New Schedule

We have been adjusting to our new schedule of putting the boys down in their own room. It's going pretty well, although there are still a few bumps. Tommy is completely weaned now, although he occasionally asks for milk. I am amazed at how it's helping me be more organized and how much more smoothly my days are going. Effective bedtime and menu planning seem to be the secrets to my day going well. Speaking of which, I am going to go update my calendar, review the budget, and go over the menus for this week. Ci vediamo!

Maternity clothes

In general I like being pregnant. I have pretty easy pregnancies, so I don't think of it as a time of aches and pains and pukiness. I like feeling the baby move, and thinking about what the newest little one will be like. One of the things I don't like about pregnancy however, is maternity clothes. Actually, let me correct that-maternity pants. I can't seem to find pants that look cute, stay up, are comfortable, and don't start sagging (especially in the butt area). They drive me crazy!

Luckily, I have finally found a solution: Leggings. Specifically, leggings with skirts. I always like wearing skirts when I am pregnant (for the above mentioned reasons), but now I can wear them in complete comfort of being totally modest. I borrowed a pair of leggings from Alice the other day to wear to church, and I am now firmly hooked. I went and bought three pairs tonight. Now I just need to find some comfortable drawstring/elastic waist skirts to go with them, and I am good to go. You might not see me in jeans again this summer. Plus, a pair of leggings costs $5, as opposed to maternity pants which can range anywhere from $20 all the way up to $100. So, leggings it is!

And now, pictures of some skirts I would like to own:

Lack of Inspiration

"Help, help, I'm being oppressed!"
"Did you see my house oppressing me?"

Okay, so I may have paraphrased a little, but that is pretty much how I am feeling right now. Here is a list of things that are oppressing me:

1. My orange couch covers. I don't even like orange that much to begin with, and I have had these large, citrus eyesores for over 3 years now. I think one of the main reason I don't decorate is because my couches do not inspire me. At all. They just get messy (very quickly) and dirty (also very quickly) and I can't ever think of anything that really "matches" that I would want to decorate with. I am sure they would be perfect for someone, but I am ready for a change.

2. My kitchen. I have so little useable space, and I have more things than have homes. So It doesn't ever really look clean, even when it is. Also, it could use a good paint job.

3. My living room. I keep dreaming of having a peaceful haven, that I want to retreat to. But instead I have a badly organized room with a big orange lump in the middle. Not the place I want to retire to at the end of the day so I can read and relax.

4. The lighting. I like having a variety of lighting....natural, bright, soft, different combinations depending on time of day and my mood. I have some lamps, but they are currently missing lamp shades, so they aren't very useful. I just hate incandescent lighting when I am wanting to wind down and relax.

5. My bedroom. My bedroom can be arranged in only one way that is even slightly useable. It is not the most graceful, or pleasing, or I am sure, "feng shui" method of arranging the furniture. It's just the only one that lets you access all the doors and keeps the furniture in the room that needs to be there. I am very tired of that particular arrangement.

All of this oppression and lack of inspiration also means that my house isn't staying as clean as I would like. It's hard to motivate oneself to clean a room that doesn't look *that* much better when you are done. It just feels a little fruitless.

Now, this isn't just a post to whine about how I don't like my house. It's actually a post where I am recording the things that are bothering me about my house, in the hopes that as I identify them, I can also identify solutions. Number 2, for example, lets me know that I need to de-clutter, re-organize my cupboards, re-evaluate what I have in my kitchen, and maybe ask the landlords if I can paint. I can almost guarantee I would do a better job then the last people who painted it, seeing as how they missed a section of wall. I might even ask if I could paint it a color, just to make it a little more interesting and exciting.

I also know that if I start going through my house and getting rid of things, that I will feel better. I can rearrange the living room, try to figure out some lighting options, and maybe even figure out a new couch cover. Really, anything has to be better (except the couches that are underneath the covers, unfortunately). I will also start looking for pictures to inspire me. I will just make it a goal to make my house as comfortable and homelike as I can within the limitations that I have. Hopefully as there is some improvement, I will be inspired to make more. I am also hoping that as my house improves, my routines will fall into place more, and I can get my home to a manageable point before the baby comes. I want it to be easy for other people to maintain things while I am recovering, so that it can be a happy, peaceful experience for all involved.

What inspires you?

My angel Gabriel

I love my sweet boy. I think he is currently cutting his final set of baby molars, because for the last two days he has been sad, clingy, grumpy, tired, and has had no appetite. Also, he got a high fever last night. I know not all kids do, but fever is one of the big signs of teething in my children.

