Drama Queen Version 3.0

Having three little girls has shown me that there are certain things that I get to deal with that most moms of boys do not. One of the biggest things is that girls can really be drama queens! Now, I know that there are some little boys in the world who emit their fair share of drama, but in a household of three girls, I get enough drama for about three families!

Now, I have my youngest daughter starting with her version of drama. While most of the time she is a tough little cookie, she can sometimes really play up the little bumps and bruises. The other night she was playing and ended up bumping her head. I don't even remember what it was that she bumped into now, but of course I remember the crying!

My husband's first reaction is to put ice on everything! Every sore muscle, bump, bruise, scrape, mosquito bite....anything! So, on this night, the first place he headed to was the freezer! My girls are now also hooked on ice for every problem and even though Little Bit isn't even two yet, she also likes a bag of ice! We sat her down on the couch and gave her the bag of ice and the picture says the rest! She looked so pitiful with that ice pack on her head, yet in the picture of her "bump" you can't even see anything because the red mark is so small!

Oh the joys of drama queens.....

Baked Goods anyone?!

So the other day I was feeling quite motivated so I decided to do some baking. Now, I should preface this story with s small story about my lovely husband(known as Sir Lovely from here on out) who has known that I my oven has been malfunctioning for over six months now. Granted, the broiler works, but the rest of the heating elements are broken. I haven't been able to preheat my oven to a specific temperature since then. Sir Lovely has been complaining that last summer I bought a bunch of zucchini for bread and yet he hasn't gotten a single loaf. I kept telling him that if he fixed the oven that I would be happy to bake him some bread. Well....Sir Lovely is still to this day avoiding his manly duties and hasn't fixed my poor oven. If I need something cooked, I have to broil it!

So on to the original story! I went ahead and got my electric roaster oven out and preheated it. I mixed up a batch of zucchini bread batter and put it in the roaster(which also doubles as an oven). Lo and behold, it worked! I spent an entire evening mixing and baking bread. I made four loaves of regular zucchini and four loaves of chocolate zucchini. It is so yummy!

While I was at it, I decided to go ahead and bake up a pineapple upside-down cake! It turned out delicious! It was so moist and tasty that it didn't last long at all. Overall, it was a successful night of baking and I had a lot of yummy treats for the kids, Sir Lovely and I to enjoy!

Coupon Shopping...one of my favorite nights out!

So, it has become a kind of ritual that every Wednesday night that my friend and I go out and do all of our coupon shopping. We clip coupons earlier in the week and plan out our evening and then we get to have the whole night to ourselves with no children! I have come to LOVE these nights out! We laugh and joke and talk about all sorts of things. I have learned so much about my friend in such a short period of time doing this! The bonus is that we get to save HUGE amounts of money! We don't usually get home until around midnight or so, but that is when the fun has really gotten to its peak! We always find something humorous that happened during our trips into town and we like to recall it regularly(remember our Arby's friend, mama?!) and we have even laughed until we almost peed our pants!

I have to say that I truly appreciate these nights out b/c I get the chance to be me for a while. I don't have to be "mommy" or "wifey" for just a few hours and I get to behave like I have no responsibilities. It is such a breath of fresh air for me!

I think that my kids are better off for this "mom's night out" as well. I get to wake up the next morning with a feeling of being refreshed from my daily duties and routine and I get to appreciate being mom again. I can only hope that every mom gets some kind of time away on a regular basis. When I first quit my job, I didn't have anyone and it was a hard and lonely time for me. I certainly don't wish that upon any mom! Although I think that being a SAHM is the most wonderful job in the world and where I think moms should be, I know for a fact that it can't be our whole existence and this couponing trip is my way back to the fun side of mommyhood and having great girlfriends!

Post Baby Body Update #1

Well, here I am again talking about this darn post baby body that God has blessed me with. I just wanted to give a quick update and let everyone know that the workouts are going well even though I am not doing them as often as I would like. I am hoping that with the schoolyear starting and a new daily routine emerging that I can make myself do it!

Good news....I am down 15lbs! Yay!

Bad news....I can't really tell it in my clothes yet. Some things are fitting looser, but I haven't had to go down a size yet! That is when it will hit me, I think!

I will be sure to keep everyone updated in the months to come!

