Category: Fun finds

Goodbye, Round House

DSC_0800Demolition on my parents’ Round House begins this afternoon. We stopped by over the weekend to salvage some of the decorative tiles that the original owner placed under the eaves of the deck and in the floor of the family room. Daniel says that someday when he builds a cabin, he will use the tiles he has collected during his lifetime to decorate it.

Goodbye,Round House! We have loved you. Here’s a post I wrote about it several years ago.

DSC_0747My parents are building a new home on the land. I am very excited for them and for the family. It’s good that there are always projects to be done at the Spring Lake property.

January 28, 2001

I don’t feel like writing anything about today. How about I go downstairs and pull out my box of journals from storage and see what I was doing on January 28th sometime in my life?

Oh, look, here is my red suede journal from 2001 and there is an entry for January 28th.

Sunday, January 28, 2001

 

Doing well…

 

Working on patience with my children

Working on keeping the television turned off

Working to be more well-read in many books

Family is doing a marvelous job reading the B of M every day

Children going to bed earlier

The laptop works

Richard is supportive of seminary

Scripture study and lesson plans [for seminary] are good

 

1 degree off flight plan [makes] 1 mile difference for every 60 miles travelled (sic).

A flight plan parallels the mortal experience– am I on the right course

Punctuation and spelling are irrelevant to me in 2001. I was teaching the New Testament in seminary that year. I think that flight plan stuff came from a talk by President Gordon B. Hinckley. Incidentally, in 2001, I thought his last name was spelled, “Hinkley”. All of my seminary handouts carry the incorrect spelling.

I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read on the train.

–Oscar Wilde  (The Importance of Being Earnest)

Teacher and Carpool Christmas Gifts

IMG_20131206_134345This is one of the most useful ideas I have seen. We made these (from potholders and plastic bags) in a Relief Society activity two years ago in Arizona and I have used mine several times a week ever since. They fit nicely into a purse or a glove box in the car. They hold first aid items, tooth picks, medicine, or whatever. The kids and I made a bunch of these for teacher and carpool gifts this year.

IMG_20131206_134612You stack and alternate 8 or 10 plastic bags on a pot holder and sew them down the middle using a ribbon and thread. You cut off the bottoms of each bag after you sew them down the middle. In order to keep all the bags and ribbon from slipping, I use 3 flat push pins or to hold them in place as I sew.

The outside looks like this after it’s sewn and you attach a button.

IMG_20131206_134531IMG_20131206_134501 A list of items I like to keep in mine:

  • first aid: bandages, alcohol swabs, q-tips, cotton balls, rubber gloves, Ibuprofen, antacids, throat lozenges
  • beauty: bobby pins, lip balm, hair elastics, nail clippers, tweezers, soap leaves, 1 or 2 tissues, gum or mints, dental flossers
  • emergencies: $1 bill, a quarter, safety pins, thread and a needle, a printed list of important phone numbers, tiny flashlight
  • organization: tape rolled around a craft stick, post it notes, a sharpie and a pen

I like to be prepared, and this little thing has saved me so many times. Having 10 little compartments helps me to see when I run out of something. I hope the people enjoy them as much as I have.

Christmas candy jars

IMG_20131125_121351I made these from a couple of items from the dollar store, epoxy, and spray paint. They’re a cheery addition to the mantel and they’re not high on the crafting skill index. Apothecary jars filled with candies are so pretty, but you need about 17 pounds of candy inside of them. These are easier to fill and they cost about $2.50 to make.

You’ll need candlesticks,

DSC_0590small jars of different heights,DSC_0589and some wooden knobs from the craft store to affix to the lids. Soak the jars in hot water to remove the labels and glue. Spray paint the candlesticks and knobs. Glue them together with epoxy or E6000. Easy.

These would be cute for Halloween with black bases and lids or pink and red for Valentines Day. I am still trying to figure out how to get the pickle smell out of the lids. They were going to be Christmas gifts, but I don’t want the candy to taste like asparagus or sweet peppers. For now I’m calling them decorations, and I don’t mind the funny flavor in my candy. Mark has noticed my weakness for candy and says that I must have more than one sweet tooth.

Things I have found during the past few days

IMG_20131112_082345There has been an unperceived threat. Lego armies are assembling in many corners of the house.

Here is a small paragraph written by Timothy at school that I discovered this morning. I think it is marvelous.

          Space World
Setting: A black starry planet
   with dark lurking creatures

I have just lamented over the loss
of my space ship to take me home.
I am currently on the dark planet
Catoure. There haven't been any
signs of life forms. Yet. Thank
goodness too, because I don't want
to bump into the star dragon. This
planet conceals many things. One
thing is a sea urchin like creature
who grabs your feet with
tweezer-like pincers. I just hope 
I can repair my ship and sleep in
my hammock.

Fun

SAM_0092While at the Church garden last night the boys discovered this tomato. We think it looks a like a profile of Piglet from Winnie the Pooh.

Our theme is fun this week. We ate shaved ice from a stand down the street. I took the younger boys to shop for Legos. They saved a lot of money over the summer and were itching to spend it. To commemorate their new love of Hobbit-lore, Timothy bought the Lego set of Bilbo Baggins’s home which includes a round door, maps, a garden, lots of food, Gandalf, and several dwarves. Mark bought a Ninjago Lego set with a front-end drill that works by a gear mechanism. He loves gears. Left on our bucket list of summer is a trip to the pool and completion of a reading goal for Timothy.

I’m going to throw a back to school party this year. I’ve never done it before, but I think we could all use a pep rally and some homemade ice cream.

100th Day

Mark ninjasMark made a book of 100 things for his 100th day of school. This is my favorite page. The loud things are microphones. The quiet things are ninjas.