Monday, February 27, 2012

Tidbits

-Lent started last Wednesday and I decided to give up sweets. We're talking cookies, cake, candy....pretty much anything with sugar in it. I thought it would be easy but it's been rather difficult. I didn't think I ate many sweets but it turns out I would sneak stuff during the day without even realizing it. You know, opening a package of gummy snacks for the kids and taking one before handing the package over. Or eating the leftover half cookie that the kid didn't eat for lunch. Even ice cream has been calling my name and I don't even like ice cream. I give the kids some and usually eat what is left over on the spoon. So yeah, it's been tough. But nothing prepared me for what the hubby brought home last week. My willpower hasn't ever been tested as much as when he sheepishly plunked down six boxes of Girl Scout cookies he got from work. Two whole boxes of Caramel Delights, my personal favorite, which he got just for me (such a sweetie). So I promptly cleared the back of the freezer, shoved five boxes back there and stuffed food in front of them to hide them (Hubby ate the sixth box). They will hopefully be forgotten until Easter when I can devour them in their entirety. Six short weeks from now. Nom nom nom.

-Let us bow our heads in mourning of Greta's nap. It's done. No more. I stick her in her crib, lay her down, cover her up and she spends the next hour singing songs, dancing in her crib, pulling stuff off her walls, chewing on her crib....doing anything but sleeping. Then yesterday she learned how to climb out of her crib. So I give up. It's a sad sad day. No more peaceful hour to myself while Wesley is at preschool. It's ok though, she now joins Wesley in his quiet time with cartoons and does pretty good. The upside to all this? She goes to sleep promptly at 7:30pm and sleeps all night until 8:30am. RIP nap time.

-There is something wrong with the dog. Cody, the black lab, sleeps in our living room each night. The other two dogs sleep in their crates. Cody never liked the crate, even tried to do himself bodily harm to escape from it. This arrangement has worked pretty good until about six months ago. Every night he wakes me up once or twice and I let him outside. He runs out there, does his business and runs back in.  It's getting old. It's like having a baby in the house again. I'm exhausted. He's got me trained well and I just don't know how to curb it. If you leave him outside he barks all night to get back in. If you take the water dish up he wants to go out to get a drink. If you leave the water dish down he drinks all night and has to go outside to urinate. So darn frustrating.

-I'm back out on the road running. Yesterday was the first run since I sprained my ankle four weeks ago. The doctor said 1-2 weeks for it to heal, yeah right! Apparently I'm a complete wuss bag. It's still not "right" and gets all stiff at times. But it did pretty good on the 6 mile run/walk I did yesterday (mostly walk). I'm glad to be back to training....that half marathon in April will be here before I know it.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Angry Birds

There has been a bit of an infatuation happening in this house for the past several months. Who am I kidding, it's been a full on obsession. And it's happening to my four year old. Let me back up a bit. Last Fall I started playing Angry Birds on facebook. It was a fun way to pass the time. Wesley started standing next to me as I played, somewhat interested. That progressed to pulling up a chair and rooting me on as I made little birds fly through the air and smash piggies. Then he started asking if he could play the game. So I downloaded the PC version so he could play the full screen game. Thus started his love affair with a computer game. He lived and breathed Angry Birds. Oh and he was good! He would whip through levels that stumped Sean and I. Even give us pointers while we played. The first game was conquered in a month, then he pleaded for us to buy the next game. He played his way through Angry Birds Rio and Seasons in no time at all. He was so disappointed to find out that there were no more games once he finished Angry Birds Seasons. So I challenged him to go back through and get 3-stars on all the levels. That's where he's at now.

When he gets frustrated he'll ask us to Google the level and watch a walk-through on how to achieve 3-stars. The kid is obsessed. We have to limit his computer time because I think he'd be on it all day if left to his own devices. So a couple of months back he was looking at Angry Birds merchandise on Google and ran across some figurines that an individual had made. He wanted them pretty badly. I, of course, said "I can make that!" I, after all, do sculpt part-time. So off to Michael's I went in search of colored clay (I use uncolored clay for my business). I loaded up on nearly every color and started sculpting Angry Birds. That is what I've been doing for nearly two months now in my off time. I still have a few more pigs to make but the birds are done, whew. The kid LOVES them and that makes my day.






My personal favorite.
The madness continues. Miss Cindy, his preschool teacher, informed me that we were celebrating his half birthday (since his birthday falls in the summer). So I decided to make Angry Bird cupcakes. Each one had a little red bird made out of clay that the kids could take home. Apparently it was a hit among the kids, who all knew what Angry Birds were (I wasn't sure four year olds all knew what AB was, I was wrong).


Taking orders from their leader. I had fun if you can't tell.

As if that all isn't enough, I decided I needed some Angry Bird earrings. If you can't tell I've been having fun with all this sculpting. The earrings have been a hit, I even have a couple of orders for more from friends and family. So now you know what's been going on in our house.


Friday, February 17, 2012

Diaries of a Potty Training Mom

Sometimes I say that I'm lazy. I'm really not a lazy person. I work my butt off. I'm a stay-at-home Mom and if you aren't familiar with that job title, that means that I'm a: full time cook, housekeeper, butt wiper, zookeeper, groundskeeper, entertainer and wife. Oh and we mustn't forget my other job. I have a part time sculpting business that I start once the kids go to bed...you know when most people lay down and relax for the evening. So when I tell you that I'm lazy when it comes to potty training, I'm not really lazy per say, just extremely tired.

