A New Year…A New Resolution!!

I realize that I have not blogged in over half a year and that is really sad!! I HAVE been working on various organizing projects and couponing and reading and getting ideas for blog posts…I just haven’t been sitting down and actually posting!! However, I decided to join Bloggy Moms in the Blog Dare!! I am supposed to blog every day for a year…eesh!! They do give you a prompt for each day if you get stuck…but of course this blog is a bit different than my regular blog, so the topics won’t help much with that!! However, the main goal is to just buckle down and blog!! So, here’s to that happening!!

Today’s post really is just to introduce the fact that I am planning on blogging daily…I don’t really have an awesome post all done up or anything and it is already almost 9pm…so this blathering on that I’m doing here will have to suffice for today!! However, I am hoping that by early next week I should have the last little bit of sewing finished up and will be able to show off Bug’s room…finally completely decorated!! It was rather plain for a long while…with just a few wall decorations…but now the furniture has been rearranged, crib skirt remade to match the rest of the décor, various other bits sewn up, and curtains halfway completed. I just have to make some hanging book holders and finish up the light blocking curtain and then I’ll be ready to show it off.

I’ll also have blog posts about: other organizing projects I’ve been working on, pictures of how I’ve organized my coupons, getting planners and household notebooks set up to fit your needs, and some of my recent couponing deals. I will also be reinstating my Sunday Shoutouts starting January 9th.

Here’s to hoping that I will be able to be more consistent in the coming year with blogging!!

A New Year…Some New Resolutions!!

So, it has been ages since I last blogged…and I haven’t really been that consistent with blogging anyway since before our little guy was born…and he was born almost a year and a half ago!!

Therefore, I have now joined Bloggy Moms in the Blog Dare!! Every day for a year…eesh!! They do give you a prompt for each day if you get stuck…but the main goal is to just blog!! Here’s to that happening!!

I’m also starting my own Green Smoothie Challenge. Every day for the month of January I plan on having a green smoothie for breakfast and a healthy, hearty soup for lunch. Dinners will be as usual. I also plan on getting in at least 30 minutes of movement in every day…whether that’s walking, hooping, dance dance revolution, or an exercise video. I’ll post some more about that in another post.

So to catch everyone up to date on what has been going on….

Brack is now warehouse manager at TD as of a few months ago. This means a little more security, but lots of hours!! It definitely keeps him busy during the week and ready for the weekend!!

I’m busy getting the house in shape…trying to get rid of some of the clutter that seems to accumulate when you have more space to fill!! It seems the more space you have, the more space gets filled up!! I’m also trying to get my own little home business on the web going. I have an Artfire shop that will hopefully get set up here in the next week or so…selling accessories and eventually clothing for hoop dance, belly dance, swing dance, and ren faires.

Of course, I also am kept hopping keeping up with the bundle of energy that is our little toddler!! He never seems to stop moving!! I’ve emptied the bottom kitchen cabinets of all but pots and pans, mixing bowls, and plastic storage containers…because inevitably in the split seconds that I’m not looking he ends up dragging half the contents of the cabinets out into the middle of the kitchen!!

He is a little sweetheart though and has learned to charm the fire out of total strangers and win the hearts of everyone who knows him!! He is very much into music and will start dancing to anything with a beat!! Cracks us up every time!! He got a little marching drum and a xylophone for Christmas and I’m sure he will be making plenty of music in the playroom now!!

Bug dances through 2010!!

We have also added to the family a new kitten. Ami is none too pleased with this new development…but we wanted a cat that would grow up together with Bug, be a LOT more friendly with everyone, and be able to travel well…NONE of which Ami is!! So Kiki joined the family just before Thanksgiving and has already made the journey to my parents for Thanksgiving (making “friends” with Mom’s kitten) and to my MIL’s for Christmas (thrilling all the little nieces and nephews). She has adapted very well to traveling in the car…and will even nap on our shoulders!!

So, there ya go!! First blog entry of 2011!! Here’s to hoping that I’ll be able to keep up with my blogging and health challenges!!

Guest Room/Playroom/Sewing Room Reveal

So the room itself is still very blah (and I moved two plastic tubs of papers to sort into the office)…but the room AND closet are finally clean and organized.

You may remember I did a quick fix on the closet in there a few months back.

