Holy Tantrum, Batman!!

This was taken during a previous "I don't wanna take a nap" scream session.....

I almost believed that Kieksy was possessed tonight, he threw such a fit. This was the first big tantrum. It was my fault. Well, no, he made the choice not to eat his dinner and to play instead. I made the choice to stick to my guns and deny him the delicious cookie that his brother was enjoying after he finished his Bacon Cheeseburger Twice Baked Potato AND salad. Kieksy was given several chances to eat his dinner once he saw Finnboo with a cookie, and all he did was scream about a cookie. He screamed so much, and so loud, that I took him upstairs to get ready for bed. That's when the devil took over. The screaming got louder. He threw himself around and flailed like no one's business. I turned on Sesame Street to calm and distract him to no avail. When he was finally in his pajamas,the 'boo was on his way up to get ready for bed, but Beelzebub was set on going downstairs. Finally I told Johnny to just let him go to see what he was going to try to do. Johnny followed him down because I was at my breaking point with the screaming. After a minute, the screaming stopped. I knew Johnny hadn't given in and handed over a cookie (we had pow-wowed in the kitchen earlier and agreed we were following through,)but I went down to investigate. I was shocked to find the two of them sitting at the table, Kieksy devouring a new serving of dinner like an angel. It was like through the wrath of his tantrum all he was trying to say was, "Okay Mom, I get it, let me go and eat my dinner now!" He got his cookie after all.

It's a good thing he's cute!

"Here we go again...."

"I kinda wanna be more than friends..." That song just popped into my head as I thought of a title for this post, so I googled the name of it and to make sure I had the lyrics right. I was initially confused because I don't recall listening to the Neon Trees before. Further research helped clarify...wait for it......Kurt, the guy my sister hates and the rest of the Warblers sang the song Animal on Glee!

Now that I've cleared that up.....

The title of this post refers to the fact that Finnboo is once again a sicky-poo. This time around, Kieksy is still staying strong and he's been going to school, but John and I are starting to suffer the cold symptoms. So, we go back to taking turns with staying home, getting up in the night, etc. I reported the following to my sister via gchat this morning: 

We have been sitting on this couch since 8 am with the following exceptions: 1. me refilling my coffee and getting Finn a bowl of cereal, 2. Finn sitting on the floor with a stool table to eat said cereal, 3. Finn getting up for a short musical break. So.freaking.lazy.

Johnny discovered that full seasons of Phineas and Ferb are on "instant" Netflix. We are on Episode 29 of 38 in Season 2. (Finnboo and Johnny started watching yesterday.) Only when we're sick do I allow this lethargy, I promise. I feel like I should force myself to do something around here, but I just don't want to. I want to relish in the laziness. At least I am dressed (in sweats, but that counts when feeling like crap, right?) due to my trip to drop Kieksy at school, and am getting a chance to post for the first time in 2 weeks. 

So, this guy (who just fell asleep as I wrote this,)

(I've jumped on the Instagram app bandwagon...still deciding which I prefer: Instagram or Hipstamatic?)

and I are going to enjoy being couch potatoes for the rest of the day until we attempt a quick grocery store trip for missing dinner supplies before picking up Kieksy (who was mighty pissed to be abandoned at school this morning. Clarification: he was really more pissed about having to leave his cereal/snack in the car. He threw a full-on temper tantrum right in front of the director.) 

Hopefully F-boo will kick this fever, or off to the doctor we'll go! (The doctor who, by the way, gives out Phineas and Ferb stickers! Finnboo perks up and reminds us of this fact whenever he hears the word "doctor!") I wonder if he'll be so eager to go to the doctor after the next time he gets a shot. :)

Master Closet-done! (sort of...)

Well, I WE did it! 4 bags to the Goodwill, and 3 bags of trash later, we have a cleaned out and organized Master Closet! I took about 45 minutes on Saturday night while the kids were settling down to sleep (that Finnboo gets up and down for about an hour before he finally falls asleep, so I tend to linger upstairs so we don't have to go up and down to walk him back to bed) and started sorting through Johnny's dresser into Keep/Donate/Toss piles. I left all his clothes out on the floor of his closet for him to go through the next day. We attacked late Sunday morning in a united effort, and we were finished in about 1 1/2 hours. This also turned into a massive cleaning of the entire 2nd floor, with Finnboo and Kieksy doing an okay job of making messes and cleaning up afterward. It's been awhile since I've felt so productive on a weekend, and I was honestly ready to do more!

Without further ado, here are the after pictures. (You can see the before pictures here.)

