2008 Snapshot!

Reviewing this place of my random mommyness I've attached some of my favorites from the past 12 months. Mostly, I just can't believe how much my kids have changed over these months. Nor can I truly fathom just how very blessed I am!

Happy New Year!!!!!

January:Five Beautiful Months.

February:Tonights Table Prayer and Grace.

March:Mommy A Flower For You and Pick Up the Checkers!

April:Eight! Eight! And we can skate!

May: You are my love!

June: While I was fixing lunch and I'm eating sweet potatoes...

July:When you set a date, it comes... and Enough said.

August: Opening Ceremonies and Since it's been a busy week...

September: Why was I lying on the grocery store floor?? and More Please.

October: 9 Quart or 2 Kid Canner and Embrace

November: Loving Fall and Gone in 10.3 seconds...

December: Today's Wisdom and of course Christmas Memories

Christmas Memories

Well, it's over, and it was a relaxing whirlwind of fun. We try to keep Christmas day as low key as possible but it still flew by like a winter breeze.

The kids are having a ball playing with new games like Hullabaloo and Hyper Dash. I seem to have a new spring to my step and have found a renewed joy in just playing with the kids. Not so much to do I suppose and so it's nice to be able to spend days in my pajamas playing games and dolls and building legos!

Some photo memories...

Christmas eve...

Proud of his creation, yet to him it's still not complete. A sunken roof top halted the decorating fun and Mom and Dad fixed it later adding icicles.

Christmas day...

Snow play!

Snuggly clean.

Perhaps,

the funniest thing my son did this year I forgot to blog about.

About a week before Christmas we wrapped his present to his sister, a princess phone (we've been inundated with princesses :) this year) and put it under the tree.

Because it was small or by chance she just knew it would be her very favorite gift, she'd been carrying the wrapped package around all week. I thought it was cute and she's not really into unwrapping (unless it's tissue paper) so it didn't bother me.

My son would feel compelled to very gently (perhaps the gentlest I've seen him be) and slowly remove the box from her tiny hands while saying in a sing-song voice, "No, no sweetie we have to wait till Christmas, it's a phone!

Merry Christmas!

Wishing all my blogging buddies the Merriest Christmas and a very happy and blessed 2009!

Christmas Wishes!

This Baby is the reason for the season!!!

May all your Christmas wishes come true!!!!

Just call me the plagerized mama!

Since everything else this month has been from my 4yo why not continue the trend shall we? Here are some things I've written on the side of the fridge this fall, as he's said them, so I wouldn't forget.

"Mommy, there's frosting on the grass." (It was near our first good freeze and we had only had a few frosty mornings.)

"Do we have all the geridients?"

"Right on dude!"

"Holy Gannoli!" (I say holy cannoli a bit!)

We were pretend playing, "Mommy call the firefighters because you're all fired up!"

I'd upload some pictures if I could only find the removable drive that one of my kids removed and promptly made disappear! Yes, both kids can remove it but really it's the littlest one I'm suspicious of...

Can't get enough of my 4 year old at the moment...

Tonight at dinner my son says, "I love Mommy and Daddy and sister and God and Jesus and all the angels."

Daily I hear, "Is it Christmas today." So I'm making a paper chain with him tomorrow and we'll cut the links off until Christmas. Mental note for next year, need some sort of advent countdown!

Oh, and today I actually had to say, "Please do not lick the snow off of the truck." Of course followed by the obligatory (on his part - being 4 and all) "whhhhhhhyyyyyyyy." "Ah, because it's gross!"

M.D. love...

Both my kids had physicals this week and I was reminded of something I already knew. I love my kids' doctor, she makes me feel like I'm the expert on my kids. Which of course I am!!

Seriously, she just asks if we are still wanting to hold off on vaccines and makes no comments to change my opinion. Not to mention she takes time with us and is upbeat and positive, never condescending.

She wanted to run a food allergy blood panel for my son after I presented some complaints and she's testing him for Celiac as well. So hopefully those come back with some more tangible answers.

I am feeling wonderfully blessed today. I got something in the mail that I'm giving to my husband for Christmas (he doesn't normally read here but he is sitting right next to me now) and it has a picture of the cutest kid in it! Anyway, I'm about ready to call it quits for the night, my baby girl hasn't let me sleep much this week!

Today's Wisdom

from my four year old.

"Everyone knows I'm good at anything I'm good at."

Talking

Suddenly my baby girl is a chatter box - apparently she'll fit right in to our family! Now, if you want to be able to understand you'd have to come live with us for some total immersion style listening. Otherwise the word "baba" might sound the same for diaper as for baby as for ball-ball to your amateur ears!

Pretty soon she'll be able to say the most brilliant things, in fact today after kissing her big brother she said, "ilala" just like I love you. (He always got the biggest smiles when she was an infant and now he gets the first I love you! Hmmph ;) LOL)

On a day when I'm convinced that I have super smart kids one of them, who shall not be named, goes and says, "Mommy, I love candy canes, they are sorta like candy."

Sunday

But just as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in your love for us—see that you also excel in this grace of giving.

I am not commanding you, but I want to test the sincerity of your love by comparing it with the earnestness of others. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.

For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what he does not have.

Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. Then there will be equality, as it is written: "He who gathered much did not have too much, and he who gathered little did not have too little."

2 Corinthians 8:7-9,12-16 (NIV)

The emphasis in the above verses is mine. I have been reading and rereading these words since August and I was thrilled back then when I found these verses. They were just like water to quench my thirst. My desire to give is great it is just the direction the generosity takes that shifts.

When I first stumbled upon them, these words spoke to me as to what I want to do with my life - other than Mommy - I feel there is another purpose for me that has not yet become. One where I can use my deep feelings of giving and compassion on a daily basis, perhaps starting up a not for profit, for now my focus is my young children and if I still have a blog in the future we all may see how this plays out.

Now that this Christmas season is upon us I've decided to use my desire to give to those who are truly needy. Basically, I'm giving things that I would want to get which this year are not necessarily tangibles. Yeah, I'd love a new dishwasher, some really nice gloves for gardening and maybe a couple fruit trees for the backyard. But really, truly I LOVE giving and feel awkward receiving.

