Birthday

My Lil' Squirt is 2 years old!!

On Friday my mom and I took him and his cousin to the Mill Mountain Zoo in Roanoke to celebrate his birthday. It isn't the greatest zoo but it was perfect for the little ones because there wasn't anyone else there so they could just run around and check everything out at their own pace. We greatly enjoyed it!

Friday night I made a lion cake for for Lil' Squirt's birthday party:

I used a recipe from my Taste of Home cook book for Moist Chocolate Cake and simply doubled it. I made two round cake pans and filled two muffin pans with the rest of the batter in little cupcake cups. For the brown frosting, I used the Chocolate Peanut Butter Frosting recipe in the Taste of Home Baking Book and for the yellow frosting I used the Bakery Frosting recipe (divided by fourths and using vanilla instead of almond extract) from the same cook book. I had a bit of problem when it came to the round cakes, however. Even though I greased the pans, they still didn't come out well. The first one looked terrible but was still in one piece while the second one just came out in chunks. Instead of making a two layer cake, I decided to just go ahead and use a portion of the failure as a raised part on the cake for the mouth and nose. It worked out really well! It wasn't until AFTER the cake had been made that I received a link to one of my favorite blogs, Lynn's Kitchen Adventures, which stated that sprinkling the pan with cocoa powder before pouring the batter in keeps the chocolate cake from sticking to the pan. Genius! Anyway, it still turned out beautifully despite my limited baking and decorating knowledge, and it sure was a hit!

We had a blast at the party, passing around our new baby niece and watching the antics of a couple of toddlers surrounded by lots of new toys and books. Lil' Squirt greatly enjoyed having his truck driver Gramma and her dogs stay with us but now the guests have left and the festivities are over so we can take a deep breath and get back into our normal routine. We like routine.

Sick, Sick, Sick!

Well, all three of us have a bad cold now. So much for walking and making better, healthier dinner choices for the next couple of days. My mom offered to order Chineese food and since she doesn't cook much and I didn't have the energy, I said it would be fine. It was all right but what good is deliciously fattening food if you can't taste it?

There isn't a book in this world that I have ever read that captivates me the way the Left Behind series does. Yes, I know it's just someone's own interpretation of what happens in the end times but it just has this way of drawing me in. I started reading them again a month ago and am on the 10th book now. Crazy, I know! My time could be spent so much better reading more uplifting books but at least it has drawn my attention away from watching TV shows online. One of my goals has been to watch less and read more, which I am doing. Any suggestions on some good, educational reading material that will actually do me some good? I'll want to have one ready for when I finish this series, which is only 2 books away. ;-)

My Lil' Squirt is turning 2 tomorrow! He loves animals so tomorrow my mom and I are going to pick up his cousin and take them to the zoo! Afterwards, he is going to help me make a lion cake for his lion themed birthday. I hope it turns out all right. I'll be sure to post pictures and let you know either way.

A Day of Rest

I love that God commands us to take a day of rest. Sunday is truly our day of rest and relaxation. Sonny works almost twelve hours four days a week, three and a half hours one day, and eight hours another day, leaving Sunday his only full day off. He is exhausted by the time Sunday comes around so we relish in the fact that it is a day of rest. Many times we go to his parent's house after church and spend the day with family, sometimes we have lunch at other people's houses, but our favorite activity to do on Sunday is to sit around at home and play together as a family. We try to make something delicious for dinner that we don't normally have during the week, we like to play games, we play with Lil' Squirt, and many times we watch movies. It makes for a great day and lets us relax before entering another full week.

Yesterday was one of those Sundays. We knew that we had a lot to do: weather proof the house (I know, it's STILL not done and it's January), fix the dryer, clean (which always needs to be done), take down the Christmas decorations, laundry, and a number of other things. However, after every single day off for the past month has been full of car fixing (which is finally done), we decided to do none of them. We watched a couple episodes of America's Funniest Home Videos (one of my all time faves) and spent the day lounging around in pajamas. Sonny even made pudding, which we ate in bed as we watched a movie. The day would have been a lot more fun had Lil' Squirt been in a better mood though. He threw the biggest fits he's ever thrown, which included bawling, screaming, stomping, kicking, arm flailing, and throwing himself on the floor. Whoah. Between those fits and fussiness, he was still the sweetest, cutest little boy imaginable. Sonny got to enjoy a little walk with him outside while I took a delightful nap. It was a perfect day.

Now today the work begins. After a weekend of no housework, a lot needs to be done. I can just look forward to next Sunday, when we get to see the family and a friend whom we haven't seen in ages! At least I don't have to wait all week to see my sis-in-law! She's coming over tonight for dinner and to see her nephew. Yay!

Question of the day: Does anyone have any healthy, frugally delicious meal ideas for the week? Let me know! I'd love to try some new recipes!

Lil' Squirt

The Lil' Squirt's pants have been falling down all morning. They are so pesky because they barely go up over his thighs, but they sure do come down easily! He's my little tiny waisted boy. A few minutes ago I noticed a flash of bare skin out of the corner of my eyes and turned to see Lil' Squirt standing next to the coffee table with no pants on. I said, "What happened to your pants?" He looked down, smiled, then picked them up and brought them to me. What a sweet and intelligent little boy I have!

Note: Right after I posted this, I realized that I hadn't heard anything from Lil' Squirt in a minute or so. I walked into his bedroom (usually I can hear him playing with his toys in his room) and saw cloth diapers strewn about the room along with every pair of pants from his dresser. I'm sure he was on his way to pulling out all of his shirts as well, but I caught him. How can he make such a huge mess in such a short amount of time? 1-2 minutes, tops.

