09.30.09
Not airing out my dirty laundry
The other day I mentioned how I used to think I was a laundry failure. Then a few months ago was enlightened and now I know I’m just a normal person. Well at least as far as laundry goes.
And because I obviously need to get a life or something I’ve been thinking more lately about my laundry. And I have a confession to make.
I wear something just once and then it goes in the laundry.
I KNOW!
Along with all the other problems in my life, I’m going to blame this one on my Hubby. I’m pretty sure that before we got married I would for sure wear pants at least twice, maybe three times. Not sure about shirts. But when I met him I discovered that he would wear something and it would go in the laundry that night. To be honest even it it was worn only half a day – not sure when that would happen but I’m trying to make a point – it would go in the laundry.
For some reason I changed my launderin’ ways and now I put my clothes in the laundry after wearing them only once.
While I was thinking about all this I started thinking that I would like to know if I really am a laundry freak (as opposed to just a freak) or if I’m a normal laundry person. I suppose there’s not really a “normal” when it comes to laundry. You just do what you do and that’s that.
But I still want to know. So please fill out this poll. You don’t get anything other than the satisfaction of knowing you’ve satisfied my…. well, sorry, I guess you really don’t get anything. But do it anyway. Please. Ok, thanks.
(And if you’re reading this on Facebook you might have to go to my actual blog to do the poll. I’m not sure.)
I’m off to think some more about really important things. Or not.
09.29.09
What I Learned This Week
1. I learned that as soon as our house went off the market (we now have it listed ourselves) that my clean house turned into a war zone.
2. I learned that I don’t like coming home and knowing that Princess won’t be coming home too.
3. I learned that it sounded really silly when I said to Hubby, “The batteries died in my mop.” Yet I wouldn’t trade my battery operated mop (Swiffer Wet Jet) for anything.
4. I learned that when Angel sleeps in her bed she sleeps all curled up in a teeny tiny little ball. But every once in awhile she’ll sleep in our bed (after waking up in the middle of the night) and for some reason she thinks it necessary to sprawl completely out, stretched out as far as she can stretch, laying across the bed.
5. I learned that for some reason I’ll pray once about a situation but then don’t pray about it again for a few days. I recently remembered though that God wants us to be like the widow (Luke 18) who went to the judge over and over and over. He wants to hear our pleas and cries for help and He never grows weary of them.
6. I learned that it seems like overnight Angel has turned into a big girl. She’s so witty and funny and I wish I could record every single thing she says. Tonight she came into the kitchen while I was making supper and said, “Ohhhh I’m so tired!”.
We were potty training this weekend and she was sitting on the potty but was messing around. I said to her “Angel, you need to focus.” And she said, “No, you need to focus!” Little stinker!
She usually prays at dinner (repeats what we say) and tonight after she said “AMEN!” I said to her, “Angel who are we praying to?”. She said, “We pray to Jesus.”. Nothing sweeter than that!
7. I learned that my Hubby has turned into a crazy blog addict.
And now I know how he’s felt about me blogging and just maybe every once in awhile being on the computer too much.
8. I learned that it’s SO frustrating that Caleb will not sit down in the tub. But it’s also SO cute to see his mischievous little face as he tries to stand up.
9. I learned that Angel misses her big sister Princess. She was mad at me the other day about something and was whining and then said, “I need Holly!”.
10. I learned that I love Psalm 105:1-5. That it’s a great encouragement to me and a wonderful promise of God’s strength and love.
What did you learn this week? Head over to Musings of a Housewife for more of what others have learned.
09.28.09
Menu Plan Monday
It’s been awhile since I did Menu Plan Monday because I’ve been a real slacker when it comes to planning a menu and sticking to it. But since joining in on Owlhaven’s Grocery Challenge this month I’m back in the swing things.
I’ve started using Mary’s new book Family Feasts for $75 a Week. Please go out and get this book. There is so much good stuff in it and so many great recipes!
Menu for the week:
Monday (tonight): Chili at Pat’s mom’s house.
Tuesday: BBQ’d ribs, fried potatoes (recipe somewhere in this post)
Wednesday: Church night – family dinner at church
Thursday: Mexican Tortilla Skillet (from Family Feasts)
Friday: Family night – pizza
I mentioned yesterday that I was going to share about our meals this weekend. Ok, maybe I was a little proud of myself but I actually made three days worth of meals without messing up anything. That’s like a miracle around here.
Friday night we had pizza. Ya, I know, can’t really mess that up.
