Small Successes

1. We did some rearranging and completely cleared off our back deck!  We've always had our grill there and since the grill is rather large and the deck is rather small there was never any useable space left.  We moved the grill down near the side of the house and set up some lawn chairs with a cooler-table in the now opened space.  It's wonderful to be able to sit up in the shade with a great view of the yard.  Even the kids love to sit up there!  I see this getting much use this spring and summer!

2. The garden is prepped for planting!  After digging out two years of neglect we mixed in top soil, compost, and peat moss.  We've also got our seeds planted and sunning upstairs on the desk in our room.  We even have a few seedlings coming up!  It's just sweet peppers so far but soon we should see sprouts for romaine, mizuna, jalapenos, peas, okra, garlic chives, dill, and cilantro!  We're waiting on sowing and planting directly in the garden bed until we have the kids early birthday present assembled... a sandbox!

3. I frequently take the kids to a great little playground near our restaurant that's fully fenced in. So far it's the only outdoor play area I've found where I'm comfortable taking all the kids by myself.  With all three of the kids prone to running off in different directions at once it's important to have that perimeter!  Directly across from this little playground though, is a short trail and this week we walked it!  All by ourselves and with no strollers for anyone!  It was a nice stroll and, for the most part, everyone listened well, ending our playtime on a high note.  (And the extra energy spent on the trail after playing hard at the playground meant that there was no fussing about getting in the car to go home. Bonus!)

Small Successes

1. We are making progress at getting the nursery cleared out for Ana.  We moved her into the room earlier than we had anticipated (we had also been considering rooming her with the twins.  Yeah, big fat no to that.)   There is still a lot to be done, but at least her co-sleeper (got to get that kid a crib) is not still stuffed in a corner surround by huge boxes and bins.  heh.

2. We've had two great homemade dinners in a row this week.  Which is somewhat surprising since I haven't made a meal plan in ages and these were both by-the-seat-of-my-pants dinners.  The first was chicken pasty... without the pasty.  Essentially, it's a filling of ground chicken, red potatoes, onion, carrot, and corn.  Topped with a brown gravy and served over biscuits, it was excellent!  The second dinner (last night) I breaded chicken pieces and zucchini slices in panko, parmesan, and ranch mix.  They were baked at 400 for a while, then finished up under the broiler.  I also made some risotto to go with it.  Yum. 

3. Steve and I cleared out all the toys from under the couches and entertainment center.  We put them with the other jumble of toys in the playroom (that was taking over everything) and re-sorted and stored them.  All.  It makes me so happy and the kids are getting better at putting one activity away before getting out another.  Win-win!

Small Successes

1. I have been able to get a handle on my nausea.  Hooray!  I've been eating small meals and snacks every 1.5-2 hours and, at the recommendation of a pharmacist, am taking a daily dose of the B6 vitamin.  It's not an instant cure, but taken daily has really helped to quell the queasies.

2. The kids went back to gymnastics today after a 2 week absence.  I was worried that the time away would make them forget how the class progressed and things like paying attention and sitting when asked to.  (Not so simple for a 3 year old.)  But their teachers (one of whom is a close friend from early childhood) said that they were fantastic, 98% improvement from their last classes!  They each have 2 make-up classes to take and I have signed them up for separate classes.  Addie will have 2 weeks of ballet/tap (squee!  leotards and slippers, hooray!) and Gabe will have 2 weeks of sports introduction (golf, baseball, soccer, football, and hockey, oh my!)

3. Ana has taken her first (assisted) steps!  For quite a while now she has pulled herself to a standing position and just stood there or bopped up and down gently.  But today, she grabbed hold of my fingers and proceeded to walk a good 4 feet across the kitchen!  She still has a ways to go to get the coordination figured out, currently it's more of

Raise left leg up and SLAP it down 5 inches in front of herself.
Tiny step with right leg.
Bop up and down.
Tiny shuffle of right leg to even up with left.
Repeat.

Small Successes

1) At a recent auction Steve was able to purchase a specialty oven worth $10,000 for $400.
2) After being surprised by a 2 inch wolf spider hiding under one of the kids toys I was able to capture and release it outside without any screaming or arm flailing.
3) I cleaned off the top of my fridge yesterday! After finding more appropriate homes for some items and chucking others my fridge top only has our bread box and dry produce storage. I'm also able to easily access all my cookbooks now (which I sorted through and organized) located in the small cabinet above the fridge. As an added bonus we found a few bottles of liquor in there, too. It may be time for a cocktail! :)

Fall Decorating

Michael's was having a sale on fall items and I went a little crazy. I have never decorated my home for fall and decided to make some simple pieces. The first things I did were to put moss and assorted gourds and squash into glass vases and tie the tops with raffia ribbon. I followed that up by cutting the tops off of 2 small decorators pumpkins, putting in dry florists foam and making arrangements with more moss, leaves, flowers and berries.
Next came a glass basket filled with mini scented pinecones

Followed by the large pumpkin arrangement.

