Books!

Oh I wish I had some interesting things to share with you today... but I don't.

I set a Goodreads Book goal of 24 books this year. Which is actually a really dumb goal for me, since I am in two book clubs and all which is 24 right there. But we will see. It seemed too daunting to commit to three books a month, even though I do that most of the time. I read my first book last Thursday. The Hypnotist's Love Story by Liane Moriarity. I finally got off the library waiting list and it did NOT disappoint. I literally laughed out loud a few times and it was a really good read.

I am reading another book I got from the library and then I am going to start breaking into some of the book club books. One of my clubs posts the entire year's reading list from the get-go, which is handy. I got an Amazon gift card for Christmas so I bought 5 of the ones that looked the most interesting to me. I try to get library copies but they aren't always available when I want or need them.

I like to buy the cheap used books on Amazon marketplace. I generally never, ever, buy from the marketplace but I do make the exception for books. I have a pretty good system and I will not order from a seller with a rating lower than 96%. I also check to see what shipping company they use. I try to avoid DHL because it is S.L.O.W.E.R. than slow and their tracking is sub-par.

In all years of buying books for myself and my brother, I have never had to dispute a book charge before and we have only ever had one book come past the estimated date of delivery. (It came a full week after classes started, but it was last year so no real harm done.) Sometimes paying a little bit more is worth it to get a book in a better condition or faster, but often the penny books with $3.99 shipping can't be beat.

For instance there are several copies of a title that cost a penny with $3.99 shipping. But down the list is a book that is Amazon prime available for $5. I will buy the prime one, because for a dollar more, I will have it in two days. Typically I will go up one or two dollars past the cheapest cost for a prime book. I don't mess around with marketplace if I don't have to!

I get a sort of sick pleasure out of looking at how much the bookstore would charge for the books and then totaling up the savings. I am pretty good at finding the deals and usually it costs about a third what his bookstore charges. It breaks my heart that he graduates this year and to my knowledge is not planning on grad school or law school currently. What am I going to do for fun in early August and late December if I am not buying book on the cheap?!

Reading is such a fun past time for me. I will probably pass the book club books on to others or put them in one of the Little Free Libraries by me.

What's on your book list this year? How many books are you planning on reading?

Orange-Glazed Muffins

Yesterday I was all "we're back to real life" about it. Let me just go type all the laugh-crying emojs in here real quick because, nope.

We always have Wednesdays off, and on Monday I thought that was nice. One day of school, then a day off to ease us back into it all. I still agree with that. But we got the calendar sent home yesterday and I somehow overlooked the fact that NEXT week we have another mini-break.

I mean, I knew we had off for Martin Luther King Day. But the Thursday and Friday before Martin Luther King Day we don't have school either. And we always have Wednesdays off. So we have a six-day weekend next week again. So not exactly back to normal just yet.

Anyway, for today's Mom Day (which was a lot more fun on Monday's when Mom stood in for Mon but we kept the name anyway...) Muffins I made Orange-Glazed Muffins from Eat Like a Gilmore.

It was a solid "meh" recipe. I followed the instructions to a T and the batter was way too thick. I make muffins once a week so I can honestly say, I know muffins. I'm not like a professional baker but I can hold my own in the muffin world. I knew the batter was too thick but went along with it anyway because who knows? 

And they were not too dry, which I am thankful for!! But they don't have a very pronounced orange flavor. While the batter was too thick I considered adding some orange extract to the batter, both for more flavor and moisture but I didn't. Should have gone with my gut. 

My only substitution was I didn't use fresh squeezed orange juice. Because, really? Would you? So... they look pretty and the house warmed up. (It's getting January cold now.) And they weren't gross. But they weren't swoon worthy so... I will try my hand at something else from the book next. 

And in the future, for Mom Day Muffins we are going back to blueberry or banana. They have never disappointed!

Keep warm and happy Wednesday!

Back At It

And we're back. It was a glorious Christmas vacation from school and work so I am definitely a little bummed to be back at it this morning.

But... learners gotta learn and workers gotta work and all that jazz. No really though. Husband hasn't been to work since the morning of the 22nd so I am sure it will be a crazy day for him and one he was not looking forward to. He seriously almost never takes time off of work so it was so so nice to have him with us for 12 full days! And also usually when he does have time off I use it as an excuse to travel. So for us to have had 5 full days at home together was a real treat!

We are unpacked and settled in from Christmas. We rung in 2017 with make your own pizzas, chocolate covered strawberries and the Puffin Rock Countdown at 7:30. Then husband and I watched Bridget Jones Baby and finished off the Welches Sparkling. Super duper fancy over this way!

New Years Day was still not a work day so we decided to go out! The kids were thrilled their sitter could come play with them and I was thrilled to go out! We had a wonderful dinner and then we went to see "Fences." Pretty darn ritzy, I can't even remember the last time we went out for dinner and a movie. One or the other usually.

Yesterday we "decorated down" the Christmas tree. Which was GENIUS! on Husband's part. The kids helped and didn't get sad about the end of the decorations.

This morning after school drop off, M and I headed to Target which was surprisingly not crowded with all the SAHM crowd rejoicing their young ones were back to school today. We bought a big storage tub for the Legos, which had been living in a Scentsy box. I wanted something with a lid! That wasn't cardboard. And would class up the joint just a bit.

I also got new storage cubes for the toys and two other storage containers. (One for coloring books/crayons/etc. and one for Little People!)

Plus new shower curtain liners and toilet bowl cleaner. Much fun and fancy. Except I kind of think the cleaning, purging and organizing the toys is kind of fun. Is that the weirdest?

