RazNoggle

Tonight was technically left over night, woo-hoo!! But since the leftovers that were available was tortilla soup, I got inspired and whipped up a little something “extra” to have with it. I don’t know if y’all remember that some time back…. like a LONG time ago, when I was a young whipper snapper in college, Taco Bell had these cool cinnamon sugar crunchy things that you could buy. I didn’t get them often, but I enjoyed the crispy sweetness from time to time. I don’t think they have them any more??? I haven’t been at Taco Bell for quite some time, though the other day I had a HUGE Taco Bell craving! That was strange!

Anyway, I was trying to go for something like those crisps so here’s what I did. While the soup was on the stove reheating I grabbed some flour tortillas from the fridge and quickly sprayed each one with some veggie cooking spray. I was going to actually butter them, but I was in a hurry. Then I sprinkled them well with cinnamon and sugar. Got out my handy-dandy pizza cutter and sliced them into wedges before putting them on a baking sheet. I then left them in the oven at about 350ish for a few minutes while I dished up the soup and fixed chocolate milk for the lads.

I have to say that I was pleased with the result!! they were crispy without being TOO crispy and were very good! The perfect end to a spicyish mexicanish dish! Yum!!

I won’t bore you with a recitation of the other parts of my day. Qade had a rough one, and though I felt “lost” a couple of times, I don’t think I actually lost it like I did on Monday, so that’s progress!! Tomorrow is a new day and a Friday to boot, so this is good!!!!! I have planned for Stu to grill tomorrow, so that’ll be almost like 2 days off in a row for me. Hee hee!! Though even when we do have leftovers I still “fix” them for the fam. Can’t help myself somehow!

Now the boys are splashing away the last of their cinnamon sugar in a lavendery bath while Stu watches from the safe side of the curtain. They aren’t allowed to ’splash’ unless the curtain is closed and most of the time they do really well with that. I will admit that I’m looking forward to getting them in bed, and just putting my feet up for a little relaxification this evening. I even contemplated making some decaf and REALLY enjoying it, but I think I’m too lazy!

I was perusing the Pioneer Woman’s recipes today! Ugh!! She always takes such yummy looking pictures to go along with her recipes that I got off the computer totally craving vanilla bean scones and fried round steak!!! Ha ha ha!! Not to mention the smashed potatoes! Wow! So now I have some dinner ideas for next week depending on what meat is on sale, but believe me I will be trying those scones as soon as I can get my grubby hands on some actual vanilla beans!!

Happy Friday friends! Hope that it ends up being a fantastic, fabulous, fun, fun, fun finale to your week!

I slept in today! Woo-Hoo!!! The lads were going to go to the great-grandparent Noggle’s house today with Daddy and Grandpa for breakfast, but apparently yesterday really wore poor Myles out, and he just couldn’t wake up. Qade went though and polished off 3 pancakes along with other stuff I’m sure! They all had a good time working on cutting up some trees for Grandpa “Junior” and Qade kept Grandma “Pat” entertained, and even managed to stay dry!! Yay!!

We’ve been digressing in our potty training on the weekends for some reason. Actually just on Saturdays! Hmmm… strange. But today has been good so far, so I’ll keep knocking on wood and maybe it’ll keep improving. Surely!

Stuart has managed to “catch” a bug and isn’t feeling so swift today. Poor guy! It’s not surprising really with him now teaching full time and coming into contact with all manner of ickies in the form of high school students. I was just hoping it wouldn’t start so soon!! Anyway, he and the lads are having a nice afternoon nap that will hopefully help him feel better. He STILL went over to Grandpa’s to cut trees and still has plans for pulling down a couple around our house that have “got dead” in the last year. Doesn’t like to cut himself any slack. I told you that he comes from a long line of “non-relaxers” after all, right?

I’m going to eat an almond snickers here soon. I just pulled in out of the freezer where I had forgotten it’s been living for awhile. But I found it today and am completely going to enjoy it!

Baby girl is causing lots of heartburn recently. Last night I woke up twice and had to take Tums. *sigh* Not fun! Supposedly that’s going to mean that she’ll have a lot of hair. I thought that was just a myth, but my mom recently told me that she was watching this show called “I Didn’t Know I Was Pregnant” (which totally boggles my mind that they could find enough people in that situation to actually make a show of it!) and they do pregnancy trivia questions at the breaks. Anyway, apparently the indigestion= hair myth is actually TRUE! Though it makes me wonder about where the “facts” come from, cause I can’t imagine HOW in the world there could be a connection.