My husband on several Christmases has lavished me with gifts and while I do adore that he does this for me, honestly it makes me feel weird sitting there opening up gifts. It's just one of those uncomfortable moments all eyes watching and then at the end of it all a feeling of emptiness that lasts through a massive Christmas feast that would feed an entire village elsewhere in the world.

He does know this about me now, he asked before our wedding if I wanted a $5,000 ring or to go on a honeymoon for 10 days to Jamaica - ah, yeah I'd wear a bottle cap on my finger every day to go back to the warm water scuba diving fruit loving beautiful Jamaican people. But I've gotten off point slightly.

This Christmas season, I'm choosing NOT to get stressed out about the stuff and hoping that my plenty can provide for anothers need. How do you keep yourself charged and at peace this season? Care to share, leave me a comment or link up if you post.

Seriously!

I have no idea how these things happen to me, but they do. Today making our family tradition cinnamon rolls recipe a bit of an incident happened.

See, I was excited, finally getting into the mood for all the work of Thanksgiving, feeling the energy of all my fellow women and men that have gone before me preparing feasts. The boys were out running a couple last minute errands and it was just us girls.

One of us wasn't really feeling the whole wonderful mood thing and I just had a few cups of flour left to put in so I thought I would nurse her in a carrier. I've never been able to totally do this hands free, usually her head rests in the crook of my elbow. Anyway, to make a long story short, for the first time EVER I was able to hands free nurse my 15 month old - yeah we have a slow learning curve!

I was doing two things at once, slowly adding in a cup of flour and nursing my precious beauty when all of a sudden the measuring cup gets violently sucked into the mixer, my split second reaction time was not quite fast enough to stop it before a bunch of dough ended up all over us and the kitchen.

I did clean it off of us before taking the picture. But it was ALL over the place! In my defense, when I've made this recipe before I've done it by hand and I had already decided that I didn't like using my mixer as the bowl isn't big or deep enough. So, I won't be doing this again!

Nursing worked out great, she couldn't have cared less what I was doing, even with raw dough in her hair, she just kept right on plugging along.

Finger painting was fun too.

Vivid Imagination

Last night after watching the American Music Awards I had the most fabulous dreams! Now, there is some history here that you might need to know. Back in college, (when tapes were still not totally archaic) I taped my friend's CD of Sarah McLachlan's Fumbling Toward Ecstasy album. Over the course of the year I pretty much wore out the tape, not to mention my roommate's nerves, playing it over relentlessly. Since then, I've been hooked!

Anyway, in my dreams I was friends with her. Kick back, hanging around in our fuzzy pajama mama pants, drinking tea kind of friends. Her kids and mine were playing while we discussed kids, music, humanitarian aid, politics and whatever.

I would totally love to have those conversations with her in real life LOL! She rocks in my book. If you don't know why I love her so much the video for World On Fire is totally worth the few minutes it takes to watch. It's a few years old, I know, but still I LOVE the lyrics to this song. I could go on, but that might be fanatical!

"The more we take the less we become....."

On a side note Annie Lennox totally kicked booty last night singing Why on the AMA's, I don't think she's written a song that I don't like either!

iwantiwantiwantit!!!

I am going to preface this by saying: I am grateful for my husband, children and the many, many blessings we are given daily including the fact that my husband's Bell's Palsy is over 60% improved!!! Despite the gimmes, today was a fabulous gift of a day! More times than I can count out of the blue my son said, "Mommy, I love you." While coming over arms stretched out, he kept my bulging heart melting all day long.

I am trying - really trying here to give my children a spirit of giving. Maybe I'm trying too hard and not doing enough. Maybe we just went to too many stores today for all of our tolerance level, whatever the case I am tired of I want. For the record we bought nothing.

Maybe the fact that since Adam works at the mall and since we sold my car this week (bye bye car payment!) I drop him off in the mornings. Today I wanted to see if there was anything on my Christmas lists that I could have him buy on black Friday, you know since he'll have to go there to work and I can stay home by the fire with Grandma and the kids watching Wall*E or something!

We walked through plenty of stores this morning (carrying the baby in arms - hello - the carrier was in the car this time but I thought I would be quick!) including the Disney store which was the downfall for all of us. The baby girl quickly found phones just like Mommy's to play with and chew on and my wonderful boy having just seen the movie was ALL over everything Wall*E not to mention beloved Tow Mater.

I want this one and this one and this one... in utter desperation I told him to just calm down and that he didn't need every toy! He did mention however pleading his case that Wally and Eve (he says Eva) love each other very much and are best friends. I (this is where I get desperate) say, "Well maybe if you want them you can ask Santa for them." Now he's wanting to go talk to Santa today. I may have lied when I said he wasn't at the mall yet, I don't really know for sure but I was not going to lug the kids all the way down to find out. Huh, this from a boy who last week at the mention of Santa immediately stated he was not going to sit on his lap this year.

I know I'm planting seeds for giving, last year we started the tradition of giving away three of his toys to someone who needs them more. We will do this again after Thanksgiving and this year we've collected a shoebox full of things for a boy his age through Operation Christmas Child. We are dropping it off tomorrow but you have until Monday if you meant to do it! He's really enjoyed picking out toys for that little boy so I know that the seeds are there.

My frustration is also at our "material world" because really possessions are not what it is about.

Christmas after all is about Jesus, a baby in a manger, born to set us free!

A theme for the upcoming holiday season...

Happiness is not so much in having as sharing. We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give. -- Norman MacEwan

Why do I wear my babies?

International Babywearing Week starts in a couple of days and Babywearing Steph is asking for our favorite babywearing photos. (Could I have fit in the word babywearing one more time into that sentance?!) Go link up your favorite pictures too and you can be entered to win a sling from Nonny and Boo. I have a couple from there already but can you really have too many slings?

I love my babies and I love having them close by me but really, really the main reason that I carry them on me is that kissable little head. I could (and do) kiss the little head many, many, many times a day. Oh, and that little baby head smell is just about the best thing ever to keep me happy!

My favorite pictures of my kids in various carriers!

Last November at the San Diego Zoo.

Last Fall!

This past Spring.

This past summer at Auntie's wedding!

Gone in 10.3 seconds...

The sweet precious moment that is.

I'm getting kids ready for bed when I leave my son's room to hang up towels and tidy the bathroom a bit. "Here, let me read you that book," I hear my son say to his sister.

