Housework=Fun??

When does housework stop being fun?





And starts to actually be work?

Or is this helpful, wanting to clean streak going to last?

xoxo—Lori Danelle

You still with me???

Sometimes I'm surprised I still have readers! I have a bad habit of disappearing, don't I??



I promise that you're not missing out on anything when that happens. Typically, my respite from blogging is due to late nights of taking work home with me.

Not much to blog about there. . .




So thanks for sticking with me after having one of those weeks!!! :)




Nothing too exciting has happened since the madness, and to be honest, I'm still in it just a tad. Hopeful that tomorrow things will go back to normal — cross your fingers for me!

We did finally put air in the bouncy ball Big got for her birthday in March (eep!) and had some fun with that one evening.




We've taken to spending most evenings in our front yard this summer. I'm not sure why it is, but we have sooo many lightening bugs this year!! We love it!

I find them sort of magical. I know it's just a bug, and I have a pretty strong policy against bugs in general, but for some reason, I'm good with lightening bugs. It's probably because when we look out over our yard it shimmers like pixie dust and the little girl inside of me awakens and wants so badly to believe in fairies and magic.



June bugs and spiders just don't really do that for me. . . ;)

xoxo—Lori Danelle

Celebrating 6 Years (with lobster)!!

Sunday was my anniversary! It's crazy that it's been 6 years already and that it's ONLY been 6 years! Time just doesn't seem to measure things correctly!!

For our special day, Nate & I decided to play it low-key — and in the end, this may be our best anniversary yet!

Flipping through our favorite grilling cookbook earlier this week, I got it into my head that it would be fun to try and grill a lobster.

Now, I must tell you. The last time I had a whole lobster was almost 15 years ago while visiting family in Florida. I'm still teased about that meal when I'm with the people who were present then. I went through a phase where I had a really hard time with meat in general. It grossed me out. I wouldn't eat anything off of a bone, someone had to do that for me, and that was when I was eating meat again after a couple years of not. So to have this whole lobster on my plate in front of me that I would need to break open in order to eat — well, I was a bit squeamish with that. However, I'm told that the faces I made proved to be very entertaining for everyone else at the table. I'm just lucky video recording wasn't standard on all cell phones at the time!!

So, needless to say, though I now eat meat without issue, this was still going to prove quite interesting! I believe we were both more looking forward to the experience of cooking this meal more than we were the meal itself. . .although the 2 inch thick rib-eye steak Nate got to go with the lobster did make my heart skip a beat!

Apparently, not too many people buy live lobsters at the store. When we told the man manning the seafood department at the grocery store that we wanted to get a lobster, he responded, "OK. Let me figure out how to do that."

The box they gave us to take the lobster home in made me laugh. It reminded me of Build-A-Bear Workshop.





The red rubber bands around his claws? They indicated he was Canadian. Blue were for American lobsters. I'm sure it's important — but I haven't got a clue why.

To help with the festive spirit of the day: Papaya & Pineapple Margaritas and later, Mango Margaritas! Yummy.





Back to the lobster: :)



I'll save you the sight of the fatal blow. . .



We may have been a little caught up in the excitement. Being just a tad silly?





Please don't let the sight of the lobster cause you to overlook the amazing steak on the grill.





So Good! And that black bean salad was really good too! (That & the margaritas were my contribution to the meal!) It has grilled red & yellow bell peppers along with onion, jalapenos, & anaheim chilies, tossed with the black beans, cilantro, and a cumin & chili powder vinaigrette. Spicy and so tastey!!!

Nate enjoying:



And now for me.

You can't tell at first, but behind that large ear of corn is the lobster. The problem with only eating lobster once every 15 years is that we didn't have any of the proper "tools" to eat a lobster.

We made due:









And yes. That's a hammer beside me.

You do what you gotta do.
My Florida family would be so proud.

However, next time, we'll just get the tails. Less work. More meat.
But then again, where's the fun in that?

I wish I had a recording video monitor

I don't even know where to begin on this one.

I was woken up by Little Sister crying over the monitor.
Not so strange.
She's 1.
She cries.

So I made my way upstairs to calm her down and get her back to sleep—keeping the light off since Big shares the room.
I groggily dug around in her bed — (yes, dug. her crib is very full blankets, pillows, books & stuffed animals, none of which I'm allowed to remove without hysterics ensuing) — and came up empty.
I began to realize that the crying was not coming from inside the bed, but below the bed. . .???
(I didn't even know Little could get out of her bed by herself without a lot of help!!)
I knelt down and ran my hand along the floor and found her sitting, leaned over with her head and shoulders stuck under her bed.

!?!!?

I have SOO many questions.

And of course, because I'm a Mom, I feel a little guilty, though I have no idea how I could have prevented this one.

