I Love Comments

Thanks to April at April Showers for the cute I Love Comments button. Check out her blog designs. I'm deciding on what I want mine to be and it will help a great cause, her mom. Just click on the button on the right.

Croupy Cough Syndrome

Paytie bug still has a little cold and sounds so congested. I hope it doesn't get worse. She's had it for about a week now it worries me with her being so little. Almost 3 months old. My 4 year old Gibb has the croupy barking seal cough AGAIN, that he had about a week and a half ago and a month ago, only now it has totally hit.

He woke up in the middle of the night freaking out because he couldn't breathe. So we rushed into the bathroom got the shower going and the steam finally helped after water was running down my walls.

It was a good time to clean the bathroom. Who doesn't like to clean the bathroom at 2 a.m.? I mean its the best cleaning time. No one is around to mess it up and since you have nothing else to do except sit in the bathroom while your child is trying to breathe again it seems like it's the perfect time to clean. There was no scrubbing or using elbow grease. The walls came clean so easy and it didn't even take very long and with the steam it really cleans.

Who doesn't want to steam clean their bathroom? I didn't even have to buy a steam cleaner. I cleaned the walls, the mirror, the cabinets, the door, the counter and sink, even the toilet. I would have cleaned the shower and tub except their was hot water running in it. I probably should have taken him outside but I wasn't about to go outside and freeze my bootie off in the middle of the night.

Besides I probably lost a little weight sweating and cleaning the bathroom and not to mention my sinuses were so cleaned out. I felt wonderful. Decided to go back to bed. I put Gibb's back to bed around about 3:30 Paytie bug was awake. She decided it was play time. Time to kick and stretch until 6 a.m. Then back to sleep for and the hubby is waking up to get ready for work. Can you say s-l-e-e-p d-e-p-r-i-v-a-t-i-o-n?? Who needs sleep anyway.


SPRING WHERE ARE YOU??? Probably following WENDA around. You'll know what I'm talking about if you are from SITS.
I need to go find her... I need some fun for the day since its rainy and yucky but at least it's warm. In the 50's today. Yeah!!

Paytie bug just went to sleep and TJ my 5 year old is home from school now so I think I can go look for her for a minute before lunch. If you want to join in the search for Wenda I'll post the button off to the right so you can find out more info...

In the meantime send your croupy cough syndrome GO AWAY wishes my way will ya?

Spring and Italian Dessert Frenzy

It's a beautiful sunny Saturday day!! I can't wait to send the kids out to play in the snow today. It's supposed to be warmer around 48 or 49 Degrees!! I told them they need to go build a snowman before the snow melts. You know when you are so tired that you are in a really good mood but you know that it's going to come down soon. My back is killing me I notice it acts up when I get overly tired. Weird I know but I probably slept wrong holding the baby. Paytie bug has had a cold and can't breathe very good. The nose sucker isn't doing its job!! She's almost 3 months old now. my how time flies!!

So from being up all night with her, sucking out her nose and sitting up in the laz-boy isn't really isn't my kind of night. After all that I'm still in an extremely good mood. I think its the sunshine. Another day of it. It's so beautiful and I'm excited for SPRING!! I know it's lurking around the corner. I'm excited for the flowers to start peaking their heads out of the ground. Color is such a beautiful thing after the dinginess of the cold dark winter. But today is BEAUTIFUL!! I've said that a few times huh!?!

I'm having my birthday party tomorrow. My wonderful mother always cooks dinner for me and my brothers and their families come up. It's nice. We decided to make it an italian theme dinner. I'm in charge of the dessert. So I'm in a little bit of a frenzy. I'm not sure what to make. I always make desserts. I love making desserts but I haven't made an italian dessert that I can think of. I'm off to search the net for some italian dessert recipes that don't take too long to make. I've had one request for gelato so maybe.... I'll have to check out how long it takes to make it. Not sure if I'm up to gelato when its still cold outside. Tiramisu, cannoli, not sure what else biscotti, I've heard that's a little dry.

Well if you have any ideas let me know.

BEDROOM BLISS GIVEAWAY

Secret is in the Sauce is doing a Bedroom BLISS Giveaway! If you haven't already entered to win click on the link below. Become a follower and get more chances to win! It's a really cool giveaway and only takes a second to enter!!

Here's the link Secret in the Sauce !!

