Have you tried it? Oh it is so good. By far my favorite way to drink hot coco and it was perfect for today’s rainy day. The girls gulped it up during snack time and I still have a little bit left in the fridge. It is even good to sip on cold and the tablet is really yummy to nibble on.
Random fact: I have been wearing glasses since I was 13 (see proof here).
Therefore, I never really got into the whole geek chic thing because I have worn glasses most of my life and it really isn’t anything particularly cool to me. It would be a dream to see clearly first thing in the morning and not to have to look for my glasses on my bedside table. So most days, almost everyday actually, I pretty much wear contacts. Though lately my eye has been bugging me, so I am resting it by wearing my glasses.
I think our winter is pretty much over, as our days have been pretty warm, but once that sun starts going down it gets really cold. Okay, California cold. This jacket is lightweight, kinda like wearing an extra shirt, but it is nice and light to wear during the day and is just an extra layer for our cool California evenings. Plus, it goes well with dresses and jeans!
The weekend was grand and we have rain in the forecast this week. Hopefully after the rain, I can get out to the yard and start pulling weeds (it’s a jungle out there). It is about that time to start planning out our summer garden and I can’t wait to start planting again.
The weekend is upon us. Woot! I have a girlfriend’s bridal shower to attend and I get to be with Ben (and the girls) the rest of the time.
I have been really tired of late that I haven’t even been exercising, which is something I do in the morning. It is strange. It is going on three weeks now that I have been having terrible sleep. I will wake up in the middle of the night and not be able to fall back asleep or relax. I don’t know what it is. I finally fall asleep when Ben’s alarm goes off and then I wake up an hour later when he has to leave. It is quite frustrating. I have always been a heavy sleeper and never had any problems with sleep until now. I used to describe my heavy sleeping saying “I melted into the bed.” Now, I just won’t melt.
I am thinking of trying some sort of relaxing tea, but I am not sure which one. Anyone have any tips? These sleepless nights are driving me mad.
This week’s learned and links…
– Family meal planning has been so great. I am appreciating it more and more and it has really changed the dynamics of our dinners and even our daily lunch.
– Soul must always get dressed first thing in the morning. She insists on taking off her pajamas and wearing a shirt and a skirt. Sometimes 2 skirts!
– Still obsessed with Madewell. I am holding a sign that says, “Will work for these shoes.”
– Wish I went to school for graphic design so I can have skills like this lady.
– Love hearing your thoughts on this post. I would also like to hear from those who are more spontaneous or do “attachment” parenting. It is good to learn from everyone! My way isn’t the only way to parent, we all have different styles and we just do what is best for us and our children.
– This idea of my sister’s is so genius. Happy jar… a good way to count your blessings and name them one by one!
It seems there is a whole lot of truth serum going out in the blog world these days. I have always been a fan of sharing the not sopretty partsof my life and I love knowing the real life stuff behind another blog too. Makes people seem more real and relatable. I think blogging can sometimes be alienating thinking certain blogs have got it made in their lives and that is probably further from the truth.
One day you may be reading how much we loved baking and crafting up a storm, but the next day I am probably more likely to have a mommy meltdown because let’s face it, I have meltdowns all the time because being a mommy is hard. Sometimes during my sleepless nights, I even think about how awful I might have been that day, how I wish I got more done or how I wish I could redo the day all over again. All this to say, if you have bad days, I have them too. If you have got bills to pay, well, I do too! If you yell or get frustrated, I do too! If you are wondering, how you can get your kids to be more well-behaved. I am too! No one has life quite figured out and I am here just trying to trust and love God as I go through it and learn from it. Makes me more thankful for Christ’s redeeming work on the cross.
This week was for plenty of reading for all of us here (and cupcake eating during snack time). The girls are busying themselves with their books and I have a few of my own. The next step in True’s reading is to conquer long vowels. She’s got the short sound vowels, blends, and digraphs and now we get to move on. Of course, she still has to work on fluency, but she will get there (and so will Brave) or at least that is what BFF tells me. For those wondering, I used “The Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading”, which I highly recommend. It is a nice phonics based program that builds skills slowly and has a nice review at the beginning of each new lesson.
As far as my reading, I have started reading the book, “Bringing Up Bébé”, which puts American parenting styles versus French parenting. There is a lot of hoopla about it here, here, and here and it got me curious, especially since the bits I was reading online sounded a lot like my own parenting philosophies.
I am really enjoying the read. I know in our home we are quite structured and really value routine. We have done a version of the “cry out” method for each of our girls to sleep through the night and we pretty much follow the same eating philosophy mentioned in the book.
I know when we just had True, my parents had a hard time with our parenting style, particularly the fact that we let our girls cry it out. We even had a big fight about it once. Big! With all the girls so close in age, we have to have structure and find that our girls thrive on structure and balance. I thrive on structure and balance. Sometimes, I wish we were more spontaneous, but we just aren’t. When they are given too much of something or too little of something, it really comes out in their behavior and it throws them off.
I know some of you in the past have emailed or asked, “When am I able to blog or make things?” I think since I have always been so structured with the girls, that has allowed me the freedom and time to do those things. The girls up until the age of three all napped twice a day, usually from 10 am-12 pm and 2 pm-5 pm and then still went to bed at 7:30 or 8 at night. Really. The two big girls no longer nap, but Soul still sticks to that same nap schedule. She goes into the crib, I close the door to her room, and she naps. Glow is pretty much on a similar nap schedule, but just a bit longer. During this nap time, I am doing school with the big girls or we are having quiet reading time.
