Is It Naptime Yet

Today we did a field trip for Lilah’s class. We visited the Ethel M. Chocolate Factory.
Some of the mom’s didn’t clearly understand that we were meeting at the factory so while we waited for them those of us who were there took a tour through the cactus garden. It was fun. At one point Eden held my hand, Lilah held Eden’s and Britta held Lilah’s. It was cute. I felt like I was playing red rover. At one point Lilah mentioned her hand being sweaty so she stopped holding Eden’s but continued holding Britta’s. They make quite a pair. I watch Britta for the last time tomorrow, so I’ll need to start making play dates with Sam so they can still hang out. Britta loves both Lilah and Eden so it works out well.
We took the small tour through the factory and then once in the store the girls received a sample. I ate most of Eden’s and I told Lilah to take bites of the chocolate since it was a little big. Well she took one bite and then once she was ready for another bite she put the whole thing in her mouth. She didn’t drip any chocolaty saliva so I guess it was alright.
The store was extremely expensive so I didn’t buy anything. I’m also making truffles for a fundraising auction tomorrow for the ward cub scout troop, so I don’t need any chocolate.
Afterwards a few of us went to Mc Donald’s for lunch. The girls kinda ate their food and then they had fun in the play tunnel. It took a while for Eden to get the courage to go all the way in but she did go up. Once up in the maze I was soo worried she’d get scared and would be scarred for life of semi-dark colorful tunnels. When she made it back down the stairs she was smiling so I guess it went okay. Lilah didn’t want to leave until she went down the slide, which was a little tricky to find, so I went up with her and Eden to show her where to go. It wasn’t as gross as I thought it would be, but it still had dried ketchup in the tunnels. After they finally went down the slide we went to Trader Joe’s with Britta and Sam.

Trader Joe’s is one place I always wanted to peruse. I have a friend from my dating Jon days, really before I started dating Jon, and she lives by Trader Joe’s and when we get together, about once a year, we’ve often talked about it.
Now my friend Sam has opened my eyes. She’s a very healthy and world conscious person. She uses her own grocery and fruit bags and many organic products. Trader Joe’s is one place you can get organic food cheaper than the regular grocery store and if you can’t afford organic they have a lot of more natural food, or at least without the hormones, like milk and eggs.
I visited Trader Joe’s for the first time today. Now I bought just a few things because, one I didn’t have my grocery list, and two I don’t need to go shopping just yet, but we were in the neighborhood and I had a guide with me, AKA Sam.
I found whole wheat spaghetti, 16 oz, for .$99. I think at Smith’s it’s like $1.99 for whole wheat spaghetti. Naturally feed chicken eggs a dozen for $.99 and something we now need for Jon, the eggs white eggs, brand name egg beaters, for $3.49 at Joe’s and at Smith’s egg beater eggs are about $5. Plus a lot of good vitamins at descent prices. Those are some things that I found. Milk without the bad hormones is $2.99, which ain’t bad considering it’s $2.88 for milk lately if it’s not on sale, at least where I shop. Trader Joe’s is definitely a bargain for organic foods. I think I’ll have to make a monthly trip out there for our little family and slowly switch to more naturally processed foods for not that much more of a price. It’s the gas that would get me because it is a little far from my house, but if I visit my sister in Henderson I can just drop by Trader Joe’s on the way home.
My eyes have been opened.

Last week was great. The girls were waking up around 7:30- 8:00 and I was getting afternoon naps. So far they’ve woken up at 6:45ish this week. I don’t mind except today they had already watched Toy Story and it was only 10:30. Of course this was even making them wait until I did dishes, just in case I decided to shower. When they wake up early my days are so long.

