I should be cleaning...

...so I'm blogging instead! We have had a whirlwind spring and first few weeks of summer, and unfortunately I've missed sharing some wonderful, hilarious, sweet, and monumental events. I'll do my best to remember and document them over the next few weeks!

So here's a snapshot of the Clarey's currently:

Jim - 's business is going WELL (www.nahfloors.com)! He is booking jobs into September right now, has hired 2 employees (one full-time and one part-time) and is looking for a third (full-time). When he is not working he is either hanging with us at home or golfing (which also happens daily at home).

Josiah - is totally living it up this summer. He's sleeping until 9:30 some mornings (shocking, considering he typically sleeps no later than 7:30, even if he goes to bed super late), riding his bike every day and just figured out how to turn around in driveways so he can go up and down our sidewalk, playing independently in the back yard, snuggling in his new big bed with a big pile of books, and exploring the great outdoors. One of his new favorite things to do is hit balls in the backyard and either try to get them stuck in the pine tree or hit them over the fence into the neighbors (and then ride bike around and throw them all back over the fence). Good thing they like us! His new favorite word is "definitely," and he's definitely full of words. Suddenly he's adding in all these great descriptions. Of course the only one I can remember is, "Why couldn't you hear me, Mom?! I was talking louder than a lion can roar!"

Laura - is actually feeling relaxed and enjoying summer! I am planning to not work in my classroom until August 1st. I have never done that...ever...I did bring a few books home to read (ok, like 8 or 10, so probably more a shelf than a stack), but they are not at the top of my list just yet. After being out of town for the first 10 days of summer and then throwing a garage sale together in 2 days I need to fix our disaster of  a house first. Yikes! Oh, and my Mary Kay business is blossoming as well! I'm currently working on earning my first free car and moving into a leadership position. Woohoo!!!

All the extra tidbits:

Excited for - my chalk paint class and painting a whole bunch of things. Josiah to go to Prairie Preschool at Buffalo River State Park.

Eating - the first box of our CSA from Bluebird Gardens and loving it! Josiah and I devoured and entire cucumber together the first night, and thanks to the farm's personal chef we grilled our head of romaine last night for our salad. Let's just say that I will definitely be grilling lettuce all summer.

Focused on - wrapping up selling the last of the garage sale items and cleaning out clutter so we can clean and organize the rest of the house. When I say ORGANIZE I mean really organize. Summer is the only time when I can really get the entire house updated and restructured to fit our changing needs. Good thing I love doing it!

Outside - biking, finishing up spring yard maintenance (yes I realize I'm behind...), golf - mostly Jim and Josiah, but hopefully me too after I get my clubs out of the basement...

Relaxing - hopefully around a fire beginning today! Jim's got scrap wood coming out of his ears, and what better way to dispose of it than by sitting around a fire in the evening! Better stock up on smore supplies...

Sewing - nothing yet, but lots of projects are in the plans!

The things I'm avoiding - a huge pile of mail, starting laundry, cleaning up the pile of clothes in our bedroom...

My Summer DIY List

Spontaneously selling Josiah's bed and replacing it with a full now has my brain rolling. It's time to revisit Pinterest so I can slowly redesign and redecorate a few things. Think I can figure out and master Jim's power tools? We definitely don't have a shortage of wood downstairs, but the trick will be trying to use mostly what we have along with excess flooring.

Potential projects: Josiah's headboard, coffee table, cubbies for the back door, fabric covered canvas for above our bed, throw pillows for living room and both bedrooms, a new (much larger) top for the kitchen table, and if I get really good a corner desk unit for the office.

Reality? I probably won't get more than one building project done. Sewing, though, no problem! After a good night's sleep my enthusiasm for a full summer is finally appearing!

And just like that it's summer...

Where did this school year go?! At times it seemed like it was flying by faster than I wanted, and at other times the end couldn't come fast enough. And so it goes with teaching, I suppose. But summer is really, truly, finally here, and the reality still hasn't quite sunk in. Could be due to sheer exhaustion, or could also be due to the number of things running through my head. I've been asked what big plans I have for my summer, and to be honest I'm not really sure how to answer. Usually I have grand plans, but I haven't even started to consider what this summer might include. Here are a few things I've randomly mulled over in the last few months. Hopefully jotting them here will both get the ideas flowing and keep me from forgetting!