We are very strict about bedtimes too. Not only is it for Ben and me to get some peace and quiet and alone time, but also for them. When they stay up too late, they get cranky and the next day they are cranky and just thrown off kilter. This framework is what works best for our house and our personalities.
I am no parenting expert and I am sure everyone just does what they know and feel is best for their children. We all have to go with our gut. We know our children best and what will work best for them and the wonderful thing is we can also learn a little bit from each other. If any of you have any thoughts about it, I would love to hear!
Following suit to Soul and Boogie, which seem to stop right around 14 months for Soul and probably because I was in the midst of morning sickness and pregnant with Glow. We got Glow her very own chair and in pink because let’s face it, pink is kinda fantastic (always loved this mama’s pink chair). I am kinda late in sharing it here because I wanted to think of a clever name for the chair (Soul’s chair got its name from this hilarious surprise) and well, nothing ever came to me, so “her pink chair” it is!
One month.
Two months.
Three months.
Four months.
Five months.
I can hardly believe Glow is on her way to being six months old. I take daily pictures of her and post it on instagram and twitter, though the past few days don’t seem to want to load on Ben’s iphone, but you can follow along here and here.
She is a happy little joy and we all love her to pieces. And my oh my… that hair of hers is always crazy!!!
I have been finding it more pleasurable to be spending time in the kitchen. I actually started decorating it a bit. Kinda. Our kitchen is pretty clean, but not really decorated. You won’t really find it on a house tour because as much as we like the openness of it, I don’t really like the color of our cabinets. I dream of white cabinets. One day, it will happen, if God allows of course.
I followed the recipe exactly and it came out fantastic. Ben and I could have use more red pepper flakes in it, but the girls are eating it too, so we kind of have to go light on the kick. The recipe didn’t call for any protein, so we used shrimp.
The Oven Roasted Cauliflower was another yum. It was a variation of a normal vegetable dish we make, but this recipe called for lemon which was a good zing. The recipe says to put 1/4 cup olive oil, which I think is a bit much, so I put 2 tbsp and kinda stuck my hands in and rubbed it all around the florets. I think that worked just as fine. Will make this again.
Tuesday, we had Salmon Cakes BLT Burgers…
We actually made this on Sunday too and it was thanks to Jen from Our Happy Family leaving a comment on how to make it. Once I saw her comment, I knew I wanted to try it right away. I love crab cakes, so I thought this one sounded good and pretty healthy.
I used whole wheat panko bread crumbs along with two cans of salmon. I don’t like celery, so I didn’t use it. I used half an onion and four cloves are garlic. For seasoning, I used cayenne pepper (lots!) and cumin. Mixed in a bowl along with two eggs. Then, formed patties and placed on a pan and stuck it in the oven for 20 minutes, flipping after 10 minutes. Thanks Jen!
For the burger, I baked some soy bacon (tastes like the real thing to me!), mixed some siracha and eggless mayo together for a sauce. Toasted some whole wheat buns, added some greens, a dollop or two of sauce, the salmon cakes, 3 slices of soy bacon, and some avocado and we had ourselves a winning burger! For veggies, we had some canned beets.
A pretty good dish, though Ben felt like it was missing something. I accidentally chopped the onions instead of slicing and I used shiitake mushrooms instead of white mushrooms. While we were eating it, Ben and I both added more red pepper flakes to our own plates because we love things spicy and felt it just needed something more. The girls seemed like big fans of this dish as they were all devouring it, so that’s a good sign.
Out of this week’s dishes, Monday was by far my favorite.
Wednesday: Ground Turkey Tacos (something I already know to do)
Thursday: leftovers
Friday: Pizza or something easy
I am in need of more vegetable dishes to accompany our meals. Ben is good at figuring those out on a whim. Me, not so much. Have any good quick veggie dishes to share! We have canned veggies ready to eat on hand, in case I don’t plan for it, but I would like to start planning for it more.
I have a large growing pile of fabric scraps. I refuse to throw them away because I am sure they can be used for something. I have been seeing different types of interesting necklaces made of buttons, beads, and fabric. Then, I figured why not make one out of my scraps...
I think it made my white shirt a little less boring. This was so quick and easy to make.
How to make a recycled scraps necklace (which is very similar to the straps on my braided tablecloth bag):
1. Take your scrap fabric, I cut a .5''-1'' snip and tear the rest of the fabric down for a nice frayed edge. Used 3 different fabrics for each strand.
2. Take 3 of the torn pieces and tie the ends together with a rubber band.
3. Braid the 3 pieces together and tie ends together with rubber band when done.
4. Repeat steps 2 & 3 for more strands. Remember you can make the strands any length you want, if run out of fabric, just weave more into the braid.
5. Once all the strands you want are braided, gather one end of each strand together and straight stitch together with sewing machine. Repeat for the other ends of the strands. Snip off any excess.
6. Gather ends of the necklace and sew together (snip excess) or a ribbon can be sewn at the ends to be able to tie the necklace closed, but I just sewed both ends together.
7. Voila! A nice way to make use of all your lovely scraps.
Sorry if the directions get you a little lost, but it really is easy. I promise. Maybe I should put some in the shop. Please share any other good ideas you may have of things that can be made with scraps. I would love to hear (read) them!
