Silly Haiku

Today's prompt: Silly. Whatever comes to mind.

Silly, silly Sal

was up all night with her pal,

laughing and playing.

She began to yawn

a few hours after dawn,

then she took a nap.

She slept all the day

and at dark began to play,

that silly gal Sal.

Sarah rockin' the hula hoop (video)

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Brandon's hula hoop attempt (video)

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Bethy attempting to hula hoop (video)

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The Day That Never Ends

I just realized I haven't posted since this past weekend - oops. I'm tired, my butt hurts from sitting in the same position putting a child to sleep too long, and I'm about to collapse, so I'm gonna be lazy. My best friend sent me an e-mail tonight asking how today went. As I was finishing up my response I realized, "Oh, yeah, that's the kind of stuff I'm supposed to be posting." So that's what I'm doing. This is raw, as I sent it. I may clean it up later, but I may not.

I'm sure you'll survive.

*Update* Realized a bunch of stuff wouldn't make sense to you, so I added explanations in [brackets].

No. There was one at Hobby Lobby, but it didn't open the same way as the one at Scroll, so I didn't get it. [I've been looking for a travel mug that you can scrapbook.]

Dentist - it hurt today where they worked on it, but i think it was because it's in the front of her mouth [We were in Tyler because 7yo Sarah had to get a filling.]

Lifeway - looked around; got flip books for the girls; got Agents of God activity book for Brandon; got color wonder princess coloring book for Sarah's prize; got a multi-tool for Michael

Mall - into Dillard's, up the escalator, around, and down the escalator; bugged by "win a free vacation" villages [time share] lady, got pretzels, ate pretzels

Scroll [Christian book store with a sitting/relaxing area] - Sarah started feeling kind of icky at the mall (didn't finish her pretzel and didn't even mention the cookie place), so she laid on the couch for a few minutes while i looked around, then went back to play with the castle in the kids' section; didn't buy anything (go me!)

Hobby Lobby - looked at crochet hooks and yarn, but didn't get any; got a package of flat-top alligator clips to make bows for the girls; got a half-circle keychain where the ball at one side screws off to see if i could put the Precious Girls Club charms on it for Sarah (i didn't tell her, though; it didn't work :( - i just tried it); looked for felt and/or corduroy flowers to use on bows but didn't find any

Dollar Tree - got 16 big toothbrushes with covers, 15 small toothbrushes with covers (14 after i gave bethy a pink one to replace her toothbrush since she lost it), 12 boxes of regular colgate, and 19 boxes of colgate junior; found 20 fold-up brushes and called you to discuss, but didn't get an answer, so i bought 6 - one of each color (white, black, red, pink, blue, and one purple) [for Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes]; bought a pad of construction paper for the kids to make valentine's cards for the kids in hospitals that i heard about on kvne [local Christian radio station]

went straight to pick up brandon from school, came home, wrote my soapbox post, did slide stuff, finished jaylen's blanket, went to praise team practice, came home

sarah was clingy today because of the pain and got annoying toward the end because she refused to speak, so she just grunted, moaned, and pointed like a spoiled princess - really aggravating, but be proud of me - i didn't yell or gripe, just told her she needed to use her words; she passed out between lindale and mineola, but (and this is funny) woke up as we approached brandon's school because she heard brandon heath whoever come on the radio - she had mentioned earlier that she wondered if they (the radio station) had his music

she seems to really enjoy her mommy days :)

ok, i think i'm gonna copy and paste this and make a blog post, lol! [yeah, like that]

Randomosity

Social Frustrations

Selective Tweets isn't working for me, so currently all of my tweets are feeding to Facebook using the Twitter Facebook application. This is annoying as all get-out, since I've fiddled with it for quite a while tonight and can't seem to fix it. argh. I don't like all my tweets feeding to Facebook, because it gets obnoxious in its quantity and I don't want to annoy my Facebook friends.




