ORDER of Operations: Juggling it All

I've been getting a lot of questions about how I "do it all". I find them amusing because I'm really no different than most anyone else out there - just struggling to keep my head above water in all areas of life as it goes speeding by. I thought I would do a series on "Order of Operation" that covers a few different areas in life and shares tips on how to better 'keep up' and not feel like you are drowning. This series will be good for me because I can always use a refresher on organization. Things tend towards chaos - even for those who have great organizational talents and intentions.

Here's how the series will play out - and the order of operation formula (which my husband came up with - he's a genius and always thinks mathematically). I'll be posting on each priority/area with a different article/post, so be sure to tune in and add your comments to make this a super, interactive series:

Please - P for Priorities (God & Family)

Excuse - E for Environment (Attitude/Homemaking)

My - M for Menu (Nourishment)

Dear - D for Direction (Goals/Calendars/Deskwork)

Aunt - A for Academics (School/Work)

Sally - S for Social (Friends/Family/Media)

Bee - B for Blogging/Being You (Time for self/Hobbies)

All of these things working together in harmony make a complete YOU - a functioning one that blesses her family. Sometimes it seems like a juggling act keeping them all rotating seamlessly. Things get dropped when you focus on one way more than the others. I thought I would spend some time on each topic and talk about it's importance and how you can use your time more wisely in that area. If you have some tips or ideas, send them my way - I'd love to quote you.

For today, I'm heading off to hit my two first operations and get this little schoolhouse/home rolling. I hope you have a fabulous last day of March - and I promise, Lord willing, that I'll be back in tomorrow (no fooling).



PS - Don't forget that today is the last day to enter the book contest and tomorrow is the last day to enter the dress contest!

PSS - Stop by the Post for some great Easter weekend advice from a very wise young teenager - who is now a regular contributor there! Do you know someone who is interested in being a part time author on our team? We love suggestions and tips! We also take guest posts!

PSSS - Isn't that flickr photo awesome? It's by ecpica. He has a whole set of great toy shots on his flickr stream. I thought this juggling shot fit my post nicely - and my kids would tell you that I remind them of a storm trooper sometimes. 'When mommy ain't happy, ain't nobody happy.' He uses wires to set the apples and then edits the wires out in Photoshop. Amazing. I love it.

I Heart Faces: Dramatic Black and White

I love it that my husband is in the reflection of Papa John's glasses. He's a ranch hand out here in the Texas Hill Country on an exotic game ranch. We had the greatest time a few weeks ago riding on the Gator and touring the many hundreds of acres of untamed wilderness where his zebra, elk, deer, and Jacks roam. I'll have to do a photo post about our trip some other time for my Field Trip Foto Friday series.

I'm off to go spend some time with cousin Sara today. We're car schooling. This lovely Texas spring weather is beckoning us outside...

Goodbye!

In Him,



P.S. I entered a different black and white photo over at the Post today! Go see!

P.S.S. This post is my entry in the I Heart Faces dramatic black and white photo challenge for this week. Link yours up in my comment section so I can go see it!

My Little Night Owl's First Birthday Party

The baby's first birthday party was fabulous. We had a lot of fun with our owl theme - making our own invitations, decorations, cupcakes, and bookmarks to give to guests.



The kids and I created these invites and wrote on them with a nice black pen -

Guess Whooo's 1?
Come celebrate with us!
Address
Time
RSVP #
Lunch and cake served!

Simple, cheap, and a great craft for older siblings of little Viking babies. My son said it was the most fun thing he's done this school year. I felt rather shamed since I have slacked off on the hands-on and crafts so much with a baby in the house. I'm glad they enjoyed the creating and crafting.



Each one was different - colors, papers, imaginations run wild...



We served a yummy lunch of Lasagna Roll Ups, Lasagna Roll Ups Florentine (with Alfredo instead of marinara - and no meat), stuffed mushrooms, rolls, garlic bread, and garden salad. My husband made the mushrooms, I made all the lasagna pans, and my wonderful family brought the salad, rolls, and garlic bread. It helps to enlist extra hands for food prep when you plan to serve lunch at parties!



