Dear Tacoma....

The best piece of material I've seen in a long while. I love it!
(Double click the image if you're having a hard time reading.)

bye bye baby

I think I can officially say we no longer have any "babies" in the house anymore. I know, I know, she's still very little, but to see my husband taking apart the bassinette tonight after having it's home next to my side of the bed for the last 36 months, well, to his credit, he tried to get it done before I had finished nursing her and laying her down, but it was hard to see it go. If for nothing else, I'll have to find a new place to put my clean clothes that I'm too busy to hang up. Our room seems so vacant now. I imagine Jack coming in tomorrow morning (this morning) to wake me and asking, "what happened?" his new favorite question for everything.

Things have suddenly seemed just a tad easier lately. It's very odd. I really started to take stock the other day as to what could be attributing to this. It finally hit me tonight just after I said goodbye to the little co-sleeper that was making it's new home in the cold attic. GG is now just a little older than Jack was when she was born. This is the first time I've had a toddler this age without an infant to care for. I had the experience of having a baby until he was 6 months old and then I became pregnant again, so the rest of the next several months had added challenges and by the time Jack was just starting to do things for himself, I had a newborn. This last week, I was finally able to push GG up to the table where she is happily feeding herself almost all of the time. She's also become very interested in potty training when she feels like it, she plays by herself more often now and I've seen some glimpes of her starting to wean from her last two feedings -in the early morning hour and at bedtime- so there's a lot going on right now in her journey to toddlerhood. But then you look at those cheeks and they just scream:
"BABY girl".



Still, this newfound liberation is a bit unsettling. I'm not sure what to do with myself during the new and few minutes I've found. It's not much, but it's like catching my breath. I got to dust the living room the other day, and it wasn't even the weekend!

SUPER SAVER - draft guard for door

Okay, so I started thinking about lots of creative ways to save money lately. With the economy in a state of crisis and just about everyone I know cutting back on this or that, I thought that it couldn't hurt to post my latest find once in a while. Who knows? It could save you a little money, too!

You'll need:
two strips of styrofoam insulation or thick foam (cut to the width of the door)
quilter's batting (the width of the door x about 18")
old pantyhose (just one leg per door)


This was inspired from a commercial for a draft guard that fits under doors. If you have a drafty door, it's very much like having a leaky faucet. You don't really see the money dripping away, but if you added up the gallons you're wasting over the course of a year, you would definitely do something about it! We have a doggy door from the mud room to the garage and then another from the garage to the back yard. So, there's a bit of a draft coming in : ) (see the titanic opening under the door?)


I started with two pieces of scrap insulation styrofoam (from Lowe's or if you know someone who is building or a site where you could find enough discarded). We have an awful lot of construction in our area, so this type of thing is plentiful here, but you could buy a 1/8 of a yard of foam from JoAnn's or local fabric store. Measure your styrofoam to your door and trim excess.

Cover each piece with batting by rolling it over the styrofoam like this:


Then roll up your old pantyhose as if you were going to put your toes in and start at one end, working your way up. Cut excess and knot shut.


Carefully ease the guard under the door through the "trough" between the pieces of styrofoam with the batting that goes between the pieces next to the floor.


It's not the most beautiful thing I've ever created, but the kitchen is soooo much warmer now. I'm shocked how much air we didn't realize was coming in!

Nearing :::500:::

The blog is getting very close to 500 hits (thanks, Cindy!)
and I promise not to do this again until we reach 1000, but it's been fun watching every new century mark getting closer and closer together. If you are lucky #500 (see counter) leave a comment and say "hey! it was ME!" Thanks for stopping by : )

Still Riding My Obama High

President Obama has been awfully busy for one week....
(1. Scrub 2. Rinse 3. Repeat)
What an amazing start. I'm as excited today as I was a week ago. My favorite word of the week: "follow through". Okay, that's two words, but whatever. I don't see him going down in history as "the president with the most vacation days". His predecessor holds that at 34% of his days in office. Can you imagine taking off 3 1/2 months out of the year? What a farce.

My second favorite word? "Diplomacy"
ooo, that even sounds just a little sexy ; )

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Not Me Monday (3)

Welcome to Not Me! Monday, where we can be brutally honest with each other, and live to tell about it. We all take shortcuts in life and so many of us moms think that if we admit to it, then we will not be the supermoms everyone sees us to be or expects us to be. Well, here is the place where hundreds of us are not exactly admitting to our shortcuts as almost a form of therapy. MckMama started it all here, on her blog. Join in, learn how and to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

1. I was horsing around with Jack and while I had my back on the floor, I hoisted him up on my feet to do the "helicopter ride". He's finally big enough for me to do this kinda stuff with him, and of course it was "do it again, Mommy" over and over. Finally, I thought it would make a fun photo for my 365 blog. That was until I saw my legs in it... because of course I shave my legs EVERYDAY now that I work from home full time, hardly ever go anywhere in anything but pants because it's oh, about an arctic 11 degrees here! So, obviously, I did not crop out most of my legs in the shot so people could not decipher just how long it's been, like rings of a tree.... not me!

2. I am not still listening to Christmas music because the CD's are still in the stereo and the kids always ask for it. Jeez, it's nearly February. Not me!

3. My son did not point out my dirty floor to my friend (with grown children) during lunch Saturday. Because of course, after having a crawler who wouldn't walk until she was 15 months old and even then, not 100% of the time, I am not taking a break here and there from having to keep the floor food-friendly.

4. My baby daughter let several rather unpleasant bouts of gas just rip during a quiet, intimate memorial service Wednesday. And I did not wave my hand in front of my face nor shake my head at her just so everyone that heard (and smelled nearby) would know that it was not me (seriously, it wasn't me, it WAS her and it was pretty mortifying!)

5. I don't think there is a rule that I have to list 5, but I usually do. I can't remember what 5 was supposed to be. I've been doing this all week.... I almost only had 3. But it's pretty funny that since I've been doing my NMM, I have been hearing the narrative of my blog posts in my head while I'm going through the actions thinking "yep, this is going to be one for NMM...ugh...."

An Unusual Post

If you have some time to burn, check out this unusual post over at my Project 365. I think I was inspired by Tammie when she wrote about her bag and the story it tells about her. What does your fridge say about you?