Taking the Plunge

Hello, dear blog readers! Tonight we decided to make the (permanent) switch for Lem to sleep in a small bed (crib with side removed) and to move Blossom into his old crib since he's been climbing of it. We anticipated much playing around and getting out of bed on his part, but he was actually SO excited to behaving like a "big boy" that he was thrilled to stay in bed all night. We only had to discipline him once for getting out of bed a few minutes after we put him down (he was trying to remove his sister's blankets).

The real surprise is that Blossom wasn't happy at ALL to be moved into his crib from her old setting, which was a pack-and-play that we've been using since the move. She cried. She pooped. She cried some more. She woke up, cried, pooped, and cried again. Poor baby.

Well, anyway, dear blog readers, that concludes today's adventures with sick children and small victories that are part of the eventual territory.

Happy Sunday to you all, dear blog readers!

Relaxation Time!

Hello, dear blog readers! After finishing out the day by finding Blossom playing in the toilet while I tended Lem, and after finding evidence of rodent "left-behinds" on top of the kitchen cabinets, I do think it's time to say I've had enough of cleaning and unpacking and organizing today. Hubby is out running errands, the kids are asleep, and I'm open to suggestions for what any of you readers recommend for a good beverage that I can make at home!

I received a new book in the mail today, and I'm thinking I might start reading it tonight while I'm awake and it's quiet. I don't often buy non-fiction books since our two bookshelves are already double-stacked, but I've been thinking about ways I can hone some at-home skills in order to eventually start a business. I don't know what that looks like yet....If I ever figure it out, I will let you know! The book is Start by Jon Acuff, a member of the Dave Ramsey financial and business team. I'm trying to decide between that book and another historical fiction called The American Heiress by Daisy Goodwin. This was sent to me by a family member and has been on my "to read" list for quite some time.

Given the week we've had, now I'm starting to lean in the direction of the historical fiction. Time for a coin toss! And the winner is....The American Heiress! What sorts of books to you like to read when relaxing, dear blog readers, and why?

Happy Friday to you all, dear blog readers!

Strange....

Hello, dear blog readers!

Have you ever had days that seem downright strange when you stop to think about them? Today was definitely one of those days.

Event 1) Both kids are sick (again!). At least we had a good solid week of being illness-free.

Event 2) I put the kids down for their afternoon naps. Blossom had already foregone her morning nap after loading her diaper while trying to go to sleep. Right about the time I put them down, the lawnmower folks began their landscaping outside. Lem was thrilled: he loves all things mechanical, but alas...They both had a difficult time getting to sleep.

Event 3) After they DID go to sleep, I took the opportunity to take a quick shower. As I turned off the water, I heard male voices. This was unexpected, let me just tell you. I very quickly skirted into the closet hoping that no one was wandering around in places they shouldn't be. I got dressed, marched into the living room, and found.....no one. The front door was locked. I opened the door, and saw a mail sticker on the front door across the hall. I just figured that perhaps someone was talking outside and that I must have better hearing (or thinner walls) than I originally thought.

I went back into the bathroom and finished putting on makeup. As I opened the bedroom door to enter the living room, I about had a heart attack in finding that there were indeed males standing in my kitchen/living room. They were very apologetic and clearly felt as awkward as I did. Apparently in the lease agreement, there is a statement that says that the maintenance team can enter at any time as long as they knock and announce themselves first. (I would like to think that if you enter an apartment when the water from the shower is running, you might think about coming back at a later time unless the maintenance is a dire emergency.)

At the end of the day, all we can really do is laugh about it. The good news? The kids have been successfully bathed, medicated for their colds, and put to bed with little fuss. Hubby also (without knowing about our day) surprised me by stopping at the store for a few essential groceries and dark chocolate. He must have had a gut feeling I would need it.

Did you know, dear blog readers, that citrus rind enhances the flavor of chocolate? Just thought I'd throw that out there.

Happy Thursday to you all, dear blog readers!

Awkward Moments

Hello, dear blog readers! I'm starting to think that perhaps our apartment management is a little bit understaffed or a bit disorganized....Probably both. We had to pay a "new tenant preparation fee" for the apartment when we moved in. At the time, I thought this was for painting and/or touch ups, carpet cleaning, etc. Well, when we got here, that wasn't the case. (We are STILL working on unpacking AND cleaning as we go!)

This morning promptly at 8:00, three painters arrived to paint the apartment. When they noticed the boxes strewn around the apartment, they looked a little confused. Their timing was good, though: I had them touch up some spots around the kitchen and sink where someone previously had gotten water through a coat of wet paint, as well as a few spots where paint had peeled off of the wall due to (apparently) not having any primer under it.

