…where you just don’t dress the small children anymore. They get a bath and clean clothes at bedtime, then in the morning and as the day goes on they gradually lose clothing items to food, chalk, sand, mud, etc, and mostly, unless we leave the house, I don’t bother to put new ones on them.
Last week Influenster sent me a product to review! Influenster is basically a place where people can gather and tell about their interests and possibly have the chance to receive some fun new products to review. I signed up because I can’t resist the idea of free stuff, haha, so I was excited to accept the chance to check out the Sally Hansen® Miracle Gel™.
Cooking – Chocolate zucchini cake, apricot jam, zucchini and tomato fry
basically fry sliced zucchini in butter until softened with salt/pepper/herb du provence, add chopped tomatoes and simmer together for a few minutes. I like plenty of tomatoes for a saucy scramble, yum. Good with garlic toast or with eggs for breakfast.
Best Reads – Families Where Grace is in Place, How We Love, A Homemade Life, Pie It Forward, The Rain Stomper, Who’s Hiding?, A Roar of a Snore
Organization – Reduced available dishes in the kitchen for more efficient clean-up, shifted my sewing space to the living room for easier sewing during baby play, rearranged the master bedroom(long needed, pics soon)
So way back at Easter I promised that I’d show you how I made Ascher’s super easy bowtie, but then I tossed it, candy and strawberry smeared, into the washer and it kind of fell apart. Downside of too easy, whoops. I was mulling over how to fix it or create something better for my tutorial, and I kept mulling and the idea just fell out of my head and I totally forgot about it. Then about 6 weeks ago kind reader Mary told me that she was eagerly waiting for the tutorial(sorry Mary!) so I got back to thinking about it and figured out something more durable. After all, a bow tie for a two year old definitely needs to be washable.
So, finally, I present to you the bowtie tutorial.
Clearly I haven’t been blogging recently, so what have I been up to? Looooving summer, that’s what!
First of all, we’ve found it next to impossible to keep up with the kitchen cleaning for the last year. It’s truly disgusting. Part of the problem is that I have so many dishes(I love dishes far too much) that there is really no urgency to wash them every day. Things stack and the sink is good sized and hey, why wash a spoon and bowl when there is another couple dozen clean in the cabinet. But this was the state of the kitchen way too often.
Should mention that we haven’t used a dishwasher for over a year. Ours broke and we’re too picky to replace it. Would it help? I don’t know. The way the old one was working things had to be 90%clean before they went in, and they came out 70% clean. Stupid. So we hand wash it all.
Oh. My. Word. Everything on the counter is dirty. I have to say, I wash at least a sinkful of dishes every day, but if that sinkful is pots and pans, or the silverware, it really doesn’t make much dent in the worst of the cluttery stuff. I should have opened the cupboards to show that I still have probably that much again still clean. I just have tons of great dishes, but if I have to do an hour of cleanup just to expose the counters enough to cook? Insane. Especially when I find myself using(and then washing) a bunch of dishes I’m apathetic about because some part of me “saves” dishes for special occasions. So I got rid of a box of stuff that wasn’t used/was too much/didn’t love. Then, after three two hour washing sessions over three days I got everything clean and away and declared that things were changing. Continue reading
I keep ending up with stashes of photos that can only be classified as “Things I Love About Summer” so I thought I should dump some here. You don’t mind, right?
Our beans are getting big on their trellis!
We’ve been having breakfast most mornings outside, on what I’ve been calling the terrace. Doesn’t breakfast on the terrace have a lovely ring to it? I mean, there’s no terracing involved, but work with me here. Whatever you call it, we get to play outside before it’s blazing hot and we don’t have to wash hands or high chair trays or anything after we’re doing eating, just go play some more. The ants are getting exceedingly well fed, and I’m getting shockingly lax about how long I’ll be ok with the children eating something after it’s fallen on the ground(really only dry stuff…hmm. oh. ew) but small price to pay, right?
I was going to say it’s really only dry stuff(cereal, toast) but then I remembered that Ascher spilled the last of his oatmeal on the way back inside a couple days ago and was playing with it in the gravel, and then went to slide and then when I had him clean it up 20 minutes later he started eating it again. Hmm. Yum. o.O (I did stop him…)
Let’s face it, there really is no graceful way to say I let my kids eat off the ground so often that they don’t know when they shouldn’t. Or to say that occasionally I forget to, until it’s already in my mouth and I’m like, eh, germs are already in now!
Ohmagosh.
*facepalm*
MOVING ON!
They love sunglasses, but only inside. Because that makes sense.
Ascher has been enjoying his sidewalk chalk. He scribbles for a bit, then carries it around in its little bucket, then starts throwing it everywhere which is code for, “We’re done with chalk now!” Wilona’s favorite part is biting it. EEEEWWWW.
On Being a Homegirl 