A dress and 15 boxes of cereal!

It's time for Not Me! Monday (a blog carnival created by MckMama; you can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have NOT been doing - but really have!).

Around here: (Hint: If you get confused, just remove the words in my post that are in all caps and you'll know the truth!):

I did NOT sew my 1st dress over the weekend!
I'm NOT so excited that it is going to a little girl in Africa through Kristin at We are THAT Family's Do It For Others project!

I did NOT love every minute of making it and a hundred times imagine the face of a sweet little girl in Africa when she sees her new dress!

I'm NOT having just a bit of trouble typing this due to a band-aid on the end of one of my fingers!


I did NOT go to the grocery store one day last week with my 3 kids and buy 15 boxes of cereal! The checker, sacker, and assist. manager who was helping sack did NOT make just a little bit of fun of me! The checker did NOT laugh and say, "Yeah, when we were growing up that's all my mom fed us -- cereal!"

Rather than carefully explaining my methodology of stock-pile shopping where when I buy a non-perishable item we need I go ahead and buy a ton of it so I can skip that aisle of the grocery for the next several shopping trips and not have the item just showing right back up on my grocery list, I did NOT just nod and laugh along with them as if that is really all I feed my kids!

My toddler was NOT sitting in the back part of the grocery cart and totally buried in cereal boxes! When he popped out of the cereal box fort/avalanche, cereal boxes did NOT go flying!

You can always go downtown.

It's time for Not Me! Monday (a blog carnival created by MckMama; you can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have NOT been doing - but really have!).

Around here: (Hint: If you get confused, just remove the words in my post that are in all caps and you'll know the truth!):

This weekend we did NOT let our children gallivant around downtown in their swimsuits and goggles!

My 3 year old did NOT think that wall was made of Legos! Sure looks like it, though!

But the real destination downtown was NOT this fountain, that cycles from this (and my daughter is NOT running through the fountain with her doll):
To this:

To this:


And that kid in the green floral swimsuit bent over with his head completely in the fountain spray?
NOT my 3 year old!

****No dollies were harmed during the making of this post -- "Jennifer" is fully water-proof! It is actually very cool how well she dries out and my daughter loves having a baby to take in the bathtub, pool, and yes, even running through fountains with her! Here's a link if you'd like to get one for a little girl in your life:Corolle Tidoo Suce Pouce in Pajamas - 12" Doll****

Livin' Large!

It's time for Not Me! Monday (a blog carnival created by MckMama; you can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have NOT been doing - but really have!).

Around here: (Hint: If you get confused, just remove the words in my post that are in all caps and you'll know the truth!)

• We did NOT pick 16 pounds of blueberries on Saturday (doubling our total from last year)!

• This is NOT me showing off my nearly full bucket!

• My children do NOT absolutely love blueberry picking for about 30 minutes and then begin getting a little sweaty and whiney.

• And when that happened and one of my kids asked when we could go home I did NOT reply with, "When your bucket is full."

• A cherry cola icee is NOT the perfect ending to a morning of blueberry picking!

• We did NOT eat the best blueberry pancakes for dinner Saturday night!

• Also this weekend we did NOT take our biannual family trip to the movie theater and see Toy Story 3. Did NOT love it in a big way!

• When my husband went to get drinks and popcorn at the movie theater concessions (did I mention we only go twice a year, so it's all-out when we go?!) he did NOT return with drinks the movie theater called size "small" but required me to hold with 2 hands! My 3 year old did NOT proceed to drink nearly all of his during the movie and yet somehow manage to make it to the last 4 minutes of the movie before loudly announcing (for all the theater to hear) that he needed to go potty!

• He did NOT go at the movie theater and then have to go again about 10 minutes later! No idea how his little body held all that liquid or why my husband (who was sitting by the 3 year old in the movie) let him drink the whole thing!
  

Happy Monday!

