Shamelessly Using My Blog To Show Ashley My New Curtains

I am not one that loves to decorate my home.  I am not good at it.  I would rather not spend money on it.  I would rather read, get a coffee at MoJoes, buy a new pair of jeans at Clothes Mentor, watch "Parenthood" on hulu, anything really.  But every once in a while the mood strikes.  Usually this occurs around the time that I get Christmas money from my father-in-law and grandparents :)  

So I wanted to show off my finds and allow you the opportunity to tell me how cute you think my new curtains are.  Now to anyone who hasn't been to my house you might think these things are that big a deal but they are, really they are.  Any decoration, really, is a big deal.  Plus Ashley just moved and I left her a long message about my new, LOUD curtains and I wanted her to see them.  So if you aren't Ashley or aren't interested in my AWESOME finds you can just stop reading.........so, Patrick, if you even started to read this post after looking at the title you can stop now.  Unless you want to see my curtains and dishwasher brush holder thingy that I got for TWENTY FIVE CENTS....or you and Shawna can just see it when you come over for dinner sometime.

The booth - formerly the dumping grounds for produce during harvest time, christmas stuff in december and now a lovely little craft area.  The curtains were 1.99 a piece at Gabriel Brothers and the tablecloth free from a garage sale this summer.  I wish I had taken a picture of the shelf that is oh so organized with puzzles, stickers, construction paper and various other fun stuff.

Our entryway place where the kids can sit and put on shoes - also a former dumping grounds.  I am hoping the pillows will discourage dumping........

Calendar area/dehydration station = oh and there are some presents for Grandma Goats there that are going to Columbus soon.........LOOK WE FINALLY HAVE LIGHT IN THE ENTRYWAY YOU ALL!!!

Oooh - do you see my lovely green dishwasher brush thingy - it's really quite lovely for 25 cents huh?  Joe totally made fun of me for buying it.

I only took a picture of this because I wanted you to notice my oh so pretty colored pencil holder - another bargain from the restore - 50 percent off today!  It's the red thing next to my wedding picture.  We use the colored pencils for our journals on the shelf down below

My new kitchen/dining room curtains.  I know they look slightly weird here but really the overall effect is a nice one.  I got different colored picture frames and a little kitchen rug that are all equally loud and fun. 

I figured it was time for some curtains and pictures.  Ever since Joe ripped up all the carpet I just took everything down and never put anything back up in it's place.  I lost heart after a week of living at my parents, waiting for the living room to be done.  AND IT WAS DONE SO WELL, THANK YOU JOE FOR DOING ALL THAT WORK.................

To My Girls......

Someday my girls you will come home all secretly happy and glowing.  You will smile for no reason, be kinder to your father and me.  You will take more time with your hair, pick out clothes with more care.  You will laugh and sing and your eyes will dance.

You will have found him.

I want you to know that I want this to happen.  That your father prays each night over you - prays for you and prays for your future husband, whoever, wherever he might be.  He is a vigilant father, standing watch over his girls, his future and yours.  He will protect you, he will love you and cherish you.  His heart will break just a bit when it is time to let you go to but he is aware that this time will come.

Choose wisely, girls.  Have you seen how your father loves?

Choose a man such as this.

Your father loves completely.  He is the typical husband - the one that checks the locks, fill the gas tank, changes the oil, pays the bills, goes to work each day and ensures that we all have a home that keeps us warm and secure.

But, oh, he is so much more than that.

Each Christmas I am reminded of how much he loves, how much he listens, how much he knows my very heart.  For there is no one better than your father in giving of himself.

I wasn't sure that a trip to Florida with the girls and a weekend away with another couple could be topped.  I mean, really, where do you go from there?  Last Christmas, surely, that was the gift that beat all gifts for all time.

Nope.

This Christmas I open my e-mail which takes me to a link which takes me to a website.  The website has all the months of the coming year listed.  Each click, each month takes me to pictures of friends, a date, a time.  My dear, sweet husband contacted each of my friends - friends from childhood, friends from college, friends from the first days of motherhood and just made friends - and set up dates throughout the year when I could meet with them.  There are whole weekends set aside to go visit a friend in Kentucky, there is a game night with a sister-in-law and my mom, there is a girl's night with 7 of the girls, there is a night with the families of college friends.  It's all set up, all worked out.

