What a week...

A wild week at home indeed. To busy to even blog. The fun started Saturday when we realized we had an unusual amount of water in out basement. Now we generally have some water due to our house being really old, and all the rain we have had. It was really bad this time though. We spent most of Saturday (late evening) cleaning the basement sucking up water and dumping it, using the squeegee, bleaching etc. The good news is we didn't lose much as we know it floods and we are the cautious type. Now if you have a really old house like ours you don't just get water you get mud and muck. Oh it was certainly one for that TV show "Dirty Jobs" we where such a mess. I sent my husband off to the shower first. While me and my oldest finished up, Then utoh.... its a pluming issue all the shower water went right back onto the basement floor. NOOOOO oh I was mad. We where doing a big basement cleaning as we where having issues with our dryer and wanted to clean up to get the new vents done. We where also having the gas company out on Monday to move our indoor meter outside. That little project has been the death of me they have been working on the lines since September and countless times we had no gas and our yard dug up several times. My foyer looks like it went mudding on a daily basis as our yard is mostly mud and gravel at this point. So they finally get everything moved and are ready to turn the lines back on just to tell us they have to turn it out apparently our furnace has a gas leak. Like "sorry but your house might explode" oh joy. We finally get the plumber, heating people etc. all over at once. My basement looked like a village people Reunion. I spent most of the day keeping water away from the gas people waiting for the plumber. Clean up after the line was fixed was pretty easy it all sucked down the drain. I just had to bleach some more. Now the good news here is that My furnace is fixed and wont explode, My basement is the cleanest it could ever possibly be, and my dryer actually drys clothes now. I have been in laundry heaven. The basement is also dry enough that the kids can ride their scooters inside. So after much stress God brought us right on through it. He protected us from the gas leak and put all the right people in place to get all the work done on one day with not to much trouble. I still have a lot of little things that need done amazing how when you cant use your water for a few days because you don't want to flood the basement over and over again can make the mom work pileup. So hopefully next week I will be blogging a bit more.

Save My Saturday

This Saturday is kinda a dud. My husband is working 3-11 so My Saturday needs some saving for sure. I don't know what it is about Saturdays that make the kids nuts. The school week is done, Chores are done(ish), and now They need an activity or it will be wrestle mania in my living room. Yes, Moms of all boys girls rough house and wrestle too lol. We need a way to get all the energy out. It's a little too cold to go outside without a an hour bundle up-a-thon which lets face it defeats the purpose of a restful Saturday. So indoor obstacle course it is. Now we have a decent sized house and I don't have many breakables so I allow jogging/ruining for this at their own risk. I set a timer on my ipod and I give them each a color of ruberbands, this is how we mark that they went to each spot in the course, they also have to retrieve certain items.
Todays course looked something like this.
Start at the front door
tag the back door (hang your band on the door knob)
give the dog a treat
hop scotch across the living room (we have a hop scotch carpet)
Go to the bathroom and get a roll of toilet paper
Get a pencil from the schoolroom
put the in your hand above your head and put the toilet paper on the pencil
hopscotch back across the living room
put the pencil and toilet paper away
tag your bedroom door
tag the mailbox
tag mom
and your done.
I do call out the steps as they go as that is a lot to remember
then we see who had the best time. It's pretty funny too because the dog usually chases them and the 3 year old is very territorial with the hopscotch carpet so they have those little obstacle too lol. We may do a few more courses after wards or sometimes they ask to do the same one again to try to get a better time.

Our puppy..

We Got a Puppy back in Aug. First bit of advice. Wait until your youngest child is at least 5. It's like having 2 toddlers in the house. We love him and boy has he grown. Here is a pic taken with in the first month we had him.

and here he is now.

His favorite new sleeping spot is under the tree on one of the girls bean bags.
Showing off his triple chin lol

Blog Hop!

Let us "hop" on over to your blog to see what you are up to this week.

*please follow the Host(s)

*please link only to family friendly sites

* your blog/post doesn't have to be a wordless wednesday

*please grab our button on the bottom right (not required)

Have fun!

Top Ten Tuesday

Frist of all, I want to make it clear that this is for entertainment purposes only in the spirit of my own sense of humor. While I realize it could make me sound ungrateful It was a conversation between my husband and I that led to this list. Based on some of the terrible gifts we have given each other, given to others, or that family has given us over our 11 Christmas' together.

So without further ado the top ten worst Christmas gifts ever.

10. Fruit Cake
9. Ugly Christmas Sweaters
8. Make your own ___________Kit
7. Gift cards to places that are not local
6. Clothes that don’t fit
5. Chia Pet
4. Memberships to places you will never go
3. ___________of the month club
2. Books or Music that do not interest you in the slightest
1. Christmas themed items that you will be packing up the following week because you can’t enjoy it till next year.

