The return of the infamous Ivy!!!

I needed a break.

I didn't have time.

This summer has been a whirlwind.

Take any of the above three facts to answer the question of: "Where have you been?" Did I forget about my blog? No. I actually had SO many ideas for great awesome posts throughout the entire summer but it just never happened. I would go almost a week without even checking my emails it got so bad. So after a few weeks of wanting to blog and never finding time or when I did I was way too tired I decided I would just accept reality and take a well-needed break.

BUT - my kids are off with their grandparents staying with them for a couple weeks to give my husband and I a "oh-so-needed" break and thus...I have returned to my blog! Yay! I know I can hear the shouts of praise from here. Yes all 24 of my faithful followers and maybe a straggler that accidentally stumbled onto here by accident.

Anyways, so you ask what is my first post back going to be about? Well....how about a little bit of this and a little extra of that? I figure I owe you one.

First off is another "Spring Cleaning" idea. That WAS what my last post was about and I'm proud to report that I have come a LONG way in my cleaning and organizing this summer! My house hasn't been this organized in quite awhile. One particular day of organization I found myself in my craft closet. Although honestly I'm not sure I could define it that way because it holds quite a few other things but they are all holiday/craft related. Back to the point. In the top of this closet was my kids Easter baskets along with a couple other cute baskets I had received at one point or another and I never could find myself throwing them out. They were good baskets. I had become tired of trying to get them not to fall every time I rooted around up there so my ingenious idea was to use the clothes bar in that closet which was currently not being used for clothes. I really liked the result and it cleared up SO much room! What do you think?

Next up on my list is an idea for someones birthday. Or anniversary. Or Christmas. You get the point. It's multi-functional. Have you seen those window markers that teens love to "tag" other teens vehicles with? Or the occasional adult too :) ? Well it says on there you can use it on windows OR MIRRORS. You there with me yet? If your husband is like mine and doesn't eat breakfast (I know - it's a crime) then breakfast in bed for his special day isn't really gonna work. So instead I surprised him with a fun birthday greeting on our bathroom mirror!

It still was a surprise and made him smile just the same! It's cheap, and washes off pretty easy, I mean why NOT do it?!

Speaking of my husband, he took some of the cutest pictures of our daughter this one summer morning right after she had woken up. She wasn't hungry quite yet so instead she crawled up in this chair I have that sits right by the bookshelf and I always stack our latest checked out library books on it (so as not to be mixed with our books and impossible to find when they are due). She sat there so quietly and went through book after book.

It was so adorable and heartwarming to know that my kids are developing a love for books! It did this mother's heart good. Summer is a great time to encourage your kids to read because:
1. They have TONS of downtime that will at some point be vocalized with an "I'm bored".
2. Your local bookstores and libraries give great incentives to get your kids reading!

My kids did the BORDERS Bookstore Summer Reading Dare! If they read 10 books they got one free! They have specific books you may select from and yes my kids are toddlers and no the selection is not toddlers books but we got them anyways to keep for when they are older and to reward them so they felt happy about it I bought them a book each from the discount shelf! So they were happy and I was happy! AND I got two free books that are both excellent reads for when they grow up.

Also if you have a child between about ages 6-10 my Summer Reading Recommendation is the Magic Tree House Series!! I have already started reading one or two chapters a night to my son and he LOVES them! they teach about all kinds of places and people in history and with my son LOVING locations and where everything is he is IN to these books! And for my princess toddler well you just can't beat a good Fancy Nancy book!

Okay last thing has to do with school since yes it is already fast approaching. If you happen to be a scrapbooker or at least a mom who likes to record your child's events in some way this idea is for you. I myself am an avid scrapbooker and HATE to throw anything away. I want it all as memorabilia for my albums but some things are just too big or too bulky or the pile can just become ridiculous. So as my son would create the COOLEST things at school I had to come up with some way to scrapbook them without actually scrapbooking ALL of them, ya know? So is what I did was I hung up a cork bulletin board in his room to display all his school art work and projects. It would hold one month's worth of stuff (STUFFED full...but it did) and then at the end of the month I would take a picture of the bulletin board.

So instead of having a year's worth of art (I did save I think two of my favorite's though) to scrapbook I now have 9 pictures of that month's school projects! Cool huh?

I thought so at least. Well hopefully this will make up for being gone so long. And I promise another post to come SOON! Until then, thanks for allowing me my break (although you technically had no choice) and see ya next time!