Great Grandpa Kenny

Summer.

Photoboothing....

My favorite picture of them.....

Love.

One, Two, Three

Game On

If you think this is funny.... you should have seen him on the waterslide.....

Kuboda & a Brush Hog.....

Softball 2013

The Eyebrow.

And He Smiles.....

Parenting.....

When you have two (or more) kids there are certain new rules you have to follow.

No one tells you this.

It's a secret club.  I think we are all afraid if we tell you the truth then you won't have more kids... and we will be alone in our misery.  Labor is like that.

Well here are some pointers on surviving with two kids or more:

1.  Once a week, have a "get dressed from the laundry basket" party.  Saves on folding.  Bonus points if it is the CLEAN laundry basket.

2.  Make pancakes.  I make a giant batch of pancakes and freeze them and tell myself it is to have delicious, wholesome, healthy hot breakfasts all week..... then we have pancakes for dinner three nights in a row.  My kids love Brinner.  I love bacon.  Win-win.

3.  Repetition is your friend. Taco Tuesday is a good thing.  We do a series of dinner items over and over.  Tacos, followed up by "tortilla pizzas".  Chicken tenders/rice.  Tapas (What do YOU call leftovers?).  Crockpot stuff.  Spaghetti (Hot makes it on Thursdays).  Noodles of any sort (with jarred white sauce or parmesan or homemade red sauce or just butter).  Do I love to cook interesting new meals?  Yes.  Do I know someday there will be a season for that?  Yes.  Do I accept the current phase is not that season?  Mostly. 

4.  Lower your standards.  All of them.  If the kitchen counter is free and clear of papers (even if it is only once a week) you are a winner.  Big Win. 

5.  Streamline everything.  And make lists.  Ok... that won't always help but streamlining and making lists is just fun.

We are FINALLY getting into a Routine.... sort of....

In spite of the weather we have moved to "fall schedule" around here.

Sweet loves to be early to school so he can play with his buddies on the playground.  And it works for me because I can get to work earlier.

So it means we need to leave the house about 7:45 and be out the driveway by about 7:50.  This makes drop off around 8:00 and I'm to work before 8:15 as long as I'm not in charge of Bugsy and daycare....

Working backwards give us this schedule:

6:00  Alarm One
6:30  Alarm Two  I usually try to get up by 6:15 so I have a little dorking around time to unload the dishwasher, stare out the window, fold laundry, drink coffee.  If I know it is going to be a balls-to-the-walls morning (BTTWM) I set up the coffee maker on the timer the night before
6:45  The drop-dead latest I can be in the shower.  On a good day I also manage to slap a little tinted sunscreen on my face and some eyeliner. 
6:50-6:55  Rise-n-shine my little dumplings.  With daylight earlier this is easier.  I rarely have to threaten a half-cup of frozen marbles in the bed.  The kids like to bring their clothes in front of the pellet stove to get dressed once it gets cold.  I usually set the 5 minute timer for this or they just dork around.  I also try to be dressed before the dinger goes off and have breakfast on the counter.  Or we put a playlist on the ipod and they get a song per activity.
7:00  Breakfast.  I believe in breakfast.  I believe breakfast should have some protein and some fat so it lasts past 10:00am.  I've tried making a breakfast schedule.  I've tried "Monday Eggs" and "Tuesday Toast" kinds of things....  I struggle with it.  I've lowered my standards.  If my kids want chicken nuggets or pepperoni hot pockets for breakfast... well, ok.  Not perfect, but better than nothing.  During breakfast I try to get lunches packed and hair fixed.  Sometimes it works.  My 7-year-old likes a packed lunch and she likes to do it herself.  Sweet.
7:30  Everyone must be brushing their teeth by 7:30.  About now I start yelling instructions in groups of 3.  "Teeth-Waterbottle-Shoes" or "Snacks-Sweatshirts-Library Books" I try to shove my lunch/work/stuff in a bag and remember my cell phone.  Sometimes we sneak in some homework.... spelling words or reading.  My kids know if they start unpacking their backpack from the night before at this point I will not be happy.  They are so aware of it I don't even have to get mad....  It happens about once a week.