Eden was fun today though. She’s talking so much. We love to play a wake up game, the only problem is if I’m really trying to rest for a moment and she’s awake she yells “Wake up Mommy!” and pats me somewhere. So today I wasn’t able to rest because she kept doing this. It was fun though because she came and laid by me on the couch and she would pretend to snore and I would tickle her and say “wake up Eden!” and she would laugh and she would try to snore again but before she could even get a fake snore out she’d start smiling and laughing. It was darling. And I love the way she says “Wake up Mommy!” it use to be just “wake up, wake up!” but her phrases are getting longer and more descriptive. She’s getting too big.
After her nap I had her laying in bed with me. I wasn’t ready to get up yet. I had my eyes closed and I just opened them to look at her and the second after I opened my eyes she had a big smile on her face. It was so cute. I love hanging out with her and I can’t believe how big she’s getting. She’s also getting a little more stubborn but she’s still darling.

Lilah of course is getting big. She’s such a mom to Eden. She loves sharing her food with her, or treats, toys not so much, but food Lilah will share. If Eden is already asleep Lilah will set aside some candy just for Eden. She also likes to tell Eden what to do, but we’re trying to break that. It can be helpful, but I don’t want Lilah thinking she has to be a mom to Eden and I want Eden to know that she ultimately should be listening to her parents.

They’re quite a pair. I almost want another one just because They’re both so big.

I was tagged by Andrea 

Rules: Answer the following questions related to homemaking and then tag 3 people. Don’t forget to link to the person who tagged you and let the people you tag know they have been tagged.

Aprons – Y/N? If Y, what does your favorite look like?
I have one from when I was a busser at a restaurant and one from my pampered bride party. If I actually wore them regularly I might someday make or buy a real one.

Baking – Favorite thing to bake
anything tasty. I make good rolls and cookies though.

Clothesline – Y/N?
no. I don’t like the feel of clothes dried on a line.

Donuts – Have you ever made them?
no

Every day – One homemaking thing you do every day,
Dishes, almost everyday, or wiping down the table and counters.

Freezer – Do you have a separate deep freeze?
No. not enough room

Garbage Disposal – Y/N?
Yes.

Handbook – What is your favorite homemaking resource?
Um, Andrea said our mom, so I would agree with her. I’m not very good at reading instructions unless it’s baking.

Ironing – Love it or hate it?
I don’t mind it, but I did it for so long growing up that Jon doesn’t like to have me iron his things.

Junk drawer – Y/N? Where is it?
Yes. I have several. There’s the kitchen junk drawer and my computer desk junk drawer and I use to have dresser junk drawer, but it’s now been reduced to a box.

Kitchen – Color and decorating scheme?
uh still deciding, maybe someday it will get done.

Love – What is your favorite part of homemaking?
I think I have a long way to go to be a bonafide homemaker. Sure I sew, cook, clean, but nothing in a very timely manner.

Mop – Y/N?
I dislike it. Only because I have so much to mop and the water gets yucky and it gets dirty the moment the girls wake up.

Nylons – Wash by hand or in the washing machine?
Wash in a lingerie bad in the machine and air dry.

Oven – Do you use the window or open the oven to check?
I have no window so I open.

Pizza – What do you put on yours?
pineapple and ham

Quiet – What do you do during the day when you get a quiet moment?
Sleep and watch tv, other wise I have things that need to be read for church or for book club, and those take brain power.

Recipe card box – Y/N? What does it look like?
no box, just a folder that needs to be organized

Style of house – What style is your house?
uh, I would say I live in a library full of crumbs. Is that a style? Add kid toys and free furniture and there you have our house. (We have bought our couch though.)

Tablecloths and napkins – Y/N?
HA…no and when I get a table cloth it will probably be a vinyl one and I don’t think those really count, they’re so not cloth.

Under the kitchen sink – Organized or toxic wasteland?
Uh kinda organized.

Vacuum – How many times per week?
uh, weekly doesn’t always happen.

Wash – How many loads of laundry do you do per week?
at least 2 kids, 1 colors, 1 whites and 1 towels/sheets.

X’s – Do you keep a daily list of things to do that you cross off?
ha…no

Yard – Y/N? Who does what?
I think we have a yard, that is why we bought this house. Jon does all the work and I sometimes lay out on it and enjoy the evening weather.

