My favorite Bible verse

I originally started to post about being a substitute teacher (which has been quite interesting), but as soon as I began to type about this change in my life, I started to think about how lucky and blessed I have been to NOT be subbing (or doing any other "real" job) for the past 7 years while my kids were at home.

Being a stay-at-home mom has been (or I guess was, at this point) one of the absolute biggest blessings in my life.  As we spent 5 years trying to conceive, I prayed and prayed that God would someday reveal the reason that we had to wait SO long to have a baby (or babies, in our case).  Along our journey, friends would tell me that they were pregnant.  I would be happy for them, but also VERY sad for myself.  I could see absolutely no reason why God would make us wait to have a baby while so many others around us were having babies...some of them great parents, some of them not so great.  I could never come up with a even a remote possibility as to why God was making us wait.  But I was wrong!

After the joyful Christmas morning (at 3am...but that's another story) when I peed on the umpteenth stick of my life, but FINALLY saw TWO lines and not one, the hurt and pain that I had experienced during our infertility trial disappeared in an instant, but some of the questions remained.  I was so happy to be pregnant, but still didn't understand why we had to go through the trial of trying and waiting.  Then, after our 3 little bundles of (crazy) joy were born, God answered my prayer to reveal why we had to wait.  And He didn't reveal just one small reason.  He revealed several major reasons!

If you personally know my husband and I, then you know that we are both first borns, both leaders, both know-it-alls.  We love each other like crazy, but we also butt heads like crazy.  God had, in His good plan for us, THREE babies...all at once.  If we had been given them right away, like I had wanted (and had seen no reason as to why we shouldn't have) I can 99.9% guarantee that our marriage would have crumbled under the stress of parenting 3 babies (and maybe even one).  We had no idea what we were in store for.  Although it was ridiculously stressful...and we still fought a lot...we had grown together over 7 years and were more prepared for the challenge of raising children than we were when we first started trying to get pregnant.

When I got pregnant, there was an "extenuating circumstance" that you could chalk up to coincidence, but I chalk it up to God having a good plan for our life.  We had tried one round of fertility meds, which we paid for ourselves, without success.  Realizing that the cost of fertility treatments would quickly go beyond what we could afford at the time, we decided to look into adoption.  Adopting a newborn is also quite expensive, but adopting a slightly older child (as a "foster to adopt") is not.  In fact, they pay you to foster in many instances.  This sounded like the answer to our troubles.  We'd get the child we wanted, while also giving a home to a child who needed one.  However, after going through the required classes, we were starting to feel that the cons outweighed the pros.  The poor children in the foster system have been exposed to SO many terrible things.  We felt so ill-prepared and were pretty much scared to death.  My hat goes off to any and all who offer a home to these precious children!

After going over that huge hill on the emotional roller coaster, we decided that giving fertility treatments one more try might be the way to go before committing to adopting an older child.  Because I was nervous that our insurance might clue into the fact that we were doing fertility treatments and therefore screw us over (like only insurance and taxes can) I was planning on paying for any and all fertility treatments directly to the doctor without even turing them into our insurance company.  If you're still reading, here comes the "oh wow!" part.  We were talking with our friends about our plans to do fertility treatments again and how we weren't turing them into our insurance company.  Our friend just so happened to be a personal trainer.  The owner of the company where my husband worked at the time just so happened to be one of his clients.  The 2 of them just to happened to be making conversation about us one day when our infertility issues came up.  The owner says to our friend, "I wonder if they know that they have $5,000 fertility coverage with our insurance policy?"  (Apparently he and his wife had spent years and lots of money trying to get pregnant without success and he had added the fertility coverage for his employees due to this.  FYI, fertility insurance is pretty much unheard of.)  We did not know about this coverage that we'd had all along!  I still remember hanging out in our pool when this conversation took place.  A little spark of hope started to grow inside me.  We used the coverage, and the rest, as they say, is history!

