Gray’s Anatomy

After reading some parenting articles that popped into my inbox via BabyCenter and WhatToExpect, I decided to use the proper words for body parts rather than cutesy nicknames that will save me from some embarrassment.

So when Nicky points at his particulars and asks me what it is I tell him it’s his penis (I feel dirty just writing it). He repeats the word after me like he’s been doing with new words for a while now.

I live in constant fear of him yelling it out in the middle of church.

It’s been over a week since the last time he asked. So this morning as I’m getting Nicky dressed he points at my waist and says, “mommy’s penis” I explain that only boys have them (so I’d appreciate he not tell people I have one).” Then, because this kid really knows how to hurt me he says, “mommy’s mustache.”

….

So I tell him that when a woman has a mustache we don’t say anything about it.

I don’t have one btw.

After getting dressed he wants to play with play dough. I pull out all the green play dough and start to roll it into a cylinder which yesterday, he was calling “capeeshes”. So I thought I was making a big capeesh for him and he yells out, “a big penis!”

Capeeshes

And now he’s asking me to make the play dough into a big penis.

When did my life get so inappropriate?

Homemade Play Dough

This stuff is so easy to make!

Throw the following ingredients into a saucepan:

1 Cup flour
2 tsp cream of tartar
1/3 CUP salt
1 Cup water
1 tbsp oil

Stir over medium heat until it gets thicker. Then add whichever food coloring you want. Continue stirring until the play dough pulls away from the pan. Set on wax paper to cool.

The whole process takes less than ten minutes.

I have to say, it’s pretty fun to play with it while it’s still warm.

I originally made some two years ago in my overzealousness to make things for Nicky. It took a little longer before he was really interested, point being though, that play dough is still going strong. The only reason I made more was because he’s mixed together the colors and even some brand name play dough his aunt gave him. It’s U-G-L-Y.

Fun at the Mall

We had an action filled morning on Friday. We met up with my sister and her two girls at Short Pump mall where they had a free mini petting zoo (the things you can do with an outdoor mall!). It wasn’t until we were the second group of people in line that Nicky noticed the animals, even though I kept pointing them out. He was very excited!

From there he saw the fountain and wanted to go check it out.

And it was by a playground.

And this mall has a freaking train you ride…so of course we had to do that.

It was a good day and Nicky took the best nap after we got home.

Moving on up to the sky

So we had our realtor come out this past weekend to take a gander at the house and let us know what we need to work on before putting the house on the market. I was thinking she’d point out “projects” but she walked through the house and told me EVERYTHING that needs to be done – such as decluttering, staging, etc. talk about overwhelming! I spent the next several hours writing lists. I kept trying to find a method/type of list to help me not feel so overwhelmed…not sure I found one but writing everything down thirty different ways was its own type of therapy (because I’m a huge nerd who makes lists and excel spreadsheets for relaxation).

We’ve decided we need a storage unit sooner than later, we just want to make sure we get one big enough to hold our lives. Because one thing you don’t quite realize when you plan to put your house up for sale is that while it’s on the market they want you to live in your house…but look like you don’t. So even though I have my lists (which somehow keep growing) I’m looking around my house preparing for what can be packed away for a month or more and what’s really necessary for daily living. It’s like trying to pack for a month long vacation and hoping for the best case scenario so you can pack light. Yikes.

Anyway – at least that goal has gotten off to a start. Now I’ll be spending a lot of free time painting (and writing because I need to finish that book!), and packing up life!

This is why we can’t have nice things

I love peanut butter.

I just wanted to say that before I went off on it.

I always find it on my pants. Sometimes my shirts, but usually my pants. It’s become an accessory several times a week. I don’t own that many pairs of jeans, mostly because I’m losing weight so I don’t want to stock up on pants that won’t fit me for long.

Sometimes I know the peanut butter is there because toddler man mouths my leg after eating some. Sometimes I find it later, I look down and there it is, about the height of the kitchen table because someone decided peanut butter makes excellent paint (and it kind of does).

It’s kind of gotten to the point where I’m not so careful when I eat anymore. The food on the kitchen floor doesn’t always come from the toddler in the room, why should it? I have to clean it up no matter who makes the mess and there’s always going to be something to clean up…so why try so hard?

Toddlers may be messy – but they sure are fun. So for now I’ll deal with the peanut butter and all the other little messes and I’ll try to be more put together and clean when I’m older.

Ring in the New Year – 2018

I’ve been giving my goals some thought (some less than others) but here they are. I’m also going to tape them to my mirror so I remember what goals I set. Here we go:

2018 Resolutions

Query 5 agents by August
1. Finish the 1st draft with necessary edits
2. Have 3 BETA readers (at least)
3. Research agents
4. Write and polish query letter
5. Send
Reach goal weight by August 31st by cutting back sugar and working out more.
Make my marriage a priority by having at least 12 dates with my hubs and holding family counsels.
Go to the temple at least twice (DC will be closing in March until 2020 – just thought I’d explain the low number).
Service – do one service activity a month.
MOVE!
Read 25 books. At least two need to be on writing and three be church books.
Mommy/Son dates – Take time for just Nicky and me by going on at least 6 outings together.

As you can see – I’m making dating my family a big priority this year – someone’s desperate… I’m excited and nervous about my goals – mainly the writing one. I realized a few weeks ago that I hold back because I get anxiety about the whole submission process. I figure if I make it a goal then my pride and stubbornness will overpower the anxiety and I’ll finally take the next steps. We’ll see. An unwritten goal is to blog and journal more – so hopefully you’ll hear from me more (if that’s what you want).

Projects

As I posted yesterday – I thought I had a draft of my weekly new things. This is by a complete list, looks like I stopped adding after about three months or so but you get the idea.

So I’ve fallen behind reporting on my weekly “projects” which I have dubbed Pinterest projects because honestly 99% of them will be attempts to do things I saw on Pinterest.

So here’s what I’ve tried and how they turned out.

1) Homemade paint. Recipe found HERE. This….did not work for me. I may try it again some time but it came out too thick to actually be used as paint.

2) Family Home Evening on Prayer – I just kind of made this one up. I have pictures to go with all the answers to the questions.

3) Preschool Calendar Board – this one actually took two weeks because I had to order more ink and go back to the store to get more velcro and laminating paper. I got the idea from HERE.4) Glazed Donut Muffins – HERE

These were delicious! Enough said.

5) Pin the Tail on the Bunny (LINK – PS I love this website!) however – the project failed. Seemed simple enough but the Velcro was just too strong and the tails ripped off.