Domestic Kate

The past few weeks I have been feeling the need to sort out my priorities and my role as wife and mother. I enjoy being involved with various activities through church and with friends but when those activities get in the way of my time spent with God, my family, and general up-keep on my house, I feel the need to scale back a bit. A typical day finds me waking up the in the morning and immediately fighting the clock. I have to rush and get Hans breakfast, cleaned up, and dressed for the day, and then I have to wake up Caroline (remember, she sleeps in like a 15 year old...) and get her dressed and in her car seat and we head out to either run errands, attend MOPS, Bible Study, or a play date. We don't arrive anywhere we're going on-time (something that really bothers me as I always strive to be on time). We don't end up coming back to the house until close to lunch time and I usually bring in two crying kids because they are so hungry and tired. After I hurriedly make...

Hans got to name the title of this post today. I said "Happy Valentine's Day!" to him today and he responded with, "Happy Day Hans!". Coincidentally, that is also how he repeats "Happy Birthday" too. We had balloons around the house days after his birthday and he would walk around with them exclaiming, "Happy Day Hans!". We're a very happy household ;) . Growing up we always had a Valentine's breakfast prepared in the morning. It was a great way to start my day before heading off to school. My mom would decorate the table with her Valentine's china dishes, red goblets, and a table cloth. Whatever we ate was dyed red and we also got to eat a little candy too! I so looked forward to that breakfast. And, although I really appreciated all of the details that went into it, I don't think you have to go too overboard in order to make it memorable or exciting for your kids. I was reading a blog the other day (i can't re...

I recently pinned a pin on pinterest (say that three times fast). It was a quote, "The greatest thing a father can do for his daughter is to love her mother". I love it. And, it's got me thinking about the daughter we have in our home. One precious little girl we've been given. I'm so excited to have this little girl in our lives. Not just because she is already my little companion. Or that we all think she is the sweetest thing around town. I'm most excited to see how the boys in her life already cherish her so much.... Now, I'm not naive enough to think that siblings won't be siblings. Oh, I know we'll have our fair share of "I had this first" or "Stop copying me"...but I can see how this little girl is wrapping her Daddy and her brother around her little finger. Hans picked out a sticker for her after she had her 2 month appt. and shots last month. When we got home, he ran over so he could put her sticker on And ...

Remember, in my last post, how I mentioned that cookie cutters work wonders for your kid's lunch? Well, here is a little example... Hans never particularly liked sandwiches. We've learned a couple of tricks to help him out a little. One, he'll be a little more apt to eating the sandwich if it's warmed up. We were tipped off on this fact when we realized he doesn't like sandwiches, yet looooves grilled cheese sandwiches....so, throw the turkey/cheese sandwich in the microwave for 10 seconds and voila. Second, his imagination has just been running wild lately. He loves pretending with his toys and we've discovered that we can get him to eat (and do) quite a few things he wouldn't normally eat (or do) if we pretend something is a car or truck, or bulldozer, or airplane, or helicopter, etc. You get the picture. For example, the other night, Hans wouldn't touch his baked beans. He brought them up to his lips in the beginning and then decided that is ...

We had a blast celebrating Hans' 2nd Birthday! Hans woke up on his birthday with a room full of balloons. With Daddy's help, he promptly filled his crib with the balloons and began a game of hide-and-seek. Needless to say, he woke up pretty happy! His birthday-balloon-fun was followed by a delicious snowman pancake breakfast before heading off to Bible study with Mommy and Caroline. He loved having his snowman pancakes! If you ever want to spice up your meals with toddlers cookie cutters work wonders! I will sometimes cut out his sandwiches with our cookie cutters and that sure keeps him occupied for awhile. He enjoyed driving around PB&J trains all over his plate the other day. After naps, we took Hans out to the Rainforest Cafe for dinner. The animals and thunderstorms really did their trick at keeping him distracted during the (looong) wait for the food. We also let him open up one of his gifts (Lightning Mcqueen) before dinner arrived. He loved playing with Daddy...