Mudrooms

There's an article in the Deseret Morning News today that was kindly emailed to me. It's about mudrooms and how useful they can be. The coolest thing about the article is that it's from the company that my friend's husband (and sister) work at/run (I'm not sure of the specifics there).

Our new house will have a "mud closet" area, our dream home will have a nice mudroom/laundry room.

If you need a mudroom or any other remodeling work done, check out Renovation Design Group.

(It makes me feel famous to know people who are practically famous)

Just Chillin'

CP likes looking outside. He sat for half an hour just looking.

Baby Cereal for the Baby

He's getting big too fast. I've been putting off giving him solid food even though I thought he was ready because I've been enjoying his baby-ness so much.

Today I decided that he really needed more food than he was getting, so I mixed up some cereal and he was a little skeptical at first, but quickly decided it was GOOD, then I couldn't get it in his mouth fast enough.

Toy Recall

It's scary how many toys have been recalled recently. It makes me angry that companies that we trust to provide safe products for children have been so negligent. I don't think any of the recalls affect us, although we might have one thomas train piece that has been recalled- I'm not sure because our train set is packed away currently (I'll print out the recall sheet and tape it to the box), but how do I know that all of the other toys are really safe? Maybe they just haven't been tested.

It's tempting to throw out all toys made in china. I'm going to get rid of all the dollar store type toys that we have, and the name brand things, I'll be watching the CPSC Recall Page for updates.

Funny Pictures of other people's children

These aren't my kids, but most of them very well could be...

Baby Pictures

Here is a recent picture (from about 20 minutes ago) of the baby, and one from the hospital. Since he was so cute, the hospital used us in some nurse training manual they were working on, free professional photos- except they have a random nurse (we'll pretend that's great aunt louisa).

The Quiet

I skipped out on church after the sacrament. It's easy to get up and walk out when you have a baby. Everyone just assumes you're going to feed it or change it's diaper.

I started sneezing last night and thought it was allergies. This morning I woke up with a sinus headache and a horrible sore throat (which still, could be allergies and sleeping all night with my mouth open since I was so congested). I thought I was feeling better, but as soon as we sat down in the chapel I knew I should have stayed home. My nose started dripping and my sinuses were killing me. The only thing I had to wipe my nose on was a baby wash cloth (thank goodness for diaper bags).

I took the baby and walked home.

The house is silent. I've been home alone before and never felt such a stillness. It could be partly that things are empty without the piano and other things we've been moving into storage. It could be that the weather has turned cooler. It could be that my ears are plugged. Or it could be that so many of my neighbors are at church so the energy of people around is much less than normal.

It's kind of a nice feeling, aside from the sick part.

Dinner with Liberals

We had a really nice dinner with Derek and Sara last week. I hope my kids didn't wear them out too much.

It was an unusual, and pleasant feeling to discuss issues with someone more liberal/less conservative than myself. We're planning on another get together soon, possibly to watch Sicko (anyone know when it's coming out on dvd?).

Pictures

People are Cheep

Several weeks ago I posted our range on freecycle. I got one reply, but then the person never came and picked it up. The next week I posted the range on ksl classifieds in the free section. The next day one of our neighbors (from a block over) called about it.

I think I'm quitting freecycle. It irritates me too much. People are always asking for things, sometimes things that are fairly expensive.

Here's a post that came today:

Wanted Bread maker in good condition:
I really wanted one for my wedding, but people are cheep. Needless to
say I didn't get one. I would really like one though. Must be clean,
must work, and must be "newer." If your grandma pasted it down to you,
I don't want it.

This same person also wants a carseat for her baby that is due soon because the one they just got from freecycle "expires soon".

Some people are just cheep I guess. It's too bad really, I think freecycle could be something really great, but I get tired of people asking for so much.

I'll stick to KSL from now on.

Who Knew?

I have a group of "gardening friends". We get together on a discussion forum (The Microherd) and talk about all sorts of things. One of them recently posted about Himself Singing on youtube.

I'm not a big country fan, but it's a nice song. It's funny when you learn that someone you've known for awhile has a secret talent.

Green Ideas for Back to School

It's that time of year again, back to school. I'm thrilled to have a child in school, so I can buy school supplies without my husband looking at me like I'm a little nuts (yes, we need these six pairs of scissors!).

The only thing I don't love about back to school is the reminder it is of the cars idling in the drop off lane. To all parents, consider walking or riding bikes to school, it's good exercise for you and your kids, it gives you more time that you can focus on your child, and it is better for the air that we breathe. I hate to see all the kids out at recess during inversions, and we can all do a little to make a big difference.

