Yay!

Wendy is now 21 months old. Suddenly, over the last week or ten days, she's been showing us all the signs of potty-training readiness. It was with much trepidation that I made the plunge this morning, and put her in cloth training pants instead of her regular cloth diapers.

I think we had a total potty-sitting time of about 4 hours today. I didn't get anything else done, because I didn't want to let her out of my sight in case the need would suddenly strike her. We had a few accidents (thanks again, God, for inventing Oxi-Clean!) but since Wendy seemed genuinely upset about her accidents, we just cleaned up & moved on.

She had one success around lunch time, and she was so confused...there I was, clapping and doing the Happy Potty Dance, and she had no idea how that "wa-wa" got in the potty.

Before bed, though, we had another success. That time she jumped up from the potty as soon as she was done, looked in, and said, rather triumphantly, "Wa-wa!" We did the Happy Potty Dance together, and participated in the ceremonial flushing of the pee in the big potty.

It's kind of funny that 2 ounces of urine in a plastic bucket could so totally make my day.

A Sad Story

Once upon a time, a girl got herself a laptop computer, and her resident engineer (aka hubby) set up a wireless network. The girl was happy. The girl could blog while sitting on the couch. The girl could check her e-mail on the front porch. The girl could even sit in the backyard under the big shade tree and watch her daughter play while looking at Target's online ad for the week.

Then chaos came to the land, and the girl's wireless network didn't work at all. The resident engineer said something about network cables, and bandwidth, and the router being under warranty. The resident engineer packed the router into a box and the girl took it to UPS for it's journey to the router hospital. Apparently the router needs to be in the hospital for about two weeks.

Poor girl. No router means no wireless internet. No wireless internet means no internet access at all until after the baby goes to bed. Which means no good blog posts, an overflowing Bloglines account, and being out of touch in the Facebook world.

:-(

WFMW: Saving Money on Conditioner

One of the things that really gets on my nerves is wasting products because you can't get the last little bit out of the container. One of my coping strategies was to switch from liquid hand soap to bar soap; now I don't have to worry about that 1/2 inch stuck in the bottom of the little pump container.

Until recently, I was fighting the conditioner battle. Actually, I was ignoring the conditioner battle. I cleaned out our catch-all bathroom cabinet and found 6 bottles of conditioner with about half a cup of product left in the bottom. It was too much for me to just throw away, but it was really hard to get anything out of the bottles. I stuck them in the cabinet, intending to deal with them at some point.

Enter this little guy:

My bottle is a little more short and squatty than this one, but the top is the same. I bought it at Target about a year ago for about $2. It had been sitting since then, just waiting for the perfect opportunity.

I grabbed this bottle & unscrewed the top, which gives a really wide opening. Then I took each nearly-empty bottle of conditioner, added a little water, and shook it up to get the conditioner moving. It all got poured into the squeeze bottle. After I had added all my bits of conditioner, I gave it a good shake to get it all mixed up, and voila! A whole new bottle of conditioner!

Now my bathroom cabinet is less cluttered, I've finally thrown those bottles away, and I have a bunch of "new" conditioner to use! I'm definitely going to do this again!

For more great tips, head over to Works-For-Me Wednesday at Rocks in my Dryer!

Chicken Problems

I wrote a few days ago about switching Wendy to a toddler bed. The first day was rough, but we've been doing pretty well since then.

However, a problem has developed. She wakes up at the crack of dawn. By crack of dawn, I mean 5 a.m. She then gets up and starts playing, or asks to come out of her room. I love my little Chicken, but I really don't want to see her before 7 a.m. (I hope that doesn't sound too selfish.)

Today I'm planning to take all the toys & books out of her room, to make getting up seem less appealing. I'm also seriously considering investing in light-blocking window coverings for her room.

Have any of you had this problem? What did you do to cope with it?

A Hypothetical Question - Fried Zucchini

If I make make fried zucchini with a whole-wheat coating and cook it in olive oil, does that make it healthy?

I thought not. But it was worth a try.

