Now I guess I really HAVE to ask...

Shortly after posting the loving review of Smith's providing me with morning coffee, he decides he's going to give it up (a little.) As in: stop making any coffee on weekday mornings.

sigh.

and yes. I'm perfectly capable of making my own, even have a machine to make it for me and have it ready and hot at the appointed time. but I won't.

so bear with me while I make my way through coffee-free, fennel-toothed days.

the fennel toothpaste has proved to be one of my weirdest impulse buys. What are some of yours?

If I were twittering, I'd twitter this

My recent switch to Tom's fennel flavored toothpaste has left me with a hankerin' for Indian food.

My Year So far....

I've given up using shampoo, going full-tilt dirty hippie.

(Sinda may have a pit-stick making party soon too. We're in this stink together. It's just a matter of time before Lisa succumbs. peer pressure baby!)


AND

I've bought myself a $50 toothbrush.

Because apparently I didn't get the memo. Everyone I encounter lately is using one.



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We also had a nice holiday with lots of snow at the mountains of Nana & Papa. Smith and Nbear worked diligently on a very elaborate, multi-leveled, tunneled, throned, snow fort. It even had a roof in places. I hear snowballs were tossed. We did get to ski a little bit, and not just down the driveway...




We hacked down our own tree and hauled it back down the hill (yeah. that looks like a hill...) on a sled. It was a perfect tree.



We watched the snowplow clear the driveway. Often.




Gingerbread houses were made (and picked at by little fingers.)




We were invaded by Christmas-themed bug boys.




Happy New Year Ya'll!


.

Sometimes I feel like a REAL grown-up

I finally accomplished the major feat of getting slipcovers for our dining room chairs. There was the difficulties with size, pre-made or custom? fabric offerings out the ying yang and then my general level of being overburden with indecision (and spending a wad of moolah.)

Long story short, our chairs are now safe from the spills, wipes and forays of youth and food. I can just throw these hummers in the washer and poof! like new!

Ain't they purty? (I couldn't decide on the picture, so you get to see all of them and a clean dining room to boot.)

Things Purchased To Appease A Child

I'm a hesitant shopper. Some call me thrifty. I think I'm just indecisive (maybe.) It takes me a long time to get to the purchasing part. (how long have I been trying to buy a new fridge now?) I have to weigh the options. Mull things over. I am QUEEN of mulling things over. I have to decide if it is a need or want. Decide what color. Decide if the price is okay. Decide if I have room for it.

But when it comes to quieting a child in a store, you should see how fast something can go into my shopping cart. Here's what I've bought recently to quell the rising tide of noise beside me as I shop: (feel free to add comments of things you have bought in similar situations)

1) a large bag of purple confetti paper.
N insists on shoving it in gift bags for birthday gifts. Each time I can feel the glare of birthday parent when all this purple shredded paper pops out of the gift bag all over the floor. [you should also know that I am "throwing away impaired" too.]

2) another lovey. that meows three times when you pet it. Smith has set a mandatory limit to the number of times the cat can meow in his presence. (Smith is ready to kill me.) It has been named "me-yewy."

3) winnie-the-pooh waterproof bandaids. We go through band-aids like they are tissues.

4) vanilla milk. lord? what did we do before these? honestly - how did parents make it all the way through the grocery store without going mad? [milestone: N no longer calls it "tanilla milk." sigh.]

5) a goofy card with a gorilla on it. that we are not allowed to actually send or give to anyone. just have in the card drawer, just in case.

4) a $4 pomegranate. not even organic.

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N busted me for eating his Halloween candy today. (it's for his own good! I swear! a 3 year old doesn't need chocolate.) I was on the phone and I could see him start worrying over the bag of garbage. Afterwards, I got the 3rd degree about who might have eaten it as well as an inventory assessment of his stash. (yes, smith, I might have implied it was you...)

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The boys in their hidey hole, which is under the stairs, and is nothing at all like the movie.





And speaking of scary stuff, a good bud of mine is having a movie at the Alamo Drafthouse this weekend as part of the 48 hour movie making competition - horror division, aka "Bloodshots." Contestants are given a subgenre, a weapon, a phrase that must be in the movie and a prop. Then 48 hours later they hand in the film. Check his out.
If you dare....