The only thing I can guess at with some certainty is that somehow, her sassy (pacifier) was involved in some manner. It does have a habit of finding it's way under her bed.

My biggest question:
How long was she out of her bed??

xoxo—Lori Danelle

New Paper Cutting

This weekend I finished up a new paper cutting!! Took me about 8 hours to complete.



The word border was actually pretty tricky! Those letters are about 1/3 of an inch tall. So the curves on the S, C, R & 2 took a little bit of work.



I really love how it turned out!! I just wish I could say that I was now going to frame it or use it as some sort of keepsake. . .

Truth is, it's now ruined.

I'm experimenting with color. . . and let's just say that from now on, I'll be perfecting this color application thing on paper cuttings that did not take me 8 hours. Probably should have done that in the first place, but I thought this was foolproof!!! Oh well! One day I'll learn.

And I've already started in on another cutting! (Can you tell I'm enjoying this?)

It's so much fun to see a person's fingerprint BIG! Your fingerprint is such a part of you & so unique, you leave it everywhere (haha!!) and yet, I for one, rarely look at my fingerprint. Big, you see things in it that you never knew where there such as creases or cool whorl patterns. And, in the case of my husband, you get to see scars, which lead to stories of how that scar came to be!! I'm a little curious to see, as my girls get older, how, if at any, their fingerprints change. I know your fingerprint is your fingerprint for life, but your finger does get bigger so does that mean that it's just the lines that get bigger? I have no idea, but if I stay on this track, I may soon become an expert!

Hope you enjoy this print & hopefully I'll soon be able to show you color versions! (anyone have any experience with Montana Gold spray paint???? I know this can be done, so I'm not giving up until I figure out how!!)

xoxo—Lori Danelle

Results of cutting open the tags

As we came home from school today Little was quite distraught to find that she couldn't put her finger in the loop of the tag on her blanket. This was followed by much sobbing which, of course, made me second guess the act of cutting the tags open. But once I explained to/reminded her, a few times, that it was the blanket that had given her the "ouchy" on her finger and that I wanted to keep her safe, she switched to: " Blankie!! Aah No!!! Aah no!!" Over and over and over again!

So hopefully she gets it and it won't be like the time my Dad accidentally set my blanket on fire for her!!!

xoxo—Lori Danelle

Tried to amputate her finger!

My two little ones LOVE to close doors.
Not softly, but as loudly & as hard as possible.
The bathroom door, the door to their room, cupboard. . .if it's open, and preferably if it will make a loud noise, they NEED to shut it—not paying attention to who or what is near them and may be in their way.

Needless to say, every time I hear a door slam, I cringe a little in expectation of an ensuing wail and little fingers being severed. In many ways, I feel it is only a matter of time: Crushed fingers, or worse, are inevitable.

However, I didn't see this coming.

This morning, Little Sister's left, first finger was in jeopardy.

The culprit? (Hint: it wasn't a door)

Her blanket.



It could have been any blanket, but this one happened to be a very cute blanket from DwellStudio for Target. But do you see that little, dingy, much-touched tag hanging down up there? Little Sis, like many small children, loves to play with that part of the blanket in particular. She rubs it between her fingers and at night, sticks her finger through the loop in order to keep it close to her as she sleeps.

Still not seeing the issue, are you? Me either.

When I put her to bed at night, I find the tag and hand it to her. I've even helped her get her finger into the loop. Her obsession with the tag is perfectly normal. There's a whole company called Taggies that was built around this knowledge that for whatever reason, kids love the tags!

But last night, as she slept with her finger in the loop of the tag on her blanket, it got so twisted up that it cut the circulation off of her finger! Kind of like how a dog's tail might be docked. It didn't wake her up right away, so by the time she did wake & start crying, her finger was BLACK!! It took about 10 minutes to get it back to a somewhat normal pink. Talk about scary!!!

Later this morning, her finger still showed signs of the event.







I try to stay pretty level-headed about most things, not freak out too much, and realize that kids are going to get hurt & putting them in a bubble is neither practical nor productive, but from now on I will be cutting open any tags that go into her bed. I never would have thought that something so benign as a tag on my kid's favorite blanket could be a safety hazard, but this could have been REALLY serious! I am so thankful that Little might be quite a bit more in need of some snuggles today, but is still the proud owner of 10 fully functioning fingers!



Now please, go grab some scissors and cut open any tag loops that may find their way into your child's bed! Blankets, pillows, stuffed animals. . .inspect everything. It's not likely to happen to you, too, but let's make sure it doesn't!!

And, I'm suggesting we only cut open the loops, rather than remove them because I know that Little does like to hold onto it and I don't want to take that away from her entirely – just keep her safe!

Are there any other safety hazards out there for kids that I need to know about? Ones that a novice Mommy would never suspect??

xoxo—Lori Danelle