Number 1 always gets me. I refuse to buy a Christmas themed item and give it to someone on Christmas day. I always feel like why give something to someone that they can't enjoy year round. I'm not talking about an ornament or something sentimental but please don't give me a potholder with a Christmas tree on it, I'm not going to see it again for another 360 days. Please tell me I'm not alone on that one lol.

Holiday cards and Potatoes

Yippee, it cyber Monday. I'm making Holiday cards today. I missed the boat and haven't finished setting up my Etsy store. Who would of thought that the life of a stay at home homeschooling mom of 4 wouldn't lend itself to much free time for crafts and hobbies.

this snowman image is only for personal use and can not be used for custom cards sorry for the inconvenience
(if your looking for custom cards email me)

Yesterday however, I did manage to get a fun activity done up for my preschooler. I downloaded a Mr. Potato Head printable. I pulled it into psp and digitally colored it (yeah I like to let my young ones color but sometimes the ocd in me needs something to look a certain way) I had to "draw" my own potato but that was ok with a lot of cutting to get it down to size. I then laminated all the pieces and attached Velcro so my little one could build her own Mr. Potato Head while we do school work. I of course ran out of Velcro so its an unfinished project but she enjoyed playing with what was done. I am thinking when my new file folders arrive I will set it up to be a file folder game or a busy bag and maybe use good old Mr. Potato Head for some lessons on the 5 senses.

On another note, I also added a new Printables section to the blog. I have just a few up right now but will be adding more as I make them. Check them out I'd love to hear what you think of them.

Shopping Sunday

Did everyone survive Black Friday? I did, my oldest and I hit walmart around 8:30am picked up a few things and stopped for breakfast while the rest of the family slept in. I did most of our shopping online this year, poor hubby has a lot of assembling to do. He said because of this I have to take over wrapping. Poor kids, I have one wrapping method and it involves newspapers and duct tape. I can't wrap to save my life and dh has a "no gift bags" policy. Hopefully we will all survive it. So now on to "Cyber Monday" wondering what if any good deals I will find. I don't research Cyber Monday nearly as much as Black Friday but rest assured I will be doing my cyber Monday homework tomorrow while we watch football. What good underground cyber Monday deals are you scouting out this year? And did you battle the crazies on Black Friday?

Save my Saturday!

When the school week is over, the kids are antsy because its too cold to go outside or raining again! The rain here is enough to make you crazy I thought I moved to Small town Ohio not Seattle lol. The kids need something to do and mom, well lets face it, It's a day of rest. I always try to plan something out of the norm. I wish I had pics to go along with this post but we where so busy having fun I never got the camera out.

I bought Lego's for the first time on Black Friday. A big huge kit and it makes me nervous having a puppy in the house and a 3 year old who loves to put stuff down the heating vents lol. But we needed something new.

The kit we got contained 1,600 pieces. for $30 at walmart. This is a whole new world for my girls but my husband and I had countless hours of fun playing with them when we where kids. I wanted to try to make it a touch educational I took some small clear plastic cups and let each girl scoop a cup of Lego's and the challenge was to use all the Lego's in your cup to make something cool. My oldest made robots, My middle girl made hotels, and my 2nd youngest made a family. I was surprised how well they did. The second challenge was using 2 colors only I divided colors up in the cups and gave each of them 2 colors. This time we got a family on a boat, a bathroom, and a map.

Getting Lego's was a big step for our crew and while I still cringe every time I hear one hit our hardwood floors. It totally "saved my Saturday"

How about a giveaway :)

I had a great post planned for today but alas, I got wrapped up in Thanksgiving. However I did sit down and make this wonderful little activity for my 3 year old. Fellow Homeschooling mama's know that sometimes you just HAVE to have busywork for your toddler while you work with the older kids. One of my 3 year olds favorite things is to play with Bingo Daubers. Now lost of great printables exist for this and I think we have done them all twice or more. So I decided to do one with her name. She is going to flip Monday when she sees this. So I thought hmmmm.. maybe I can make a personalized one for one of my few blog readers.



So lets keep it easy 1 entry per action
1-Tweet this post
2- Share this on facebook
3- Grab my button and place it on your blog
4- Comment on this giveaway and simply say "enter me"
Now I assume I can do no more than 5 letters on a page, but I can make 2-3 pages and you can cut/glue them or I can do one large letter per page to spell the name however you want to do it.
Here is a glimpse at the one I made for my "Cady"

just make sure you comment what you have done so I can get your entries :) Good luck :)

*giveaway will end 12/2 EST*

Happy Thanksgiving! What a better day to express what your thankful for. I try to focus on the blessings in my life on more than one day a year of course. Trying hard to also teach my girls to be thankful for all that they have. As American children they have so much while children across the world suffer. I would adopt the world if I could and give to many. But, as that is not possible we can only pray that they have love and that all their needs are met. I am so blessed.






