Happy Birthday Henry!

Yesterday I spent my free time making a banner for a friends son's birthday party.  He is turning 2 and having a construction theme.  I was going to make a full post out of the making of the banner but as I was taking the pictures I realized what a boring and tedious post it would be, especially since making a banner is fairly straight forward.  Buy paper, cut paper, glue together, tie together, and voila!

The Supplies.

All ready to get started.  I have titled this picture as I NEED a craft room.  We have an empty room waiting to be transformed, but it is much easier to work and do things piece by piece over the course of the day, when I have a moment and everything is set up in the kitchen.

A big fat negative...

Today was the first day I thought I would be able to test to see if I am pregnant.  It is 11 days past when I should have ovulated.  I'm due for my period on Saturday so I'm still 3 days away from being late.  If you have not been in this position before, it takes ALL of the willpower in your being to not take pregnancy tests when you are in possession of them and think you might be pregnant.  I'm definitely feeling a little down this morning, but I know it's early so I'm trying to not let my hopes down yet.  Of course, as soon as I saw the negative my first thought was that this time around it's not going to be as easy as the last two.  I'm old and the fact that I'm in my 30s now is really driving me crazy and I just keep thinking it's going to effect things.  I have had two c-sections now and for some reason I keep thinking that it is going to also have negative effects on being able to get pregnant.  With number one I ovulated on the 9th and got my first positive on the 20th-11 days later!

 #2 was a different story, I just knew from the day on conception that I got pregnant.  DH thought I was crazy especially since we only decided 3 days before to start trying-there was no way it would happen that fast.  But, it did!  The one thing really giving me A LOT of hope (or at least something to hold on to right now) is that with #2 even though I swore I was pregnant at least a dozen pregnancy tests disagreed with me.  One of the last tests I took was a day after my period was due, it was negative.  I made a decision, since I had one test left, I would wait until I was almost a week late.  On that day I would call the doctor to see what was up, but of course before I would call I would take that last test.  I got pregnant with Jade on January 21th and I didn't get a positive pregnancy test until February 7th-17 days past ovulation.

  I am a little less than a week away from that now. Though, I really did think today would be the day I got a positive, I charged my camera last night in anticipation of take a pregnancy test picture this morening.   I will take the next test on Saturday the day I am due and hopefully we will go from there and this depressing entry will actually be the first in baby #3's pregnancy journey.

Is it Valentine's Day yet?

Every year after Christmas I say I am going to keep my decorations up for a few weeks.  After all, they take forever to get up  , and even thought I tend to start decorating before Halloween I'm never ready to take them down.  But, there is this thing inside me that turns on December 26th and the only thing I can do to shut up this little monster that is on my shoulders is take down ALL of the decorations.  And, I really think there is nothing sadder than the empty depressed look of my house.  What's my solution?!  VALENTINE'S DAY!  It's pink, it's cheerful, and it's something.  Now, I definitely do not go all out for v-day like I do for Christmas but I definitely like to just have a few things here and there to gradually work my way back to how my house normally looks.

After all of the Christmas decorations came down I explained to #1 about v-day.  She was very excited or another holiday to be coming but of course following Christmas she was excited to be getting another round of presents.  Especially, since "Santa" didn't get her a hula hoop.  I then disappointed her by letter her know the holiday did not come with presents the same way Christmas did.  Though, she will be getting a little something on February 14th that will be park of her new big girl room!

So what's so great about Valentine's Day anyway?  I'm married and have been or several years now, we exchanged date nights at fancy restaurants for Pizza at home, and considering I always worry about the rings I wear cutting the kids, necklaces getting ripped off my neck, and bracelets hurting their back while I hold them jewelry has become a distant last on a long list of things I want/need.  So who cares, right?  I DO!!!  

Valentine's day is a great reason to craft!  And, as much as I enjoy making crafts to display around my house and give to my loved ones, who already know how talented I am, I enjoy showing off to strangers even more!  Enter #1 and the delight that is pre-school!  Every silly holiday requires a class party and some sort of treat for the kids.  But, for me, it's a chance to get creative and show off how well I do it to strangers.

I am almost 100% decided as to what I will be making for #1's party but yesterday came to my final choice as to the Valentines she will be giving out.  I had been scouring Pinterest for quite some time trying to come up with the best option.  Nothing too showy, as we are trying to save money nothing that would be too expensive, and definitely something that included at least a little bit of candy.  My first thought was a paper cell phone and instead of the keypad candy buttons but that seemed a little plain as well too tine consuming.  Next I had decided on Pop Rocks with a stapled on note that said "You Rock!"  Though, even as I was looking at that, the fact that I needed to staple my tiny note on just seemed a little flimsy.  It was just going to be a tiny note stapled (or glued) on-where is the creativity in that?!

