A Quote

Demand, "I'm going to be the fastest ballerina scientist ever!"

When you purposely give your children nerdy names, I don't see how comments like this can be surprising.

Before & After

Wanna see what I did while Demand was in class and the boys napped?

I was so proud of myself until the children made very quick work of my progress. Oh, well, I get to do it tomorrow I guess.

Challenge Update

Yesterday was an odd day I can't explain why, it just was.

I went to Mass in the morning, then we homeschooled then it was lunch. I don't remember what happened between lunch and nap but I'm guessing it involved either making messes or cleaning them up. While the boys slept I napped a bit and then started a grocery list. We had a flexible play date scheduled for 3pm but, as to be expected when you make plans, Happy slept until 4pm. We bundled up rather quickly and then walked down the block. Listen I know it's been subzero temperatures in this northern state recently but I was sweating!

Leftovers again for dinner as was the case for lunch (and we still have food left over). After dinner the kids got a much needed haircut. Happy has incredible amount of hair and really needs a haircut every two weeks. Since the only way to get clippers near Happy is to strap him in a booster seat on a barstool in front of the TV and give him a sucker things get a bit messy. After haircuts it was time for a long soak in the bath. It dawned on Mr. Sloth and I that between the two of us we couldn't remember when we washed their hair last...yikes! Demand got to wear "new" jammies as I had finally gotten around to mending ones I bought for $1 at a garage sale this summer. I am proud of myself for fixing them because I have no sewing talent whatsoever.

After the kids were in bed I headed to the gym. Ugh, the gym in January, so busy. I don't know what was wrong.....right with my body last night but I ran for 15 minutes. I usually max out at 2 minutes. Boy am I feeling it today. That's my excuse though, I don't know what the kids problem is. Everyone is just off today.

As for my food challenge we are still on task. (Gosh I hope I could last two days!) Happy single-handedly finished the blueberry muffins, Demand had cereal and the both at a few clementines. For lunch we'll have more left overs (baked beans, pulled pork, buttered noodles and macNcheese). Tonight we'll have pork chop casserole probably with left over salad. Last night I started to make a list of meals I could make with things on hand. Here's what I've come up with so far.

Sunday: Grilled turkey with mushroom risotto, peas, and cranberry sauce.

other meal ideas, Chicken enchiladas, Asian rollups, tuna melts, chicken salad, and I'm pretty sure I can create some creamy chicken and vegetables over noodles dish. There's still more meat to work with, such as a ham and chicken thighs, I'll just have to think some more about what to do with them and what to serve with them.

As for the diapers. I just washed a load so I'm guessing I used at least 15 if not more in the last two to three days. I hesitantly put Happy in one today but when I bought my last set I got a trial of diaper liners for free so I'm trying those to see if they make cloth diapering a toddler easier. They are flushable liners that would, ideally, catch all the "matter" and you can then just flush the liner and since Happy goes about three times a day that would be great! Let's see if they work!

I hope the rest of the day goes a bit better as Demand has been sassy and she has class this afternoon (which makes her sassy to start with), Happy is still in his jammies (Awesome Mom!) and Pax won't stop spitting up. (6th outfit today.) If Mr. Sloth can see the upstairs floor when he gets home I'll be happy with the progress. Then again if the floor is clear you'll only see spit-up, coffee, and marker stains.

Oh, St. Joseph, please pray for us!

Guess who's 4 months?

This guy!

Pax turned one month on the 12th. He weighs16 lbs , he's 27 inches. 90th% for weight, and off the charts for height. He loves watching his brother and sister, playing in his new excersaucer, nursing, grabbing anything and putting it in his mouth, classical music, and Daddy playing guitar. Oh, and he's a pretty good sleeper.






I may just eat him up!

New Plan and a Food Challenge

After me and kiddos bust through the Church doors and disturbing Mr. Sloth's peaceful morning alone at Mass a few weeks ago Mr. Sloth came up with the idea that we would switch days going to Mass so we each could go but not have to be in the back with children like is the case most every Sunday. It has been fantastic. I've also been getting up at 7am on a regular basis as opposed to just getting up when the kids get up. Today I was up, showered and dressed by 7:20am. So not only was I on time for Mass for one but I was early and had quiet time for prayer. When I came home the kids had finished breakfast, Mr. Sloth had dressed them and he and Demand had made the beds.

