I'm surprised and a little annoyed...

that it's already February 2nd! What?!

Here's some things that we've been doing:

*Trying to go outside whenever the weather is decent. This weekend we were blessed with temps in the 60s. On Saturday we went to Tallulah Gorge State Park. Cadie loved it. Cried when we had to leave.

*Hosting playgroup yesterday. Only 2 friends attended but we had a blast.

*I've been doing a women's Bible study for the past few weeks - Stepping Up: A Journey Through the Psalms of Ascent by Beth Moore. I'm seriously enjoying it and being challenged. I realized, very sadly, that since we left the church Matt worked at last February, I hadn't been in a group Bible study until now. I really needed this.

*Matt and I watched a great movie Sunday night - Bella - a little movie that came out in 2006 about "how one day in New York City changed three people forever." It made me cry like a baby and made me really want some good Mexican food.

*Speaking of food, we've been eating super yummy pumpkin muffins with cream cheese frosting I made this weekend. I'm acting like they are pretty virtuous - I used real (not canned) pumpkin, half whole wheat flour, skimped on the recipe's recommended sugar, and used light cream cheese and light butter for the frosting. (By the way, I'm not a super cook, but I always make my own frosting. Have you looked at the ingredients in a can of frosting? Canned frosting is one of the few foods that is still packed with trans fats.) So since they are so healthy - and so yummy - I should go eat another one right now, right?

Deals of the Week

Two pairs of super-cute shoes for Cadence on clearance at Old Navy last weekend. They were running 40% all clearance, so the purple sneaks were only $2.09 and the blue bow ones were $3.29!

The snow has melted!

Finally. Cadie enjoyed exploring the slush. Although there has been a lot of talk about the snow family leaving and when are they coming back?

I made another pillow cover

This one's ruffled, sort of inspired by the ones here and here. It was quick - I actually made the pillowcase back before Thanksgiving and the ruffles soon after, but didn't get them attached until last week. So it goes.

Snow...

It's probably bad that I'm ready for winter to be over and it's only January. We got big snow on Sunday and more Monday and our house still looks like this.

Except now there are 3 snowmen in the yard and a lot more boot tracks.


Matt is back at work today so Cadence and I left the house this morning to play with some friends - they don't live far at all, so I wasn't too worried. We drove and made it there just fine, but then had some difficulty getting back home with all the snow and ice.

It's incovenient, but it sure is pretty.

Free stuff that's come in the mail in the last month or so...

In lieu of my deals of the week post, because there's been so little shopping around here lately, I'm just sharing the free stuff that's arrived in our mailbox. This picture is 3 bags of coffee (2 starbucks, 1 seattle's best) and a bag of cat food.

Another huge package arrived on our porch before Christmas. I won a giveaway over at No Time for Flashcards for a Today's Girl doll from Constructive playthings. I chose the Emma doll for Cadie. I thought we would just get the doll, which was awesome (she comes with 3 complete outfits - head to toe), but we also got the Classic Kitchen, an all wood kitchen set sized for an 18 inch doll with a stove/sink, fridge, pot and pan set, and 34 doll-sized pretend foods!

We opened the box and looked at everything, then put it all back. We'll give it to Cadence when she is four - in the mean time, I have to find somewhere to store it! The great news; Cadie's Christmas 2012 is covered!

Meet our new TV cabinet

{After}We're in the middle of a lot of furniture shifting around here as part of our plans to make adequate storage in the house. We got a new TV after Thanksgiving and we wanted to put it in something different than our old TV cabinet, which is going to the hallway to serve as a linen closet. My parents took us to furniture liquidations store that specializes in stuff from hotels and resorts and we got this little solid wood cabinet for $10! It was not in fantastic condition, but I wanted to paint it anyway. It took 3 cans of spray paint for a total cost of less than $20. We had extra cabinet knobs and Matt cut out some of the back panel for the cords. Amazingly, all our machines and game and movie cases fit in there.
{Before}

Monday's Educational Activity

On my weekly schedule I decided that on Mondays Cadence and I would do an educational activity. I know that at 2 just about everything we do is an educational activity, but I'm trying to do something more specific. Yesterday, we sorted and counted. We started with her Little People figures and sorted and lined up the animals and then the people. Then, we moved on to her kitchen and found all the utensils (knives, forks, spoons) and counted those. This was great fun for her and we got to think about categories and work on one-to-one counting!

P.S. As I snapped this picture, she said, "No, I don't want to smile." Even though I wasn't asking her to smile or even look at me! I think all the Christmas pictures have made her even more opposed to posing for the camera!

What happens when Cadie doesn't get to interact with another kid for a week

Between Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve, Cadence spent all her time with adults, and I think she was ready for another playmate.

She found Rainey napping on the guest bed, brought his entire basket of toys, and proceeded to offer him all of them.

He left.


Note: The guest bedroom is actually rather nice and not at all as junky as these pictures make it look while it is housing the Christmas stuff awaiting storage.

Happy New Year!

We returned home from our Christmas travels and I promptly began to fret about the organization and storage issues in our house. We didn't get that much new stuff for Christmas, but it was enough that we really don't have places to put all of it! I've been feeling like my household management has gotten a little out of control.

I'm not much of a person for New Year's Resolutions, but I've decided I really need to stick to my (very loose) weekly schedule and (rather minimal) weekly goals. To help me achieve some of this stuff, I've found a couple free printables that I hope will help me stay on track. Crystal at Money Saving Mom offers a Customizable Daily Docket here, and Buttoned Up has a Goal List form here.

That said, now I must go clean the bathroom.