Baton Rouge Trip

I wanted to share a few photos from our recent trip to Baton Rouge.

It was a marathon trip as always and even more so this time because Justin is working on a big project at the office, so we had to leave Friday night after he got off work. That made for an arrival time 11:00 pm.  Most of you know...WAY PAST MY BEDTIME :)  Not to mention Briggs woke up during the transfer inside and thought it was time to play...augh.

The next morning we woke up and got over to Abby & Josh's house (my sis and B-I-L) to celebrate Cade's SECOND BIRTHDAY...I still can't believe he is TWO!!!!...

Here is their family...

Cade riding his new bike from his mom and dad

Our little family...

Briggs and Poppa having fun...

Briggs sitting with Rah-Rah...if you look close you can see the chocolate around his mouth...he might have gotten into a little cake :)

Me and my little sis...

Briggs and his favorite (only) aunt :)

It was a fun day of festivities.  It was also pretty chilly for Louisiana weather, but we had a great time with everybody together (minus uncle Russ b/c he had some senior stuff and had to work back in Florida...he promised he didn't have any wild and crazy parties while mom and dad were gone)

We even squeezed in eating some crawfish.  Not any pics of that b/c we were all too busy stuffing our faces.

We ended the day with a little bathtime fun.  Cade and Brooks were laughing at me and Abby jumping around like fools trying to get everybody to smile.  Briggs was just enjoying chewing on his toy and thinking we are crazy.

I think Briggs is ready to get out :)

Here is everybody in their jammers and getting one last snuggle in with Rah-Rah and Poppa before bedtime

 

And of course we saw Justin's parents while were were there.

Briggs and G-Maw hanging out at breakfast...

Briggs trying out a bike...I think he is still a little small for that one Pa-paw...

And here he is telling Pa-paw bye.  He had to leave and go to church while we loaded up.

It was a fun trip and we are always amazed at what we can fit into a less that 24 hour trip.  Until next time...

Teacher Appreciation Week

Can anybody figure out what I could possibly be making with all these supplies?...

Well it's Teacher Appreciation Week...THIS WEEK...Briggs and I decided to go the hand-made route again.  Maybe it's just me, but I think people appreciate things that much more when they are hand-made.  Sidenote..much more cost efficient too :)

The items below include:
- Lavendar plant (or your plant of choice)
- terracota pot
- saucer for the pot
- paint
- chalkboard spray paint
- painters tape
- newspaper
- permanent marker

I started by laying down the newspaper so I wouldn't make a mess.  Taped the rim of the pot with the painters tape and got to spraying.  I flipped the pots upside down and it was much easier to sprayl.  I did about three layers to make sure the pot was covered completely.

And  here is what they both look like painted (with the tape still on)...

And then I got so into my project that I forgot to take pics for the rest of the project...oops.  Guess it doesn't help that my 11 month old was in the baby pool..see below :)

So anyway, after my multi-tasking and complete FAIL at documenting it all...here is my finished product.

As you can guess...the chalkboard paint is to write on with...CHALK.  I tried it out and works great.  You can wipe off with a paper towel, but a wet paper towel works best. 

We wrote..."Thank you for helping me grow" on their pots.  I also went a little out of the box and painted the saucer a fun turquoise blue. 

The top of the pot is painted yellow (all I did was pull the tape off after I spray painted the pot).  Once it dried I used a permanent marker and drew the lines and numbers on the yellow.  I didn't use a ruler or anything, just eye-balled it.

You could use this gift in many ways and you don't have to paint the rim as a ruler, it could be just a different color or...get creative.  Now they have a cute pot with an herb they can use in lots of different ways.

Briggs 10.5 months

My very talented husband captured some precious pics of our little boy at 10.5 months old.  Thought I would share a few of my favorites...

Our first garden

We now have a garden!...I don't know that I should have the title "Farmer Iris" but I sure am getting pretty close :)

When Briggs and I went to visit my parents in Florida...Justin was working hard on my birthday present (this was the only thing I asked for).  He of course isn't in the mindset of "blogging"...hints no pictures of the planter box process...but here is the picture he sent me at 11:00 one night of his finished product.

And here is what I have done to it since I've been home.  We have all kinds of veggies that will hopefully grow into big yummy FREE, HEALTHY food for us this summer.  Some of our crop includes tomatoes, onions, squash, zucchini, green beans, lettuce, green peppers, cucumbers, and lots of herbs sprinkled all over (basil, chives, parsley, rosemary, thyme, dill, fennel).

