Brenna's dollhouse

For Brenna's birthday she asked for a bike and a Barbie guitar (thank you, Grandma!), but I had lots of other ideas. She had lots of dollhouse furniture that she loves to play with, but she had long since outgrown her toddler-sized dollhouse. I'm hoping to get her a collectible dollhouse kit when she gets a bit older, but she needed something to play with now. So in my internet research I ran across this. Adorable and just what I wanted, but did you catch that price tag? So I kept browsing. And browsing. Until I came up with this. I started cutting out pictures to hang on the walls, but I only did a few because I knew Brenna would have definite ideas about what she wanted so she is adding to it (already she's had me cut some fabric to make tableclothes and rug, make a couch, draw a fireplace and make a tv (but she drew the show). I kind of want to make one for myself now, but Brenna says she'll share.

Neccessary Shelving

We needed some storage for the toy/school room...badly. Too many toys and not enough room for school! I browsed for ages online, looking for something that could contain the toys and make them easy to play with AND easy to put away. I finally settled on these great plans at Knock Off Wood. Unfortunately, neither of us had the time for even a quick project and I was out of patience with that room. You can see why...

Luckily, these $15 cheapo shelves from Walmart came to the rescue. This is the day we put them together and loaded them up...they'll look much better when I get a few more matching containers. But for $45 bucks total, it's a decent sized shelving unit and it's pretty sturdy, too.
I wish I'd taken a better picture of it all styled up, but remember the part of this post where I mentioned running low on time...?

Grit, Spit and Sticktoitiveness

Well, it hasn't been quite as bad as this, but what a couple of weeks. I'm starting to feel the way this woman looks. And frankly my ponytail probably isn't doing any more for me than her kerchief is for her.

Between stomach viruses, Casey's crazy hours, and the, oh, two dozen or so other things I've had going on lately -well, some times you just have to keep putting one foot in front of the other.

I know things will settle down soon. Until then, what was the end of that nursery rhyme.......?

Caring for the sick

From the 1896 Original Fannie Farmer Cookbook...

Take special care in setting an invalid's tray.
Cover with a spotless tray-cloth or dinner napkin, folding the same, if it
is larger than tray, that it may just come over the edge. Avoid a fringed
cloth, as the fringe is apt to prove annoying.

I certainly haven't had much time to consider whether or not a fringed napkin would prove annoying to my paitients, but I have been so very thankful that I'm able to be at home caring for them.

At my house last week....

The morning sickness continues. I spent a lot of time on the couch as the piles of stuff (laundry, dishes, toys, books, etc) grew taller and taller. I did get a few bursts of energy so I was able to keep things...well, not exactly under control, but good enough so the health department isn't stopping by.
We're really enjoying our Easter tree ornaments, which wound up having to be hung on my artificial ficus since the pollen has been so horrible that I didn't dare bring flowering branches inside like I originally planned. I love the way it makes us stop to focus on HIM. We've never really celebrated the Easter season before - it's always just been a long weekend of Easter traditions. I really like spending more time to focus on it.
We had a surprise birthday party for my Granny this week - she turned 70! It was a huge success because a) everyone had a ball and b) my kids behaved. Brenna did have a few rough minutes at the beginning - she has some shyness issues that we're working on - but she was cheerful and friendly for the rest of the evening. Also, someone brought the best potato salad I have ever tasted. I was so glad to be able to eat!
Teeball season is off to quite a start. Levi is on a team with five and six year olds so he's one of the youngest and he's having a great time. Me, not so much. The coach is pretty strict about his schedule and the rules (practice three times a week, ya'll! And two of those practices are two hours each!) which I am trying to appreciate. I actually want Levi to have some structure and get used to an authority besides mom and dad. That being said...I'm having a hard time biting my tongue about a couple of things - certain kids are getting away with really bad behavior and poor sportsmanship and there is a lot of focus on how *skilled* the kids are (or aren't), which I think is ridiculous for 5 & 6 year olds. The mother bear in me is definitely growling a little:) But Casey is helping out at every practice and game and Levi is really enjoying himself, so... I guess I'll take a wait and see approach for now.
I did a good bit of clothes shopping for the kids at the Kid's Karosel sale. Since we don't have a used clothing store in town anymore (we do have the Salvation Army, but that's it), a woman in town has started a nice business for herself holding two big kid's clothing sales a year. It works great, you drop off anything you want to sell, set your own prices and get 70% of what it sells for. The last day of the sale is half price on (almost) everything. And there is a big pre-sale for all the consignors. This year I went to the pre-sale and made out like a bandit. I had always waited for the half-priced day, but at the pre-sale I realized that all of the best priced stuff goes first so I actually did better shopping then. Of course I still went back on the last day - who can resist half off? Levi has tons of clothes from all his older cousins and Jack has all of Levi's hand-me-downs, but not all of them are the right size for the season. So I filled in Jack's spring and summer wardrobe and essentially bought all of Brenna's. Levi did get a few brand new polo style shirts for church for $1 each! Brenna got lots of dresses, one with hand smocking across the front. All in all I spent less than $40 for all three kids and I made $48 on the stuff I sold:)
Now, to jump into this week. Only I don't feel like jumping. Maybe I'll ease a toe into this week and see how it goes:)

