Focus, I have none

We're on Day 4 of 5 of Daddy being out of town so please excuse my babbling and lack of structure and organization. I have also pretty much stopped using my actual camera since my phone is so much easier and fits so much better in my purse. (And, truth be told, the memory card that I have in my camera is full and I'm way too lazy to delete pictures at the moment.)

So.

I take lots of pictures of Laura these days because she's a much more willing subject than her brother.

Sister loves her some spaghetti. As does her brother.

Conked out. The ten-minute ride to get Will at school is often too much for her.

Both of the kids are suddenly way into coloring. It's way nice and way more peaceful than some of the other things they've been way into.

Poor Will is seriously under-represented in my pictures here lately, isn't he?

In case you were wondering, this is what a ham hock looks like. I made pinto beans (soup beans for all my WV peeps) and cornbread for dinner last week and the recipe I used relied heavily on one for flavor.

This is what I fixed myself for lunch today. It's delicious and I highly recommend trying it. Top and tail some green beans (fancy speak for trim the ends), cut them approximately in half and steam them until they're to your liking. I like them fairly crisp. Mix some Dijon and mayo in a bowl, add the beans and mix all the deliciousness up. Sprinkle with sea salt (and I really think it must be actual sea salt instead of table salt, since it adds a nice crunch that table salt wouldn't). I bet you didn't think you'd be getting a recipe from me today, did you? (Well, not really a "recipe" but whatever.)

I received this catalog in the mail today. I'm still trying to figure out what we have bought at some point that placed us on this mailing list.

And finally, as bedtime is rapidly approaching, here is a picture of our bedroom, my very favorite room in our house. It's the Zen amid the chaos and I like it more and more the longer we live here. She's come a long way from her yellow striped wallpaper and wall-to-wall ugly carpet. See?

Well, that's all for now. It's supposed to be frigid tonight so our super cozy flannel sheets are calling my name.

Hello there

It's 2012! How did that happen so quickly?

Here's what our car looked like before we headed back to Cincinnati from WV:

(All of these were taken with my phone, so they may be a little blurry.)

I can't even begin to describe the amount of gifts the kids got. I still have no idea how we crammed ourselves and the mountain of stuff into the same relatively small vehicle. But we made it back and most of the new stuff made its way . . . straight onto Laura's bed. (Not her crib, fortunately for her. We have a full-size bed in her room as well that is now home to our Christmas overflow. It's not pretty but it has nowhere else to reside until we get the basement back in working order. It makes me break out into hives if I think about it too long so I'm going to move on now.)

Look! It's a hair clip! She's starting to slowly let us put items of containment in her hair. She's also on her own personal mission to somehow cram herself into the dishwasher without me noticing. Speaking of noticing, please refrain from noticing the bag of trash. Or refrain from judging me, at the very least. My housekeeping skills have been a little bit suspect in the past few weeks.

Look who's forward facing now! (I know, she's not supposed to be turned around for another few months but I couldn't fit her in any longer rear facing. And I'm a total Nervous Nelly about car seat safety so I've already fretted enough about it for all of us.)

We've had lots of family game nights.

Speaking of games, Will loves this one that my sister and her fam got for him. It involves thinking and planning and doesn't make a lick of noise so it's a hit for everyone.

She is the sweetest child.

With the start of the new year, we've made a few changes around here. We're determined to eat out less so I've been cooking a whole lot more, which I always enjoy when I get back into the swing of things. My major accomplishment was actually accomplished some time ago but I'm really off the Coke this time. However, I've been supplementing my water drinking with chocolate milk so I don't know if I should boast about it, exactly.

I'll try to write something soon. I'm limiting my computer time these days because I have about eighty million things to do around here and about one hour in which to do them, unless I want to stay up until the wee hours of the night. But that interests me not in the least. Right now, for instance, it's 9:05 and I can't wait to finish this and get in bed. And they say parenthood makes people boring. (Obviously "they" didn't know me pre-parenthood.)