finding my groove again

I have been having some issues with being motivated lately. Not feeling the mojo of creating. Chores are done but only when absolutely necessary. My blog... so far behind. And I won't mention my Project Life blog that is crying out to be updated. 

I am thinking it is the winter time draining me. Short daylight hours and long nights. WHEN the sun shines it is not nearly as bright as I would like so I feel disappointed.

Then this happens.....

This amazing sunrise. Happened to capture it this morning. I LOVE the pink in the blue sky. I love the snow clinging to the branches and blanketing everything. So fresh. So full of possibilities. 

This will help and it is now my wallpaper so I can look at it when things don't look so bright.

Find  your inspiration and grab it firmly with both hands. We can survive winter.

what's been happening

I feel so behind in EVERYTHING!! I have not had a free moment to get my thoughts together enough to blog in ages. Crazy time of year. But I do have some pictures to share of what we have been up to. At least some of the time!

We decorated the tree. This is the first year since hubby and I have been together that the tree does not contain a single Hallmark ornament!! This year for my sanity, I decided that I was not unwrapping six huge totes of Hallmark ornaments and putting them all on the tree while the kids ran around playing and ignoring hubby and I. It was a very liberating moment. Instead we purchased a few sets of ornaments at Walmart and some new white lights. The colors on the tree are red, silver, gold-ish and brown. Very pretty. I think Kira misses the Hallmarks as she would not participate in the decorating but she didn't help when we had the others either!! 

Alex however was all for helping! And a big step in my letting go this holiday season... I did not move a single ornament after he placed them. So what if two snowflakes ended up right next to each other. It is a wonderful tree and I am so happy he enjoyed decorating it with us!!

Our elf on the shelf has returned for the holiday season and brought a new friend. We now have Scout and Cookie and they have been having a great time getting into trouble and just plain being silly. That will have to be a whole series of posts to share their holiday adventures!!

On this day, they had left the kids new Angry Birds jammies!! Can you tell they like them??

We went to the annual Christmas party at the Rec Center while daddy was working one Saturday. Oh so much fun!! Kira had Rudolph painted on her cheek and was very proud to show him off.

Santa even came to visit!! The kids said he looked silly with his painted white eyebrows but still managed to tell him what they wanted. Adorable!!

Alex won one of the raffles!! This huge and soft bear is named Edgar Six (and yes there are five more bears named Edgar in our house) He was so happy!!!

We also took the kids to see Santa at the Burlington Mall in Massachusetts. I love the set up they have for Santa and they are always so friendly and kind to the kids. We love going there. The kids enjoy it because we go to the Rainforest Cafe for lunch. Christmas traditions.

I LOVE this picture that the photographer captured. AMAZING!! Then they even emailed me the other three they had taken. Pretty stinking cool. I think it was an oops but I am taking it and am now the proud owner of four great pictures with Santa for this year!!

I have also been a baking fool for the past three weeks. My kitchen and I need to separate as my hubby is missing me. But totally loving the cookies!! After breakfast this morning I need to get baking again and finish wrapping presents. Going to be a busy one.

I hope everyone has a great Christmas! I do hope to be around more in the New Year!! 

did you feel that?

Tonight we had a bit of a scare at the house. There was a 4.5 earthquake in Maine which shook us here in New Hampshire. Heck, I have friends in Rhode Island that felt it. (story) 

I would like to say I felt it, but alas I did not. Alex and I were downstairs getting him ready for bed while Kira went upstairs to finish her bedtime prep. I heard a rumble which I thought was a train since they go by all the time and have become common place for us (twelve years will do that to you) and didn't think anything of it...

Until Kira came running down the stairs freaking out. I mean seriously I thought she had come face to face with a live critter in her room she was so scared. She tried to explain to me that the house shook and she felt a bang. I start thinking that maybe a branch had smacked into the house from our two maple trees that need to be removed before they actually do fall on the house. It was quite windy today and it could have happened.

I got dressed for the weather (chilly) and went out to investigate turning on all the outside lights that I could. Grabbed the flashlight too to scare away whatever might have been climbing the house (hey you never know!) Checked the back of the house by Kira's room. Nothing. Roof looked good. Side of the house looked good. Time to check the front of the house. No major branches on the ground or against the house. Walked up the front lawn to the road to see if anything had landed on the roof- nope nothing up there either.

