Grandma is here!

My mom arrived last night for a weekend visit. And we fully enjoyed her today!

We spent the morning walking around our favorite places in Hudson. We nabbed some cute clothes for the kiddos (just wait until you see Clive's dapper Easter get-up), ate yummy cupcakes, and had a memorable time at the local bookstore.

It was in the book shop that Clive encountered a golden retriever for the first time ever. And boy was he in love with that dog! Clive got SO excited about that friendly dog! He even let the dog lick his face and he followed the dog all around the book shop. Don't worry, Clive got a vvvvvvvvvvery thorough bath this evening to cleanse him from the doggie germs.

My mom and I played scrabble this afternoon (what a game - she beat me by a mere 2 points) and then we watched a movie and folded laundry. Tomorrow we head to the zoo for a family + gramma trip.

A lovely weekend to you all!

Cadbury conspiracy

Spring is such a lovely time of year. The anticipation of new flowers, the promise of warmer weather, and the air is atwitter with chirping birds. Ah. And then of course there's the arrival of cadbury creme eggs to the Easter candy aisle. :)

I certainly have my candy preferences (york peppermint patties and lindor hazelnut truffles in case you were wondering). But I'm not one that MUST have a particular candy as a treat or reward.

Not so with cadbury creme eggs. Maybe it's their limited availability or their unique, albeit weird, egg-like colors inside. I usually pick up a few around Easter and savor them when I need a special pick-me-up.

Imagine my consumer surprise when I searched the pastel Easter shelves at Drug Mart and couldn't find cadbury creme eggs! Mind you, there are lots of look-alike cadbury creme eggs on the market these days. Cadbury caramel eggs, reese's eggs, snickers' eggs . . . you name it, it's an egg. I couldn't believe the creme eggs would be missing so I kept searching.

Lo, and behold, as of this year, the greedy cadbury company no longer sells creme eggs individually. Now you have to buy them in a package of THREE and the package costs more than two dollars?!? C'mon! Our economy is in shambles here!

I feel like I'm on an episode of Seinfeld ranting about something so silly . . . but it's really gotten under my skin. So, I'm boycotting this spring. No money-grubbing candy company will get my loose change! :)

Maybe I'm just getting more opinionated as I age . . . I almost honked in disapproval at some jaywalking teenagers yesterday. I don't mind that they jaywalked but what seriously annoyed me was that they saw me driving and still they leisurely crossed the road. Hoodlums. :)

What's your favorite spring time candy?

New photos, new swing, a better attitude, and spring break

Hey, all! Hope you had a swell weekend and enjoyed some slightly warmer weather as we did here in Ohio. Even got some hyacinths planted this afternoon and Matt finished up a new swing for Chloe. Now both Chloe and Clive can swing in harmony from the limb of our front-yard tree. Let's hope it can hold them both!

After a restful low-key weekend God graciously lifted me from my mommy-doldrums. He truly is the lifter of my head!

I realize I'm horridly behind on posting new photos of the kiddos. Since they both protested naps this afternoon, they both were rewarded (I should say WE were rewarded) with uber-early bedtimes. So with the extra quiet time I finally posted a new photo album in facebook. For you non-facebookians, check it out here.

Matt's home on spring break this week and he's optimistic he could finish writing the LAST content chapter in his dissertation by Friday! He says it's flowing well and with the extra time this week he's aiming to finish. Hallelujah!

We're not going anywhere for spring break but we're having some extra-special company this week. My mom is popping in for a long-weekend visit! We are all incredibly excited about the arrival of the grand duchess (Chloe's princess-inspired name for grandma). Seems like the kids have both changed tremendously since grandma's last visit at Christmastime. We're hoping to do some shopping, swimming, and maybe even sneak in a date night.

What are your spring break plans?

Confessions of a slacker mom

My kitchen floor is dirty. And I don't plan on cleaning it anytime soon.

Clive donned pajamas and Chloe wore her princess dress the entire day. And I didn't even brush her hair once.

Today we did almost nothing. Though the sun was shining brilliantly the thermometer never got up past 40 degrees. Too chilly to play outside or take a walk. So, we hunkered down and bounced off the walls (correction: the kids bounced and I just sat and observed in envy) all day long.

By the end of the day, I was TIRED of being a mom. The kids didn't nap well (probably because they didn't run off enough energy) and my thyroiditis was sapping me. The golden napping overlap hour did not happen so mommy didn't get a break. Wah! Instead I sat on the kitchen floor with Clive and let him eat his weight in rice cakes.

