The Tranmer Family Scrapbook » snapshots of our daily life, in words and photos

10-21-2011

Daily Life – August, September, October 2011

So in addition to Dela’s Scrapbook, this is now home to my Home and Hobbies blog too. For those of you who have been following my blogging for a while, it will be something like what “DelaLane at Home” used to be – a place where I blog food, crafts and family stuff that isn’t necessarily all about Adela. I’ve missed having that outlet. But it became too time-consuming the last time I attempted it. It was almost like another part-time job. That’s not cool. I’m not looking for another time-suck, but I do want to preserve some family memories in addition to all the cool stuff Adela does.

Looking back, I feel like I’ve gotten some clarity. The blogging got away from me because I started doing it for other people. That is no longer my motivation. I don’t want to be another one of the millions of mom-bloggers out there. There are plenty good ones I follow, so I’m definitely not saying it’s a bad thing. But it turned out to be a bad thing for me. It wasted a lot of my time. But instead of throwing the baby out with the bath water, I’ve reevaluated and realized how sad I am that I no longer have access to a lot of my food blogs and especially my yarn craft blogs. Remember how I did that whole baby-safe Christmas tree for Adela with knit and crochet ornaments last year? That was like a 6-month project that I commemorated in blogs, and now I don’t have access to any of it anymore. And I miss some of the recipe blogs I put together too. I would like to be able to reference that kind of stuff so that I can make things again. (I may go back and try to recreate some of those posts. Jury’s still out on that.) I’m treating this more like a journal/scrapbook now, a scrapbook that friends and family are welcome to read as well. But I’m not looking for blogger fame and I’m not going to make myself post something new every week or follow any silly rules like that. It’s going to be for the purpose of digitally scrapbooking things I want to remember about our family life.

And all that boring clarification? It’s mostly for me. I know what my goal is now. It’ll be easier to stay on track.

Sooooo, all that being said – in my Home & Hobbies Scrapbook I might occasionally post photography things, craft things, cooking and baking things. And then sometimes I’ll just do a hodge podge post under the title of a “Daily Life” post. Sometimes there are photos that capture something I may want to remember, but I don’t necessarily need a whole post to share it. So maybe every month or 2 I’ll throw all those photos in a post and jot a few things down to help us remember what was going on in our lives at that time. That’s the plan anyway. We’ll see how it goes. Clear as mud.

Here are a few Daily Life tidbits from Fall 2011.

August 15, 2011 – Craig holding the last monthly payment to the folks we bought the Southern California territory from. It took us 4 years to pay it off and it hurt like the dickens sending that check off every month. But we made it. I am so incredibly proud of my hard-working, dedicated, amiable, smooth-talking salesman husband and the business and career he has been building for the past 10 years. He is so smart and talented and it feels so good to watch him get to call this territory fully his own. We also acquired Arizona this year which is another huge project he is undertaking. This man can do anything. He amazes me.

September 12, 2011 – I let Pinterest suck my time away for a few weeks there. Moderating it a little bit more now and trying to make sure the time I spend on there is resulting in productivity. This it the first dinner recipe I tried from an idea I got off of Pinterest. I would make it again, so here’s the recipe.

Southwest Chicken Chili Mac…Skillet Style

8 ounces wagon wheel pasta noodles
2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 cup finely chopped white onion

1/2 cup finely chopped sweet peppers (or bell peppers)

1 tablespoon minced garlic

2 cups cooked shredded chicken breast

1o ounce can Rotel diced tomatoes, mild

1 1/2 cups reduced sodium chicken broth

1/2 cup corn, fresh or canned

1/2 cup white beans, drained and rinsed

1 Tablespoon chili powder

1 Tablespoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon dry Ranch seasoning from packet

1/4 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro

1. Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain and run under cool water to stop cooking. Heat oil in 9 inch deep cast iron skillet. Add onions and peppers, cook stirring until softened about 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook stirring for 1 minute. Add chicken, tomatoes, broth, corn, beans, 1 cup wagon wheel pasta, chili powder, cumin, Ranch seasoning and cilantro. Stir until well combined. Reduce heat to low and simmer until ready to serve.

September 11, 2011 – Surprised Craig with an at-home date night after Adela went to sleep. Playstation, snacks and movies on the futon matress on the living room floor. We don’t have a TV in our bedroom by choice, so it’s a rare treat to cuddle in bed and watch a movie. It’s almost as good as a fort.

September 18, 2011 – I adore artichoke dip. I mean the cheesy kind you heat up and eat on tortilla chips or crusty bread. I tried a new recipe I found on Pinterest and stuffed it inside of some baby portabello mushrooms. Heavenly goodness.Have to remember that stuffing mushrooms is always a good idea. It seems like I usually end up eating it when Craig is out of town on business. He needs 3 food groups in every meal. This wouldn’t count for him. For me, it was the perfect dinner.