But all that stuff needed to be dealt with…so that was tackled in earnest this week. A lot of papers were sorted (though there’s plenty more to deal with) and all the other odds and ends were gone through. The best part though was getting an organizer (on sale this week at Target) so that I could FINALLY get all my sewing stuff in order. I haven’t really had it organized much since getting married and am excited to have it all in order so that when I DO have some time to sew I will be able to find everything I need!!

Top shelf now holds sleeping bags, gift bags and tissue paper, baskets I hope to do something with craft-wise, and extra throws and spreads.

The middle shelf is my sewing/crafting stuff. On the left are my bigger pieces of material and a couple of organizers to contain all the little bits and pieces like buttons, needles, etc. On the right are a few things to mend and some Goodwill finds I hope to use parts of in creating some garb for renfaire in the fall. The middle holds my organizer full of lovely drawers…the top one for patterns and ribbons, the next one for odds and ends, the next one for current projects, and the bottom one for smaller pieces of fabric.

The bottom of the closet was the hardest as far as sweat equity goes though. I disassembled Bug’s changing table from his room and moved it into the closet in here and reassembled it. Let me tell you it was NOT easy…and I will definitely have help on any future projects of this nature. It is just VERY hard to maneuver in such a long narrow space!!

To the left of the changing table I’ve got a couple pillows and a duvet waiting for any guests we may have. To the right I have my sewing machine and a couple old bulletin boards I plan to refurbish in the future with some pretty fabric. The changing table itself awaits cute little baskets or buckets to contain things and will be the new home for all Bug's various toys. Yay for a toy-free living room!! Granted, the toys were hidden away at times in their little cubes in the entertainment center…but let’s be realistic here and say that they were usually scattered about the living room (and in the case of the ball pit balls usually even farther afield as cat and baby batted them about)!!

My next post will be a plea for ideas as to how to decorate the room that will be a combination playroom and crafting room with the occasional incarnation as a guest bedroom!!

Hooping!!

Did you ever hula hoop as a kid? I did. I learned in kindergarten during a very cold December where they hardly let us play outside on the playground during recess, instead sending us to the gymnasium where our options were jumping rope or hula hooping. I loved it so much that I decided for my seventh birthday that I MUST have a hoop of my own...and pestered my parents incessantly for one. In retrospect, they may have gotten me that hoop just to shut me up about it!! :-P A couple years later when a little brother messed that hoop up I got another one...but when that one got messed up, that was it for me and hooping.

Now I discover that there is a whole hooping movement going on out there in the big wide world of adults!! Sara, a blogger whose several blogs I've been following for a couple years, recently was introduced to hooping and then started her own hooping blog!! When I first read her first post about hooping I decided I wanted to start hooping again too!! So this Sunday I will go to my first hooping gathering and hopefully within the next week or two I will also have my own specially-made-for-me hoop from an Etsy shop!!

Bonus: Besides it being lots of fun to hoop and do tricks to music, it is also a very effective workout that tones your core without really seeming like a workout cause it's so freakin' fun!! Check out this video!! If I can get as good as that, I'll be pretty happy!!

Current Projects..

This next Tuesday we are having some friends over to grill burgers and relax. I'll wash the cushions ahead of time for the patio furniture and we'll prob hang the hammock...and we will definitely get the mister going out on the patio to help keep us cool!!

Then my SIL and her three kiddoes are coming for a visit in about three weeks. It's been a while since we've had overnight guests and DH has actually built a murphy bed since the last time...so it will get its first use while they are here.

Also in July we've got Independence Day as well as the birthdays of my two most favorite people in the world...DH and Bug!! So we'll prob have some sort of celebratory something or two for all that as well!!

With the different guests coming during the next month...I have got to get on the ball with finally getting the house in order and fixed up the way I'd like it to be. This means tackling the mountain of papers to sort in the office and doing a major scrub down of the house!!

I am also planning on finally finishing the curtains and bedskirt I never finished before Bug decided to come...as well as "toddler-izing" his room now that he is so mobile!! Once the guest room is in shape it will also become Bug's playroom whenever it isn't needed for guests, so a clearing out and reorganizing of the stuff in the guest room closet is also a must...so that there will be room in the bottom of it for toys!!

So, no pics in this post...but keep your eyes peeled for pics of Bug's nursery, the guest bedroom, and the office...as I make headway in getting them the way I envision them being!!

The week of meals w/some pictures…

So I started in on my meal plans in earnest this week and already I've veered from the plan.

