II.

Operation Purge & Simplify: Part 2.

Bedroom closet.

Target - remove, donate or throw away anything I no longer wear (including shoes...I died a little inside), reorganize and make pretty.

Mission accomplished.

I got rid of over 15 pairs of shoes (seriously...I died a little) and hundreds of items of clothes. Now everything is neat and tidy and orderly and I vacuumed up all the Sadie hair from the bottom of the closet. My maternity clothes are all neatly stacked together, waiting for me to get prego again (no....we're not working on that right now, give us a few years), my summer stuff is tucked away in the back part of the closet and everything is organized according to type. Heart.

Veg.

So, what's a stay at home mama to do on a Saturday night? Leave the kid with a babysitter and go party it up like the days of old (I make it sound like I was such a barfly back in the days before babe)? Nope. Instead, the baby is tucked away in his crib, dreaming sweet dreams of pulling my hair and stealing my glasses off my face (which reminds me that I really do need to call the eye doctor and reorder some contacts....such a simple thing to do that I've been putting off for months) and I'm standing happily in the kitchen with my husband, chopping vegetables.

Who woulda thought?

Anyway, I don't know if you are anything like me but we throw away hundreds of dollars a month in produce gone bad. I buy it with the best of intentions - I'm going to make this soup, or this casserole or cut it up and have it for snacks and 80% of the time, it ends up mushy and growing things with that dark puddle of produce goo gunking up the bottom of my veggie bin. This month I had an idea. I have a few bags of frozen fruits that I bought from the store and earlier this week I was defrosting a few peach slices to cut up and give to Ben for breakfast. Inspiration struck. What if I took the time to freeze my OWN veggies? The ones I buy and spend all this time chopping up (my thought process behind that one was - if I slice it up so it's ready to eat as soon as I bring it home from the store, I'll have more success in actually using it. And some months that works. Some times it doesn't) and just freeze it myself? Then if I want steamed broccoli to go with dinner....all I have to do is reach into my very own freezer and viola!

So, off to the internet we took and found some fairly simple (but slightly time consuming) tips on how to blanch, shock and prep your own veggies for freezing. And so we have spent the past hour and a half, cutting up broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, sweet potatoes, white potatoes, red & green peppers for freezing. It's kind of boring, yes, and my knees hurt from standing now, but it's time spent with my husband, doing something together. Something other than simply existing in the same space, computers warming our laps while the TV buzzes in the background. We're talking and laughing (I made Nick giggle....apparently my impression of a hungry drain, sucking up the dirty dish water was a good one) and well...it's pretty nice. If I do say so myself.

I heart that I have a husband that will share in these kinds of simple chores with me. :-)

Blogaholic.

My name is Sarah, and I'm a blogaholic.

Seriously.

I think I might need an intervention.

Every week (generously) I find a new blog that I giant puffy heart and I have to follow, lust over, drool over and wish I could copy down to the last exclamation point. Hey, we all have a thing. Some people watch internet movies (not met...if you ask me if I've seen something, chances are I haven't. I didn't even know about that "hide yo' kids, hide yo' wife" guy FOREVER til Nick forced me to watch it), some people read the news...I'm a blog follower. I follow probably close to 20 blogs religiously and I read through countless more randomly through the day (ahhh StumbleUpon.....)

Case in point....New England Though Yummy Mom's Eyes. More specifically, her Operation Simplify & Purge Project. Doing it. Absolutely, positively DOING it. In fact, I'm signing off my blog now and going to clean out my bathroom. Wonder how much crap I'll throw away?

*Update: did it. Started in the bathroom - cleaned three drawers and our linen closet. I didn't count how many items I tossed (like she did) but it was probably close to 100 when it was all said and done (I filled the whole garbage can plus I shoved more stuff in an empty plastic wrapper from a giant thing of TP from Costco) :-)

Skillz

{12/21/2011: This was originally posted on a blog I started just for Ben. I no longer keep up with that blog, so I'm moving them all over to this one}

