Today I Sniffled Less.

Whatever this is, influenza or other viral illness, it has been kicking our bootays! 

I'm just grateful that the first part of it, for me, occurred before the girls came down with it. 

Now it appears that Ash has it the worst (fever, cough, congestion) and Britt only has the occasional sniffle.  Elle is in between.  She only has a booger nose (and a LOT of grumpy to go with it!).  Say a little prayer for my girls though, please.  Especially Ash. 

(life saver)

This stuff has been my best friend.  Basically the only way I could sleep at night!  Tastes worse than anything else I've ever put in my mouth before though!


Yesterday and today are the first time in almost two weeks that I had any energy to do more than basic house upkeep. 

Have you ever tried housecleaning tips from Pinterest?  I've certainly pinned my fair share but I finally got around to trying one out.  I was so done with the way our microwave looked (my husband's job) that I thought I'd give boiling vinegar a try.

 (embarrassing)

Basically, I filled a glass bowl half full of water, added 1/3 vinegar and heated it in the microwave until it was boiling.  Then I, carefully, removed it and wiped all the yucky stuff out!  Because it had been a while since our microwave had been cleaned, I had to dip the sponge into straight vinegar and go over a couple spots, but really?  Not bad.  I think that if I (or Tony) would just do this more often, it'll seriously be a cinch every time.  Putting a lid on cooking items would help a lot too.  :P

(like brand new!)

Oh, yeah, I got my hair done a couple days back.  I posted this on Facebook with the promise I'd post a better pic soon.  I'll go ahead and throw out that same vow here.  Hehe.

 (it's the color i'm showing off.  my cut was just a trim since i'm growing it out.)

Today I Don't Feel So Great.

I don't know if I have the flu or a REALLY bad cold, but it hit me with a vengeance yesterday morning, let up this morning and just got worse again as the day progressed.  I've pretty much been in bed or on the sofa for the past two days.  This stuff is the pits.

But, what has been making me feel emotionally down is that this illness is drying me up.  Ellis may have to wean even though neither of us are ready.  Granted, she will be a year at the end of this month.  And she only nurses about 3 times a day max anyway.  But she doesn't like any of the milk substitutes I gave the other two when they weaned (almond, rice, oatmeal and coconut, we don't do soy). She definitely has an issue with cow dairy products. I tested them on her. The reaction was swift, red, ouchy, and itchy (all over her poor bum). I had Tony pick up some goat's milk tonight to try tomorrow. I'm feeling rather depressed about the whole thing. How am I going to get enough protein, calories, and calcium down her?  She likes water, but water has no calories. She doesn't even care for juice much. Just mommy milk and water.  She also won't eat vegetables unless they are in soup. She's the pickiest eater I've ever had.  She won't even eat bread!  I'm going to have Tony pick up a calcium supplement tomorrow, so I don't have to worry about that one anymore.

**sigh**

Any suggestions or words of wisdom would most appreciated right now.  

(as you can see, she will eat cookies.)

Today I Ate Off of and Drank Out of Fine China.

Tony and I were married in '07.  That year, on my birthday, he bought me a china set that I had really wanted.  An 8 place set.  8 bowls, salad plates, dinner plates, tea cups, saucers, and 1 big serving bowl, platter, creamer, and sugar bowl.  A super nice set that I adored!  Still do.

I can remember using it once.  It was for an Easter brunch we had with two other couples.  The day after that brunch I got morning sickness for the first time in my life.  My first trimester with Ash was hard.  We moved during my second trimester and those china pieces have been nestles in a storage container ever since.

Today was the first time that I've used my china set in over four years!

I actually decided that not only would I get it out and serve my kids breakfast on it, I decided to donate and/or sell every other cup, plate, and bowl that we own (aside from the children-sized dishes we have).

I have wasted 5 years with my set.  It was never displayed and only used once.  I realized that it makes no sense to have so many dishes and keep saving the ones I like best for a special occasion that never happens.  Holidays come and go, and I either use disposable stuff or our everyday mismatched stuff.  Why?  We're supposed to treat each moment with our loved ones as special.  So - I'm doing that with my china, from now on. 

And, yes, I am letting my kids use my china too.  It's just STUFF.  And stuff can be replaced.  Skipping the feeling of eating everyday food on special day china?  Surrounding myself with a couple of pretty things that make me smile (instead of a lot of substandard items)? That can be missed, which is sad.  I'm not going skip out on another one of those moments!

I had some mint hot chocolate tonight.  Mmmmmmm.  And yes, it DID taste better in my beautiful tea cup!  :)

Today I Made Pizza.

