Rain, Snow, Sun, What? Or, Let me Complain About This.

It's been raining ALL week.  Every day, rain rain rain.  I got Ingrid a pair of (purple, naturally) rain boots, but couldn't find a rain coat for her. 

I had a rain coat for Otis but couldn't find a pair of rain boots for him.  Do you know how RIDICULOUS it is that Target, a Minneapolis based store, doesn't carry season-appropriate clothes?  In March I needed a pair of pants for Otis, they only had shorts.  March.  March.  It is snowing out in March, I need PANTS.  Now it's April, and what is that old saying?  Oh yeah, April showers bring May flowers.  IT RAINS IN APRIL!  Which means people will be needing rain boots and rain coats.  But no...none of the above at any store in the Milwaukee area unless you want to buy super expensive things like at REI or similar outdoorsy store.  Which I do not, thank you very much. 

 

I am an Amazon prime member, so I always look there when I have to order something.  Even they didn't have any size 8 rain boots for less than $40.  Otis is my last kid, there is no one to hand it down to, I'm not doing it.  Sigh...

 

Went to LL Bean today, got a rain coat for Ingrid and boots for Otis and it took me five seconds to find what I wanted.  No browsing around, no price comparison, they were cute, they were on sale, call it a day. 

 

Anyway, complaint over, I think.  Just learning my lesson that apparently you have to shop for things you'll need in April right after Christmas...

 

In other news, it has been a bit schizophrenic around these parts lately.  After a few nice days where we went out without coats on, it rained for a week.  Then this morning I looked outside and it was snowing.  Then on the way home from running errands the sun was shining so bright I was blinded.  Now it's dreary and gray again.  Come on, make up your mind.  It's making us crazy!

The other day we got hungry for something sweet.  I had gotten a few new vintage Pyrex things at the thrifts, so we put them to good use.  My favorite recipe--the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook's One Bowl Chocolate Cake.  It makes an 8" square cake, which is the perfect amount.  We also made bright pink frosting to go on top.  Ingrid wanted purple but I wasn't up to the task of mixing colors so she settled for pink.  It was delicious.

This weekend is going to be very chill I can already tell.  I don't think any of us have any motivation to do much of anything.  We got the movie Cars 2 at the library this morning and we will be sitting around watching that.  The sun needs to make its way back out!!

 

 

 

Ikea

A friend and I went to Ikea on Wednesday.  I love and hate Ikea.  I can sit and daydream with a catalogue in hand, imagining a comfortable sofa, tons of clever storage, bright colors, and a happy family.  And then I get in the store and find what I thought was cute is actually really cheaply made (thus the $30 price tag) or it's not the color I thought it would be or there's no way it will fit in my car. 

However, I had a specific list of things I knew I wanted, so the trip was pretty fast and fun.  Having no kids along was an added bonus--I saw all the other moms with screeching kids yelling "stop touching that!  Just keep your hands off!" and I sighed a contented sigh and went back to  my leisurely browsing.  Suckers.

I got some Expedit shelves for our dining room.  They look so much better than the cheap Target bookcases we had before!  I got some baskets for the top, too, that have cleaning supplies I had nowhere else to put.  Now the top of my refrigerator is bare!  It's amazing.

You'll notice my trim is still not painted.  I intend to remedy that this weekend.

If I can find a dining room set I even kind of sort of like I will get it and then the dining room will be done.  I have not found a thing I like though.  Boo.

Other fun items purchased at Ikea were curtains for Ingrid's room, measuring cups, wooden spoons, and food storage containers.  I am so old and out of it that it is a happy day indeed when I have new wooden spoons!

Ahhhh, Home.

Things are going pretty well here.  Boxes are unpacked, most of our random crap is put away, and I hung stuff up on the walls.  My fabric is out, I've gotten to sew some things, and we're getting back into a schedule.  Ahhh.  Our stressful time is almost over.

