Category: Household

Categories
Family & Friends Fun Stuff Holidays Household Parenting

2007- The Year in Review

Amy at Crunchy Domestic Goddess  had a post that inspired me today, to do my own year-end review.  She did hers a little differently (and spent more time on it, I’ll add,) I took the first paragraph from the first post of each month, and listed them here.  It was fun to see all the topics I have covered over the course of the year, and am looking forward to continuing to blog about life with my boys, and other topics in 2008!  Links are provided to the entries, in case you want to reminiscence, or missed that post.  Happy 2008 everyone!

A Mama’s Blog 2007 Review

JANUARY

Welcome to A Mama’s Blog– This is my first official blog and entry.  I wanted to start a blog so I can preserve the memories and day-to-day activities with my two sons, Ryan-age 3, and Cole-age 8 months.  They seem to be growing up SO fast, and there are so many fun things they do and say- I want a place where I can preserve this time, and also the time I have now with them as a stay-at-home mama.  I hope one day to be able to print the best entries and give Ryan and Cole a journal of their childhoods.

FEBRUARY

Music Class–  Since Ryan was about a year old, we have been going to music classes, specifically, Music Together, on Thursday mornings.

MARCH

You Know it Has Been a Long Winter– You know it has been WAY to long of a winter, when you are taking off your three-year old’s clothes for the night, and after taking off his sweater, he looks down at his short-sleeved shirt, looks at his bare arms, looks at his Mom & Dad, and bursts out in tears saying,

“Hey, who took my sleeves off my shirt? My arms aren’t covered.”

APRIL

Ryanisms– Two cute things Ryan said yesterday:

“Mommy, I’m an alligator who makes loud noise with sharp teeth.” Then he proceeds to growl.

“I was playing and turned into Mac & Cheese Boy.”

MAY

Ina May Gaskin– Tonight I got to hear “The Greatest Midwife in the World”, Ina May Gaskin, speak for two hours.  She was amazing, and had wonderful things to say about birth, how she became a midwife, her birthing experiences as a mother and as a midwife, breastfeeding, and parenting.

JUNE

Eight Things You Don’t Know About Me– I’ve been tagged by Amy at Crunchy Domestic Goddess  to tell you 8 things you don’t know about me:

JULY

Bachelorette Party– My older (& only) brother is getting married this Thursday.  Last night, I attended a bachelorette party in honor of my almost sister-in-law (K), and I had a blast!

AUGUST

Another Sick Child– Ryan has now come down with the virus Cole had last week.  I honestly can’t remember the last time he has been sick, and he is so miserable.  He just curls up on the couch in the fetal position- poor little guy!  He also has turned into a little dictator- hurling “commands” at me one after another- “I need some water,” I want to watch a little TV,” “I want mac & cheese for lunch,” and so forth.  Since he is hardly ever like this, I am playing “genie’ and his wish is my command.

SEPTEMBER

Social Weekend– On Friday night, I met up with my very good friend, Mary, We used to work together, and now she is an RN and lives about 40 miles away.  I wish we could say we are great staying in touch, but we are both so busy, we don’t get together as often as we like, but when we do, it is like we pick right up from where we left off, from the last time we talked.  I have two sisters, but Mary feels like my “third” sister. 

OCTOBER 

Fall is in the Air– On Sunday, my dad, the boys, and I, went to the mountains to let the boys play, and to see the magnificent fall colors- specifically the Aspens.  Joe had to work, so it was a great day to spend a Sunday!

NOVEMBER

Trick-or-Treat– Our actual Halloween night went pretty much like I thought.  Joe and I both arrived home from work around 5:30, and we ate dinner at Joe’s parent’s house. 

DECEMBER

It’s Christmas Time– Tonight we put up our Christmas tree, and decorated it as much as possible.  Since we have a little munchkin- aka- Cole, we had to decorate the top 3/4’s of the tree, because nothing would last within his grip.  We put a few non-breakable ornaments at the bottom, and Cole is having fun taking them off, and putting them back on.

Categories
Activities Family & Friends Holidays Household Work

Hanging Out, & Other Odds & Ends

We have had a pretty low-keyed week around here.  Joe had the week off, and I went to work on Wednesday, and Thursday.  My boss is out of town, and it was nice to finally catch up on some projects and get organized at work for the New Year. 

We had a major snow storm hit on Wednesday night, and Thursday.  I left early for work on Thursday, and slid across two lanes of traffic on the black ice (even in 4 wheel drive), and came very close to crashing into a tree!  Fortunately, I managed to steer into the curb, and the back wheels of the Jeep stopped me, just before I hit the tree.  I came to a complete stop, and didn’t even hit anything- no trees, houses, people, or other cars.  It took a while for my heart to stop beating though.  I drove super slow the rest of the ride into work!

The boys have been playing with their Christmas toys, and have managed to stay healthy…knock on wood.  Joe and I finally decided to break down, spend the money for a new computer.  Our, er- my computer is over 10 years old!  It has run great, but it is slow, and I am sure it is just a matter of time weeks, before something finally gives out on it.

