Me Time

• I like to clean organize. Mostly from the inside out (Starting in drawers and closets and ending with tabletops). But I’m not where near as organized as I would like to be, and my house is no where as clean as I want it to be. Ever.
• I’m a list maker. I like to mark things off when I’m done. It give me a sense of accomplishment when I can actually see that things are done.
• I don’t say “ya’ll,” I say “you guys.”
• I was born and raised in Jacksonville, Florida, but customers always thought I was from New Jersey because of my “accent.”
• I never wanted to be a “Stay at Home Mom,” but it seriously is the Best. Job. Ever.
• I’m not one of those women who loves being pregnant. I hated it, I never felt “pretty.”
• I basically have no idea what my husband does to support us. When people ask what he does, I tell them “I don’t know.”
• I’m not a morning person. But can get more done by 10 AM than I could all day when I’m up and moving by 7:00.
• I love the smell of coffee. Hate the taste. For years all I would drink is a French Vanilla Cappuccino from a Hess gas station. Then Hess got rid of it and only carried Dunkin Donuts. I now will only drink a French Vanilla Cappuccino from a Gate gas station.
• I just recently started to enjoy cooking and making dinner.
• I tried the couponing thing. I stuck with it for maybe four or five months. I saved money. Not 99% or even 50%, but I saved a little. Then we had the twins, then our paper subscription ended.
• I graduated with an Communications degree in Advertising. Big Whoop.
• I like certain clothing trends. Some I’d even like to participate in, but never feel like I could “pull it off.”
• I neither love nor hate my minivan. It is a vehicle that serves it’s purpose. I hate that I drive a minivan. I’d rather drive my Accord or SUV. I love the three reasons why I drive a minivan.
• I can’t wait to pack up said minivan and take my kids to Disney World
• I love mint chocolate chip ice cream, cheddar and sour cream chips, Double Stuff Oreos, Welches Sparkling Grape juice, Milk, and an ice cold Coke. Not necessarily together. ;)
• I used to be a night owl. But in addition to not being a morning person, I often could fall asleep at 9:00 PM.
• I LOVE my church families and how much they have come to mean to me
• I don’t have 100 best friends. I have fabulous friends. But I can count on one hand the really good ones. They know who they are.
• I have three cats and a dog. They were my first children.
• If needed, I iron my jeans and sweaters.
• I kept a diary, I’ve never let anyone read, until I was in high school. Now, I blog and want people to read it.
• I’m cheap. But not extreme.
• I wish I was more creative and artistic.
• I love to plan. Showers, birthday parties, things for the house, etc.
• I need to learn better time management.
• I like to read. But don’t.
• I like to exercise. But don’t.

FIVE Stars for the Twins

Five months. I’ve We’ve survived five whole months with the twins and a two year old. Some Most days are good, some days not so much. But that is really no different from before we had the twins, it’s just amplified now.

I did something I said I was going to try not to do. I read Collin’s 5 month post and now I feel like there is something “wrong” and I’m a horrible mom. Collin was, apparently, sleeping though the night, eating pureed food, drinking water from a sippy cup, sitting up, and playing with a rubber duck in the bathtub. Hhmmm… Justin and Lana

• JUST had single grain oatmeal for the first time this week

yummy??

 

Yes, their bibs say “Star of Mommy’s Blog” I LOVE these bibs and have been anticipating this for a long time :) And yes, unfortunately I know these pictures came out blurry :( But I wanted the pictures the first time they ate, but they weren’t really having it.

They actually did really well. They seemed to enjoy it and managed to get the majority of it in their mouths. By the second or third sitting, they couldn’t get it fast enough. I did buy sweet potatoes and peas this week in hopes of making some more food for them. Guess my goal needs to be to get on that sooner rather than later.

• They are sleeping pretty good, still up once at night, and it’s still random between 2:00 and 6:00.
• The thought of a sippy cup with water hadn’t even entered my mind yet.
• We just put them in the exersaucers for the first time this week too

 

 

• Sitting up on their own, seems to still be at least a month off
• Bath time is, well,unfortunately for them, bath time, not play time
• They are rolling over like crazy now though. It makes changing them near impossible exciting. Neither seems to mind their tummy at all anymore. Unless they are just way beyond tired and/or hungry, then nothing makes them happy.

I suppose I should get my act together and start feeding my kids more, praying they sleep more, give them a sippy cup, hang out in the bumbos and exersaucers more so they can learn to sit up on their own, and hopefully that will make bath time more enjoyable, rather than a chore we have to do twice.