One of the other big reasons that God has revealed to me that we had to wait to have children is where this post first started.  When I was younger and thought about having children, I always thought it would be so nice to be able to stay home with our children, but it was always more of a dream than something that I thought could ever be a reality.  At the time that I go pregnant I was making at least half of our income (which, by the way, I had insurance and so did Greg, so we were doubly covered when we had the babies and never paid on red cent in medical bills - those were the happy insurance days - lol).  Even as we were trying to get pregnant, I figured I would have to do like all the other moms that I worked with - leave my precious little 8 week old baby with someone else while I tried to care about a stupid job**.  I never did price exactly what a babysitter or daycare for 3 newborns would have cost because without getting the actual figures, we knew that it would be really close to my entire paycheck every 2 weeks.  We didn't know how it was going to work, but we knew that God had finally given us our hope and that He would somehow make it work.  He SO did!  My husband had to make some changes...some of them quite bold, which had me scared to death.  But we have never suffered financially.  In less than a year after the kids were born my husband was making more by himself than we had been making together when I was still working.  Did I mention that I had short-term disability insurance at my job that covered my 6 months of bedrest as well as 12 weeks of maternity leave?  I got paid to lay around and grow my babies...what a gig!

So, to my favorite verse, if you haven't guessed it.  Jeremiah 29:11 - "For I know the plans I have for you," declared the Lord.  "Plans to prosper you and not to harm you.  Plans to give you a hope and a future."

I remember receiving this verse, printed on cardstock, at church camp during my senior year of high school. It was tear stained because I had spent time holding it while I prayed, trying to figure out what my major should be.  Talk about perspective - something that was so consuming at the time could now matter so little to me.  I mean, I'm glad that I have a degree...and do occasionally use it now...but if adult Heather could go back in time and talk to 18 year old Heather, she would tell her to figure out what paid the most for the least amount of work but that she didn't hate.  LOL  Don't worry - I will pass this insight on to my children. :)

Being raised in a christian home and very involved in church, I had heard this verse so many times throughout my life.  If someone would have asked me, "Does God have a good plan for your life?" my automatic response would have been "yes".  But although I could spit out the proper words, I don't know that I ever fully had the assurance DEEP, DEEP down in my soul until after going through 5 years of infertility, where I questioned if God even cared about me, much less loved me and had a good plan for me.  Then, after that long trial, being utterly blessed with 3 beautiful, healthy babies.  Although being a mom to 3 at once was possibly even tougher than not being able to be a mom at all, both things gave me the complete assurance that God DOES have a good plan for my life.  It may not come packaged the way that I want.  I may not understand the pain that I have to go through to get to His plan.  But I know that no matter what happens to me, God has a plan to prosper and not to harm me.  A plan to bring me a hope and a future.

Good news folks, the Bible wasn't written just for me.  It was written for ALL of us!  He has a good plan for your life too.  It's a promise!  How awesome is that?!  Work every day to follow that plan.  Ask Him to reveal it to you in His time.  Pray for patience and understanding when His plan doesn't make sense to you.  Spend less time trying to tell God what you want His plan to be for you.  Spend more time giving God "permission" to let His plan lose in your life.  These are words that I'm writing to you, but also to myself.  Because even after my life changing experience there are still times when life hits me in the face and I start out by thinking "why me?"  It may take a while, but eventually, I let God bring me back around to the point where I realize that whatever I'm going through is mostly trivial and that God will make ALL things good in HIS time (another verse there, but IDK the reference).

Thank you God for blessing me with 5 years of infertility where you grew me into the mother that you wanted me to be, the father that you wanted my husband to be, both of us into the couple that you needed us to be in order to raise 3 children and blessing us financially so that I have been able to spend the last 7 years being driven crazy 24/7 by my lovely children.  Please knock me upside the head with the reminder that Your Plan is the Only Plan and that's no problem because is is a wonderfully good plan.