After discussing and doing a few prototypes with DH we decided on a Starburst candy theme based on one we had seen online.  It combined the right about of using the Cricut, printing, & cuteness I wanted without looking like I tried too hard.  I immediately went into Gimp to make a replicated version of what I saw online.  Even though the valentine was available to download for free (my favorite) http://bethproudfoot.blogspot.com/2012/01/youre-star.html I wanted to personalize it with #1's name.  Two seconds after starting to make my own i remember I could just DL the template and "photoshop" #1's name right in.  After doing that and printing the outcome.  I came to this point.

This morning i purchased a 25 pack of Valentine's Day themed card stock at Michales on clearence or $1.99.  Which is a great deal!  As you can see from above I prepared my paper by cutting it 6" wide to go inside my Cricut. The next step involved me cutting out the white rectangles.

I actually could have just cut out the whole rectangle and left the background pink but right now what's trendier than chevron stripes and, personally, I think nothing looks nicer and high end like layered paper.  

To get the rectangles the right size that I needed I would have to use Cricut's Craft Room program-which I hate!  The concept is amazing and there is so much you can do with it, but it's so buggy and only works half the time.  I think I spend three times more time turning my machine on and off than actually doing any cutting.

After several frustrating attempts and two updates Craftroom FINALLY worked and I got all of my chevron stripped rectangles cut out.  Next, was gluing.  There are several types of glue out there that people swear by , my favorite is still Elmers.  It always does the trick, it dries clear, and is cheap.  

Finally the finished product.  I was planning on buying the packs of Starburst that had two or three in an individually wrapped package but I just happened to have a few individual  ones around the house that I was able to use to my pictures and decided i like the look of just the one Starburst.  I still will have to go to the supermarket this weekend and see what's available to know for sure how they will go to preschool, but I am definitely very happy with the finished product!

Sunday Family Funday Breakfast

Having a husband who works as many hours as he does there are very few meals through the week that we actually get to eat together.  The only meal Monday through Saturday that the family ever gets to eat together is dinner and that is if DH is home at night which is only the case 50% of the time.  Sunday, as i'm sure for most families, is the exception.  DH and I have an unsaid agreement that I do not mind him going into the office on Saturdays but Sundays are for me and the girls!  Generally, I do try to do something a little more on these days for breakfast that I normally do.  I do make sure my girls get a hot freshly cooked breakfast everyday but on Sunday I try to go a little beyond normal.  Even if it's just bagels that DH has gone out, it's something different from the normal oatmeal or eggs.

This morning instead of going out and getting bagels I told DH to stay at home because I had some cinnamon buns in the fridge and we might as well use them.  Quickly I searched for something fun to do with them and came across this site. http://www.momscraftyspace.com  As a mom, of course, I love other mom sites!  So here was our yummy, super easy, and extremely quick cinnamon bun breakfast.

This is also my first attempt into food photography...

 I definitely make a point to remember to spray the waffle iron with non-stick spray!  Nothing is worse than having to throw something out because it got stuck and burned while you are trying to remove it.  BUT, what's even worse than that is having to clean an appliance or pan that has had food stuck and burned onto it.  Also, when I looked at the cinnamon buns and all of the sugar and cinnamon on top i pictured a messy nightmare to clean.

 Less than 4 minutes after placing the cinnamon buns in the waffle iron they were done.  SOO much faster than making them in the oven and definitely much less time waiting for a waffle iron to heat up than the oven (which I broke this week anyway).

The finished product!

And of course the Happy Customer!!!

Is there a salad in my bathroom?...no that's just my shower cleaner!

So one of the biggest peeves is becoming chemicals in our lives.  Exciting stuff i know!  It was not until maybe less than 2 years ago when i was in the store deciding what laundry detergent to buy that i noticed the natural one Ecos stated that they were free of petro-chemicals.  I bought my usual detergent because i LOVED the scent.  But, after i got home i started to think why does the natural detergent even say no petro-chemicals, like was that something that other detergents contained?  After, a little research (very little because these days finding more than 3 minutes to do anything that required actually attention on my part is impossible), i found out that detergents and most cleaning supplies not only do not have to state their ingredients but can basically put anything in there as long as it's not killing you, in the short term at least.  This also got me thinking about the scented cleaners i used in my house that smelled oh so wonderful.  My wonderful smelling Downey lavendar or gain apple mango tango definitely did not contain the items in their names and even if they did the trace amounts present definitely did not in a large part contribute to their very concentrated scent that filled up the laundry room and my laundry for days after it was dried, folded and sitting in our drawers.  So what exactly was it that was making these cleaners smell so great, i came to the conclusion of chemicals!

