Jan. 21, 2008 - They grow up so fast...

Cara's three now.  And all of a sudden it's like she's decided to grow up.  We're almost fully confident now with daytime toilet training (as long as there's a step handy), she's starting to dress/undress herself, likes to sit and play games on the computer, can change her own DVDs and CDs... where does the time go?

And today marked a new milestone for the baby - Anika had her first taste of cereal today.  She took to it just as well as her older sister did - which means she'd probably have eaten half a cup if I'd let her.  LOL   I kept her to a couple of tablespoons though for the first feeding.  I made it myself; actually I'm planning to make more of her food than I did with Cara.  It was surprisingly easy, actually.  I ran some long-grain rice through the coffee grinder, put it in a pot with some bottled spring water, cooked it til the water was absorbed, added more water a few times til finally it had the consistency of cream of wheat.  Then I mixed in a couple of scoops of formula powder and a bit of cold water.  It made a small cereal bowl full, so I fed her some at lunch today and there will be enough left for maybe a bit at supper tonight and then tomorrow's lunch.

School the last few days has mostly been Cara helping me around the house - we've been painting her bedroom so we've been talking a bit about before (primer) and after (paint).  We made sourdough bread the other day (unsuccessfully...) And she's hooked on her latest leapfrog video - The Storybook Factory.  Love that series.

Also, we've been working on memorizing family facts - mommy and daddy's real names, grandparents' real names, where we live, where daddy works.  Next comes learning our phone number but that one is taking more work.

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Jan. 17, 2008 - It's Super Fling Boogie Time!

Have you heard of FlyLady?  If you haven't, go ahead, look her up.  What a life mission she has.  I bought her book "Sink Reflections" a couple of years ago and I was so impressed with what she had to say that I subscribed to her website, too.    Love it.

Anyway... right now is "Super Fling Boogie" time.  What's that?  It's a challenge to unearth ourselves from the clutter filling our homes and lives, and to move forward into the new year with less stuff, more order, and motivation to keep it that way.

So far I've taken two full trash bags to charity, my car trunk full twice with boxes, and I've got three more boxes waiting to go.  What do you have taking up space in your house that you could bless someone else with?

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Jan. 17, 2008 - Breakfast is ready!

This morning we had crockpot oatmeal for the first time.  I have to say, that was REALLY convenient.  It was nice to just come down stairs and grab bowls for breakfast, and still know it was healthy.  Here's the recipe:

Apple Oatmeal with Wheat Berries

Ingredients:

1 and 1/2 cups steel-cut oats
1/2 cup wheat berries
2 apples, peeled, cored and chopped
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp vanilla
3 1/2 cups water
1 cup cranberry or apple juice

First, grease the slow cooker stoneware with butter, margarine or oil.  In the cooker, combine the steel-cut oats, wheat berries, apples, cinnamon and vanilla.  Add water and juice.  Cover and cook on High for 4 hours or on Low for 8 hours or overnight.  When ready to serve, stir well, spoon into bowls and top with fruit, nuts or sugar of your choice.
(http://blog.dongenova.com/2006/03/pacific_palate_.html)

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Jan. 3, 2008 - What's Cooking?

Breakfast this morning was Cinnamon Oatmeal Breakfast Pudding, a recipe from eggs.ca. Pretty good - although I don't think it would actually serve 4 like it says.

2 c water
1/4 tsp salt
4 eggs
1/4 c milk
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 c quick cooking oats (not instant)

Bring water and salt to boil in medium saucepan over high heat. Whisk together eggs, milk, cinnamon and vanilla in a medium bowl; stir into boiling water. Reduce heat to med-low. Stir in oats. Simmer until desired consistencey, about 5-6 minutes, stirring occasionally. Spoon into bowl, top with milk, dried fruit, and sugar.



Lunch was just a quickie - chicken nuggets and fries, with Dunkaroos for dessert :)



Tonight's supper... salmon fillets with wine/herbs, potatoes, broccoli & cauliflower. And for dessert, a repeat of last night - Apple Bread Pudding:

4 c soft bread cubes
1/4 c raisins
2 c peeled & sliced apples
1 c brown sugar
1 3/4 c milk
1/4 c margarine
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs, beaten

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 7x11 baking dish.
Combine bread, raisins and apples in a large bowl.
In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine brown sugar, milk and margarine; cook and stir til margarine is melted. Pour over bread mixture in bowl.
In small bowl, combine cinnamon, vanilla and eggs. Pour bread mixture into prepared baking dish and pour egg mixture on top.
Bake in preheated oven 40-50 minutes, until center is set and apples are tender. Serve with warm vanilla sauce:

Combine 1/4 c brown sugar, 1/4 c white sugar, 1/2 c milk and 1/2 c margarine in a small saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil, then remove from heat and stir in 1 tsp vanilla.