Joy on a Monday

It's time for Not Me! Monday (a blog carnival created by MckMama; you can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have NOT been doing - but really have!).

Around here: (Hint: If you get confused, just remove the words in my post that are in all caps and you'll know the truth!)

My 3 year old is NOT completely enamored with his shadow, delighting in pointing it out whenever it appears! I do NOT wonder why we as adults have lost the ability to find joy in our shadows.
My daughter does NOT occasionally exhibit some unusual fashion sense. It's not every day you see somebody sporting a strawberry shortcake hat, Wonder Woman cape, princess dress, and two different dress-up shoes (all while carrying a baby carrier, no less)! But at least she still lets me pick out her clothes most days!

Happy Monday! I'm keeping it short so I can rest up for a swim meet night tonight. I get to spend 4 hours being "team mom" for 34 seven and eight year old boys. Jealous? How about if I add on the guarantee of hearing arm farts for 98% of those 4 hours (the other 2% of the time the boys are swimming)?

How an Uncrafty Person Recovers Patio Furniture

I'm bringing you a crafty version of Not Me, Monday (Not Me! Monday is a blog carnival created by MckMama; you can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have NOT been doing - but really have!)!

**Hint: If you get confused, just remove the words in my post that are in all caps and you'll know the truth!**

I did NOT jump all over the suggestion of exactly one person who commented on my blog post from Friday who said they'd like to see pictures of the cushions I recovered for my outdoor patio furniture!

I am NOT posting a crafty tutorial as if I am an expert!

** Disclaimer I had no idea what I was doing. I just made up a process as I went along. I am happy with the outcome but have no guarantee it will hold up to the test of time! **

So here you go.

How I, an uncrafty person, recovered my patio furniture cushions:

Before my cushions (2 chair cushions and 1 bench cushion) were terribly stained. Too many times hosting kid birthday parties, too many nights of our neighbor's cats sleeping on them, too many coatings with yellow pollen that blows through the air freely for a couple months every spring all contributed to the ugliness.

I went to the fabric store and because I am cheap I limited my choices to the discount fabric. I found some great fabric for around $2.00 per yard. The material is not technically outdoor fabric, but the furniture is under a roof and the material is rough textured and stiff so it seems like moisture would not absorb too easily and some debris would brush off.

I am uncrafty so I didn't really closely measure and pretty much just guessed and got 5 yards (I ended up with a bunch extra but I'm glad to have spare in case a cushion needs to be recovered in the future.)

I cut the fabric to wrap around each cushion and then pretended like I was wrapping a present.
Only instead of using tape, I hand stitched the fabric to the cushion in a few different spots using heavy-duty thread. The heavy-duty thread I had on hand was a beige type color and it would have been much better to use a color that exactly blended with my fabric, but I was worried that adding another trip to the store for this project just may have been enough to put it over the edge into the land-of-projects-I-plan-but-never-accomplish, so I foraged ahead with the mismatched thread, knowing the goal was not perfection!

I folded over the edges that would end up showing on the outside before I stitched them to the cushion to get a clean edge without hemming.

And the finished product:

And here's what they look like on the furniture:

I did the bench cushion first. I wanted to tackled the hardest part first because I thought once I got it over with then I'd surely be motivated to finish the other cushions because I'd just have the easy chair ones left. But, in hindsight, I wish I'd done the bench last because I learned so much during the process and got better with each cushion. For the bench I actually used a combination of stapling the fabric and sewing it, but I realized the staples didn't work very well and hated the areas where I could see staples showing. I ended up adding a ribbon trim to 2 ends to cover staples, but that step would have been unnecessary if I'd just stitched it all to begin with!

I really love the way it turned out. I hope it holds up over time. But if not, I'm only out about $10 and a few hours of my time (the bench took me a couple hours and the chairs about 45 min. each) and for now it looks so much better than the stained fabric!!

