Children's Place

The Children's Place is having their annual winter clearance. Price are deep this week as they try to open up space for spring clothes. 1.99, 2.99, 3.99 for shirts, jeans, dresses, and pants. 9.99 for coats, snow boots, and snow pants. If you like to buy for the next year, this is the time to do it.

Chapstick on the Couch

Just when you thought you had it all under control...

All the Single Ladies

Have you seen the SNL clip with Beyonce and Justin Timberlake dancing to this song? Seriously one of the funniest things I've ever seen. Of course if you didn't see if the first time you may never. There used to be a day of "free information". Do you remember Napster when people downloaded tons of music for free? Do you remember when youtube actually used to have clips and even pieces of shows on it? Now nadda. Copy written stuff if pulled immediately. I get it people, you don't want you struff "stolen" but hello American Idol, you don't post the previous weeks stuff on your show, so if I miss it, I miss it and how can connect with your stupid singers. All I can say is, you are only hurting yourself. Anyway I digress...what I actually wanted to talk about was this single lady.

Dr. J started his OB rotation this week...an hour from home. So we have the two hour daily commute and the fact that OB/Gyn doctors actually do keep oncall hours...you know the hours lots of babies are born. Not my kids of course, they like to be born in afternoon, but all the naughty kids are in it for the midnight hours :) Anyway it is a busy rotation, with lots of night on call. I had to mentally prepare myself this week when I saw his schedule. I said, "Ok lady. You are now a single lady again, and your boyfriend is going to be gone a whole heck of a lot." I had a good friend whose husband was an oral maxillary surgeon once tell me, "Expect nothing and then you will be happy with whatever you get." That is the life of a doctor's spouse. It doesn't mean that what I get isn't great. It just means that I have to readjust my expectations, because sadness is expectations unmet. So once again it is time to expect nothing. Hubby home for dinner...don't expect it. Hubby there with you at church...don't expect it. Dates...don't expect them. Hubby there when you sleep at night...don't expect it. Hubby home when you wake up...don't expect it. Hubby able to relieve you of the kids...don't expect it. It is why I have a gym that has babysitting. It is why me being a stay at home mom is an absolute must. It is why every year I consider getting a dog :) Also I've gotten quite good at texting. Because you don't want your phone going off while the doctor is letting you stitch up some woman who is getting a hysterectomy.

Food, Inc.

Well that's it. I'm off a certain food product again, but because of "veggie libel laws" I'm not going to mention what it is. A few years ago I read "Fast Food Nation". It was eye opening and sickening all at once. For a few months I was vigilant, but then I got a little lax. Today I watched Food, Inc. Wow. I came down and told Jason we are off a certain food product. Amazing what our current system of food production does to the farmers, the workers, the animals and to us. Like the movie says though, we vote on what we want three times a day. That was the take home message. Every time we reach for products we tell stores, companies, and the government what we are willing to accepted. I certainly am planning on being a little more proactive but if you want to know what I'm cutting your going to have to call :)

Goals

At one point in my life I had goals, really I did. Then motherhood struck. There is so much minutia but it fills up the days. Goals are important though. Without them you can drowned in the details without really getting anything done. Dr. J and I have decided that we need to get back in the habit of setting goals. Each Sunday we are going to sit down and set a new weekly goal. We hope that accountability will keep us a little more motivated. There are loads of things to do. Educationally we still have 25 articles to transcribe. Physically I have loads of baby weight I want to work on. Plus I'd like to start running again. Household wise, keeping a budget has always been beyond me. It hasn't really mattered while we didn't have any money. I just pay everything I can pay when we do and the rest just has to last until we get paid again. Someday we might actually have some money. It would be nice to know we could manage it when that day comes. I'd also like to find a way to manage my house more effectively. Spiritually I could definitely do better. I remember when I used to try and read two chapters of scripture a night. Recently I told Dr. J my new goal is just to read ten versus a night. He laughed a bit but I think it is perfect. No matter how tired you are, ten versus is doable, and if you aren't tired well then you can read a few more :) Here is to 2010! I'm hoping to get a little more done this year, even if it is just in bits and pieces. Plus I figure what better way to teach your kids about goals them to let them see you set them.