This would also be really good with french vanilla ice cream on top! :)



Cara and I also did some baking - banana chocolate chip muffins. Math class today was counting the chocolate chips out 20 at a time.

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Jan. 3, 2008 - Beginning Reading

www.beginningreading.com is my new best friend, along with www.starfall.com. If you want to teach your little one to read, I think those two sites have everything you need!! :D

Today we're working on the worksheets for "A", starting to learn how to print capital and lowercase A, and also starting to work on cutting a straight line with safety scissors. (http://www.dltk-kids.com/crafts/miscellaneous/scissor_skills.htm)

Music/physical activity is right now, as she's dancing along to a music video :D

And later we'll do some early math and life training as she helps me make a batch of muffins.

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Jan. 1, 2008 - My, how time flies...

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Sep. 25, 2007 - A is for Ant

Yes, she drew the face herself. (Awwww) She couldn't be convinced to color the little guy though.

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Sep. 24, 2007 - Letter A

Sprinkles aren't just for cakes :)

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Sep. 24, 2007 - Starting "School"

Probably a bad week to try to get back into the routine, seeing as I'm due on Wednesday... but we'll see how it goes. Cara already knows all her letters and most of their sounds, but we're going to work on a "letter of the week" project anyway.

Each week I'm hanging up a big sheet from an easel pad on the wall next to her work table, where we will stick up pictures of the letter and things that start with that letter.

We're also going to assemble a book as we go along which will collect all of the coloring pages and worksheets, and she can look back through it whenever she wants to.

We'll also include some tactile activities like painting the letter, gluing things onto it, etc.

A nice idea I read was to also include a photo of the child for each letter, taken while working on a project from that week.


This Week: A

Apple - coloring pages, poem, apple tree with fingerprint apples
Ant - coloring pages, paper craft or thumbprint ants
Ambulance - coloring pages
Alligator - coloring pages, paper craft, puzzle
Acorn - coloring pages


Resources:
http://www.first-school.ws/theme/alphabetp2.htm#a
http://www.first-school.ws/theme/alphabetp7.htm#flashcards
http://www.first-school.ws/theme/crafts.htm
http://www.canteach.ca/elementary/songspoems23.html
http://www.dltk-teach.com/alphabuddies/mabcposter.html
http://avirtuouswoman.org/2007/09/03/the-ringstaff-family-homeschool-2007-2008/
http://www.kidsrcrafty.com/a_a.htm
http://kids.niehs.nih.gov/lyrics/antsgo.htm
http://www.freekidcrafts.com/lettera.html

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Sep. 3, 2007 - the real estate roller coaster...

We finally did sell our house! August 20th was the closing date... August 23rd we moved... We just won't think about the craziness of moving one month before one's due date. LOL Anyhow, we're into our new house now, and we're getting close to unpacked. It's always a challenge to figure out where everything should go. And you know, I think it's almost more of a challenge here than it was at our old house. There's more room, higher ceilings, bigger walls... so there are so many more options! Not to mention that the whole house is wallpapered, so it's harder to decide what can go where without really clashing with the existing colors!

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Aug. 6, 2007 - tired...

For some reason I am just dragging my feet this morning. Which is a pain, considering the need to pack and clean... but I'm smart enough to heed my body's warnings, so this morning I'm just doing the basics and some smaller projects. That, and drinking water. I started packing my hospital bag so I don't have to remember that in the middle of packing and moving the house.; just have to get a few extras to put in it and that will be done. Might go pick up the car seat as well, and that will be one more thing I don't have to think about. Then, I'll just hope that Cara goes for a good nap today. :)

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Aug. 5, 2007 - the joys of selling a house...

This is where you could insert a "rolling eyes and sighing" kind of smiley.

Buying a house when we were renting - no problem. Sign some papers, hand over the money and get the keys. 30 days' notice to the landlord.

Buying a house when you already own one? Totally different story!

The for sale sign went up in May. We also put in an offer on another place and had it accepted. No problem. The market seemed to be moving, we figured on a quick sale and we could be moved by August. (Considering that I'm due at the end of September, we didn't want to be trying to move much later than the beginning of August!) And since we were listing a 3-bedroom house, really close to town, with an attached apartment for income, why on earth WOULDN'T there be a lot of interest?

Well, that was naive. *sigh* No action at all for a month. Then a little longer. Finally we did have a couple of showings, but no interest. Some action at an open house, but no offers. Insert developing sense of disappointment here... looks like we're staying put. We drop the price to the bare minimum we can afford to take and hope for the best.

Then suddenly we get an offer. It's not what we need to get for it, but it's a start anyway. So we go back and forth a bit, and finally arrive at an acceptable agreement. All good, except for the timing. As it looks now, we'll be moving on the 20th-21st of August... roughly 4 weeks before I'm due to deliver. Yikes!!