Fried Zucchini
4-5 fresh zucchini, quartered lengthwise & cut into 2-inch pieces
1 cup milk
1/2 cup light Ranch dressing
1/2 cup Bisquick
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 Tbsp Italian seasoning
1 tsp garlic powder
olive oil for frying

Place oil in a heavy skillet & put on medium heat. While oil heats, combine milk & Ranch dressing, and whisk together. Pour over zucchini to evenly cover. In another bowl, combine Bisquick, flour, Italian seasoning, and garlic powder; add salt to taste (or you can salt the zucchini after they're fried). Take moistened zucchini pieces & coat with flour mixture, then fry them 6-8 at a time in the olive oil. Allow approximately 2 minutes per side. Remove to a paper-towel covered plate to drain excess oil.

Eat way too much, and love every bite.

Puzzle Home

I found this on Kirtsy today, and it's awesome. I would love a puzzle like this! Be sure to go through the slideshow & read the article - it's very interesting!

A Lesson in Perseverance

Yesterday was a rough day around here. After thinking and plotting and planning for a couple of months, I decided it was time for Wendy to learn to sleep in a toddler bed. Her crib is one of the convertible ones, so all we had to do was remove the gate and attach two bed rails to make it more of a bed and less of a crib.

The actual conversion was pretty painless (after James figured out I was using the wrong bolts), so I got her ready for a nap and told her to go to bed. Her eyes lit up when she saw her new Wendy-sized bed. She climbed right in and laid down, and I tucked her in with Bear and Yow (her bright pink stuffed kitty - "yow" = "meow") and her Blankie.



I left her door open & I sat in the living room, so that I could see her if she got out of bed. Boy, did she ever get out of bed. She climbed out & got in her playhouse. She tossed Bear overboard & got down to get him, and repeated that about ten times. She realized she could slide over the edge of the bed on her belly. She saw another bear in the corner of the room that she wanted to have in bed with her. Eventually, she even realized I could hear her getting up, so she was very sneaky and was very quiet getting out of bed, and I saw her carefully peeking around the door frame.

And so, for the next two hours, I had to go in there about every 4-5 minutes to scold her, smack her little diapered bum, and re-tuck her into bed. Eventually, two hours after her nap was scheduled to begin, she fell asleep out of exhaustion.

She slept for about two hours, and didn't fall out of the bed or anything. I was concerned that bedtime would be another two-hour scolding/smacking session, and I was pleasantly surprised. We got her all ready for bed, tucked her in, said our "Night-night, God" prayers, and left the room. She played for a little while, but she was very good and didn't get out of bed even once. In just twenty minutes or so she was asleep.


Perseverance definitely has its rewards. I'm sure we'll have trouble in the future with her getting out of bed, but I think that difficult two hours of discipline was worth it - I can tell she understands that she's supposed to stay in bed. I hope I can remember the benefits of perseverance and apply it to her training in other areas!

Please take a few minutes and vote...

Mary is the friend of a friend; we met her just a few weeks after she lost her husband. She's now entered a scholarship competition to try to raise funds to finish her education at my alma mater, Harding University. She was widowed at such a young age, and at the time her husband died, she had a 14 month old daughter and was 35 weeks pregnant with her second daughter.

Please take a few minutes and register & vote for Mary.

Pear Budget Giveaway

There's a great giveaway going on right now at The Simple Mom. She's giving away a lifetime subscription to Pear Budget, an easy-to-use home budgeting system that works with the zero-based budget principle, something every Dave Ramsey fan knows about.

If you'd like to enter, head over there and enter by June 25th!

Bella: Before & After

My dog, Miss Clarabella Boo-Boo, aka Bella, has strange fur. She's kind of a Yorkie/Silkie Terrier mix, and weighs about 5 pounds. Her fur is wiry, stringy, scraggly, and grows unevenly. In patches on her rump, it's very thick and the texture is similar to a Troll Doll's hair. I used to get her professionally groomed back when I had, you know, an income, but that's just not in the budget now.

And so, periodically, when she starts to look like this, I get out the clippers & scissors & do my best. Here's before:



And after:


Look! There was a dog under there!!

