Category Archives: life

Dishwater Hands

Dishwater Hands

Back in February of this year, I blogged with a poll, asking my readers if they wash their dishes every night after dinner. Most of you do every night or almost every night. I don’t know if that inspired me or not, but now I can join the ranks of saying almost every night. I used to really hate doing it and often didn’t. Also at that time, I felt like E was a really light sleeper and she would often wake up with me clanging around in the kitchen. And it sure wasn’t worth that!

But now we have somewhat of a routine of eat dinner, give E a bath, put her to bed, and then clean the kitchen. Then I am done and can enjoy the rest of my evening without feeling guilty that I need to go clean. And it also helps to not be on my way to bed and then see the mess and realize I forgot to clean.

I hear the phrase “making order out of chaos” and about how that can bring beauty to life. How even the mundane of doing the dishes and wiping the counter can be helpful if it makes my home feel more peaceful. I don’t mind contributing the ten minutes to cleaning if I know it will make my morning smoother because it is already clean. I am just generally in a better mood when my house is clean.

So that is my update on that poll. What do you guys find works best in your house in this department? I had to buy a different detergent that was gentler on my hands because I so often had dishwater hands. But it is worth it if it makes me feel calmer and happier in my home.

Give the readers what they want

Give the readers what they want

I am not at all surprised that the top vote getter in what my readers want to read about was “the baby”. Story of my life. Everyone is interested in the cuteness. :) So everyone should bug my husband/IT guy to fix the photo posting capabilities of my website. It is broken. :(

Now the next biggest vote getter was “my everyday life”. Several blogs I read, Big Mama and Fiddledeedee come to mind, do this genre well. They write a post about what they did that weekend and even though it might only contain such exciting happenings as going to mexican food restaurants and arguing with a second grader over her wardrobe choices, it still manages to be funny, and thus the readers keep reading. Sometimes I have a hard time figuring out what in my day is worth relaying, but maybe I can work on more posts like this.

So, ya wanna know what I did today.

Well we woke up at 7. I don’t even set an alarm clock anymore, my alarm clock has blonde hair. (I had to pause mid sentence because my cat didn’t want me to type and was rubbing has face on my hands.) We ate breakfast and then she went down for a nap at 9. Thankfully the paci-fighting stage of last week seems to have passed and she went to sleep easily. And then she slept. for. two. hours. Awesome! I got to take a shower and then work on a project which I will write about later.

When she woke up, we ate lunch and then went on an adventure to a children’s consignment store that I heard about. We managed to get a few items and then came back home. It was a little past nap time then, so that nap was a bit harder and I ended up letting her cry a little while, but she fell asleep on her own after about 10 minutes. Yay!

Then I did some random stuff on the computer. Did you know you can enter the codes off your pampers products on the Pampers Gifts to Grow website and get stuff? I got some free prints from shutterfly.

Then we watched the last Oprah ever. Now I grew up watching Oprah. But sometimes she can be a bit murky on where she stands spiritually and I didn’t always love that and I just haven’t watched it with any regularity since college. But I had to watch these last three shows. Today’s was interesting, not at all what I thought. Just her talking. But her last words were “to God be the glory” so I liked that.

Then C came home and I made dinner. Scalloped Potato and Ham Bake, via E-mealz. I didn’t really like it but C did and it wasn’t too hard to make. It had greek yogurt in it, so maybe that was the problem.  Then we played with E, gave her a bath, and put her to bed. Goodnight everybody!

2010: Year in Review

2010: Year in Review

January:

baby lusk wk 12

We told everyone we were expecting! We also blogged about meeting our financial goals of paying off two of our three college loans and the car.

February:

I had a birthday and didn’t blog much. Just to talk about maternity clothes and share a few links.

March:

us corn dog

We went on the spring break mission trip, where we got Baylor. We also went to the rodeo. And we found out we were having a girl!

April:

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I drank lots of milk, started cleaning out my classroom, and sat in President Bush’s seat at an Astros game!

