Skip forward a few chapters

The last time we met, Charming and I were raising three precious princesses and a small garden in the West. We've had some plot twists. Time will do that to your story. Now we are razing a modest cottage on the East Coast, and we've added a knight it training to our fearless band.

It's a new year. Send out the trumpeters! With Fall and the wonderful winter holidays behind me, (and my family sacked out from partying hard last night), I feel like I can sit still a moment and be introspective.

I'll need to catch you up a little bit with some amazing pictures, but here is a list of things we accomplished in 2015:

• Beginning Young Sir Grey's training.
• Clearing a forest to extend the castle ground.
• Sending Peach to princess school.
• Gallivanting around the countryside on adventures.

And here's a list of things I'd like to do this coming year:

• Plant a new small-ish garden.
• Continue the castle renovations: the next rooms on the list are the Master Bedroom and Bath, the Living Room, and the Kitchen. =) This will be an exciting year.
• Start using some of my crazy skills for the good of the kingdom. More on that later.

And then, because I'm willing to try cyber-accountability as I strive to keep my personal goals, here are a few of those.

• Read more, because readers are thinkers.
• Set a schedule that I can stick to: a little time for me, a little time for the kids, a little time for Charming, a little time for keeping my little castle in order, and a little time for the kingdom at large.
• Do the stuff I know I should, but I've been putting off for later. (You probably won't hear much on that, maybe a little snippet here and there.) You know, just the little things that build character.

So that's it. And I've introspected too long, because now the children are all crying and the new Christmas toys are scattered across the floor like a mine field. Little Cherubs.

Here's to a Happy New Year!

What are some of your dreams and goals for this new year? Please share, I can always use a fresh idea or two.

Sugar Plum Fairies

We wish you a very sweet Christmas and a New Year filled with many Happily Ever Afters.

Love,

Fair Maiden, Charming,

and the Precious Princesses

Painting with Peach

 It was an adventure.

 Art with my 3 year old is never as easy and magical as I think it should be.

 I think, and hope, it's more magical for her.

 I have to remind myself that it's my daughter & not the beauty of the house,

 or the cleanliness of the paint set,

,

 or her hands and clothes

that I'm trying to encourage and develop. 

Mixing the colors together might be magical to her, even if it does absolutely nothing for me. 

Precious Princess Pear

Presenting Princess Pear! She is sweet and smilie, she is almost 2 month old, and she looks lovely in peach. We love her!!!! She belongs with us and we are ecstatic about the fact that now she also belongs to us.

And while you're admiring my baby, also admire that lovely dress. It is made by Sharon at Cherry Groove Crafts. You will love all of her other dresses too. They are beautiful. Hurry over and look right now.

Magic Words

Today, I asked Peach what Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother says and she answered, “Please.”

“No,” I said, “What is her magic word?”

She got a big knowing grin on her face and said, “Thank you!”

Well, at least some of my more important lessons are getting through.

Marrying Her Prince

Peach is at that age where Charming is her true love. I don't have the heart to tell her that Charming is MY true love, and that she will have to keep searching. I figure she'll figure all this out soon enough.

Today, Charming took Peach and Plum on a special trip to see a special place.

 

This is the Brigham City Temple, and to learn more about it you can go to: http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/mormon-brigham-city-utah-temple-open-house-dedication-dates

Peach knows that temples are the place to go if you want to be married to your charming prince forever. She was very excited to go see this pretty building. Charming was excited to take them. I, sadly, had to stay home and do boring, everyday things like go shopping and get a hair cut. The castle doctors were pretty firm about a 38 week prego princess not taking any all day road trips. Can you believe that?!?

Princess Books

Do you know what this color means?

In my 3 year old Peach's very refined opinion, PINK is a sure sign that something is going to be fabulous. And how can I argue. She has picked out some fabulous pink things lately. My favorite pink items usually come from the dollar store and the library and usually have something to do with princesses or fairies. Here is an example:

Rapunzel retold by Sarah Gibb. It's the same lovely story, but the pictures are divine. In fact, Peach had a hard time listening to the story because she just wanted me to turn to page to the next fabulous picture, most of which are pink, by the way.