Well, most of you know that Ben has his 9 month check up on Monday. He's doing great - he's a tall boy at 30 inches and he weighs 18.10 pounds. The doctor is super pleased with his progress. She told me I needed to make sure he was eating 3 solid meals a day, in addition to his formula. I have to admit that I'd slacked off on that a lot. Since we introduced some finger foods to him, he no longer has an interest in cereal and refuses to eat it at all. I got tired of throwing it away and quit making it for him, so breakfast was sort of lost. So since Monday I've been making sure he eats breakfast, lunch & dinner. I've also slightly decreased the amount of formula he's on. He was eating right about 30 ounces every day and she said that was fine (he needs to have a minimum of 20 and should be down to 20 by the time he's a year) but if he didn't have much of an appetite for meals to try decreasing the formula a bit. That should also help stretch how long it lasts. We buy the giant cans from Costco that are $35 and we currently use 3 of those a month. Spendy stuff. I'll be excited when he's off of it and on whole milk - she said a few weeks before his 1st birthday we can start mixing whole milk in with the formula until it's all milk and no formula. Only $300 more dollars to go (ha, that's how I think of it since it's about $100 to feed him formula a month).

Aside from that, Ben also got his first illness. Last Monday he came down with an ear infection but a quick trip to the doctor and some antibiotics and he was all better! Seriously, he was 100% better the next day after having the first dose. I hope this was a rare occurrence for him and this doesn't spark a new era of sickness. As well as he did with it, it SUCKS to have a sick kiddo.

Last weekend we drove up to Lewiston, ID to attend my cousin Megan's wedding. We left Friday morning and came back Sunday morning. He's a great traveler and charmed the pants off every one he met. :-)

Last time I blogged I mentioned that he was working on pulling himself up to stand. Consider that skill mastered. This morning I was sitting on the couch and he was sitting on the floor at my feet playing. I got up and crossed the room to get my phone, when I turned back he had pulled himself up to stand. I took a video of it this evening (which is posted on his FB) but that attempt does not do his skills justice. Since I took the video, he pulled himself up 4 or 5 more times and took a little walk down the couch. Our little boy is growing up so fast.

It seems every day he learns a new way he can use his body. It's so fun to watch but it's a bittersweet feeling. I remember very clearly just a short few months ago, wishing for this time - wishing for when we could sit and play instead of me just watching a tiny baby lump sleep. And sleep. And sleep. Now I'm wishing for a bit more sleep time...kind of. I love watching him learn and grow and explore and the things he remembers. For instance, I ditched the baby tub and now he just sits up in the regular bathtub. At first, after he was washed, I'd lay him on his tummy in the water to play and he enjoyed it. A few times after doing that, he licked at the water and got a big mouthful and coughed on it. Ever since then, he cries if we try to put him on his belly - he remembers the time he got scared/hurt from laying down and wants no part of it.

He's also deliberately dropping/throwing things out of his way. The whole drive up to Lewiston, I'd give him toy after toy that he'd play with for a few minutes and then toss out of his chair. During meals, I give him his own spoon to play with so he doesn't grab at the food spoon and fling food every where. He no longer wishes to play with that spoon and drops it on the floor. I play a long for a little bit, by picking it back up and giving it to him but after about the 5th time, the spoon stays on the floor. Stinker. :-)

He jabbers a lot now. I miss it on the days when he's quiet. Like today. Today we were way busy (hardly home at all) and he didn't say much. Usually he's just jabbering non stop and I love it. I love all the different sounds he's figuring out how to make. I can't wait til he says his first (real) words!

I think that's it for a Ben update. We hope you are all enjoying the final days of summer! I know I'm looking forward to fall. I'm WAY excited for Halloween and letting him try all sorts of new stuff at Thanksgiving and spoiling him rotten on his 1st birthday and Christmas just a short week after that :-)

Recipe Binder.

Recently I was introduced to a new blog by my friend Jamie via FB. The Dating Diva's website - it's just date ideas and other things along that theme for keeping your marriage fresh and romantic. They had a post not too long about about making a binder to store your dating ideas in which I thought looked so cute. I took that idea and spun it off into my own version for a present for my friend Susan who has recently moved into her very first apartment.

Here was my inspiration:

(original post can be found here)

Anyway, from that I took my inspiration. Following all the steps and only changing things like the color of the pages and what I chose to write on the tags, I made a cook book for Susan in a patriotic theme (since she's doing Americana decor at her apartment). I wrote up and printed out about 10 or so recipes that are tried and true and stuck them in under the categories of "sides, main dishes and desserts". I created space for her to tuck in recipes she wants to try and there's plenty of room to add in her own favorites as she tries more out.

Here's my version (my pictures didn't come out as nice as the Dating Divas one did):