Yesterday we woke up, showered, got dressed and went upstairs for breakfast. After I had given the boys each a muffin to tide them over until I finished making the french toast, Gabe went in the playroom. I went to check on him a few minutes later and he was just laying quietly on the bed. I asked him what he was doing. He replied, "I'm sleeping". He played that he was "sleeping" for the next hour. Every time I checked on him he was still laying quietly on the bed. Once or twice he got up and came in the kitchen to tell me, "I woke up" but then he would head back to the bed. It was so sweet, but a little heartbreaking too. You know he can't be feeling great if he thinks the best game is just laying down for an hour. Today we are watching movies and vegging out. "No Herbie! Just Thomas!". So...no Love Bug...only that old' Tank Engine.

His vocabulary has been increasing by leaps and bounds. One thing we have been working on lately is what sounds different animals make. He is great at monkey, dog, pig, cat, snake, fish, etc. The other night at dinner we taught him that Mommy and Daddy say, "I Love You!". He says it in the sweetest little voice. However, for some reason Daddy has now morphed from saying, "I love you" to "I love grxxely mxeglsh" some weird sounds. Mommy still says "I love you" quite clearly. :)

I just posted a best-practices list for using iPhone art. Please leave me a comment!

http://blog.getlimed.com/lime/2010/03/getting-your-art-right-for-your-iphone-game.html

meanderings of my brain

My house is a complete mess right now. Last night I picked up 12 HUGE* bags of clothes from freecycle. It was a completely random mix, and I have been sorting clothes all day. I am now trying to get rid of the things we can't use, and make some kind of sense of the things we can. It's definitely going to be a two day project.

There was quite a lot of baby girl clothes, which we won't know if we need until mid-March. Going through all of them of course made me hope we are having a girl, since they have the cutest little dresses and outfits! Also, I happen to know that if we had a girl she would be quite beautiful. I won't tell you how I know, and neither will Tommy. Let's just say I hope his sisters get his eyelashes and curly hair.

My wonderful aunt sent Gabe a box of matchbox cars and toy dinosaurs. He has been playing with them all day. Tommy and Jack prefer the dinosaurs, but Gabe (of course) loves the box of cars. He just carries it around and asks "Where's Gabe's car box?" It's pretty cute.

Last night my phone rang at 3:00am. That never means good news. I woke up groggily to see who it was..."caller Unknown". Huh...so I answer, to hear my sister (who lives far away in another state where it was currently 5:00am) saying, "Hello? Elise?" I explained, that no, I wasn't Elise, to which she responded, "Meggan? What are you doing up at this hour?" Um...answering my phone. Once my sleepy brain figured out that she was not calling to tell me that someone had died, but was just trying to call her early morning seminary student for their regularly scheduled class, and skype had just misdialed me, I hung up and went back to sleep. It was pretty funny...this morning, when I was awake enough to appreciate it.


*The footnote has nothing to do with the bags of clothes. Just writing that sentence reminded me of a sign that Evan and I saw today. It said, "HUGH Sale on Saturday!". I wanted to take a picture and send it to anyone I know named Hugh.

Saturday Morning...

Wow, for a little while there I was blogging every day. That is completely out of character for me, but probably a pleasant change for my readers (of which there are probably not many, but I appreciate the faithful few).

The boys are getting so cute! Gabriels vocabulary is expanding daily. Some of his favorite phrases are, kitchen, blankie cuddle, help, no poop (that one is almost always a lie), dinosaur, read it to me, mom mom mom mom mom, and my personal favorite, "Brother". He has stopped calling Tommy by name, and now always addresses him as "brother". As in, "no brother!" "cute brother" "Go away brother!" "oh, baby brother!" etc. It's pretty funny. The other phrase he has that makes me think we can never buy him concessions at the movie theater is when he asks for popcorn but calls it, "car porn". Yeah...that's a little awkward. He has been sick the last few days, so we have been spending a lot of time just cuddling and reading books. Also watching Thomas the Tank Engine.

Tommy is just getting cuter and cuter. He loves books, and will sit and read to himself (with weird growls) for long periods of time. He can say "mom", "dad", and "alice" and loves to cuddle. He is walking all over, chasing Gabe and trying to be just as big as his brother. That works out sometimes and not at others. They are getting much better at playing together. He has six teeth, 2 on the bottom and 4 on the top. He likes to tell baby jokes, and he can crack himself up. It's pretty funny to watch.

Ontario is still super busy. We are trying to figure out how to work his new schedules, and we aren't quite there yet. Hopefully we can figure out a better system soon.

Last night we went on a super fun double date with our good friends Krissie and Barry. I want to blog more about it, but I will wait until I have pictures to post with it. It turned out really cute, and Krissie and I had fun planning it.

Now I have to go finish all my Sunday prep, and take care of these sick little boys. I hope they get over this soon. It's no fun for any of us.