Mindy's Non-Adventures

  To further continue with the yearly theme of "Do new things to make my life_______(harder, fuller, more exhausting, brighter...),"  I decided to do something else I've never done before. Ready for it? This is exciting stuff I'm about to share!  I...no, you still don't get it. This is something I've NEVER done before. This experiment could be right up there with going to Maui! Okay, that Maui part is an exaggeration, but here it is. I made my own LAUNDRY DETERGENT! TADA!  Anticlimactic? Possibly. Still, it's another first. It was simple and probably took up an  hour of my time total if I include the time at the store buying the supplies. After all, this is my first ride on the spin cycle of DIY laundry detergent.  The step that took the longest was melting the bar of soap at the stove, but it was a good time for introspection.     So I'm standing at the stove, stirring the grated soap in water, waiting for it to dissolve, and I think to ...

    It's December. FINALLY. I have never looked forward to the end of a year like I have 2011. In every other year of my life, I've gotten to December and thought, "Wow, I can't believe it's almost  20?? (or 19??)!"  Not this year though. For the past  month, I've had to consciously think about what year it is when I write a date because I keep wanting to write 2012. I think it's my subconscious willing the year to be over! And yes, I know that the date change has no tangible meaning. It's more of a natural mental gap where I can put up a wall and definitively say that all of the craziness of the past year is OVER.     But anyway, the holidays are here. Our tree is up, exactly two presents have been purchased, and we've already kept up our tradition of visiting the James Island Christmas Lights. We started going to the lights 8 years ago I think, and it's nice to keep up with our little family tradition. We still have to make sugar cookies...

     Morale is improving over all. School is haltingly improving. Thanksgiving was great. It was my first time doing the whole shebang by myself, and I did a pretty awesome job if I do say so myself. We had 12 people total in our little apartment, and it was fun. I don't know if we'll do this every year, but we'll at least start making more of an effort to have people over for dinner. It's one thing I've been wanting to do more of but just haven't.  We also made it to Greenville for part of the holiday weekend. We saw family, played games with friends, and had a really great weekend.       Finally, on Sunday I was able to watch my oldest son be baptized. It's something he's been pushing for months, and I admit I'm the one that kept putting it off. I suppose my personal experience clouded my judgment, and I didn't want him to rush into anything.  It's so common in church circles for kids to want to get baptized for any number of rea...

I thought it would be fun to look through my old facebook notes and resurrect my favorites. Here are my top two! This first one is from June 2010, about a month before we found out about Mr. Inc's new job that required us to sell the house and move. Excellent timing for a forced remodel if I do say so myself! If You Give a Mom a Leaky Bathroom If you give a mom a leaky bathroom, she'll have to redo the floor. With new tile. When she's picking out the tile she'll realize the tile will not match the current sink so she'll buy a beautiful new pedestal sink. After installing the sink she'll notice that the wall mirror is too big for the smaller pedestal sink so she'll shop for a more decorative mirror. Looking in the reflection of the new, decorative mirror, she'll see the walls are bare so she'll search for classic, decorative pieces to go on the wall. While shopping for the wall decor, she will be dismayed to remember her towels wi...

    We've had a busy couple of weeks. Last week we did a Breakfast on the Go event which basically means we get up at 5:30am to hand out breakfast to residents as they go to work. We gave out 48 breakfasts in an hour! Then this past Saturday we had a chili cook-off that actually went very well! Of course, Miss Firecracker picked someone else's chili as her favorite. She has no sense of loyalty.  We also made about 20 visits to residents complete with fresh baked cookies for half of them.  Finally, we're hosting an oyster roast this Saturday.  Once you throw in delivering flyers for the chili cook-off and the oyster roast, you can see we've had a lot going on.     In the midst of all this, we're still supposed to be doing school. I personally haven't been feeling good about the progress we've been making. Not because we're not doing work or because Mr. Logical isn't learning, but because I see that we need more consistency. With all the LIFE ...

These are the precious gems of words that my family has bestowed upon me over the last two days. I'm saving them here so that I can blackmail...I mean so that I can embarrass them...I mean so that I can look back fondly at the sweet things they say.   And yes, they're all in different colors because it's just more fun that way! Miss Firecracker at the dinner table- "I CAN READ MY OWN MIND!"   (Miss F always speaks in ALL CAPS!) Mr. Logical- "Did you and your sister fight more when you watched too much TV when you were little? Did you even HAVE TV when you were little?"    *Good grief! I'm only 30. I'm not ancient! Best Baby Ever- "Balloooooon!" Mr. Incredible- As we were handing out breakfasts this morning for our Breakfast on the Go event, Mr. Inc apparently had epic movies on his mind because this is what he said as he gave someone their bag. "I hope it serves you well." Um....okay. It's just a bagged breakf...

     We've decided to continue the trend of changing everything in our lives by making another BIG decision. This year alone we've already sold a house, started a new job (kind of) with being a CARES Team, moved to a new city, moved again, and I've flown halfway around the world and back. So why not shake things up a little more, right? Honestly, it's been a month since anything major has happened. Something must be wrong!       In all seriousness, here it is. We are not going to our family Thanksgiving. There. I said it. It's on my blog so we can't change our minds.  In the south, family holidays are sacred. You just don't miss them. But this year, we are. We've decided instead to stay in Charleston and invite some friends into our home that can't go home to their families this year. We've met quite a few people that have moved here recently from all over the country, and it just seems like the right thing to do. I've actually been thinking...