Those are some pretty healthy looking kids for only being on Mama’s Milk for five months ;)

In other news, my dad got to come down for a few days and meet the twins for the first time. To say the trip was a success, would be an understatement. Collin for days asked me, “When’s Poppy coming over?” We are already looking forward to the visit in the spring. And a bonus to the trip for him, we were able to have the Baby Dedication while he was here :) Although, I don’t have any pictures because it was at the very beginning of the church service as opposed to the very end, like Collin’s was. At any rate, I was very happy with how it went. All three kids were very well behaved and didn’t cry, fuss, or wiggle at all.

I Need a Blog-A-Thon

So. Much. To. Blog.

The next week or so should make for some easy writing (if I can manage my time accordingly). I’ve been so busy and things have been happening so quickly

I’ve got a new recipe

My dad came for a visit

The Twin’s are almost 5 months old which means a monumental post because:

   We did their Baby Dedication at church 

   They have started using their exersaucers

   They have tried Oatmeal

 

I’ve taken so many pictures, there might even been a Wordless Wednesday thrown in there for good measure. And just for fun now…

 

What’s for Dinner: Easy as Pie

I really shouldn't be as proud of myself as I am for “cooking” lately. But, the things that I am making are huge steps up from the hamburger helper Devin and I lived on the first, uh, five years we were married. It’s ridiculous how easy the homemade (and not really homemade) dishes really are.

When we had the twins a whole long line of people brought us dinner. It was fantastic to say the least. Jennifer brought us BB Chicken/sandwiches. They were fantastic to say the least. So when I texted her to ask for the recipe, I was more than excited to know that I already had the three ingredients I needed and the crock pot. Needless to say, the house smelled a-maz-ing, and Devin has asked for it no less than ten times since then. I’m actually planning to bring it to a friend who just had twins too :) Gretchen brought us homemade beef stroganoff. Also, fan-tastic. It didn’t last too long either. I got the recipe from her and plan on making it in the next week or so. Finally (well, not finally on the meals we received, because there were a lot, but finally for why I’m bring you or making you hungry…) Both Sarah and Lori brought us their own versions of chicken pot pie. Both, once again, were sooooo good. We finished Sarah’s, probably before she was out of the neighborhood. And Lori’s was so good that instead of the usual before bed sweets, I had the rest of the chicken.

After several attempts with different recipes of varying degrees of “difficulty” (I use the term “difficult” very loosely because I don’t make anything truly difficult…) I think I finally found the best “Easy Chicken Pot Pie.”

What I Used: (It was all Publix brand, just FYI)

Pie-ish type pan

Frying Pan

Tin Foil

Butter

Assorted spices

Refrigerated pie crust

Chicken Boobs as Brittany affectionately called them AKA Chicken Breast (I used 1 1/2 breasts, the ratio of chicken to veggies seemed pretty good that way)

A can of cream of chicken soup

A can of mixed veggies (in my experimenting I also used fresh veggies. It’s really all going to be a matter of personal taste, and what veggies you want/don’t want honestly.)

 

What I did:

Cut the chicken into bite sized pieces and cook them in a  frying pan with a little bit of water and butter. I have gotten into the “just throw it all in and don’t measure anything” thing so I couldn’t even begin to tell you how much I used. Maybe 1/2 – 1 cup of water and a tablespoon of butter? Some thing with the spices. I just opened the cupboard and said to myself “sure, that goes on chicken, right?” and sprinkled some on. In the end I think I used Italian, Oregano, Chives, and Season Salt. Not a ton, just a… dash or pinch I think are the culinary words I’m looking for.

 

The refrigerated pie crust comes in a box with two rolls in it. One for the top and one for the bottom (I didn’t know so I bought two boxes because I didn’t pay that close attention to the box, whoops.) Anyway, I put the one crust in my pie pan and cooked it for 10ish minutes one 400 while I cooked the chicken and mixed the other ingredients. I also took a fork and poked holes in the bottom so it didn’t get all bubbly when it cooked.

In a medium-large sized bowl I mixed everything together. The chicken, the can of cream of chicken soup and the can of mixed veggies. The can of veggies I drained about half-3/4 because I didn’t want the inside goodness of the pie to be runny. (When I opened the can of veggies I didn’t like the ratio of carrots to green beans and peas, so I opened a can of peas and scooped three spoonful. The whole can would have been too much, but I felt the orange to green was balanced now. – that’s going to be your personal preference)

 

 

After I mixed everything together I poured it into the bottom pie crust that had cooked for about 10 minutes. And then covered it with the second crust and sliced holes in the top. Then I lined the edges with tinfoil so they wouldn’t burn and cooked the whole thing (still at 400) for 30 minutes.

