Kitchen update

My husband has been working on the kitchen cabinets over the break. The drawer fronts, cabinet doors, and the front framing is all completed. Today and tomorrow the parts will be stained and have protective cover put on them. The drawers themselves will also be assembled in the next couple of days. We are still waiting for a specific tool to make the cabinet bodies and backs, so they will not be put up over the break. The break is almost over already and it's amazing how much has been accomplished. Here's the pictures of the work so far.

These are the cabinet framing for the front of the cabinets. The glue is currently drying so they are clamped down.

The top and bottom cabinet fronts are completed

Here are a few completed cabinet doors

All set up to be stained and finished

Kitchen craziness

My husband is making me new kitchen cabinets during his Christmas break. This is quite a task and also interesting as I have to have the upper cabinets ready for him to replace. This means a majority of my dishes are packed away.

I only have a minimum amount of dishes available to me. This has made holiday baking and cooking very interesting. I also have more regular meal dishes since everyone is home all day. I also have limited counter top space because that is where the dishes I still have out are kept. I am currently hand washing dishes a minimum of 3 times of day.

He is making them all by hand, so they will definitely be "custom cabinets". Here's a few pictures of the work so far.

Before pics:
Almost all of my cabinets are made of metal and even though our house was built in 1940. Our best guess for the cabinets is that they were built in the 1950s when that style would have been popular. They are currently white with green and yellow sponge painting on them (to go with the wallpaper of peppers when we first moved in). Before that they were pink as we can see the color underneath when removing the lights from underneath the cabinets. My husband is planning on putting track lighting underneath. We currently have two little lights underneath and there are a lot of dark spots.

More pictures and updates to follow. The top cabinets are being done first, so I still have my lower cabinets for now. The lower ones will be done at a later time (hopefully still over break, but we will see).

Summer time

Summertime has got to be the busiest time of the year for us. We have not had a weekend since May that we did not have at least one thing going on. Some weekends we even have more than one thing going on. We also have a garden and a vineyard to take care of.

It's strange that I am very much a homebody, but am really getting into entertaining. I am not sure if it is because I am home now or because it's summer, so people are actually willing to come to our house. I love the menu planning, the cooking, and the baking. I found that I actually have a talent for cooking and baking. Of all the talents I could have gotten, I have mixed feelings about this one. I am glad I finally found something that I am good at, but not liking how much more difficult it is to get healthy when we entertain so much and I bake so often. I have made some healthier stuff also.

My daughter's birthday is in the summer also. It's in July and her party is this weekend. I am amazed at how much there is to do to host a little girl's party. Heaven help us all when we start getting to the "bigger" birthdays and occasions like graduation.

I've been working on decorations and planning the menu. I also have bought the paper ware and the gift bags. I am planning on grocery shopping and making the food and the cupcakes this week. Food wise I am planning on making everything. We are having a few kids over and I hope that at this age I don't have to do too much for games, because that is where I fail as a party planner. I hope everyone has fun and I am sure that they will.

Happy Summertime every one!

New office

May just flew by, which is why I have not written much in the last month. I have also had a little bit of "writer's block", even though I don't consider myself a writer at all.

My family came towards the end of the month of May. I am always amazed at how much work gets done the week and a half my family comes to visit. I think we get more done around the house when my parents are here than the 11 1/2 months they are not here.

My husband got his Father's Day gift early and he really, really liked his gift. I finally got my husband his study/office back. When I was pregnant, we decided that it made sense for the downstairs office to become the nursery as it is on the same floor as us. My husband has a few friends come and they moved all the stuff upstairs into a back room that was used for storage. During the next almost 2 years, stuff had been piling up in that room, making it unusable.

I started organizing the upstairs last March and am still working on the organizing part. I have had to work during naps and balance it with the ordinary cleaning routine. Stuff had also been piled up in my sewing room and the guest bedroom. As my daughter outgrew things, they were thrown into a room upstairs. Babies outgrow a lot of stuff!

