Miracle!!!!!

Finally a finish for 2008!

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Miracles do happen; I finished a project last night!! Okay, the true miracle is that for the past couple of days I've actually sat down and stitched. Finishes aren't hard when you actually do some stitching it's when you don't stitch that it makes finishes miracles. Have I lost you yet?!

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I've made myself take an hour each night to do some stitching. Okay, I will clarify that more. I set aside time later in the evening when I think I should be able to stitch. This week it's just worked out that I've been able to stitch between 20 and 40 minutes per night. Ryan fell out early last night because he didn't get but a five minute nap on the way home yesterday. By 8:30 he was falling asleep in my arms. The others were pretty tired too so I didn't have many major battles and was able to stitch while watching/listening to Forrest Gump. I love that movie but I've seen it so many times that I can stitch and listen and not miss any of it. Know what I mean?

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The funny part about this finish is that it took me several minutes before I realized that I was actually done with it. I had to look at it and at the pattern a couple of times before a lightbulb went off in my head. "Helllllooooo, you're done, get up and do a happy dance!" Body replied "Sorry brain too tired for that right now!" It's Friday so I'm off to finish up the laundry, vacuuming and the dreaded bathroom cleaning - YUCK!

No Housework Day!

On one of the cross stitch groups I am in we are having a "Topic of the week" which I think is pretty cool. Did anyone else know that today is a holiday?? It's No Housework Day and I love it!! Okay, I would if I could actually get away with not doing any housework but in reality anyone with children has no breaks from housework. It's Spring Break here so all the kids are home with me so the housework is twice the normal for the week.

Topic of the week is: What is your least favorite household chore? Hmmm, let me think about this for a little while. I hate most housework so that makes it a little harder to answer but not impossible. I think I'd have to say that I hate cleaning toilets and bathrooms in general. I have a box of hospital type rubber gloves that I use when I do the cleaning in the bathrooms. Even with the gloves, I wash my hands at least five times after I do the toilets and tubs/showers. I still feel like I've touched something and got germs on me. EEWWW!

Coming in a close second would have to be mopping the floors. We use the swifter wetjet and I've heard/read somewhere that the cleaner used is very bad for dogs and cats. (Which kind of tells me people too, don't ya' think?!) I still use the cleaner but then I go one step further. After the floor is dried I take my trusty older mop and a bucket of hot water and wash the floor all over again. I kill the germs first then I kill the germ killer. Some people may think it's a little overkill but I have small children who drop food on the floor and they firmly believe in the 24 hour rule (kind of like the 10 second rule for adults but more in tune with the kids attitudes) I sweep and vacuum twice a day in the areas where the kids are but let's be real, I can't get it all up so here's where the 24 hour rule comes into play!

Are we having fun yet??? I wonder if I will get a chance to sit down and actually get some cross stitching done today. Perhaps tonight when the ball game is on and the kids are somewhat settled for the night. I can only hope!

Who am I kidding?!?!

The last post on here told you about how I was trying to potty train Katie and finish the curtains and Marie's remote control holder. Well, needless to say none of this has been accomplished and it's beyond frustrating! I had such high hopes that day; had the sewing machine out in the dining room which is right next to the playroom. I started to work on Marie's project and realized that I can't use the sewing machine while the little ones are near me. Ryan kept climbing in the chair and trying to help me sew so I had to put it away. I have found that I can only work on the sewing machine projects when Daddy is home and can distract all the children.

Katie's potty training did not last long because for some reason she has developed a hatred/terror of using the toilet. I had tried to train her and Logan during the summer and she went in the potty for me twice (by accident; it was a case of catching her at the right time on the potty) but now she absolutely refuses to sit on the potty and will scream bloody murder if you attempt to get her to sit down. I have given up (temporarily) getting her to sit on the potty. We have started watching the Elmo Pottytime on the computer several times a day to get her to relax around it. She and Ryan both love to sit in my lap and watch it over and over and over. I keep telling myself that eventually it will sink in and we will have her potty trained. We even bought her some more Dora panties in hopes that this terror will soon pass and she will want to be a big girl soon.

