This is why I don't craft

ouch.. that hurt to type... I burned the finger tip of the middle finger on my left hand with the glue gun. It was my second attempt to create a spring wreath for my front door. The only money I spent towards it was to buy a $2 grapevine wreath. I wanted to do the rest from materials I had on hand. It's not perfect but it is ok and I won't feel bad if the wind beats the heck out of it on the front door. I needed something cheerful to remind me that spring will come eventually. Now if I can only remember to use my nail tip to type eeeeeeeees instead of my finger. ;) LOL I really wish I was talented in the craft department but it seems to be a gift I missed out on. Don't ask for pictures... you really don't want to see how pathetic I really am.

Merry Christmas from the Hutch

We were asked to share our favorite Christmas memories by the Elementary school. When I asked the crew what they thought was the best Christmas they came up with the following:

The Hutch crew has spent many years living far from their family. During those years we were not always able to travel at Christmas and we only had family come to us a handful of times. We created many traditions to make the holidays special. When we asked the kids what their favorite Christmas memory was they said the times when we did not have to travel and could keep doing the things that are special to our family.

La Diva loves when Dad reads the story of the birth of Jesus from the Bible on Christmas Eve. The kids all crowd around to hear it and we have pictures of this special event from nearly every year. As they’ve grown older they take turns reading it or reading one of the books that have also become part of our traditions. We read “the Small One” and as a nod to Mom’s childhood we read her Hallmark Pop-up book of “Twas the Night Before Christmas”. She also likes that we get to open our ornament present on Christmas Eve. Everyone looks forward to finding out what Mom and Dad have found for him or her to represent the year. They will have quite the collection when they leave home.

Iceman likes finding the pickle hidden on the Christmas tree. A Pickle on a Christmas tree may sound strange to some but we hide a glass pickle ornament on our tree. The child that finds it will get the first prayer of blessing from Dad and gets to open the pickle present. The pickle present is a gift that can be enjoyed by all the kids and is usually a book, a board game, a video game or a DVD. Isaac can’t wait to see what the pickle present is this year and hopes that he gets to find it.

Turtle said that he likes the birthday cake we make for Christmas Eve. We’ve had several kinds over the years but his favorite is angel food cake with strawberries and whipped cream. We light candles and sing “Happy Birthday to Jesus”.

Kodiak said his favorite part about staying home at Christmas is being able to stay in our pjs when we open presents on Christmas morning. His Grandma likes everyone to be dressed up in their Christmas best…. he’s a teenager and he doesn’t like getting up any earlier than necessary.

Other traditions at the Hutch during the Christmas season are for each child to do a shoebox for Operation Christmas Child, to help our community in some way by being involved in their Christmas program in some way and giving to those who are not as blessed as we are. We also celebrate the season of Advent by making a wreath and lighting a candle and doing a devotional each Sunday. This year we have a new tradition that uses a homemade Advent Calendar to help us to focus on the important things during this busy time of year. Each day has activities for us to do that range from “being kind to someone we don’t like” to “making popcorn and watching a movie as a family”. Of course we love all the food, the decorating and opening presents too.

We hope you enjoyed a peek inside the crew's favorite memories of Christmas. We wish you a blessed Christmas and a New Year that is filled with life's richest blessings of love, peace and joy! Enjoy your time with those you love.

Another problem down

I think I've finally found the solution to the toy disaster. We found a good deal on a pantry. It has several shelves and doors that close. It is durable and can be reused as something else when we move on again. I was able to organize the toys and they are now all neatly tucked away in the pantry. I think that now that the boys see how much real estate they've gained to play in they will be more cooperative with the cleaning up and putting away of toys. They can reach all but the top shelf with the aid of a bathroom stool. So the top shelf is filled with games and they usually play them with me or their older sibs.

Next task is my closet... it should have been done by now but I think I'll have more success when the crew is back in school this coming week. I'll let you know if I come up with any brilliant solutions for that disaster.

While we've enjoyed our Christmas vacation I'm looking forward to getting back to routine next week. When the crew is in school I know what day of the week it is and I work around the routine of our life. I've been a bit of a slacker during vacation but we've had fun and that is all that really matters. I'll be sad to tear down all the Christmas things. YES, they are still up, including the tree but in my defense it's not Ukrainian Christmas til the 7th and that has always marked the day past which I cannot stretch the Christmas season. I will miss my pretty tree, the meaningful ornaments and the twinkling lights, the nativities and angels scattered through my living room and kitchen.

A firefighters wife never sleeps....

.... once the tones go off, you hear the beginning of the call, get the kiss goodbye, watch the Hero run out the door.... sit for a few minutes more and then hear the sirens as they head off. The last call was just the other night and he didn't get in til 3:00 a.m. So here I sit again with nothing but rerun TV, even Food and TLC are reruns for me!!! That means you get to listen to the tired rambling of a firefighter's not sleeping but so tired wife.

As the year comes to a close I find myself getting fed up with some things around here. We live in a smaller place than our last home. It suits us fine for the most part but I have not adjusted well to not having a fully developed basement with organized storage and going from 3 full baths to 1.5. Several of my attempts at organizing have failed and I really need to get some things under control. I've moved most of Kodiak and La Diva's personal hygiene products to the half bath downstairs which is closer to where they live. I tried baskets but they just seemed messy all stacked up around the pedastal sink. I found this yesterday and my problems have been solved!! I'm so excited and the Hero thinks I'm a bit off because something so simple has made my day! Whatever... he is the master of chaos and I'm the opposite. One problem down!

