Re-purposing

I thought I would take a few blog posts and talk a little about re-purposing things; all kinds of things. I love to re-purpose because it is creative and often cost effective. (Cost effectiveness fits my blog title.) And, I love to be creative and often cringe a little inside when I get onto my daughters for "not using things appropriately". I really want to teach them to be creative and re-purpose things, but I also don't want them hanging on the sides of carts or climbing to the top of our mini van. So, I am trying to teach them to think outside the box on things like what to do with an afternoon or how to reuse something for an art project, (but I don't want them thinking outside the box so much that they topple carts onto themselves-which has happened in our family before).

Some of the things I re-purpose: furniture, wire twisty ties, cardboard boxes, and lotion are just to name a few. For this blog post, I'll give you some of my lotion tips though. Not only is lotion good for rehydrating skin, but it is also good for rehydrating hair and taking mascara and eyeliner off.

Ever since I had my daughters, my hair has been really weird. I have a very wavy patch in the back of my head, and a super frizzy spot on my right side. Up until I had kids, my hair was as flat and straight as could be. But, now it has multiple personality disorder. (I always wished for wavy/curly hair. I wish it wouldn't have come in patches.) So, sometimes when it's being particularly weird, I get my hands wet, get a tinsy bit of lotion on my hands and smooth out my frizzy patch with the water-lotion solution. It's cheaper than detanglers, and it works great for traveling too. I don't like carrying tons of bottles of hair product with me. I also like this quick fix because my hair doesn't look greasy, and afterwards it brushes nicely like normal hair would.

Like I said above, I also use lotion to take my eye-makeup off at night. I think it works great, and it isn't harsh on my skin like some of the make-up remover wipes are. I just get a cotton ball, put a little dab of lotion on it, tightly close my eye and then erase the black. If I have a particularly large amount of make-up on, I do it twice, but usually once is plenty. Then I wash the rest of my makeup off regularly. Works like a charm!

Before Picture...

Date Night (Yay!) with Makeup on

After dinner and a show, I was ready to get my makeup off and head to slumber land. So, I took some pictures to show you how I take off my eye-makeup.

lotion on cotton ball to remove makeup

I smear it

One eye with make-up, one eye without

the aftermath; eye shadow, eye liner and mascara is off

one eye "clean"

Oh, and if you are putting make-up on, and smear your eyeliner, accidentally make your eye shadow too thick, or get mascara on your eyelid, you can put a dab of lotion on a q-tip and take the unwanted makeup right off. This way, you won't have to wipe all your make-up off and start from scratch. :)

Reducing, Reusing and Recycling are important because they keep God's green earth green and beautiful, but I think re-purposing is just as important. If there wasn't already a perfect little triangle logo for the R's, I would ask that re-purposing be added. But, since they already have a logo, I guess I will just consider myself reusing--just not in the same way as it was originally intended to be used (or reused).

Have you re-purposed anything lately? Please, do tell! I'd love your tips!

Thanks, Amber

Camping

We left to go camping Friday afternoon and came back last night. We went to Theodore Roosevelt (again) to camp. It was the first time we'd gone camping, just the five us. Great times were had by all, but not all of the time...

Stupid me, we went camping when it was freezing. When we planned the trip, a month ago, we assumed it would be warm. And, it was warm here all week. But, Friday wasn't warm at all. It. was. freezing.

In getting ready for our two day trip, I packed, planned meals, gathered camping and fishing gear and scoured pinterest for suggestions. (I did not, however check the weather.) I guess that like Houston loves to be hot, North Dakota loves to be cold. Thankfully, I packed gloves, hats and jackets just in case...

Freezing around the small barbeque pit campfire Friday evening wasn't too horrible. (We weren't allowed to have any other fires.) It was the sleeping in the tent part that felt especially like cruel and unusual punishment. Saige ended up in Dave's sleeping bag for part of the night, and mine for the other part. Well, the other part of the night that we actually stayed in the tent, I mean. A little after 4 a.m., when all the kids woke up because Lydia needed to go to the bathroom, and I couldn't take the left side of my body (the side of my body closest to my sleeping bag zipper) freezing off anymore, we all evacuated the tent, and headed for the mini van. Thankfully good ole Mini warmed up quickly, and we all ended up snoozing for a while longer. Mini also told us it was 37 degrees outside. The two tanks of gas we wasted while sitting in the warm van were totally worth it.

