Do you have a household notebook?

I first learned about household notebooks from Flylady and her Control Journal.

Basically, this is a notebook that holds all the important household information that keeps your family running.  Stuff you probably keep in your head.  Stuff that would be helpful if you weren’t around – and I’m not just talking if you were to pass away suddenly.  It could also be a fun, temporary absence like a vacation or girl’s night out.

When I was suddenly hospitalized last year because of my stomach issues, I must have gotten a dozen texts from John asking questions that could have been quickly answered if he’d had a family resource book to turn to.  Similarly, I went to a retreat and got a frantic call from John that one of the sinks had begun to leak in spectacular fashion and what was the number of our plumber?  A household notebook would have helped in this case too.

Does your family know which Chinese food restaurants deliver?  Do they have the number for the power company if the power goes out?

So that’s the biggest reasons to make this kind of resource but more importantly, you get the information OUT OF YOUR HEAD.  I know that the human brain has an amazing capacity to learn and remember but I find sometimes that I just don’t have the memory that I pretend that I used to.  Truth is, that we all have trouble with bandwidth.  Truth is that there are so many things happening in a day that we cannot possibly remember everything or, for that matter, be responsible to remember it all.

Over the next few days, I’m working on putting together my own household notebook and I will share with you how I do it and what I include.

Does your family have a household notebook?

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Pinterest is the new crack

Seriously.

I was introduced to Pinterest by my awesome sister in law.   Little did she know the true horror of what she unleashed.  Now, when I have insomnia, I am on Pinterest.

Additionally, Pinterest has the strange affect of making you think you are way more crafty than you actually are.  A Lego storage rack made of PVC and scrap wood?  I can do that.  A darling little apron just perfect for my next dinner party?  I can whip that up during nap time.

For visual people like me, though, it’s perfect because I no longer have to dig through my bookmarks trying to find the picture of the room that had the interesting wall thing that I must show John as he’s walking out the door to work.

I can’t get John to look at it though.  I think he still blames me for getting him on Facebook.

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What to feed a 10 month old?

Griffin and I are in a special time right now.

At his last well-child appointment, the pediatrician said that I needed to start cutting back on his bottles and get more solid food into him.

YAY!  Formula costs roughly the same as a side of beef and cutting down helps our budget.  However, this causes another issue.  He is STARVING.

WHAT DO I FEED THE BOY!?!?!

He’s a baby, feed him baby food, you say.  With some kids, this might work.  With my kid, no, not so much.

Oh, he liked the baby food until I started giving him table food.  Loved baby green beans and then I fed him real green beans and he would have nothing to do with the baby green beans.  I mean, what would you rather have: tasty green beans or snot-like green bean goo?

So meal time is fun.  What he liked yesterday, gets thrown across the room today.  He likes green beans, carrots, potatoes, peas, most any vegetable.  He likes meats.  He loves fruit. 

Pasta is hit or miss.  Spaghetti is meant to be thrown apparently.  Mac and cheese is sometimes good and sometimes throwable.  The noodles from double noodle soup is also hit or miss – meaning sometimes he hits you and sometimes he misses.

I have to steer clear of anything too acidic like tomatoes and citrus fruit – his system is still too sensitive.  I also steer clear of the major allergy prone foods like garlic, onion, strawberries, chocolate and nuts – at least until his second birthday.

So here’s my query: what do I feed my boy?  He’s 10 months old and I feel bad about just feeding him chicken nuggets, green beans, cubed cheese and diced apples.

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2012

Hello and welcome to 2012.  I know I’m a couple days late.  Really, I do.

Truth is that I’ve been taking some long needed breaks from writing of just about any kind.  I haven’t really been tweeting and I’ve even cut back on my Facebook silliness.

I have also been thinking seriously about my writing.  I’ve never really considered myself a writer but over the last few months I’ve come to realize that I really am.   Metaphorically speaking, I’m still trying that skin on and seeing where I need to take up the hems.  Speaking practically, I’m still getting used to the idea.

So one of the things I want to do in 2012 is to take time EVERY SINGLE DAY to write.  Something.  Anything.  Y’all are more likely to see some of my more inane writing once this starts as I am keeping a running list on my phone of everything that pops into my head that might make for a good post.

Last year, my resolution was to survive pregnancy and having a newborn.  Well, I am happy to say that I did that!

This year, I want to work on my writing.  What are you working on?

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