If you must drive, PLEASE turn off your car. No one is going to die of heat, or freeze to death in the 10 minutes it might take for your child to get out of the school and into your car.

Thank you.

For more information on what you can do to improve our air quality, see Utah Mom's for Clean Air.

Announcement

It's exciting, and it's sad.

It's something I never imagined myself doing.

My Mr. and I are building a new home in a new development (one that I used to refer to as the swamp).

To keep up on the developments, see Our House, Next Door To Theirs. As you might have guessed from the title, we're building next door to some really good friends, you might say, my best friend (we already had a discussion on how you can have more than one best friend...).

It won't be my "dream home", but it's a step in the right direction.

(if anyone wants to come live next door to me, there are still lots available, and I'm recruiting good neighbors, so lets talk...)

Date Night: Dinner and not a Movie

The boys are having a fun day with grandpa and sleeping over, so my Mr. and I decided we should do something fun. Go to a movie? Nah... Go out to dinner? Hmmm... How about go to Ikea? We can walk around without kids and look at everything, and then eat dinner there.

That's what we did, it was great. Even the food was good (certainly not zaggat rated or anything, but good).

Squeaky Clean and Squealing

It's been a little too long since baby CP's last bath, so I gave him one tonight, and now he smells so nice and his skin is so soft. If you can see in the picture, his hair is all fuzzy.

There's nothing like a happy squealing clean little baby.

Best Cousins

When I was little, my cousin K and I said we were "best friends and best cousins too". Here's to a new generation!

Lying

What to do....

My six-year-old (I can't believe he's six already!) has been lying lately. He'll tell us that his younger brother did something, little brother will deny it, and six-year-old will say "he's a liar".

Eventually he comes forth and tells us he was lying. How do I get him to understand that he can't lie? What is an appropriate punishment? He already lost TV privliges for a couple of days for spanking an adult at church (he thinks it's funny, but we've told him he can't do it). I guess he'll lose bike privliges too.

I remember going through a lying phase, but I stopped when my mom told me that there might come a time when someone would accuse me of something I didn't do, and if I lied to her she wouldn't be able to stand up for me and say that her daughter didn't lie... I've tried a similar phrase on my six-year-old but he doesn't seem to care.

Sometimes I have no idea how to hande things... :)

Spitting can be problematic and Miscellaneous things

My sweet, beautiful baby is 4 months old. He's growing so fast. Faster than my other children (at least it seems that way). I was talking to an old college roommate (Hi Miss C!) over email recently about how wonderful it is having a third child. Not that number three is better than the first two, but I have finally figured out how to really enjoy him instead of waiting for him to reach each milestone.

Today he's discovered that he can spit. I'd call it blowing raspberries because that sounds better, but spitting is more accurate. He thinks it's hilarious, I think it's one more thing that gets all over my pants. Luckily my most recent pair dries fast and you can't tell they got slobber/spit up/or worse on them (I promise, if they get worse on them, I do change).

To any friends who read my blog that I no longer see every week, I miss you! We should have dinner sometime, or get our kids together to play...

And finally my last bit of news.... I'm Open for business. The inventory is not complete yet, but I thought I'd start with what I have now. I'm constantly working at adding more products, so tell your friends and check back regularly. :)

Since I don't have enough to do...

Announcing Green Peas blog, discussion forum, and soon-to-be online retail store for all of your cloth diapering needs.

One word of warning with cloth diapers, they are addicting, and once you start you will want to convince everyone you know to use cloth.

Clean Slate

My friend L is getting married on Thursday (YEA!!!!). Last weekend we had a "girls night" party. We ate dinner at the Mandarin (if I was saying we ate dinner at Applebees, I wouldn't say "the Applebees", but it looks funny typing Mandarin the same way...). Then we went to L's new condo. It is nice! It is so clean, and mostly empty.

Over the last several weeks I've been decluttering and throwing things away, but now I really want to get rid of stuff. I went through a drawer in the kitchen that is always overflowing with pie pans and bread pans and glass measuring cups and an odd assortment of school lunch containers. It looks better now (plus I got rid of the can opener which has never worked well-I prefer the hand type).

My BEST friend N is moving soon, so she's cleaning out her house to get ready to sell it, so I've been looking at my house in a new way... If I was trying to sell my house, what would I need to get rid of? It's kind of difficult since the kitchen is not finished yet and I don't have places to store my wheat grinder or my kitchen-aid vegetable slicer attachment, so they are in the living room on the book case. But I'm doing what I can.

Sometimes a purge feels good.

What I'd really like to do is start over in a new house (and a new car). It's fun to dream.