As you can see, we didn't get to finishing the wall, or hanging the extra shelves/rods, etc. But, it's cleared out, clean, and organized. According to Johnny's "Lean Principles" (he's taking that class, in case you forgot,) we have completed the "5 Ss (wtf is the plural of the letter s?)": Sort, Set in order, Shine, Standardize, and Sustain."  Can it still be improved? Absolutely. (Johnny the nerd just informed me that continual improvement is the whole principle behind Lean, as well as "eliminating waste." He's fresh from another class today.) Will we maintain it? So far, so good. Here's hoping!

Enjoy your week!

PS-I'm choosing not to participate in Project Simplify this week, because it's about getting rid of Paper Clutter. My paper clutter is pretty much under control hidden. I'm in desperate need of a shredder, we have years of bills boxed up in the basement to shred. At this point, I think I need a "great shredder event" to get rid of it all! But, since it's out of sight and out of mind, I'm going to put it off for now! ;)

Project Simplify

If we've ever had a conversation about trying to keep up with housework, I probably talked about the Flylady. She has great ideas, great routines, but I always found the catch phrases (and since I've joined her facebook page, the followers) a touch on the hokey side. So I've 99% abandoned that flylady and her routines. (Sorry.) As I've been expanding my online reading, I've discovered a multitude of ideas for decluttering and organizing. Johnny has even gotten on board after he learned something in a manufacturing class (?) that could be applied to the workplace or home. He was explaining it to me and I told him that he was preaching the Flylady's message, just in a different language. Shortly after this conversation, I saw that Simple Mom was going to be launching "Project Simplify" as a countdown to Spring. It involves tackling weekly "hot spots," which she announces each Monday. You can find all the details here:

Again, non-mom friends, still check it out if you're interested in cleaning out and organizing, this has nothing to do with being a mom, it has to do with getting rid of the clutter and organizing things in a way that you can maintain. 

This week, Simple Mom (who does have a name, by the way-Tsh Oxenreider,) announced that the Master Bedroom closet would be the starting point. Oy vey! This is the absolute dumping ground in my house. No one ever goes in there, no one sees it, so it accumulates a lot of crap! Here's the worst part, I have to post pictures of it for all to see....Don't judge, people, here's the before....

I am glad that this is where I'm starting, because it's a huge, nice closet, and I don't think we have it organized in a way that maximizes all the space. The lovely drywall is a result of bumping out our bathroom into the space-2 years ago- we just haven't gotten around to repainting it. We also have extra hanging shelves to put up on that wall as well. 

I am not really going to be able to participate fully with Simple Mom b/c there's no way I can accomplish the organization/decluttering between Monday-Friday. However, I am going to extend my personal deadline to Sunday and post my after pictures here. The point, after all is accountability. 

Wish me luck......

Food Blogs

As you can see on my blog roll, I read a lot of blogs. Actually, there are still more that I read and haven't listed there, yet. I joke with my husband that Google reader is like my daily newspaper, as I sit with my phone and coffee in hand (since the computer is usually occupied,) catching up on all the posts I've yet to read. I mainly read design, DIY or just plain old lifestyle blogs. Well, I've just changed the makeup of my Google reader significantly because babble.com posted their list of Top 100 Food Mom blogs for 2011. And I've just spent the last hour and a half going through and looking at almost.every.one. 

A few disclaimers here: 

1. It's naptime. (In fact, I just realized that I'm the only one in the house not sleeping. 

2. My house is (relatively) clean. 

3. I've already made blueberry muffins for breakfast and a huge pot of pasta y fagioli is simmering away on the stove for dinner.

I think I deserved the "me" time, don't you?

If you know me personally, you know that I'm not the cook of the house. That is usually left up to Johnny, who can take what we have in the house and turn it into a decent delicious dinner. He throws ingredients and spices around without measuring, and it always comes out tasting amazing. A baker; however, he is not. That's where I come in. I'd like to say (and I've been told) that I'm a good baker, but the hubs ALWAYS teases me because I have to measure every.single.ingredient.precisely. AND follow a recipe. Duh, how else do you think I get the cookies to come out perfectly??? I do like to think, and Johnny will also attest to the fact that I can follow any recipe, whether a dinner or dessert, and I have an albeit small, but really good collection of specialties, mostly taken from my grandmother's old wooden recipe box. (Like the pasta y fagioli currently cooking on the stove, homemade sauce, beef stew, etc. I just noticed these are all rainy day/Sunday recipes.) 

And beyond what I know, I love looking for new recipes to try. Sometimes I just hand them off to Johnny who executes them with his own personal flair, or I make them, fastidiously following the recipe. Either way, they usually come out pretty good, and we find new favorites to add to our dinner rotation. 

So, going back to babble's list, I went through the list rather quickly, reading their overview of each blog, clicking on most of the links to at least see what the blog looked like, and adding it to my Google reader if it looked remotely interesting to me. I can always go back and "unsubscribe" later. I was happy to see that several that I already subscribe to made the list-Smitten Kitchen was #1, Pioneer Woman was #2, and Weelicious was # 74! 