Tuesdays we always have tacos because Rosa’s has Taco Tuesdays…where you can get two tacos, rice, beans, and two flour tortillas for $3.33!! I can’t make that from scratch for that cheap…at least not at this point. Once we have a few munchkins running around and they are eating tacos too, then it will probably work out cheaper to make it from scratch then. This isn’t my picture, just found it on the Rosa’s fan page on Facebook.

Wednesday I made the chunky potato soup…which was a hit. It will definitely be added to the menu again, but it’s really more of a winter meal. It was definitely yummy though!! I snapped a quick pic before DH grabbed the bowl and dug in!!

Thursday I didn’t get the rice and beans started early enough, so we went with something a little less involved. I made baking powder biscuits and poached some eggs in butter in the microwave. Super easy and delicious. Also on Thursday I decided that if I was gonna take pictures of our food, I’d make a little more of an effort with presentation. I’m not much of a photographer, but I think the food looks a little more appealing when arranged prettily!!

Friday we were out running errands for quite a while and so by the time we were heading home, the last thing I wanted to do was go to the grocery store for cheddar cheese, cilantro, and jalapenos. So I made a few modifications to the pizza. I used only mozzarella for the cheese and used some spring onions instead of red onions. I left off the cilantro (since we didn’t have any) and the olives (since DH doesn’t like them). Finally, I used a can of drained Rotel in place of the chopped tomatoes and jalapenos. Dh said it was pretty good…which is high praise from a picky eater!!

Saturday DH had a class for most of the day (which I’d forgotten about) and when he came home he wasn’t feeling well. Since I wasn’t feeling so great myself I ignored the menu plan completely and just fixed a simple salad for DH and had a boiled egg myself. So no pictures for Saturday and I will just have to try out those recipes another time.

Sunday we just had coffee in the morning (since I hadn’t made the bagels on Saturday). After church we headed out on the search for a small, non-chain, family-owned Italian place that was in our price range and wasn’t too crowded for Mother’s Day. DH ended up breaking out of his manicotti-only mold and tried a pasta with spinach and a wine sauce (can’t remember what it was called) and I had a sampler plate of lasagna, chicken parmesan, and tortellini alfredo…yum!! Bug nibbled on our bread, bits of carrot from our salads, and bits of plain pasta. I managed to snap a shot of my plate before I’d killed it all off. We had our lunch leftovers for dinner (it was a lot of food).

Monday was designated for leftovers, but since I hadn’t cooked much over the weekend, we really didn’t have any. So I brewed some sweet tea, made a batch of tuna salad (with pickles, boiled eggs, and mayo) for DH, and made a batch of chicken salad (with diced apples, chopped celery, pecan bits, and mayo) for me. Bug got some steamed and blended apples and sweet potatoes. Once he was in bed we toasted some sourdough bread to eat our respective salads with.

So now we are back to Tuesday…our day for Rosa’s tacos and the day Mama doesn’t have to cook (especially since we still have more apple/sweet potato puree for Bug). Week one of my menu plan has passed. Here’s hoping that this week I’ll be more successful with sticking to the plan!!

May Meal Plans

So I did it...I actually came up with a month of meal plans!! I tried to go for a good mix of new and favorite meals and tried to mostly stick to a plan of themed dinners.

Mondays are leftovers, Tuesdays are tacos, Wednesdays are soup, salad, or sandwiches, Thursdays are crockpot meals, Fridays are pizza, Saturdays are open for whatever, and Sundays are pasta...of course, I am flexible and of course, there are more meals to come up with for the weekends.

So here it is...the month of menus!! We shall see how it works out...and plan next month accordingly!!

4th--Tacos

5th--Chunky Potato Soup

6th--Beans and Rice

7th--Jalapeno Burn Pizza

8th Breakfast--Oven french toast

8th Lunch--Green salad

8th Dinner--Hamburgers, potato salad

9th Breakfast--Pumpkin bagels and cream cheese

9th Lunch--Mother's Day (I'll let DH figure this one out!!)

