Goodwill finds

Depending on the girlies and their varying moods (and boy can they vary!-myself included), we find ourselves wandering they aisles of our neighborhood Goodwill store. Some of the places that we check for bargains are: 1. the linen section because old sheets can be made into just about anything 2. The frame section for frames that are calling out for a little spray paint (as used in Rachel and Autumn's room. Lots of pink and brown frames all over the place.) 3. The basket aisle for odds and ends that are great for storing other odds and ends, including but not limited to towels, sewing supplies, current projects, baby toys and play food 4. Trinket aisle- It has a lot of junk, but every now and again I come across something that is calling for me 5. Book aisle for great old books that are hard much cheaper than our neighborhood Powell's. When the girlies are in an especially good mood, we venture to the Goodwill Outlet store, where we get to feel like we are dumpster diving. (But we leave with 2 carts full for $35! And baskets are the best here because they charge by weight and...baskets are light!)

During our most recent trip we found a chair for my craft room, a sheet that was torn up for our braided rug that Chloe and I are making, a honey dispenser (just like the one Hannah broke 2 years ago before I even got to use it!) and last, but most certainly not least, a recipe stand. If you had asked me, upon entering said store, if I thought I needed or even wanted a recipe stand...I must confess that I might have said no. This recipe stand (for a lovely 1.99...or as Chris would say, 1.99 too much) called to me. It asked me to paint it, give it a new life and here it is. Minus the recipes, which I will be adding soon. See this green? This is also the color that I am dying to paint my kitchen. Please, Chris??

hummus rocks

As if hummus didn't rock enough, I was thrilled to have the momentary dash of genius to realize that the mini hummus packets from costco are perfect to start my seeds in. (a la square foot gardening)  This is definitely more compact that my previous starts in large yogurt containers, although now that I am thinking about it, I guess I could use small yogurt containers. (but the hummus comes in these great shallow containers...and who doesn't love a little bit of hummus here and there?)  Below are my seeds that I finally got around to transplanting tonight.  I am still waiting for my cucumbers, zucchini, basil, tomatoes and bell peppers to sprout.  I sprouted my seeds in vermiculite, putting tiny holes in the bottom of the containers.  I then put the containers on a shallow dish that had a little bit of water.  Voila!  

Bonus: Here is my belated picture of Autumn's purse.  Notice the dirt on it?  It kind of warms my heart because she toted this baby all over Grandma's forest this weekend, meaning that she gives it 2 thumbs up.  This is why kids are so dang fun to sew for.  No purse that I would have purchased would have been quite so loved. 

Liar, liar pants on fire

I swear that I really was planning on posting pictures of my purses tonight.  I even had Autumn hand over her purse for said photo shoot.  Then I realized that someone had my card reader and all of my cards were full.  Sigh.  I hope I don't recieve any death threats over this one. Compromise?  I will post the links to the cute bags that I made so you can at least start working on your own.  Deal?

My purse

Autumn's Purse

As for the pictures of Becky's family?  You can hop on over to my photography blog to check them out.  And as soon as my card reader comes back, you'll be checkin out my purse creations. Swear.  Oh, wait.  I don't swear. 

Preview

I am about to crash, but here is a little preview of pictures from this weekend.

quick update

We are winding down our trip up to Snohomish tonight, planning on taking off tomorrow morning. It has been a little bit of a whirlwind, full of a cousin birthday party (that Elise has been talking about in anticipation for the last week), a baby shower for my soon to pop big sister, family pictures for Becky, a Twilight release party for us sisters and a nice family dinner tonight. Tomorrow we make our nice drive home and stop for a belated birthday present for Autumn at raintree nursery. (a lemon tree that she has been patiently waiting for. Yes, her birthday was 2 weeks ago. Yes, I stink. Any other questions?) When I get home, I promise pictures of all the fun, along with pictures of the absolutely adorable purses that I finished right before leaving for our mini vacation. Did I say they were adorable? That doesn't even begin to describe them. These free patterns I found online through a few recommendations have gotten me into the bag making groove. Coming soon, to a blog near you....

