Go Ahead...Call Me Susie Homemaker

The MOMS Club that I belong to is facing an epidemic of pregnancies right now.  (We asked the city to test the water but they refused.)  There are about 40 members in the group, 10 are pregnant, and between September and February we have 11 babies scheduled to make their arrival.  Yes, I said 11...one lucky mommy is expecting twins!  Not to mention that two of us have delivered in the past 3 months.  Sheesh!

I decided I couldn't afford a gift for every baby that makes an appearance in the next couple months - especially with John's birthday, Thanksgiving travel and Christmas coming up.  So I went in search of a cheap, but cute, baby gift that I could make.  I stumbled upon a picture of two baby washcloths wrapped together to make a little cupcake...adorable!  Perfect!  Something small, practical, easy to make and inexpensive! 

On our last outing to buy diapers for the boys I swung through the baby bath section and grabbed a couple packs of baby washcloths.  I dug some little pom-poms out of the closet, then went to the kitchen to claim some cupcake wrappers.  Finally I searched through a box of our wedding supplies and found little tulle bags we had leftover from our favors.  The results...

Go ahead....

Call me Susie Homemaker....

Single Mommy Successes

Thank God Danielle (over at Faith & Family Live!) reminds us to celebrate the little things each week, because little things are about all I've got!  This is Matt's third week in a row being out of town for work - so I've been a single parent yet again.  Please don't interpret this as complaining - my husband works EXTRAORDINARILY HARD for our family so that I can stay home with the boys and when he's not travelling he works in the basement office so we eat three meals a day as a family.  I'm truly blessed to have someone like Matt in my life - let alone to have him as my husband and father of my children...

So, back to the successes!

1.  We hosted our book show and had a great turnout.  Many books were purchased meaning that we were able to order lots of books to fill the boys bookshelves.  Right now we're planning on strategically doling them out throughout the year - John's birthday, Christmas, rewards for good behavior, before long car trips, etc.  (We even got a couple Christmas presents for kids other than our own!)

2.  I've remembered John's medicine every day so far!  He's battling another double ear infection.  And before you think it - yes, tubes are supposed to help eliminate ear infections, but apparently if you have so much drainage in your ears that the tubes become clogged that help becomes null and void.  Remembering the antibiotics and ear drops twice daily always seems to prove more difficult that it should be - but so far I've been on top of it!

3.  When our Wednesday fell completely off track because John decided to wake up at 3:30am and not go back to sleep until 5:30am, at which time Nathan decided he should get up to nurse, everyone overslept, and I had an appointment that got moved up 18 hours, I just rolled with the punches.  Morning errands were deferred.  Naps occurred in the car.  I made it to my appointment on time.  We still went to two stores.  And dinner was served as a quasi-reasonable time by any standard. 

*Bonus #4 - Because I had my appointment on Wednesday - my Thursday morning didn't have quite as many things going on!  It's the little things, right?

Blessings Abound!

After much waiting and a little trepidation, I'm happy to report that we have the results of Nathan's blood work back.  Although it required two trips to the lab, lots of tears, and three missed phone calls from the pediatricians office - we've received the ALL CLEAR!

Now, it's not to say we can't encounter problems as we continue on, but it is to say that for the time being I'm not poisoning Nathan by breastfeeding him like I did John. :) OK - so I wasn't really poisoning John, but it sure felt like it at the time. 

Nathan is a little superstar.  He's continuing to put on weight like a champ and although his nursing sessions only seem to last about 10 minutes - he's clearly growing like a weed.  He looks entirely different from John at this age (probably because John was a puny 11 lbs and an unusual shade of yellow).  Nathan more closely resembles a 5 or 6 month old. 

He has his own little personality and tiny quirks. He loves to cuddle up next to any one's chest in one little bitty ball.  He prefers to be held over being in his swing.  Nathan is sleeping a 6 hour stretch at night and then wakes up, nurses, and goes right back to sleep for another 2-3 hours with no more than a little fuss - you couldn't even classify it as a cry!  Oh yeah - and his car seat might possibly be his least favorite place to be in the whole world....

More on my growing boys in the near future!  In the meantime, Nathan is requesting a before bed snack....

Sticky Floor Success

I'm really starting to love Small Successes! I'm not getting bogged down in trying to come up with witty things to say on the blog or trying to make sure that I capture all our intimate family moments. Instead I'm just enjoying being able to share our everyday life with people who care...nothing exciting, nothing fancy - just a family getting along as best we can with what we've got.

