{Christmas Madness}

Oh man have we been busy.  On sunday we went to my In-Law's and had cookie making day. Princess had so much fun playing with her cousins. Fairy even got to get her hands in the cookie dough for her first cookie day handprints.

However, that night I got a text from our neighbor in our building asking if we've heard water running lately in our apartment. Which we haven't and I told her that. Apparently, the neighbors directly below us had a pocket of water in their ceiling! 

So, they turned off the water to the building and had a plumber come out thankfully we didn't have to drag the girls out into the cold and drive the 20 minutes back to let in the plumber to check out our pipes, and the 20 minutes back to the In-Laws to spend the night {the whole not having water thing.} So, yay that problem got fixed.

House hunting is horrible in this time of year too I've noticed. We've been looking at getting a house closer to Hub's work so it's less money we're spending on gas, because $60 a week is outrageous. Thankfully also, on days he doesn't have to go in early he's been car pooling. It's been fantastic on saving money.

Tomorrow is his company Christmas party and I am kind of excited.  I get to wear my new formal gown I had to buy because I didn't have anything other than my wedding dress and old prom dresses that don't fit. {It's hard to remember those days when I was a size 0 *sigh* lol}

I think I spent about $127 {heart attack!} on my entire outfit {shoes, slip, ect.} and a couple outfits for the girls, along with a couple other things for them. Where as I found a dress I really really wanted to get for about the same price but just the dress.

So far also, the past couple days I've been non stop deep cleaning and getting ready for Christmas.  So deep cleaning where if I didn't know better I'd think I was pregnant and nesting again {which I'm not!} lol. 

Got to go though break time is over and the laundry is ready to get transferred.

{New Baby Means New Cleaning Routine}

Since having Fairy our home has been a complete mess and really really needs love.  I really need to relearn how to keep everything up and in order.  So far I haven't learned anything helpful in that aspect; however, I have learned my new best friend at the moment are yoga pants and stretchy jeans {for when I want to feel more human} I bought before I got pregnant. Sadly those aren't helpful in the cleaning and maintaining of the home.

So today I sat down and I'm working on, as I type this actually, different ways and ideas on how to do it.  I really hope I can do this.  Thankfully Princess is a helper {sometimes} and likes to put clothes into the dryer and into the hamper.

I'm sorry I don't have anything yet to share as it's still in draft form.  But I will keep you all updated as I fine tune it.

Now onto pictures for my family, friends, and those who care lol.

{Looks a LOT Better!}

I haven't posted a homemaking tip I've learned in while!! I'm so so sorry!! Please forgive me!

Today I will be showing you how to get rid of those annoying tea stains on tea cups and mugs! I thought it was a lost cause until I was shown this.  All you need is two things.  That's right two.  I'm I'm willing to bet they're in your home right now.

Water
Salt

THAT'S IT!

You get your mug get it damp with a tiny bit of water inside {just a tiny!!} pour in your salt.  Rub it around inside.  Watch as your hands and the salt get icky colored.  Rinse it out and repeat if there is still a little bit left inside. 

That's all you do!!  SO easy!

Now go my little pretties and clean your cups or mugs!

{Update on the nursery so far}

Well thank goodness my sister came around to hang out now because of it the nursery is looking a million times better {however the living room looking like a box maze.}

We also have the crib all set up and ready. Along with a majority of the baby items washed.

Now I just need to get a dresser for Fairy's room and put the rest of the baby clothes away.

Going through boxes.

Trash

Better picture of the trash pile

Donate pile

I just loaded up the car with all the donate boxes and I'm going to head out to drop them off.  Goodbye for now!

It's Been Hard but Completely Worth it

I'm sorry that I've been pretty much not doing anything about homemaking; kind of.  I've been spending more time with Princess and Hubs lately. Trying to get as much time in before we have the baby.  I've even been neglecting our home which I am sorry for but I think it's been fun for Princess to play with me more than normal.  Also to play outside more with our neighbors while Hubs and I have been getting to spend with the adults while the kids play.


Cleaning house has been hard pregnant.  I've tried looking up different ways to do it while pregnant and having a toddler running around like a tornado destroying everything I clean up.  Sadly, I never was able to find much in the topic.  For those of you who need it I will give you what works for me.


I wake up in the morning around 7:30a if I have the energy to get up I go take a shower and get dressed. If I don't have the energy I pull out a book and read until 8a when Princess gets up.  It's a great time to work on a pregnancy journal, read books on pregnancy and/or baby care, or just read a book that you have been wanting to read.


After I get up I get Princess and I breakfast.  After breakfast I pull out my binder to see what I had planned for the day.  Sometimes I even pull it out during breakfast if I really wanted to know what's going on.  I check my emails on my phone while I read out my daily page, and cross out respond to emails while I look.  If I have appointments that morning or if my mom comes over that morning, I try to get all my dailies done by the time that the appointment comes around.


