The Life of Mo

{this moment}

2012-02-11T16:30:00.000-05:00

Inspired by SouleMama, {this moment} is a single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Changing table hack

2012-02-10T10:35:00.002-05:00

Since Piper started rolling over back in December, changing her diaper has become considerably more difficult. One day recently, I was reading a baby magazine and saw a changing pad with a toy bar attached, like this one here. I don't remember seeing one of these in any stores, especially not when we were buying things when Cadence was coming, but it seemed like a great idea.

I remembered that our pack n play came with a toy bar we've never used, so I dug it out of Piper's closet to see if it might fit on the sides of our changing table. It's not super cute, but it fits perfectly. Now Piper is entertained during changing time. She's happy with the elephants now, but I can change the toys out later, either using those plastic toy links or some toys from the other items in the house that have velcro toy bars (bouncy seat, swing, and activity mat).

The cutest little baby shoes...

2012-02-09T21:43:00.000-05:00

...that I've ever sewn. Socks are fine for keeping baby feet warm, but socks and little cloth shoes are better. Little ruffled shoes!

I used the pattern and tutorial here. As I've mentioned before, I get like 5 minutes every few days to do anything crafty (besides knitting which I can do on the couch hanging out with Matt after the girls are in bed). These took some time, but they weren't hard and I am so pleased with the result.

Fancy baby.

Teething baby attempting to eat dress. (Dress handmade by Matt's mom - thanks, Dassa!)

Sweet little feet.

Theme of the Week: Valentine's Day

2012-02-08T10:53:00.000-05:00

We're not much for subtlety around here so our theme this week is Valentine's Day.

Reading: Little Mouse's Valentine by Dave Ross, Sweet Hearts by Jan Carr, Barney's Happy Valentine's Day by Guy Davis, Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney (we'll read the board book version we own and the online one read by the author), and The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn (also online at Barnes and Noble)

Letter Awareness: V

Art Projects: Heart Flowers, and Heart Animals from this month's issue of Big Backyard,
Painted Symmetry Hearts

Action Rhyme: Make a Heart

I put my hands together,
This is how I start,
I curve my fingers right around
and I can make a heart!

Music: Musical Hearts Game

Watching: Barney: Be My Valentine

Extras: Some Valentines printables from here or here

{this moment}

2012-02-04T15:48:00.000-05:00

Inspired by SouleMama, {this moment} is a single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Theme of the Week: Dinosaurs

2012-02-03T19:32:00.000-05:00

We held over our dance theme for a bit so it was more like a week and a half, so dinosaurs will be too!

Here's some of our activities -

Reading: Edwina, The Dinosaur Who Didn't Know She Was Extinct by Mo Willems, Dinosaurs, Dinosaurs by Byron Barton, and Stomp, Dinosaur Stomp by Margaret Mayo

Letter Awareness: D

Math and Art: Shape Dinosaur

Watching: Dinosaur Train

Singing: Dino-Pokey
Extra: Dotty the Dinosaur Flannelboard Rhyme (from my old storytime supplies)

Deal of the Week

2012-02-01T21:27:00.002-05:00

Today before we went to storytime we stopped into CVS, and I got a great deal on Tom's of Maine Wicked Fresh Mouth Wash. It was on clearance for $2.79 (though not labeled as such - I read about the deal on Hip 2 Save and verified the price on the scanner), but also triggering $3 in ECBs. So basically CVS gave me "money" to take this product home! I'm not sure I've ever gotten a deal this good without a coupon. If you have a chance to stop into CVS this week, check to see if your store has this deal too!

A good mail day...

2012-01-31T15:47:00.003-05:00

Two nice freebies in the mail yesterday! 12 hot chocolate K cups (Matt will take them to work) and 3 green tea bags!

Cadence got a little package from Nana and Dadder, and Piper and I got another baby carrier (the Beco Butterfly 2 for only $20 out of my pocket), and Matt got some batteries for school.

{this moment}

2012-01-28T21:40:00.000-05:00

Inspired by SouleMama, {this moment} is a single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Deals of the Week

2012-01-28T15:38:00.004-05:00

While I don't have as much time as I would like for getting deals these days, I am usually able to get a great deal at CVS, like I did this week. Both these products were free - well, I paid $.10 in tax, because I had $1 off coupons and they were priced at $.99. Yay!

Theme of the Week: Ballet and Dance

2012-01-28T11:52:00.000-05:00

Oh my goodness is Cadence ever interested in ballet. We decided she can start taking ballet classes next fall when she turns 4, and she talks about it ALL THE TIME. What she'll wear, how she'll learn the "hard moves", the new kids she'll meet...She also loves to wear her tutus and leotards around the house.

So this past week our theme was ballet and dance. Here's some of our activities:

Reading: Dogs Don't Do Ballet by Anna Kemp, Dancing Class by Ziefert, Watch me Dance by Andrea Davis Pinkney, Color Dance by Ann Jonas

Letter Awareness: B for Ballet

Art Project: Decorate a letter B with pink tissue paper to look like a tutu

Crafting: Help Mama make a tutu for Piper? Maybe...

Watch: Sesame Street: Zoe's Dance Moves (from Netflix) and Barney's Dance with Me

Extras: Learn Fingerplay- Tommy Thumbs (he goes "dancing all around the town")

See, my baby's name isn't that weird after all...

2012-01-24T08:04:00.001-05:00

According to this article, Piper was the 100th most popular girl baby name of 2011. Coming in behind other unusual names like Violet, Aria, and Hadley. Interesting!

See the story of Piper's name here.

{this moment}

2012-01-23T10:40:00.000-05:00

Inspired by SouleMama, {this moment} is a single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Theme of the Week: Snow!

2012-01-17T16:25:00.000-05:00

We're back to theme weeks around here, just to add a little structure to Cadie's play/learning time (because play is learning, y'all) and to help her work on some skills she's interested in. This week is snow. Here's some of the activities we're doing -

Reading: Stranger in the Woods, The Snowy Day and Snowmen at Night

Fine Motor: Beaded Snowflakes

Art: Snow Crayon Resist Painting - use white crayon on white paper, then paint over with blue watercolor, and the white "snow" will appear

Math: shape snowman

Crafting: Borax Snowflakes - maybe...

Food: Make Snowball cookies, and Snowman Pizza, and tortilla snowflakes

Letter Awareness: S

Extras: Watch Blue's Clues "A Snowy Day" (season 1, ep. 10), Snowman paper doll fold rhyme (one of my old storytime tricks)

{this moment}

2012-01-14T15:36:00.000-05:00

Inspired by SouleMama, {this moment} is a single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Easy t-shirt headband

2012-01-13T13:43:00.001-05:00

Piper can totally rock a headband. She got a set of cute clippy hairbows for Christmas, but she obviously doesn't have enough hair for them yet, so I made a little t-shirt headband to clip them to. (I sort of mashed-up directions from here and here.)

It was easy and quick but still took me about a week to finish because it's hard to find a decent chunk of time (like oh, 5 minutes!) to work on something that's not essential to our household functioning.
The steps:
*cut a 2 inch by 16 inch piece from an old white tee
*sew up the long side, turn inside out to make a tube
*insert one end inside the other and zig zag over to make headband
* cut a small rectangle and hold around headband, sew together then turn inside out to make the little loop to clip the bow on
*position that little loop over the seam on the headband so it looks nice and pretty!

Serious baby.