I peek to see them getting settled in on his little chair and run down the stairs to grab the camera. I smartly turned on the flash and camera as I ran, removing the lens cap right as I reached the top of the stairs. I was bringing the lens up to my eye as I rounded the corner at the top and seriously if it took 10.3 seconds I'd be amazed as I was quite out of breath!

I found not quite the moment I expected. In fact just the opposite, but for some reason it was just what we all needed and looking at the picture still makes me chuckle. I just clicked the picture - seriously I couldn't come up with the stuff these two do! Truly, it was a good end to a crazy week full of difficult decisions, elections, emotions, and a stressful morning in charge of serving a big potluck today at church (luckily I had a TON of help with it).

I love these crazy kids!

Through Their Eyes

The TV's been on all morning (generally not something that happens around here) and my son was asking what is going on. We took the kids with us to vote yesterday and I explained the best I could that our country (America) picked a new president.

A bit later I opened the paper and it of course has Obama on the front page. My four year old gets all excited and says, "Mommy, he's the same as the one on TV, both presents are the same."

Loving Fall

Apparently once I lose my small chunks of writing time it is really hard to get it back!

A couple weeks ago we went to a local park and took some Fall pictures...here are some of my favorites. (I know there are still some people out there reading. right?!

You can tell I had a hard time picking my favorites!

They both were not very interested in looking at us - ducks are apparently more fascinating! It turns out this is one of my favorites even though they aren't looking, it brings back the relaxed feeling of our stroll through the park and gazing at ponds and leaves!

Even the baby girl walked with us!

Loves for Daddy!

Embrace

To give myself some time to more fully appreciate real life I'm taking a small blogging break. It's been a weird week as my husband was in the ER last week.We are glad it's nothing serious, it's Bell's Palsy. Which means the right side of his face is paralyzed - temporarily! It should resolve in a few weeks but I'm on over load for some reason.

Happy, no. Thrilled, no. Ecstatic, no. There isn't a positive enough word for what I am that he didn't have a stroke, doesn't have a tumor or MS or any other life altering/threatening issue. Just adjusting to what this is and praying it too shall pass...

In the mean time I'm just embracing my laugh lines, (and family a bit tighter) and making more! More laugh lines that is - not making more family members or anything ;)

Guess What???

My daughter took her very first unassisted steps while the two of us were away last weekend! It was fun.

I honestly missed her very first steps but a bunch of my very good friends saw them!

The beautiful fall days seem to by flying by lately between yard work, trips to orchards and curling up by the fire drinking tea. I just love fall!!!

Pumpkins, pumpkins!

Pumpkins

In between smiles!

The chickens!

The cutie pumpkins!

And she goes on and on...

After some wheat-free yummy peanut butter cookies (low sugar and honey sweetened) were baked and the sun shone in it was up to about 68 inside but now I'm cold again! We just might have to turn the heat on tonight.

Tried two new recipes for dinner Sesame Chicken Bites (but I left out the sugar - of course!) and Quinoa Pilaf and they both turned out very good. I do need to try not to plan two new recipes on the same night, it's hard to get the timing down. It all worked out though.

Thanks so much for all of your game suggestions I want them ALL! For now we got Sequence For Kids and Boggle Jr. and I have about 9 more on my wish list, maybe for Christmas! It's been fun to have other games to play!!

I totally think October is going by faster than September did! I must have learned something from those 30 days, because I'm still menu planning, using or freezing leftovers and budgeting better! Imagine that behaving like a grown up and everything - 'bout time!

Well wasn't this just a bit of randomness...hope you all have a wonderful weekend. I'll be up in the mountains at a retreat with a bunch of gals from my church. I'm taking the baby, but the boys are on their own!

61 and 28

That's what our indoor and outdoor temps were when I got out of bed this morning. I am cold.

Do butterflies hibernate? I'm thinking it would be nice to. Now, if only I could convince my kids it's heavenly to stay in bed on cold mornings instead of being so hungry at 7:18am. ;0)

I think it's a good morning to go bake some cookies!

Grab your parachute!

The other day in the car my son kept saying...

Mommy I really, really want to eat some jump food!

All you need is...

Love, love, love is all you neeeeeeeeeeeed!!! A sleeping baby never hurts either! Funny, I ended up taking this on the last official night I put her to sleep in our bed - it took forever too!

Last Thursday we started putting my daughter to sleep in her crib instead of our bed. While it has been a transition, night number three was the worst and it seems to be smoothing out. I'm always hesitant to say for sure though because they change their routines so quickly, once I get used to it I'll have to adjust.

For me to stay sane and get enough sleep with a new born co-sleeping is the only way, but there becomes a time when I need an evening with my husband without having to nurse my daughter every hour or two (thirteen and a half months seems to be the mark.) So down she's been going. We still care for her - I'm not a big fan of cry it out - so we go in and lay her down.

Yes, she starts to do the Stevie Wonder (as my husband calls it) she sits leaning against the side of the crib bobbing her head around like you or I would dozing on an airplane. At least she lets us lay her down and then settles in to sleep.

Following after her brother who used to fall asleep with his arms and legs hanging out the front of the crib with his forehead resting on the jail crib slats, but he was older and a much lighter sleeper so he would wake up at anything. I have no idea where my kids get their stubbornness from!

Oddly enough, she seems to sleep better, initially, in the crib. She sleeps for 4-5 hours in her initial stretch each night so it seems to be the right time to begin this transition.

Now, as soon as I'm in bed all bets are off, if she fusses it's back to our bed so that I can nurse her back to sleep and get some myself. Seems to be working for now, we'll see how it goes.

Game Craziness

I'm curious what your favorite board games are? I am SO very sick of Candy Land and Chutes and Ladders (pulling my hair our with boredom) that I've decided with some of the money my kids got for their birthdays in August I'm going to buy a couple new board games. What should I get???

My son likes to play his "big games" (board games) everyday. The card games, uno, go fish and old maid, he enjoys almost as much. I just saw on the uno box that it's 7+ but he does fairly well (kicks my butt!) He is only 4 but most of the games for that age group are so dreary for me! I'd really like your opinions, what games do your kids like best??

9 Quart or 2 Kid Canner.

If I could really bottle them up I would!