May:

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I did some crafty projects and we went to Destin (it was so great it took two posts)!

June:

me and c

Busy month! I had my last day of school (tear), organized some things, did VBS, had a baby shower, and went to Waco for an 80th birthday party.

July:

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I dressed up like a cow, had another baby shower, checked some things off my to-do list, and went to a wedding.

August:

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Well I think we all know what happened in August. Life as I knew it changed! I got a nursery ready, made some photo books, and HAD A BABY!

September:

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Whew! Didn’t have time to blog much this month except to share some links and pictures!

October:

We started getting out and about a lot in October! We went to the zoo, to bible study, to the park, and to the grandparents house when Daddy went out of town for a week. Oh, and I dressed like Bruiser the bear for Hallo-wii.

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November:

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I scored some free jeans, I told E’s birth story, and we went to visit the great-grandparents for Thanksgiving.

December:

Wow! I barely blogged at all in December. Well we were very busy going to a Sunday School party, Jr Staff party, Staff party, my maternal side extended family party, my paternal side extended family, then a week long tour of Texas staying at three different places! Whew! Oh, and we went to the Texas Bowl!

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What to do?

What to do?

I have about 4 full weeks until the week that has my due date in it.

35 wks (2)

Here are some things I want/need to do:

-hang out with friends more!!

-finish sewing a nursing cover or 3, at least until my supply of fabric runs out. I made some a few summers ago and still have supplies to make some. So I want to make a couple to give away and then go pick myself out some really fun fabric from Hobby Lobby and make myself one.

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-work towards/finish sewing the T-shirt quilt I started last summer. I cut out the shirts and layed out the placement and then got as far as sewing the first row. I need to cut all the rest of the middle pieces and sew the rest of it up! Recognize any of these shirts?

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-launder the baby bedding and some newborn clothes. I put it on the crib already because I couldn’t resist seeing how it looked! But now I need to take it off and wash it! (Post with nursery pictures coming soon)

-use a gift card for Movie Tavern and have a meal with my movie

-use a gift card and eat cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory

-do more Kegels

-put the rest of our CD collection on the computer and into iTunes so we can listen to it more easily!

-go swimming a few more times. Here we were on our way back from the pool at our condo in Destin. It was a nice pool! Not too deep with some shade! (I like to be able to touch bottom when I swim!) (Those flowers in the back smelled HEAVENLY!!)

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What do you recommend I do in my last few weeks before I have a small child to be responsible for????

She’s a rockin’ and a rollin’

She’s a rockin’ and a rollin’

Randomness….

  • Baby Girl is quite the mover and shaker these days! Sometimes my stomach moves so much it is comical to watch and imagine what she must be doing in there! I have had indigestion a good bit, and am now waking up at least twice every night to use the bathroom. Fun times!
  • Last week was my first full week off for the summer. I worked on my to-do list the first few days, and then rested the next couple of days. I realized that I will not have time to myself to just rest and not work or take care of a child again for a long time, so I better take advantage of it!
  • This week is VBS! I am working in the 5 year old room and today we had 19 kids. It went well, but I am pretty tired. I came home and took a nice nap!

me and c

  • Here is a picture of us from the hubby’s grandmother’s 80th birthday party that we went to a few weekends ago. He has lost more than 20 lbs!  (He is using an iphone app called Lose It to keep track of calories.) Go Hubby! Our anniversary is coming up this weekend! Happy Anniversary to all you other folks out there with June anniversaries! Our pastor preached a good message on marriage last Sunday called “Married with a Mission”. Here it is.
  • Anyone following the Big 12 issue? I think they should just leave it all alone! It will be interesting to see how it turns out. We drove around Baylor last time we were in Waco. I got all teary eyed thinking of how much I love that school. (and some pregnancy hormones probably thrown in there too…)  It has so many special memories and was such a sweet time! Thanks Mom and Dad for sending me there!