Mushrooms and owls just go together so nicely. I guess it's the forest element? Whatever the reason, I adore stuffed mushrooms. They are really easy to make, so I don't know why we make them so rarely. Recipes for many of these things are on my food blog - just click the "Food" link on my sidebar and search by keyword over there!



We hung these cute owls that the children made from our ceiling fan, down the stairs, and from our kitchen light over our breakfast table. They looked great with brown ribbon and orange paper streamers.



You can't have a first birthday party without balloons. You know that, right?



When shopping for the last of our party groceries, I happened upon these pussy-willows at Sam's Club for 4$. They went great with these orange roses. I love fresh flowers. I'm still enjoying them - they make the dining room look bright and happy.



The snacks were a hit - and we tried to avoid a ton of junk food... we served a fruit tray, pita chips with hummus, olive bar goodies, deviled eggs, and chips with nacho-cheese dip.

Can you believe that I forgot to set out the crackers and cheese and pickles? I also forgot to make the punch. Good thing we had plenty of Coke, Sprite, bottled waters, and Aunt Linda's home made iced tea. Southern sweet iced tea is the mainstay at all of our gatherings - no matter the occasion.



Our colors for the party were brown, green and orange. No particular reason. Those happen to be the nursery colors, the colors we did for the baby shower, and my favorite colors (my daughter's favorite colors, too). The balloons, plates, cups, napkins, utensils, streamers, and cupcakes all fit the theme nicely. We even managed to find green and orange Easter basket grass to fill our party favor tins.

The tins were from Target in the dollar bin section - and so were the Slinkies and pencils we gave away. We filled them with candy and made owl bookmarks for each child. I gave each kid a package of sparklers or pops to take home in their tins, too - and made sure to give the tins away as they were LEAVING (so they wouldn't catch my house on fire... I'm sure their parents are all praising me now for this wonderful parting gift). We had planned to make them each a home-made various artist CD, but time got away from us. The wee little babies got board books instead. Much, much safer than fireworks.

Our bookmarks came complete with hand-written poetry:

Wise old owl sat on an oak;
The more he saw, the less he spoke;
The less he spoke, the more he heard;
Why aren't we like that wise old bird?
~ Unknown





Morgan mixed up our cake mixes (we did one set in Gluten Free because we have some friends and family that can't eat gluten) and I made the fudge icing. Originally, it was supposed to be light and fluffy chocolate icing... but it ended up more like fudge. We used open mini Oreos for the eyes, dark chocolate M&M pupils and a side-ways Reece's Pieces for the beak. I would have spent more time on them if I had not still been working on them when the doorbell started ringing. Another cute addition would have been halved large Oreo wings.

My icing was a first try, as I had never made chocolate icing before. It came out too thick... so it got hard before I finished sticking things in to the faces of the owls. You live and learn. They tasted yummy, and that was all that mattered.



The baby was excited to open gifts. He wasn't really old enough to enjoy it at Christmas, so this was a treat. I was surprised that he stayed on my lap and participated. Morgan slept through her first birthday gift opening after having a complete meltdown and needing to nurse just after her cake episode. The pink icing on her cake caused her face to break out, too. Her 3 year old big brother got to open all her presents. This party went much better for baby number 3 - and we tried to keep things moving as quickly as we could - knowing that he was missing a nap.



At 1 year of age, it's not taboo to taste your presents. This adds a whole extra sensation to gift unwrapping.



We made a little time for play after the unwrapping frenzy. Each toy was tested before sharing with friends.



When all was said and done, though, it was the ball-point pen that stole the day. There were many tears when mama finally pried it out of his death-grip. Unfortunately it was AFTER he wrote on one of his new shirts. Hope I can get it out with some rubbing alcohol.



