Today…

Outside my window: the trees are almost bare at this point and it looks a lot like November. We have been blessed with a pretty awesome heat wave that I am now hearing is typical of Wisconsin. Apparently we usually have a cold freeze followed by an Indian Summer. I can dig it. The weather man says it’s about 60 degrees out today which is pretty sweet.

I am hearing: World World on tv mesmerizing MM and little miss BB is cooing in her little play mat, swatting at all the toys and being her usual cute self.

I am thinking: I need to get on printing the Letter D workbook page for MM and maybe teaching him some letter D words. It seems like the beginning of the week consists of me saying, “Eh, I have all week to teach him stuff,” and then the last few days of the week I go ABC crazy with activities. It does all get done but maybe I should spread it out a bit more to make for more quality days around here.

I am hoping: that Dan gets home from work early enough that I don’t die before dinner gets on the table. We’re being a bit ambitious in cooking a meatloaf tonight (yes, I am aware that we are supposedly going vegetarian but I don’t want to waste all the meat in our kitchen and meatloaf… it’s one of my favorite things. So I thought it would be the perfect use of most of our ground beef – a sort of last hurrah?) as it takes an hour to bake and since I loathe working with raw meat, I’m waiting until he gets home to actually mix it all together. I know, it’s a rough life.

I am reading: Finger Lickin’ Fifteen by Janet Evanovich – I finally finished Close Encounters Of The Third Grade Kind last night and although I haven’t actually cracked open the latest Stephanie Plum novel yet, it is waiting patiently for me and I am pretty eager to get started with reading it. I’d been planning to read Hunger Games next but I’ve had this on request at the library for like, forever, so when it came available I had to jump on it. So many books, so little time.

I am creating: the ABC book for MM – I have finished the pages for A B and C in fact. I’m attempting to make the whole project easier by making the pages on Sundays at the end of each week. I’m planning to post pictures from the book on this blog soon.

I am wearing: supremely comfortable plaid pajama pants and a black t-shirt

In the kitchen:

• Monday: Italian Style Meatloaf with mashed potatoes and broccoli (using up leftover ground beef)
• Tuesday: French Onion Soup
• Wednesday: Rice with black beans and veggies – stir fry
• Thursday: Boca Baked Penne and Dinner Rolls
• Friday: Parmesan Baked (wild caught) Salmon

Around the house: I’m still getting used to the new desk layout. It’s kind of weird walking into the room and heading to a totally different location. Getting used to it all visually, you know? The amazing thing is that we brought in more furniture and now we have more room. Crazy. We also are starting to move BB into The Kids Room. We bought a shelf to put her cloth diapers on and a little plastic bin to store dirty diapers above the changing table (so MM can’t get into it at night, because seriously, he so would). We are still using the pack and play changing table at night when MM is sleeping (and during nap time), so we don’t have to wake him up in the middle of the night but we’re really just prolonging the inevitable here, you know?

Plans for the week: Honestly, it’s pretty status quo around here. I don’t really have anything planned except to try and get out of the house a couple times this week and explore the letter D. Alphabet plans include: dinosaurs, ducks, dinner, dishes, drums, dirty, dogs, daddy, dancing, doctor, drawing, donuts, dark and day.

A few of my favorite things: I made some delicious cake mix cookies with MM this weekend that are seriously decadent. I used reeses pieces instead of chocolate chips to bring a fall color feel to the whole thing. Plus, peanut butter. Seriously. I’m also loving the kitchen towels I got this weekend. We decided that we’ve held off on it long enough – and have been eyeing the same towels for like a year now. Our old towels and wash cloths in the kitchen are starting to resemble rags – it was definitely time to make the switch.

A picture thought: