The War on Chaos

I'm of two minds about the chaos of babies and toddlers. On one hand, it makes sense to embrace the mess and work around it - it's only a season. On the other hand, I like to be comfortable at home and a large part of that is ensuring that we are reasonably neat and tidy. There's stress in the mess, I tell you! The balance I've found is a mixture of routines and minding the little things before they can turn into big things.

With that said, I'm fully aware that our routines can look a bit obsessive at a glance. I swear they aren't though! We're busy, but there is flexibility and quality time built into each day - especially the weekends as family time is our priority there. The key I've found is to structure the lists so that they build on each other: daily items make the weekly maintenance easier, weekly maintenance makes the monthly items easier, and the monthly items make the quarterly maintenance easier.

The strategies that I use to keep things in order are:

Daily Cleaning - 18 Tasks
Turning all of the little tasks into a checklist/routine is the easiest way to limit the time and brain power spent on maintaining the house. The whole list takes about an hour and a half to complete, but it's broken up into pieces: 30ish mins morning and evening with a couple other 15 min sections throughout the day.

Weekly Cleaning - 17 Tasks
Hitting every area on a weekly basis helps keep the dirt in check before it can become grime. I usually handle two to three areas per day and the amount of time varies depending on the tasks. Interior areas are scheduled around my busy days in the office, and exterior tasks are fit in on whichever day isn't pouring rain.

Monthly Cleaning - 17 Tasks
To be honest, a good portion of these tasks don't necessarily "need" to be done every month, but it cuts the amount time needed for deep cleaning on a quarterly basis. I shoot for three to four tasks every week, but fit in more whenever feasible.

Daily Routine
The general flow of our day is get up, eat, clean, work, play, eat, clean, (nap) work, play, eat, play, (sleep) clean, work, relax, sleep, repeat. I'm a firm believer in having a predictable routine for everyone's sanity.

Toy Rotation
This is a lifesaver for us! We currently have three toy "stations" in the house: Jr's room, the living room, and my office. Once every week or two I will go through and change out all of the toys and books in each station - some retire to the closet for a couple weeks and others switch stations, but the fresh perspective always seems to help Jr stay interested in his toys for independent playing.

He has so much to say now, but I still can't figure out half of it! Mom fail?

Ever have a feeling that someone is watching you...?

One of Jr's favorite things to help with is feeding the cat.

Yay playdoh!

He loves having company over to "his" house, thankfully I'm still able to get in (and out)!

Sticky window activity!

These mini doughnut muffins are seriously THE BEST! Chris and Jr approved.
(I used butter instead of coconut oil in the muffins and only brushed it on vs dipping them for the cinnamon coating.)

Pregnancy Update

How far along: 27 weeks

Maternity clothes: Oh, yes. I pulled an abdominal muscle last week so I am done with anything putting pressure on my stomach.

Sleep: Not great now that I'm hitting the "every position is uncomfortable" stage. Relaxin (the hormone, not the activity) is making a lot of my joints hurt.

Best moment this week: Our most recent OB appointment went well, little baby kept kicking the doppler while the doctor was trying to check her heartbeat.

Missing anything: Laying flat on my back!!

Movement: Plenty of kicks and jabs, we had our first "ow, that was my rib!" moment.

Cravings: Not anything terribly specific, but holy hunger - some days it seems like I could eat everything in the house and still feel hungry.

Anything making you queasy or sick: Nothing predictable, but there are always a few waves here and there. Oh, and the glucose test drink nastiness.

Gender: A Girl!

Labor signs: A few Braxton Hicks, but nothing unusual.

Symptoms: The third trimester is less than a week away and I'm definitely starting to feel my energy wane. Nesting is kicking in though, so no rest for the pregnant!

Happy or moody: Mostly happy, but my tiredness and general discomfort often gets misread as moody.

Looking forward to: Finalizing the nursery colors! It seems like no one is carrying coral nursery items online or in-store, but I was finally able to order a couple of coral crib sheets from Target. Here's hoping the color looks good in person!

Baby gear/preparations: N-E-S-T-I-N-G. Even when I want to slow down, a lot of days I just can't seem to stop until I'm falling asleep.

Funny moments: Pregnancy brain + a nasty cold + nesting + daylight savings = so much wandering around trying to remember what I was doing. Case in point, it took FOUR trips to the laundry room before I could remember that I was in there to get my chapstick from the diaper bag!

