1 Step2 Toddle Tune
1 Fisher-Price Laugh & Learn Home
1 Playskool Poppin Pals toy
1 FP Little People Ark
1 FP Little People Airplane
1 Munchkin duck toy/faucet cover
1 Crayola tub crayon set
1 FP Corn Popper push toy
1 wooden puzzle
1 board book
4 DVDs
1 CD audiobook
1 Stearns Life Jacket
6 swimsuits (4 2-piece shirt/shorts sets, 2 1-piece suits)
37 shirts/dresses
26 skirts/pants/shorts (clothes are all Carter’s, Children’s Place, Old Navy, Gap or Gymboree)
For a grand total of $179!
BOO YA.
Waking up at 6 this morning was totally worth it.
I’m one of those people who needs a deadline to get things done. I was the university student pounding at my keyboard and my snacks, racing the clock and getting things done exactly on time.
Some call that procrastination. I call it proper use of a deadline.
I now have a year of official stay-at-home-mom status under my belt, though I enjoyed a rather long introductory period full of mulligans. Triplets, I claimed. No-nap hell, I explained.
I’m totally not admitting this because admitting it would cause the universe to crumble and ruin any semblance of normalcy we’ve established, but we’re now in a nice routine and have been for a few months. I’ve had more time to write, to relax and, yes, to clean.
I’d still fallen short of what I’d tried to do, though. In a fit of frustration, I sat down six weeks ago and laid out a plan to begin the following week. I broke our 1,400 sq. ft. house down by five (weekday) sections and arranged them from most used (most to clean) to least used. Like the rest of the working world, I get a serious case of Weekenditis as Saturday closes in, and getting the hardest part done first would best set me up for success.
click on the image for a larger version you can download
I’ve followed this schedule for five weeks now, and IT WORKS. I sound like an awful infomercial, but keeping up with housework has never been easier for me. It’s on the schedule, so I get it done. Naptime hits, I put away my tech toys, crank the Pandora tunes (the RENT! station is perfect for cleaning), and I power through my chores often with enough time leftover for a quick shower, a meal and a few minutes of rest before my triplets are up and ready to make a mess have fun.
Unscheduled but necessary chores include picking up toys at the start of every nap or when the kiddos go down for the night and just general tidying as the day goes by. Doing a little bit nearly constantly is what makes this schedule work without it becoming too exhausting.
Otherwise, I only focus on the current day’s designated room(s). To make it even easier, I wash each area’s floors and woodwork every other week, rotating by washing on M/W/F one week and T/Th the next. The rotation keeps the floors clean and saves my hands from a solid week in a bucket of hot water.
I’ve had a few busy days that needed some work split between the assigned day and adding a bit extra to the next day’s load, and I admit to not really following the laundry schedule yet. Laundry is tricky to get scheduled, and I just haven’t figured out how to quit doing it whenever it’s necessary, hence why I didn’t include cloth-diaper laundry on the list. Diapers are going to get washed, schedule be damned.
Updated as of April 20
We’ve celebrated a lot of baby-focused anniversaries lately – most recently on Jan. 28, when we celebrated my triplets’ homecoming anniversary. I’m still amazed that they were able to be discharged from NICU on the same day after 67 days of living close together but not really together until we all came home – together.
We’re moving on now to celebrate a year since we formed our very own March for Babies team. Our team last year was riding high on emotions still raw from when I went into labor and gave birth to three tiny people 12 weeks early. Family, friends and Internet strangers alike pulled together after reading through our 67-day NICU stay, celebrating the victories with us and feeling the gut-wrenching dread of those painful NICU difficulties. Our team celebrated our homecoming and rooted for us in the early days of triplets at home.
The atmosphere surrounding Peanut Butter Jelly Time is different this year. Our three heroes are walking, talking toddlers now, full of opinions and gusto with a dash of piss and vinegar. They’ve moved past their days of tiny NICU survivors, and despite hugging the bottom of the growth charts for their actual age, there are few people who would guess they had such a scary start to life.
We remember, though. You remember.
This year feels different, but the spirit of our team hasn’t changed. We still want to raise money to help March of Dimes research ways to prevent premature birth, to be able to detect and treat congenital birth defects. We still want to help March of Dimes reach out to pregnant women in our communities and help them care for their bodies and their growing babies. Every baby deserves a chance at a healthy start to life, and we are doing what we can to help that right reach more babies each and every year.
Please support our team this year. We’d love to walk with you in Charlotte on April 28 or to see pictures of you at the March for Babies event closest to you. To join with our team but walk in a different city, register with us then show up to your local walk. It’s that easy!
