Chronicles of Mischief

Once there was a very mischievous little boy named Andrew...

His favorite things to play with were anything that he really shouldn't be playing with...

He loved to follow his mommy all around the house and bite her ankles, like a little puppy dog...

But no matter how much trouble he got into, he still looked really cute while doing it...

10 Funny Things (Leah @ 32 Months)...

I know I have done a list like this before, but I like lists. And I like Leah. And I want to remember some of the funny things she says and does. 1. She likes to pretend that big floor lamps are "scary monsters." And she wants Mommy or Daddy to "hide from it" with her. In our room, that consists of going under the covers on the bed. Beneath the covers she says, "Is it still there?," peeks out, screams gleefully, and goes back under. 2. In the morning, her usual cry is "Mommy, I all done sleeping!!" (To which I would love to reply, "I'm not!") She can also be heard saying, "My cover's messed uuuuuup!" 3. We have been learning a hymn a month in our family devotion time, and sing it at bedtime. She now knows all the words to "In Christ Alone" if you sing it along with her. And she carries a tune really well! She is also starting to make up some of her own songs now, and they can be funny!

(She can sing it much better than this-- she just acts silly outside!)

(Here she's working on a "school" worksheet from a new Tracing book I bought her to start learning how to print letters! She understood drawing the straight lines, but not so much the curved lines, like in a maze. She seemed to enjoy it-- at least the part where she got to use a dry erase marker & wipe it clean afterward!)

4. She has a growing selection of VHS movies (Disney & other cartoons), thanks to Nana and various consignment sales I've been to. She will "fixate" on one movie for a week or two until I convince her to watch something else, or bring a new one out, and then she'll move on to that one. She'd watch her weekly favorite 2 or 3 times a day if I let her! Currently, her fave is Mulan, as well as Princess Stories, which are a series of cartoons with some of the Princesses in them. Before that it was Jungle Book 2 (and to this day she still calls Andrew a Jungle Boy when he acts crazy!). Though I usually don't sit down and watch the whole thing with her (neither does she, really-- she plays while watching)-- I can probably sing the songs from all of them! 5. Though she really hates anything in her hair (bows, etc.), her Daddy has convinced her it's fun to put them in just to "show Mommy." So he'll go upstairs, put rubber bands in for pigtails or a ponytail and then make her really excited to show me. (Of course, they come out seconds later, but hey, it's better than nothing). She LOVES to be a "princess" and show me or Brett how pretty she is! 6. She apparently has a lot more friends than those friends even realize. She can play with random kids at the park for just a few minutes and when they leave or go somewhere else, she will say, "Where did my best friends go?" Or, after a Sunday school class cookout where Leah got to play with lots of kids, I heard her say, "These are my best friends!" 7. She has some pronoun trouble; for example: "She's going to she's house." or "He has he's hat on!" 8. Though she really does show great concern for her little brother most of the time (and loves to make him giggle and teach him how to get into mischief), she still hates when he goes anywhere near her toys (and all the toys in our house are hers', apparently). We have been working on sharing, though, and lately she will take him a big pile of baby toys, that she does acknowledge are his. She will surround him with them and then declare, "I was good sharing!!" And she's so proud of herself for sharing his toys with him! When he's moved on to another toy, she will tell me "He gave this to me," so happy that he "let" her play with one of his toys!

(No, I do not normally make a habit of letting my children play with electrical cords. They're actually Andrew's current favorite toy, and you can see how his sister encourages his obsession!)

9. She is able to spot even the tiniest Dora or Disney Princess or Elmo from long distances and will loudly and excitedly announce to everyone that she sees it.

10. She has started to reach the questioning age-- though she doesn't know "why" just yet, she still asks, "What's that?" or "What are you doing?" or "Where are we going?" (and sometimes even if I've told her the answer many many times-- she will ask until she learns it for herself). Though she can be whiny and not always express herself in ways I like, and though she can be irritable when she doesn't obey or do what I expect of her, Leah is a fun little girl, very bright and imaginative, and you never know what to expect!

