Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Sleeplessness Somewhere South of Seattle


Ohhhh. So why is it that I can compose such good posts in my head while making breakfast but suddenly forget everything when I sit down after lunch (boy asleep) to write? Anyway, I should be finishing putting the groceries away, washing dishes and making dinner, but instead I'm sitting down with coffee and doughnut holes. Nevermind the fact that I have already had about 16 oz each of coffee and Mountain Dew today. Also nevermind the fact that I stood in Costco not two hours ago and debated over which frozen vegies to buy because I "wanted" to go on my diet. But the doughnut holes were purchased last night when I had a bad headache and had just cashed my paycheck, so they were a great idea at the time; and I never let good food go to waste, so it is incumbent upon me to eat the last two now.
Anyhow, we are all very exhausted around here. Small boy has decided that it is fun to climb out of his crib, much more fun than staying in it and going to sleep. So he has been falling asleep at 11pm out of sheer exhaustion, usually with me holding him, and getting up at 7am (or earlier) every day. He usually takes a nap, also only because I will sit and hold him. If he skips his nap, then he goes to bed easily and early, about 6pm, but then wakes up to party for a couple hours in the middle of the night. A few days ago that time was from 11pm till 2:30am. If I keep him up past 6pm with no nap then at that point he is very sleep deprived and we have a meltdown and then the middle-of-the-night party still happens and is much less of a party... So we pretty much make sure the nap happens come what may. A friend of mine told me her children both did the jack-in-the-box routine around age 2, and it lasted about a month and a half; so I'm guessing we have another 4 or 5 weeks of this fun. Yay. Anyone else with experience in this area?
Well, I gotta scoot, just remembered I gotta do some ironing, add buttonholes to shirts, and properly re-allocate the cash in my spending envelopes after all the shopping we did today, in addition to the above-listed items. And we are trying Kirkland Signature diapers this time around; HOPING they don't give him a rash (haven't tried them since long before he started becoming allergic to everything) because they are so much cheaper than Pampers. Fingers crossed!


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Monday, February 17, 2014

Thankfulness--because it should be all year long, not just in November!

Okay, this is going to sound super lame. I just opened my blog page to begin this post and was startled to see the photo of my most recent post. Yep, I completely forgot that I had actually finished and posted that post. Sad, I know; and now you know how bad my memory is. My poor family...

Anyway, today I am composing a list of blessings for Mamas to count.
1. Be thankful you are getting no peace when you are in the bathroom -- at least you know exactly where that 2-year-old is instead of wondering why he's being so quiet SOMEWHERE ELSE.
2.  It's a good thing to do taxes--either you are getting a refund (always good!) or you are getting to discover what a good income God blessed you with last year (as you write that check to the IRS and wonder if you skip signing it if they will send it back and give you a little more time before you have to pay that bill!).
3. It's pouring down rain as you head out the door with the kids in tow so you can go to the Post Office to mail and important document that you don't want to get wet. -- At least it's not snowy/icy like it was last week! (Yep, I know, there is no good way to look at standing in line at the PO, especially with kids!)
4. Two-year-old getting out of bed a million times when he's supposed to be going to sleep--you are getting exercise when you would otherwise sit on your duff for an hour watching Downton Abby. (I know I'm grasping at strings there but that was my Sunday evening so what can I say...)
5. Well, why should it be five things? I'm gonna leave it at four, because multitasking anymore may just put me over the top.
I think that's going to be my mission for today, focus on a few things to be thankful for as I go about my day today, tomorrow pick a few different things, and soforth for this week.
What are you choosing to be thankful for today?

