By Jen, on September 3rd, 2010
Sometimes when you’re being weighed down by some heavy grown-up struggles, you really just need a giggle to lighten the load. Kids are the perfect medium to give you such spontaneous giggles.
Jeremy came in to the laundry room to find me and said “Mom, I need your help.”
I follow him into my kitchen and saw…
I asked Jeremy, “Why is my flour out of the pantry?”
He opened the door and showed me…
“I need a place for my stool.”
Before I could get the next question out of my mouth, he showed me why his stool needed to be in the pantry…
He needed the extra height to reach the M&Ms. Then Jeremy said to me (I swear this is as close to word-for-word as I can remember) “I wanted M&Ms, but remembered to ask you first. Mom, is it okay for me to get the M&Ms?”
How do you argue with a question like that when an almost-4 year old gets everything ready and could have easily sneaked some chocolate, but then confesses that he remembered to ask first. Sure, it was only 10 am, but I had to reward his good behavior with a small handful of M&Ms.
A little bit of chocolate before lunch is definitely a Finer Thing!
Congratulations to Amy on your new addition. I imagine your baby boy is just as gorgeous as your first three children. Hope to see pictures soon!
By Jen, on September 2nd, 2010
For the first time in a month, I am caught-up on a few levels…
1) Laundry. When we moved a month ago I had bushels of laundry that I had waited on from the old house because I was busy packing. Finally, the piles upon piles are no longer living in my bathroom. Who knew I had a floor in there?!
2) Dishes. Oh my goodness. For as much as I deeply love my new kitchen and really enjoy spending time in there cooking and baking for my family, I do not like doing dishes. Jason helps out a lot and I try to keep on top of it, but I can finally say that I now have a method which is keeping things under control.
3) My blog reader is EMPTY! I used to be able to stay caught-up on my favorite blogs by reading them through Google Reader on my iPod Touch during the 10-20 minute feeding sessions with Jesse several times a day. Lately he’s been so distractable that I can’t hold my iPod close enough to read. If I hold it within Jesse’s arm’s reach he will catch a glimpse of it and wave his arm around to grab at the shiny thing in my hand. This leads to him unlatching before his meal is finished, wanting to play, and then hungry again 30 minutes later. Not fun. I’ve been keeping tabs on a select few blogs but haven’t commented much. I have to say, though it was nice to have those little bits of time to read something other than Dr Seuss, it is even nicer now to have those bits of the day designated for quiet time. I ask everyone to be quiet and turn off the tv because any noise distracts my little guy. Jesse is so wonderfully social that he wants to be included in everything. In order to get him to nurse well I have to keep everything off and place my hand on the side of his face to cover his ear (which also makes him go to sleep).
I still have a few lingering boxes of miscellaneous things to go through, but I really feel completely unpacked. The stuff in the boxes is mostly just that – stuff. I’m thinking of joining (significantly late) the Declutter Challenge at Amy’s Finer Things. I’m convinced that if I haven’t needed any of it in a month or longer, then I really don’t need it at all. I was determined with this recent move that I would unpack gradually just the things we use instead of opening and emptying every box at once and ending up in a horrible cluttered mess. So far it’s working and I really can’t pinpoint what we’re missing. Jason took a big load of things to Good Will a couple weeks ago and now I’m feeling the itch to pull together a bunch more stuff to make the same journey.
In order to keep my mind off of my numerous messes this past month, I’ve been tinkering with my blog’s design. I am no professional and it still needs work, but I think it looks significantly better than the standard canned design that WordPress gives you to start with. The faces up top are really cute, but I am looking in to getting some nice family photos taken to send to family and I’d like to have our smiling faces on the landing page of my blog.
Another thing I’ve been meaning to do is get my photos organized. A lot of my posts here are “naked” – text without any pictures (like this post). I have loads of pictures, but there is no rhyme or rhythm to their disorganization since Jason and I consolidated to one computer. I need to fix that and start putting some up here.
Lastly, I will make a Household Notebook. I’ve seen lots of posts on several blogs, but FishMama’s posts especially intrigue me. I’ve been menu planning for a couple of years and I maintain a color-coded family calendar on the fridge, but there are many other bits of information involved in the running of my household that are kept up in my head. This doesn’t work for me anymore because I am becoming quite forgetful and when I travel with the boys to California and leave Jason and Uncle Frank here in Alabama, they are left hanging. I need to get myself in gear and make one of those books.
