alright, sparky, here’s the deal

Okay… that was pathetic. (But thanks, G!) Here’s the thing… LinkyTools used to be free, but it’s not now. And while it’s super cheap, I’m not going to pay for the service for FMF if no one is going to participate because that just feels silly. So I need to know if you are interested/plan on participating at any point during the summer. Otherwise it’s just not worth it to me to keep the carnival going. Let me know!

Fun Mom Friday – Birthday play-all-day Edition

Last year we had a big party for Madeline’s 5th birthday. This year the kids had music camp in the morning, she chose Chick-fil-A for lunch, and then to go to the “bouncy place.” Good choice!

Daddy came, ate,

and then chased them around:

Watching our little friend and “helping” her with her paci:

We grilled country-style ribs for dinner and then Andy took the big 3 kids to a friends’ for cupcakes. Apparently they had a rock-star concert that was HILARIOUS. Too bad I didn’t get any photos of that one. But I was zonked and Arianna needed to go to bed.

We did a whirlwind gift-opening session since it was past 10:30 when they got back and the kids had to be up early for camp.

It was a great, FUN-filled birthday! Thanks to the grandmas for sponsoring all the fun!

How were YOU the Fun Mom this week? Link up your Fun Mom Friday post’s permalink below. Anyone can join at any time! Full FMF info can be found here.

Please, as a courtesy, and as you are able, remember to leave comments at all the FMF posts you visit.

No blog? Tell us your Fun Mom Friday story in the comments!

small style

Four completely random photos from this week, of numbers 2 and 4:

Both happened to be in MJC – my favorite clothes ever – one we’ve had forever (top) and one I traded for (dress).

For more mini fashion, visit Small Style at Mama Loves Papa!

ALSO! Come back and link up tomorrow with your Fun Mom Friday post!

Don’t forget!!

Lifting the burden

Sometimes I wonder if I’ve come to the end of my blogging days.

It used to be so interactive and fun; filling a social need and a fun way to keep up with others in between changing diapers and washing dishes. Commenting was generally higher all around the blogosphere, or at least it was in my experience. Now it usually feels as if I’m staring at a white, sterile, cinderblock wall, trying to think of something to say. (Which is rather boring, no?)

Right. I’m bored with my own blog. And so, so tired.

I know I can’t just quit, cold turkey. I’m sure the grandmothers would stage a resistance and besides, my hosting fees are already paid for two months.

And where else would I share this pudgy face?

(“Singing” in her sweet baby voice.)

I really don’t have a plan. In a lot of ways I feel like the goal is just to survive until this baby is out. Most likely I’ll just continue posting heavy on the photo side but… I guess I needed to tell you I’m taking the pressure off.

flower pin winners

Random Integer Generator
Here are your random numbers:

38	14

Timestamp: 2011-02-07 18:54:02 UTC

Which would be 38. Cindy and 14. Camille – congrats, ladies!  I’ll be in touch with you via email.

{flower pin giveaway}

I’ve been having fun making these wool felt flower pins, cutting the petals out while I sit with Drew and his homework.  The original tutorial is here but I changed it a little.  (My new favorite blog, by the way.)

And since I’ve gone a leeetle bit overboard, I thought it would be fun to give a few of them away. (Since I don’t personally need six cream flower pins.)

To be entered, simply leave a comment on this post. (Just tell me something interesting, because “pick me” entries are just plain boring. Or tell me what you’re doing this weekend.) I’ll leave it open for a couple of days and choose two random winners Monday. They’ll receive two flower pins in the colors of their choice (but it has to be something I already have – cream, mustard, cranberry, and hot pink).

Happy Friday!

whoops!

SO!!!  We’re actually at my in-laws for Christmas and I don’t have internet access on my laptop.  Huge pain, yeah, I know.  I can’t upload photos unless I go to Starbucks, which I WILL BE DOING in the very near future.  Sorry to just drop off the face of the earth.  But we’re all fine, good, happy.

Merry Christmas!!!

