Day 193

Tuesday, March 14, 2017

Watching the snow!

People:Puff has been picking up words left and right now. She is obsessed with finding circles, stars, and hearts. She likes to find the shapes, point them out, and then excitedly exclaim the name of each. It's so sweet. She uses words like, "stay, snuggle, play, bear, cheese, etc." Hearing her say "snuggle" is probably the cutest thing I've ever heard. She repeats a lot of words now and tries to recite her A,B,C's. I imagine both Puff and Bear will pick things up from their big sister as time marches on. They already start crying when Squeak goes upstairs or downstairs and they are left alone with me. They like being wherever she is.

Places/Activities: I've opened up the online course I'm teaching so my students can post introductions. I'm excited about teaching again, but of course just a little nervous about working in time for everything (and everyone). I know something is going to go on the back burner. I likely won't be posting my drawings as frequently, or I might limit myself to blogging just a couple of times a week. We will see. Some courses are much more time intensive than others. Hopefully this one is easily manageable. I've taught a couple of the students before and they are very diligent students, so that is very helpful!

The snow/ice/wind put a damper on my plans for this evening. For Christmas, D surprised me with two tickets to see Regina Spektor tonight in DC. I was so excited and it was such a sweet and thoughtful gift. A night out, without kids, and spending time with a friend to see an artist I appreciate. However, after getting into a car accident in my early 20's during a snow storm, I'm very cautious about driving in any kind of snow or ice - especially if it's going to be at night and an hour of travel time each way. So, my friend and I did not get to go to the concert :(. The good news is that she knows a bunch of people in DC, and we were able to give the tickets to someone who lived close to Constitution Hall and was excited to go to the concert.

Good Deeds: The Cheerios company has vowed to give away one million wildflower seeds for customers to plant wildflowers. Today I signed up to receive free seeds that Squeak and I can plant this Spring to help bring back the bees.

Chores: Bathing children and laundry. I had also hoped to clean out the fridge, but there wasn't time for that today.

Reading: I finished reading Caitlin Moran's book Moranifesto. There were SO many hilarious lines in this book! There were also some slower sections, but I really appreciated her humor. I still highly recommend. I think she appeals to those with a sarcastic sense of humor the most. I could think of a handful of people in my friends list that would likely be best friends with her in real life. Oh, and die hard Bowie fans too. She mentions him frequently (which she will tell you from the get-go).

Squeak and I also started the book Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls. A sweet twin mom friend sent it to my girls as a surprise. So far she really likes it. Each page includes a brief story about a famous woman and includes an illustration. We plan on reading a few of the stories each night. I highly recommend! Super inspiring and much better than reading yet another princess book before bed - though we do love a few of those old school fairy tales :)


Recipes: Since we were stuck inside today, I was trying to think of something Squeak and I could to together. We have lots of leftover rice cereal from the last time we made rice crispy treats, so when D suggested we make rice crispy treats it seemed like a good idea. Except for the fact that Squeak would rather be outside than inside making crisp rice treats. So, D went out to shovel and Squeak went out to play. The twins napped, and I made the treats. I retrieved the Easter bin from the basement and washed a plastic egg to use as a form for the treats. They turned out quite well, I think!

Chicken Tacos

Squeak in the snow

Egg shaped rice krispie treats.

Also, about a week ago, I checked out a pile of Slow Cooker recipe books from the library. One of them was called, Fix It and Forget It: Slow Cooker Champion Recipes by Phyllis Good. I tried the Chicken Tacos recipe and oh my goodness is it GOOD! I used chicken breasts instead of chicken thighs and I used the cream cheese block instead of the soup, and it tastes amazing. I was able to include the recipe below only because believe it or not, this recipe is on a preview through Google Books! Go figure!



Random Thoughts: Normally, when I was teaching, I would REJOICE at the idea of a snow day!! How lovely! A day away from the normal everyday work of teaching, and a day at home with my children, hurray!! However, snow days for stay at home moms are a different story. Now instead of two children to run around after, all three are home. It isn't like a weekend because D still has to work, and we can't go places like visit the library or a museum because the roads are sheets of ice. We will find stuff to do inside, but it still isn't quite the same. There isn't a "break" from the norm. Controlled chaos is the norm. I know I'll miss this time of chaos and snuggles when they are older and when I am back to work next year. I can with 100% certainty say that I will never envy a stay at home mom ever again. Props to all you SAHM's out there that have been doing it longer than me!

3x the cleanup

Puff playing dress up