It's a start

Introducing our newest baby...

visit us here.

a day in the life of

My brain is full of posts to write, and yet there seems to be very little time. Since I am still in my first trimester, the days are somewhat less productive than normal (and yet the unseen productivity is huge, I know...but it doesn't show well...except on me, who seems to be showing very much). So I decided to write down what I did yesterday to see I did actually accomplish something worthwhile. This is probably a good activity for moms to do every so often. 

• woke up
• made breakfast (okay, that's a stretch...Monday is cereal day)
• cleaned up the kitchen from yesterday- we were out most of Sunday, and we were napping when we weren't out
• oversaw clothes being sorted, baseboards dusted
• started a load of laundry
• laid down on the couch and read aloud (The Boxcar Children, Surprise Island) to the kids for an hour...finished the book, on to Book 3
• called a friend
• cleaned up a potty accident- so glad we have wood floors
• made smoothies and leftover garlic noodles for lunch
• forgot to change over laundry
• worked on the farm blog for 20 minutes (more on that soon)
• took a nap with Thomas and told him he was my napping buddy
• told Thomas 10 times to be quiet and still so I could sleep, finally fell asleep and slept through my alarm
• woke up miffed and disoriented because I'd slept too long
• told Adeline I would play the Grouchy Ladybug game with her (trying to do that out of delight vs.duty, but it's such a boring game)
• welcomed a friend who stopped by for about 30 minutes
• finished the game with the kids
• made potato leek soup (next year I will grow a lot more leeks)
• had an early dinner before husband left for a deacon's meeting
• made jam while the kids made the entire house their playground
• called my Mom
• went out to pick veggies at dusk with Thomas, told him he was my garden buddy...when you have a mischievous two year old, he's your everything buddy (FYI, dusk is not a good time to decide if a tomato is ripe, ..they look darker in the dark) and told the kids if they had the house cleaned up they could all sleep in the same room
• put the kids to bed
• ate a snack...and egg and gluten-free toast with fresh peach jam
• washed dishes
• took a shower
• worked on the farm blog a little more
• crashed at 11pm

One Kings Lane

I heard about One Kings Lane (OKL) from the Nester, and several of my friends have boasted of their beautiful finds on this online store that seems to me like a very upscale TJ Maxx. The various stores and companies they feature change every day, and their items sell out fast. Sometimes they have some designer finds that are outrageously expensive, but of course are "steals" because they have knocked several hundred dollars off the price of that beautiful lamp. But there are almost always fun finds for those of us whose budgets can't fit a 75% off $200 lamp. Almost every week they offer some items in the under $25 range.

One of the great things about OKL is their referral program, so if you refer someone to their store, and that person makes a purchase, you get $25 in credit. So a few weeks ago I found myself with $50 credit...not a ton, but $50 more to spend on my house than I was expecting.

I probably should've spent the credit on a bigger item, but I was enamored with the store, Bob's Your Uncle.  They have a lot of quirky and fun gifts. I ended up getting two packs of these:

 
And two packs of these (set of four, each plate is different, and this happens to be the only color I'm not crazy about)

I really wanted to get these for my globe-trotting brother:

It would have been funny, but it didn't seem like $15 of funny.

If I purchased these things off the website, it would have been a grand total of $80, and only because the plates are now on clearance. The other 4-packs of melamine plates are $40! That would have been $120. Ack. Anyway, they accidentally sent me four packages of plates instead of the two I ordered, so it turned into a super sweet deal for me.

So, if you are interested in looking around, sign up (it's free) and use my referral link. And remember that you don't have to actually purchase anything to refer friends. Sneaky, I know.