We're still in a bit of limbo... today is a holiday so the banks etc are closed, thus we are still waiting for final confirmation that this deal is actually going through. I guess you could call this a suitably tense moment, like the end of a novel when you're not really sure what's about to happen or how it's all going to end. We're stepping out (in faith?) and starting to pack stuff up, hoping that we won't be just unpacking all these boxes again in a week or so and putting it all back.

But if all goes well, and I think it will... then this time next month we'll have just celebrated my 30th birthday in a new house that actually has room to have company over! LOL

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Jul. 30, 2007 - health update

Just a quick update. Cara didn't have strep, so we totally wasted our time going to the hospital about it. Over the next couple of days her symptoms developed and became more recognizable, so I guess I should have just waited it out. I figure she (and her cousin) picked up one of the adenoviruses that are so common in kids - he got the eye infection, sore throat and stuffy nose variety, but when she caught it she got it in the gut instead. After a week of serious tummy trouble she pretty much shook it off and ate like a piggy afterward. Poor kid developed a really evil diaper rash though, which only cleared up when I bought a tube of Monistat-Derm and treated it as a yeast infection.

Thankfully, I avoided getting this particular bug, but unfortunately it did get hubby and take him down for a few days. :(

But all is well in the household now.

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Jul. 20, 2007 - Strides toward independence...

Two and a half is an amazing age. I mean, so far every age has been amazing in its own unique way... but right now I'm fascinated. Frustrated, but fascinated. I can see little bits of the individual to come appearing every day in Cara. We're in the "ME do it!!!" stage right now. And the funny thing is, she actually CAN do most of it. It's just a matter of being willing to step back and let her. Which we've been good at all along, but now suddently I'm more reluctant. Probably because most of what she wants to do for herself now involves a lot of mess potential. LOL

One thing that's great is her eagerness to help. She's so keen on proving that she can do things, that if I just ask her if she'd like to "help mommy" then she's right there. This morning's project was changing bedsheets. She was totally willing to strip off her bed for me - probably just because doing so reveals a great bouncing surface, but anyway. She still wanted to help!

She's just now finished having a picnic with her little dollies, which she arranged all by herself including all the dishes and play food. Then she went to the fridge, got the apple juice, poured it into her little pitcher and put it back, all without asking for help. Of course there was juice dribbled down the hallway, but surprisingly none on the floor in the kitchen!

Then of course there's the dressing/undressing and all that fun stuff.

And our biggest accomplishment at the moment is, she's actually settling into her "big girl bed". Right now it's just a twin mattress on the floor, we haven't set up the frame yet. But last night was the third night there. The first two nights she woke up in the wee hours and came into our room, but last night she slept right through til 6:30. So there IS hope that she'll be totally out of her crib before the next one arrives!!!

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Jul. 16, 2007 - Drawings...

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Jul. 9, 2007 - The BEST Play Dough Recipe!

Traditional Play Dough

1 cup flour
1 cup warm water
2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp oil
1/4 cup salt
food coloring

Mix all ingredients, adding food coloring last. Stir over medium heat until smooth. Remove from pan and knead until blended smooth. Place in plastic bag or airtight container when cooled. Will last for a long time.

This recipe is from here: http://www.teachnet.com/lesson/art/playdoughrecipes/traditional.html



Personal notes:

I used a medium-size pot to make this and it was about the perfect size. When it's done cooking, it will be quite thick and starting to stick to the bottom of the pot. I do not add the food coloring until afterward because I only want to make a small amount of each color at any given time. So I cook it and cool it as above, but I knead the color in by hand during the last step.

I have found that empty used Play-Doh containers make great storage (and we have plenty of them since Play-Doh dries out so quickly!). You could also use small Tupperware-type containers, or even Ziplock-type plastic bags as long as they have a good seal. Check flea markets for old Play-Doh playsets - most of them will be pretty cheap (and will probably include several tubs of dried-out dough if your experience is like mine!).

We left this dough out on the table overnight once by accident and I was VERY pleased to see that it didn't dry out. It got just a little crusty on the top, but a few seconds of kneading with warm hands and it was as good as new!

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Jul. 8, 2007 - Drawing, drawing, more drawing!

Lately we're going through a lot of notepads. C has discovered that a great way to pass the time in the car is by drawing, and those little notepads that come in a package of ten are just the right size to put in a baggie with 5 or 6 crayons. Perfect backseat entertainment!

Anyway, this new hobby is really taking off. I have to admit that even though I am a little biased as her parent, I'm also really impressed. At the beginning of this year, she was scribbling everywhere but not trying for "representative art" by any means. Then she started drawing circles. Circles, circles, everywhere. Including some places she shouldn't have. But I digress. That was her thing for a couple of months. Then last month she started drawing "things". Her little circles suddenly had names - this one was mommy, that one was daddy, that one was the cat.

