The Week in Review

I haven't been blogging as much this week because I've been working on several projects around my house. Much of this is because of a book I just finished reading called, The House That Cleans Itself, at the recommendation of my cousin-in-law Alysun who promoted the book on her blog. I was fairly impressed with the book and have started to implement several of the ideas already. The book is written for those who are "housing keeping-impaired" and basically shows you how to change your house to fit your lifestyle and habits, rather than trying to change your behavior whenever possible. If you've been to my house, you know that housekeeping does not come naturally to me and that is one of the reasons I like this book. Sure, I can get my house looking pretty snappy when we have company over, but day-to-day it doesn't look near as nice. And the clutter, oh the clutter - I've struggled with clutter since elementary school! This book has helped me to realize that I'm simply not a natural house-keeper and never will be, but it's also given me hope that I can overcome my "handicap," if you will, by organizing my home in a way that fits who I am and that can still be adequately clean (not spic and span) most of the time. Do you struggle with house-cleaning? If so, what methods/books/tips have helped you?

In other subjects, we also enjoyed a quick but nice visit from my brother and his wife this week (no kids this time). They were in town on business and were able to drop by for about an hour. Almost daily Abby points to her cousin Hannah's picture on our fridge, so we were sure to tell her that Uncle Dave and Aunt Holly were Hannah's Daddy and Mommy. She was a bit unsure of them and I wish they could have stayed longer (not to mention visit more often too! =).

On Thursday morning, we were mildly surprised to see snow outside our windows. After breakfast, Abby grabbed her boots and said, "No, no, no!" (meaning "snow") so we bundled up and headed out to enjoy the light frosting of snow before it melted in the sun. She had lots of fun and it was kind of neat that there was only a little bit of snow on the ground so that she could easily walk around in it.

Kevin has been busy working on his boat during the day, but he is sure to spend time with Abby in the morning before he heads out and in the evening too. One morning they were playing in the living room with Abby's car and Daddy put her hair in a hairband and snapped this picture:

In addition to house cleaning projects, I've also been doing a little more cooking than normal this week. I bought a large ham on sale last week and all week I've been trying out new recipes to use up the leftover ham. So far, the recipes have all been "keepers" so that's always good and makes it more fun! While I've been cooking, Abby has been spending a lot of time playing in the kitchen rather than the living room in order to be closer to me. Her latest thing is opening up the cabinet doors and trying to sit on the edge:

As you can see, she often can't even sit down all the way because the pots/pans/items come all the way to the edge in some of the cupboards! But she has fun trying anyway! If you're wondering what brought on this strange behavior, the only thing I can come up with is that a couple weeks ago we went to Target to pick a couple items and decided to let Abby walk instead of using a shopping cart. She found out that the shelving on each aisle was just the perfect height for her to sit on and anytime we slowed down she quickly sat down and encouraged her Daddy to sit next to her. It was really cute but I never dreamed she'd try to do it with our kitchen cupboards too! Sometimes she'll even point next to her and say, "Dadda" or "Mamma," trying to get us to sit in the remaining two inches of space left of the cupboard! =)

And as a final comment about the week, Abby has begun to put a couple words together to make her very first sentences! One time she offered Kevin a piece of her cheese and said, "Dadda bite." And today on our walk she saw a cat sleeping on the window ledge of a house we were passing and said, "Bubba window" (all cats are called "Bubba" now, not just our own =). Additionally, Abby loves to label almost every object in our house as "Dadda's" or "Mamma's" or "Bubba's." I think it started with her helping me with the laundry and I would say, "Daddy's sock" or "Mamma's shirt." Now she not only labels all the pieces of clothing, but also our pillows (she knows which side of the bed we each sleep on), chairs we normally sit at, phones, cars, Mamma's brush, Daddy's shaver, Calvin's water dish, and even items that aren't really anyone's specific possessions (i.e. a book, a piece of paper, etc). I can't think of any funny ones off the top of my head, but it's been cute to see what items she says belong to whom. =)