Last night (while I forced Orlund to stay in the living room) I baked his Birthday cake… Yeah, didn’t get a chance during the day so I did it once the kids were in bed. For someone like me, it was a complicated process. I got the idea off another blog, kinda wish I’d looked at their pictures better as it would have helped me not make such a mess… But I got it done, put in the oven. Cooked. Cooled and now it’s sitting hidden in our fridge. I took pictures along the way..I can’t post them yet as Orlund’s birthday isn’t until Saturday.

Today I’m icing the cake. I was going to make the icing this morning as my girlfriend Leah coming to help me later and I wanted the icing ready to go ~ oops left the butter in the fridge so it’s now out ‘softening’. My plans on just exactly what I’m going to do keep changing. I’m hoping Leah has some ideas. My experiences with Icing cakes is not good. I’m not all that talented at it, but I’m going to give it a try again. I pray I can make the icing thin enough to do a ‘crumb’ layer (where you ice a thin layer on to keep the cake from crumbing into your decorating), I just heard about this crumb layer for the first time today… wish me luck. I usually give up on decorating when my cake starts crumbing, and Orlund finishes it off… NOT today. Today I’m going to do it..

Wish me luck! I’ll be sure to take pictures of it at all steps along the way and post, probably, on Sunday..

I wanted to tell you all about a fabulous event I attend once a month, it’s called “mom’s night out”. It basically is held one night a month at a different restaurant at 6pm. No kids. No husbands. Sound fun? It is!
I’ve had people say to me that this ‘night out’ must consist of a lot of gossip. I mean lets face it, there are usually 5-15 women out for dinner. We must gossip all night right? How about I tell you what Mom’s night out means to me, and you tell me if it’s all about gossip….
First things first, Dinner out at a restaurant. Who doesn’t love that? You get to choose whatever you want to eat/drink. You don’t have to cook it or clean up after it. Dinner out is always fun even with the kids. BUT, when you don’t have kids, it’s even funner! When you are a mom, out for dinner with your kids you have ample to keep you busy ~ Do they have to go potty? (usually just as your food arrives) did they soil their diaper? Are they being to noisy for the other diners? Are they making a mess? Eating nicely? You order fries as your side, but really you’d rather a salad ~ but kids like fries. Our girls are very well behaved, however they can get to be a handful because well….restaurants are boring for kids.
So dinner out without kids is fun. Dinner out with the husband is fun, however really if you are a SAHM like me what do you have to talk to him about? he listens to me every single day. It’s nice to have a fresh set of ears to ramble on to.
We talk about our kids. Yup we do. Is that gossip? I don’t think so… We talk about milestones they made/missed, struggles in school, at home, etc. We all give advise and comfort one another in the decisions we’ve made. It helps to know you aren’t such a bad parent after all. We talk about work, school, housekeeping. I found out I’m not the only person who makes lists to do everyday! Nice to know I’m not as weird as I thought I was
Sure you know, I’ll admit it. Sometimes gossip does come up. I think rather rarely. I mean really, can you see 15 ladies sitting out at a restaurant gossiping? Rather hard to do. We are human so gossip pops up, usually though, just if you are carpooling and you need some advise on a relationship.
I’ve heard some ladies say they don’t want to come, just because they figure it will all be gossip. I feel sorry for them. They are missing out on a web of friendships. I find after Mom’s night out I feel uplifted. Alive. Ready to face whatever life throws at me for another month.
I thank Jamie who organizes and reserves the place and time. All the fabulous ladies who attend, and help me with all my life throws at me. And of course my Fabulous husband who takes care of our precious beautiful little girls. Thanks Hunny!
If you are a mom living in my town, you don’t have to attend our Church to attend our Mom’s night out! Just pop me a message and I’ll email you the info (when I have it) for the next one! We love having new ladies to make connections with, it’s a friendly environment and you’re sure to have fun!!

Ever feel like you just want to read something beautifully written, inspirational, and perhaps a bit random? Following the thoughts of the writer is more fitting than random I’d say. I have only a few people who actually read my blog, and Danica is one of them. I read her post tonight. It’s all I wrote about above. Check it out here. (had my hubby help link that).

ps~ on a slight side note. I must remember to never blog that I’m bored again… The cat got sick 2minutes later on the carpet.. yeah.. gross.

