Addicted to Shopping

I am psychologically unable to pop into Tesco and buy only what is on my list.

Today I 'popped in' for mop wipes and an avocado. Only. Determined that is all I would buy, I left the shop with this:

2 packs of mop wipes
2 avocados
A loaf of bread
A loaf of garlic bread
2 bags of okra (reduced to .99p each)
1 red pepper
2 bags of bagels (on special, 2 for £1.50)
BBQ chicken pieces
Pepperoni
2 packs of cocktail sausages (on special, 2 for £3)
3 pouches of Plum baby food (on special, 3 for £2, which was a savings of .97p. For 4 months down the line)
Frozen hash browns
Philadelphia cream cheese (for the bagels)
1 4-pack of D batteries (turns out I needed C)
2 tubs of spreadable butter (on special, half price)
2 tea towels (they had hearts on them and were reduced from Valentine's Day)
3 packs of flowery napkins (on special, .37p each)

It's an illness.

SingStar

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star- The Fifi Remix from superlori on Vimeo. and Dingle Dangle Scarecrow from superlori on Vimeo.

More About Lent While I Eat My Porridge and Attend My Daughter

In an effort to use my slow cooker more, I decided to try making porridge overnight ready for breakfast. Months ago I bought a timer to plug the cooker into for this purpose. Yet despite holding onto the instructions carefully, the day I decide to use it, the instructions are no where to be found. I've seen those instructions lying in the same place week after week, and yet now they are gone. So I tried to figure out the timer on my own. I woke up this morning hopeful, but all I found was a cold pot full of milk and oats. I just put it on the stove and made it the old fashioned way.

However, I got the timer down and started playing. I think I've figured it out now. I'll try it again in tonight.

Today is the start of Lent. I hope I can find time each day to reflect on Jesus Christ and his sacrifice on the cross. I hope I can find time (and energy) to contemplate what that means for me. One reason I'm sort of dreading this season is because I know how emotionally draining repentance is. I don't think I can face emotionally draining. I'm drained in every way as it is. So, then I wonder - does repentance always run along side weariness? If Jesus told us he would carry our yoke, our burdens, doesn't that mean we can lean on him in weakness, not fear him? I admit it, I fear brokenness. I fear what kind of emotional impact it could have on my life. I need as much bolstering up as possible during these years of toddler/babyhood. I need energy to run after Fifi when she makes a beeline for the street, when she suddenly needs to go potty NOW, when she's throwing a tantrum, when she's ill and needs lots of cuddles. I need energy for feeding Lolly around the clock, for picking her up when she cries, for changing her nappy again after having just changed it.

Yet, of course, I know intellectually that leaning on Christ is the only way to survive this. So why do I find it so daunting? Why am I so afraid that if I start going to him more, I'm going to find myself miserable and even more tired? Will I? Or will this season of Lent refresh me and my love for the Lord? That's what I want. I want to love him in a fresh new way. I want his sacrifice on the cross to move me again. I want to find the Spirit in everything I do and enjoy his presence.

But right now I must go get Lolly, who has just woken up from her night's sleep.

Lent and All

Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday. The last year or two I felt too busy to think much on Lent. That hasn't changed this year except I feel a real burden to do so. To repent of my busyness and lack of time spent with the Lord. I don't know how I'll do it. I don't know how a mother stays on top of everything earthly and material as well as things eternal. Is it just a matter of being near God, in His presence, or is there more? Should I wake up even earlier to pray and read Scripture? And if so, how do I do that without waking up the baby and then spending that time feeding her back to sleep? Even as I type this I'm having to deal with my two-year old repeat 'Mum' over and over while also whining for 'juice juice juice Iwanjuice Iwanjuice'.

My college friend Amber has a lovely blog, and this post sums up a lot of my feelings.

I can't even find time to finish this post. Scott just got home and needs his tea, and Fifi's got a dentist appointment in half an hour.

It's Ba-ack.

