“What if Honor was twins?”

“Oh, good Lord… if Honor was twins it would have been a sign of the coming apocalypse.”

This is what I found yesterday in the kitchen. Just a small taste of Honor’s recent behavior. I’m grasping at straws here to try to figure out what to do with the kid. I think he just gets bored and then wanders around the house. He finds something and thinks, “this looks fun” and then pours/smears it all over the place.

I’m trying to figure out how to keep the kid interested in his toys. If anyone has any suggestions on how to deal with a kid like Honor, I’ll listen. I was trying to pick Jim’s brain last night because his is the closest brain I know to Honor’s brain. He finally said, “sweetie, I’m sorry… you’re just screwed.” Thanks babe. Thanks.

I’m up to 50 salads already! So now, all of you who’ve promised me recipes, it’s time to send them in!

Just remember, they have to be a recipe you’ve tried and they have to have kosher meat.

http://www.pretendingsanity.com/100_salads.html

(let me know if you find anything strange as you browse the salads, thanks!)

So it’s July 28th. I’m ready to be done with summer. Winter clothes are just so much better. In the summer, there’s only so much you can peel off, but winter, if you get hot, there are layers and layers to remove. AHH, fall, I need you…

Jim gave me his stupid cold and I’m kinda tired and run down today, so I don’t have much to say. So just go look at these really cool knits by minette that I found via not martha.

I especially like and want to make the multi pixie mittens and multi pixie scarf.

I think I’m going to go back to bed.

I used up my three Blingo movie tickets yesterday (can you believe I’ve won THREE?) Jim and I went to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I give it a thumbs up, although it’s not for kids. It was definitely made for my generation, you know the kids who grew up with Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. I gave my sister my third movie ticket in payment for watching the kiddies. Maybe I enjoyed the movie so much because it was WITHOUT kids? Could that be?

I finished two shrugs this weekend. One for my friend Sarah – her birthday was on Saturday. And one for my little grumpy pea. Just look at her, she’s SUCH a big grouch! That’s what I get when I pry her away from Dora.

miss grumpy pants in action

And the one for my friend.

I love this thing. I think I’m going to make one in every color!

.Honor came up to me yesterday holding a wet diaper. At first I wondered how he got into the diaper pail but then he handed it to me and I realized it was warm. He managed to get his diaper off. I’m not sure how because he was fully clothed.

.Eden said to Jim the other day when he told her she couldn’t do something, “I’m so BAD at you.”

.When we were at Walmart the other night, Eden crawled in the bottom of the cart as the store employees looked down their noses at me and whispered about what a bad mom I am. Honor was sitting in the front where he played his favorite game: buckle the buckle and the yell, “bucko, bucko,” until I unhook it for him. Lather, rinse, repeat. Honor noticed that Eden wasn’t there as we started moving and he freaked out, “EDEEE, EDEEE!” He was so worried that I had left her behind. But as soon as I pointed out to him that she was coasting along in the bottom of the cart, her resumed his buckle game. “Bukco!!”

.Maybe it’s just a 3 year old thing, but Eden loves to give us the play by play on all her bodily activities. “Mom, I just tooted.” She’ll bypass the bathroom and come all the way outside to announce to us, “I have to go potty.” And just now she yelled at me from the bathroom, “MOM! I went pee and poop at the SAME TIME! It was SO funny.”

Because we’re gluttons for punishment, the walls of Honors crib didn’t go back up until last night. I admit, Jim’s got more determination that I do. He dealt with nap and bed times all weekend. I can’t even count the MANY, many times that Honor got up and got in trouble. Finally, by last night, Jim had had it. He stormed into the kids room, turned the light on and started to screw the crib back together.

Who would have known that the best punishment of all would be to make Honor sleep in a crib? He was heart broken, he just sat there and cried with the most pathetic look ever. Jim is still braver than I, he thinks that in a few days Honor will be able to sleep without the walls again. I, on the other hand, think that he can sleep in the crib for the rest of his life and I’m considering Joelene’s idea to cover the top with chicken wire.

And congratulations to my friend Jill who just found out that she’s pregnant with her third!

I thought that I’d open today up for questions about me. So ask away! I’ll post my answers here.

What is your ultimate goal for yourself?
Of course I’d get the hard question first. I want to live in the mountains of Colorado, like Ouray, Ridgeway or Telluride where we’ll possibly run a bed and breakfast. And definitely raise sheep for their wool so we can hand dye it, spin it and sell it and most importantly knit it. I want to live in a big farm house with a porch and a big area for a garden.