Then Mom showed up last night with this gorgeous birthday gift she quilted for us to hang in our kitchen

Last night I finished this wreath of leaves, mums and berries. This is the first time I've ever put one together and I am quite pleased with the results. The base wreath is grapevine and I wove the stems through and secured them with hot glue.

The last craft I put together was the "Welcome" garland. I had said I was going to string it from the wreath but I think it would make it too busy, plus the letters are rather large and would end up crowded. I settled on hanging it from the mantle to balance out the vases and pumpkins.

In the coming week we will head out to pick our real pumpkins that will stagger down our porch steps, maybe with some potted mums. I may paint them somehow, I've come across some really cute ideas, we'll have to see. But that will complete our decorating for the season. I really enjoyed putting them all together instead of picking up pre-made items from a store (not to mention I saved a pretty penny.) I'm so glad I finally have these made, and best of all I can keep them for the coming years.

Planning Progress

This past Friday I put together the first meal plan I've made in months. Having the baby threw us off schedule and that kind of advance planning went right out the window. But I sat down with the last weeks coupon mailers, perused online coupon sites and checked out the weekly sale fliers for grocery stores near us. Harris Teeter happened to be having triple coupon week. How is it that I've never paid attention to these things before? So I marked down all the items we would actually use that were on sale or special then set about making my meal plan. (This meal planning website I found was a big help, allowing me to search for menu ideas by ingredient and then drag them to a calendar to put together the weekly plan.) I have to say this is the first time I've done it this way. Usually I just say, "Oh, that sounds good, lets have that" and then get to the store and see that all the ingredients I need are full price.

After I inventoried our pantry and freezer I typed up a detailed list with the item names, amounts, and sale or coupon information for each item. That may seem excessive, but I was sending my husband to the store and wanted his shopping to go as smoothly as possible. Have you ever been to a grocery store during the weekend of a triple coupon sale? Have you been with a toddler?

I am most pleased to say that all said and done we saved over $60 on this shopping trip, our biggest savings ever. Coupled with last weeks total our weekly average for the last 2 weeks is $100 for the four of us. Not bad. I'm hoping to bring that number down even further but it's an excellent start. The next change we're making to our shopping habits is to only go to the store once a week. It's hard enough to stick with just what's on your list, and if you run to the store two and three times a week you're opening yourself up for impulsive buying. Was I planning on making chocolate chip cookies but somehow managed to forget the chocolate chips? Well, then it's applesauce cookies this round and I'll keep a running list for next week. Rarely is there a situation where we can't get away with substitutions or simply leave a recipe for a later date.

It was actually quite enjoyable, seeing how much money we could save, and I can see how people can start to think of it as a game. I'm excited to see what we put together for next week and expand our recipe index at the same time. I think eggplant was $0.99 a lb....

Small Successes

1. The kids room is almost done! We've gone with a safari theme and it really looks great. The border is up, the kids each have a leaf canopy over their cribs, there are animal decals on the walls, and we just hung the mosquito netting tent last night.

2. Juliana is becoming a chub in record time. For her 2 week checkup the goal was for her to be back at her birth weight, 6lbs 10oz. She was 7lbs 5oz and pronounced wonderfully healthy.

3. This is actually coming two weeks late, but our first catering gig as The Brunch Box was a smashing success. People were blown away by the variety and portion sizes and our clients expressed an interest in having one of those suction tubes (like at a bank) set up between their building and ours.

Small Successes

1. Yesterday I was able to start getting our master closet in order. Steve took the door off and put it in the attic to give us better access to the limited space we have. I moved in a large 3 drawer organizer for our shoes and the difference is amazing.

2. There are only a few more things to come out of the spare room before we can start painting! Most everything has been sorted into organizers in their closet and all that remains is a tv stand (we're making inquiries if anyone is interested, otherwise it's going to Goodwill), and a few random things to put away. Yesterday's attic trip really helped clear out the rest.

3. I've found a better way to keep the downstairs reasonably tidy through the day. We've instituted times through the day to go around and have the kids pick up their toys; before nap time and bed time and before we leave the house for errands or outdoor play. We've also installed a retractable gate between the kitchen and living room. Now we can keep the kids out of the kitchen when we're cooking or cleaning, keeping them safe from grabbing knives off the counter and allowing us to clean up much more quickly. We've gotten to the point where the whole downstairs is clean before we take the kids up for bedtime, which is a good thing because lately I don't make it back downstairs again afterwards.

