Launi

January 14, 2009January 21, 2022

Winter Schminter…

With all the busy-ness and excitement of this holiday season, with all the gift-giving and new babies and stuff to make—I never got around to sending any Christmas cards. Now, I know that there aren’t actually that many dinosaurs left these days that like to send them…but I do. So I missed it because my days were filled with so much to do all ready. We even had pictures to send this time (whine, whine). Oh, how’d that baby picture get in there?

Then, while at Michael’s a few days ago, I accidentally took a walk down the dollar aisle–a very dangerous place indeed. For me, the dollar aisle always turns into the twenty-dollar aisle, so I was wary. Then, I spotted some really cute cards. They were a set of 10, Mary Engelbreit notes–with blank insides…on the dollar aisle. They weren’t Christmas or New Year’s cards. In fact, they didn’t mention any holiday at all.

These great little doo-dads are making it possible to connect with all the people that I normally grab up at Christmastime–only now, in the lull of the holidays–at a time that isn’t quite so busy. So maybe instead of that scrawled message inside, I can actually write a real note…or letter even. Depends on my mood.

I think I’ll call them Winter Cards.

Wahoo!

I feel a new tradition coming on…

New Year’s Goal #8– I will write a real letter to Dane–not just email–every week because sometimes you just need to find something in the mailbox.

January 13, 2009January 21, 2022

Organizing Craft Supplies

So I have these shelves…

…they hold tons of stuff, but honestly, there’s no order to any of it and that makes me nuts. Looking for a needle? Yeah, well, it’s in there somewhere. I really hate that. Why have stuff if you can’t ever find it?

I thought about it for awhile, and came to the conclusion that the reason for the frustration is that all the containers are different shapes and sizes, none are labeled and they’re just stuffed on the shelf–with no rhyme or reason other than they fit there.

I decided that I would see what I could do to clean all this up and gave myself a $30 budget to do it with.

Walmart is having a good deal on their storage bins and tubs right now–a January thing, I suppose. The shoe boxes were $1 a piece and I bought 20. The small 3 drawer bin was $6 and the 2 small craft sorters were about $1.60 each. That equals $29.20 plus tax. Not bad.

It took most of the day to sort all this stuff, but it was actually fun to see what supplies I have and then to give them all a place. I couldn’t believe how many packages of needles I have socked away. I’m always afraid I won’t be able to find one when I need it, so just I buy more. Sheesh…

I don’t have labels on any of the boxes yet, but since they are clear, I can tell what is in them anyway, so no big rush. This looks even better in real life, because even all the tiny things have a home. Now if I find a button on the floor, I know just where it goes.

Oh, and besides these shelves, I also have this squishy, sweet, smiling baby with a dinosaur on her head—from Aunt April. She needs a kiss.

I have to go… :]

New Year’s Goal #7– I will organize my stuff so that everything has it’s own place. What I can’t make fit I will get rid of…somehow.

January 12, 2009June 24, 2020

Wonderful Life

Awhile back, I was casually reading a good friend’s blog and found out that she’d never seen the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life.”

“Positively obscene,” I told her. Everyone knows that you can’t go to heaven if you haven’t seen “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Slight exaggeration, maybe, but it still felt wrong to know anyone on earth who hadn’t seen it.

So even though it was past Christmas and we really have been making every effort to put all the green and red tubs back in the garage–we kept this one movie out and invited our sweet friend over to see it for the first time in her life. It was a lovely experience to watch someone–besides me–cry in all the right places. She was even a great sport with all our commentary, which can try the patience of even the most sturdy mountain woman. In the end, of course she loved it, so I’ve come to a conclusion of sorts.

Maybe this “Christmas movie” isn’t such an exclusively Christmas movie. In fact, it felt like the perfect show for this time of year when we are all trying in our own way to be little better than we were last year. What a great reminder to “bloom where we’re planted,” and make the most of what we’ve got–whatever it is. Because we just never know the difference we may make in the lives of someone else, just by being ourselves.

New Year’s Goal #6– I will pay attention to the tiny feet that may be stepping in my footprints.

January 11, 2009January 21, 2022

One’s Own Family

“Perhaps most significant of all classrooms is the classroom of the home. It is in the home that we form our attitudes, our deeply held beliefs. It is in the home that hope is fostered or destroyed. Our homes are the laboratories of our lives. What we do there determines the course of our lives when we leave home. Dr. Stuart E. Rosenberg wrote in his book The Road to Confidence, ‘Despite all new inventions and modern designs, fads and fetishes, no one has yet invented, or will ever invent, a satisfying substitute for one’s own family.’ “

President Thomas S. Monson

“Precious Children–A Gift from God,” Ensign, Nov. 1991, 68

January 9, 2009January 21, 2022

Hibernation

The weatherman says we may have 6 more inches of snow–in some areas–by morning. I say…bring it.

What I really wish is that it would keep coming down for three days until snow covered up the door, the windows and maybe even the roof–with only the chimney sticking out—so just for a while, we wouldn’t have to go anywhere. I hope it happens in the dead of night sometime so that everyone is home and safe and warm.

Picture it. The first guy up would look out the window—which he couldn’t see out of because it is–as I said–covered with snow. He would say, “DUDE, I’ll have to stay home from school today.”

Then the next guy up would try the door and say, “It won’t open. Guess I can’t go in to work today.”

The next one up would say, “The snow is up to the roof. We better stay inside. I think we’re…snowed in.” Dun-dun-dun.

The all of a sudden we have hot chocolate, and Brocoli Cheese soup, and garlic toast just appearing, magically–from scratch. Board games come out, book shelves are studied, puzzles are started. We would have no choice but to stay inside and read and cook and play and snuggle together with…

a sweet smelling…

fuzzy headed…

…yummy baby.

And just how perfect would that be?

“Baby Chomp”

9lbs. 3oz.

21-3/4 inches long

January 7th, 2009 8:41 pm

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Author: Launi