Myles and I went through and organized the boy’s clothes this morning while the rest of the “men folk” were working. Grandma Noggle brought over a couple of bags for the boys with all her bargain finds! So we had fun!! I pulled out all the clothes that they will need for this Fall/Winter and put them in the drawers, still leaving plenty of the shorts and t-shirts for the rest of the hot days.

I had just an inkling of that Fall-fun feeling as I was looking at long pants and sweatshirts. It was fleeting though. Sad in a way because Autumn has ALWAYS been my favorite time of year ever since I was very young. I’m not looking forward to it this year though. Last winter and the subsequent LATE spring and LONG “mud season” was rough for me. I think it’s honestly the closest I can recall to really being depressed. Ugh! I don’t even like to think about it, and I certainly don’t want to relive it!! The short, cold days with less sun aren’t even remotely appealing right now. Our house tends to take on a “cave like” quality when I’m shut up inside for long stretches and then with the constant mud it was nearly impossible to get the lads out for even a little outside time. BUT I should be hopeful. No two years are the same, so maybe this time it won’t be SO bad. I still want to enjoy Fall, I’m just really not ready for it yet. Summer flew by far too fast for my liking.

I’m refreshing my memory on the E.A.S.Y. routine from the Baby Whisperer before our Lass shows up. I’m a huge fan of structure and routine for the health and sanity of all kids, regardless of age, and for the parents as well. I appreciate this one the best of the books I’ve read because it stresses the point of it being a routine and not a schedule. Trying to put an infant “on the clock” and make them mold to that seems rediculous to me, but hey, if it worked for you then hurray!! Whenever I ‘recommend’ any parenting book to people who are asking, I always throw a caveat in there about how there are SOME or even MANY things that are good in such-n-such a book, but that you really have to be discerning and eat the meat while throwing away the bones. And something that may be a “bone” for me, may be “meat” for you. There’s no way you can take different children from different families with different personalities and force them all to comply to the same “method” and have it work. No way, Jose!! I mean, things work differently for each of my own children even. Just a little rant there. I “take issue” though usually not outwardly, to parents who have a “we’ve got it all figured out” attitude and when asked about it they proudly produce some “miracle method” that they adopted from some HUMAN and have attributed all of the “success” they have with their children to it. I’ve seen it tried, and I’ve seen it fail, and I’ve seen “perfect” families crumble to ruins still doing their utmost to cling to the “method” that will ensure they have perfect kids. Yikes!! Parenting can be a daunting task, and I believe that we need to seek wisdom from people who’ve been there and who’s kids have “turned out” well. More importantly though is spending time in prayer for our children and for wisdom from God to know how to reach them with the truths of His Word.

And that was all totally free. I told you sometimes my fingers run away with me.

I’m sure my snickers is defrosted enough to chomp by now, and I’m equally as sure that you’re probably tired of reading this exorbitantly long blog post. So I shall go for now. I had some pics that I wanted to share to keep that summertime feeling alive, but they aren’t uploading very quickly, so you’ll have to wait. Sorry.

Happy Weekend!

This weekend would be a great time for lil baby to make her debut since Stu’s parents are here to “ride herd” should we need to go to the hospital. That means it’s almost a given that she won’t show up. Not to be pessimistic but it’s how I roll. Ha ha! No problem. I don’t mind “baking” her a bit longer. I was reminded today of some of the consequences of babies showing up early. It’s the 2 year birthday for a friend of mine’s son who was born premature. He is a healthy happy boy doing so well, thank you, Jesus, but as she said herself it’s been a roller coaster ride. I remember the updates from her little boy as one day he just spontaneously stopped breathing just weeks after they had him home. She said it was the fastest she’s ever removed a child from a car seat! Thankfully doctors were able to help him and cope with the situations, but he had to be on oxygen for most of these past 2 years and has only in the past few months been able to stop using it at night. God is still good in every situation, but I’m sure had that mommy been given a choice she would have preferred to “cook” the little one a bit longer than to have to be under constant anxiety for him in one way or another over the past 2 years. So even though I’m impatient, I’ll be content to wait a bit longer and hopefully have a ‘fully baked’ baby when the time comes. Isn’t it just so easy to get ahead of ourselves, or worse ahead of God?? Just a thought.

