Where Does Your Trash Go?

My kids love Noggin.  It's a cartoon channel...yes I know I let them watch TV, how horrible am I?!?!  Well I don't think I'm too horrible considering they ACTUALLY learn from it, and here is proof.

This month on Noggin they have been talking about recycling because of Earth Day.  I never really thought Jax was paying attention (ha yeah right, that kid is ALWAYS paying attention, even when I prefer he not!).  He proceeds to ask me today where our trash goes.  I told him they pick it up and take it to the dump.  He says "then you are filling up the land fill."  Really?  You are four, do you even know what that is?!?!  Well apparently he does because he explained it to me.  "All your trash is going to fill it up then it won't have anywhere to go, so it does bad things to the Earth."  Correct you are my little Noggin watcher!  He then tells me that we need to recycle to save our Earth.  I asked if he knew what that meant, to recycle.  Stupid question on my part! "Yep, you keep your plastic and stuff.  Then you take it to some helper people."  Once again, he was paying attention!  He also proceeded to to describe the "recycle symbol".  He says "when something has that triangle arrow on it you can take it to the helper people.  They take it somewhere were it doesn't hurt the Earth".  Correct again!  I'm glad he is learning this.  I would have never thought to teach him to much about Earth Day.  So today was a day that I learned from my four year old.  A day that he taught me to "pay a little more attention."  Maybe we will get some bins and recycle the stuff with "triangle arrows".  Every little bit counts!  And I would hate to think that one day my grandchildren will not have this beautiful world that we have.  So from Jax's mouth to my blog "save your triangle arrows"!!

Out With The Old....

We have a new "button" here at The Mill!  So grab our new one, and toss out the old one!  Thanks!

The Lunch Lady

This is what lunch looks like at our house.  The kids sit in their seats, and Liddy supervises.  This is how she received the title "lunch lady".  She even has that little mustache like most lunch lady's do! HA! Just kidding :)  She seems to keep the kids in line, or at least entertains them by "letting loose" occasionally. :)

I know you are wondering....how could that sweet face make these kids behave?  Maybe it's this "mean" look that does it. 

Guess we will never know.  After all, a lunch lady NEVER reveals her secrets!

Est. 2007

I did a quick little craft this weekend, and thought I would share the results.  We had this sign that started out in our old house, made the venture to the new house, then made it to the bonus room for a yard sale.  Well after stalking reading some other blogs, I decided to redo it.  Here we go.....

This is the before...I wonder why I paid money for this sign.  It seems so ugly when I look at it now! Ha!

First I painted it white, two coats to cover up that ugliness!  While that was drying I searched thru Picnik for some font that I liked.  I decided to do an "established" sign for our front porch.  I traced the letters so that I could shade them directly onto the board.  (Don't worry I took pictures to explain the "shading")   I'm lucky enough to work in an x-ray department with light boxes for viewing the xrays, so I used one of those.  If you aren't as lucky as me you could use a window, or print the font dark enough to be able to see with out any extra light.
Here is a picture of the paper on the light box.  You have to trace the letters on the back side, so the letters will be backwards when you are tracing them.  This way you can simply flip the paper over and "shade" them onto the surface.  Be sure to trace over the letters a few times.  It will pay off in the end, trust me!

Here is a picture after I shaded it onto the wood...

Be sure to shade really hard, so that the traced lines on the back side transfer. 

This is what it will look like when you remove the paper.  It's kind of hard to see, but this is the best picture I could get. Sorry :(

After this I painted them with a coat of basic black paint, then sanded over the entire board.

Obviously it is way too white, so I wiped some stain across it.  This "aged" it dramatically, just what I wanted!

It turned out really well, or at least I think so!  Here it is in its new home on our front porch.

Well there's the craft for the day.  I made some more shirts for the kids.  I will try to post those this week sometime. 

Hello, My Name is Carri, and I Have an Addiction

I am here to admit that I'm addicted to blogs.  I can't help it!  When I find a new one, I will go back to their first post and read to the present.  Is that normal?  Please tell me you do this too?  If you don't just lie and say you do to make me feel better!

This addiction has also caused my "notes" and "lists" to grow.  I've always been a note maker (blame that on my OCD and forgetfulness!).  But now, now my notes are long and detailed!  They say what items are needed for the project, what blog it's on, and the date they posted (because it can take a LOT of frustrating hours looking for a post).  My poor little notebook is getting it's wear and tear these days! 

