Good morning!

So there is a fall chill in the air 'round these parts. It is wonderful, albeit strange because my low tolerance for hot and humid was not really reached this summer. Anyhoodle, this breakfast was the perfect companion to a crisp morning.

Oatmeal and Almond Meal Cinnamon Pancakes
*adapted from glutenfreehomemaker.com

1 1/2 c. almond meal*
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 TB sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 eggs
1/2 c milk
1/2-3/4 c oats**

Mix dry ingredients, add wet. Cook like regular pancakes***. Pour on the syrup (they don't really need butter) and nom nom nom.

A few notes.
*So almond meal is expensive. I believe it's around $9.00 for the bob's red mill at the grocery (i got a really good deal on amazon a while back). If you don't feel like splurging for that, you can grind your own (raw) almonds at home or you can sub regular flour for some of the almond meal. IF you do that though, you'll miss out on the low carb, high protein benefit of these little babies.
** I just kept adding oats until I had a good pancakey batter consistency.
*** You can make 5 fairly large pancakes from this recipe. I would suggest making small pancakes though because these are very filling, especially if you're serving them to little ones or with something else.

Pancakes without the carb hangover. Perfect.

Ava's skills - you're welcome, mom.

We went to the high school football game last Friday.

Ava enjoyed herself thusly:





I love her.

So romantic

So we saw this commercial tonight:



and Danny said, "if I die early that's going to be you".

And then, I wiped snot off the tiny human's nose and onto Danny's pants so he literally pinned me down on the couch and wiped his pants on my face.

To top it all off, he informed me this evening that he is part of 2 fantasy football leagues.

Boys.

A new love and a shameless plug

Welp, I should be napping right now. Or cleaning. Instead I am blogging. See how I give up nappy time to update you on things in my life, about which you don't really care??? I AM SO GENEROUS, YOU'RE WELCOME.

Well, Dustin and Rebecca and the niecews came last weekend. It was kind of wonderful. I got to chill with people I love love love and snuggle a warm, delicious new baby. We stayed up too late, ate waaaaay too much Captain Crunch (and ice cream, and meat, etc...), and went through lot of towels but it was a special occasion, right? Do you know what else? Wanna know what else??? Wanna know what my sweet brother and awesome husband installed in the kitchen???

A DISHWASHER. (Said with reverence and humility. And an echo.)
(The Before:)

(The After:)

I understand that before dishwashers were invented, the real washer of dishes were also called children. However comma my child is not yet old enough for her to be an efficient means of getting the dishes warshed. Mostly she just makes a bubbly mess and sucks on the dishrag because she knows she's not supposed to. So I've been the dishwasher since moving to Michigan and my life has been so hard. Such a trial to have to wash all your dishes every day, twice a day. Cannot believe I got through that tribulation.

But seriously. I have gained back at least an hour of my life every day thanks to this magical contraption. And you know what's extra awesome about it? It was free. (www.freecycle.org) It's only 4 years old and it was at a rental property. The property manager said they always got complaints about it not working but apparently the people loading it didn't know you couldn't stick things down below the bottom rack (really??) and, upon instillation, Dustin figured out that the hose they had been using wasn't the right one. So anyhoodle, we're only out the cost of the hoses, electrical, and plumbing doodads and the labor was easily bought with hot fudge sundaes. It does a fabulous job and I have no complaints. All I have is praise, in fact.

So now I can devote all that time saved washing dishes to my latest venture - my new etsy shop. (Click on the picture.) 

 

I'm still working on upping the inventory and, as the name suggests, there will be a variety of things to buy - hair accessories, pillows, wall hangings, maybe a printable or two, jewelery, and  vintage finds. Why? Because I have craft ADD, THAT'S WHY.

That's the news for now. I'm going to go pet my dishwasher.

Ava is 18 months!

Better things to do with my money?

charity: water




I love the simplicity of this solution. Teach them how to dig a well.

A Moment of Genius

That's what Danny had last night. Installing a pocket door in our problematic bathroom will be a mess and require us to higher a professional. Annnnnnd we're not so much about that. So? Bi-fold door it is.



In white.

Yeah, he has good ideas every so often. Sadly, none of those good ideas ever coincide with outfit choices for our daughter. Tim Gunn and I don't get it but beggars can't be choosers.

