It's a good thing they come cute

Babies. You kind of expect the crying and midnight feedings, constant diaper changes, and endless laundry. Although we're not friends, I'm becoming very familiar with "soggy bra syndrome." But last night takes the cake. I fed the baby and he fell asleep on my shoulder. I gently laid him down to change his diaper. And then it happened. He spit up volumes all over his clothes. And my clothes. And his blanket. And my sheets. And my pillow. (And you know how much I love my pillow). Did I mention it was four o'clock in the morning? Then he looks up at me with this goofy little grin as if to say "Gotcha!" And I thought to myself as I painfully smiled back, "It's a good thing they come so darn cute!"

To see my little cuties check out the kids' blog.

I think I'm a groupie

Wow...I don't think I've had a crush on a 17-year old since I was...well, 17. He gives me the chills, he's so good! I'm looking forward to the rest of the season. Could little David Archuletta be the next American Idol?

(Yes, Rachael, I copied this from your blog...isn't imitation the best form of flattery?)

2 for $2 Cards

Friday night was card night. I only had two people come, so it was nice and cozy. Leave a comment if you want to come to my next card night, on March 14, where we'll be doing 5 cards for $5, one of each Sale-A-Bration set (they're free stamp sets!).


TOP: A Little Birdie Told Me stamp set, Pretty in Pink and Chocoloate Chip cardstock, so saffron and Ginger Blossom DSP, basic black ink, pink grosgrain ribbon, dimensionals. (The inside says "It's your birthday")


BOTTOM: Friendship Blooms stamp set (FREE SAB set), chocolate chip and bashful blue cardstock, bashful blue, certainly celery, pretty in pink, and old olive classic inkpads, black stazon ink, aquapainter, clear rhinestone brad from Pretties kit, white grosgrain ribbon, dimensionals. This one I CASE-d from Julie. (Copy and share everything)


I'm going to be listing some retired stamp sets for sale on eBay. See them here.

Progress Report, Week 1

Progress Report, Week 1

Last week, I was ready for bed by 11:00pm 6 times out of 7. This week I will be ready for bed before 11:00 pm. I got dressed 7 times out of 7, I put away 3 out of 3 loads of laundry, and I cleaned 1 bathroom.

Every day this week I will set a timer for 30 minutes and I will work on cleaning and laundry for the duration.
This week I will not watch adult-oriented sitcoms in front of my 2-year old daughter. It hit me like a brick the other day that she's the right age to learn the wrong messages about sex and relationships.
This week instead of watching TV while I feed the baby, I will read a book.
This week I will read my scriptures during Leah's afternoon nap every day.

This week I will organize the shelves, drawers, and counter in my bathroom. (Yes, we've lived here over a year and there are still moving boxes full of stuff in most of our closets!)
This week I will go on a date with my husband.

More Makeovers

Since I'm in the makeover mood, I decided to enter this contest to win a free Blog Makeover from TheTrendyMommyBlogDesigns.blogspot.com. They're giving away 5 free makeovers and I'm hoping to be one of them. Go check them out!

Pursuing Progress

I know that we're well into February, but here are my New Years' resolutions:

Take care of myself, my husband, my children; take care of my house, keep it clean and organized, stay on top of the dishes and the laundry; be more spiritual, magnify my calling; eat right, exercise, loose weight; have a daily routine, get enough sleep, make myself presentable everyday; spend more time with my family, be more patient and kind, be happier; live within our means, stick to a budget, save for the future. I'm sure there are more.

The reason I've held off on making any declaration of how I want to improve my life this year is because a list like this is just too vague. There are too many items and progress is too immeasurable for these "goals" to be realistic. I learned this from this post at Mormon Mommy Wars at the beginning of the year.

I'm also inspired by Elder Bednar's talk in General Conference last October:

"We will not attain a state of perfection in this life, but we can and should press forward with faith in Christ along the strait and narrow path and make steady progress toward our eternal destiny. The Lord’s pattern for spiritual development is “line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little” (2 Nephi 28:30). Small, steady, incremental spiritual improvements are the steps the Lord would have us take. Preparing to walk guiltless before God is one of the primary purposes of mortality and the pursuit of a lifetime; it does not result from sporadic spurts of intense spiritual activity."

