Ahhhhhhhhhhh...Much Better!

Thanks for your patience while I took a sanity break.
Once, many moons ago, my sister and I attended a lecture by the woman who wrote, Confessions of an Organized Housewife. The main thing I remembered from that day was the following quote, "DIVIDE AND CONQUER".
So I really tried to use that theory while organizing and putting away all of our Christmas stuff. Hopefully, Christmas 2010 will run a bit smoother. : )
See these red boxes above? I got them free from Target about a week after Christmas. They were just sitting, empty, back in the Christmas section, so I took them to the front with me while checking out and asked if they would mind if I took them home. As you can see...no problem. : )
These black trash bags, below, always get thrown into the attic, but I've never labeled them before. Why not?



Onto the closet under the stairs. BTW, I got this over-the-door rack at some organizational store several years ago. I love it!!!
DIVIDE AND CONQUER, right???







Call me a weirdo (because I am) but I want to keep my nice bows from getting squished. No one ever sees this wall inside the little closet.
Onto the garage. These big bins went on sale at Target just after Thanksgiving for $3.99 each!!!



Notice I was not willing to pan around and photograph the rest of the garage. But as they say, "The war was not won in a day". Maybe there's hope for me yet.
I didn't take many pics of my mom last Wednesday because I still wasn't feeling "up to par", but I thought these were darling. Here she is enjoying the photo of her latest new great grandchild.
So precious. Great photography, Joanna!!!
And last, a photo of my mom's caregiver, Sam, with her. Thanks for all you do, Sam!!!
Happy Wednesday.
M.L.

Wednesdays With My Mom...So you won't worry : )

I'm not quite ready to blog again, (lots of "real life" has prevented me from finishing my big organization project), but that's okay... because interruptions are part of "real life" too.
But just so you won't worry, I thought I'd take a few minutes to post a 'Wednesdays With My Mom'. On this Wednesday, we took over one of the Sibling's group gifts that had to be ordered, therefore came after Christmas.
She was completely thrilled. Our wonderful sister, June, helped Mom pick this one out at Coldwater Creek one day in December. But they didn't have her size, so they ordered it and had it sent.

Below, holding the beautiful new bag my sister, Diana, gave my mom.
Next, we ran over to June's to show her how it fit and ended up spending a little time with her.
Great day!!

See these adorable little girls below?
Well this is also them, below...
These silly girls decided they wanted to make new black dresses for New Year's Eve.
Thank heavens my sweet friend, Margie (above), was in for the insanity and came over to help me, help the girls pull this off.



Beautiful J's dress:
Beautiful Sara's dress:

WORTH EVERY MINUTE!!! : )
We couldn't have done it without you, Margie. Thanks for coming over to help. : )
** I'm working hard putting the house, garage, and studio back together. We also came down with terrible wipe-you-out colds over here after Christmas. Don't feel obligated to leave a comment here. I haven't yet answered even one from the last post. I'll be the first to admit, "I'm a piece of work"!!! Looking forward to coming back to blogging soon.
M.L.

Wednesdays (and Christmas Day) With My Mom

I didn't make it a long visit last Wednesday because I knew my mom would be spending the day with us on Christmas and I still had LOTS of things on my "to do" list before Christmas.

The little green tag says, "From:Diana" on the back. I should have taken a pic of that too!

Mom had just woken up from a nap when I got there, but she was so pleased with the little Christmas doll. : ) I had gotten her out of Storage, but I don't think she remembered her.

Then there was mail to open...

joy to be felt...

and some Bonanza to be watched. : )

This next photo, below, has a sweet story behind it. My sister, June, has been going over to our mom's place during the month of December to play the piano while Mom and the other two ladies sing Christmas songs and old church songs they remember from their past. All three women cherish these times my sister goes over to do this. Then my sis found these darling snow globes that just happened to have "singing" snowmen inside. She gave one to each, on Christmas Eve. So sweet!! Thanks for all you do, June!!

Christmas Day...

My mom in her new red Christmas sweater.

Below...the beautiful and delicious Cornish Game Hens my Son-in-law made for the meal. I did the ham and he did the hens. Thanks so much, James!!! They were amazing! : )

The little munchkins enjoying the meal. Hi cuties!!!!!

We also fit in a "Skype" visit from London, which was a bit tricky as they are seven hours ahead of us right now. Merry Christmas, little guy! We love and miss all of you very much!

Lots of excitement that day!

Merry Christmas, sweet Mom!!!

And last, but not least... a BIG thank you to Marie of 'Spun by Me' for the beautiful Giveaway I won this month. There is a wonderful story behind this gorgeous stitchery. You can click right here to read about the women who stitch these and the wonderful cause it goes towards.

Below, is a photo of the BACK of their work. I've never seen such meticulous work. I am honored to own this beautiful work of art. Thank you so much, Marie.
And last (for real)... I hope I'm not the only one that lets their house "go to pot" in order for Christmas to happen. Every year I think I will stay one step ahead, and every year I don't! In fact I get many, many steps behind. So, if 2010 is going to run smoothly, I better "get real" and take back my house and garage (don't even get me started talking about our garage)!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EACH AND EVERYONE! : )
M.L.