Early Christmas Shopping

Happy (belated) Holidays!  This year has been a particularly busy year during the month of December, and I was happy not to have to worry too much about gift buying.  I did almost all of my gift buying on-line before Thanksgiving, then I just let the packages come to me.  This made my December quite a bit less stressful and I was able to enjoy all the fun activities we had planned.  Some people might think buying Christmas presents before Thanksgiving is a bit extreme, but to those I quote from A Christmas Carol's Scrooge, "You keep Christmas in your way and let me keep it in mine."

What are your thoughts?  Are you an early Christmas shopper or does shopping in December make it feel more like Christmas-time (as my husband believes)?

Grilled Poultry--From the Freezer?

Are you sad to see the beginning of the end of summer? I am, but then I'm not. I love autumn, but I am sad that summer grilling season is coming to a close. So, I've thought of a way to keep that 'summer grill' flavor to last just a little bit longer (it also helps out when dinner sneaks up on you--belatedly reminding you that there's still chicken to cut up and cook).

I talked my husband in to helping me, it wasn't hard, and had him grill several extra chicken breasts the last time we had grilled chicken. Then I cut up, separated, packaged and froze it. Now I when we're having chicken I can just pull it out of the freezer and viola--dinner is made that much simpler (not to mention the yummy grilled flavor that accompanies the meal).

This would also work for other ways of cooking chicken too--just cook some extra chicken one night and prepare it for the freezer. I will admit there's a bit of prep work, but it sure makes up for it on the nights that you don't have to worry with getting all chicken-y (which is a big help especially if you have little ones that like to get into everything while you're busy).

Happy Cooking!

Short Attention Span? Try Toy Rotation

Does it ever seem like there are days where your kids don't want to play with any of their toys or are constantly getting in to mischief because they're 'bored' and it doesn't seem like you can get anything done? I know mine do. Once my kids have played with the same toy for several days in a row they become bored with it and it no longer holds their attention.

So, I came up with a solution...

We've gotten a lot of hand-me-down toys from one of my brothers, and there are times when it seems like we just have too many toys. When my little Ladybug was still a baby I started rotating her toys. And I've continued the practice (she's now 3).

I divide her toys up into two-three piles, but put out just one pile at a time. Then every 2-4 weeks I rotate the toys. She gets so excited when I bring out the new toys that she hasn't played with for a while--it's like Christmas (without the extra expense). The 'new' toys also hold her attention span a little longer so I'm able to get more things done around the house a little easier.

I've started doing it with my little Moonpie as well and I feel so productive today. The only thing I have to watch out for now is Ladybug taking over all the 'new' toys. ;-)

For the Love of Books

I've been MIA a bit lately, but I have a good reason. We moved just a week or so into May, my hubby has started Summer Semester, and my little Moonpie has been ill. However, I do have some fun things to blog about.

So, I'll start with books. I'm not sure how many out there are readers, but I love books. I like how they feel when I hold them. I love the weight of them in my hand. I love the stories and places they take me to. I love the smell of them (as long as they're not library books). I love they way they look on bookshelves or if they have a great cover. I love everything about books--I'm a bit of a bibliophile.

And I have a special love/hate relationship with books that pull me deeply into their story, the sort of books that are so good I have a hard time putting them down. You might be wondering, why I say I have a love/hate relationship with these books. Well, I love these books for obvious reasons. I love a book that can draw me into the story no matter how many times I put it down. When I'm doing something else and see it out of the corner of my eye and I automatically want to flip to where I was and continue reading it again. During any free moment I have (waiting between batches of cookies) I'm back in the book seeing what's going to happen next. And when the story finally comes to an end I feel both satisfied and yet sad that it's finished.

However, I hate these books because when I get drawn into books like this I tend to slack on other things like housework or often dinner will be a little late (because I had to read 'just one more chapter'). And I hate feeling like I didn't do anything during the day. And sometimes while I'm reading the book I think--"I really should be doing something else," which takes away some of the enjoyment. Thus, my love/hate relationship.

That said I will be sharing books I read: books I love, books I didn't, and everything in between.

Dinner Prep.

The other day I was making Chicken Stir Fry for dinner and knew I needed to have it ready to eat by the time my husband came home from work since he had somewhere to be later on that evening. While stir fry isn't a particularly difficult meal, it can be hard to cut up veggies and chicken while you have a three year old getting into things and a 7 month old crying for some attention.

So, I had a thought--I could cut up the veggies/chicken and get the rice/water measured out, while Ladybug was enjoying her afternoon snack and Moonpie was napping. (While, I'm sure this isn't a new idea for many of you, and it wasn't totally for me either--I've made treats, crafts, etc. during this time--but I hadn't thought of preparing for dinner.)

It was a success! Although, I had a few more dishes to wash, my hands were chicken free when Moonpie needed attention and while Ladybug wanted help picking up her toys. Then when it time to make dinner all I had to do was turn on some burners and drop the food into the pan and dinner was ready to go. Easy Peasy!

Kid Sense

Is it just me or do kids have extra senses? It seems like every time I'm up late, for whatever reason, one or both of my kids wake up in the middle of the night or very early the next morning. Then, I'm left feeling like 'zombie mom' the next day, totally regretting the extra time I spent up the night before--and they don't even seem the worse for wear.