I wasn’t intending to wax elloquent, but sometimes when I sit down to type a post, things just flow from my brain and leak out of my fingers as I type without even realizing it! Nice little word picture for ya there.

Today my amazing MIL brought me the “tub” of little girl clothes that she has been collecting from the clearance racks of various stores. We both agree that shopping for little girls is WAY FUN! So we had our own little “shower” of 2 and I got to Oooo and Awww over the cute clothes, with random comments al la Danielle tossed in as well. I suppose I should get used to little girl chatter! Anyway, that wasn’t the ONLY fun we had around here with “Grandma Noggle” as all the kids were calling her! She took all 4 (brave woman, but then she’s a teacher, she knows kids!) for a walk and then for playtime outside. Yay!!! An unexpected little break in the day for MOI!!!

I took full advantage of the break too, and managed to get the laundry well on it’s way, dishes loaded, and floors swept! Can I tell you how SHOCKED I have been at how having 2 extra little bodies eating at our table has added significantly to the mess??? I shouldn’t be surprised, because my own two can really lay it down, but I have to say the carnage under that table by the end of lunch is monumental!!! Especially on “Ramen Days.” Those noodles really get away from little utensils and fingers. But it’s all good! Most of the time our morning snack is eaten outside, brilliant, Rachel! And as often as possible I’ve been giving them their afternoon snack out there as well. Hey, there are a couple of hungry ground squirrels and about a gazillion ants that can make use of the “mess” that the kids may leave behind. Myles biggest issues is when he falls down and gets dirt on his crackers or whatever then makes his way over to me to request that I, “Wash it!” ha ha ha!! I mean, why does it bother him?? He puts dirt and sticks and rocks in his mouth on PURPOSE most of the time, why should a little organic stuff on his peanut butter cracker upset the lad?? Don’t know, but it humors me!

I’m baking bread today. Stuart loves my homemade Hawaiian bread, and I like it too!! I pretty much got lazy and gave up baking it while I was pregnant, so my poor man had to go back to eating the sub-par store bought stuff. I’m trying to make up for it now though and have some always on hand to make his lunch with. I didn’t do so well this week though so today I’m making DOUBLE. That’s 8 loaves!!! Should last us a little while anyway. I’ll keep em’ in the freezer and take it out as needed, but thought I should get a jump on it “just in case” our little Darlin’ shows up sometime soon. (Not impatient though, I say!) I also have 2 bananas that are begging to be made into banana bread because the fruit flies are driving them (and me) crazy!!! So I will likely do that this afternoon once the monkeys are all up from their naps. Don’t want to use the mixer or anything loud that my deprive me of a few moments freedom from “how come?’s” and “why?’s” and the like. Ahhhhhh, don’t you love Fridays??

I have a little confession to make. I’ve been informed, several times, by Danielle’s mom (and her) that she is an extremely picky eater. She told me from the get-go that she “doesn’t eat crusts” on her sandwiches. Hmmm…. well, I refused from the get-go to take them off for her, so she has been leaving them on her plate, along with what I consider a significant portion of the sandwich. This bugged me… don’t ask me why, but my frugal side just got it’s dander up to see her toss away all that FOOD! Ha ha ha!! Since the girls have been coming over, I dole out cookies (usually vanilla wafers) at the end of lunch to the children who have FINISHED their food. Well, at first I was giving our picky one cookies as well even if she left her crusts. Today, I decided enough was enough! I don’t give cookies to my own kids when they leave food, even Myles who went to nap today with a major case of meltdown because he didn’t get a cookie, but refused to eat his sandwich! So I told Danielle that she should ‘try’ her crusts because she might like them. After all it was MY faaaaavorite part of the sandwich (which IS true, BTW). She replied that she ‘doesn’t like crusts’ and I told her that it was fine if she left them, but she wouldn’t be getting a cookie because we would like to stop wasting food. Hee hee hee….. Guess what happened. She ATE all of her crusts and DECLARED that she liked them!!! I praised her to the skies, gave her a fist bump AND a cookie. Hey LITTLE girls are not the ONLY ones good at manipulation.

