Squirtless

We're in Arizona on VACATION until Monday...enjoy your Memorial Day Weekend!

Our Little Garden

Remember the little peanut of a tomato I showed you earlier in the month?

Look at him now!

And he has friends....woo hoo!

My zucchini and peppers are not showing quite the same promise, but if the situation on that front happens to change, I'll be sure to keep you posted.

A Birthday Fiesta

You may recall that about a month ago our little Squirt turned ONE! We did in fact have a party and here are the pictures to prove it.

We hung out on the party porch

Enjoyed margaritas - Cheers!

The birthday boy got plenty of lovin'

There was a pinata of course

Aunt Anna took the first swing

Followed by Yours Truly

Cousin Kate even got in on the action

Time for presents!

And the best part...

Plenty of cake!

Eat your heart out Big Guy!

Experiments with the Crock-Pot

B Daddy and I are shaking up the family routine in an attempt to have more sane and relaxing weeknight evenings together.

Our usual Mon - Fri routine goes something like this:

5:30 - Send an innocent text the working man's way, "Any idea what your ETA is babe?" (This falls squarely under the "I need to know when to start making dinner" excuse for interrupting your husband at work....not the "I am dying of loneliness and toddler fatigue" excuse.)

6:00 - The Squirt and I take what I have affectionately come to refer to as my, "6pm Widow's Walk" Sometimes another neighborhood widow even joins us. We look longingly at the houses with two cars parked in the driveway and imagine the scene inside... Father is cutting the roast while Mother and her well-mannered children gather around the table to share anecdotes from the day's events...

6:30 - Back inside to begin making dinner...anticipating B Daddy's 7pm arrival to coincide precisely with bath time, bottle time and bed time.

6:32 - Stop making dinner long enough to untangle E from my legs and plop him in the highchair with a handful of Cheerios.

6:33 - Say a quick prayer that eating Cheerios this close to bedtime does not interfere with drinking his entire bottle.

6:45 - Call to check up on the husband's progress. (This would be the "dying of loneliness and toddler fatigue" call...) Does the background noise sound like 285? If so, cue sigh of relief. If not, fight back desperation in voice...sound empathetic just long enough to say, "I'm sorry you're stuck... call when you head out!"

7:00 - Play with ball, balloon, trucks and TV remotes for 81st time that day.

7:10 - Daddy's HOME!!! Meet B at the back door, hand over the Squirt and get back to dinner.

7:30 - Prep E's bottle, finish making dinner while B Daddy puts the little one to bed.

8:00 - Feed our starving selves.

8:30 - Watch something we Tivo'd the previous night.

9:00 - Bed time! (We both have early curtain calls most days.)

Sounds likes a TON OF FUN right?! We are both getting tired of being so tired at the end of the day. And apparently B Daddy doesn't love walking in the door to a cranky woman and a ready-for-bed baby. 

It's time to change up my dinner routine. I figure that if I do a little more planning ahead and have dinner in the bag by the time 6pm rolls around, I'll be more enthusiastic about playing with the TV remotes one more time and maybe less stressed whenever my man rolls in. Tonight is Round 1 and I'm making something called Bacon & Cheese Chicken (is it even possible to go wrong?)

B Daddy for his part is trying to figure out a way to get home a tad earlier.

Is this scenario familiar to anyone else? Are we the only ones going through total chaos each week night? I would love some advice from those of you who are further down the road or have a system that works!

At the very least I'd love someone to commiserate with.

Happy Birthday Little Man!

A year ago today....

Happy Birthday E! I ate cheesecake for breakfast to celebrate.

He Makes the Bed.

One of the things BJ and I were made to discuss during pre-marital counseling was the division of labor around the house. Back in 2005 we were both working full-time, so we went through the typical household chores and divvied them up right down the middle. Among the many things on BJ's list were cleaning the bathrooms and mowing the lawn.

Dishes?! No dishes. That's one thing I knew about this man going into marriage. That's why he got bathroom duty. Fast-forward and I'm now a full-time stay-at-home-mom, which means that most daily chores fall squarely in my lap:

Start the laundry, load the dishwasher, feed the child, put away toys, switch over the laundry, empty the dishwasher, feed the child again, fold the laundry, put away toys, feed the dog, put away the laundry. Toss in some weekly chores like vacuum, mop, dust and you can see how life quickly resembles the instructions on the back of the shampoo bottle: lather, rinse, repeat.

That's why this scene puts a smile on my face each morning:

He makes the bed.

I don't know if he knows how much more it means to me than a simple check off of the chore list. Some mornings it legitimately restores my sanity to walk back to our room after the chaos that is making/feeding/cleaning breakfast for four kids.  Some mornings it is validation that what I do each day matters.

This morning it was just a quiet, "I love you."

First Fruits

Apparently this is the year the Leipprandts go pioneer on you guys. Not only do we have a 3/4-of-the-way complete chicken coop awaiting some finishing touches and some residents, but we also decided to plant a small garden this spring.

Besides growing (with spotty success) some potted herbs in the past, I've never tried my hand at a bonafide garden, complete with veggies and fruits. If you've ever visited us and seen my luck with houseplants, it's not hard to guess why. But curiosity and jealousy of my brother-in-law's fabulous garden last year made me take the plunge this year.

Nothing fancy - just a few zucchini plants (definitely did not space them out enough)

Two cucumber plants (dying already perhaps?)

Two tomato plants, two banana pepper plants and some bell pepper plants. Rosemary, basil and cilantro round things out in the herb category.

We didn't have a space to plant it all that gets adequate sunlight - so the 4-5 hours that this bed sees each day will have to suffice.

And this morning? When I went out to make sure all the produce had weathered last night's storm - I found this little guy clinging to the bottom of my Bush Giant tomato plant...woo hoo!

Let's hope he grows up and turns red on us.