My *Sweet* Time of Day

I love being a mom, I love being a wife. I love taking care of my house and cooking yummy meals. But, I find little time during the day to do anything for me. So, that's why I consider nap time my sweet time. It's pretty much the only time of day that my house is quiet. Sometimes, I have to work during nap time, but every day I try to sneak in just 1 hour of "me" time. I put on Gilmore Girls and knit or do something else entirely for me. I need it or else I begin to get overwhelmed. Right now, it's my sweet time. I'm going to go take care of me.

Time Killer

What to know the best way to kill hours and hours of time? Go over to Rocks in my Dryer's giveaway blog and you'll quickly find that there are over 800 people giving away stuff. Yep, that's right, free stuff. Lots and lots of gift cards this time around. I entered like 90% of them last year and I won 6 things ($10 Starbucks gift card, a cool book mark, a pretty photo and well, 3 other things I never received-lame on their part, but I really just wanted the Starbuck's card and the bookmark). Any way, it's a serious time sucker, but maybe I'll win something this time around.

They're Boys!!

My friend Hannah, who lives in Australia had a little boy on January 22nd. She had him at home in a birthing tub. So cool. He weighed 7lb. 13 oz. She didn't know what she was having and we were hoping for a boy since she already has a little 17 month old girl.

January 24, a childhood friend had a boy. I don't know any information, though...just that he was born.

January 25, one of my childhood friends, Shannon, (we've known each other so long our parents actually went to high school together in CA) had a little boy weighing 7 lb. 15 oz.

My best friend Meg had a little baby boy yesterday at 6pm. It sounded like she had a really fairly easy labor and delivery. More power to her for going all natural and having him at a private birthing center! She didn't know what she was having, but we were almost positive it was a girl. Surprise! Any way, he was 8lb. 8 oz. and 22 in. long. Takes after his daddy in height! My Monkey beat him in weight, though...little chunk.

So, now my little Monkey will have lots of friends.

Oh, and just to keep going with the boy theme, 2 of my good friends who are due in May and June are having boys!

My Little Organizer

Monkey is at that age where he has started to get into EVERYTHING. Empties out drawers, cabinets, clears off tables, etc. Sometimes it can be very helpful, he helps me take the clothes out of the washer and dryer and helps me unpack suitcases. Such a sweet little guy, really.

Saturday morning, we're trying to get out the door to take our middle schoolers tubing. I left Monkey on the floor by my messy desk. I come back not 5 minutes later and he some how pulled my coupon box down and had completely emptied it's entire contents all over the floor. So helpful.


Here is a video of Monkey picking out a car at the store.

Fun With Friends

We got to go to some friends' house tonight for dinner. They have 3 kids (6,4 & 3) and they play so well with Monkey. We got to play a game which is always fun. It was interrupted only about 30 times, but hey, it was still fun. We don't have many friends in our town, so the time we get to spend with our friends is really great. Any way, it was fun and we got home WAY too late. I should go to bed or something :-)

Thankful Thursday

Unsinkable Kristen started Thankful Thursday and I decided to join her this time around. I think it's just a good reminder of the things we are truly thankful for, even when things (or days) don't go the way we hope they will.

1. I'm thankful that Monkey loves me so much that he doesn't want me to be away from his side, even for a split second.

2. I'm thankful that for the roof over my head, even if what's under the roof is a complete mess.

3. I'm thankful for my awesome husband who helps out so much around the house and gives me some relief.

4. I'm thankful for Gilmore Girls, the wonderful humor to liven up my afternoon. Yeah, for 2:00!

5. I'm thankful that Monkey is quietly playing by himself for a few minutes (contrary to #1) so I can sit here and write my list of thankfulness.

6. I'm thankful for Thursdays because it's Kyle's last day of work for the week. We can stay up later because we can sleep in and I don't have to worry about getting a shower before Monkey wakes up tomorrow because Kyle will be here to watch him while I do.

7. I'm thankful for run-on sentences (see #6)

8. I thankful that tomorrow is Friday and Kyle will be here all day long and I love to have him around. (And, I'm really thankful for tomorrow because we get to go to some friends' house for dinner)

9. I'm thankful for left-overs so I don't have to make dinner tonight.

10. I'm thankful I got to use some creative juices this morning and change some decorations in Monkey's room.

Thursday To Do

Alrighty, I seem to be flying through this week accomplishing lots, so I'm going to try to keep it up! The house is slowly pulling itself together and I like that. The thing that makes me the most happy is that through all of this there are 2 rooms in my house that deep cleaned and I have maintained almost absolutely spotless, my master bathroom and my laundry room. I think we're encroaching on a habit (doesn't it take like 28 days to form a habit?). Any way, that makes me happy. That's eventually how I want my whole house to be!