9th Dinner--Turkey sandwiches

10th--Leftovers

11th--Tacos

12th--Tuna salad sandwiches

13th--Chicken Posole

14th--BBQ Ranch Chicken and Cheddar Pizza Roll Em Ups

15th Breakfast--Homemade poptarts

15th Lunch--Pasta Salad, iced tea

15th Dinner--Steaks, mashed potatoes, grilled corn on the cobb

16th Breakfast--Baked scotch eggs

16th Lunch--Green Salad

16th Dinner--Creamy Pumpkin Pasta

17th--Leftovers

18th--Tacos

19th--Minestrone, fresh bread

20th--Asian Chicken and Noodle Salad

21st--Rosemary Chicken Pizza

22nd Breakfast--Spinach/artichoke souffle

22nd Lunch--Green salad

22nd Dinner--Apple Cheddar Panini

23rd Breakfast--Cinnamon quinoa

23rd Lunch--Tuna salad w/crackers

23rd Dinner--Spaghetti Pie

24th--Leftovers

25th--Tacos

26th--My Birthday (I'll let DH figure this one out!!)

27th--Cheese Enchilada Stack

28th--Hamburger Mozzarella Pizza

29th Breakfast--Popovers

29th Lunch--Tuna salad w/crackers

29th Dinner--Chicken and Vegetable Gravy over Puff Toast

30th Breakfast--Baked oatmeal

30th Lunch--BBQ chicken salad

30th Dinner--Parmesan Pasta

31st--Hamburgers, potato salad, iced tea, homemade ice cream

Recent Cuteness…

I think that if I’m gonna get back into regular blogging, those who follow me will just have to resign themselves to seeing many, many pictures of my cute baby boy…that’s just how it is!!

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A long day of errands and refusing to nap makes for a tired boy about 5pm!!

A cute little cloth-diapered butt!!

Playing in the grass for the first time without a blanket…it felt weird to him!!

My little daredevil climbing the foam rocks at the indoor playground!!

Shopping can wear a boy out!!

Jumping in the front entryway…lots of fun!!

Mmmm…he loves sushi (avocado rolls)!!

Loving the nice weather for going to the park!! Swings are fun!!

My Daredevil Child!!

The kid has no fear…and he’s getting braver and braver!!

I'm weird...and I'm okay with that!!

So, some things that would make people think I'm weird just didn't happen. The homebirth was a no-go, co-sleeping didn't happen, nursing was a bust (though I think pumping for nine months was definitely pretty crazy), and I'm a bit embarrassed to say that Bug eats more Beechnut and Gerber than homemade in the baby food department.

I live in a normal home in a nice quiet subdivision of a small town in the DFW metroplex...essentially the burbs. We have two vehicles, one baby, and a stuck-up cat. Though the norm these days trends toward dual income families, I am a stay at home mom...but in our neighborhood that isn't too unusual. But that isn't what I'm talking about when I say weird!!

No, those things that set me apart are probably these:

*We aren't vaccinating. At least not most of the shots...but we will deal with any that we may decide to give him after he is at least two years old. The idea of pumping chemicals and diseases into a tiny body worries me. I'm not gonna get all crazy vigilante about it (everyone makes the decision they feel is right for their own children)...but the proof is in the pudding as to whether they are really all that needed or not. Firstly, the only one of all the siblings of both mine and Brack's who did not get any vaccinations is the healthiest one of the bunch. Second, how many rounds of sick do most babies go through the first year of their life these days? Bug's only ever been under the weather (besides diaper rash and teething) twice in his whole 9.5 months of life on this earth...that's closing in on a year of healthy!!

*Bug is going on the potty at least once a day. I am not necessarily following the whole Elimination Communication dealio, but I just put him on the potty whenever he wakes up and most of the time he goes!! He has gone in the potty consistently every morning for over a week now!! YAY!! No pressure, but he's getting used to the idea so that in the future potty training won't be such a scary thing.

*I homeschooled most of my school years and we plan on doing the same for Bug...or rather, I'm leaning ever more toward unschooling him...letting his interests guide his studies. Of course, this is a few years in the future.

*I love swing dancing and really want to have cool retro clothes for it and be able to go out dancing a couple times a month. Granted, this isn't so weird for some people who may be reading this...but I can guarantee you that there aren't too many people I know who like to get out and cut a rug Glen Miller style!!

*I really love renaissance faires. There is just something so cool about faires...at times I think I am part gypsy and the faire season gets me wishing I could move with the faire schedules to each new faire...maybe live in a vardo...I don't know!! But the garb, ah yes, the garb is such fun!! I have been to faire in the yuckiest heat and sometimes it is cooler temp-wise to go in mundanes (regular clothes for those who don't know the lingo)....but I do love me some absolutely gorgeous and fun garb. I am actually in the middle of making/prepping garb for a big faire this fall.

