Today is the day I...

.....start planning to clean. 

my house is a mess because I have 2 boys under 4, a husband and well......i'm lazy :0)

                    so i'm going to start a 31 day cleaning challenge with crystal at moneysavingmom.com

          it starts on april 1st and goes through the month, cleaning 20 minutes a day and hopefully my house will get clean :0)


i'll be posting about my progress, before and after photos, to keep accountable to anyone who might read this...

A good day to read...

...a new book.

Christmas is not far off, and until then we also celebrate Thanksgiving.  There are many things expected, or often thought to be expected, of us for those two wonderful holidays.

I often expect much more of myself then my family does and I cause myself much anxiety.

As William will tell you, I often over research things and I have read many blogs on how I can plan out my Christmas in the months prior to it.

MONTHS!!  To plan 2 days of holidays. 

Recently I've been given the opportunity to review Crystal Paine's newest e-book Celebrating and Savoring a Simple Christmas.   
 
It is a wonderful $0.99 e-book that put me at ease about not having a Martha Stewart styled Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Crystal also explains how to pay for Christmas with cash and not cause the added burden of paying for gifts for months after opening them.

Check it out and let me know what you think.


Mari

The last few months have been days full of...

...wonder and crying and just trying to make it through. Most of my conversations go to the tune of, "It's not teached it's taught, honey." Or, "It's says not say's" (Long a on the last one :) 

It's been a little tough and I've learned things to do, and more so what not to do. I'm becoming more comfortable with myself as a stay at home momma and not beating myself up when my 3 year old watches an hour of tv.

Saturday is the first day of Autumn, which I like saying more than fall, and I'm so looking forward to it all!

Today was a day...

... to do nothing :-) playing with my 12 week old and doing simple housework was a great way to start the day. when the three year old came home with his three year old cousin to spend the night...that's when the fun began! it's now 10:30pm and they are still awake because cousin decided he wanted to go home...yay. so daddy is sleeping on the floor and they are camping out. i love childhood

A Day Out

A day out with the girls at an amazing estate....lovely.

Wishing to be Ms Eliza Bennett never feels so powerful

than when you see something comparable to 

the Pemberly Estate.





 How could you not fall in love with this ...

 The Tiffany exhibit is running right now,

the foliage is an inspiration of those glorious lights.

 

 

It was a great day

Lost childhood toys

So while going through our attic my hubby pulls down a large black bag saying, "I think this is yours."


It turned out to be a few of my stuffed animals from my childhood!!

How fun to go through there and find a care bear with it's little tuft of hair gone because I liked to cut it off. You see, my sister would normally get the same toys as I, and I only wanted to make sure I knew which was mine...so she couldn't play with it. Seems reasonable enough to me.

 

And then there is Beaver.  

I don't know why but my brother, sister and I always fought over this thing.

It is rather scary looking now :)

 

But my Best Friend was Velvet.  

My dad bought him for me for Christmas when 

I was 8.

He has a velvet nose and had a velvet bow until

I decided she was a he. 

So my dad took the bow and made a tie out of it :)

Velvet has worn it the same way for 22 years. 

He doesn't like change.

Lost and found

I had a post...and I lost it.  I was playing around with my blog here and did something to my very first post.  Some how it was deleted....but it's ok, I'm learning as I go.

We had a great party at my mom's today...no pictures though.  I was very busy hanging out and watching my adorable 2 year old be...well 2.

I'm very happy to have been born here in the States, and to live now in South Carolina. I didn't think I'd like it here and had planned not to stay.  Well we know how that turned out.  But over the years I've come to love it here, the city and the people.  Although we don't get out as much as others, it's still enjoyable!

These are photos I've taken from around our lovely state.  They all have great memories connected with them

 Just driving for the fun of it in a '72 Mustang

 Caesar's Head with the flag flying

 And a lovely bumblebee in downtown Greenville

Yes, I absolutely love it here. I've found love, acceptance and parenthood here...I think I'll stay.