Tackle it Tuesday #28 - Lego kits

Kid Jedi loves Lego bricks, and I mean loves them, he would play with them all day and night if we let him. Until the last few months though, he would ask for kits, his Daddy and I would build them with him and he'd proceed to tear them apart within days, sometimes hours. Well, since our collection is getting large, I decided that we should go through the pieces to the kits and rebuild the ships. This process has actually been going on for about a month.

I don't actually have any before pictures of this, but sad to say, this is where I am after putting all the remaining pieces into kits again.


This is what I did with the kits. If there were any pieces missing I put a note in the bag, and we are missing several pieces for some of the kits.

This is where we are putting his completed kits for now, we are working on a system to store his completed kits and his loose bricks, but we decided it would be best to build the kits we had first and go from there.

What I discovered in doing all this is:

1. We have a lot of kits.
2. We need a good system for storing pieces and keeping kits together or we will be replacing kits.
3. We need to get said system in place ASAP because...
4. We will be getting lots more Lego kits/bricks in the future.
5. If we are going to keep kits together we may want to buy duplicate kits so Kid Jedi can use the pieces to build his own creations too.

This is what I tackled this week, check out more tackles at 5MFM.

Wordless Wednesday: The semi-toothless grin

Not the best picture, but this is Kid Jedi after losing 2 teeth in 9 days...no adult teeth peeking through yet though.

Check out more Wordless Wednesdays at 5MFM.

Cancer Strikes again...

Well, as you already know this isn't going to be a happy post. I got some really bad news last night, one of my cousins, Lisa Upchurch, passed away at 39 from cancer. The worst part, no one knew she was sick, and it's been going on for 2-1/2 years. Lisa was a wonderful person, she had her difficulties of course, but so did everyone. I just don't think she realized that we all still loved her. She went through some hard times back in HS, but that really didn't matter, she married someone most of the family didn't approve of, but that didn't really matter either, she had a little girl who she decided to put up for adoption (the little girl's aunt adopted her), and then she had a little boy who she kept. None of this makes her a bad person, it makes her human, but I don't think she knew that we saw it this way. Lisa and I were close when we were kids, even when she lived in KY though I was in NJ, I never stopped loving her or caring about her. I may not have agreed with her choices at times, but they were her choices. I wish I could have lent her my support during this difficult time, but we had lost touch over the years, something that I will regret for a long time.

I HATE CANCER!!! I'm so sick of it taking everyone away from me and their families. Lisa left behind a young son, her Mom, her Dad, her brother, nieces & nephews, lots of aunts and uncles and too many cousins to count. My sincere hope is that she left us to go into God's heavenly arms.

Don't miss out on any opportunities to reach out to anyone that you love and you've lost touch with before you don't have a chance. I wish I had one more chance to talk to Lisa, to let her know how much she has always meant to me, how much I love her and how often I thought about her, that chance is gone, but I will be getting back in contact with her brother, that opportunity will not slip away.

Lisa...I will miss you!!!!

Tackle It Tuesday #27 - Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

So I live in a house of chocoholics, to the point that my wonderful husband bought chocolate peanut butter when he saw it in the store, he and Kid Jedi say it is good, I couldn't tell you, I'm not a big chocolate person. I decided that for Kid Jedi's preschool graduation (June 5) that I was going to make chocolate chocolate chip cookies, but since, as usual, I had more to do than I had time I made them from mix. Well, today I made the recipe that I found on Food Network and it got 2 thumbs up from Kid Jedi. Here's your recipe:




Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies



2-1/4 c flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

2 sticks butter, softened

1 c granulated sugar

1 c packed brown sugar

2 large eggs, beaten

1 Tbsp vanilla

1/2 c unsweetened cocoa

2 c chocolate chips or M&M's or 2 Hershey's chocolate bars, chopped

1 c chopped walnuts (optional)



Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a bowl, stir together flour, salt, and baking soda. In another large bowl, stir together butter, both sugars, eggs, vanilla and cocoa. Gradually stir flour mixture into butter mixture and mix until combined. Add chocolate chips and walnuts, if using, and stir to distribute evenly.



Drop by tablespoonfuls onto greased baking sheets and bake about 10 minutes (I had to cook them for 12 minutes on Airbake pans). Cool for 2 minutes on pans, transfer to cooling racks to cool completely.



Enjoy!



This is what I'm tackling this week. Let us know what you're tackling, then head on over to 5MFM for more Tackle it Tuesday posts.

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Tackle it Tuesday #26 packing

Ok, no photos for this one. Kid Jedi had a sleep study last night and that left me exhausted beyond all reason. However, we will be heading to the shore tomorrow morning early; as in get up, eat breakfast and get in the car, so today I will be tackling packing for our trip. It's only for overnight at my parents' trailer at a campground, but since it's the first one of the season, games and some books have to go down too. So today, we will be deciding what games and books we can do without at home for the summer and pack some clothes, load up the car. We will probably be at the campground by 9 am tomorrow.

This is what I'm tackling, let us know what you are tackling and check out 5MFM to see what other Mom's are tackling.

Wordless Wednesday - Preschool graduate

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Tackle It Tuesday #25 - Foyer

Well, Kid Jedi graduates from preschool this Friday and we're having family over for a mini-celebration. So, I figured I should get some cleaning done. Today it was the foyer. These are before:


This is the bench we have to use as our launch pad, obviously nothing is launching right now.


The steps going upstairs, this is where I put things that need to go upstairs, obviously I haven't taken things up to put them away in a while.

From the front door:

The after pictures will be posted later today, I'm waiting for my floor to dry from being scrubbed so I can put the bench, coat tree and shoe basket back.

(EDIT)

Here are the after pictures:

And the on the bench/Launch Pad are the teacher gifts for Kid Jedi's teacher and assistant (Popcorn bowl with Caramel Popcorn and Chocolate Drizzle Popcorn from Dale & Thomas).

This is what I tackled, let us know what you tackled and head on over to 5MFM to see what other Mom's tackled this week.