Hopefully my non-mom and male friends are still reading, because although these were the Top 100 Food "mom" blogs, very few of them were centered on cooking for children. The main focus of all of them was cooking good food, simply. I noticed several were created as a result of a child's food allergy, so there were some focused on that, including gluten-free lifestyles. There were also vegetarian/vegan blogs (which I still ended up subscribing to because their recipes looked amazing even though I'm not vegetarian,) and several centered on buying fresh and local products/supporting local farms. 

I obviously found many of them to be interesting, because I subscribed to at least 30 new blogs, and my reader currently has 242 unread items as a result. So, all you cooks, chefs, and food-lovers out there, I hope you enjoy this list as much as I did! 

Enjoy what's left of your weekend...Finnboo is all better, so back to school we go tomorrow!

Kieksy is Famous!

 I've been following a really cute, uplifting blog called Today's Letters for several months now. It's written by a husband and wife, Tim and Emily Loerke (she does most of the writing, but there are "husband's letters" days) and they have a weekly post called "Fist Pump Fridays." A Jersey Shore fan I'm not, save the few weekend marathons I catch glimpse of, but they include pictures of non-guidos/guidettes throwing fist pumps with the best of them. A few weeks ago, after a particularly amazing spaghetti dinner cooked by Johnny, Kieksy was sporting an ah-mazing sauce beard that I had to capture on film. I started snapping away and next thing I know, the kid started throwing fist pumps. It must have been the pasta that brought out the seriously watered- down Italian in him. I emailed it in to Emily, and she was kind enough to post it today. You can check out Kieksy and their blog here:

Happy Friday everyone! 

Time

I've been thinking about time a lot lately. Not in a profound, morbid sense, like "We only have a short time on this Earth, I'm going to be an old lady and kicking the bucket before I know it." (Though, yes, I've gone there.) Just your run of the mill thoughts on time. As in, "I've been wanting to write more often, but I haven't had time." Or "How do we do anything when we only have 2 hours between getting home from work and our newly instated 7:00 bedtime?" (For the kids-but God knows I could use a 7:00 bedtime every now and then myself!) Last weekend, I remember looking at the clock at one point and saying to myself, "Oh, it's only 10:30, I thought it was later," and then I remember looking at the clock again and thinking, "What the heck, how did it get to be 2:30?"

 I know I'm not alone in this feeling of time slipping away more quickly than we realize: there are MILLIONS of articles, books, blogs, planners, etc. giving us ideas for maximizing time, streamlining procedures for home, work, cleaning, anything to give us more time. (I just wasted 5 minutes of my time right now looking for statistics on how much money people spend on these products, and decided it didn't matter.) I've read various tips, ideas, tried multiple calendars, to do lists, etc, and this is what I'm left with:

Time is precious.

Time will continue to tick away. (No fighting or changing that one!)

I can get done what I get done and shouldn't stress about what didn't get done. (I'm already pretty good at not stressing about the day-to-day stuff, but this feeling typically hits around 4 pm on Sunday.)

I'm more aware of this time-slippage and vow to stop more and enjoy the moment.

Sicky-poo is rocking an ensemble that combines not one, not two,
but three different pajama sets. Isn't he stylish? 

Because suddenly, I have this almost-four-year-old here who doesn't resemble his baby self in any way, shape, or form, who says crazy and wonderful and sometimes profound things. He makes us laugh, he makes us crazy (typical 3 3/4 year old, no?) but Johnny and I catch ourselves thinking, "When did he get so old?" and those baby moments are such a distant memory, it seems like another lifetime. (I do also have this super-crazy soon-to-be-two-year-old that amazes me with how he's changed, but he is still a baby in my eyes-for now! Just wanted to clarify that all is fair here, and Finnboo is not preferred over Kieksy or anything!) Apparently I'm not the only one having these thoughts, because I just popped over to my google reader and saw (my favorite) Kelle Hampton's most recent post-she's lamenting the same thing with her first and oldest!

So, since Finnboo is battling some virus that won't quit (day 2 of a low-grade fever over here, no school for us,) I'm going to stop what I'm doing and enjoy the snuggle-time with him and Kieksy. (He's here because Mommy didn't feel like waking his soundly-sleeping self to get dressed and go to school!) Who am I kidding, the motrin's kicked in, there's craziness all around. As I type, they're dismantling the vacuum cleaner. Hooray!

I'd like to do an experiment and see if anyone will answer a question: How do you handle/deal with/accept "time-slippage?" Please leave a comment with your answer. (I'm not big-time enough to have a giveaway for a random commenter or anything, just curious to see if you'll play along!)

Enjoy your day!