Grocery Shopping - the whole story

Today was Jack's first time sitting in the front of the grocery buggy. Stop yawning - this is a big deal in our family! Brenna was promoted to sitting in the back and helping stack the groceries and Levi, as always, was walking beside me (or running or hopping but at least staying out of the way). Things were going well. Jack loves his grocery seat cover. It kept him occupied the whole time and I only paid $4 for it! Brenna was sitting comfortably on a pack of Kroger brand pullups (which have velcro sides like the expensive ones) and stacking the boxes. I kept having to remind Levi though to watch where he was going. He'd turn around to talk to me and bump into one thing after another. Just as I was saying "Levi, please, for the hundredth time, be careful. If you bump into that tower of cans it will fall," well, what do you think happened? That's right. I ram the buggy right into a big old center aisle display of @L Sprites. Four cases (that's 24 bottles, folks) come crashing to the ground. It was such a cartoons-come-to-life kind of moment. But my precious son was very chivilrous about it. "That's alright, mom, it was just an accident. You can't help you weren't watching where you were going." :( He helped me pick up all the bottles (boy, I hope whoever buys those has a long ride home). He's a good kid.

A day in the life...

I appear to be using up most of my brain power over at Alice's new site so I thought I'd regale y'all with a blow-by-blow of what goes on around here on an average day (as if there were such a thing with a three year old and 10 month old in the house). If nothing else you'll have concrete evidence that I really am slightly (at least) off my rocker.
The day actually starts around 5 when Baby Sissy wakes up starving. In the good old days I'd just stick her in bed with me and she'd nurse away while I went back to sleep, but since we had to switch to bottles I have to get up and get the thing and stay awake while she drinks it. On all the lists of good reasons to breastfeed that I ever read not one listed what I consider a really big benefit. Breasts don't spill - leak a little maybe sometimes, but not a bottle being shaken all over the bed. At any rate, my little man usually stumbles into bed with us at some point between 5 and 7 when Daddy gets home and we all hop up so he can get some sleep.
Then it's off to fix breakfast - smiley face oatmeal for Levi and Brenna and something easy for me. We all get dressed and the kids play (usually quite nicely) while I clean up the kitchen and start supper. That's right I start supper after breakfast. We have that whole "witching hour" thing going at our house big time in the evenings so I just avoid the dinnertime hassle all together.
We usually play outside for a little while or go to storytime and the library or whatever until Brenna's naptime and Levi's "school" which isn't really much like school at all. As a matter of fact we could probably just call this reading time and be a lot more accurate. We read our Bible story for the week first and talk about our memory verse (btw, kids this age amaze me with their ability to memorize) and then we read more books - stories, nursery rhymes, phonetic readers, books about counting cheerios and books about how thing work - transportation is a big theme at our house these days - stories about policemen and firemen. Usually, after we've read a bunch of books, we pick a craft to do and get started on that. Then I can get Brenna up and start on lunch while he finishes. School time is probably my favorite time of day with Levi.
After lunch it's more playtime and housework and running around if neccessary. Then rest time for everyone! Levi thinks he's outgrowing a nap, but Mommy still needs him to take one:) We've compromised and instituted quiet time on the couch while Sissy naps and Mommy has Bible time (as Levi calls it). He usually reads, but this is the time of day when I don't mind him watching a movie or tv show. We're picky about what he watches, but I'm picky about how much too. He almost always falls asleep anyway:)