After they came and went, I noticed that my "helpful" toddler had gotten into the laundry basket, and a few of my personal garments were lined up on the back of the couch. It was one of those days where my hair was standing straight up in front. (Personally, I was thankful that Lemmy didn't choose the opportunity to take off his clothes in an attempt to clothe himself prior to their arrival!) No wonder they looked a little awkward when they came in and were trying to figure out what they were supposed to do.

Well, dear blog readers, on THAT note, I'm going to find some recipes involving lemon juice and fresh produce! Happy Wednesday!

Watching the Changes

Hello, dear blog readers! We are on the brink of some changes in this household, namely that Lem is going to need to potty-train, and also that we are going to have to convert his crib into a toddler bed. Earlier tonight I heard him having a noise-making match with his sister. Both were laughing uproariously. I thought I might try to sneak in with a camera to catch them laughing, but when I sneaked my camera through the door, I caught Lem straddling the railing and nearly falling onto the floor. He has the capability of climbing out of the crib. The only thing keeping him in there this long has been a "fear of heights" from the crib to the floor.

Tips or suggestions, anyone, on how to keep an extremely busy toddler in bed after the conversion? I know there will be many disciplinary instances ahead of us, and that he will probably pick on his younger sister a bit. I'm working on getting either really thick curtains or black-out shades to help with the sunshine issue.

In other news, my basil has made a half-hearted comeback with lots of water and a new position on the balcony where it gets more sunlight. This makes me very happy indeed. Dreams of homemade pesto will hopefully plague me tonight!

On that note, good night to you all, dear blog readers!

Whoa, HELLO!

Hi, dear blog readers! This may or may not be a topic of interest, but I bring it up in light of something that took me off guard yesterday.

In exiting a public restroom stall, I was shocked to see a boy of about 10-11 years of age waiting his turn in line. I'd like to add: this is a women's restroom.

This is not the first time this has happened recently, either. The last time I went to IKEA, I encountered a young man in the 12-14 years of age (gauging by his size and...well, shall we say "maturity" level) with his mother. I was wondering why someone might invite their male child into the restroom of the opposite gender, and while I can understand not wanting your child to venture into a public bathroom where something bad might happen to them on a slim chance, at some point a line should probably be drawn and parents should just stand outside the door and let their kids go it alone. I don't know what that age should be, but if your child is snickering outside your stall, I daresay it's time, if for no other reason than to save some embarrassment for other pour souls in the loo.

Anyway, dear blog readers, I hope you are all having a lovely Monday.

Gardening Adventures

Hello, dear blog readers! This past week I managed here and there to get most of our plants put into larger pots. I have to say I love gardening on a small scale after having a large yard to tend. It helps also that everything outside is a radiant green as the leaves are now coming out in full force.

 The blossoms as they were starting to show from across the parking lot

 It was perhaps a little to challenging for me to try to take pictures as the sun was going down, but I had to try to catch these blooms.

I found this enamel dish in some boxes I'd forgotten I had. It works great for containing dirt! Note to self: Make sure that when you plant your stuff next year, having "dirt containment" keeps you from accidentally dropping dirt between the cracks onto your neighbors below.

 Ok. I just have to say that as of today, this is probably the best that this basil is going to look. When I went out to do some watering today, about 80% of the leaves were almost completely limp. I watered as if I knew nothing was wrong and am hoping that they will improve overnight. Otherwise, it's back to buying basil at the store for me until I can get a new plant. Everything else wasn't wilted, so I am not entirely sure it was a lack-of-watering problem, although that (most often) is the case when I get busy and forget.

I don't know about you, dear blog readers, but every time I see these plants, I get the subliminal itch to go open a bottle of merlot or sangiovese. Or anything red, for that matter.

Happy spring to you all, dear blog readers, and to all a good night!

Uses for Lemons

Hello, dear blog readers! In the last couple of days, I have re-implemented the use of lemons around the household. Here are some great uses if you have never tried these before:

1) Cleaning the kitchen sink and throwing the rind down the garbage disposal. (In our case, when we moved in, the garbage disposal smelled like wet dog, so lemon rind is a VAST improvement!)

2) Making fruit sweeter. If you squeeze lemon juice onto apple slices (or other such snack fruits), it actually will make the fruit taste sweeter.

3) Enhancing your water. I personally have had a difficult time drinking tap water. I read an article on adding fruits and herbs (i.e. mint) into water to make it more palatable, and I have had much more fun drinking water!