Not really them but you know, everything about the stages where they are right now. Mmmm I just love them SO much!

The last day...

...of the 30 day challenge. I am amazed at our progress and that we really lacked nothing this month. We are very rich with blessings.

At the beginning of the month I kept adding things to a mental list to buy at the end of the month, but as the month has gone on that is no longer the plan. For the most part. I will be purchasing a package of diapers (tonight my daughter is in the last one) we have been using cloth all day but disposables work better for us at night.

If I were to go out and buy everything that I wanted all month long it would just counter act any of the savings this month has brought us. It is VERY nice to have money in the bank right now, usually this is the week that we check the bank account to see how close we are to make it until Friday when the next check comes in. It's been nice to have some extra cushion. Must of which will be an extra payoff to our HELOC, yippee!

I think the biggest thing for me is entitlement. "I worked hard so I deserve it." Right?! Well goodness, my husband works hard for the money we spend so do I really need more shoes, hair things, or garden tools? Or can I make do with what I have for just a little longer. I think Mary spoke about this a week or so ago. But the biggest thing I am taking out of this is when something comes up that we need maybe we can get along just one more day, week, or month before we purchase it. Delaying the purchase may help squash the desire all together or heighten the need, making the choice a bit clearer.

I do deserve a nice hot cup of tea after a long day, peace and quiet once in awhile, a ladies retreat weekend away (with the baby, two weekends from now!!) and hugs, LOTS of hugs from my family. These things I know I am entitled too but the stuff, I'll leave it for now.

Scout's Honor

Dear Michael Chertoff,

(or any local Homeland Security Representative for that matter.)

My son (he's four) wants to be a rocket ship for Halloween. I've been Googleing "rocket ship costumes", "patterns for rocket ship costume" and whatever else I can think of, to find a way to make him one. I'm not having much luck.

I know, I know what's this to you? I'm getting to my point, I think I have one today. In my defense, I really didn't know what I was clicking on, I read the link right as my fingers were clicking. A homem@de shou!der-f*red rocket l@uncher is never going to be made in this house, of this I am certain. See, I'm purposely trying to keep anyone really looking for such a device far away from here.

Please do not send any of your task force to my humble (albeit clean) home, you will be wasting (precious) tax dollars! Your search will only reveal a frumpy house wife and two pretty well cared for children. Possibly one very startled husband depending on the time of day.

I know you understand that accidents do happen, quite frequently in fact! Seriously, I am ignorant enough that I have never even imagined making one of the a for mentioned devices from PVC pipe. The most creative thing I've ever done with that is pretending to be in Blue Man Group.

While I have my issues with government, I'd be more likely to peacefully protest and even more likely to write to my representatives.

Thank you for your time, any help turning my four year old into a rocket ship is of course at your own discretion.

Humbly,

Frumpy Butterfly Mama

Life goes on...

With no time to blog. I've been cleaning my house like crazy for pictures etc. We had one showing but they wanted a downstairs master (it says ours is upstairs in the listing thankyouverymuch!) Anyway, this is way more low key when we don't have to get out of it like we did the last time we sold a house! I just do my best, maybe I'll even take some pictures of it to prove that the house doesn't always have some sort of clutter around!

Some pictures of life around here...

Me??!!!

The wonderful Linds has given me an award! Many thanks to you Linds (and I hope today went well!) Her blog rocking chair reflections is one of my favorites so if you haven't been over there to check her out it's worth a few hours of reading. Oh, and her youngest just flew off to university so if you pop in, say, "hi"!

Now is always the hardest part for me about awards...picking six more people to bless with them. Just six out of the many, many, many I read. Well, here goes, in no particular order.

Amy of Never A Dull Moment! She's a great mommy, they have a brand new baby and her husband's getting ready to be deployed shortly.

Ashlee of mama's nest has been one of my favorites for a long time now. I love her writing style and way of seeing the world.

Lilith of Crunchy Green Lovin' Mom is one I'm new to reading but love just the same. She's witty and fun and loves to tweet.

Mamacita Tina of Carpe Diem! She's got two great kids and sounds like a fantastic mommy!!

GreenStyleMom is another new read of mine. She's doing the mommy thing the very environmentally friendly way and yet is totally down to earth! They live in a co housing community and it is just wonderfully inspiring!

Wendy of Showered With Grace has been one of my long time reads and she is very refreshing, honest and inspiring as well.

There you have it...I wanted to list so many, many more! So many blogs, so little time! Must learn to read faster!

Since we've been fighting off the flu for the last few days our meals have been pretty much chicken and rice or chicken soup or veggie soup, in between a banana when appetites have allowed. Easy, boring and cheap I guess!

The last several days

we have all been fighting off some sort of flu. I have had a couple of interesting conversations with my son.

Son:I feel ill.

Me:Really.

S:Ill means sick.

M:I know.

S:Really, really sick.

I asked him where it hurt and he said,"My throat, tummy, chest, and arms." Yeah, I have to admit at this point I thought he was faking just to get to eat banana, drink juice and watch an extra bit of tv.

Then he kept asking for me to hold him (which he just about never does) and he did have a low fever.

Later in the day I was checking in with him,

Me:How are you feeling buddy?

Son:Like a tomato.

More Please

I love sign language!!!!

Why was I lying on the grocery store floor??

Funny you should ask. The answer is: my kids, they both seem prone to getting body parts stuck in grocery carts and other random places. My daughter reaches her whole arm into the shape sorter and gets it stuck on a daily basis.

Yes, back to the floor. I had just pulled out my baby girl's foot from between two bars just outside the proper leg hole in the cart (remind me again why all my baby carriers were at home.) I turn my back for 10 seconds to pick out some ground turkey and hear this "Mommmmmyyyyyy! ah, ah, Mooooommyyyyy!" Turn around (and I wish I had my wits about me to have taken a picture I really do) and my son is under the cart on that little shelf, you know the one you throw the dog food on, with his elbow stuck between two bars.

Yeah, I really don't know. But he was freaking out a bit so I (major ick factor) was lying there on the floor trying to get him to relax enough so that I could figure out how not to have to call the fire department - is that who you even call for such craziness?