• School: Read bag full of 10ish teacher books
• House: paint master bedroom and sew some super fun and very loud curtains with fabric from Modern Textiles; spring clean (yes, I realize it's summer, but if you've met a teacher you know that doesn't happen in the last month of school!); catch up on office paperwork; clean out the basement and sell everything on a garage sale!
• Yard: figure out how to make the lawn look like the golf course, plant a few pots, add a few plants to the back, add a little secondary bed by the green fence
• Sew: too many projects to list...
• Catch up on digital scrapbooking and make family yearbooks
• Mary Kay: continue building and encouraging my team and customers on the road to directorship!!! 

And, of course, there are all those FUN non-listy things that I get to just do whenever while Josiah and I take full advantage of getting to be together ALL SUMMER: sit in a lawn chair and read a book A LOT, go to the lake, take advantage of the CSA harvest events and figure out how to freeze veggies, go to the pool, ride bike, take naps, head out to Buffalo River State Park for Prairie Preschool (I might secretly be just as excited to take Josiah as he will be to go), meet friends for coffee, go garage sale-ing (yep, I don't think that's spelled right, but Blogger said my options are sailing or saling, which don't look right either...), visit family, update and revise my cookbook (yep, I "wrote" one!), and relax (what's that again?)!

My goal is to not go into my classroom until August. Should we start a pool and everyone can put their money on how long I make it before I head in?

Oh, and I should probably predetermine bedtime regulations for both Josiah AND me. I could have gone to sleep at about 8:00, and now it's 12:19 and here I am sitting at my computer. Will someone please knock some sense into me and send me to bed?! That might also help accomplish my reading goals for the summer...

Banana-rama!

One of my favorite things to blog hop for is new recipes, and OMG have I found some tasty ones! Here is my first go at posting one of our favorites...Kona Banana Bread from Better Homes and Gardens Bread Cookbook. 

Just looking at this picture makes me wish that either I wasn't trying to lose weight and could eat at 11:36 pm, or that it was morning and time for a big ol' chunk with my morning coffee...yummmmmm!

Step 1: Cream 1/2 cup shortening and 1 cup sugar (I usually cut back to 3/4 - 7/8 of a cup) until light.

Step 2: Add 2 eggs, one at a time, beating well after each. Stir in 3/4 cup mashed ripe banana (I use slightly less). Make sure your bananas are RIPE, aka: black and mushy. Your batter will look like this:

And if your 4 year old likes to sample every ingredient as it goes in, he or she will look like this:

Still cute with flour all over!

Step 3: Sift together 1 1/8 cups flour (I substitute wheat flour for the 1/8 cup), 3/4 teaspoon soda, & 1/2 teaspoon salt. Add to banana mixture. Mix til well-blended. Love my Le Creuset spoonulas...after a few year of newlywed bliss and my first 3 Le Creusets I added a few other brands and none compare (even Cuisinart and Kitchenaid), so I am back to only the best (although my hubby would tell you the others are still in the drawer since I haven't cleaned them out yet...he LOVES an overabundance of kitchen utensils too, NOT)!

Step 4: Pour into a greased 9x9 or 8x8 pan. Bake for 30-35 (I usually do 35) minutes at 350 degrees. The bread will come out golden brown and separated from the sides of the pan. Isn't it gorgeous!

Step 5: Cool. Cut into squares. Eat them as fast as you can before your hubby gets to the pan!

Here's my cookbook, copyright 1963. Thank you to my mom for finding it for me at the Friends of the Bismarck Public Library Used Booksale!

And the original! Haven't tried to make it with cake flour, mainly because I don't usually have it on hand, but also because the recipe I got from my mom calls for all-purpose flour. I didn't realize until tonight when I started writing this post that it was in the recipe. Oops! Sometime I'll pick some up and will update this post to let you know how it compares. Happy baking!!!

Cutest boy, ever!

Ok, so I know every mom on the planet thinks her kid is the cutest one, but Josiah really is...trust me! Here are just a few of the things he's said in the last few days...

Last Wednesday when we were eating at Grazies the waiter brought our food before Josiah's. As he was walking away from the table Josiah turned to us and said, "Aw, how come he didn't bring my food first? Doesn't he think I'm cute?!"

