All Three at Once

It's rare to get a photo with all three boys, but today I coaxed them by asking to get a picture of the "shooters" they'd built.

Window Washing Coupon to Share

I have been a homeowner for about 10 years. I have washed the exterior windows on my home once, and that was long before I had children. The most striking feature of my home now is five 5-foot high windows in the living room and dining room.

Guess what? Five 5-foot high slabs of dust & grime are not very striking.

Into this dilemma comes a new & probably not-very-necessary convenience product with the catchy name "Windex Outdoor All-in-One Glass Cleaning Tool." I had a nice pair of coupons that made it a good deal. A detail-oriented window washer would probably not approve, but for $3 + 45 minute investment I am quite content.

I happen to have three coupons good for this doo dad. All of them are for a $5 Target gift card if you buy this thing. They expire June 16. Yours for the asking (if I've ever met you before).

Happy Spring!

Soup and Kids Update

Nice things my kids said recently:

Me: "Owen, you look very handsome."

Owen: "You look handsome, too, Mom."

******************

Sam brought me maple tree seeds, the ones I know mainly as helicopters. (NASA tells me these are excellent autorotators.) "I found this seed when I was coming home from school and I'm giving it to you because you are a great planter!"

******************

I'm sure Jude has said something lovely and charming recently but it's been overlaid with the more-frequent sassiness. It's a phase, it will pass, and I don't care for it.

******************

The soup turned out pretty well. I went the safe route: onions, celery, carrots + a can of tomatoes. Cumin and coriander. When I ate it, I realized I had unintentionally mimicked my mom's beef vegetable soup.

******************

Speaking of cooking, I tried making cupcakes from scratch. The cupcakes were fine but unimpressive, but the frosting - YUM! cream cheese, butter, confectioner sugar and lemon juice. Who needs the cake?

Inventing a Soup

I'm trying to ad lib soup this weekend and don't know what I'm doing. I'm not much of a soup maker, but by an unusual set of uninteresting circumstances, have a lot of dried beans and a lot of ribs. Soup seems like the thing.

So, I cooked the beans with the rib bones last night. The cooking water (is it soup stock yet?) is cooling and I'll skim off the fat later. When I put the beans and stock in a pot to make the soup, what else might I want to add? Vegetables, I'm sure, but which ones? It's small white beans and bbq ribs. I think the bbq flavor will be pretty mild by now.

How do I choose herbs to accompany this? I think there is parsley in the refrigerator; or maybe it's cilantro. I have chives, oregano, and rosemary in the garden. I know that all of them together is a bad idea, but which ones would be a good idea?

Actively seeking suggestions...

I Made Money Buying Chicken!

Another grocery deal today that I'm proud of: I made money on buying two lbs. of free range chicken breasts. It's usually 7.99/lb, but on sale for 5.99. Also there are $1 coupons at the store. Also I had a coupon for $3 off chicken. Ben had asked me to buy some Bud Light for summer refreshment, and BL is doing a promotion for $10 rebate on chicken.

Final tally: $16 of chicken, on sale for $12 - 1 - 3 - 10 = +$2 for me

Everybody needs something to be proud of, and right now this is what I've got.

Happy Birthday Owen!

Owen is three years old today and he fully appreciates the benefits of aging. When Ben got him out of bed this morning and wished him a happy birthday, Owen proclaimed "I'm a big boy now."

We celebrated with a trip to an inflatable jump place (bounce houses and big slides) and the dinner of Owen's choice: peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. This morning he opened gifts and the highlight of his day has been a musical card with a hamsterdance song. He is a musical fellow.

Swagger Wagon

I am a lot cooler than I realized.

Clutter

I aspire to reduce the quantity of stuff in my house. A lot of things have left our house recently (highchair! stroller! no more babies here) and I think less stuff has come in. But there's still plenty to sort and reduce. It's hard to stay motivated for months to keep this up.

Then I happened upon this list that made me smile and want to go clean out a closet.

20 great reasons to get rid of clutter

Early Mother's Day

Today was the last day of a Bible study I've been attending all year that is designed specifically for mothers. Jude and Owen come with me and go to child care. Jude's teacher did a great job of teaching Bible stories every time. I'm not sure how she did it, but he always remembered the story and could tell me all about it. The week that he learned about the prodigal son, he told me that the boy had taken money from his dad, left home, and ate lots of doughnuts, hotdogs and candy.

Today at Mom to Mom, all the kids in Jude's class made necklaces for their moms. Mine has a cross and several beads on a cord. Jude was SO proud to give it to me and said it is to remind me that "I love you and Jesus loves you, Mom. Jesus made you so you are the perfect mom." Such unexpected sweetness and grace.

The Washing Machine Did It

I've often wondered, when watching an action movie, what it feels like to get punched. The door of my washing machine revealed it to me this week: it hurts.

I was sifting through laundry on the floor and turned up to throw it in the machine but, thanks to 2-week-old clean unironed shirts hanging on the line above me, did not see the door waiting to smack my cheekbone. Still learning simple lessons the hard way.

Ben and I went to see "Date Night" last night and I almost missed half the movie because I was laughing so hard my eyes watered but it hurt to wipe the tears away. Oh man it was funny. The opening scene could have been filmed at my house.