This morning Tommy and I went out to Wheaton to meet up with our friends, the Ritters. Amy and I took Tommy, Ian, and Anneliese out to Sonny Farms, this great pumpkin farm with lots of cool activities. Full facebook album here. Tommy had a blast!
Trip to the Pumpkin Patch
Oct 20th, 2008 by ECM
A week of dinner parties
Oct 18th, 2008 by ECM
This week was a turning point for us: We hosted our first Chicago dinner party on Wednesday night (for our small group–relatively disaster-free although I made twice the fettucini we needed and haven’t cooked since) and attended our first dinner party tonight at Hannah’s! After meeting many folks here who have different political/intellectual/family/religious backgrounds than we do, it was sweet to sit down with some Hillsdale folks (Brian Blummer came so we did some Teague-loving, Katie!) and a really cool couple from Hannah’s small group (Myron is at TEDS getting his MDiv after doing IV for 10 years!) and talking about how British lit is better than American (although Hawthorne short stories are better than most), pros and cons of starting Greek and Hebrew the same semester at seminary (Brian’s doing both; Myron is doing one at a time), whether Hannah and I should try for Koine or classical Greek (we’re starting with koine, I think), what baby items are really necessary, why trips to Europe are cool, and art from the Vatican. *contented sigh* Part of my rosy view of the evening is probably due to the fact that I stuffed myself with chips and guac, apples and cheese, amazing sausage lasagna, roasted carrots, acorn squash, homemade bread with roasted garlic spread, and apple crisp with pumpkin ice cream.=) I’m not at all surprised that my collegiate partner-in-tea-party-crime has become an amazing hostess, and I’m so grateful for the great evening of food and fellowship with likeminded people. Maybe I’m going to like Chicago, after all!
A day in our life
Oct 17th, 2008 by ECM
I am so, so tired of The Happy Man and His Dump Truck and The Night Before Christmas. Tommy has latched onto those two books (and Cars and Trucks and Things That Go, which isn’t nearly as annoying) like nothing else. He’s actually shoving The Night Before Christmas on my lap as I type. Why did I think that buying this off the Target dollar display was a good idea last Christmas? We don’t even plan on doing Santa Claus… We seriously need to go through our kid’s book collection and purge the dumb ones. I don’t mind reading Curious George 20 times a day because it actually has a plot, but a happy man who drives around in his dump truck picking up random farm animals is not my idea of scintillating subject matter. Here’s Tommy admiring the doughnut car…now that he knows what a doughnut is, he keeps pointing to it and saying “doughnut! doughnut!” again and again. And he loves finding Dingo, the bad driver, who he says is “nonny” (naughty).
Well, Tommy’s interest in the potty chair has totally worn off. I guess I missed that window of opportunity, because he’s refused to sit on it for the last two days! Oh well–we can try again in 8 months and be more intentional about it then… I’m having a downswing on the morning sickness front, and I so much wish I could find a babysitter to come over during the times when Tommy usually poops. Diaper changes are killing me! And while I’m on the diapers theme, let me rant a little about cheap disposables. We had to get some disposables for our trip to Detroit (usually I just buy enough for church and nighttime and a bag lasts us several weeks), and I just couldn’t bring myself to buy the Pampers when the Target brand was literally half the price. I keep wondering if my Pampers snobbery is a fig newton of my imagination after being spoiled by our cloth most of the time. Nope!
I know that I have friends who use Target diapers, but this batch has been a disaster for us. They don’t even last two hours (average nap time or time in the nursery) without leaking. Overnight? Plan on him being soaked and smelly by morning. Yesterday I tried to use them up while I washed the Bum Geniuses, but gosh, he went through three pairs of pants! I told Derek to never, never let me try to be cheap and buy cheap diapers again. They are far less than half as useful. When you figure in the increased frequency of changing and the extra laundry, Pampers really are worth it for our family. I am going to go buy some before nursery this Sunday. Phew! Thanks for letting me get that off my chest!
And lastly, here’s what Tommy has been up to today while I’ve been gagging and complaining about diapers and dumb books. He is really getting into coloring now that he has his own little art table. He also found our old phone in a box and has been carrying it around with his apple (he usually works on an apple for most of the morning). Now that we don’t have a landline, I’m letting him use it as a toy. Cool dude! (and no, I don’t usually dress him in red from head to foot. That’s just all that was clean after lunch.)
The potty chair
Oct 15th, 2008 by ECM
Since morning sickness and changing diapers don’t mesh well, I decided to get Tommy a potty chair and just see how interested he was. So far, it’s been a big hit! (As a toy, that is…)
Now, I don’t think anything big is going to happen, because he’s still telling me he’s “pooty” AFTER he’s pooped, but at least he thinks it’s cool!
Today we had a big celebration–Tommy started spraying me on the changing table, as he’s been doing lately, so I hoisted him up, ran to the potty, and put him down to finish his business. He did! I gave him some toilet paper as a reward, and he even knew to reach down with it. (Not sure how he gets that part, since we don’t bring him in the bathroom with us, but maybe he thought it was a wipe!) Anyway, I’m going to count this as first time going on the potty. If you want to be on the call list next time he does it (so far we just called the grandmas to praise him), let me know. =)
Coming in May…
Oct 14th, 2008 by ECM
Tommy: There’s someone missing from this stroller.