This candy wheel/nest was a cute addition to the dining room table, but I'm not sure it was such a great idea for the kids. Thankfully there was plenty of sunshine and most of the hoodlums er, children disappeared in to the back yard for pop gun fights and outdoor play. I'm quite sure that they all had plenty of glucose flowing through their veins, though. As if the cupcakes weren't enough.

The baby got a lot less messy this time while eating his cake than he did on his 'real' birthday when we let him dig in to a store-bought cake. He stayed comfy in his pajamas all day, too - which made skipping nap time less traumatic; I'm sure of it.



However, there were a few party guests who weren't able to skip naptime. I can't wait to attend little cousin Heston's birthday party next. I think I'll take all the stuff we planned to make punch with. Isn't he cute?

The Party Today, and I Haven't Slept Yet... 2AM Ramblings...

Today is Kohen's first birthday party. His first birthday was last week, but we like to milk it in the Bee family. Everyone gets a birthday "WEEK" around here... and some of us get a birthday "MONTH". Unfortunately, I have to share my birthday month with my husband - and Jesus - so I often have to cut my milking-it short. Plus, there is usually negative amounts of money on and around my birthday to be had. But that's besides the point.

I don't write well at 2AM after decorating, cleaning, and cooking all day. You'll have to forgive me for a photoless, meaningless, randomized, incoherent post (oh, yeah - you always do forgive me for that... I forgot).

Lets see. What do you need to know about before I throw myself down on the bed and try to snatch a few hours sleep before 6:30am:

• The owl decorations the kids made look wonderful with orange and brown streamers and ribbon.
• My vacuum cleaner smells like burnt rubber, so I'm hoping the Roomba can pull double duty tomorrow.
• Gluten free cake mix makes nice cupcakes (we have a few guests who can't eat gluten).
• Sam's Club had pussy-willows on sale for less than 4$. I have always been infatuated with them, so I used them in a floral centerpiece with some orange roses.
• I just dropped a gallon jug of orange juice on my toe. I'm not going to tell you if I cussed.
• My desk is clean for the first time in months.
• The baby is standing up unassisted for long periods now - walking is so close!
• Morgan lost a moler today (a tooth, and sorry if I butchered the spelling).
• My yard looks wicked, crazy good after Kaden mowed today.
• I found an extra copy of "Understanding Exposure" on my bookshelf that I'm going to give away on my blog soon.
• I still have 3/4 of the cooking for the party to finish tomorrow.
• I can't wait to share a detailed account of the event with you - with photos, of course.
• Dag-nab-it... I am GOING to paint the blasted owl on the nursery wall in the morning if I have to stand on my head and recite the ABCs backwards 20 times.

Who has time to worry about the state of the nation when there are 50 owl cupcakes to ice?

Mikarose Give Away

Another day, another give-away.

This time, I'm giving away a 60$ gift certificate to Mikarose. Because a girl has to look good when she's reading, right?

Isn't this brown dress cute? I got one of the same dress in black, too - and they sent me these groovy scarves that go with them - but I ended up liking the dress much better plain (with tall boots of course). The scarves go great with button up shirts, though.

Mikarose has children's clothing and women's clothing and is offering 15% of their proceeds to Haiti relief right now. Their clearance section is where you will find this particular dress. I adore it... especially since it won't wrinkle and is machine washable!

The room in the background of the picture is my daughter's and the baby's room. I painted the mural on the wall and am about to add the owl to it in the next few days. My recent planning and crafting for an owl-themed first birthday party for him has got me on a time limit. Kevin's family that haven't ever been to our house are coming Saturday and I want them to see a finished wall. It only took me 9 months of pregnancy plus 1 year of the baby's life to get it done.

And I get on to my kids when they dawdle on their math. Ha!

The cat in this picture is my fur child, Quaker. He was glad to pose with me for the pictures. His eyes are gorgeous and match the green on the wall.

He is telling you he loves my brown dress in the picture on top. Can you hear him?

Either he's saying that, or he's griping at Morgan for that blurry photo on the bottom. Or maybe he's telling me to lay off the sweets so I won't look so frumpy.