And here is a less than pink story but an enchanting one. Maybe it's just me, but I choked up at the end. It's simple, it's lovely, and again, the pictures are very beautiful.

The Apple-Pip Princess by Jane Ray. You should definitely patronize your local library and let them find this one for you.

That's So Charming

Do you know what this weekend is? Of course you do . . . it's Labor Day Weekend. Or at least to most people that's all it is. For Charming it's so so much more. And this year it's turned out to be so so much more. You could say that some of his smaller dreams have come true.

Charming is not a big spender, so I was pretty surprised when he called on his lunch break Thursday to tell me he saw an ad for a TV we couldn't pass up. 42" of flat screen viewing pleasure for $350.00.

We had thought it over for a while and we knew what our options were. There is only one time of year that we watch a lot of TV, so there were very few features we really needed. The real question was this:
 
Watch football on this...

. . . or this ???

Other perks included the PC hookup and getting rid of that annoying digital converter box.

Dream #1 came true when we hooked it up and watch our first football game Thursday night.

Dream #2 came true when that first game was won by our favorite team.

 Go Cougars!!!

Dream #3 came true when Charming casually turned on the TV this morning and found the early broadcast of the Navy vs ND game in Ireland.

This will be a good weekend.

Now we'll see of my Labor Day Weekend dream comes true . . .

That the dish fairy will take pity on me and do the dishes after last night's delicious fried chicken dinner.

Our Own Enchanted Forest

Last weekend we got out the wheelbarrow and the shovel and dug some holes.  

There were quite a few rocks to dig out. Peach did quality control.

We planted some apple trees, some pear trees,

some apple and pear trees, and a couple peach trees.

 And then we took some wheelbarrow rides.

Laundry Day

At our place every day is laundry day. Sometimes I do one load. Sometimes I feel like I've done 100 loads. My least favorite part about doing laundry is spot cleaning. And Bananas, Plum's favorite, create the dragon of all stains. They make everything look brown and ugly, and if you forget that your baby spred Banana on herself and wash her cloths without doing something about it the outfit is brown forever-after ~ NOT happily!

Until Now!

I was complaining about my lack luster laundry at a baby shower and one of the more experienced maidens suggested I use some ammonia. As unappetizing as that sounds, as soon as I got home I sprayed everything Bananaed with a bottle of cheap glass spray with ammonia I had lying around. Then I washed them.

The results were not as instantly brilliant as I would have hoped, so I did something else I've never tried before. All the just washed Banana cloths went into a gallon of water with one scoop of OxyClean. I added a few other clothing items as well, that had not been pre-ammonia treated. I wanted to know if it made a difference. After a good long soak everything went back into the wash.

Oh My Giant Pumpkin Coach, all of my pre-treated cloths came out looking sparkling new. The others came out looking lighter and I assume they just need a little "windex" treatment. I'm excited about my new discovery!!! It's like magic! Happy laundry day.

*** I would like to make an extra effort to point out that I ran the cloths through a full wash and spin cycle before I moved to a new spot removing chemical. Please be careful not to mix unknown chemicals together.We all know that ammonia and bleach don't mix. Don't take any chances with cleaning products that might contain these two chemical agents. ***

From a Cottage to a Castle

We Won!!!!

By some amazing twist of fate Charming and I won the From a Cottage to a Castle sweepstakes. The officials called us just before Christmas to say we could move into our castle mid-January. Everything else went on hold as we packed, cleaned, and made the necessary arrangement to move our Happily Ever After to a new location.

What an experience. What an adventure! First off, I had no idea how much stuff you could stuff into a cottage. Ours was obviously packed to the rafters. But then, I never realized how much stuff you need to fill a castle.