I have a remote log-in from work, which means I can log in with my home computer and work off the server at work, which is really nice.  I have been doing more and more work from home, and my computer is very slow, working with the brand new server at work.  We also store all of our pictures on Joe’s laptop, but it is running out of room, and we wanted to transfer all of the photos off his laptop on to something with way more storage.  So, we finally justified the purchase. 

We got an HP Pavilion Elite, for a very good deal thanks to some rebates.  It didn’t come with a monitor though, so today we ventured out in the bitter cold temperatures to Circuit City, where we bought our new 24 inch LCD Acer flat screen monitor. 

Then we had to organize clean the crap off our desks, that have been accumulating for a few years.  It wasn’t bad, but it did need a good cleaning.  We put on a Thomas DVD for the boys, and in 40 minutes, had everything cleaned, sifted through, and organized. I can’t believe how much nicer it all looks.  We are pretty organized anyway, but just getting rid of all those loose ends and papers that we didn’t need, really made a difference. 

Now Joe is giving the boys a bath, and hopefully once they are in bed, we will be able to set up the new computer.  I really like my old computer, but am ready to move onward and upward.  After 10 years, I guess it is time.

For the rest of the week, we are just going to hang out and take it easy.  It is supposed to still be cold, but Joe took Ryan sledding yesterday, so maybe we’ll try taking both boys tomorrow for a while.  My brother is also generously giving us his flat screen TV- he upgraded to a new HDTV-, and offered his previous one to us. Did I mention we have a TV that is 15-years old?  I guess we just don’t replace electronics unless they are broken.  Anyway, my dad and him are going to come up and “deliver” it for us tomorrow.

Joe has to go back to work on Monday, and I have an appointment with a doctor for second opinion about me possibly needing braces.  I’ll blog more about that next week.  I also have a few more projects to wrap up for work, so I’ll be doing some work too.

Finally, I am trying to get organized for 2008.  I need to get a calendar, clean out some files, and set up our bookkeeping.  We are excited about 2008- we hopefully have some changes coming our way, but I don’t want to “jinx” it just yet.  When it comes to be, of course I’ll share.

For New Year’s, we will probably go out to dinner, and then just hang out at home.  I can get used to all this relaxing.  🙂

I hope everyone has a safe and Happy New Year’s!

Categories
Current Events Holidays Household

My “Green” Christmas

Our weather is calling for snow tomorrow, and then some on Sunday.  We still have a few inches left on the ground from previous snowfalls, so by all accounts we will have a White Christmas!  Yay!

I have been thinking a lot these last few weeks on how I can make our Christmas a little “greener” as well.  It has always bothered me how much waste gets produced during the holidays, before it became “mainstream” so to speak.  Whenever our families were done opening presents, there was at least one big, huge, trash-bag stuffed with wrapping paper and gift bags.  Not to mention the bows, boxes, tissue papers, ribbons, and cards.

My mom was really good about teaching us to save ribbons and bows, so at least we would try to reuse these items.  I guess it got in my blood, because I am always trying to scavenge the reusable bows, ribbons, and now gift bags (Gift bags weren’t used too much in the 70’s and 80’s when I was growing up 🙂 )

But, even with that, there is still a ton of waste.  I could never save wrapping paper- let’s be honest.  Unless there is a freak of nature unique person, who can open a present with out crumpling, tearing, or creasing wrapping paper, it just isn’t practical to save it and try to reuse it.  It always looks horrible, and it is never the right size.  Believe me, I’ve tried!  This was before I had kids, and there is no way any wrapping paper that my boys even look at, let alone touch, will be in any shape to be reused. 

Amy had a great post earlier this month, on all kinds Green Tips for the holidays.  One of my favorite ones, was running used wrapping paper through your paper shredder, and using it to stuff gift bags.  You could do this year round as well, and use the shredded wrapping paper in gift bags for birthdays, baby showers, etc.  It occurred to me that even if you can’t use all the shredded wrapping paper in gift bags, it could be used as packing (instead of Styrofoam peanuts or bubble wrap) if you are shipping a package.  I’m sure there are other uses for this idea too.

I really love using gift bags.  Not only are they quick to assemble compared to wrapping, but they can be reused several times again.  I doubt I have bought a gift bag in several years.  I save all gifts bags given to me, and reuse them.  This also can save you some money too.

Since I have used a lot of  my “stash” up of gift bags, I realized I may be running low on gift bags and wrapping paper.  I decided not to buy any more wrapping paper, and make due with what I have.  I bought some gift boxes for a few presents, and wondered what kind of wrap I should do for them.  Then I realized that they already had Christmas pictures on them, and they look nice without wrapping paper.  Do I really need to “waste” paper for a box, that a kid will be ripping off in a few seconds anyway?  No.  So I am going to tape the boxes, and add a ribbon to them, and I am done, and hopefully saved a few resources in the process.

For Ryan and Cole’s presents, as well as a few others, they are in large boxes.  I cleaned out my brown paper bag stash, which multiplies faster than rabbits, under my kitchen sink.  I am going to cut them all up, and tape them to fit the boxes, and then put ribbons on them as well.  I’ll have “brown paper packages tied up in strings,” and will be reusing something.  Hopefully, I’ll be saving a few more resources.