Snow Day

Monday and Tuesday were SNOW DaYs it snowed both days. Big, BIG Flakes. The kids loved it but my hubby didn't. He went to work at 7 a.m. and didn't get home until 10:30 p.m. He is such a great hubby. He went up to my Grandma's after work at 5 and snowblowed her driveway. She had over 30" of snow. More in some spots because the wind was blowing.



The kids had to go sledding. They had a few obstacles to avoid at Grandma's house. Don't you just love snow days. I love it when you can just curl up with a blanket some hot cocoa and watch a chick flick. Doesn't happen very often with kids around and a new baby but if you send the kids out to play and the baby is asleep it can be possible?? I wish....maybe someday soon when they can all go out and play.

Valentines Chocolate and Flowers

It snowed here like crazy yesterday. I woke up to 6" of snow and still snowing. My husband is so great!! He braved the snow in the early morning and went to get me flowers and my fav, Cadbury Mini Eggs. They totally are my weakness. I love Easter candy the best. YUMMY!! So do my kids the bag was gone in one day. Luckily he bought me two so I hid the other one. haha

My hubby spent pretty much the rest of the day snowblowing my grandma's driveway. She had over 12 inches and still snowing. So he was pretty tired when he got home. The baby was pretty cranky all day so I wasn't in for cooking so we took her with us to get some take-out Chinese food and stopped at the grocery store for milk. Came home and ate the food. Nothing really major or romantic in our neck of the woods. It was nice though. I didn't want to sit for over an hour or more to eat dinner anywhere nice.

It seems with kids and babies it's hard to get out or do things. I know we need to spruce up our skills of dating and having some romance but with me getting 3-4 hours some nights its a little hard to do. I'm sure next year will be better and we can get a sitter. We were going to have my mother-in-law watch the boys and the baby but she has a horrible cold so I didn't want to risk them getting it. Plus Paytie bug is collicky in the evenings and it's so hard to put her down.

What holiday do you like the treats or candy the best? What's your favorite candy?

Cookies Chocolate and Love

With Valentines Day being tomorrow my kids love to help make our traditional Valentine sugar cookies. They love to help crack the eggs, measure and use the hand mixer. Frosting the cookies is a treat with sprinkles, hearts and red hots, but eating them they say is the best!

They wanted cookies last night and my sugar cookie recipes (I have a couple different ones I use) need to be refridgerated so I made Snickerdoodles. I was in a munchy mood and thought cookies would be good even though we'd be making more tomorrow. I thought it would be nice to have a couple different kinds and we could even take some to grandma and grandpa's as part of their Valentine treat. They were all eaten in an hour so much for that thought. My husband whose on a diet told me not to make them again because he will eat them. I laughed. I should be more supportive but I really wanted some cookies last night.

I added a little twist to the recipe by adding cinnamon chips. I thought because you roll them in sugar and cinnamon maybe the cinnamon chips would be good in them. I had a bag left over from making caramel apples in the fall so we tried it. They were very good I loved them. Just don't add to many chips unless you're a real cinnamon lover I only only added maybe 1/4 - 1/2 cup of cinnamon chips to the batter. No chocolate with these but that's for tomorrow. What's Valentines Day without chocolate??

Here's the recipe:

Snickerdoodles

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons cream of tarter

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

1 cup butter, softened

2 eggs

1/2 cup cinnamon chips (optional)

1/4 cup granulated sugar

2 teaspoons cinnamon

In a medium sized bowl sift together flour, cream of tarter, soda and salt.

In another bowl cream sugar and butter til light and fluffy. Add eggs. Slowly add flour mixture.

Shape into balls 1 1/2" dip in cinnamon and sugar mixture.

Bake 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes. Don't overbake.

Picky Eating Frenzy

My kids are the pickiest eaters! I'm sure a lot of you feel the way I do. I've tried everything I can to get them to eat their veggies. My 5 year old won't even eat fruit. I've been all over the web searching for ideas or ways that I can get them to eat healthier. My pediatrician told me as long as they are eating meat they should be ok not eating veggies. What???? I don't think she understands that they don't eat any veggies. I think to myself are french fries considered veggies? Fruit snacks fruit?

The funny thing is that none of my boys really eat fruit or vegetables. When they were babies they ate everything from squash and peas to sweet potatoes and green beans. Now I have to try to disguise things to get them to eat. I think when we decided to start our own garden and we had fresh vegetables they would eat them then winter would come around and I didn't buy squash or watermelon. So now they won't eat them. I've heard that there are two different kinds of picky eaters. The ones that won't eat anything that isn't familiar to them, they won't try anything new. This one is the most common. This is my 4 year old most of the time. He's a little more daring he will try something if it looks good or is covered in chocolate.