Zzz’s – What is your last homemaking task for the day before going to bed?
um, I usually have the girls clean up their messes. Does that count? Sometimes I sew if I have a project that I need to finish, but dinner is usually the last homemaking thing I do and sometimes dishes.

Um I’m not gonna tag anyone. I think I have Anna on my list of people who have not done this and who blogs semi regularly, but atlas she’s on vacation and away from electronics.

Yesterday we went to Jon’s parent’s house. We decided to have his brother Rawlin help us get the exercise bike they gave us to our house. They don’t use it anymore due to Mom’s bad knee and Dad’s weakening heart. Jon wanted to use it so it’s now ours. We now have an exercise bike in my trying to get organized bedroom.
While there I sprained or did something to my left ring finger. (Eden had climbed on a small children’s chair backwards and it fell and I tried to catch her, or the chair, but instead I just hurt my finger.) My left ring finger, which looked like a sausage yesterday, is now buddy taped to my middle finger. So now Jon is in charge of dishes for a couple more days due to my injury. Luckily our new car is an automatic otherwise I would have trouble driving since the Subaru is a manual. It really bites, but it could have been on my right hand and that would have made life much more difficult.

I did lots or errands today. We went to the bank and put all the girls and my change in the sorter. We had $50 and some odd cents in change. Lots of it was from Jon’s dad who’s new favorite hobby is to give the girls his change. I think he gave us about $13 in quarters at one point. He gave me more quarters just yesterday but they’re still in my purse. We’re going to finally open some savings accounts for the girls, but we’re also going to let Lilah “waste” some of her money on Chuck E’ Cheese.
After the bank we stopped by the Goodwill, but it had another half hour before opening, so we went to my mom’s house and visited with her and had lunch. Then we went back to the Goodwill, since it was toddler Tuesday and clothes are $1.00 per item. I found two shirts for Eden and a maybe pair of pants, they’re 18 month but I think they’ll fit her still, and a shirt for Lilah. I figure I can add these to hanging around the house clothes so their nicer ones don’t get worn out as quickly. I hear every once in a while you can find Target brand clothes at the Goodwill with the tags still on them. So I may check out the Goodwill by my house also since it’s closer and would be easier to keep tabs on. After Goodwill I went to my sister Kristi’s house. She needed a sitter since Howard had an interview and she was scheduled to work. Howard didn’t get back until 3:30, so I came straight home and tried to have the girls take naps. Eden of course fell asleep on the way home, Lilah decided not to take one.

So there’s the last couple days. I can now be adventurous since I have a car, even with a hurt finger.

So I’m 24 today. I’m not going through any early mid-life crisis and I don’t mind being one year older. So no drama here, though most of you are probably saying that I’m too young to be dramatic.
This morning I went to clean the chapel. I almost didn’t go actually. My alarm went off at 6:45 and I just turned it off, but then at 6:53 Jon started mowing the lawn with the push mower and I was out of bed by 6:55. We had a good turn out so I chatted with my friend Danielle and vacuumed various rooms in the building. Danielle, her husband Rami, and adorable baby girl Eva (pronounce Ava, it’s spelled the Spanish way.) are moving in a month. She’s been so nice and I wish I’d been able to hang out with her more. 🙂

I got home and hung out with the girls while Jon fixed pancakes and we watched Spirited Away. Then Jon showered and took the girls grocery shopping. I said it was so he would see why I will sometimes be reluctant to go shopping with both girls during the day. Both of them listened and were very cooperative so he said I had no excuse if I always go shopping in the morning. 😛 I was hoping for at least one temper tantrum, but I am slightly happy that one didn’t happen because that means someone would have been in trouble.

I took a shower while they were gone and was able to take my time since I was alone in the house. They came home and finished my cake, we needed some lemon icing for the lemon cake.
I’ve taken a nap and am now relaxing since I swept and vacuumed. I needed to clean Eden’s high chair cover, but I just haven’t taken my opportunities this past week so I did it today.
So here I am 24 with nearly a 4 year old. What makes me feel old is having an almost 4 year old. I also get to substitute Lilah’s Sunbeam’s class tomorrow. She’s excited for me teaching so I hope she’ll be nice and willing to go to church tomorrow. Lately she hasn’t wanted to go, even though she has fun once there in Primary.

