January Goals Revisited

Posted on January 31, 2012 by Jennifer

Setting goals by the month turned out pretty well for me. While I accomplished a lot of things on and off my list, I will admit I sometimes felt stressed by the list. There were moments when I was sitting on the couch thinking, “I really need to get up and make some pillows.” While I thought this I never actually got off of the couch to work on anything but I still thought it.

Let’s review my January Goals:

*Have a Date Night with Husband – check and check! We actually got babysitters twice during the month.

*Keep downstairs clean & ready for visitors – check! – The upstairs might have looked like a bomb went off but it didn’t matter to me. My floors were vacuumed, counters straightened, and toys were off the floor. My definition of clean would probably not be what someone else’s was but the house always felt clean enough in case someone dropped by. In other words, the mad dash panicked cleaning lady did not have to make an appearance.

*Complete Valentine Bingo game for etsy – check!

*Sew pillows for my bed – check! You will see the results soon.

*Add 20 items to my 143 Acts list – check! – #1, #2, #3 – bought bags of food for homeless at store #4 – gave unopened bottle of champagne to neighbors #5 – complimented stranger on her skirt #6 – gathered carts in grocery store lot and put them away #7 – sent email to teacher I used to work with telling her we still use the baby gift she gave us nine years later #8 – dropped off clothing at Goodwill #9 – sent in supplies to teacher #10 – sent in teacher wish list items #11- complimented mom at Kindermusik #12 – told mom her daughter was well behaved #13, #14, #15, #16 – waited for a moment so could hold door open for mom coming into school with stroller #17 – shared Angry Bird Valentines I created #18 – returned extra grocery carts #19, #20 – complimented a mom on outfit

*Try one new recipe – check and check and check! Three new recipes in one month! Who am I? Julia Child? We tried the Bacon Cornbread Muffins, a Jambalaya recipe, and these very tasty 15 Min. Sticky Buns.

*Complete bathroom redo – check, sort of – the pictures need to be hung tonight

*Knock $100 off monthly food bill – Fail! In a huge way! – completely over budget – spent entirely too much money – remember those 2 times we went out by ourselves? We ate at mighty expensive places and indulged – add 2 girls nights out for me with expensive trips to Costco and it just spelled failure for us – hopefully we’ll do better next month.

*Scrapbook 10 pages for Caroline – check – I actually completed 19 pages so this is a huge weight lifted off my back. I kept stalling on working on Caroline’s baby book but always felt guilty since the boys have several books. Now I can proudly say Caroline has a scrapbook now and she’s already 5 months old in it. Hey, if I hadn’t started she still wouldn’t have anything so I figure this is a great start.

Alright, this wraps up a pretty good month for me in terms of accomplishing goals. While I felt some mild panic set in around January 20th , I persevered and finished many projects. Did you accomplish anything your excited about this month?

Quotes

Posted on January 27, 2012 by Jennifer

Any illusions you may have had that this is a family blog will be over shortly.

Found these quotes.

I think they are funny.

And my favorite….

Have a great weekend!

Always Be Prepared

Posted on November 17, 2011 by Jennifer

My son just walked in on me in the bathroom.

His face was a look of horror.

But it’s not what you think.

I was using his old baseball shirt to wipe my daughter’s rear end since there was not a proper wipe to be found in our house, our car, or her school bag.

I really don’t know what he’s so worked up about.

After all, he’s a boy scout and you know their motto.

“Always be prepared.”

I was.

Later while flipping through his Boy Scout book I realized my diaper changing skills earned me the Home Repairs, The Pioneering, and the Plumbing merit badges.

Shameless

Posted on July 25, 2011 by Jennifer

I was a shameless mother to Caroline.

But in the interest of full disclosure I should tell you this.

After consuming a dinner of milk, orange slices, and cheddar biscuits at Red Lobster last Friday night, Caroline proceeded to vomit her entire stomach contents on the restaurant floor.

It was a lot. I’m talking change of shoes and clothing bad.

I’m pretty sure I will never eat another cheddar biscuit for as long as I live.

Oh, and it was our first and only trip to Red Lobster.

The following day Caroline and I ended up in the children’s book section of Borders while the boys finished up in a movie. One hour into the movie and she was done so we went for a walk.

Caroline and I were standing side by side browsing the movie section when I let quite a foul smelling gas escape. It was silent. I do have some pride.

At the moment of release, a woman stopped directly behind us to examine a book.

I’m not proud of what I did next.

I bent down and said, “Caroline, do we need to change your diaper?”

Yes. I Did. I blamed her for the smell.

Let me just remind you about REGURGITATED CHEDDAR BISCUITS ON THE FLOOR!

A little tit for tat.

I am pitiful and shameless.

And smelly.

