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Wow!
10 months today

How can it be that my little monkey is 10 months old already? He ate his first fruit loop yesterday (Zoe gave it to him), he stood by himself three times yesterday (he is on the fast track to walking!), he waves to every truck, car, or vehicle that goes by, he says "mama", he giggles all the time, he is a stinker- always grabbing the nightlights even though I tell him not to, he's tall (the size of a 2 year old), he gives hugs to his brother and sister, he stole my heart...a long time ago.

two projects & my Monday menu

bonsai table: before (Parker luuuuved helping me sand this table before painting)
lamp: beforebonsai table: after (in our study- someday I hope to get a big cushy chair for here)
lamp: after (sorry bad picture quality)I just love on some painting projects, especially small ones. My hubby is a total science guy who loves all things critter, including plants. He has a particular affinity for bonsai trees, I think it is silly, because most of the ones he buys end up dying. But I tend to indulge him, they are usually cheaper than the boat he forever talks about getting. One he got last winter requires warmer weather so we have been on the hunt for a table to rest his little tree. I found this one at the thrift store for.... $8.99! Woo! Some black paint and new drawer pulls and voila! The same can of paint also restyled this lamp. I did the same thing for my side of the bed a while ago and I finally found a lamp that is a close match to the one I did before. Now we have "matching" lamps. Actually the shades are the same, the bases are slightly different. The lamp cost a whopping.....$2.99. Double Woo! It is such a joy to finish some little things around the house that don't involve Tide or paper towels (I'm referring to cleaning, in case you didn't get that.)

Here is my menu for this week:

• rigatoni bake and red pepper olive focaccia bread
• red beans and rice and sausage
• enchilada casserole
• shrimp fettuchini Alfredo and salads
• vegetable soup and deli sandwiches
• leftover buffet
  

I am not sure what days I am making what dish, hubby has conferences at school and their soccer team just keeps winning (which means he has to go to more games) so it might be kind of crazy. Some meals might have to carry over for next week but that just means less planning later!

think about this Thursday

Think about this...

The next time you have a party and order pizzas, make sure to check each pizza box before throwing it in the trash (can you believe they don't recycle pizza boxes!?). I frantically had to search all eight of our boxes for my awesome Pampered Chef pizza cutter. I was making pancakes and everyone knows pizza cutters are the best for cutting pancakes. My cutter had been misplaced in one of the boxes from Parker's party. Thank goodness trash had not been taken out to the curb yet. I am telling you, I would have been a not-too-happy mommy if it had been thrown out. Just a little FYI.

Monday menu

One of the things I do to help budgeting/organizing is to make a weekly menu. I generally plan according to the activities we have scheduled but inevitably something must be changed. I make my menu usually on Thursdays as I grocery shop on Fridays. One of my favorite blog writers shares her menu planning every Monday on her site

I’m an Organizing Junkie » My passion is organizing, join me as I attempt to get others hooked along with me!

She has many followers who also share their menus. I like to read what everyone else is having, sometimes it prompts me to get out of a rut and try something new. By the way, Organizing Junkie has lots of great tips for organizing on the cheap. She doesn't always have the coolest, matching baskets from Ikea or Target, in fact she loves the dollar store. She is worth checking out. I love her no nonsense, get 'er done approach.

Anyway, I thought I'd share my menu for the week: (didn't include Sat/Sun since they have already passed)

Monday: spaghetti and salad
Tuesday: breakfast for dinner (probably pancakes-don't tell my family it's Fiber One pancake mix!) and berries
Wednesday: take out- dance class night and meeting with new realtor
Thursday: veggie/chicken nuggets/wings salads (my excuse to get everyone to eat salads!) and fruit, gotta have a quick dinner because this is school conference night
Friday: lasagna and salad or steamed veggies

OK, so I don't usually have pasta twice in one week but the kids are requesting spaghetti and I already had the ricotta cheese for the lasagna, see what I mean, things get changed. I also write my menus on a monthly calendar page so I can see what we have had recently. Sometimes I'll think "didn't we just eat this?" and it makes it easy to check. I just download a free blank calendar page, print it out, and stick it in my coupon binder which is where I keep all my grocery stuff.

total cuteness

Tanner carries this yo-yo around all the time. It has a teeny little ring on it to hold and he hooks his finger in it and drags it as he crawls everywhere. When we give it to him it is like Christmas morning everytime, he goes crazy bouncing and laughing, like, woohoo, look what I got! It is Parker's yo-yo and Tanner will throw a huge fit if he cannot hold it. Weird. Parker is so far pretty nice about letting him hold it, I would normally think Parker would be P-Oed about having to share such a prized possession.