General Housekeeping:

1 load of laundry
Vacuum rug in living room
Sweep floors in living room
Clear off sofa
Empty laundry basket (no, it doesn't have laundry in it) Yeah! I can use it for laundry now!
Clean stove top
Sweep laundry room and quick straighten

Work:

Quarterlies

Taking Time for Me:

Quiet Time
Gilmore Girls and Knitting
Blogging and e-mail

Wednesday To Do

I felt like I did fairly well yesterday. The only thing I didn't get done was putting away my Christmas decorations, so I tacked it on to today. Just for the record, our tree is down, there are just about 5 items in the living room that are Christmasy and need to be put away. I also need to organize my Christmas decoration box. It's one of those things I can't do while Monkey is awake or else he starts pulling everything out.

General house work:
Clean bathroom
Fold Monkey's laundry
Take out paper recycling
Fill yard debris container
Fix dinner (potato soup)
Mail car payment
Put Christmas decorations away
Run and unload dishwasher

Work:
Finish Quarterlies

Me:
Call Meg
Blog and e-mail
Gilmore Girls and Knit
Exercise

WFMW: Debbie Meyer Green Bags

I used to get so sick and tired of my produce spoiling. I try to plan ahead and only buy what I know I can reasonably use in a week. But, it never fails that I buy too much or don't use some and a week later it is toast. Well, literally toast, but a spoiled heap that starts stinking up my fridge, yes.

My mom bought me some of these bags for Christmas and I LOVE them! They are reusable bags that you put your produce in and they absorb or kill green house gases that spoil your produce. I'm not sure how long of a fridge life it gives your produce, but nothing I've put in them has spoiled. You can even put your bananas in them on the counter and they don't ripen as quickly. Great way to maintain that perfect banana ripeness.


These bags are pretty nifty, and they Work for Me!

Tuesday To Do

I tried so hard to get my list of things done yesterday, but after needing to run some errands, it totally killed my morning and then I had to work, so that killed part of my afternoon. So, my house isn't much better than it was on Sunday. But, today, I've mapped out a simple game plan separated into 4 categories of my life that are all important.

Mothering: (45 min.) - This is an all day thing, but these are specific things I need to do aside from making sure my son is well fed and happy :-)
Give Monkey a bath
Straighten up Monkey's room
Take out Monkey's diaper pail

Wife-ing: (1 hour)
Unload dishwasher
Fold and put away laundry
Put away Christmas decorations (yes, you read that right)
Fix dinner

Working: (30 min.)
Work on quarterlies
Call Joyce and schedule an appointment

Me-ing: (1 hour)
Exercise
Watch Gilmore Girls and knit(yep, I picked up knitting and I LOVE it!)

Here goes nothing...

Ack! My house has exploded...

I have dishes and laundry coming out of my ears, there is stuff all over the floor. I need to get back on track, but, it's so hard to know where to start! I started today by simply unloading the dishwasher and by starting a load of laundry, hopefully, I can maintain some sort of momentum. But, I heard that Old Navy is having like a 75% off sale today. I'm trying to resist the urge to drive (since I can do that again) 15 miles to the closest one, but it's tough. I'll probably cave, head up there and avoid all the things I should be doing around my house.

On a completely adorable side note (I like these). My son is playing with a big balloon we were given at Quiznos last week and it's just too cute. But, really, what does he do that isn't cute. Well, his temper tantrums aren't that cute...

Oh, and Psych and Monk were hilarious last night. Yeah, for great TV.

After I wrote this post, Monkey decided to have a snack...of packing peanuts. Want a little salt and butter with that?

The Car is Finished

Kyle is on his way over to return the rental car and pick up the freshly fixed Jeep. I'm so thankful that it's finished and that I can drive again! In 3 months I'll be old enough to drive a rental car, but just not yet :-p I feel very trapped not being able to run even the smallest errands and to hit all of my favorite stores for cheap/free deals, sheesh! Maybe it's been good for me, or maybe it's just made me a lazy butt (my house is a pit - but, really when isn't it?).

On a REALLY important side note. There are new episodes of Monk AND Psych tonight and well, that just makes me happy in every way! Now, if only that stupid writer's strike would end!

We're Home!

We were at the coast for 3 days with about 100 other pastors from the Pacific Northwest Christian and Missionary Alliance district at a little retreat. It was a really nice relaxing time. We always enjoying being refreshed with other people who totally understand where we're at in life. We were up way too late last night laughing our heads off with about 15 other people (mostly youth pastors and their wives) crammed in a very small room. But, it was fun, something we only get to do about twice a year. They put us up at a GORGEOUS hotel and feed us awesome food and it's all on the church, so that makes it 100% better.

We also heard back from the mechanic and the news wasn't great, but we also sort of expected it. We've been meaning to take it in for quite some time to have some tune-up type stuff done on it and just hasn't had a chance to do it since it's our only working vehicle. So, it was just a good chance to get all that stuff done. The back drivers side door lock stopped working with the automatic locks, so we that was something that we knew needed to be done. The reason it went in was because of a dead battery. But, they found lots of corrosion in the engine that needs to be cleaned up. Plus some spark plugs and a coolant change. The total is going to be about $600 plus the cost of the rental. But, we figure, the car is 5 years old now, and it has 87,000 miles, so it was in need of some regular maintenance. Hopefully, this will keep it running for a good long while now. Such is life, right?