I love this new system!

Now for my food challenge. Inspired by one of my friends who also uses cloth diapers I decided to be better about using mine. I had just bought two big boxes of diapers (size 2 and size 5) so I decided I wanted them to last a month. This gave me the idea to see how long I can go between grocery store visits. I'll wait as long as possible and then go an a big Sam's Club run. Of course I'll have to pick up things like milk and fruit, etc but you get the idea.

We entertained twice this weekend so we have lots of food in the fridge to start with and I had recently stocked the freezer with a decent amount of meat.

Today/tonight: yogurt with granola and oatmeal for breakfast, left over ziti bake and homemade macNcheese for lunch, fruit and spinach dip for snacks, left over pulled pork and salad for dinner.

Tomorrow: left over blueberry muffins for breakfast, clementines and pretzels for snack, left over baked beans and hot dogs for lunch, and I just took pork chops from the freezer and we'll have pork chop bake (pork chops, cream of mushroom soup and potatoes) for dinner. We may still have salad left over or I have Trader Joe's broccoli in the freezer I can serve with fresh grated Parmesan.

After we eat all that food I'll see what we can make for Wednesday and Thursday but I think we'll have lefter over French Onion soup that I put in the freezer for meatless Friday. Mr. Sloth can make the bread to go with and we have a giant block of Parmesan to shave on top.

I just dug out frozen OJ but I think we have more juice in the deep freeze somewhere. We have plenty of milk but juice is running low and that is crucial in this house. I think we'll have Turkey next week and maybe ham as they are both in the freezer as well. It will be hard coming up with sides for Turkey without going to the store but I may have enough potatoes and I have a jar of gravy and frozen veggies.

This should be fun, I love seeing what dishes I can come up with on the fly. I was getting close to emptying my fridge before I let Mr. Sloth head to the grocery store hungry and with children.

I'll let you know how the plan is working throughout the week.

Storyteller

I can't get over how cute this girl is! I wish we could adopt her.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Wqc1vvaEng

Don't Forget

Things I don't want to forget


How Demand tells "chokes". Not only does she call them "chokes" and not "jokes" but they make so little sense that sometimes she doesn't even get them.

I love how Happy plays a game where there is a "shawk" (Shark) in our fireplace. He does a good job at trying to make us afraid of it. And I have to admit at times to keep him off my heels, legs or whatever he is hanging on at the time I'll say, "Go get the shark, (Happy)!"

And I hope I never forget how the sweet smile of Pax. I love how you enter a room and he lights up his face, smiles and starts talking to you. And even if he is really trying to say, "Mom please pick me up, Happy is trying to feed me Hot Wheels."it's sweet just the same.

Update from this morning

Trip to SuperTarget went fine despite the bitter cold and Happy crying the first five minutes. Playdate went well and I was even able to get Pax to fall asleep in my arms (a Sloth miracle) The kids brought baloons home so Happy was entertained and didn't fall asleep in the van. Happy went down pretty easy for his nap, crying only half as much as he has been lately.

Mommy got a few minutes of rest in too.

Thanks for the prayers.

This man inspires me.

11:15pm-went to bed
12am-Pax hungry
2am-finally get Pax back in his own bed
2:05am-Happy wakes up screaming. The only way Mr. Sloth can get him to stop is to give him what turned out to be the loudest toy we own.
2:45am-I remove toy which is keeping me awake and give him a book.
3:30am-Happy wakes up screaming again. Mr. Sloth eventually takes him downstairs as his 'tornado siren' of a cry is bound to wake the other children.
4am-Happy back in crib and not crying after a chat with Dad.
5am-Demand comes in and is cold and needs to be covered.
6am-Pax hungry again.

And I can't have coffee anymore.

We have a playdate this morning and we have to stop at the store first. I'll have to wake up Happy which feels so wrong. Straight from the playdate I have to drop Demand off at Good Shepard but I know the boys will fall asleep in the van which means Happy might not transfer well to his crib.