I most certainly have not turned my life upside down to try to change anything and everything in my life that i believe contains chemicals and a lot of the time trying to do this is cost prohibitive.  Hello, Seventh Generation, Burts Bees, Plum Organics, ......  But, i have been little by little trying to change things here and there to make our lives as a family a little more clean and hopefully natural.

The purpose of this entry does require a little bit of back story beyond what i have already mentioned. ..

In January 2009 I became pregnant with my first child, #1. When you are pregnant and living for two you are not only able to take a step back and consider what you are exposing yourself to, you are forced to.  Of course, there is the usual-no sushi, alcohol, most mediation (though i felt it best to stay away from all), weird things like Cesar dressing, etc.  You suddenly find yourself sitting at dinner contemplating if the meal of a salad that was considered by you healthy a few weeks ago is safe.  What kind of cheese is this, the meat on it-no way, is this dressing safe?  You become hyper-aware of everything you are exposing your self to because is it good for the baby?  This is also when i realized the most unsafe activity i engaged in was cleaning my bathroom, especially my shower.  It was a glass shower, so, of course, required several different cleaners-bleach/cleaner for the basin, soap scum remover for the inside of the glass, and glass cleaner for the outside.  And guess what, almost every cleaner you look at the bottle of says use in a well ventilated area.  Well the inside of my 3'x3' shower is the least ventilated place in the universe.  Not only is it enclosed but my bathroom also has no windows.  It was at this point it was decided, mostly by me informing my husband, that he would now be responsible for cleaning the bathroom.  He said "sure, no problem."  I told him I cleaned it weekly and wanted him to do the same.  At the time we were living in our started house, a small 1800 s.f. (even smaller when #1 arrived with all of her belongings).  I was also a working stiff during most of the pregnancy.  But all was good because I had a great pregnancy and was able to spend the few hours Saturday morning when my husband was at work cleaning the house top to bottom.  I could wash every hard floor, vacuum all 3 floors of carpets and stairs, dust, do the laundry, change the sheet in about 2.5 hours.    All husband needed to do was clean the master bath and considering it's size and the fact that it contained a jacuzzi that was NEVER used he should have been able to do this in less than 20 minutes.  Well, 40 weeks passed and #1 arrived and between that time and the conversation with Husband the bathroom was cleaned twice-the week we had the conversation and somewhere around 7 months when i got mad about it.

Two years later #2 was in the picture.  But, things were different this time.  We had up graded our house to one just under 5,000 s.f. and i had stopped working.  Our bathroom had also doubled in size.  Husband and i had the same conversation about him needed to be the one to clean the bathroom and if i'm being generous he did it once over those 9+ months.

Enter January 2013.  It's that time again and I'm hoping that any day now i will be getting a BFP.  Being 4 years older that i was when #1 entered our minds i feel i am 4 years wiser.  I realize that my husband will never do housework and generally for me to get him to do things such as cleaning it generally needs to be a fight.  Not because he doesn't want to do (which he doesn't) but because he has other things on his mind.  I get it, he had a very important job, works on a light week in the area of 60 hours, and generally as a male thinks the fact that i clean the house weekly is overkill.  Here began my realization that if i was to find out in the next few weeks that i am in fact waiting for #3 i need to be proactive.  Thus, my search for an all natural cleaner.

Using the old soap scum remover bottle (rinsed out) I found a recipe for equal parts white vinegar and dish soap.  I started with 8oz of each.  The first step was to microwave the vinegar just to help melt the soap into it and thank goodness this does not need to be done every time otherwise i would never use it.  Well, it worked like a charm.  Actually, the glass looked amazing!  I think i might be able to water it down a bit, it was quite soapy and definitely required me to rinse it several time more than i usually do.

Next project, something to replace the bleach i use to clean the toilet, basin, and counters!

An effort to make time......

This title seems to be the epitome of my life recently. Time for me, time to clean, time for the kids, time with Jon, Jema, & Jade alone, etc. I have not written in a long time but definitely had an affinity for it well over a decade ago which is possibly also the last time i wrote ANYTHING. Though, today as I was living my glamorous life of cleaning our shower I thought it would be neat to have a record of several things I am starting to do and what is going on in our lives. I would love to find the time over the next few days to really develop the idea of what i want to write about and who i am really writing to. How great would this be as a diary of sorts for my girls. A how to guide of trying to simplify our lives and live a more natural one. Or even better yet a record of the journey of my upcoming pregnancy, which i know will be happening soon.