Lilah’s birthday is 3 weeks from today. For “Lilah day” I think we’re going to do Chuck e’ Cheese for lunch, take a nap and then do swimming and cake at the house my sister is watching. (We’ll probably do a small BBQ for just us.) Any one’s invited but know it’s pay your way since we’re poor with a car payment. I just don’t want the pressure of planning and getting food for a lot of people, like I’ve done in the past. I may do a small party with her church friends. (Sam volunteered to help me plan.)

(For Chuck e’ Cheese we’ll be printing one of their coupons online. it gives you so many tokens, a large pizza and 3 drinks. Just enough for an hour or so of fun.) (It may sound cheep that I’m not going all out for my daughters birthday, but really I’m just trying to be sensible with our tighten budget.)

Well, I’ve already told you about us being inventive and using the top bunk as storage. This is what this girls room looks like now.

I asked my friend Anna’s opinion on putting a sheet over the stuff and she said it would just look strange. So here’s our stuff for anyone to see if they go into the girls room or read this blog. 🙂
I also thought I’d post pictures of our crowded closets. I still have to organize the top shelves so you get just the bottom half.

The girl’s closet.

Our closet.

We have soo much stuff. I’m proud of these closets because with organizing them I got my sewing machine, in the black, and the draw set, out of the living room in which they were nicely settled under the black table that was there. I know the girls closet looks chaotic, but it is actually organized, kinda. ( Oh, if anyone finds a light brown flip flop let me know. I am missing one and they were soo comfy. I can’t seem to find it anywhere.)
And for your viewing pleasure here’s my end table/ trunk.

Right now it just holds papers that need to be filed and tapes that I want Jon to look at and get rid of. (Really I just want them gone so I don’t care if he ever looks at them before they’re tossed, but I will allow him to do the tossing.)
I’m trying to not put anything in it until I get my filing under control, since that’s what’s in it and I don’t want to forget about it. I’d post a picture of that but how much junk do you really want to see?

Jon had a wellness check yesterday. It revealed that his cholesterol is borderline to being bad. So  he needs to get it down in the good area. (His family has a history of heart disease, so we’re taking this kinda seriously.) With that they gave him a list of foods to avoid and foods to eat. This now just puts more pressure on me to do a weekly menu, so I’m giving him the foods he needs, and it puts more strain on the food budget. We were soo not following the food budget before and I was trying to follow it this month but we’ve gone over  because of a Costco trip. (How do you factor in a years worth of Britta water filters?) Anyways. We’re needing to redo the food budget so we can get more of the fresh foods he needs and the higher costing butter or egg substitutes. Ah, more money to find in the budget to spend. Oh how everything costs so much.

So when I use to see people with a new car/ used car and the date of purchase/ expiration paper on the back of a car and the date was soon approaching, if not just a few days away, I always thought why don’t they just go to the DMV and get their plates. As a recent car buyer I realize it’s because you’re poor after you purchase a car and you want to wait until the last possible day to get the plates and register the car, so you have your hard earned money that much longer

So yesterday at lunch time I’m over a the computer and Eden, instead of eating her bread, was putting it up her nose. I got it out once, she did it twice and consequently went to time out twice and after the second time out I decided to just make lunch over. She wasn’t too happy about it.
UGH. I told her it would hurt if she got bread in her nose and she said “no not hurt.”
in my mind I thought “Yeah you think it doesn’t hurt but you will when I have to take you to the ER and have them use prongs to get the rest of the bread out of your nose.”

Andrea as a child once put foam from a couch or couch cushion up her nose. My mom didn’t know about it until Andrea started smelling funny. While looking her over she saw something up her nose. My mom took her to the ER and low and behold the foam had turned green and was getting funky after stopping up her nasal cavity for who knows how long.