On superpowers and triangle heads

It's no secret that upon having a kid a woman's multi-tasking abilities go from impressive to superhuman. I realized this after the first week of motherhood when I looked around at everything I had gotten done in 15 minutes while Ava snoozed and had to check myself for a heartbeat because AM I A ROBOT OR DID I REALLY JUST DO ALL THAT?!

Well lately, my superpower is a little on the fritz. Maybe it's all this home improving but I have short-term memory loss. I get halfway through a task, get distracted five or six times, and finally make my way back to the first task. Flittering around to different tasks has always been my modus operandi but it's never been this bad. I feel like I'm TAKING CRAZY PILLS. The end of the day comes and I have 12 half-done piles around the house. Except the dishes. The dishes always get done all the way.....because I have no dishwasher and not that many dishes.

I can't even concentrate on doing Ava's hair long enough to do it. So she walks around as triangle head all day.

(this picture doesn't even begin to do it justice)


Meanwhile, Danny is Mr. Superfocused and I am jealous of him muchly. Maybe, between the two of us, we can actually get a few things accomplished. To be fair though, that wood paneling was rough and probably no other room in our house will need 4 coats of paint and have that many crevices.

I think I just need to relax and channel my inner Reilly (because she is freakishly organized). Some homemade coconut almond chocolate chip ice cream and netflix ought to get my powers back in working order. Yeah, I'm pretty sure the ice cream alone could have mended Harry's wand.

DIY has commenced

So, here at casa de AWESOME, we are in full do-it-yourself (diy) mode. I'm painting the wood paneling in the back room. It's taking roughly 17 coats of primer of the oil-based kind and ALL of my patience. You know that point when you just want to be done and you don't care how crappy it looks? Trying to avoid that point has been SO HARD. But alas, I want our house to look nice. So i paint during nap time. Not favorite.

We have also started on the upstairs bathroom. This is what it looked like to begin with (I didn't get a really good shot because it's pretty much impossible to do in this teeny bathroom).

View from the stairs:.

Classy vanity and tub:

Flooring and wallpaper. Even the ceiling was wallpapered.

And the most annoying thing about this bathroom (and the entire house, actually): The door is kind of huge in relation to the size of the bathroom. You can't just walk into the bathroom and shut the door. You have to lean way back against the sink: 

or shove yourself against the toilet and lean back (there is also like no room for a traesh can (pronounced traysh) in there either) to close the door. Sooooo annoying. 

 Needless to say, this will have to be fixed before we think about having another babe. I can't imagine being large with child and bathing my other child in here. Or peeing, for that matter. I could just leave the door open but it's also in the way then. Gah. So, we're thinking pocket door. We'll see what we can actually do though. Any suggestions? I'm open to 'em.

Alas, the only redeeming thing about this bathroom? Tbhe faucet. Lurve it. Will keep it.

So far we've torn down the wallpaper to reveal a never-before-painted plaster wall and mold on the ceiling (awesome) and we've plastered over some holes. Next, we'll sand and paint. Then do the tile flooring and replace the vanity and sink.

It's really hard to fit the rest of my life into all the home improving going on here. Oh, and we got an estimate on replacing windows yesterday..... $18,000-20,000.

BAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHHAHAHAHA.

Yeah, right. Right?

A delayed awkward silence

Guys. It's that super awkward moment when you briefly introduce yourself during a conversation and the other person looks at you funny and you realize, 3 hours later, that the person knows you already and, in fact, fed you dinner at their house 4 weeks ago.

A letter to my husband

My dearest Danny -

Remember a few weeks ago when Ava fell asleep in church and you pretty much begged to hold her? Or when she fell asleep in the car on the way home from the beach and there was no way you were letting anyone else carry her up to her crib? Remember how excited Ava gets when you come home everyday and how hard only you can make her giggle?

Yeah. That melts me.

I love when you come home for lunch. I love when you make me laugh while I'm trying my hardest to stay mad at you. I love listening to you talk to your brothers on the phone. I love how hard you've worked to get us where we are and all the plans we're making together.

I love knowing that I get to be in love with you for the rest of forever.

That's a pretty spectacular forever.

Thanks for being you,

Your wife