A Pajama Mama

Mommy's little chef! Rayray played the background music at our neighborhood Christmas party. We enjoyed a great Christmas weekend at the beach with our SWEET friends! We took the girls to a sweet Christmas village at Sandestin. After our homeschool co-op party, we joined two more families to visit the Bethlehem Village presentation. Isn't it darling?? Best kit we've ever done! Enjoyed a fun night with our litttle cuz... Two grown cousins and my little Appledarlin. We adore these people. I loveloveLOVE having all the kids home and having a full table. I took advantage of all the hands and put them to work in the kitchen. They made oreo balls, pecan meltaways, and choc covered pretzels. Don't stand under the mistletoe with anyone else but me! Jojo and his freds. The girls declared Monday to be "Crazy Sock Day." Little old men. We laughed until we cried during a rousing few rounds of Catch Phrase. I think this one just finished his orangutan impression. More to c...

My pilgrims wish you a Happy Thanksgiving! Gobble Gobble! Buncha turkeys! Hope you and yours have a blessed Thanksgiving. We have much to be thankful for.

I made soap today!!! Woohoo! 4 whole bars. FOUR. You see three bc one didn't work out. The idea really is a fun one. I followed AnneMarie's tutoria l but my experience didn't exactly go as smoothly as hers did. She's a professional, though! She made it look so simple. Do you see the FOUR layers? Yep, this took a LARGE amount of my time on this beautiful SATURDAY...between the layers and the detailing. But once I started, I was committed to see one batch through to the bittersweet, cranberry-scented end. I think they turned out really pretty and the cranberry-fig scent is delicioso, but these cute bars will not become part of our seasonal line-up. It's a time thing. We will be offering our peppermint oatmeal massage bars and our beautiful Sleigh Ride snowflakes, though. Here's you another picture so you can ooo and aaaaaah. And aaaaaah and oooooh. So...where will these three bars end up? Maybe wrapped up for Christmas for YOU!

What have we here?? 330 of my exquisite hand-dipped fall soap leaves. You will FALL IN LOVE with the pecan pie scent that smells good enough to eat...but please, don't try that. I added vitamin e to the glycerin soap to keep our hands nice and soft. Of course, some choose to never use these to wash hands...they simply put them on a pretty dish and let the scent waft through the air. These beauties will be gently bagged up, tied with a pretty bow and sent to a fall festival on the other side of the state.

Meet Paul E. Pocket. The boy Polly Pocket. Look closely and you will see long, curly strawberry-blonde hair all tangled up on Paul. WHY? Doodle somehow managed to get Paul E. tangled up in her curly locks. I had to cut him loose and set him free with scissors. Twas a bit disturbing that his only coverage was painted on. My peeps on Facebook have been offering suggestions for a possible name for boy Polly Pocket, whom I dubbed Paul. E. I've seen OlliePocket. HubbyPocket. And my fave...."Bob, with no last name bc when he became famous, all the other Pockets started asking him for money." One friend offered up a song..."I'm gonna CUT that man right outta my hair." Paul E. is now covered shamefully with an aqua hair scrunchy, standing with one foot in our electric pencil sharpener. Let that be a warning to all Boy Pockets as to what will happen to you if you mess with my girls! Hmph.

After a near record-fast bath, I commented to our 6 year old Doodle that surely she was not even in the water long enough to get all the way wet! She smugly replied,"I even shampooed my own hair without even wetting it!" I checked her head....Sure enough, there was shampoo rubbed into the top of her half-dry hair....little bubbles popping and making that "shampoo not rinsed out good" sound. I don't think it worked out too good for her. She didn't much like having her long curly hair washed by Mama in the kitchen sink! She's definitely our innovative child....gotta give her credit for that!

How CUTE are these? Our nextdoor neighbor has her grands this week for their Fall Break. Our kids love playing together when we can. She invited Doodle and Butter over to create this super cute edible craft! This idea is from Southern Living. (Click here .) Each child had their own (very clean) bud vase that they filled with candy corn to poke their moon pie owl into. No, I don't have a picture of our own personal final products bc they sorta didn't make it home in one piece!

This evening, El Hero noticed two strange $12.00 charges on our debit card for supposed memberships in "shoppersdiscount.com" and "reservation reward.com." After I assured him that I had nothing whatsoever to do with these memberships, he called their 1-800 number. Meanwhile, I was in FULL GOOGLE MODE! Didn't take long to see that this was a deceptive scam and the two are from the same bogus company. Here's how it works. Have you ever ordered anything online and after the transaction you see something like "Would you like to save $10 on your next purchase?" or "Receive a $10 coupon, now!"? Apparently, the company you just ordered from allows your credit card information to be given to the scammers. They then take the info and "enroll" you in their "discount club" and start charging $12.00 monthly fees. How is that even legal, pray tell? We found out ours happened through Fandango.com where we buy movie tickets. Actual...

I seriously love chalkboards. It's the teacher in me. You can keep your dry-erase boards. I prefer chalk. Imagine my sheer delight when I bought my first can of chalkboard paint!!!!!! Through the years, I have scoured yard sales and thrift stores looking for fun things to make into a chalkboard. Suffice it to say, we have a gracious plenty mini-chalkboards in our learning room. Earlier this summer, I scared My Hero slap to death. He came home one day to find me painting one side of our fridge BLACK. He was slightly...SLIGHTLY less frightened when I assured him it was not JUST black paint but CHALKBOARD paint! The ugly fridge is now a useful fridge! Still ugly. But useful and FUN! Butter's 10 Birthday Notice Chalkfridge behind his head. I couldn't believe my eyes when I recently saw two wonderfully old chalkboards discarded by a local church! Who wouldn't want them???? This is the sweet old chalkboard that is still awaiting it's refurbishing. It didn't take but ...