{this moment}

2012-01-08T17:00:00.001-05:00

Inspired by SouleMama, {this moment} is a single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

My Cloth Diapering Manifesto

2012-01-06T10:44:00.000-05:00

As you may know, I'm cloth diapering Piper like 90% of the time, starting when she was about 2 months old. We wear disposables only when travelling or all the cloth ones are in the wash. Recently, my friend Chrissy was asking about them, and I gave my mother-in-law a crash course in how cloth diapering works at our house when they were here for Christmas. Then my friend Kat wrote about the Pros and Cons of Cloth Diapering on her blog and asked for more input, so I'm putting my thoughts here. For what it's worth. (Disclaimer: This works for me. I know it wouldn't work for many families. When I was working full-time, there was no way I would even consider CDs.)

I'll start by saying that I don't find using cloth diapers any harder than using disposables or any more gross. I used cloth some with Cadence from when she was about 16 months to 2 years, so I sort of knew what I was getting into to do it full-time with Piper. Basically, I do about 3 more loads of laundry every week, since I have enough diapers to last about 2.5 days and you need to wash cloth diapers every 2-3 days. I like doing laundry! We don't feel that they smell any worse or that I have touch poo any more than I would with 'sposies. In fact, I feel like the cloth diapers contain runny/explosive messes better and I'm able to add extra absorbency at night. Plus, this way, we don't have to lug smelly trash bags of diapers to the garage and then to the dump.

I use a combination of several different kinds and brands of CDs. Almost all my supplies were obtained very cheaply or free, whether they were gifts or purchased on sale or with Amazon credits I earn taking surveys or doing online searches for Swagbucks (which I totally recommend - install a simple toolbar for searches and earn swagbucks to redeem for all kinds of things - I always get amazon gift card codes). I use prefolds (flat absorbent cloths that I place inside a waterproof cover) with Bummis and Thirsties covers. I also use all-in-twos (an absorbent insert is stuffed inside a waterproof cover with a microfleece lining that is soft against baby's skin and pulls away moisture) from Fuzzibunz, Thirsties, and Bumgenius. My cloth diapering friends tend to use all of one kind - Kat uses GroVia, MC used G diapers and Rachel only uses prefolds with Thirsties covers. I kind of wish I had only one kind, but I do like the flexibility of lots of different options. If I had to choose favorites (although I like them all), I would go with the Bummis covers and the Fuzzibunz all-in-twos.

You can't use regular diaper rash cream with cloth diapers because it can mess with their absorbency so I use GroVia Magic Stick when needed(recommended by Kat!). I put the dirty dipes in a hanging Fuzzibunz wet bag for now, but I will probably purchase a small lidded trash can to put the wet bag in once Piper is on solid food and things get more stinky. To wipe we just use baby wash cloths and water.

I put everything, including the wash cloths and wet bag, in the washer for a cold water soak and rinse, then do a hot water wash with an extra rinse. The rinsing is important to make sure all detergent residue is out of the diapers - it can build up and make them smell. You can't use regular detergent with cloth diapers either, too many perfumes and additives really build up and can cause leaking. I use Charlie's Soap powder. It's non-toxic and biodegradable and fairly cheap. Eventually, I'll probably use it for all our laundry. I like to hang the diapers out on the line when the weather is good - the sun helps kill germs and bleaches out stains. When I need to use the dryer I only put the inserts and prefolds in; the covers dry quickly hanging on a rack, and machine drying can ruin their elasticity.

There's some debate about the environmental impact of cloth diapers. Supposedly the impact is the same with disposables and CDs, because while 'sposies fill landfills, cloth uses more water and energy. I wonder about the impact of manufacturing both - disposables come in a lot of packaging, and certainly require some significant energy output to produce. Perhaps cloth do as well. I do know that cloth is certainly cheaper, especially if you use them with more than one child. I also like the convenience of not having to think about buying diapers. With cloth, I don't run the risk of running out and making a late night trip to the store.

Goodness, this was a manifesto, huh? Any questions? :-)

New...

2012-01-03T17:17:00.001-05:00

snow!

swingset!

(Thanks, Papa!)

cowl!

(Knit by me, from this pattern, with some alterations)

In this new year, I'm also experimenting with a more purposeful to do list and goal system. I've been working on setting goals for the next few months instead of just randomly deciding something needed to get done. Then, each morning, I've been making a realistic list of tasks to accomplish, since so much of my time is spent feeding children, reading books to children, changing diapers, etc. It's working well!

{this moment}

2012-01-01T10:42:00.001-05:00

Inspired by SouleMama, {this moment} is a single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

This Christmas season, part 2...

2011-12-30T18:36:00.001-05:00

This Christmas season...

2011-12-28T21:49:00.000-05:00

some highlights in photos...

These are all pre-Christmas day...more to come...

Merry Christmas

2011-12-25T11:33:00.001-05:00

Gather 'round, ye children come

listen to the old, old story

of the power of death undone

by an infant born of glory

Son of God, Son of Man...

So sing out with joy

for the brave little boy

who was God, but He made Himself nothing...

*Lyrics from "Gather Round, Ye Children" on Andrew Peterson's wonderful Christmas album Behold the Lamb of God: the true tall tale of the coming of Christ

{this moment}

2011-12-24T22:04:00.001-05:00

Inspired by SouleMama, {this moment} is a single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Scrap Fabric Wreath

2011-12-15T13:12:00.003-05:00

I made this pretty little scrap fabric wreath for the door to Piper's room. I was inspired by ones here and here. (I love Pinterest!) It was an easy project - I selected fabric scraps that coordinated with the colors in her room and cut them into 1.5 inch by 7 or 8 inch lengths. I pinked some of the ends, but not all. Oh, and I didn't have a wire hanger for the frame so I just twisted together some floral wire.

Even though this was super easy - cut fabric, tie a knot - it took me several weeks to finish and then several more weeks to get it hung. Because I have two little kids and difficulty managing my time. Speaking of which, there's a baby crying so I gotta scoot!

{this moment}

2011-12-09T23:30:00.000-05:00

Inspired by SouleMama, {this moment} is a single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

p.s. because I know someone will wonder - that's not our tree or our house.

Deals of the Week

2011-12-09T16:48:00.001-05:00

This week has been frustrating for me because I feel like I've accomplished nothing beyond keeping everyone relatively clean and well-fed. Today I semi-cleaned both bathrooms and did two loads of laundry so I feel better.

One thing I did manage to do earlier this week was get these deals:

The candy canes were free (paid $1.27, got $1.27 in extra care bucks), and the diapers were only $3.49 after sale, two coupons, and extra care bucks.

Now I'm going to take out the trash and feel even more accomplished!

{this moment}

2011-12-03T07:34:00.001-05:00

Inspired by SouleMama, {this moment} is a single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Hey, I put some new shoes on...

2011-12-01T16:36:00.001-05:00

I celebrated my birthday this past weekend by obtaining shoes. On the top row, Matt got me some brown no-lace chucks and my parents got me the brown boots (and my mom put up with my extremely bad attitude while shopping - thanks, Mom!). Then I found the bronze and grey flats on the bottom on clearance at Target. I'm very pleased with these purchases since after my pregnancy my feet seem to be a bit bigger and many of my old shoes don't fit so well. We won't talk about the other items in my closet that don't fit so well right now, either. 9 months up, 9 months down, right? *wink*

A reminder I needed today...

2011-11-28T17:43:00.001-05:00

Piper and I have had a hard week sleepwise. The worst night I was up with her 5 times. I've been worrying about my lack of sleep and what I would have to give to both girls during the next exhausted day. Then, today, I read this about second babies...