Well after my last post I should write that today was a much MUCH better day Thank you Jesus!
Last night I found I couldn’t sleep. I was wide awake. WIDE awake. I haven’t felt that wide awake since before I got pregnant with Joy!! It felt great…. the only problem was it was after bedtime. I couldn’t make any noise. I couldn’t use this wide awakeness for progress. (yes awakeness is a word in Jenn Land). We went to bed at 11pm. I stayed up wide awake until 1:30am. I made a prayer list (specifically of babies, mommies and pregnancies ~ the devil sure has been attacking). I prayed over the list as a whole and individually. I spent some time with the Lord. Then surprisingly enough I was still wide awake (you know what I mean if you’ve ever tried to pray before falling asleep, you usually fall asleep before you say Amen). So I turned my computer on in hopes mom would be online. Nope. So I emailed her. puttered around online. The girls were up a bunch of times, so they also kept me going. Finally I decided I should try going back to sleep. And I did rather quickly, and slept GREAT!
This morning the girls and I went in the back yard, hoping to play in the pool ~ ice! So we came inside. I thought I had the boys at 10am, but nope, it was 11am. So I baked bread. Today was my day to take a meal to some new parents in our Church (Baby born on Tuesday! He’s so cute!). Once the boys arrived I made lunch while baking a desert (turns out using whole grain flour doesn’t work so good in squares). I gave Sol a bunch of time outs but over all it was a good day with them.
My Dad popped over just as the boys were being picked up. So I scooped his car to drop off the meal, then returned to enjoy dinner with him and the girls. (Orlund went on a hike with buddies until 10pm). Then we enjoyed a coffee and he headed home just as I put the girls down. They went down surprisingly well. Bonus! Then I went to have a bath, and decided the tub REALLY needed a scrub, so I scrubbed it. It was draining slow, so I dug out gunk from the drain. While I was doing that my mom called on the phone! It’s always an extra special treat when she calls. We visited then decided we should Skype as it’s free. So we did that, while I enjoyed a bubble bath (I know weird to do, but whatever. I needed the bath). So after a rather short soak, and a good visit with mom I decided to watch a movie. I didn’t like any of the choices I had, but decided on “how to train your dragon”. It’s a ‘kid’ show. My kids wont watch it until they are like 13, but none the less my brother gave it to me. And I like it! It’s cute! Orlund came home, he’s looking at his hiking pics, and all in all it’s been one of those days that at the end of, you wouldn’t mind repeating tomorrow…..Tomorrow will be even better!

Random, but cute. Our little helpers.

~~ I learned a few new things this week, 1- before promising a meal to someone, make sure you have the car to deliver it. 2- not everyone can be so last minute as me (which is completely okay!). 3- it’s more work than I thought to plan the meals, but I think next time I’ll be better prepared……Wish me luck! I do truly LOVE being able to bless others in this way, it’s just been a BIG learning curve for me these past few days.

While Orlund works on something mysterious downstairs I figured I might as well get to updating the blog. I have a bunch of pictures to post, however I can’t find the cable thingy to download from my camera to the computer. But here are a few snips of our life as of late;

~ Olivia got a cold the day after her 1st birthday. She still has it. The Friday after her birthday she had her 1year shots, two weeks later she had measles bumps as a reaction. We had a bunch of sleepless nights.

~ The week leading up to Olivia’s birthday she started nursing more, adding back in her 10am feeding.And still didn’t sleep through the night with 2-5 feedings.

~ The Thursday night BEFORE her shots she was up all night screaming. She couldn’t breathe due to a stuffy nose. At 4am we realized she was hungry as she hadn’t eaten all night. She couldn’t lay down to nurse, so we gave her the bottle.

~ Olivia didn’t go back to breastfeeding after that…. I was NOT expecting that sudden stop. Shed a bunch of tears. Orlund couldn’t understand why I was upset by this as even I had said she was old enough to wean. It was just so sudden, especially after she’d started nursing again. I felt like a special time with my baby was over, she’s growing up. It takes a bit to get used to.

~ Joy also got the cold the same day Olivia did. And she still has it. She also got Croup in there….fun… She’s over the Croup but still has a bad cough.

~Last night Joy didn’t sleep. So neither did the rest of us.

~ We’ve been looking at all the things around the house we want to do. It’s extensive! But this year we hope to tear down our old fence (on one side of the house) and put a new one up. Put mulch down in the back where Orlund had a garden last year (this will give room for the kids toys that isn’t on the grass). And install a ‘lattice’ like contraption on our back cement wall and plant some vines to crawl up them. I think that will be all we can afford this year. But it’ll make a HUGE difference around here!

~ Our neighbors trimmed our front Junipers (I think that’s what they are called). Completely cleans up the front of the house!

~ A bunch of people I know just had babies. I know a whole bunch more that are pregnant. Sigh. I held a -almost- week old today, he was so adorable! The same weight as Joy was, but 2″ shorter. So cute!

~ Joy is pretty much Potty trained. I say pretty much as she still wears a diaper at nap/bed times but otherwise she’s doing great! Even played at Grandma’s today and didn’t have any accidents. I told her if she goes until her Birthday (1 week away) without accidents then she can go to Sunday School with her friend “Ky”.

~ Joy is obsessed with her friend Ky. She talks none stop about Ky. “Ky nap?”"Ky nummies?” “Ky go outside?” etc etc. it’s cute. However whenever we actually get together with Ky Joy just stares at her and is shy! Unless we are at Ky’s house, then Kylie bosses her around and Joy is happy to play along.

~ Joy is getting better and better all the time with her language. She’s saying words I didn’t even realize she knew, and picking up words wonderfully. Sure she still seems behind other kids her age, but she’s doing GREAT.

