Baking

We had to miss our parish dinner this year (which is a HUGE deal) because we went to Jeremy's cousin's wedding.  I did my baking anyway since I don't want to be excommunicated from the parish!

(Just kidding, they'd still love us.  I wanted to contribute as much as I could since we couldn't be there to help!)

Trying Again

In the midst of Christmas shopping I found four ugly seventies gold yellow plastic cups like these at Goodwill.  I bought them despite only finding four because the enamel on my original cups chipped every time someone dropped them (which was often) and no one would drink out of them anymore.  I googled the name on the bottom of the plastic cups and viola! found eight of these (still rather ugly seventies) green cups.  We go through so many less cups in a day again!  And I have seven backups if any of them break when dropped.

Sometimes it's the little things, even if they are kind of ugly.

Small Successes

1. The cat house is done. We have friends who have been asking us to take some of their kittens off their hands. I'm not overly excited but the mouse population in the house has been too high and the kids are excited. I'm not sure when we're actually getting the cats but since they will be outside only cats and we don't have any outbuildings they needed some place warm to sleep first.

2. I have reinstated my "one big chore a day" plan. I rotate chores so that everything gets done once every two weeks. I was doing pretty well until morning sickness hit & yes, that's been over for months now, but I never got back on track. I've now done my chore (almost) every day for a week & the house looks much better. This is Eggbert. I found him when I cleaned the fridge out. Thomas made him way back during E week (It's now J week) and had a fit when I said we had to throw his "friend" away (his word, not mine) . So we took this picture. May he rest in peace...

3. I got my hair cut. This is more my hairdresser's success but it took me a month to remember to call and set up an appointment so I'm counting it. My hair was way too long. I like it much better again.

4. My desensitization project with Julia is working. She hates for me to mess with her hair and would immediately pull out any bow or rubber band I put in. I, however, hate rats' nest hair and refuse to let her hair look like that. It was getting to the point where it need to be pulled back or cut so every morning for a couple weeks I've fixed her hair. At first it lasted 15 minutes. We're up to about half a day now and she has even asked me to pull it back a couple times. (By pointing to a stray hair tie on the floor and saying "please" as she pats her head.) Doesn't she look cute? :)

I don't know why you can't click on this to make it bigger...
5. We are all well. Please pray that we stay this way for awhile! :)

Small Successes

To even out my crabby post from a few days ago I thought I'd participate in Faith and Family's Small Successes this week.

1. The beds are winterized! Flannel sheets and warm blankets are on. And, amazingly enough, we had no small, cold visitors (Thomas) to our bed last night, no one needed to go tell Julia to lay down and go back to sleep at 1:30 am, since I got Samuel a real twin size sheet and blanket instead of just a throw blanket his covers did not end up on the floor and Jeremy did not complain about being cold. Pregnant me, on the other hand, woke up a little too nice and toasty. Oh well, 4 out of 5 isn't bad.

2. I put away all the boys' shorts (sigh) and most of the short sleeve shirts. I also got out all my winter maternity stuff (sigh again, I have to get them out sooner every pregnancy) and put away my summer things. Only Julia and Jeremy left to go.

3. I dusted the dining room and living room. This hadn't been done since pre-pregnancy times. Poor dust bunny families, they're all broken up now...

4. I dusted for cobwebs in the whole house. I usually do this while kids are sleeping otherwise they try to steal the duster and poke things, but Thomas woke up before I finished and was very interested. I guess he didn't remember seeing me do this before (it has been awhile, a long while). He offered his "good eyes" and did even spot a couple cobwebs I missed.

5. I made a nice shepherd's pie with some of the industrial sized can of mashed potatoes we came home with from the Colon dinner. Actually, while I was searching on line for a recipe I learned that if you make it with beef it's cottage pie, you have to use lamb for a true shepherd's pie. Makes sense I guess.

6. I successfully made dumplings for the first time. I made chicken and dumpling soup that was really delicious. I was a little surprised, I didn't even have to put in a bullion cube! I made mashed potato dumplings (still trying to use up those mashed potatoes) which turns out to be really easy. Mix equal parts mashed potatoes and flour and put them in your boiling soup. Put on the lid and when they float they're done! I never had dumplings until I married Jeremy but he put his stamp of approval on them. Although he did say they were a little moist, but they were in soup, what did he expect?

7. Samuel came home with a note that he now needs all eight colors of crayons. That makes it so much better. I can buy a whole box and pick out eight of them instead of only two. :P (By the way, I tried sending the red violet and dandelion ones, Samuel did not approve. I don't know where he gets those perfectionist genes...)