"Those first babies do the hard work of breaking us in and smoothing off the rough edges of who we thought we would be as mothers. The babies that come after owe an enormous gift of gratitude to those first-borns, I think, because they weather our anxieties, worries, and insecurities. With the babies that follow, we know better than to waste time with worry. Once we get a taste of how fleeting the baby days are, we learn the importance of savoring each moment, drinking in the sweetness of the second."

Written by Megan of SortaCrunchy and published here.

Achoo! Snot-nosed blues and other tunes

2011-11-18T08:08:00.001-05:00

This summer Matt completed an album of 10 original kid songs. It's a process that started way back in 2006 when I asked him to do some "concerts" for kids at the libraries where I was working. It's really great and I should have posted about it before now!

It's available for download on Amazon and Itunes. You can also buy an actual physical cd from Amazon. Also, you can hear it on Pandora - here's the Matt McGee and Some Lesser Fools station.

The "Lesser Fools" that helped Matt out with this include Benji Morris of Downtown Senate and Turpentine Shine, and Rick and Chrissy DePirro.

Turkey Hair Bow Tutorial

2011-11-17T12:16:00.001-05:00

Cadence and I made this adorable turkey hair bow during Piper's afternoon nap on Tuesday. It's really cute with a ponytail. Want to make one? Here's how:

We started with a small brown yo-yo. Here's a great tutorial for yo-yos. Normally a yo-yo would be more circular, I smushed two sides together and sewed up the middle to make more of an oval shape.

We added two googly eyes. And from felt scraps I cut two feet, a triangle beak and a waddle. I used plain old white school glue to attach these to the yo-yo turkey body.

I traced an oval a little smaller than our yo-yo on brown felt. This is the backing and where you glue the ribbons. To be able to put in a barrette (as shown) or alligator clip, fold the oval in half longways and make two little snips with your scissors. That makes the slit for the barrette or clip to slide through.

Cadence dug through the ribbon box and picked out some ribbons I cut into 2.5 to 3 inch lengths.

Then Cadence occupied herself elsewhere while I hot glued the ribbon ends together. Then I just arranged the ribbons around the edge of the brown felt and glued them down.

Finally, I glued the yo-yo turkey body on top. A cute turkey clip done in about half an hour!

I'm linking up with project with A Glimpse Inside's Catch a Glimpse Party, Tatertots and Jello's Weekend Wrap-Up Party, Ladybird Ln's Turkey Show Off Party and A Little Knick Knack's Everything but the Kitchen Sink Party.

Tummy Time

2011-11-09T16:45:00.000-05:00

Taken Sunday, Nov. 7.

Sleepy Time

2011-11-08T16:45:00.000-05:00

Or more accurately, wake-up-from-nap-so-you-can-eat-time. Here, let me open the windows and take your picture.

sleeeeeep...

2011-11-04T07:49:00.001-04:00

Our bedroom. 6 AM.

Me: Matt. Your alarm is going off.
Matt: Grunt.
Me: Your alarm is going off! Piper slept through the night!
Matt (sleepily): That's good.
Me: That's fantastic! Now I have to go make sure she's not dead.

She continued to sleep until after 7! I don't know what's going on except her naps were a little short yesterday and we've been stretching her feedings to every 4 hours so she eats more at each feeding. I went to bed at 9:30 and didn't wake up until 6. THIS IS AWESOME!

deals of the week

2011-11-03T17:05:00.002-04:00

It's been awhile since I've posted a deal, but I got some good ones this week. On Tuesday we hit the Halloween 50% off clearance at Wal-mart. This bag of 20 playdoh containers and the bag of peanut m&ms were both just $1.24. I got the m&ms for free plus overage since I had a $1.50 off coupon. The playdoh will help fill Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes.

Halloween costumes!

2011-11-01T09:53:00.005-04:00

Cadence has been saying for weeks that for Halloween she wanted to be a butterfly fairy, zookeeper,and princess, which pretty much covers all her dress up costumes that fit her well right now. Believe it or not, we had enough events to go to that she got to wear all three!

The butterfly fairy attended a costume birthday party Saturday before last.

The zookeeper went to the town Halloween event this Saturday. (But it was really loud and crowded, and honestly a bit creepy - no where near as much fun as last year - it was moved into an old school cafeteria and we left after about 5 minutes.)

The princess went trick or treating on campus yesterday morning, accompanied by a bunny.

The bunny really wanted to take a nap. (I knit the hat using this pattern.)

Piper the bunny slept in the carrier while we walked all over campus and Cadie made out like a bandit!

She seems to really enjoy the chocolate. And she was nice enough to share some with me!

I have perfected easy oven-baked french toast

2011-10-29T12:12:00.001-04:00

This is my new go-to French toast recipe. It's easy and cheap. Here's the ingredients:

One loaf of french bread (I buy it on sale for just under a $1 at Ingles or Wal-mart. I like to use the whole wheat loaf when I can get it.)
2 tbsps butter
3 eggs
2/3 cup millk
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

Cut the bread into 1 to 1.5 inch slices. Preheat oven to 400. While oven is heating, put butter in your 13x9 pan and put it in the oven for few minutes to melt. Whisk together eggs and milk. Remove pan from oven and sprinkle sugar and cinnamon evenly on the bottom of the pan. Dip bread slices in egg mixture and arrange in pan. Bake for 10-15 minutes.

When you take the slices out of the pan, flip them over so you see the nice buttery, sugary, cinnamony crust on top. Cadence takes hers with syrup.

I prefer powdered sugar. I will probably never go back to frying french toast on the stove top. This makes a lot, but the leftovers reheat nicely. Yum!

Some fall stuff

2011-10-26T14:19:00.002-04:00

We got some pumpkins.

The girls and I went to the mountains house a couple weeks ago and hiked in the woods.

The leaves were gorgeous - the pictures don't do it justice.

I'm so grateful to live in a place where the seasons display themselves so gloriously! I regret my Florida childhood where it was just hot, rainy, hot, and a little less hot.

P.S. A recipe and pictures of Halloween costumes coming soon.

Piper is smiling for real!

2011-10-19T14:48:00.001-04:00

We've been BUSY around here, and not sleeping much, to be honest, but having lots of fun! I'll be back soon with pictures of our autumn adventures, but in the meantime, our baby girl started smiling for real. She doesn't do it much yet, but it's a real smile, not gas, I promise. This is the best pic I could get of it - unfortunately, she looks a little crazy, huh? I was trying to get her to smile during a diaper change, which is a little crazy, I suppose!

Cadence's faves at 3

2011-10-08T09:04:00.001-04:00

Since her birthday last month, I've been meaing to do a faves list for Cadence, like I did when she was 2.5 here. I took this picture a few weeks ago while we were playing on the front porch, then added the faves (with some consultation from her) using picnik - a free web-based photo editor.

Besides her faves, we can also report that Cadence has a rich imaginative life, going entire days assuming the identity of another character and assigning other identities to the rest of the household. I feel like she's eating better these days, and she's 99.9% potty trained, and has been for awhile now, after a few setbacks with the move and the new sister. This summer she started to break out of her shell and actually talk to people, which was a relief, and a delightful surprise for many of our friends in this community. She asks lots of interesting questions, like "Is your tummy small now, Mama?" and "Where does Jesus live?" So, we're proud of her.

My kid likes to roll in things on the floor...