Writing Notes

The post I put up at KidGlue that includes a video of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech and a transcript has gotten well over 700 views, according to the editing page. The bit.ly stats for the shortened url I've been sharing show over 1000 clicks. I have two good reasons for you to go check it out:

1. It's something every American should see, hear, and read at least once in his or her lifetime.
2. If it gets 10,000 views within 30 days I get a bonus.

Granted, the second reason is vastly more important than the first, but if you feel compelled to go view it for the first reason, I certainly won't mind. And please tell me you totally got the sarcasm there. If you didn't you don't know me very well.





I've gotten another regular gig over at KidGlue - Family Fun Days. I'll be going back to my KidGlue roots and highlighting some fun holidays that lend themselves to family celebration. The posts will be published during the last week of each month, so you can plan ahead.

Calendar Girl

I'm currently reading Kathi Lipp's newest book, The Marriage Project, for review. I'm almost done with it and completely enjoying it as much as I did The Husband Project. Whether or not you feel that your marriage is in need of a "project," I recommend you get it. I'll be posting a full review in the next couple of weeks.

Next on the review to-do list is Why We Need Girlfriends.

I have a review of two EcoStore products in the works, along with a giveaway, so keep your eyes peeled.



Prayer Requests

I seem to have a lot of people that I'm burdened for right now, which leaves me feeling sad and unmotivated. I've always had a tendency to be strongly affected by the troubles of those around me. I've had to learn to distance myself from some things simply as a means of self-preservation. These are things I haven't been able to dissociate from. If you are the praying sort, please pray for these people:

• my friend Billy and his depression as he nears the one-year anniversary of the loss of his five-year-old son Camden


• my friend Matt and the hard time he's going through


• my friend Christine


• baby Jaylen who is right around a month old and in the hospital teetering between life and death


• Jaylen's mother Courtney, who is the 15-year-old mother of twin boys dealing with the critical (and as of yet unexplained) illness of one of her babies


• my own children and each of their particular issues


• Michael and his chipped tooth

We now return you to your regularly-scheduled life...

Calling for Column Coders!

I'm currently using the Atahualpa theme and really love it (much thanks to Alex!), but I'd like to configure columns so that the layout looks like the picture below. Any coders out there that can help or that can point me to a theme with options to allow this?

Contact me via Twitter or at CrystalArcand (at) gmail (dot) com if you can help.

Thanks so much!

No, I didn't flake already

No, I didn't fall off the Post More Frequently wagon already. I just had a couple of really crazy days and was too exhausted to actually chronicle the drama. Maybe in a couple of days after I've recovered more I'll tell you all the sordid details. Or a few, anyway.

Meanwhile, I gotta get all riled up to write this week's Soapbox post for KidGlue. Got any ideas?

The boxes are coming; the boxes are coming!

disclaimer: not my laundry mountain - mine was bigger

The amount of clothing in my house has reached epic proportions and dizzying heights on my couch. In an attempt to regain my couch and my life back, and to stop my kids from complaining about not having any clothes to wear (despite the fact that when I go diving for clothes of my own I only seem to find theirs), I bought a 45-gallon (read "monstrously gargantuan") tote for each member of the family, and one for household textiles. I've managed to get all the kids' clothes that were in the living room into their respective boxes, as well as the towels/sheets/etc.

Next on the to-do list for this project (Hey look, Kathi - I'm doing a project! Oh, good Lord, I hope it doesn't take 21 days...), is to gather all the clothes from the rest of the house and sort them into their boxes. Once that's done, I'll go through each box individually, figuring out what's going and what's staying. Multiply that by 5 people.... yeah, nevermind; it may well take 42 days, let alone 21.

the kids' totes, our unsorted clothes, & an empty (for the moment) tote

Santaland

Every year we try to go the big Christmas lights park in Lindale called Santaland. It has the lane of trees, the awesome tunnel of lights, Texas-themed vignettes, and an entire section devoted to the life of Christ. We never got around to going last year, so I was determined to go this year. Since my darling hubby gave me a new computer for Christmas (SQUEEEE!) that actually works with my Flipcam, I broke it out and took some videos to share.

