I made these labels out of scrapbook paper. Tied them on with ribbon. Ta-da you have neatness

A full view of the shelf. The cups have pencils and pens, The brown basket has coloring books, then we have a playdough bucket, crayons, markers and colored pencils, scrap paper, puzzels.

I made the whole corner a reading corner. The yellow, red, blue bins have more books in them.

When everything was torn apart

Bookshelf before I started

We have started the school year and it is going great. We have our ups and downs. There are times when I feel like I'm going to scream and then there are times when I smile with pride as my kids get what I'm trying to teach them. In the middle of all of this, I have been beating myself and beating myself because I'm not blogging. You have to understand- this is not something that I'm forced to do or that I'm doing under pressure. It is something that I LOVE to do. I want to blog, I want to post wonderful recipes on here, the great accomplishments that I'm getting done around the house, different ideas about different holidays and the list goes on and on. But at the end of the day, when I sit on my couch for just an half an hour or even an hour, I'm soooo exhausted by the days duties that I can't even get my thoughts together. I read somewhere just the other day about mothers beating themselves over the head because they aren't getting their pinterest project done and they aren't making three post a week on their blogs and they aren't making meals in advance to be frozen in the freezer. Here's the whole lump some. I'm not one of those mothers. I have lots of pins on my pinterest boards, I have lots of ideas running through my head of what I want to get accomplished in my house, but I can't get it accomplished. I want to get up at 6am and have two hours to myself before everyone gets up. Maybe then I can focus on what I want to do for just those couple of hours. You know what? My baby without fail will wake up between 6:30 and 7:30am every morning. My other two wake up that early too. I crawl into bed between 10:30 and 11:00 at night. I'm up 2-3 times a night nursing my baby. During the day, I homeschool a 2nd grader and a kindergartner while at the same time juggling a 9mo. old and doing paper work for my full time job. I don't have staff for my blog. It is me and me alone. I'm trying to get a schedule of all of our activities and wants all lined up in some type of order, but it doesn't always happen. Right now, my kitchen is on overload by the dishes and crumbs that need cleaned up, my dining room is a major issue with the lunch that needs cleaned up, my living room has laundry on the couch that is crying for my attention. Let's not even mention the fact that the upstairs and sunroom need serious organization. The bottom line is- wake up, feed everyone, school the kids (get my shower on one of their breaks), clean up after school, do laundry whenever I have the chance throughout the day, fix supper, bath kids, read books and then bed. And then we start it all over again. Maybe I need to focus on helping my kids learn jobs throughout the house so they can help their mother a little better. I don't know. But one thing I do know is, let's not get stressed over it. One day our children will be gone and we will have spotless houses and we will call to have our grandkids over so they can destroy our house, too. I'm trying to get myself to relax and just go with life, however it dishes out to me. So maybe every now and then I can get a picture of something I've done or cooked up, but for now, it is this.

I love to hear from y'all and I'm sorry if this blog does not meet your expectations, but I have had to set my standards down a little bit so the kids can have a happy mother and not a cranky one.  :-)

Well, yea! We have started school and it has been really really busy. It's quite interesting when you are homeschooling a kindergarten and a 2nd grader and in the process you have a 9month old who LOVES to pull everything down off of the school shelves. He loves to do that and thinks that he is absolutely cute. The problem is- he is sooo cute!!! So we are trying to figure out a good schedule and I feel like that the days are flying by and I barely get the dishes done, laundry done, supper cooked and the house just cleaned up. So hopefully we will get on a schedule and I can get back to blogging, which I miss very much.
So since we have Labor Day coming up in a few short day, I thought that I would post a packing list.

our lunch (what was left of it)

closer look

Butter Garlic Noodles (YUM!) Butter Garlic Noodles 12 oz. egg noodles or spaghetti noodles 1/2 c. (1 stick) butter 2tsp. parsley flakes 1/2 teas. salt 1/4 teas black pepper 1/4 teas. garlic powder

Cook pasta according to pkg direction. In saucepan over low heat, add remaining ingredients.  Heat until butter is melted; stir in hot pasta. (Now I added a little more garlic powder, salt and pepper. You will just have to taste it and season it how you like it.) very yummy!

I thought that I would post a recipe on Fridays. You are hitting the weekend and if your like me and my family, our week has been crazy and it looks like the weekend is going to be the same way. I always like to do something fast and easy on Fridays. Something that doesn't take alot of time. Here is a recipe that I came up with on my own when I was a teenager. My family loves this recipe and we tend to have it quite often.