Saturday morning I made caramel rolls for breakfast. Thaw out a two loafs of frozen bread dough but don’t let them rise. Cut into bite size pieces. Put into greased 9×13 pan. In a sauce pan bring to boil 1 stick of butter, 1 cup brown sugar and 1 cup vanilla ice cream. Poor over bread and let rise for 20-30 minutes. Then bake in 350 degree oven for 30 minutes.
Saturday lunch was ham sandwiches and leftovers.
I promise I did actually cook something.
Saturday night we had spaghetti and veggies. I also made biscuits (from Family Feasts).
Sunday for lunch we had steaks on the grill, baked potatoes and roasted veggies.
Sunday supper I made homemade chicken strips (so easy from Family Feasts) and fried rice (again so easy from Family Feasts).
I guess looking back there was absolutely nothing exciting or fancy about my weekend meals. But it does feel good to actually cook for my family. We’ve gotten into the habit of eating out too much and it really was a blessing to eat every meal at home this weekend. It was pretty nice eating meals that tasted good too!
Head over Organizing Junkie for lots of great menu ideas!
09.27.09
A date with myself and other unimportant things
The only thing we had planned this weekend was to do nothing. And then I decided Friday afternoon that we should work on potty training Angel. She’s been telling us when she has to go and so even though I was hoping to wait until we sold the house I figured I should get going on it.
We decided that Friday nights would be our “family night” – remember last week we got penny per ounce slushies? Well we forgot about the penny per ounce slushies but did get Little Ceasars pizza. And then watched way to many episodes of Phenius and Ferb.
Thus this post.
We also started some potty training Friday night. We don’t have a actual potty chair for Angel. Just the little rim thing that sits on the regular toilet. It took about four meltdowns for her to understand that she doesn’t get a treat (chocolate chips) every time she sits on the potty chair. She has to actually go potty. She couldn’t quite get that and so then I was questioning whether she really was ready to potty train. But then after awhile she actually did go potty on the potty chair and we had ourselves a very loud potty party with cheering, dancing and chocolate chips.
Saturday morning, we enjoyed another family tradition, homemade caramel rolls. And then about 9:30 am Pat decided to go on a bike ride. So the babies and I hung out, played and did laundry. Oh ya, I also asked Angel about 400 times if she needed to go potty. She did pretty good but it felt kinda forced. However we had a few potty parties Saturday morning too before taking a training break around 1:30 for naptime.
Pat got home around 1:00. We decided it was such a beautiful day that we needed to go to the park. I also had a list of things to get at Target and so asked Pat if he would take the kids to the park and then I could go to the store. By myself. Alone. Without the kids.
He’s amazing and agreed. I made my way to Target and decided to splurge and spend $1.50 for a Coke and popcorn. I would love to tell you that this little date with myself was amazing and relaxing and wonderful. Yes, it was kinda nice. I honestly can’t even remember the last time I was at the store by myself. But it was also a little too weird for me. And after about 8 minutes I missed my babies so rushed through the store getting what we needed (and nothing else! Woo hoo for self-control!) and got back to the park to find my Hubby and kiddos.
Saturday night we did much of the same thing we did Friday night. Nothing!
The babies slept in until 7:00 am on Sunday morning. This is amazing for our babies! They are both usually up by 6:00 am, 6:30 am at the latest. So it was nice to sleep in a little. We then went to church, got home around 12:30 pm, ate lunch, took naps, more laundry, playtime, ate supper, playtime, baths and bedtime for babies.
And just to be clear, when I say I did laundry and more laundry, what I actually mean is that I successfully washed and dried every single bit of our laundry. However the dried laundry is now sitting on our chair and ottoman waiting for the laundry fairies to put it away.
Oh wait wait. I take that back. If you look closely you’ll see the babies clothes aren’t there. That’s because I put Angel’s clothes away – yes away in her closet and drawers where they belong. Caleb’s made it off the main pile and is now in a pile in his bedroom waiting for the laundry fairies.
I found out a few months ago that I’m not the only one that does this with laundry – washes and dries it but doesn’t put it away. I can’t begin to tell you what a burden was lifted from my shoulders. I thought I was the biggest laundry failure until I found this out.
I won’t tell anyone that it was you, April and Emily, who freed me from this burden! Ok, moving on.
