Weekend Wrap-up: I Think We’re Getting Past The Baby Stage

This past weekend, Gabriel was out of town, so the kids and I spent a lot of quality time together. 😉

We spent almost all of Saturday morning cleaning their room, and throwing out toys that they don’t play with. Since then, we’ve been working hard at teaching the kids to pick up after themselves, and not drag their toys all over the house.

It’s slow going, but for now I’ve settled for reminding the kids to pick up things they’ve dropped whenever I see them out of place. I’m just so glad their old both enough to put follow directions now.

Two or three years ago, you would have never convinced that we’d actually get to this point. I thought I was going to spend the rest of my life with babies underfoot. Who knows, maybe we’ll see the baby and toddler stage again soon, but next time around, I think it’ll be easier because we’ve experienced just how quickly it passes.

Favorite Tip This Week

Spritz lemon juice on your underarms in place of antiperspirant deodorant. Antiperspirants are SO bad for you, but you can circumvent them with numerous natural and homemade deodorants. Lemon juice is just one of them!

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Purchase I’m Excited About

I usually try not to talk too much about what we’ve bought, or spent money on because it’s suppose to be a frugal blog after all. But I’ll make an exception for this one.

I love what the Mercy house is doing for women in poverty. They give women skills and pay them for the crafts and jewelry they make. While I think straight out charity is a good and important part of giving, I also think there’s tremendous merit to the “teach a man to fish” philosophy.

So I did hesitate to sign up for the Bracelet of the month club, but I decided to at least give it a trial run, and I’m glad I did, because I quickly realized that even if I didn’t end up liking the bracelet, Hadassah would!

It took her .2 seconds to spot my new bracelet and ask to wear it when I walked into the room. 🙂

Favorite Recipes

Upside-down Shepherds Pie

Hadassah keeps insisting she doesn’t like potatoes recently, but the rest of us loved it!

Italian stir-fry

https://www.instagram.com/p/BEgs2H9LOw7/?taken-by=elise_new

I’m not sure exactly what to call it, but it’s just a simple mixture of yellow squash or zucchini, tomatoes, onions, and oregano stir-fried together, and served over rice and hamburger. The finished product isn’t very pretty, but it sure is yummy!

Most noteworthy Quote with the kids

“mom, are my boots pretty?” Hadassah, a split second before walking into a door.

She then proceeded to bawl as I carried her too the car, but managed to ask if I remembered my purse before I put her in her carseat.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BEcLiuDrO2Q/?taken-by=elise_new

They say if we don’t treat girls different, they won’t be different from boys, but I swear, I haven’t treated her different, and while she’s definitely rough and tumble, a few months ago, she also turned into a pink wearing, purse and baby doll toting girly girl.