Real Simple!

I rarely read magazines, but I love Real Simple. It's fabulous. AND RIGHT NOW YOU CAN GET A YEAR'S SUBSCRIPTION FOR ONLY FIVE DOLLARS! It's one of Amazon.com's big deals right now. If you want, you can head over there and snag the thing through tomorrow night.

Always guess conservatively

I have learned in my life that if somebody excitedly asks you to guess what grade they got on a test, guess like an 85%. That way, when it's a 92%, it'll sound fabulous. If you would have ventured a 100%, then the 92% would in turn seem a little lackluster. When Brent comes home from playing basketball and asks me to guess how many baskets he made, 4 is a much better guess than 14. Because then the answer will impress. Just this week, I was the one that got to impress with the real answer. Elijah had his 9 month checkup. We were about a week and a half late with the checkup because our normally scheduled appointment on his actual 9 month birthday got postponed due to an extended vacation in Boise where we were waylayed with H1N1. So as we were waiting in the exam room, Eli was gollum-crawling around, pulling himself up on everything, trying to work the blood pressure gadget, and in general being a pretty typical 9 month old little boy. The doctor came in and welcomed us, commented on how well Elijah was moving around and of course how adorable he was. He then looked at the chart and said "9 months? I would have sworn he was 12 months based on his getting around!" Even though I knew the game, it still made me feel good. Yes, my 9 month little boy is performing at the level of most 12 month olds. Aren't I a wonderful mother? He's down to the 50th percentile of weight, but still in the 85th percentile of height, which makes him the same ratio of height to weight as Miriam was (and presumably still is) on most of her chart but I think that's off a bit because Eli is admittedly a lot squishier than Miriam ever was although it could be the difference between boys and girls... ANYWAY, at the end of the appointment, I asked for flu shots for both Elijah and Miriam. The doctor poked his head out the door and asked the nurse if she had vaccines for Elijah who is 9 months and for Miriam who is (at this point, he turned back to me and asked) "four?" I smiled and said "two." The girl is precocious and knows it, but there is no way she could pass for four. So here is my advice: ALWAYS GUESS UP. OR DOWN. Whichever is more flattering. People will always want to be around you.

Frazzled

Do you ever feel like you're behind in absolutely every aspect of your life? That there are about ten million projects that are half done and waiting for you to get back to? That you think you know what's going on in your church calling, but are about a month late with anything you do? That you think you know what's going on with any work-related happenings, but really you're way off base? That any time you sit down to get caught up with bills or paperwork or anything else that you can't focus for long enough to even find the project? That every room of your house needs a scour-down or at the very least a tidy-up? That you have all these awesome ideas of how to do things better but the thought of implementing them seems virtually impossible? That by having virtually quit posting, you're letting down the blog followers that have developed a deep appreciation of your wit and wisdom (and rightly so)? Then you, my friends, know how I'm feeling now. Sigh.

An ineffective punishment and a grand compliment

Miriam is absolutely amazingly wonderful and I love her to pieces. One thing I love about her is her determination. Unfortunately, it causes at times some motherly frustration. Something that we struggle with is getting dressed. It's not that she minds wearing clothes, she just doesn't like putting them on. She has developed a habit of running laps (down the hall, through the bedroom, the bathroom, the kitchen, and back to the front room and the hallway again) any time I get clothes out. I didn't want to make it an issue, and figured she was old enough to be embarrassed, so one day last week I told her that if she wasn't dressed, she'd have to come running errands with me in her jammies. She may be old enough to be embarrassed, but she is not embarrassed by wearing jammies in public. She thought it was awesome. So much for that route. I now give her a piece of her Halloween candy for every item of clothing that she puts on. It works much better. It's only bribery if it's illegal, right? Anyway, after we got home from the jammies-in-public event, it was lunchtime. She chose to have a cold hot dog stick (as in not cut up) with ketchup to dip-dip in, cold canned green beans, and some cheese cubes. I almost gagged as I watched her dive in, but my little mama heart just melted when she enthusiastically and through a full mouth said, "This is the best dinner I ever had! I love the taste!" Ah, a little appreciation sure goes a long ways!

The first cut is the deepest

After much discussion and debate, we have decided to finish the basement. Brent would have done it a year ago, I needed more time to realize that it will be well worth it. We hired a contractor, moved all our stuff to the corners, and they started last week.

This is the north wall of our basement as of last Thursday morning:

And this is the same wall tonight:

The process has begun! We're going to have a large play/family/tv/office room, a bedroom, a bathroom, a storage area, and an unfinished bedroom/additional storage area. I am so excited for this! I usually get terrible cases of post-decision dissonance, but I'm really excited for this! HOORAY FOR STEVE THE BUILDER!