Way Too Molly Today

The Molly projects have been out of control this week. So here's my new shirt:

It can be yours too at http://www.ldsstock.com/ for $15.

So this is what happens to you when (a) your visiting teaching appointments and "feed the missionaries" night fall in the same week; (b) your husband reminds you that "yes, we are still on a budget"....i.e., be frugal; and (c) you are semi-quarantined to your house with a runny-nose, coughing kid. No lazing around, no shopping, no gym for you. Break out the Kitchen-Aid and the VT message.

There was no time for green Jello salad, however. I guess there's still room for improvement.

So tonight I definitely topped off the Molly week by baking bread, making jam and organizing all my gospel art pictures. Michael really looked at me strange when I unveiled the new Johnson Family Gospel Art Kit. As if I'd been set loose from somewhere that requires armed security guards and wristbands and bed restraints. That's when I knew I had achieved serious Molly status.

But getting back to the purpose of this post.....

I finally figured out a simple solution for organizing and using all of our church pictures. Besides the infamous blue box of gospel art pictures, we also had a stack of pictures we've torn out from the Ensign and all sorts of miscellaneous pictures that I think have come from Primary manual packets. It was such a mess and would take forever to find a certain picture for FHE lessons. Basically it sat in the closet and no one ever looked at them.

So I put all the pictures in sheet protectors in a binder and stuck a small label at the bottom of the sheet protector with a number on it. Then I made an Excel file with each picture's number, title and various church subjects that it could cover. Now when I want to find a picture for a lesson, I can just do a search for a particular word in my Excel file or I can sort all the pictures by subject. I'm also hoping it will do double duty as a quiet book during sacrament meeting. It's so much more accessible for the kids to look at than the blue box of pictures.

Just thought I'd pass it on in case it works for someone else too.

Happy Birthday Baby!

Ok, so he's not really a baby anymore. I guess being three years old now means he's a big boy. So here's my big boy with his sword cake. Don't look too closely at the cake. I really was planning on ordering from Costco, but Michael nostalgically insisted on letting Evan choose his favorite shape. And swords are it. So as with most of my crafting attempts, it always looks better in my mind than how it comes out in real life. Oh well. (Monique, if you read this think of our attempt to make the Aphrodite statue in college out of a vacuum cleaner and milk jug.) Side note: It really is quite funny and absurd that I am the "craft group" leader in our ward. Oh the irony of it all.

Well, I'm digressing. Back to Evan....this little guy had a great day with a homemade rubber band gun from Daddy and presents galore from Mom and Dad and Aunts and Uncle and Grandma and Grandpa. Is it bad that as a mom these are my thoughts as my son opens his presents: "50 pieces in this box? Guess who's going to have to be picking up all those pieces!" or "Where are we going to have room for all these new toys?" and "What toys can I get rid of without the kids noticing?"

Here's a rare shot: a family picture! Thanks to my awesome sis-in-law Melinda.



And one last shot of the birthday boy. Hey, guess who's potty trained now? And guess who has to go potty right now? Alas, this might have been a truly good picture if I had used the flash and if Evan had decided not to hold his birthday package. Still there is something insanely cute about little boys in white shirts and ties.