1. The sticky floor I posted about during last week's successes is truly a success now. The stickiness is no more. Just in case you have a toddler carry cucumber salad through your living room, down your hallway, and then spill it in the bathroom while trying to tell you with sign language that he wants more - the solution is to use a steam mop and Lysol Multi-Surface floor cleaner. I'm just grateful for not sticking to the floor everywhere I walk! (Told you I'd end up re-posting this success)

2. I hosted Koala Babies playgroup (under 1 year old) at our house this week. Granted, Koala Babies is the easy group to host because most the kids aren't walking and frankly, many aren't even moving yet. However, since Matt is out of town for work this week and I hosted it on Wednesday - I consider it a success that the house was in enough order to let people in the front door. (Thanks for the help cleaning Lizzy!) Let's just say that 5 children under 1 with watermelon is pure, drippy, sticky, wonderful goodness....Guess I'll need to bust out the mop again!

3. We got our first Usborne Book Show order (Thanks Aunt Tina)! I'm excited about the book show because the speech therapist is wanting us to read to John for about 2 hours a day. It's tough to find two hours in our day, let alone convince Nathan or John to chill long enough to read more than a few sentences. But we're working on it...a book here, a book there. And now we'll have some new books to read! Praise God!

Want to be totally inspired?

Check out other (far more organized) moms' successes at Faith & Family Live!

Two Toddlers On My Hands

OK, so I don't really have two toddlers on my hands, but I have a 2 month old baby who is definitely going to give John a run for his money as the get older. Nathan is weighing in at 15lbs 7.5oz now-a-days and standing tall at 25in! That puts him in the 97th percentile for weight and 95th for height. :)

His pediatrician keeps assuring me that as long as his height and weight stay proportional it's all good. Nonetheless, the phlebotomist couldn't find a vein in Nathan's arm yesterday because of all the chunky baby fat rolls, so she had to do a heel stick and squeeze his poor foot to death just to collect some blood.... :(

UPDATE: The lab just called - they didn't get enough blood so Nathan has to go back tomorrow morning and get stuck again. Boo....Hiss.... :(

Keep On Rockin'

Thursday brings around Faith and Family Live!'s Small Successes. I've spent a great deal of time reflecting on Small Successes this week. I'm not sure that I always take the time to really think about how wonderful the small things really are throughout the week. And even though I try to type up a few small successes each with Danielle's encouragement - I'm realizing that more often than not I just glance over my to-do list and quickly type up three things that I've scratched through...

So this week I offer some slightly more reflective small successes (even if they look distinctly similar to all my previous one - know that I have really thought about these)

1. I've agreed to host an Usborne Children's Book show at our house on August 23rd. That having been committed to, I've sent out invitations on Facebook, via email, through Evite & even stuck a few postcards in the mail. I'm hoping to get lots of sales at the show so that we can stock the boys' library with discounted books.

2. After a cucumber salad incident that involved copious amounts of sugar water being poured on the floor in the living room, hallway, and main bathroom, I have steam mopped the floor a minimum of 5 times this week. And let's be honest - since I still stick every time I walk down the hall - I'll probably be mopping most of next week. I reserve the right to re-list this small success next week.

3. I've been a single parent since Monday. Matt is travelling for work. I've survived thus far and he comes home tomorrow. Unfortunately, he's back on the road all next week too....

Usborne Children's Book Show

To my few, but fervent, followers...


I'm hosting a Usborne Children's Book Home Show later this month. I know most of you far too far away to attend the show...but you are welcome to shop the show via the Internet!

John has a few of the Usborne books already - they are great quality, good topics and adorable illustrations. Usborne has a great replacement policy (half price) if something happens to the book -even if it's your fault.


I'm trying to get lots of sales for the show so that I can stock up John's library at a discounted price since his speech therapist wants us reading to him even more than we already do. Frankly, I'm getting tired of Birthday Monsters and Click-It the Cricket...

Photo Update

This update provided by Kodak...

Getting Along

It's Thursday again...how does that happen?!? So here's a list of our small successes that add up to one big triumph. (Thanks to Danielle over at Faith & Family Live! for reminding me of this weekly!)

1. Operation Organization (as I'm calling it) is moving along swimmingly. Our new white board in the kitchen houses to-do lists, grocery lists, calendar for the week and an occasional snippy comment from my father.

2. I washed the outside windows, sprayed down the shutters and swept the front porch. In 100 degree heat! Then I had a water hose fight with my husband and 22 month old. The work was worth it!

3. I'm sitting at the courthouse getting ready to have a lunch date with my dad. Family fun for everyone!

Check out other great successes here!

Can Opener

For those of you who were privy to the search for the can opener....you'll be glad to know that it has been relocated. It was found in the middle of the kitchen floor. I'm betting my bottom dollar that it wasn't in that particular location when 7 grown adults were searching the house for it this weekend. Yet, there it was yesterday afternoon.

For the record, no toddler has confessed to hiding it or to knowing its previous location....