Spring is Coming...

but winter wouldn't be winter without at least one snowman, would it?

Homemaking Meme

I saw this over at Arwens and thought it looked fun. Feel free to play along.

Aprons (Y/N): Actually, I don't even own an apron so I guess that would be "no". I've thought about making an apron before. I used to have a pattern for fancy aprons, but gave that to my SIL because she wanted to try making aprons for her girls.

Baking (Favorite thing to bake): I like to make breads like pumpkin, banana or cinnamon.

Clothesline (Y/N): Not right now, but we do plan on getting one. It saves money and I actually find hanging clothes to be relaxing.

Donuts: I like donuts, but I don't buy or make them. They are calorie bombs.

Every Day (One homemaking thing you do every day): The only thing I can think of that I do everyday is prepare a meal of some sort. That doesn't always mean cooking, sometimes it means cooking frozen chicken nuggets, or leftovers, or even cereal.

Freezer (Do you have a separate deep freeze?): No, but we could use one.

Garbage Disposal (Y/N): No. Garbage disposal is not good for a septic system (which we have.)

Handbook (What is your favorite homemaking resource?): Allrecipes.com

Ironing (Love it or hate it?): Generally, the only time I iron is when I'm sewing and need to apply interfacing or press a seam.

Junk drawer (Y/N) (Where?):Yes! In the kitchen.

Kitchen (Design and decorating):Hmmm...all I can think of to describe our kitchen is white. The floor is white, the cupboards and countertop are white. The previous owners did not cut corners on anything, and left us very nice appliances.

Love (What is your favorite part of homemaking?): Sewing is considered homemaking right? If so, then hands down sewing. Otherwise it would be baking.

Mop (Y/N): I use a Swiffer wet jet. It makes cleaning the kitchen (and bathroom) floor so easy and fast.

Nylons: Not sure how this applies to homemaking. I don't use nylons for anything but my legs .

Oven (Do you use the window or open the door to check?): I always open the door. Sometimes I use the window, but I never trust what I see unless I open the door.

Pizza (What do you put on yours?): Most any veggies and mushrooms. Pepperoni is the only meat I like.

Quiet (What do you do during the day when you get a quiet moment?): I'm assuming a quiet moment means no housework. I would either read, sew or go online.

Recipe card box (Y/N): No. I could use one though, right now my cards are in a little basket. Actually, I'm not sure I have even seen that basket since we moved here.

Style of house: Split level ranch. 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms.

Tablecloths and napkins? No tablecloth, and paper napkins. I have been thinking about getting cloth napkins though, because I always see cool napkin holders I would like to use.

Under the kitchen sink (Organized or toxic wasteland?): Pop cans and dish rags. Not organized, but not toxic either.

Vacuum (How many times per week?): The living room/hall/dining room gets vacuumed every other day. The upstairs bedrooms probably once every couple weeks, and the downstairs bedroom and the steps, less often.

Wash (How many loads of laundry do you do in a week?): Five or six?

X's (Do you keep a daily list of things to do and cross them off?): No.

Yard (Who does what?): Jeremiah cleans up the dog poop. Otherwise I think we both do the yard stuff, although he probably does more. I do any gardening.

Zzz's: Actually, I get more than enough.

You Know Your Child has Food Allergies When...

Today at library storytime they were singing a song about a man made out of food. Of course they had the children participating by having them suggest food. Chocolate! Ice Cream! Pizza! were the typical ones you could hear. Then you have Sammy who suggested...Beans!

Mardi Gras

Today is Fat Tuesday. It's hard to believe it's that time of year already. Is anybody giving anything up for Lent? If I was Catholic, I would give up chocolate.

Also, I'm in the middle of three sewing projects. I am not allowed to start another until all three are completely finished. And I mean it.

Misc.

It's been four days already since I posted. It's been a pretty low key week.

We didn't do anything for Valentines Day. That was fine.

My sister-in-law has been on my mind and in my prayers all week. (I see that lots of people have been coming here from her blog to see if there is an update, but we still haven't heard an update from them.)

I took Kim's suggestion and let the boys do paintings on canvas. Now our hallway is no longer one long bare wall, but looks like our own mini art museum. I will post pics when I have a chance.

My blood pressure is creeping up and it's bothering me. It's still not technically "high", but my diastolic has moved up and won't budge. I'm going to have to really watch my sodium, I haven't really been doing that so far.

J*Ann F*brics is having a sale this weekend. I'm excited to pick up some new patterns, I have been waiting for patterns to go on sale for a long time. Last night I had a dream that when I got there all the patterns I wanted were gone.

Pics

Jonah has taken to wearing this pail on his head. Not sure why exactly, but he loves to.


24 weeks. To me, it doesn't look like I've grown much since 20 weeks, but I was measuring exactly 24 weeks at my appointment.

Dullsville

February has been a slow blogging month for me. There just really isn't anything going on. The boys have been busy with play dough, and I have been busy sewing. Here are a few random bullets.

• Every year I plan on having the boys make Valentines to send to their cousins, but every year I forget until it's too late. One year I even bought a box of store valentines thinking that all we have to do is get them in the mail...nope, still forgot.
• When we moved in the house I put stuff in places knowing it wasn't exactly how I wanted it but thinking I will rearrange things later. Did anybody else do that? If you did, did you ever go back and arrange things how you wanted? Anyway, I'm trying to get to those things now.
• One of Francine Rivers books, The Last Sin Eater, is now a movie. It's in theaters now, but not here yet. She is one of my favorite authors and I hope they did a good job with the movie.
  
• We have a house full of bare walls, and I have zero decorating talent. Not a good combo.
  

Anybody Want a Beagle?

No, I'm only kidding. We would not get rid of Mary Jane. She is a much loved part of our family. Today, however, she has given me a headache. I have been reading The Preacher's Daughter trilogy by Beverly Lewis. Recently, I saw the third book in the store for $11 and was tempted to buy it because it's very hard to find her books -especially her new books- in at the library. I decided not to because even if it means waiting longer, checking it out at the library is still free. Well, it turns out there was a copy in at the library on the rental shelf (where they charge $1 for popular new books). Not free, but better than $11 right? Anyway, you probably know where this is going. Mary Jane gets her paws on it and chewed it up! Argh! Now we're going to have to pay the library $18-20 for it (it's hardcover). Had I just bought the book I would of ended up saving money! At least I can still read it.

Superdeal

I found these shirts at JC Penny today. Besides being cool shirts, they each came with a toy. The kicker? They cost 1.97 each. I should add that today was the first time I left the house since last Tuesday (besides to get the mail). Thats how cold it is.

February

A few months ago I checked out The Thief of Always by Clive Barker from the library. I'm not really sure why I decided to, and it quickly became apparent that it wasn't a book I was going to finish. However, the very first paragraph stuck in my head. Growing up in the U.P, February was always such a boring, dreary, freezing cold month. It was just one more thing to get thru before Spring. The best part about February is how short it is! I guess that's why I enjoyed the imagery in this passage:

The Great Gray beast February had eaten Harvey Swick alive. Here he was, buried in the belly of that smothering month, wondering if he would ever find his way out through the cold coils that lay between here and Easter.
He didn't think much of his chances. More than likely he'd become so bored as the hours crawled by that one day he' simply forget to breath.

- The Thief of Always by Clive Barker

A very memorable passage from an otherwise not-for-me book.