That time again

Coming tomorrow!

play

I woke up yesterday morning to the kids quietly playing with the dollhouse. I took this photo half asleep. (I thought there’d be kids in it but they had gone to check something outside.)

It made smile because of the car crashed over in the master bedroom. What’s that all about? And, notice the dining buffet up in the nursery.

Kids.

Ooh, I also have another favorite playtime photo from this week, of Adelaide getting into my jewelry. It’s wasn’t the best lit time of day and turned out a bit grainy but, you get the picture.

(She was chanting her “I’m the princess” song she made up.)

And lastly, Madeline babydollwearing, also from yesterday:

Such a good mommy.

You Capture: Play

black & white (okay, mostly gray)

You Capture: Black & White.

10 on the 10th (July edition)

1. I have several unrelated loose-endish things I’ve been wanting to jot down here, so Meredith’s 10 on the 10th is the perfect place for a random list!

2. We just came out of a very stressful week. I’m glad to be on this side. God is always faithful and always good.

3. I FINALLY took Arianna to get her first portraits done. (We always use Penney’s because it’s $5 for a whole package.) I was so good about doing the 6 wk, 3-6-9 mo, one year, 18mo, etc. pictures with the other kids but here she is, closing in on 9 months and I still hadn’t taken her. They turned out stinking cute. If you want a peek, I can email you the files but I’m not sure about the copyrights for posting them here.  Just let me know.

4. Remember I did that spring kids’ consignment sale? There’s an adult sale here next week and I’ve been procrastinating getting my old unused stuff and clothes ready to sell. It’s stressful adding such a huge project on top of four kids and a house. BUT, I want to use it for my personal clothing fund for the rest of the summer/fall, so I’m making myself get it done. And my, how my tastes have changed. (The sale is also taking household goods. Goodbye, attic miscellany.)

5. A couple months ago Andy and I went to a Crown Financial seminar and have been moving towards a cash system (as well as cutting various things out and downgrading others). It’s a lot of work but I know it will be worth it in the end. I will say that it’s amazing how much less we can live on with some effort and creativity.

6. Madeline has been begging me to wear her Easter dress again to church. It is in dire need of ironing, so I kept putting her off and then it was the 4th of July. So along with those items I need to iron for the sale, her dress must be done today. Need to get on that!

7. I took this photo of Arianna this afternoon and it made me laugh.

It also reminded me to mention that, yes, I AM still cloth diapering. (Probably about 85% of the time.) I’ve got a load washing right this very second.  (She’s wearing a GroBaby in that photo.)

8. Thanks to all you sweet bloggers who linked up to the first Fun Mom Friday. (And by the way, the linky will be open all weekend in case there are people still wanting to participate.) I hope you got a chance to click around; there were some good ideas out there!

9. Amanda wrote a good post on blog etiquette as it relates to commenting, so I wont rehash the topic (even though Mer and I were just discussing maybe doing a joint mini-series for the new-to-blogging-peeps). I KNOW that I could be better about it, but it’s also true that we only have so many hours in a day. For myself, I’ve considered turning them off altogether just because I’d waste a lot less time checking for email.

10. Since we’re not paying for anyone to be in Mothers Day Out or school during the summer, I hired a college-aged friend from church to come over a couple hours a week. I meant to work in the attic yesterday (for that blasted sale) while she entertained the kids, but instead Andy and I went to the bank, filled up his car, and grocery shopped. (I can’t decide how pathetic it is that we used our date to run errands.) But the funny part was, when we got home and parked, he opened the back of his car and the watermelon flew out, rolled down the driveway and across the street, landing in the ditch on the other side. (I was glad it had come from Aldi and wasn’t very expensive.)

So there you have it. Hope your Saturday is free of chasing stray watermelons!

A little bit of virtual housekeeping

First, I finally got around to rewriting my About Me page (up there in the nav bar). I’ll be honest, it’s probably still just a draft. I’m open to comments and suggestions.