I had a lot of help getting my husband's room ready. I had a friend come and watch my daughter so I could paint the room. My uncle helped me get rid of an old bed, so there is more room. My parents took out the old carpet and we discovered the original pine floors to be in good shape (they will need to be refinished). My parents and I also put together a new bookcase, and curtains on the windows.

My husband found his gift as my mom and I were putting together the bookshelf. We thought he was outside so he would not hear us. My husband came in unexpectedly and came upstairs and caught us putting the bookcase together. My husband was very surprised and excited that he not only has a room to work in, it's now one of the nicest rooms in the house! He is now working on putting all his stuff where he wants it and is setting up his computers.

I'm glad I was able to do this for my husband for Father's Day and am glad that he appreciates it.

Anniversary of being a stay at home mom

I still get questions and comments in regards to what I do all day, so I decided that I would pick a day and keep tabs of everything I do that day. I've been working on this post for a few days, as it is hard to write a lot at one time. I picked today to post as it was a year ago that I stopped being a working mom and became a stay at home mom. I was told I would be bored as a month or so as “a house can only be so clean and I would run out of things to do”.

I picked Monday which is a “typical” day for me. My daughter and I have a routine every day, however our routine does vary some day by day. For example, some days we are home all day and some days we are at activities in town.

Mondays are the day that I bake bread ( I really like home baked bread and I know and can pronounce everything that goes in it). I also tend to do the weekly cleaning on Mondays also. That way I can work on projects during my “free time” during the rest of the week My projects right now consist of organizing projects as a family acquires a lot of stuff and it has to go somewhere. I do laundry, including bedding, on Mondays and I do laundry again on Thursdays.

So here's a look at my day. I did write down what I did, but did not write how much time it took to do each task. Some took only a few minutes, some took more than that.

• Got up and dressed

• Made husband's lunch and we had breakfast together

• Daughter wakes up/husband leaves for work

• Daughter's breakfast and clean up after breakfast

• Get daughter dressed

• Write up menu and Grocery list

• Sort laundry/stain treat laundry/start first load of laundry

• Strip beds/remake daughter's bed

• Go grocery shopping with daughter (15 minute drive to grocery store and a 15 minute drive back)

• Put groceries away

• diaper change

• make snack/have snack/clean up after snack

• put 2^nd load of laundry in machine/1^st load in dryer

• Daughter watches sesame street while I get started making bread and getting it to rise

• Clean up bread mess

• diaper change/wash out cloth diaper

• play time with daughter

• 3^rd load of laundry in machine (2^nd load in dryer)

• check e-mail

• read daughter a story

• coloring time with daughter

• 4^th load of laundry

• make lunch/have lunch/clean up after lunch

• punch down dough for bread/set it out to rise again

• Diaper change

• start washing dishes (I was not able to wash on Sunday, so I had two days worth)

• comfort an angry child

• go back to washing dishes/have daughter hanging on me/abandon washing dishes

• cuddle time with daughter

• daughter takes a nap

• fold laundry (cannot do this when child is awake)

• start 5^th load of laundry

• bake bread

• put clothes away that are folded

• make my bed

• computer time

• straighten up two cupboards that have gotten messed up

• clean bathroom

• sweep/mop kitchen and entryway floors

• fold last load of laundry

• Daughter wakes up

• Diaper change

• put daughter's clothes away

• play time with daughter inside as it was too wet to play outside

• make snack/have snack/clean up after snack

• dance time with daughter/computer check time

• make dinner

• husband home/have dinner/clean up after dinner

• daughter plays with husband while I wash dishes and sweep kitchen floor

• help daughter pick up her toys in the living room

• daughter's bath time

• get daughter dressed/ready for bed

• read story to daughter and snuggle time with mommy and daddy

• daughter in bed

• read a little

• get myself ready for bed/bed time

How moms get rewarded

I am currently suffering from a terrible cold. It is knocking me off my feet. I think moms should be immune to these ailments, because it's not like we can take a break and rest anyways.

