Good Day

Today was a good day.  I've decided that if I do something positive for my children, house, and husband I have had a good day, no matter how I might have felt.
I'm still getting over this sinus thing, whatever it is, but I was able to spend some time with the kids at the park after school, and time with my husband after the kids went to bed.  And the house?  Well, that's a great thing.  I was able to clean it and really feel progress with it.  I wasn't able to clean the whole house, but I got the kitchen to a really good place, cleaned the kids bathroom and their bedroom.  I even took the initiative and found both the remote for our room's light and the monitor for the kids room.  After I found the monitor I had to charge it and plug the cameras back in. 
And as a bonus, I crocheted one half of a pair of baby cowboy booties.  They are gonna be super cute.  They are for a friend in my community group. 
It was a good day.  I got three out of three, plus one.  I need to remind myself to do these three things, even if they are small at times, each day.  So that I can look back at my day and feel like I've acomplished something and that I did, in fact, have a good day... if not a great one.

Domestic Me

So, this last week, I've been way more domestic than normal.  It's been good.  I haven't gotten the final two lessons for the ENI Proverbs 31 Women's Bible Study out yet, so I am failing in that regards.  But I have been real productive around the house. 
I got some canvas bins/drawers up in the play room.  I also had to rearrange a number of the drawers and shelves around to fit everything. 
((POST PICTURE HERE) sorry it's on my phone right now)
I've been cooking a lot more, and cleaning a lot more, too.  The house is starting to get semi-under control.  I've been doing more laundry, even made the bed.  The house is starting to get under control.
Today I cleaned the stove, did three loads of laundry, a load of dishes, and cleaned the sink... all while the kids were home.  This is not counting doing the last of the shelves.
I've made chicken tenders, bread, cookies, etc.  Erin and I have made mac-n-cheese a number of times now.  She eats it, but not all of it. 
I have noticed they aren't eating nearly enough lately... it seems to me, but they might be.  I just can't tell. 
Anyway, back to domestic me.  I'm very proud of what I've done... but I still see a pile of laundry that needs to be sorted, folded/hung, and put away... and the pile of toys that used to be laying around the house, but are now right inside the playroom doorway... and the mess that is the master bedroom.  A lot still has to be done, but I'm proud of what I've done... and what I will do with God's help. 

DIY fabric softener

Originally posted sept 22

I must say that I think this new medicine (Laduda, I think?) is working.  I've been much more productive, and thus domestic.  It's been good. 
I'm really proud of myself.  I just made some fabric softener.  That's right, folks, I made my own fabric softener!  It was pretty simple:
3 cups hot water
1 cup cheap hair conditioner
1 1/2 cups white vinegar
Add the hot water to the hair conditioner and whisk them together until they are completely mixed.  No lumps, just foggy water.  Then mix in the vinegar.  Voila!  Just put it in the container and you're ready to do some laundry!
I have to say I was inspired by one of Chris' co-workers who gave him a bucket (like Oxy-clean size) of laundry soap (powder).  It got me thinking, as I got closer to the end of our store bought fabric softener, that maybe that's what I should do.  So I got looking on Pinterest and found some recipes.  This is a half size so that it fits in the empty bottle.  It doesn't fill it, but a full version would be too much.  It's about 3/4 of the way full.  I'm super excited to try it out.
I know whenever I use vinegar in the wash it is softer, so I know it'll work.  So I'm excited that I did something good!  And it only cost me $1 for the new bottle of conditioner (I'm almost out, so I didn't use what I had).  It's all stuff I could find around the house, so I'll definetly be using it again when this bottle is gone.  Super excited am I!