It's not nearly as good as when I'd take her to Michelle in Missouri (Michelle was very good) but it's a whole lot cheaper - doing it myself saves about $35 every two months. That's worth it, I think.

Queen of the Castle

Last week, my mother-in-law stopped by with a gift for Wendy. It's a Little Tikes Castle, and it's at least 15 years old, but in excellent condition. Wendy's Auntie Em, who is now 20 (hard to believe) played on it a lot when she was a munchkin. It's been in storage for awhile, and now it's been cleaned up and put together, and Wendy loves it. Absolutely loves it.


Her favorite feature is the slide. If we ask her if she wants to go play, she asks, "Wide?" You can see in the picture above that she likes to have her toys play on the slide, too. Dracula seemed to particularly enjoy it.


That Dracula came from a yard sale last year. He cost me a quarter. Wendy hugs him and loves on him - he must be pretty on the inside.

She really enjoys all the windows in the castle, too. She likes to pause on the way to the slide & wave at us from the windows.



She is quite the queen of her castle.


The castle also has a flagpole on the tower, and we need to make a flag for it. I'm looking forward to finding some super-girly fabric and trims to make it nice and princessy. I'm sure I'll post more pictures when that's done!

WFMW: Best Anti-Itch Cream

This time of year, no matter how careful I am, I have scores of bug bites on my ankles & calves. Last year they were from biting gnats, and this year they're more on the mosquito side. Whatever they are, they always itch like crazy, and lead me to scratching so much that it leaves scars.

I've tried various creams & ointments - Cort-Aid, Benadryl cream, Calamine lotion, and anything else that has claims to help with itching. Then I found this:
I have used Aveeno lotions for several years for my severe dry skin, especially in winter. When I found this at the grocery store, I just had to give it a try.

It works. Really well. And last longer than any of the other products I've tried.

I think it's the additional ingredients - aloe vera and oat kernel flour. Aloe and oats are known for their moisturizing and itch-relieving properties, so adding them on top of the hydrocortisone just makes for a better treatment for bug bites.

I have a tube of this in my nightstand, and the next time I go to the store I'm going to pick up another one for my purse. If bug bites are a problem at your house, you've got to give the Aveeno Hydrocortisone cream a try!

For more great tips, visit Works-For-Me Wednesday at Rocks in my Dryer!

Why??

I'm a little bit frustrated. I was working on laundry today, and really accomplishing a lot - I had it all sorted, and was getting it washed & hung on the clothesline. On one of my trips to the clothesline I noticed a strong smell from the laundry room and went to investigate.

I had set a bottle of bleach next to the washer about two weeks ago, and hadn't touched it since. Apparently the vibration of the washer was enough to gradually move the bleach closer and closer until it fell over onto the washer, at which point it slowly leaked onto the lid, which drains directly into the washer's tub. Onto the clothes in the washer. Which happened to be some (formerly) nice button-up shirts & two (formerly) good pairs of jeans belonging to James. There's no saving them - the washer was draining or resting or something, so the dripping bleach just soaked into the clothes and ruined them.

Why did it have to be a load of dark clothes in the washer at that time? Why did the bleach decide to drip while the washer was resting, instead of when the tub was full of water & the bleach would be diluted? Why did the bleach sit there happily for two weeks and decide to fall today.

Sigh.

Guess we'll be dipping into the clothing budget pretty soon.

Weekend Happenings

If you've noticed my intermittent posting over the last several weeks, then you have too much time on your hands here's the explanation: internet/network/router/connectivity problems. After James made several calls to Comcast (and was treated rather rudely) we finally got someone out to look at our cable situation. The poor kid ended up crawling under our house to replace the cable that goes from the box to the inside. I wouldn't wish that on anyone, but I guess it's in his job description. For now, we have service. We'll see how reliable it is.