A repurposed Classico Pasta jar and a dish from a yard sale. The lighting in my kitchen is not great (florescent lighting with no natural light), so I am certainly open to suggestions from all of you photography buffs out there!

 This particular jar contains filtered water, cucumber slices, lemon wedges, strawberries, and fresh mint.

A certain two-year-old sneaking the lemon off of the plate. He is by FAR the biggest lemon-lover of the household.

It got put back on the plate for photos before a certain Lemmy could gnaw the end off of the rind, which he was all too happy to do after I finished practicing my camera shots.

Happy Wednesday to you all, dear blog readers! I hope you all have had a chance to get out and enjoy some spring weather. I'm going to sign off and drink some (more) lemon-infused water.

An Afternoon as a Tourist

Hello, dear blog readers! Yesterday we thought we'd take advantage of the warm afternoon to do some driving around downtown DC since the spring blossoms are out. It seemed that every other tourist with a reason to be out and about was doing so as well, but nevertheless, it was a memorable experience.

 Yes, dear blog readers, you guessed it: I forgot my "real" camera, but I was more than happy to use my phone camera. I should have probably rolled down the window for a better shot. The trees were magnificent. I'm glad I got to see a few more blossoms before it rained.

We drove around admiring the architecture. Yes, we "young" Americans don't have anything nearly as old as Europe or other continents, but I still like what we saw, and hey! This building is older than me, for sure! We were trying to figure out what "department of" government branch works here, but we never did see a sign. For all we know it might be a nifty museum that we passed.

Ideas, anyone as to what building this is (above)? I meant to look online today to see if I could identify it, but that hasn't happened yet.

Regardless of what your views are of American politics, it was a little surreal to be in the midst of where it all happens.

Then, things got interesting. Since we hadn't really encountered much traffic up to this point, we thought we'd try to circle around and see the White House. So far the kids had been in the car for about an hour and were doing ok. But....It took another forty-five minutes to circle back through various neighborhoods to come down the street and see the wings of the White House. I had a nice shot (from a distance). I even remembered to roll down my window! And then....an anonymous caller performed a pocket call, and my shot was lost! I ignored the call and snapped what I could of a view as we were driving down the street.

The East Wing (I think! I can't be sure...I haven't ever been here before, and my cinema viewing probably doesn't help make things any clearer.) At this point both of our two little howlers were making it very clear they were hungry, so we sat through the last of the traffic and tried to see the South Lawn on the way out of town. It was at this point that we realized that a vast majority of traffic was due to all the pedestrians who were out and about for the day. Cars couldn't turn or go through intersections efficiently due to all the folks enjoying the Spring weather.

At least I got a tiny shot of the South Lawn before a SUV pulled up next to us at a stop light and obscured the view!

All in all, though, it was a great day. My hubby really went above and beyond to make it a nice trip for the kids and me.

Happy Monday to you all, dear blog readers!

Doing a Double-Take

Hello, dear blog readers! I'm sure most of you have one of those "my mama always said..." stories. Well, MY mama always said that it stinks getting older. I feel like with everything happening these last few weeks, sometimes my mind isn't firing on all synapses, so to speak.

Do you ever have those moments, dear blog readers, when you're so preoccupied by something that you don't recognize the obvious thing right in front of your face?

For example, here's what might happen. (And I'm NOT saying this happened to me. Ahem.) 

You go to the store on a Saturday afternoon at one of the busiest times of day because your spouse can babysit the kids while they nap. It means a trip to the store ALONE. After trying to learn where all of your needed items are, you check out of the store an hour later and head across the parking lot. By this time, the parking lot is almost completely full. There are two huge SUV's flanking your little family sedan. As as result, you can't see it and you momentarily start to wonder if you should hit the panic button in order to find it again.

You then realize that you remember (for a change) exactly which row you parked in, so you confidently head off in the direction of your car. Then your mind wanders to something else, which is understandable considering what a beautiful day it is outside. The weather is perfect.

You stop at the trunk of the car that looks vaguely like yours. You pull the keys out of your pocket, forgetting that the battery for the remote keyless entry is dead and needs to be replaced. You wonder why you can't get into your car, and why the trunk isn't popping open. You take a second look: the car you're facing is *clean.* And because it's clean, it looks newer than yours.

For a moment, a small sheen of sweat breaks out on your forehead. You wonder if there's some parking lot security guard or bored police officer who's driving around just looking for someone to bust for attempted breaking-and-entering or, better yet, grand theft auto. You're stuck between gazing around wondering if you really DID park your car somewhere else....