Coat vs. Car Seat

Coat versus car seat, every mom's dilemma. You wrangle them into coats just to get out to the car and have to wrangle them out again so that they will fit in their car seat. Sure you can put them in with their coats, but be prepared for the riot act on how you are not being safe. It is such a dilemma. I heard you can make little ponchos for the car seats. Sounds fun, I guess. Until then I've just been using Peach's coat as leg warmers. Isn't she a cutie!

How to Throw an Awesome Tea Party

After five years of pirate parties I was ready for a girl party. This year I decided to throw my darling three year old a tea party. Forget the fact that we were leaving for a 24 hour drive the next day, a party with seven little girls was just what I wanted. I spent weeks trying to find hats and gloves for the little girls that weren't going to break the bank. I found these little white gloves on ebay for a little less then a dollar a pair. The hats were harder. I'd looked everywhere and finally resigned myself to the fact that I was going to have to shell out three bucks a hat plus shipping, the shipping of course was the worst part. I was kicking myself. At Easter I'd seen hats and gloves at the dollar store. Why hadn't I realized I'd want to throw a party months later...why hadn't I bought them then just knowing I was going to want them later :) Well I decided to check the store one time before I ordered them online. Eureka! On the top shelf I saw them. They had about twenty hats left over from Easter! I got the hats for a dollar a piece! When the girls showed up we gave them the option to put on a dress up dress. Then each girl came to her hat and gloves. We had candy necklaces I'd gotten from Walmart to put together. To help with little fingers we used pipe cleaners, easier for little fingers to string.

For lunch we had cucumber sandwiches. I grated the cucumber with my cheese grater so the slices were nice and thin and used a dash of salt and pepper. To stay authentic I sliced the crust off and cut the sandwiches into fours. I did peanut butter and jelly for the kids but the moms and even some of the kids stuck to cucumbers. They were DELICIOUS! I bought Pepridge Farm Cookies and left them on their paper holders on the plates. The girls loved them. Loved being able to choose any cookie they wanted. To make the table setting special we used glass plates a novelty for a three year old. The best part was the tea. Hubby picked lemonade because he thought it was least likely to stain. The girls loved pouring their own tea. The cups were so small they got lots of practice.

The crowning glory was the "cake". I decided I wanted to do petit fours. I looked online and found out the best type of cake to use was a sponge cake. Sponge cake gets it's lift from beaten eggs. Everything I read said this would be difficult. In comes my Bosch...have I mentioned before that I love it! Whipping eggs with 700+ watts, no problem! My cake didn't even think about falling. After you make your sponge cake you cut the cake into squares. Each square is cut in half and the halves are brushed with a water/sugar syrup. You then put a layer of pudding or cream in the middle. I did a pasty pudding, it was the first time I'd ever made one from scratch. Each cake is then covered with a light layer of buttercream frosting, so the fondant will stick. That is right, I made fondant! Once again I'm totally thankful for the Bosch. I put the ingredients in, started the mixer, no fuss, a few minutes later perfect fondant. I rolled the fondant out on the table and cut it into squares. Each piece of cake got it's own fondant, turning it into a perfect white pillow. The flowers were made with colored tootsie rolls. Each tootsie roll was split into four or five pieces. We softened them up with our fingers and then Dr. J helped me roll them into flowers. Then we rolled out green tootsie rolls, cut leaves, and pressed patterns in with tooth pics. The result was a delicious looking decoration. I put each cake on an extra large cupcake holder. I put three candles on top, and all together they made the perfect little tea party cake. It was a lot of work but it was totally worth it!

Christmas Let Down

Well the holidays are over. Am I the only one feeling a little let down? Perhaps it is the toll the illness that is finally leaving our house took. Maybe it is the lack of room for the five new dolls my daughters got and the six new games the family got. Maybe it is the fact that my wallet is gone, and I'm now thinking there is a good chance it was stolen. Perhaps I'm just sick of the Wii games Dr. J and Little E want to play non stop. Maybe it has to do with the fact that I never got it together to get Christmas cards out. Could it be the fact that my house is just not quite clean. Is it the extra weight the Christmas binges led to. What about the 13 degree weather we have in the Midwest. I can't say for sure but I'm definitely feeling down.