Thursday, April 30, 2015

Book Smarts

I have always been a voracious reader. I have a lot of 'rules' about reading.
1) I like to finish books I start.
2) I like books to be relevant to my life.
My step-dad dropped off a bunch of books of mine. They were in his basement and he is clearing stuff out! Many of the books are "women stuff", books on rape, the role of women and other topics relating to my Women and Gender Study minor. Some were books on salvaging and repurposing flea market finds. Some were on radical lifestyles.
My lifestyle and tastes have changed, a little, but just looking at the books brought me back to that time and mindset in my life.
More on this soon.

Monday, April 27, 2015

Mommy Gear

I left the house once today, to go grocery shopping. My digital coupon didn't go through. But the woman in line in front of me gave me all her Monopoly cards/coupons. Lucky number 13!
While shopping, a woman asked me about the baby carrier I have. We had a nice little chat. Her baby appeared to have jaundice. But who knows?
Today I wore a hoodie, an over-sized t-shirt, unremarkable jeans, and old Adidas sneakers. I also have (and wore) a leather biker/ punk-rock jacket. I felt like I was in some kind of sad Mommy uniform. It is what it is.

I love the way The Baby feels in my arms. I love the way he fits in my nook, the way his soft hair feels on my cheek. And I love the way he hugs me back.

The Boy is making great strides in his language. He says
"Yeah" and "yes"
More often now. And he told me his ankle was feeling better. I feel like we can have conversations now. And that is really cool.

Sunday, April 26, 2015

Six Years

I went to church this morning with The Baby. The Boy stayed home with a twisted ankle! He twisted his ankle in a freak accident. The Hubs carried him inside and when he put him down The Boy and The Boy started screaming. His foot has slight bruising on the top. I wrapped up his foot and we got to ice it this evening. Poor baby!

Thursday, April 23, 2015

Salt And Peppa

Yesterday:
Because of that commercial, I wanted to listen to Push It by Salt And Peppa. I put it on while cleaning the kitchen and almost immediately The Boy was saying,
"No! No! No!"
And he was whining and he wanted to watch Wheels On The Bus. When I started dancing in my crazy way, he almost had a mental breakdown. And he actually started crying!
I didn't let him watch his show, and I was really sad. Was he embarrassed? Does he love his shows that much? Was he hungry?
The Baby thought my dancing was funny.

Today:
I worked on my will and succession plans. And by 'worked on' I mean 'talked about'. With my stepdad. We went to his house and the boys played, we made vegan pancakes (weird aftertaste), and went outside. I felt like we accomplished something.

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Flax!

I like to read stay-at-home-mom/homemaker blogs. One blog (and of course I forgot it's address), said that being a homemaker should be considered one's job. But in a more intense way. Folks study and read about their career aspirations, so folks should read articles and books about homemaking. I think that's true. The author also mentioned that homemaking takes practice and work. Homemakers need to work on their skill set-like working on new recipes. And I would have read more, but than things got very Jesus-y and they tried to sell me The Ultimate Homemakers Guide.

So this evening I tried two new recipes:
Fried Rice
I used a fresh onion but canned peas and carrots. The peas got smooshed in the shuffle.
No egg, because I hate egg in fried rice.
I used new rice. And made way more than necessary.
My rice didn't really fry! Just got smooshed and clumpy.
The Hubs and The Baby really liked it! The Boy refused to eat it. Ok, he had a few bites. I thought it was ok.
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Instead of chips I used plain M&Ms.
Instead of flour, I used ground flaxseed.
And instead of 1/3 cup brown sugar I accidentally put in 1 1/3 cup! I tried to pull out as much as I could.
The flaxseed is certainly there...
The cookies spread out and covered the whole cookie sheet. So the consistently is much more chewy.
Now we know.
Also, I set off the smoke alarm.

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Productivity and Homemaking

Every night I seem to be caught in an awful routine of getting stuck in front of the tv, going to bed later than I mean to. And I think about all the things I didn't do, and all the things I should have done. And I noticed that the work I do isn't tangible. The housework is, but the kid-raising is not. And the housework is never-ending. I realize that I do not clean up after myself or the kids (or The Hubs) very well.
I do not see my children as distractions from housework. Because they are a huge part of my life, and I love playing and hanging out them.
How do I balance? How do I get stuff done?

Saturday, April 18, 2015

Dates

This morning I took The Boy to Terminal Park. Which is a terrible name for a park. It was a great park! A big field, a baseball field, swings, slides, a see-saw...just a great area. The Boy, surprisingly, was almost more interested in collecting pine cones and rocks. I gave him an old wipes box to put them in. It was really nice to spend time with just him.

It has come to my attention that I cannot keep a clean house. I'm a pretty good, possibly awesome mom, but I'm a pretty terrible housewife (still hate that term).

The Hubs and I tried to go to K-1 Racing, which is a go-kart place in  Buffalo Grove. The wait was over an hour for one of the tracks. My mom was babysitting, and I didn't think she would appreciate the time frame. But we went to Goodwill, and then got pizza. Our  make-shift date was cheaper than our planned one. We had a good time. You know, because we were together.

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

Happines

I am reading The Happiness Project  by Gretchen Rubin and I highly recommend it.

The emotional agony of listening to my children 'cry it out' is wretched but hard to explain. I do it because I think it works.

Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Gallery Park

I took the boys to Gallery Park in Glenview. We had a good time collecting rocks and playing in the sandbox.

I wanted us to get our free cones at Ben&Jerry's, but the line way too long for us.

Monday, April 13, 2015

No Nap

The Boy was in his crib for almost two hours and didn't sleep! He was kind of a lunatic for the rest of the day. He kept running into stuff and whining and he didn't eat his dinner. We let him watch his 'shows' (stuff on Sprout, on Demand). He was laying on the couch and I told him that he could watch and relax until his bedtime. He laughed maniacally and said,
"Goooood job, Mom! High-five?"
Obviously I laughed out loud.

The Baby got to crawl around the library! Who knows what kind of germs he picked up?

Tuesday, April 7, 2015

Hold The Phone

I had a phone date today! With a BFF. She moved to Oregon and the time difference really threw us off. We talked on her lunch hour, and I had both kids sleeping for part of it. We sort of caught up. But I was pleased to note that although our conversations have ceased recently, we were able to pick up exactly as we had left off.

Getting out of the house is so hard! It takes me a long time to get ready, then getting my kids ready...it can be hours before we get out of the house. I don't know how to streamline our getting-out-of-the-house activities.

We finally got out of the house and walked to CVS. On the way there, The Boy collected rocks and a few sticks.
First Transaction:
2 bags of Pull-Ups
1 bag of Huggies wipes
1 bag of Huggies swim diapers
I had coupons for each item. And I got $10 ExtraCare bucks.
Second Transaction:
4 bags of clearance M&Ms
2 boxes of clearance egg dye
3 boxes of  Puffs
1 package of Bounty paper towels
I had coupons for all these items too! I saved 90%. CVS has a very generous coupon policy.