September 16, 2011 – An update on my afghan project. This will eventually go in our bedroom on the foot of our bed, a King-sized bed. So, I have a ways to go, but the progress is steady. Here’s the link. Hopefully it stays active for a while. The whole pattern is too long to re-post. This one is easy enough that I could probably figure it out without a pattern again.

October 10, 2011 – Craig bought me the Joby Gorillapod for my birthday! 🙂 So cool that I dont’ have to carry around my huge tripod now if I think I might want to do some selfies with the fam. Works perfect with the remote I bought a couple months ago. This is the first time I tried out the combo (using the handle of my kitchen refrigerator for an anchor) and the resulting photo of Craig and I sorting through a week’s worth of mail after we got back from Oceanside.

September 18, 2011 – I started putting together a craft corner in my bedroom. My craft supplies have been stored in about 5 different spots around the house. Now it’s almost all in one place. I hung a pair of shelves my Dad made when I was a child to match the antique desk that I currently have in my bedroom. They had been sitting in the garage for years because I’m not a knick knack person. Pinterest gave me the idea to use it to organize and display my yarn. As a lover of functionality all I can say is, “YAY!” No longer do I have to dig through a huge tupperware of messiness. I can see all that I have at a glance. And it’s right by my craft desk and sewing machine. Since then, I’ve added hooks to the underside of the lowest shelf where I hang craft bags containing the materials for whatever current projects I’m working on. I am LOVING that. It’s so convenient. Right now I have one bag loaded with all the yarn for a blanket I’m crocheting, another loaded with the paper and tools I need to prep our Thanksgiving Tree this year, and another contains some fabric and supplies for a Tot School Activity bin I’m working on for Adela. It’s so nice to be able to just grab a bag and get to work on something rather than having to track down individual items.

October 17, 2011 – A photo biz investment, a Shutter Buddies frog, handmade from a crafter on Etsy. It squeaks, wiggles, giggles and waves. I can remember a few times something like this might have helped me out with a little one. Glad it’s in my bag of tricks now.

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10-21-2011

Special Report – Kickin’ it Old School

Check it out. These are my toys from when I was a little one. Mima and Papi stored them in their garage for years and years and then me and Daddy stored them in our garage until we had you… and then we waited some more until you grew up a little. There is a whole bunch more still in the garage – from my childhood & Daddy’s too. Some are more appropriate for a boy (Daddy’s toys that Granny and Grandpa were nice enough to save for us) and some are still a little too advanced for you. But these were 2 of my favorites and you’ve been enjoying them for the past couple of weeks. My record player, complete with about 8 or 10 records, each record with a different song on the front and the back. The only thing you can’t really do yet is turn it to wind it. It’s a little tough. And sometimes you need help lining up the needle on the record so that it plays right. But you’re getting the hang of it. And you love taking out and putting away the records in the hole on the back.

And my old typewriter. I thought this thing was so cool. Daddy pointed out that you’ll probably never see a real type writer except in a museum. Crazy. Yes, I am actually old enough that I used a typewriter to type things up, not many times and not for long. But computers didn’t really catch on until my teens.

Rumor has it, there’s a lot more stuff in those boxes. Can’t wait to see what we can pull out next. 🙂

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10-21-2011

A Typical Day at 23 Months

Have I mentioned lately how much I adore you? You are hard work. And it’s the most rewarding, satisfying, joy-filled thing I’ve ever done… being your Mom. You bring me so much happiness, entertainment, meaning. I’m just totally in love with you. I’m daily amazed by you. Every day it freaks me out how much you’ve grown up. And every day I look forward to what comes next. Tonight I got you out of bed and rocked you for almost an hour, just thanking God for you, for giving me the chance to be your mom, asking him for wisdom to teach, love, support you. I will miss it when you’re not little anymore. Thinking about it makes me sad. It’s why I get you out of bed so often. Because I can still. I know these days don’t last forever. I really try to hold on to them, to appreciate them. I try not to take you for granted. I love you so much. And I’m so proud of you and the little girl you’ve become. God couldn’t have given me a more amazing daughter.

I posted so many times this month about all the cool things we’ve done – between visits to the pumpkin patch, the library, your first ballet class, and all of our tot school activities – that I think I’m going to just post this one sans photos. But I still want to record a few of the cute and interesting things you’re doing this month that I wouldn’t want to forget about.

*You are totally in to group hugs. Whoever is holding you before naptime or bedtimes, if the other parent it near by, you lean out until we come close so that you can get one arm around each of us. So sweet.