Sunday after naptime we did some more potty training. I was cleaning out Angel’s closet and drawers and she found her Dora underwear and was pretty excited about them. So we put them on – well Angel put them on. Things were going great for the first few hours. And then we got to bath time and went to put Angel on the potty one more time and turns out she had went poop in her underwear. Eeww! Unfortunately I’m a wimp and the poor Dora undies weren’t salvageable. And I’m also wondering if Angel really isn’t ready to potty train. My original plan was to do this method and I guess we kinda did that Sunday afternoon but it didn’t seem to make a difference in her wanting to go on the potty chair. I guess we’ll just keep plugging away and see how she does.
I just have to say in all humility that I made some rockin meals this weekend. But I’m not proud about it or anything. I’ll have to share more about that – the meals, not my pride – tomorrow. And I’ll give in update on our Grocery Challenge. Have a good Monday.
09.26.09
SQUIRRELS! SQUIRRELS!
It seems my life has come to a devastating and tragic end. For the past 3 days, since I caught a glimpse of Pat’s favorite TV show (Phineus and Ferb), this song has been running through my head. It can not be proven that I’ve actually been singing the song out loud to my children.
Kudos to you if you’re able to watch this and not spontaneously shout “SQUIRRELS! SQUIRRELS!”
09.23.09
A funky funk list
I’ve been in a funky funk lately. What’s a funky funk? Well it’s just another one of my made up expressions and it’s the only way to describe how I’ve been feeling lately. I can’t even describe it. Blah. Funky funk. That’s all I got. So even though I have 400 pictures to show you and another 200 stories to share, you’re going to get a funky funk list. Basically a list of unimportant random things.
Oh ya, it doesn’t get much better than this.
1. I’m a lamo tv watcher. I guess it’s probably a good thing but when I watch coverage of the Emmy’s and I realize I don’t know 80% of these so called famous people they are talking about, I feel like a real loser. The tv shows I’m watching and/or dvr’ing this fall are Top Chef, Project Runway, House and Chopped.
2. Look to the LORD and his strength; seek his face always. 1 Chron 16:11 I love this verse. I found it earlier this week and have kept repeating it to myself.
3. My Hubby has a blog. Yes I know I already mentioned this earlier in the week but had to mention it again because not only does he have a blog but he’s actually blogging. Isn’t there a saying… “Blogging makes the heart go fonder?”. Hello?
4. I made a half batch of Chocolate Lava Cakes the other night. Angel and I had one of them as a before supper snack. And I left the other one out for Pat to eat after supper. While I gave the babies baths and got them ready for bed he cleaned up the dishes and THREW AWAY THE SECOND LAVA CAKE! It happened two days ago and I’m obviously still traumatized by it. I tried to convince him that he needed to make replacement cakes tonight but he wasn’t too convinced that was necessary.
5. I’m working hard to use all our apples from our orchard trip. I make a pork loin apple dinner thing the other night. Totally didn’t know what I was doing. Usually that’s a recipe for disaster but it actually ended up turning out ok. I had a pork loin thawed out and I cut it into thin pieces and put that in the frying pan with a little oil. I cooked it for awhile, no idea how long, and then put in thinly sliced apples and onions on top of all the pork loin. I added about a 1/2 cup of apple juice, salt and pepper and then put the lid on the pan and let it cook for 20 minutes or so. At the end I turned the oven on broil and put the pan in the oven without the lid for about 10 minutes to brown it up a little. It wasn’t like awesome good but it was ok good and we even finished off the leftovers for lunch the next day.
I still have about 20 apples left to use. Any good recipe suggestions??
6. I totally fell off the wagon as far as the grocery challenge goes. I had Pat go to the store the other night and had him buy chips and dip. CHIPS AND DIP! Talk about a major funky funk. I haven’t had chips and dip FOR EVVV ERRR! But I needed chips and dip. Even though it was $5 or so that I had to subtract from my grocery money. I’m pretty sure it was totally worth it though because it tasted awesome. At least the 3 chips I had tasted good. I didn’t finish off the whole bag in two nights. No, I would never do that.
7. Not only did the chips and dip totally bum me out when it comes to the grocery challenge but it probably wasn’t the best snack to have. I’m down to about 150 pounds – only 20 more to go! I haven’t really even tried to lose weight – ever since my surgery I’m just doing more and I’ve been trying to eat better. Well except when I eat a whole bag of chips and dip. But I’m thinking now I’ll have to actually start doing more exercise type stuff. Ick, I hate that kind of stuff!