Other odd inclinations that have come over me post-move are:

~ When it's really yours you have a greater desire to clean it, or at least I do.

~ Having a nice castle kitchen and dinning room inspires me to cook more lovely meals for Charming, and actually set the table before he arrives for dinner.

~ I find myself actually doing my hair and makeup in the  morning. I think that has a lot to do with having a separate bathroom from the princesses or the opposite side of our home. More time and energy when I'm not worried about waking them from their beauty sleep.

I hope the spell lasts a bit longer. At least until we get everything out of boxes and all the pictures hung. Wish us luck.

Beans for a Ball

Do you sometimes wish your Fairy Godmother would come down and do a little number on week-night family dinner. We had 40 jars of magical beans in the pantry this year, and boy do those things get ordinary after a while. When the magic has run out on your favorite side dish, try this little trick.

Sauteed Almond Beans

1/4 cup raw almond slivers

1 med onion, sliced

1 Tab olive oil

1 quart, or two cans green beans, drained

Salt and pepper to taste

In a medium sauce pan, brown almonds over high heat.

When almonds are golden brown, add oil and onions. (If you decide to take pictures, try not to burn your almonds like I did.) Saute until onions are soft and translucent, about 2 minutes.

Now, add your drained beans and cook until beans are heated through. Add salt and pepper if you'd like.

And all of the sudden your beans are all dressed up and ready for the ball. They look really good next to a heart shaped stake. I'm just saying, in case you're looking for a fabulously easy side dish for the upcoming holiday.

Ruby Slippers

For reasons I'll explain in another post the Holidays were a flurry of excitement for us in a different way than you might expect. We did stop our non-Christmas halabaloo long enough to attend a Christmas Eve party.

At which, Peach snatched these darking little slippers.

Three clicks later, she was asleep and we magically made our way home.
Thank you for the fun Ray and Debbie.
And Hillie, thank you for the loan of your magic ruby slippers.

That's So Charming!

I am a lot of things to a lot of people, but I am NOT a cookie maker. When I think of all of the wonderful holiday treats that I grew up learning to make cookies fall very very low on the list. So, when Charming asked me to make cookies for our Christmas treat plates I was a bit timid. After all, Charming IS a cookie maker, and a darn good one. I guess you pick up a few things when you hang out in the royal kitchen for 18 or so years.

Well, I decided first to get the cookie making over with quickly, so I quadrupled my recipe, which is not hard because it only makes 1 1/2 dozen to begin with. Oh, but it was hard on my poor mixer. I broke my special cookie mixing paddles.

Then, with Peach's "help", I rolled out 6 cookie sheets of trees, stars, and cute little gingerbread men. We also dumped flour all over the table, floor, and ourselves.

Oh dear! I don't know what went wrong, but every single one of those batches came out flat and crispy. Not burned, but definitely not giftable.

I put off telling Charming that things weren't going well, so when he got home he was met by 6 batches of Cookie Crisp . . . what can I say, I thought things would get better if I just Believed hard enough.

That sweet prince of mine took one bite of cookie and said, "These taste really good."

And that, future Charmings of the world, is how you get your girl and keep the hot meals coming.

Because WE can help other people's Dreams come True!!!

BEANS

Gardening season is almost over. This might come as a shock to some of you who heard that the first snow of the season fell about a week ago. Well, snow or no snow, we still had potatoes to dig and carrots to pluck. And what a surprise, BEANS!!!

As I picked a produce bag full of green beans, at least 5 lb worth, I couldn't help but think of our man Jack. Although that boy didn't know beans about the price of cows he sure hit the jack-pot when he planted his magic beans. Great Choice Jack. How can you not love a veggie that will keep giving through sunshine or snow.

And you can landscape with then. One of our neighbors planted a row of bush beans around her trees. So beautiful and green in the summer, and she said it produced just enough beans for her to eat for dinner as many nights as her family likes. What a great idea.