2011-10-04T08:27:00.002-04:00

Yesterday we got a surprise delivery of baby girl hand-me-downs - 3 diaper boxes and a big bag full! Cadence was busy playing with playdough while Piper napped but she quickly abandoned that to tell me we needed to dump the clothes out on the floor. And then she proceeded to roll in them. While I tried to sort into neat piles. Sigh.

Looks fun though, huh?

Double Chocolate Peanut Oatmeal Cake Mix Cookies

2011-09-28T15:36:00.000-04:00

Cadence and I needed a fun activity during Piper's mid-day nap yesterday, so we made cookies. Cadence likes to help stir. These were easy and super yummy. They're moist and chewy and not too sweet. My friend Kat makes awesome cake mix cookies, and I had a cake mix on hand, so we went from there. I added chocolate chips, oatmeal, and peanuts...

You know you want to make some, so here's what you need:

1 box Devil's Food cake mix

1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

3/4 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup oil
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1/3 cup lightly salted roasted peanuts, chopped sorta fine in the food processor

Mix above ingredients together. If batter is too thick, add a few tsps of water (that's what I had to do). Drop by rounded teaspoon (I use my ice cream scoop) onto ungreased cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes. Let cool on pan for a minute, then cool on wire racks.

This makes a ton of cookies - I filled 3 cookie sheets - we'll try not to eat them all in the next 2 days!

Piper is 4 weeks old...

2011-09-27T15:24:00.001-04:00

Oh my goodness, this month has flown by. Of course, I'm exhausted, but we're happy and things are going okay. Cadence is still usually a good helper, just sad that I can't always play with her. Piper is becoming much more alert and, well, more calm about things. She seems to be getting used to us.

To celebrate her 4 weeks, I made her wear handknits. This headband with a little flower...

and these little slippers (made following this pattern), which did not fit her long, skinny feet entirely well.

Piper Update

2011-09-20T15:46:00.000-04:00

Piper has a great big sister. Though Cadence is clearly getting less of our attention - her most frequent phrase now is probably some variation on "will you play with me?" - she is definitely not blaming Piper and is very happy to help with bathing or diaper changes or play time.

Piper is three weeks old now. She likes to try to hold her head up. She likes to watch Cadence. She's still wearing newborn clothes and we only moved up to size 1 diapers because we have a gazillion of them and we ran out of the newborn ones. She seems to have two particularly fussy times - somewhere around 5-6 pm and 2-4 am. Not particularly convenient. We introduced a pacifier at 2 weeks and she's a fan. She took her first bottle on Sunday like a champ (we wanted to introduce it before she got to old to get used to one), but I am so relieved to be able to pump just when I want to, not out of necessity like with Cadie when I was working full-time.

I'm on my own with the girls today after 3+ weeks of grandmother help, and so far we are doing fine. I didn't get to take a nap, but I did get laundry folded and put away.

Grandma

2011-09-14T10:02:00.000-04:00

My Grandma went to heaven on Monday. Her passing is so very different from when Grandpa was killed in 2005. She died peacefully and we were prepared. My dad and my aunt were with her, holding her hands. She had lived a long, wonderful life, and, as my dad said, she had "no regrets". I think it's amazing to have no regrets, and I hope that when I am in my nineties I can say that too. When I think about Grandma, I think she had 3 special qualities that enabled her to have such a great life.

She was adventurous, and, I think, brave. She and my Grandpa were world travellers, but they also truly lived all over the world. She grew up in New York City, a little priveleged. (She used to say that during the Great Depression, her father told her mother to start shopping at a cheaper department store. Her mother discovered that she could buy more things for less money, so Grandma got even more clothes!) They lived in Hawaii, England, and Indonesia during Grandpa's military career. To live in Indonesia for 3 years while raising kids is pretty gutsy. Though they loved their routines, I don't think my grandparents hesitated to try a new adventure, whether it be a trip to someplace new, building a mountain cabin, or managing an orange grove.

She was smart. No one in my family was terribly impressed that I got a graduate degree, because 3 out of 4 of my grandparents had one! The way Grandma told it, she got her master's degree while Grandpa was flying planes in the Pacific during WWII, partly because she didn't have anything better to do. That says something about her, that she would choose to go to school during that hard time when he was away. She read voraciously, and loved games and crossword puzzles. She used to say something about not having a decent game of Scrabble without a score of at least 300. I don't think I've ever broken 175. A few months ago, my aunt accused Grandma of not being truthful about her health, and Grandma wouldn't admit to lying, but she did say she might prevaricate a little. If you weren't sure what that word meant either, click it for the definition. She was also smart (and very frugal) with her money. Because of that, she was able to give to others, especially me - providing funds I used to help buy my first car, go to college debt-free, and buy our first home.

She was faithful. Like I said earlier, Grandma liked her routines and rituals. Part of that was her relationship with God, and the time she spent in prayer and bible study. Whenever I spoke with her she told me she was praying for me, and I know she was. She used to speak fondly of her college years because she got to go to chapel every day. (I don't know about you, but when I think of college, even my experience at a Christian college, I don't think of chapel as a huge highlight.) The decades she spent seeking our Father are inspiring to me. She was also a faithful wife to my Grandpa, pleased to be his companion and friend, teasing him, cooking for him, challenging him in card games.

I won't be able to go to the funeral on Friday, being that it's in Florida and we've got a new baby here. I'm sad about that, but I'm going to do my best to honor Grandma by being like her in whatever ways I can, and by teaching my girls to learn from her life: choosing to be adventurous, smart, and faithful.

Highlights from the Much-Anticipated Butterfly Party

2011-09-12T10:00:00.001-04:00

More crafting for Piper

2011-09-08T11:53:00.004-04:00

I appliqued this flower on the little kimono top before Piper came. Then I made the little headband (using this tutorial) from an old t-shirt and sewed two yo-yos from the same fabric as the flower. Topped off with a button. Fancy baby girl!

Cadence entertains Piper

2011-09-04T09:04:00.000-04:00

Helping with a diaper change

Demonstrating how toys work

Piper was incredibly interested

See?

Reading a book, which Cadence's calls something like "All God's Animals are Family on the Farm"

Singing Nursery Rhymes - we're building early literacy here people

4 days old

2011-08-31T21:24:00.000-04:00

She's so cute and sweet. And I'm so tired.

Piper Lee is coming!

2011-08-26T20:20:00.000-04:00

At my doctor's appointment today, I had the magic number for pregnancy high blood pressure (140/90). Everything else is fine, but with blood pressure at that level, things could go badly, so we need to be careful. We'll be reporting to the hospital tomorrow for an induction, which means that she will be here soon.

And...that's her name. Piper Lee. We had a hard time deciding on a name for this little girl. We found the name Piper in a baby name book - just like we did with Cadence. When we chose Cadence's name, we liked the more obscure musical meaning that refers to a moment of resolution and beauty in a piece of music, and we felt like her entrance into our lives was a wonderful time of resolution and beauty.

For Piper, we've found meaning in a scripture verse: Isaiah 30:29. Here it is in the TNIV:
And you will sing
as on the night you celebrate a holy festival;
your hearts will rejoice
as when people playing pipes go up
to the mountain of the LORD,
to the Rock of Israel.

Isaiah 30 speaks to God's justice and God's mercy. In this verse, it speaks of joy and hope. It's a promise of songs and music for those who may not have been enjoying those things.