I cried a little bit.  He who knows my heart made my heart sing.  And it got better............

He wrote a check to here and here.  He heard me.  He knew that my heart cried out, was touched by Sarah Terwey and her work, her children, her organization.  He loved, and he loved in a big way.

I cried a little bit more.

Girls, I pray that you choose a man that listens, that loves, that sees your heart and responds to it.  Watch your father, my girls, watch and learn.  Learn what to look for in a man, a husband.  No one loves you more in this world than your father.  There will be hard times, times when you wish he would back off, leave you alone.  Times when you wish he would be less present, less part of your world than he is, I am sure.  But know that this is done in love.  This man has stood at your bedside and watched you sleep.  This man has sung you to sleep, has paced the floors with you in his arms.  This man has dressed the part of a knight to rescue his princess from danger in the plays you have asked him to be in.  This man has run to your side when you have cried in the night.  This man has sacrificed for you - his time, his energy, his everything because you are his everything.

You are so lucky, my girls.  Remember this.  We will be praying.  We will be loving.  We will be anticipating.  It will be hard.......when you come home sparkling and excited and loving another.  But this man who loved you first, who loved you best will one day step aside, knowing that his job is done and has been done well.  He will walk you down the aisle and into the arms of another man, trusting this man to hold you as he has done for so many years, to love and cherish and protect as he has done.  And in this moment he will probably remember those years of pacing and loving and watching and it will be hard.  He, most likely, will cry and his heart will break but he will be proud of the women that you have become, the women that he helped to shape and grow.

Choose a man such as this.

Happy Birthday, Jesus......

Our cake for baby Jesus - Fia made the baby Jesus out of yarn weeks ago, the manger and stable are chocolate graham crackers.  I am so sad you can't see the lovely star I made out of pipe cleaners :)

The girls were up a full two hours before their brother.  Apparently, baby Jesus was a little bored waiting for him too.  They decided to put a party hat on the babe and play action figures with him. 

Nico enjoying his breakfast

Francesca decided baby Jesus was hungry and wanted to feed him some of his cake.

She was hungrier............

Fia with her new CD player

Francesca chillin' in her sleeping bag.......wearing her headlamp...........sucking on a ring pop (because the cake and ice cream weren't sweet enough)........holding baby Jesus.



Merry Christmas! May you feel His peace, His grace,
His love always.............

Warning: This Post Contains a Disturbing Image

Apparently, we need to go over  bathroom procedures again.

Like lifting the lid.

Or if you see something hindering the flow of your pee.......remove said obstacle.

Or look low before you start the flow.

Stuff of that nature.

Nico, unfazed, said "this is amazing!"  I have to admit I laughed.  Joe laughed.  I know what you're thinking.  That it's our fault Nico is this way.  Probably.  You've read my blog before haven't you?  Are you really surprised a child born of me would do such a thing and think it was funny?  

Gotta love him.  Although right now Ashley is thinking I am glad I get to love him from afar :)

May this Christmas season bring you lots of giggles and belly laughs and may all your toilet seats be clean ones............

Baskets.....They're Not Just for Laundry

The coming of winter, of colder weather causes moms everywhere (everywhere it is cold, that is) to have to become a little more creative.  Winter is the time for toys to reappear from storage, time for lots of baking and cooking with little hands helping, the time for building forts and the time for everyday objects taking on new forms.  Below are a few things we have done to make the indoors a bit more fun....

Laundry baskets - were these really JUST created for laundry?  Here they are hooked together with dog collars (do we have dogs you ask?  No, the kids LOVE to play dog - one pretends to be the dog, the other person walks him/her, pets them, feeds them, etc.  NO JOKE.  It's disturbing yet completely entertaining........until they ask YOU to be the dog).  We were able to pull the train throughout the house.  Good thing Joe pulled up that carpet ;)  But laundry baskets can be used as cages for animals at a pretend zoo, as a target for whatever you want to throw in them, as an individual pull thing, as a reading space (Francesca), really the ideas are endless.  Seriously, give your kid one today - see what they come up with.