If I can do it, you can too! From a girl who actually managed to poke herself in the lip with a needle during this process, trust me on that one, and also trust me that you should not attempt to hold the needle with your mouth while you position fabric!

Find more Homemaker Mondays, Made it Monday, Just Something I Whipped Up, Metamorphosis Monday, Tackle it Tuesday, Works for Me Wednesday.

Dirtier than a dog!

It's time for Not Me! Monday (a blog carnival created by MckMama; you can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have NOT been doing - but really have!).

**Hint: If you get confused, just remove the words in my post that are in all caps and you'll know the truth!**

It's NOT me who looked over during my 7 year old's baseball game to find my 4 year old daughter and another little sister of a boy on our team showering my toddler with water from a large mud puddle that they scooped up in a plastic water bottle they found on the ground!

And even if I did happen upon the scene of my toddler gleefully leaning his head down allowing the girls to shower him and then looking up as the muddy water ran down his hair and face, I did NOT dissolve into a fit of giggles before I could compose myself enough to tell the girls to stop.

My toddler was NOT such a gross-looking sight that I spent the rest of the game trying to pretend he wasn't my child! NOPE, NOT ME!

A parent brought their dog with them to the game and at one point the dog nearly ran through the mud puddle but the owner stopped it just in time and I did NOT turn to my friend and say, "It's pretty bad when their dog is cleaner than my kid!"

When we got home from the game my 7 year old did NOT refuse to shower with his little brother because he didn't want any of his brother's dirt to get on him! "When you have a really dirty guy, he can't shower with a medium dirty guy." My oldest son reasoned pointing to his little brother on the "really dirty guy" part and himself on the "medium dirty guy" part!

Find more Mama Guilt Mondays here.

To eat or not to eat?

For Not Me! Monday (a blog carnival created by MckMama; you can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have NOT been doing - but really have!) I thought I'd confess something about my parenting:

I do NOT occasionally allow my children to eat off the floor (or ground).

My rules around this are NOT so gray that my older children will drop something and then ask me if they can eat it!

These are NOT some of the guidelines I follow regarding allowing my children to eat dropped food:

• Food dropped on the kitchen floor shortly after it's been mopped -- go ahead and eat it!
• Food dropped on the kitchen floor when it really, really needs to be mopped -- don't eat it!

• Food dropped outside in the grass - yeah, just pick off the grass and eat it.
• Food dropped outside in the dirt or mulch - don't eat it!

• Food dropped in the service station while the car is getting a "15 minute oil change" that has now taken 45 minutes, I am nearly out snacks and the toddler's exhausted the very few things I brought to entertain him - eat the food, that is the least of my worries right now!
• Food dropped anywhere in McDonalds - Gross! Don't eat it!

I had this scenario just last week and discovered a new rule (the one I'm now most proud of)

• Food dropped someplace I deem "clean enough" - eat it!
• Food dropped someplace I deem "clean enough" but I see another adult looking at my kid - "No, don't eat that off the floor! It's dirty!" I say to my child not because I'm really worried about them eating the food but just to avoid being labeled a "bad parent".
  

Happy Monday, everyone!

Find more Mama Guilt Mondays here.

The post that is NOT about shoes

It's Not Me! Monday (a blog carnival created by MckMama; you can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have NOT been doing - but really have!)

On Friday, I did NOT finally get so tired of picking my 1st grader (who knows how to tie his shoe laces, but just often chooses not to) up at school to find his shoes like this:

that I said, "That's it! We are going back to Velcro shoes!"

My son is actually thrilled with his new tennis shoes/water sandals, so it's a win for everyone! (I'm sure his teacher was tired of seeing him with his shoes untied all day, too!)


We did NOT have a conversation that went like this:
Me: "Doesn't it bother you having your laces flapping around every time you walk?"
7 year old: looks at me confused as if he can't understand why that would bother anyone
Me: "Well, it bothers me when your laces are flapping around like that!"

