Time Is Flying

Sorry I missed blogging last week, but it was for a good reason, I was deep cleaning my house. At night, after Maggie Grace went to bed, I would set the timer for one hour and really clean a room. In the laundry room, I moved the washer and dryer and cleaned under them. In the kitchen, I cleaned under the sink and the refrigerator shelves, you get the idea. During Maggie Grace's afternoon nap I would sleep too, because I was simply exhausted. This weekend I finally got some much needed rest. Ben took Maggie Grace with him to Arkansas to visit Nana and Pop Pop. I stayed behind so I could hear John Rosemond, a parenting expert, speak at my church. I missed my little girl and my hubby so much, it was so quiet around here. Other than going to church Saturday afternoon, pretty much the only thing I did all weekend was read. I actually read a book from beginning to end in one weekend, I can't tell you the last time I did that. Although it was great having some time to myself, I was ecstatic to see my family Monday morning.
I'm tackling a new project this week, getting my pictures in order. I ran across a screaming deal on Snapfish for 100 free photos and couldn't pass it up. I will now confess the unbelievable, I only printed about 20 pictures last year and that guess may be on the high end. I have all these fabulous pictures just sitting on my hard drive. I've had a lot of fun the past few days looking at all of the pictures I took last year and seeing how much Maggie Grace has grown. The above picture was taken on Valentine's Day of last year.

This picture was taken earlier this month. Oh, how time is flying by. Not only is she walking now, but she is also picking out her own clothes. This ensemble is a Maggie Grace original. In fact, one day we were getting ready for church and I was pairing a pair of pants with the same old sweater. Can you guess where this is going? I can't believe I am admitting this, but Maggie Grace had gotten into my sweaters and brought me one as I was dressing, a sweater I had never considered before, and yes I changed. I am taking clothing advice from a 1 and a half year old! Go ahead and sign me up for What Not To Wear, I've clearly lost it!

Working on my resolutions

Well, in case you didn't know, last week Maggie Grace, Ben and I all had a stomach bug that's been going around. We are all better now, thankfully. Ben had to call in sick for work, I must say it's been nice having him home this extra week.

I have been working on my resolutions. As luck would have it, the speaker at our MOPS meeting this morning teaches photography. She offered a quick tutorial that was extremely informative. Ben took photography classes, I want to say in high school, but I've never had any formal training, so I really loved all of the tips she had to share with us. So many of the tips she had are so easy but I'm such a point n click photographer, I can't wait to experiment!

Now, on to my once a month cooking. That has not been as successful. About five of the recipes I am to prepare call for turkey. The idea was to buy the turkey on sale during Thanksgiving, cook it and divvy it up into the various recipes. I decided to cook my turkey last night. I consulted the web and found some directions that led me horribly astray. I put the turkey in the oven at 6:30 and by 11:30 it still wasn't done. I finally turned the temperature up and set my alarm every 30 minutes to check on it. I want to say at about 1 am it was finally done, and I set it out to cool. I woke up at 3 am to put it in the fridge. Yes, I was exhausted! But wait! At 4 am Maggie Grace started crying, so I went and slept with her. I wish I could tell you all my hard work paid off, but no, it didn't. I cut into the turkey and it was PINK! I have never seen pink turkey meat in all my life so into the trash it went. Now what am I supposed to cook?! Much less now what are we going to eat!

Well, while I have been working on resolutions Maggie Grace has been working on her catwalk. She is so cute walking in her little heels. She's also been talking up a storm. We still can't understand a lot of what she says. It's fun to ask her questions, she always answers, usually with uh-huh or uh-uh. She is also saying new words everyday, although "shoes" is still hands down her favorite word.

It was really cute tonight and kind of profound. Ben and I were discussing if men felt any kind of nurturing instinct like women do. I said that even at Maggie Grace's young age she has an instinct to nurture. Yesterday at church she was playing with a friend who is about 9 months older. She kept giving him his blanket, pacifier and sippy cup. After Ben and I were finished talking Maggie Grace jumped off the sofa and ran into her room. When she came back into the living room she was carrying her baby doll and ssshhing it. She is constantly reminding us that she understands what we are talking about, for the most part anyway.

New Year's Resolutions

Happy New Year! I was talking with Susan the other day and she asked if I had any resolutions for the year. My reply was just one- to take more pictures with my good camera. Well, I've realized as the week's gone on that although they aren't resolutions per se I'm trying to make some changes. The first being to update my blog once a week. Even if it's a quick "today was wonderful" or "I'm so glad to today is over". The second thing I'm working on is using a little pocket calendar and writing something Maggie Grace did that day. It's been fun so far, some days nothing particular has happened and I really have to come up with something no matter how little. Some of my entries so far are: said the word "purple", got her hair cut, I swore she said "I love you" over the phone, brought me a sock I dropped on the way to the laundry and my favorite for New Year's Eve-locked herself in our bedroom closet. These are things I want to remember, but unless I write them down will be forgotten.

I'm also trying to be more frugal, I want to underscore the word trying. For the second month I'm cooking all of my meals at once. The menu includes roughly three breakfasts, three lunches and eight dinners, with all recipes doubled. Ideally, I'm supposed to cook everything in one day, but that is just not possible. If I'm in the kitchen Maggie Grace is wanting to help and it stresses Ben out beyond belief. So, I've worked out a system I cook three items a night after Maggie Grace has gone to bed and Ben is on a trip. I've cooked about half my items so far and will cook the other half when Ben goes back to work on Saturday. Once a month cooking has saved my sanity, all I have to do is pull the meal out of the freezer, thaw it, and heat it. I don't have to worry about trying to entertain Maggie Grace while I'm trying to cook, we eat out less, and have cut our grocery bill in half.

Well, I might as let it all hang out. I bought some MnM's to reward Maggie Grace for going potty. We've had a little set back and I thought the MnM's might help. I can't keep my hands off them, but really, who is suprised by that confession?