**Please note that I am not knocking on working moms!  Every family has to do what is right for them.  For some that is working.  For me it was definitely being home with my children.  I do feel, very strongly, that our society is missing the boat when it comes to women, working and children.  When we women are preparing for life, no one ever whispers in our ears (much less shouts from the rooftops, like I think they should), "Spend some time thinking about a career, but keep in mind that some day you're probably going to want to have babies.  And you're more-than-probably going to want to stay home with those babies.  So work that into your plan, if you can."  We're told, "You can be anything you want to be!", but we're never told that what we'll probably want, deep in our hearts, is to be "just a mom" to our kids.  No one tells you what a wonderful blessing that is.  Well, here I am to say it.  If anyone reads this as they are thinking about their future and having children, know this...while not all women feel the need to be home, many (and I'd go as far as to say most) do.  No one can raise your children like you do.  If you can fit working into your life, great.  But nothing you do will count as much as raising your children.  Rocket scientist, brain surgeon, Mother Theresa...OK, well, maybe not her...but nothing else is as important as raising your children into the people that they are going to be.  Your children will drive you nuts.  You will long for the days when you could pee by yourself, eat without interruption, have a belly that doesn't have a roadmap of stretch marks.  But the day will come for you, like it has for me, when your children are in school and you miss being driven nuts.  When it feels strange to pee by yourself, not have to share bites of your food...and you'll buy some spanks...unfortunately the stretch marks are there to stay!  LOL
Again, although I am VERY pro-stay-at-home mom, please don't let my words guilt you (unless you feel that God is the one pushing that guilt).  It is not my intent to make any mother feel bad about doing what they feel is right for their family.  I am not that narrow minded that I think there is only one right way.  I just want to say something that I don't think gets said often enough.

Random (and not deep) thoughts

OK, so here are a few thoughts that sometimes pop into my head. I consider facebooking them, but then realize that no one really cares about this stuff. Ha! So, if you make the choice to read on you may have a laugh or 2, or you may be left thinking "I'll never get those 5 minutes of my life back".

Dear Clinique - please make your waxy eyebrow pencil in a screw-up-able form. I am tired of constantly sharpening mine. And half the time I knock the newly sharpened point into the toilet (because I shave it over the toilet and let the shavings fall in) or into the sink. I love the product, but hate the delivery. Thanks!

My husband currently only has 6 pairs of underwear. No wonder he's always running out of clean pairs. ***UPDATE*** In case you're worried, I bought an 8 pack so the underwear situation is under control once again!

Who decided that indigo should be part of the rainbow, or ROY G. BIV? Isn't indigo just a combination of blue and violet and therefore a tertiary (I think) color? No different from yellow-green or red-orange, etc. How does indigo get included? I feel this is not just to the other tertiary colors!

Why is it that every time you come into some extra money, you end up needing it for something and it doesn't end up being extra after all. I guess to be glass-half-full, I should be happy that we have the "extra" there to cover what it's needed for, but I feel more glass-half-empty about it since it happens way too often.  **UPDATE** Feeling way more glass-half-full about the money deal since I wrote the first half of this a while back (it takes me some time to compile random and not deep thoughts).  This month we unexpectedly came up quite a bit short on money.  And then we got money from 3 different sources that we don't usually get it from.  So, life's not always out to get ya. :)

It is sad that my memory is now so terrible that I originally came here to add another "thought" to the list, but after seeing the previous money thought and updating it, I now have NO CLUE what  the first thought was that I was going to add.  GRRRRR!!!  I blame the kids!

Oh, hooray, after clicking on the other tab that I had open in my browser, I remembered what prompted me to open my blog!  Has anyone seen the new Rachel Ray cooking show where she does a week's worth of cooking in one day?  Personally, I think she's missing the boat on that one.  The whole point of cooking several meals at once is to use the same ingredient/cooking method in several different dishes and therefore save prep time and clean up time.  She saves no time, just does 5 unrelated meals back to back.  I only watched 2 episodes before I deleted it from the DVR schedule, but in those 2 episodes I only saw her use ONE ingredient in more than one of her week's worth of meals.  I could so do that show WAY better...minus the raspy voice, of course.

