, I'll just opt to scan a picture. thankyouverymuch! The only real difference is that Emma's headboard will be a) smaller, b) painted crisp white, c) have three inset panels featuring pressed tin like the ones you see on the ceilings in old homes. Found a place off of the back cover of Mary Engelbreit's Home Companion mag a few months back and found out that they are local. Imagine that! Yay for free shipping. And for a very, very handy handyman Dad. Picture courtesy of Broyhill, since the one at HGTV wouldn't let me save it. Grrr. But you get the general idea!

Here's the bedding that I really, really scored on big time @ PBK. It's now on clearance *sniff*, but it was what I saw, fell in LOVE with in the fall, and had to have.  It goes perfectly with the square shaped tin panels on her bed, so now you know why I cried and cried when it was supposedly discontinued online. Anyone who knows my personality quirk(s) knows that it has to match. Or it will drive me completely insane.

And here's a closeup shot of the sheets. That I had to have. (naturally, of course!)

Whew! This might be the longest and prettiest post I have written in a really long time.

So now you know what I have been up to.

And I'll leave you with one more parting shot. *Hint* it's a HUGE part of E's cj. Hee hee!

Running in circles

I am participating in a circle journal group.

For the very first time.

It's a lot of work, but it is a lot of fun too!

Here's a sneek peek.....

You'll have to go to my gallery (link to the right) to see the rest. :)

Happy weekend!