The He-Man Woman Hater's Club

I replaced the batteries in my camera. Oh boy, prepare for photo overload this weekend.
Is it just me, or does Corbin not look like a "baby" in this picture.
I did not approve that.

Aaron just left to take Corbin to the annual Father and Son Campout. They aren't planning to sleep over, but it was cute to see the car packed with a camping chair for Aaron and a tiny one for Corbin.

I see a family camping trip in the very near future. The girls were in absolute hysterics when the boys left, tonight. They do NOT like being left out and the idea of a "girls night with mom" was so uninteresting to them, they chose misery and went to bed to cry themselves to sleep.
It was a little dramatic.

While I am sad that my daughters do not know yet what an incredibly fun mother they have, I am happy that Baby Guy got a night out alone with his Daddy.

As for the girls...they'll figure it out soon enough ;)

What's Wrong With Miracle Whip.

Notice that this post title is written as a statement, rather than a question.

This one's for Angie and all you other miracle whip lovers out there. (I know who you are!)

Let's get one thing straight. Miracle Whip is gross, and I think I have a pretty fair argument.

Fact: Miracle Whip is NOT mayonaise. At all.

To illustrate this, I have come up with an analogy:

Miracle Whip : Mayo :: Root Beer : Dr. Pepper

1) See? Not the same thing.
2) One is preferred over the other only by people who have once lived in Utah or Idaho.
3) While the two products appear to serve a similar purpose, one is not an acceptible substitute for the other.

Fact: Miracle Whip is living a lie.
Really, the packaging should just say, "Bottled Fraud".
Why? Because Miracle Whip is not mayo, but it pretends to be, and what's worse--- it doesn't even do a good job as a fake!

Yet, there are so many people out there who have accepted this stolen identity, that it continues to get away with it's evil facade. The victims being what-could-have-been delicious, non-soggy sandwiches, fallen to tangy weirdness that can only be described as, "what's wrong with this sandwich? Did the meat spoil? Why is is sour?"


Down with Miracle Whip!
I say, "Bring out the Best Foods and Bring out the Best!"

On Being Heckled

You know that when you saw this picture you quietly did the Nelson Muntz "ha ha" laugh out loud, sitting alone at your computer.

I don't know where my kids picked it up, but I hear this laugh all the time, lately. Corbin knows it will make me laugh, so he answers just about every question with, "Ha Ha" and it's becoming the kid version of "that's what she said" in our house.

If you don't "get" this pop culture refrence, I really can't help you, and for that, I am sorry.

For those who do know the laugh I am talking about, you know how hilarious it is to hear my 2 yr old throw out a faraway, "ha ha" from the other room without skipping a beat as a response when I say things like this to the children:

"Ok, guys, it's naptime" (ha ha!)

"Girls, go pick up in your bedroom." (ha ha!)

"Quincy, go to time out" (ha ha!)

"Corbin, where did you put your shoes?" (ha ha!)

"Did you hit your sister?" (ha ha!)

"Let's go, we're going to be late" (ha ha!)

and

"Corbin, are you poopy?" (ha ha!)

A Season for Gratitude

The batteries on my camera died, so it's out of commission until I get to the store next week. I'm dying to post pics from my first week of preschool, but it will have to wait.

I know you all will be on the edge of your seats, waiting.

In the meantime, I thought I'd share 10 things that made me happy today:

1) Reese's face when she got off the bus and ran toward me full speed, with open arms. hands down, the best part of every afternoon. Quincy running across the kitchen to Reese in a similar fashion was a close 2nd.

2) It has finally cooled off enough to wear jeans. JEANS! Oh the joy I feel.

3) Someone brought Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cake to Relief Society Enrichment Meeting tonight. Mmmmmmm

4) Katie baked today and I reaped the chocolatey-peanut-buttery benefits.

5) I was reinspired to make a lamp (thanks, Steph!).

6) Aaron took out the trash on his way out the door to work, this morning.

7) I had an entire hour during naptime today to sit on the sofa and read. It was fantastic.

8) I only spent $35 on groceries, this week. It's a stretch since I already had many of the ingredients I'll be using for dinners this week, but still, $35? That's a happy thing.

9) My hair looked awesome today. I guess that makes up for walking around all morning with a 6 inch gaping hole in the back of my shirt. Oopsie!

