The girls New Bedroom ....

Once again, I've been busy painting in a bedroom. 

Once again, it's not mine. 

Once again I've completed a goal I set for myself.

Once again, the house is a wreck everywhere else.

Once again, dishes are piled up high, 

once again clothes are ALL over the house. 

Once again, school is going to start, and all this is okay ...because I was able to take this:

Which has only gotten this bad since I cleaned back in May.  My kids have way too much stuff!!!  Time to declutter and dejunk. 

So here I've managed after a  LONG, EXCRUCIATING week of clearing out the MESS and equally dispersing of it throughout the rest of my house, yard and garage, and a few trash cans, to finally clear out the room and get it EMPTY!!  Yeah for me.   (With some minor, and occasional help from the kidlets that reside in this humble abode).   The walls were NASTY ... marked up with just about everything one could imagine, and even popper exploded on the wall.  The last time this room was painted and had clean walls was right before I had Heidi 8 years ago.  All this happened in 8 years time... YUCK.

Of course, you can see their lousy place of a closet. And all the work materials sitting up there on top. 

We moved the beds all outside so that we could paint the room.  And paint the beds. So outside they sat for about 3 days. We got so lucky that it didn't rain while they were out there either.  Although on the last day we had several storm clouds above and kept hearing the thunder so we were hurrying to finish up the paint jobs on the bed frames so that we could get them inside before any potential harm from rain.  Luckily it never rained on us though. 

So after a long week... we moved the girls back into their bedroom....   We switched up the positioning of the beds. Actually they were just like this but flip flopped.  I wanted something a little different.

 

A great find of a dresser off from KSL.  I love it!!! So now all the girls share this dresser.  Should help contro the amount of clothing each one of them can have and hold onto.

We didn't have a real border or trim around the sliding glass door so I had to "MAKE" one.  I think I did a GREAT job if I do say so myself.  And I do say so!!  The only problem left is trying to find a good window treatment solution.  Vertical blinds are not it!!  We've tried curtains and rods... and they just get ripped out of the wall.  So now I'm going to try just using some velcro attached to the wall, with the other part on the "fabric/curtain" that I decide to use.

Here's the closet area.... With a MAD pile of books that we had to rush inside for fear of rain ruining them. We're waiting to get the book case painted and then I can organize their books again on the book case that sits inside this closet area.  

I seriously feel we've outgrown this house.... someday we'll find a new place to live that will be big enough to make me feel not so cramped. 

Back to school haircuts for the girls

Okay there comes a time in our lives when changes need to occur.  Today was one of those.  I have been 

wanting to grow out my girl's hair lately.  But as always I run into walls such as, they won't let me brush 

their hair, so it always looks ghetto-ish.  Rats NEST big time.  They have gorgeous hair but they 

won't let me do anything to it very often so that it looks nice. So after a very internal battle with myself, and 

an offer I couldn't pass up, I opted to cave into their wishes of getting their hair cut.  And the following are the pictures.  I'm so excited that I jumped right onto getting these pages done just a few hours after we got home. Sad thing though, it took three hours nearly to get all three of their hair-cuts done  

The boys were troopers though even if they were LOUD ones.  So now my girls are all set for 

school with a brand new hair cut.  And the boys will get their hair cut tomorrow (Chris, Thomas and Ethan) Needless to say, I think I'll be a HAIRY mess tomorrow morning.  And a painted mess hopefully later that day.  .

Time for change....

Well I've survived the first three days of school. I managed to get my children off to school on time and even early. I'm actually thinking that this year I'm trying to make a difference in my "mothering" duties. I'm not perfect at it by any means. And if you've had chance to know me on a more personal basis, you can probably agree with me. That being said, this year I have a few new goals. Probably common sense things for you, that you might not struggle with, but as for me and my house.... well we do. (Probably not my husband really, but definitely me and my kids)

So here are my new goals or rather "old ideas" that I'm trying to implement for ME:
To be able to wake up before 7:00am and get ready for the day, and get my children to school about 10-15 minutes early. Why? So that way they aren't tardy for school. I'm NOT a morning person, so this might prove to be quite hard. So I'm praying for extra strength from my Heavenly Father to accomplish this.

When doing a load of laundry, fold the clothes up as they come out of the dryer by using the tops of the two machines as my folding tables. Then promptly put them away. Why?? Because this will prevent some major piles of laundry forming in my living room. I have a pile right now, about 3 loads worth.

