Where have I been?

It's been forever since I've posted so I thought I'd give a quick update on what we've been up to...

* Last week my parents were visiting, and we had such a great time! While still here in town we drove out to the country for some farm fresh ice cream!

And then we went up to Boston for a couple days so my parents could see the sites before we moved from New England. Our favorite thing was the children's museum! Although there was a lot we didn't see since Eli's only 2, there were sooo many exhibits great for toddlers!
Then we got to relax back home for a day before Grandma and Grandpa headed back to Iowa...

* I've been busy trying to catch up on housework as we gradually get back into routine.

* Hannah had her 3-month weight check with the Navy home nurse last week, and she's now 13.0 lbs and 24.5 inches. Paul, where does that place her in percentiles??

* We also started NOT swaddling Hannah for sleep. Thought I'd just give it a try, and she still sleeps well just in a sleep sack, so we'll stick with that.

* Last night I put both kids in the same room for the first time! Hannah has almost outgrown her bassinet, and I'm quite anxious to have our room back so I don't have to tip-toe around at night and in the morning and so I can fold laundry in the evening. All went well until 4:15am when Hannah accidentally kicked on the music player for her mobile. I rushed in to turn it off and get Hannah since she was awake. Eli woke up too and said Hi when I walked in the room. But I just told him to go on back to sleep and then quickly left with Hannah. I fed her and just laid her back in the bassinet. Eli didn't cry at all but he did lay there awake for a good half hour. Not too bad for the first night. So lesson #1, take the music player off the crib! We'll try again tonight!

* One week left to finish our Spring Cleaning! (just my own rule, I wanted to be done by the end of May) We've gradually been checking things off the list! The biggest thing left is to clean the garage, and that's Kevin's domain!

So that's what we've been up to! Hope you all have a great week and Memorial Day weekend!

Blackberry Cheese Pie

This is one of Kevin's all-time FAVORITE pies! And one of my readers requested pictures so come on over and enjoy a slice of heaven! But you'd better hurry because it's going fast!

(note: I don't have proper lighting or experience to take good photos of food,
but this is the best I could get.)

Menu Plan Monday - May 12

Hope all you lovely ladies had a wonderful Mother's Day! It was a great day for me! Hubby got up early and made "breakfast in bed" for me. Hannah was still sleeping in our room and Eli was awake already so we went and ate in Eli's room instead. It was fun. It was BEAUTIFUL weather, yet still slightly chilly. I watched a movie with Hubby in the afternoon while the kids were napping. And after naps we went outside for some Mother's Day pictures. I always try to get good photos of Mom n kids or Dad n kids for Mother's/Father's Day. I really cherished last year's pictures I took at Father's Day, so I was hoping for some of the same this year for Mother's Day, especially since I'm rarely in any pictures being the one always behind the camera! I think Kevin did a great job and I'm happy with how they turned out! Then for dinner Kevin grilled the best steak I've had in MONTHS! Overall it was a very good day! I'll just forget the part where Hannah threw up all over the laptop right before bed. Life is indeed real...

Now for this week my parents are coming TOMORROW!! We are very excited to see them again! And while they're here we're heading up to Boston for a couple days to see the sites while we still live in New England. So it's going to be another fun-filled week, and on the menu we have...

Monday - softball game- leftovers

Tuesday - grilled Italian chicken, roasted potatoes, green beans

Wednesday - stuffed pasta shells, garlic bread, salad

Thursday - Boston

Friday - Boston

Saturday - pork chops, cooked carrots, rice, pears

Sunday - best-ever meatloaf, oranges, mashed potatoes

Dessert of the week: Blackberry Cheese Pie (yes, it's that good that we'd have it two weeks in a row!)

Visit Laura for more great menu ideas!
Have a great week!

Mother's Day Pics

FINALLY! A day I get to be in the pictures, instead of behind the camera!! I think Kevin did a great job as photographer...

Ring around a rosie...

...we all fall down!

Sunday Psalm

Psalm 23

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.
He makes me like down in green pastures,
he leads me beside still waters,
he restores my soul.
He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Even though I walk through the valley
of the shadow of death,
I will not fear evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.

You prepare a table for me
in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and love will follow me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord
forever.

