Bits and Pieces

It seems like time gets away from me most days and it leaves me with things I want to write about but no time to actually write.  Excuse my total randomness as I try to get some of the ideas out of my head and into a readable format.

Katie seems like she's simply not amused with any of the baby items we have for her like the playmat, bouncy seat and exersaucer.  Rattles spread out on a blanket also do not amuse.  It seems nothing makes this sweet baby girl happy the way she is when she's in my arms.  She's exhausting me, but I'm happy to hold my sweet chunk of a baby.  When she sleeps she's heavy like a toddler who's trying out passive resistance.

Yesterday was a LONG day.  I had to get up early to teach my religious ed class.  I don't like to wake up on cold mornings when there's snow and ice on the ground.  When I arrived back at the house to the sounds of a hungry baby, I also had to take a call from my mom.  Not sure what it is about Sunday mornings, but my mom and dad sure love to call me just as I'm getting home to ask if they can stop over for a visit.  We had no real plans, so I said yes and the house descended into the usual tailspin of frantic cleaning so the place would look presentable-ish.  I should note that the house typically looks like it was bombed by most Sunday mornings.  Two days of Bryan at home and a full day of the girls at home will do that to our house.  I think it's a disaster area worthy of condemnation, but Bryan tells me this is what happens when you LIVE in the house.  I'm not buying it.  Between the stress of having to get the house straightened on short notice plus the total sensory overload from the NOISE, NOISE, NOISE of the visit (It's loud enough that I often wish I could hide somewhere when my parents come to visit.)  I don't know if it was the Starbucks coffee Bryan got me (first one that's tasted like it actually had coffee in it in several years) or the excitement from the day, but Katie was WIRED last night.  It was after 11PM last night when she finally went to sleep.  Typically she's in bed for the night by 9PM.

Today I decided to check out the show I've seen other bloggers raving about.  So I queued up Downton Abbey on Netflix and watched the first two episodes while Katie demanded that I hold her.  I knew nothing about the show other than other people liked it a lot.  By the end of the first episode I could sense that I had found a new guilty pleasure type of show.  It's certainly would get labeled a "Karen show" by Bryan.  According to Bryan, I like to watch shows and movies that no one else would watch.  Surely movies like Anne of the Thousand Days, Washington Square and Mrs. Brown couldn't have been made only for me.  Give me some good period costuming and chances are I'll be hooked.

With the exception of a chicken, I have all the food we need to make dinner for the rest of the week.  I made up a shopping list yesterday and remembered to take it to the stores with me this morning.  Katie and I managed to get all of the shopping done before it started to rain.

I think I need to move Katie to a convertible car seat soon.  She takes up most of the shopping cart at the grocery store and Sam's Club.  The only store I can take her to where her seat will fit on the top of the cart is Target.  I'm tired of being limited in how much food I can buy when I'm shopping by myself because I'm working with limited space.  Pretty soon I'm just going to have to wear Katie in the Bjorn carrier so I can utilize the cart more effectively.

I managed to get four more boxes of diapers for the baby with the 30% off deal from Amazon Mom.  I followed the advice of a commenter who had mentioned tweaking her subscription to still get the 30% off deal.  I played with the settings and managed to get the order to go through and I upped the quantity to four instead of one.  I'm probably set with diapers until July or August now.

I got caught trying to kill a few house plants.  I have three plants that I'd rather not have, but I won't toss a live plant.  Lately I had been accidentally deliberately forgetting to water them.  One of them is nearly dead, one is hanging on (it's been through Karen induced droughts before) and the other has a few brown leaves.  Bryan noticed that Yao, our bamboo plant in the kitchen was looking a little droopy and asked when I last watered it.  He's not in favor of passive plant murdering, so I had to water it.  I suppose I should water the other two plants as well.  I tried. I failed. Now I'll have to live with the plants happily mocking me with their leafy green presence that my attempts to off them have been thwarted.

I have several reviews that I need to write.  I just need to find time to sit down and write them up.  Maybe I'll get some spare time here or there later this week.

I've been procrastinating on what VBS program to use this summer.  Or, maybe, I'm just busy with the baby.  I'm trying to decide whether we should maintain the status quo and continue using the Catholicized version of the protestant program that the parish has been using for years and just adding some Catholic flavor to it in the arts and crafts room, or I can take a chance and give one of the Cat Chat VBS programs a try.  I have to have a meeting with the DRE soon and make a final decision.  I did go to  Sam's Club and get the pricing info for the drinks and snacks that we'll need.  At least I'm doing something to prepare for this year's program.

I'm hungry and Katie's sleeping.  I need to get myself a snack before she wakes up.