31 Days: Cookies for a Bridal Luncheon

Decorated sugar cookies for the luncheon

My mom and one of her good friends hosted a bridal luncheon yesterday morning. I volunteered to bake and decorate some cookies for them since they had their hands in so many other activities. Plus, I love baking and wanted to decorate some cookies since it's been so long. And my mom wanted one more little dessert for the plates and have a bag of two cookies for each person to take home.

I'm not sure what else to say about on this topic (my brain is fried from all the writing this week!) Since I planned on posting a few recipes during this 31 days writing I'll just link this to the recipe. It was a tasty sugar cookie that I think is best with the icing. You can just slather the icing on each cookie and not worry about it being pretty. They get gobbled up so quick anyways. :)

5-Ingredients Sugar Cookies and Simple Icing

Five-Minute Friday: Welcome

I also wrote a post for my 31 days for today. You can find it here. I LOVE 5-Minute Friday and had to write today. You get two posts because of it. :)

Welcome.

I want to welcome guests into my home and have them immediately feel comfortable. While I want my house to be warm and inviting I'm not looking for perfection. I know I struggle with having things "perfect" but over the last few years I've learned that I'm imperfect and there are some things I have to let go.

And my home is one of them. I like to have a picked up home, especially when people are coming over, but with two young children my house will never be completely picked up. And I've learned to deal with it. I'm not going to apologize for it either. I'm not going to feel bad that my house isn't all shiny and smells like fresh baked bread all the time. That's setting a standard I can NEVER live up to. Why even bother putting that kind of pressure on myself? It serves no purpose and I beat myself up if I don't live up to my too high standards. Pointless.

Welcoming my guests with open arms and an open heart are want I want to focus on. Do they feel comfortable coming in our home? Do they know they are welcome and loved here? That's what I want to display when welcoming guests. Love.


Go here to join the link up party for Five-Minute Friday.

31 Days: Moving to a "Big Girl" Bed

Last day in her crib. Eek!

It seems like yesterday I was carrying this girl in my belly. I could feel her kicks (which were constant, I worried when she didn't kick), she gave me heartburn, I had to pee all the time and my hips ached and ached when I slept at night. How is it possible that she's already big enough for her own big girl bed?

People always said, "Enjoy it, it goes by so quick." I shook my head and nodded even though I had no idea what they were talking about. I didn't understand until Nyla turned 1 month, then 2 months, then 1 year and now 2 years old. It does go by so fast!

Our sweet girl #1 is now she's 2 years and almost 3 months old and getting too tall for her crib. She's only got a few more inches until she outgrows the crib. Plus, she sleeps with 100 stuffed animals and I'm not sure where her little body actually sleeps. :)

Months ago I was out with my mom and we found the cutest fabric; it's bright, colorful and fun. I knew I wanted this to be the material in Nyla's room when she outgrew the baby stuff. My mom bought some and recovered a chair I had in her room and made her some better curtains (our girls like it pitch black in their rooms, they get that from their Daddy). A couple months later my mom called and said the fabric was on sale and asked if I want it for anything else in Nyla's room. My mom can sew and I thought maybe she could sew a bedskirt and pillow sham for the future big bed. She said she could and got enough to sew those two things. A couple months later we found a wood twin bed at one of the antique stores around here. I liked it and mom said she could paint it to any color I wanted. I thought it was cute and perfect for Nyla's first bed so mom picked that up as well.

Now after my mom's hard work painting the bed, fitting wood slats to go underneath the box springs, sewing and finding a coverlet we're ready to move our girl to a big girl bed.

She looks so small in her new big bed

The bed was a breeze to put together. The hardest thing was getting the bed rail fitted properly to the bed. After Daniel got that done Nyla helped put the sheets on and then jumped right up. She's been excited about it since we put together.

We laid in bed, read books, sang and did our usual routine. I told her that she could get down and play but she had to be quiet and she had to stay in her room. I shut the door and she got right down and started playing. I checked on her about 15 minutes later and her floor was covered in her kitchen toys but she was quiet in her bed. She obviously had a big time playing by herself and then climbed up and went to sleep. I hope this means she'll adjust just fine being in her big bed.