I remember potty training Wesley. It consisted of puddles on the hard wood floors, little streaks of poop on the wall next to his crib and soaking wet underwear 45 seconds after putting fresh undies on. Luckily potty training with Wesley was done during summer. We spent much of the day outdoors surrounded by Mother Natures toilets (trees). So now Greta is in the midst of potty training. I want nothing to do with this. I'm lazy. I would rather just change her diaper for the next 3-6 months until she's serious about this potty thing. The beginning phase of training is torture. It consists of constantly removing diaper, running through the house naked while screaming happy screams, then squatting behind the recliner and peeing all over the carpet in her brothers room. And this is a good day. Bad days consist of poop. Poop in the sink, poop in the tub. Disinfecting surfaces for what seems like hours. I just don't want to do it.

I'm thinking duct tape might keep that diaper on.

But she is a persistent little thing.
So I tell myself this too shall pass.
A year from now I'll have a fully trained little girl and it will be so worth it
So for now, Miss Greta will potty train in spite of her Mother.

Thursday, February 16, 2012

A day with Greta

So Valentine's Day has come and gone and the kids were super excited to get a box from their Granny and Papa from New Mexico. Thank you for thinking of them! The cute part about it all was once the gifts were given, the box became the hit of the day. Greta played with that box for at least half the day. Exhibit one:


Exhibit two:
 She then proceeded to run around the house with the box on her head for a good long while. It was hilarious. Exhibit three:

Since I'm talking about Greta, I'll share what she did yesterday. She sat at the table with Play Doh for about an hour making these:

 She then got down from the table and went up to Wesley and said "Here Wesley, have a turd." I thought I heard wrong so I asked her what she just said. So she came up to me and said "Here Mommy, you have a turd too." She then put her arms in the air and said "Turds for everyone!" I haven't laughed that hard in quite some time. Potty training is in full swing and she is obsessed with poop. Fun times!
Showing off her Play Doh "presents".

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

I Love....

Ok, time for the traditional LOVE post for Valentine's Day. I hope everyone is having a great day with the ones you love.

I love......making snow men with two bundled up kids......little naked Greta asking to put her swim suit on first thing in the morning....my sweet, good looking husband....our new high speed internet (finally we got it out in the sticks!)......watching Vampire Diaries every evening.....reading library books with one kid on each side of me......sculpting Angry Birds for Wesley......a warm bath and a good book (just finished the three Hunger Game books, pretty good).....how quiet it is living out in the country.....the sweet little things my husband does to let me know he loves me....good running music.....making cupcakes with the kids for no other reason than to glutton ourselves on cupcakes.....goat kisses.....streaming NetFlix because of fancy new high speed internet.....afternoon bubble baths for the kids......Roomba......running on the dirt roads with the sun on my face.....my new oven out in the shop devoted just to baking sculptures.....Greta's curls.....watching my two kids play together......little Chance curling up under the blanket next to me.....little 2yr old Greta singing (think Boo in Monsters Inc.).....fresh, still warm chicken eggs.....preschool and precious time to myself.....picking seeds out of a catalog for a Spring garden (can't wait!).......being a Mom to these two wonderful little people.

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Funday Sunday: Flourless Chocolate Brownie Cookies

Alrighty folks, don't think twice just get in the kitchen and make these. They are delicious, gooey chocolate things that are gone in no time. All I had was whole wheat flour in the fridge so I looked up a recipe for something sinful with no flour. Voila! Plus they have no oil or butter and no leavening. Seriously, go make these.


Flourless Chocolate Brownie Cookies

Ingredients
  • 3 cups powdered sugar
  • 2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 3 large egg whites, at room temperature
  • 1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract
  • 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. In a large bowl, mix together powdered sugar, cocoa powder and sea salt.Whisk in egg whites until just moistened. Add in chocolate chips.
  3. Spoon thick fudgy batter onto cookie sheets in small mounds. Chill for 5 or so minutes to keep them from spreading when they bake.
  4. Bake for 12-14 minutes or until tops are glossy and lightly cracked.
Notes
These cookies are considered “gluten-free” if using gluten free chocolate chips.

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Weekly Winners

We did it again! We dropped the kids off at Aunt Jessica's house and spent 36 wonderful, relaxing, kidless hours in another town. Hubby had yet another job fair to do for work at the college so I tagged along. We went to an awesome movie (Chronicle was fascinating), stuffed ourselves at a nice restaurant, and stayed in a hotel. Then yesterday, while the Hubby was working the job fair, I strolled through the mall buying way too much and got my hair done. It was fabulous and so very much needed. A huge giant THANK YOU to Jessica for letting my two heathens into her house. They sure did enjoy themselves. My sanity meter is back in the normal range, unfortunately poor Jessica's meter is in the red.

Since I haven't blogged in awhile I thought I'd do a picture blog, they are piling up on my camera.

Sean gets attacked by two little people when he gets home from work.

Cecil, the leopard tortoise, enjoying a nice warm soak. Cecil turns 10 years old this year.

Wesley's favorite pastime in the whole wide world, playing Angry Birds with Dad (or Mom).

Rambo Greta in her swim suit. Always in her swim suit....in February.

These kids are serious Play Doh fanatics. Note Greta in her swim suit.

Wesley's use of the potty has lead Greta to use her own little potty. We had our first Greta initiated pee pee in the potty last night. And yes, her swim suit is under her clothes.

More Rambo girl.