We have this by the door to remind us:

Morning

Backpack, Water Bottle, Lunch, Snack,

Homework, Hat, Mittens, Sweatshirt

Monday:  PE Shoes (JN)

Tuesday:  Library Books (JN)

Tuesday:  PE Shoes (DJ)

Wednesday:  Library Books (DJ)

Thursday:  PE Shoes (JN & DJ)

Friday:  Show-n-Tell (JN)

Friday:  Treat Shop

After School

Empty Backpack, Hang up Gear,

Put away Shoes, Snack, Homework,

Fun

 

Drinkware

Elle said...

What's wrong with those Kraft Pimento spread jars. My mom supplied me with a six-pack as a birthday present and I stinkin' love them. Between those and spaghetti jars, our glassware is well outfitted AND easily replaceable. I have a hodge-podge collection of glasses. I think there are 6 now. All mismatched. The only requirement is that they be some shade of blue. I love 'em. It's who I am. Mismatched and in varying shades of blue.

12:35 PM

Oh let me be clear....  I prefer mis-matched because it is easy to ID everyone's glass.

My mom finally broke all the glassware from Arby's (you know what I'm talking about... we had the entire Flintstone's collection....) and got lovely plain glasses... now she is spending all of her time trying to figure out how to designate them so we don't drink each other's booze-n-cokes and so we can each keep a water glass out all day....

I should photograph my current glassware collection.... just to make you laugh.....

IPSY

Does anyone else do ipsy.com??

My sister got me a subscription for my birthday last year and it has been very entertaining.

This month I got fake eyelashes.  WTF? 

And a browbone highlighter.  I love browbone highlighter... I particularly love the one called arch'de triumph by Soap & Glory.  Target carried it and doesn't anymore.  We just got Ulta here so I bought one there on Saturday morning... and got one in my ipsy bag when I got home. 

My mom got me a Sephora Sun Safety Sampler this year after I oogled hers for years.  Pretty awesome.  You can see a good review of it over here. 

I like sunscreen.  I'm in search of the perfect high SPF tinted sunscreen.  I like Dr Brandt's.  The Maybelline Dream Fresh BB Cream is ok.  The Garnier one made me a little greasy.  And I like Aveda tinted moisturizer.  Anyone have something else they love?  I was loving the spf moisturizer from Clinique but daytime moisture AND a bb cream seems like overkill.

I tend to be pretty low maintenance about makeup and skin care but I like to think of it more as classy & elegant & simple.  The Hepburn Approach if you will....

I love my clarisonic (a fantastic Mother's Day-Birthday-Easter gift from my mama).  I tend to use simple (read:  cheap) liquid cleansers with it. I used to buy masks and stuff... now I usually just use a pinch of baking soda.  Is that terrible? If I meet a goal here in the near future I'm getting myself some Josie Maran Face Cleaner Oil.

When I stop aging gracefully and decide to start fighting it I will be more diligent about using Boots #7 intense serum.  I might also try their BB cream.  Do they have a bb cream?  They do but it looks like the spf is only 15.

I've been playing around with bronzer and highlighter stuff every since I saw this post.

And I love, love, love Nars blush.... in orgasm.

And I've been wearing grey eyeliner since my mom got me my first one in 6th grade.  It was Jafra.  Who remember Jafra?  But sometimes I branch out to black or green or navy. 

I look great in a nice two-tone brown eyeshadow.  I can pull it off (as long as the lips are neutral) and I use a bit of brow highlight.  I also have learned to finish the look with some brown eyebrow pencil if I really want to look polished.  (Ok, right, not often)

I really, really want to be a mascara wearer.  It looks so nice.  I never wear it.  I smear it.  But I try.

Finish with a decent gloss on the lips.  Done. 

Or, the speed routine:  smear on bb cream, dash on a bit of blush, maybe a dash of bronzer in summer, eyeliner, brow highlight.  GO.  There's a lip gloss in the car, just GO. 