By the time the kids wake up, Casey's awake. He works at his business most afternoons or plays with the kids while I play catch-up with the housework. I used to occaisionally spend this time watching Oprah:) But no more. Not just because I'm anti-Oprah, but also because it's a gigantic waste of time. Even if I have nothing around the house - which is rare! - I can always use the time to read or get on the computer or dig in the garden or talk to my husband.
We try to sit down for supper around 6:30. Our new thing is eating supper on the back deck. When we lived in our last apartment there was literally no where outside to sit down or grill out or let Levi run around and play so our big thing was getting a house with a yard! But of course the first year we lived here it seemed like we hardly had time to enjoy the nice big yard ( a whole acre!). So this spring Casey and I got serious about fixing up the yard and trying to enjoy it. Anyway, that's supper. Then there's bath time. Okay, I'm going to make a big confession here and I'm trusting you people not to turn me into DFACS - I don't give my kids a bath every night. I'll wait to let you catch your breath. Brenna's to small to really get dirty and Levi usually makes do with a good washing off. I started when he was a baby only bathing him about three times a week because he had ezema and the doctor said... And now I just don't think it's neccessary. I actually read an article not to long ago that suggested it might help build a child's immune system to bathe a little less than every day.
After baths (or not), we play on Mommy and Daddy's bed. The kids pile in there and we talk, Casey and Levi wrestle, we all play with Brenna. Then Daddy reads a story to Levi and Brenna hits the sack. Then we say prayers and Levi hits the sack. Lately he's been hitting the sack about three or four times before he sticks so we're working on that. After that Casey and I spend some quality time together and he heads out to work. Then I get some quiet time to think or blog or read or ... well you all know what I mean.
Lots of days there's church or sometimes I have a planning day when I read or plan (curriculum if you can call it that, menus, spring cleaning, projects, etc) all day and the house runs on the bare minimum. And we tend to invite people over pretty often - once a week or so. We have a lot of family and friends who aren't believers so we try to invite them over to see that a Christian family can be fun and we don't eat live chickens or anything:) Not that we think our family is the perfect example of a Christian family, but I think it's good for people to see a couple that loves each other and loves their kids.
Well, that's our day in a nutshell (a BIG nutshell - I rambled a bit). If you've waded all the way through that you're either a family memeber who loves us very much or a really nice person who felt like it would be rude to stop reading in the middle. In either case you have my permission to go do something interesting now:)

Levi is addicted to candy!

He got a lot of candy for Valentine's Day. I mean a lot. From his Grandma and from his Granny and from his Dad (who also bought me some candy - still my valentine!). So I collected all the crack - I mean candy - and put it well out of reach so that I could dole it out slowly. I did let him indulge a little on Valentine's. I'm not scrooge or anything:) But after that I figured a couple of pieces a day until it was gone. I mean this is a kid who usually gets candy once a week or so at most. I thought he'd be thrilled with his two little chocolate hearts. Well he isn't. He wants it all and he wants it now. "I am hungry of that candy" is all I ever hear. And no that isn't a typo - we aren't sure why he says of instead of for. So what to do? Eat all the candy so I can honestly say that there isn't any more? Sounds like a plan!