January 2, 2009
See? This is what I’m talking about…
Remember when I said that Ike is wired for destruction? He’s a 10-month old demolition expert- and I have photographic proof.
This was his big (though not his only) project for the morning:
Yeah… that used to be the recycling pile. I’m sure he was just helping me get it out so I could put it in boxes.
And then I swept, swiffered and washed the floors. I started with the living room, then did the dining room, and then moved on to the kitchen. And then I went back into the living room to put the furniture back in the right spots, and Ikezilla was at it again.
Those would be his Daddy’s DVDs- Daddy’s not too happy when those end up all over the floor. Just another reason I’m watching kijiji for some storage units with doors on them!
He’s trouble, alright, but there are a few things that make it a bit easier to deal with him than it might otherwise be. for one thing, he’s my baby, and I love him. And then there’s this face of his:
I mean, really- would you be able to get mad at that guy for being curious and busy?
Of course, his brother’s not exactly a saint in that area, either- he can make a pretty good mess, too.
This, my friends, is why I don’t try to have a perfect-looking house. It’s not possible, and it’s no fun. Passable would be nice, though. 🙂
December 4, 2008
YARR, This Chicken Be Salty, Says I
Last night’s supper was almost completely successful. I’d been planning to make quiche, until AJ informed me that he doesn’t like quiche. I’m still going to make it another night (because Simon will actually eat “egg pie”), but I changed our plan for yesterday to baked chicken, etc.
The “etc.” would normally involve either potatoes (boiled or mashed) or rice, both of which require a stovetop, which I still don’t have. Instead, I made cornbread muffins in the toaster oven, using this recipe from Home Ec 101. The baked chicken would normally be Shake n’ Baked, but a walk down to the grocery store left us S&B-less (though I did get a nice raspberry vinegarette for the spinach salad). I coated the chicken in some flour plus whatever herbs I had in the cupboard and stuck it in the fridge while the cornbread wsas cooking.
The cornbread was good, though it got a little too brown on top. The chicken, however, met with disaster while I was busy making the muffins. I had just finished pouring the batter into the muffin tray (since I don’t have a cake pan) when I turned around…
…and saw Simon with the fridge door open, dumping a box of table salt on the chicken. The nicely seasoned chicken breasts I’d prepared looked like the foothills of tiny ski slopes, covered in mountains of salt. “SIMON! No, no, no, no, no!” was all I could think of to say as I grabbed the chicken and tried to brush as much of the salt off as I could. Simon didn’t see anything wrong with his additional seasoning. “I help mommy koonkin’? Mommy koonkin de chinken?” he asked, all wide-eyed innocence.
It’s a damn good thing he’s cute- especially after he got up at 3:15 in the morning. AAARGH. When Andre came home, I said, “I’ve always wondered why hamsters sometimes eat their babies. Today, I think I found out the answer…”
We survived. I cooked the chicken, which ranged from “very good” (AJ’s piece) to “not worth finishing” (mine) to “Dear GOD, that’s salty!” (Simon’s un-touched meal). The cornbread was great, though, and AJ surprised me by actually eating his spinach. Hooray!
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Good news! Sears just called, and the range is ready to be picked up. Christmas baking, here we come!
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Today’s To Do:
-walk to post office and mail Christmas cards
-downstairs play time with boys (and try to get through some boxes while we’re down there)
-sweep and vacuum… probably several times, like most days
-menu planning for next week
-ironing
December 3, 2008
Decking the Halls
Well, we lost our internet connection for two days. How inconvenient.
It was a productive few days, anyway-AJ was off work, so he had two little guys hanging off of him whenever they were awake. No complaints from me- I get them all the time, anyway, and it freed me up to get other stuff done. Stuff like laundry… dishes… sweeping and vacuuming*… blah, blah, blah. We all went grocery shopping on Monday evening. It was ridiculously expensive, but our new fridge is a bit fuller than it was.
I also got some Christmas decorating done, though not without significant help from my little elves. I set up this less-than-attractive barrier to keep Isaac away from the tree:
I had been seriously considering not putting a tree up this year, both because of Isaac’s insatiable desire to touch and/or chew on everything he’s not supposed to have, and because we’re leaving for Florida on the 18th, and won’t be here Christmas day, anyway. That just felt too Scroogey, though, so up went the Great Red Fence.
Two hours later:
Yeeeeeah… he’s nothing if not determined. I’ve doubled the height of the wall and added duct tape; we’ll see how long it takes for him to knock that one over.
The nativity scene also went up- most of it, anyway. One of the wise men met with an unfortunate accident during storage or the move, so we’re gonna need some Krazy Glue or something for this poor guy:
This all left me with a fine mess to clean up, but I don’t mind. It’s so nice to pull out the decorations every year- and even nicer to have room to put them all out! No more Christmas trees wedged into the kitchen or our bedroom. Hooray! 🙂
*We have exactly one rug in this house, but it needs to be vacuumed every day, if not more often. Cats, kids and crumbs are a deadly combination.
adventures in home economics 