Finally I relaxed him and had the presence of mind to ask him to straighten his arm and it loosened enough to get out. Then guess what, we got out to the car my daughter's foot was wrenched in the same spot again! Only I didn't realize it until I lifted her out and her foot stayed behind! Poor thing, but she survived, we all did for that matter. :)

So I guess I'm the only one brave enough to admit I've seen Lil' Abner huh. Or maybe I needed to include the chorus in my quote too... Anyway.

We are now just over our $300 grocery goal for the month but I'm not fretting because seriously we are spending a significant amount less than we normally do and that is the point. Plus there's just one week left and I don't think I'll have to go back to the store again!

About as political as I've been on this blog is to say go vote. And please do that in six weeks or so ok?! Right now though, I'm loosing it. I hate this part of the process, the ads, the interviews, the debates, the part where they try to convince us that they are who they are not.

Bonus points to anyone who can guess where this quote is from.

Them GOP's and Democrats each hates the other one. They's always criticizing how the country should be run. But neither tells the public what the other's gone and done. As long as no one knows where no one stands, The country's in the very best of hands.

Hint: It's a musical.

Each year before the elections I get to this point. I just don't trust what they say! I want someone to vote for not someone I dislike less than the other guy. Ugh. I've voted third party before for just that reason.

Even though I'm currently on the fence you can be sure I'll jump down before election day.

*******

Menu: Breakfast-muffins, fruit, Lunch-pb&j, dinner- Chicken soup and rice

Thought for the day

People will not always remember exactly what you say, but they will remember how you made them feel.

On the menu today was Breakfast: eggs, cantalope, banana. Lunch: Leftovers. Dinner:Zesty Quinoa and Ginger flank steak with sliced cucumbers and tomatoes.

Also I'm finally done with the raspberries and peaches but my wonderful husband bought me some pears too. He's so sweet! I am so sick of being in the kitchen! Alas, I will probably try making some pear sauce with them tomorrow. I wasn't a big fan of just canned pears when I did it so we'll see how the sauce works.

Then we'll do apples next week. I'm sort of glad my tomatoes aren't producing as much as they normally do, I've only done five pints of sauce, hardly seems worth it, but it's more than I had last year. Having just moved and a newborn baby not much was done last year so it'll be nice to have a bunch in the pantry this year.

My son loves the book Blueberries for Sal, so he keeps saying we're canning these for the winter just like the Mom does in the story! I think it's cute! I'm addicted to exclamation points again!!!!

To market, to market

So I'm just going to get right down to it. We've decided to sell our house. It's a good thing, really.

I do feel bittersweet about it, it is the first house we purchased. We lived in it, then rented out it while we lived a few miles away. We moved back last July and now I feel bittersweet about leaving it again.

Not to mention moving again and the keeping the house in tip top shape again. Which will be nearly impossible with my little one year old tornado. I clean a room and not five minutes later it's like the Tasmanian devil zoomed through!

Seriously, it is a good thing! (I resist change so I'm still convincing myself!) We will be able to purchase something with more land, hopefully out of a subdivision without cc&r's and further away from town. Something we've wanted since we moved to the area four and a half years ago.

It's sort of funny because I really don't particularly like this house, oh it's a great home and I'm very grateful for it, now that we're selling it I'm getting all nostalgic! Which I tend to do anyway, like I said I do change kicking and screaming holding to the past firmly until I'm sure that everything will be fine.

I'm turning over a new leaf this time, or letting the leaves fall off, since it's almost autumn. I'm just going to sit back and relax and see where this goes. It's not like we have to sell so there's no need to stress!

TODAY'S MEALS: Breakfast - granola, raspberries Lunch - we went out to lunch (said with head in the sand) Dinner - quinoa pasta with pesto, zucchini, cantaloupe.

We usually go meet my husband for lunch about 3 times a month and so I'm justifying this one visit to spend time with him during his day. We have greatly improved resisting the urge to go out to eat and I am SO grateful for that!

Coming down off of yesterday's soap box...

I have the serious giggles today!

I was getting my daughter ready for bed while Adam brushed my son's teeth and I hear this little voice ask, "Why to you have hair in your nose?" I just about fell over laughing so hard, tears streaming down, through which I hear Adam answer,"That's what happens when you get old." I still can't get it together. Next thing I know this little half naked boy is at my side and says, "Mommy you have gray hair" as he runs back to Daddy. Still, I'm cracking up.

Oh, and apparently I'm going to be a spicy noodle for Halloween. Where does he come up with this stuff, really??

Today's menu, waffles, leftover fish and sweet potatoes, bbq ribs with corn, cucs and tomatoes.

Shame, shame, shame

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Shame on you food industry.

Our journey through elimination diets this year has been rough at times but very enlightening. For awhile we gave up all sweeteners you may or may not remember. And now we mostly only use fruit sweetened or natural sweeteners (honey, REAL maple syrup.) I still have sugar left from a 10 pound bag I bought in January.

No matter because many people I know say, I never use sugar. Oh, yeah...how much of what you eat to you make yourself?? How much sugar is in the instant oatmeal (even organic) that you eat in the morning? The bread on your sandwich (even the sandwich meat) probably has a double whammy of sugar and high fructose corn syrup. My point, it is in everything. I go batty reading labels and then usually just end up making it myself.

The food industry does it on purpose it's simple dollars and sense. If there is sugar in it we eat more of it and they make more money.

I can totally see this when we start to eat more processed foods, we go through more of them. If you didn't catch High Fructose Corn Syrup: The Wolf in Sheep's Clothing last week it is well worth the read now! Seriously all sugars are best in (extreme) moderation but how are we supposed to eat them in moderation if they are put in everything we eat?

1/2

We've come 15 days on this 30 days of Nothing experiment and I'm drained. It could have to do with the fact that I'm in the kitchen all day lately. I'm making two more batches of jam tonight.

A friend in one of my pilates classes offered me to come pick raspberries and keep what we picked. As if I needed more work ;). But I couldn't say no to such sweet juicy goodness. Honestly, I had forgotten how much work it is to pick that many but now we've got a bunch to freeze and make yummy jam out of!

Mostly for my own inspiration I'm going to link to some of the many nonprofits I like and would love to have LOTS more money to give too.

Care has been on my sidebar for years now and I really dig what they do for women!

One that probably doesn't need mentioning here is Compassion International. Most of us I'm sure followed Shannon to Uganda last spring and will followMary to the Dominican Republic in a couple months!!

