Week in Review

We have been getting back to normal here in the desert heat, whatever normal is. I have tried hard this week to get the girls back on the solid nap/sleep schedule and it seems to be working well. I have also been trying to regulate Lily's naps in the hopes that she would sleep through the night (it worked on Monday, but that was it; still, that means there is hope.) We have been getting in 3 naps per day, with the last one in the late afternoon. This has been allowing her to stay up a bit later in the evenings so Elliott can see her when he gets home. She has also been put on a regular routine of dinnertime cereal. She seemed to really go at it on Monday and then the rest of the week has been blase'. Next week I will start to try and introduce some green veggies (beans and peas) before moving on to orange veggies then fruits. I'll keep you posted on our progress.

Lily is also trying desperately to figure out the whole crawling thing (Elliott is well on his way to winning our bet!). Sometimes she gets quite frustrated, but she is making huge progress. Today she started to get all the way up on her hands and toes and then throw herself forward, usually resulting in a face-plant. From there she would rock herself back up on her knees and try again:

Ava continues to talk up a storm and exert her will (that part of her comes from me I'm sure). I also learned this week that even though I want to solidify the idea that I am "not a short order cook" and if Ava doesn't want it then she goes hungry, sometimes I simply can't. When I get hungry (low blood sugar) I get grumpy. Same goes for Ava (and probably most of humanity). After refusing her oatmeal breakfast the other morning she got terribly whiny a couple of hours later. Not even two trips (back to back) to time-out were helping the situation of crying and whining and clinginess. So I broke down and gave her a bowl of Cheerios to snack on (close enough to breakfast right?). Good as new. She perked right up and the whining pretty much stopped.

In my world, my sewing machine broke. *sniff sniff* But after 13+ years of excellent service there was bound to be an issue someday. The only problem is that when I tried to fix the situation I made it worse, so I am hoping that when I take it in to be serviced I won't get too whopping of a bill. It feels absolutely foreign to not be able to sew when I want to; not that I have the time right now anyway, but still.

Also, Friday afternoon I tried my hand at making squash pickles. Why not? I had seen the recipe on a couple of different blogs and somebody gave me yellow squash. I will also keep you posted on how it turned out. I did have a good time doing the hot water canning. I felt really productive, accomplished and a good steward. Elliott's mom and dad are coming to visit next week and during their stay Momma Kay is going to teach some of us how to can peaches. Yeah! They have pears and nectarines on sale here this week and I have also ordered a 25# box of peaches, so there is plenty to can. I know Ava loves Grammy's home-canned fruit and pretty soon Lily will be enjoying it as well. So I am really focused on putting up some fruit of my own for the girls to enjoy this coming winter.

As far as being a good steward goes, you have seen enough postings about the deals I get to know I am trying to do my best at it. Well, my garage shelving is really starting to show that. It is overflowing with cereal, boxes of pasta salad mix (a steal of $.30 each in Park City; yes, I bought every box and brought it back to Vegas with me), and other random things that I have collected. Today I went and stocked up on canned tomatoes and mixed veggies, and needless to say there are just piles of cans and boxes on the garage floor because I need to make room on the shelving for it. Oh boy, one more project for a Saturday. Just what I need.

I also have every intention of getting on the ball for emergency preparedness, a big deal in the LDS church. Being surrounded by Elliott's family and my own LDS friends has really lit a fire under me to put some emergency items together (it certainly can't hurt even if nothing major ever happens to us). To that end, I purchased a couple of child backpacks this week at Goodwill to fill with a 72-hour and personal hygiene kits for the girls, then putting together the same for Elliott and I (and Jack). Once again, another chore for the Saturday list.

As for Elliott, he continues to work many extra hours each week, usually getting home just in time to put the kids to bed (if Lily was able to stay awake until then). It is just a busy, busy time for him right now and we are all just trying to do our part to not feel burdened by the extra hours but to enjoy the time we do get to spend together. I have been trying to make sure we have good meals for dinner and little extra treats around the house, like his favorite homemade candy "peanut butter snowballs." Who am I kidding though? I probably eat as many as he does. Bye bye waistline! See you next month!