We went to Whole Foods to get groceries the other day.  There's an underground garage and as you come up the escalator into the store, you walk right into the floral department.  Ingrid saw the tulips and we just had to get them!  I wanted orange but she was adamant we get yellow.  Yellow it is.

Also purchased was a Nosefrida snot sucker. 

It sounds gross, but like a lot of things I've embraced as a mother, it's not really.  The bulb sucker wasn't doing the trick and I'm sick of Otis snorting all night because he can't breathe.  This thing works like magic--you stick it in their nose and suck.  Out comes the snot.  You blow it out onto a tissue, nothing ever comes near your mouth, it's awesome.  (I'm gushing about a snot sucker, I need to get out of the house more apparently...)

House stuff is going well.  Little by little I'm getting things put together.  I built a dresser a couple days ago, with lots of "help" from Ingrid.  It looks pretty cute in her room, and I'm so glad she's not living out of her suitcase anymore.  It's the perfect place for all her cute stuff, including the Irmi lamp I won from Modern Kiddo awhile ago!

My favorite room in the house is the dining room.  Strange but true.  It's somehow cozier than our living room.  We had people over and plopped the kids down in the middle of the dining room rather than the living room.  We have our computer in one corner, and the table on the other side.  There's an amazing china cabinet that holds our books (as if I own china...ha!) and our globes.  I love it.

Otis' room/my sewing room is also done but I just got stuff up today so I don't have pictures.  It's cute, too bad he won't be using it to sleep in any time soon...But I love having a sewing room again, so it actually works out nicely!

Thanksgiving and Black Friday

Our Thanksgiving was...fine?  Or it would have been, had any of us been in a good mood.  Which none of us were.  Our day started with Ingrid getting up early and instantly being whiny and crying over everything.  It did not go uphill from there.  Since she doesn't nap anymore, if she's tired at 7:30am, she's just gonna be even more tired at 3pm.

The idea was that we would stay home, be cozy, eat lots of food, and relax.  The reality was that I was exhausted and begging for naps, Ingrid was throwing tantrums every five seconds, and Brendan was crabby because he just wanted to have a day off and watch football. 

We did manage to have a nice afternoon, with lots of good food and pumpkin pie that came out perfectly because I used canned stuff instead of trying to be fancy and cooking a real pumpkin like I did last year.  We were sufficiently stuffed, I got a good nap in, we tried to go for a walk in the rain to look at holiday lights that are already up in the neighborhood.  But none of us were feeling it.  Something was off...

Oh well, it's done.  And today was better.  I am not one for Black Friday, like EVER, I hate the idea of crowds and all that buying stuff no one needs.  You never really get that good of a deal anyway, and you have to fight people over it, or wait in line for hours, or whatever.  Just not my cup of tea.  BUT...Joann Fabric was having a sale on flannel and fleece, both of which I use a lot of in my sewing, for so cheap that I couldn't pass it up.  I woke up early anyway and decided to check it out. 

How naive of me to think I could just zip in and out!  Who really goes nuts at a fabric store on Black Friday?  Aren't they all at Target buying $2 Barbies or something?  Ha, how mistaken I was.  I got there around 6:30am and the place was packed.  I looked through the fabric, luckily I had a list to remind myself of what I needed, then I got in line for the cutting table. 

Fast forward TWO HOURS.  It was finally my freakin' turn.  Two effing hours for fabric, I must be crazy.  I did get some really good stuff and the bottom of my reciept said I saved $109, but really, two hours to wait for cutting fabric.  Never again, I don't care if they're giving away flannel!  I am just thankful I didn't try to lug Ingrid with me, oh my god.

When I got home I washed and dried and ironed all of the fabric I had gotten, all with a little help from my wee helper.  She loves doing laundry with me for some reason, it's awesome.  She played by herself a lot today, which was a nice change of pace.  Brendan and I got to do what we wanted to do.  It was what we wanted Thanksgiving to be, at least it only came one day late.  And now it's back to reality and hoping to hear something from Brendan's job interviews!!