Also, I’m excited to be working with a few new affiliates, listed under my BlogHer ads right there on the left. If you should choose, I’d make a small commission if you ordered anything through me from DaySpring (a Christian division of Hallmark), Tiny*Prints (a GREAT place to get your custom birth announcements, party invitations, holiday cards, etc.), and free baby samples at BabiesOnline. (That last one is simply to order free baby samples — they do not sell anything.)

(You know, so I can save up some pennies for the next vehicle repair.)

I’m going to be updating some of my other pages soon, too, when I have the time… I know my blogroll page at least is…ancient. Does anyone use those anymore?

Redesign!

So, as you can see, I did get a new design.  (Feedreaders and email subscribers will have to click through to see.) A few of you snuck a peek before it was finished and actually, it’s still only at about 95%.  But, even so, I’m very happy with it!  (Thanks, Jo-Lynne!)

I left my camera here at the house yesterday and just enjoyed being in the moment with my kids and frying myself laying in the sun.  Drew was a crazy maniac on the boogie board; Andy was a little shocked at how enthusiastically he got into it.  Fun to watch.  The storms were blowing in so the waves were higher but the sandbar was really shallow.

In the afternoon Andy took Madeline to this little beach memory shop and let her pick out one thing.  She’s been begging ALL WEEK to go buy a shell there.  She ended up picking a stuffed dolphin instead.  (I shouldn’t have been surprised.)

We didn’t get dinner in the oven on time so we ended up getting a couple of pizzas. Some friends were supposed to come spend the weekend with us and decided it was too much; so we ended up with more of a down night.

I’m off to enjoy our last full day of vacation! (And my coffee!)

A Two-Second Post

I’ve been flying around this week feeling like a headless chicken, if I’m honest. I pulled all the outgrown clothes and baby items down from the attic this afternoon and have an absolute mess in my living room. Hopefully pricing and tagging won’t take too long and I can get this stuff to the consignment drop-off SOON.

I just wanted to say (and remind myself) that I KNOW I still haven’t made all the return visits from the delurker day, and I WILL get to it eventually. In-laws are coming next week for the final stage of the kitchen renovation (countertops came in this week!) and with this kids’ sale and some other things going on, it’s just a little bit crazy right now. Bear with me!

Here’s your chance

to say hi!

(And like Steph said, I also promise you a return visit, if you have a blog.)

10 on the 10th

Except it’s the 11th.

My good bloggy-turned-real-life friend Mer does a little 10 on the 10th carnival and I have never participated but I always mean to. (Thought that counts?)  I’m just going to do a (really) random list of current things (mostly) about me…

1. In her post, she mentioned unplugging from the computer on Sundays; they limit their kids’ screen time and thought not being online would be a good way to set a good example for their kids.  I took that as inspiration and kept my laptop completely closed all day yesterday (it’s sort of like a personal tithe on time).  Hence the 10 on the 11th for me.  ;)  I think I’m going to keep doing that, unplugging completely on Sundays. (Even though it was hard.)

2. The last several days of last week I was on a complete organizing FRENZY.  I have no idea how I got that much motivation but I just rode with it.  (Could have something to do with the success of the laundry sorter.)

On Friday sweet Ellen came to play with the kids so I could run some errands w/out them and I picked up several container-ish things to help me in my organizing quest.  Like these little wire mesh boxes that now reside on the desk in the kitchen:

That used to be a huge messy pile of papers and other crap items that inevitably got tossed there.

3. Notice that fruity wallpaper? It’s about to get ripped out. I’ve restrained myself from not starting another huge project until the bathroom is finished but it should be done very soon (maybe even today). Next on my list is to paint several of the kitchen cabinet doors, replace all the knobs/pulls, and replace the wallpaper with paint.

We’ll also replace the countertops sometime in the near future to match the paint. I’m SO excited about this — the kitchen was sort of the last frontier in our house that we’ve never actually liked but never made our own. (I’ve painted every other room this whole house through.)

4. Since it’s been so very cold recently, every time we go out I’ve been bundling the kids up and the girls have been wearing their scarves.  Drew asked me where his was.  (Uh…)  So, not wanting to neglect my only son, I let him pick out some yarn and I’m making him one, too.  He picked blue (no surprise).