31 Days: When Recipes Go Wrong

A disaster

Four-cheese lasagna... it sounds good doesn't it? Melted cheeses with more cheese on top, layered in between spices and noodles. Yes, it sounded good to us too.

Last week when I was planning my dinner menu for October I came across this yummy sounding lasagna. I asked Daniel to tell me what he thought and he said he'd love for me to make it and us to try. So Monday after I dropped Nyla off at KDO and Naomi was taking her afternoon nap I set out to make the lasagna for the following night. The aroma's that were coming from my kitchen were AMAZING! The fresh cheeses, melted and spread all over the lasagna looked so good. And my kitchen smelled great all day which was an added bonus.

Fast-forward to Tuesday. The lasagna is cooked and resting for 15 minutes before we slice into it. Then the moment we've all been waiting for... I cut into it and the gooey cheeses ooze all over the plate and the smell is even more wonderful. Then Daniel takes a bite. And the look on his face is not one of pleasure. Uh oh! I take a bite and probably have the same exact expression. Blech! What in the world? There's a cheese that seems off. I immediately identify the culprit as the gorgonzola. I've had it in the past and wasn't a fan. The flavor is a bit too strong for me. I look to my right and Daniel to his left and Nyla is gobbling it up. What? The picky toddler who won't eat chicken eats this??? So we put on a happy face and start talking about what to do. Daniel suggests marinara sauce to help cut the strong flavor. It actually does help but we still don't finish it and both have a bowl of cereal. And yes, Nyla keeps eating it and Naomi had some bites too.

That's my adventure in the kitchen this week. While I'd say 85% of the time my recipes turn out and are very good there are a few recipes that I throw out immediately. Hey, it happens!

Are there any recipes that you were excited about that disappointed you?

31 Days: My Planner and Staying Organized

My 2012 planner

I'm a busy housewife and mother to two girls, two and under. We live a simple life at home but we're also busy with day-to-day activities, doctors visits, errands, church, seeing our family, Kid's Day Out two days a week for our oldest, Daniel back in school one day a week and everything in between. You know what I'm talking about! While I feel like we live a fairly simple life I still feel the need to be organized. I'm an organized person anyways so getting more organized is always on my mind.

At the end of last year I started keeping better tabs on our schedule and how I wanted to keep us organized. I found a very large wall calendar (monthly only) that can fit all our names and our menu into rows and all the days in columns. I loved this thing. I thought that having two little ones would mean I wouldn't really use it, I was wrong. Between the doctor's appointments, start and finishing medicine, Kid's Day Out days and themes and all the other usual suspects, I wrote on the calendar like a mad woman. And I loved it. But by July and August, I didn't love it so much anymore. I began leaning more on my "purse" planner.

My planner began to play a bigger role in how I did things in August. I read Rachel's post on her "Simple Day Planner" and knew I could lean more on my planner as well. And I knew I wanted to be able to carry around my information and be able to write things down when people asked me about it, otherwise I'd forget. And because I'm a big list maker (you used to be able to find multiple lists going in our home) this helped me put all my lists in one place. I was able to accomplish my tasks better and not having more wasted paper. Rachel's blog post helped me realize I'm a young mother with two young girls and I can't take care of them and 15 other things that I "think" I need to get done each day. It's not possible.

I began implementing Rachel's "pick six" in my daily life and what a wake up call it was! Now that we're in October I can really say I do six "big" things each day. Or try to. I don't beat myself up (like I used to) if one or three things on my list doesn't get done. My top priorities during the day are making sure my girls are fed and cared for and that dinner is ready for my man not long after he gets home from work. I try not to worry about much else.

So, what's my planner like?
-Dimensions: 6x8 inches (approximately)- it fits well into a few of my purses
-It has monthly and weekly spaces but I don't even use the monthly calendar.
-It has large spaces for writing my six to-do's as well as appointments for us.
-I water my indoor plants every Monday and yes I have to write it down on every Monday, otherwise I forget.
-Our dinner menu is up next to the date, written in a bright color (the picture above shows pink).
-I'll occasionally add a post-it note with a Bible verse or other important to-do's for the week. But I've found that if I have a constant post-it note it doesn't have any affect on me after a couple weeks.