Around 7, I started on the yummy breakfast I had planned. And, to my surprise, the electric skillet I planned to cook on wasn't working. Dave and I finally realized it was because our power inverter in the van was broken. So, we re-grouped and went with plan B. I cooked one pancake at a time over a very small skillet over a very small barbeque pit. We tried putting aluminum foil over the grill to cook some turkey bacon, but alas, the grease caught on fire, and that bacon was burnt to a crisp. We ended up cooking more bacon over the tiny skillet I brought, and we ended up with a delicious, slowly-cooked breakfast in the end.

But, but, but other than these tedious unfortunates, we had a wonderful time.  Saturday was a beautifully sunny day, and the girls and Dave fished. Saige and I planned to fish at first too, but Saige was more interested in flinging her fishing pole around other people than taking it easy, so I took her back to camp and she quickly went to sleep. After fishing, we hiked in the petrified forest and drove around the national park. It is so green and beautiful this time of year, and we spotted lots of wildlife. I love hearing Saige shout, "Buffawo!", "Pa-e dog!" (Prairie dog). Then, after a camping dinner of hobos, we headed back home. While camping though, we met some super nice people and we actually saw some people that we met at one of the churches we visited here in Dickinson. The church people invited us to come to their campsite Saturday night and enjoy homemade ice cream, but after all the packing, hiking, lack of sleep and re-grouping, I was to exhausted to socialize.

Dave and I can't wait to take the girls camping again, but we may just have to upgrade to an inexpensive pop up camper or something like it. I learned that while I love being in God's beautiful creation, I think I love the nighttime in God's creation more if there's a little more material between me and the great outdoors than a thin layer of mesh. Those pop-up campers things come with heaters, right?

Thank for reading! -Amber

P.S. I took no pictures.

Old Video...Cuteness

This was a while ago! Enjoy!

Memorial Day Sales

Well, over Memorial Day, Dave and I got to take advantage of some of the furniture sales that were going on. (Thanks for not criticizing me for shopping on Memorial Day. I know it isn't the reason for the holiday.) I got a beautiful turquoise buffet table that now holds some of my small kitchen appliances, kitchen towels, cookbooks, and table settings. It looks so beautiful in my dining room. I plan to hang two black and white pictures between the lamps. I can't wait 'til the look is complete!

 Can you see my plants and trees? It's hard to see in this picture, but we planted a dogwood and a lilac tree. We have a fir tree on the other side of the house. I love the way pine trees point towards the sunshine. It makes me think that they are praising God.

I also planted a hydrangea and a beautiful rose bush. The green planter has some little ranunculus seedlings coming up. It gives me so much joy watching my plants grow and blossom. I honestly wasn't sure what I would be able to grow in the great state of North Dakota. But, thankfully, life is blooming...

Grass is coming soon...

Blooms!

Before we plant grass, I wanted to go ahead and get a garden put in. We have tomatoes, asparagus, brussel sprouts, broccoli and strawberries in. On the deck, I have herbs in planters. I'm growing sweet basil, cilantro, spearmint and jalapenos. Hopefully, this will be good enough to start us out. I basically just need some fresh vegetables to make me some good ole' Texas style pico de gallo or salsa. -- I really miss that Tex-Mex cuisine, y'all. And the HEB tortillas. And the grocery stores in general. Plus, the price of food is way higher here. Although, I love the peaceful, slower paced lifestyle we have here in Dickinson. And, I love that I have a huge yard that I can grow a garden in. Plus, we have the time to go out and water our plants everyday. So, I guess it's an even trade.

We will add garden fencing of some sort soon.

It doesn't look like much. 

 These pictures don't really do my garden justice. But, that's okay. I'm sure you get the idea.

Strawberries plants are in the back.

Today is nice and cool outside. We have a high of 65. Moving to North Dakota from Houston gives me severe season confusion. I seriously keep forgetting it's summer. Yesterday to church, I wore a sweater while everyone else here were wearing sleeveless shirts. Umm...brr. --The weather today in North Dakota is what Houston is usually like in November or December (minus some serious humidity).  But, last week it was in the 80's here, and I'm sure we'll get back there again soon. I think.

Thanks for reading. -Amber

First Pedis

I took the girls on separate Mommy/Daughter dates to get pedicures. The nail technicians painted their fingers too. 

 Julia is finally at the age where she will talk to me about her feelings and what is going on with her. Lydia is still most interested in being silly. But, I had a great time with both of them.

My girls were thrilled to feel like such big girls. They are in a hurry to speed life up. And I'd like to slow things down. It reminds of that country song that says, "I'm in a hurry to get things done, and I, rush and rush until life's no fun. All I ever gotta do is live 'n' die, but I'm in a hurry and don't know why..."