5. Andy has started singing regularly with our church choir.  (He sang with them for their Christmas concert and decided to continue.)  What this means for me is, that we have to get there VERY VERY EARLY on Sunday mornings.  And if you know us, that is high near impossible, especially with a nursing baby thrown into the mix.  I told my friend Gretchen yesterday that this choir thing just might kill us. (Keep in mind that Andy gets home from work Saturday nights usually in the wee hours of Sunday morning.)

6. I’m nearing the point where I’m starting to think about/get inspired to start losing the baby weight and recover from the holidays. (I said I’m thinking about it. Ahem.)

7. Drew started school back again today. I’m SO relieved to be starting our schedule again. We were getting increasingly stir-crazy being home for days on end without daily structure and things to do/places to go. It’s been too cold to be outside for any length of time and the kids’ energy in our tiny house was about to drive me a little batty.

8. Whatever the problem with our dryer was, it must have been something to do with the thermostat. Because now it’s MUCH hotter and ALL our clothes are shrinking. (Which doesn’t help ANYthing.)

9. I just bought a new double stroller. We ran our old one INTO THE GROUND. I figured since I just had a new baby, we’ll be using it for the forseeable future. It handles so, so much nicer than the other one. And doesn’t creak, which is nice.

10. This was where I got stuck and asked Andy for help… he said “you can say you have a little problem with a caffeine addiction” – AMEN. Don’t plan on changing THAT anytime soon. (Dreaming of Starbucks…)

We also ran out of half n’ half yesterday. Conveniently we did still have some heavy whipping cream which got me through this morning (hey, I was desperate) but that SURE doesn’t help with #6 above.

Happy Monday!

2009, Blog Redux Style

(Really this is supposed to be the first line of the first post of every month. I’m being lazy and just giving the titles.)

January
Happy 2009! (Don’t waste your time on that one.)

February
Busy Week Ahead (And also? She did start blogging.)

March
It’s Monday – time for a meme (i.e. old school blogging).

April
Madeline, The Storyteller. The end of this (“Adelaide can be… the crab”) still makes me howl.

May
Six Children Five and Under is too much for two mommies in Costco. And now we’d have seven, six and under. Still too many.

June
A Very Full Sunday. Oh my word, Adelaide, so cute.

July
Ready for the 4th, Part II. More Adelaide cuteness, patriotic style.

August
I’m here, I’m here.

September
Hair Flowers.

October
One of the easiest desserts ever. Now I’m hungry.

November
Day 3 (of Arianna’s life).

December
Where We Are (DPP Day 1). The bathroom project that is still unfinished (don’t laugh).

Fashionably late to the party

I haven’t done a link-up post in forever but I feel almost obligated to write this one since I know both Jo-Lynne and Robin in person and it would be all kinds of rude to ignore these lovely ladies and their fun bloggy party. (And Robin just lives down the proverbial street.)

(More or less.)

So… I’m Moriah, I’ve been blogging for a couple of years now and am a happy wife and mother of 3.5 kids (I’m due in the fall). My oldest will be going to half-day kindergarten this year and I’m very excited for him learning to read since it’s one of my favorite things.

(I also love shoes, shopping, blogging, meeting friends, hanging out with my hubby, watching movies, good coffee, and traveling.)

(And parentheses, apparently.)

I grew up moving all over the place with a military-career dad but have lived in the South for last ten-ish years (minus a one-year fling outside of Philly). I stay at home with my kids and occasionally even do the laundry. I contribute bi-monthly to Jo-Lynne’s fashion and beauty blog, Chic Critique.

We are Reformed Christians and are as involved in our church as much as having three little people will allow. (Let’s just say I’m fond of the Wednesday-night nursery.)

I like to stay busy and take my kids to do fun things. (I also spend way too much time on the computer.) I blog about my life as a mother of almost-four, my fun sewing projects, food occasionally, and my love of hairbows.

Hope you’ll stick around, I love new bloggy friends!