*The links are to the videos as posted on my YouTube channel so this page will load faster for you.*

The trees in the lane now dance to music that's broadcast from a dedicated radio station like all those popular videos you see of lights dancing on houses. I didn't think about video until after we had gone through it, so I caught it on the way out:



Then you go through the tunnel of lights, which I forgot to video.

Next, there's generic Christmas vignettes:









Followed by Candyland:








Then "Elfland, Texas"









There was a section of Precious Moments angels doing all kinds of things, but the video was washed out. :( They're really cute, and I'm sad you don't get to see them.

The Life of Christ was covered, which I love. It's nice when someone includes the whole story and not just the Nativity.



















We had some cookies (bought in a bucket with the Nativity story on it) and Bethy had mini marshmallows while we went through the park. It's not a big deal and only cost $20, but it's another great family time to store away in our hearts.

Yeah, ok, I'll post more - maybe...

So it's the new year and everybody's pitching fits about resolutions, goals, and "promises to myself." Yeah, ok, whatever. I used to play that game, then I figured what's the point of doing something that's just going to make me more depressed anyway?

But I do have this blog, and you do read it (you do read it, right?), and you deserve to have something to read.

So, I'll try to post more frequently. That's as close to a resolution, goal, or blahblahblah that you're gonna get out of me.

To start, I'll tell you the humdrum (Feel free to fall asleep on the keyboard here, but be careful not to drool on it.) of the last week.

The beginning of the week was spent in The Kids Are Out of School *ahem* pleasantness. You know - bickering, screaming, throwing things and fits, and being sent to our rooms. And you should've seen the kids! Just kidding. A little.

Wednesday night, I took the kids up to the church to meet their "Aunt" and "Uncle" - a couple we've known longer than Sarah's been alive that they all adore. They haven't had the chance to go spend the night in a while, so they finally got the opportunity. They went with them Wednesday night after church and Brandon and Sarah will come to church with them in the morning. Bethy couldn't stand to be away from Mama and Daddy that long, so we went and got her this morning. You'd think with the kids being gone that long, we'd get all caught up on sleep. Instead we didn't go to bed until 4am Thursday night/Friday morning.

We spent the day Thursday hanging around town shopping and eating barbecue at the local famous bbq place, Mack's. Yum, good! That night we watched a few episodes of the Merlin series (and I crocheted). A few minutes before midnight, we turned on the Dick Clark special to watch the ball drop. It was sad to see Dick in his condition, and we toasted him with our sparkling apple cider. I played Wordscraper on Facebook and Michael played on his computer, watching stuff and goofing off.

Just your typical nerdy New Year's Eve.

We slept in Friday morning, and went to get Bethy around 11. We came home, ate lunch, and took a nap. Yes, we're nappers. Go ahead, make jokes - I'll color a picture while I wait...

Done? Ok, moving on.


My grandmother invited us over for dinner and we had a lovely meal of black-eyed peas, coleslaw, cornbread, turkey, homemade macaroni and cheese, and zucchini. Then, the highlight of my week - Meme's homemade chocolate meringue pie! Seriously, this is the Absolute World's Best Pie Ever. In the history of baking. In the history of mankind. Trust me on this.

Tomorrow (well, in about seven hours), I'll go to church, have lunch, and take a nap. Sabbath is the one day a week I'm guaranteed a nap. The kids will probably go to my Mom's for the afternoon to get their weekly Grandma Fix. I'm planning to drag everyone to the Christmas lights place in Lindale after Sabbath, so that'll be a nice family thing. We usually take my mom and grandmother, too and make it a whole-family affair. The kids love it, and my heart does, too.

Oh yeah, and yarn will be crocheted. That's a daily thing.

Are you still here? Wow, I'm impressed! Here's your blanket - you can go back to sleep now.

Mineola Bake Sale Fundraiser

Attention Mineola, Texas locals!