Small Successes

1. We purchased our first pieces of equipment for the restaurant yesterday, a 4 burner stove with convection oven and a conveyor toaster oven. Steve traveled to a restaurant auction and got them for an amazing deal. Whee!

2. I have gotten better about offering up the moments when I feel overwhelmed, ready to scream, or cry, or give up. Whenever I feel myself getting to that point I start singing the Divine Mercy Chaplet, or a song of praise and can feel myself calming down and refocusing. (I need to expand on my spiritual soundtrack though... any suggestions?)

3. I recently received a new floral cupcake pan and whipped up a quick batch last night. They came out of the silicone mold easily and showed all of the detail very clearly. I made up a glaze with powdered sugar, milk and strawberry jam to dip them in, and although the glaze didn't harden as much as I would have liked, they were still quite tasty.

Small Successes

1. I made a trip to In His Name and picked up some items to start putting together a mass kit for the kids. I got them each a rosary with small plastic beads on a rope, so no more breaking! I also picked up 12 holy cards, laminated them, punched a small hole in the top corner of each and put them on 2 key rings for the kids to look through during Mass. Each ring has a Sacred Heart of Jesus, Mary and 2 male and 2 female saints. I picked up St. Dominic, St. George, St. Michael the Archangel, St. Nicholas, St. Anne, St. Mary Magdalene, St. Therese, and St. Catherine Laboure.



2. Mondays dinner was terrific, so I'm sharing.
Crockpot Chicken Merlot w/ Mushrooms
1 lb chicken breasts, cut in large chunks
12 oz fresh, sliced mushrooms
1 large onion, peeled and chopped
1 tsp minced garlic
3/4 cup chicken broth
6 oz tomato paste
1/4 cup Merlot
2 Tbsp quick-cooking tapioca
2 tsp basil
2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
Combine veggies, garlic and chicken in crockpot. In separate bowl whisk together remaining ingredients then pour over mixture. Cook on HIGH for 4 hours (or low for 8.) Serve over pasta.

3. The kids have started putting their crayons to paper instead of in their mouths! I got a big pad of white paper and set them up with a few crayons each and they went to town. They really enjoy when I draw a few pictures for them of their favorite things like a school bus, balloons, or a kitty cat. Addie was so into it the first day that, apart from a break to get dressed and brush teeth, she colored straight from breakfast to lunch.

Small Successes

1. All major furniture moving that can happen now has happened. We've rearranged our room to make space for the desk and have actually found the new setup quite cozy. I love my room now. Yay!

2. I found a good, affordable pair of dress shoes for Addie at Target. Finally, she can wear dresses again (without looking ridiculous in sneakers or freezing her toes off in sandals.)

3. Steve and I went to the Sysco food show yesterday and got some great ideas (and literature with ordering forms) for the restaurant. I've never seen so many vendors or so much food in one place!

Small Successes

1. When a large can of food was dropped on my foot and broke my middle toe I was able to contain my response, being in front of the children, to "HHUUUUHHHNNN!!"

2. I de-cluttered the top of our clothing storage (rubbermaid drawers) and cleared out several items in our bedroom to make space for our new 14 drawer dresser arriving today. Hooray for Craigslist!

3. I've made a detailed list of all items going to the dump and readied items to go to the attic and my parents for storage. By the end of the week the spare room should be mostly empty. Huzzah!

Celebrating the Small Stuff

Small Successes for the week:

1. I cleaned out and organized my pantry. Tossing items that we were never going to use and ones that had passed their expiration date. Finally, I can see what we have at a glance. Hopefully, this will help me start menu planning again.

2. I have pulled out the Home Organizer I made several months ago and started to put it to use again. During my first trimester I was thankful just to be able to keep everyone happy, fed, and in clean clothes. Now that I've got my energy back I can get back to my routine of weekly cleaning and maintenance. I've also updated my to do lists, weekly schedule, and master grocery list.

3. I've made headway in cleaning out and de-cluttering our spare room. We have about 4 months to get this room completely cleared out and transformed into the twins new room, so the new baby can stay in the nursery. I've mentioned before how overwhelmingly destroyed this room is, so I'm happy to say that I can actually see the bed (which a friend is taking off our hands this week) and have completely clear walking space around it. The bookcase has been cleaned out and all books are now in storage. I have 4 boxes marked Attic, Goodwill, Put Away, and Paperwork which I sort into when I get the chance, and small, sorted piles of items to keep that don't have a home. We'll talk about the closet another day.