Hobby Monday and Crafty Wednesday.

I guess I am a creature of habit. Or I like schedules. It's most likely the latter. If left to myself, I never seem to have time for anything, but with a schedule, I seem to be able to get things done if I want to.

I don't know if I wrote about Hobby Monday before, but Monday nights, Jeff and I do what we want to after the kids go to bed. Jeff plays XBox and I scrapbook. I created a little scrapbook nest in the basement - with a radio and my new Cricut machine. If I have a space of a couple hours, it's nice to be able to get stuff done.

My friend Heather is very crafty. She was always telling me about projects she was doing or what she wanted to do. So, we instituted Crafty Wednesday. We get together and do something crafty. Sometimes it's with the kids - like putting beads on pipe cleaners and making bracelets. She showed me how to make a tutu - which turned out so cute! I then went and bought all kinds of tulle because I can see me making E all kinds of tutus. Alex even put one on, but I don't think it's a look he'll sport very often.

This past week - we took old cat litter/food buckets from Costco, covered the lid with fabric and stuffed "stuffed animal stuffing" (we killed a few stuffed animals we hated or were all stained up) and glued the fabric down. It made a cute seat for the kids to sit on, and also a toy bucket! I'm putting play food in Alex's, since we have so much. I need to find a nice ribbon to put around the fabric edge to cover it - as it's ugly, but other than that, it's done!

It's a nice way to spend a winter day/evening when you have to stay inside. Now that the weather is warming up, I don't know about keeping my current schedule - maybe save it for a rainy day. But who am I kidding - I heard the weatherman talk about snow the other day, so I may keep this schedule for a while.

I hate the bottle - give me the sippy cup please!!

So, I've been giving E a sippy cup with water in it for about a month or so - to try and get her used to using one. Well, the other day, she had her bottle in the morning, and I could not get her to drink another bottle. I had tried all day. Finally about 4pm, I thought she really needed something else to drink, so I gave her some water in a sippy cup to see if she would drink it - I wasn't sure if she just wasn't thirsty or what. She downed the water in about 3 seconds. So, I put formula in it and she downed that in about 4 seconds.

I'm assuming it is because she can get the formula out of a sippy in about half the time of a bottle - even though we are on the fastest flow bottles. It actually has turned out pretty good, because while I am making Alex breakfast or doing something else, I can give her the sippy and she happily drinks her formula. She could hold her bottle, but wouldn't most of the time, so I was having to stop whatever I was doing and feed her. It's really just much easier this way.

So, yesterday I went out and stocked up on sippy cups. I don't have any of the chewable type ones left from Alex because he bit the tops of them off. I guess he had a thing for plastic.

I'm still trying to give her a bottle but I guess I should just stop since she has no interest in them anymore. It's just another step to her growing up. And I'm just not ready for it yet!!

Kitchen Cure 2010 - The beginning.

I've got a long way to go, but it's a start.


Spices Cabinet - Before


Spice Cabinet - After

It might not look like much of a difference, but I did combine some spices and got rid of some that we haven't used in FOREVER. I was keeping them in hope of using them someday, but they are all probably expired and bad anyway.

Big Tool Drawer- Before
I could barely open this drawer before. And what's that on top!! My whisk I've been looking for!


Big Tool Drawer- After
I took the mixing blades and put them with the mixer and moved stuff around. Had two BBQ temp forks in there - and we use 0. So, one went into the Freecycle bag.
I also found the tip to our flavor injector thingy. Again, it was in a completely different drawer.


I'm not going to post pictures of everything I clean on here, but you can see I've gotten a good start! It feels good to purge.

Kitchen Cure 2010

http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/kitchen-spring-cure-2010/kitchen-cure-week-1-clean-out-the-fridge-and-pantry-the-spring-2010-kitchen-cure-108042

I joined this. Tho, I am doing it a bit out of order. I actually went through my spices and pantry a few weeks ago and got rid of stuff, so I'm starting with going through all the cabinets in my kitchen. I haven't take stuff out of them and cleaned them, uh... since we moved in to the house. And I'm not saying how long ago that way, but it was years. I always look at some of my cabinets and think, I need to clean that, and then shut the door and never look back.

So far I've cleaned the outside of all my cabinets on the bottom, an cleaned out 2 drawers and my Tupperware cabinet. I've got a bag started of stuff I'm going to put on freecycle and I've moved things to where they should be!

AND!! I found the whisk I've been looking for! I knew I had a better whisk than the crappy one I've been using, and I finally found it - in a different drawer.

I've taken some before and after pictures. I'm also going to try and go through our glasses again. We have SO many glasses and cups. We just keep accumulating them.

So, anyway, join with me and clean your kitchen!

Let her sleep, and you get peace.

I remember when Alex was about this age, that I was ruled by his nap schedule. Some people work with schedules, and some people don't. I'm a scheduler. It gives some sort of structure to my otherwise unstructured life.