My next big task is to figure out a better way to tackle the toy problem in Iceman and Turtle's room. It seems that no number of bins, labels or pictures are helping me there. I think I need some sort of shelving but it needs to be quite substantial to hold the depth of the bins. I just don't know what to do but I must figure out something. It looks like the Tasmanian Devil lives there on most days. I don't have a problem with them playing but plowing a path through their destruction every night to tuck them in just doesn't sit well with me. I'm thinking that I may invest in some of these. I'm open to any solutions you may have to this dilemma.

I also need to work out a solution for Troy's clothes in our closet. He needs to do a T-shirt purge. Honestly how many fire rescue shirts does one really need? We don't really have a proper dresser as we've always had walk in closets that have worked for us. For some reason this walk in situation is just not doing the trick. I bought this horrible wire frame thing with wire drawers from IKEA which is utterly useless. If you have more than 4 things in each drawer they are too heavy and fall off the tracks. It is a mess of wire bins stacked on top of each other in a wire frame half the time. I curse that thing regularly as does the Hero. That needs to hit the curb and soon! I think I will go back to the faithful wire cube shelf solution. They won't break the bank, are sturdy as all get out, you can stack a whole ton of things on each shelf and when we move again it collapses in a neat little pile until it is reconfigured to meet our needs in the next place. Now to find these shelves in stock in a store!!

I'm also thinking of investing in some space bags for the seasonal clothes situation. I do the rubbermaid thing now but it takes up a ton of space and I could probably cut my bins down in half by using the magic space bags. Anyone use them before?

Tomorrow we are going sledding. I can't remember the last time I did this and I don't think we've ever done it as a family before. The snow of the south just isn't the greatest for sledding, it's drier and gets a crusty top on it. In the north it is fluffy, stickier and wetter. The kids are so excited. Hoping that no one breaks anything and that I don't freeze to death. I'm such a wuss in this northern, damp cold. I feel it right through to my core and end up feeling like I'm 90 with achy joints. I miss my chinooks and balmy winters. The Hero bought me an awesome winter coat that is toasty warm. I have some fleece lined wind pants that I hope will keep me warm enough as I don't own any ski pants. It is forecasted to be -13 Celsius, that's about 8 Farenheit.

Ramblings

I've updated my favorite things list and added it to my links list in the margin. Check it out for updates as I discover new favorite things.

Today was report card day for the crew. Kodiak is totally rocking out the Jr. High experience. I'm very proud of him. La Diva is also doing quite well but needs to pick up that spelling mark. She is an atrocious speller. Iceman is struggling but I knew that already. I'm not overly enthused with his teacher and his report card has confirmed my concerns. I'm really disappointed that the discussions I had in the beginning of the year with the speech therapist and his teacher seem to have fallen on deaf ears. Maybe I'm jumping the gun and perhaps our parent-teacher conference next week will make me feel better. However, I'm pretty convinced he has dyslexia. I'm looking into getting him some help through Sylvan Learning Centres. The positive thing is she says he is working really hard and his marks for effort reflect that. He truly enjoys school so I hope that we can get him the help he needs to succeed without being discouraged. He asked how he did in his report card. I told him that he is working really hard, trying his best and that is so AWESOME! Turtle is doing very well. He is a smart cookie and tries to chime in when I'm working with Iceman. That ticks off the Iceman so we've worked out a system so Turtle is off somewhere else when Iceman and I are working. While it would benefit the Turtle to be with us it is too hard for Iceman when his younger brother is getting it and he is struggling.

The Hero is on the west coast today. He just emailed me that he forgot to consider the time change when he went to check in for his flight. He's a whole hour ahead of the game. LMBO! Sounds like he had a productive trip. We will be glad for him to be home. He's done more traveling than usual as of late and I miss him when he's gone. Shhhh, don't tell him.

I finally did some much dreaded sorting of our equivalent to a junk drawer. We have these 2 baskets that are dump zones for the Hero when he walks in the door. They were overflowing with junk. I tossed, sorted, returned things to their proper place and had an empty basket. It's amazing the weird things you find in these catch alls. Just a few of the odds and ends that I discovered today:

• ear protectors, those big safety kind for operating heavy machinery or mowing the lawn
• a pee in a bag kit~ for men to pee in when they can't find a washroom. Essentially it turns hard when you pee in it and is biodegradable. :S
  
• lip balm
• flashlights
• tetra helmet stickers
• pens and pencils
• gum
• allan key
• various keys and keychains~ for what I'm not sure.
• business cards
• receipts
• measuring tape
• CDs of photos I've yet to have printed
• sunglasses
• safety glasses
• lanyards
• screws
• paperclips
• elastics
• moist towelettes
  
• gloves
• rubber gloves
• CPR mask
• waterproof notepad
• Sharpies
• lint brush
• mini pack of clorox wipes
• a sucker
• a plastic fire chief badge
• a hotwheel car
• glowsticks
  
• loose change

Hey Giada is going to Martha's Vineyard. Cool, I've always wanted to visit there. Guess I get to go tonight courtesy of Food Network. I always watch Food Network, TLC, HGTV, etc when the Hero is gone. It keeps me company and is far more interesting than COPs, Detriot SWAT and the Military Channel.

Well I should go and put the Turtle and Iceman to bed. I may just open a bottle of merlot tonight. I think I've earned this week.