As soon as Matt walked in the door I passed off the parenting baton and took a much-needed nap while he conducted dinnertime.

I admit my enthusiasm for all-things-mommy waxes and wanes but today it was at a rare low. I got tired of meeting everyone's needs and exerting much energy to maintain a level of expected tidiness. Anyone else been there?

After a nap and some buttery popcorn I'm feeling much better. Thank you Jesus for my dear capable husband and for the grace to get out of a mommy slump!

(attractive picture courtesy of Chloe Horn)

Moisturizing question

This weekend I hit CVS and picked up some marked down moisturizer. I was pumped! It was marked down to $1.37 and I had a $1 off coupon. Woo-hoo!

Of course, it wasn't until after I got home and showed off all my purchases to Matt (my ritual after CVS so I can bask in pride at all my incredible deals) that I realized the moisturizer is actually a self-tanning lotion. How in the world could I have missed that?!? Sticker daze I guess. Thankfully I only wasted 37 measly cents.

Which leads me to my question . . . what moisturizing lotion/product do you use? I've tried several different lotions. I usually pick up something cheap from the drug store and it lasts me forever because I only moisturize my eye and neck area right before bed. I KNOW I need to moisturize daily and apply something with sunscreen.

What do you use? And how often do you apply it?

The Promise of the Weekend

It's almost the end of the work-week and as usual the weekend possibilities seem endless to me.

About this time every week I start day-dreaming about the weekend potentiality. Ooh, I think to myself, I could put in some extra hours working online or maybe I can finally start sewing that dress I cut out for Chloe. Maybe the weather will be warm enough for a quick zoo trip or a walk to a nearby park. The possibilities are endless! :)

Since Sundays are full of church-type activity, we generally keep our Saturdays free and open schedule-wise. We often start with an extra special Saturday morning breakfast of some sort. Then we either do a family activity or I take the kiddos to do something out-of-the-ordinary and give Matt some quiet at-home writing time.

Whatever you end up doing, I hope you and your family have a super enjoyable weekend!

Mommy Mush Brain

Anyone else suffer from mommy mush brain?

I'm convinced that my regular habits of multi-tasking are affecting my overall neuron fire-power.

But that doesn't mean I'm about to stop multi-tasking. Besides making me feel efficient and goal-oriented, multi-tasking enables me to start several tasks during the precious golden moments of overlapping naptime. This time is too precious to waste doing just one task!

In fact, right now I'm not only updating my blog, I'm posting an online test, cooking a ginormous pot of rice, monitoring two email accounts, making a list of questions to ask an instructor, editing my google tasks list, and drinking coffee. Don't ask me how many tabs and windows I currently have open! :) What are you doing right now?

More and more studies are confirming my hunch about the dangers of multi-tasking. If you've got some time, here are a few interesting articles on the subject of multi-tasking (NY Times and NPR). Turns out though I think I'm being more productive the more tasks I juggle, I'm not. The human brain can only fully focus on 1-3 things at a time. Instead I'm causing my brain to just switch rapidly between tasks and losing focus each time I switch. Oopsies. No wonder my natural flow of conversation topics jumps around like an espresso guzzling jackrabbit.

I should amend my multi-tasking ways but even after skimming these articles I'm not sure I'm prepared to make any huge changes. About the only thing I've done thus far is to eliminate listening to music while I work on the computer. Way too distracting.

Have any tips for this unfocused brain of mine?

Winter insanity

Between runny noses, energetic kiddos, and frigid outdoor temperatures in our household we have come to a consensus . . . WINTER SHOULD BE OVER BY NOW!

Am I the only mom who comes dangerously close to insanity during these waning winter months?

Chloe and Clive have both had on-off colds the last 10 days and it's kept us at home more than usual. Lately I've been noticing how desperately my kids need to expend their energy and how easily they can become bored with the same old sights and sounds of home.

Yesterday I made concerted efforts to do some creative and fun activities to fend off the impending insanity factor. We did bubbles twice (giant bubble wands are magical! The big huge ones that look like sheathed swords, know which ones I mean?), made winter suncatchers, played elefun several times (boy, did Clive dig that game!), colored with chalk on our basement floor, and generally destroyed every room we played in.