In other words, in some things I am finally caught-up but in other things I’m still getting there.
By Jen, on August 26th, 2010
One word… YUM!
I volunteered to bring the bread to our Mother’s of Preschoolers brunch this morning. I couldn’t bring just a plain old sliced baguette or anything, but we’re feeding roughly 10-15 women (hopefully more someday!) so I need my assignment to be three things: simple, tasty, and inexpensive.
Crescent rolls are one of my favorite breads to pair with a meal, morning, noon, or night. Their buttery flakiness pairs perfectly with whatever you decide to serve them with. But I didn’t want to bring plain crescents. I went to the store and figured that a brilliant idea would hit me at some point.
Well, crescents were on a deep sale last week ($1.68 per roll!) and as I was checking out I noticed that Hershey’s chocolate bars were only 50¢ each! I tossed a few of those into my order and decided that my brilliant simple idea was nearly complete.
Once I got home I had the thought to dress them up just a bit more with a little egg wash and some chunky raw sugar.
Line ‘em up, plunk down a piece of chocolate onto each triangle, and roll ‘em up. So easy.
This step isn’t necessary, but it only takes a minute. Beat up an egg with a couple tablespoons of milk, brush some over the top of each roll, and sprinkle on a bit of sugar. I love Sugar in the Raw, it gives anything such sparkle because it doesn’t just melt into whatever you’re baking like granulated sugar does.
Bake them off as your package instructs. Mine said 11-13 minutes at 375°.
Don’t they look pretty? All golden brown and sparkly on top! You can’t see it now, but there’s a beautiful little melty nugget of chocolate waiting for you inside. Enjoy!
Lastly, how can you beat making 3 dozen dessert breads for just over $10? That’s just the sale prices too, if you are a couponer I bet you could make these for close to free!
By Jen, on August 14th, 2010
Wowee! These little suckers certainly pack a punch!
As I mentioned previously, I had some grand plans to create some mojito tarts for a barbeque at my friend Melissia’s house yesterday. My plans were nearly foiled when I realized that amidst our $300 stock-up shopping trip to Sam’s Club (most of that will last us more than . . . → Read More: Lynchburg Lemonade Tarts
By Jen, on August 14th, 2010
Yesterday I woke up with my left breast being swollen bigger than it’s ever been (bigger even than the week after birth and my milk came in *like whoa*). I latched on my boy and was surprised by some searing pain as he fed ravenously for the first time in 8 hours. When he let go I . . . → Read More: Breastfeeding Gurus
By Jen, on August 10th, 2010
Today’s post is two things: a simple “thanks for being there” and a little plug for one of my favorite websites.
As I’ve mentioned before, my husband is in the Coast Guard. He’s an AMT2, which means he’s a second-class Aviation Maintenance Technician. Though it might sound like he’s basically a mechanic, he does many things. From . . . → Read More: Gratituesday – Coastie Chicks
By Jen, on August 8th, 2010
This should be a great week and I’m looking forward to trying a few new recipes….
Monday – Balsamic Thyme Chicken with carrots and homemade Rice-a-Roni.
Tuesday – Homemade pizza.
Wednesday – Jamaican beef patties and fries.
Thursday – Lemon pepper chicken with garlic parmesan pasta.
Friday . . . → Read More: Menu Plan: 8-9-10
By Jen, on August 6th, 2010
Little by little I’m learning how to customize my little ol’ blog here.
Aside from the writing I’ve done, I’m getting some things done on the back-end. So far I’ve successfully:
Changed my theme from Word Press Classic to Atahualpa (loving it, by the way).
Installed some very helpful plug-ins.
Changed a bunch of settings within my theme to make . . . → Read More: Learning to Customize
By Jen, on August 5th, 2010
We’re playing a little game this week. It’s called “Starving Baby”. Usually Jesse will eat for a solid 10-15 minutes, unlatch, and we’ll pop him into his swing or highchair to hang out while I do stuff. Every now and then though, he’ll fall asleep but continue dream-feeding for a while. Normally I relish in the . . . → Read More: Jesse’s Game
By Jen, on August 2nd, 2010
I haven’t written anything about our recent move. By “recent” I mean, we’ve been in our new place for three nights now. We decided that while the house we had been renting for the past year was fine, since my mother-in-law moved back to California we just really didn’t need that much space. Also, . . . → Read More: Menu Plan – First Week in (Another) New Home
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