Home grown

This year, we tried our hand at growing a few new fruits and vegetables in a sunny bed beside the house. There was a strawberry patch and a raspberry bush here when we moved in, which yielded us oodles of berries at the beginning of summer, but we also tried a few cherry tomatoes (we got three total and they are still green), a watermelon, and an eggplant.

The eggplant is still growing nicely, but yesterday, we were able to harvest our watermelon after weeks and weeks of waiting patiently for it to be ready.

The boys were so proud and excited to cut it open and eat it. It was delicious, but more importantly, the experience gave us the chance to teach them what we hope will be a lifelong skill:

seed spitting!

A day in the life

I recently watched an episode of Oprah in which Nate Berkus gave a stay-home mom the day off and did her job for her.

At the end of the segment, they posted a checklist of the tasks that Nate had completed that day. While he seemed to think it was a lot, it looked to me like the kind of day I might have if two of the boys were staying with my parents and I didn't really have anything going on. The woman had two school-aged children who were gone all day and a two-year-old.

Now, I'm not claiming to be the busiest mom out there, and I'm not ashamed to admit that I sometimes turn on the T.V. to get a little down time, but I made a list today of the things I did. Just took about one minute every 30 minutes or so and jotted down what happened in that time period.

Let's just say that I call the red parts "Why Nate Berkus ain't got nothin' on me" and the blue parts "Why I have the most wonderful job on the face of the earth."


6-6:30 - Jack, after waking us up by talking too loudly in his room to PJ at 5:45, came bursting into our bedroom at 6 to start the day. Patrick took them downstairs while I fed Thomas and came down by 6:30. (I got about four broken hours of sleep last night.)

6:30-7 - Change diapers/put underpants on boys, pay two bills, drink some coffee while Jack plays in the basement and PJ watches Caillou and holds Thomas a little.

7-7:30 - Teach PJ and Jack how to draw and color flowers. Make oatmeal for breakfast. While breakfast cooks, Pj says he has to do a tinkle (he does), then a poopy (he doesn't), then another tinkle attempt, then another poopy attempt. Underpants are off and on between each one of these and every time I say anything to PJ, Jack screams, "What?!" from the basement despite my repeated explanation that I am talking to PJ. Jack asks if breakfast is ready three times. Thomas screams in his swing during much of this since I can't hold him while cooking or helping PJ on the potty.

7:30-8 - Boys eat breakfast at the table, but only after deliberating (and arguing) about which train they want to bring to the table to "share" breakfast with them. I feed Thomas again and put on a Thomas the Tank Engine DVD for them to watch while they eat.

8-8:30 - Shower, dress, make bed, straighten boys' room, start a load of laundry, load dishwasher, put Thomas up for a nap.

8:30-9 - Help older boys get dressed, watch the end of DVD with them and do activities together learning about shapes and how the trains are alike and different.

9-9:30 - Clean up kids' breakfast, make and eat my breakfast, load dishwasher again (where did all these other dishes come from?), set boys up with Play-Doh and juice at the dining room table.

9:30-10 - Give boys haircuts while they play with Play-Doh, vacuum, and, while vacuuming, help PJ with two poopy false alarms by reading him books while he sits on the potty. Jack made a "hotdog" with green mustard and red ketchup out of Play-Doh and asked PJ and me if we wanted a bite. It looked a lot like a real one!

10-10:30 - Clean up Play-Doh, help PJ tinkle, wipe down the bathroom sink and toilet with Clorox wipes, get Thomas up from his nap, change his diaper, get him dressed and nurse him. Post a funny Mother's Day video on Facebook. Kiss boo-boos on both Jack and PJ. Tell PJ about Jesus on the cross of his rosary beads and what He did for us. PJ thanks Jesus and gives him a kiss.

10:30-11 - Change Thomas's poopy diaper, change and clean up after PJ's pooping in his underpants because he didn't make it to the potty, move laundry to dryer. While putting new underpants on PJ, Patrick sends me an email saying, "Jack is banging on my door HELP" because his office is in the basement, his door is locked, and he's on the phone for work. When I go down to play trains in the basement with the older boys and ask Jack to stop banging on Daddy's door, he says, "But I just wanted to tell Daddy that some little kids don't have any toys and we're lucky because we have all these!" I help Thomas work on learning to roll over and we all sing the Itsy Bitsy Spider to him.