Having no clue and the house looked good, I went back inside to tuck the little monsters in for the night. As we were all getting into the fun of relaxing and going to sleep, the phone rang. Hubby calling. He asked if I felt it. Felt what?? That is when he told me about the earthquake that I missed even though I was in the thick of it. I heard it, does that count?? And it did freak my munchkin out so I guess I can say I survived it.

Then I hopped on to Facebook and man... what a chatty bunch of characters I call my friends. My whole news feed was about the earthquake. Then my cell beeped with the update from the local television station. I feel so left out. Like I missed something big.

Of course I say this in with a note of humor, I do not need to live through anything bigger than that or any closer. Being on the outskirts suits me just fine for this type of adventure.

May your day be house shaking free!

rainbows, big girl and day old balloons

Fun title for a fun post! We went home to Syracuse this past weekend to celebrate Kira's eleventh birthday with family and friends. We had a good time and even got to catch a few pictures of this great double rainbow at my parents house. The second one to the right (check down by the tree line) is the reversed image of the brighter one. The colors are backwards. Alex noticed right away. Such a smarty pants.

I grabbed Kira for a few outdoor pictures to remember her on this big birthday. I can't believe she is 11. I mean seriously... where has that time gone? This is my mom's Charlie Brown tree. At least it was until it grew up. Poor thing was decorated on its first year for Christmas and looked so sad and pathetic. Looking much better now.

The day after all the fun of the party and there sits the balloons. The mylar one is still hanging at the ceiling but the fun color ones are relegated to the floor.

The kids are in Syracuse spending some quality time with Nana and Papa. I'm sure they'll also get some time hanging with Grandpa too. This of course means that hubby and I are foot loose and fancy kid free adults. I love the kids vacation time!

cookies and scout

This was in Alex's room from Scout. Alex LOVES his Hershey Kisses so these were a nice treat. And the best part, he knew not to eat them until after breakfast! I don't think he ate them until after school that day. Such a good boy.

 Scout was hanging out in Kira's room on her alarm clock, Ashley.

This was the message that Scout left for Kira. Guess he noticed her not listening to us yesterday. ;)

 After school Alex found that Scout had rearranged the days on the advent calendar. He was putting everything back in order for me. He knows how I am. Such a good boy!!

Then he spent the day in our tree hanging out with his friends. He also happened to snag a piece of a spritz cookie to nibble on while he was there!

Here is the process of baking said spritz cookies the day before. My helper was Kira on this day. She loves using the cookie press and it was nice to have the help.

They were so busy eating they didn't want me to take a picture. LOL

Need to get the other Scout pictures off my camera. Maybe tomorrow after the craziness of the day. Gonna miss that little rascal around here.

Merry Christmas everyone!!

and the fun continues

This morning we found Scout hanging out on Kira's book shelves doing a bit of light reading. I think he liked this book as he was practically at the end by the time the kids woke up!

The day before, he went to spend some quality time with our Pooh tree topper. Both of the kids were giving Pooh all sorts of loving before he was placed at the top of the tree on Saturday night. Guess Scout missed Pooh as much as the kids did.

Saturday hubby and the kiddos went to see the new Pokemon movie that was playing in limited theaters across the country. Thank goodness we had one close enough to us (in Massachusetts) that they could go to. Scout was sitting on the half wall wearing Kira's Pikachu hat all ready to go to the movies. Alex was trying to figure out how to grab him so he could go with them. Pretty stinking cute.

Friday morning found Scout leaving a little note for the kiddos on the white board.

He even watched over Alex while he was sleeping. He looks like he belongs on that shelf!!

I wonder where he will end up tonight?? Hard to tell with that little guy.

popsicle stick trees

I must confess my love affair with Pinterest. There are so many amazing crafts and ideas and stuff to look at. I will admit that sometimes I may not get to all my crafting because I am busy pinning things to work on later. Sad but true.

Anywho... I found these popsicle stick trees on Pinterest and knew I had to make them for the PTA Turn Off TV Week raffle baskets. I am working on creating a basket of handmade Christmas goodies to be raffled off in March. Yes, I am a little bit ahead of myself, but I want this done so I can create a few more baskets of goodies for the school. We'll see!!