Some of the ladies at the Mineola Seventh-day Adventist church are raising money to go to a convention in September. To that end, we're having a "catalog" bake sale. If you live in or near Mineola Texas, please consider ordering and helping us. Thanks so much!



*Denotes items that contain nuts

Cakes
3-layer German Chocolate Cake* - $15
3-layer Carrot Cake* - $15
3-layer Mandarin Orange Cake - $15
9x13 Chocolate Buttermilk Cake* - $15
9x13 Cherry Pineapple Dump Cake - $10
9x13 Apple Pineappe Dump Cake - $10
9x13 Peach Pineapple Dump Cake - $10

Bundt Cakes - 1 Large or 6 Mini
Sour Cream Pound Cake - $10
Chocolate Chip Pound Cake - $10
Lemon Pound Cake - $10
Chocolate Pound Cake - $10
Coconut Pound Cake - $10
Sugar Free Coconut Pound Cake - $10
Applesauce Cake - $10
Sugar Free Applesauce Cake - $10
Vanilla Wafer Cake - $10
Sugar Free Vanilla Wafer Cake - $10
Death By Chocolate Cake - $10

Sweet Breads & Muffins
Banana Nut Bread* - Large Loaf - $10
Zucchini Nut Bread* - Large Loaf - $10
Blueberry Muffins - 2 Dozen - $10
Banana Nut Muffins - 2 Dozen - $10

Pies
Chocolate Chess - $10
Pineapple Chess - $10
Coconut Chess - $10
Buttermilk - $10
Hot Fudge* - $10
Coconut - $10
Best Ever Coconut - $10
Chocolate Pecan* - $15
Pecan* - $15
Lemonade - $10

Pies - Individual Mini Pies - package of 2
Coconut Meringue - $5
Chocolate Meringue - $5
Lemon Meringue - $5
Lemonade - $5

Cookies & Candies
Pecan Sandies* - 2 Dozen - $10
Chocolate Chip* - 2 Dozen - $10
Chocolate Chip - 2 Dozen - $10
Oatmeal Raisin - 2 Dozen - $10
Ranger Cookies - 2 Dozen - $10
Peanut Butter Fudge - 2"x4" slab - $5
Praline Grahams - 2 Dozen - $10

Snack Mixes
Ranch Snack Mix* - Medium Bag - $3
Chex Party Mix* - Large Bag - $5
Kiddie Crunch Mix* - Small Bag - $2

Ordering Information
Payment must be made when ordering.

Orders turned in - Delivery/Pick-up
Sunday - Friday
Monday - Friday
Tuesday - Friday
Wednesday - Friday
Thursday - Sunday/Monday
Friday - Sunday/Monday

E-mail me at crystalarcand (at) gmail (dot) com or call me with your order and we'll arrange getting the payment.

Spread the word!

Ow! and Other News...

About a week ago, I got up from my crochet to go write a couple of posts for KidGlue that were due to be published the next day (I know, nothing like waiting until the last minute). I thought to myself, "This is wonderful, I have two posts to write and my eyes already hurt." Little did I know then that it was to become a regular occurrence.

It seems my eyes have changed, and they are cranky. I was diagnosed with a very mild astigmatism back in college and given the lowest prescription possible for glasses to use while reading. I pull them out every once in a while when my eyes start bothering me. This time, there was a noticeable difference in perception when I put my glasses on, which troubled me. Further troubling is that they're not alleviating the eye pain and headaches. Conclusion: an eye exam is in my future, and most likely glasses.

On the upswing, though, I got word this week that I won the iVillage handbag contest. To enter, you were supposed to tweet to @ivillage telling them what kind of handbag you are. The winner was chosen based on originality and creativity. This tweet won the iVillage What Kind of Handbag are You? contest. The prize: a $500 gift card to Bloomingdales.com. W00t! So naturally, I headed over to B's to shop around. Ouch! Talk about expensive! I thought about getting good quality coats for the kids or something equally pragmatic. I talked to Michael about it and he insists I get something for myself. Let the shopping and horrific decision-making begin...