11-11:30 - Bring Thomas and PJ upstairs, get a snack for PJ, feed fish, water plants. Patrick leaves for a lunch meeting. Jack stops him before he leaves and says, "Daddy wait! I'll miss you!" Then when PJ, who is in time-out for hitting, cries because Patrick is leaving, Jack comforts him by saying, "Daddy is going to a meeting that is just for Daddies. Some other meetings are little kid meetings and another time, you can go to one of those."

11:30-12 - Make grilled cheese for lunch while holding a fussy Thomas and giving PJ two time-outs for disobeying. Boys eat at the table while watching Bob the Builder and I cuddle Thomas on the couch. Love these coos and giggles! Jack, who's just getting the knack of knock-knock jokes, tells me this one: Knock-knock. Who's there? Bob. Bob who? Uh...Bob cup. PJ bumps his head while running around the table and needs kisses. Help PJ use the potty.

12-12:30 - Bring boys upstairs, help them use the potty, put pull-ups on them and put them in bed for naps. Jack tells me, as he does each day, that he has to poop, so I read books to him while he sits on the potty for ten minutes, at which time, because I suspect he's playing games with me since he does this at each and every bedtime and I have no idea how to handle it, I put his pull-up back on and tell him to stay in his bed. I have a feeling he's going to poop in his pull-up during his nap.

12:30-1 - Clean up from lunch, watch Ahmadinejad on Charlie Rose (that man is crazy), run upstairs to put Thomas's binkie back in.

1-1:30 - Fold laundry, boil water for tea, watch Todd English

1:30-2 - Praise the Lord - the boys are still all napping! Tea with Barefoot Contessa! Run upstairs again to put Thomas's binkie back in. Back up once more to get him because enough is enough already. Nurse him a little while I finish my tea.

2-2:30 - Give Thomas some time on the floor mat, Jack gets up (clean pull-up!), we both play with Thomas.

2:30-3 - Jack and I thin and water his tomato and watermelon seedlings on the deck. We planted the seeds about six weeks ago and they all sprouted on the windowsill in their little red and blue pots. He's so excited they're growing. I teach him a little about roots, leaves, and stems and what they do.

3-3:30 - Thomas eats again, PJ wakes up. Jack offers to go and tell him that I'll be right up and I get to hear them talking together in the monitor (one of my favorite things). Get PJ, help him go to the potty, get snacks and juice for both boys , finish nursing Thomas.

3:30-4 - Give boys some window crayons and let them draw on the outside of the slider. Take funny pictures of them looking through Groucho Marx-type glasses/mustache drawn on the glass. Give them Windex and paper towels and let them clean it up, but it's not so great, so I go out and wash them myself because, heck, they needed to be cleaned anyway. (Let's call that my spring cleaning, shall we?) Boys build sandcastles in the sandbox. I change Thomas's poopy diaper.

4-4:30 - Put Thomas up for another nap, but he's gassy so I bring him back down and let him sleep while I pat his back and he's lying across my lap. Boys race their trains for a while and then fight about who won, so I put on Team Umizoomi for them to watch while Thomas snoozes and I'm feeling a bit icky in the tummy.

4:30-5 - Put Thomas up again and he stays asleep for a little while longer. Fix dinner, which tonight happens to be leftovers since we have a fridge full of them. Thomas starts crying again so I go up and put his binkie back in and stay with him for a few minutes until he falls back to sleep. Boys play in basement for a while and I straighten up the living room.

5-5:30 - Serve dinner for Patrick, Jack and PJ, but I'm not feeling great so I don't eat. Patrick sits with boys at dinner table while I go lie down for 10 minutes upstairs. Tired and sore right now. Clean up from dinner.

5:30-6 - PJ has another poopy false alarm. Patrick helps the boys go to the potty and I help get them ready so that he can take Jack and PJ to the carwash with the van and then to ride their bikes at the park. I put my achy feet up for a little while, have a diet coke, and work on this post.

