Monday, November 28, 2011

December Meal Plan

For November I decided to try planning our dinners out for the whole month instead of one week at a time. And it turns out that I really like doing it that way so today I planned out our meals for December. My method this time was slightly different - each day of the week was assigned a "theme." Sunday is pizza night, Monday is slow cooker recipes, Tuesday is for new recipes, Wednesday is mexican, Thursday is soups, Friday is pasta and Saturday is miscellaneous. It worked out so great! I'd recommend it.

Here's what we'll be eating for December...

1- Chili in bread bowls, raw veggies & dip
2- Spaghetti carbonara, salad, garlic bread
3- Stuffed peppers, dinner rolls, salad?
5- African stew over couscous, veggie?, dinner rolls
7- Mexican lasagna, applesauce
8- Cheeseburger soup, salad, biscuits
9- Spaghetti w/meatballs, frozen veg, garlic bread
10- Shredded turkey sandwiches, sweet potato fries, fruit
11- Pepperoni/pepper/onion pizza
12- Perfect pot roast, biscuits
13- dinner at small group
14- Texas chicken quesadillas, chips & salsa, fruit
15- Chicken meatball soup, corn bread
16- Lasagna, garlic bread, salad or veggie
17- Homemade chicken nuggets, mashed potatoes, veggie
18- Pepperoni & sausage pizza
19- Slow cooker beef stroganoff, veggie or salad
20- California chicken wraps, chips, fruit
21- Tacos, fruit
22- Chicken noodle soup, biscuits, salad
24- in WI
25- in WI
26- in WI?
28- Chicken fajitas, chips and guacamole
29- Taco soup, biscuits
31- Sweet & sour short ribs over noodles, frozen veggie

Many of these we've had before and liked, but some are new. I hope you find some you like!

Thursday, November 3, 2011

November Meals

So I had a request or two for my November menu. I'm trying out planning meals a month at a time and so far I love it. Here's what on tap for this month...

Carrot & Potato Casserole
Risotto primavera, chicken breasts, salad
Garlic chicken alfredo pizza
Manicotti, salad, garlic bread
All Day Stew, biscuits, salad
Crock-pot chicken, acorn squash, salad
Chicken wild rice soup, salad, bread
French dip sandwiches, veggies & dip
Scotch eggs, toast, fruit
Chili in bread bowls, veggies & dip
Corn/ham/noodle casserole, biscuits, veggie
Cheeseburger soup, salad, bread
Lasagna, veggie, garlic bread
Stuffed peppers, biscuits
Philly cheesesteak sandwiches, chips, fruit & veggies
Italian chicken stew, biscuits
Couscous w/African stew, biscuits, salad

That's a meal for almost every night. It's inevitable that some nights we'll have leftovers instead or eat at a friends house, etc. Anything not eaten in November will be the start of December's meal plan. About half of these are tried and true favorites of ours and the other half are brand new recipes we've never tried before. I hope you try some and enjoy!

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Lola - 18 months



My dear sweet little peanut, you are 18 months old now! Lately I am very aware that you are growing up quickly and that I need to savor what remains of your baby-ness before it's gone. These are some of my favorite things about you at 18 months.

The way you pronounce words. Oh my goodness, your words are so stinkin' cute! And you are a total parrot. You copy everything you hear. These are just a small portion of the words that you say now...

wish = fish
winnie = windy
moke = milk
omit = open
manna = banana
app-oh = banana :)
wing = swing
box = socks
nack = snack
orn = horn
am-en-uh = airplane
pay-dough = playdoh
dide = outside
ca-wah = Clara
be too = me too

Your fine, wispy hair. Right now your hair is so blond and so baby soft. At it's longest point it is about at your shoulders. It has grown so much in the past six months that now it is in your eyes a lot. Recently we have started giving you a little ponytail on top of your head, which is super cute.

Running down hills. We have a small hill in our front yard and you like to run down it. You get excited and want me to watch you run. Then you take off running and usually for a few seconds you have a panicked look on your face because you are going so fast for your little legs that you must think for sure you will wipe out. Sometimes you do fall, but more often you make it down the hill just fine and then the smile returns to your face.