Now, to top it all off and make people think I'm even crazier...I am really starting to get into the whole steampunk thing. I've always liked the Victorian turn-of-the-century era...and here is a way to recreate it...only imagined as if steam were still king...a sort of alternate history so to speak. I find those who are into steampunk to be rather dapper dressers and exceedingly polite...because manners still count!! I think that that is what really makes me like the whole aesthetic, though the cool gears, buttons and styles are pretty appealing as well.

So there you have it...several reasons why someone might think I'm weird. One, two, or even all of the above may brand me as just a wee bit nuts...but you know what? I don't care. I actually like marching to the beat of my own drum, rather than being a cookie-cutter soccer mom, so to speak!!

Typical Saturday At Our House

Saturdays have always been our “lazy” day. Pre-baby and pre-house that meant sleeping in and having a nice brunch around 11-ish…then playing computer or xbox games, messing around online on Crossings, or reading. Once we started the house search we would spend most of Saturday afternoons driving around and looking at different neighborhoods and houses and going through model homes. Housework beyond dishes was put off and dealt with come Monday (which was pretty hard when I was working full-time and easier but not-so-fun when I was working part-time).

But then we moved into our house last February and welcomed our little guy into our lives last July…and weekends are just not the same. Typically the little guy wakes me up no later than 7:30am…but usually a good 45 minutes earlier than that!! Sometimes Brack gets to “sleep in” until 8am, but many times he wakes up when the little dude starts making noise.

Coffee is made and a bottle of milk is warmed immediately so EVERYONE can get a good start to the early morning!! Then I fix breakfast while Brack plays some xbox and Edmund plays on the floor with some toys and occasionally climbs on Brack, disrupting the game!! Here is a pic from several months ago on a different Saturday morning…but it’s still pretty typical (except Brack isn’t so fastidious about keeping the little man from seeing the screen these days)!!

Then we all sit down to eat. Usually by the time we eat and Edmund is ready to get down from his chair, he gets in a few minutes playing with Papa and then it’s time for his morning nap (sometime between 9:30-10:00am) Once the little guy is down, Brack plays on the xbox for a little while longer while I savor a second cup of coffee.

But then the day really begins. There is usually some house project to work on, if not several. I try to get a couple loads of laundry done and keep up with the dishes as well so that Monday catch-up won’t drive me insane. Meal plans for the next week must be made up and grocery lists and coupons got together. Clothes for Sunday must be picked out and readied. If we are really on the ball, we usually can sit back and relax (besides dealing with dinner) right about the time the little guy goes down for his afternoon nap around 2:30-3:00pm. If I am lucky I can even get a nap in while he naps to make up for not getting to sleep in!! Once the baby boy is up from his afternoon nap we have fun playing with him, going for a walk, running errands, or just relaxing. Then of course once he is down for the night we can sit back on the couch and watch a movie or something. Saturdays may be busier now, but they are just as enjoyable.

One thing I have enjoyed doing on Saturdays ever since getting married is fixing our brunch. Of course, these days our brunch is a bit earlier than it used to be…typically between 9:00-9:30am!! A favorite new recipe is a clone of Panera’s Spinach-Artichoke Souffle (which isn’t a souffle at all)!! Oh, but it IS good!!

I found the recipe online here but have tweaked it a bit. I use green bell pepper instead of red…as it’s a bit cheaper and I usually have green on hand. I use 4 tablespoons half and half instead of 2 tablespoons each of milk and heavy cream since we always have half and half on hand. I substitute mozzarella for monterey jack as I usually have mozzarella on hand after our Friday night pizza. I also substitute a blend of parmesan, asiago, fontina, and romano cheeses in the places the recipe calls for parmesan and asiago. I also don’t divide the dough up into four, only into two and I cook the “souffles” in my Corningware 16oz round dishes. The last thing I do differently is buttering the dishes with a stick of butter instead of melting it first. Even with all the changes, they still taste like the ones at Panera.

One thing that makes getting the meal ready easier is having some of the components prepped ahead of time. I actually premeasured into small rubbermaid containers the frozen spinach, chopped canned artichoke hearts, onion, and bell pepper that the recipe calls for so that I only have to do that once to have enough for 4-5 times.

So here are a couple pictures of our yummy brunch…

In the interest of full-disclosure, the prepped breakfast table actually looks more like this!! :-P

Of course, I can’t post an entry without at least one picture of my cute little guy!! Here he is chilling out in the hammock that his Papa hung on the patio this morning. Don’t worry, I was RIGHT beside him!!