Still, 5:00 p.m. did not come soon enough! (And Matt came home later than usual so it was more like 5:40 p.m.) Part of that is because on these "at home" days Chloe just doesn't get tired enough for a nap so I don't get a child-free break time. And I need a child-free break. Even from my precious and adorable little Chloe.

Chloe's tummy is now a bit uneasy and she got sick this afternoon. I feel for her, she's a pitiful whiny little sickie right now. But it means another day of quarantine at home tomorrow. The forecast looks to be a promising 36 so we might brave the elements and take a walk. That always helps the day go by faster. (Especially if we make a stop at Dairy Queen . . . Ice cream is comforting to me regardless of the weather.)

Anyone have any creative suggestions for fending off the winter crazies?

Chloe's gardening philosophy

Every week when we drive to church we pass by an old abandoned farm. It looks like a great piece of property; it just needs some TLC. Matt and I joke that it's "our farm" and now when we pass it we discuss our dream plans for the place. So far we're planning to do a worm farm (and we'll sell the nutrient-rich compost), raise chickens, and grow lots of fruit and veggies in our expansive organic garden. :)

Chloe has quickly caught onto our imaginary planning and joined right in.

Yesterday on our way to Bible study, we drove past our dreamy family farm. Here's how the conversation went . . .

Me: "Chloe, wouldn't it be fun to have chickens on our farm? We could collect the eggs and cook them for breakfast!"
Chloe: "Yeah, we could make scrambled eggs!"
Me: "Yum, I love scrambled eggs."
Chloe: "And we could take the extra eggs and put them in our garden."
Me: "Why would we do that, Chloe? I don't think anything will grow from an egg."
Chloe: "Oh yes, then we could grow egg plants!"

Hope Chloe's ideas of gardening give you a good giggle this dreary Friday!

Thankful

My day yesterday was a busy and full one. In the midst of a lot of cooking, whiny bored kiddos, and continual nose-wiping, I found myself surprisingly thankful. Oh, I certainly had my own share of impatience in dealing with both Chloe and Clive. (Don't you love having to apologize to your kids for your own ugly anger and impatience? Blech.) But in the background of the day, God graciously gave me a thankful heart.

As Bing so thoughtfully sings,

When my bankroll is getting small, I think of when I had none at all. And I fall asleep, counting my blessings . . .

Here's my list of blessings from yesterday.

1. Health. The kids have colds but they're not suffering from any major illnesses. A friend of a friend of mine's daughter (did you follow all that?) is in the hospital for the 3rd time today as doctors try to solve her mysterious sickness. The poor little girl has been vomiting for two weeks straight!
2. Food. We're rediscovering the joys of eating simply. A big ole pot of rice and a big ole pot of pinto beans is surprisingly easy and healthful to boot! Cheap too. :)
3. Money. Have I mentioned lately how poor we are? :) I feel like that's all I talk about sometimes. But that's because I'm constantly floored by how we're making it on so little. God is faithfully taking care of us. My part-time online job has picked up lately bringing in more income and our taxes promise a summer-sustaining refund.
4. Matt. He's such a diligent worker! He just started writing the LAST chapter of his dissertation. Precisely he's in the reading phase which precedes the actual writing but we're still talking about the LAST chapter here! After a busy day of teaching freshman writing classes, he took over kid duty last night so I could rush out to run some errands last night. And then we snuggled up and watched some old Seinfeld dvds. What a treasure I have in Matt. (And he's not listed #4 because of importance. My random mommy brain thought of those other things first.)

What are you thankful for?

Calling all crockpots!

I know I've been an off-again-on-again blogger as of late, so hopefully this post will reclaim my readership. :)

I'm hoping to make Thursdays our crockpot supper nights. Generally, Thursdays are very busy for us. The kids and I get on the road at 8:30 a.m. to make it to our weekly Bible study on time. After study we eat lunch in our church commons area and then drive back home for naps at 2 p.m. All the driving, child management (doesn't that make my job sound refined?), and food preparation wipes me out come Thursday afternoon. I either crash with the kids for a quick nap or hop online to work on these busy Thursdays.

Crockpot to the rescue!

In general, I don't have much crockpot cooking variety. Roast with onion soup mix, bbq beef sandwich meat, or ribs slathered in barbecue sauce is all I've done thus far. This week a chicken with bacon recipe is slated for Thursday's crockpot supper.

Anyone have a fabulous slow cooker recipe to add some spice to our Thursday night dining?

Calamity Clive and Commando Chloe

Clive has certainly made our lives more interesting! He is an active and curious boy, to say the very least.

