somewhat productive weekend

If you follow my twitter (which I don’t blame you if you don’t, I so rarely tweet these days), you know we got the kids out on Saturday to burn off some excess energy.  We took a little afternoon trip to Brunswick Town and Fort Anderson.  Last weekend we had gone out to Moore’s Creek National Park, took a walk and watched a short film in the visitor’s center about the battle that happened there.  Jag was fascinated with the film and really got into the whole history of what happened there.  (He’s very much his Daddy’s Son, he loves history and science.)  We had high hopes for Brunswick Town, but it ended up being a very crudely illustrated film and our walk consisted mostly of him whining that he was “tired” and “bored”, with the exception of a brief stop at the riverfront where he stopped complaining long enough to throw large rocks into the water. 

We made a stop at the home improvement store for all the supplies we needed to build Kat’s new closet, then spent the rest of the day just having fun at home.

Yesterday, I went out and bought an entire new bedding set for our bedroom.  Comforter, shams, sheets, bed-skirt, throw pillows… got the whole load home and realized it does not, in fact, match our paint color.  I even took a paint chip, it just didn’t look the same at home in our own lighting.  It’s a beautiful set of navy and gold toile, and so very soft!  I’m bummed that I have to take it back.  I almost considered repainting the room (it’s currently a pale blue that I’ve always accented with clean, bright white textiles), but agh.  That room and adjoining master bath are a lot of work to paint.  And I luuuurve the pale blue, so I’ll keep looking.  Seems for the last almost 4.5 years I’ve done nothing but search for just the right bedding for our room.  :-/  (Incidentaly, the set looks fantastic in the dining room where it’s sitting now, with the pale yellow and gold walls.)

Jason got Kat’s closet built.  It’s almost three feet smaller in width than Jag’s, but it’s just as awesome now that we’re using the space more efficiently.  I need to go shopping for baskets, bins and containers now for both closets so I can start putting away all their toys.

So that brings us to today.  New Year’s Eve.  No plans here.  I’d love to have a small celebration just with the four of us this evening, but I didn’t put any thought into it in advance and now the pressure of it being tonight with only one afternoon to shop and prepare is leaving my mind blank.  Anyone having little parties at home with your kids?  How are you celebrating?

One week left of Jag’s winter break!  So far it’s gone well, but I’m a little scared for this week.  He’s starting to get bored and it’s showing.  He’s acting out and picking on his Sister.  I need to think quick and get him busy after New Year’s Day.

eta:  OH!  I forgot to mention, I also picked out a paint color for Kat’s room!  It’s more of a dark strawberry pink than cherry, but I think it’ll be perfect.  I’ve stuck a couple of paint chips to the wall in her room so I can look at them in different lights of the day just to be sure (because that will not be an easy color to paint over if I end up not liking it!).  I hope to have my mind made up by next weekend so I can go buy my paint.

need a marathon?

Heads up!  BabyAge.com has a Britax Marathon (in the Olivia pattern) for $209 and free shipping if you sign up for their newsletter.  I so badly wanted the cow pattern, but I couldn’t justify spending an extra $60 for it, so pink it is!

Kat’s Roundabout (that was once Jag’s Roundabout) is expiring next month.  I can’t wait to have a fresh, clean seat!

(and btw?  I can’t believe I’m up this late!  Yikes!)

my poor deprived baby girl

Kat is 19 months old and she’s still sleeping in an off-white painted room with zero decor, nothing on the walls (unless you count the painting Jag did for her on his art paper and hung over her crib) and no window treatments.

I was so tickled to have a girl.  Not to say I wouldn’t have been thrilled to have had another boy.  But the idea of getting to do a pink frilly room made me so happy.  And yet here I’ve done nothing.  I’m so aggravated with myself!

My biggest problem has been my indecisiveness.  I’ve been back and forth with color schemes, styles, etc.  I couldn’t find any bedding sets in stores that I loved.  I tried to buy pieces of this and that to make something myself and of course I never got around to it (story of my life).

She’s still a long way off from a big girl bed, but my mother-in-law made two gorgeous twin-sized quilts for Kat and I decided to choose one and work the style and colors around it so that when we do move her into a twin bed, the rest of the room is ready.  One is very feminine with soft colors and a scalloped edge, and the other is a brighter yellow trimmed quilt with pink, purple, green, etc.  It was a tough decision because I love them both, but I’ve settled on the brighter yellow trimmed quilt.  Kat has such a bright, sunny personality - it fits her. 

So now I’m making the rest of the decisions.  I wan to keep it simple.  I think I’ve decided on a cherry pink for the walls.  It will be dramatic, go well with the pinks in the quilt and I think it will really make the yellow pop.  I want to keep the quilt as the focal point of the bedding, so I’m going with coordinating solids for the bed skirt, sheets and curtains.  Something like the Pottery Barn Kids solid chambray stuff (since they always carry it, I know I can buy a couple of crib pieces now, and then buy the twin-sized sheets in a year or so for the bed).  I’m not sure which solid colors I’ll go with yet, but I just ordered a yellow chamois crib sheet, we’ll see how that looks.

