Tippy Tuesday: Laundry

If you're like me, you have various sizes of little socks, bibs, sweaters, delicate underlings, and the like mixed in with your umpteen loads of laundry. And, if that's the case, then you also know that bib velcro and sweaters do NOT go hand in hand and baby socks seem to repel each other...and existance. Ugh! My laundry indulgence: multiple mesh bags. Oh, my friends, how I love these! One for bibs. One for socks (if you know a pair went in the wash, a pair WILL come out). One for kid sweaters. One for underlings, tights, etc. Obviously, you can't jam them full (ie 2 kid sweaters max at a time); but then, you should be doing laundry enough to where that's not necessary. Pointing to self here.

I am in love with Cheer liquid detergent. Yes, yes, I know powder is probably cheaper -- or even making your own! (Props to those who do...and have the space to store 10 gallons.) But my long-term relationship with Cheer powder ended when it started making me cough every time I'd measure it out. Not to mention, my height made it difficult to get to the dregs of the box. I turned in the powder towel and tried the liquid -- and will ne'er return! So quick and easy to measure, without having to be on my tip-toes. No coughing due to tiny particles floofing through the air. And I love the smell of our clean clothes. The end. (Can I have copyright privileges on "floofing"?)

Tired of having air-dry clothes out for days waiting to dry, especially sweaters? Well, if you have an in-ceiling vent with enough space to put up your air-dry rack below it -- let your heater get to work! That is, if it's cold outside. Which it certainly is here... ;-)

11.24 Elijahisms

In BJs the other day, I asked the boys to help me look for the items on our list. After finding the milk, the next item to look for was eggs. We located the eggs, put them in our cart, and as we were walking away, Elijah said, "Look, Mommy! Chocolate eggs!" I had no idea what he was referencing until I turned around and saw the brown eggs next to the white eggs.

This afternoon, the boys and I were lounging on my bed at the end of nap time. We were playing a rhyming game and got to "eat, meat, seat, etc." Judah started explaining that meat comes from cows. I said that meat can come from different animals, and hamburger is what we get from cows. I then asked, "Where does chicken come from?" Elijah, without a beat, answered, "Chick-fil-A!"

Tippy Tuesday

I'm going to try and start a new thing: Tippy Tuesday. A day in which I just post random tips of things that work for me around the house that may or not be of use to others. I've learned from having a subscription to Better Homes & Gardens (thank you, Brenda!) that I am an idea-lover. Even if I never use a tip or idea, I love simply reading about them! So, I give you the first Tippy Tuesday post.

Instead of having a random stack of kid socks, too small to stack like adult socks but too big to lay neatly like baby socks, I pair mine up and stack them in a criss-cross fashion. That way, it gives a wide base so the tower doesn't fall over in the drawer AND my sons can easily pick up a pair without bringing just a handful of socks.

I love having an egg container in my fridge. But I also know that it is "best" to store eggs upright as they come in an egg carton. I just discovered that an egg carton actually fits in my egg container! So, I snipped off the lid and flap and placed the whole bottom half of the carton with the eggs in the egg container. Pop the lid back on, and stack the next carton on top. Keeps all eggs from being crushed and keeps them upright. The only drawback is that it doesn't look quite as quaint as a bunch of eggs piled in a container. :-)

11.22 Kidisms

Last night, our friend Brandon opened a gate for Judah and said, "Your free!" Judah walked away and simply said, "No, I'm four."

Elijah calls oatmeal "eat-meal." Judah calls avocado "ah-buh-ca-bo."

When I put Eden in a little leopard sleep 'n play, the boys called her "Eden Jaguar" and happily treated her like she was Baby Jaguar off of Diego.

Just a Day

An ordinary day. Pristine sunshine streaming across my quiet living room on this crisp fall afternoon. Glorious Sonshine filling my heart with joy despite some hardships as of late. Isn't He good like that?

Eden has a terribly gross nose right now. Every time yucky snot is running out, Elijah yells, "SICK! She needs a tissue, Mommy. It's SICK!" I suppose either Matt or I have described it as such enough times to influence our little dude's vocabulary.

We learned about wind and rain yesterday. I reviewed our terms at dinner, and Judah said a light rain is a "dribble" (instead of drizzle). Not sure I'll correct that just yet.

