Quick prep for Nov.

Last year I blogged about this at the end of Nov. This year I will do it before Nov starts so all who want can join. Each day we do something different to remind us of our blessings and give thanks . With this we donate a small amount of money to a jar. For example if you are thankful for electricity give 2 cents for every light bulb in your house.
At the end of the month it is a good chunk of change and we use that to help bless someone else's life. This year James' family is going to provide Christmas for another family instead of doing a gift exchange so it will assuredly go to help out in that cause. Here is a link to the blog last year so you can review it and see if it is something you and your family would like to do. I know it made Thanksgiving mean a lot more to me last year.

Ever had one of these days?

So I just got around to cleaning up the Sunday paper (I know terrible). But I browsed the comics and saw this. I laughed and nearly cried at how true it feels some days.
(Dad is asking how her day was if you can't read that. Also I love the baby trapped in the playpin, poor kid. You should be able to click on the picture and it will focus better for you so you can truely enjoy oll the funny little things in it.)

I Need Help

I feel like I am a good mom most of the time. I feel like I generally have exceptionally well behaved children, but we have one big problem: BED TIME!
Let me start at the beginning. Erin has for the most part been a wonderful sleeper, but when Lily started climbing out of her crib at 18 months the whole bed time thing began to get difficult. I tried a few different things for a few months and nothing really worked. So I have been putting Erin to bed in our bed and Lily in their room, then just moving Erin when we are ready for bed and it has worked semi well, but Erin has started playing in my night stand and jewelry box etc. She has broken or lost a few to many things for me to be okay with the situation any more. Both girls are also taking longer and longer to go to sleep and there have been many of nights recently when I would love to go to bed but can't because they are still awake.
So a week and a half ago (after major bed time melt down for me) I decided things needed to change. I called my mom and sister and got their advice and decided to go with this idea:
1- I put them down in the same room
2- I sit in there until they fall asleep
3- No talking is allowed by me or eye contact, I simply put them back in their beds.
(I already have a very consistent bed time routine including prayers, scriptures, song etc)

I feel part of this not working is because I am not sure about what to do about little things, like knocking on the wood, rolling back and forth non-stop etc. I have tried holding them in place for a minute after they have this type of disruptive behavior but they could care less (Lily thinks it is a game).

In the week and a half the only progress we have made is they no longer scream potty off the top of their lungs for 45 min and this process takes 1 1/2 hrs as opposed to 2 hrs. I am afraid I am losing my patience and cannot continue like this.

Children have been going to bed in the same room forever and falling asleep so why can't we figure this routine out at my house?

Any suggestions PLEASE!

A Great October Weekend

What a fun weekend we had. We did all sorts of fun Halloween things and fall activities.

On Friday the girls and I and a group of moms and kids from the ward went to the Benson Grist Mill for their pumpkin walk. They have lots of fun little things for kids to do. The girls decorated cookies and fished in the fish pond and trick or treated at the vendors. We had fun with the neighbors and finished off with a fun little hay ride.

I was impressed with Erins cookie. They had run out of all decorations besides the licorice and she kept asking for something to make the eyes and nose on her cookies. After me telling her there wasn't anything she figured out a solution.

That night for dinner I needed to practice a recipe I am doing at a pampered chef party so we had a Yummy Mummy for dinner. It was yummy and I think it turned out pretty cute as well.

Saturday we went to the pumpkin patch to pick out our pumpkins. It sure was fun to walk and see all the pumpkins. They had a big corn field in the middle that Lily loved to run through. (Erin was to afraid because James kept telling her there were monsters in there.)

We also got the wood on our garden beds re-weather proofed to make it through the winter and picked our 1 pumpkin from the garden.

I sure love this time of year and all the fun activities there are to do.

Fall=Baking

Something about fall time makes me want to bake. Maybe its all the fresh fruits and veggies just yearning to turn into magnificent creations, maybe its that the house is cool enough to have the oven on, or maybe it is something just engraved upon the womens genetic pattern. But whatever it is, it has me entangled in its fun right now.

First off I am in love with soup. We are eating quite a bit right now (no one is complaining though). Thus far I have made chicken noddle soup with homemade egg noddles, cream of veggie soup and minestrone soup. I think on the menu for this week I have chicken tortilla soup. Mmmm my mouth is watering just thinking about it.

Cream of Veggie Soup.

I am also doing some canning. I am still learning and don't want to jump in head on yet so I only did peaches and grape juice this year. I did peaches last year so this year my new adventure was the grape juice. I got 14 quarts of grape juice and we are flying through it. It is yummy.

Grape Juice (Sorry couldn't get a good pic)

Of course this is also the time of year for sweets. I have made apple crisps, hot fudge, and really cute cup cakes to "Boo" neighbors with. I really want pumpkin choc. chip bread, but James isn't a fan of pumpkin so I am afraid I would eat it all myself. But ohhh it sounds yummy.

Spider and web cup cakes

I am still waiting for my spaghetti squash to ripen (I am really starting to worry it wont), so I can eat it all up. It has been fun having a garden this year, everything is yummier from your backyard.

My tummy is excited to see what else I am in the mood for baking. What have been some of your fall favorites? My tummy also loves new ideas.

Imagine...

Imagination could be Erin's middle name lately. Her mind is going so fast and coming up with funny new things all the time. She comes home from preschool and tells me about the tiger that attacked. She draws pictures of our family and puts tails on us because we are doing the "Chicken Dance". The things she comes up with amazes me everyday.
She does have one ongoing imaginary world though. In this world she is the mom. She is married to a boy named Enri (she kept writing the letters to her name out of order so I finally told her that she was writing Enri not Erin, she informed me that Enri was her husband.) They have 9 kids together (some days it is 4 boys and 5 girls and other days it is 5 boys and 4 girls). She has told me all of there names. I will attempt to give you some of them: Asheila, Deedaa, Nii, and Leeni. She has a baby doll named Cassie but she isn't her baby she just baby sits Cassie. Erins children have many of the same rules as she does but they have a few other rules as well like they can put as much sugar onto any cereal they want.
I guess I ought to be flattered that she wants so badly to be a mom and much of what she does as a "mom" mimics me. Sometimes unfortunately it shows me some of my faults as a mother (maybe that is fortunate though, so I can work on them.) I do love this girl and I can't wait to hear what she comes up with tomorrow.