Elder Bednar was talking about spiritual progress, but I'm applying his wisdom to any and all kinds of good progress; Progress at improving myself and my relationships effects the environment I live in, which ultimately enables or prohibits spiritual progress--Sister Beck talked about that, too. The discouragement I've experienced as of late is because I've been trying to make long-term progress through "sporadic spurts of intense [cleaning] activity" or laundry activity, or budgeting activity, or whatever. My goal here is to transition from sporadic spurts of intense [anything] activity to "sustained, paced progress."

Here is what I'm going to do instead of getting discouraged that I failed at being more patient this year, or because the laundry sat in a basket all week: I will make a few small acheivable goals each week. When one becomes habit, I can move on to another. So instead of resolving to keep my house clean, I'll try to mop the kitchen floor this week. Instead of resolving to pay more attention to my kids, I can make the goal to only use the computer when they are sleeping--perhaps a change as simple as that would help me to be more patient with them because I'm not trying to follow my own agenda when they need my attention.

Goals. Simple ones. Just a few each week.

The reason I'm sharing this with you is for the "accountability" factor. If you are counting on me to mop the kitchen floor once this week, I'm more likely to do it. Every Sunday I will list my goals for the coming week and report on how I did on the previous week's goals.

Last week I had the goal to clean 3 bathrooms, but you didn't know about it so my progress was 0 out of 3. This week my goal is to clean 1 bathroom.

This week I'm going to be ready for bed by 11:00 every night. Someday my goal will be 10:00, but we're just going one step at a time here.

This week, I will get dressed every day. This shouldn't be hard since I have a killer new wardrobe to try out.

This week, I will put away 3 loads of clean laundry.

Lets give this a try and see how I do!

Makeover Managed

Here's the before picture. I tried to look as frumpy as possible.

I ventured out today with Michal as my shopping consultant. She helped me think outside the box, and steered me away from the mis-fitted, no-variety clothes I've been buying for years simply because they are on sale. She was awesome company. She helped me get over my fear of ruffles, fitted blouses, and "toe cleavage" on high heels (that's another story for another day). I have to dress like a grown up, but I don't feel like a grown up. Does having two kids automatically take away my option to still dress like a kid? We were able to find a variety of clothes with mix 'n match-ability in all the right sizes. What's even better is that everything rang up on sale since stores are making room for Spring fashions. This is the best time of year to shop sales! Plus, I got %10 off everything at Old Navy by opening a charge account.

We shopped Old Navy, TJ Maxx, and Kohls. Top off my fashion makeover with a haircut and eyebrow wax from Regis Salon and cosmetics from Mary Kay. If only I could say that these were my sponsors who provided the goods and services, but unfortunately, they weren't. Nobody gave me a $5000 shoppping card, either, but I'm willing to accept reimbursements in exchange for my shameless plugs found in this blog post. The last thing I need to do in true "What not to wear" style is take my old clothes--the ones that don't fit me--to DI so that I'm never tempted to revert back to my old "ways."

Spoils include:

Tops: 6. Tanks for layering: 3. Jackets: 2. Trousers & Jeans: 1 of each. Skirt: 1. Shoes: 1.

Without further ado, meet the new and improved me!

Blouse: $25 at Old Navy

Pencil Skirt: $16 at TJ Maxx

Sexy black pumps: $8 at Kohls (Go Clearance!)

Ruffled Pleated Blouse, Waisted Crop Jacket, and Wide Leg Sailor Pants: $55 at Old Navy

Faux Wrap Blouse & Dark Wash Jeans from Old Navy, with laced cami from DownEast Outfitters: $63

Coral Tee and honeycomb layer tank from Old Navy, and Jacket from TJ Maxx: $35. I got another tee and tank just like this in blue.

Well...How do I look?

And the winner is...!

The winner of a set of 10 hand-made cards is...Mom! Congratulations! I used Random.org to generate a random number between 1 and 5 (since there were only 5 people to choose from) and Mom's was comment number 1. I would have you email me your address, but I already know it. What kind of cards do you want?

