29 Jeans and counting...

Fridays are normally my go to day for getting the house clean for the weekend, laundry gets done, etc. Well today I wanted to get it all done because the plan is tomorrow is cookie making day. So I have cleaned a ton and had the kids bring their laundry down. Easy Peasy right. It has only been 5 days since the last time we did laundry so it can't be that bad right? 

WRONG?

As I sorted the clothes I now got why my hubby is always complaining about how the laundry seems to multiple on us. He told me, when I called him down to look at it, that he normally spends an hour sorting clothes...AN HOUR!

Piles of clothes after only 5 days!! On the right is a stack
of dresses that hadn't even been worn but ended up
in their dirty clothes baskets...somehow!!

I decided this was ridiculous. I called the girls downstairs to see the piles of clothes I had made. Here is the dialog:

Me: How many days in the week are there?

Boo: 7!

Roo: 7.

Loo: (looks at sisters and says quizzically) 7?

Me: How many outfits should you wear a day?

Boo: One.

(they now seem to see where this is going)

Me: How many jeans do you think we have in the jean pile?

Roo: I don't know?

Loo: SIX!!!! 

(oh to see  that pile through a 3 year olds eyes)

Me: Nope! Lets count them!

All: One, two, three...TWENTY NINE!

Me: In five days how did you manage to wear twenty-nine pair of pants? That is like at least almost two pair a day. You also have dresses and skirts here. And I am not even going to count all the shirts in the pink (and redish) pile!!!

(realization that what comes next won't be fun hits the children)

Me: Ok. We can't keep doing this. Each of you are going to have to wash, dry and fold a pile all by yourself!

Kids: YAY!!!

Apparently that was the point...they wanted to do laundry! Ok, maybe not but they were all excited about it. The oldest, Boo, now has her load in and when she swaps it to the dryer, Roo is going to start her load and the Loo! She is the lucky one who gets the smallish load!

We have also decided we are doing one load a day and each family member is responsible for one day...including the three year old! I am sure she will need a helping hand with the detergent but she can start it, transfer to dryer and fold to the best of her ability. 

Oh, and me? Well I get the 29 pair of jeans :)

{Project Life} It's Here!

I have been a scrapbooker for years. When I first really started was when I got married, about 10 years ago. With only a family of two, one of the rooms in our 4 bedroom house became my scrapbook room. I spent hours sometimes tediously working to create the perfect layouts. I had every color eyelet I think that Making Memories sold! I had distressing kits, dyes, sizzix machine and a cricut. I subscribed to Creating Keepsakes magazine and soon felt like I knew people named Lisa, Becky, Heidi and Ali. They were my best friends, or at least my scrapping idols. I had their books and products and loved them!

Fast forward to having kids. I couldn't fit in the time to scrap like I used to and if the pages couldn't be that good then what was the point. Slowly my tools and supplies got packed into boxes and in their place were cribs, toys and kids books. I loved my new life but desperately missed being creative.

In the Summer of 2010 my dear friend Annisa introduced me to digital scrapbooking and I fell in love as many of you know. However,  I wasn't getting the layouts printed and couldn't keep up with just the everyday moments in life. I love digi-scrapping (I now design kits too) but I wanted an easy way to keep up with just the daily life stuff.  It needed to be simple. It couldn't be messy. Had to be affordable.

Remember Becky, my BFF/idol, who I had read and followed in the magazine? She has come out with a incredible way to do just that. It is called Project Life and I have the Amber edition! It is a quick and hassle free way to have an incredible scrapbook. Print photos, pop them in the page protectors, journal on the cute journal blocks she has to match and voila...you are on your way.

My boxes arrived tonight from Amazon and I am super excited. Even the boxes look cool to me!

My Album and 

The big box houses the album. I got the amber edition because it was on sale awhile back. Next year I am getting Clementine though :). This is a great album to in that it lays completely flat. I LOVE that!