Da-da-daaaaaaaaaah! This is what you say when you've accomplished something and you're very proud of yourself. I can't do it justice with written words. You say it so loud and you build up to such strength by the last syllable that you're pretty much yelling at the top of your lungs. And of course with a smile on your face and often hand gestures too for added emphasis. It's definitely a favorite thing of ours that you do.

Kisses and hugs. You are a busy lady, but not too busy to give Mommy a fair amount of hugs and kisses. And your hugs are just the best. You wrap both arms around my neck and squeeze with all you've got. There's no way to be in a bad mood when you hug me. And sweet kisses on the lips too.

Humming at bedtime. Ever since your big sister was a baby we've always hummed the same song to her and now you at naptimes and bedtime. Now you hum with us. You don't perfectly follow the tune, but you're darn close sometimes.

Calling for your friends. When we get you out of bed you often want to bring all your stuffed animals out with you. We'll pick up you and buddy and then turn to walk out of the room only to have you pointing at your bed saying "bear, bear, bear!" Then we get bear and turn to walk out of the room and hear "orse, orse, orse!" So we go back for horse and then hear "baby, baby, baby!" so we go back for baby and hear "mickey, mickey, mickey" and so on until the bed is empty and your arms are overflowing.

Mo, mo! You love music and know how to ask for more. Whether we're in the car listening to a kid's CD and a song ends, or Clara is singing to you as you guys try to fall asleep at night, or a song is playing on one of your toys, the instant it stops you start hitting your fists together (sign language for "more") and saying "mo, mo!"

I'll probably think of more favorite things which I'll have to come back and add later, but this is a great start. You are just so cute and sweet and fun right now and I'm already grieving the loss of your babyhood. I hope that writing these things down will help me to come back to them years from now when you're a big girl.

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Play kitchen

Here it is... the reveal of the play kitchen we've been working on! It's not totally done yet, but I couldn't resist sharing pictures of the progress because I'm just so happy with it and so impressed with Jeremy's skills.

This is what we started with. The little nightstand from my sister is going to get a fresh paint job and a door so the girls can use it as their fridge, but that has yet to be started. The brown bookcase was one we already had and weren't using.


Jeremy turned the bookcase into this!
It definitely needs some accessories, but isn't it so fun already?!

I'm going to make a curtain to hang under the sink.

The faucet handles and the stove/oven knobs really turn!

Way to go, Jeremy! You're the greatest!

Friday, July 1, 2011

Maker's Diet: The Final Day

Okay, so call me weak, or a quitter, or whatever else you like, but we decided yesterday to stop The Maker's Diet altogether. Sticking to such a restrictive diet is harder than I thought it would be, especially since Jeremy was never fully on board with me. And ultimately I wasn't planning for us to stay on this diet forever so I started wondering if it was really worth it. Perhaps there are other changes we can make that will work better for us.

The four days that it lasted were good in that I learned some things...

1. I can get by on less food than I used to eat.
2. My kids will sometimes eat things that I wouldn't have guessed they would eat- like carrot sticks with guacamole or almond butter- so I need to be more diligent about offering them those healthy options rather than being quick to run to things like graham crackers and Cheerios.
3. I did feel better on the diet, so leaning more toward that will probably be good for me.

And going forward I'm working on a list of things to implement (or at least try) in our diet...

1. Making bread and other things with sourdough starter. I've been working for 2 1/2 weeks on making my own sourdough starter and I think it might be close to being ready!

2. Making kombucha and getting Jeremy and I to drink it regularly. We'll see if the girls will like it.

3. Making water kefir because I know the girls like this one (at least Clara does... Lola hasn't tried it).

4. Learning how to sprout/soak grains and legumes before cooking with them. This makes them more digestible and your body is better able to absorb their nutrients.

5. Seeking out more healthy snack options for all of us.

6. Learning how to ferment vegetables. And ultimately lots of other things too, but I'm trying to start small and not overwhelm myself.

7. Trying really hard not to use the microwave anymore.

8. Getting rid of our plastic food storage containers. This will have to happen slowly as I can purchase glass to replace them.

There's more on my list probably, but I'm trying to be reasonable. Baby steps.