Last week, my husband brought this ailment home and both he and my daughter both got sick at about the same time. I took care of both "babies" with the special food preps, extra grocery shopping for supplies, running errands, extra snuggling, and listening to a whole lot of whining (not sure which one whined more). I lost sleep as my husband tossed and turned and my daughter woke up more often than usual (which was usually only once a night).

My reward for my tireless work is that I get the cold a week later. No metals, rewards, no acknowledgment of the work I did to help everyone feel better. My husband did take care of the groceries and brought food home yesterday. The dirty dishes from last night and the night before are still dirty. I cleaned the bathroom and cleaned up the table and the floor. I'm home taking care of my daughter and the diapers, dirty clothes, the teething, needing a mom to play outside with, the baths, the snuggling times, the fixing of boo boos, and the bedtime stories.

I'm beat and the family still needs to be fed, need clean clothes, and need clean dishes. I just want a nap! Being a mommy means no time off for illness, so hopefully I'll find a way to be well soon as I am not sure that the family can have me sick for much longer.

Back from our trip

We are all back from our trip to Germany and the UK. I hope to write about my travels soon. Currently I am still a little out of sorts and having difficulty with organizing my thoughts. It seems like the trip happened a long time ago, instead of a week ago.

The plane travel went well. Better than I expected, in fact. I really liked flying with British Airways, they are a good carrier to take for a long haul flight. There is definitely a difference in service between American and British airlines.

In my last post, I wrote about my concerns in regards to flying with a toddler, so I thought I would start with answering my questions from the last post.

1.What kind of toys to bring (can't make too much noise, have wheels, take up too much room, too precious to loose, etc). I brought one gallon ziplock bag of toys. We had a few small dolls/stuffed animals, two wobbly toys, two finger puppets, a bandanna, and a receiving blanket (since it is small). The airline also gave Addie a coloring book and crayons, which were a hit. We did buy another coloring book and crayons when we were in England.

2. which seats are the best location wise for a child. The airlines decided where we would sit, due to having a child. We were behind the bulkhead on the way there so we could use the baby seat and on the way back we were not able to get a baby seat, so they put us right before the bathrooms, which is nice as we did not have anyone behind us then and there was a lot of traffic to entertain Addie. Addie also entertained the people waiting for the bathroom. On the short stop flights, it did not really matter where we sat.

3. how to deal with possible ear pain. No problems with ear pain on the flights. On one short haul flight from Germany to England, Addie slept through the take off, the flight, and the landing.

4. how much food to pack, what you can and cannot get in the ways of food and drinks for your toddler on your flight. I did not bring any drinks on the way there and brought snack bars and cheerios for the flight and that worked well. Addie shared my meal on the long haul trip and the airline helped with extra food and snacks. They also had juice boxes on the flight and that helped.

5. how many diapers to pack (especially if there is a possibility of getting grounded-ever see diapers sold at an airport??) I packed three days worth of diapers and we were more than fine.

6. sit on your lap vs dragging a car seat around everywhere for 2 weeks (that was answered for us as one of our carriers will not allow a child under 2 to have her own seat)

7. how to reserve a carry cot (a bassinet for us Americans). The airline has that all set up when they plan their flight. We were able to get one on the way there, but there were not enough on the way back, so we did not have one. There were 3 sets of twins on our flight back that were under 2 years of age. Luckily they moved the person next to us to first class and we had a seat for Addie for most of the flight.

8. Body scan vs having a stranger 'pat down' my almost 2 year old. I would opt for neither if I had the opportunity. I was holding Addie through security and they shuttled us past the body scanner/body pat down line both times. Warren got to experience the scanner though.