And then you recognize your own license plate. Your brain also finally catches up with you and you remember that it rained the night before, which explains the rarified cleanliness of the outward appearance of your vehicle. Happily, you laugh at yourself, load your groceries, hope you don't bump into another car as you back out from between those two large SUVs blocking your view, and head home.

Again, not that this happened to me. I'm just speculating here.  :)

Happy Sunday to you all, dear blog readers! I hope you're able to enjoy another fine spring day.

Out and About

Hello, dear blog readers, and Happy Saturday! We are still managing to settle into the apartment at a glacial pace. The kids remain sick, so we've been spending a lot of time at home in order to help them get more sleep and to keep from spreading "the love" (or germs) to other people.

Today, however, the weather was SO nice that we decided to explore the neighborhood and see some of the cherry blossoms. We drove by a local nursery and I just had to stop. I haven't done any container gardening for a while, but with the weather warming, I figured it was time to put a few plants out on the balcony. 

Let me just tell you: sticking within the limits of the cash I had on hand made my decisions a little tricky. I could have dropped a small fortune there on plants, but after much hemming and hawing, I came away with kitchen herbs (functional and look good) and two Martha Washington geraniums. I haven't actually looked into whether or not these deter the ravenous insect population, but I'm hoping they will.

I don't often wax philosophical about where to buy plants, but I DO have to say that my experience in this particular nursery was vastly superior to that of a large chain store. The plant selection was amazing, the service was excellent, and it was worth every penny above and beyond what I might have spent elsewhere. I plan on budgeting more next month just so that I can go back and get a couple more items.

 Getting the kids out and about. Blossom wasn't convinced this was going to be a great experience.

 Philosophically pondering the bedding plants

 I haven't seen Japanese maples grown on a trellis before, but they had rows of them and it was a very cool effect.

It took a little bit of rigging the strollers around, but they kept the plants safe for the ride home!

Checking Out Spring

Hello, dear blog readers! Today was just one of those days. It was too beautiful to stay indoors, and as such, I managed to get all of two boxes unpacked. (This is better than none, but still leaves the apartment in chaos!) We spent a fine morning at the play park enjoying some sunshine.

I allowed Lemmy to come out with me onto the balcony to photograph the tree outside of our windows. I am also looking for suggestions as to what to grow for western-facing balconies. Any suggestions? I thought I might start with herbs since historically I have had a bad case of bugs that ate every plant in sight. Of course, that was in California and this is Virginia, but insects seem to like to get the best of me when possible.

 "Miming" from the inside looking out.

Trying to figure out just what exactly he can do with the few terra cotta pots I actually do have on hand.

 And no, he did NOT receive this bruise from anyone in the family. This was from knocking his head on his crib.

Welcome to our gardening "canvas!" I will definitely have to put a couple of plants out here to liven up the place. I'm torn between trying to grow some vegetables for function vs. plants for scenery.

Arrival!

Hello, dear blog readers! Thank you to all of you who have hung in there waiting for word as to whether or not we survived the move from North Carolina to Virginia. In a nutshell, we did. We were very fortunate to have had WONDERFUL folks on both ends of the journey to help us pack, to watch the kids while I packed/cleaned, to drive our car up for us so that we wouldn't have to pay to transport it, and to help us unload the truck when we got here.

The kids (of course) are sick with colds and Blossom is teething with molars. So there's that.

My favorite part of the journey were the Monologues by Lem in the back seat. For example, at one point while I was keenly focused on traffic patterns, I noticed the Diaper Monologues. (Insert "y" for the actual letter "l." We're still working on that one.)

"I yike diapers. Yeah. And um.....Diapers are nice. I don't know. And um....I yike wipes too. Wipes are nice. And um.....Blossom yikes diapers. Yeah. And um....I'll take twooooooo hushpuppies pwease, and two cheeseburgers."

He keeps me on my toes, that one.

I have to say we picked a perfect time to move here. The blossoms are officially out in full bloom, and the weather has been balmy. There is a cherry tree right outside of our living room/kids' bedroom window, and the smell is amazing. The entire apartment complex smells of spring blossoms right now. It. Is. Heavenly!! The tree looks as though some butcher came by and decapitated it (it may have been broken by weight of snow in a storm or some such thing), but I can tell you that regardless of appearances, I'm very happy to see some green (and pick right now) in such close proximity.

 I couldn't post without including pictures of some sort or another. These were taken of the cherry trees right outside of our apartment complex after a snow storm hit the Pacific Northwest right before Blossom was born. Several of the trees were damaged, but I couldn't resist trying to capture the effect of snow on trees. There is almost something philosophical about the sometimes stormy transition of one season to another.