If you can’t donate your time, or you want to give more, donate any amount – even $1 from every set of eyes that reads this blog entry will make a big difference in what March of Dimes can accomplish. Want to give more? Great! Just please don’t wish you could give more than a single dollar and shyly back away. Every dollar counts in the end.
Hey, team members – check out the design for our shirts this year. The back is waiting on me to get to a photo scanner, but they’ll soon be Shirts are now available to purchase on CafePress again. No overhead cost will be applied, so the only cost is that which is needed to produce them.
front
back
You’ll need to order ASAP if you’re walking next week, or if you’d rather print your own iron-on transfer, leave a comment with your e-mail. I can send you the images, and you can make your own shirt. I think that’s what I’m doing since I don’t generally trust last-minute orders.
It’s been a while since I recorded my waking-up kiddos. OK, so it’s been a while since I woke up before them. I normally wake to their chattering and giggling voices over the monitor, but with a recent string of late nights and late mornings (these kids LOVE a 10-10 schedule), I decided to set an alarm and get things started a bit earlier today.
I just love watching them wake up!
Friends who’ve asked for recipes of things I’ve cooked in the past have learned that I’m terrible at recipes. I don’t follow them, and I don’t record (or usually remember) what I do to alter the recipes from which I wander.
I am your grandmother. I cook by sight and taste, and whatever recipes I can recall use a mysterious measurement system with units such as, “some” or “enough to make it look/taste ________.”
In short, I am your grandmother. That’s a lot nicer than Queen of Bastard Recipes, right?
I’ve had a hankering (grandmotherly term, natch) for chili lately, but I didn’t want chili from Wendy’s, and I’d never made my own. I’d heard accolades for my dear friend Emily’s chili, so I asked for the recipe.
Upon reception, I glanced, yup-yupped that I had most of what I needed and made a short list of ingredients to complete my stores. When I pulled everything out to start yesterday morning, I realized I was so, so wrong about what I had on hand.
The recipe called for two 14.5 oz. cans of diced tomates and an 8 oz. can of tomato sauce. I had one 28 oz. can of whole tomatoes and one 28 oz. can of tomato puree.
Oops. Bring on the bastard.
I googled, “Homemade tomato sauce,” and ended up pureeing the whole tomatoes with two pinches of salt, about 1/2 tsp. of freshly ground pepper, three cloves of garlic and 2 oz. of chopped basil. (I use Dorot products – they make my kitchen life so easy!)
I added my homemade tomato sauce to the slow cooker with the plain tomato puree and went to work on transforming it into chili.
The original chili recipe I started with wanted 3 Tbs. chili powder.
Dump. Taste. Um, spagetti sauce with a hint of something smokey.
I kept adding chili powder till it started tasting more like chili and less like Ragu. Eight tablespoons in, I was pretty pleased, but it needed more.
Beer! People add beer to chili. I would have loved a dark beer, but we were out. A bottle of Yeungling would have to do.
Better, but not quite there.
It was about here that I started browsing various slow-cooker chili recipes to see what else was out there and available in my kitchen.
A few shakes of red pepper flakes. A teaspoon of cayenne. A tablespoon of cumin (wanted more, but I ran out).
Hmm. Still missing something.
“FOOD NETWORK PEOPLE!” I proclaimed to Rob, who sat on the couch watching Muscle TV and eating popsicles. “THEY USE COCOA POWDER.”
Cocoa powder, a bit more salt, the meat and beans – bingo, bango, dunzo. Happy, I let it sit to bubble and get happy, to develop the masterpiece I threw together, praying my instincts wouldn’t fail me and land us all with a vat of dog food.
It worked! Bastard Chili was a success! And now, so I can recall it in the future or in case you have a hankering for some homemade chili, I give you my recipe, best as I can recall:
Bastard Chili
- Dried kidney beans – 1 lb. bag, soaked in 4 cups of water overnight then brought to a boil and simmered in water for 60 minutes
- 2 lb. ground beef, browned before adding to slow cooker
- 6 cloves crushed garlic
- 2 oz. chopped basil
- 1 28 oz. can whole tomatoes
- 1 28 oz. can tomato puree
- 1 package Trader Joe’s frozen fire-roasted bell peppers and onions (or 1 bell pepper and 1 onion)
- 1 whole onion, diced
- 8 Tbs. ground chili powder
- 1 Tbs. ground cumin
- 1 Tbs. unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 pinches red pepper flakes
- 1 tsp. ground cayenne pepper
- 2 tsp. ground black pepper
- 2 tsp. kosher salt
- 12 oz. beer
1. Puree the whole tomatoes with garlic, basil and defrosted bell pepper/onion mix.
2. Combine all ingredients in slow cooker. Cook on high 4 hours or on low 6-8 hours. Top with corn chips, sour cream, shredded cheddar and chopped green onions.
Enjoy!