The kids aren't going to have major chores until Friday after school, and Saturday mornings.... unless they don't have homework some night during the week. I'll do the dishes (mainly the washing and letting them dry) once they are dry I'll have the kids put them away -- 5 minutes tops!! With 3-4 kids helping. Why? Because I stress myself out when I try to be THE PERFECT MOM!! By having them do all this and then having ALL the homework completed by ALL three girls (that I have to sign off, and check)

I want to make it a habit once again to make it to the temple at least once a week. Why? Because I live so close to one and not too far from another... I really have no excuse at all. Plus I seem to function better with frequent trips there.

CLUTTER/JUNK needs to R.I.P away from my house. So I'm on a mission to rid myself of all the JUNK that prevents me from keeping my home well kept and organized. So I feel it will become a bigger mess just to get it dejunked, but after that I should feel lots better. Why? Well, I think a family of my size functions best with things being well organized. Once upon a long time ago, like about 11 years or so, before I was married and had kids I had my things well organized. I kept it up slightly right after I married but got extremely sick with my first child, and all that changed. It's been piling up since then, so I'm going to purge and binge all this unneeded STUFF from my dwelling. (Side note: probably best done with girls at school. I should start in their room)

Scripture Reading has been something I've struggled with on and off for the last few years. I'm not quite sure why, but I guess it's one of those things I have as a weakness. I know I should, and that I need to, but for some reason have felt unable to get to the scripture reading. So in the mornings while eating breakfast, I'll make the time to read my scriptures, and then have to work a time into the day to do it on a family basis. Maybe we should do it right before or right after dinner. Hm mm? Need to think on that a little more.

So this is just a list of a few things, but I'm sure there are lots of other things I could work on as well. But for now, these are my priorities. Everyone often asks me "How I do it?" having five kids and all, but secretly and honestly I don't do it. I'm still trying to find things that work for me and my family. I just try to take care of the needs of my children, but I'm not perfect at it. I often get frustrated with them, but have to take a step back and realize that they are just little people that don't know how to do everything, and most of the time they are just trying to have fun.

I really shouldn't get mad at them, because they all play together well, and love to be with each mostly. And they invent things to do in order to have fun. Yes, they can be sassy, disobedient, and plain stubborn, but I just try to keep my ground, and let them know that what mom says needs to be done.

We live in an incredibly small house for our family. We only have three bedrooms. I share one with my husband and the two boys are in one room on bunk beds, and the three girls are in the other room. We only have one bathroom, and I have a desk, piano and entertainment center crammed into one room. I don't have a dishwasher that does them automatically, but I do have a dryer that finally works. My carpets are absolutely disgusting but we have to make do because we can't afford to replace it right now. We have debt, that we're trying to pay off, even being on reduced hours at work, and we're also trying to put together a food storage. I sometimes yell, and get mad. But shortly after say "I'm sorry". I get frustrated, and stressed trying to get things to go just perfectly and when they don't I can't take it. But I try to gather myself together again, and try to start fresh again. But nothing can replace the love that I feel for my children and husband despite all the arguments that take place. And my children feel me with such joy and happiness when I see them getting along, or I see them doing a chore without being asked, or I hear there thoughtfulness in the prayers that they offer. I'm just average, or slightly less then that... but I try my hardest even if I fall short a lot of the time.

So here's to my trying to make some lifestyle changes that will help me become a better mother and wife and all around better person.

Before and After

Okay so I'm not the best photographer but, I wanted to remember what my hair was like before and after. This is the big Hair SURPRISE.

BEFORE:

SURPRISE !!!!

AFTER:
Yes, I've gotten another perm, and this is only Day 2 so I'm still within the first 48 hours and can't wash my hair until tomorrow!!! I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE IT!!!! Now I don't feel so Prehistoric and UGLY!!!

So What do you think??

Okay so here are some side by side comparisons of myself at age 5, and my three daughters. Here is Sleeping Beauty on the right. This was taken July 2006. She was 6 years old. Here is Smartie-Pants in First grade so she was 6.

And here is Sunshine when she had her 5Th birthday.

MY METAMORPHOSIS --
Kindergarten picture at age 5:
One of my Senior Pictures 1995 is when the picture was taken, but I graduated June 1996.
Christmas 2005 :

Family visit to Cornbelly's 2007 :

March 2008 - right after I had my cyst issue.

(SIDENOTE: Do something better to my hair -- yuck!! It's so straight and stiff. Ugh. I liked it better when it was long and "CURLY" -- too bad it costs so much to get it permed.) I think that is what is missing about my life right now. I used to have perms so much, but now that I'm married and have to "share" what little money we have -- there isn't any leftover to do that anymore.