The biggest accomplishment of my life will be having well adjusted kids who love God and who are great parents and spouses themselves. If this is all I ever accomplish, I will die fulfilled.

What’s next on your knitting agenda and how big is your stash?
I think I’m going to dive into leg warmers. Also, aren’t these great thigh highs? I may just buy them instead of knit them tho…

I’m trying to focus my knitting on what I’m actually going to WEAR this fall and winter. I’m still formulating my “fashion” plan in my head, but that’s where I’m headed. I may also need to knit Eden a cute little wintery dress.

I think my stash is pretty modest, although Jim wouldn’t agree. I usually pick up lots of sugar and cream cotton when it’s on sale for dish cloths and small things for the kids. I’ve got some acrylic novelty yarn and am quickly using up my stash of wool. That’s about all. I need to make it bigger!

How did you and Jim come up with your kids names?
Jim came up with the name Honor when I was first pregnant with Eden. He’s ignoring me right now and won’t tell me how. Since we were pretty convinced that Eden was going to be a boy (even though we didn’t look during the ultrasound) we took our time finding a girl name, just as a back up you know. It was just a month or so before my due date and we were shopping at Target for diapers, onsies, things like that. The check out girls name was Eden and as we walked out of the store, we both looked at each other and said EDEN!

How did Jim propose?
It was August and Jim took me to Aspen. We walked around downtown, peeking in store windows and listening to the street musicians. We rode up the mountain in a gondola and walked around the top for awhile. They were building a fancy schmancy restaurant up on top and it was pretty cold. On our way down, Jim got on one knee and proposed. Even though I knew it was coming, it was still so perfect.

What’s your favorite thing to eat for dinner? Or if you don’t have one maybe just a few of your favorite foods?
Do you have a specialty meal that you make, that people love?
I have a hard time choosing a favorite food, but I really love salads. I also love general tsos chicken and fajitas. oooo, and tamales! I love food too.

Everyone loves my frog eye salad. Also I make a pretty good lasagna. Jim always asks for enchilada casserole.

Eden Joy (Joy is my middle name and my moms middle name.)
Honor James (James is Jim’s real name, it was our compromise as he wants SO bad to have a kid named Jim.)

I really don’t know what to say, I’m still so steaming mad about it. I’ll just say this. I was TRYING to work on a website during nap time when Honor stealthily went into my bedroom where Eden was napping. He got into my black eye shadow and ruined my very cute sheets. Eden watched the whole time and didn’t tell me until the damage had been done. Honor was very happy with himself, as you can see. Lucky for him I knew I HAD to take pictures, you all would never forgive me if I didn’t.

No go ahead… laugh at my expense.

I’ve got the page up for 100 salads, though I’m still adding recipes and may mess more with the format. They all look so yummy that I think I’m going to be eating salads for the rest of the summer! YUM!

Jim took a picture of my one skein wonder. The pic of the front didn’t turn out so well, so you’ll have to settle for a pic of the back.

I love this pattern, I want to make Eden a teeny tiny one.

So we (actually JIM) did the dumbest thing this weekend. He took the side off Honors crib and lowered the mattress all the way down. Yeah, I told you it was dumb. I think Jim had a momentary lapse in judgment when he saw Honor crawl into Edens toddler bed and look up at him with pleading eyes. Honor is a whole year older than Eden was when she moved to a toddler bed. But. There’s a reason. The boy is uncontrollable. He’s a squirmy ball of energy that NEVER. STOPS. EVER.

My very last option of containment is now gone. Wanna guess how many times he got up (and got in trouble) from his nap yesterday? SEVEN… or was it eight? He’s gotten up so many times in the last 36 hours that they’re all blending together. He of course thinks it’s the greatest thing EVAR!! He can get up, he can crawl in bed with Eden and lay on her head. He can get a toy, he can open up the wipe box and take EVERY SINGLE ONE out and lay them on his bed, he can go running through the house and back as fast as he can in hopes that we don’t catch him before he gets back into his bed. Yes, this is just a sample of the last 36 hours of bed and nap times (which, by the way, is only one nap time and two bed times.)

I wonder how long he would stay up if I let him? That is an experiment for someone like a grandparent who likes him much more than I do and would be less likely to duct tape him to the wall out of sheer desperation.