My love for the Sound of Music
I love the Sound of Music.
Here are some things about it I love:
Most of the songs. My Favorite Things has been a lullaby for my babies. (Hence the title of this blog)
I love the movie. I remember watching it over and over again in one of our childhood movie phases (Julie and Chrissie will know what I mean.)
I loved watching it with roommates in DC where we looked for all "the looks" Gayorg gives Maria.
I love "I Have Confidence"--that phrase does that--instills confidence.
I remember performing parts of it in our stake production of "Night in Old Vienna" years and years ago.
Mad About You
So I have started DVRing Mad About You and watching them later. I really am enjoying it. I missed the first run of Mad About You, not really sure how. But, the season that I am taping and watching is when Mabel is born.
Last night I watched the episode where Jaime was gone from the baby for a long while so Paul was torn about whether or not to give Mabel a bottle and whether or not he'd get in big trouble for it. It was funny.
I also watched Mabel's first plane ride and it was equally as funny. It captured pretty well how annoying people are who are annoyed by babies on a plane.
Easy Sunday Dinner
In an effort to eat more vegetables, I found this amazing product. Birds Eye Steamfresh. They come in quite a few varieties. Microwave in bag for 5 minutes (much akin to microwave popcorn) and walla, the best looking, freshest tasting frozen vegetables I have ever had. We are esp. fond of broc, cauliflower and carrot variety. You can get them 2 for 4 at Stop and Shop. And this is much better for me than having my fresh vegetables from Stop and Shop go bad in the fridge before I cook them.
Here's an easy recipe (also using another short cut product) to go with your veggies.
Pork Chops with Country Gravy and Mashed Potatoes
From Cooking Light
3/4 teaspoon salt, divided
4 (4-ounce) boneless center-cut loin pork chops (about 1 inch thick)
1 teaspoon butter
1 1/3 cups 1% low-fat milk
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon poultry seasoning
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 (20-ounce) package refrigerated mashed potatoes (such as Simply Potatoes)
Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Sprinkle 1/4 teaspoon salt evenly over both sides of pork. Add 1 teaspoon butter to pan, stirring until butter is melted. Add the pork to pan, and cook pork for 3 minutes on each side. Remove pork from pan, and keep warm.
Combine low-fat milk and flour, stirring with a whisk. Add the milk mixture to pan, stirring with a whisk. Stir in remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt, poultry seasoning, and black pepper. Return pork to pan. Cover; reduce heat, and simmer for 7 minutes or until gravy is thick and pork is done.
While pork cooks, prepare potatoes according to package directions. Serve with pork.
Enjoy!
Fabulous things
1) " Fabuloso" cleaning product. It's purple. It's Latin. It's awesome for cleaning walls and baseboards. Makes everything smell great. Use with an SOS two sided sponge and you are really set.
2) Target prescriptions. Yes, Sam and Matt are on the same antibiotic. The "colored ring" really does help! Comes with a measuring syringe. Both baby and toddler have taken medicine well with it.
3) A great pediatrican. She's seen us now 7 times in 4 weeks.
4) Loading the New Testament on my iPod. Love listening to it while nursing baby at night.
5) Big sister home sick from school for a few days to play with Matthew while I pack and clean.
6) Dr. Bailey. She's amazing.
New house
We are moving to a new house. We are selling our old house. Our new house is in our same ward, same school district, so we are very excited, it's just got a lot more space and we are excited. Today's job is to get ready for this house to be shown. Lots of boxing up and cleaning!
In typical us fashion, we looked at this house on Sat. for the first time.
Next movies I want to see...
I don't even know if it's playing anywhere anymore, but I really want to see Miss Potter, the new Renee Zellwegger flick about Beatrix Potter. It does star Ewan McGregor as her love interest. Anyone remember Down with Love?
So, I have been reading a compliation of Beatrix Potter stories to Caroline in preparation for this. Tonight we read the Tale of Jemima Puddle-duck.
Of course I also want to see Dreamgirls.
In more celebrity news, I really enjoyed the few minutes of the Golden Globes last week, and especially watching America Ferrerra get her award for Ugly Betty.
And I wanted to mention that Marishka Hagarity is such a cute celebrity mom...In several interviews I have read, she just loves being a mom to her little boy August.