2010 was a very hard year for us. While we are so, so grateful for the wonderful place we are now, it was a tough road to get here. Matt had to make a bold decision to leave a job without another job lined up. We had to deal with anger over the situations and hurts that led to that decision. We seriously considered moving across the country to Washington state. We spent a couple months living in different places as we tried to make sure we were being financially responsible. We left a house we loved and sweet, smart, funny friends to start over, strangely enough, in a place we'd been before. But we have this new home now, in a community we love with new friends to enjoy and the best jobs we've ever had.

Piper is coming, and we are rejoicing!

Crafting for Baby Girl; Or, Yet Another Pillow

2011-08-24T15:59:00.020-04:00

I can guarantee you that Matt thinks I'm a little bit crazy now. The other day he asked me how I was feeling about the baby's room. When I responded, "I want to make one more pillow," he just sort of looked at me. Then I had to defend myself, "I just want it to be cute in there!"

So I made one last pillow. I loosely followed this tutorial from The House of Smiths to make the pleated pillow cover, and pretty much followed this tutorial from cluck cluck sew to make the rosette flower.

It lives on the glider. Under the shelves I wrote about here.

Tomato Pie

2011-08-23T15:44:00.004-04:00

We were given some very ripe tomatoes last week, so I made tomato pie. (Because there was a pie crust in my freezer. And cheese in the fridge.) I did a mash-up of a recipe I pulled out of a Better Homes and Gardens mag last year and creative little daisy's recipe here. As I said, the tomatoes were very ripe, so it was hard to get them to not be too juicy. The crust was a bit less than crusty in spots.

More importantly, why has no one told me about this before? Or served it to me? I've been living in the southeast my entire life, people. Shouldn't I have eaten this at some point? My feeling is, a recipe that contains pie crust, tomatoes, cheese, and mayo must be a blessing from heaven.

No one else in this house was interested in eating it, so I got the whole thing to myself. Yum. (To clarify - I ate it over the course of several days, not in one sitting.)

Also, I'm now craving chicken pie. Does anyone in High Point want to send me one?

Dry Falls

2011-08-22T15:42:00.000-04:00

Saturday we decided to do what we assume will be our last outing as a family of three. Remember back at the beginning of the summer when we had grand plans to go hiking and waterfall-ing? That didn't really happen with the uncertainty about the move. We did go on a few river outings to play in the water and to the lake on campus a couple times for events. So Saturday we went to Dry Falls, near Highlands NC.

This was our last summer hurrah, as Matt worked all day on Sunday in the dorm.

Excitement.

It's called Dry Falls because the trail goes underneath the falls. Theoretically, you stay dry.

Can you see Matt and Cadie through the water droplets? They're underneath the falls.

Then she found a puddle...

And we could barely get her to leave.

Butterfly Crayons

2011-08-20T15:35:00.036-04:00

Someone has a birthday coming up in this house real soon and it's not the baby girl who will actually be birthed from my belly. Cadie has been talking about how she's going to have a butterfly birthday party for months. Realizing I will have a newborn quite literally on my hands when party day comes, I'm trying to do some planning now. So, on Wednesday, we made butterfly crayons to give to her friends as party favors. Super easy - peel and break crayons (we started off using the broken ones we found), arrange in molds, bake at 300-ish for 10-15 minutes-ish.

I did most of the peeling and breaking of the crayons, she arranged them (with my guidance). We have way more crayons than a household our size could ever need, and I always take them from any restaurant that gives them to us with the kids' menu.

I was inspired by this post from twelve crafts till christmas. Plus, I remember doing something similar in muffin tins with my mom when I was kid. I ordered a little silicone butterfly ice cube tray from Amazon about a month ago. It was $5, I think.

We did two batches, so now we have 20 crayons to give away and we might do more, because it was fun! In this picture, I think Cadie had already absconded with 2.

Crafting for Baby Girl: More Pillows

2011-08-19T15:26:00.000-04:00

Earlier this week I finished two more pillows for the sofa in baby girl's room. This is a horrible picture. I recovered two pillows we already owned, again in a simple envelope style. (There *may* have been a small mistake in my math and the backs *may* not be totally covered. But you can't see that.)

Anyway, I used a tiny white floral print from Wal-mart, then added the chocolate brown pleated band from scraps I had. I felt like it needed more color so I hand sewed the ruffle flowers (also from scraps) and made matching brown buttons with a button kit from Wal-mart.

By the way, I'm totally jealous of people who live where there are actual craft and fabric stores. It probably saves us money that there's not a Jo-Ann nearby, but still...

Crafting for Baby Girl - Owl Stuffie

2011-08-16T15:56:00.005-04:00

Whoooo's come to hang out in baby sister's room? This cute little owl! I made it during Cadie's "naptime" yesterday when I probably should have been cleaning something. The photo tutorial I used is here.

All materials were things I had on hand - fabric and felt scraps. I've been wanting a few more touches of purple in the room and this little gal is bringin' it.

I'm linking up to A Glimpse Inside's Catch a Glimpse Thursday...

and Tatertots and Jello's Weekend Wrap-Up party.

Pillows for the girls!

2011-08-12T16:12:00.001-04:00

In my effort to make something everyday until the baby comes, I've completed two pillows. I'm also counting putting meals in the freezer as "making something" so I don't go crazy knitting and sewing and such...

This brown and pink polka dot pillow is on Cadie's bed. It was a super easy envelope cover for a pillow we already had - I did the whole thing this morning.

This one is on the sofa in the baby's room and it definitely took more effort. I pretty much followed the tutorial here. It's cute, but I'm having doubts about how it looks in the room. I may end up taking it apart, removing the ties, and putting a bird applique on the front. We'll see...

More pillows to come soon...

Deals of the Week: Freebies!

2011-08-11T15:01:00.001-04:00

Three freebies this week: the Mott's for tots juice box came in the mail (signed up for it through Vocalpoint), as did the oatmeal squares cereal (not sure if I signed up for it or one of our mothers), and I got a free Herbal Essences product coupon in the mail, so I got conditioner at Wal-mart.

Ribbon Mobile - Crafting for Baby Girl #2, pt. 3

2011-08-08T08:49:00.001-04:00

Baby Sister is due on the 31st, which leaves not many days left before our lives change completely! Matt goes back to work later this week. And, I've decided I want to make something every day until the end of this month. I have a list. That may be crazy.

Step 1 was creating this ribbon mobile that hangs over the crib. It's cuter in real life.

We always meant to get a mobile for Cadence and never did. I was inspired by this ribbon chandelier.

I bought a 10 inch embroidery hoop and some ribbon, but I also used some from the box of ribbon I save from gift wrap and packaging. Once I figured out my method of looping it around the hoop and then doing a knot it went pretty quickly. We'll see if I can get any of the other projects I've planned done quickly at all.

P.S. We've moved the furniture around in this room like 6 times. We're finally done. Mainly because Matt may give up on me if I make him remove and hang shelves any more.

Scenes from the New House

2011-08-05T17:13:00.000-04:00

laundry on the line - I can't tell you how excited both Matt and I are about line-dried clothes, sheets, and towels

a tomato! it's getting picked tomorrow! and destined to become part of a taco salad...

mountain view from back door

that's 7 kids on a very old swing set that we inherited with the house

sidewalk chalk time!

Baby Name Game - The END!

2011-08-03T08:07:00.000-04:00

Our parents have guessed the name and I guess Matt's mom told his side of the family, so I better get going with this last clue for anyone still playing! Here's the rules, if you need them again.

This one lets you pick which to answer depending on whether you know me or Matt better. So I'm giving you two clues but you only need one letter. If I type this correctly, you'll get the same letter for both answers. Does that make sense?

