weekend recap - the projects that Mark sort of helped with

Because Mark decided to go to extremes (see previous post) to not participate in all of my weekend projects, I had to scale down a bit. My plan was to paint our dining room buffet so that it would match the table, organize every one's closets and chests of drawers, clean - and I mean really clean - the house and begin organizing our Christmas stuff in preparation for the "big decoration" after Thanksgiving. My plans changed quickly and I had to give up on a few things.


I did do some baking. The boys had a tough time waiting for the cookies to finish up. I chose to use a package mix - just add water - instead of the awesome recipe I wanted to use. I couldn't just dash to the grocery store for missing ingredients and leave Mark in his injured state to hold down the fort.

I took a look at our garden area for the first time in a LONG time. All of the herbs have come back with our recent rains and we have a rogue zucchini plant in full bloom. This plant couldn't be farther from the spot where I planted our zucchini all those months ago. I am hoping that we will get some zucchini before it gets colder and freezes every night. I have no idea how it came to be in the first place.

I found this tutorial on how to make a Christmas wreath out of acorns. Our oaks have produced and dropped a record number of acorns this year so I was excited to put them to use. The project was super easy and was fairly short in duration. I purchased a foam circle and some hot glue sticks. I already had the rest. I hot glued the acorns to the foam - I drew a circle on the foam as a starting line so that I wouldn't have uneven circles.

This is how it looked once I had all of my acorns glued on. I didn't glue acorns to the back so that it would sit flat.

After gluing down all the acorns, I spray painting the wreath with white gloss enamel from Rustoleum (since I wasn't going to paint the buffet). It took about 3 hours to completely dry and then I took red ribbon and hung it on the front door. Super easy and it looks just like it's supposed to (a very important component when choosing crafting projects on limited time and money).

Notes:

- I used much more glue than I thought I would.

- I don't recommend trying to do this project at the same table that your three year old twins are doing their art projects - hot glue is a rude awakening and not as easy to get off as one would hope in an emergency. I was the only one burned during this project. I just had this thought while we were all working at the table together so I moved to the kitchen counter.

- If your husband just sprained his ankle and is having a tough time getting off the couch, you might want to call your mom to hold the baby and help you hang it on your front door - just to avoid the inevitable frustration.

- Having your three year old twins tell you it is beautiful makes all the work so worth it.

***

I got the boys' clothes all organized and have an enormous amount of clothing to donate. I didn't get to mine and Mark's stuff but we can live a few more weeks with stuffed chests of drawers.

The house isn't spotless but everyone is fed and has clean clothes. I think we'll be okay.

Since our lives seem to be so crazy these days, I have decided to do progressive Christmas decorating instead of going all out the day after Thanksgiving. Today we hung wreaths on the front of the house and I put a few things out on the mantle. The twins are so excited. I just feel "in the spirit" early this year. I have never thought of decorating before Thanksgiving because it just feels wrong. I'm making great strides in managing our chaos and finding ways to do everything that I want. So, this year our decorations for Christmas will be put up over the next few weeks. If I get them all put up - great, if not - oh well. Now I just have to figure out what to do about a tree. With Nolan walking and in to everything, we can't have one on the floor. Tis the season!!!