And here is the action shot of me harvesting our first onion.

CHECK IT OUT...homegrown in our own backyard.  I was super pumped.  There are more where that came from.  We used it in our green beans that night and can't wait to use more in the future.

 I have more posts to come on the progress we have made and more details on the garden but wanted to put this teaser out there of how it all got started :)

Grilling Out

We decided to try something a little different with our sweet potatoes tonight.  I just got the recipe/instructions from different places in google then combined what I thought sounded good.

First boil the sweet potatoes for about 5 minutes...until you are able to poke a fork in them without great effort.  Let them cool and then slice like pictured below and pull the skin off.

Find yourself one of these hotties (sorry ladies... he is taken),  and throw them on the grill.   He cooked them until they were soft all the way through...about 15-20 minutes.  I mixed together a glaze that was butter, cinnamon, cumin, salt...just to taste (sorry, I didn't measure it). Justin brushed the glaze on the potatoes as he was was cooking them.

And here is what they looked like finished...and yes they were as yummy as they look.  Briggs even thought so :)

Summer Drink

Wanted to share a summer drink we use around the Poland house often.

Mix Crystal Light Lemonade with water per directions on the packet. Slice and squeeze an orange into the drink mix. Throw in the slices (after squeezed)...


...and you have a yummy drink for a hot summer day.

Cleaning Schedule

Thought I would share something that has seriously changed my life over the past few week(s). This is plural week (s) b/c I wanted to make sure it was something that would stick and that was really helping me before I shared this little tidbit of information :)

Since I'm home with Briggs now, I've been getting a little overwhelmed with all the things there are to do. I'm not sure if it's because we are making bigger messes since we are home more or what...but I've been trying to figure out a system.

My momma raised me (that sounds pretty country..huh)...to clean house when I was growing up, but we would usually clean the WHOLE house on Saturdays. That worked for us then, but having a 10 month old...that's not the greatest system for me these days. I mean... who has a whole day to clean their house?

I started a CLEANING SCHEDULE...so I pretty much do one big thing a day and some laundry. I even posted it on the refrigerator so if I forget... or someone wants to help take something off my list...or just b/c I'm so excited about my new system, I want to look at it everyday...



I even thought out what works best for me on what day, so here is my schedule:

Monday: Floors...vacuum, sweep, mop
Tuesday: grocery shopping
Wednesday: Clean bathrooms
Thursday: change and wash sheets on all beds
Friday: Dust, sterilize bottles and pacifiers, clean out high chair...
Saturday: OFF
Sunday: cut coupons

At least 1-2 loads of laundry a day

Tuesday and Thursday are the mornings Briggs has Mother's Day Out. I'm usually out of the house while he is there, so I try to keep my in-house chore to a minimum so I'm not setting myself up for failure.

I keep a basket stocked with all my cleaning products, which makes it easy to move everything around with me while I'm cleaning.


And I thought I would share a few of my favorite cleaning products...

• Kaboom...I haven't found anything that works better in a shower that has soap scum

• Mr. Clean Magic Eraser...these things are AWESOME!...they work so much better than any rag or sponge. You barely have to press down when you use it and it wipes away the dirt...like MAGIC :)
  

And these are a necessity...I use Lysol wipes for many purposes in our house...disinfect baby toys, wipe over the counters quickly and my favorite is to wipe over the bathrooms in between cleanings.


So the secret to my sanity has been figuring out a schedule that works for our family. This is just a guide/goal for each day. If I don't get something done, no stress...I just try to catch up with it the next day.

The first thing I do every single morning when I get up...make my bed and put on my tennis shoes. It helps me get the day started off on the right foot and I'm ready to get to work.

I usually load the washing machine with a load of clothes the night before. The next morning I add detergent and hit start so it's washing while Briggs and I eat breakfast. Then I try to get my chore done for the day before or during his first nap. That way I have the rest of the day to do things with Briggs and I don't feel like I'm living in filth :)

I do maintenance jobs as needed..like sweep the kitchen floor, vacuum high traffic areas, wipe over the bathroom counter...
And there area few things I do every day that I didn't feel were necessary to add to the chores board...dishes, wash bottles, clean kitchen counter tops, cook supper, balance the check book, answer emails, pay bills, pick up toys, exercise, water the garden (I could go on and on...hints why I just kept my list to one main cleaning job a day)...

Hope this helps somebody out there. I know it has really helped me manage things at home so much better...what's the saying.."If momma ain't happy, nobody's happy..."well, momma is MUCH happier with this new system :)