Room Cleaning Cards for the Girls

We clean the bedrooms up on Friday night.  Reward is movie night.  Works great.  My son (age 9) likes to clean by the "clock face" method.  He picks a point to be 12 (usually his desk) and works his way around the clock face.  I say, "Is your room done?" and he says, "No, but I made it to 9 o'clock."

The girls, on the other hand, moan and weep and get overwhelmed.  The first step was to par down the gear a little bit (still have a ways to go) and to get rid of the box spring and get a platform bed to create easy storage under their bed.  But it was still a battle.  I tried the timer.  I tried sending them after one type of item at a time.  I considered boxing all of their gear and letting them live minimalist.  Then I decided to try a ring of cards.  Below are my cards.  There are 9 of them counting the cover.  I made each card a full-sized sheet of paper and printed them "8up" on cardstock.  Cut, hole-punched at the top corner and put on a ring.  Andulus font (my current favorite... along with Calibri, of course).  So far it seems to be reducing the battle. 

Time to Clean Your Room

Step 1

Get Ready

Put a smile on your face.

Start at the door and work around 

the room for each step.

Find all of the trash  and toss it.

If you see things that belong in other rooms 

put them in the hall.

Step 2

Bed

Clear out the toys/books.

Fluff the pillows.

Pull up the blanket and fold it back.

Turn off bedside lights.

Put away anything on bedside table that doesn’t belong.

Take water bottles to the kitchen.

Step 3

Clothes

Dirty clothes downstairs.

Clean clothes stacked for mom to help put away.

Step 4

Books

Put all the books away (in the right places) 

with spines tidy and facing out.

Step 5

Babies

Barbies

Pollys

Stuffed Animals

Baby Gear

Step 6

Kitchen toys

Dress up

Step 7

Desks

Legos

Step 8

Vacuum

Sweep

Dust

Done!

I love you. 

Thank you

for keeping your room clean.

My Girl

Ripping DVDs and other techie sounding things......

I am often defeated by technology.  I have yet to get a smart phone.  I see the advantage of texting but I don't embrace it.  I have a netflix streaming subscription.  I watch Duck Dynasty online.  I send my husband reminder texts via cozi.com. 

Yes, I have accepted the fact that vhs tapes are dead.  I have discarded every vhs tape.  Let me emphasize the I in that..... just so you know my HUSBAND has not joined me in the modern world.  He has a box of tapes in the garage.  And, yes, I kept an old vcr in a plastic tub labeled "Old Electronics" for that just-in-case moment when he wants to watch "Far and Away" on vhs instead of netflix. 

So, after graduating from vhs to dvd (and even, gasp, sometimes BLUERAY!!) I'm beginning to wonder about digital versions of movies.  We have a few (Pirates of the Caribbean and the Jurassic Park 3-pack) digitally and the kids can watch them on the ipod, laptop or Kindle.  I have even been known to fork out a few bucks to rent one digitally from Amazon.

But when it comes down to it... we still haul along the portable dvd player and the case with all the dvd's.....  But I think that might change.  We have a Kindle Fire.  We have a newer ipod (touch) and an older ipod.   And I'm eyeballing the Nexus tablet pretty hard.  For long car trips (over 2 hours or so) I'm ok with embracing technology and watching a movie but it turns out my kids have moved beyond that and would rather read or play games.... electronically, of course.  So now I'm toying with the idea of ripping a few dvds to digital and going that route rather than the portable dvd....  one device, many uses.

Has anyone had success with this???

http://www.digitaltrends.com/home-theater/how-to-rip-a-dvd-or-blu-ray-movie/

3 things you should know about me.

1.  I like the eggs to be in a checkerboard pattern in the carton.
2.  I eat my pizza crust first.
3.  I often read the ending of a book before the beginning.

40 After 40

So I was thinking it would be a good idea to do a list.  A 40 after 40 list.... or is that too cutesy?  Anyone?

The only thing on my list so far:

1.  Learn how to use a slim jim.

Any other ideas?

Partied Out