Mommy: Don’t worry–you’ll have a sidekick around May 5!
Tommy: Then I’d better practice my big brother skills!
Fall Weekend in Detroit
Oct 13th, 2008 by ECM
We made a last-minute trip to Detroit this weekend to celebrate Uncle Matthew’s and Grandpa’s birthdays! Tommy had all sorts of “firsts” this weekend–first trip to a cider mill, first cider doughnut, first ricotta cake (Great-great Aunt Dee-Dee “accidentally” gave him some even though he’s not allowed to have dairy or sugar!), first citrus (in the form of a lemon-pineapple-poppyseed muffin–yeah, the no sugar thing kindof got thrown by the wayside this weekend), and first time being truly friendly to all his Detroit relatives (yay!).
Intro to Cloth Diapering
Oct 11th, 2008 by ECM
Cloth Diapers! They’re making a comeback, and for good reason! Whether you’re interested in cutting down on landfill waste, saving money, or just having your kids’ butts look cuter, this post is my attempt to summarize all we’ve learned about cloth diapering in the past two years. To begin with, cloth is an up-front investment. Instead of paying $50 a month (or whatever disposable parents spend) throughout your diaper years, you’re looking at spending $200 or more up front, depending on what you use. (Remember, though, that loving friends and family members are always looking for shower present ideas–most of our stock was gifts!) Utilities and detergent are your only on-going expenses. For families like us, who hope to have several kids, cloth diapering should be a serious option! Continue Reading »
House Tour, Part Two
Oct 11th, 2008 by ECM
We’ve made a lot of progress this week, so here is the second part of our house tour!
Our bedroom. I was going to clean off all the books on our nightstands, but I decided to show what our room really looks like most days. Thanks to my mom, our valences are finally up!
Normally bathrooms aren’t part of a house tour, but our bathroom sink is so weird and ultramodern that I had to include a picture of it. (Clear glass sinks are actually a really bad idea–they show soap and toothpaste scum immediately.)
Ummm…very interesting upstairs hallway…picture was taken standing in our doorway, looking across to Tommy’s door, with hall closet and his bathroom to the left and the office and guest rooms around the corner to the right.
All my life, I’ve wanted to have a Library. Finally, we do!
Ikea bookshelves…
Kitchen–I wouldn’t have picked a tuscan yellow, but we’re working with it.
Living room with curtains! (Also, framed Italy map, finally, and no more boxes!)
What do you do with 16 ft. wide windows? Make a curtain accent wall, of course…
3.5 pounds of pure romance
Oct 10th, 2008 by ECM
Some girls like it when their hubbies send them roses. This girl is still swooning from the 3.5 pound box of Big Train Chai mix that got delivered to her door.
Here they are: 4 beautiful bags of chai! (Banana and scoop shown for scale)
Within 5 minutes of the UPS delivery, I was inhaling the goodness…the delicious scent that brings back memories of our first date (actually, basically all of our real dates were to the Gathering), study sessions at The Gathering with friends, Saturday mornings off campus with accountability partners, and my very first memory of Hillsdale–tromping through the snow to The Gathering during Merit Weekend with my hosts, Lisa and Kelly, and several other girls, including Johanna, who bought chai for the other prospective (?) and me and told us that this was the smell of Hillsdale College. Big Train Chai is the quintessential Hillsdale drink. Thanks for the trip down memory lane, Dear! I promise there will be some left when you get home!
Favorite Household Products!
Oct 9th, 2008 by ECM
Well, Bethany just had a great blog post about her favorite household products, and the housewife in me is happy to respond! Here are my favorites:
1. My Pampered Chef stones–I started out with this bar pan and discovered that things don’t burn on a stone, even if they’re left in the oven for an extra hour. Then I had a party and earned the amazing deep covered baker, in which I can cook a chicken dinner in half an hour in the microwave. (I’ll post it sometime…) Recently, my in-laws gave me the Deep Dish Baker, which I also love. Yep, I’m pretty much a Pampered Chef junkie.
2. It’s apple season, so I’ll be using my PC Apple Peeler/Corer ($3 at a garage sale) a lot in the next month or so! Derek and Tommy love this contraption, too! I just found a crockpot applesauce recipe that I can’t wait to try…
3. I use my wooden spoons for everything. They don’t hurt my pans, and they’re so much sturdier than my plasticware. I also love recipes that tell me specifically to “stir with a wooden spoon!”
4. A friend who’s in charge of cooking for 100 people ten times a week once told me that the most important investment I could make for my kitchen would be buying good knives. I use my Wustof paring knife for pretty much all my food prep. Going back to cheaper knives at church or wherever is quite frustrating! =)
5. Sorry to repeat, Bethany, but baking soda is my best cleaning friend, too! I recently read an article about how you can basically clean your whole house with baking soda, vinegar, and Dawn. I am slowly using up my fancy chemical cleaners and moving towards simplifying my cleaning bucket. I use baking soda for diaper odor, laundry, freshening carpets, absorbing odors in the fridge, cleaning, and, of course, baking.
So, I’m wondering, fellow housewife bloggers, what are your favorite household products?