I just read The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. I’ve spent a lot of my free time as of late lost in the world of Panem instead of on the computer. I’m not a huge reader but I just gobbled it up as well as the second book, Catching Fire. I’d recommend them if you don’t mind a little blood and fighting mixed in with a little love story.

This book made me think a lot about survival. I wonder how hard I’d fight to live or if I’d just let death come along and feel peaceful about it. I’ve always wanted to learn to survive off the land, forage and hunt. I mean, I think I’m kinda tough and wouldn’t might eating roasted squirrel for dinner but ya know, I’ve actually never done it so who knows. Would I just want to curl up and die? I wonder if I have what it takes to make it out alive. I also know very little about edible plants and I’ve never shot an animal before let alone skinned and gutted it (fish don’t count.)

The only survival skill I ever learned was to start a fire with a bow drill. I took a hiking and survival class in college. We went on a bunch of hikes and listened to our old man professor ramble on about how he could drink from the mountains streams because he had already had giardia. The only catch to the class was that we had to start a fire with a bow drill to get an A otherwise our grade would be a B. The drill was pretty tough to do and required just the right kind of wood as well as a bit of practice.

Bear Grylls makes it look like a piece of cake.

Once I was practicing in the apartment and I made it all smokey and some of my roommates came all unglued. What a memory. He he. But it was in the middle of winter and who wants to sit outside in the freezing cold cranking a stick back and forth hoping for a spark?

Not me.

Maybe I’m not that much of a survivor after all.

I have been obsessed with the kids bedrooms for the past week or so. When I have a project… that is all I think about.

Before Leah was born I thought I’d just wait to see if it was a girl or boy before I got the crib and all the baby stuff set up. Well, now that she is over 4 1/2 months I’m finally getting around to it.

I’ve been pondering and debating about what the best set up would be. I’m only working with 2 bedrooms for 3 kids. Logically I’d put the girls together in the girl room and the rowdy boy by himself in the boy room. After all, I have them all decked out in gender specific decor. But the truth is, I want Leah to sleep peacefully without being disturbed by a sibling and Isaac seems to like having Emma to sleep with.

I was afraid that Emma wouldn’t want to give up her pink room but she loved the idea of bunk beds so that’s what we’ve done. Emma has moved into Isaac’s room and sleeps on the top bunk. There is certainly nothing girly about Isaac’s room but she seems to be out of the princess stage and has moved on the rock star stage. So I think she’ll survive for a while.

I’m trying to figure out how to make Isaac’s room more gender neutral. I love the barn red and navy blue stripes way too much. I don’t want to paint over them but we all know how hard it is to match bedding with paint. It really should be the other way around- find bedding I love and then paint. Well, It seems perfectly doable to find a red bedspread for a Emma and a navy blue one for Isaac. I just don’t want to pay an arm and a leg for them (my husbands arm and leg, not mine, silly.) I envisioned big red pokadots for Emma and chunky blue stripes for Isaac. Unfortunately, no such quilts exist. I’d have to make them and making them always costs more than just buying them. So the search is on.

I’m pretty happy with Leah’s new room. It’s been nice for her to have her own space and everything set up to make babyhood easier on the momma. I do actually want to touch up some of the paint in her room. I never knew Polly Pockets could do so much damage. I also want to paint the lower half of the wall tan or brown because the green I painted for Emma turned out gray and has always looked a little bit sick.

We’ve survived the first week of school.

Here is my excited 1st grader on her first day.

I’m hoping that her excitement continues throughout the whole year. What do you think are my chances?

My husband had mentioned to me a couple times that I had a ton of comments from my last post, vacation templates. I didn’t really know what he was talking about because I hadn’t seen any more than usual in my inbox. I finally check my site tonight and couldn’t believe it. I have 157 comments. I think that is a record for me. Whoo hoo.

But… it is a mystery why I’m not receiving comments through my email like usual. I’ll have to investigate (or have my techy sister investigate.) He he.

For the 157 of you, I want to say thank you for leaving a comment and downloading my templates. I’m very happy that you like them and that I could help you out. I do love getting comments and I read every single one of them as they come in.

There were a few people that asked what the cursive looking font was that I used on my vacation layouts… I guess I should have included that in my credits. It’s called MA simple pleasures.