Given the choices of Rick, Rich, Ricky, Richy why is it that people named Richard choose to have people call them Dick?

I gave up Facebook for lent...other than replying to messages and wall posts that are sent to me.  I'm amazed at how little I miss it.

Keep an eye out for a couple of recipe blogs that I need to post.  One for a frappuccino mix!  YUMMO!!!  And another for what I call "Summer Delight" which is a crowd pleasing dessert that includes pudding, fresh fruit, angel food cake and chocolate!  And also a tutorial for making really cool flowers out of old satin shirts.

Homemade DRY laundry soap and other laundry tips

I have several friends that use homemade laundry soap.  The number one reason - cost!  I haven't done the math, but it's pennies a load.  I made liquid laundry soap a time or two and while it did save a lot of money, it was a pain.  Cooking it.  Storing it.  Shaking it before every load.  Too much work for lazy old me!  I stumbled across a recipe for dry laundry soap and thought I would give it a try.  I've been using it pretty much exclusively ever since.  It's super easy to make/store/use.  And is just as cheap as the liquid version.  The only hard part is finding the ingredients.  Kroger carries them all in the laundry aisle.  Not sure about other stores, but if you ask around, I'm sure you can find them.

The ingredients are:

2 cups Washing Soda (not baking soda, although it is made by Arm & Hammer too),

2 cups Borax,

1 bar Fels-Naptha soap (I've heard that you can use other bar soaps, but have never tried).

First grate the bar of Fels-Naptha onto a piece of waxed paper.

If your kids are cheese lovers like mine, warn them not to eat the soap that looks deceptively like freshly grated cheddar!

Spread the soap out and let it air dry for a day or two.  This isn't a crucial step, but if you have the time it helps the soap break into smaller particles in the finished product.

 Using the waxed paper as a funnel, put dried soap along with one cup each of Washing Soda and Borax into a food processor.  Save waxed paper to use again as a funnel later.  You can use your every day food processor.  It's just soap.  Wash it when your done and you can still use it for food.

Process until WELL combined and the Fels-Naptha has broken down into small particles.  Add another cup each of Washing Soda and Borax (2 cups total each) and process until combined again.

Dump onto the waxed paper that you saved.

Used waxed paper as a funnel again and store in an air-tight container.  I use quart canning jars because I had them on hand.  My sister gave me a plastic lid that fits onto a wide-mouthed jar.  It's super handy because I don't have to fight with the lid and rim every time I open the jar.  You could also glue a lid into a rim to keep them together.  From one batch I get over one quart.  I store the extra in a regular sized mouth canning jar, which makes it easy to dump into the wide-mouth jar when I need a refill.

Now, here's the part you're going to have a hard time believing, but you're just going to have to take my word for it.  USE ONE TABLESPOON PER LOAD!!!!  I have washed hundreds of loads with this stuff and it works!  Trust me!  If you use too much it will build up on your clothes and washer parts.  Don't ask me how it works with so little, just trust that it does.

 

Using 1 TBSP at a time, you can see that a batch lasts a LONG time!  I don't know for sure how many loads it does.  Assuming that the end result yields about 5 cups, then you get 80 TBSP (thank you unit converter on my computer - ha!).  So, 80 loads.  I don't remember exact amounts, but let's say the Washing Soda and Borax each cost about $4.00 and the Fels-Naptha is about $2.00.  Also, you can get at least 4 batches out of each box of Washing Soda and Borax.  So, basically $3.00 for 80 loads of laundry - less than 4 cents per load.  And that's probably figuring high.

Some people have said that they don't want to use it because they like their laundry to have a certain smell.  That doesn't bother me, but I use softner in the washer and just buy a scent that I like for that.

I also dilute my softner with half white vinegar.  You can actually use just white vinegar as a softner, but I like to have the scent in there too.

Another laundry money saving tip...use cold water on most loads.  Unless you've got some really dirty, nasty, smelly stuff, cold water will get it clean.