 

VOILA!

 

 

Yummy! Yummy! Yummy! 

The 2012 List Has Begun

“Everyone” starts of the new year saying “I’m going to do this” or “I’m going to do that.” I stopped making New Year’s Resolutions a while ago, because it only made me feel badly about myself when I failed. Like I need something else to make me feel bad, right?

Right after Thanksgiving I got “the toss, clean, and organize” bug. I listed a bunch of stuff on Craig’s List and planned a yard sale (in a week). I wanted needed to get myself back on the track I was on before I got pregnant with the twins. I had a schedule to keep the house cleaned. It included vacuuming multiple times a week, cleaning a bathroom a day, doing ONE load of laundry a day to keep up, etc. I started that last December. It lasted until about February when I was so exhausted in the first trimester that it was all I could do to say awake on the couch while Collin played and watched TV. (Talk about feeling like a horrible Mom…) I never was able to get back into the swing I had. But once I felt like I “had a grip” on the Mom of multiple children thing, the gears in my head began to turn on high speed and work overtime. There were are so many things I wanted to do.

I now have a list about 10 miles long of things that I want to do, and only a few of those things have been crossed off. So I suppose this could be my “New Year’s Resolution” List. But the only thing that would actually qualify it for that is I really got started on it this week.

The TO DO List:

• Take down Christmas decorations and tree
• Make sure boxes get into the attic within two days
• Control the new toy chaos that Christmas brought with it
• Clean the “office”/front room
• Get window coverings (blinds/curtains) for the front of the house
• Hang pictures in the stairwell
• Find storage boxes to hide clutter and laptop on the desk
• Find storage for toys in the front room  and purchase it
• Settle on a color scheme and plan for the house
• Begin execution on the plan – A continuous work in progress
• Finish our bedroom
• Get the house “under control” and keep it “under control”
• Cook more, I mean really cook more
• Try more new recipes
• Don’t become aggravated and annoyed when I can’t do it all and things don’t go according to plan

 

I feel like I’m off to a decent start. The list I made at Thanksgiving already has things crossed off. I feel like I’m getting a grip on my life and housekeeping again. I’ve settled on colors for the house (big shocker here: black, brown, tan, and blue…) I found curtains that I like (both for the front room and dining room and our bedroom) I know exactly what kind of storage boxes I’m looking for for the office, it’s just a matter of finding them in a store. Target was a bust in that department. I found decorative pillows I want at Bed Bath and Beyond for our bedroom. I bought and assembled new cubbies for the toys in the living room. Pictures are in the frames, they just need to be hung. And I’ve already made two new recipes since Christmas that have been pretty good. So, just because it isn’t crossed off the list, doesn’t mean it hasn’t been thought about yet. Out of everything on my list (that I’m sure will continue to grow by two more items each time I get one crossed off…) I’m pretty sure the hardest one is going to be the last one. I get completely and utterly aggravated, annoyed, and stressed out when I can’t don’t keep the house cleaned and organized the way I want to. I have to come to grips with the fact that life happens. I have three kids 2 and under. There are days that I’m not going to lift a finger on the house and just sit and play with them all day long. Those days are the best, but the next day is the worst. Guess I need to add “Better Time Management Skills” on the list also.

If I can better my time management skills, hopefully, I’ll be able to write more. More than my kids’ well check stats and monthly updates. I’d like to document the progress I’m making. Hopefully there is progress to document.

Oh yeah, every church-goer makes the same resolution every year “I’m going to read my Bible more.” It lasts about 3.5 days to a week most of the time. I have to say, I started using YouVersion on my iPhone and have kept up with daily readings every day so far. I have a reminder set to go off at 9:00 every night so that I remember to do it (if I haven’t already) after I’ve finally plopped on the couch when the kids are in bed. It’s got just about every different way to read the Bible you can things of, straight though in a year, through in 90 days, blended readings (some NT and OT) etc. And it has just about every version known to man. I started reading in the KJV but realized the the ESV has audio and I can follow along and not have to guess and struggle though the names of so-n-so begat so-n-so and lived 900 years that Genesis starts with.

 

So here’s to 2012! Collin turns THREE and my babies will be ONE! Gotta start planning for those too!