A Message for Al Gore

Posted on February 15, 2011 by Jennifer

Dear Mr. Vice President,

I know the environment is important to you. I know this is your passion and such an important cause. I know you try and educate people on ways to keep our planet healthy. But now, Mr. President, I feel I must educate you.

As a mom, I do care about the environment. I do know we should all be working to improve our water systems, stop deforestation, and address the climate crisis. I do want wants best for my children and their future children.

But not today. Not tomorrow. Probably not next year.

You see, Mr. President. I never get a spare minute to myself in the bathroom. I always have a visitor. I’ve had a visitor for the last 8 years. Mind you the visitors have changed but still I am not alone. I’m sure the secret service accompanies you many places but I’m willing to bet you do get a little privacy in this one area.

In the past, currently, and in the future there is only one thing which will occupy my visitors. The toilet paper roll. My visitors enter the bathroom with great surprise and enthusiasm each time they notice the roll. From there, not even your top military commander could stop the destruction. It is only a matter of nanoseconds before mass amounts of toilet paper are lying upon the floor. For years, rolls upon rolls of paper, have been wasted in this manner.

Yes I do I contemplate all the trees that have gone into the making of this precious resource. Yes I do know all of the energy that is consumed in the process of making this toilet paper. And yet, I simply toss it.

Let’s face it Mr. President, I toss it and move on. I simply must. Somewhere in my house the water is running, the lights are on, and my visitors are using every scrap piece of paper to color on. In time I will jump on your environmental mission -probably around the time I go to the bathroom all by myself.

Regards,

Jennifer

Safety is a Bummer

Posted on January 20, 2011 by Jennifer

As we were driving home from school the other day, Andrew suddenly announced,

“I like fire drills better than tornado drills.”

Why’s that?

“Fire drills, you get to go outside.”

What do you do for tornado drills?

“We all have to go into the bathroom and put our bums towards the door. It’s so boring.”

Safety in the eyes of a 5 year old.

James Joyce Knows Motherhood

Posted on January 14, 2011 by Jennifer

“A mother’s love for her child is like nothing else in the world. It knows no law, no pity, it dares all things and crushes down remorselessly all that stands in its path.”
— Agatha Christie

such a beautiful quote on motherhood

yesterday my day was more like this quote

“Whatever else is unsure in this stinking dunghill of a world, a mother’s love is not.”
— James Joyce

emphasis on the dunghill

I came back from work yesterday, said goodbye to the babysitter, and told my daughter I needed to “go potty.” Yes, I am a grown woman who says “go potty” probably 20 times a day – even in reference to myself.

Caroline took off like a rocket towards my bathroom. She grabbed the kid potty out from under the sink and set it on the floor. We are not potty training her. She just found the potty stored under there one day and takes it out every once in awhile.

She took off her pants and made it clear she wanted to take off her diaper. I helped her, humoring her since I needed to change her diaper anyway. She wanted to take her shirt off but I refused. Just for the record, no one else takes their shirt off here when going to the bathroom.

I realized I didn’t have a clean diaper so I walked around the corner to get one.

When I walked back in I found this…

At first my eyes to brain connection wasn’t working. I couldn’t figure out what the pile was on the ground. When I suddenly made the connection…

Oh Sh*t!

LITERALLY!

I calmly grabbed her, cleaned her up – this included taking off her shirt which was now dirty (I should have listened to her about taking off her shirt), her dirty socks (she had managed to run all around the room in the 5 seconds I was gone), and her body.

I cleaned up the mess and put her down for her nap.

All rather calmly if I do say so myself.

An hour later I found another pile of it in my the closet……on the carpet.

I Heart this Room

Posted on January 10, 2011 by Jennifer

My favorite room in the house also happens to be the smallest room in our house. I think the 2 reasons it’s my favorite room is because I made everything in the room and it’s finished. Can we hear an “Oh Yeah – it’s finished!”

The first thing I found for the room was the shower curtain fabric. I bought it all the way back in June but finally got around to making the curtain in September.

The animal fabric and matching dot fabric are from City Craft. It is one of my favorite places to find unique fabrics. I think I’ve bought more fabric from there than actually made projects.This is as close up of a picture you are going to get since my sewing skills are horrible. I hate to read through tutorials or read directions. I prefer instead to look at the pictures and figure out how to make something. Perhaps that accounts for never having enough fabric in the end.

I decided the curtain wasn’t long enough so I needed to make loops at the top to extend its length. I was shopping in IKEA one day when I found a black pillow case in the clearance section for $0.99. Bingo. I found my material for black loops.

For artwork in the room I bought a few pieces of scrapbook paper in the same colors and made some art. I used the tracer (the best art tool ever) to make the animal shape from the fabric larger so I could trace it onto some paper. I already had all the frames from some previous kitchen art.I also painted the walls white since I thought it would look better than the builder’s tan we have everywhere else.I had seen the quote below on other blogs and just made in a font and some colors that coordinated.