9. How to explain that the monkey back pack she adores has to go through the scanner with a minimum of screaming and tears (she shrieks when I take it off). We made it a game and since we had to put our stuff on the moving line too (we all three had back packs), Addie wanted to do it too. In fact, Addie could have kept her shoes on, but wanted to take hers off too.

10. Can I or can't I bring milk? This question varies by the airline carrier and by the day. I don't want to have anything in the sippy cup as I don't want it confiscated, so we will bring a little milk in a sealed bottle and hopefully I can open it and have it tested as opposed to having to have it taken from me . I just didn't bring milk. I did bring some leftover juice through security and they strip tested it.

All in all we had a good trip. Addie had a few meltdowns on our travels with planes, trains, and automobiles, but that's to be expected from a toddler. Addie was really good at being happy and super cute at the beginning of the flights, so we got excellent service from the staff who would sometimes come by just to wave "hi" to her and see how she was doing. There were a lot of cranky children/babies on the way back, which made Addie even more adorable to the staff. The staff was wonderful with trying to help the parents with the cranky children on the long haul flight.

getting ready for a trip with a toddler

We are currently getting ready for our trip. Things are interesting in how things are different when you pack with a toddler around.

The first thing you notice is that you can't just pack right before you leave. When there is a little person involved, you need to plan ahead more and if you are talking airline travel-- a lot more. Figuring out how much to take and have everything you need and still travel light is a skill that I am still working on. I was able to get everything into Addie's backpack that doubles as a carrier for her. I was able to get both Warren's and my stuff into another small backpack.

The second thing you notice is that you will research how to travel. I never gave much thought to airline travel, except what you can and cannot take. With traveling with a little person on a long plane trip you start reading up on mom blogs and book about what worked/didn't work for them. Here's a list of the things you think about when traveling with a little person

1.What kind of toys to bring (can't make too much noise, have wheels, take up too much room, too precious to loose, etc)

2. which seats are the best location wise for a child

3. how to deal with possible ear pain

4. how much food to pack, what you can and cannot get in the ways of food and drinks for your toddler on your flight

5. how many diapers to pack (especially if there is a possibility of getting grounded-ever see diapers sold at an airport??)

6. sit on your lap vs dragging a car seat around everywhere for 2 weeks (that was answered for us as one of our carriers will not allow a child under 2 to have her own seat)

7. how to reserve a carry cot (a bassinet for us Americans)

8. Body scan vs having a stranger 'pat down' my almost 2 year old. I would opt for neither if I had the opportunity

9. How to explain that the monkey back pack she adores has to go through the scanner with a minimum of screaming and tears (she shrieks when I take it off)

10. Can I or can't I bring milk? This question varies by the airline carrier and by the day. I don't want to have anything in the sippy cup as I don't want it confiscated, so we will bring a little milk in a sealed bottle and hopefully I can open it and have it tested as opposed to having to have it taken from me

I have been able to answer some of these questions and have done a lot of reading of other people experience. Some questions I will not be able to answer until we go through this experience ourselves and some questions do not have an answer.

We three are embarking on an adventure and I am planning on doing my best to make the trip there as interesting and fun as I can for Addie. She's never been to an airport, so this is a whole new experience for her and I am hopeful that since we are having this experience early in her life, she will be a better traveler in the future because of it.

However, I do wish the airports and airport security did not have to be so infuriating.

When God Created Mothers

Erma Bombeck, in my opinion, was one of the greatest comic writers on the topic of Motherhood. So I decided that for my blog I would put up one of her stories. I am also drawing a blank when it comes to writing something this week.

Here it is:
"When God Created Mothers"

When the Good Lord was creating mothers, He was into His sixth day of "overtime" when the angel appeared and said. "You're doing a lot of fiddling around on this one."

And God said, "Have you read the specs on this order?" She has to be completely washable, but not plastic. Have 180 moveable parts...all replaceable. Run on black coffee and leftovers. Have a lap that disappears when she stands up. A kiss that can cure anything from a broken leg to a disappointed love affair. And six pairs of hands."