I currently have only one style of the photo pocket pages (B), but have wish listed many more! She has the most creative pocket pages so you feel like you can have a ton of variety with your "layouts" at the same time!

Remember that  little box in the first picture? Well this is the one I couldn't wait to get! Inside this box lays the secret to the ease and beauty of Project Life.

Top off doesn't it look pretty!

It contains stickers to label pictures or journaling in cleared and colored. It also has bi-fold cards for the days when you have a little more journaling then you thought!

It has a bunch of  4X6 space filler cards that match the kit as well as over 400 journaling cards to put into the journaling pages. They also have cute filler cards and did I mention they all come in amazingly cute boxes! I can so use those afterward for something. I am sure of it!

I am super excited because this is going to produce a great album at the end of the year and it happens to also be easy, straight-forward and in a way that is still super cute! I will try to post pictures randomly throughout the year of my project as it takes shape! So many thanks to my BFF Becky from your BFF that you don't know, Aly!

One last view of awesomeness!

PS. If you want to find out more about Project Life you can also just go to Becky's site! You can also stalk er um follow her on FB!

Christmas Lesssons: Gratefulness

This Christmas season has already been a challenge for me. I adore Christmas and all that comes along with it. However I just can't get into it this year. We are somewhere new. No family in the area.  I feel lonely. I don't even want to give my kids presents (at certain moments of the day) as they don't seem to be grateful for the ones they have.

Gratefulness. There is so much in that word that doesn't come naturally for most of us...or at least me. It is one of the things I want to learn the most in my life. I want to be content with what I have and even more then that grateful for it. I don't want to care if we could have something bigger or better or more of  something. I want to be thoroughly happy and enjoy immensely what everything I have. Take nothing for granted.

So today I am choosing to be grateful.
Grateful to have family that loves me and are blessed with homes to keep them warm no matter where those homes are.
Grateful to have children who play with their toys that are littering their floors.
Grateful to have hands that can help them pick them up.
Grateful to have a home that our family can stretch out in and play in and share our love in.

Grateful for what I have.
At this moment.
In my home.
In my heart.

I found this video and just made me really ponder these things. They are grateful for cup of noodles and cards from strangers. Hence a few more things I am grateful for.

Grateful to have the freedom to walk out my door and to a mall and not have to worry about being blown up at a stoplight.
Grateful to be able to worship a Saviour that came to earth freely and with no fear.
Grateful because soldiers through time have spent their Christmas away from families so that I can have these freedoms.

So to these soldiers, on behalf of a grateful heart today, thank you from every corner of my heart!
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Life Lessons: Teaching how to ride a bike

We watched movie yesterday about people biking down the continental divide from Banff Canada to Mexico. It is an amazing journey that few have tried and even fewer actually finish. Will have to remember to post about it later (if I remember LOL).

Boo, my oldest,  is always inspired by these kind of things and this movie was no exception. I was inundated with questions on if she could do it, how hard is it fix a bike and finally the one I didn't want to hear in December. Can you teach me to ride my bike?

Rewind to our old home. We didn't have a paved driveway. We had one filled with rocks and ruts. So when they tried to ride,  honestly it was just easier with training wheels. We tried once or twice maybe.

Fast Forward to our new home. We now live in a nice development with wide sidewalks and a paved driveway and cul-de-sac's. So I took her out and tried to help her learn. After watching her carefully I realized what her issue was and once I talked with her about it and kept yelling "Keep peddling" "Tell your brain you can" and "Keep your body straight" it was like she just took off.

I took her to a cul-de-sac and decided to video tape her for all to see. She was doing so good going around and around. When I finally got the video tape going she decided apparently to give us a surprise ending :). Enjoy watching it!



So have you ever tried to teach your kids how to ride a bike? How did they do? Any funny stories?

Love,
Aly

PS. My youngest, Loo, told me she thought I could do the Great Divide trail. Glad she believes in me but don't see that as a journey I would ever want to do!