7 Quick Takes Friday, #6

1. Last night, we went to my brother and sister-in-law's house for dinner. Emily made meatloaf, and since this is one of Mia's favorite meals, she ate dinner without too much fuss. Oh - except for when she was about halfway through her dinner, and she decided to yell out, "this meat is NOT good!" That wasn't embarrassing at all. Fortunately, she sang Emily's praises to the heavens when the chocolate chip cookies came out of the oven.

2. My parents were also at dinner last night. At one point while I stood next to my mom, I was watching Justin from across the kitchen. I thought to myself how handsome he looked, and I needed to love on him a bit, sniff on him a bit - general ooey-gooey stuff. Somehow though, those thoughts didn't translate right in my head, and instead of walking over to him, I simply reached out to my mom's backside and....I gave her a pat. I was about to include a squeeze, when I realized that it was my mom who'd just been groped. On her bottom. By her daughter.

That wasn't embarrassing at all, either.

3. We're starting to get the decorations and cake plans ready for Lauren's birthday party in two weeks. Two weeks until she's a one year old. Two weeks until I have a little breakdown about the passage of time. I'll try to hold it in. But that'll require lots and lots of donuts.

4. Last week I requested help with snacks for Mia, and so far I've tried some of the helpful ideas. She now loves 'ants on a log,' but somehow she thinks the raisins are bees instead of ants. She won't touch the hummus, though. I'll have to keep presenting it, and hopefully she'll try it eventually.

On one of my favorite food blogs, My Kitchen Cafe, I found a recipe for peanut butter snack balls. They looked great; the ingredients are all things I usually have on hand, so I made them earlier this week. We all loved them! Mia thought they were like cold peanut butter cookies, my mom thought they tasted like little peanut butter candy bars, and Justin & I couldn't give our opinions because our mouths were too full to respond coherently. A good, healthy snack idea. You should absolutely try them.

5. Another good post I found this week was at Gasperini-ville, about her Lenten Cleaning Plan. She adapted the plan from another blogger, I believe. I, um, stole it. I copied and pasted, and adjusted it for our house and family. I'm really excited about it, and hoping I can stick to it so on Easter I will have a renewed home to start a renewed season in.

Basically, the goal is to tackle one small task on each day, rather than having a marathon cleaning session. For instance: on Wednesday I organized our coat closet and hall closet, yesterday it was the bookshelf in the living room. Today I'll organize my kitchen cupboards, sorting out the damaged sippy cups, throwing away expired food, adding to the donation pile I began from the coat closet.

The thing is, while I'm doing these tasks, I haven't gotten my regular cleaning done. Does it count if my hall closet is pristine, but my kitchen is a disaster? Or my laundry is piled high? I'll get right on it, though. After a bit o' bloggin.

6. This picture sums up our feelings at being cooped up again in the house due to the cold weather:

7. This morning's conversational high:

Mia: Every day, I have my sharley-looms.

Me: Your sharley-looms??

Mia: No, CHARley-looms.

Me: Charley-looms??

Mia: NO, charley-loomZZ.

Me: Charley-loomz??

Mia: No, SHARley-loomz.

Me: Sharley-loomz??

Mia: Yeah.

Me: *slowly nods*


See Jen's site for more Quick Takes. Have a great weekend!