July has seen something else entirely. These three are from the end of June:

But this week she's started drawing figures that are abstract but recognizable. You know the kind - a big round body with legs sticking out the bottom, maybe with eyes and a mouth. But she's quite particular, it seems. She's careful to add two eyes, a nose, a mouth and hair to each one. Two legs on the bottom. Two arms on the side. A little mark for an ear on each side, and a mark at the bottom for a belly. And since she has a backpack, most of the people in her doodles have a big dark scribble on one side for a backpack. LOL I left her latest scribble pad in Grammie's car this weekend, but once I get it back I'll scan some of the pictures she drew on our trip to Frenchy's.

So I got her a preschool scribbler from daddy's shop, the kind we all used as journals in elementary school where you draw a picture and there are a few lines underneath to write about what you drew. I think I'm going to start getting her to draw some pictures in there each week and tell me about them, just so I have something a little more solid to hang on to than a bunch of 3"x4" pieces of paper!

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Jul. 4, 2007 - To Do Lists

Ever find yourself adding things to the bottom of your to-do list, just so you can cross them off?    I find myself doing this a lot - I make a to-do list, but as the day goes on I remember other things I need to do and I do them.  Then I add them to my list and cross them off.  I guess subconsciously it makes me feel more productive or something.   LOL

I've found a great tool recently though for managing my to-do lists.  Since I have a home business, I'm on the computer frequently through the day checking my email for messages from clients.  Just in the last couple of weeks I've discovered iGoogle.  This nifty little system is great - I've set up my start page to include two tabs - one has my "important" to-do list on it, mostly things related to work, plus a clock, a calendar, links to the forums I frequent, news headlines, and a preview window for my Gmail account.  Then I added a second tab and called it "homekeeping".  This page has my daily to-do list and my weekly to-do list both prominently displayed, a big sticky note for reminders to myself, and then links to all my favorite websites related to hearth and home and being a woman.   Every time I pop online to check my email, I'm also seeing my lists and checking off the things I've done.  It's not perfect, and I still don't get everything done every day, but it's a great little gadget for my desktop that does make me feel a little more organized.  :-)

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Jul. 3, 2007 - Save money and calories

Eat from the kids' menu!

Such a simple thing to do, this is.  Except that the restaurants make it more difficult than it needs to be.  But if you're going through a drive-through, just order yourself a kid's meal.  It costs less, and it has much less food, although what's in a kid's meal today really is enough for an adult.  Eat slower, don't just gulp it down, and you'll see I'm right.  The same goes for ice cream shops - most of the places I've been recently serve as much on a kid's cone as any adult needs to have!  And you'll save yourself a couple of dollars just like that.   That's actually what put this on my mind today.  C and I went out for an ice cream cone at DQ, and instead of a small I ordered a kid's cone for myself.  The order total went from 5.37 for a kiddie and a small down to 3.00 for two kiddie cones.  Which means I have enough change left to go through the car wash later on.  :-)

If you're eating in, this is trickier because most place won't let an adult eat from the kid's menu.  If that's the case then just put a little more thought into your meal.  See if they will do half-size servings.  If they won't, then ask them to box up half of your entree before they even bring it out to you.  Bring the other half home and you've got lunch for tomorrow!  Or simply split a regular entree with your dinner partner.

Eating out doesn't have to blow your budget - either in cash or calories!

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Jul. 3, 2007 - Getting organized

I just thought I'd pass on a couple of links that have been incredibly helpful for me in getting myself better organized, or at least inspired to be!

http://myblessedhome.blogspot.com/   Keeping the Home blog.  Lots of great writing and teaching here as well, but at the moment she is also working through a series on building a Home Management Binder.  Definitely pop over there and learn something!

http://www.flylady.net  Who hasn't heard of FlyLady by now?  Excellent site.  'Nuf said.  

I'm finally getting to the place where my morning routine is happening consistently.  I'm sure that having the house for sale is helping.  But for a solid week now I've kept up with the dishes, the laundry and the clutter, just by making sure it's all done before I leave the house to go anywhere.   Which meant for a few days we really didn't go anywhere.  But I got all caught up and now it's maintenance.

Want to know what I did to help with the laundry?  I threw away my hamper.  Yup.  Tossed it out.  So now all I have to catch the laundry are two baskets in the bathroom, one for darks and one for lights.  When one is full, it goes straight to the washer, and voila, just like that the laundry isn't getting ahead of me anymore!  Before, I was dumping it into the hamper in the laundry room (which will hold something like three loads if it's packed down).  No wonder there was always more to do!

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