And while I'm denying things, that afternoon when I had all 3 of my children in the Stride Rite store, there is NO WAY each of them measured a full one to one & a half size larger than the shoes they wore into the store. As a mother, I am totally on top of my kids' foot growth and never let them wear shoes that are too small to the point that one of my children looked worried when trying on a shoe that actually fit and said, "It feels funny!" and I had to explain that it would feel different but your toe is not actually supposed to be up against the front of your shoes. NOPE, NOT ME!!

And since I truly am a lover of the $15 Target shoes over the Stride Rite shoes, there is NO WAY Stride Rite won me over with their "Buy one pair, get one half off sale" to the point that I actually wished we already had our 4th child because once we picked out a pair of shoes for all 3 of my kids, I had to go and buy my daughter a 2nd pair of shoes to really maximize the sale!

And my final shoe confession: When my 4 year old daughter desperately wanted to wear her new white sandals to church this morning, I did NOT refuse to let her and say, "You can't wear white shoes before Easter!" Seriously, I would NEVER follow such an arbitrary fashion rule!

And when she asked why her little brother got to wear his new sandals when she couldn't wear hers, I did NOT answer, "Well, his sandals are brown, and that's a year 'round color."

Find more Mama Guilt Mondays here.

Not another picture of the potty!

It's Not Me! Monday (a blog carnival created by MckMama; you can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have NOT been doing - but really have!)

We did NOT go camping last week with our 3 children ages 7, 4, and 2.

And this is most certainly NOT a picture of the side of our tent, with the little blue potty out for all the world to see! We were NOT too lazy to walk the 5 minute walk down to the potties every time one of the little kids had to go, thus using the "tent potty" often!

Speaking of potty breaks, during the car trip to camping, while we were right smack dab in the middle of nowhere, my 7 year old did NOT suddenly announce he had to go potty RIGHT NOW and could only wait one minute! I did NOT launch into a long lecture about the fact that the human bladder does not in fact fill up all of the sudden, but gradually over a period of time and thus he could have told us sooner before he had to go so bad! Those 2 biochemistry classes I took in college are NOT paying off!

After we got home, we did NOT spend the last half of Spring Break sleeping in! I am NOT in love with Daylight Savings time and the fact that my boys who always rise by 7AM slept until 8 every morning!

And in case you missed my post over the weekend. I did NOT spend a good portion of my Friday night creating a fanny pack for my blog!

Can't wait to hear what you've NOT been up to!

Caught on Camera

***This was originally published Feb. 8, 2009. The ages of my children have changed by about a year, but basically all this kind of stuff still happens!***

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! In this blog carnival created by MckMama everyone has fun telling all the things they DID NOT do (but really did). You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week. This is my first stab at a Not Me! post but surprisingly I could think of tons of things I DID NOT do, so here goes!

I DID NOT catch my 1 year-old eating a cracker with completely filthy, dirty, black hands!

I most certainly DID NOT take a picture to document this filthy cracker hand for all the world to marvel at my super parenting abilities! Seriously, y'all, how does a hand get that dirty and then get a cracker without a mother noticing?


I DID NOT happen to find this article entitled, "Babies Know: A Little Dirt Is Good for You" that same day by chance and declare myself an awesome mother for allowing my kid to eat dirt that very morning!


I DID NOT spend an entire week documenting every moment with the bunny mascot from my daughter's preschool class so we could complete the Bunny Journal.

And when my little girl woke up the night before the bunny had to be returned to school crying that she didn't want to take Benjamin Bunny back to school, I definitely DID NOT wildly dig through our stuffed animal bin, pull out a white bunny from the bottom and declare it Benjamin Bunny's long lost sister Becca Bunny who could stay at our house forever and ever! No, I would NOT do that because that would be mind games and I DO NOT subject my children to that sort of fantasy world! And, by the way my daughter DID NOT fall for the long lost sister bit and is NOT now carrying Becca Bunny everywhere!