Spilled Milk and Soggy Cheerios

You're not supposed to cry over spilled milk, but let me make my case to the contrary.

I haven't gotten adequate sleep for six weeks.

My house and personal hygeine have suffered because of my lack of energy, and the distractions aplenty haven't helped. I'm sick of changing diapers. The one thing I did this week to clean the house was mop the kitchen floor Wednesday night so we wouldn't sacrifice our socks to its stickiness, only to have a 5 foot diameter fall-out zone the next time Leah had a meal.

Chris has been sick all week, missing work to sleep afternoons. This morning Leah woke up with a cough and sore throat. It's only a matter of time until the baby and I get it. Does this mean we'll all be sick on President's Day?

Although I do have cabin fever, everytime I try to go somewhere, I end up more exhausted than its worth. (Yeah, spontaneously bursting into tears at the Walmart customer service desk isn't exactly what I had in mind when I decided to get out of the house...)

So given a severe energy deficit and my anxiety about the kitchen floor, is it okay to cry when the floor gets doused with the contents of a bowl of soggy, milky cheerios, and I have to clean it up?

Housekeeping

Not really keeping house, more like keeping blog. I decided to redo my links lists and divide the list by friends or family, but in the process I lost the entire list. If you want me to link to your blog, please put in the comment field the web address along with the blog name that you want it to be listed by. For convenience, they will all be listed alphabetically. I'll also add you to my google reader account if you're not already on it.

Thanks!

Random Tidbits

Random highlights from the past week:

I'm going on my makeover shopping spree on President's Day. Click here to give me your fashion advice, and you could win a set of 10 hand stamped cards. (If it makes any difference, everyone's advice has been great, so I'm going to pick a winner at random). While we're at it, what are the rules of wearing stripes or prints?

This week I've made Honey-Glazed Chicken, Mustard-Lemon Chicken, Pesto Cheese Tarts, and a Lemon-Lime Tart (way harder than I thought it would be!). I even successfully made French Toast on the first try.

Last night, all four Fosdicks were awake at some point during the 4:30-5:30am hour, three of us subsequently requiring wardrobe changes. Nevertheless, I got 8 hours of sleep over a span of only 9 hours--the best since the baby was born. I feel great!

I've mastered one-handed blogging while simultaneously breast-feeding (like right now).

Friday I ventured to the grocery store with two children. What do you do when you get home and the baby is hungry, the toddler is asleep in her carseat, and the trunk is full of frozen groceries all at once?

I filed our taxes yesterday morning.

Diaper Count for Samuel: Approximately 250.

In the stamping world, I had a Stampin' Up workshop yesterday and it was a lot of fun. I demonstrated the Pretties Kit and it is oh, so pretty! The only problem with the kit is that two year olds love it. Here are the projects I made for the workshop. The last one is a tin I decorated, filled with designer paper scraps, and gave to the hostess.



Also, I put this in my newsletter to my customers, but nobody has taken the bait: To celebrate Samuel's arrival, send me a baby card made with Stampin' Up! products--On March 1st, I'll pick one at random and that person will receive a free Classic Inkpad of their choice. Mind you, I haven't gotten any yet, so if you hop to it, you could be the only entry and thereby the winner! (email me at jennyfosdickATgmailDOTcom if you need more info).

Also, I decided to take a trial run of the Demonstrator Business Website while I can get two months for free--I haven't done anything to it yet, but that is my project for this week.

That's it for this week's random tidbits! Tune in next time!

How Observant are you?

