Sorry for all the posts

As I started seeing a jillion emails fly into my inbox, I realized what had happened - and you probably did, too. I was messing around with my blog yesterday trying to get my signature the right size. Finally got that accomplished, though there isn't an easy way to see it complete until you post. Blogger... are you listening?

Then, running on a simplicity theme here, I decided to combine the blog that I had started - Live Life Uncluttered, with my normal blog. I exported, then imported, and ended up with a kajillion new posts -without a clue that it would email them all to you. I'm sorry to flood your in-boxes and I hope you'll stick with me.

My mom emailed me about my little cleaning/decluttering kick (the kajillion imported posts) and wondered how in the world I completed all of that among Thanksgiving, having gallbladder surgery a few days later, then Noelle's birthday (she's 1 already!!!), and Christmas! Nope, not that ambitious - most of these projects were done in the early fall.

Preparing my post for our 2012 Spiritual Goals. Have a blessed day in the Lord!

of music and me...

After a long time in the Word re-reading Colossians, I decided to try to tackle this music thing... Tackle? Well, not really tackle. So many thoughts run through my mind with music and I'm such a thinker. I love music. I want the music I listen to to (tutu?) make me think.

Music has such strong feelings associated with it - for me, at least. When I think about the music I listened to as a teenager, I cringe. The lyrics are downright awful, but I think it has more to do with the fact that I didn't even realize what I was singing. Satan uses that in my life still. Bringing up past sins, confessed sins, forgiven sins.

I was reminded of my to-do list item of finding some songs for my morning worship when I came across Colossians 3:16...teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs...

Songs have the power to teach. For good and bad; they teach. I want to be taught well, the Truth, the things of Christ.

I figured a good place to start was by making a playlist. That is what you hear on my blog right now - unless you have turned it off. It's down at the very bottom. It's huge and I couldn't make it smaller for some reason. I probably could have if I had spent hours figuring that out, but since I had spent all my time going through song after song, I figured it was better to stop and move on. Rabbit trails - I'm certainly good at them.

What you hear is a collection of songs that I love. Most of them are spiritual. All should make you think. They say a lot about me. Some are from childhood. I have so many memories of my Moma (her spelling. ;)) whisking me around the living room to "Could I have this dance?'

Love the songs of David Nevue, after hearing him on A Holy Experience blog. We now own four of his albums, I think. Big P keeps getting them. :) They really bring sounds of calmness to our home.

Love bluegrass. Love it! Check out Silver Dollar City's Bluegrass and BBQ festival - we went in '08 and '09. We want to go back, but it won't be this year. Smoky Mountain Hymns, Peasall Sisters, etc.

Casting Crowns - what do you say? Doctrine filled songs. Discipleship songs. Great songs!  *updated 4/24/11 - the Lord has been working on me... some more. I don't want anyone going ballistic on me, so I'll just keep my thoughts to myself for now as I try to figure out what the Lord is telling me.

Everything I Do - Bryan Adams - this was the song we had played at our wedding. Still love it!

When God Made You - Natalie Grant - how could one not love this song? Everything in it is perfectly true about my love!! Oh I love him.

Gotta go squeeze him and kiss him and.... Bye!

pic from: http://warpaintart.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/retro-cassette-tapes-rainbow1.jpg?w=588

i have no clue...

...what I am doing on this blog. I want to make it look "me-ish", but that just isn't happening. Hmm, what is "me-ish"? I love roses, pastels, vintage, Little House, The Waltons, quilts, coffee, family (but I'm not putting a picture of another family up there!), clean, shabby chic, rustic.

Yap, still clueless as to how I'm going to decorate my blog. I think the first place I'm going to start is simple - plain and simple. Then maybe I'll go from there. Yea, that sounds good.

National Quilting Day

Today, March 19th, is apparently National Quilting Day. Am I quilting? No, not really. I did press the first set of blocks in my next big project. Completed my 3 hours on that project and now I am moving to something different - a block for one of the guild members and a co-member of my Needles Birthday Block Club (this is a club where you each person picks a block/fabric, etc. that they want made for their month. You make that block and turn it in. At the end of the guild year, you will have 11 completed blocks plus your own to sew into a quilt). But, I digress...