Happy weekend all!!

So this is what my foggy brain is working through, and my lagging energies are attempting to accomplish today.

1. Clean and sanitize CHECK
. Bottles and baby items
. Pump

2. Finish packing hospital bag
. Pack Baby’s diaper bag CHECK

3. Finish sanding Baby’s dresser (Unfortunately I can’t seem to find the correct grit sand paper disks so I wasn’t able to work on this while we were “playing” outside this morning. Very frustrating!)

4. Set up Pack n Play and Feeding station w/ rocking chair upstairs. (I haven’t done this yet because I was working on….)

5. Clean infant car seat and Pack N Play Mattress CHECK (Have any of you scrubbed a pack n play mattress before?? I probably wouldn’t have had to do it except that I neglected to make sure there was always a sheet on it while Myles was using it at camp. And you remember me talking about how dirty he got EVERY day, right?? I never did get sheets that were meant to fit that thing, so today I’m going to measure it and make sure I have a couple. Trust me it’s easier to clean the sheets than it is to clean the mattress!! Still I’m pleased that it’s done, and think that I at least made somewhat of an improvement in it. And the car seat, well, it had been leant to my nearly-nephew for his trip to Canada and around AZ last year. I forgot what a burbler he was, but I was reminded when I took the car seat cover off! Whew!! Old baby burble really smells gross, just so ya know. It’s all clean and sparkling now though. The mattress and the seat are sitting outside drying and once that’s done I’ll….)

6. Find bassinet attachment and baby blankets in cellar (Then I can get it all set up in our room)

7. Re-thread car seat belts and car seat cover. (There was a huge drama over this task the first time I took the seat apart to clean it when we just had Qade. For some reason this particular seat is EXCESSIVELY hard to rethread. I’m hoping that some of my acquired “mom skilz” will pay off this time around and I won’t have to resort to screaming and cursing. Ha ha!)

8. Put Baby’s clothes in bins according to age (because I obviously don’t have the dresser done and am tired of her little clothes, cute though they be, piled up all over the house!!!)

So there you have it. At least the parts that I have thought of yet. As you can see there are very FEW check marks which means that I still have a LOT of loose ends. Loose ends are a bane in my life. I get to the point where I just can’t concentrate on any one job because so many of the other taks’s loose ends are flying around in my brain. Not to mention my brain is just bad enough right now on it’s own. Things are starting to come together a little bit though, and I’m sure with some effort on my side I can check several of these off before I go to bed tonight.

Speaking of bed, pray for me if you think of it. I’ve been sleeping lousy, no surprise there, for the last quite some time, and it does take a toll. I think it one of the cruelest tricks in nature to not allow you to sleep BEFORE the baby comes, cause it’s quite certain that you won’t be doing much sleeping after! Ha ha!! Anyway, I am ready for little girl to arrive, but have to remind myself that the “deal” I first made with her was to come Labor Day weekend. *Sigh* So I guess I’ll hold out for another week and hope she remembers her end of the deal!

Happy Lime Green Thursday!

Okay, so I certainly think this is better, though I’m still not convinced it’s “the fix” but it’s a start perhaps. Hmmmmm…. life can be so complicated! I’m working on adjusting my mental picture of what I expected this room to look like, but it might take a little while.

I need serious help here from my creative friends. These “dots” just are not working out as nicely as I anticipated. *sigh* The biggest problem with these right now I think is the size. I really was expecting larger dots. I told you I was putting them up with sticky-tac and that’s good because I’ve already moved them around. At first I was going to try them on two walls. Here are the photos. Keep in mind that because they aren’t actually “stuck” up there yet some of them are kinda curled. It looks even worse on these photos than in real life. I have no idea what I’m going to do!!

But it looked like a room with a bad case of chicken pox or something. They just aren’t big enough to cover that much space. So I took them all and put them on this one wall. Now there’s a big blank spot because that’s where the dresser and a Giraffe poster is going to go. Still, they just don’t look good to me.

So I’m begging for any suggestions or insight some of you may have on this, and in the mean time I’m going to leave a negative feedback on Amazon for these, because it’s really quite pathetic in my way of thinking!!