Matt and I both have master's degrees.
Maureen's is in: (_) _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Matt's is in: _ _ _ _ _ (_) _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Baby Name Game, Pt. 11

2011-07-29T08:00:00.001-04:00

We're getting antsy about sharing baby girl's name so we're doing another clue today. And, we're letting you know that this is the second-to-last clue. We've already had one correct guess! Remember, if you want to guess, for privacy's sake, don't do it here in the comments. Feel free to email, call, or facebook us with guesses!

The rules are here.

What's Matt's hometown? _ _ _ (_) _

It's fascinating to me that Matt basically lived in the same house his entire childhood. I'd have to get my mom and dad to count with me, but I think I lived in 7 different houses from 0-18. When people ask me now where I'm from, I just say Florida, and if they ask where in Florida, I say "kind of all over". Matt's story is much simpler.

Baby Name Game, Pt. 10

2011-07-26T10:08:00.005-04:00

Believe it or not, the name game is almost done! What's nowhere near done is baby girl's room. We had a lot of trouble arranging the furniture and we are going to get a new slipcover for the sofa bed so it doesn't clash with the paint. Which is blue. Which Matt picked out. It's Cinncinnatian Hotel Abbey by Valspar. Which I was scared of at first, but now I really, really like.

If you need the name game rules, they are here. Also, in case you missed it, there was a mistake with clue #3. Get the corrected answer here.

So here's the clue this week; it's a bonus one! You get two letters for the price of one!

What's the name of Matt's employer? _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ (_) _ _ _ _ _ (_) _ _ _ _ _ _

Dress-Up!

2011-07-26T07:54:00.014-04:00

We unpacked Cadie's dress up clothes yesterday and had some seriously fun pretend play.

First, zookeeper. This outfit was an amazing deal last October at Target.

Then, ballerina.

She kept this outfit on the rest of the day, including through naptime and dinner.

Starting to feel like home...

2011-07-25T19:54:00.000-04:00

Cadence loves her big girl "princess" bed. No problems at all with the transition from her crib-turned-toddler-bed to this full size bed.

Rainey is doing great making the transition to outdoor cat. His food is set up in the garage and he loves this spot on the back steps.

Never a dull moment...

2011-07-21T08:41:00.000-04:00

...when you live in the middle of a cow pasture. (Literally - on three sides our yard is bordered with electric fence and cows.)

After breakfast yesterday we went out on the front porch to say hi to "Benny the bull" as Cadie called him.

If you look carefully at this picture, you can see that he's on the wrong side of the fence and just chilling next to our driveway. Thankfully the farmer came and chased him back through. Apparently this bull will be going to auction soon, because once they start escaping, they don't stop.

Ack! Mistake in the Name Game!

2011-07-18T16:08:00.000-04:00

I've just discovered that Clue #3 gave you the wrong letter! The answer gave you an A, you need an E! The clue has been corrected, but change your lists so you can unscramble the correct name in the end.

Baby Name Game, Pt. 9

2011-07-18T15:50:00.000-04:00

Sometimes when you are moving, you just need to put shorts on your head and sit in a laundry basket. At least if you are two.

So we are moved! Matt flew to Boston today for a conference and his mom is here to help me with unpacking. We love our new house, but have been completely thrown off by furniture placement and where to put things...Some pics of the new place to come soon.

Here's the next clue. If you need the rules, they are here.

What's one of Mo's favorite hobbies? _ _ (_) _ _ _ _ _

Tomorrow We Move!

2011-07-14T17:00:00.000-04:00

The first of the boxes will go over to the new house after dinner tonight! (Because there are still workers there finishing things now. They better be gone after the frozen pizza is.)

Finished Knit: The Rolly Dress

2011-07-13T13:57:00.000-04:00

Knit mainly during our trip to FL in June, I love this little tunic for Cadie! I was so pleased with the pattern (free on Ravelry) and may make a smaller one for baby sister. Cadence wore it to church this Sunday.

Pics from the Beach, Pt. 2

2011-07-12T08:02:00.000-04:00

Flying a kite.

8 months pregnant.

She's queen of the hill.

Doing her beach dance.

Pics from the Beach

2011-07-11T08:19:00.000-04:00

Unlike our trip to Florida last month, we actually got a ton of good pictures this trip! I had a hard time narrowing it down to the highlights! More coming in the next post!

Right before I took this picture, Matt said, "Yep. I'm in my 30s." He just looked so tourist-y and dad-ish.

Baby Name Game, Pt. 8

2011-07-09T06:49:00.000-04:00

We are back from our beach vacation and I have great photos to share later. We were hoping the "new" house would be done this week and we'd be moving, but the progress there is still slow.

If you need the game rules, find them here.

What's Matt's favorite beverage? _ _ _ _ (_) _

Deal of the Week - Mail Freebie!

2011-07-02T15:08:00.000-04:00

I don't even remember where or when I signed up for this one, but I know it was free!

Yo-Yo Flag Art

2011-07-01T18:57:00.021-04:00

I like decorating for holidays. We have bins of Christmas decorations and lots for fall and Easter and even Valentine's Day. Not much for Independence Day though. I've had this idea for years to make a fabric yo-yo flag and for some reason, this year of all years, when we are getting ready to go to the beach and then move to a new house, I decided to do it.

Making yo-yos is super easy. I learned from Heather Bailey's tutorial.

I used fabric from my stash - vintage blue flowers on a cream background, red and cream houndstooth, and red flowers on a cream background.

My parents had given me a frame that was missing the glass, so I covered the backing with cream fabric and then just arranged the yo-yos. You could sew them on; glue was my preferred method.

The sad part is I don't think it's going on display this year. Matt packed up all our wall decor yesterday and took the nails out of the walls. Still, it feels nice to have a finished project.

I'm linking up to the Weekend Wrap-Up Party at Tatertots and Jello.

Blackberry Crumb Cake = YUM

2011-07-01T14:56:00.001-04:00

The apparently wild blackberries around our house have become pickable this week, so Cadence and I have been on a few expeditions to harvest them. I wanted to make this crumb cake from Real Simple - I made it last summer with frozen blackberries from our old neighbors and was eager to try it with fresh from our yard fruit!

We didn't have enough berries and I wanted to make it in a loaf pan so I halved the recipe. I am often halving recipes, and am very grateful for my 1/8 cup measuring cup.

We dug into it after lunch today. Cadence was a fan - the blackberries turned purple in the cake!

Crafting for Baby Girl, Pt. 2 and Deal of the Week

2011-06-29T20:03:00.000-04:00

A few months ago, I saw this great idea for forward facing bookshelves. I knew with the vast amount of books sliding around the shelves in Cadie's room that I must do this for baby girl's room. We went to Ikea a few weeks ago and picked up 2 of the Bekvam spice racks.

And here's my deal of the week. Fed Ex showed up on our doorstep a few days ago with free paint! I had forgotten I signed up for a free quart of Glidden paint in Cappucino White. So after Cadence helped Matt and I assemble the shelves, I quickly painted them.

The finished result is perfect! Wow. Look how dirty the carpet is in our hallway, and how much the paint needs to be touched up. Oh well - we're moving soon.

Baby Name Game, pt. 7

2011-06-29T07:48:00.000-04:00

Just in case you are new to this, the rules are here.

What is the brand of our family car? (_) _ _ _ _

"That was fun - having an adventure."

