Not a fun surprise

Two things I have notice recently. One, the dryer takes FOREVER to dry. It takes almost two full cycles to get fully dry. I did some research and found out that I need to clean out the dryer vent... Two, I have been smelling something GROSS recently. I could never really place where it was coming from and it was never constant. Note to self, I need to clean the house.

So today I decided to move the dryer and look at what was ahead of me. I thought I could try and just vacuum it out and if it was more that I would let Nathan deal with it. So i pulled the dryer out and unplugged it. Disconnected the hose from the dryer and started to vacuum, we have a shop vac. I looked like all the of the lint had just been going straight behind the dryer. Gross. I was just about to disconnect the hose from the wall when I found this.



GROSS! A bird in our dryer vent. I guess that solves both of the issues. I'm so glad the tail feathers were sticking out and I didn't open it up and this is what fell out. Poor thing probably just wanted a warm place to be. Needless to say, Nathan got to deal with it. Thank goodness for husbands.

Christmas!

Christmas was so fun! and actually isn't over for us. We have our last Christmas party today. Here were some of the presents that I made for other people...

Who's who?

Christmas is almost here?!?!

I always think that I am so ahead on my gift making and doing so well.... and then I look at the calendar. I made a list of all of things I have yet to do and it stresses me out a little. I try not to let making the gifts stressful because it's supposed to be enjoyable and fun. I have to keep reminding myself of that! I will have to take pictures of all of the presents and I make and post them after Christmas. The more I sew, the more I like it. I'm not really much for patterns. I'm more of a trial and error type. I have only had to take out one stitch so far. Knock on wood.

The many uses of vinegar

I had no idea how great vinegar is! My sister-in-law got me this great book that has many different uses around the house for vinegar.




I have used it to make salad dressings, disinfect my washer, make my own cleaning products, and the latest..... used on a burn! Laidy was over at her aunt's house and wound up with a burn on her poor little hand. I looked up home remedies for burns and one of them was vinegar. So I put some on a band-aid and put that on her hand and a sock over that and left it for the night. I was actually VERY surprised that it survived the night but her burn doesn't look bad at all. Last night it looked like it hurt and would probably blister and today it just looks almost like a bruise.

Energy

For some reason the last couple days I have had a little more energy or motivation or something...

Things accomplished today:
Bathed my kids
vacuumed my car
did the dishes
made cookies
hung christmas lights outside

and now both kids are sleeping.... what should I do now?

Someday

I would love to do something like this with Caelan sometime. Right now I can't even get him to color a a simple shape. He would be way more interested in destroying the train and eating it than building it. Will that always be? I guess only time will tell. Maybe Adelaide will be able sit and focus on a task....