Somehow even though I know how curious and quick Clive is I still manage to be two seconds behind him on his messes. At least he's into cleaning things up with me! A definite plus since I have a feeling we'll be doing lots of cleaning up after this boy.

Despite his messiness, Clive is an absolute darling. His smile is infectious and I can't seriously be angry with him for more than 5 seconds. (Unless those 5 seconds include his whiny cry that is. He is already showing us that he's a stubborn boy and often refuses to sign please.)

To round out this alliterated "C" post, I'll tell you about Chloe's first no-undies experience.

We've been attending the local gym lately and it includes a huge kid-friendly pool. It's a blast to finish up our workout time with a swim in the pool! But, taking two small children swimming is also a bit stressful for me when I have to do it alone. The worst part of the swimming time is when we're all finished and I have to change and dry everyone in the family bathroom. Chloe is usually semi-able to dress herself but when she's wet and dripping she can't pull on her pants too well (who can?).

Anyways, I try to dry and dress the kiddos as quickly as possible. I had done a super-speedy dressing job on Chloe and when I went to pack up our belongings I saw it. Chloe's clean pair of pink cupcake undies. Oops! There was NO way I was stripping her down again to put those undies on so Chloe went commando. And then the kicker was she said she liked not wearing undies. Hope I haven't inadvertently started something here!

Tell me I'm not the only mom who has ever done that?

Enjoy the pictures below from recent times in the Horn household. Can you guess which picture Chloe took?

Clive's first haircut

This week we bid farewell to Clive's curls.

I had mixed emotions about Clive's first haircut. At times his curls were incredibly darling and picturesque. But Clive is genetically predisposed to have wavy hair, not curly. Lately his locks have grown beyond the cute curly level and have progressed into scraggly mullet-ness. And have you seen a 13 month old eat? It's beyond messy. Add overgrown hair to the mix and Clive is a disgusting (but still smiling and lovable) sight at meal time.

And so, it was decided. After a few failed attempts with a scissors, Matt opted for the electric clippers. Just like most toddlers, Clive does NOT enjoy appliances that make loud buzzing noises. Blenders, coffee-bean grinders, and automatically flushing toilets are tear-inducing enemies (though strangely he's ok with my hair dryer).

Clive cried and screamed throughout the haircut ordeal. But he soon forgot his woes when he sat at the dinner table and we all praised his new do.

Sigh. He looks way better with his hair trimmed and Matt did a fabulous job. But, I'm afraid my baby has become a little boy. Where does the time fly to?

I don't remember feeling this melancholy for Chloe's first hair cut. Maybe it's a boy-mama thing. Or maybe it's that I was too lazy to cut Chloe's hair until she was 2 1/2 .

Though the process wasn't too pleasant, I love the fact that we can cut Clive's hair at home with a clippers. When he gets older I'd like to buzz his hair short; talk about easy to manage! How many of you cut your kids' hair at home?

Reasons why I love Sundays

I love Sundays for several reasons. One facet of Sunday I particularly relish is getting everyone dressed up for church. I know that probably sounds horribly old-fashioned. But I love the hustle and bustle of getting ready (presuming we're not running late) and then finally piling into the car for the family trip to church.

Now that we have the cutest children in the world it's even more fun to get all gussied up on Sunday. They just look extra adorable in their church duds! And I never thought I'd enjoy dressing a boy but Clive looks so snazzy in his little man clothes. Let me assure you, sweater vests are all the rage in his church nursery room.

We tried to capture their Sunday-cuteness yesterday but it didn't go too well. As you can see, Clive does not like to be restrained for photo purposes.

Another reason I love Sundays is the football watching. We don't watch TV during the week so for the Sunday afternoon/evening football games we soak it up.

Usually we watch football together at home as a family. But this year we actually got invited to a real superbowl party! It was tons of fun eating chili and chatting it up with the other moms while the guys watched football over the din of playing children. And we still honored our packer fealty by all dressing in green and gold (Chloe's idea). It's official. We're a family of nerds.

And what an incredible superbowl it was, eh? We were rooting for the underdogs, the Cardinals, but both teams played some outstanding football. Who did you cheer for?

The Clive-o-saurus

Just look at those dangerous chompers!

What a crazy face. I'm hoping Clive's resemblance to Calvin (from the infamous Calvin & Hobbes) is only skin deep. :)

Clive: toddler or candy cane?