2011-06-25T08:25:00.001-04:00

I was telling another mom the other day that even though Cadence and I have the same amount of free time to fill in the summer, it feels a little bit harder to keep ourselves entertained. Even though Matt is home to help keep us entertained. Maybe because May and the beginning of June were so busy we feel bored now? I don't know.

Anyway, we needed an outing that did not involve the grocery store. Matt had the brilliant idea to visit a waterfall we remembered visiting probably 7 years ago when we lived here before. We got out our trusty guidebook The Hiking Trails of North Georgia and found the trail. (It turned out to be a different one than we visited previously, but great.) The title quote above? That's what Cadence said when we were done.

The trail we chose was the Rabun Beach trail.

Almost immediately, you reach this nice little cascade. We sat on some flat rocks and ate our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches here.

Most of the trail is nice and wide like this, but there was one spot the trail was washed out and one spot we had to walk through a stream. All the other stream crossings have little bridges, which Cadence thought was fantastic.

After walking half a mile, we reached Panther Falls.

Note our excitement.

It's really pretty. About a 40 foot cascade over these stair step-y rocks.

There's lots of flat rocks to sit on and put your feet in the water. If we had our swimsuits, we could have really splashed around at the base of the falls.

As you know, Cadie is squeamish about getting dirty and trying new things, but she LOVED putting her feet in the water and finding rocks to throw down the little falls below the big one.

It started raining pretty good as we were leaving so our walk back to the car was very wet. We were so proud of how well Cadie hiked, even though her feet got really muddy. We *think* we're going to try to visit a waterfall every week this summer when we are in town. Should be fun.

Baby Name Game, pt. 6

2011-06-23T08:25:00.000-04:00

If you are new to the game, the rules are here.

What is the epistle following 2 Corinthians? (_) _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Crafting for Baby Girl #2, pt. 1

2011-06-22T15:24:00.000-04:00

Baby girl #2's due date is 10 weeks from today. During those 10 weeks, we are going out of town some and, oh yeah, moving to the house next door once renovations are complete. We probably should be packing more than we are. I know that the unpacking is really the time consuming part of a move though, so I feel like I need to complete some projects for baby girl NOW.

I took a few hours on Monday and Tuesday to make a nursing cover. (I used one borrowed from a friend in High Point with Cadence, so we needed one, and they cost like $25! Crazy!) I used this tutorial from Sew Much Ado.

I had this fabric in my stash. When we first moved to NC I worked in downtown Greensboro and happened upon a vintage store that was closing or moving and got a big grocery sack of vintage fabric for only $5. This was one of the pieces and it was the perfect size for this project. I had the d-rings on hand too, so all I had to buy was boning for the neck area, which was all of $.62 and the blue thread, which was less than $2 at Wal-Mart.

I am pleased with the result and now need to get going with some knitting!

Pics from FL trip

2011-06-20T18:59:00.000-04:00

I didn't take many; these are pretty much the cutest.

Loving the sea turtle art at a park in Vero Beach.

Cadence HAD to read a book to Lacey, my aunt and uncle's sweet little dog.

And, she had to read a book with Great Grandma (this was back at my parents' house) - she's actually clapping in excitement.

Deals of the Week (Impromptu Cooking Day)

2011-06-17T08:23:00.031-04:00

When I went to Ingles on Wednesday I lucked up on a couple of great deals - a pound of reduced fat pork sausage for $1.69 and a dozen free range brown eggs for only $1 (pictured below). The only problem? They both needed to be used, like, immediately.

So I ended up spending a lot of yesterday afternoon in the kitchen. I hardboiled a slew of the eggs for egg salad sandwiches and the rest went with some of the sausage for freezer breakfast burritos. I was inspired by the recipe here at Money Saving Mom but did my own thing. Then I made my sausage biscuit balls - you've probably seen this recipe before, with bisquik? Seems like everyone knows it. I do mine with 3 cups bisquik, about 12 oz. reduced fat sausage, 2 cups shredded cheddar, 1/4 cup parmesan, and around 1/2 cup milk. Mix it up, roll into balls and bake at 350 for around 20-25 min.

The finished product. It's so easy and they freeze nicely - most of these ended up in the freezer. I'm having a hard time focusing on meal planning since during the school year we eat so much in the dining hall, so it feels good to have some things in the freezer to pull out quickly for a hearty breakfast.

Baby Name Game, Pt. 5

2011-06-16T06:57:00.001-04:00

Cadence and I got back yesterday from a busy week where we went to my parents' house, then FL to visit my aunt, uncle, and grandma, and then back to GA with Grandma in tow. A few pictures to come later!

Here's clue number 5. If you need a refresher on the rules, see this post.

What's the name of Mo's previous employer? _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ (_) _ _ _ _ _

If you need a hint, my profile on facebook may be of help....

Baby Name Game, pt. 4

2011-06-08T08:17:00.001-04:00

If you're new to the game, check out the introductory post from back in May here.

Musical Instrument that Matt plays? (_) _ _ _ _

*I realize that there are several answers to this question, but with the letter blanks it's pretty obvious what we are going for!

Mountains House!

2011-06-07T08:15:00.003-04:00

Mountains House! We live in the mountains, and arguably have better mountain views from our house here than at my family's cabin, but it's different to get away like we did this weekend. We headed out on Friday to the rustic but charming and very peaceful house my grandfather built before I was born. And, some buddies from High Point met us there. We ate really well at local restaurants and played Monopoly Deal (we are slowly making all our friends and family play this game with us - it's so fun and quick) and didn't turn on the TV all weekend.

We took the kiddos to play in the creek. Cooper, being 3 and a boy, jumped in and started digging in the mud with no hesitation.

Cadence, being 2, generally fussy about gettting dirty and a girl, stood in the water like this. See her little fingers splayed like "what is this business, people? you are making me nervous!" And this was after her pestering us for 2 days to play in the creek!

Then she got out of the water and stood in the woods like this! Next time we're not going to hike as much and just go straight to the creek - maybe she'll be more into it. The really fun part for her was getting to play with her friend Cooper.

Baby Name Game, Pt. 3

2011-05-31T20:00:00.001-04:00

Here's the 3rd clue. For details on how to play the game, see this post.

What's Cadie's favorite show? _ _ _ _ _ _ (_) _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

I type this as Matt is playing with his new electric guitar and amp, Cadie is sleeping, and laundry is whirling. We are in our last week of work before summer truly begins! On Friday we are skedaddling to the mountain house for a weekend with friends and I can't wait!

Homemade Laundry Detergent

2011-05-25T20:50:00.001-04:00

A couple of weeks ago, I decided to make my own laundry detergent. I read a bunch of stuff on the internet about how to do it, and then I ended up making it not quite as directed. It was easy to mix up and WAY cheaper than regular detergent. With this detergent, you only have to use 2 tablespoons per load so this batch will last quite awhile.

The ingredients are pictured above: washing soda (not baking soda), 3 bars Ivory soap, Borax, and Sun Oxygen cleaner (generic oxyclean). I found everything in the laundry aisle at Wal-mart except the ivory soap, which was with the other soap in the Health and Beauty area. I grated all 3 bars of the Ivory with my box grater and then dumped everything into my metal laundry detergent tub and mixed very well. All these ingredients together cost less than $10.

I've waited to post about this so I could report on the results as far as cleanliness and it seems to work just as well as the name brand detergents I was previously using. I still need to use a pretreater on some stains (Cadence has a propensity for getting tomato sauce and chocolate things on her shirts), but I was doing that before. The loss is the nice smell of our old detergent - this one doesn't smell at all - but I use scented fabric softener sheets, so it's all good.