10) Tonight, for whatever reason, I was thinking about our old house in Green Bay, Wi, when I drove home. When I pushed a button on my dash and the garage door opened I was reminded of what a luxury it is to not only have an automatic garage door opener, but to have a garage at all! Our first home had a detached garage that had manual opening french doors. The garage was baaaaaarely large enough to house our honda civic, and putting the car inside only meant having another 8 feet of driveway to shovel the snow off of, so we never used it. Getting out of the car was freeeezing! But tonight, I simply pushed a button, rolled my car forward, and pushed the button again to close the door behind me, and I was 3 feet from the door to my kitchen. Automatic garage doors. What a blessing!

11) My kids played in the backyard with a large sheet of cardboard for 30 minutes this afternoon.

12) I ate Miracle Whip tonight and didn't die.

13) I ran into 5 of my preschool students today. Some were former students and some are current, but they all greeted me with a cheerful, "Mrs. Meg! Mrs. Meg!" and it warmed my heart every time.

14) ice from Station Cafe (why are so many of my happy moments related to food? I have issues)

15) Aaron came home for lunch.

16) Quincy asked for seconds at lunch

17) I tied up all of my dried out corn stalks with hemp string and they look really cute leaned up against the house.

18) I painted my toes red over 2 weeks ago and they still look really good.

19) I made a new friend (and fellow chicken farmer) tonight.

20) My list of 10 things quickly became 20 things.

What are you grateful for, today?

Ten on Tuesday...it is Tuesday, right?

no time for pictures today, but here's an update on our lives:

1) My preschool started back up again today. I don't have words to express my excitement over it. I really really REALLY love teaching. A lot.


2) Soccer season has begun! We went to the kickoff party and there were fun inflatable slides and obstacle courses, etc. The girls are both on "pink" teams, and they love it! Reese had her first little scrimmage at practice and she scored her first goal of the season. She came home on cloud nine. The girls practice at different times, which means we are in Bentonville 3 days a week. By the end of soccer season, Corbin will be an all-star from all the time he gets to spend cheering for his sisters.

3) Run for a Child was this weekend. Since I am totally out of shape and only ran a handful of times this summer, I opted to do the 5K instead of the 10K this year. I am so glad I did. I got a crappy time for the 5K (32:30) and STILL felt like garbage when I finished! It was fun, though, and it supports the local NWA Children's Shelter, so at least I am sore today for a wonderful cause! The friends of mine that ran the 10K did really well. I'm so proud of them!


4) We're now getting 3 or 4 eggs every day. It is wonderful. Just when we use them all up for a big breakfast-for-dinner, 3 days go by, and we have almost a full dozen again! Do you know how awesome it is to be able to put off going to the grocery store for one more day? I can do that now, 'cuz we can always just have eggs. Last week, I had a horrible sinus cold and Aaron offered to make lunch. He set a plate of scrambled cheese eggs in front of me. I was suddenly back in Gilroy in the house I grew up in, with my blankie in my lap. My mom always made me cheese eggs when I stayed home sick from school. I've never really realized eggs are a comfort food for me until they were prepared for me. Love.


5) The other fab thing that we did on Labor Day weekend was go to my friend, Jocelyn's house. She has an incredible home on Windsor lake, and every labor day and memorial day they invite like 50-100 people over for hot dogs and potluck sides and we all swim and play in the lake. A few people always bring their boats and take groups out tubing and wake boarding. I took each of my kids out on a kayak. Corbin lasted the longest. He loved every minute as long as I let him hold onto the paddle.


6) Overnight, the temps have dripped like 25 degrees and there is a cool crisp breeze. It is absolutely beautiful outside. Arkansas, I forgive you for this summer. But don't think I have forgotten. I'll threaten to move if you ever pull that kind of crap on me again.
I'm ready to decorate for fall,wear jeans, bake bread, and eat soup and bread every day for the rest of my life.


7) We took the boat out again on Saturday night, and this time, brought the kids.
I won't be getting on our boat again. ever.