This could be it, this could be the day that does me in.

From Winter to Food

Big week of homeschooling planned. The theme for this week is food for Little Saints is "Let's eat out!" All about food which is what this family likes. There are so many cute ideas for this chapter we may just do all of them. Demand is going to love it! It's also the month dedicated to "The Holy Name of Jesus" I'd like to do something with this theme but I haven't decided what to do just yet.

Last week the theme was "Winter" and we made snowflake crystals. Here's what we did.




They turned out so nice and they were so easy to make.



We also painted a winter scene. It took some convincing. Demand is really into the show "Sid the Science Kid" right now and a particular show involving rainbows. She can name the colors of the rainbow in order....which is better than her mother can do. She wanted paint a rainbow and I had to convince her to try and paint a snow scene. Then we shaved a bar of soap onto the picture for snow while the paint was still wet. She thought it was fun! (Apparently it was an Irish Winter scene as we only had Irish Spring in the house)


That microplane has never been so clean!




Eventually she did paint a rainbow.


So we usually try and incorporate cooking into our week somehow but a whole week around it will be fun. There's a muffin puzzle letter match game, home made playdough (I'll make edible) cakes made from playdough, pretend pizzas, real pizzas, pasta sorting and a bit on loaves and fishes...hmmm maybe daddy can make bread for this one! All sorts of fun! We also have a playdate this week, doctors appointments, and Good Shepard and I have a party to go to on Thursday. Busy, busy.

Phun with Phyllo

For Christmas Mr. Sloth got me a cooking class for the two of us. He had over fifty classes to choose from and he choose. "Phun with Phyllo". It was a great choice since neither of us excel in phyllo. I made baklava once (and loved it) but haven't used it since. Mr. Sloth's mom came over around noon to watch the kids and I had a "Meal Deal" in the crockpot ($5 for the roast, potatoes, celery, and carrots were free!) waiting for us when we got home.

It was a three hour class that started with a demonstration. At first our teacher seemed really annoying and I knew Mr. Sloth was thinking the same thing, but once we got into the class we learned to like him.

We made :

Three-cheese Roasted Bell Pepper Phyllo
Sauteed Butter Rum Tropical Fruit Baklava
Roasted Garlic Cream Cheese Phyllo Pockets
Phyllo Wrapped Asparagus (Our favorite)
and Sweet Phyllo Crisps which sandwiched angel food cake with raspberry sauce and lemon curd. (My second favorite)

We had just a few too many and were a bit nauseous on the way home but it was so much fun. It combined three of my favorite things. Cooking, drinking and not washing dishes.

I've already planned on making a few of these dishes in the few weeks. I'll make a version of the Baklava for book club in two weeks and we'll probably make the asparagus when we have our parish priest over for dinner (if I ever get back to him with some dates).

Way to go Mr. Sloth great Christmas Giving! Sorry no pictures maybe I'll take some when we recreate the recipes later.

Quick Week Update

I've tried all week to post but time has not been my friend. So I will try and do a quick review of the week.

Monday: When Mr. Sloth left for morning Mass I was doing my hair, Demand and Pax were in their jammies and Happy was asleep. Twenty minutes later we burst through the Church doors five minutes early for Mass. Mr Sloth was most surprised.

The rest of the day was equally crazy. Demand and I did some Math while Happy refused to nap and we had to leave for ballet at 2pm. At 1:45 pm Mr. Sloth called to remind me that friends were coming for dinner. (Hmmm, didn't know that actually.) So we went from ballet to Trader Joes (by the way Trader Joe's wasn't made for 'big' Catholic families to shop) all during yet another day of snow. We got home at 4:30pm and I started Orange Chicken and fried rice (Thank you Trader Joe's) Our friends stayed until 8:30pm so kids didn't get to bed until 9pm (and remember Happy didn't nap)

Tuesday: Don't remember. Too exhausted.