Living Well

I haven't blogged about it yet, but for about a month now I've been "working on" my goal to return to pre-pregnancy weight by the end of July (#2). That means losing about 8-10 pounds, and that is hard hard hard for me to do. It just is, I don't know why. I could work out every day, which I hate doing, and still not really lose anything. I don't have much of a Plan (which is why "working on" above is in quotes). I'm just watching the amount I eat and trying to exercise (walk) regularly. I'm part of a stroller class that meets three days a week to walk for 30 min and do exercises for 30 minutes. I try to do those same exercises at home on the off days. My trouble spots are my arms and my stomach (since I just had a baby), so I'm trying to focus on those areas. And I'm keeping track of my exercise in my daily planner. I'm happy to say that this past week was a good week, and while I had been pushing 150, this week it's looking to be staying around 148ish. My weight fluctuates a lot within in the day and from day to day so it's hard to say whether I've actually lost those 2lbs, but for today, I'll say that I did it! Because it's making me feel motivated to continue to LIVE WELL!

Go to Amy's to read her weekly post about dieting. And I'll check in again next week!

Little girls...

One of the best things about having a little girl: SUN HATS!! Soooo cute!

Fun in the Sun

As much as we love taking Eli outside this time of year, it's kind of hard living in a townhouse and having no space of our own. Eli's constantly getting into things and there's no defined boundaries. Some grass is fine but two steps farther and then it's uh oh, no, Eli that's too far. come back. We get annoyed just listening to ourselves because there's no way we can really expect Eli to understand. So yesterday after hearing how frustrated Kevin was getting with Eli, I tried thinking of more specific activities we can have him do outside:

1. He's not into riding in his wagon anymore, but perhaps he would have fun pulling it along, collecting "treasures" as he fills the wagon with sticks, rocks, leaves, etc.
2. Bubbles. Enough said.
3. Take his push-along car outside.
4. Give him a water bottle and let him "water" plants or just have fun squirting. And that's the one we tried this morning. I wanted to let Eli get outside but Hannah was asleep on the couch so we couldn't go far. So I gave him the water bottle and we just went right out on the deck. He had a blast! Check it out...

uh oh! it squirted him in the ear!

big boy

okay... AND we're squirting the camera!

this is better

Do you have any other ideas of what we can do with Eli outside???

#85: Organize recipes.

My old system for my recipes was a recipe box filled with more than a hundred recipe cards. I liked having the cards because they were easy to pull out for cooking. But what I didn't like was that a) it was hard to dig through and a find any specific recipe I wanted, b) it was hard to search through for meal ideas unless I pulled out the entire stack, c) it was hard to maintain order for any subcategories, and d) I always had loose full-page printouts laying around cuz they didn't fit in the box.

I've been thinking about this for quite awhile on how to resolve those problems. I thought about typing them into the computer and making my own personal cookbook, but I've put a lot of effort into making the recipe cards, I like them because they're small for on the counter while I'm cooking, and I like to try new recipes and a cookbook really wouldn't allow me add any, not to mention all the time it would take to type them all up. So, I kept thinking and decided to make a recipe binder. I ordered two sets of these sheets from Pillsbury, used a regular binder I had laying around the house, and just inserted all my recipe cards in an organized fashion with entrees sorted by type of meat and desserts sorted by pies, cakes, bars, cookies, etc. And I can still include my full-sheet recipes (either I haven't tried them yet, or they're too long for a card) and use a regular page protector sheet instead of the Pillsbury ones. I still have to make my divider pages for each category but otherwise the whole project just took a couple hours in one afternoon! And I'm excited about my new system! Check it out!

And it's another thing completed on my list of 101 Goals!

Menu Plan Monday - May 5

Monday - beef kabobs, oranges
Tuesday - Caesar chicken wraps, veggie chips, apples
Wednesday - Dad's spaghetti, salad, pears
Thursday - breakfast nite- breakfast burritos, fruit cocktail
Friday - black bean and rice enchiladas, oranges
Saturday - broccoli and four cheese calzones, peaches
Sunday - Mother's Day!! (I am NOT cooking!)

Dessert of the week: apple crisp

For more great menu ideas visit Laura at Organizing Junkie. Have a great week!