Mercy Corps is one that I found this year and I like really like their philosophy. One of their core values, "We are awed by human resilience, and believe in the ability of all people to thrive, not just exist."

This one I've always thought really cool Medicines Global. It's enough to make me want to take a backpacking trip to Nepal just to bring in needed medical supplies!

We've been eating just nothing great to post about...tonight we had taco's which are just about everyone's favorite.

Oh, and Scribbit is having a September write away contest. I can't wait to read all those entries! I'll need to learn to read faster though...so much to read and so little time!!! Off to my raspberries...

All is going well here, just feeling busy!

Please pray for this family. They are going through a heart wrenching tragedy.

Today in numbers

37 pints of peaches cooling on my counter top, plus three pints of jam.

3 jars broke while being processed (all were wide mouth is this common?)

13 sticky kitchen towels waiting to be washed.

2 soggy sticky potholders waiting to be washed.

Dinners put into the slow cooker this morning - ZERO! (We ate mac and cheese, peaches and frozen yogurt for dinner, LOL!)

60 minutes downstairs without tripping over kids.

Number of naps the baby took today: 1 (really it was quite short for her too.)

95 minutes putting the baby to sleep tonight - shared with hubby.

27 peaches left on my counter to make more jam.

6 layers of peaches in the freezer

Oh, seemingly one hundred times yelling, "Please get along today!"

2 kids that will get alot more of Mommy tomorrow than they did today!

8 sticky feet, 1 sticky floor and one tired Mommy!

Squeezy hugs

Today is one of those days that I can't help but go scoop my kids up and give them hugs and kisses a bit more frequently than usual. We remember while we keep living.

It didn't really help that my son awoke this morning telling about a dream where he was all alone in the house and couldn't find us. Hearing my son say, "I was looking for you Mommy and I couldn't find you anywhere" is just heart wrenching.

Still seven years later I, like a deer caught in on coming headlights, can't turn away. I have to dvr everything I find about it and so, CNN replaces PBS this morning as I clean up from breakfast and get ready to can peaches.

BTW, my friend that I mention in the link above who worked at the WTC is getting married on Saturday. Oh how I wish I were in NY for her special day - not to mention this is my favorite time of year back there!

I WILL ALWAYS REMEMBER 9/11/01

Leftovers

Another thing I am learning (something I really already knew) on this 30 days of nothing (comparatively) project is how much our leftovers are getting put to good use. With our small family, most meals leave us with leftovers but we don't always make the most of them.

I have become less wasteful in other areas of my life but it seems like in this arena I still enjoyed leaving leftovers to become a science experiment. Well between not eating out for spontaneous dinners and sending Adam with lunch and snacks everyday it seems a lot less food is getting thrown in the trash. And my friends that is a very good thing!

Yesterday we picked peaches that cost us $25 and they are currently filling my kitchen with a heavenly aroma. The day before my grocery bill was about $25 and I think that should make us another week. Including that first $200 I spent we are at $250 on food even though the peaches will last us all winter once I spend the better part of tomorrow canning and freezing them.

Yesterday's meals: Cereal - it was a lazy morning! Lunch - (you guessed it) levtovers and grapes, Dinner - bbq steak, huge salad, rice. We did have 2 vegetarian dinners in a row and I have one more planned for tomorrow.

On today's menu: Breakfast - oatmeal with cut up peaches, Lunch - leftovers, Dinner - Cornish Game Hen (we skip the bacon), fried rice, and probably some kind of zucchini side and sliced peaches.

On Her Christmas List

Unsorted recycling.

Why do we have a million toys again???

Oh, and the plastic bags have been moved since this photo was taken!

Are we done yet??

With teething??? She only has two teeth and I am ready to be done! Isn't that terrible, I am compassionate, I feel bad that she is hurting but I didn't feel bad leaving her at the gym to be fussy for someone else while I taught pilates today. I'm pretty sure I've seen every hour of the night for the last two.

I am not trying to rush her babyhood away, I know too soon she'll be telling me that I need to call a friend's Mommy to ask if they can come to the park. When I answer that we are just riding bikes for a quick visit to the park and they won't have time to come with us he points out, "Mommy, they have cars."

Today we had muesli and fruit smoothies for breakfast, Adam had leftovers from last nights dinner and we had pb&j's and bananas for lunch. Dinner was veggie lasagna and sweet potatoes.

Before dinner I found myself secretly hoping that Adam would call and say we were going out to dinner tonight. We made it without going. I did go shopping after my class at noon with 2 hungry kids for bananas and grapes and a few other essentials. I deemed canning lids essential since we are going to get peaches and hopefully apples tomorrow. I also deemed some granola bars and it turns out $6 worth of carob chips essential. Looking back, I'm not so sure that was a need...but looking forward, it could be carob/chocolate sometimes keeps a Mom from going over the edge!

And for all of you holding your breath...

Penny is OUT! All is fine! Yippee!

As for this 30 days of nothing project, it has been wonderful and difficult this last week. I feel like I'm getting us back into a routine and it is SO very nice to know what is for dinner when (not that I 100% have stuck to the menu.) I tend to change my mind and rearranged some meals but it is so nice to have two weeks of meals to pick from and all the ingredients for each meal.

It is very nice not to be spending money every day! Since it is Sunday I'm going to share a few verses that are on my heart right now and call it a night! I think we may even watch a movie or something.

"If there is a poor man among your brothers in any of the towns of the land that the LORD your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward your poor brother." Deuteronomy 15:7 "But the needy will not always be forgotten, nor the hope of the afflicted ever perish." Psalm 9:18

Meals:Breakfast- eggs, left over corn bread and plums. Lunch-leftover chili. Dinner- Stir fried veggies, bean threads and cantaloupe. It was so pretty and orange I had to take a picture, which as it turns out would have looked better if the flash was actually on!

A penny for your thoughts

Yesterday, (sigh) honestly, I felt like an incompetent parent but I rose above my feelings of inadequacy, conquered them if you will. Simply, I can only become the Mom I want to be through these moments - the ones where I don't know what the heck I'm supposed to do- these are the times when I am learning and growing into that Mom of my dreams. Right?!