Although we quit the diet, I do think it was good as a mini-detox for us and I think it's something we might consider again in the future.

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Maker's Diet: Day Four

We made it through another day of phase one. Though I will confess for Jeremy that he broke the rules. He had lunch plans today that were on the calendar prior to us starting this diet, so he took the opportunity to eat a hamburger (with the bun) and french fries. And he said it was the most delicious burger and fries he had ever eaten. :)

I haven't cheated yet today, but the fact that he cheated makes me almost feel justified in cheating myself. A bowl of cereal is sounding pretty good to me right now!

Seriously though, we might start phase two tomorrow. I haven't decided for sure yet, but I'm considering it. I told Jeremy from the beginning that I'm okay with shortening phase one and the book says doing phase one for even just a few days is beneficial. We'll see what happens when we wake up tomorrow.

Here's what I ate today...

Breakfast- fried eggs and turkey bacon

Snacks- grain-free blueberry muffin, almonds, strawberries

Lunch- carrots w/guacamole, cherries, grain-free blueberry muffin, hamburger patty

Snack- cherries, almonds, sunflower seeds

Dinner- stuffed green pepper, coconut flour bread w/raw honey

This one's for Uncle Jeff

Thanks for the cute outfit, uncle Jeff!


I really do like it, despite the fact that I'm crying.
(My sister probably just stole a toy from me.)

Summer fun day!

Last night I was driving home from a Norwex party and I was just feeling the urge to do something special and fun with the girls today. The best ideas I could come up with were the free zoo or strawberry picking. After looking online to see where the strawberry farms are, I called my cousin at 8:15 this morning to ask if she wanted to meet us at one between my house and hers. She said she had plans to watch her niece and nephew, but that she's be up for it if her sister could come along to help. Everything lined up so we left at 10:00 to meet up for some strawberry picking!


Four of the six kids picking strawberries. Somehow I didn't get any pictures of Clara picking. :(


Lola was confined to the stroller, but she occupied herself very well eating strawberries!

And after awhile she did get annoyed with the stroller, but I didn't trust her not to tromp all over the plants.


They had this "cow train" at the farm and the whole time we were picking berries the kids were asking to ride the train, so when we finished picking we did oblige them. It was fun, but that was one bumpy ride!


After 2 1/2 hours in the sun and not leaving the farm until almost an hour past naptime, of course the kids passed out in the car.

After naps and snacks we headed out to the deck for this summer's first swim in the little wading pool that I recently bought. The kids absolutely loved it! And I loved that I got to sit under the shade of our patio umbrella and read a book while they splashed around for an hour.


Summer days like this are just the best!

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Maker's Diet: Day Three

Day three was definitely better than day two for me. No signs of detox today!!

Here's what we ate:

Breakfast- I made grain-free waffles using almond flour. They were only okay. We ate them with almond butter on them and strawberries and blueberries on the side. They were kinda dense, and of course dry since we couldn't use syrup on them. I don't think I'll be making them again. At least not while we're banned from maple syrup. They did fill me up though. I always snack in the morning, but today I didn't need to.

Lunch- leftover omelet and chicken sausage from breakfast yesterday, and some cherries

Snacks- almonds, cherries, 1/2 of a blueberry muffin

Dinner- bunless hamburgers, side salad of lettuce/spinach/carrots, strawberries

Bedtime snack- grain-free blueberry muffin, another strawberry or two and a couple blackberries and cherries

You know the saying "The silence is deafening"? I'd like to coin a new phrase since starting this diet... "The lack of being really full is definitely noticeable." I don't think it will catch on, but it's true. I've realized that I usually reach for food at the first sign of possible hunger. The past three days I wouldn't say I've been hungry, but I've never felt stuffed, and unfortunately it's been a strange feeling. So that's one lesson learned from this experience- I probably used to eat too much.

The other thing I've noticed is how easy this diet is on the digestive system. My stomach has felt really good (aside from that detox period)! I'm hoping this continues as we add in more foods when we enter phases two and three.

