Day 257 | Meet My Friend, The Slow Cooker

Have you discovered the beauty of the slow cooker? I've had a long-term relationship with this small appliance but just recently started fully appreciating how perfectly magical it is to throw everything in a pot and ignore it for a few hours and then, ta-da!, dinner is ready. The best!

Interested in some of my favorite recipes at the moment? Here goes:

Braised Beef and Peppers

Chicken Taco Soup

Quinoa Tex Mex Casserole

French Onion Soup

Teriyaki Chicken

Sausage and Kale Stew with Mashed Potatoes

Vegetable Parmesan Quinoa


Happy slow-cooking!

Day 256 | The Sweetest Compliment

Do you see the resemblance?

Chase is the sweetest toddler around. His latest compliment?

"Momma, you're beautiful just like Thomas."

Day 255 | Bee-Day Card

Here's my latest birthday card go-to. I use Chase's little thumbprints for the bee bodies and add the embellishment with a black marker. Easy-peasy.

Just don't tell my soon-to-be one year old niece it's coming her way. 

Day 254 | He Did It!

Call it a fluke. Call it a Christmas miracle. Call it whatever you want, but the important thing is Robbe slept through the night! Whoop, whoop!

7:50pm through to 7:06am. I knew he could do it. 

Don't think there is any part of me that is expecting the same result tonight but at least there's hope. I might sleep again some day after all. 

Day 253 | A Laundry Tip

Can you believe I have a laundry tip to share? Me neither!

It's been a day of cleaning and laundry so what a perfect occasion to share the one and only laundry epiphany I've had. 

Do you use the bulk container of laundry detergent, the kind with the spout (see above on the left)? We do too, but it always drove me crazy that the cap got gooey immediately. I used to just set it on top of the washer and wipe it out constantly. Not any more!

I saved a small laundry detergent bottle and I put the bulk bottle cap on top of the small bottle so the excess soap drips into the small bottle. The cap stays clean and it's amazing how much detergent drops back into that container to be used on future loads. 

Has everyone already figured this out? Probably...but just let me bask in my awesome problem-solving.

Day 252 | Decisions, Decisions

Chase made his decision. And, yes, that is Thomas driving.

Decision making is not a strong suit of mine (just ask my parents or husband). I'm happy to report Chase might have dodged the inability-to-decide gene if today is any indicator.  

After a heartbreaking morning involving a swollen eye (with a fear it was the pink variety) and a cancelled play date (hard to say who took the change of plans worse...me or Chase), a trip to the grocery store was as exciting as our morning turned out (don't worry, his eye started looking better almost immediately). I thought maybe a special treat would brighten everyone's spirits. 

Without hesitation, Chase selected a box of cookies with Cookie Monster on the front and proceeded to walk the aisles clenching the box and singing a pretty amazing cookie song. Decision made, right? Not so fast: then we hit the toy aisle. 

At first his attempts to convince me to buy a new (and blue!) car went to deaf ears. It was just Christmas, after all. I was going to put my foot down and even convinced him to walk away. But, after seeing the sadness in his little eyes as we turned the corner, I realized how silly I was being. I'd rather spend $3 on a box of cookies than $5 on a [pretty cool] car?

That's when it dawned on me: time to teach one of life's hardest lessons. Let the boy decide what he wants more: cookies or car? There wasn't an easy winner. You could almost see the gears in his little mind working so hard. I did my best to lay out the pros of each option (I think I even favored the side of cookies assuming he would be more interested in instant gratification).

In the end, you can see in the photo above what he chose. He made the decision (and fairly quickly), put the cookies away, and never looked back. That's my boy. Maybe he can teach me a thing or two.

Day 251 | Miga

She looks like a perfect angel, doesn't she?

Since our return from holiday travels, it has been Miga's purr-ogative (get it?) to drive me completely bonkers. I thought we were doing her a favor by giving her the two weeks off from our chaos. Apparently she didn't see it that way and has decided to make her displeasure in our actions known. 

Just a snippet of her antics over the past week:

• Meowing: loudly and constantly. In the morning, during naptime, at 2am. Whenever and seemingly for no reason. I hear you, friend, I just don't know what you want from me. 
• Being needy: Miga has always desired attention but I can't sit down for a second these days or curl up in bed without this furry friend nestling in. On top of that, I can't pet you all the time. It's just not possible. And the static shocks I get every time I touch you aren't helping matters. 
• "Playing" with the boys: Chase is quite content playing trains without your "help" knocking over the drawbridge every five seconds. And as much as you think you want snuggles from Robbe, trust me, that sweet smile and gentle pet turns into an all-out body slam in the wag of a tail. 
• Nightime prowling: I've got enough problems sleeping, I don't need to add an attention-deprived cat to the mix. Jumping from dresser to bedside table to bed over and over in the middle of the night is not going to get us to play with you. Especially if one of those escapades ends with you knocking over a full glass of water. Not cool. 

This list could go on...

Usually this craziness lasts a day. Tomorrow will be a week this time around. We're so lucky (she says with more than a hint of sarcasm).