Other tidbits:

• I dyed my hair late Monday night. I just lightened it up a bit. It's still strawberry blonde.


• I had lunch with my dear friend Trish on Tuesday and did some brainstorming about her business. There are exciting things coming!


• I wrote a post about Left Hander's Day on KidGlue - check it out.


• The women's ministry for my church is having a yard sale on Friday and Sunday to raise money for lodging at the NAD women's convention. If you're anywhere near Mineola, come see us and buy stuff! I crocheted a 4-foot-square lap blanket just for this fundraiser that will be at the yard sale - come and get a one-of-a-kind hand-made heirloom and help us out! We'll be having a bake sale at the local Wal-Mart on Sunday, too, so you can buy stuff or buy food - take your pick!


• School starts in eleven days - huzzah! Ok, I got a little exclamation point happy there. I'm back now.


• Bethy isn't ready yet.


• Don't forget to enter the Apronista Apron Fest Giveaway - it closes tonight!

I'd appreciate prayers for my eyes, and for Bethy to be ready for school.

Brandon's Light Saber Cake

My oldest baby turned 9 today. We had a Star Wars party, complete with green light saber cake. Check out the Awesome!

This sucker is 4 feet long! Brandon totally loved it.

Oh yeah, I forgot

I realized I forgot several things I wanted to share with you last night, but it was just too late to go back and add them. Don't fall over from the shock of posts on consecutive days. Hopefully, it'll be happening a lot more often.

Yesterday I got an e-mail notifying me that I won this giveaway for an Ava Market Tote from Wicked Stitch Designs. I got to choose my outside and interior fabric, so I picked black for the outside and this for the inside:

I should be getting it in about 3 weeks. I'm so excited!

Then to add to my excitement, I got an e-mail this morning saying I won this giveaway for some chopsticks. Totally sweet, since this was one giveaway I was really hoping I'd win. Here are the lovelies I'll be getting:

I received an exclusive coupon link to share with you from My Blog Spark. Click here for your New 50 Calorie Fiber One Yogurt $1.00 Coupon!

My favorite affiliate company is having a back-to-school sale. Little Miss Matched has new back-to-school dresses, and new leg warmers & arm warmers, too.
Check it out!

And oh boy, do I have something Absolutely and Totally Fabulous for my homeschooling readers!

The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine is currently running their Summer Bouquet subscription promotion, in which they give away more than $400 in gifts to each of the first 5,000 people who purchase a two-year TOS magazine subscription or renewal. (U.S. subscriptions only. )

Each of those first 5,000 subscribers will receive 19 great gifts, including:

• $20 gift card for DVDs offered by Franklin Springs Family Media
• A Cooking with Children CD from SueGreggCookbooks
• An online filmmaking course given by Advent Film Group (approximately $49 value)
• Gourmet Crepe Mix and Raspberry Cheesecake Blend from Wildtree-YUMMY!!
• A 10 x 13 portrait photo free from Sears to YOU (with no sitting fee!)

And much, much more! Take a look at all 19 free gifts here.
Each of these 19 gifts has a value of up to $10 to $49! And none of them requires additional shipping charges; for the most part, your only expense will be the cost of the stamp on the envelope or postcard that you mail in to redeem a gift. This awesome promotion gives homeschoolers a taste of some exceptional FREE products from a variety of sources.

*insert commercial voice here*
But wait, it get's better! The Old Schoolhouse has given me an exclusive code for you to save an additional $5 off of your subscription.

Use code CASGL5OFF to save an additional $5 off your 2-year US subscription, a 2 year-plus current issue (Fall) subscription, or a renewal of The Old School Magazine!

And don't forget to enter to win an 18x24 digital print!
Entry deadline is tonight at 11:59 pm!

Ok, now I'm done.

Until I get the apron giveaway posted...

What's New, Pussycat?

I've decided to try to update more frequently with the regular, day-to-day stuff of my life so you can get to know me a little better (and vice-versa when you comment) and I can (hopefully) hone my writing skills a bit. So here goes:

Don't forget to enter to win an 18x24 digital print!
Entry deadline is 11:59 pm on Wednesday, August 5.