A few months ago, I started trying to sleep train E when she was incredibly cranky. I found a schedule that worked for us and we were all happy and well rested. Well, since the Blizzard 2010 messed everything up and I try to get out of the house more often because I was stuck inside for so long, her schedule is messed up again. She is still in her infant carrier and used to sleep so well in it. But now she has decided that sleeping is for the weak, and she's not weak. She'll take a 20 minute nap if we are on our way somewhere, but always wakes up when we get there or soon after. And she won't sleep if there is anything interesting to look at.

This was leading to melt downs that I haven't seen since she was just a few months old. I knew it was from lack of sleep. So, yesterday I started back with the forced napping. I know I'm crabby when I don't get enough sleep. She slept for a total of 5 hours yesterday. She normally naps 3-4 hours per day. Obviously her schedule was off.

When Alex was little, I left where ever I was at 1pm and came home so he could nap. He was happy and I was too, tho I hated leaving somewhere if the only reason was so he could nap. But, he thrived on his schedule and was a happier baby. My friends aren't at my house at 7pm when he was melting down from not sleeping.

E has a little bit different schedule - she'll get up about 7:30am or so, and will go back down for a nap about 9. And she's up about 11, so we can then go out. I can barely get out of the house by 11 anyway, so that works for us.

Alex loves to make E laugh and tickle her and play with her. I know at some point in the future they'll hate each other, but they just have so much fun now. Alex is nice to her so he can steal her toys I think. But she doesn't mind too much right now. As long as she has something to chew on.

She still can't roll over but she has started scooting backwards. Our lives have officially gotten 100 times harder. It's so cute to watch her struggle to go forward but she only goes backwards. I have to look at Alex's baby book, but I think she is beginning to move sooner than Alex. He rolled eveywhere and I don't think E will ever roll. She's stubborn like that.

I was signed up to take a Wilton Cake Decorating Class next month and it's been canceled. Of course, after I bought all the supplies for it. But it's stuff I need anyway so I'll use it. I'm hoping to take it in April. I was looking through the course book and I think I'm going to be the worst person in the class. I don't think I can even do the items on the day 1 class. I decorate cakes like a 3rd grader. Maybe 2nd grader. I think in a different life I could have been a baker. I would have loved to go to culinary school and been a pastry chef. Anyone can make dinner, but I love making desserts. I would love to know how to make fancy desserts and learn how things go together. So, I'll just start off with this class - if I can ever take it.

Bring on the steak.

She has a tooth. Finally. 3 days before she turns 7 months old - a bottom tooth has popped through. You can't see it yet, but it definitely grips the spoon as I'm shoveling food into her mouth.

I'm kind of in denial about E growing up and getting teeth and ordering off the kids menu. She still can't roll over, so I guess I have that. But, she can drink from a sippy cup, eat puffs, sit up, stand for 10-15 seconds if propped next to something. She's also become a wonderful sleeper. She takes 2 naps during the day, and sleeps at night from 7pm-8am. It's glorious. Glorious I tell you.

If you read any Mommy blog, they talk about 2 things - sleep and poop. As much as I like to sleep, I'm glad to finally be getting some nights of full sleep. I still wake up tired, as it will take time to get used to sleeping again. Or something.

We've been snowed in for years it seems. Alex is so over the snow that he doesn't ever want to go out in it. Jeff has to work everyday because his job doesn't close. He's worked from home a few days, but he goes into the office most every day. It would be nice for him to have a few days off. Seems all we ever do with our time off is shovel snow. Did I mention the snow?

Alex was all excited to make a snowman but it turned out to be a snow blob - as we couldn't get the balls to work. But, it was a cute snow blob. I still haven't taken him sledding as it seems to snow on the weekends when Jeff is home, and I don't want to take E out in the cold. My favorite memory of snow as a kid is going sledding all day with my Mom and Brother. I loved it. The taller the hill the better. In college we went sledding on cafeteria trays. It probably goes along with my love of roller coasters.

We were thinking about going away this upcoming weekend to Great Wolf Lodge. I've been looking into it to go for a few weeks and with all this snow, we just wanted to get some place warm. We've never been, but it's an indoor water park and hotel - but only the hotel guests can use it, so it's not too crowded. A hot pool sounds so yummy right now. And E loves the water, so I know she would love it too.

Too bad this weekend is Valentine's Day and a 3 day weekend, because the prices were double what they normally are. But, it's probably worth it to keep my sanity.

I'm hoping to get out of the house tomorrow. Maybe. Our driveway may never be clear again. We've shoveled so much that you'd think I'd lost 10 pounds by now. But I make up for the shoveling by baking and cooking. At least I have a happy tummy.

Dear Snow.

Dear Snow-

I hate you.

Love,
The Barnett Family.