After checking the link on Pinterest and not finding any directions (bummer) I did find some directions here at You Can Do It! I guess the original post that should have had directions was actually for a contest and the contest is done so all entries were erased. Thankfully Rebecca had gotten the instructions and then posted them on her blog. whew!!

I had to improvise and figure out sizes of branches and such, but I am totally happy with how these came out. Take a peek....

I got the larger popsicle sticks, a bag of wooden stars (1 1/2 inch size) and a bag of wooden blocks (one inch size) from Michaels. They do have the pre-painted and decorated stars, but for about the same amount of money, I could make my own and have extras in case I want to do this project again!! The wire on the two small trees, I had in my stash as all the paints were there too!

I have been painting sticks for days and I never thought I would finish. I was so happy yesterday when I started dotting the branches (end of my paint brush and I also used a dry embossing tool to do the small dots) and could see the end coming to this project! The larger trees are made with two popsicle sticks that have been trimmed and one of the branches holds both sections together. I used craft glue on the dotted branches and used hot glue for the wire branches and to attach the trees to the bases. It seemed to hold better and quicker than the craft glue and think I would use that if I did it again.

Sizes and quantities used....
SMALL TREES- trunk 1 stick, branch sizes- 2",2 1/4", 2 3/4", 3 1/4", 3 3/4"
LARGE TREES- trunk 2 sticks one cut off 1 1/2" and the second cut off 1", branch sizes- 1 1/4", 1 1/2", 1 3/4", 2", 2 1/4", 2 1/2", 2 3/4"

To give the trees support, I glued three sticks together lengthwise (and painted them) which is attached to the back of the tree (once the branches are attached). I used one more single stick to attach the whole tree to the base. I put this stick about halfway down on the back of the base to give support once everything was attached. Hope that makes sense.

And the sizes of the branches are totally what I came up with. Maybe you want thinner or fatter trees... I wanted to give some sizes for you to start with. Have fun with this. I know I did.

almost friday!

Here's a couple of pictures from last week. First one is of Kira from her Court of Awards ceremony for Girl Scouts. So cute. If she keeps growing at the rate she is... That vest will be tiny on her at the end of next year!

One night while I was reading to Alex, we heard some animal making very loud noises in the front yard. Almost sounded like a bird or a bat. Then there was two or three of these animals making noise. Lovely... what woodland critter is hanging in my front yard?

Come to find out it's this little lady and her babies. We're not sure if they fell out of the tree or fell off her back when she was bringing them up or down the tree, but they were lost and she was calling to them to get them back to her. VERY LOUD!! I never knew that raccoons made noise, much less the loud ones that this little family was making.

It took us a bit of time to find the source of the noise as the front tree area needs some major professional work (one of the trees broke during the wind storm in February 2010 and the parts that got cut off were left for us to dispose of by the power company) But we found her. Hubby continued to watch her while I got the kids to bed. Then he told me that one of the babies had gotten hit by a car on the road. Why the raccoon had to cross the road is beyond me, but she did. I felt horrible. He said that the hurt one kept walking up and down the road on the side calling to his mommy. Very sad.

The next day (and when hubby got this picture) we found the baby in the front yard very near the tree base. He didn't make it. The mommy kept coming down the tree and going over to it. Very very sad. Hubby got rid of it when he mowed the lawn. In the morning, we found another one in the road, very run over. I want to tell this mommy to keep her babies in the tree, they are not ready to cross the road. But nature knows what it is doing and it is not up to me to repopulate the raccoon population in Newmarket.

Isn't she cute?? And pretty big. I never knew that raccoons could climb trees or that they would nest in the tree. From the looks of things, we REALLY need to get that tree removed once she is gone. Looking a little dead to me.

Hubby was by the driveway when he took these pictures. Plus it was getting to be dusk so many of them did not come out great. This spot is WAAAAAYYY up high in the tree.

Looking forward to Friday and the weekend. Been a long one here and happy that the kids have been good and not too crabby.

Oh yeah... Kira had her well child check up yesterday. They say she is doing a great job taking care of herself. She grew 3.75 inches since January! I know I have her record from last year somewhere around here. I'll have to see how much she has grown since last June. It's got to be a lot. Her pants have shown me she has grown. That girl has got some legs on her!

And the best news... the title came for hubby's old car so we can sell it off and get it out of the driveway and onto it's new owner.