Thursday night at dinner my son told us that while he was up in his room for a time out he "swallowed a coin down into his tummy." At this point he'd already eaten most of his dinner and was acting fine so I figured it was down safely and would just keep going.

My fury (kept tapped) began when I realized that he did this in his room ALONE, what if he had choked on it, he was in there for five minutes alone. At one point in the day I knew he had mentioned putting it in his pocket. Praise God for safe swallowing of said coin. At an after dinner coin line up the penny was picked out as the culprit.

Friday morning I changed my mind after he threw up. Dr said to come in that it could be blocking something. X-ray showed penny in pylorus, (where stomach enters into intestine) she conferred with a gastroenterologist on staff and he thought it would need to come out via a scope (I've seen them take many things out of dogs this way - you'd be amazed what they will eat. One golden retriever puppy kept eating socks so the family stopped wearing them one summer. - another Mom who couldn't get her kids to put the socks where they go!) Back on topic, I'm slightly freaked out about this being done to my son.

Talking with the Dr. she said that she had a call in to a pediatric gastroenterologist downtown and would confer with him. She came back in laughing because he said that in most cases even thought for now it seems like it's blocking it will go through.

My husband is still worried because tonight he was asking everyone we know if their kids have ever done anything like this but I'm convinced (still praying) it will go through.

As for nothing today that will be oh, probably about $200 -we have new insurance and I know we have a HUGE deductible so I think we will have to pay it all out of pocket. Oh, and his Dr wants to have follow up films done in two weeks to double check that it goes. Since we don't want to do that (more $ and more radiation for both of us to be exposed to) we will be watching and waiting for a penny to go kurplunk.

Fun times oh yeah, fun fun times!

Today's meals: Breakfast - oatmeal with blueberries, Lunch - bananas, carrot sticks, leftovers, Dinner - Chili, GF corn bread, zucchini

Spoiled Rotten

Today was the third day in a row I only left the house to take my son on a bike ride or to the park. The weather has been gorgeous so I'm grateful that we have had so many opportunities outdoors. I am excited about getting out to the bank, post office and to teach a pilates class tomorrow - combining errands plus a bit of adult conversation to boot!

Todays Meals

Breakfast:Smoothie and meusli

Lunch:Leftovers from last nights dinner Dinner:Falafels, baked potatoes, cantaloupe, garden salad

Dinner conversation consisted of how spoiled we are to have cravings for different types of food and act on them at will. We thought for a long while about people from other parts of the world, especially the third world where they grow one type of grain and eat it all year long. And that's if they are lucky enough to have grown enough to last the whole year!

It is Wednsesday

Not that's it's wordless but I love having a baby that naps!!!

On the menu today:Breakfast: Gluten freed blueberry waffles and eggs, Lunch:pb&j on waffles and chicken salad, Dinner:BBQ a la hubby, broccoli, fried rice.

Oddly enough this was my first time ever making fried rice and let me tell you it was a big hit. Joy your comment on my dinner notes from yesterday is right on! If I can extend the life of my pantry and not discard leftovers because we are sick of the same old thing my grocery bill will go down and we will be wasting less. Plus the leftover rice we all have been sick of since Saturday is now in our tummies which also satisfied another thing my hubby and I love.

We adore ethnic food. I would say 9 times out of ten when we go out to eat it is for sushi, greek, chinese, thai or some other type of food. I recently started making gyros and falafel but I'm realizing that maybe I need to start finding other ethnic recipes that we like so that by making them ourselves we can decrease those last minute, "I feel like dolmas tonight" or whatever the food of the moment is.

House arrest ;)

Well, yesterday is over and today is going much better. My hubby has today and tomorrow off so it was nice to have a very relaxing day. It's amazing how much less stress there is when I have a menu prepared!

We walked/rode to the park and Adam and I had a nice chat while one kid played and the other slept. We discussed many things but the topic kept coming back to what's the fastest and best way to get rid of our debt and start saving. Everthing from doing nothing and paying it down slowly, to selling my car and selling our house are all viable options. It just depends on how quickly we'd like to be done with it and further discussion will ensure I'm sure.

I really wasn't judging my negatives yesterday, I was mindful about the spending and mistakes are bound to happen, it's just that it was on the very first day! Today, I've hung laundry out on the line, made powdered laundry detergent and we used no gas! Oh, and my husband told me on our walk that we could replace our dishwasher for $159 as they are on sale now. It would be the same not so great model we currently have and I hit him on the arm because that would be a good chunk of the money we could potentially save this month. He said he didn't want to buy it now either I guess it's nice to know just how much I'm saving us by getting dishpan hands every day.

On the menu today was:Breakfast:Fruit and gluten free banana muffins Lunch:leftovers and peanut butter on muffins Dinner: Due to a snafu in my menu and memory (I thought there was a roast in the freezer but I must have used it) roasted red potatoes, leftover pasta mixed with lots of tomatoes and cucs from the garden to make a pasta salad and a large garden salad with leftover zucchini and chicken. It worked and used up all our leftovers.

Positive and Negative

As I sit here, the overwhelming feeling is that we failed today on the 30 day challenge. It's not the best feeling on the first official day! I'll start with the negative and work toward the positive.

I sent my husband with lunch this morning forgetting that he was working a twelve hour day. Usually on these days I pack extra snacks or one and a half sandwiches so he can have a snack at 5 o'clock or so. I didn't even give him any snacks today at all so he spent $8 on a sandwich for dinner - ugh.

I was in the neighborhood of my favorite kids thrift store and they were having a sale. Generally we accept any hand me downs for our kids and I buy what I can used both to save the expense and to reuse perfectly good items. So I spent $11 buying my son 4 sets of pj's for this winter, long underwear and 3 pair of pants. I could have waited until October to do this but it would have cost me probably $4-5 dollars more so it was worth it to me to do it today. I'm counting this as a neutral since it still saved me money. I plan to take some items in the next time I'm in the area and they give cash or store credit for used items so I'll just get the cash, enough hopefully to wash this expense.

I planned two weeks of meals and have a loose idea of the other two so I did a large grocery shop today for $200 and I have just about all of the main dishes we will need for the month. I will probably have to go back for fresh fruits but our garden should provide much of the veggies. Included in the $200 was a $20 vat of olive oil - the cheapest per pint and this will last much longer than just September.