A short list of what I am thankful for this year.
I am thankful to know Jesus as my personal Saviour.
I am thankful to be an American and have religious freedom.
I am thankful for my amazing husband who is loving and supportive despite my many faults.
I am thankful for my daughters who are blossoming into wonderful young ladies.
I am thankful for my home, van, and food in my pantry.
I am thankful for iced coffee, dark chocolate and sweet tea.
I am thankful I have the option and resources to homeschool my daughters.
I am thankful my husband has a job he loves and is willing to commute to provide for us.
I am thankful for my amazing friends online and offline.
I am thankful that my husband supports my many crafting and home improvement ventures.
So much more I am sure but these are the ones at the forefront of my mind.
What are you thankful for this year?
If you are looking for a last minute busy activity to keep the kids out of the kitchen. Goggle is your friend just google "thanksgiving printables" and you will find tons of things from coloring pages, placecard activites, wordsearches and more.

It's A Blog hop!!!

It's a blog hop baby! our first... link up!!

My desk, showing my cool new Knitting "project bags" from ETSY I have a tiny desk so put them up on hooks to keep away from kids and critters. I love them!

Not only is it "wordless wednesday" It's a Blog Hop too!! So add your link so we can see just how wordless you are today!!

Here's The rules
* Please link only to family friendly sites

* Please Follow the Host(s) blogs
*Please link to your Blog only no stores please
* Grab my button and place it on your blog so you can remember to come back next week! (not required) * your blog doesn't have to have a Wordless Wednesday to join in either :)

<center><a href="http://afamilysetapart.blogspot.com" target="_blank"><img alt="A family set apart" src="http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i21/Crawlil/wedbloghop.png"/></a></center>

It's that simple, It would be nice to leave a comment or follow other participants too!
Enjoy!

This Tuesday I thought it would be fun to do a "top ten" of the cutest newborn/baby animals. They are just too cute to put in any kind of order.

Baby Penguins

Baby Chicks

Rare baby leopards

Baby Sea Turtles

Baby Pandas

Tiny Baby Monkey

Baby Duck Billed platypus

Baby Porcupines

Baby Bunny

Baby Hippo

Don't they just melt your heart? Which is your Favorite? Or better yet, do you have one that didn't make the list?

Something about Pinterest that just inspires me to create things. It also is something that can keep you pinned to the couch repinning your heart out till 2am. I have come across so many cool ideas that I never ever would of thought of doing on my own. I have made a few things but nothing spectacular just yet. I have made a few pages of a quiet book for a Holiday gift for my 3 year old. A few Homeschooling items. I am really ready to go bigger though. I want to start with something that wont be to daunting but yet cool enough to convince my husband to help me with future projects. So my proposed plan for the coming week is combining these two projects. For our schoolroom.

The first project is The "Nail and String letters"
You can read about how to accomplish this on this Blog

I plan to spell out the word "READ" to go above our window, under the window is where project #2 comes in. After a trip to Pittsburgh to hit IKEA to buy these spice racks.

How cute is that! I bought 3 of them but I plan to put 3 across right in reach for my youngest "reader" The shelves where super easy to put together it took me all of about 10 minuets and that was with a 3 year old "helping" and a kitty who just has to be on my lap every time I sit down. I can't wait to get this project going. I will post our finished project as soon as it's done. What are some Pinterest projects you have done or are planning to do? If you would like to follow my pins click on the icon in the upper right hand side of this blog.

Well, who doesn't love shopping? Well aside from men. I had to giggle while shopping last night for my daughters 13th birthday today. I was walking past a couple at walmart near the bra section. Typical male standing in the center isle rushing his wife. She says "are you in a hurry to get home so we can just sit on the couch and do nothing" he says "yes, I am in a hurry" I had to laugh because it sounded like my husband and I. But, in all fairness I would tell my husband to go look at tools, toys, or electronics while I bra shopped lol. To be honest while I do like to get out of the house and shop from time to time I much rather shop on line. I can stay in my pajamas, under my fluffy blanket, and sip on some hot tea. Plus as a single income family with 4 kids and 3 pets I love to compare prices online. I have already done some pre holiday shopping online and I'm keeping my eyes open for deals. One of my favorite shopping sites is WOOT

It's totally random what you might find and sometimes you luck out and score something awesome. I am a total sucker for Kids woot when they have Melissa & Dog toys. usually a set of 3 toys for somewhere around $20-25 and most Melissa and Doug toys they feature are $12.99-$16.99 bought separately. I have never been unhappy with a deal on woot. Many other sites do a "daily deal" as well even Walmart & Target. Other sites like BabyHalfOff & BabySteals have great items too. So what are your "go to" online shopping sites for great deals?

My New Blog

I have done many blogs, and blogs dedicated to different areas of my life. Then I get road blocked, discouraged, and can't keep up with 11 billion blogs. So to keep it simple, how about ONE blog. That I can just encompass our lives, topics I like, and maybe s shot at keeping up with it. So a first goal of 2012 is Keeping up with ONE blog lol.

I do hope you enjoy it. I hope I can keep it interesting for the readers and maybe even toss in some contests or something down the road.