Christmas time is here!

 Two weeks before Christmas we got SNOW!  Lots of it.  It was light and powdery, and no good for snowman making, but the kids had a blast.  Tommy was too little to really go out in the snow last year, so this was his first time in a snowsuit playing.  The snow was up to his waist, and he really couldn't move around too easily.  Once we convinced him to stop taking off his gloves, he had a pretty good time.

Tori decided that slides and swings are even more fun in winter!

 And then it was Christmas.  This was the first year we stayed home.  I was really kind of bummed about it at first-we have some local family that we always spend Christmas with, and we decided that a 3 hour round trip with the kids wasn't going to work this year.  I told Wes we still needed to dress up and do Christmas dinner right.  So, we did, and it was lovely.  I made a turkey, prime rib, mashed potatoes, rutabagas, sweet potatoes, veggies, bread, stuffing, and a cheesecake.  Needles to say we were eating leftovers for days!

The kids had fun--Tommy's old enough this year to understand the concept of presents, and we watched all the Christmas shows together--Hoops and Yoyo Ruin Christmas being the favorite of everyone (except Wes).

 Wrapping each kid's presents in different wrapping paper makes life a million times easier.

 Tablets for everyone.  Totally cheap Droid tablets ($59 each) that will keep their grubby mitts off my Nexus.

 Santa did not have a goddamn clue  appreciate quite how large the playhouse was going to be--it is two rooms and takes up almost the entire playroom.

 We put on our Christmas dresses and had a lovely dinner.

It was a great day.

As we move into 2014, I'm feeling a bit inspired.

I lost another classmate last week--this time to a heart attack.  And another close friend has cancer.

As Gru would say, "Light bulb."

I'd like to start doing a better job of appreciating what I have--of making better use of my time--paying more attention to Wes and the kids when I'm home and drawing a better line between work and family, and taking better care of myself in the process.

Cheers. 

Domestic Goddess.

I know, I know, Domestic Goddess is one of the last words you would use to describe me.  Until today, my friends!

For my first trick of domestic wizardry...you've seen the chair below.  It's a remnant from my single days, taupe, and microfiber, and so plush and nice.  But then I had kids.  Now it's covered with stains of every shape, from varying types of toddler secretion.  It's pretty hideous.

I read a trick online about how to clean even the worst microfiber messes.  Considering that the next stop for the chair was going to be a Craigslist curb alert, I figured I'd give it a try.  Fill a spray bottle with rubbing alcohol and saturate the entire chair.  Then rub (hard) with a white cloth or sponge, replacing as it picks up dirt and not rinsing, just using another clean one.  When it dries, you can use a bristle brush to fluff up the fibers if you want.

HOLY AMAZEBALLS!  It worked!  The chair looks brand flippin' new.  A word to the wise--I recommend you try this on a spring day.  The middle of winter is not the time to let 16 ounces of rubbing alcohol loose in your house, unless you were the kid that used to sniff the rubber cement, in which case you'll like the smell.  I was that kid, so I didn't mind. 

Feeling high from my achievement with the chair, I set out to continue with my wifey-ness.  "We have some old bananas" I thought, as I looked on my tablet for a banana bread recipe.  I should mention that I don't really bake.  Unless there is a box, and I add eggs and minor ingredients.  Not from scratch, ever.  Sooooo,  I didn't have quite enough butter or bananas, but made up the difference with some extra brown sugar and margarine.  And I added pistachios.  And vanilla extract.  All mixed up and in the oven, I begin to put the ingredients away, and I see it.  The baking soda.  That I forgot to add.  Big Man laughs.  "It's only been in the oven for 5 minutes," I tell him, "we can add it now".  Big Man laughs.  So, I pulled the pan out of the oven, dumped the baking soda on top and mixed it in.  It's still baking but I'm sure it's going to rock.  It will certainly be the best banana bread I've ever made.

And, if you were here with me right now, you'd probably be looking at me a bit funny.  Sniffing a little bit, trying to figure out why my clothes smell like I was in a house fire.  "Is she a volunteer firefighter," you'd think to yourself, too polite to ask.  No, it was the dryer.  Last week, it smelled a little bit burny, and we thought that it just got a bit too hot for a pair of Tommy's feety pajamas (they came out with a melty spot) and it made the clothes smoky stinky.  Undeterred, I did laundry on Friday night, and with the last load Saturday morning, the dryer decided to show us it wasn't playing.  It smelled like smoky badness, like burning rubber, and now my clothes do too.  We've replaced nearly every appliance in our house in the last 12 months.  Literally the only thing left was the dryer.  After the horrific Home Depot washing machine experiment there was no way I was going back to a big box store.  So I went to the local place that many friends recommended after I bitched about the Depot on facebook, L&M Appliances.  Got the dryer that matches my washer (not that I would have cared, but it was in stock and on sale) at a price that was lower than the Depot and which included everything else (installation and removal, extra footage of dryer vent tube, etc.), and they are delivering it tomorrow, one business day after I bought it.  Hoo-ray.  Nothing sucks more than having to drop $500 on appliances for a house we want to sell, but it was a valuable lesson in remembering to support local business, better service and comparable (or better) price.

Bouncy house!

Hmmm, Tommy looks pensive.  He is, no doubt, thinking of new ways to keep mommy up all night.  

Despite the fact that he's almost ONE, he continues to wake up, wailing, at least once or twice per night.  Thankfully a bottle of milk puts him right back to sleep, but it's killing me.  Eleven months of not sleeping through the night is starting to take its toll on this old broad.  And, yes, we've tried letting him cry it out.  That worked with Dani and Tori.  For Tommy, it's just a challenge, and one that he is ready to win.  So, I do what gets me back to sleep the quickest--which is feed him.  If juggling knives were faster, I would enroll in circus school to learn how to do it.

We had a special delivery yesterday--I bought an indoor bouncy ring. I don't know what really compelled me to do it, but I thought it would be fun to have something the girls can burn some energy in (because it's impossible to take all 3 outside at night). It's like a personal bouncy house.  So, I was just cruising along on amazon.com, and thought that a 6 foot round structure would be a great addition to our playroom.  I was literally cringing at what Big Man's reaction would be when I ordered Saturday delivery and hit "confirm".  Nothing says impulsive like paying for next day shipping.

And despite the fact that it took hours for our air compressor to blow it up, even Big Man seemed to think it was a pretty fun idea.  It's designed to hold two kids, so it's perfect for Dani and Tori.  It's got walls so they can't launch themselves out of it.  And, you can flip it over and it's a fort--it looks like a little smurf house when you flip it. 

Tori literally got out of bed this morning saying "bounce".  I just wish it were big enough for me!

Time for a Wayne's World throwback...Scooby Doo ending to my post
And even Old Man McGhee (below) gives it the seal of approval.  "I would have gotten away with it if it weren't for you darn kids," she bellowed.

Who haven't I told yet?

Short of a mass email, I can't seem to refrain from telling everyone I see the baby news.

I really would like a glass of wine or three--last time around, I remember immediately feeling different, like my body knew that alcohol would be bad, and I just didn't want it. We had people over for dinner Saturday, and they gave us a really nice bottle of Sauvignon blanc, which will just have to wait for me, I suppose. Only about 8 months, but then breastfeeding, so longer.

Went to Target baby online today. Created a registry. I don't even know what I will want or need, but since I'm used to online shopping every few days, this was the next best thing--I just kept adding things to the list, and it felt as good as online shopping! Too bad I didn't think of this years ago! Anyway, I can go back and delete the items, and start over whenever I feel the shopping bug hit me again....which should be in about 5 days or so.

Man, I'm tired!