8) I'm so grateful for Primary teachers who are dedicated to their calling. Reese loves going to primary. Her teacher is always happy to see the kids, prepares good lessons, and genuinely looks like she is pleased to see the kids. This makes such a difference in the tiny world of a child. Can you imagine going to a job where your boss acted like he hated his job, was irritated by you, couldn't wait to get the heck out of there at the end of the day, and checked out mentally as soon as he arrived because he still can't believe his boss would have the audacity to put him in charge of you? Now imagine sending your child into that kind of environment. It makes me sad anf frustrated to see this happen occasionally at school and church. Luckily, all three of my children are very blessed to have teachers that take their callings seriously, prepare creative lessons, and teach them with love and affection. Ifeel happy knowing that my children are given the opportunity to feel and recognize the presence of the Holy Spirit outside of our home, every week, when they go to primary.


9) We started reading our Dave Ramsey book again. I love the motivation it gives us to stick to our budget and save more. I don't love re-training my brain to spend less. One problem that I have with this book is that it focuses heavily on saving money specifically to get out of debt. But our only debt is our home mortgage, so I feel like we need a book that begins on the next step: building better savings, retirement, and paying off our home quickly. The book is the right style of writing to inspire me, which is why I go back to it when I need a reminder, but I feel like it needs a sequel. Anyone have book suggestions? I want something that speaks real English, not a book written for finance and accounting scholars. (duh, have we met?) Don't recommend something that is going to talk about stock market trends or give doomsday predictions. I like reading success stories, and enjoy reminders that small sacrifices now produce great rewards later.


10) Our babysitter called the other night with an interesting request. Her bff is a finalist in the upcoming Miss BHS Pageant. (Yup. We are definitely in the south! They have high school pageants here and they. are. a. big. deal. Qualifying rounds, preliminary rounds, and finally the actual pageant, which is attended by the masses.) Anyway, the pageant is sponsored by the school district for a scholarship, so rather than the girls have a male be their pageant escort, they are encouraged to find a little girl to participate in the pageant by their side.

Enter my adorable daughter and a request for Reese to be Hannah's "Little Miss" partner.


We've decided to let her do it. I didn't think she would be into it, but Reese is really excited to participate. (which basically involves getting dressed up in a pretty dress, having her little bio read to the audience, and holding Hannah's hand when she is on stage, oh and wearing lipgloss---that was Reese's one and only request, for now anyway.) So yeah, stay tuned for tales of our little "Future Miss Bentonville High School". Oh the hilarity. No need for Toddlers and Tiaras, we have our very own little southern debutante right here in the Willy house.

Monica on the Loose

It's been awhile since I've done an Orderly Conduct post, so I thought I'd share 3 things that have been working for me.

1) DVD storage.
I am so over having a zillion stacks of cds lying around to get scratched. Ever open a movie case with the wrong movie or nothing at all in there? Irritating. About a year ago, I snapped and threw away ALL of our movie cases, save the tv series collections (the Office, Friends, Arrested Development, 30 Rock, Seinfeld, etc...the ones that have a box for each season). Our movies went into one of two cd cases that hold like 100 cds each. We have one with all movies that the kids are allowed to watch, and one with the rest of our movies in it.

When the kids want to watch a show, they just flip through the case like a catalog and choose something, rather than bringing me 10 movies in their cases and not putting them away. I do not miss movie cases at. all. I get asked this question often and I am telling you. NOT AT ALL. It feels great to throw cases away after opening them. I do keep one or two empty cases around just in case we want to lend a movie out or take it somewhere.

This also helps because the kids are no longer fishing through and scratching up our movies, or seeing a colorful, kidsy-looking movie case and asking to watch BabyMama or something that isn't appropriate for them.

But really, the best part really is the clean up. It takes 2 minutes to put a stack of movies back into the case. And 200 movies can be stored in less than 1 square foot of space. Sold.

2) Magazine Rack Mail Sorter.

Do you have little stacks of papers around the house? Piles of bills to be paid, papers to be filed, and mail to be opened? We did, too. And they drove me insane. I hate stacks of paper like I hate cats.

Now remember, we don't have a home office or a lot of space available for paper organization, so piles and stacks have a tendency to accumulate quickly on our contertops and bookshelves. No bueno. It was important that I found a system to eliminate piles and stacks as efficiently as possible. I spent two weeks searching stores and online for the perfect mail sorter and I finally found one I liked. It's a magazine rack. Mail sorters were only 6 inches wide and I wanted something that could fit an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper in each slot.