Also, Jeremy was kinda grumpy at dinner tonight and sarcastically asked me if there was anything he could eat while I was gone for the evening. I think the lack of variety is starting to get to him. And I don't think he appreciated having to eat his burger without a bun.

Monday, June 27, 2011

Maker's Diet: Day Two

Day two was definitely more difficult than day one, at least for me. I slept fine last night, but when I woke up this morning I felt kinda awful. I dragged myself out of bed when the girls started crying and I just could not wake up. Physically I felt like I could barely get up and do anything. My head was so foggy and my stomach felt weird. I don't really know how to describe it because it was unlike anything I've ever felt before. Phase one of this diet is designed to detox/cleanse your body and I think what I was feeling this morning was the effects of that.

Jeremy was kind enough to make breakfast for us, which I think did help me some and by late morning I was able to get going and start being a productive member of the family again. By this evening I'd say I pretty much felt back to normal again. We even went for a bike ride to the park after dinner.

Honestly, when I felt awful this morning I was seriously questioning this diet and wishing I could go back in time and never decide to do it. But now that I'm feeling better I have a better attitude about it again. I can definitely see benefits from it already after only two days.

I've eaten way more vegetables in the past two days than I used to. I've never been anti-vegetables, but it was just easy to choose other things because of convenience or cravings. And I'm also finding myself offering foods to the girls that I otherwise wouldn't have. Like yesterday Clara had carrot sticks with guacamole instead of ranch dressing.

What did we eat today?

Breakfast- omelets (no cheese, no milk) with onions and green peppers, chicken breakfast sausage, strawberries

Lunch- large salad (two kinds of lettuce, baby spinach, carrots, sugar snap peas, green peppers) with grilled chicken and all-natural ranch dressing, cherries

Snack- today I made grain-free blueberry muffins with almond flour- they were quite yummy so I ate two of them this afternoon, plus snacking on cherries here and there

Dinner- salmon, broccoli, acorn squash seasoned with butter, nutmeg, cinnamon and raw honey

Dessert- I pureed some strawberries, frozen blueberries, frozen raspberries and some coconut milk beverage (I think this is actually not approved, but I used a small amount... it ended up like a melty sorbet kind of and it was yummy... Lola agreed wholeheartedly! I also had another of those yummy blueberry muffins! And I'm thinking about a handful of almonds before bed.

So really I don't feel deprived because we're eating lots of good stuff. We'll just be glad to have more variety when we enter Phase Two. We'll see how tomorrow goes. I'm hoping for no more detox.

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Intro to The Maker's Diet and Day One

Today we started The Maker's Diet. If you haven't heard of it, you can read more about the author's story here. I read the book in May and knew right away that I wanted Jeremy and I to do his 40-day cleanse, but it has taken me until now to get up the nerve to take the plunge (and to convince Jeremy to do it with me).

It's set up in three phases, with phase one being the most restrictive and with each new phase you can add back more foods. The first two weeks are phase one, the second two weeks are phase two and the remainder is phase three. And the author advocates staying on phase three forever. It starts out so restrictive for the purpose of detoxing your body.

Because it starts out so restrictive and I question our willpower, I'm strongly considering having us do phases one and two for just one week each. I guess we'll just see how this week goes and make a decision when the time comes. The author even says you can start at any phase you want, but he recommends everyone do phase one for at least a few days to detox, so I take that to mean doing only one week of phase one instead of two weeks would still be very beneficial.

So why are we doing this? Primarily because of Jeremy's lyme disease and my long history of having a not-so-good stomach. This diet is supposed to help inflammation, which Jeremy definitely has a lot of from his lyme disease. And it's also supposed to help with digestion and gut health, which I apparently need.

After we finish this 40-day (or less) cleanse, my current plan is to just move us into more of a whole-foods, traditional foods diet. We've always felt like we eat fairly healthy, but I know there's lots of room for improvement. I especially want to learn about lacto-fermentation of foods and how to incorporate them into our diet because they are so good for gut health, and therefore overall health. I'm currently working on making a sourdough starter to kick things off!

So that's that. I decided today that I want to blog about this Maker's Diet adventure, mostly so I will have a record of how it went, how we felt about it, the struggles, and hopefully the joys of it.