I know I say, "there is nothing cuter than..." all the time, but seriously, is there anything cuter than a baby in overalls?!

kitchen update

Here is our update on our kitchen. I painted the walls half white and half brown and my hubby trimmed out with chair rail and wainscoting squares. We have the same squares in our foyer and up the stairs and the upstairs hall and I have been wanting to add them to the kitchen for a while. We also added them in the hallway there on the left. While this was not a huge project it was time consuming. I started painting when the kids went to bed and on the last night we did the woodworking. It took about a week, using that white glossy paint took many coats. I love the color, we had boring builder beige before, yuck! I love wood trim too so I love this little update. We are hoping potential buyers love it too because we don't have granite counter tops and stainless steel appliances, oh well. As I have said before, I wish I would have done it sooner because it really does look nice and I got nothing from procrastinating. My next project is to paint Parker's room and the dining room, I hope to do the same paint and wood treatment in there.

4

I seriously cannot get this boy to stop clowning around for a decent picture of him! Urgh!

Yesterday my little man turned four. Sniff sniff, I am so sad that he has reached this milestone. It seems so big but I know it is still so young. We were talking about him being such a "big boy" and he said, "don't worry mommy, I am still your little buddy." I feel a really strong bond with him because when he was an infant, my husband broke his wrist and was not able to hold him for almost a year. Consequently, we had major together time. He thinks he is so grown up but I know secretly he likes to cuddle like a baby and tells me he loves me all the time, when no one is listening of course! He is a major ball boy/superhero/daredevil/lover of all things creepy. I am excited to have his celebration this weekend, all he wanted was for his friends to come over and play ball with him. He has requested pizza and cake for the menu. Gotta love him. Happy Birthday PJ.

fall

Happy Fall Y'all!

It is full force fall around here and honestly I hate it. I hate cold weather and snow and all the icky-ness of slushy driving, oh wait that's winter, close enough. I do hate wearing coats and being cold. I do however, love the colors of fall and fall festivities. Pumpkin getting, carving, trick or treating, pulling the jeans out of the back of my closet, making chili and drinking cider, all those thing I love, cold, not so much. This weekend is my favorite day(s) of the year, the annual Sauerkraut Festival in Waynesville, Ohio. My absolute most favorite, better than Christmas, day is the day I get to go scour antique shops and craft booths amid sauerkraut foods (including cheesecake and pizza!). I am hoping I get to go. I haven't been able to go for two years because it has been Parker's birthday so keep your fingers crossed for me. How many weight watchers points do you think a sauerkraut sundae is? Hmm, gotta research that one. Anyway, I hope everyone is enjoying fall in their neck of the woods.

Just do it people

Whew! I am exhausted. Not because my stinker-pot baby won't sleep through the night or because my almost 4 year old stinker-pot boy got up six (!) times last night. I've been a painting maniac. After the babes are in bed, I crack open the paint cans and crank up the radio and go crazy until midnight or so. I painted one and a half bathrooms and our kitchen and a hallway and our decorative niche in the last two weeks or so. (I promise to post some pics soon, really not all that exciting, mostly shades of brown) I am also waiting on my handy-man, ahem, hubby, to do a little trim work for me. I have these high hopes of making our house look better for potential buyers but as I observe on all those HGTV shows, now that things are being painted and updated, I kind of don't want to leave! Just kidding, we are still going to try to move to be closer to my hubby's new job but in the meantime I plan on fully enjoying my newly "redecorated" home. It just stinks that I didn't do all this sooner. I have always envisioned these changes I am making, but between babies, new jobs, kids, blah blah blah, I just never got around to it. So I guess what I am sayin' to you is, just do it already! Quit procrastinating and get 'er done! Now if I could only figure out a way to paint Parker's room while he is sleeping...