tiffany's spot

Elliot's day has gotten no better. She followed me around forever, wanting up, then down, then up, then milk, then no milk, then a snack she didn't eat - all the while crying and screaming for some kind of help that I just can't give. I tried again to give her some tylenol , only to have her spit it out. I laid her down on my lap. Keep in mind she is screaming this whole time. I squirted some into her mouth. She gagged, coughed and spit a bunch out, and then gagged some more, panicking and looking at me like she knew that I was secretly trying to off her (which I totally wasn't, just in case you're wondering), and gagged and sputtered and began screaming anew. I kind of yelled "I don't know what you want! I can't help you if you won't take your medicine!" This just made her cry harder, her cheeks glowing redder, tears streaming down her face and pools of snot running over her lips and onto her chin. I angrily wiped the slimy, sticky medicine fr...

The best thing about teething babies is when they want up then they don't want up then they don't want down then they don't want up. No wait, it's when they follow you around and cry, only to remember that they still don't want up. Wait, I forgot about when they're hungry but they don't want to eat, and they're thirsty but they don't really want that bottle, but they don't want you to take it away to prevent it from being shaken upside down on the carpet, and all of these things causes a major breakdown-crying fit. Yay! It's made even better when they don't like their medicine so it just gets spit out in a fine, purple spray all over their shirts, hands, arms and your glasses. That's the best part.

Mitchie had a seizure again yesterday. It's the second time since September . Actually I don't think it's medically considered a seizure, but when he's convulsing on the couch and not really breathing, and drooling and throwing up and peeing his pants all while being entirely unresponsive and turning blue/grey? Sure feels like a seizure to me. I must say, I handled it well. He had gone down for a nap just fine, and when he woke up he joined the rest of us on the loveseat - why the entire family actually lays on the loveseat together , especially since there's a perfectly good full-sized couch just feet away is beyond me. It's nice to be loved. He joined us on the love seat. Then he decided to lay on top of me, since there wasn't much sitting room left. I noticed that he felt really hot. I rubbed his back, felt his forehead, neck and armpits. The kid was burning up. I detangled myself from the mess of small-to-medium limbs, hands and feet and went into th...

I've been slacking in so so many areas. I do have many many excuses, uh, reasons to go along with the major slacking. S - My house is a mess. It really is. I have this nifty schedule of all the chores I'm going to do each day of the week. If I keep up on the list, it keeps the must-do weekly chores down to about an hour a day. Not bad eh? Of course that doesn't include laundry, toys, etc. It's stuff like bathrooms, vacuuming, mopping, cleaning the fridge and kitchen sink, etc. Anyone who has been in my house lately knows what I'm talking about. Thankfully my friends are kind enough to pretend that my house isn't that bad. R - Kids, four of them. Some days they feel like eight. Especially that one. You know who you are kid who feels like eight kids. I'm constantly trying to pawn him off on unsuspecting friends and family members, but nobody will take him. In real life - I adore that kid, even when he makes me want to pull my hair out by the roots. He threate...

Oh that bloody ticker. I know that once upon a time it said 3 pounds. Now it says 14. Well, I may have gained a few pounds back, but I also lowered my goal weight by a few pounds. Still, to go from 3 to 14 kind of sucks. Time to stop having chips for night snack. And coke. And a second glass of coke.

You have got to follow this blog: http://www.rantsfrommommyland.com/ It's a mommy blog, but funnier.

Last winter I bought Jordan and Tennyson each a Brain Quest workbook. The workbooks are great - they are chalked full of curriculum based activities for kids. Jordan's follows the Kindergarten curriculum, and Tennyson's is for preschool aged kids, but is essentially a slightly simpler version of Jordan's. We call the books our homework, and the kids beg to do them. They love them. They'd sit and do homework at the dining room table for hours a day if I had hours a day to sit and work with them. I insist that they wait for me to do them as I want to make sure that they're understanding the material and learning something as they work their way through the books. I actually slacked with it a bit this winter, but we've done it a couple of times in the last week so we're definitely upping our educational game. I love watching them sit there and carefully write out their letters. Jordan has been doing this stuff all year at kindergarten, so she's pretty adep...

Ingredients 1 bunch kale 1 tablespoon olive oil 1 teaspoon seasoned salt Directions Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line a non insulated cookie sheet with parchment paper. With a knife or kitchen shears carefully remove the leaves from the thick stems and tear into bite size pieces. Wash and thoroughly dry kale with a salad spinner. Drizzle kale with olive oil and sprinkle with seasoning salt. Bake until the edges brown but are not burnt, 10 to 15 minutes. I'm going to try this in the next couple of days - I'll let you know how it goes! Check HERE to see where I got the recipe, and read the reviews .

Steven and I signed up for shares in a farmer's garden this year. Each week the family (with the help of their seven children) harvests the huge gardens, separates the produce into x number of portions, and delivers them to neighboring towns. Each week we pick up our basket here in town and check out the bounty within. Last week's basket: There are lots of greens: - Romaine Lettuce - Curly Lettuce - Spinach - Swiss Chard - Kale There is also: - Rhubarb - Radishes - Onion Greens - Baby Dill - Thyme Tomorrow's basket: - romaine lettuce - butter crunch lettuce - Grand Rapids, curly leaf lettuce - spinach - swiss chard - kale - baby dill - green onions - thyme - rhubarb Mostly the same stuff, but judging from the pictures on their blog , there is more of it. As the summer progresses the baskets will change depending on what's in season and harvestable that week. The fun part of course, is trying to figure out what to do with stuff we have never cooked with or eaten befor...

We took the kids strawberry picking today. It was fun. The kids only moved one marker when we weren't looking, and they only ate a strawberry or two (ha!) and they only permanently stained six outfits. I wish I'd have remembered my camera, their joy at strawberry picking was awesome. I managed to get two of the four buckets cleaned and into the freezer tonight. I'll do more tomorrow and leave some in the fridge to eat fresh. Last year the kids were so annoyed when they realized that most of them were squirreled away into the freezer. I had more to write about this and that, but it's late and I forgot it all the minute I opened this window. Good night everyone!