Have A Bite Of...

Twix Cookies

These babies were super easy to make and a hit at Christmas dinner.

You can find the recipe over at chef in training; the modifications I made were to the chocolate topping(s). I used milk chocolate for half of the cookies and semisweet for the remainder. Also, I don't use shortening so I melted each 1/3 c. of chocolate chips with 1 Tbs. of evaporated milk.

Does anyone else feel guilty about not using an entire can of evaporated milk? I don't use it often and the recipes that call for it never require more than a few tablespoons at a time, so I'm always at a loss of what to do with the excess.

The caramel layer was so gorgeous I almost didn't want to cover it with chocolate...

Who am I kidding? Everything is better with a little chocolate!

Our parents and my sister came over for Christmas brunch and a gift exchange. There was a lovely mix of toys and books for Jr, and not a single battery operated toy in the bunch!

There were homemade cinnamon rolls and fruit, smoked sausages and eggs, coffee and spicy tomato juice. We laughed and reminisced, played games and just relaxed. The look of pure joy on Jr's face when he tried out his new rocker, it must have felt like he was flying.

We're going to need a bigger toy basket...

Such a big boy!

"All I really need is love, but a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt!"
Charles Schulz

Life is Uncertain

Three cheers for regaining Internet access!!

We have been in our new house a grand total of two weeks and it is wonderful! I will work on getting pictures up once we get everything settled and decorated.

Since we are near family and in our own space again, I decided that a small shindig for my sister's birthday was necessary. Being the colorful personality that she is, I realized that the only fitting cake would be a six layer rainbow cake with funfetti sprinkles. After a few anxious days looking for my cake pans, which were eventually discovered in the office, I settled in to create the cake. Knowing that one can always rely on Pinterest for the answer, I hopped online in search of a recipe that would guide me to success.

DENIED.

Pinterest had failed me and my feeble mind could barely comprehend the enormity of the disaster. While there were plenty of cake photos and vague references to making a rainbow cake, there was not a suitable recipe to be found. I was on my own, forging into unfamiliar territory despite the fact that I hadn't baked a cake in at least three years. I decided the cake itself was complicated enough to warrant leaving the heavy lifting to a professional - 

Betty Crocker has so much more experience than I do.

Without further ado:

A Rainbow Cake in 20 Easy Steps

1) Gather your armies. And handsies.

2) Retrieve funfetti frosting that your husband has absconded with.

3) Consult six-layer cake recipe found on Pinterest that calls for extra cake mixes and FIVE TUBS of frosting.

4) Disregard recipe and decide to wing it, Martha Stewart style.

5) Weigh your mixing bowl empty.

6) Prepare cake mix according to directions. 

(Or from scratch if you're cool like that.)

7) Weigh bowl with batter and divide accordingly into six smaller bowls.

8) Begin mixing food dye for a rainbow effect, consulting color wheel as needed.

9) Become alarmed by pasty results and reconsider Martha Stewart abilities. 

Cue sweaty palms as you realize that you don't have a back up plan.

10) Add more dye.

11) A lot more dye.

12) Breathe first sigh of relief that your colored cake batter appears to be suitably rainbow-esque.

13) Pour the three easiest colors (green, blue, and yellow) in pans for baking.

14) Place in oven and begin to pray.

15) Breathe second sigh of relief that your tiny cake layers cooked properly.

16) Become distracted by cute baby.

17) Bake remaining layers and allow to cool completely.

18) Assemble layers Roy G. Biv style.

19) Crumb coat and place in refrigerator for one hour.

20) Frost, sprinkle with funfetti, cover, and refrigerate overnight.

And that's it! I think the cake turned out fairly well overall, but I'm especially pleased with the vibrancy of the colors. I only used one cake mix, which made for extremely thin layers but a very manageable height, and two tubs of frosting. As for the coloring, purple was definitely the most challenging with red coming in as a close second. It ends up that purple needs more red than blue dye, and the key to a deep red lies in adding just a pinch of unsweetened cocoa powder. 

Jr is working on his hand coordination,
thus the intense concentration as he tries to knock over Gigi's soda.

"Life is uncertain. Eat dessert first."

Ernestine Ulmer