8. Speaking of doing more, the past few nights that’s exactly what I haven’t been doing. Last night Caleb went to sleep at 6:30 pm, Angel went to sleep at 7:30 pm and I was asleep by 7:45 pm! What is up with that? We’ve all been battling colds so hopefully we’re on the road to recovery now.
Well, that’s all I’ve got for tonight. Let’s end on a good note:
Look to the LORD and his strength; seek his face always. 1 Chron 16:11
Nothing funky funk about that!
Caleb, 9 months
Our little Pippy was 9 months old on the 17th. Here’s what he’s been up to lately:
As you saw here, he’s on the move. Big time. He’s all over now. He also started pulling himself on whatever he can pull himself up on. He especially loves to do this in the tub. He gets this mischievous smile on his face and then pulls himself up on the side of the tub and stands up and then laughs out loud. He’s hot stuff.
As far as food goes, Caleb once again thinks he’s hot stuff. And he thinks he’s all grown up. He refuses to eat any baby food other than rice cereal. And even that he doesn’t eat very much at all. He’s still having about 36-40 ounces of formula every day (yes I know, oink oink). He’ll have rice cereal or banana for breakfast. And then for lunch and supper he’ll have noodles, bread, veggies, fruit, chicken – basically little pieces of really soft food. He’s got like the worst gag reflex and so it stresses me out when he eats regular grown up food.
He also seems to hate any type of texture. Everything different we give him he gets this grossed out look on his face. He does the same when he touches things. Here he is petting a puppy at the fair and not enjoying it one bit!
Caleb loves to pound on things. He’s totally all boy. He’ll take his bottle or cup and pound pound pound. He’ll take any toy and pound pound pound. He’s even started pounding on his mommy. When we lay on the floor and wrestle with Angel he’ll crawl over on top of us and pound on us. It’s pretty funny.
Angel and Caleb are still pretty good buds except now that Caleb is mobile and into everything, including Angel’s “stuff”, she isn’t too happy about that. She’s actually pretty patient with him and we’ll hear her say “NO CALEB NO!”. But she yells it real nice.
He’s started to be attached to his blanket. It’s pretty cute. He’s never been a pacifier baby and hardly every takes it. In fact when he’s tired or just wants his bottle he gets SO mad when we try to give him his paci.
The last few weeks he’s been a trooper as far as sleeping goes. By 7:30 pm he’ll start getting crabby and we try to hold him off til 8:00 pm. He’ll have a bottle and then he’s out and sleeps until 5-6 am! The last two nights he’s fallen asleep at 6:30 pm and slept until 6:00 am! I don’t think that’ll last though as he’s just had a rough week with teething and having a cold.
We’re a month behind on his well-baby checks so I’m not sure his exact weight but by my unofficial weighing he’s at about 21 pounds.
Some other interesting things about Little Pip:
He loves to kiss his daddy. He will not kiss anyone else but he’ll kiss daddy (on the lips) over and over and over. Little stinker.
His hair is really long. And shaggy. And no, Hubby, we are not letting it grow out until he’s 2. In fact Aunt Nellie is coming today and Caleb’s going to get his first haircut!
He has two bottom teeth and two top teeth. And he’s slobbering like a madman so there must be more coming in. He also grinds his teeth. It’s really annoying and loud. But kinda cute too.
He’s wearing 9-12 month clothes, sometimes 18 month. He’s in a size 5 diaper, although that’s maybe a little too big but size 4 is too small.
He still has the funniest faces – one second he’s really somber and almost sad looking. The next second he’s laughing out loud.
He loves to cuddle and hug. We love that too!
He’s ticklish – all over. He laughs at Mickey Mouse. And his sister. He loves to bounce and jump and be held upside down. He’s a funny little dude.
Here’s a somber look. Or maybe he’s just thinking deep thoughts.
Found something interesting to chase after!
My sweet boy.
09.20.09
A trip to the apple orchard
While Pat was shooting people with paintballs in the name of fun on Saturday, me, Princess and the babies went to the local apple orchard with Grama Barb and the kids’ cousins, Tony, Krissy, Stephie and Sarah. I’ve lived in this town for almost 12 years and this was the first time I went to the orchard.
Well yes I do need to get a life, thank you very much.
Here we are on the wagon trailer thing getting ready to get a ride out to the orchard.
We went to the Portland Red section of the orchard. I have no idea what that means, I was just along for the ride – who knew there were so many apple varieties! Anyway, Princess tried to start picking apples and it turns out she’s kind of a shorty! Where’s Prankster when we need him! (he’s really tall)
It took Angel awhile to get into a apple picking groove because there were more important things to look at. Like a real live jumping frog.