No more late night runs to Target

Inevitably, I find myself running for a diaper to find that we only have one left.  yikes!  As much as I love Target, I don't always want to run there to buy diapers before Elise wakes up for a diaper change.  A little late in the game, as we are on #6 girl and not #1, I have found the answer.  A friend just turned me onto Diapers.com.  I figured it out to be .03 less per diaper (which isn't a ton), but I figure it is totally worth not having to trek out to Target when it seems to be least convenient.  They also have a handy dandy referral system which give anyone I refer a $10 coupon, while giving me a little piece of the pie to.  I see free diapers in my future, what do you think?  Free diapers....ahhhh.  If any of you parental figures out there need some diapers, they can hook you up with a $10 coupon and free shipping (what?  Diapers brought to your front door?) if you enter my lovely referral code of : kang8 (as in there are 8 of us at our carved up dinner table).  Now I can just go to target for the fun stuff.  Like cute and funk towels.  Or shoes?  Hmmm....now I want to go to target.  Woo hoo!

Hypothetical Question

No super glue today as I didn't make it to the store, but if I reposition the e key in place every time I go to type an e, all is well.  Painful, but it works.  So.  Hypothetically speaking, what kind of punishment would you give a child who carves their FULL name onto the table?  I really don't know what would be appropriate "if" one of the girls ever turned crazy enough to do this, but I think I might have to first subject her to hours of torment by telling her that Chris and I would think of an appropriate punishment.  Then maybe I would ask the blogging community after Chris and I came up dry.  Not that any of my perfect little angels would ever do such a thing.  But if they did, what do you think you would do?  I think I might be a little lost if such a thing ever happened.   I remember seeing an article about a decorator at home who had a kitchen table that she freely let her children carve messages into.  I remember thinking what a cool family gathering place that would create and running to Chris to share the idea.  His response was somewhere along the lines of,  "Bad idea.  What would that teach the kids?"  I don't think any kids were listening to that conversation.  Hmmm....

Side note: I am left handed and have heard for many years the "compliment" of , "Wow! You have good handwriting for being left handed!"  Out of 5 of our girls that are old enough to know for sure, one is left handed.  And  for the record, her handwriting rocks compared to everyone else's.  If life was a little less hypothetical, I think you might be able to see that displayed on...oh....maybe our table?  So there! The proof is not in the pudding, but in the wood. :)

Side note #2: I am going to get my photography biz up and running again.  Still in the works, but you can take a sneak peak off to the right over there at Smiling Eyes Photo.  Let me know what you think and any suggestions you might have for me.  

your in big troubl, littl missy.

Today whil Hannah was using hr 10 minuts of Pt Socity, Rachl cam and told m that sh had droppd th kyboard.  Knockd th  ky right off, braking th littl mchanism undr th ky.  Chris thinks supr glu might fix it, but until thn I was stuck to my own dvics for blogging.  So hr it is.  Ys, th  ky is vry important.  Cutst part of it all was at dinnr whn I was tlling Chris about it.  Hannah said, in a vry irritatd ton, "Just in cas you wr wondring, I fll today, too." But sh got lucky whn sh fll.  Sh didn't los any of hr kys.  On th shopping list for tomorrow?  Supr Glu.  And mayb a dit cok.  It has bn a long tim and I think I might hav arnd on.

survival

Somedays, all I can say for myself is that I have survived.  We are all alive.  Nobody has been "dropped of at the orphanage" or "hung by the chandelier", which are my two favorite threats that my children laugh at because they know that neither would ever actually happen.

Since I don't have much to share from today (because it was just one of those days), I will share a little piece of parental wisdom.  This seems like a "duh" thing that you should always do, but I do know that when I get busy and forget this step, everything falls apart. (Granted, sometimes things fall apart when I remember it, but not nearly as often)  Before we go anywhere with the girlies, we always have the following conversation:

Me: Okay, girls, what are the things that you aren't allowed to do at ___________?"

Them: a myriad of obvious answers that they still do sometimes, including Hannah always saying "we don't chase boys!"

Me: Anything else?

Them: Each person takes a turn suggesting something

Me: Okay and what can we do there?

Them: a myriad of obvious answers, although there aren't nearly as many as on the can't list.

Me: I now explain they whys behind some of these can's and cant's- 

Now, let's say you are returning things at Fred Meyer's and you forget to talk about some of the things on the can't list.  Hypothetically speaking, of course.  Then you might end up with kids climbing on the cart, playing games throughout the store that involve jumping from one colored tile to the next and bumping into innocent bystanders.  Hypothetically speaking, of course.  The moral of the story: Always talk to your kids on the way to any location about what is expected out of them.  (Even if you go there all the time and they should dang well know what they should and shouldn't do. ) Or else you will have had a day like mine.  And your kids will be extremely disappointed when their mommy doesn't let them have the free cookie.  Yikes, I tell you.  