So what did we eat for our first day of our new diet?

Breakfast - eggs fried in coconut oil, peppered turkey bacon, organic strawberries

Lunch - large salad of mixed greens, baby spinach, green pepper, carrots, sugar snap peas, tomato, and grilled chicken... Jeremy ate some salad dressing that I mixed up, but I wasn't crazy about it so I broke the rules and had a bit of all natural ranch dressing... we also tried the coconut flour bread that I made today, with a bit of almond butter on it

Dinner - stuffed peppers (green peppers stuffed with free-range ground beef, zucchini, tomato, onion... really yummy), guacamole with carrot sticks and sugar snap peas

Dessert - smoothies that weren't very good (mixed frozen berries, coconut milk, vanilla, almond butter, water, Jeremy added goat's milk yogurt into the second batch), we ate them but they were kind of disappointing... I'll be searching out some better recipes

Snacks - fresh berries, almonds, coconut flour bread

For the most part it was all really yummy and healthy-feeling. I ate more veggies today than I do most days, by far. I definitely had some cravings though, for things like tortilla chips with the guacamole, a salty snack, a sweet treat after lunch. I'll be interested to know how long it takes for cravings like that to go away.

Oh and we're not putting the girls on this diet. They're obviously eating some of the same things as us, but I'm not yet making any drastic changes to their diet.


Friday, May 13, 2011

Easter

Here's a peek at our Easter celebration...

Some pictures of the girls in their nice dresses before they got all messed up.


Aren't these cheeks just so irresistible?

And those big blue eyes! Combine that with the fact that she's still kind of a baby and hasn't yet entered the "terrible twos" and oh my... this girl just steals my heart a million times a day.

Attempting to wrangle the cousins before setting them loose for our first ever (and definitely not the last) Easter egg hunt.

Jeremy helped Lola and she actually really got into it.


Clara was so totally excited about the hunt! I've got some cute videos of both of them that I'll put on my Facebook page.


Listening to Oompa read the Easter story.

And opening some special Easter gifts from Nana and Oompa.

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

March recap

Here's a recap for myself of what March looked like in relation to my New Year's Resolutions...

1. Daily Bible reading - I finally felt like I was getting into the groove of waking up before the girls and spending some time in the Word and then we started putting Lola in Clara's room overnight and that totally messed up our early morning routine, and thus my Bible reading habit. It used to be that if Clara woke up before 7:00 I would change her diaper and get her a few books and make her stay in bed. But since we put Clara and Lola together they wake each other up and then Lola will often just cry in bed because she doesn't understand the concept of looking at books until I come to get her. So this is an area that needs some work again.

2. Work on my 2011 reading list - I didn't read a ton in March, partly because I was trying to venture away from parenting books, but really all I want to read right now is parenting books. Eventually I decided just to go with it and I picked up Simplicity Parenting. I'm almost done with it and will plan to write a brief book review of it here soon. Then I think I'll be moving on to Last Child in the Woods.

3. Get into a habit of having family devotions - Yay! We finally improved in this area in March! Several of the evenings that Jeremy was home we would clean up after dinner and then we'd put blankets on the living room floor and sit down together to read a Bible story and then sing a song or two. Clara really likes it. Lola wanders around the room sometimes, but at least she's hearing what's going on.

4. No TV or internet for us between dinnertime and the girls bedtime - We're decent with this, but not 100% committed.

5. Work on Kitchen Stewardship's Top 10 Foundational Habits - I have to say I don't think about this one very much. I know there are improvements we could make in our diet, but I'm choosing to spend my limited time on other things right now. Though in March I did place an order for some organic, free-range chickens to purchase this summer from a friend of my cousin. My biggest motivation in doing that is to make homemade chicken broth.

6. Potty train Clara - well we're SLOWLY but surely working on this. We have a sticker chart on the wall and she gets a special treat when she goes potty. Honestly I'm not diligent about it at all. She mostly will go #1 on the toilet after she takes a bath. She has yet to go #2 on the toilet because she has a complete fit if we try to get her to. Maybe someday soon I'll work harder at this and try to get the job done once and for all.