Sometimes he's hard to understand.

If you can't wait and want to buy a dress when you visit the Mikarose website, be sure to use this 15% off code: "Sprittibee15"... so they know I sent you.

Otherwise...

Here's how to win (each item is one entry):

MANDATORY:

1. Just visit the MikaRose website and browse the dresses, then come back here and leave me a comment letting me know which dress you like best. Pretty simple, eh?

ADDITIONAL:

2. Make sure your pretty face is on my Google Friend box
3. Tweet about this contest (one tweet per day/each worth one entry if you comment separately for each one)
4. Stumble this post
5. Facebook about this post (be sure to stop in and fan Mikarose's page while you are there)
6. Blog about this give-away (worth 3 entries)

Fine Print: All entries must be received by next Thursday, April 1st. The giveaway is open to residents of the US and Canada. I'll give away the gift certificate to one randomly chosen commenter by the end of next week. You must provide a shipping address to me (that I will forward on to Mikarose via email) once the contest ends.

This review was my opinion of Mikarose and I was not compensated for it other than the two dresses Mikarose sent me to review.

Cat not included. (But I have another cat you might be interested in...)

Practical Parenting Advice and a Book Give-Away

I've been blogging for a long time and have met some really amazing women in that time. Some of my fellow bloggers have been amazing inspiration for me in the areas of parenting, homeschooling, cooking, gardening, and crafting. Mary Ostyn is one of the mom bloggers that I've loved from the start. In her blog, Owlhaven, she shares a tiny window in to her life: raising ten children (6 of them adopted) and managing to stay on top of mothering, homeschooling and feeding them all.

Last year, she sent me two copies of her book - one to keep, one to give away. I warned her that it takes me a while to do book reviews (and I wondered how she ever found the time to WRITE one). We read a lot around here, but "mom-books" are usually put on hold for lengthy periods as we try and get our curriculum-inspired reading lists finished first. Since I loved her blog first, I was excited to read her book. I knew how level-headed she was and how loving her family seemed from reading her on the net for so long.

I was not surprised to find that her book is a parenting gem.

When it arrived in the mail, I had to chuckle at the whimsical cover art and title: "A Sane Woman's Guide to Raising a Large Family" by Mary Ostyn. From a household with only THREE kids, I can relate to sometimes feeling 'un-sane'. I'd say insane, but I've heard that if you think you are crazy, it's certain that you aren't. I'm not sure about that advice. My kids call me crazy, too. I figured I'd get a lot out of Mary's book (and I wouldn't even get in trouble for being online too much while reading it - I love BOOKS!). I was right! Her book is full of wisdom. Aside from prayer, wisdom is the best thing to add to your life when you feel 'un-sane'.

The great thing about Mary's book is that it applies even if you have just a few children - or one! She has tips on:

• Finding Agreement with your spouse on how many children to have
• Frugality in raising kids and grocery budgeting
• Making space when you think you don't have any
• Getting on top of the laundry (and no, this doesn't mean sitting on it) and dealing with clutter
• How to know if an extra curricular-activity is right for your kid/family
• Scheduling
• Affordable vacations
• The 'Supermom Myth' (boy I needed to hear this section, Thanks Mary!)
• Learning to say no
• Parental stresses (and finding patience)
• Hints for new moms
• Making time for your marriage
• Child training and chores
• The school years (not exclusively about homeschooling)
• Teaching when you have preschoolers
• Sibling relationships and family moods
• Celebrating each child individually and making them feel loved

Her advice is timeless and some of her ideas she shares are so creative that I found myself turning down the corners of pages. The sad thing is, she sent the book that I'm supposed to give away WITH my copy of the book - and I ended up reading both of them at different intervals. So... the book I'm giving away here will have a few bent page corners and a little wear on the cover edges - since I've had it in my purse!

Yes, it's good enough to tag along with you everywhere. Once I really started reading it, I decided I wanted it with me all the time, and my laptop bag often gets left behind after the iPhone came to live with us. [iPhones are much lighter than laptops.]