One last money and time saving tip - Bounce dryer bars.  I bought one in March 2010 and haven't had to replace it yet!  It's just starting to show through to the bottom and will probably need replaced this March.  I think they cost about $3.  Can't beat that price.  And not having to throw a dryer sheet in with each load is just one more little time saver.

With 3 kids, I do a lot of laundry.  Probably averages out to a load a day.  So I've done anything I can to make it simpler and cheaper.  Hope what I have learned helps you out too.

Teacher gifts

I had so much fun making teacher gifts this year! It started with the little Post-it Note thingie.

Then I decided to make some caramel corn. I was going to put it in bags, but kept forgetting to buy them when I was out. I had 3 oat containers on hand because I was supplying reindeer food for all 3 of the kids classes, so I improvised and turned them into containers for the caramel corn. It was fun to decorate them.

I started by cutting the containers in half. Then I cut verticle lines up the top half of the container so that it would nest inside the bottom half. The top half has that rolled over part that secures the lid.

After getting the containers the right size, it was just a matter of covering them with paper, ribbon and embellishments. I made a third, but I guess I forgot to take a picture of it.

Decorated hand sanitizer bottles were also included. Although this gift was more for the kids, I'm sure the teacher appreciates the killing of germs too! To make these, there's really only one tricky part - start with a bottle with smooth sides. A lot of bottles are funky shaped. These are from the Dollar Tree and are straight all around. Well, the front bumps out and the back bumps in, but it's still a flat surface to glue the paper to. After that, just use your imagination and make them fun. I had some black paper with silver guitars and thought that "clean hands ROCK!" was the perfect saying to pair up with it. My kids LOVE SpongeBob and they really liked that bottle too. I just used an image from the internet and cropped it to fit the size that I needed. I tried to come up with a third idea so that they'd all be different, but the creative juices must have been running low at that point.

Here's the reason that I had so many oats. The pile is for 1 of the classes. The other 2 classes chose to make the packets as an activity during the party. It's oats and some type of glitter. You can use cake sprinkles or actual glitter. This year I had purchased some blizzard snow for the captured snowflake ornament that I made, so I just used the left overs from that.

I've seen these done in several different ways. One way is to fold a paper lunch sack so that the top is a triangle. Then fold it more than halfway over so that the triangle point faces down. This becomes the nose of a reindeer face. Then you staple "antlers" made of sticks or pipe cleaners on each side at the fold. Add some eyes and it's all set. I go the snack baggie route because they are a lot cheaper and easier to work with...especially when you're making 60!

And, of course, the most awesome gift of all. I took a picture of each kid in the class and turned them into paper ball ornaments. To get them all the right size, I used photo editing software and cropped the faces into a 2.5" circle. I printed them on heavy paper/untextured card stock and then cut out the face circles for the ornament. The rest of it went together just like a regular paper ball ornament. The only tricky part is making sure that all the faces are "up". So, 10 of the 20 triangles should have the folded point at the top of the face and the other 10 should have the folded point at the bottom of the face. 5 "top points" make the top. 5 "bottom points" make the bottom. The remaining 10 alternate to make the middle ring.

Lastly, I added one of the felt Santa ornaments that I made and I had the kids and myself each write their teachers a note of thanks. All the websites say that's what teachers treasure the most...and one of ours confirmed it.

Here's the finished product. I got the baskets at the Dollar Tree and added a bow to the front. I wish I would have gotten a different size basket because everything didn't quite fit right into these and it didn't display as nicely as I'd hoped, but oh well.

So, all in all, I think I spent:

$1 per basket

$1 per sanitizer

$.50 per post-it set

maybe $1 each for the caramel corn supplies

$0 for the paper and ribbon - it came from my stash!

So, less than $5, but a whole lot of time and love went into them. I appreciate my kids' teachers and I hope these gifts help show that!

This is what my crafting area/dining room looks like when I'm done!

