Valentine's Day Prep

So this year I've resolved to do more crafting because it's good for me. And I've resolved to use some of that crafting desire to decorate our home. And to top it off, the crafting needs to be very budget-friendly.

So here we go for Valentine's Day...

A heart garland made out of felt, inspired by this lady.

Construction paper hearts taped on the wall. Took me about 15 minutes total and I love how it turned out. Clara loved it too when she woke up in the morning and saw it!

3-D paper hearts inspired by this lady. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, though it was definitely more time-consuming than the other projects.

And then a couple days ago I came across this tutorial for these kind of funny-looking heart guys and I just had to make them for the girls for Valentine's Day.

I didn't have to buy a single thing for any of these projects because I just used whatever I had on hand, so I like to think they were free even though at some point in the past I did buy the supplies.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Daddy's Packer Girls

Full disclosure

Lest I ever give the impression that my home is always spotless and perfectly organized, here is my desk at this very moment...

Ugh! I hate it to the core of my being! Sadly what you see here is very normal. Our office is next on my list of rooms to overhaul because it is driving me absolutely crazy. It desperately needs some organizational help. The only thing lacking has been the funding needed to do what I want with it. In the meantime, I need to triage this awful space right away while the girls are napping!

January Update

Remember my New Year's Resolutions? Well I was thinking since it's the end of January maybe I should share how well I've been implementing them so far.

Daily Bible reading - not so good. I think as of today I'm about 12 days into the reading plan when I should be 30 days into it. It's a shameful confession. I know that I need to read every day, but for probably a lot of lame reasons I often just don't do it. I need to work harder at that one in February.

Work on my 2011 reading list - that one has been going great! I finished Bringing Up Girls, which I had started in December. And I read Don't Make Me Count to Three, started and quit The Poisonwood Bible 'cuz I didn't love it, and now I'm 2/3 finished with Professionalizing Motherhood.

Get into the habit of having family devotions - we kinda fell off the bus on this one too. I think one of our stumbling blocks is the fact that Jeremy works probably 8-10 nights a month so if we get in the habit of evening devotions there are several nights that he's not with us, but if we get in the habit of morning devotions we struggle because we're so tired that often one of us gets up with Clara and the other sleeps in a bit. Need to focus on this more in February.

No TV or internet between dinnertime and when Clara goes to bed - we've done pretty well with this I think, but not perfect.

Work on Kitchen Stewardship's Top 10 Foundational Habits - I confess I haven't thought about this one in the past couple weeks so I'm glad to be reminded of it again.

Potty train Clara - we borrowed a DVD called Potty Power from the library and she has watched it several times and loves it. And as a result she's been talking more about potty-related things, but she still doesn't seem to want to actually go potty in the toilet much.

Work toward a routine for me and the girls - this one is still rolling around in my brain as I try to formulate what it will look like and as I wait for Lola to get just a bit older

Have two Norwex parties per month - I did one fabulous party and one okay trade show

Take the girls outside on every nice day - ummm....it's not nice yet so we haven't had to implement this one

Do more crafts - I did! I haven't taken pictures of them yet, but I made a Valentine heart garland, I patched two pairs of my jeans, and I have started a set of Christmas countdown blocks. It feels so good to make something with my own two hands!

Now on to February...

New things!

I've been wanting to rearrange the girls' bedroom for awhile now and since we removed a crib and added a toddler bed yesterday I decided today was a good day for a whole new room!

Come on in...

(yes, Clara actually sleeps with ALL of those "friends" that you see in her cute little toddler bed...and I think we're even missing a few of the regulars in this picture!)

So this is the sleeping side of the room, plus nice, organized toy storage...

this is the shopping/cooking/eating area...

and the baby corner...

And this new beauty is in our living room. The toddler bed and this toy storage thing were hand-me-downs from my big sister's girls and we LOVE them!

For some time now I've been wondering what to do with the lesson sheets that Clara gets in church on Sundays and I think today I might have had a great idea. We have a couple corkboard strips that have been sitting around in our house and I might see about hanging one of them above this toy bin so we can hang her current lesson sheet so we can review it thru the week, maybe a favorite picture or two that she has recently drawn, and my "tot school planning form" for the week.

I came across a couple sites recently (like this one and this one) that talk about "tot school" and I think it's a great idea that I want to try and implement. The concept really isn't much different from things we already do with Clara, but I like the idea of putting a little more planning and intentionality into it.

Thanks West's for blessing us with a sweet new bed and a sweet new toy storage system!

You're the best!