One of my ALL TIME FAVORITE winter activities is painting our  kitchen window with the kids.   It washes off easily and acts like glue for whatever you want to put over the paint.  These were my attempts at snowflakes.  The kids think they look like footballs and easter eggs - I tried. They decorated them with glitter and Nico painted the window blue.  We usually start in the fall after harvest is over.  Before that Joe likes to look out back to his massive gardens and gaze upon the beauty of growing food :)  But in the winter months we have free reign.  We also do a lot of decorating to the kitchen area in general over the winter.  Lots of streamers, hanging crafts, etc.  

Super hero zip line - this occupied the kids for quite awhile.  I find anything using tape and string will entertain kids endlessly but this was a particularly fun one.     

And if all else fails...................put stickers all over yourself.  This is something Francesca does frequently and I have yet to come up with a good reason not to let her do it.  We have tons of stickers that people give us, she's quiet, she's not bothering anyone and she keeps busy for about 10-15 minutes.  It's really a win win situation.  Plus they usually fall off  at some point and she doesn't mind me taking them off.  This is what happens when you are at home for too long.  You start to think stuff like this is normal.

Hello, My Little Blog World...

It's been a few days, it's a busy time and I have been laid low with a migraine and such stuff for the last two days.  What do people do without family around?  Can't imagine.  My parents took the kids Sunday night and Joe stayed home with them on Monday while I curled up in the fetal position and took way too many showers because it's the only thing that made the pain seem even a bit tolerable.  (Is that too much whining?  Maybe.......but, dude, it sooo hurt.  After three pregnancies being nauseous and vomiting for a good bit I feel I am a tough cookie but the migraines?  They get me.)  But, anyway......I missed the writing and I don't have anything really profound or meaningful or even funny to talk about but I did want to tell you about a few of our favorite Christmas traditions here at the Codispoti house and then I would LOVE to hear about a few of your favorite traditions.

Christmas Eve is one of my favorite days.  In the morning we go around and deliver cookies.  We go to the hospital where the kid's were born and the hospital that took care of Joe's grandpa the last few days of his life.  Both of the staffs at these hospitals were AMAZING.  So we like to remember them on this day especially since it's a bummer for them that they have to work on Christmas Eve.  We also visit Joe's grandpa's grave.  Then that night it's Christmas Eve service (If you are looking for a place to go in Canton Rivertree has an AWESOME Christmas Eve service at a ton of different times.  Also LoveCanton's service is at 5pm.  It will be kid-friendly.  Suzi assured me that the kids would have activity packs and a candy cane to distract them while Jason spoke - although I HAVE NO IDEA why the kids would rather color than listen to her husband - I am sure her kids sit ENTHRALLED every time daddy speaks :)  We get dressed up for the service which I actually love to do.  As a stay at home mom it's rare that I am out of my jeans and sensible tops (my friends know this because any evening out it accompanied by a skirt or at the very least a white shirt that would be sure to stained if I wore it around the kids) and off to the Codispoti's for Christmas Eve.

Now the very first time I went to a Codispoti Christmas Eve was about 7 weeks after Joe and I started dating.  I had met his immediate family at Thanksgiving (which was about 1 week after we started dating - that's right, 1 week.  We were on the fast track, it was COMPLETELY bewildering to everyone in his family except his mother who was just thrilled that she might get a grandchild out of one of them :) but had yet to meet THE WHOLE CLAN.  I met the whole clan at Uncle Nick's.  There were SO MANY OF THEM.  I come from a four person family and the extended family is pretty small, too.  Not so the Codispoti family.  It was quite the experience.  And really, to an outsider, they all look the same.  It took me about year to figure out all the relationships and all the names.  But now I have to say I would never miss the Codispoti Christmas Eve - it is so fun.  It's fun to see the kids play with their second cousins, to catch up with everyone and eat rice balls, fiscotini and chicken cutlets.  Someday I will have to do an entire post about Uncle Nick.  Seriously, one of my favorite members of the clan.  You cannot meet this man without loving him or walking away with a tape measure, doorstop or pair of gloves.  You may know him, in fact - Mr. Magisno?  Taft Middle School?