I used up the very last drop of laundry detergent this morning and put that on my list too. Since I have made this before I looked in the cabinet and saw that I have enough ingredients to make another batch which should last us through the month.

The shopping trip seems like a lot since Mary's goal is $200 for a family 3 times the size of ours. For us though I'm aiming for about $300 or so for the month which should be doable.

It seems like I'm over analyzing everything but I think that is the point. As I looked at my cart checking out of the store I realized that there is NO way this experiment is really going to let me know what it feels like to actually live with nothing. It will show me how to live with less, still by the world's standards a bounty!

Breakthough

The weather was cooler today with a nice breeze and after spending the last two afternoons at our local water park this afternoon my son came in asking for a sweatshirt. What a relief to have an afternoon with nothing planned but productivity.

There were those dishes again, laundry, folding all those mountains and then the putting it away and cleaning a bathroom in between. Usually the putting away is my downfall but this afternoon the kids and I played dress up and put away laundry we were cowboys, superheros and prince and princesses. It was great.

There was also lots of singing and craziness and time for me to choreograph an entire dance to my new favorite song Natalie Grant - I Will Not Be Moved. It was so relaxing and wonderful if housework could be considered that.

Somewhere along the day I realized that I used to have way more days like this and somewhere along the way they became more and more scarce. Suddenly, filled with grief I realized that it was nearly two years ago when we lost our pregnancy that less and less days began to let music and laughter fill these walls.

I can be passive aggressive about dealing with life issues and I think it's hard to let go of the grief. Sometimes it's easier to hold on to things even if they are painful than to relinquish them knowing they will not be forgotten but tucked away with love. And that is what I have done.

With the memories tucked away in my heart I then had to fight the urge not to call my hubby and ask if he wanted to go out for sushi. This is the last night before the 30 days of nothing starts and I felt like one last hurrah. But what good would that do?

It's amazing how I'm telling myself we can't do something for a month and the urge to do it greatly overtakes all else. I also wanted to go buy some storage bins yesterday and Adam was like don't you think we have something you can use is it really necessary. This was a first, he's never EVER been the stingy one...so basically we are fighting the urge to have these wonderful luxuries while someone is making $2 a day in China or other parts of the world or even nothing at all. Hmmmm.

I'm determined to get organized

Anyone out there have a good way to utilize the space on the top shelf of our master closet? We need the space to be more usable other than just throwing stuff up there that doesn't get used much so I'm hoping someone more organized than I will have a fabulous idea?!?

Oh, and I wrote about Nothing. yesterday and bloglines didn't pick it up if you want to check it out!

Nothing.

Mary at Owlhaven is giving us something to think about again with the 30 Days of Nothing experiment. Two years ago I thoroughly enjoyed reading about the bloggers participating and we "sort of silently" played along, but it definitely got us talking and thinking. This year we're in and I'll be blogging about our experience.

With our diet constraints I normally don't buy many prepackaged items but lately I have been buying some gluten free granola bars and cereals. My goal is to once again make much more from scratch and use these 30 days to budget better. With my husband out of work for a chunk of this year we are still under that debt which we want to pay down as quickly as possible.

Another goal for the month will be to get in the habit of menu planning as well as having a loose weekly family schedule of activities. With a one and four year old we don't have many, still it is sure make our household run more smoothly if we know which nights Adam is going to workout or when a trip to the library will fit in.

One of my downfalls is forgetting to take something out of the freezer for dinner or procrastinating and we end up going out. There will be NO take out or restaurant meals this month. Adam usually eats out for two lunches so that will be drastically cut down if not eradicated as well. I know how much easier life is with meals planned it's just a matter of doing it - so I am!

I also can't wait to link to some of my favorite non profit organizations. Talking about them during the month will help me focus on the goal of being able to have more money left over to give to others.

Discussing and answering the hard questions, this is the great stuff. As a stay at home mom it is nice to get outside of my little routine and focus on the bigger picture of life. In the end we'll be using some of our extra cash this month for (in some minuscule way) the betterment of humanity as well as paying down our debt more quickly.

You can keep track of the other participants at Owlhaven with me in September.

Dear neighbors,

I have had good intentions (the best really) of weeding my front flower beds this summer. But intentions just don't mean squat when everything else takes priority (the garden in the back that yields food!).

Please accept this simple and sincere apology for our overgrown weedy beds. I have begun to clean them out but give me some time, I have two small kids who need me but I should have the bulk of it done in the next few days. Hopefully next year we'll do better so that the sending of another nasty note from the HOA won't be necessary!

With sincere apologies,

Heidi aka Butterfly Mama

From serious to silly

So I'm going to start with something terrible. These cluster bomb things are absolutely inhumane what part of war is humane actually but anyway. You can sign The Peoples Treaty to help them become a thing of the past, it might not be a bad idea to let your public officials know how you feel as well. Just a thought.

* * * * * * * * * *

We've had a wonderfully spontaneous day today. Remember when I mentioned that sponteneaity was lacking in my Mommy life? Well today after running an errand this morning Adam walks in asking me what I have planned for the day. After me saying laundry, dishes, yadda yadda, he asked if I wanted to take a drive up to the mountains with the kids, do some hiking and just chill. Hello, a yes...

See driving has always just been our thing. It has always been, it started after our very first argument and became something we used to do to get out of the house at night pre kiddos. It was the most fun in his trans am with the T tops down and the heat on in the San Diego winter (if you can call it that!)

We end up talking about stuff that doesn't get brought up at home with many distractions. It was a fun day to eat up a half a tank of gas (cringe) and well worth it.

The proof is in the pictures...

My son insisted on bringing his back pack (oh how I hate to admit he was calling it rescue pack, lest you know just how much Diego we are watching currently!) with his binoculars and other essentials on our little hikes.

* * * * * * * * * *

And now for some silliness, I've started using facebook (not that I really have a clue what I'm doing yet) and really like I needed something else to suck time during the evenings but I immediately found my sister and cousin and some other friends and it seems curious. The thing I find amusing is that facebook is very nosy, he seems to tell me what any of my friends are doing and who they are talking to - it all seems sort of well, at the risk of being redundant amusingly silly. Now to figure out twitter...it seems that I'm just not technical for all these things but so many others find it fun so maybe I'll get on the band wagon too. Maybe.