In other news, my official birthday has come and gone, and I'm okay with that. We had a good time, ate lots of chocolate cake, and James surprised me with a stereo speaker thingie for the iPod he got me for Mother's Day. It works well, and the wee thing is portable enough that it keeps moving around the house, and even traveled to my parents' house yesterday, so that we could have some tunes while we were getting sunburned & bug-bitten outside.

At my parents' house, my brother set up a bocce ball tournament, which was quite fun. I'm not at all gifted in the athletic things that require grace, speed, or (goodness sakes) endurance, but I can aim things. I don't know what kind of talent that is. Anyway, I came in second, and my brother came in first. I think I would've won if he wouldn't have chucked the point ball so far, but that's how he rolls. Besides, he gets all insecure when his little sister beats him at something. And he doesn't read my blog, so I can totally say that and have no repercussions.

So, basically, business as usual has been happening at the Allen Family Circus. Laundry is done, put in a basket, and moved from site to site without ever actually being folded or put away. Cheerios are distributed with abandon by the youngest member of the circus. Too many cats continue to live here.

The only new and/or interesting thing to tell you is that I've kept my kitchen clean for almost a week. As in, CLEAN. Whenever you choose to walk into the kitchen, it is clean. At all times. That has never happened in my life. I think I like it. I'm going to try to make it a habit. We'll see.

Pizza/Pasta Sauce

About once a month, I make a giant Crock Pot full of pizza/pasta sauce. I then separate it into two big containers; one goes in the fridge for use immediately, and one goes in the freezer for future meals. It's great with pasta, and great as a pizza sauce. We use it quite often to make one of our quick favorites, English Muffin Pizzas - just some English muffins, this sauce, and shredded cheese and dinner is done!

If you try this, feel free to vary what you add - I don't make it the same way every time, but this recipe is what I did last time. We had it for dinner a few nights ago, on whole wheat rotini pasta, with some shredded mozzarella cheese - yummy!

A few recipe notes:
1. I forgot to write down the sizes of the cans I used. I hope my descriptions help.
2. I'm not a sausage fan, but the Bob Evans Italian sausage is very mild, and adds a really yummy flavor to the sauce.
3. Feel free to use a different meat or omit the meat altogether - I still think it'll turn out well.
4. I adjust the seasoning toward the end of cooking time - I think the acidity of the tomatoes might vary a bit, and so sometimes it needs a bit of sugar to even things out.

Pizza/Pasta Sauce
2 lb Bob Evans Italian Sausage
2 BIG cans of petite diced tomatoes, with juice
3 soup-sized cans of tomato sauce
3 soup-sized cans of tomato paste
2 Tbs Italian Seasoning

Crumble sausage & brown in a large skillet. Drain (or not); add to bottom of Crock Pot. Add diced tomatoes with juice, tomato sauce, tomato paste, and Italian seasoning. Stir well. Cook on high for 4-6 hours. Taste periodically and add sugar, salt, water, or whatever as needed.

For more great recipes, visit Saturday Stirrings!

Pondering

I'm 30 today. I feel like I should have something profound to say, some contemplative reflections to share, or some goals & new habits to list.

I don't have any of that.

I think 30 is the final nail in the coffin of adulthood. (I don't mean to be maudlin, it's just the phrase that came to me.) First there was getting married, then graduating college, then there was becoming "Dr. Jeni," then there was having a child, and now I'm 30. That's it. I'm a grown-up.

For the most part, I'm okay with that. I'm nowhere near as together as I'd like to be, and as I always imagined I'd be as an adult. But I've noticed that there are very few people who really have it all together. We all have our weak points, be it a messy house, a fighting spirit, a lack of self-control, or an addiction to soap operas.

30 is not how I imagined it. For one thing, I always pictured myself as having at least 2 children by the time I turned 30. For whatever reason, our difficulty conceiving this time around has changed that vision, and I'm struggling to allow God to bless us in His own time.

I also didn't imagine that we'd still be in so much debt - but it's a result of the choices we've made. Spending $120,000 for vet school to then become a SAHM isn't exactly a recipe for financial abundance. But we're making it, we're doing fine, and we have everything we need.