Need something to occupy your time for 3-5 minutes? Thanks to Julie for this little quiz. Take it to see how observant you are about everyday things. I scored 20 out of 25 and I didn't cheat. Take the quiz here and then let me know what you scored!

http://www.oldjoeblack.0nyx.com/thinktst.htm

Fashion Intervention, Please

I recently put away a box of maternity clothes and got out a giant bin of regular clothes. I examined each article of clothing as I put it on a hanger. There were several of my favorite shirts that always manage to be first in my laundry rotation, and the most comfortable and forgiving khakis I've ever worn--I've had them now for 4 years and they have always fit me perfectly (how is that?). But the majority of the clothes came out of the bin with bad karma: I mean when I look at pictures of myself wearing those clothes, I am not completely satisfied with how they made me look. Then I realized that all of those clothes were either acquired before I was ever pregnant and are now too small, or were acquired after I was pregnant but in my pre-pregnancy size, meaning they were always too small. Let me add a brief note about body image: I don't really care what size I have to wear; I just want it to fit right and look good. With that said, I'd still like to eliminate some of the pregnancy weight around my middle. But I've come to terms with the reality that I'll always have a bigger frame than I did before bearing two children.

In this season of the tax return, I asked my husband for some money to go on a "shopping spree" to buy some new clothes that fit me properly. (How much do you have to have for it to be termed a "spree?") He gave me the go-ahead. I'm excited to find some new shirts that are trendy and casual and that fit me properly.

So in the style of TLC's What Not to Wear, I'm asking you, my loyal readers, to be my Clinton and Stacy--guide me in the ways of fashion, and make me over! Let me give you the short and sweet of this fashion victim:

"Our latest cry for help is a new mother of two--her wardrobe consists of oversized maternity clothes that didn't quite make it to storage, and too-small t-shirts that don't fit her now womanly frame. Compliment Jenny's wrong-sized shirts with frumpy sweat pants and shapeless jeans. Since full-time motherhood, she's practically abandoned the use of cosmetics, wears a pony-tail 6 days out of 7, and only wears tennis shoes. Let's teach her what NOT to wear!"

Please, educate me. Tell me what to wear and where to shop. Tell me how to look nice even when I stay home all day. What are the staples I need in order to update my wardrobe? What hair and cosmetic products do I need in order to look nice and feel good with minimal time investment?

Give me your fashion tips. I'm going shopping in about two weeks--whoever gives me the fashion tip I find the most useful will receive a set of 10 hand-stamped cards with your choice of theme or greeting. Let the intervention begin!

Ode to my Pillow

Dear Pillow,

I'm sorry we haven't had much quality time together recently. I must admit that I've always enjoyed spending time together--your freshly laundered scent, the smooth and cool cotton against my face, your softness and the way my head sinks a little into your fluffiness. You are so good to me. I find myself constantly daydreaming about dreaming. I mourn and I pine. How I miss our time together.

I promise my head has not rested elsewhere. I remain committed to you--it's just, there are so many things that strive to pull us apart constantly. *sniffle* What can I do to earn back your affection?

I miss you.

Hopelessly devoted to you,
Jenny

Why I haven't blogged all week

I guess you could say that I'm in survival mode this week. Aside from making sure that everyone is fed and diapered, there isn't much else I've expected to get done. At the beginning of the week, I mad a checklist of small things to make sure I did every day. It includes: read scriptures, get dressed and put in contacts, empty and load dishwasher, sweep kitchen floor, put away contents of dryer, spend 5 minutes tidying living room, spend 5 minutes on stationary bike (to get in the habit), give Chris a hug, read to Leah, put on happy music. Really, each thing can't take that long, and I figured that if I paced myself and did things over the course of the whole day, by the time bedtime rolled around, at least I would have accomplished something.

Well, that was the theory. I won't tell you which things actually got done regularly and which things got neglected--use your imagination. But there are other things that I didn't realize would take priority. For example, I've been very interested in filing our taxes this week and am waiting for the IRS to be "ready to process my return" which they're not. I've watched our Netflix movies right away so I can return them for another one--very important task. I've made bread in my breadmaker two days in a row (well I have to make sure it works!). Yesterday I even had the desire to make homemade soup and serve it to Leah's playdates and their mom. I've spent way too much time reading blogs--it's just so easy to keep sitting and to let my 2 year old run circles around me and watch Disney movies all day. And I've been planning projects to demonstrate at my next Stampin' Up! Workshop. What I should be doing is spending time with my kids, sleeping when they're sleeping, and preparing a RS lesson for Sunday. Let's hope today I have the energy to get off my duff and get to it!