All these blogs also make me feel like I need to complete a "project" every day, or a least one a week.  That's crazy, right?  I know others have these same addictions, so please admit it.  Make me feel a little less crazy!

On another, yet similar note.  I found a new blog today.  Julie had commented on one of my previous posts, so I HAD to check her out.  (there is that pesky addiction thing again)  Well she now has another follower, and she also added 5 "projects" to my list!  Thanks for that Julie! Ha!  Seriously check her out she has some great ideas!

You Win Some, You Lose Some

The kids finally got to wear their new shirts on Monday.  Laney was so excited to be there watching the game...............or maybe she was more interested in the rocks! Ha!

She spent most of her time doing this, or saying she needed to pee (simply because she wanted to walk to the restroom!).  What is it with kids and public restrooms?  That's one fascination I will never understand!  Unfortunately, the girls lost the game :(  And it was against our county rival, so that makes it stink even more.  Oh well, there is always next year!  The girls all played their best, and it was a good game to watch!  Here are a few action shots of Joey and Mally......

I love this one of Joey...it's her classic "whatever" face!

Laney refused to get her picture taken with the girls.....she was too busy being onry!

Family Pictures

So I just saw the photographers blog that did our pictures, and, well.....they are SO good. They are so good that it made me cry. It made me realize how fast my kids are growing up before my eyes, how they won't be my babies much longer. I'm glad Erica captured these moments for us. You can check out the photos here.

A Sunday Project

So I was bored today, or maybe it was my inner Martha Stewart coming out. I decided to finally paint the coat rack we have hanging in our utility room. I bought it at a yard sale last year for $10. Quite the steal since I've since seen them for about $30-$40. I'm all about the bargain!

Here are a few before pictures...

I first taped off the mirrors, then headed outside with my trusty spray paint.

I used American Accents spray paint in Heirloom White. Why did I choose this color? It's what I had in my cabinet! Ha!


It took about 3 coats to cover the dark wood. I did not sand it first, that takes too much time, and I'm impatient! After the final coat dried I "antiqued" it with some sandpaper and here ya go..the finished product!

Hope you like it. I LOVE it!

A Good Week

This has been an exciting week here at Life By The Mill! I have been featured on not one, but two blogs. Okay technically I was only "featured" on one. The other one is just the photographers blog that did our family pictures, but I'm counting it anyway!


Here is the blog I was featured on, and here is a sneak peak of our family pictures! I HIGHLY recommend following both these blogs...they are awesome! Erica is becoming a great photographer and she was so patient with the kids! And Cheri at I Am Momma....has many creative ideas!

Oh...and if you're not following me yet...what are you waiting for!?!?!?!?!

Freezer Paper Stenciling

I'm a follower of Cheri at "I Am Momma-Hear Me Roar." She is awesome!! She has always talked about freezer paper stencils, and I had no clue what that was. Lucky for me she posted a tutorial last week! Click here for the link. It is really easy to do. You should DEFINITELY check out her blog! I decided to make some shirts for the kids. Some friends of ours have 2 girls playing softball. The kids love going to the games (mainly because it's outside!). So I thought we could show them some support, and look super cute doing it!

I forgot to take pictures of the shirts with the actual stencils on them, oops!

This is the front of the shirts..

This is the backs, with the girls' names and numbers...

I used needlepoint thread to stitch the "laces" of the softballs...
And here they are modeling them...

(They have underwear on, I swear..they just refuse to wear pants!)

As you can see they are SUPER excited to wear them to the games! Hopefully it won't rain tomorrow so we can show them off :)

Bunnies

Happy Easter!!

Easter Events

It's been a week full of Easter events at our household. The boys had their Easter party at preschool. I would love to show you pictures of it, but being the great mom that I am, I forgot my camera! Oops :( Thursday we dyed eggs, and the painted with the leftover dye. I think they enjoyed that more than they did the eggs! The Easter bunny came to our house Friday instead of Sunday because I had to work this weekend. And besides the kids are little they don't know the difference anyway. I could tell them in July that it's Easter and they would go along with it! They seemed to love all their gifts the bunny left, so that's a plus! Today we went to an egg hunt. The kids had a good time once they got going. Jax of course whined at first because that's what he always does. It's his personality! He is also TERRIFIED of the Easter Bunny costume. He wanted to leave when it started walking in our direction. I don't know why he has this fear, but it's a BIG one!! Here are a few pics of the week......

The hunt....

The Williams'

The Coleman's