Christmas morning we wake up and have cake and ice cream to celebrate Jesus' birthday and read the Christmas story.  We skype Joe's mom and open our stockings and presents.   I am SO excited for Nico's gift this year because we get to be the ones to give Nico THE ONE THING he wanted - Hot Wheels Sky Jump.  He saw it back at Thanksgiving and since then he has said that is all he wants.  Can't wait to see him open it!  Fia is getting a pink CD player with two microphones and some CDs.  Music is her favorite special this year in kindergarten and she has been singing all year long.  Francesca is getting a sleeping bag with a headlamp.  I know this seems weird but the older two have their own sleeping bags and headlamps and she has been wanting one of her own.  They go "camping" with daddy in the summer.   There is always an envelope on the tree and it's something special that Joe has written for his family for the year - always loving words, filled with appreciation and love for his family.  He usually makes a donation to a special cause or one year he added another child to our compassion children (are you allowed to have a favorite compassion child?  Does that sound awful?  It would have to be Alberto.  Oh my.  This is the cutest boy you have ever seen.  He sends us pictures of his soccer trophy and his team all gathered together.  He smiles as he shows the shoes he got with the birthday money we sent.  Maybe one day one of us will go to Mexico to see this precious child............a Christmas gift, Joe? :)

Then it's off to my parent's house for a big brunch, hot coffee, stockings and presents.  The biggest thrill of the morning is when we all get our lotto tickets.  We spend about 15-20 minutes scratching and scratching.  I know, weird tradition, right?  But I love that my brother and sister-in-law continued this tradition with their friends in Kansas City this year.  We spend the rest of the day hanging out, playing, watching movies and eating Honeybaked Ham.  There is no where I would rather be that day.

One of my weirdest "traditions"?

Last year Christmas night we came home and put the kids to bed after an exhausting, thrilling, wonderful few days and I took down EVERY SINGLE Christmas decoration including the tree.  We put away all the toys, cleaned the house and got everything sorted out so that when we all got up the next morning we could play and be happy.  Usually I would do it the day after Christmas but doing it without the kids around the night before - BRILLIANT.  It's kind of like the anti-Christmas.  You get up in the morning and all the Christmasy magic is all GONE.  Only it's not sad.  It's cleansing..........you can start new with all your toys and leftover cookies and ham.

So hopefully you sorted out some of our family traditions in the midst of all the asides and nonsense.  This is actually the second time I am writing most of this because something weird happened and not all the post got posted which is SUPER ANNOYING.  What are some of your favorite traditions?  Your favorite things YOU do?



No links to pinterest allowed.



Seriously, I was on that site at 2:30 in the morning on Saturday looking up organizational ideas for my girl's room.  Why?  WHY WOULD I DO THIS TO MYSELF?  It's late, I was tired, I was vulnerable to suggestion..........



I actually e-mailed a link to my husband.........something he could do over break.



I never got a reply.

Nico's Rules

Nico told me today that we needed a list of rules for the rock and roll party.  Here are what the rules are (oh and he wanted them to be hung on the wall so everyone could see them):

1.  Don't hit.

2.  Be good.

3.  Don't sing too loud.

4.  Don't bang things when people are sleeping.

5.  Don't be loud.

6.  Don't watch tv when it's not time to.

7.  Don't open the fridgerator without asking.

8.  Don't hit people with a hard ball in the head (and then he demonstrated this).

9.  Don't covet (yes, he actually said covet).

Apparently, I don't have as much to worry about as I thought.........drinking games aside.  Which we DID get some Sprite today and the kids had a small bit after dinner.  They called it the lemon drink.  It was very exciting.  That's as rock 'n' roll as we get here, folks, a bit of Sprite in fancy glasses and some party games AS LONG AS YOU AREN'T TOO LOUD AND YOU DON'T COVET!