Adjustments, Fluffy Syrup, and a Cleaning Spree

 1.) Marshmallow fluff 

The feast of the Assumption was this past week. 

We usually celebrate big feasts (which I define as one that either is a solemnity (two mass readings!), a holy day of obligation, or is especially relevant to our family for some reason) with a dessert. I recently found a marshmallow cookbook at the library, and decided, in my innocence, to make a batch of "marshmallow creme" and serve it with waffles. 

"Should be fun" I thought. "A nice, simple dessert and it kinda looks like clouds, so it's appropriate!" 

Ha. 

I didn't realize exactly how much the recipe made. The book mentioned using the stuff for a cake filling, so I was picturing a small bowl's worth. You know, enough to have about an inch or two's worth between two eight inch cake rounds. Just enough for a nice dessert for five people. 

No. 

It was a lot more than that; an entire quart. It was enough for a massive three tiered wedding cake AND an eight inch regular birthday cake. 

Long story short, I've been trying to figure out new ways to feed what basically amounts to fluffy corn syrup to my children for the past few days. One of the said children is now a toddler, so it also involves scrubbing a thick, gooey, viscous substance off of a table, high chair, the floor...you get the idea. 

I still have about a half cup of the stuff left. 

Pray for me. 

2.) Apron Realized 

I actually managed to finish that apron! 

I still have a couple smaller projects left to do as well, but I really wanted to do this one, and the pretty fabric I spent $20 a yard on (!!) from Spoonflower had come in and was just sitting there, calling to me. 

I ended up tweaking the pattern a bit. I had neither the time nor money to bother with bias tape, so the resulting apron is a bit more plain than the picture on the pattern envelope. It's still pretty enough that I like wearing it though. If I ever get through the pile of smaller projects, I might add some embroidery to the shoulders later on. 

Yesterday was a "leave the house" day, so I had one of my 'good' T-shirts on. Thus the apron was pressed into service and by the end of the day was absolutely splattered with spaghetti sauce and well dusted with flour (Bitty Baby has reached the "huge impressive mess" stage of toddlerhood, and figured out where we keep the 25 lb bucket of flour. I'll let your imagination fill in the rest). The shirt stayed stain free. 

I think it was worth the invested time and money. And it has nice big lovely pockets too. 

3.) The School Bus Cometh 

(My kid doesn't ride the bus anymore, but the heading was too good to pass up). 

The school year has started, and we're in another period of adjustment. We go though one of these when Chris and the kids come home for the summer, and when they go back to school again. 

Every time this flip-flop happens, we have to retool the routine. There's suddenly somewhere we have to be in the afternoon (or no longer have as a constant, depending on if it's spring or fall) and we're left scrambling to rearrange everything so that the cooking, cleaning, school/home work, and everything else gets done consistently instead of devolving into absolute chaos. 

We're currently in the "here's how we're going to maintain order, let me figure it out while flying by the seat of my pants" phase. In a perfect world I'd be able to figure all this out ahead of time, but alas, ours is not a perfect world and I am far from a perfect person. 

I will say I'm thankful the twice yearly shift gives me a built in reset button as the kids get older. They're capable of more and want to do more and different things as they grow, and it's nice to have a fairly regular opportunity to re-structure things with that reality in mind. 

That turnaround period is an absolute bear though. Yikes. 

4.) Pumpkin Sprouts 

We've had a lot of rain recently, and those pumpkin seeds I planted have sprouted! 

They're still very much baby plants, so kinda early to tell how they'll do, but it turns out that three year old seed still had a little life left in it. 

5.) The Great Purge 

I'm not sure why, but I've been very motivated to clear out excess stuff lately. 

I cleaned a whole bunch of stuff out of my dresser and my half of our closet, went through the kids' clothes, and went through the large stash of childrens' shoes and got rid of about a third of them. 

I'm throwing stuff away, giving stuff away, and I'm not done yet. I think I'm going to try and tackle the kitchen cabinets next. There's definitely too many cups and mugs in one, and I think there may be some long neglected electric appliances and accessories lurking in the back of a couple cabinets as well. 

I guess I subconsciously just hit a critical point where I suddenly realized that our little house was so crowded with junk that it's next to impossible to keep neat and clean and/or move around and do stuff. 

Or maybe I'm just manifesting stress from adjusting to the start of the school year by going on a cleaning streak. I don't know. 

Either way, it's a little easier to move around in my closet now. 

6.) Bitty Baby's Bouncy Bed 

Bitty Baby has graduated from our bed to her own bed. 

Sort of. 

She takes naps there, and she starts the night off in her bed. She still wakes up a lot at night though, and sooner or later I end up bringing her back into our bed. 

Oh well. Baby steps. 

We had to move some furniture around to make room. Chris spent a whole afternoon shoving, pulling, and assembling, and I had to spend an afternoon rearranging and cleaning. It was disruptive enough that it almost felt like it does when you start packing up to move to a new house. Just very chaotic, confusing, and there was a ton of visible lint and grit on the carpet for some reason.  

I think we're finally mostly over that though. Things are starting to feel settled again. 

7.) Googly Eyes 

This is admittedly a bit juvenile, but I figured out you can take those really thin magnets that have phone numbers on them (this one was from an insurance agency we no longer use), cut them into circles...

Glue them to the back of extra large googly eyes...

And you end up with something a lot more entertaining than it has any right to be. 

And that's the news around here.