No, I'm not really quilting today. Instead, I have:

1. attended a board meeting for co-op.
2. made salsa for my son's student leadership development event this afternoon.
3. researched and found a recipe for making your own starch (similar to Mary Ellen's Best Press, which I love).
4. asked hubby, via text, to buy a small bottle of vodka for above starch - to which he quickly responded via phone to make sure of my purpose for the vodka. Haha.
5. made above starch using vodka, boiled water, and lemon essential oil. Will post recipe and results later.
6. and contemplated decluttering sessions in lieu of the painting that needs to be done. 

Productive day? Sort of. But I'm not quilting. Although after a 45 minute session of decluttering I believe I'll bust out the 30s fabric and make that block!

why i write

(just a little note about this whole "lowercase letter" thing. I love it. I love the way it looks on titles. Now, in my writing, I try to use correct capitalization, etc, but when I'm writing a title it just looks cool. Maybe it's part of the big "i am second" deal.)

I write and post because I think it gives me accountability. If I stop writing it's likely because I'm not being very productive in my life. Checking that more often would probably help me to stay on track. So, if you haven't seen a post, it's only because I have likely become too busy to post; not necessarily with great things, either. Exceptions to that rule would be the birth of our brand new baby girl, of course.

You will see several changes I'm making to the blog to make it more user friendly. There are a slew of gadgets available on blogger, but I kind of like to stick to the basics. I'm going to clean up my "what i write about" section because the labels are just here there and everywhere and it looks very cluttered. I don't want to spend any money fixing up my blog, so it will be homespun. Since I have enjoy other things more than a bunch of techy stuff, I will likely keep it basics that blogger offers that I can do easily. I prefer to spend my time researching, planning fun things for my children, and quilting.

I'm also going to try to keep my posts shorter. Less time on the computer means more time with my family and more time for enjoying right here, right now. Please don't take offense, you'll have more time to spend with your family, too, if you aren't reading my super long posts. Again, exception to the rule was my post on the birth of my baby girl. What an amazing birth it was.

Update on Toilet Paper

Went grocery shopping on Sunday. This is what I found. It FULLY explained all the issues that I was having with frequent toilet paper change-over. The Mega rolls are over 500 squares per roll. The "family size" are 175 squares per roll.

Now, why would they call this "family size"? It surely isn't because it's easier on mom, who seems to frequently be the one stuck on the potty with little to no paper on the roll and ultimately is the one who changes the roll.

Is it because it's supposed to encourage "family" involvement of roll changing?

Oh, oh, I got it!!! It's because the rolls are a nice small size to fit into the diaper bag (or your BACK POCKET) for frequent family runny noses. Yes, that must be it!!!

I'm so glad I figured that out. The confusion and frustration just may have been enough to cause serious friction between myself and the toilet paper holder.

We often get teased about living the Little House days. We do thoroughly enjoy Little House, but as of yet, I have no desire to use the Sears Roebuck catalog as an alternative to my Mega rolls!!

Back to the regularly scheduled program....

Joyfully busy at home,
Christine

My thoughts on toilet paper

Now I realize that this post is not deep or spiritual in nature like my last one - but I have to share my recent experience.

When I went to the grocery store about two weeks ago, I saw that the "family" size of Scott Extra Soft was cheaper per square foot than Mega pack of Scott Extra Soft. The family size rolls are much smaller, and there aren't as many square feet in a package as the other, but the deal was better. So that is what I bought.

When I got home, Big P laughed at the size of these little rolls. We only have 4 people in the house that are actually using the toilet paper. B.3.5.B is using the potty and a little toilet paper, but we still use wipes on him some of the time. I didn't think it was going to be that much of a difference.

I had no idea what this little "savings" would actually cost me until we were going through 2 rolls a day in one bathroom alone! I feel like I'm constantly changing that roll of toilet paper!!! It's enough to drive anyone mad!

So, back to the Mega pack we will go - even if it costs an extra .3 cents (yes, that's point 3 cents!) per sq. ft. It's a sacrifice we'll just have to make for the sanity of this mama!

Now that I think on it, I can't believe I thought the extra work was going to be worth it in the name of frugality! LOLOL If we can't laugh at ourselves, who can we laugh at?!

Joyfully busy at home,
Christine