I’ve always imagined white furniture.  We already have a white bookshelf in her room, and we have a pretty dresser that used to belong to her Grandma (the same Grandma who made the quilt) that we planned to paint white and put some pretty new pulls on.  I’m kinda wondering if I should consider another color though, just because of all the white in the background of the quilt.  Then again, the white furniture and the white on the quilt might help balance the darker color on the walls, huh?  Hrmmm…

Anyway, I’m excited to finally have a plan, and I’m excited that it’s going to be easy (so I know it will get done)!  We’re re-doing the shelving in her closet this weekend (we did Jag’s closet two weeks ago, similar to this), I wonder if I can talk Jason into painting too?

souffle on Christmas morning

I made a French Toast Souffle for breakfast on Christmas morning.  Thought I’d share the recipe.  Jason and I thought it was just okay, but the kids LOVED it and scarfed a couple of servings each down.  I think if I make it again, it will be mostly for them and I’ll halve the recipe.  I made a few changes based on a reviewer’s suggestions, here’s what my recipe ended up looking like:

10 cups bread cubes (I used Sarah Lee’s Brown Sugar Cinnamon bread - yummy!)
4 oz cream cheese
1/2 stick butter
6 eggs
1.5 cups heavy cream
1/4 cup maple syrup (I used a splash or two more)
3/4 tsp vanilla (I used a splash more)
powdered sugar and cinnamon for garnish

In a small bowl stir cream cheese, butter and maple syrup.  Microwave for one minute, stir until melted together.  pour over bread cubes (in generously greased 9×13 pan).

Combine eggs, vanilla and heavy cream.  Pour over top of bread cubes, sprinkle with cinnamon and refrigerate overnight.

Let stand out for half hour in the morning before baking.  Bake for 1 hour at 375.  (mine got very brown on top, so keep an eye on it!)

back to real life

It seems like it’s been forever since I’ve been home alone with the kids while Jason worked.

 Jag had half a day on the 14th, which also happened to be the day his Aunt Sara came into town for a weekend visit.  At the last minute, the kids and I hopped into the car and followed her home to Orlando to surprise my Mom.  Poor Mom had been so down about not seeing the kids since April, and especially not seeing them around the holidays.  The surprise was awesome.  There’s video of it on my dropshots account, if you have that link.  I think it’s on my Elsewhere page, if not I’ll come back and link it in the comments of this entry.

So anyway, we were in Orlando for the whole week.  Got home Friday night (drove the entire 9.5 hours with 2 kids all by myself - go me!!), then Saturday morning Jason’s Dad came in for a weekend visit.  Jason was off work Sat, Sun, Mon, Tue and Wednesday.  So today is his first day back to work, and therefore my first day back to real life in *counting on fingers* two weeks!  Eeep!

So far so good, Jag’s only been sent to his room once so far, and Kat’s already down for her nap.

For those of you who watch my flickr stream, I’ve mentioned briefly in my private photos but I’ll mention it here as well for those who don’t have access - I took all my kids and family photos private last week.  Honestly, the orkut thing never really bothered me much.  It was just annoying.  But then I had a large, nationwide builder steal my photos, make and frame prints, and hang them in their model homes - all without asking and without paying for them.  They were my personal, family photos - photos of the kids, of me and Jason, even of my Mom and her husband.  That really upset me.  I’m still dealing with that.  And then I was alerted to a flickr account last week where someone had stolen and used pics of Jag in their stream.  That was pretty much the last straw.  All along I’ve been very aware that this sort of thing could happen, and I took the orkut stuff in stride.  But I just got tired of worrying about it.  Tired of wondering who else was stealing my pictures that hadn’t been caught yet.  Flickr’s not as much fun when you keep everything private, but I feel good about my decision.  Maybe later down the road when there’s not much activity on my stream, I can start sharing publicly again and keep a low profile so as to not attract the thieves.

In the meantime, I will still share some here because the general public on flickr does not know about this blog.  I’ve got a smaller number of people checking in, and yes I’m googable, but I’m just not as easily found here.  However, there will always be more shared for family and friends on flickr.  If you are reading and would like access, and you aren’t a weirdo thief, then leave a comment here with the link to your flickr stream and I’ll add you as a friend.  (or you can flickr mail me if you’d feel more comfortable)

Moving on… lots of other stuff going on too.  For instance, we cancelled our Costa Rica trip.  No fun, eh?  Two reasons.  One, Kat is still nursing, and recently she’s picked up the nursing a good bit (not really sure why)… we don’t feel good about the idea of weaning her for a vacation since she’s only 19 months old.  And two, we decided that although we’d love to go to Costa Rica one day, we’d rather go to Peru first.  And March isn’t the time to go to Peru.  We’ll have to schedule that for another time, maybe next year during the summer months.  So now we’re trying to figure out what we’ll do with our March time.  Jag has 3 weeks off school for spring break, and I refuse to sit home those entire three weeks.  I’m thinking of maybe renting a cabin in Maggie Valley for a week and inviting my family to come stay with us (hopefully Jason could make it too, but we recently found out that one of his employees might be leaving soon so we’re not counting on it - I guess another good reason we decided against Costa Rica, eh?)

This is getting long.  I still have plenty more to say but I’m sure nobody wants to read it all in one entry, so hopefully I’ll remember to post more later.  Hope you all had a Merry Christmas and you have a Happy New Year!

Oh, a couple of pics!