The sickness fog has once again come to rest upon our household. Fifi came into our bed at about 2am this morning complaining that her tummy hurt. I didn't take her that seriously, but let her sleep with us. Moments later she threw up. We cleaned her up, and Scott took her back to her own bed and stayed with her there. She threw up a few more times over night. Then this morning she threw up twice more. She still keeps saying her tummy hurts and asking us to 'kiss tummy better'. Poor thing. So for the third week in a row, we've missed church. Well, me and the girls anyway. Scott's there, since he does the music.

I hope this ends soon. I'm tired of pajama days.

Rare Quiet Moment

This is one of the moments that are few and far between: the only sound is the dishwasher running. Fifi is zonked out on the couch, and Lolly is zonked out in the swing. I need to get dinner started, but I'm touching base here first.

We are all better, finally. Sickness is over, for the most part. Fifi is finishing up her antibiotics, and my voice is nearly back to normal. (I'm convinced it took longer to come back after I lost it, because I had to run two baby signing classes while it was gone, and the singing seemed to destroy the old voicebox.)

Fifi has been wearing 'big girl pants' since Sunday. She's only had a few accidents, surprisingly. She has been in a nappy only for nap and bedtimes; saying that, however, she's in pants just now while she naps, so we'll see how she awakes. She's been out and about as usual in pants, and we've had no problems! She went to Toddlers on Tuesday, a creche on Wednesday, and Toddlers and the breastfeeding group today. I'm so, so proud of her.

We have also been making up for our lost Valentine's this week. Last night, Scott and I (with Lolly) went to Thai Siam for a delicious meal. Yesterday morning, I baked my heart-shaped cake (not the one I wanted to do), and I frosted it today. We'll have it tonight. Dinner is nothing special tonight, but I'm glad we got around to doing at least a small something for Valentine's. I'd have loved to do cookie bouquets or something for Fifi, but she'll just have to settle on a heart cake. I think she'll be fine with that.

And what else... There's not much else to share. I'm just really, really looking forward to travelling to Arkansas in a few weeks (seven, I think). And also thinking it's really weird that in about the same time, I'll be 27 years old. 27 sounds like that age right before you're too old. Right before 28. 28 just sounds too close to 30. I never pictured myself being 30. 27 is about as old as I think I'll allow myself to get. (Scott likes to point out that's when all the good rock stars die. Don't think I'm ready to die, though, so maybe I'll have to go older.)

Okay, off to make dinner, even though I'm so not hungry enough to eat it. Still not 100% back to normal yet, when it comes to appetite. The plus side is the weight loss from not wanting to eat!

My Favourite Day of the Year...

... began at the out-of-hours doctor's surgery with Fifi, where she was diagnosed with her first ear infection. Subsequent to that delightful excursion, I went grocery shopping and got Fifi's prescription filled. Scott and I ate hamburgers for lunch, which I couldn't taste, because, did I mention, Scott and I are sick too. Then I spent the rest of the afternoon in bed watching TV and napping with my sick children. Scott's now napping with Lolly, and I'm trying to humour Fifi by half-heartedly playing kitchen with her. So much for that cake I was going to make. Or for the delicious dinner I had planned. Or any other exciting Valentine's Day fun we may have had.

The Abridged Version

So many things to write about, so little time.

Here's the abrigded, annotated version.

1. Fifi's second birthday party was great. We held it at the church, where the kids had loads of room to go mad. Fifi loved the cake, especially the candles, which she tried to put her finger in. She is now two. My baby girl is two. I could cry.

2. I have totally gone all out with this bento box thing. See pictures here. I love putting these lunches together at night as one of my chores (see below for info on chores). I love thinking about what fresh fruit and tiny snacks to buy for the week. Scott told me to hold off buying too many accessories until I know for sure this obsession will last. I think it will. I'm constantly learning new tricks, and new dos and don'ts, for successful bentos. One don't I've learned - don't pack crispy things in the same tier (without a plastic divider) with juicy things. Yes, funnily enough, juice moves and makes crispy things soggy! Learning all the time.

