Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Old Love


This dog refused to get out of the middle of our leaf pile yesterday, no matter how many times I threw leaves on top of him.

(He's crazy like that.)


I heard this song in the car yesterday.

It's up there in my top favorites.






Happy Humpday!


Monday, November 18, 2013

Winners

You guys, I don't know if you know this but I am kind of amazing.


I mean, who knew I had all these secret talents?

(Both of the gals competing with me are my cousins.  The one on the left is just as competitive as I.)

  Haha, Liz!!  I win, I win!

But I'm not the only one with secret talents.

Look at my sister ANNIHILATING the competition in the one handed diaper changing contest.

She even beat our own Mama.

Who had nine kids of her own.


But to really win, she also had to beat the Mother to Be.
We told her to use her left hand, to make it a little more fair.


She still was able to do it in less then 10 seconds.

Like a BOSS.

Happy Monday!

Thursday, November 14, 2013

OneDayHH

One of the many blogs I follow is Hollywood Housewife.  She hosted an instagram challenge yesterday where you take pictures of the non-glamorous, mundane everyday part of our lives.  

The reason behind it all was these are the moments most people find they miss the most.  

It was a brilliant and fun day.

Also, I'm sorry for everyone who follows me on instagram who were bombarded by my boring pic's.

Here they are in order.

I actually woke up at 5:20, woke up the teen, took the Mister to the Metra and went to spin class.  

It wan't till I got back home, woke the teen up again and started getting the preschooler ready that I remembered I was going to participate in this.  

Clara demands pop tarts for breakfast.
Gross.

Favorite go-to running around shoes.
Best ten dollars I ever spent at Target.  
These are so comfortable I never even had a breaking-in period!


Epitome of my every single day.
It goes something like this....

Run run run!  
Wait. 
Run run run!  
Wait. 
(rinse and repeat.)


Where I blog.  
My computer's keyboard is broken, so it's rigged up.
But still works perfectly, so why replace it?


The last pile of unpacking that I can't really do anything about until I get a new storage cabinet for all of my art supplies.  
I gave my old one to the kids.

Ironically I can't get any work done for me until I find one. 
]
 Anybody have a storage unit that would be good for holding papers, paint, charcoal, brushes, and random other supplies that they want to get rid of?  For the life of me I can't seem to fine one that I like.

I don't even care if its ugly.  
That can be fixed.
I'm just tired of looking.

Puppy Playtime!


Lunch!  
(For the lazy mother.)


We had to go to home depot because the "brand new windows" in our "brand new house" was letting in a ton of cold air, which could be deadly for our Bearded Dragons, so I needed plastic for that.

Also I wanted to get matching pots for my kitchen rosemary trees.
I figured they would be on clearance.  

They weren't.

While I was standing there mean mugging the price tag, trying to decide if I really wanted to pay that much for two stinking pots a worker came over to ask if I needed help.

I told him what I was doing and he gave me $20 off!  
It was awesome.


Then I had to listen to this whiny little bastard


But he kept the 3 yr old's attention while I fixed our draft problem,


and while I re-potted my plants.
Which was desperately needed. 


The teenager came home.  

I'm trying my damnedest to teach her how to maintain a positive, healthy and realistic body image.

So off to the gym we went.


Then it was finally time to pick The Mister up.
6:54 pm


I wanted a glass of wine with our "dinner" of leftover vegetarian curry, corn, hot dog's and mashed potatoes.  

(Don't judge.)  

(Okay, you can a little.)

All we had was a Strawberry Rhubarb wine my sister and I found at whole foods the past weekend.  

We bought it in hopes that it wouldn't be terrible.


It was terrible.

Unless of course you like a mixture of church wine and White Zin.

This was a better choice.


After dinner The Mister practiced his piano.  He's been teaching himself for a few months now and is pretty amazing at it already.

Color me green.


Now it's 8:40 and I am ready to put the kids to BED.
But first, baths are in order.


And now, it is a little after 9.  I'm ready for some adult conversation and a little reading before I pass out.  

Unfortunately I will be woken up about every two hours, as my 3 year old has reverted back to her newborn sleeping habits.

Awesome.


As someone who lives mostly on an Island, alone out here in the middle of nowhere, it was refreshing to see that I am not going crazy nor am I alone while tackling the simple mundane things that make up my every day.  

It was nice to see that my kitchen is not the only one whose looked like a bomb went off in it on many different times throughout the day.  

The same goes for my laundry mountain, the strewn about toys, my secret hatred of Caillou and the endless never ending running.

It's good to know that even though I feel like I am on an island of one most days, I am not the only one who feels like this.

Also, the next time someone asks, 

"You stay at home?  That must be nice.  I would get bored, what do you DO all day?" 

I wont feel bad giving my eye daggers. 

Have a great weekend!

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Daylight

Rhiannon had her first cooking lesson.  
She informed me that she wanted to learn how to cook southern style food.

This really is NOT the job for me to teach, 
(this is a job for Mrs. Ritter).

However, I have a few recipes from Mrs. Ritter and that is just going to have to do.

So she made jambalaya.  
It was incredibly tasty and I am proud of how her first stab at it went. 



I learned that she needs some serious help with her knife cutting skills.  I thought for sure we were going to find a finger in our food the way she was hacking at the celery, so we worked on that a bit.

She also learned what "natural casings" mean.
She was not impressed, to say the least.



We then learned that it is NOT OKAY to have your sister "help stir" a scalding hot pot on top of a high flamed gas stove.

Like never-ever-ever.


(Especially when you have to stand on a stool to see over the pot!)

The end result was fantastic, and I am one proud Mama!


Good work, Rhiannon!
**Sorry if you are following me on instagram.  I'm a part of a 
One Day challenge where you are supposed to document the mundane everyday parts of your day.  So far I forgot the first 3 hours of the day.**  

(Lucky for you!)


ALIFE SESSIONS: NINJASONIK "DAYLIGHT" from ALIFE on Vimeo.


Happy Humpday!

Friday, November 8, 2013

Pottery Barn Inspired Media Cabinet

The Mister and I were in the market for a new entertainment center.  Everyone that we liked was in the $1000-2000 price range.  








However, the price tag on these said OUCH and NO all at the same time.

The mister said we could make one on our own.

I had my doubts.....but we did it.

And it was really easy.

And only $125


Not bad for a knock off, eh?



Happy Friday!

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

I Thought You Were My Boyfriend

On Sunday afternoon Rhiannon and I were bored out of our minds.  We found ourselves gravitating towards the kitchen, chatting.  She told me that she wanted to learn how to become a good cook, like me.  

(Bless her little heart!  I'm going to be honest I melted a little when she said that.)

I explained to her that this didn't come overnight.  That when she was a baby, and I was a vegetarian, we ate lots of meals that were less then sub-par, and in this department, practice really does make perfect.  She asked me to teach her how to cook and my heart melted again.

I said absolutely.
We decided once a week, and to call it "Cooking with Crystal".

With a little help from my old friend Betty, we will start next week.  
I am super excited!


Do you know what else is super exciting? 

 My home state became a little less bigoted, 
a little more equal 
and has taken a big step to take 
a lot more hate out of it.

Congratulations to all my friends who this directly affects.
Love love love love you all!


 

Happy Humpday!