When you read "A Sane Women's Guide to Raising a Large Family", it doesn't matter how many kids you have. Reading Mary's advice feels less like a lecture or a how-to lesson than it does a tea-time chat with a wise and good friend. It's the next best thing to sitting down and talking with the charming Mary Ostyn herself.

If you don't win her book, by all means, hop over and purchase one at Amazon (through my associate link, of course). It wouldn't hurt to go read her blog, either. I think you'll find her as wonderful as I do.

Here's how to win (each item is one entry):

MANDATORY:

1. Visit Mary's blog and tell me one thing you enjoyed while you were there

ADDITIONAL:

2. Subscribe to Mary's blog and/or mine
3. Tweet about this contest (one tweet per day/each worth one entry if you comment separately for each one)
4. Stumble this post
5. Facebook about this post

Fine Print: All entries must be received by next Wednesday. I'll give away the book to one randomly chosen commenter by the end of next week. You must provide a shipping address to be considered once the contest ends. This review was my opinion and all I got for it in return was a sweet email from Mary and a free copy of her book (minus the shipping charges I'll be using to send a copy to you if you win it!).

The Loveliness of Spring

The last gust of winter came through this weekend. Jack Frost whispered goodbye. It seems like a dream that we had snow here (in Texas) just a few short weeks ago. In August of last year I couldn't imagine wishing for warm weather again. I never thought I would want to let go of the winter once it got here. Never have I been so anxious for sweaters as I was in the dry summer of 2009.

And then the seasons change and a new day dawns: winter becomes spring. My longing for cold becomes a desire for warmth and color.

The wise Creator gives us exactly what we need; just enough and never too much.

The loveliness of spring returns like a speckled blue secret at first, hidden under the breast of a robin.



Almost overnight the stark branches shoot forth leaves like dripping sunlight. The trees whisper of summer before our winter clothes have been tucked away.

It makes me want to count my blessings again...

Where was I? Oh, yes. Number 13. It's been too long. If I ever want to get to 1,000 - I had better get back to my weekly praise.

I'm thankful for:

13. Snow on cactus. Real snowmen that won't fit in your freezer. Memories of snowflakes on the baby's hair. Playing outside until our fingers burned from cold.

14. Golden sunshine and breezes from the north that make this place feel like heaven on earth.

15. The promise of green to come.

16. The tweeting birds. They're "twitterpated".



17. A thousand wishes yet to hope for while we still yet live. Knowing that anything is possible with Christ.

18. God's soft geometry - the puff of a dandelion.

19. The promise of seeds, carried on the wind... and life again.



20. Blue skies that reach into the heavens.

21. Easter

22. Fuzzy, buzzy, busy bees - dusted with yellow pollen - ignoring me as I stand inches from them with my camera.



23. The wonder in the eyes of a child... discovering the world anew.

24. Poetry to read:

BARTER ~ by Sara Teasdale

Life has loveliness to sell,
All beautiful and splendid things,
Blue waves whitened on a cliff,
Soaring fire that sways and sings,
And children's faces looking up
Holding wonder like a cup.

Life has loveliness to sell,
Music like a curve of gold,
Scent of pine trees in the rain,
Eyes that love you, arms that hold,
And for your spirit's still delight,
Holy thoughts that star the night.

Spend all you have for loveliness,
Buy it and never count the cost;
For one white singing hour of peace
Count many a year of strife well lost,
And for a breath of ecstasy
Give all you have been, or could be.

Join me at Ann Voskamp's Gratitude Community and count your blessings on your own blog each 'Multitude Monday'. Discover how she 'unwraps beauty' in the commonplace on her blog, "A Holy Experience".





Quick Links:
A Thankful Heart is a Happy Heart (Post 1)

Credits: Last photo taken by my daughter, Morgan.

Caught on 'Film'

I had so many important things I wanted to tell you about in the past few days.

Let's see... on the 19th there was the give away and book review I never posted.