Baby (insert Elise's animal of the moment) no more. Sigh.

Elise:  Mommy Monkey, we go get my Thomas cream cone?

Me: Yes, baby monkey, we are going to get your cream cone.

Elise: I Elis-ee monkey.  Baby monkey at home.  We go get baby monkey.

Me (saddened that Elise has officially decided, on the way to McDonald's, that she is no longer my baby): No, Daddy is home with baby monkey.  We don't need to go get her.

Elise: Daddy monkey can't pick baby monkey.  We go get baby monkey.

(She's right.  Picking up baby monkey is awfully hard for daddy monkey.)

The ice cream right before dinner?  That was bribery for semi-cooperating while I took some pictures of her "Thomas Haircut" for Grandma. (at least that is how I sold it. )

My silly cowgirl

Every now and again, Hannah reminds me to let loose and laugh.  Yesterday I was busily cooking dinner and crying like crazy. (from cutting onions)  Hannah came in to fill in as my sous chef, but realized that I needed a different kind of help than normal.  "Mom, just close your eyes and I will tell you if you are going to cut yourself!"  Hannah, I love you!  (and you aren't using sharp knives for a few more years!)

Here is my sweet little cowgirl, Hannah, who would probably sell her soul for a horse. (These are from a year and a half ago, but she still loves horses and still wears cowgirl boots 90% of the time.)

Pictures as promised...

Pictures, as promised.  Note that these were taking while nursing (on the right side, which took extra skillz with all of the camera buttons being on that same side) a 10 month old girly who loves to pull on the camera strap every time I try to click.  But they are proof that we did celebrate Autumn's birthday, which is the important part.  Butterfly cupcakes, her new (and very annoying, but not quite as annoying as a real dog) fur real puppy and her birthday shirt.  Birthday fun, all the way.

Bonus Picture:

This is Elise, doing her new trick, compliments of Autumn.  Winking has become the new trend at the Kang house.  Autumn winks at you about 10 times per conversation.  I am not sure if she thinks it will get her out of trouble or what, but it is pretty cute.  Since Autumn is the sweet teacher to her little sisters, Elise has taken up winking too.  Unfortunately, it is a little much for a 2 year old.  Luckily, her hand is willing to help her as she says "Wink!"  Pretty cute stuff.  

Birthday Party #3. Completed.

Birthday season at the Kang house is now more than half way done.  Dang.  That doesn't count Chris.  Ok.  Birthday season at the Kang house is now half way done.  3 down and 3 more to go.  Luckily, the next 3 tend to be a little bit more on the low key side.   We've survived birthday parties for Chloe, Rachel and Autumn.  Now we have Elise (who is having a Thomas party and has started inviting people that she deems as her friends.  There goes the small family gathering that I was imagining.), Lilly and Chris.  

Yesterday was Autumn's fairy party.  This was an especially important one because her birthday got "cancelled" last year when our house sold and we were moving out the week after her birthday.   Chris ran the show when I woke up without a voice, officially earning his "I have 6 girls and am proud of it" badge in fatherhood.  The girls decorated fairy wings, made fairy shrinky dinks, had a "fairy naming ceremony", did a little scavenger hunt and finished the day off with some butterfly cupcakes and chocolate bird nests. (Thank you, Hello Cupcake.  Again.  I know how to decorate cakes, but I think we are converted to the ease of cupcakes.  Definitely.)

There are very few pictures since Chris was probably a little out of his element as it was, but I do have a few that I will post tomorrow.   Must sleep.  Now.  Ok, after this last thought.