I also haven't had any time to cross stitch but I'm not sure that's a bad thing. I have been wanting to sit and stitch on my Thomas Kinkade project so this temporary block has done something for me. When I say temporary block I don't mean that I don't want to stitch just that I don't seem to have the time to do it. I have to get back in the habit of taking a 30 minute break at least once a day to just stitch because it really does a lot to help the stress. I know; being a stay-at-home mom would make you think I don't have much stress but I do just not as much as when I worked and tried to take care of the kids. Things are sooooo much easier now; I can keep (okay I can attempt to keep) my house clean and stay on top of the laundry. (I say this while attempting to get caught back up from not doing it for two days. If I don't do at least two loads a day, I'm behind!!)

Marie

Here is the finished stitching for Marie's remote control holder that I still need to put the actual holder on with it. I'm still debating on what color material to use to finish this. I have a dark forest green or a black and am leaning toward the green. I purchased the black to finish the curtains in the playroom when I went to visit Mom on Wednesday and haven't had a chance to do anything with it. If I choose to use the black on this project I will need to finish the curtains first to make sure I have enough material.

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I spent this weekend trying to clean up the bathroom clutter and trying to potty train Katie the three year old. All miss and no hit with the potty training on Saturday so I took yesterday off to just breathe and I start again today and will continue with it until she's done. I hope to get the curtains done today and Marie's project too if all goes well. In between potty breaks and laundry folding I should have time to do that and play with the little ones. Therapy is switched around this week (at least I think it is as we played phone tag with the rescheduling) so I will be extremely busy with therapies tomorrow and nothing again until Saturday. Whew! So whatever I do not get done today I will work on Wednesday. I'm hoping (praying more like it!) that I can get Katie trained sooner rather than later but she seems to hate the potty and I'm not sure why. I'm telling her that all her favorite cartoon characters go pee pee in the potty over and over and over so I hope this will eventually sink into her brain. Wouldn't it be wonderful to only have two in diapers?!?!?!

Finally some stitching time!

Today whenever Katie wasn't in the mood for cuddling I grabbed up the project I have been working for Marie and finally finished the stitching. Curtis had run to Michael's for me two weeks ago to get the thread I needed to complete it. Now all I have to do is finish it into the remote control holder. I attempted to do that this afternoon but kept having to frog it so I pulled it apart and left it for tomorrow or Thursday. I'm determined to get it done by this weekend so she can have it!

Pics of my Freecycle Stash find!

Floss bags storage system that she hated so gave to me!

Some patterns and hoops

A few kits

This photo doesn't do the material justice. The big white roll to the far right is actually that; a roll of 14 count Aida. I believe that it's about two yards worth of material!!

Some time to stitch finally

I did get some stitching done the other night. Not a lot but a line or two which is better than nothing. It seems when I finally sit down to do it, Ryan is tired and wanting to snuggle or Logan is tired and wanting to snuggle. I'm hoping to get more time today or tomorrow to sit and stitch and once I do I think I might get another finish as I'm very close to being done with one of the projects.

I still haven't made it by Michael's or Joann's for the floss I need to finish up Marie's remote control holder. I have been to town at least three times but by the time I'm done with all the other errands the kids are so tired and cranky I just can't drag them through another store. One of these days I will get there. Poor Marie may lose her remotes another five or six times by then but it will get done.

I did get time to fiddle with the new PCStitch some the other day. I had to wait for my CD and my pattern pieces so I could download/upload them. I had some issues with them that I'm still not sure it wasn't operator error. I e-mailed the company on Friday and hadn't heard back from them on the following Wednesday so I e-mailed the sales rep who had contacted me after my original purchase. I told her all about the issues and asked someone to get back with me. I decided to try one more time to get through the issues and of course, because I contacted her everything worked this time. She was very prompt and got back with me so I had to tell her I had figured it all out and what I had done to get it to work. In other words, I had no idea what I did but here are the steps I took. Oy!

I did design name plaques that I will be making for the kids so they will know which toy boxes belong to them. They can keep their own toys in their own box and never fight over toys again. Yeah, right, I know but in theory it works. I can't wait to start them with the new stash I received about a month ago. I forgot to post about that didn't I??

On a whim, I advertised on the local freecycle that I would take any cross stitch material, floss or patterns that anyone didn't want anymore. I figured it was worth a shot not really thinking I would hear back from someone but I did. I got three bags full of great stash. This woman had just about one of every color DMC floss put in the little floss bags on rings and decided she didn't like them so she gave them to me. She also gave me quite a bit of Aida cloth and a few other pieces as well as some patterns and some kits. What a stash!! I now don't have to worry about purchasing any more material unless I need something special!