lapsed!

well, i have to confess, this over ambitious domestic engineer has lapsed, fallen off the wagon, backslid. it's bad. oh, i'm still managing my 1 load of laundry a day although it doesn't always get put away until the next day when i need the laundry basket. and i usually have the dishes done and the kitchen cleaned up by the time dear husband gets home from work. (well, except for today when i opted for a nap with the cherub.) and i definitely clean the bathroom every morning right after my shower (except sunday's, i don't clean it on sunday's. oh and last saturday. i just didn't feel like cleaning it.). but the other stuff? vacuuming, mopping, dusting...well, i have to admit, i've let them slide. and our bedroom? eek! don't ask. why? one huge confession: i spend way too much time online. yes, i'm ashamed. i did much better today though. and another thing, the cherub is crawling. so there's no plopping him down in one place and expecting him to stay there while i get something done. nope. those days are gone for good. i spend so much time chasing him down, pulling him back away from bookshelves, outlets and stairs that i don't have time for much else. and when he's napping, well, that's me time, right? i could put him in the wrap that i finally figured out how to use. (i had to call the company and they walked me through it. like my dad says, i'm all about calling the company! big thumbs up to the parent's of invention company.) i'm not sure he would like that though. now that he's on the go, he wants to stay on the go. so, i have to re-evaluate my plan. actually, i just have to get motivated again. i loved when i was motivated...

another OT rant...

today's off topic rant goes to...WALMART!!!! i detest walmart more than any other store in the WHOLE WORLD. (you know it's bad when i'm using capital letters, huh?) well, don't ever use their photo upload tool to try and save yourself some time. first, it rarely works. i have a dsl modem and was trying to upload a few pictures, all well within their size limit and the stupid thing said it was going to take 5 HOURS!! what in the world? i could drive to walmart, park, take the disc into the store, upload them on their system, wait an hour for them to be printed, pick them up, check out (which takes a while in itself) and be home in less time! and this is supposed to save me time? what a crock. then, when i finally did get 2 measly photos uploaded and selected the 1 hour in-store pick-up option, they weren't going to be ready for pickup for 14 HOURS! what? i chose 1 hour in-store pick-up? so, i called and cancelled the order. that's just ridiculous. so, why do i even bother with walmart? because, unfortunately, the nearest target is 15 minutes away. i know, 15 minutes, but still, walmart is 5 minutes away. i love target though. it's such a pleasant place to shop, even on a saturday. granted the checkout folks aren't all that much nicer than walmart's, but still, the store is so much nicer. i hear we are getting a target here. yipee! that will make my life so much more pleasant. and, it will be really close to publix. ah, publix. now that's a store i can love. end of rant.

warning

off topic rant follows:

i am becoming increasingly frustrated with fisher price/mattel. for the third time, i have had to call them about defective products. the first time, i was sure it was just a fluke. the laugh and learn puppy i got the little cherub for christmas just wouldn't finish a song. it stopped at "p" on the abc song, "9" on the 1-10 song. so, i called them. and they sent me a replacement. then, ninny sent the little cherub a peek 'n play eeyore for valentine's day. again, it only plays one song when it's supposed to play, like, 6 or something. so, i called fisher price again. this time they told me to change the batteries. so i did. still nothing. so i called them again. they are sending me a "voucher" this time. i asked them, since this was the second time i'd had to call for a similar problem, is there a problem with their toys? they said, "not that we're aware of." i said, "well, this is the second time i've a problem like this, with the toy not getting out of 'demo' mode." and she implied that it was something i was doing. which brings us to today...i pulled out one of the little cherub's toys that he got for christmas and hadn't ever played with. and what do you know? it doesn't work properly. now, this little sesame street guitar has elmo on one side and cookie monster on the other. elmo works fine, but cookie monster, well, that's another story. so, again, i called fisher price. i told them my problem. again they told me to replace the batteries, BUT! i was one step ahead of them! i'd already replaced the batteries! she walked me through exactly how to operate this little guitar--apparently, it's pretty particular and has to be just so, so to work. but, alas, it still didn't work! so, they are sending me another voucher as they don't have the replacement toy in stock. you can imagine how frustrating this is.

