Thrift stores make me cry

I've been spending a lot of time in thrift stores lately, thanks to Pinterest. I'm on the lookout for perfect pieces of furniture to refinish, vintage cloth, cheap picture frames, etc. I'm cheap, what can I say? I would rather have a $7 bookshelf that I painted to match a room instead of a brand new one. If a project doesn't turn out right, and I'm sure I have my share of failures ahead of me, I can at least console myself with the fact that I've only wasted less than $20. That is less than a bar tab, even on a light night!

The only bad thing about thrift stores is that I often get the urge to roll up in a little ball underneath the vintage polyester nightgowns and cry. There is a smell in thrift stores that I can't describe, but they make me think of my Nanny. She ran a white elephant sale at the senior citizen community center, and I always got to help her sort through the giant bags of items donated by the resale shop in town. As a little girl, this was magical. Sometimes dozens of huge black Hefty bags would be piled up, full of dolls, toys, costume jewelry, clothes, and books.

I loved it, sitting and playing and sorting and feeling like I was in the middle of a pile of pirate's booty.

But now the smell of clothes that have sat too long in plastic bags, the strange combo of perfumes and lotions that get thrown in, old cardboard, and dust make me miss her even more than I usually do.

I won't be stopping my Goodwill trips any time soon, though. I still need to find a coffee table!

I conquered yeast rolls!

I can bake like no ones business. My specialty is really in the banana nut bread/pumpkin bread/cake department, but today I pulled on my Betty Crocker panties and made some pretty delicious yeast rolls!
They weren't as light as I was craving, in fact I think I could have made a loaf of real bread with it, but it was tasty nonetheless. Baking bread is very satisfying, in an almost primitive way. Staff of life and all that jazz...
On another note, I completed my "Ransom" jar today. I have a bar in my house, (sadly, just a shelf, not one with a young and decidedly less insane Tom Cruise mixing cocktails behind it) and this bar becomes a catchall, until I'm peering over piles of mail, sunglasses, power ranger parts, and the general deritus if daily life. I've started an organizing kick in the house, and vowed to hold hostage anything left on the bar. If mom gets it, you have to pick a task from the ransom jar to get it back.
My bar has stayed clean for a week. Probably a record. However, today I noticed a bag from Hobby Lobby loaded with homecoming mum supplies perched on the counter right under the bar. It's presence was actually taunting me a little, so close to the bar, but not quite on it. Like the teenager who put it there originally placed it on the bar, remembered the rule, and moved it to the counter below rather than put it up somewhere else.
So I took it. I mean, really. The counter 6 inches below the bar? Please. Mine now. Just waiting for the "Have you seen my bag?" conversation to start so I can pull out my jar. Written on little pieces of paper are items like 'wash my car', 'vacuum the living room', and ' do the hokey pokey with Virgil'.
I can't wait to see which one gets picked! /cue evil laughter

A little bit of an intro

So, I've gotten into the whole "Pinterest" craze, and have decided to craft this blog to share some of my successes - and many of my epic failures in Pinning, Parenting, and LIFE in general. I'm a stay at home mom, with 4 boys, so it goes without saying that most of my blogging will revolve around your typical housewife/mom schtick.

Well, all of that aside, let's start with today's failure. Prevention has a handy little workout on their site that I (surprise) found on Pinterest. LOVE YOUR LOWER BODY screamed out at me, so I pinned it and decided to get around to giving it a go today. It promises: "Flatten your belly, slim your thighs, and firm your butt in 2 weeks—without a single sit-up or squat!" 

Flatten, slim and firm, no sit-ups or squats? Hell yeah! After carrying three baby boys in my abdomen in the span of 5 years, there isn't much south of my eyebrows that couldn't use a bit of all three. I've managed to shed about 15 pounds with just some calorie watching, but the last 10 is really kicking my (decidedly unfirm) butt.

 So, I prep my workout area, do a little stretching, and get on the floor, ready to start firming up the jiggly goodness below my waistline.

                                     According to Prevention, this is what I should look like.

Prevention doesn't account for a houseful of evil babies who want mommy to stay fat and ashamed - because it means I will spend hours in the kitchen baking delicious things to stuff my anguish down with, while they also enjoy my chocolately inner demon food. I had no more pressed a foot against the wall when my two year old came flying out of nowhere, landing WWF style on my face. The leg of my glasses spun off, my eyes filled up with tears, and I just lay there for a moment, dazed. I may or may not have a black eye come tomorrow.

After sending him off with a swatted bottom and a healthy dose of guilt, I threw my glasses across the room, laid back down, and slowly raised one foot the wall, then the other, gave a peek to ensure no one was going to come flying at my head, and began to raise my lower body.

I don't know what I looked like, and I'm pretty thankful for that, but I am completely certain that my body wasn't forming a "nearly straight line from chest to knees". Unless a straight line consists of my feet sliding slowly up while my body spaghetti noodled around and I breathed all stalker-calling style into my own chest.

At this point, I was interrupted by my 5 year old yelling about using too much toilet paper, and I had to bolt in the bathroom pretty quickly to ensure I wouldn't have to have RotoRooter out to my house, so the rest of the workout is on pause until I can find some alone time to do it without one of my kids snapping into my face like a Slim Jim...

On another note, I am trying 2 new Pinterest recipes tonight, so I'll have a new post up with what I hope are success stories regarding them.