Friday Fragments

Pregnancy brain means that my whole thought process is in fragments these days.  My poor husband can barely keep up in a conversation with me because I switch topics frequently and randomly.  I'll lay it out with bullets so that it's easier for you to keep up!!

• I'm a dream target for obvious, over the top, advertising ploys.  I can be talked into buying almost anything.  Infomercials could be a disaster for my budget!  And if you give me a coupon I'll most certainly run out and buy things that I don't need, don't want, and probably cant use.
• I find it very awkward when I find the neighbors' mail in my mail box.  Sadly, it happens about once a week around here.  Makes me wonder how much of my mail is ending up somewhere around the neighborhood. 
• I decided to rearrange our living room (mostly the kid clutter) while hubby was at work and he came home right in the middle of the "it-has-to-get-worse-before-it-can-get-better" phase.  Luckily he understands me enough to know that it was time for him to take the little one and play in another room till I was done.  It looks much better now by the way!
• I have fallen WAY behind on my picture taking.  My project 365 is in a sad state for the last 10-12 weeks.  I'm sad about all the opportunities I've missed to document my Scoot's life during that time.
• I think I'm ready to leave Scoot over night for the first time.  Now I just need to find a time and some funds to plan a little weekend getaway for me and hubby! 
• Naming a baby is seriously the hardest thing in the world for me to do.  Good thing babies take 40 weeks to cook, because there is no way we will have chosen and agreed on a name any sooner than that!

If you've got bits and pieces of stories bouncing around in your head, hop over to Half-Past Kissin Time and link up your own post of fragments. 

Fall Weekend Fun

On Saturday we went to a Harvest Festival at a local farm.  During the day they had a petting zoo, a hayride, carnival rides, carnival food, and a pumpkin patch.  After dark they change the whole place into a haunted farm. There were SOOOO many people there that we only did the petting zoo.  It was the first petting zoo we've been to where you actually get IN the pen with most of the animals.  Scoot thought this was heaven on earth.  This girl squeals with delight whenever she's close enough to touch the animals.  Surprisingly, most of the animals were not alarmed by her at all and kept coming back for more.  She was one happy cookie!

This was her favorite goat and she followed him (her?) around and ignored most of the other goats.

The chicken coop was CRAZY!  They actually allow you to pick up the chickens, and the chickens don't seem to mind.  These guys made Scoot squeal, but she didn't really want to touch them.

When she found the sheep she actually talked to it.  "baa baa baa"

Since we didn't get a pumpkin at the festival due to all the people, on Sunday we visited the church in our back yard that has a pumpkin patch every year.  We've gotten our pumpkins from them for the last 4 years.  But this year they had the biggest pumpkins I've ever seen for sale.  I was afraid they'd  have fewer or smaller pumpkins this year due to Hurricane Irene and T.S. Lee, but they were fully stocked. 

Little miss independent would rather help push the stroller than ride.  It actually worked out really well this time because then we had plenty of room to haul pumpkins. 

Scoot playing peek-a-boo with Daddy and showing off our family of pumpkins.  One for Daddy, Mommy, Scoot, and baby Roo  :)

Friday Fragments

There are a bunch of little things that happen during the week that don't all deserve their own blog post, but they are still worth remembering, or they make me think, or they just plain amuse me and I want to share.  So Friday Fragments is a great way to get all those little things out!

*The mail man came to my house THREE times yesterday! First he brought regular, everyday mail.  Then he came back and brought a package.  That wasn't too weird since he normally brings packages back by truck after they walk the route.  But then he came back, again in the truck, the third time to bring 1 tiny political flier.  I could have done without that one!

*Caroline is almost 16 months old and already knows that when she takes her clothes off they go in the hamper. Proud mom!  Lets see if this continues into her teenage years.

*I want to make Caroline a Halloween costume this year, but I can't figure out what I want her to be.  Last year she got too hot in the costume we bought because it was still almost 80* here and I think it's going to be that way again this year. 

*Since we are not finding out whether Baby Roo is a boy or a girl I'm crocheting a pink blanket and a blue blanket so that we can use whichever one is appropriate.  I started with blue... and I'm only 1/2 done.  Time to pick up the pace because I still have a quilt to make too! 

*I'm super picky about any purse that I buy.  And I'm not one to spend more than $50.  So I've been carrying around a purse for the last couple of weeks that has 2 rips and a zipper that is almost completely falling off because I can not find one that I like to replace it.  I'm to the point of just toting my wallet instead of carrying the whole purse. 

*Shopping for Christmas this year is giving me hives already!  I'm much more excited about figuring out what we're going to do for a Christmas card photo. 

Come on over to Half-Past Kissin' Time to link up your own Friday Fragments if you've got random stuff bouncing around in your noggin!

Dinner time

Since I'm a stay-at-home-mom now, I feel more responsibility and pressure to make home cooked meals and keep my house cleaner.  Neither of which I am actually very good at. 

My standards for a clean house are not that high.  Everything is tidy and safe for my sweet girl.  But I could care less about the dust on fan blades or washing base boards.  I hope to get better about that by getting on a cleaning schedule, but that's not what I'm working on right now. 