The angel shook her head slowly and said. "Six pairs of hands.... no way."

It's not the hands that are causing me problems," God remarked, "it's the three pairs of eyes that mothers have to have."

That's on the standard model?" asked the angel. God nodded.

One pair that sees through closed doors when she asks, 'What are you kids doing in there?' when she already knows. Another here in the back of her head that sees what she shouldn't but what she has to know, and of course the ones here in front that can look at a child when he goofs up and say. 'I understand and I love you' without so much as uttering a word."

God," said the angel touching his sleeve gently, "Get some rest tomorrow...."

I can't," said God, "I'm so close to creating something so close to myself. Already I have one who heals herself when she is sick...can feed a family of six on one pound of hamburger...and can get a nine year old to stand under a shower."

The angel circled the model of a mother very slowly. "It's too soft," she sighed.

But tough!" said God excitedly. "You can imagine what this mother can do or endure."

Can it think?"

Not only can it think, but it can reason and compromise," said the Creator.

Finally, the angel bent over and ran her finger across the cheek.

There's a leak," she pronounced. "I told You that You were trying to put too much into this model."

It's not a leak," said the Lord, "It's a tear."

What's it for?"

It's for joy, sadness, disappointment, pain, loneliness, and pride."

You are a genius, " said the angel.

Somberly, God said, "I didn't put it there."
— Erma Bombeck (When God Created Mothers)

All good plans

I have been working on a major reorganization project upstairs. It is definitely needed as the upstairs became a dumping ground for extra stuff. It all started when Warren's office was moved upstairs to make room for the nursery and the stuff was all carried upstairs and dumped in one room. We also had been putting outgrown baby stuff up there and there was a lot of that upstairs too.

I started this project a few months ago. Things were going good and then Addie switched to a toddler bed, which meant we had minimal if any naps happening in our house. That made for two weeks of not being able to work up there. Addie's naps have gotten much more consistent now so we are doing well with that now.

I was getting excited to get back up there and work on things. Then we got a call from a friend who would like to come and visit this weekend. We are excited to host our friend. The problem is I've been using the guest bedroom as a staging area to put stuff from the other rooms in categories. So it's another step back as I had to move all the stuff out of that room and put back in the other rooms temporarily. To top that off, I have a nasty cold/sinus thing that is draining my energy, so it took all the energy I had to just move the stuff out of the room. I was hoping to be able to put the stuff back were it will belong and save a step, but I do not have the time or the energy.

It seems like this is the never ending project. I hope to have it done someday in the year 2011. With everything going on, I will not be able to get back into this area until sometime in the middle of April.

Anti Nap Days

One of the joys of toddlerhood at our household are anti nap days. What are anti nap days? Those are the days that Addie decides not to nap.

These days occur on days that we leave the home. What happens is that Addie will nap on the way home and then not sleep the rest of the day, so she technically is taking a nap. The drive home is not long enough for a nap and then I have a cranky kid. I've tried everything to keep her up, I've sang songs, tickled feet (when Warren is driving), snacks, fun toys that are only in the car, and varying the time we leave the house. None of these things have worked, if Addie wants to sleep, she will sleep.

It's days like this that make me think long and hard as to if it is worth it to leave the house. There are times I decide I want Addie to nap more than I want to be out in society. Sometimes it feels like this is my punishment for making Princess Addie leave her castle.

I use Addie's naps as an opportunity to clean the house (yes every day there is housecleaning to do, being home all day makes the home messy), laundry, getting the garbage out and burned, collecting recycling to take in, and my house organizing project ( I want my sewing room back and Warren wants his office back)

Anti nap days also means that night time will also be a nightmare. She'll be exhausted and cranky and I'll be exhausted and cranky. Warren seems to know when these days are going to occur and works late, really late, like 9 or 9:30. Usually he gets home right before Addie completely crashes, after I have read multiple stories, sing bits and pieces of EVERY hymn and lullaby I know and I had almost won the battle. Then Addie is all excited to see daddy and does not want to go to bed. So another 10 to 15 minutes and Addie will not be able to stay up and will drop (literally sometimes midstep) asleep. Then Warren wonders why I want to collapse the minute after Addie is tucked in. He wonders why I don't want time to myself at night.