        Best Baby Ever has had a growth spurt very recently. How do I know this? He's suddenly stronger and taller. How do I know THAT? Sit back, and I will tell you how I know.  I have many examples I could cite, but I'll just give you the highlights. First, he can reach things on the counter that he couldn't reach a week or two ago such as cups filled with water, silverware, KNIVES.  Oh, and apparently he had an epiphany around the same time as his growth spurt. He's discovered that he loves to climb. He'll climb on boxes, chairs, anything with a ledge, he just likes to climb. He's learned that climbing opens up a whole new forbidden world, and he thinks it's just the best thing since chocolate milk to see what he can get into.  Anything he can't reach on his own just gives him the opportunity to try out his quickly improving climbing skills. Yay!      In fact, just today he climbed up on the stool in his bathroom, reached as far as h...

   I felt change was called for so you'll notice I have a new background for my blog. The last one was just too...happy. I needed something a little more mellow. Anyway...I made it through my week of cutting out white flour and sugar. I only had one issue: actually cutting out the white flour and sugar. The stuff is everywhere, and I unfortunately did not have the time I needed to go to the store to be prepared for battle...I mean, for a dietary change. =)  Still, I kept with the spirit of things and really tried to cut back on it all. We didn't eat out, and that's a miracle in itself. Wait, I did eat out one night. So never mind, I didn't even make that goal. Still, I'm okay with the week. I'm getting back in the habit of healthier snacks and eating at home so all in all, I count the week a success.    My second success for the week happened today. I put up all of our pictures on the walls. Every. single. one. I needed a nice frame for a painting that Mr. Incr...

It's the middle of October, and here's where we are so far. School has turned into a crawl. Whatever little momentum we had when we started the year ground to a halt pretty quickly once the whirlwind of my trip, packing, moving, unpacking, and beginning CARES at our new property hit. Although my trip to Maui was unequivocally the most peaceful and relaxing time of my life, I was thrown into a maelstrom of stress upon my return. Like that vocabulary? ;)  Anyway, stress is contagious and exhausting so I fell back on my bad habits, and we've been eating out. A lot. Like, really a lot. (Vocab genius is gone.) The kids have watched way too much TV, I've been exhausted, and even BBE  had a few rough days where he actually frowned at me. It was as if he was saying "Mom, you really need to get it together!"  I've gained 5 pounds from all the stress related restaurant eating. Then this past Thursday, my grandpa fell, broke his hip, and had to have surgery on Friday...

    I love fall. I love the way it smells, I love the colors, I love the clothes, I love the shoes...I love fall. Every year over the course of the season, our family would go to an apple farm (usually Nivens Apple Farm) to pick apples and pumpkins, take a drive through the mountains to see the colors in the trees, spend an afternoon at a corn maze, go on a hayride, bake some homemade apple pies, rake up the leaves in our yard, go to Boo in the Zoo at the Greenville Zoo, and go to Trunk or Treat at my parents' church. I especially loved Halloween because the kids would spend the night with the grandparents ;-)!      However, our new life on the coast requires some tweaking of family traditions. Charleston doesn't have apple farms. I guess the sandy soil and ocean breeze aren't conducive to apple growing so no apple farm this  year.  We bought our pumpkin at Walmart (boo, hiss!).  As for driving through the mountains, that has now become...

We're getting settled into our new home! I have to say that I really LOVE it at our new community! Our last place was very nice, and we were happy there. But I must say that this community really feels like home to me. I can see us staying here for a long time, and that is a big heart change for me. Although we were at our first place for about 8 months, it never felt permanent. Whatever we did, I just couldn't quite get settled. Anyone that visited our home knows that is never looked completely moved in. I still had boxes and clutter everywhere. I didn't even put pictures up on the walls until July! I couldn't find a homeschool group that seemed to fit what I was looking for, we had a hard time choosing and fitting into a church. Okay, we're still trying to fit into our church, but that's a different topic. I just felt a little bit misplaced. I thought it was because we were living in an apartment after having a house for so many years, or being in a new city a...

Here's the newest update on us. Last Thursday I started packing up our things so that we could move on Saturday. Yes, you read that right. I gave myself 2 days to pack up our household. I live life to the extreme, remember?  Friday, I drove the kids up to the grandparents' (about a 2.5 hour drive). Saturday, 4 friends came over and helped finish packing, loaded everything onto the moving truck, and then moved everything into our new apartment. They were amazing, and we couldn't have made it without them! Sunday, I drove back to the grandparents' to bring the kids home. Obviously, little to no unpacking happened on Sunday.     OH, I almost forgot why I got a late start driving up to get the kids!  So, Mr. Incredible, an intelligent, mechanically minded man, put the washing machine drain hose into the wrong hole. I'm not sure why there were two...anyway. You can imagine what happened. Water E.V.E.R.Y.W.H.E.R.E! All over the laundry room, spilling into the hallway...

Pictures from Maui! Enjoy!     Alii Kula Lavender Farm   The one above is my absolute favorite picture!   These flowers didn't even look real. They're black and plastic looking. Hike to Twin Falls  A coconut tree!   Ginger flower   The first of Twin Falls.    Joanna and me! The other fall at Twin Falls. The water was low that day if you can't tell. H o'okipa Beach   We kept seeing a couple of sea turtles in these waves just hanging out in the water. I love how you can see the way the lava flowed before cooling to rock.   My first steps in the Pacific Ocean! Kamehameha III or Kam 3 for short I'd just finished snorkeling for the first time! Tide Pools I found a sea cucumber! I was so excited! Here I am actually touching the sea cucumber.  Sea Cucumber again. I was fascinated. :) This pool was teeming with sea urchins.     Lahaina The view from our table at Lahaina Pizz...