I love my Autumn.  Her middle name, Joye, sums it all up.  She is such a joy to our house.  She is so thoughtful of her sisters, looking out for everyone.  She tends to get in trouble for not doing the "not so important in the long run" stuff like....her chores or school.  But when she isn't doing her school, it is because she has been ShangHai-ed by Elise or Hannah.  They know that Autumn will kindly help them with whatever they need, whether it be help choosing out colors for a piece of art they are working on or build an especially cool Lego creation.  Since she first learned how to read, she would read books to her sisters in the best voices.  She can do all sorts of accents and is an expert story teller.  In addition to all of the above, she is the most tender hearted little girl I have met.  Gosh, Autumn.  I just love you!  Hannah wrapped up her favorite toy for Autumn's birthday present.  A little later, I was talking to Autumn about her presents and she told me how much Hannah loved that toy.  She realized the importance of that sacrifice, which is so Autumn.  Last note and then I will go to bed.  Swear.  Double pinky promise.  We have a tradition (that I want to change) that allows our kids a job free birthday.  It gets a little annoying when you are holding a leaky baby and ask for a diaper to hear "But its my birthday."  So lets go back to Autumn's birthday.  I can't talk.  Chris and Rachel are at a service project.  I am trying to get 100 and 10 things done for her birthday and to get the house cleaned up.  Autumn was helping me like crazy all morning long.  I didn't hear (not 1 time all morning) the much beloved Kang daughter response of "But its my birthday!" from her.  Not once.   Autumn-melli, I love you more than a lavender italian soda. Add that to my list, too.  She is my daughter that loves lavendery cuisine as much (or more) as I do.  Goodnight, all.  

10 things I love about him....

1.  He is my dragon slayer.  He goes to work everyday, even when he doesn't feel like it, to support our family.  He has never questioned and has always supported my desire to stay at home with the girls.

2. He makes me laugh.  a lot.  and not at him. (ok, sometimes at him.)

3. He steps in when I go psycho and sorts out all of the hormones into some form of reason.

4. He is so stinking cute.  Look at that face!  How could you not love him?

5. When he is grumpy, I can always make him laugh with a certain song.  This tells me he can't be all that grumpy, eh?

6. He is a fighter.  The last 6 months have dealt him an enormous blow and he takes it in stride and just keeps on working.  He has had his favorite hobbies taken away from him and I haven't heard him complain about it ONCE. (Uh oh....I might be reminding him to)

7.  He does hard things.  Take medication for his blood pressure or be on an extremely restricting diet?  Let's do the diet.  ooh....is that why he married me?  :)  

8.  He has a very strong sense of right and wrong.  He will never pirate music, software or movies.  He does not lie (even white lies, which I wouldn't mind him telling to me every now and then) and can always be trusted.

9. He re-tucks the kids in throughout the night to make sure they are warm and every morning when I wake up, Lilly's door has a towel in front of it to block out the light.  

10. He never undermines me in front of the girls.  Even if I am totally wrong and should be put in my place, he stands by me.  

11. He doesn't mind my love affair with Colin Firth and Patrick Stewart.  (Although he has tried an English accent a few times to compete)

12. He is a genius, even if the stroke has slowed him down a little bit.  I like to say it evened the playing field, but we both know that he is still much smarter than I am. 

13. He is 100% supportive of my home schooling adventures.  I will always remember the time I thought about sending Autumn to kindergarten.  He said, drenched in sarcasm, "That would be great!  She could learn her abc's and how to count to 20!" (She was reading at a 3rd grade level and in 2nd grade math.)

14. He tolerates my worm bin, my compost, my rain barrel (now he has to, right?) and my recycling.

15. He gave up his office for my craft room.

16. He watches Dancing with the Stars "just" to be with me

Okay, I'm over 10, but I challenge all of you to blog your 10 things and post a link in the comments.

My baby brother...

There were a few tricky factors when I was taking some quick family pictures for my baby brother (who I remember crawling on all fours through the neighborhood pretending to be a dog).  

1. The sun was setting rapidly so we had about 10 minutes

2. Their soon to be three year old was being very....three (who would want their stinky pictures taken when they could be playing with cousins?  Really!)

3. Said soon to be three year old had a very cool cabbage patch kid from Grandma's play room that did want her picture taken.

4. A certain horse loving 5 year old helped entertain the said soon to be three year old and inadvertanly ended up in most of the pictures that I really liked.

This being said, I am amazed that we have these pictures.  Yeah, team!

Dainty in all she says and does

Some kids will throw up all over the bed or the carpet, but not my Chloe.  She came downstairs and sat on my lap while I helped Rachel with math.  When there was a pause, she told me that I needed to give her a dollar.  Trying to remember what dollar I forgot to pay her, I finally asked her why I owed her a dollar.  She quietly told me (looking like she was about to cry) that she had thrown up in the toilet.  She is tucked in bed, armed with a throw up bowl, ready to sleep.  And the flu bug is here, but hopefully not for long.  Chloe is definitely a nice sicky.