7. Work toward a routine for me and the girls - I did write up a daily routine awhile back, but we didn't do so well at following it in March. And now that the weather is getting nicer it will probably change to include lots of outside time. Plus we recently joined Life Time Fitness so I'll need to work that into our routine as well.

8. Have two Norwex parties per month - well we've actually decided to up this to four parties per month so we can hopefully make extra payments on our school debt. In March I just did two parties, but in April I have four on the calendar!

9. Take the girls outside on every nice day - This was a non-issue in March because there weren't many nice days. I think we got outside maybe 3 times. This month will be a different story though. We've already been out a few times, including this morning.

10. Do more crafts - My mind might be failing me, but I don't think I crafted much in March. Yesterday I did some sewing though!

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Starting my own business

In my post the other day about our office renovation I mentioned that I'm starting my own business. A few of you have asked about that so I thought I'd just link you back here for more info.

Monday, March 21, 2011

The office reveal!

Well I've been wanting to redo our office for months! It was ugly and a mess and just really not functional for us. My wise husband said we had to wait until we got our tax refund back so I waited (not always patiently) and waited and I'm glad I did.

Two weekends ago we painted and picked out furniture. And just this past weekend we put things on the wall and took care of the finishing touches, so to speak. For the week in between we disagreed on how to decorate and what colors to use for accents, but finally we were able to come to an agreement that we're both very happy with. If you know us well you might be surprised to see how modern it is. I'll confess I'm surprised too because that's not what I usually gravitate toward, but I took a chance on Jeremy's ideas and it paid off.

So here he is painting the ceiling...


There used to be shelves above my desk, but we took them down before I thought to take pictures.




Ta da! A pretty, freshly painted, organized and highly functional office! I like to call it "the IKEA special" because pretty much everything is from Ikea - desks, printer cart, chairs, wall file, shelves, cubby bookcase and the fabric that we put on canvases and hung on the wall.


We got a cubby bookcase that has tons of storage space so we're still figuring out how best to use it, but we're well on our way. And we painted the walls a very pale gray that I think turned out really nice. It's subtle and neutral and great!


Especially since I'm starting up my own business it feels really good to have a nice, organized space that I can walk into and feel motivated and ready to work. Thank you, tax return money!


Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Happy 1st Birthday, Lola!

My dear sweet, darling girl.... you are ONE today!

At 6:00 AM on March 9, 2010 I was largely pregnant with you.

And at 12:49 PM we got to meet you and see your beautiful face!

You wasted no time in stealing our hearts. Since the day you were born you have been nothing but sweetness and joy. Okay, maybe not EVERY moment, but pretty close. Almost without exception everyone who spends time with you tells us how sweet-natured, happy and smiley you are.

You are getting to be a big girl now. Not so much a baby anymore, which makes mommy a little sad at times. I will miss the cute little baby things you do.

Like the time you were playing in the living room and you literally just put your head down on the floor and passed out asleep.

And the way you scooted everywhere on your bottom rather than learning to crawl.

And your yummy, chubby cheeks! I could kiss them all day long!

You aren't taking any steps on your own yet, but for the past few weeks you've been pulling yourself up to standing by the furniture. You've gotten very good at it, but it seems like you sometimes don't know what to do once you get up there.

You don't have many words yet. You say "ba" for "bye" and if we ask for a kiss you put your hand up to your mouth as if to blow a kiss. You make other sounds like "da" and "ga" and "ma" but they still seem to be just jabber rather than real words.

We are beginning to wonder if you might be really easy to discipline like your mommy was. If you're going after something and we tell you "no" you usually stop right away and just start crying.

You really like when we put sunglasses on you. You'll sit there just looking at us with a silly little smirk on your face, as if you know you're super cute.

You have six teeth now and no more patience for pureed foods of any kind. I can occasionally get a little spooned foods into you, like oatmeal or cottage cheese, but for the most part you definitely prefer anything that you can feed to yourself with your fingers. You eat lots of banana, Cheerios, graham crackers, apples, peaches, pears, dried prunes, avocado, lunch meat, turkey hot dogs, cooked carrots, potatoes, bread, cheese, pancakes, toast. I'm not sure if there's anything that you don't like right now. This morning mommy had a piece of coffee cake and you were very quick to scoot over, open your mouth and say "ahhhh" and beg me for bites. You loved it!