While 30 may be adulthood, it's YOUNG adulthood, and I've got a lot to do, things to work on, a toddler to train, and live to live. I look forward to the future, toward seeing my girlie grow, toward growing closer to James, and toward striving to become the woman God wants me to be.

Y'all have a great day!!

Observations at Sam's Club

Wendy and I took a little trip to Sam's Club today, to stock up on exciting items like laundry detergent and Cheerios. While there, I did some people watching, and wanted to share two observations.

1. I had to keep myself from laughing out loud as I saw the contents of a cart in front of mine in the checkout line. An older woman had a cart overloaded with things like Oatmeal Cream Pies, Moon Pies, Snickers, Kit-Kats, popcorn, Doritos, Twizzler, and similar items. In the child seat at the front of her cart she had a jumbo-sized package of HydroxyCut. Best of luck, ma'am, best of luck. (I know the treats are probably for a camp or carnival or some such thing.)

2. As we were leaving the store, I noticed a man coming of out Sam's and getting on his motorcycle. Motorcycle? At Sam's? What are you going to buy at Sam's that you can take home with you on a motorcycle?

And finally, a confession. Please don't call the authorities and have Wendy taken away; I feel terrible about this - but since I have a blog, I have to write about it. Sam's Club is about 40 minutes away from our house. When I was about halfway home, I called James to coordinate lunch times, so we could all have lunch together. I hung up, dropped the cell phone back in my purse, and looked in the Wendy-view mirror to see Wendy leaning forward in her car seat. Like, WAY forward. Like, not-buckled-in forward. I pulled over ASAP and kissed her and apologized, and fastened her harness.

Sigh. As my mind was racing, I realized I plopped her in her seat and then put my purse & receipt in the front seat, as I usually do. I reached over to start the car so the AC could start cooling off the van, and I guess the blast of hot air short-circuited something in my brain, because I then went to the cart & started unloading, never remembering that my child was perched precariously in her car seat.

Sigh.

WFMW: Cutting Bacon

I have an aversion to cutting up raw meat in any form. It's probably strange, but I think it reminds me too much of doing necropsies in vet school. Anytime a recipe calls for cutting strips of chicken breast or steak, I reverse the instructions and cook it first, then cut it.

That doesn't work so well for bacon. The other day, I needed some little pieces of bacon for something I was inventing (posted below), so I sighed and got out my cutting board and knife. Then I had a thought - I used my kitchen shears to open the package of bacon, so they were already all bacon-y. I wondered if they would cut through the bacon, so I gave them a try, and WOW! They worked great! I was able to cut little snips of bacon with no trouble, and saved myself about five minutes.

Cutting bacon with kitchen shears works for me! Head over to Rocks in my Dryer for more great hints!

And now for the recipe! Some notes - the spinach cooks down so much that one bag of the fresh leaves only makes two servings. Plan accordingly! Also, when I made it, I didn't add the frozen onion, and later wished I had, though what I made was good, too. I enjoy making up recipes in the kitchen, especially when they turn out yummy!

Wilted Spinach
2 Tbsp margarine or butter
4 slices bacon, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
2 Tbsp frozen chopped onion
1 bag of fresh spinach leaves, washed & dried
2 Tbsp Caesar salad dressing

Melt margarine or butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add bacon and onion, and cook until bacon is done and onion is translucent. Add spinach leaves, turning gently to coat with butter mixture. Cook just until wilted, then remove to a paper towel on a plate to drain. Once drained, put in serving bowl & toss with Caesar salad dressing. Makes 2 servings.

Come By Me

When I was in high school, I fell in love with the music of Harry Connick, Jr. It was before he was really popular, before the TV and movie appearances, and back when he still had quite a bit of boyish charm. (I'm still a sucker for his charm. And his accent.)

I was adding more of my CDs to my iPod tonight and came across this song - it always puts a smile on my face and sets my feet to tapping.

I hope you enjoy it!

Food Budget

One of my biggest struggles in my role as wife/mother/general-picker-upper is sticking to a budget. Sometimes it's my impulsiveness that gets in the way, sometimes I don't keep track of what I'm spending, but more and more often, it's simply the cost of groceries that causes me problems.