Today I tried out a King Arthur's Flour pizza recipe.  They have a LOT of pizza recipes I want to try.  Our dinner this evening was St. Louis-Style Pizza.  It was delish!  I didn't make it as thin crust as it called for (my personal preference is soft) and I still think this recipe was awesome! 

If you want to recreate this, I can definitely recommend it.  I must say that part of the reason why it was so good is because I used a homemade spaghetti sauce recipe that I had added hamburger to.  I think it made the pizza so much better than it would have been with a store bought jar of marina. 

(source)

Today I Just Want to Say Happy New Year!

 (a year of unknown adventure!)

3 days into it.  How's it going?  Have you broken any resolutions?  Did you even make any?

Wanna know what my resolutions for 2013 are?  Of course you do.  :P

1. Be healthier.
This doesn't mean that I'm gonna go all crazy about weighing, measuring, calorie counting, etc.
I simply want to go to bed earlier, eat more fresh and homemade food, and make a habit out getting in some form of daily exercise.

2. I want to be more accepting of myself and those I love.  I tend to cut friends some slack but I hold myself and the ones closest to me up to some seriously high standards!  I think that expecting the best isn't bad, but being unrealistic, judgmental, and ugly when I fall short of the goal or when loved ones let me down just isn't healthy.

3.  I want to take every single class that BYU offers in their online independent studies series.   I should probably make this a goal to extend over 2013 and 2014.  We'll see.  Again, struggling with being realistic about what I can accomplish in a day.

4.  I want to attempt to be more connecting.  I'm a project person and I often brush others off when I'm in the middle of working on something.  I want to try harder to pull myself away from my activities long enough to give my husband a genuine hug and kiss good-bye and/or hello, to look my girls in the eyes when they interrupt to tell me something, and to think about how I can help when I friend texts me about their struggles.  Basically, I want to be more Christlike in my daily interactions with others.  I want to truly love people because those relationships are a million times more important than checking something off my to-do list. 


So - there they are.  Just 4, but I've still got my work cut out for me. 

Happy New Year!  Let's make 2013 the best yet!

Today I Gave Ash a Project.

Today I gave Ash a pile of letter stickers (one set of the entire alphabet) and a sheet of construction paper and told her to put the letters in order. 

I started out by telling her to find the letter A and put it on the top, left-hand corner of the paper.  Then I asked her what came after A and helped to begin singing the ABC song to figure it out.  Then to find B and put it on the paper after A.  So on and so forth.  It was rather painstaking and slow.  At about D, she asked for our copy of the Amazing Action Alphabet book so she could just figure it out herself.  I was impressed with her problem solving skills and thankful that she was smarter than me about it because it freed me up to do my own project.  :) 

 

(working diligently)

(done!)

Today I Want to Wish You All a Merry Christmas!

How was your Christmas?  I hope it was wonderful! 

Ours was positively magical.  I have really seen a lot of love and goodwill towards and from mankind this holiday season.  And that has truly made it a beautiful Christmastime for our family.  

 (my sweet babies, at church, in their christmas dresses.*)

Today I have had a touch of stomach buggy-ness.  I hope it stops with me.  But it didn't get me down! (ok, a laid down more than a couple time for 5-10 mintues, here and there)  Oh no!  We got up around 7:30 and went downstairs.  The girls were so excited, they went back and forth between their stockings from Santa and their presents under the tree.  I love how they still want to take it all in and not rush through everything.  

(being silly)

Tony made breakfast but I was feeling too yucky to enjoy it.  He was a total rock star and joined me in making an awesome Christmas dinner that took us a long time to prepare.  We had pepper pot stew (with chicken, not tripe), garlic chicken, root beer (that I jazzed up with cinnamon sticks, cloves and vanilla), ginger ale, grapes, cheesy celery and pickles.  Totally forgot to make the mashed potatoes and put the olives out!  Oh well.  We've still got lots of leftovers!  Yay!

We also had some friends over for dessert.  I made a triple chocolate cake and they brought Oreo caramel cheesecake (sooooo amazing) and a yummy chex mix.  

I'm ready for a vacation now!  Haha!  A girl can wish, right?

*Something I thought was funny about these dresses: they are all Ash's! Ash is wearing her same Christmas dress from last year in 2011. Britt is wearing Ash's Christmas dress from 2010. And Elle is wearing a dress I bought for Ash for the Christmas of 2009 that never got used (I bought her 3 Christmas dresses that year). Worked out perfectly!

 Ok.  Now I've gotta announce the giveaway winner (a day late).

 (sorry that it's so small)

Saimi!  You won!  Pick out a magazine from my list and I'll contact you or you can get a hold of me.  Whomever gets to it first.  :)


Merry Christmas everyone!!!  How did you celebrate today?