The other one is one that won't eat familiar or new. That's my 5 year old. My pediatrician told me to keep introducing the foods to them. Maybe take them away for a while then reintroduce. My 5 year old won't eat peas. I have "introduced" him to peas probably a hundred times. I could go crazy trying to get him to eat anything. He is so stubborn. He's to the point now that if they are even on his plate he will either gag and say get them off or leaves the dinner table telling me he's not eating until they are off his plate. I've noticed that if someone else tells him to try something sometimes he will try it. The other day he came home from school and told me he is supposed to have a snack after school. He has morning kindergarten right now so when he gets home its lunch time so I told him he could have a snack after lunch later in the afternoon. He said, "No mom, I'm supposed to have a snack when I get home from school." So he looks around in the fridge and decides he wants yogurt. I get it out for him and get him a spoon and he takes 3 bites and is done. Now I can't get mad that he just wasted a yogurt because at least he tried it. But he's so stubborn that he won't let me spoon any out into a bowl incase he doesn't like it.

My teenager is easier because I can "make" him at least eat some of his vegetables. His typical scenario is he puts a handful of peas in his hand drops them in his mouth then chugs down a drink and swallows. I try to tell him it doesn't do him any good if he doesn't chew but at least he's eating them right?

There is a book called the Sneaky Chef that I've been looking into buying. They have a website that I've checked out. (I haven't figured out how to add links yet) From what I understand is they try to get vegetables and fruits disguised as the same color of food into your kids diet. For example if you are serving macaroni and cheese you would add a blended mixture of sweet potatoes and carrots. I think it's a good concept so I'm going to look into trying it. I'll keep you updated on my experiment. But for now the picky eating frenzy is still trying to be solved.

Collicky baby sickness and school

My kids were sick over the weekend. My 5 year old missed school on Friday and Monday. And my pre-schooler was sick at the same time. They both had something different from fever and sick stomach to a cough that sounds like he's barking and a runny nose. Dealing with both of them sick and a collicky baby is about as much patience as I can handle. It's very hard with a new baby to have your kids sick. The sick kids want attention but if you put the baby down she's crying hard. With no sleep I'm surprised at how much patience I did have. Sleep deprived what's that??

Now Tuesday dawns and its wonderful! Get the kids off to school and go back to bed....yeah right!! I wish. The baby will be up soon, the house is a mess, and toys are scattered everywhere. Do you notice when your kids are sick they still can play with their toys but can't seem to clean up? The dishes from dinner aren't done because I couldn't put the baby down that long and the husband was getting the boys bathes so they are clean for school. By the time the looooong weekend is over it's twice as much work. Laundry is waiting, floors need to be swept and vacuumed, toys put away and oh a shower would be nice. I feel like tearing my hair out. I feel like I've turned into the "Raging Mom" whom you never wanted to become. Sometimes I feel like I yell more than anything and the kids just tune me out. I probably would too.

At least the kids are in school today and I get a 3 hour break with just me and the baby. Do you think I'll get anything done? Maybe not but I'll get some peace of mind with no more yelling at the boys to pick things up, stop fighting and yelling. (I need to take my own advice) 3 precious hours. My mother will tell me to cherish when the kids are young because they don't stay that way for long. I know that and that's probably why I'm not the "Raging Mom" just the Frenzied Homemaker. But I long for the days when my house was clean, at least not a disaster, my sanity was still intact, and I'm a happy mom again. I guess they will come soon enough but for now I just need to have Patience lots and lots and lots of patience.

Frenzied Homemaker

I decided to start a blog about being a homemaker with a frenzied life. Don't we all have a frenzied life? It's everything from kids, crafts, recipes, etc.

The word frenzied means: feeling or showing great or abnormal excitement or emotional disturbance and yes I did look this up in the dictionary. Now frenzy is a temporary madness. Now I don't know about you but I can totally relate.

Having a new baby and being sleep deprived while trying to get your other children off to school, breakfast, feed the baby, keep your house clean, lunch, feed the baby, figure out what's for dinner. Take children to activities, come up with some creative project for your turn at pre-school. I'm sure you can relate.

So here goes....