I've decided for 2013 I want a planner that has a sidebar for my dinner menu, separate from my everyday tasks. I want a to-do list separate from each day so that in each day I can write in my appointments and the girls appointments, etc. Right now it's all together and while I can understand it I'd like it to be more organized. See, I have a problem. :)

How do you stay organized?

31 Days: Date Night

Date night's are pretty rare for us these days. We do spend time alone together, but actually going out? No, that doesn't happen very often. We're a young couple with two young girls so money is pretty tight.  Between all the well and sick appointments, a couple of surgeries, formula, medicine and everything in between there's just not much wiggle room for going out. Thankfully, I like to cook. No, sorry, I LOVE to cook and I'll try my hand at most anything to help us keep eating at home. But that's another post. :)

Last night we had the rare opportunity to go out. ALONE. My MIL stayed and watched the girls as we headed out. Last week my mom gave me a gift card and we just had to use it in under a week. Yep, that's how we do it here. So, off we went to one of our favorite places, Olive Garden. I have no idea why we like it so much but that's where we end up a lot of the time. I love the never ending soup, salad and breadsticks. I always say I'm going to get something else but nothing is as good as that. Plus, I keep looking at the $12.50 chicken dishes and know I can get 6-7 pounds of fresh chicken breasts for $12.50. My mind is constantly working on our grocery budget, I suppose. 

My man friend

So, off we went, by ourselves. Our night was full of adult conversation from where we'd like to be in a couple years to church and back to us. Date nights are so important. I'd say we try to go out alone every 4-6 weeks. That's all we can do so we look forward to that time together. We want to keep our marriage strong and have our kids pay attention to us and not the other way around. And date nights are a way to show them that we need time to ourselves and have lives outside of them. (For more information on this see John Rosemond's, Parenting by the Book). 

A few months ago I wrote a post titled, The Love Jar. We haven't been pulling from it like we should but I know it's always there for us to pick back up. I like The Love Jar because it's helped make me aware of what I wasn't doing for my husband. He's a "words of affirmation" guy and he likes notes in his bag or lunch. I hadn't written a note in a long time and this was one of the first things he wrote for me to do. I knew it was important yet I hadn't done it. It just made me aware. 

The yummy soup I had, chicken potato florentine. It was yummy!

31 Days in 2012

I'm joining the Nester and hundreds of other bloggers for a 31-day writing challenge for October. My theme for the month will be "31 Days of the Gafford Life." Basically, I'll be writing about what happens in our lives for the month of October. I've been looking at our calendar and we're actually busy for the month so I won't bore you with "we sat at home today... again." :)

What you'll find this month are date nights and focusing on our marriage (even with 2 little ones running us around), recipes, menu planning tips, what we do during the day, family outings, our church and what we do there, transitioning our oldest from a crib to a "big" girl bed, our journey into taking better care of ourselves and having o and so much more. We live a simple life and enjoy being at home most of the time. So, come spend the next 31 days in the lives of the Gafford's!

I hope you'll come back each day to see how we do life together as a family!

For more information visit the Nester on writing everyday in October. Join the challenge too!


I'll link up each post to this one. Enjoy!

Day 1: Introduction (this post)
Day 2: Date Night
Day 3: My Planner and Staying Organized
Day 4: When Recipes Go Wrong
Day 5: Moving to a "Big Girl" Bed
Day 6: Cookies for a Bridal Luncheon
Day 7: My Day-to-Day
Day 8: Menu Plan Monday
Day 9: Naomi's Surgery
Day 10: New Appliances (Before & after pictures)
Day 11: Fun at the Park
Day 12: Race (Five-Minute Friday)
Day 13: The Schedule Balancing Act
Day 14: My Running Journey
Day 15: Minimizing & Organizing
Day 16: Giggle Monsters
Day 17: Spaghetti Night
Day 18: Pillows & Poker Chips
Day 19: When Menu Planning
Day 20: Reading Books
Day 21: Hosting a Baby Shower
Day 22: Getting Ready for the Week
Day 23: Planning a Lunch Menu
Day 24: Dear Girls
Day 25: A Few of our Favorite Things
Day 26: Voice (Five-Minute Friday)
Day 27: no post
Day 28: 2 Days of Rest
Day 29: Fall Festival (with pictures)
Day 30: Kids and Chores
Day 31: Wrap-Up for 31 Days 2012