No Good Awful Very Bad Day

Today did not get started off on the right track, not one bit. Kyle tried leaving for work this morning and the car wouldn't start :-( Ugh, NOT TODAY! We're leaving town tomorrow and kind of needed our car to get there. We only have 1 working vehicle now. Why today? Why not a week we were going to be around all week? So, we called a tow truck, we called the mechanic, we called Enterprise Rental Company and got everything lined up. Kyle went with the car to the mechanic, Enterprise picked him up. Now, we're just praying that the car will be done by tomorrow afternoon when we need to leave so we don't have to pay for the rental car for 2 more days. There were no guarantees that it would be done by tomorrow, but God's so much bigger than all that!

We let the dog in the back yard to go to the bathroom. She was out there for 10 minutes and managed to dig a 10" deep who in the MIDDLE of our BRAND NEW GRASS! Dumb dog. Don't know what possessed her...

Any way, that's my bad day...hopefully, it gets better by hearing from the mechanic and finding out it really isn't a big problem and will be fixed by 2 tomorrow afternoon. But, I'm not going to put God in box that small...any news would be great.

Terrible Movie

I hate sitting through an entire movie (a long one at that) and to figure out that it's a really dumb one and truly a waste of my time. We rented the third Pirates of the Caribbean movie tonight because neither of us had seen it yet. We enjoyed the first one, we own it and enjoy watching it periodically. The second one wasn't that great, we've only seen it once. We really had high hopes for the third one, though. To really wrap up the story and go out with a bang.

Instead, we sat through the entire thing not having any clue what is going on. It was just terrible. It was clean other than being violent. It was just dumb.

I hate watching dumb movies.

Product Review: Pampers Stages

I was sent a jumbo pack of Pampers Stages diapers and a pack of corresponding wipes to try out on Monkey. Here is my opinion:

Diapers: Pampers Cruisers - Size 4

These are great diapers! I had never tried these diapers on Monkey before (only the Swaddlers when he was just born) and I can say that Pampers has came through on their amazing quality, yet again. They were amazingly soft to the touch and really pliable. Monkey never leaked out of a single diaper that he wore during the day. They didn't absorb enough for him at night, but that isn't anything new, regular diapers just don't work for him at night. The only thing that sort of bothered me was the color of the diapers. they were white with dark purple on them. I thought that they looked a little girly. Not that it really matter since it is just a diaper; that's why I say that it sort of bothered me.

Wipes: Pampers - One ups!

The wipes were also amazing Pampers quality and I really liked them. They didn't dry out my precious Monkey's little hiney or my hands. They also had a great scent. I've never smelled wipes like these, it wasn't baby powdery at all, it was a very fresh, clean scent and it was really refreshing. I looked all over the package and couldn't find the scent of them. Maybe it's aloe? I don't know, but I really liked them! If I ever figure it out, I'll let you know.

Rating:

I rate the diapers at 9 out of 10 (only because of the lack of absorbency at night)

I rate the wipes at 10 out of 10

Well done, Pampers on creating more great quality products.

It's Coming to an End

I know it's a weird topic for a blog, but where else am I going to write this stuff down! I think I'm almost done breastfeeding. I don't want to be, but there is just hardly any milk left for my little Monkey and he woke up screaming and starving 4 nights last week. I've started supplementing with formula. I know people say it's not good for them, yada yada yada, but, there are plenty of babies raised on it that are just fine and I'm pretty convinced my Monkey will be just fine, too. After all, he is 10 1/2 months old and in 6 weeks can start drinking regular milk any ways. I was hoping to breastfeed him until he was 18 months old, but I think my body decided that it wanted to keep all the calories for itself and not share them any more. I really don't want my body to be selfish, but what can you do? I can't tell it where to send the calories!

I received a lot of positive comments from my last post in December about it and I've tried everything (except the beer thing, that was just too weird) and they helped....for awhile. I've been religiously taking my prenatals and drinking tons of milk, and I upped my calories, and I'm taking fish oil and calcium and now my milk is almost gone. I'm going to keep nursing Monkey as long as he will, just to get what little I DO have and supplement with formula until his first birthday and then switch him over to whole cow's milk. It's not what I want to do, but I don't want him starving. I'm sure we'll all be fine.

I've been feeling really inadequate about it, but I'm sure everything will be fine.

Trying To Back on Track...

but, it's hard.

With the holidays, and visiting family. With end of the year work to do (financial stuff for the church). With a short trip next week, my question is, when's going to happen! (the getting back on track thing)

I don't have an answer.

I DO know that I'm living in a wrecked house. I DO know that I have piles of dirty laundry coming out of my ears.

I'm trying, but, I guess we'll mostly have to wait and see...