Happy Chinese New Year!

Yes, I know Chinese New Year was a few weeks ago. We celebrated it with some friends (Ranita and Shiwen) - the first time I have ever celebrated Chinese New Year! Oh, Ranita makes some wonderful food, let me tell you. Well, let me show you!

I don't know what everything is called but that's chicken soup in the bowls.
Notice that we have forks and they have chopsticks? hah!

Dumplings and some delicious tofu.

Ribs on the left; fish on the right.

A party gift!

We are so spoiled to have such wonderful friends :). AND we got to take home extra dumplings. YUM!
Oh, did I mention that Ranita is famous? She was a guest on a cooking show in China and has a popular Chinese food blog. Motivation enough to learn mandarin!

Happy (belated) Chinese New Year.

Welcome, year of the snake!! .

Organizing my home, organizing my life

If you know me at all, you know that organization does not come naturally to me. When I do try to organize or clean it takes forever because this is what happens: I see the messy bed, while making the bed I see the laundry pile, while doing the laundry, I look at the disorganized shelf above, while organizing the shelf I'm reminded of birthday cards I need to mail out, I sit down to write the cards but the table still has breakfast on it, I put the food in the fridge when I notice some food went bad, I throw it away but the garbage is full, I take out the garbage and come back inside to a still messy home, feeling frazzled and like I haven't accomplished anything though 30 minutes have passed. Some people I've talked to say this thought process is normal and there's nothing you can do about it. Well I respectfully disagree because I know people who don't think this way, they have a clean home, and I want to be like that. I want to change.

Some (semi-painful) self-reflection left me with these thoughts:

If I can't manage these 854 sq ft. with one child (and one husband...) how will I manage a real house with more children? And let's take this a step further, how can I expect Heavenly Father to trust me to manage even more? It boils down to three things. 1. I see managing my home as an undesirable task. 2. I haven't learned how to keep up with my home. 3. I'm being a lazy bum. So I'm going to fix this. I'm going to fix this because I'm happier when my house is clean and my home is organized. I'm going to fix this because it is an attribute I feel necessary to gain in this life because it will be necessary in the next. I'm going to fix this because this is my garden and I'm going to dress it and keep it (Moses 3:15).

Here's my game plan. I have assigned a chore and a room to each day of the week. In February it is only mandatory for me to do Mondays chores on Mondays though that doesn't preclude me from doing more. Each new month I will add a new day. By the end of the year, I will be doing each day's chores, every week.   Steady and slow wins the race, right?

Monday: mop/ master bedroom/ plan meals
So on Mondays I will mop all floors that can be mopped, spend 15 minutes deep cleaning or organizing some area in the master bedroom, and plan meals for the next week.
Tuesday: tops/ TV room
Tuesday is the day to dust or wipe down the tops of all surfaces and spend 15 minutes deep cleaning some area in the TV room.
Wednesday: walls/ windows/ washroom 
You get the idea.
Thursday: thorough/ closets
Thorough means I clean under or in between sneaky places. I can't think of how to alliterate closets or kitchen with Thursday or friday so they're just tacked on... please forgive me.
Friday: fridge/ kitchen
Saturday: spare room
This is Ben's room.

So I think that covers every area of the house and every chore that doesn't need to be done more than once a week. Did I miss something? Can you think of more fun alliteration?

I'd love to hear what you do to keep up with your home. What are some tricks you use? What sets you back and how to you get back on track? How do you not be lazy?! Okay, go!

Pterodactyl

You didn't believe me, did you?

SEVEN months?

I know that I really haven't posted in a long time when Doug (he reads the blog? Who knew.) said to me in the middle of the day, "you haven't done a blog post...just in case you're bored." To which I responded with a bored? hah! here's my long to-do list. I've thankfully completed that list, but you know how lists are, they just keep multiplying. So basically what I'm saying is I don't know how anyone blogs anymore. Especially with a broken dishwasher.

I would love to tell you about our delightfully long vacation to NY. Essentially, Benjamin was adorable, got sick and developed some naughty night-time habits (fortunately he's back on track now!), learned that wrapping paper is really fun to play with, was loved on by grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins, and went sledding! Did I miss anything? It's hard to remember without pictures and it's hard to take pictures when you leave your camera in NC... So much for adorable first Christmas pictures.