So that's that. We are back at the "real life" portion of 2017 and so far so good I think.

Merry Christmas and Other Things

Hey! Here is our Christmas Card (because, it's still Christmas yes?)

We are back from our travels! Our holiday was spent very merrily and we all had a really great time.

There were crafts!

And presents!

C got the marble run he has been talking about since March! (Seriously, he's had it on his Christmas list since March. Before his birthday even!) 

M got the soccer ball she didn't ask for specifically but I knew she wanted. She loves it. She's been dribbling around the house and scoring goals ever since. 

And outside fun!

Sledding in the backyard. It snowed. Then sleeted. So the snow had a layer of ice on it. Which made for SUPER fast sledding. C weighs just the exact right amount where he didn't break the ice but was able to have great velocity and speed. Typically when we sled in my parent's yard it's down the big hill but he was going too fast so we went down the smallest little incline and he was still  speeding along and went really, really far! 

Our Christmas was also filled with fun, food, family, escape rooms, games, friends and Jesus. Now we are home and looking forward to what 2017 brings us!

It's Time to Party!

Today was C's last day of school for the year! Hello Christmas vacation!! So, we of course are celebrating! First off, everyone who was home took a nap during rest time. This does not happen very often but man it makes for a wonderful afternoon of not crabby people!

We spent the afternoon coloring the puzzle C got as a party favor at the "Happy Birthday Jesus" party they had at school. The fifth graders also came to their classroom and brought treat bags. Such an inexpensive thing that made a big impact. Now all he can talk about is going to the big school.

We also read through a big chunk of the books in the Christmas book basket. Including reading The Polar Express.

Husband brought Chinese food home for dinner and now we are all snuggled in for a movie night, watching The Polar Express obviously.

It's about the very best start to Christmas vacation I could imagine. Partying it up kid style. 

7QT of Pointlessness

one. Things I will never ever correct my kids saying:

• M: "Pet-za" for pizza.
• C: "Patter-rens" for patterns.

They are among my current favorite things. Every single day M loses one of her cutesie words and it just breaks my heart. I mean I know it's good she is progressing and building a great vocabulary but it's still hard.

two. Here's the thing, I love Growning Pains. I have a bunch of the seasons on DVD  and I just totally dig that show. In grad school, BJ Thomas came for a concert and he actually dedicated singing "As Long As We Got Each Other" to me. I am not kidding. (I'm pretty sure he also added it to the set list for me too.) So the passing of Alan Thicke saddens me greatly.

three. We watched Fuller House over the past week. I really enjoyed season one and I love Full House, but man, this season was rough. The majority of the episodes I felt like I was just losing brain cells, they were that dumb. But the last five or so episodes were really pretty good and I even got teary in the season finale. So... I grade the season a C? It is not must watch Netflix. Except the last few episodes. (And the cameo appearance of Alan Thicke was still dumb even in light of his death.)

four. We are getting a new couch sometime today! When we got married we bought a decent $300 couch and in the past year it has really been showing it's wear. Finally about two weeks ago some wire snapped or something and now it's really saggy. So we bought a new $300 couch! It has some improvements over the old couch. We figure if we get another six years, that'd be good. $50 a year is great. I see no reason to buy an expensive couch considering the age of our kids. Out of sheer curiosity, I looked online at the local rent-a-center and I couldn't rent a couch for cheaper than the new one!

five. I am almost done Christmas shopping. Normally I would be excited about that but this is really late for me and I am actually kind of stressed out about it. I decided to spread it out over many pay checks but I regret that. Next year I am going back to being done by Thanksgiving. Now to wrap. I am so bad at wrapping.

six. I know that this actually is the longest possible Advent but seriously this has been the longest Advent ever. I don't even know how we are still only on three candles!?

seven. We are expecting another storm (for the third weekend in a row...) but luckily Husband has the day off. So he took C to school and is taking M to art class. And then he is going to pick up C and go to the grocery store. I am on couch delivery duty. I am a little bit sad to miss art class but it's fun for M to get some special time with her dad. I get her to myself almost every morning so I can share.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Getting So Big!

Last Friday was the Preschool Christmas program.

God bless Catholic schools for have Christmas programs. I loved every. single. second of it. (Okay, maybe excluding the part where the principal started talking about Kindergarten round up.) It was awesome. My parents came down for it and it was just wonderful. The kids decorated the gathering hall with four different art projects and after the singing there was juice and cookies to enjoy. 

My guy did a pretty good job. I was so proud. And not that it's a contest, because it isn't, at all, but the morning preschool video has double the views, comments and likes over the afternoon class video. And probably, I myself am like 100 of those views. 

It's all going so fast. My guy got an invitation to a birthday party. And no one was more excited than I. Seriously, no one even came close to how excited I was. You see my biggest hope for him starting school was that he'd make friends. A birthday party invite certainly suggests to me that he is doing that. (And because it was an evite, I know for a fact this was not an invite the whole class party.) 

Did I mention that it was a party for twins? He really likes them and has talked about playing with them since the first week of school. So he was thrilled. He picked out the wrapping paper, bows and candy to go on top all by himself. 

He also wrote the names on the cards and signed his name all by himself. Which was also a big deal because my guy isn't the biggest fan of writing. I told him to write a "big E" and so he did... note to self, next time, say uppercase. 

He was very excited to head out to the party this afternoon. 

It was a drop off or stay party for parents but of course C wanted a "drop over" party. But the party venue has a restaurant upstairs too so I just went up there, had some cheesestix and read a book. My seat overlooked the play area and every once in a while I would catch a glimpse of my guy having a ball. 

So some big moments for my getting big C. He just melts me. Why can't they just stay little?!