We are SO happy to be your parents, and your big sister loves you SO much (even if she does steal toys from you all day long)! Happy birthday, Lola!

Monday, February 28, 2011

February Recap

So this is mostly for my own accountability, but read on if you're interested. I'm reviewing how I did with my New Year's resolutions this month.

Daily Bible reading - this month was better than last month, but still not as good as I'd like. I read probably half of the days this month.

Work on 2011 reading list - I finished Professionalizing Motherhood and I read Steady Days. Both good books, but I really loved Steady Days. I do plan to write a summary of them on the blog, soon I hope. I was hoping to get one more book done this month, but I ended up devoting a lot of time to Clara's quiet book instead since I knew we'd be going out of town this past weekend and I wanted her to be able to use it in the car.

Get in the habit of family devotions - we're still struggling to make this happen, though there were a handful of days that we did something really intentional.

No TV between dinnertime and Clara's bedtime - I feel like this one has fallen off our radar a bit this month. I need to talk to Jeremy about this and not be so quick to push that 'on' button. But hopefully before too long it will get nicer outside and we'll naturally want to be out there rather than watching TV.

Work on Kitchen Stewardship's Top 10 Foundational Habits - yep, we're still slowly working on this. Several of them I do already, but I have yet to try making homemade yogurt or bone broth. Someday this year I will. At least the broth for sure. For some reason the yogurt kinda scares me still!

Potty train Clara - we actually made some progress on this in February! She is showing a bit more interest and has actually worn underwear for a small portion of a few days. She's gone potty in the toilet five times in the past week and a half!

Work toward a routine for me and the girls - we've made some progress on this too this month! Steady Days helped give me some ideas and fresh motivation so I did write up a routine and post it on our fridge last week and we're trying it out. It's not drastically different from what our days looked like before, but it's working pretty well I think. And I know it will change once the weather is nice and we start playing outside more too.

Have two Norwex parties each month - totally didn't meet that goal in February. I had no parties, but I do have two on the calendar for March and I'm hoping for more.

Take the girls outside on every nice day - totally didn't do this either. I think we went out for a walk once. They've been sick a lot so we've been indoors a lot. A lot. I'm so longing for health for our family again.

Do more crafts - I did! I worked on Clara's quiet book a lot, plus I made some Valentine's decorations.

Good-bye February, hello March!

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Proof of a Quiet Book

Have any of you noticed the button in the sidebar of my blog that says I'm working on a quiet book? It's been there since last Spring I think. We'll here's some proof that I truly am working on a quiet book. It's one of those projects that takes quite a long time so I work on it in spurts. I hadn't worked on it for several months, but then a few weeks ago we took a road trip to Wisconsin and I was wishing I had gotten more of the book done so we could have brought it for Clara to play with in the car. Knowing that we'd be taking another road trip this weekend I resurrected the project and have made some good progress on it in the past few days.

Here's the cover. Obviously I'll be making one for Lola too some day.

A gumball machine that has gumballs that velcro onto matching colored circles that are sewed down.

A place setting with a bag of food. I'm planning to make more food, but for now it's enough to use these pages.


Noah's Ark with finger puppets.

Back cover.

And some pages in progress...

A doll that will have clothes for dress up.

and a tree that will have flowers, summer leaves, and fall leaves that snap onto it. When they're not in use they will be stored in the "grass" pocket.

I'm also working on a mailbox page that she'll be able to put notes into.

I got inspiration and some templates from Serving Pink Lemonade and Homemade by Jill and How to Make a Quiet Book. The great thing about quiet books is that you can really do whatever you want. If you Google "quiet book" you'll find all sorts of examples of different ways people make quiet books. It's all personal preference.

When I first started this book for Clara I was intending to sew it all by hand with cute stitching, but now I've decided it will take FOREVER to do it that way. I'm now doing some by hand, but a lot by machine. I've even used a bit of hot glue in a few spots! So it's totally a project that you can tailor to your skill level, amount of time, and budget. And whatever you make, your kids will love.