Hello everyone! Thank you for your kindness, patience and understanding while I took my Unoffical Summer Bloggy Break. We are in our 3rd month of our homeschooling year and are running full steam ahead with our busy schedule. Mondays are the only days that we don't have outside activities and you better believe I guard Mondays with my life. They are our most productive days. I revamped our school room this summer and am so pleased with the results. Wanna see some pics? The two littles and I spend the most time in the school room. Rayray is too studious. She prefers independent learning in her own space. Doodle's chair is the pink one. Butter's is green. In case you wondered. Other side of the school room.... Wave to the hermit crabs! See the awesome chalboard? More on that...later! First Day of School They LOVE their new learning space!!

Well...I've been getting fussed at from all sides bc I haven't written a new blog post in two months! So, until I have time to write a proper post, here's a glimpse at what we've been busy doing this summer.....

We had a family wedding this weekend. My nephew got married...the first grandchild of 9. That's the groom in the picture. That's the gaze on the face of the groom that brought tears to my eyes. It's the gaze of a groom awaiting the arrival of his bride. And it was beautiful. The song playing as he waited was "Out of My League" by Stephen Speaks. " I love her with all that I am. And my voice shakes along with my hands. Cause she's all that I see and she's all that I need and I'm out of my league once again." And then, she came through the door. A beautiful princess bride prepared to meet her groom. Our little princess leaned over and whispered, "When is the kissing part?" With her hands folded against her cheek, she sighed, "The kissing part is the best part." I'm sure the groom thought so, too.

With her head buried in my shoulder as she sobbed, I felt her little tears trailing down my arm.  As the Mommy, it was bad enough (in the best way possible) that our youngest baby just turned 6 years old. Must we add insult to injury and discover not one but TWO loose teeth?  "But I don't want to be a big girl," she sobbed. "I just don't want to be a big girl! When will this be over?"  I hear ya, sistuh.  There are times when I just don't want to be a big girl!   There are times when I wish my biggest concerns in life are if the Tooth Fairy will come or where my princess crown is hiding.  There are times when I wish my biggest decisions in life are which swimsuit to wear to the pool or which headband best matches my outfit .   There are plenty of times when I, too, want to sob..."When will this be over???"  You, too?  Umhmm. That's what I thought. The good news is that whatever is going on in my life or yours, it's ok to tell Father tha...

My 13 year old, Rayray, had so much fun live blogging for me, she's agreed to try it again! Have fun and be sweet, Rayray!! Hello again, everyone! Be sweet? Am I not always sweet? ;) Top 4! Here we go!!! Duets?! No way!!! This will be interesting! AHHH! What are you wearing, Adam?! What was up with that guy on fire in Slash's music video? Did his mama name him Slash on purpose? So many questions, so little time. Adam, (what song was it again?): Ahh!!!! Another Ring of Fire flashback...this one may be worse!!! (no offense, Adam...) I can't even understand what he's saying. "Keep a cooler, baby"? Is that it? Adam...you're frightening me again. I'm just a little girl...I'm calling my Daddy! Hey look. Kara and Adam have on the same jacket...that's not weird... Cool hair, Allison! Allison, Cry Baby: WHOO!!!! Go Allison! You ROCKED it!!! LoveloveLOVED it!!! Great job!...The end. Kris and Danny, Renegade: Who knew Kris and Danny could rock!!! That...

Playing For Change | Song Around The World "Stand By Me" from Concord Music Group on Vimeo .

Since I haven't blogged on American Idol in awhile, our Rayray is going to blog tonight in my place. So without further adieu, here's your American Idol recap, through the eyes of a 13 year old. Hey people! I am so honored to be my mama's first guest blogger! Here we go...My first American Idol blog! I'm so excited! :D Allison, I Don't Wanna Miss a Thing: Oh, Allison. Why in the earthly WORLD did you pick that song? That's David Cook's song! *Flashes back to last season* David brought it on that song last year. *flashes back to present* It was too low pitched. I wanted to see her hittin' those big notes tonight. I'm a big fan of Allison, but it just wasn't that great tonight. Anoop Dawg, Everything I Do I Do For You: You should've taken Randy's advice. Rough it up! It sounded like he didn't even try to take his advice. I'm kinda sick of ballads, too. Is it just me, or has he done one like, three weeks in a row? ( PajamaMama loved ...

Last week, we journeyed to Atlanta for some new and exciting experiences. We traveled with our friends over at Happy Home and their 5 month old. Rayray received two tickets to Celtic Woman at the Fox for her 13th birthday, so we decided to make a little vacation out of it. We all decided to go since I don't drive in large, scary metro cities like Atlanta. NO, I'm not joking....even though I lived there for two years. We stayed in the Georgian Terrace across Peachtree Street from The Fox Theatre . It is a gorgeous, 100 year old hotel. The Gone With the Wind movie premiere party was held here!! And when it first opened, it was THE place to see and be seen. We gazed into the ballroom windows and let our imaginations run wild. Here is Appledoodle posing on gorgeous marble spiral stairs in the Terrace. Beautiful Georgian Terrace The three heads waaaay up there belong to Hero and kids... long way up...long way down. We ate dinner here before the concert. We got there at the pe...