Post-it holders

One of the teacher gifts that I made this year was post-it note holders. They cost me a whopping 50 cents each (not counting the paper or glue, which I already had on hand). They aren't anything super special, but they are pretty cute and have that fun home-made flair that turns 50 cents into a gift worthy of giving and receiving.

I got the idea from this site, but made a few changes. Here are my instructions.

Remove the backer from on set of post-its and stick it on top of another set. Add tacky glue* along the top of the stacked set and glue the backer paper to it. When it's dry, cut off the excess backer paper. I'm not sure if this step is necessary, but I figured it can only help to reinforce the top.

*Aileen's tacky glue is my new best friend. This Christmas I have used it to repair many broken ornaments and other decorations that I have previously glued with hot glue. While I also love hot glue, it has it's disadvantages. It does not hold well on smooth surfaces. It takes time to heat up and cool down the gun. Being the klutz that I am, I usually end up burning one or more of my fingers whenever I use it. However, tacky glue has none of these issues and while it doesn't dry quite as quickly as hot glue, it does dry fast and already has a tacky consistency (hence the name) so it grips pretty good from the get go.

Cut a strip of heavier cardstock type paper. It should be just slightly taller than the post-its and long enough to wrap around the post-its and overlap just a bit.

If you are not lucky enough to have a scoring tool and tray (or whatever it's called), then you'll have to improvise, like I did. Find something with a shallow groove - like a paper cutter - and something with a rounded point - like this tool that I have from Creative Memories. Line up the paper where the folds need to be and score along the lines. For this project you will need 4 score lines - 2 to each side of the post-its - so the paper will wrap around the post-it stack. To determine where these lines should be, just lay the post-its on the paper and make a mark to each side. Then turn the post-it pad up on it's side and make another mark at the proper thickness. Be sure to make the "thickness" marks equal on each side. After the score marks are made, fold your paper and check that it wraps nicely around the post-its, but do not glue it into place yet.

Momma needs a mani (and a pedi too for that matter!)

Now for the closure. You have a lot of options - velcro, string wraps, elastics, etc. I was going for simple and what was on hand, so I just used more paper with a flap. Cut an appropriate shape out of the paper you are using or a coordinating paper. With the paper wrap around the post-its, lay the cut-out on top to determine where it looks best. You will be gluing the cut-out to one side of the paper (the left) and making a flap for it to tuck into on the other side (the right). After laying the cut-out on top, make a mark on the right half of the paper, where the flap opening needs to be cut.

Cut the opening and then glue down the cut-out piece. Also glue the post-its into the wrap. Write a nice little note on the first post-it and Ta-da! You have a super cute gift ready to go!

Part old, part new made to look old

This grate was in the ceiling of the kitchen in our house. It was covered over by the drop ceiling that the previous owners had installed and that we ripped out. Back in the day, it must have been how heat got from downstairs to upstairs. I'm guessing that it didn't work so well!!!

Greg took it down before he installed the new ceiling (Yes, I have an awesome husband who can do that sort of thing. Installing new ceilings, that is. Not taking down old grates. Ha!)

I was looking at it the other day, thinking that it would look really cool with something in front of it. So, I set it aside, with plans to make it cool some day. That day came sooner than expected.

When my girlfriends were over for the ornament exchange, I showed them the grate and told them about my plan, when suddenly I remembered a cross that I bought for $3 a few days earlier. It was black, which wouldn't work over top of the dark grate. Someone suggested that I paint it cream and scuff it up to make it look old. That's exactly what I did. Did you know that a nail file works just as well as sandpaper when you want to "antique" something but don't want to walk out to the garage in the cold? This picture is before antiquing.

I LOVE how it turned out. The more of this repurposed old stuff that I add to my house, the more I fall in love with it.

Here is it's new home in my home!

Ornaments

And here it is!!!! The BEST homemade ornament EVER (if I do say so myself...and I do)!!! During the ornament exchange, my sister pulled out a "special" ornament just for me. It was the original Baby Jesus ornament that I made and then gave them all away. It was so super sweet of her and I was about to tear up over it until she broke into the sweetness with a "now you can quit complaining about not keeping one of these for yourself!" comment. Sisters! HA! Love you Melissa!!!! You do have to admit that it really is awesome, right?!?!