The UPS man brought this to my door yesterday. It's organic gold label virgin coconut oil from Tropical Traditions. I also got a book about it with recipes. I'll be reviewing it soon, so keep an eye out. We like beans here, and there's a recipe for black beans that I plan on trying, as well as a pinto bean soup. Then again, the coconut smoothie sounds really good and the nutrition information looks like it's a powerhouse.

Today's mail brought my copy of When Someone You Love Has Cancer by Cecil Murphey from Kathy. It's a lovely little book with wonderful illustrations. It's like a gift book, but doubly so, since the message inside of it is such a gift in and of itself. I hope to post a review of this soon, as well.

I've got another blog tour coming up on Tuesday, 18 August about a book called Prayer Power by Peter Lundell, so be sure you stop by and check it out.

The Apronista is hosting an Apronfest all week long to celebrate her birthday (happy birthday, btw!) with tons of apron giveaways all over the interwebs. There are currently 31 giveaways listed on Mr. Linky, so go get busy! (Well, as soon as you're done reading here, of course.) I took some pictures of Sarah modeling a great little bonnet apron in red and white that I plan on giving away to celebrate, so look for that post Wednesday afternoon or Thursday.

I got an e-mail today from the ever-wonderful Kathi Lipp about a top-secret project we're working on together, which has me really excited. You should probably get excited, too. Just sayin'...

I'm doing a series of weekly posts about Family Fun Month over at KidGlue.com and continue to highlight a food-related holiday (AKA foodieday) and a fun holiday each week. Be sure to check out my posts there.

In family news, Sarah goes for her annual check-up tomorrow and Brandon had his last week. He had to get his second chicken pox shot and he was not a happy camper. He had a mild allergic reaction to it where the injection site swelled a bit and turned red. We took him back in to have it checked and they said he would be fine, which was a relief.

Bethy is in the throes of potty training. We bit the bullet and have her in training panties during the day. The last couple of days she seems to be doing pretty well. I'm still concerned about having her "completely" potty trained before school, though. The whole wiping thing is still a foreign concept to her. ACK! Pray for us; please, pray for us!

I think that's about it for now...

Uprinting Blog Sponorship - What Sponsorship Should Be

I was invited by UPrinting.com to join their blog sponsorship program on May 21. You'd think that with just over 30 days, I wouldn't have had time to really work with them enough to form an opinion.

You. are. so. wrong.

The first opportunity I had to participate was within two weeks. Now, we all know the stairs are little patterny over there in the sidebar, so I played with the colors a bit to help the ad stand out. Being a newbie, I contacted UPrinting to check on the "okayness" of my tweaking. And since you all know my habits, you know it was 10:40 PM when I sent the e-mail. Do you think it was 9 the next morning before I heard from them? Nope. Can you believe I got an e-mail back at 11:18?! Yep. I had a response in 38 minutes.

Awesomeness. Pure awesomeness.

Here's a little more from the UPrinting team about why UPrinting.com isn't your average printing company:

Blog Sponsorships:
If you are looking to find a sponsor for your blog, UPrinting.com is definitely interested. We offer giveaways, advertising and more for qualified bloggers.

Non-Profit Sponsorships:
The U-Community Program sponsors hundreds of non-profits and education to improve our local communities.

Social Justice Projects:
The UPrinting Kiva account promotes small business growth in developing countries.

Green Printing:
UPrinting supports a sustainable future by recycling, using non-toxic inks, and offering eco-friendly recycled paper stocks for business cards and postcard printing.

Just so you know of another instance of awesomeness in the world.

You're welcome.

Memorial Day - Thank you, Heroes

In grateful memory of those who have given
the ultimate sacrifice in service to our country.

ETMIH 2010 Program

Let me know if this doesn't work or if I need to do any additional tweaking.

3stairs.com/2010program.pub

3stairs.com/2010programPDF.pdf

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