I can't get enough of him! 

• Ben is loving real food. Absolutely loving it. He coos and hmmms while eating or when he sees it coming. I gave him a taste of ice cream last night... he loved it, of course. Other than that we feed him healthy food, I promise! I think his favorite foods are grains, no seriously, this kid loves his carbs. If he doesn't like a food (ahem-carrots!), I mix in some barley or rice and he's game. Or I'll top off a meal with some cereal and he's the happiest kid on earth.
• His preferred toys are that triangle toy pictured above, baby spoons, and pacifiers. Go figure.
• Ben's new name is Kicking Legs. He kicks his legs when he's excited (happy or upset). i.e.: I sat him down next to Elsie Wilson and he couldn't stay upright for his excited kicking legs! He'd fall over every time we tried to sit him back up. Apparently she's the cutest girl around :).
• We have a pterodactyl in the house. Hopefully this phase doesn't last too long.
• Ben is still sleeping 4 to 5 hours during the day and 11-12 hours at night - L.O.V.E. Hopefully this phase lasts forever.

He is the most pleasant child. Maybe we'll have another? Maria's just eaten up all the deductible so why not. Doug, what do you think?

Oh yes, and Doug sprained his ankle. We have pictures of that, but not Ben on his first Christmas morning. Something's wrong here.

Lovely, honey.

The Plunge

Yes! We bought a TV. 47 in Vizio razor, smart TV. It's pretty slick.
Did you notice? The first thing we watched on it was The Dark Knight Rises.
We celebrated "opening night" with our neighbors, the Ozzies, and homemade Italian food: pizza, pasta & sauce, salad, Dr. Pepper (Dr. Pepper is Italian, right? though I can't claim it's homemade).

Okay, I admit, we were planning on getting a TV anyway, but the kicker is we also bought a Tablet (with which the above photo was taken and from which this post was published). If you know Doug, you know he's sworn to never buy an iphone, ipad, etc because they're too complicated. But he surprised me by caving and buying a Blackberry 64GB playbook. I'm loving it, and loving that it's mine (it is mine... right, honey?).

Christmas came early in this household.

Am I eating because I'm bored?

Blog- what's a blog?

Update - oh, you can't read my mind?

So I've been horrible at blogging lately. I can't promise it's going to change, especially since we're spending a good chunk of time on vacation soon. But I thought I'd update you on a key change to Ben's lifestyle: FOOD!

YES! Ben is eating rice cereal, pears, avocado, and we're trying banana later today. He's loving it. And so am I. Who knew introducing new foods to your child could be so much fun? Only parents probably. Ben stares at us when we eat, eyeing the food (and drink) from the plate (or cup) to our mouths. Does every baby do that? Yes, and you don't care, I know, but really, it's so much fun.Try it. Get a baby, and you'll find out.

Lack of updates: Ben doesn't seem motivated to move around. Hence no sitting, crawling, rolling, nothing. Actually I'm sure he'll be sitting pretty soon, he's almost got it. I'm not worried - I think mothers worry too much. Oh, he's walking already? Your child sleeps through the night? You let him suck his fingers? She's still in diapers? You don't nurse her anymore!? You're still nursing her!!?? You don't buy organic food? You bought her clothes at the store?!  I mean, really, it gets a little ridiculous. I'd be lying if I didn't think those things ever (I mean, who doesn't exclusively sew their children's clothes?) but I don't like thinking them.

Didn't think you were getting a rant, did you? 

Anyways, apparently we don't take enough pictures, but here are a few from Thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving, by the way! 

What I've always wanted - a baby on my lap.

Sporting his fav NZ slippers

Peek-a-boo!

Good

Better

BEST!

nom nom nom

Now on to Christmas...

In a few days I'll show you a BIG, I mean really BIG surprise.

That may or may not have to do with Christmas presents.

You'll never guess so don't even try.

I wouldn't have thought Doug would take the plunge.

But he has.

And I am thrilled!!!

So stay tuned.

Oops

Can you say, "airhead"?

I honestly don't know how that happened.

I'm tempted to not take out the 320 stitches required to fix it but to somehow patchwork it....

Please advise.

Ugh, I'll just do it.