I just checked Miss Potter and it's at Lincoln Center, only. Oh well, hopefully the DVD will come out soon!
More hair woes
Well, Josh decided to cut his own hair. His beautiful blonde locks--gone. He did it first last week. I trimmed it up to make it look even and promised a trip to the barber on Sat. Well, we forgot about Sat. We went Monday after school. Barbers are closed on Monday. Josh took matters into his own hands early last evening and cut off a lot of hair off the top.
A kind friend fixed it by buzzing it last night at 9 p.m. I just couldn't wait until after school today to have it fixed.
I once took scissors into my own hands, about age 4 or 5 and cut my bangs very very short. I hated it and never did it again.
Kids are so funny. You just never know what's going to happen next!
Oh the drama
I was at everyone's favorite local grocery store the other night. I was checking out honestly practicing some deep breathing, just hoping I could keep it together until I could get out of there. There were only green bananas, everything seemed to be out of stock, and there were some stock boys using some very crude language.
The bag boy was saying randomly how Stop and Shop should hire a store psychologist to treat the people that work there. I started listening more intently. He said it's like we work at Bellevue (a psych. hospital in NYC.) not Stop and Shop. The cashier (who I purposefully chose her line because she is one of the nicer cashiers) chimed in with "There's a lot of drama going in here." She's right, there is.
Drama is part of the NY landscape. Right now we are having drama because the PTA wants the boys to switch minicourses because one person's daughter is unhappy in her minicourse, so that mother wants the brother to take her spot and no one else will switch. The lady who is in charged called me asking Josh and Angus to switch from a class that has 2-5 grades to a class that has K-2. She prefaced her request by saying "I am calling the nicest mother I know." The boys don't want to switch, but they are willing. Of course, the lady in charge won't switch her son, etc. etc. ALSO let it be known that I waited for an hour at 5 p.m. one night in December to get them registered for these minicourses!!!
Did I mention that Caroline's class is Drama?
Then I am reminded of Callie's remark to Finn on Grey's last season. "We are all just 17 year olds with scalpels." Maybe that explains some of the drama!
Welcome Baby Q
A big welcome to our 4th of 5 baby boy cousins expected this year.
Mark's sister Liz and husband Bill welcomed Quinn to their family this week!
We miss you and wish we could be there to celebrate with you, but we look forward to seeing you on the beach in exactly 6 months from now!
And it's so special that you were born on Mark's half-birthday!
Notes to Self
(photo from Pottery Barn Kids)
When returning to the gym after 2 weeks of no activity, make sure you stretch before going to Power Low class.
Don't go to Trader Joe's on a Saturday at 5 p.m.
Make sure you are prepared to purchase child's manicure when you take 5 year old girl with you to get your eyebrows waxed (only 5 dolla!)
Don't buy white or light colored clothes for your children or other children in 6 to 12 month size (you know, the baby food...)
Put Pottery Barn and PBK catalogs directly from mailbox into recycling bin to avoid fits of depression
Encourage husband in home repair projects
Should I keep this?
Target is just so....tempting.
I went there for:
lightbulbs for the lamps I bought at Target 2 weeks ago
a new razor (Shick intuition--very nice)--I had been using the one Peggy left behind at our house a month ago...
shampoo for color treated hair (yeah, tonight's the night for highlights!),
I came back with those and other things:
That luxurious throw for the glider. (I would never have made one, even though I wanted too!)
A lap desk for Josh
A new steam powered Thomas for Matthew (we just had to have it) and it was on clearance (hello--clear violation on NY resolution #1!)
A new baby monitor. (this could be a seperate post in itself: baby products that have made it through all four kids)--however, ours was just dying.
And this: Shop and Play by Infantino
Two questions:
1) Should I keep the shop and play? I think it might be helpful for Samuel, who just reached the milestone of sitting in the cart. It could keep him busy. It could fight against germs (see post below). But, I am having issues. I have seen many other moms with these and never thought I was 'the kind of mom' who would use one. Please weigh in with any thoughts you may have on this or similar products...
2) I also have 3 (potentially 4) Target returns: picture frames for our room, shirt for yoga (don't think I'll ever make it to yoga...), and conditioner (found that I still have plenty). Can I make the returns without buying anything new?
On the defense
So, I am now on the defense against any cold, germ or virus.