The past few days I've actually started redesigning my daily pages for my binder to fit me and my needs.  I hate having to write it all down and everything but it's going to be worth it.  I think I actually got it down finally.  I'll post my design once i get it finished and created.

What it looks like when I'm trying to plan out my days lol:

My dailies are things I do that are never changing.  My Daily Pages are like my day planner that I have everything for that day {meals for that day, To Do list for that day, ect.}.


My dailies {now called Daily Home Blessings} are:

• Vacuum
• Swish and Swipe {taken from FlyLady swish the toilet(s) and swipe the counters}
• Sweep and Swiffer
• 15 min. pick up
• respond to emails
• Write out tomorrows goals
• Prep Blog or Blog
• Write out tomorrows goals
• Get and sort the mail
• Dust
• Toy pick up
• Unload dishwasher
• One load of laundry

Those are the things I make myself do on a daily basis.  Even if I don't I will have Hubs help do it now that he's out of school.  I do most of the cleaning while Princess is sleeping so she's out of the way.  I do the toy pick up just before Princess goes to bed so she will start doing it on her own {hopefully}. Also, the load of laundry I do after I get her asleep for the night. 

Next, I have the reminder to drink my water.  Ten bubbles {I actually fail at this a lot lol} are my goal for the day.  Remember that a water bottle is two bubbles also because they are two servings per bottle.

Followed by my reminder for my vitamins.

Next is my To Do section.  This one scares me quite often. I usually use it as a this is what NEEDS to be done or also a more detailed list of my Daily Home Blessings i need done.  Like, laundry I put write down if I need to do bedding or towels if they need to be done.

Today I just have:

• Laundry {blankets: baby and master}
• Organize Master Bedroom

Nothing too big; I did a ton of the end of the month cleaning yesterday. 

However, I do also have a goals list if I get the To Do's finished to start in on but they don't need to be finished and are usually added to the next days To Do's if there isn't much to do that day {Ex. organize master bedroom on the To Do list.}  Most of the time I will also give them to Hubs if he saids that he's bored and I haven't yet made him an I'm Bored Jar yet.

The goals list is:

• Wipe down kitchen table and chairs
• Wipe down cabinets
• Declutter
• Fold and put away newborn clothes

Dinner section is just what we are going to have for dinner and what we need to get out.

Lastly, I have an Idea and Inspiration part.  If I read something that I think will inspire me for that day I will right it down or if I think of something that I think is interesting or come across something I will write it here.

Honestly, it's very very overwhelming to get it all done and I always ask for help.  I'm not afraid of using my friends if they ask to help.  I pull out the page and give people a chore.  Thankfully, Hubs already claimed the kitchen as his "domain" or else that will never get down at all {it also saves me a headache because if I do it I tend to do something wrong and he complains about it.. a lot.}  He also has to do the trash too.

I'm not perfect at all! I set high expectations for myself and I never meet them if I do I'm honestly shocked. It also means I got help that day lol.  Sometimes, I go a few days without doing anything.  Saturday I had a giant list, spring cleaning size list.  Did I do it? Nope.  Not at all. We spent the morning being lazy went to the part that afternoon and after the park went out for dinner, I passed out on the couch when we got home while Hubs played video games and Princess played with her toys.  I even look at my binder that day, but sometimes taking a break like that is needed.  I know I enjoyed the break and Princess loved getting out of the house. 

Don't be afraid of asking for help! Don't be afraid or ashamed of accepting help offered also!  It took me forever to get over my pride to do just that.

Also, this helps me a ton!  

I love music and it helps me to feel in the mood to do the housework.

Which looking at the picture of my iPod on my Inspiration Binder brings me to the motto of the week!!

"There will be so many times you feel like you've failed but in the eyes, heart, and mind of your child you are super mom." ~Stephanie Precourt

I print out the picture of the motto of the week and put the weeks in the front of my Inspiration Binder. So when I go for my Homemaking Binder I have to pick up and move the inspiration binder off of it and I read it. So far, these have been helping me a lot.  I know that I haven't been doing them for very long but it still helps me and I can only hope it helps you too.

Classic Peanut Butter Cookies

1 cup unsalted butter

1 cup peanut butter

1 cup white sugar

2 eggs

1 1/2 cup all-purpose

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 salt

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

Cream butter, peanut butter, and sugar. Beat in eggs. Add flour, baking soda, salt, and baking powder.  Refrigerate for an hour.  Roll into balls and flatten with a fork in a criss-cross pattern.  Bake at 375 F for 10 mins. or when beginning to brown.

A Sunday Post

.

Before I start this we are adding a poll on here for every to vote about what they think or want us to have. Is it going to be a boy or girl? The poll is going to be on the right hand side of the page and please don't forget to vote!

