It's 3:00 in the afternoon, and the girls are still napping away upstairs. That means I have time to goof off in photoshop some more, and upload a quick picture here. I'm having so much fun!



I downloaded some free presets from PresetsHeaven. And, they make my photos look great with a click of a button. I'm having such a great time, and feeling very guilty about it. I better go fold some laundry...

...is going to be two years old in eleven short days.

I simply can't believe it. Wasn't it just yesterday that she was my little newborn? Now, she's rocking her own little baby dolls to sleep.

One of my coping mechanisms, when I'm having a bad week (or two, or three...), is cooking. I'm actually not that great of a cook. But, with my Barefoot Contessa cookbook in hand, and allrecipes.com at my fingertips, I'm making some winner meals lately.

So far this week, we've had:

Homemade Chicken Noodle soup (broth made from the carcass and everything, yah baby!)
Borecole & Sausage (spelling?) I made my Dutch husband proud
Chicken Stew with Biscuits- Thankyou Barefoot Contessa. One of Nich's favourites.

And tonight.... Balsamic Roasted Pork Loin with Roasted Winter Vegetables on the side.

I am not a very talented cook at all, but I know how to follow a recipe. I remember one of my first cooking experiences in my first apartment:

I was making Tater-tot casserole, and couldn't figure out if I would need to brown the ground beef before putting it in the casserole dish. Surely the oven would cook it, right? Fortunately, my friend set me straight, and we ate a thoroughly cooked meal. But, really, I was SO clueless. Once I even kept the plastic cover on one of my roommates casserole dishes while it was cooking in the oven, because the recipe said to bake it 'covered'. And, yes, it totally melted. All down the sides of the casserole dish, and into the oven.

I've come a long way. There used to be a lot of tears and frustration in the kitchen. But, now that I know the basics, I'm pretty grateful that I can pull of a fine-tasting meal for dinner (well, most of the time...).

I've been wanting to write this post for a looong time. A couple years ago, I discovered a wonderful way to shop for things. Look on Amazon.com or Drugstore.com, and see what's rated the highest- then go off to my local store and purchase. I have yet to be disappointed. I have always been 100% satisfied (like, doing the happy dance satisfied) after shopping this way. Here are a few of my favourite things.


Crane Cool-Mist Humidifier

After years of having an old-school, warm-mist (germy!) humidifier, I broke down and bought this adorable, froggy humidifier from Babies-r-us. And, wow, it works great! My other one would leak water, take a 1/2 hour to start up, and would have to get turned off in the kids' room before we went to bed (i was scared it would get too hot). This cool-mist humidifier is amazing! It was made well, so it never leaks. It starts as soon as you turn it on. And, I can keep it on in the kids rooms all night long, which helps keep their room nice and humid, which helps them not cough, which helps us all wake up nice and happy in the morning.




Dyson
What's more to say that hasn't already been said by the choruses of satisfied people all over internet-land and the world? This beast has powerful suction, it's super easy to use the wand extension on my stairs, and the customer service is Superb. Nich rinsed the filter a little too much once, and it disintegrated. We promptly called customer service, they apologized profusely (even though it was kinda our fault?), and sent out a new part, free of charge. And, it was at my front door in two days. I love a well-made, well thought out product, and great customer service to back it up.




Country Save Laundry Detergent




I heart this laundry detergent. I started using it when I began cloth diapering last year. And, I have been so impressed! It's strong enough to clean Nich's gunk-covered work clothes, but gentle enough to use on delicates. It doesn't leave any residue on your clothes- or scent for that matter (there is no fragrance, which I like). This is great for people with sensitive skin, and perfect for cloth diapers. And, the price is right. For $7 I pick this up at London Drugs (I know it says $62 on amazon.com, that's for 4 oversized boxes) and it lasts me about 6 months (for my HE washer) of doing about 8 loads a week. So, for $14 a year, versus the approx. $70 a year for my old Tide addiction. Yup, I'd say that's pretty great.


Vitamin Water

I've been a vitamin nut for years, it all started when my (high school) friend's mom introduced me to Echinacea. Now, I'm all about the vitamins. If Nich or I feel a cold coming on, we go on a serious vitamin regimen (that works almost every time) to kick the cold to the curb.
Along with vitamins, the best thing you can do for your body is drink water. SO, vitamin water makes me pretty happy, and I feel great after I drink it. Also, probably because I dehydrate myself so badly with all the coffee I drink. Did you know you need to drink 3 cups of water to replace what is lost after one cup of coffee? Sigh. I really need to kick the caffeine habit.

Get ready, get set, go to Starbucks for a free pastry!
A coupon that isn't as blurry is here.

I love my girls. I know I'm biased, but I just think they are so beautiful. And, lately, they are acting so sweet, and playing so well together. It's refreshing. Just a half hour ago, I was making lunch in the kitchen- when I looked over, and saw the girls, sitting side-by-side on the couch, reading a book together.

SO cute.

Eva is acting very grown-up lately. She is setting out toys for Katy-duck to play with, she happily does her chores (yep, we set her up with a wearable 'chore pack' that she puts around her neck after dinner. i'll go into detail on it in another blog post), and now she's sporting a new haircut.

Kaitlyn is almost two (gasp!). I'm still in shock. She sleeps in a big-girl bed, uses her manners, actually plays games with her sister, instead of just watching. And, I've just ordered these, so I can start the potty training process with her next month.

Starbucks makes me happy.

Free Starbucks makes me even happier.

I have very much enjoyed getting free starbucks drinks, thanks to my handy-dandy Starbucks Duetto Visa. Every month, they load my card with beaucoup Duetto Dollars. I happily go through the drive-thru, hand them my card, and voila- Free Tall, Extra Foamy Vanilla Latte.

I almost never have to actually pay for my drinks.

Until now. I got a letter in the mail informing me that the Starbucks Visa is being discontinued and replaced with another, boring, useless 'gold' card. Who needs a gold card? Give me a COFFEE card.

Boo.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do. This is very big news in my coffee world. I can't really justify going to Starbucks (now, that they've raised their prices, too!) and paying almost $4 for a latte a couple times a week . Thankfully, I make my own lattes at home (thanks to Miss Silvia), but it's just not the same.

The only up-side, is we've decided to go big and get a really good airmiles card. So, when I drive past Starbucks (sobbing), and pull into the Tim Hortons drive-thru (cringing), I will envision myself suntanning on a beach, in Maui, and then (hopefully) everything will be okay.

I'm in the middle of one of those days. It started at 4:50am. Eva opened her door (squueeaaaak), to get some water, which woke Kaitlyn up. The crying commenced. And didn't end.

They are miserable, and so am I. During morning prayer time, I asked God if something nice could happen today. I really needed some encouragement. Awhile later, during my morning email check, an ad popped up for Jango.com. I checked it out, and happily found it was internet radio that creates a music station based on your preferences (similar to Pandora.com, but a couple years ago, they locked out us Canadians).

So, now, while I'm rocking my ear-infected baby, and consoling my feverish, over-tired 4-year old, I'm being renewed and encouraged by the music playing softly in the background.

If you're a fellow Canadian that misses Pandora, I encourage you to check it out. Maybe it'll make your day, too.

And, Yay for answered prayers.