6-6:30 - Lay out jammies and overnight diapers, fill humidifiers and straighten blankets to get boys' beds ready for sleeping.

6:30-7 - Put away all the sandbox and water table toys on the deck and close them up for the night. Put on Thomas's jammies, feed him, and put him to bed. He fusses, rebink him. He fusses, rebink him. He fusses, rebink him. (This is going to bite me in the backside in a few months.)

7-7:30 - Patrick gives the boys a bath, helps them brush their teeth, puts their jammies on.
7:30-8 - Patrick reads boys a story and puts them to bed.

Tomorrow, after having slept in comfortable beds, in a safe home, we will,
Lord willing, wake healthy and
able to do it all again.

And I wouldn't change a single thing!

Cookie monsters

A few days ago, I made some sugar cookie dough with this, my favorite recipe for rolled cookies. I cut out some hearts and airplanes - they're boys after all - and made white, pink and red(ish) icing.
The boys had a great time decorating them.

The rainbow colored non pareils were the big hit.

And then...someone went a little crazy with the sprinkles, accidentally opening the "Pour" side instead of the "Sprinkle" side.

It was like dropping chum in shark-infested waters.

The boys went crazy licking their fingers, dipping them in the colorful dots, and then licking again.

It was a rainbow-colored frenzy.

Dipping, licking - more frantic now, since they're almost gone.

PJ probably holds the record for the most non pareils adhered to a person at one time


But Jack definitely won the award for the most consumed

and he got the last lick to boot.

Starting early

Don't call CPS just yet.

We took down the Christmas decorations this past weekend and Jack begged to use the vacuum.

Practically threw a fit when we hesitated.

Pinky swear.

He didn't do too bad, either. Except that the actual vacuum part of the vacuum (you know, the part in the front with the rollers and suction) only touched the carpet about half the time.

I was thinking of starting a little chore chart for them this year. Perhaps...

Nah.

But hey, a Mommy can dream.

Cookie monster

I have a confession to make.

I have a fear of rolled sugar cookies.

Or maybe it isn't a fear so much as a lack of time in which to make them, as well as a tiny bit of worry that I won't be able to make thedough the right consistency.

All I know is that I have resorted to using Pillsbury dough and rolling it out to make cookies a few times in the last year and they just don't taste natural.

I like butter. And sugar.

In fact, I think I could probably eat a shame stick. Remember that from According to Jim? Sheryl's brother Andy dipped sticks of butter in sugar and ate them like that.

Anyway, I found this recipe for the dough and I can't believe how easy it is to work with! It's my new favorite thing. Cutting them out and decorating them after the boys go to bed has become my new creative outlet.

A little lemon flavor in the icing, and I'm in my happy place. Mmmmm - sugar, butter and lemon? Does it get any better?

Sometimes, I'll just make a batch of airplanes and let Jack just sprinkle them with red sugar. But I did make a few Easter-themed cookies too.

They're not the cutest cookies on the block, but they're not too shabby for a first attempt. Figuring out the right consistency to for the icing isn't easy. The white piping needs to be firm enough to outline and the inside icing needs to be runny enough to fill...well... the inside. Say what?

But I just made another batch of dough for more practice. I think I'll make some egg-shaped cookies next. More photos to come!

Spring cleaning

Ok, so it hasn't really started yet...the cleaning that is.

Spring started last week.

(Where have you been?)

But we took the first step towards getting a grip on some of the piles around here.

Am I the only one with piles?

Bills, recipes, coupons, coloring books, construction paper...things just seem to pile up and then company comes and I move the pile. Sometimes into the garage. Usually on top of the washer or dryer. I'm glad our laundry room has doors.

(Please don't ever open our laundry room doors!)

Anyway, here's our new laptop-friendly secretary desk! Now the boys can't break my new computer, and I have cubbies and drawers in which to store things like stamps or the checkbook, which usually ends up in one of the aforementioned piles.

I know you're probably wondering when the cleaning part is really going to start.

So am I. When you figure it out, could you please let me know?

Thanks ever so much!