By the numbers:
2 parents hacking
4 children sniffling
3 fevers
2 antibiotics for ear infection
6 yoBaby yogurts to counteract effects of antibiotics
1 mixture of bottle each of lotrimin, neosporin, desitin for diaper rash
5 boxes of tissue
2 bottles baby Motrin
2 bottles baby Tylenol (makes great toy)
4 trips to pediatrician
A gazillion runny noses
0 times to the gym in the last week
80 times Thomas video watched
To do list:
Limit contact with any sick person
Take airborne (does this work?)
Lots of fluids and naps
Nursery furlough
Disinfect everything
Hand sanitizer
Pray ferverently for health
Who needs Florida?
Who needs to go to Florida when you can go to the beach in New York in January?
Yesterday's perfect 70 degree weather found us headed to Brooklyn for a day trip to the NY Aquarium and the beach at Coney Island.
Matthew's first response to seeing the sand and surf: I need my bathing suit.
It was a fun little escape.
Organizing clothes
We moved Matthew out of 2T clothes this week. He is approaching his 3rd birthday. And while some 2Ts worked still, I wanted to put everything away at the same time.
This meant going through a rubbermaid tote of Josh's clothes, size 3T. There were some clothes that were definitely usable, shoes, pants, sunday clothes, outerwear. I loved that I could put a pair of Josh's 3T old navy jeans on Matty and they looked good and fit well. He's got a nice pair of sneakers of Josh's waiting for him when the light up Thomas shoes are outgrown.
There are some of Josh's things and Matty's things that I will save for Samuel. I have found that t-shirts for boys are easily and inexpensively replaced. I just like them to look fresh. Stuff I am getting rid of gets put in the clothes donation pile (there are some good things for "big brothers," good shape that I just don't like anymore or don't think I would have them wear) or the pile for clothes recycling (these bins are found in local parking lots).
The stuff I save goes in rubbermaid totes, labeled, waiting for the day when the next kid grows into them.
Then this leads me to think about my clothes. I really wear only a fraction of what is in my closet. If I have a new item, I might wear that over and over again, until the next purchase, and then the cycle gets repeated. I remember hearing from a friend that most women wear only 20 percent of the clothes they own 80 percent of the time. I have a standard uniform for the winter: long sleeved tee or lightweight sweater and jeans, then appropriate outerwear.
Anyways, as part of my New Years goal of being a wise consumer, I hope to be very careful this year when purchasing clothes. I am always tempted by sale or clearance racks, with the thought that buying things because they are so affordable that it would be a crime not to buy them! Also I need to remember that the more clothes I buy, the more laundry I will be doing!!!
New bedding
Here it is! The new bedding. This really does make me want to crawl in at night instead of staying up late to watch DVR shows, which is good for everyone. We like having the quilt at the bottom of the bed to pull up if it's cold. I am also looking for a bedroom bench to put at the foot of the bed as well as to make or buy a luxurious throw (like the one Jill had made at Enrichment) to throw over the glider cushion (which after 4 kids is quite nasty.)
I don't like having the headboard against the window, but I do LOVE the extra space it gives us in the room.
Big Month
Here I am at 8 months old!
It was a big month.
First solid foods
First ear infection
First time to crawl
First time to sit up
First Christmas
First haircut
First tooth
New Year's Resolutions
Well, I already blew it, it's only 1:30. I always think it would be great to say I went a whole year without eating chocolate.
I just have 2 New Year's Resolutions. Mark makes over 100. I have to do 1 or 2 or none so they are manageable and I don't get frustrated.
1) To learn more about money and money management...to be a better consumer and to use more wisdom in what I buy. This is especially pertinent as I have spent the week cleaning out and saying to myself, what was I thinking????
(I am reading Jean Chatsky's latest book--or should I say, hope to read it. My new thought: "What is an optimist?" A Mom who checks out books for herself from the library.)
2) To read the New Testament. We have great Sunday School teachers that I think I can learn a lot from, so now that Sam's older and I don't have to be in the nursing room as much, I hope to really study and learn. Although I will greatly miss chat time.
If you feel like sharing one or two of your resolutions, I would love to hear them.
PS Jenn--I will post pictures of the new bedding soon. We rearranged our room, then today's project is rehanging photos, etc. But I love it all. It's so great. Thanks for asking.