Spring is Here!

It's starting to warm up outside and that means I have the urge to take pictures with flowers in them. Thankfully, my husband planted some really pretty ones in our very own yard. Leah always tells me she wants to go "smell them," so that's what we did-- we stopped to smell them! I am so grateful to have two kids who love being outside. Andrew could be fussing an hour straight, but once he gets outside, he doesn't make a peep. Unfortunately, he doesn't smile-- unless I urge his sister to simply look at him!

8 Months Old

Andrew @ 8 months:

- Andrew has had some sort of virus the past 2 weeks or so, so I don't know how much of what he's up to now has to do with him being sick and how much is just him.
He has not been sleeping well at all. I tried the cry-it-out method a few nights. I heard it was only supposed to take 3 or 4 nights to get him into the routine. He actually did well the first night-- only cried 10 minutes or so when he woke up around 2am. The next night he cried even less, so I thought we were improving. Then the next night he woke up within an hour of going to bed and screamed 30 minutes straight. Last night he woke up at 2, and I tried to let him cry, but went upstairs to find he'd gotten his leg stuck in the slats of the crib. So his sleeping is hit or miss, even during the daytime.

- I had to get out his 9-12 month clothes the other day, as he seems to be growing at the speed of light yet again!


- He hasn't really been eating all that well as far as solids go, although he still wants to nurse quite often (still every 3 hours unless he's sleeping). He is still trying several new foods a month-- he's tried turkey, corn, mango (all in the pureed form, of course). He's still not too sure what to do with finger foods, but we're going to work those up a little more this month.

- He's getting into all sorts of mischeif now that he can crawl (although that's a relative term-- it's still a "scoot" but he can definately get where he wants to go!). His favorite is the VCR. He seems to always want something to hold or grab. Unfortunately, everything in our house seems to belong to his big sister, who makes quite certain he knows that. He will scream at her if she takes things out of his hand, though, which leads me to believe he will very soon be able to take her on!

- He still doesn't sit up well on his own for a long amount of time, and it worries me a little, but I really think he's just stubborn and prefers to be on his belly because he can get around better.


I found some hats when going through Andrew's 9-12 month things-- one was a little too big for Andrew but Leah found it quite acceptable for herself. She wanted to sleep in it at naptime today!

What's New

Here's what we've been up to:




Making a new home as the pastor's family at Newton Grove. The congregation has been amazing-- very welcoming, very open to new ideas. They love Brett, they love our kids. They had a nice covered-dish luncheon for us the first Sunday we were there. We have a potential place to rent when we're ready to move there. And I'm getting excited about moving there.



And that's probably because we're just eager to be done with all this working on the house (Brett and his friend Steve completely re-built our front steps, which were in desperate need of repairs-- of course we still have to paint them, but the front door has also been newly painted.) Brett's weekends and spare time has been completely filled with landscaping, painting, and repairs. We've actually already had two showings, even though the house is still not officially on the market. (And it's a lot of work to get the house ready for a showing when it's not really officially ready-- a lot of hiding things away!) The second showing seems promising-- our house is on their list and they may come see it again soon. We hope that means a quick sale at our asking price or more!!



The other day I heard Leah say "Mommy, I found a Pull-Up!" and she appeared wearing my underwear over top of her clothes. Then she discovered all the fun a laundry basket can bring!

Now that Andrew's "crawling"-- he's into everything. He's already discovered the entertainment stand & the VCR. I've taken to bringing him into the kitchen when I'm cooking-- he likes the hardwood floors better for scooting anyway-- and giving him a bowl and spoon. It keeps him occupied for a long while. I also got him some "rice rusks" which are a sort of teething biscuit-type food to help him learn how to feed himself. He's still not too good at them, but he loves trying! Poor guy has had a cough this week so we're off to the doctor right now.

He's Moving Now!

Look who's suddenly become very mobile!



He's been rolling all over for awhile now, but yesterday he actually started doing an army crawl, much like Leah did when she first started crawling (at just about the same age, I might add). Of course, he has to be motivated...