The current focus of my attention is cooking more.  Making more "real" food and staying away from the frozen convenience food.  Hubby sure does like that fake food though.  He's pretty picky -ok, extremely picky- when it comes to eating, and he basically only likes that fast fake food.  He's giving me some grief about this new plan, but I know its best for us all in the long run.  Especially for my sweet girl.  She is developing her eating habits now and I don't want her to be picky like Aaron.  I want her to be adventurous.  I want her to enjoy veggies and have a favorite meal that she requests for birthday dinners. 

Anyway, I've been working on it for the last week or two, but this week is really backfiring so far.  Last night I made spaghetti sauce from scratch instead of opening a jar.  I used my mom's recipe, which I LOVE.  But I used twice as much tomato sauce as I was suppose to and it ended up being kinda gross.  (I'm blaming it on pregnancy brain.)  I didn't make any strides in convincing Aaron that this cooking was a good thing. 

Then this morning I set up the crock-pot nice and early to make chicken & dumplings.  It didn't turn out anything like the recipe said it should.  I actually thought it turned out pretty tasty though.  BUT it didn't look good at all!  Caroline ate it up.  Aaron, again, was not impressed at all. 

Tomorrow night I'm making my favorite homemade mac & cheese... and for my Kraft blue box guy, I don't think it's going to go over well.  If I just keep it up, he'll get use to it right?  Eventually I'll be able to change his decades worth of conditioning to like over processed, frozen food... I hope.  Until then I'm going to enjoy these real foods, because I've missed them for the last 5 years.  And it's time for a change - I'm so tired of eating the same stuff over and over and over again.

girlfriends

In high school I had 2 close girlfriends.  Most weekends Sara, Aimee and I were hanging out at football games, going to the movies, shopping, going out to eat, or spending the nights at each other's houses (never mine, but that's another story).  We talked on the phone for hours each night.  I had shoe boxes full of notes that we wrote to each other during the school day.  We were tight.

But I didn't tell them everything.  In fact, I didn't tell them much of anything that really mattered.  I keep my feelings, worries & excitement, close to the heart.  I blamed it on being an introvert.  But the truth is, I don't really trust anyone but myself with my deepest feelings and thoughts. 

My trust issues were highlighted when I went to college and had to make all brand new friends.  It was HARD!  Since I don't open up easily, not many people want to open themselves up either.  I stayed at my first school for 2 years without any close friends.  There was no one that I could talk to about everything.  No one that I shared exciting or sad news with.  If I needed to tell someone something I called my boyfriend 4 hours away or called my mom.  If I just needed to get something off my chest, I wrote it down in a journal. 

The point of all this... finally... is that I haven't had "close" girlfriends in more than 10 years.  And even then, I wouldn't say that they knew me inside and out.  As I'm getting older I am realizing more and more how wonderful those relationships can be.  And I'm feeling left out.  I'm feeling like I'm missing something important. 

I have lots of friends, but they all have other best friends.  It's my fault.  I don't open up.  I make it hard to get to know the real me.  It's the way I've been all my life.  But now I want to change.  I want to open up and have a best friend.  Someone that I can talk to about anything, any time.  Someone that knows me better than I know myself.  Someone that I can talk to when I'm frustrated with my husband or when my daughter does something super cute. 

This isn't going to be easy for me.  And I need to start slow.  So I'm going to start being more open and honest here.  Like a journal would be.  I hope that if I can get in the habit of sharing my life more easily with the unseen, unknown people of the internet then it will translate into me being more open in the rest of my life. 

*I don't know how my husband ever got me to open up to him.  It must have been a God thing.  I'm incredibly happy that I can be myself with him and that he knows me better than I know myself.  But sometimes you just need a girl to talk to.  A girl's perspective.  Someone to talk about your husband to.  :) *

need direction

before i get started let me say that i am blessed to be able to stay home with my sweet girl.  it is something that i've always wanted to do.  i love being here with her!  and i'm over the moon thankful for my amazing husband who works his tushy off to make it all possible.
now, with that being said, let's get to the point.  i'm lost. 

for the first time in my memory i don't have a schedule or an agenda.  and i've come to realize that i have no idea how to budget my time without the influence of a job or school to guide my time. my to-do list keeps getting longer, but i'm not getting anything done.

• of course there are things that need to be done around the house like dishes, grocery shopping, cleaning and laundry. 
• and more importantly there is the time i get to spend with my girl.  i want to play with her, teach her, create with her, and explore with her. 
• there's crafting time.  i've got closets, drawers & a brain full of ideas, fabric, paper, pens, wood, batting, thread, ribbon, buttons, stickers, paint etc and it is sitting there more neglected now that i'm home all day then it was when i had a full time job.
• hubby time.  my guy is working his tushy off to make it possible for me to be home and i want to make his life easier if & when i can.  not to mention carving out time for date night.
• me time.  now that i'm not around adults all day 5 days a week its more important for me to carve out the time to get together with other adults and recharge my batteries. 

waiting around hoping i will figure this out hasn't worked for the last 4 months so its time for a plan.  this is going to be a work in progress for sure.  but its time to get back to some of my teaching roots and start some "lesson" plans.  as soon as nap time is over we're headed to the store to get a planner and make this official.  but while sweet girl is still sleeping i better get the dishes washed so i can check 1 thing off my to-do list!