Crazy Week!

I am officially the mother of a school age child! Holy crap! J started school last week. He's loving it and to be honest, I'm kind of loving the quiet time between noon and 3:30! My other two boys nap while he's at school so this has been great! What's not so great is the fact that 2 days in he got sick. You know what happens when one gets sick. They ALL get sick. So, I've had a week taking care of sick little boys. Not too fun, but we're slowly getting back to normal. Let's hope the rest of the school year goes a little more smoothly.

Banana Bread

Some people might call me strange because I hate giving my kids snacks. Crackers, juice, and sweets are very rare in our house. As I previously mentioned, "J" is a very hyper kid. Give him sugar and you've got Spiderman flying around the house knocking stuff over and trying to wrangle everything with his "webs". It was funny the first few times, now not so much. So, we've had to cut out nearly all sugar. Once in a while I feel daring and I'll make banana bread. It's got a bit of sugar in it, but it's also got bananas in it. So, it's ok. ;)
Now, I can't stand banana bread with gross black bananas. It makes me feel nauseous. I'd rather eat it with slightly mushy bananas. I wait until they have a few mushy spots then I go to town with the banana bread.

Here's how we make it in our house.

1/2 c. softened margarine
3/4 c. white sugar
1/4 c. brown sugar
2 eggs
3 bananas (normal sized and slightly mushy.) mash em up in a bowl.
2 c. all purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda

Preheat your oven to 325 and grease your pan with some Pam or something similar.

Mix up the margarine and sugars until it's fairly smooth. Add the eggs and the bananas. Mix em up then add in the flour and baking soda. I like to add the flour by the 1/4 c. That way I know it's getting mixed in and I'm not making a huge mess. You could use a mixer too. I don't have a mixer. I like to think that mixing it is helping work those arm muscles. ;)

Bake for about an hour. I set my timer for an hour and check it. If my knife comes out clean, I know it's done. If it's not, I throw it back in for 15 minutes. Let it cool.

My kids and fiance LOVE this. I'm not much of a cook, but I can bake like a mad woman. :)

A little bit about me

This probably should have been the first post, but I'm not the most organized person and I tend to go with what I'm thinking about at the moment.

My name is Nichole. I am a stay at home mom to three little boys. "J" is my oldest son. He's four and about as crazy as they come. He is super hyper and will run laps around my house, but as soon as he sees me he'll run up just to ask for a hug and to give me a kiss. Other than those rare moments, he does not sit still. I guess he's a typical 4 year old, but I've never raised a 4 year old so to ME he's crazy. He's so full of energy it's insane. If I had 1/4 of his energy my house would be spotless and dinner would be ready when my fiance walked in the door. I don't though. So, my house is not spotless and sometimes dinner is pizza from Little Ceasars. "J" will be starting school for the first time EVER on Monday. I swear I am more nervous than he is. I know he'll do great! I'm not nervous about him freaking out when we leave, I'm nervous for the teachers who have to try to get this ball of energy to sit still for 3 1/2 hours. Good luck with that!
Middle son.... "B". He is the most amazing little guy I could have asked for. He was a colicky mess for the first 8 months of his life and more than once I had considered dropping him off at an adoption agency (Kidding!!). He is now 2 and seriously the total opposite of what I expected him to be. He's so sweet! He'll randomly come up to hug me and tell me he loves me. Don't get me wrong though. He's not always sweet and loving. He's got his grandpas attitude. SUPER laid back, but if you tick him off it's game over. You don't tell "B" no. You just don't. If he's getting in to something or beating up "J", you just divert his attention to something else. If by chance you are feeling daring and tell him no, he will lower his head and give you the death stare. Sometimes he'll stop there... other times he goes in a full on freak out. I mean screaming and throwing himself on the ground. That's why we just take him away from the situation and act like nothing happened. Maybe I spoil him a little and never yell at him. That could totally be why he's so evil. lol
Youngest... Little "M". He's my itty bitty baby. He's pushing 8 months now! Crazy!! Little "M" decided to pop out at 30 weeks and give us all the scare of our life. I had no complications during my pregnancy with him. Everything was fine. I was laying in bed one night and BAM! I was laying in a puddle. So, after 3 days in the hospital (keep in mind those three days were spent crying hysterically every time someone looked at me. Hey, I missed my boys.) they realized his heart rate was dropping. After a quick emergency c-sections, "M" was here. He spent close to two months in the NICU where he was quiet as a mouse and the nurses favorite. Fast forward to two weeks at home. He was colicky. I don't mean crying. I mean full on screaming ALL DAY LONG. Talk about a stressed out mommy. The colic is finally letting up and we are getting to know the real "M". He's sweet and full of smiles. He loves to be held and sleeps like a champ from 7pm-8am every day. I actually get a full night sleep every night. It's pretty great.

So, that is my quick story. There is much much more. Maybe one day when I feel like exposing myself a little more, I'll sit down and tell the whole story. Today is not one of those days. I'm in a good mood and I plan on keeping it that way. :)

One year in and I LOVE IT!!

Nearly one year ago we decided to start cloth diapering our then one year old. After reading tons of blogs and reviews on CDs, I decided we were going to use cloth wipes as well. This is where my love of sewing comes in. I couldn't fathom spending $10 on some washcloths (I mean lets be real here, they are basically washcloths), so I decided I was going to make them myself. I called my mother in law to see if she had any needles and thread. I was going to do this by hand. She brings me the bag of goodies and leaves. No instruction. Nothing. I figured it couldn't be that hard, right? Wrong. I poked myself with the needle repeatedly. Not on purpose. Obviously. I finally caved and called my fiance's BFF's mom. Say that 10 times fast. She came over and gave me a quick lesson on sewing by hand. It worked... a little. I finally called my step dads wife (Am I confusing you yet?) and asked her if I could borrow her machine. I headed over that night and grabbed her machine. I had NO CLUE what I was doing. I literally had never sewn a day in my life. I bring the beast home and stare at it. No clue what to do next. I think I assumed it would be easy. I would plug it in and create wonderful little cloth wipes. Not quite. I asked my fiance to "FIX IT NOW!". He looked at me like I was insane and called the BFFs mom for me. After hours of her trying to explain how it works, (Mind you, she's been sewing for years.) it clicked. I made a set of cloth wipes, which were used a total of zero times (diaper wipes are just so much easier with three kids). After that, I was hooked! A few months later I started my Colees Crafts page and began selling my goodies to friends. Once they told their friends, they told their friends and the cycle kind went on from there. I'm not banking with my sewing hobby (partly because I spend 90% of what I make on more fabric.), but I really enjoy it. When I look back at one year ago, I realize I really wasn't that great at it. I loved doing it though so I kept making more things. I'm not perfect either. My lines are sometimes crooked and sometimes I have to trash too much fabric because I screwed something up. I enjoy it though. (I know I've already said that a few times.) With three boys and a fiance, I need something to keep me sane.