Our big grocery expenses this time last year were formula and diapers. Wendy's off formula now, and we use cloth diapers, so both of those items are gone. Wendy doesn't eat much; I think her diet is responsible for about $30 per month of our overall grocery expenditures. (That's a big word.)

Even with those significant savings, our monthly grocery spending is more than last year. And it seems like it's creeping up all the time. I try to make a trip to the store once a week, and alternate a big trip with a small trip, since usually every other week we only need the perishable stuff.

I know I could probably save more if I shopped around, but with gas prices being what they are, I don't really feel free to drive around a bunch looking for deals. We used coupons a lot for a while, but decided that we were pretty much breaking even after figuring the cost of the newspaper. I haven't been using my Sam's Club membership, and that's something I'm going to start again, to hopefully save money on things we can buy in bulk.

I guess all this rambling is my way of asking you for help. What do you do to help keep grocery costs down? Are you happy with your grocery budget? Are there cheap sources of healthy food that I'm overlooking?

Vacation Suggestions

On August 15th of this year, James and I will celebrate our 10th anniversary. We'd like to take a bit of a trip, a little vacation, just the two of us. Do you have any favorite vacation spots to share with us?

Here are some criteria:
1. Can't be too expensive. We're looking at 5 days, probably, and need to keep it reasonable.
2. We like to do stuff - zoos, hiking, museums, but not big-city stuff. No interest in Chicago or NYC or any other super-metropolitan area.
3. It would be nice if it's not six thousand degrees. We get enough blazing hot weather here. In fact, a cooler destination is particularly desirable.

Please, share with me your ideas & experiences! Right now I'm leaning toward San Diego, but it's kinda pricey, so I need your help!

On Leaving Wendy

On Friday, something momentous happened. It was uncomfortable and a little bit painful. It could be looked at as a rite of passage, I suppose.

We left Wendy with Grandma & Grandpa overnight.

She's 20 months old, and she had never spent a night away from her Mommy. What's more to the point, I had never spent a night without her in 20 months. Or longer, if you count the nights she kept me awake when I was pregnant.

When we planned to do this a few weeks ago, I was hopeful that it would go well, and I wouldn't be too worried or anxious, and that this would open the door for other sleepovers for Wendy, so that James and I could have some couple-time. I was looking forward to a night without the baby monitor, and the idea of sleeping until I woke up was definitely appealing.

As the night approached, I grew a bit more nervous about it, and was planning and re-planning how it would work out, and figuring out all the stuff I needed to bring to Grandma & Grandpa's house for the evening. It didn't matter that Wendy's spent about 1/4 of her life at Grandma & Grandpa's house, and that she had her own crib there that she slept in quite often. It was the simple fact that my baby was spending the night twenty minutes away from me. What if she needed me? What if she got scared? What if she needed her milk, and no one fixed her milk just right?

Even as I type that, I know it sounds ridiculous. My parents are perfectly capable, and in fact raised two children to adulthood without incident. (Except for the time my mom lost us both in the same day in a foreign country - a story for another day.) They'd be able to change her diaper, feed her, soothe her, and even get her a cup of milk. Wendy has spent tons of time with them, so she's perfectly comfortable in their care and at their house.

James and I brought Wendy over around dinnertime, so that we could all eat together. After a bit of playing and a bath, we tucked her into her crib there as we do many nights when we stay past her bedtime. She had her Bear and her Kitty and her Blankie, so we said a bedtime prayer and kissed her goodnight & shut the door. As soon as I knew she was asleep, we left.

I was doing fine, really. Until we got in the car and James asked, "Do you have everything you need?" My eyes flew to the rearview mirror and the reflection of the empty carseat. "NO!!" I wailed, "Just start the car and let's go!" I calmed down within a few minutes, but it was not easy.