I'll have to get to that one later this week. Maybe tomorrow?



And on the 20th, there was my essay on the importance of reading aloud to your kids. It never got written. I doubt it will, so please take my advice and read aloud to your kids. K? Even if they already know how to read.

Instead of writing this important article, I read aloud to my own kids and we finished 'Carry On, Mr. Bowditch' in the car on the way to a birthday party in College Station yesterday.



We successfully snagged daddy's interest in the book because we had him as a captive audience in our vehicle. He always gives us a hard time about sitting down to read 'as a family'.

"That was a pretty good book," he admitted.



"You know, you really should read more with us. We read a lot of good books." I smiled at him from the passenger seat, wondering how he would respond.



"Oh, I only like navigation and sailing books," he said. (LIAR)



Yeah, right. He's never been sailing and wouldn't know how to navigate to save his life. He just wants a 'get out of jail free' card so he won't have to listen to our next read-aloud if he has something more interesting to do.



You can't fool a woman you have been married to for over 17 years.



He did tell us an interesting story about a guy he worked with in Houston, though. He was a Vietnamese guy that took classes in an American school on navigation in the 1970's in Vietnam. Everyone told him he was crazy to learn it because it really wasn't something he needed to learn for his chosen field of study. Months later, when he ended up fleeing for his life, the only thing that got him on the private boat headed for the states - full of rich Vietnamese people - was the fact that he knew how to sail by the sun, moon and stars.



God doesn't waste even a tiny detail of your life. It's all there for a reason. Each person, each class you take in college, each desire - even the strange obsessions you have with owls, dark chocolate and 3-ring binders. They are all there for a reason.

I'm sure of it.



Like the desire I had in my heart for this little dude. He happened for a reason.



Even though I already had two kids in Junior High... and I am closer to 40 than 20. By how much, I won't divulge. If I told you, I'd have to kill you.



He makes me feel a whole lot younger than I am.



I didn't plan on getting all deep and analytical. I just wanted to share some pictures of my tiniest sweetheart. Because you need more cuteness in your life. And I'm selfless enough to share. With most things, that is. Don't ask me to hand over the Milano Double Dark Chocolate cookies, though. It might get ugly.



He's the main reason I keep skipping days here at my blog. But even if he weren't, I would still use him as an excuse.



I mean, with a face that cute, and a laugh that contagious... it's amazing that I'm able to do anything at all but look at him and play with him 24/7.



Babies tend to do this to people, I hear.

It's kind of like mind control.

Johnson and Johnson Bedtime Baby Bath and Lotion is also a kind of mind control.

Mmmm. Just thinking about it makes me want to go throw the baby in the bath.



If you haven't noticed by now, these photos were all taken in order... during one of the little Viking's silliness episodes. He's such a distraction.



I captured a moment in time - one sunny afternoon, after church, on the couch talking to him. He was playing with his little hairdryer that actually has a working fan in it.

But there are no batteries to make the toy work. That seems to be the case with more than half of his toys.

He doesn't mind.



He was laughing and chatting with me. He kept tripping on his toys and falling down, only to right himself again and laugh.

It's all fun and games until someone gets hurt.

The shot above is when he finally fell and smacked his little chin on my boot. Poor baby.

Can you tell that he almost cried?

He's such a hard-head that he rarely cries when he gets hurt. After he looked at me and I smiled at him - he realized he was going to be OK and didn't cry.

Then he looked at the boot -as if to say, "Why did you hurt me?"



The boot said nothing.



So he was back to his mischievous self again.



Then the bugger started sneaking up on me. I hear babies tend to do that, too.



He had the nerve to try and get my camera. Which wasn't cool.



If anyone could get my camera away from me, it would be this guy.

My heart is mush. My brain, too.

So hard to function when all I want to do is squish on those cheeks.




Quick Links:
Memo From the New Blog Editor
Cilantro-Lime Rice, Chicken Tacos, Guacamole & Black Beans - it's what's for dinner!