Finally!

You have no idea how many times I have tried to start a new post on here in the last few weeks! It's been so hectic and crazy lately! I started an Etsy shop (check out my last post here) which has been taking up way more time than I ever anticipated and my mother has been staying at my house for the last month. She just left on Sunday to start a new job! Yeah! She really likes it so far.

I also had a sick baby boy and as soon as he started getting better, my husband and I started to come down with the same thing. I live in a house of germs right now, so stay away! Lil' Squirt is starting to feel better but he still has a nasty diaper rash. It's been coming and going for almost two months now. We would do a good job of getting it knocked out quickly but as soon as we put him in cloth diapers again, his rash would come back. We changed detergents but when that didn't work, started using disposable diapers exclusively but nothing ever seems to help. We've tried it all: Desitin, A&D Ointment, Butt Paste, fresh air (we've learned to block off the kitchen so he'll stay on the linoleum making it an easy clean-up), numerous changes throughout the day, and not using wipes.

Quick change of subject. Right now my husband is out working on the car but it has this obnoxious car alarm that we can't figure out and apparently it won't let him do his thing. The battery is dying on the car so the alarm dwindles down to nothing rather pathetically. It was entertaining at first but now it won't quit and it's 9:30 at night! Poor neighbors!

Anyway, now the rash has gotten worse and we need to do something different! It has raised bumps everywhere and it has not improved in the last couple of days. I think I'm going to try the natural route. I heard from a friend that grape fruit seed extract worked wonders on her daughter's terrible rash so maybe I'll try it. I went to the local health food store and found it for a whopping $14 for a tiny little bottle (although you don't need to use very much at a time) and walked right back out thinking that was a little too far out of our price range. I think I have passed the desperate stage now and will do anything to help soothe my poor baby's bottom! If THAT doesn't work, it's back to the doctor!

The alarm on the car keeps "chirping" every now and then. Dumb car.

Happy New Year!

I have tried about a thousand times to start a new post for over a week but every time I try, I either can't think of anything past the first sentence, or I get distracted and have to give up. I started a couple posts continuing the Y2K challenge but couldn't get very far because so much happened in 2003 that I just don't know where to begin! I started a post about the black eyed peas and cornbread I made on New Years day, and one about my goals for 2011. I'll be posting a lot over the next couple of days to catch up, so be prepared for a whirlwind adventure in blogging!

First up, New Years! As many of you know, it's a southern tradition to have black eyed peas and cornbread on New Years Day to ensure a year of good luck. Despite growing up in Washington state, I grew up with this tradition as well. I spent all of Saturday in the kitchen, working on dinner and making fudge. It was a very fun and productive day!

Our anniversary was on the third and since Sonny had to work, we decided to celebrate by getting a hotel room in Roanoke and going to dinner at a fancy (for us) restaurant. My mother being here made it all possible! She stayed home with Lil' Squirt while we went out. It was my first time being away from him for more than a few hours but he did great! It was as if he didn't even know we were gone! It was the most wonderful and relaxing time I have had in ages. Happy Two Years, hubby!

Joy to the World...

...the Lord is come!

Well, Christmas has come and gone. The decorations are still up and Christmas music is still playing in my mind, but we don't have the anticipation of Christmas day to look forward to any more. Happily, this joyous season continues for our family until at least January 8th. First comes New Years, then our anniversary on the 3rd, then Sonny's birthday on the 8th. After taking down the Christmas decorations the second week of January last year, my husband told me that I was a scrooge. I promised him that we could always leave the decorations up until after his birthday but it seems that he wouldn't be satisfied unless we leave them up all year long!

On Christmas Eve I made a ham that was given to me by a dear friend. It was the first ham I had ever made and it turned out delicious, however, I had a bit of trouble in the cooking process:

I mistakenly used a recipe for a 12 lb ham and didn't think to change the cooking time to match my much smaller one. If I had been home to baste it frequently like the recipe called for, I would have noticed that it was starting to get too done but we had a couple errands to run and we took MUCH longer than anticipated. We came home to that black thing! We believe that perhaps the outer black shell kept the inside nice and juicy, making for the most wonderful accident I could imagine! I would post the recipe on here for you, but I'd like to keep that a secret. It's something you would never expect so I'm not going to tell you! Haha! I've never had a food with a "secret ingredient" before, but this ham recipe will be it! We also had alfredo noodles and lima beans with corn. We ate by Christmas and candle light with my pretty table cloth all the way from India!

One of the gifts I received is a book called "The House that Cleans Itself: Creative Solutions for a Clean and Orderly House... in Less Time than You Can Imagine!" by Mindy Starns Clark. It is so helpful and fun to read and I can't wait to start implementing some of the steps detailed in this book. I will consider it my new challenge for January and will post about it soon! In the meantime, I'm still working on trying new, healthy recipes that I've never tried before. Last night I made polenta for the first time. I was going to use it with spaghetti sauce but my mom didn't like it, so we had noodles instead. I'm going to find a new way to have it other than with pasta sauce so we will all enjoy it!

A Pleasant Christmas Surprise

Due to some rather terrible circumstances, my mother, the truck driver, will be spending Christmas with our family! We consider it a blessing in disguise. She lost her job (BOO!) but it happened on my side of the country so she gets to be with us for Christmas (YAY!). She already has some prospects for a better job so don't be too sad! She hasn't been around Lil' Squirt for more than a week so she can't wait to spoil him and for us to spend some quality time together.

Meet My Family