Deals of the Week: Ingles Freebies

2011-05-24T21:07:00.012-04:00

Two Zone Perfect bars - on sale for $1, I used two $1 off coupons - not sure where I got them
Breve Coffee Creamer - I got a coupon for this product from Vocalpoint.com - I usually just put milk in my coffee (well, I put a lot of milk in my coffee), so I'm excited to have something special

Baby Name Game, Pt. 2

2011-05-23T08:42:00.012-04:00

Here's clue #2! For details on the game, see this post.

What's the musical term meaning rhythm and flow? _ _ _ _ _ _ (_)

Pool Time

2011-05-22T20:30:00.000-04:00

In between trying to pack up some boxes for our move next month and organize some baby girl things yesterday, I got out the little pool for Cadie. We bought the pool last summer but for some reason (trying to sell our house and move, maybe?) we never blew it up. As usual she wouldn't actually *look* at the camera for me to document this.

Bacon and Blue Cheese Tart

2011-05-20T20:12:00.001-04:00

I made this for my book club last Sunday and it was super yum. I adapted the recipe from the March Woman's Day magazine.

Ingredients:
7 slices turkey bacon
1 large vidalia onion, thinly sliced
1 sheet frozen puff pastry, thawed
2 oz blue cheese crumbled*

Directions:
Heat oven to 400 and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Cook bacon in skillet until crisp, move to paper towel-lined plate. Crumble when cool. Cook onions in bacon grease (there won't be much, this is turkey bacon) until very tender and carmelized. Stir bacon back into skillet with pepper to taste.

Place pastry flat on baking sheet. Top with onion and bacon, then the blue cheese, leaving a border around the edge. Bake until pastry is golden, around 25 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature. (Matt was eating it cold out of the fridge.)

*There is a huge price difference in the blue cheese sold in the cheese section in the deli of the grocery store and the blue cheese in the dairy case with the sliced and shredded cheeses. The blue cheese is the dairy case is significantly cheaper.

Baby Name Game, Pt. 1

2011-05-15T15:18:00.000-04:00

We are busy-pants around here! I'm babysitting full-time for two little boys on campus (3 kids under the age of 4 all day = tired Mo) until the end of school and Matt is busy with all the end of the year activities. We just got back from a whirlwind trip to High Point for my dear friend Amy's wedding (where we also got to visit with 3 other sweet families we miss!). So, the blog posting here is going to be minimal for a bit, but we are starting the baby name game. Here's how it works:

1. We'll give a trivia clue and provide blanks indicating the number of letters in the answer. One of those blanks will have parentheses around it. That's the letter you save because it goes somewhere in baby girl's name. Here's an example: What state do we live in? _ _ _ _ _ _ (_) The answer is Georgia and the last letter is A - that would be the one to save for the unscrambling.
2. If you think you've figured out the name, feel free to ask Matt or I to confirm. For privacy's sake, don't make the guess in the comments on the blog.
3. We will not, however, be answering questions about initials, potential name meanings, or whether we can name the baby what your Grandma or dog picked out.
4. We picked a name that is meaningful and pretty to us and would appreciate no negativity.

Ok, here's the first clue:

1. What's the name of the road we live on? _ _ _ _ _ _ (_) _

The Name Game, Part 2: Coming Soon!

2011-05-08T21:47:00.000-04:00

You longtime blog readers will remember the name game we played back in 2008 before Cadence was born. We provided wrods to unscramble for a letter from her name to be revealed each week. We're doing it again, though this time it will be trivia questions instead of scrambled words. We settled on the questions (generally very easy) today so we'll start soon.

Easter Weekend, Pt. 2

2011-04-27T07:49:00.000-04:00

Easter Basket. People kept asking Cadence if the Easter Bunny had brought her anything and she was thoroughly confused. Just for future reference, in our house, Mama makes the Easter basket and Daddy hides the eggs. Her basket was really simple - a cute bunny I found in our Easter decorations, clearance sneaks and t-shirt from Target, and lollipops from Dassa.

You can't tell, but there was a cute little bunny on the front of her hand-me-down dress. She loved it. She asked to wear it again on Monday.

Egg hunt! (At the dorm. Cadie did an egg hunt with lots of other kids at the public library earlier last week.)

Bunny lollipop. She couldn't seem to handle all the excitement because she only ate a little of this guy.

Easter Weekend Festivities, Pt. 1

2011-04-25T13:20:00.001-04:00

Egg Decorating! Matt was on duty in the dorm this weekend so we did this in the boys' kitchen. I got a Paas Egg Decorating Kit for free at CVS last week, and it came with stickers which were a big hit. The dying part was interesting because we used farm fresh eggs Matt's cousin gave us - they started out blue and brown, so the colors were less vibrant than if we had used supermarket white eggs. I liked them better this way - if only we could have fresh eggs all the time.

a little redecorating

2011-04-23T19:58:00.000-04:00

With the weather being gorgeous and Easter tomorrow, it's truly feeling like spring and time to change up our bedding for something lighter. I found this lightweight bright quilt with pink,orange, yellow,and green at Walmart for $24. I also found the orange polka dot body pillow for $8 - I was really wanting a body pillow to help with the pregnant side sleeping. We already had all the green pillows. It's hard to get a good picture in our dark room, but this matches perfectly with the green and keeps the crazy orange armchair (not pictured) that I love from looking crazy.

The cat is not part of the redecorating scheme, but apparently he approves. :-)

First spinach harvest

2011-04-22T15:46:00.000-04:00

I'm a really lazy gardener.* I told my friend Lydia recently that if I can't just stick the seed in some dirt in the sun and occasionally water it, I really don't want to bother. Also, I have a 2 year old helping me so things aren't going to be perfect. Hence, our pot of spinach was looking like this:

A little crowded on the one side, eh? This is where you're supposed to thin things out, so I picked some of the baby leaves the other day and put them in meatballs!

I sort of fudged the recipe from my favorite turkey meatball recipe from Ellie Krieger. (I loved to watch her back in the old days when we had TV. Recently I discovered you could watch her on Hulu and that made me happy.) I added the chopped spinach and some ricotta cheese, because I had it in the fridge.

They were yummy. We ate them for lunch today with some pasta, and Cadence noticed the suspicious green thing on her fork. She quickly asked me what it was, and when I said it was spinach from our garden she was totally eager to eat it. For a kid who's totally not a veggie fan - it's shameful, I know, especially when I will eat anything under the sun, and gladly - this just proved to me that all that stuff I've heard and read about how growing a garden will make kids want to eat vegetables might actually be true!

*I'm also a cheap gardener. All our seeds this year are actually from last year (except the sugar snap peas, which I bought to do the old start-a-sprout-in-a-plastic-bag-with-a-damp-cottonball-on-a-window-trick with Cadence. If you don't know what I'm talking about, clearly you have never been involved with preschool or children's Sunday School). I didn't use all the seeds in the packets, so I put them in a ziploc bag in the fridge and, so far, they are growing fine. I think the secret to saving seeds is making sure they are not exposed to moisture. Hence the baggie&fridge storage method.

Deals of the Week: Sample Freebies

2011-04-20T17:23:00.000-04:00

Two really nice samples arrived in the mail this weekend. The first was this paint sample kit from valspar and Lowe's. That's a pretty hefty sized sample of the paint color of my choice (kabuki clay) and a little mini roller kit. Plus paint chips and a nice coupon.

Then some toiletries for Matt - deodorant and body wash. Also came with nice coupons.