Sadly it's very very true.  Princess does well sometimes depending on what we're working on but not with most things.  She'll help sweep and loves to push the clothes into the dryer for me. She keeps away from the room when I vacuum. However I have a hard time keeping her out of the dishes when I'm loading them in the dishwasher, she loves to pull them out as I put them in, and I also have trouble as I try to get her toy's picked up she pulls them right out.


On Pinterest I found a pin one day that had some rules that this lady had to use for her kids when regular ones wouldn't work, a normal rule would be don't hit your sibling, or don't make messes.


One rule she had that I thought was interesting was 'If I'm in a room working you work too.' Somehow for her it worked.  I'm sitting her thinking "How does she get them to listen to that instead of 'normal' rules? In fact how does she enforce it?  I then think it wouldn't work for me at the moment I have to keep Princess where I can see her. In fact yesterday I came out of the kitchen and found her on the couch coloring on herself with a pen.


Thankfully, I got to her before she got to the wall. I can get crayon off but I'm still learning about the removal of pen off the wall.

PREGNANCY WEEK 18-

How far along? 18 weeks 2 days

Total weight gain/measurements: Last I checked 120

Maternity clothes: None I think I'm good this pregnancy for clothes at least for now

Stretch marks? just the ones from Princess

Sleep: Getting a lot better

Best moment this week: We finally got our full anomaly scan when we went to our new obstetrician (whom we really liked by the way...phew!), and everything was absolutely perfect.  He also confirmed that it's a girl, so yay for that!

Miss anything? Not really.

Movement: Tons!! Although Little Bean is teasing Hubs by not moving when he tries to feel (can feel out side of the belly now) and then starts moving again when he pulls his hand away

Food cravings: A ton of carbs LOL. Mostly the biggest one has been fish and chips with tartar sauce and vinegar but it's so hard to find the real stuff here. Also chili cheese fries and chicken noodle soup.

Anything making you queasy or sick? So far if food make me sick it's random like this morning I was eating a tuna sandwich and in the middle of eating it I had to stop because it started making me a little queasy. I also have problems eating inside places because all the smells get to me and overwhelm me to the point where I either get sick or just loose my appetite.

Gender: I don't know yet. We have to wait until May 15.

Labour signs: Nope!

Symptoms: The breaking out has been bad again. It started to slow down but not any more. TMI! I'm starting to leak colostrum a little bit but not much. With Princess it started way earlier and had a lot more. Another one which is probably TMI but I'm going to mention it anyway -- constipation :(

Belly button in or out? It's in the middle lol

Wedding rings on or off? On!

Happy or moody most of the time: Happy!

Looking forward to: I'm so so excited to be finding out what we're having!! We both are!!

Crayon on the wall

Ugg, today Princess decided that it'd be fun to color on the wall as well as the back of the front door. Unfortunately, since we are renting I have no idea what kind of paint it is other than a pretty brown lol.

So in a mad search to figure out how to get rid of it I turned to the one site that has never failed me: Pinterest.

On there, I found a way using and iron, an old shirt, and a bowl of hot soapy water.  So I figured save myself some laundry pulled out my hair dryer that I bought yesterday to unfreeze my pipes on the air conditioning (why have I never owned one of these magical devices before?) So there I sat blow drying the crayon and wiped it off with a sponge and soapy water. The result? GOOD AS NEW!! I'm now in love with my new purple amazing device!

Tata for now!
Neuriel

Follow me on Pinterest!

The thing I'm obsessed with

Aprons!
I LOVE aprons they are just so fantastic and awesome!  Sadly, I only have two that I can use at the moment but I plan to remedy that soon lol. I tried to explain what they mean to me to my mom and my husband, but they never understood, and it doesn't help that I could explain it well enough but I recently read a blog post titled Apron Evangelism from Hillbilly Housewife. It explained how I felt about them and inspired me even more about wearing them.  After I showed it to my mother and husband they finally understand my love now.  I went searching on google for apron patterns and there are a TON of them it's so hard to choose from them all.


The recipe for today is what I'm making for dinner on Monday:


Taco Soup
1 lb lean ground beef
1 (28 oz) can of tomatoes (3-4 cups)
1 (17 oz) can whole kernel corn
2 cups of water
1 sm. onion
1 (15 oz) can kidney or black beans
2-3 tblsp taco seasoning
Brown ground beef and onion. Mix in with remaining ingredients. Simmer for 15 minutes. Serve with tortilla chips or Fritos. Serves 8.


Anyway I have to go back to cleaning the stove. I decided at midnight the stove needed to be deep cleaned and I took it apart and scrubbed and scrubbed and it looks shiny! Although I had to soak the metal parts under the burners all night and I still have to scrub them but the Hubbs loved the kitchen when he got up to go to work this morning so it made it all worthwhile.


Thanks for checking back!