One of Josiah's favorite book series is Where's Waldo, thanks to Jim, and he knows all about all the additional people and objects to find. He even knows that Odlaw (Waldo spelled backwards) is Waldo's arch-nemesis (or "the mean guy") and follows him to all the different places trying to steal his cane (or whatever object is Waldo's). So as we were driving home one night I'm smiling to myself as I watch him reading in the back with one knee propped up in his carseat and the gigantic Waldo book open and completely covering him, when out of the blue he comments, "I hope Odlaw gets a sunburn!" (there's a beach page where half the characters are noticeably burned, and we've had lots of conversations about sunburns and sunscreen with him inheriting my always pale skin) I responded with the proper mom comment of, "That wasn't very nice!" To which he answers, "Yeah, but Odlaw's mean!"

Last (for now, until I remember another and update the post), the last two days have been very stormy in Fargo with lots of accidents. Yesterday after church we saw a van on it's side along the interstate and many onlookers rushing to help, so it must have just happened before we got there. He also overheard us talking about yesterday's fatality accident on I-29, because when I came home at noon today after West Fargo sent staff home he came running over to me, gave me a huge hug, and then told me, "I was worried that you were going to get in an accident and die." I felt so bad that he apparently has been worrying about that this morning, but totally amazed by his ability to hear about something that's happened to others and empathize with them or relate the situation to his life. It also leaves me wondering if it's better to censor some of the sad or scary things that happen around us from him until he's a little older, or if it's ok for him to be exposed so that we can talk about it as a family to help him understand what's happened and how to respond. Oh, how I wish I could protect him from heartache...he has such a soft heart...this fall there was a skunk on the side of the road that we passed every day for about 2 weeks on the way to daycare. After he finally realized that the skunk wasn't living any longer he was so worried that the skunk's family would miss him. Lord, please keep his heart soft and loving, but not vulnerable!!!

This was supposed to be a funny post based on the first two quotes, but somehow I turned sentimental. Oopsies! Sorry about that!!! Guess I'll sign off before I get too sappy and tackle the planning and grading I brought home for the afternoon. Happy Monday afternoon from home, everyone!!!

Oh what a weekend!

So I don't have anything exciting to write about, but I'm just feeing so content for a change. My weekend was actually pretty nice! I got all my "mom stuff"done, like laundry, meal planning, grocery shopping... I also cleaned the cupboards and walls in the kitchen after the renovation, put the curtains and decorations back in the dining room, and did a little office organizing with my new Thirty-one office organizers. Now, that would have been a great weekend on it's own, but on top of that I road tripped to two quilt shops and found some AMAZING fabric for projects I have on my list, started one of those projects, finished ALL the school work I brought home (which never happens), signed Josiah up for a Sports Sampler, and ordered our summer CSA from Bluebird Gardens. So how's that for healthy balance?! The only thing I haven't done well is go to bed at an earlier time...2:00am last night (blame that on sewing and being on a roll) and now it's almost midnight...off to bed I go!!! Hoping there's some room left since Josiah fell asleep there with Jim almost 4 hours ago!!!

Oh sew fun!!!

Thank you Lori Steinbrink for road tripping with me to your family quilt shop! I am SO excited about all the new projects I am now supplied for! Here's a sneak peak at what's to come!!!

I see a sweet, soft, snuggly receiving blanket...

So many possibilities in here...the two fat quarters on the lid will be pin cushions, and the rest inside will be a combination of burp clothes for baby gifts and owl heating pads for Josiah and a few other special friends.

Future throw pillows to coordinate with Josiah's newly finished quilt.

My big splurge...the softest, most beautiful ivory minky I've seen with a contrasting flannel back. Josiah is clearly the most spoiled child, unless I decide to keep this one for myself. :)

This last stash didn't come from the quilt shop. Modern Textiles is a local fabric company, currently without a shop. I picked these up a few weeks ago at The Studio in downtown Fargo, but they also have fabric available at Eco Chic and Unglued. The teal will back another baby gift, the yellow/grey and yellow chevron will be pouches or bags to hold my sewing supplies or other goodies, the blue chevron will be a drawstring top bag for toy storage, and the blue bicycle pattern has yet to be determined. 

Would love to start right now, but folding laundry, grading a few papers, and whipping up a pot of Southwest Chicken Soup for dinner are first on my list!