Sunday, February 9, 2014

My Decorating Brilliance :)


In case you don't know, I really enjoy magazines. I think I currently am subscribing to 5 different ones, but I have honestly lost track. It works nicely this way, I always have something to read that doesn't involve a computer screen. Anyway, my latest epiphany--I am seriously ahead of the times, home-decor wise. I mean, I decided several months ago that I am doing yellow and green in my kitchen. And then I get the February issue of Better Homes and Gardens and realize that yellow and green are the new "in" colors! Which makes life very handy for me this spring. You see, I told Mom that my kitchen is changing to yellow and green and she asked if it was the same yellow/gold and olive that were in when she was my age. But of course not :) I have a few olive colored decorator glass pieces, but I am going more for a lighter green and lightish yellow (and touches of red and brown to ground it.). In fact, I bought my yellow KitchenAid mixer a year ago! I just have always loved green and yellow (And I should add, as my Oregon State graduated brother was worried about this, I am NOT going for the Oregon Duck colors; in fact the correlation had not entered my head until he brought it up!)  Anyhow, as I was saying, my timing for my color decision couldn't have been better--my Mom got me some cute colorful measuring cups and spoons, a yellow butter pot (goodbye slippery butter dish lid!) and some cute yellow and green ramekins (I should also add that she also got me 8. These of course go very nicely with the set of green KitchenAid cooking utensils my sweet hubby got me for Christmas. So being as I am still rebuilding my kitchen supplies (most of mine when AWOL when we moved across country two years ago) this is the perfect year to finish that process up! Besides, having lots of pretty colors to cook with makes the process so much more fun and cheerful, don't you think?

In other news, the ice around here is finally melting, thank you God!!! Our parking lot was so bad yesterday that it took hubby 15 minutes to even get into it last night after work. We decided to stay home from church today for that reason--the roads are okay, but if we can't get safely out of our parking lot... So we had family Bible reading from the safety of our living room today, and I'm sure we weren't the only ones! 

Saturday, February 8, 2014

Winter Storm #2. Like, REALLY???



Aiyiyi... I'm trying not to look out the window. Well nevermind, I just did. 8" of snow in the past two days, in a city which rarely gets snow so doesn't believe in using salt (it's not "environmentally friendly"...) and can't be bothered to use the three plows they own. My hubby barely made it out of our icy parking lot and onto the main road (all side roads are nightmares) just now so he could go to work this afternoon. It was supposed to warm up today but instead we had freezing rain so who know what what will be coming next. I gotta admit, I'm already nervous about getting to work on Monday :(  Although I did just check weather.com which states that it is supposed to be above freezing by tomorrow early morning and a high of 46 degrees. So maybe it will all melt tomorrow. I never minded this kind of weather in the midwest, but here in the southern northwest it is just an absolute pain.



Anyhow, hubby and I had the wonderful pleasure of a date two days ago! Jerry Seinfeld was in town performing and hubby bought tickets months ago. Of course that was the day this whole snow/ice thing started, but we were not to be deterred. So we trekked carefully across town to drop Boy off with his uncle and aunt, then back across town where we had a very nice steak dinner (probably the nicest we have ever had in our 9+ years of marriage!) and then went across the street to the theater where we spent one of the most fun evenings of our married adventure together. Totally worth braving the elements for, and would do it again in a heartbeat!

Then back across the snow to get Boy. After we dropped the sleeping angel in bed, we got to go in search of the bad smell that met us when we walked in the front door. (This is nearing 11pm, mind you.) Sure enough, found the source; dog had gotten sick on the living room floor while we were gone. Why oh why did that dog have to get into the garbage the day before??? Cleaned up the carpet, got in bed and to sleep after 11pm. Then at 4am was awakened by dog being sick again, had to get up and clean the carpet again, went back to bed for about 1.5 hours then got up and went to work. Which was a slow day which thankfully ended early---it took me 15 minutes to clean off/dig out my car so I could get out of the parking lot and make my way home. I'm really wishing I had taken a pic with my phone so I could share it here; but I was just focused on getting out of that parking lot in one piece by then... Gotta admit, I'm not sure when was the last time that weather has stressed me out as badly as it has the last couple of days. So now, just trying to relax and enjoy the weekend. Oh wait, I have a sink full of dishes. Oh well, it was a nice thought anyway!