So I thought I’d show her how it’s done. As you can see I look like a real pro. Or not.
That’s more like it, huh!
Caleb tried to snitch some apple from his big sister.
That didn’t work so he thought he’d try Grama Barb. “Mwhahaha. Grama Barb will let me have an apple!”.
Little stinker thinks he’s hot stuff!
Angel did so good. She loved picking apples!
But after awhile was ready to go find the tractor trailer wagon thing to get a ride back.
And then probably the best thing of the day – other than the humongous bag of apples we got for nothing – thanks to Grama Barb – was Angel riding a pony for the first time.
Frogs, family, apples, ponies and fun. Can’t get much better than that!
09.18.09
7 quick takes Friday
1. I have to use my #1 spot to tell blog world that my Hubby now has a blog of his own. I KNOW! He’s still working on getting it set up but if you want to stop over and say hi here’s the link: Fire Road
2. Speaking of Hubby (again), he’ll be going paintballing tomorrow with a group of guys from church. He’s pretty excited because he likes to shoot people and cause them pain. Ya, he’s a keeper.
3. While Pat is shooting people, me, Princess and the babies are going to go to a local apple orchard with Grama Barb and the kid’s cousins. The orchard is having a carnival type thing and I’m sure it’ll be a blast.
4. Yes! Princess is coming home this weekend! She was home over Labor Day weekend but that was a whole two weeks ago! Unfortunately she has alot planned in her weekend so we won’t get to see her much but at least we’ll be able to give her a hug and visit for a little while.
Prankster is going paintballing with Pat. Let’s all stop right now and say a prayer for Prankster.
5. The other day me and the kiddos were playing and making a mess out of Caleb’s room. One of Angel’s favorite things to do is stand up on our back or stomach. She thinks she’s hot stuff. Caleb was playing and Angel kept trying to stand on my back and eventually Caleb decided that he was big enough to try to climb on top of mommy too.
6. Our house is officially off the market as far as listing it with a Realtor. We are listing it ourselves because we have to sell quickly. Please be in prayer with us that we sell it and if you’re in the market for a wonderful family home or know of someone let me know!
7. Kelly at Kelly’s Korner shared this link on her blog. And I wanted to share it here too. I hope you take a few minutes and listen – it’s great.
When I went through many years of infertility I don’t remember ever talking about it – at least not in the beginning. I remember telling myself, and others, that I was ok, that it was God’s will, blah, blah, blah. But I don’t think I ever really believed that because my heart grew very cold.
Now almost 10 years later, I look back and the pain of those years still runs deep. While Jesus has brought healing to my soul and continues to each day, the scars from infertility and divorce will forever be etched in me. But as she talks about, it was through those trials and through the despair that I learned so much and grew closer to the Lord. And because of that it was worth every tear and heartache.
Stop over at Conversion Diary for more Quick Takes and have a wonderful weekend!
09.17.09
Grocery challenge update
It’s exciting to be in the last half of the month. I’m pretty sure we’re going to make it just fine and probably even have alot left over.
At my last update I had $144 left for the month. We’ve been doing a good job of sticking to our menu. Well I guess I should say we’re doing a good job of eating at home or not paying to eat out.
Last week my sister called and wanted to take us out to eat. Ok.
Last week Pat’s mom gave us some ground turkey and fish. Sweet.
Last night my parents were in town and wanted to take us out to eat. Awesome!
Unfortunately we have had two house showings in the last week at 6:00 pm so we grabbed fast food. $5.05 at Sonic and $4.24 at McD’s. We did end up eating again when we got home – that just tied us over til 7:00 pm.
As far as groceries we haven’t had to get anything other than eggs. And then I splurged and bought supplies to send to Princess for her to make Chocolate Lava Cakes. So that grocery trip was $12.20.
Early next week I’ll need to look at the menu and our pantry and I’m thinking I won’t need much for groceries to get us through the month. After subtracting out our purchases the past week I’m left with $122 and I have no doubt we won’t have to use all of it.
Woo hoo! That’s exciting. I’m surprised at how easy it’s been to stay on track when I just put my mind to it – and having the accountable of blogworld that I have to report back to helps too! I’m also excited to see how I can continue to cut back on our groceries even after the September Grocery Challenge is up!
Stop by Owlhaven and see how others are doing on the Grocery Challenge!
Click here to view other Grocery Challenge posts.