Last night, I was straightening up my sewing stuff. With Elijah looking on, Judah took it upon himself to press the ironing board's button and make it slam down. Totally scared me as I envisioned pinched arms, bonked heads, etc. After I knew they were ok, I commenced explaining that it was dangerous of him to do that. That's a mommy-job. But while I was talking, my boys were lost in their own amazement at how the ironing board went down. Judah told Elijah, "Look, 'Lijah! It downloaded!" Ha ha ha!

I'm off to neti my way into a nap before the hub-bub of post naptime begins.

A Tale of Two Veggie Dishes

Once upon a time, there was a woman who was a pro at making baby food. But she always knew there was an arch nemesis to the homemade baby food world: green beans. So one sunshiny day, she decided she would try three different methods using two different types of green beans to see if it was at all possible to match the perfectly smooth texture of jarred baby food. To her utter dismay, two and a half hours passed by as her kitchen got messier and messier; and all she was left with was the same kind of homemade baby food green beans she had ever ended up with. A whole morning gone with nothing left but textured baby food her daughter won't be able to eat for a while yet.

Now I remember why I always bought jarred green beans. Green beans don't have pits. They ARE the pits. Ugh. I began with good intentions to use frozen green beans. Steamed 'em up, and started hand-cranking away. And cranking and cranking and hand cramping and cranking... Just an awful amount of work that produces such a tiny amount of baby food. So I was going to throw them into my awesome electric baby food mill, but I think it must have shorted out a few seconds after I began. And being the amazing electrician I am, I have no idea what happened (nor did I choose to investigate -- good news for those of you that know my "background" in electricity...). I then tried to hand-crank some more, got fed up with that, and promptly grabbed the two cans of French style green beans (no salt or preservatives, just beans and water). Those cranked up very nicely, though still more difficult than soft fruits. It's amazing the amount of water that comes out of green beans! But what was I going to do with the rest of the steamed frozen green beans? I put them in the Kitchenaid mixer attachment that grinds food. Wow. Water pouring out here while green bean pieces that resembled cow cud pushed out here, and oops there's a leak there too. Pushed some more beans down and now I have green bean juice a few feet up on my cabinet doors. Forget it! I was left with two bowls of baby food. One a bright fresh green with tons of water and a potent flavor. One a muted green with a softer consistency and bland green bean flavor. Neither of which Eden can eat just yet because it is too textured. So I just combined the two (now that was a pretty site - not!) and froze 'em up. And now I just remembered I completely forgot to add a little salt and butter. ::sigh:: I hate green bean baby food. Let's nuke the City of Green Bean Baby Food and move on to the tale of a lovely veggie dish.

Far away in another veggiedom, there was a woman who was about to do something she'd never done before. She grabbed a zucchini, a yellow squash, and several red potatoes. "I want to try my hand at oven roasting some veggies!" she said to herself. "I know I'll probably be the only one that likes them, but who cares!" So she chopped them up, dressed the chunks, and threw them in the oven without a worry. After a while, out came gorgeous roasted veggies that she thoroughly enjoyed. Why, so much that it was ALL she ate for dinner. Two bowls of yummy roasted veggies -- and no one wanted to share! More for her! Since then, she has made them several times and encouraged her King and knights to try them with her. The King loves the potatoes and graciously eats a few of the zucchini and squash pieces. The knights? Well, they still need convincing.

Seriously! I realize I'm probably behind a lot of women in the whole veggie department, but hey I'm catching up! It is so super easy to roast veggies, so cheap, and so delicious! Just a little chopping, mixing, and oven-time gives you a beautiful and hearty side dish to any meal. I mixed my zucchini, yellow squash, and unpeeled red potato chunks with salt, pepper, 2 glubs of olive oil, 2-3 glubs of Italian dressing. Spread them out on my wonderful new metal baking sheet. Roasted at 425 for 40-50 minutes, turning every 10 minutes or so. The few times I've made them with something else baking, I just put them in at 425 while I prep the other dish, turn the oven down when I add the other dish to the oven, and then crank it back up to 425 when the other dish comes out. It's worked great every time. Try it! Who knows, maybe I'll throw in a sweet potato soon. Though I am CERTAIN the King won't be eating those pieces... (I just realized there are no after pics -- I was too excited to eat them!)