I am learning to roll with the punches on these days. I think it's important for our sanity (Addie's and mine) to get out once in a while. We go to toddler story time one time a week and Addie loves it. We go on play dates sometimes and I go to bible study once a week. Splash class is once a week, but Addie is so tired that she will nap past the car ride.

child of an engineer

Almost every day I am reminded that the engineering genes are in my daughter's gene pool. She does things sometimes that makes you think, yep, she's part engineer.

The most recent example is Addie learning to talk. She tends to say a word only when it's perfect and you don't hear the cute attempts to say a word. For example, on Sunday Addie said "morning" and did not say mo, mor, morn, and then: morning in a progression. She also says a word once and then you don't hear it again. Warren and I have "caught" her saying a word when her back is turned to us. She also will not say anything on command, nothing will clam her up more than when you ask her to say something.

Addie "weaning" off her bottle is another example. I did not have to wean her off her bottle, she just decided one day that she will only use a sippy cup and refused to use a bottle again. It was a one time thing and she never tried the bottle again.

Addie learning to walk was yet another example. I remember talking to a friend about her not walking yet and she told me not to worry, she'll want to move her toys around the room and will not be able to do that while crawling. A few days after hearing that, I observed that Addie would throw her toy ahead of her, crawl to it, and then repeat the process. She did learn to walk later, of course. She did figure out how to climb up to the back of the couch first.

Addie will quietly sit and look at something and then will "fix" her problem. She does not attempt to build something or climb into something without staring at it for a while (and sometimes more than once), before trying something new. She still has to experience trial and error, like everyone else. However, she needs to take time to observe something before she tries it.

A have a few mommy friends that also have children of engineers and the force is strong with some of them.

Any one have any great engineering children stories?

Giving this a try

I decided to give this blog thing a try. I had one years ago and did not keep up with it. This was pre-baby. My life seems to be categorized that way, pre-baby and post-baby. This is the life of a mommy (and daddy).

Anyways, I decided to try this again for two reasons: 1. My family always want cute Addie stories aad 2. I have too many status updates on Face Book and also want to give more information in regards to my status. I don't expect this blog to be the most exciting or witty thing you'll read in a day, but I plan on writing at least once a week and it will be on any topic that I find interesting.

Today is a catch up day at our house. On Tuesdays we car pool with daddy and leave the house at 6:30 am and come home at 7:30 pm, so it is a long day for us.

Addie is currently playing and is on her second outfit of the day. The first outfit survived breakfast, but not the morning snack. Addie is starting to talk more with a new word almost every other day. Yesterday the word was "apple", Monday it was "there" , "orange", and "dog" and Sunday it was "morning". Today it is "hurry".

The transition to the toddler bed is just that "transition". At this point, Addie will wake up soon after we wake up (she used to sleep in and we had quiet mornings) and she will not go to sleep until Warren and I are getting ready for bed. So, our "baby free time" is pretty much nil. Nap time is hit and miss. It is slowly getting better and the routine is getting settled down.

I am planning on continuing my work on organizing the upstairs. I am amazed at how much junk we can accumulate in 5, almost 6 years at our current home. I have not even gotten into Warren's study and anyone who knows Warren or has seen his cubicle at work knows that will be a HUGE project. I also got a label maker and am slowly becoming addicted.

I am also working on the freezer as I realized just how much is in there. My shopping list is pretty small as we have a lot of frozen homemade meals and leftovers that need to be eaten. I also have a lot of frozen fruit, so any dessert ideas for it will be greatly appreciated.

Well that's about it. I live an exciting life.