I have made quite a few ornaments this year.

Ever wonder what 10 starfish would look like if they were painted like Santas? Well, wonder no longer. These are the ornaments that I made for the exchange this year. I bought the starfish 3 years ago in Daytona Beach on a trip that we made after Christmas. This was after the first ornament exchange and because it was fresh on my mind, and I had made Santa ornaments before, I bought the starfish in anticipation of making them the following year.

Funny story about them...at the store, I had picked out my 10 starfish and left them at the counter to be wrapped while we continued to shop. When we were done looking around the store, I went back to the counter to pay for my starfish, only to find they were gone. Apparently, there were 2 cashiers and 2 different people buying something that had to be wrapped. The cashier that wasn't the one I dealt with, sold my starfish to the other person! The really funny part is that they weren't there to buy starfish! What a surprise they got when they got home and opened the box!

So, back to the ornament saga! Like I said, I bought these starfish 3 years ago. However, for the following 2 years, I forgot that I had bought them until after I made my ornaments for the exchange. This year however, I remembered the starfish when it came time to plan for the ornaments. Of course, things never go smoothly, so although I remembered that I had bought the starfish, when we moved I packed them away "somewhere" and I couldn't find where that somewhere was. I figured that, being the logical packer that I am, I had to have put them with my Christmas decorations, but when I started searching for them I wasn't having any luck. I have 6 plastic storage containers full of Christmas decorations. Can anyone guess which box I found them in?!? That's right, the very last one. And by that, I don't mean the last box that I looked in because obviously I wouldn't keep looking in more boxes after finding them. I mean that I had to look through all 6 boxes to find the starfish and they were in box #6! But I did find them and the end result was very cute!

This is the "dolled-up" version of one of the paper ball ornaments that I posted about earlier. I added the ribbon hanger and some glitter snow paint along the seams. Pretty cute, huh? (BTW - see the little Santa poking his head out of the corner? That was my original starfish Santa. He's quite a bit bigger than the exchange Santas, but you work with what you've got!)

My sister found this paper star ornament idea online. Easy and fun. If you're dying to make it, comment on here and I'll post instructions. The picture doesn't do it justice - it's a lot cuter in person.

This Santa is probably the cutest of the ornaments that I made this year. He almost caused the starfish Santas to be delayed yet another year. But, after making one and realizing how much work he took, I went back to the starfish.

This is another "copied from the internet" ornament. Actually, I think they all are. Maybe not the starfish. I can't remember if I came up with that idea on my own or copied it from somewhere too. Probably copied it. I'm crafty and cool, but better at copying than actually making an original. The hardest part was getting the snowflake to spread back out after shoving it into the ornament hole. In the words of my crafting buddy, Angi, it's a bit "wonky", but still very pretty. The picture could be better, but I liked it best without the flash and there wasn't enough daylight at the time. You get it though. The "snow" in the bottom is iridescent. So pretty!!! The etsy shop selling them called it a captured snowflake. I think that's a pretty good name.

This ornament wasn't made by me, but it's one of the reasons that I make ornaments...because of the memories that go along with them. Pretty much every ornament on my tree has a memory or story behind it. Whether that story is that someone made it, someone bought it for me or that I got it for 75 cents when it was 90% off at Cracker Barrel after Christmas, there's a story that makes each ornament special. So, this one is my husband, Greg when he was probably about 4-5 years old. The red bobbles are coiled pipe cleaners. It's old and no where near up to my crafting standards, but it's one of the sweetest ornaments on my tree. For many years it hung on Greg's family tree. And it still does. We are his family now. Hold the phone! Does that mean that one day my daughter-in-laws are going to want all the picture ornaments of my kids? Not sure I'm prepared to think about that type of thing quite yet!

Merry Christmas Everyone! This year, make an ornament for someone you love!