If you have any other “green” holiday tips, I’d love to hear them.  I think a lot of people doing a few little things, can make a big difference.

Finally, if you get a Christmas present from me without wrapping paper, or wrapped in brown “recycled” grocery bags, no- I didn’t procrastinate and run out of paper, but you will know ahead of time, why your gift is wrapped this way, and hopefully you will be happy, you are a participant in my green Christmas.  🙂

Categories
Household

A Whole Lota’ Laundry

I don’t mind doing laundry, except for when I am behind on it.

Today, as I was putting some of it away, I started to think about how much laundry I really do:

4 people in our house, X 7 shirts (a day at a minimum; not counting all the days the boys, or myself, goes through more than one shirt) =28 shirts.  Joe wears a t-shirt under his dress shirt, 5 days a week, so that is total of 33 shirts a week.

Same formula as above for pants (but, I know several times a week, the boys go through 2 or even 3 pairs of pants in a day, so I’m rounding to 30) =30 pants

Socks- I literally have been going crazy with trying to sort Ryan and Cole’s socks.  There are so many in different sizes, it’s hard to tell what is a three-year old sock, and what is an 18-month sock.  The sizes are very slight.  I finally had an idea:  after they are done wearing them, before they go into the hamper, I safety pin them together.  This has saved me SO much time in trying to sort them.  Not to mention, saves me from those dreaded lost socks, that just disappear in the wash.    Now when I put them away, I just take the pin out, and fold them up! 

Back to the math.  Two boys X 7 pairs a day =14 pairs of socks.  I’m adding in another 6, because it is a rare day, that one or both boys only wear one pair the entire day.  Then Joe wears 1 pair, 5 X a week (when he works out) =5 pairs, plus his other pairs he wears 7 days a week= 7 more pairs.

Then I wear 7 pairs during the week, so that =7 more pairs, for a total of 39 pairs of socks.  Now if you break this down out of the pairs, that is no less than 78 individual socks going through my wash every week.  No wonder the sorting was getting to me!

Now on to undies- pretty basic here.  Cole is still in diapers, so with Joe and I, 7 pairs a week, X 2 of us = 14 pairs.  Add in Ryan, who uses about 12 pairs a week, and that equals 26 pairs of undies.

Miscellaneous wash for the week: I wash about 25 washcloths a week, 5 kitchen towels, 7 kitchen sink cloths, 15 bath towels, and on average about 65 pieces for Cole’s diapers, counting the inserts and the diapers themselves. 

Grand total of all items I wash per week: 284 items! I also try to line-dry as much as I can, so that means extra time, hanging them out, and taking them down.  Let alone folding, and putting them away. 

I guess I won’t feel so bad if I am a few days behind on putting the clothes away.  The next time Joe wonders why he doesn’t have a clean pair of pants, I’ll print this post out for him.  🙂

Categories
Cole Family & Friends Health Household Ryan

Man Hair, Pictures, & Toy Organization

I was really hoping no one else in my house would get sick, but Cole fell victim to the latest stomach bug today.  Fortunately, it seemed like it was the kind Ryan had the other day- he only vomited once, and was a lot better.

My sister and I are going to take our kids on Sunday to get some winter / holiday / Christmas pictures taken together.  Ryan and Cole are the only cousins Maelin has, and we bought them all coordinating snowman and snow-woman sweaters from Children’s Place over the summer.  We have been looking forward to this for several months.  I am also going to have some pictures of the boys taken together and separately.  It will be Ryan’s four-year picture ( I can’t believe he is almost four!), and Cole’s 18-month picture.  I actually don’t have one picture of the boys together in a “formal picture,” so this is long over-due.   

To get ready for the pictures, we wanted to take Cole to get his hair cut today.  So after his nap when he woke up, Ryan was ready to go.  He went in the room to see if Cole was awake, and he started laughing.  He said, “Coley, your hair is all messed up.  You are going to get a hair cut.  You have man hair.”  I am not sure what “man hair” means, but Cole’s curls do get very matted, but hearing Ryan say that made me laugh.  Cole was a trooper during his haircut.  He sat in the chair all by himself, with a little pout on his face, but he sat still for the entire time, looking in the mirror at himself, and holding my hand. 

I finished up tonight a project that I had started working on earlier in the week, which was to organize the boys’ toys.  I got rid of a lot of stuff that was broken and just junk.  I actually didn’t need as many storage bins that I had bought, but maybe after Christmas, they will come in handy.  It is nice to finally have a handle on their toys. I am going to insist now with Ryan, when he takes one toy out, he puts it back before he gets another one out.  We’ll see how that goes. 

Tomorrow, Joe is going to put together all the train tracks the boys have, and nail them on a board like they do at the toy stores.  Then we will be able to lift the board off, if the boys want to play with the train table, but all their tracks won’t be all over the place.  I am going to work for a few hours, since I missed it the other day, and I am hoping Ryan will be able to help Joe with this, and get excited again about his trains.