We DID NOT go to the car show and let our 3 children climb all over, rub fingerprints on, and pretend drive all the brand new cars while the salespeople frowned at them!



My cart DID NOT look like this leaving Target on Friday. We DO NOT attract attention from other storegoers when my 5 year-old chooses to ride in the bottom like this!



Okay, now your turn, what did you NOT DO this past week?

The dogs are taking over!

I love Not Me! Monday (a blog carnival created by MckMama) because it gives us all a chance to relate in a real, every day life kind of way. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have NOT been doing - but really have!

Around here:

A stuffed bulldog is NOT threatening to take over the place!

In case you can't read his shirt, here is a close up of the words "I've decided to put myself in charge."

And the real dog in the right background of the first picture? Does NOT wake us up at 5:30AM to go out every morning. NO, we have 3 young children who sleep through the night, there is NO WAY we are getting up with our dog at 5:30AM! And by "we" I do NOT mean my husband. I do NOT rationalize that I paid my middle-of-the-night-dues during the infancy days of our 3 children!

Not My Son's Toenails!

It's Not Me! Monday (a blog carnival created by MckMama; you can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have NOT been doing - but really have!)

Around our house:

There was NOT a time in the last couple weeks when I was stuck at home with an extremely snotty toddler plus a wheezy-sounding 4 year old and I was dying to do something besides wipe a nose or run the nebulizer machine so I suggested the activity of painting our toenails to my daughter just to entertain myself. She does NOT love having me paint her toenails!

But, after my daughter and I painted our toenails, my 2 year old son did NOT decide he really, really wanted to have his toenails painted. And for the record, my toddler is NOT AT ALL loud when he is expressing a desire for something.

I did NOT cave and decide it was not a battle worth fighting. I most assuredly explained that boys don't wear toenail polish. My daughter and I did NOT just declare that the brown nail polish could be a suitable boy color and paint his toenails to make him happy.

This is NOT a picture of my son's painted toenails!
Now, a full 11 days later, the toe nail polish is NOT still there!

And speaking of still there. . .

Our temperature has been well above freezing for nearly 2 weeks now, in the 70s, even. So, the diapers are most certainly NOT still plastered on the outside of my home to insulate the pipes!


I can't wait to hear what you've all NOT been up to!

Blogoversary!

It's Not Me! Monday (a blog carnival created by MckMama; you can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have NOT been doing - but really have!)

It was NOT ME who let my 1 year blogoversary pass without even mentioning it!

It was NOT ME who didn't even know what a blogoversary was a little over a year ago (for anyone still in that boat, it is the anniversary of when you began your blog).

It was NOT ME who had the thought that beginning a blog over the holidays (Dec. 28, 2008) is rather inconvenient when it comes to celebrating an anniversary.

It is NOT ME who believes because it is my blog I can observe my blogoversary whenever I want.

Therefore I will NOT be celebrating this week with my 1st ever giveaway, with the details announced tomorrow, so check back then!

It is NOT ME who has loved sharing in this community with all of you readers this past year and so I will NOT be giving one of you something that is sure to change your life (in a good way)!

Is it all over?

For this post-holiday Not Me! Monday (a blog carnival created by MckMama; you can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have NOT been doing - but really have!) I am NOT going to bombard you with a bunch of random pictures from the last few weeks!

I am NOT a little sad to see the Parade O' Christmas go away. Good thing the real Jesus never leaves us!

I was NOT too cheap to buy any wrapping paper this year and did NOT resort to wrapping the kids' gifts in white paper with small wrapping paper accents when last year's supply of gift wrap began to run out!

I did NOT impose the rule of taking turns opening presents on Christmas morning to help everyone savor the gifts more. NO WAY would I sneak a little patience training into Christmas morning!
I did NOT eat way too many of the homemade doughnuts we make every Christmas morning. It is NOT a good thing we only make them once a year!
I did NOT enjoy hanging out with these 3 adventurers all day, every day during the break and am NOT kinda sorry school starts back on Tuesday!