Well, I’ve decreed that this week is going to be a “non-school” week in order for me to get a little bit more done around here. I will be providing the basics of child care (which around here consists of making sure no one gets clobbered or bossed to death) and then attempting along the way to get the baby stuff DONE!! This past weekend just wasn’t long enough for me to complete my more-than-I-can-chew list, sadly.

Today while the munchkins were playing outside and between crises I continued to work on sanding the dresser. Believe me there were an abominable number of crisis to deal with today. Good grief. I can only sand with the compressor for probably less than a min before I have to let it rest, and it seemed that each time I lifted my head SOMEONE was crying or screaming. My goodness!! Nap time is a very welcome friend today! I have 3 more drawers to sand, and then I need to go over it all again with a finer grit sandpaper. I’m hoping I can get the drawers done this afternoon and start on the second sanding by tomorrow. In the mean time I’m going to fill some rubbermades with some of the baby clothes we have so that I can start to make sense of things. Right now everything that is SUPPOSED to end up in little girl’s room is strewn about the “family” room in no particular order. Living in upheaval makes me kind of crazy!

Also on my list of things to do today is wash what’s left of the newborn stuff and a few items that have been given me. I realized yesterday that I hadn’t dug out any of the burp clothes and such that were so much of a necessity with my very spit-upy baby boys! I nearly panicked when the thought occurred to me! Ha ha ha! Never mind that I don’t have a “bag” packed for the hospital or that I haven’t cleaned the pack n’ play and found the bassinet attachment yet, if I don’t have burp cloths ready we’re in BIG trouble!! I was so SURE that she was going to decide to make her debut last night simply because I wasn’t READY!! Ha ha ha!! And even though I felt totally panicked, instead of getting up and doing all that stuff all night long (which might have prompted her arrival) I just rolled over in bed and made a “decision” that today (and the rest of the week) would be “get ready for baby time.” Do you ever crack yourself up? It amuses me how spotty my common sense can be sometimes. Especially with the added benefit of mommy and pregnancy brain! So I’m in the process of packing my bag today as well. We’ll see what happens with the pack n’ play.

While I was shopping at Wal-Mart with my two lads in tow after my appt yesterday I had another of those “panic” moments… don’t ask me why this is happening, I’m not usually so hyper. This time it was about the fact that we have NO girl blankets!! I had this vision in my head that our sweet darling little girl would have to come home from the hospital swaddled up in one of her brother’s blue blankets! Wouldn’t that just scar her for life? Well, I saw a couple fleece blankets for $4 so now I can rest easy knowing that she has at least 2 pink blankets! Ha ha ha!!! Oh well, I have no excuse for myself really. I have insane moments now and then, and I’m sure that I’m probably not the only one.

I’m working today too on putting up the “dots” in baby girl’s room. I have to admit I was somewhat disappointed in them. There are 72 or something like that of them, but MOST of those are teeny-tiny ones. *sigh* So I’ve cut them all out and am now putting them up with sticky-tac in order to be able to move them around. I have to see how it’s going to look before I commit to actually peeling-and-sticking them on the wall. Hopefully Stu will be able to advise me tonight when he’s home. I’d rather not order more, but if it comes down to it, I suppose I will rather than hate the walls that I’ve been so excited about. Oh the crisis of life! I’m quite humored actually!

Hope you are having an equally hilarious day!

So sue me if the image I had in my had about this Saturday was me sipping a tall glass of iced lemonade while basking in a cool sea-flavored breeze as I gently swayed back and forth in an oversized hammock. Not like I really expected that to happen, right? We don’t live by the sea, and we don’t own a hammock…. though I should look into that! Ha ha ha! No, my more realistic expectations for today were to get a little extra rest and then to get some stuff done that is in desperate need of doing!

For a little while there, I felt like I had all this time to get “stuff” ready for the baby and suddenly I feel like we’re running out of time!! Ack! I’m so thankful that my bro came and painted the room for me though! I can’t tell ya what a HUGE help and boost to the process that was! The wall quote and the polka dots I ordered have come in, so one of my goals for today is to get those up on the walls. I think once that is done it will make a big difference in that room!! I am taking pictures of the process! Progress for me! I usually think of it half way through, so I’m not nearly as good at documenting my projects and things as many of my friends are.