Wednesday: Regular stuff and homeschooling during the day. The theme this week was "Winter". Happy loves joining us for 'rug time' and Demand and I had some fun with projects while he napped. Mr. Sloth had CCD and the children were less than civil to me during the two hours he was gone. If I recall, Pax was up all night.

Thursday: Playdate in the morning with cousins. Being on a caffeine free diet* I stood in my bathrobe blurry eyed staring at my calendar and realized that I had to have the kids dressed and at Grandma's (20 minute drive) by 9am....deep breath. The play date wore my kids out. Happy slept until 4:45pm and Demand accidentally fell asleep at 3pm and I had to wake her at 5pm. Sadly Pax was up most of the afternoon and required constant attention. Good thing he's cute.

Since we knew the kids would be up late I found a project for them. My mom told me about making crystals out of borax,water, and pipe cleaners (all thing we have in the home). It takes all night for the snowflake crystals to form but it was great fun and it kept the kids occupied for an extra hour before bedtime.

Friday: I know my limits and I keep Fridays open for play dates for a reason. 8:30am I called my friend for a play date and an hour later we were out of the house. The playdate was great but in the rush to get out of the house messes were made and left. Happy refused to nap again making for a very long afternoon. Thankfully dinner was easy. For meatless Friday we were trying a new French Onion Soup. I used Mr. Sloth's meat slicer on Monday to slice a bag of onions and cook them for hours with a stick of butter. On Friday, half of that mixer was mixed with 2 boxes of beef broth and Worcestershire sauce. It was so yummy! Demand even loved it, but she does love soup. Plus we had some fresh bread thanks to Mr. Sloth and sprinkled some fresh shaved Parmesan.

Saturday:(Today) I was bound and determined to clean the kids room top to bottom today. I woke up at 6am but Happy was crying in his crib so I hid in bed for a while longer and then Pax was hungry. Finally at 7:30am I was up....as was Demand. Happy ended up sleeping until 9:30am. (That kids going through some crazy sleep cycles) I got dressed and got all the basic house work done. (laundry started, kitchen mopped, bathroom cleaned...) and FINALLY Happy woke up and I got to work. I pulled out bed and emptied the closet. I got about half done before lunch, and then I laid down after lunch. Yep, I took a nap by myself. No nursing baby no squirmy four year old, no snoring husband (sorry honey). It was the best sleep I've had in a month. Honest to goodness. I woke up around 2pm and then took Pax and Demand to the grocery store while Happy and Mr. Sloth napped. I was home with the groceries just in time to unpack them and change clothes. I then headed out on my own to get my hair cut.

It's been about five months since my last haircut. Those who don't know me well may not know how thick my hair is. Let's just say that the stylist held 1/4 of my hair and said it would be a full head of thick hair for an average person. I know my hair is thick, in fact it's a problem. If I were to wash my hair at night it would still be soaking wet in the morning. So the idea of waking up, taking a shower and washing/drying/styling my hair is long gone for this momma. We came up with a plan. She thinned my hair. She thinned the center sections of my hair removing about a 1/3 of my hair and STILL it's so thick. Hopefully it helps. She took a few inches off too, boy did I need it.

As soon as I walked in the door at home I started cooking dinner. Mr. Sloth usually cooks dinner on the weekends but being forced to cook "weekday meals' while having children hang on me is less than fun so Mr. Sloth let me have today. I made Chicken Parmesan and we ate about two hours later than usual. I went from my half eaten plate straight up to the kids room to finish what I had started and then cleaned the playroom, took Happy out of the bath and then exchanged Happy for Pax and nursed Pax and then put him to sleep.

Then I walked downstairs and made a margarita.

I hope that bed is as comfortable tonight as it was this afternoon. It was a good day but I'd like to stop now.

* Last week in attempts to figure out what is causing Pax's spit up issues the doctor told me to give up coffee, caffeine, chocolate, leafy foods, spicy foods, and alcohol. Riiiiight. Thankfully after five days we figured out that coffee was the culprit. Unfortunately, coffee is the culprit. It's not the morning that's hard but the mid afternoons when I can't get a nap, I have nothing left to give and I have at least three hours until Mr. Sloth gets home. Oh, well. I'll survive.