And behind them on the back of the couch? Most definitely NOT clothes waiting to be put away!

Last, I did NOT ring in the new year by sharing some big news with you! If you missed it, click here to read up on the new chaos!

Now, I'm NOT planning to spend the rest of my Monday patting myself on the back for getting all the Christmas stuff packed away and wondering just how I'm going to get the kids out of the pajamas they've grown so accustomed to wearing all day during the break and into school clothes on Tuesday morning!

Caught Red-Handed

It's Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have NOT been doing (but really have!).

Around here:

It was NOT me who let my children do this last week!


If you wonder what it is they are NOT doing, check out my post here and you'll understand.

Only this year, it was wet outside on the day I wanted to do this little activity, so I did NOT decide to just put down some sheets and do it in my kitchen, my kitchen with white floor and white cabinets (well, formerly white floors and cabinets)! I am NOT that crazy!

Oh wait, maybe I am!!!

And the Mr. Clean eraser is NOT my new best friend!

Happy Monday!

I was NOT here

I'm easing back into the real world after a holiday with Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have NOT been doing (but really have!).

While on my bloggy break I was NOT here with my family of 5:


And if we were at Disney World beginning the Saturday before Thanksgiving and flying back home on Thanksgiving Day. There is NO WAY we were blessed enough to enjoy both a vacation trip and a traditional Thanksgiving with relatives when my husband's parents came to visit us the Friday after Thanksgiving!

Considering my daughter's extreme life-sized character phobia, that is definitely NOT her standing in front of a huge Pooh and Tigger without freaking out! Impossible!!


And this? Where she actually handed the character a pen for an autograph? NEVER happened!


And I did NOT cave to the Disneyness-once-in-a-lifetime-experience of it all and allow my daughter to be transformed into princess Belle!
And the make-up they sent her home with in that pink bag? I did NOT hide immediately upon us returning home for my daughter to wear again when she's oh about 16 or 17 years old!

I'm NOT putting off my 1st post-Thanksgiving Shred workout until tomorrow! NOPE, NOT ME!!

You wouldn't believe it if I told you!

Somehow we are never at a loss for Not Me! Monday blog material around here! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have NOT been doing this week!

At our house:

When I walked into the playroom one day last week I did NOT step in hundreds of tiny, multicolored, grain-like things. As I scanned the room that was coated in the stuff, I really couldn't for the life of me figure out what it was! I looked at Toddler and asked, "What is all this stuff?" Toddler did NOT explain it all in one word, "beanbag".
Oh yes! A beanbag game was recently introduced into our playroom and a beanbag did NOT meet its demise. It is NOT absolutely amazing how many grains fit in one small beanbag!!

Considering the morning beanbag mess, Toddler absolutely did NOT again coat his room in powder during his naptime that afternoon! I did NOT have to laugh at the sight of the powdered truck, despite the mess. And considering that my toddler has pulled the coating-his-room-in-baby-powder trick before, there is NO WAY I accidentally left the powder on top of his tall dresser again after a diaper change, rather than putting it in the top bathroom cabinet where I've been keeping it since the last incident!!!

My daughter did NOT create all these crafts during one 3 hour stay at preschool this past week. Talk about crafts gone wild! I don't think I could make that much in 3 days, much less 3 hours!

And my 4 year old daughter did NOT get yet another gift from The Boy Friend. This gift was NOT created at his home and delivered to my daughter the next morning on our way into preschool. It was NOT in a homemade gift bag and did NOT appear to be a crown and jewelry that he made for her! My husband is NOT having a hard time with the idea of his 4 year old daughter getting jewelry gifts from a boy!!


I did NOT encourage her to write him a thank-you card and thus create another young love scene at preschool the next day when she handed him her homemade card in the hallway!