~ I have a book (like a binder but not, forget what they are called) that is full of my “to do’s and goals” for the year. I have each month written out. Of course I’ve fallen behind, but I’m doing alright. I finished Olivia’s cross stitch and bought the frame today to finish it off completely.

~I also have another book that has other lists in it. Part is organizing for a trip we plan to take to visit our Grandparents, and the other part is organizing for Joy’s Birthday party. The first part isn’t very big yet, just dates and people to contact etc. Joy’s part is big. I have people to invite, time, what to feed everyone, and that sort of stuff. I have grocery lists, cleaning lists, organizing lists, decorating, and general prep work lists. I like my lists. And I’m getting them checked off wonderfully! I have the goodie bags all purchased, and any groceries I could prepurchase purchased, cleaning is on schedule. I actually got ahead on the cleaning, then I noticed and somehow fell a bit behind now….Oh well, it’ll all get done. I plan to have it all done by Thursday, so Friday can be decorating and any outdoor chores (we will be in the back yard). Then her party is Saturday morning, so before the party I don’t want to be running around, I want to be getting the girls dressed, hair done etc. I’m looking forward to it.

~ Have I rambled enough? Once I find my camera/computer cord I’ll upload some pics of Olivia’s birthday. Promise.

Oh I think Orlund is done the ‘mysterious’ business (think perhaps its to do with Mother’s day? Just a thought.). I’m going to go now and spend time with him! God Bless!

One of my girlfriends makes headbands and hair clips for little girls, she is VERY talented! She asked Orlund to take some pictures for her to show off some of the products. She asked for a few pictures to be taken with Joy wearing the headbands. She has a daughter, same age as Olivia, however wanted to show it off on an older child (with lots of hair). Tonight while Orlund took the pictures of Joy I thought it’d be fun to put a headband on Olivia, sure enough, she’s just so cute! So Orlund snapped a few shots of her as well. Here is a shot we both fell in love with!

I love Christmas. I love the snow, the joy, the family and friends.
Last year I found myself missing out. I didn’t have a work Christmas party, Orlund’s work had theirs during work hours. We weren’t invited to any Christmas parties other than our church banquet (which we had to purchase tickets to).  I know why we weren’t invited out, we didn’t have anyone over to our house. And if you don’t invite people over, they don’t invite you either. It’s plain and simple. I came to the realization that we are to self involved. The day’s pass quickly, we are constantly tired, however we need to put in the effort to have friends. I’m not just talking about at Christmas time, I’m talking all year round. Why not have people over for parties? I’m always concerned my house wont be ‘good’ enough, clean enough etc to have guests over. I’m now part of a program called “Flylady.net” she teaches you how to FLY (Finally loving yourself). Sure my house isn’t spotless and I have a long way to go, but she instructs us to let go of our perfectionism and just start enjoying life.

So this year. Today. December 1st. I sat on the cold tile hearth in our living room. The vacuum cleaner which had just been smoking sat next to me. My vacuum is officially dead. I mumbled under my breath “guess I get a Vacuum for Christmas this year”. I started to think of the friends we’ve made this year. How I’d wish to have them over. Orlund has told me that we can’t host a huge party as our house just can’t hold more than a couple couples at a time. I asked Orlund “Do you know if there will be a Christmas party at your work this year?Do you think it’ll be in the evening or at lunch again?”
“I don’t know, why?” he ask
“well I’m hoping it’ll be at night so I get to go to at least one Christmas party this year” I paused “to be completely honest”.
The thought about the fact that this holiday season will be spent at home alone again crept into my mind.I hung my head down, resting on my hands. A cold draft from the fireplace chilled my back, the tears started to well up in my eyes. The negative gloomy thoughts all started to sneak in. What about having a few people over at a time? Who said that? the thought came in, with it a negative response. Orlund said no. Wait, he said no to LARGE parties, what about a few people at a time? I don’t know if I was talking with God or just my inner voice (perhaps one in the same) but I decided to listen.
“what about if we have a few people at a time?” I asked Orlund
He looked up from his computer “sounds good to me! I would love to have people over, I just don’t want to plan it all”

There we go. My Christmas season does not need to be a gloomy one, but one filled with love. And if my house isn’t perfect, my friends wont have a problem with it, if they do… what kind of friends are they? Time to pick myself up and get out of the self pity and do something about it!

So onto “operation party”. First, I clean. I clean, I clean I clean. I have written a list of 13 areas of my home that need to be cleaned (I mean re-vamped cleaning). If I do twoish a day I can have them all done by the time our Church’s Christmas banquet arrives (Dec 7th).  I’ll start figuring out who I want to have over, and invite them! Orlund’s given me the Okay, so I can do this. No one is responsible for me being happy except me. So here I go… Ready to follow along on my path? I’ll try to blog a little at the end of each day to keep myself on track and let you know how I’m doing… Need to do some re-vamping too? Jump on in and do it with me. Write out a list of what you need to do and how many tasks a day to complete it by Dec 7th and LETS DO THIS!