Sometimes you just need

a break

Mitch took last week off from the driving range and only hit balls on Friday night before he hit the course on Saturday and ended up shooting his best game all year.

I did not craft until 10PM Sunday night and put something together that I actually really like.

Garrett did not stay inside the house the entire weekend and had a really great time.

As a family we had gotten into a pattern, some may say rut, of Mitch consistently hitting the range, Monica crafting around the clock and Garrett not wanting to leave the house.

Because I am deeply offended by our increasing grocery bill, I decided that while Mitch was out on Saturday Garrett and I would brave Walmart to stock our kitchen with the basics for the week. This turned into a whirlwind of errands that had us out of the house for four hours. May not seem like a long time but try it during the Texas summer with a 3 year old.

We were able to pick up my 200 pictures from Walgreens for only $20 and this has me current in my printing for Q1 & Q2 of 2008. Love stuffing my storage binders as part of my Library of Memories. I actually surprised Mitch when I told him I was up to date for 2008.

The highlight of my morning was at the Dry Cleaners. The man who owns the store gave me the "you are now an official customer" VIP dry cleaning bag. You may think I'm joking but I'm not. Look down below. For some reason, this makes me feel like a grown up. Never mind the mortgage, the 9to5, the raising of a child, its the VIP dry cleaning bag that did the trick.

When we got home, I had FUN mail from my class over at Big Picture Scrapbooking. This was awesome and I let Garrett in on the fun and had him open my package. The highlights were the green "stringies", a piece of bubble gum and a kazoo. Garrett carried stringies all over the house and had a blast. He had never had bubble gum so we staged a taste test to see if he would like it for one of my class assignments. Layout coming soon. Lastly, none of us had ever played a kazoo before. We finally "got" it and were laughing hysterically at each other.

Garrett tracing the word FUN (LOVE Montessori School)

Later that afternoon I ventured over to Hobby Lobby to leisurely browse without my toddler in toe. I found this open frame that was $94.00 for $9.40 yipeee. I absolutely love a good clearance aisle. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it yet but I have a few ideas running through my mind.


Then while waiting in the extremely slow lane I started talking to the elderly lady in front of me. On her suggestion I bought Industrial Strength Craft Adhesive E6000. A friend of hers raved about it and while we were standing in line (a very long time) she noticed it was there at the display. I must say I used it extensively on Sunday and would highly recommend. I saved this football from toddler experimentation in how much the arrows would twist.


It sounds like an amazing day so why was I increasingly cranky? I kept biting my lip, spilling and generally had a clumsy day. Combined with my need to craft which I had not done any of I was not a patient Mommy by dinner time. And that is the ultimate cranky factor for me because I'm then upset that I'm not able to keep my cool with my little guy when he is testing me. After some quiet time for both Garrett & I we rounded out our evening with hamburgers and a family movie, Balto. That did the trick. I guess I just needed to be still together as a family for a little bit.

I had declared Saturday my day of chores and thought I would craft on Sunday. But for some reason instead I decided to clear out the office cabinets and drawers of office stuff to make room for some of my hallway cabinet crafting items in the office.

I started the project and quickly was overwhelmed by all the stuff and how long it would take which meant alas no crafting. Included in my time away from crafting was taking Garrett to the spray park to play with one of his school friends. I was so worried about time for crafting that I found myself falling into a funk again.

Mitch asked me to not stress and be happy and I left for the park armed with a different attitude. So glad I did! Garrett had a blast, he climbed the rockwall AND made it over by himself for the first time.

There is also something very cool in being able to walk to the park from our house.

Garrett waiting for his friend

Garrett & his school friends Garrett Dancing My favorite

Garrett Climbing the Wall

Mommy & Garrett driving the Firetruck

After the park, we headed back home so I could start putting my house back together. Happy to report the funk never came back. There is something so joyful in watching kids play. I was completely energized (and exhausted) after our venture.

My reorganizing/moving project involved cleaning out the desk in the living room to make room for the items I was booting out and cleaning out the cabinets in the hallway so I could decide what to bring into the craft room. It felt so good to dejunk. I filled up our big recycling bin on wheels half way up and had a garbage bag full!

Here is my newly organized office cabinet.

I love to clean out, organize and label and was such a happy girl Sunday night that I felt some crafting coming on. Mitch put on a pot of coffee for me and I was good to go.

I decided to work on this week's project. We were supposed to use a butterfly punch, scraps from our stash, one picture, labels and a sewing machine to make the threadless stitches. I had product picked out and then went and picked this picture from Garrett's sprinkler fun the other weekend.

I didn't want to buy a butterfly punch just for this project so I was pretty sure I'ld go with circles. However, when I started punching I woke up Mitch and ended up putting it aside. Then I realized some of my labels were circles and started playing. Instead of the sewing machine I just used a needle to get the holes.

While I had intended to only take a break from blogging over the weekend I ended up recharging in all arenas and in reflection loved every minute.

lovemon