So I've gone a bit mad with this obsession. On the way, somewhere in the international post, I have silicon cupcake cups, mini sauce bottles (shaped like tomatoes), two bento boxes, two bento box straps, a set of dividers and three bento box bags. eBay and Ichiban Kan are my new best friends.

3. My children are sick. Fifi's very unwell (high temps, throwing up, runny nose, etc) and Lolly just has a cold. I cannot get sick with them. And if I do, it needs to be between Tuesday and Thursday, since my TinyTalk classes are on Mondays and Fridays.

4. The snow is falling outside again, and it is lovely. I'm supposed to go to Scott's parents' house for dinner tonight and then to the grocery store, but I think it will hinge on the snow.

5. Fifi is doing really well with her potty training. Even sick, she's using it. She woke from her nap to ask me to change her nappy, poor thing. I just read The No-Cry Potty Training Solution by Elizabeth Pantley, and I think I've got enough tools under my belt now to get really started. Oh my.

6. I've got tickets to America!! I fly out, with my two offspring, on the 5th of April, and return on the 30th. I do not pretend to know how I'm going to travel on my own with two children, and I certainly don't know how I'll travel with a newly potty trained/still training toddler, but I'm ignoring those minor details. I'll be in Arkansas for almost a whole month! So exciting! Mean Pig, Dixie Cafe, Taco Bell, Red Lobster, here I come! (Can you tell what it is I miss most about the States?)

7. My chore schedule from Motivated Moms is genuinely changing my life domestically. I've been using it religiously since the start of January. My house is now in a perpetual state of almost clean. Usually all that is needed to spruce it back up is a toy pick-up and a few dishes put in the dishwasher or handwashed. My enthusiasm has kinda sagged today and yesterday due to sick kids, but it's still in good order. And Sundays and Saturdays are restful days anyway, according to the schedule. And even yesterday I managed to dust Fifi's room, hoover (okay, Scott hoovered), and scrub the stove, along with the normal daily chores of laundry, dishes, etc. Today I've done very little besides lying in bed, cuddling and nursing sick children, but that's okay. It's the Sabbath. (Not really... Sabbaths are sundown Fridays to sundown Saturdays, but you know. Modern Christians don't have a clue anyway, so we just say Sunday as if we do.) Anyway, I can now feel comfortable just inviting someone over to the house on the spur of the moment without embarrassment. I can even leave the bedroom doors open, since the beds are always made and the laundry is usually somewhere within the normal range for a family of four! And the toilets! Usually clean! Please, come pee at my house.

8. Fifi got her first full haircut. She is cute as can be. She sat very still for the hairdresser. She looks like Ramona Quimby. I could eat her up.


Okay... I think that's all for now. Pretty good catch-up, don't you think? Valentine's Day plans on the way. I think I'm going to attempt this, if I can ever get the time.

Making It Easy - Potty Training

Warning: The following will only interest other parents. It may disturb others.

Let me just brag about my little two-year old. Without me even halfway encouraging it, Fifi is literally potty-training herself. Suddenly, out of nowhere, she started telling me every time she needs to potty. Then she proceeds to go in the potty. This morning, she carried her potty into the bathroom, took off her pajama pants, took off her nappy, sat down and went. Incredible! It's actually too soon for me, as it's nearly impossible to keep it up in public with a newborn. I mean, where do you put your baby when your toddler suddenly needs to go?

She's only had a few accidents in the past week. Most days we've come home from whatever we've done through the day, and Fi has taken off her nappy and gone nappyless the rest of the evening.

She is also now getting very upset when she needs to go, and she has to go in her nappy. She freaked out today in the car, because she had to go in her nappy. She also told me she needed to go about a mile from the house. I asked her to hold it, and when we got home, she used the potty! She held it!

This is just crazy to me. I'm so proud of her. I wonder at what point I should I start letting her wear 'big girl pants' outside the house?

You'll Laugh. You'll Cry. You'll Book Your Kid In For an Appointment.

Wow.

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I'm impressed. And what do you think of this?