-Amber

School Days: First to Last

Fall 2013

Lydia's first day of Kinder and Julia's first day of First Grade

Spring 2014

Lydia's Last day of Kindergarten and Julia's last day of 1st. Will they ever stop growing? 

First Day of School for 2013-2014

 My Lydia 

My Julia

I really can't believe how much my sweetie pies have changed and grown up this past school year. I keep telling them to slow down, and take their time in getting so huge. But they aren't listening. 

I think I will cry myself to sleep now. Nighty-night.

Our New Home

First of all- sorry about the banner and blog title not matching up. I plan to fix it. But, until then, I don't really want to talk about it. :/

So on to the real purpose of this post...

Here are a few pictures of our new house:

When we bought this house, it had no fireplace. I don't really know why they would build a home in North Dakota without one, so we decided to have one put in.  

Our new fireplace with it's new paint color. I hadn't finished cutting in yet when I took the pic, but I love the way the fireplace turned out. 

Beautiful fireplace with the itty bitty T.V.

 We put the bigger T.V. in our basement. This little T.V. actually doesn't seem so tiny when in use, but it does look hilariously little in this picture.

My brother in law reminded me of this episode when he was helping us mount our little telly.
---So. Funny.

Here is the semi-finished fireplace complete with Jen from the Little Couple.

 We plan to mount the cable box inconspicuously above television to make it look better, and make some room for stockings in a few months.

Outside of our new home before we moved in

I love our new front door. It has a springy flower wreath on it now. 

I love the craftsman style

This is how our upstairs living room looked pre-fireplace

Our kitchen. I love it. I just wish it had twice the cabinet space.

Our deck off the back

Our dining room

Another View of the kitchen

We will seed our back and front yard soon. Our back yard is actually huge...it just looks smallish here.

This our basement living area. I love that our basement still has regular sized windows.

There are two bedrooms upstairs and two downstairs. Our girls have the downstairs rooms, and our room and the guest bedroom is upstairs. We have learned that the basement stays about 10 degrees cooler than the upstairs rooms, and we are trying to make adjustments accordingly. We will definitely be ordering heaters for their rooms before fall comes.

We are loving our new home. After things are all unpacked, I will try and get a few more pics added.

Thanks for checking in and putting up with me while I add boring posts while watching Psych at the same time.

Blessings, Amber

Happy (Belated) Birthday Saige!

On the 8th, Saige turned 2!!! We had a fun time celebrating her little life. 

These days, she is head over heels for Mickey and his Mousketools. So, we celebrated her day, Disney style.

Breakfast set up

Her favorite breakfast is the same thing we have most days: Cereal

Helping Mom make her Birthday Cake

Family and the cake pre-sprinkle

Saige and her sisters did an awesome job adding some sprinkles to her cake

Saige didn't sleep well on the eve of her birthday. I actually ended up giving her a bath at 12:30 a.m. the day of her birthday. She slept great after that!

Saige got to open presents from family and from us in the evening. Thanks to my parents and Dave's parents for the sweet gifts! Saige loved them all.

Two and a half years ago, I thought I wanted a little boy more than anything. I'm so glad God knew to give me my Saige instead. She is such a joy! She loves to spend her days pretending to be a puppy and has an amazing vocabulary. She is strong minded, smart and sassy. She stands up to her sisters with just as much spunk as they have, and tells it like it is. Just the other day, she told me, "Saigie is da boss." I didn't let her get away with that one, but she delivered the message with a smile, and it sure was cute. Maybe someday God will still bless us with a stinky little boy, but if not, my heart is already full!

My chickadees are the best. Love, Amber

Easter - Back-up Blogging

Hello Blog world! I have been without internet for the last 12 days, and I am glad to be back! I wanted to add some pictures from Easter, and also let you all know that although it is still chilly and windy, it also great living in North Dakota. We love our new house, and I plan to post pics on here soon.

Dickinson Community Easter Egg Craziness

Waiting for the craziness

What was collected

 Before the older girls got to go collect the eggs, they turned out the lights and turned on black lights. Then they let the kids loose. It was fun, but I'm glad Saige was at the hotel, napping.

Dyeing Easter Eggs at the hotel

Julia coloring her egg before we dunk it

Lydia being creative

 

Saige drawing/occasionally dropping the eggs

 

Even Dave and I color eggs

Our finished product

Look what the Easter Bunny brought!

We tried out a Nazarene church for Easter and then ate at Applebee's with friends. It was a great day. It even got up to 70 that day. I thought then that that was kinda how the weather would stay. But, I was wrong. :)

Blessings, Amber