Domestic Goddesses???

So far Lily and I have taken to the staying home gig pretty well. As you can see below, Lily has become a master chef in her play kitchen. Her favorite thing to cook would be Cheerios, of course. Our mornings are so much less hectic now. Lily and I work on breakfast while Daddy takes his time getting ready. Then we all have a relaxed breakfast together and I even have time to pack Jeff a lunch. Jeff is always taking such good care of us, it feels so good now to be able to reciprocate that even more. Unlike when I worked, we are now able to get errands done during the day and have time to just sit and be a family in the evenings. My mom has been helping me come up with dinner ideas so that I can have dinner going or ready when Jeff gets home. Last night I made pork chops in cream of celery soup, mashed potatoes, and spinach salad with craisins, almonds, and Organic Balsamic Vinaigrette. It was very tasty, easy to make, and ready to go when he got home. Jeff thanked me for it by totally cleaning his plate (he told me several times how good he thought it was, too)!

The after care at my house with the three little girls is going great so far too. I am having a ton of fun coming up with fun snacks and working with them on their homework. This week I made chocolate pudding with strawberries, popcorn, chex mix, smoothie popsicles, and my first attempt at Jell-O jigglers. The jigglers really didn't turn out as planned...a little too much wiggle in the jiggle to hold them together, but it was fun to try. While I am not ready to claim to be a super mom or domestic goddess, I am really enjoying the time I have with Lily and the time I have at home to take care of my house, husband, and family.

In other news, as many of you know our first born has had the ability to walk for many months now and has totally and unabashedly refused to walk. She is very coordinated, and it really didn't worry us that she wasn't walking. The doctor said that when she was ready she would do it--but not until then--and truer words were never spoken. Despite our best efforts to force the issue, nothing really changed until one night just shy of her 19 month birthday when our little flower decided she would like to walk laps around the downstairs. We quickly grabbed the video camera in case the momentous event were to reoccur with the frequency of a Bigfoot sighting. As it was, the walking went on for maybe a half an hour...and within a few days there was no crawling at all. Now our toddler walks all the time with really no "toddling" at all. She is very controlled and rarely falls or gets close to any disasters. What a silly child we have! With the walking and ever-expanding vocabulary, she just seems so old these days.