And I did enjoy my baby-free night & morning. I managed to wait until 8 a.m. to call and check on her, figuring that she would surely be up by then, as she rarely sleeps past 7 a.m. these days. Grandpa answered the phone and said that he had figured I'd be calling to check on her. I asked how she slept, and if she woke up OK, and he said, "She was fine. She woke up saying, 'Mama, Mama, Mama...' "

That gave me the sniffles again, but all was well. We survived our night apart. I was SO glad to see her when we got there on Saturday - and she'll be spending the night at Grandma & Grandpa's fairly often in the future.

Bathing Beauty

It's hot here. Is it hot where you live? If not, send me your address, because I'm coming over.

Wendy loves to play outside. It was one of her first words...usually asked as a question, "Da-dide?" She likes to run and play, look at the flowers, watch the ants, and play in the sand pots at Grandma & Grandpa's house. And after yesterday, I can also say that she really likes her pool.

We set it up yesterday on the deck at Grandma & Grandpa's house, and equipped her with a few essential pool toys: a colander, a measuring cup, a spatula, a medicine cup, and several petunia flowers. In this picture she's saying, "Oooohh!" She was just getting the hang of things.



She practiced pouring that medicine cup over and over. She'd carefully pour it into the colander, then on her foot, then into the colander again. It was pretty interesting.



As you can see, she had a great time!

PICK ME!!!

Y'all! Shannon at Rocks in my Dryer is hosting a giveaway from Wow Hits 1 for seventeen (17!) CDs of Christian music! Go over there and check it out!

Or go to WOW Online for more info!

Memorial Day Pictures

I just remembered today that I still had pictures from Memorial Day just waiting to be uploaded. So without further ado, here they are!

We had planned to spend the day outside, with bocce ball, running through the sprinkler, and relaxing on the swing. Since it stormed all day, that didn't happen - we spent time together inside instead.

After a yummy lunch (we got the grilling done just as the rain was starting), Wendy and Avery (my nephew) needed some quiet time. Grandma turned on "Pop Go the Wiggles," and the kids went into a Wiggle-induced trance. Wendy let me tuck her blankie around her as she relaxed on the couch.

Look at the concentration on her little face! She lounged like this for about 45 minutes - I wish she'd be that still during church!

And by the way, that is THE Blankie, not just A blankie. We have two identical Blankies. I wish I had bought a third, because Target doesn't carry them any more, and an imitation Blankie just won't do.


My sister-in-law, Lisa, with her son, Avery, and my girlie. As soon as Avery sat in his Mom's lap, Wendy had to come join the party.


Cousins and trouble makers! Avery and Wendy love each other, and play pretty well together - until Avery starts whining that Wendy hit him. (And then I'm like, "Come on. You're 6 1/2. She's 20 months. Get over it.")


And after a day of partying, we weren't surprised that she couldn't make it all the way home without falling asleep. She was worn out - we all were!

WFMW: Picnic "Blanket"

Welcome to Works-For-Me Wednesday, a weekly tip carnival hosted by Shannon at Rocks in my Dryer!

Today's tip is pretty simple. You know those times when you want to have a picnic, and can't decide what to use as a ground cloth? You don't want to get one of your nice blankets icky, but it needs to be something to protect you from any dampness on the ground & help keep bugs away. We've used a big quilt in the past, but it was hard to clean, since it won't fit in our washing machine.

That's when I got the idea to use a vinyl tablecloth. I got ours at Wal-Mart around Easter last year, so it has a cute chickie print. I started out putting the vinyl side down, but the fuzzy backing would get tangled in Wendy's little damp fingers & toes. But using it with the fuzzy side down works great! You can usually find these at Wal-Mart or similar stores for just a few dollars. Many times the prints they offer change by season, so there are some pretty cute ones available.

And here's a picture of Wendy enjoying the picnic "blanket" on the day she turned 6 months old - which seems like forever ago!


For more great tips, head over to Works-For-Me Wednesday at Rocks in my Dryer!

Colon Humor

I'm a big fan of Dave Barry. We were forwarded a link to this column of his from February, and I just had to share.

(And just to warn you - don't take a big drink of Diet Coke in the middle of this article, or it might shoot out your nose when you laugh.)