The biggest project for today is the little lady’s dresser. My MIL found one for us on craigslist! Gotta love that! But I wasn’t wild about the kind of yellowy-light-piney look to the wood. SO I’m gonna “fix” it. Originally I was just looking for a cheap dresser that I wouldn’t feel bad about painting, because in my mind that was the easiest fix. However, this one seems to be “real” wood, so I’m thinking that a nice cherry or walnut stain on it will actually look awesome! So my hubby fixed me up with the compressor sander and I am busily working on it right now, can’t you tell? No really, I am! I have to let the compressor motor “rest” between goes so that’s why I’m sitting in the cool house writing blog posts. Hee hee!! It’s going well, and I think we’ll be able to get it done quickly. If I can check this and the wall decor off my list this weekend, I think I’ll be feeling more “ready” and less hurried, ya know what I mean??

I did sleep in today and that felt wonderful!! Pray with me that our little gal loves to sleep as much as her brothers have! Ha ha!! That would be a huge blessing! Even though I may not be technically “ready” for her to be here, I’m still ready for her to be here! And if you’ve had babies you know exactly how that feels! Yesterday I read through the manuel of my baby K’tan sling to learn how to use it. I need to practice though, so I’m thinking about making Myles my guinea pig this afternoon if I can catch him! I’m totally “into” slings right now. I didn’t use them at all with Qade. We had a baby bjorn that we used with him, and I like it a lot, but it’s not the same cozy feeling as a sling gives. With Myles I was just starting to get into using them when he was around 8 or 9 months old, so his slinging career was a short one, but long enough for me to know that I really like using them. So this time, poor little girl will just have to be “slung” everywhere. Hope she likes it!

The lads are having a great time playing outside while I project away today. They learned last evening that they can climb up the slide if they take off their shoes. So of course, that is the newest and greatest thing to do! It’s been nice this morning with having just them here to entertain and play with each other. There has been so much less drama, and much more getting along on their parts. I’m not even remotely saying that when the girls are here all the drama comes from them, not so, but having 2 more selfish beings in the mix can bring out the drama in everyone. It just is nice to have a little family time on the weekends. I’m lovin’ it!

Hope you are all having a swell weekend!! Toodles!

Yeah, this week has been a wash as far as successful nap time goes. Today was by far the worst!! But since it’s Friday anything can be endured right?? Today’s was a mixed blessing actually. Qade got up, less than an hour after going “down” to tell me he needed to “go pee” and then did! I was very proud of him for “taking care of business” but rather pessimistic about him going back to sleep. I was right on that last part too. He managed to wake up Myles, who has been getting up WAY early from his naps all week anyway, and even though I sat in their room for half an hour reminding them to keep their eyes closed and go to sleep, it didn’t happen. Not to be daunted out of getting a little peace and quiet for my own sanity, I just closed the room to their door. They’ll get up at 3 just as if they’d been sleeping the whole time. I insist on having some “mommy time” during the day even if they are just having room time and spreading their toys all over creation instead of sleeping.

Well, I came back out to the living room after closing the door on the boys JUST IN TIME to hear the girls getting up. *SIGH SIGH SIGH!!!!* Oh well, my mantra for today is “IT’S FRIDAY!!!!” I’m really hoping that the girls ma will show up early(er) today than she has been. It’s been closer to 4:30 or yesterday it was 5 before she came. I know it’s the first couple weeks of school so things are still trying to get settled in, but that’s going to have to change once the little one arrives for sure. I already told you it’s that space in time in the late afternoons that the boys are at their worst, and as I recall both of them as infants struggled in that dinner-bed time block as well. So if little sis follows suit that means that between 4 and 7 will be some tough times in our house for awhile. Therefore the ladies need to be gone by then. That’s my reasoning anyway. I’m sure it won’t be a problem though. Everything has been working out very well despite the daily disputes, which hopefully they are learning to managed better amongst themselves. Seems so anyway.

But back to the topic at hand. The boys will be going to bed early tonight so I can get a jump-start on my weekend resolution of relaxation! I think since they robbed me of my quiet time this afternoon, it’s only fair! Ha ha ha!!

Hope you all have a swell weekend, and get a good nap in if you can! Toodle-oo!!