And guess who hates having to share her toys! (Even if she does look really cute in pigtails!)

All About Food

In an effort to save money and time, I have been trying to plan out menus and shopping lists for our family ahead of my trips to the grocery store, so I don't have to make more than one trip a week (which still never really happens, as we always seem to run out of something we need), and so that I have plenty of ingredients on hand to make inexpensive, yet healthy dishes. (The healthy part being the biggest challenge I still have yet to master.) I have always been the type of person that doesn't mind cooking, and sometimes even enjoy it, as long as I have the time. And even though I don't consider myself a gourmet chef by any stretch of the imagination, I can follow a recipe with the best of them and usually end up making some pretty good stuff. (Of course, it helps that I have a husband who would probably eat anything I put in front of him and would genuinely like it.-- Which also makes it hard to judge whether it's really good, or whether it's just something edible.)

My first step was to come up with a shopping list "template" so I could keep a running tab of things as I run out of them, and I can fill it in when I decide what recipes to make that week. I have been reluctant, until recently, to actually write out a day-by-day menu, and instead have been just planning 5 big meals per week, and then just choosing day-to-day which one to cook, because I never know how the day is going to go and whether I'll want to cook what I picked, etc. BUT, I recently found this Meal Planner w/ Shopping List that I really liked and have just this week started using it. (Of course, I adjusted the shopping list categories to best fit where I shop and what I usually buy, and made my own!) (Also, discovering that website opened up a whole other can of worms & I have gotten on an organization kick, even starting my own Household Planner Notebook, but that's a whole new post!)

For awhile I have been working on compiling my favorite recipes. I like to try new things at least once a week (or when motivated and not bogged down by two time suckers named Leah & Andrew), but I have a running list of things I know will turn out okay, are inexpensive, and will fill us up! Here are some of them, with links to the recipe on the site I use for all my recipes-- allrecipes.com.


Super Easy Chicken & Dumplings (I've found one great cheap option is to buy a whole chicken
and put it in the crockpot all day. Once I take it and shred it all, I can stretch the chicken for
2 or 3 meals.)

Beef Stroganoff

Chicken Marsala (I make this a lot for company w/ mashed potatoes because it can look a lot
fancier than it is!)

Italian Pork Chops (I am not a big fan of pork chops unless they are off the grill, but this is by far
the best pork chop recipe I've found-- gotta add some shredded cheese to it, too, though!)
(Also, this came from a site I haven't really used a lot, but would like to try to use more!)

Bean Quesadillas (Again, I'm not a big bean fan, either, but if I get bored of other meats, this is a
good one-- I usually use frozen mixed veggies instead of just corn.)

Mexican Lasagna

American Shepherd's Pie

Cheesy Meatloaf (The only kind of meatloaf Brett says he really likes.)

Broiled Tilapia Parmesan

V-8 Vegetable Beef Soup


And then there are my "go-to" meals, ones that I can always fall back on if I don't feel like putting a lot of planning or effort into it:
Chili
Spaghetti
Pigs in Blankets w/ Mac & Cheese
Sloppy Joes
Cheeseburgers (add a packet of the dry Ranch dressing mix-- makes it amazing!)
Hamburger Helper
Tuna Casserole (spruced up with hard boiled eggs, peas, cream of mushroom, Ritz, etc.)
Breakfast (would have this every night if it wasn't lacking several food groups)


The hard part for me is always figuring out what to pair with them-- I don't like a lot of vegetables just by themselves (which is why I like to make a lot of casseroles or dishes with veggies already in them) so usually I end up making a great main dish with nothing to go with it.
I'd also like to start coming up with some even more extensive, or "fancy" dishes that I can serve if we have company (now that I'm a real-life pastor's wife), as well as some good pot-luck dishes. I'm thinking of starting my own "cookbook" or recipe folder as I come up with new ideas or gather them from other places. It's all a work in progress, but I'm so glad that God has blessed me with the ability to provide nourishment for my family without having to order take-out or eat out every night.