I realize I've been horribly delinquent at blogging lately. Forgive me! I've had the busiest week ever with my online job. I've had to pull several vvvvvvvery late nights and I'm sorry to say I've used Wonder Pets dvd's as a Chloe-sitter so I can finish all my work tasks.

Matt has been great about watching the kids so I can have some extra working time. That comes with a few quirks though as you'll see from the photos of Clive below. I guess this is Matt's idea of a matching outfit? It certainly does match but it's a dizzying to behold. May I present to you, Clive, the human candy cane!

Has your hubby ever dressed up the kids in peculiar ensembles?

A family trip

This past weekend we braved the frigid temperatures and mountains of snow to visit family in Michigan.

Chloe and her cousin, Grace, are just 5 months apart and every time they see each other in person their interaction gets sweeter and sweeter. Aren't they utterly adorable in their matching jumpers?!? They insisted on calling these matching duds their "princess dresses" even though there's obviously nothing sparkly, ruffly or pink going on here. I'm sure Chloe is solely to blame for the princess influence. :)

Regardless, the girls played super well together and did a ton of independent playing. What a refreshing change! Most of the time Chloe tries to lasso me or Matt into her constant pretending scenarios. Don't read that wrong. I value playing with Chloe but she truly needs more kid-to-kid interaction. And I relished the extra time to chat and do some special things with my nieces and sister-in-law.

We had a FANTASTIC time visiting and as usual the time flew by too quickly. I'm wasted from the ride home (just wait until you hear about Chloe's eventful injury during our lunch break) so I'll post the details of the trip later, alligators.

Did anyone else take advantage of the holiday weekend with a quick getaway?

Do you resolve?

I don't have any official resolutions for the new year but I do have some large goals that I hope to achieve with God's help. Here are my top three:

1. Read my Bible regularly. I downloaded a schedule for reading my Bible in a year that I'm excited about. Instead of just plowing through from cover-to-cover, this reading plan has me reading a few chapters in various genres of the Bible each day.

2. Exercise consistently. We just purchased a one-year membership to a nearby gym/pool and I aim to get there 4 times a week. I'm not doing anything major yet. Just walking the track at a fast pace for now. It's an extremely kid-friendly place and only 3 blocks from my home so I have no excuses!

3. Eat more celery. Well, not just celery really. My goal is to be a wiser snacker. And to make sure I eat healthy and well at meals so I don't go wild with snacks. By eliminating chocolate and chips from my pantry and stocking the fridge with celery, cottage cheese and yogurt I hope to take control of my snacking habits.

How 'bout you? Do you resolve anything for 2009?

Disappointed in post-Christmas sales

Is it just me or do the after Christmas sales stink this year?

Maybe I didn't get out early enough or maybe it's just the outworkings of our ailing economy. I've been to at least 3 stores thus far on the hunt for post-holiday markdowns (I always snag next year's cards on the January clearance shelves) and have come away with very little. No cards and only a few little ornaments and stocking stuffers to use as small gifts for next year.

I'm hoping to hit Kohl's soon to see if I can at least find a "Baby's 1st Christmas" ornament for Clive. I know it's after the fact but it's for posterity anyways. I'm fairly certain he wasn't upset about not receiving a memento ornament on Christmas morning. :)

Have you noticed these sad sales too? Where do you shop for after-Christmas bargains?

Clive turns 1!

It's hard to believe an entire year has passed since we brought our little Clive Simeon Horn home from the hospital! This healthy active boy seems so different from the tiny (ok, 8 lbs. 14 oz. isn't tiny to most people but compared to his 10 lb. sister he was a peanut!) newborn who had to spend his first few day in an incubator to regulate his temperature.

It's so cool to see how God grew our baby Clive into such a healthy active toddling boy. He's changed in countless ways but he still has those same skinny chicken legs he did as a newborn. He definitely gets those from his daddy.


































Since I was struggling with a wretched cold, we decided to just have a small family shindig to celebrate Clive's 1st birthday. I made a teddy bear cake that was decidedly NOT like the picture on the box. In fact, the chocolate teddy cake was seriously laughable to anyone who knows anything about cake decorating. But, Clive and Chloe both liked it and it was destroyed in less than 30 seconds anyways. Also made some yummy homemade mac-n-cheese and steamed veggies. Then Clive opened some gifts and Chloe quickly snatched them up to play with. :)

Happy Birthday, dear Clive-y! We love you and are so glad God added you to our family!