I love the industrial look of the wire mesh. The metal is a nice contrast to the weathered and painted wood surfaces in my kitchen. The metal offers enough coverage for privacy, but enough transparency that I can actually SEE what is hiding in those pockets, so items do not get lost or shoved sloppily in there.It hangs right next to the door to the garage so when you walk in the house with a stack of mail, you can sort it immediately and it never makes to the counter. We stand between the mail sorter and the trash can and separate ours into 4 categories: toss (envelopes and junk mail), shred (any garbage that has with our name and address or bank information on it), pay (anything that needs attention before it can me filed), and file (self explanitory).

The system is working well because I used to never attempt to tackle filing or bills when I had less than an hour to put into it. I like to have time if I am going to attack any activity that requires that I really tune my brain into what I am doing. Before, it seemed that when I wanted to file, I had to sift through piles, folders, bins, etc where everything was mixed together and search out items that needed to be put away. I couldn't just grab a stack, and get filing.

Now, when I have 10 minutes before we need to go somwhere, or when I am waiting for Reese's bus to arrive, I'll take one or two or 10 items from one of the sections and take care of them. It's easy to make a dent in the pockets without making a big mess on the table for Corbin to get into.

So yeah, we have a big letter sorter in our dining room. It's not the most attractive or ideal situation, but it works for us, and it is soooo much better than stacks of papers and receipts everywhere.

3) Contacts binder
It's been awhile since I have updated this, and after doing that today, I can't believe I forgot how useful it is!

I keep a binder full of clear sheet protectors for phone lists, takeout menus, class lists, etc.

I had half a package of photo holder sheets from a photo album and I stuck those behind all of the phone list pages. This is the best information catch all EVER! I am certain that whoever came up with the idea for pinterest must have sifted through my junk drawer and seen this little beauty. I put everything in those little photo slots. Business cards, email addresses that I wrote on the back of a reciept, post its with directions to someone's house, the ugly magnets with local numbers for POA and city offices, the paint sample cards from different rooms in the house (labeled for which room they were used in), online shopping mailing statements (in case I want to order something again), the labels from the boxes our cell phones and other electronics came in (in case we need the make/model #, temple schedules, the label from my running shoe box so when it's time to replace them (and I've worn through the tag inside the shoe) I'll know what size and style to get, Aaron's eye Rx, printed mapquest directions to places we only go once a year, but need directions for every time, like st. louis, or Aaron's aunt and uncle's house in Dallas.

The only thing I DON'T keep in here are coupons. What a mess. Unless they have no expiration date on them, forget it. zillions of coupons stuffed here and there are what would turn this binder from being a beautiful resource to a cluttered disorganized disaster. Trust me.

I'm not saying you shouldn't use coupons, but use a separate system for those and keep them out of the contacts binder.

And if you are one of the people (ahem kasey, sheena, angela) whom I've gotten referrals for a service (like a dr, dentist, etc), or I've bugged you repeatedly for a phone number or your address from an email, text, or FB message this is probably why I have had to ask you for it 10 times. If it's not in the binder, I don't remember where it is, and it's easier for me to just ask you for it 100 more times until I get a physical business card or save their number in my phone.

Sorry, friends. Blame the (super cool) binder!

Do YOU have a tip for home organization you would like to feature on this here bloggy? Email me, I'd love to share it and inspire others to live a more organized life!

"I do not like them, Sam I Am. I do not like green eggs and ham..."

We now have 3 hens that are laying. How can we tell?
3 kinds of eggs!

We know the brown eggs come from Penny (not Goldie, like we thought) our production red, because we have "caught her in the act" several times. She also likes to push the eggs (even the fake ones (golf balls) we put in there to teach them where to lay) together in the nesting box and sit on them until we come out to collect. What a good lil' mama hen, keeping the batch warm for us!

The white eggs are from Scoutie and we know this because she is the only hen with white ears....and (thanks to youtube) we know that brown eggs come from hens with brown ears and white eggs come from hens with white ears.

Today, we got a little surprise. A perfect little greenish blue egg. This could only have come from our lone 'easter egger', Eleanor, the Americauna. It is my favorite shade of blue-the color of my entry way, corbin's bedroom, and the dessert plate that Corbin broke this morning.
Like everyone promised, they really DO taste better than storebought.
WAY better!
Sounds crazy, but you know how you can immediately tell the difference between a home grown garden tomato and one that was storebought? Same idea.

You haven't lived until you've eaten farm ---uh backyard fresh eggs.