Three Little Treasures

The kiddos are happy despite spending about the last 10 days homebound due to Sportster's illness. It was mild enough for him to be running around wild, but bad enough not to be admitted to childcare situations at church or the Y. Now a winter storm is coming in so who knows when we'll actually re-enter the outside world. Until then, we're happy at home.

Say "Cheese"

More results of the latest home photo shoot below. Just had to include the one of Sportster jumping since that is a reflection of who he truly is. Some of his happiest moments are when he is on the move! Sister was excited with her pretty new dress.

Turkey Day

No, it is not Thanksgiving or Christmas, but it is Turkey Day! The endeavor of the day was to cook a 20 lb. bird. We always buy some extras when they go on sale around Thanksgiving for cheap meat throughout the year. The only problem is that I always forget how much work it is until I am fully committed. It is a process, but hopefully worth it. Our current method is to rub it with olive oil and start out roasting it at 500 degrees for about 30 minutes, then continue roasting at a normal temp until it is done. The results: a smokey house and a really juicy bird. It was a great day for it since it was beautiful here today and I was able to open the windows to air out the house. Guess what we'll be eating this month?

8 Months of Smiles

Smiley turned 8 months this week and here are a few pictures. He's still not sleeping through the night, though at least his daytime hours are fun.

Date Night

Each Friday we look forward to our date night. Here's how it goes. We get the kids to bed, DH makes guacamole, we drag our couch up near the computer screen, insert DVD from the library or our monthly freebie from Blockbuster and voilà. We started this when Smiley was born because with a newborn we knew it was going to be several months before we could get out for a date that included going out to eat, getting a babysitter and the like. Even though Smiley is not a newborn anymore, we have kept to the tradition partly due to its ease and partly due to our budget. Our grocery budget can pretty easily absorb the cost of a few avacados each week. While we hope to be able to get out of our house for a date night soon, we're happy to have this time set aside each week for us.

not-so-Extreme Makeover: Garage Edition

With spring just around the corner, I'm getting into the cleaning and organizing mood again. In addition, it is getting difficult to walk around our vehicles without brushing up against them. So we are headed to the garage to get it back into order. Since we've lived in a house of our own I've always felt that we should make it as nice to be in as we can without feminizing it too much. I figure if we go to an effort to make the front door to our home inviting for guests, we should also make our garage entry inviting for our own family, since that is the space that we see far more often than our own front door. Thus begins the yearly challenge to organize and clean the garage so it serves our needs, welcomes us home and is not filled with all the excess that the interior of our home can't contain. So over the next few weeks I'm going to be working at getting it in shape. I have a few goals for this: create sustainable systems so it just needs to be swept out from time to time and not reorangized, to not spend any money on new storage containers (this will be hard since I love uniform containters), to get rid of things we don't want or use and to make it feel spacious once again. To keep myself accountable on this, here are the "before" pictures. Hopefully one day soon I'll be able to post pictures of the improved version of our garage. It still won't look like the pages of some organizing magazine, but I'll do the best I can with what I have (i.e. not $10K for pretty cupboards and an epoxy garage floor).

Sleep Deprivation 301

I know there is light at the end of the tunnel somewhere, but sometimes it hard to even open your eyes wide enough to see it when you're not properly rested. Smiley, bless his heart, is looking for company 2 or 3 times a night. Therefore many mornings I wake up feeling like a train hit me. Since he is now 8 months old I'm thinking it would be a great idea for him to finally catch on to eating solid foods to get him through the night. He's not sold on the idea, though we have been trying for two months. Why didn't anyone warn me that having three children age 4 and under would be so utterly exhausting?! I often feel like I should be getting more done and really thriving, but in reality survival right now is enough of an accomplishment! I just need to learn to be content with slightly lower expectations and hold on for the ride.