*You love to play animal sound guessing games in random moments. All of a sudden you’ll start panting and look up at me smiling, waiting for me to say “Doggy!” And then you’ll go through each one of your sounds one at a time, waiting for me to guess.

*You have figured out that you can grab a hold of fingers and hands and drag people with you. In some moments you are content with independent play, but if you decide you want company you’re not afraid to demand it. You will grab on and pull and say “Momma, Momma, Momma,” over and over again and grunt and pull until I go with you.

*We love to play “eat the belly.” I pretend that your belly is the most delicious of snacks and I’ll beg you for a small nibble. You always start out by shaking your head and saying no (which actually just sounds like “da” like so many of your words, haha), but you always give in with a smile and a giggle and fearfully let me pretend to take a bite. It’s funny. Of course, belly is not the only delicious baby part. I also settle for fingers, toes, thighs and ribs. 🙂

*In addition to weekly story times and ballet, we’re also going to the park a lot. You love the slide. There’s a double slide at our local park that you adore. You almost always demand that I go down one side while you go down the other at the same time. You tell me which side to sit on and get very upset if I’m not following your instructions.

*You really love the night time sky. You freak out (in a good way) when you see the moon and you get almost excited about stars. Luckily we have a beautiful view of them out here in the desert.

*Every now and then you really surprise me by doing something I didn’t know you could do, like you got a wind up toy in a happy meal last week. I was going to show you how to use it when you picked it up and wound it yourself. It always shocks me when you do something like that for the first time. Stop growing up so fast! Kidding. 🙂

*Itsy Bitsy Spider is your favorite song. You touch your thumbs to your fingers and put all the tips together and twist your hands back and forth and wait until Daddy or I starts singing it for you. My favorite part is “washed the spider out.” You violently fling your arms out to the sides at just the right time.

*We love putting you in bed with us. We were so strict with bedtime rules when you were little because we didn’t want you to develop any bad sleeping habits. Mission accomplished. Now we bend the rules all the time. You never fight me when we put you back in your own bed. I will continue cherishing those late night giggly cuddles for as long as I can. I’m not going to kick you out of bed until you’re at least 25.

*I continue to be amazed at how obedient you are, for the most part. I’m really proud of you for how you listen to me and Daddy… especially me. You respect me. I’m going to enjoy that for now too. I hope that I always stay worthy of that respect. It feels really good. I mean, you have your moments, but consistency pays off. I think you really believe me when I say things. If I say no, it means no. If you do something praiseworthy, you get praised. When I tell you to ask without whining or you’re not going to get it, you believe me and change your tone. I’m really proud of you and am really excited whenever we get to see the fruits of our labor pay off. Some of it is our parenting. Some of it is just you. You’re really amazing… a really good little girl.

And a noteworthy first time…

You peed in the potty on October 22, 2011. You told us you had to go, waited for us to strip you down, sat on your little chair and went. Good job! We’re not really trying to potty train you yet, but if you want to initiate it, I’m all about empowering you to do it.

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10-19-2011

Tot School – Some Beading & Some Matching

It’s kind of fun seeing whether or not you’re ready for the different activity bins I set up for you. Some of them are obvious not-quite-theres and some you get right away. This is one of those activities I figured you might still be a little young for, but not so. You literally did it on the first try without any help or instruction. You picked up a bead and stuck it on the pipe cleaner, just like that. I’d never done any threading with you before, at least not that I can remember. So I was pleasantly surprised. Your fine motor skills are pretty impressive.

I figured you might dump the beads over onto the floor. A lot of times, when you’re not quite ready for an activity, you participate but you do it in your own way (like for example, dumping all the beads on the ground and spreading them around.) I don’t mind of course. I let you do what you can with what I give you. It’s all about learning, so you don’t always have to know what you’re doing of course. But you surprised me this time. You were actually very careful, and even though you picked up the tupperware containing them to transport it around the room a few times (and had a couple accidental close calls) you managed to keep them all in the container. It was really satisfiying to watch you participate in an activity the way it was designed to participated in.

It took you a minute or 2 to figure out that holding the pipe cleaner near the tip gives you more control. One you figured that out, you were on a roll.

Hehe, beading is hard work. 🙂

We’re working on colors, or just matching like colors too.  Beads are one of the tools we use to practice.You’re starting to get it. You get colors right a lot of the time, but it’s random enough that I think it’s mostly still luck. Matching we’re doing much better. Today you started taking 2 of each color out of the bin and handing them to me in like-pairs. That was cool because we’ve been working on matching for a few weeks now, and I’m not sure you got it at first. It’s so awesome to see that I can actually teach you things.

More on matching in the next Tot School Activity post…

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