I feel like I am ignoring you

I feel so guilty, that I have not posted in almost a week (I think).  Life's been busy - so I guess that is good for us.

Back Yard

We have been spending pretty much all our spare time working on the back yard.  Today I picked up some patio stones to set up an area for our BBQ.  The last 2 weekends were spent building a box around the garden.  Next step after the bbq area will the the walkway - or if the weather is still behaving planing the garden.

Here is a picture of our littlest helper pounding away with his hammer.

My Seedlings

My seedlings are growing like mad - they are ready for the garden but the garden is not ready for them.  C Monster loves watering them almost every morning for me.  He is perticularly proud of teh edamame since he planted them himself.

Family

On the weekend we visited Tara and her kids (Geoff's sister) C Monster had so much fun and I think B and S Monster also really enjoyed his visit. Tara and her family are so great they keep pretty much everything from their kids for us - she is the reason we almost do not have to buy any clothing.  This weekend we got to take home a tricycle for C Monster - he loves it.  This time we booked our next visit with them right away we often go almost 6 months without seeing each other - I can't let that happen again.

Cat Food

C Monster loves feeding the cats. We turned our head away from him for a minute and he had one dish packed to the brim;  when I told him to put some in the other bowl - he did ; but it was the water bowl.  Note the nice mess he also made... However if it was not for C Monster I think many days the cats would not eat as I am always forgetting to feed them.  Every day when C Monster sees their bowls he says "Bo num num".  Bo is one of our cats.

Looking Forward To

The peanut butter cupcakes I am baking for my moms group that is meeting at my house on Friday.  If they turn out to be yummy I will post the recipe.

What do you wash your dishes with?

We have had a dishwasher now for just over half a year and I think I have tried more bad dishwasher liquid or powders then good ones - this is why that our soap of choice deserves a mention here.

First lets start with the worst of the soaps we tried - hands down it is Nature Clean Automatic Dishwasher Gel. It left the inside of our dishwasher with a nasty film of grime and well the dishes also.

Now the winner is EcoEthic Automatic Dishwashing Powder. It come in a plastic container that is recyclable; I prefer the plastic over the cardboard box because I don't need to worry about getting the packaging wet. Geoff saves the empties and uses them to package up oil (from motorcycle oil changes) to drop off at the hazardous wast transfer station. It has a bit of citrus smell that does not bother me. But most important of all it gets the job done; dishes come up clean.

In case you are wondering we purchase it from Green Cricket.

Seedlings - Soy Beans

Play Ground

The afternoon finished with a trip to the play ground; were we lucked out and bumped into some friends Marnie, A Monster and J Monster.

Looking Forward To

The eating home made bread my husband is working on.

Seedlings; Kids On the Hip and I am not Perfect

Seeds are Sprouting

I am so excited my seeds are taking and my sprouts are growing... I planted a few more last weekend and will do the same this weekend - by spreading out when you start your seedlings you have a variety of plants at different point is their growing cycle so you end up with a more continuous crop.

Kids on the Hip

Kids on the Hip is closing. All week, everything is 25% off; next week starting on Saterday everything is 40% off, then that is it: bye bye Kids on the Hip. I went by today and picked up a few things for the C Monster including great little toy cars for an Easter Hunt. My plan this year is to hide some paper eggs around the house with some clues on them leading you from egg to egg. With each egg I will hide a little car - at the end when he gets to the final egg their will be a small chocolate egg for him.

The cars are from Plan Toys - mini trucks and cars II.

Keeping it Real

Inspired by fellow blogger Boho mom I decided to post about my imperfections:

• I make tonnes of typos (many of which are cleaned up later by my helpful husband)
• My dishes are not done
• The laundry is piling up
• My son is down to only one nighttime diaper - I so need to wash diapers
• We had ice cream for lunch (chocolate of course)
• I have granola crumbs stuck to my butt

Looking Forward

To a great lunch on Friday with my friends.

Seedlings, Supper and Terrible Twos

Seedlings

This afternoon C Monster and I planted most of our seedlings for the vegetable garden. I say most because I am recycling plastic containers, toilet paper rolls and other various containers for planters - and well ran out of planters. I bought a bag of potting soil and dragged it into the kitchen were we worked together at filing all the containers - C Monster quite enjoyed playing with dirt in the house. I did the actual seed planting because C Monster was way to excited and I am pretty sure if I would have let him handle the seeds they would of all ended up on the ground.

We planted chard, kale, onions, broccoli, cauliflower and beans. The seedlings are going to be placed on the window box in our master bedroom; until they sprout I am going to keep them in plastic bags - this causes a greenhouse effect.

Supper

Tonight for supper I think I outdid myself we had homemade soda bread; lemonade and soup. The soda bread was crazy good. As always I followed a recipe but modified the ingredients - Irish Soda Bread with Dates by Phoebe Bites.

All-purpose flour, 2 cups, plus 2 tablespoons
Whole Wheat Bread Flour, 2 cups
Granulated sugar, 1/4 cup
Baking soda, 1 teaspoon
Salt, 1 1/2 teaspoons
Unsalted butter, 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick), cold, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
Whole milk, 1 3/4 cup
Apple Cider Vinegar, 1 teaspoon
Egg, 1 extra-large
Zest of 3 Blood oranges
Cranberries dried, 1 cup
Flax seeds, 1/4 cup
Pumpkin Seeds, 1/2 cup

Terrible Twos

I try really hard to only use positive discipline - try not to say no. Today well I was not that good at it; I caught myself over and over saying no out of frustration as C Monster was driving me crazy with his shenanigans.

1. Tackles E Monster not once not twice but 5 times during their play date
2. Dumps his snack on the floor 2 seconds after I give it to him
3. Discovers if he shakes is sippy cup that contained smoothie it will splash all over the place
4. Spits at E Monster
   
5. Throws is edamame all over the kitchen
6. Throws one of the planters for my seedlings up in the air when it's full of dirt
7. Bit me
8. Pinched my nipple when I told him he could not nurse
   
9. Kicked me in the face while nursing (twice) - this is why I told him he could not nurse
10. Dumped his soup in his juice then asked for more juice
11. Raspberry style spit in my face

Despite all of those crazy annoying things C Monster did today he also:

1. Kissed me good morning
   
2. Helped me pot my seedlings
3. Ran around the house wearing a crown for most of the day
4. Helped clean up the potting mess
5. Let E Monster play with his favorite toy all morning
6. Said mine and mmm to the bread I baked
7. Sat on the potty
8. Is asking for help when needing instead of screaming in frustration
9. Kinda let me brush his teeth (only after a fight)
10. Kissed E Monster all better every time he tackled her without me asking him to
    
11. Gave me a great big hug ans kiss goodnight
    

Geoff hurry up and finish the book on discipline you are reading....