Good Hard Day

I am so proud of myself, and I just have to brag about it. Today is Sunday, a naturally hecktic day. It was hard for me to wake up this morning, even though the kids slept in. We got them ready for church, and even though Erin was giving me problems we still made it out the door with enough time to stop by McD and get some breakfast. But when we were heading out the door, Erin became Super Stubborn Erin, and would only go through the front door, even though we always go through the garage when we are leaving so I can set the alarm. It took some arguing and threatening her with taking away a pom pom, but she still didn't budge. I could tell a fit was about to persue, so I walked away. I went out through the garage and put the bags in the car. When I came back in I had calmed down just a bit, but she was still being stubborn. A fight I don't really need to fight, I decided, so that's how we went out. Point: Erin. But she was great dropping her off, she held my hand crossing the street and ran to her classroom. It was encouraging to see her in a good mood. After church was a different deal. She was ready to go home, and I knew she could use a nap, and she proved it to me before we got to the door. She wouldn't wait, then she wouldn't hold my hand, then she refused to go out the door and threw herself on the ground. I acted like I was walking away and walked out the door, but she was too stubborn and didn't care. So I came back for her and got her to stand up. But she still wouldn't take my hand. I would normally let that pass, but with first service just getting out and second service people coming in it was too dangerous so I kept grabbing her hand. She started to throw a fit. I didn't care, I grabbed her wrist, because she could get her hand away from me but not her wrist, and it actually kept her upright and she couldn't throw herself on the ground. Paul was slipping out of my other arm because he refuses to grip with his legs and all the bags were falling. She yelled and cried the whole way to the car. I could have died from embarrassment as I heard a boy loudly ask his mother why she was crying. But I just kept walking because if I didn't reach the car soon everything would fall out of my arms, including Paul, and I'd loose my grip on Erin. We made it to the car, and she easily got in... thank God. I thought surely she would go to sleep; she had said she was tired and just wanted to sleep, she was throwing a huge fit, she was yawning, and when she got in her carseat she shut her eyes tightly. "Yes!" I thought, because I knew Paul was going to go down for his nap. We drove around... and drove around... and drove around. She did not fall asleep, so I decided to go home. We put Paul to bed and he slept close to an hour. Erin and I went over the pom poms and I showed her the reward basket. We sat and counted out 25 pom poms so she knew how many she'd need to get something. Then we counted out how many she had in her container already: 13 (10 starter and 3 more... there was a lot of putting in and taking away this morning, so even though she would have had more she didn't). She was doing good though, she cleaned up when I asked her to, and saying please (when promted). Then Paul woke up crying... and he wouldn't stop crying. It was 30 minutes before I called on my mom to help out. But by the time she came I had already given Paul medicine and put him back down to sleep. Erin was watching TV and I was working on getting some food ready. I hadn't realized it til I came home from church that we were supposed to bring the food for tonights community group meeting. So I had started working on some stuff to make. I had deccided I wanted to make some salsa bread, a recipe I actually made up a few days eariler when Chris was talking about making something with the pulp of some of his juice drink leftovers. I had based it on the zuchinni bread one, but modified it quite a bit. It is truely a whole brand new recipe. I just needed to see how much flour and eggs to put in. I was so excited to create something new... and it turned out pretty good. It's missing something, but I just don't know what. I would normally have Chris try it and tell me what it's missing, but since he's on the juice fast I can't have him try it. I'll have to make it again later. Paul liked it, Erin wanted to try it, until I cut her a slice. Anyway, when mom finally came over I had her watch Erin while I ran to the grocery store. I had a brilliant idea for what I wanted to make. I had pined a recipe for chicken that was supposed to taste just like KFC original recipe, but baked instead of fried. I really wanted to try it, but was missing chicken and a couple of the spices. So I went to the store and picked them up (along with some butter and other items). When I came back I realized I had forgotten the milk, so I had to go back out (I had originally asked Chris to get it, but he wasn't coming home any time soon, so I decided I'd do it). When I came back I started making what I now call "Derby Chicken" (Kentucky = Kentucky Derby). It didn't taste just like KFC, but it was still really good. I made a lot of it and it was all gone within minutes. I also made fudge, but didn't realize that it was supposed to chill for an hour, and I made it last, so it wasn't ready... but I took it anyway. I chilled it in the freezer the entire time we were there, and it still wasn't ready. So now I have a pan full of fudge (or a soup like mixture that is meant to be fudge)... and a huge pile of dirty dishes I'm not looking forward to doing. But that's besides the point. My food went over well, and it made me feel like a Proverbs 31 woman. I cooked it all while still in my dress from Church, and an apron (which I'm glad I wore because it bares the bulk of the stains and powder thrown across the kitchen). Erin was relatively tameable, I think she's starting to understand the pom pom plan. When we got back home from group things went relatively well. It was time to put Paul down, Erin was quiet for Bible reading and relatively calm during Prayers. So she got pom poms for it when we left the room. Before she sat and watched her last Dora for the day, we counted the pom poms. She had 32. So she got to choose something from the reward basket. She automatically went for the doll, but then she wanted a sucker too. I told her she could have only one. She actually ended up choosing the sucker. But when she was done with it, she hadn't forgotten about the dolly. It was hard getting her to understand that she couldn't have it just yet. But it worked. It was a great day, in spite of my moody feelings.