Mmmm.....Sweet Corn!

We have been very lucky to have three little girls who eat very well. Overall, they are not picky eaters and will try most anything. Well, Rebecca's newest experience was Sweet Corn! She loved it! At dinner the other night, she sat in her dad's lap and enjoyed chewing on that cob for a long time! Then, she decided that she was going to try and share her piece of corn with Alaina! It was cute and definitely a kodak moment!

Yesterday's nine hour adventure!

Yesterday we decided to can some beets and freeze some onions. So we took the kiddos and drove over to the pickin' patch and picked a bushel of red beets and a 1/2 bushel of sweet and red onions. We also picked up some fresh garlic while we were there! Yummo! The kids did a great job and Michaela and I kicked Dad's butt when it came to filling our bucket first! Yay for us!

So, we got home and Michaela really wanted to help me out. So, we found her little apron so that she could look like mommy and we got to work! We poured all of the onions and beets into the sink so that we could get started with the washing. We washed two stock pots worth of beets and got them on the stove and then we started with the onions. Michaela was so brave! Even though her eyes were burning from the odor of the onions, she stuck it out! After we did about 6 HUGE onions, we got two glasses of ice water and sat down in the dining room to take a quick break.

Then it was back to work! We chopped more onions and before we knew it, it was time to skin the first batch of beets! So, we dumped the hot water out of the pots and put the beets in a sink of cold water. Those things are the easiest things to skin ever! The skin just slid right off! So, I got the first batch skinned and chopped and in the jars. We covered the beets with the pickling juice and I thought it was smooth sailing from there. Wrong! As soon as we got the first batch of jars in the hot water bather, a jar busted! Darn it! That always makes me so mad because then you have to reheat that huge pot of water all over again and it it takes a while! So, I got the first batch out of the bather and cleaned it out and got it on the burner again. Meanwhile, I skinned and canned the second batch of beets. Once the water was back up to boiling, we got the second batch in the bather. After that little setback, it was a pretty easy night overall.

We continued canning until about 1am when we finally got our last batch in the bather and I got the dishes and the floor and counters all cleaned up. Fortunately, the counters didn't stain red like I thought they would. It all wiped up rather easily.

By the end of the night I was exhausted, but I am proud to say that I have 25 quarts of pickled beets for the pantry and over 50-2cup bags of onions in the freezer! It was a successful evening!

The "ouch" side of love

My sister gave me a CD to listen to about three weeks ago that was a sermon that was given at her church. It was all about disciplining children the way that God has commanded. It was titled "Disciplining Children: The "ouch" side of love". I listened to that CD and I was instantly convicted. I knew in my heart that God was telling me that I needed to take these steps when disciplining my girls. I knew that while I was already implementing many of the things that they spoke about, I was going about it the wrong way. I wasn't disciplining for all of the right reasons and I wasn't taking the right steps to ensure that I don't lose my temper during difficult times with my children. I felt like God was using this woman to speak to me and to teach me the right way to discipline. It showed me a way that I could discipline the girls in a way that they would not fear me, but still know that I meant business.

One of the things that she spoke about was to never use my hand to paddle the girls. I had never really thought about this concept before. I always just paddled with my hand because that is what was handy and always available. I didn't really put it into a perspective to where my kids would come to flinch or shy away when my hand was raised. So, instead we have started using a plastic spoon when necessary.

Now, I don't want anyone to think that I beat my kids. I don't. I just give my children a paddle when they disobey. Another point during the sermon. You should never paddle out of frustration, or embarrassment, or anger. ONLY for disobedience! So once your children understand the concept of "no" and what things are off limits they are to obey. If they choose to disobey, they have chosen the consequence that comes with that disobedience.

Another point that she made was to never paddle your child in front of others. Discipline is an event. You should take the time to put your child in another room, talk with them about the disobedience, paddle them, and then make sure that they understand that you forgive them for their actions and pray for forgiveness as well. It has taken me a while to fully implement all of the steps effectively, but I can see the difference in my children already! They are responding better when I speak to them. They are taking their discipline in stride instead of rolling on the floor crying. It has been great!

If anyone is interested in this CD, please let me know. I am happy to burn it and let you have it. I have listened to it many times. I am sure that once will not be enough for anyone!