After Vacation AKA Picking up where we left off

Well, we took a little break, played in the woods, held some royal family functions, and generally enjoyed ourselves.

But Now It's Over!!!

And it's back to the daily grind. I feel worst for Charming. After having such unexpected work schedules he's back to the regular old work day. I feel second worst for Peach. After seeing "Daddys!" most mornings for a while it's hard to waking up to "Where Daddys?". (She doesn't say "Mommy" or anything like it . . . yet.)

Today, Peach played with Doc, the very short Yorkie who lives in the cottage down the way, while Plum and I hung out at the dentist's office. Apparently, I broke my crown! So, lucky me, I get to go back to the dentist in a few days to be re-crowned. If only dentists scheduled each patient so that any work can be done at the appointment at which it was found. If only I got a extra free tooth brush for every cavity found in my mouth. If only my baby would sleep as well at home as she did in the dentists office. Wishes, wishes.

It's too bad. I was hoping to have a good and uneventful experience at the dentist to day and it just turned out to be a royal pain. Please, go ahead and post some sympathy below. =)

The Damsel in Distress

"Fair Maiden's Guide for Handling Household Mishaps"

Dear Mr Clean,

Please accept my apologies in advance for giving away the magical secret ingredient in your magic erasers. I assure you, I stumbled upon it quite by accident.

Yours Truly,

Fair Maiden

Today, a mean little fairy visited my house and challenged me to 3 mothering tests. 1) Your precious princess just climbed onto the table and scribbled all over it in permanent magic marker. What do you do? 2) When you fix test #1, how do you prevent it from happening again? 3) When you fail test #2, how do you learn from your mistake?

So I cleaned up the permanent marker with baking soda, vinegar, and paper towels. Then, I moved the markers to the kitchen counter and scooted all of the chairs away from the table so she could climb up again. Unfortunately, I also scooted one of the chairs into the kitchen. So, Little Miss Peach climbed up when I wasn't looking, grabbed that same marker, and colored all over said chair and counter top. So, I cleaned it up again. (By the way, it's easier to get black marker off of faux marble than finished wood.) Then, as I was walking away, I remembered not only to move the markers to an unreachable area, but also to put away the vinegar and baking soda in case my precious princess got any more bright ideas.

The whole experience reminded me that I haven't cleaned my bathroom in a month, so, after I doubly bested test #3 by putting Princess Peach down for a nap, I took my soda and trotted off to the bathroom to scrub the tub.

Royal Road Trip

OH my goodness. I'm so grateful my carriage is pulled by 4 very powerful horses, averaged 40 miles to the gallon this trip, and has A/C!!!

Unfortunatly, all the A/C in the world couldn't stop Peach and Plum from making ugly faces at me after the 5th hour of Royal Road Trip 2011.

Charming had wildly wonderful ideas of leaving at 3:00AM so the girls would sleep through the first few hours. It worked!!!

Everyone stayed happy until I tried to ride in the front seat with Charming. No Way, Jose!!!
Plum especially wanted to SEE that I was actually in the car. My enchanting singing voice has no power over these two after 2 straight days of carseat-o-rama.

Boy are we glad to be home.



True Love's Last Kiss

For weeks I've watched the king sweetly tend to the queen's needs as her condition steadily worsened. Each time he came in to help her, or just check on her for any reason, he would greet her with true love's kiss and kiss her again before he left.

Often their kisses were also accompanied with sweet words and tears. I will never forget one particular kiss and the sweet words they both exchanged. I'm sure that when my mother died last night around 8:00 she took the memory of that sweet kiss and those sweet words with her.

Part of living a Happily Ever After life is knowing that our happily ever after doesn't end when we die. I know that the love the King and Queen share will continue for eternity and they will someday be able to be together again. I know I will see my mother again. Until then, she will still be able to love me and help me as Charming, the Princesses, and I work through our own Happily Ever After.

In the mean time, I'm sure going to miss that winning Royal smile.