washing machines

just a quick little blog here. i will write more later, as i have lots to confess. but for now...

washing machines. that great invention that saves us from scrubbing our clothes clean on a washboard. they work great, but here's a quick household tip for you.

washing machine tip: when doing laundry, remember to close the lid of the washer. if you don't do this, the machine fills up with water and then stops. for some safety reason, the manufacturers have designed them this way. maybe it has something to do with the spinning mechanism inside. so, you end up going back to switch the clothes to the dryer only to find that they haven't even washed yet because you left the lid up on the washer. now, i know that when you have a little cherub that has just learned to crawl and loves to get into everything, it's difficult to remember to do that, but do yourself a favor, and maybe, leave a note on the washer reminding yourself to always close the lid.

here's to clean clothes!

the little cherub with the snotty nose

snotty nosed cherubs are not fun. at least my snotty nosed cherub isn't that fun to be around. oh, he's in a fine humor, laughing, talking, pulling all the willie nelson records off the shelf. but he's got this snot running out of his nose almost constantly. and he hates to have his nose wiped. this is not fun. i can't very well let him run (well, army crawl) around with snot pouring out his nose, so i have to wipe it for him. he just screams like i'm cutting his limbs off one at a time. now, it's not that bad. i happen to know that wiping your nose doesn't hurt. i do it myself all the time. i suppose that he doesn't see it the same way, though. and there's no way to teach him to blow his nose. he's much too young for that. so, i resort to the snot sucker, er, the nasal bulb thingy. he hates that as much as he does me just wiping his nose. thrashing his head about. try sticking the little snot sucker in a nostril that keeps moving from side to side. fun. but, hopefully the little cherub will be feeling better soon. he's got big company coming this weekend.

bread, baby food and lessons learned

first, an update on the bread baking adventure. two beautiful (and tall, the book wasn't fibbing!), tasty loaves emerged from my oven after 30 minutes of baking at 425 degrees. i think i may have had my oven rack too high because the tops got a little brown. no fear though, they tasted delicious. as expected, dear husband raved about each piece he ate. and his tuna salad sandwich that i made him for lunch today actually kept him full until well after he came home from work. that's an amazing first! we are rationing ourselves, though, as this bread thing isn't coming easily to me. yes, there were a few black fuzzies from my sweater, but i'm not telling anyone!
now, for the domestic mishap from yesterday. let me preface this by saying i was doing three things at once, one of which was posting yesterday's blog. that said...i was fixing the little cherub's lunch while trying to post this blog and fix dear husband's lunch (all the while conscious of the rising dough). cherub was not happy because he was hungry (and sleepy, but that's another story for another time). so, i pulled out a cube of sweet potatoes from the freezer and stuck them in a plastic bowl (a microwave safe plastic bowl). hit auto defrost intending to leave the potatoes in only for 10 seconds. well, like i said, i was posting this blog, fixing dear husband's lunch and trying to soothe the little cherub. i started to smell something burning. i looked around and there was smoke pouring out of the kitchen! my first thought was that there was something in the burner where the tea kettle was heating. i rushed in and quickly turned the burner off and moved the kettle. but that wasn't it. remember the sweet potatoes in the microwave? yep, they were black as coal and the microwave safe bowl is no more. now i know why they calling it "nuking." so, i have to laugh about it. at least it wasn't those really expensive jarred sweet potatoes that the baby food companies sell. i only paid $.89 per pound for the potatoes. so i suppose the lesson here is (strangely the same as it was with the "softening" lesson) when you intend to nuke something for a few seconds, don't go off and do something else, because, again, you will forget about it. at least i do.