Happy 5th Birthday, Clare!

Happy 5^th Birthday!

Five years old.  It sounds like such a big number.  You sometimes have growing pains in the middle of the night, and your Dad or I rub your legs to help with the pain.  You always wake up happy and excited to run to your growth chart to see how much you’ve grown.  You can finally reach our tall light switches and can barely swing open our enormous SUV’s door. 

This was the year that our schedules started to look a lot more busy and full.  Lots of firsts: swimming lessons, Pre-school, and ballet lessons.  You were a cautious fish in the water, and loved every afternoon we spent in the sun.  You could even swim about 6 feet all by yourself by the end of the summer.  Then you got your first taste of school.  You love all the playing, but complain about how fast they want you to work on your letters before recess.  I have a feeling your slow working style will be an issue the rest of your schooling life.  You like to take your sweet time on most things.  And after many impromptu and improvisational dances in Albuquerque, we signed you up for ballet class.  You did really well and loved the class. 

While you are changing every day, some things have stuck with you since you were in my womb: hiccups.  If you get to laughing too hard, you always get the hiccups.  You had them in my belly, you had them when you’d laugh as a newborn, and I’m starting to think this might stick with you for life.  You’re a nice mix of optimism and realism.  You love to tell me, “It is what it is, Mommy.” And can typically find the silver lining in whatever situation arises.

Nap times are a thing of the past now, but I still insist on quiet time for my sanities sake.  You spend the time dressing up like a princess, bossing around your pretend friends, and pulling out every toy you can find.  Most mornings, I wake up to find you and our cat, Mae, sitting on the couch and “talking” to each other.  The cat likes you almost as much as she likes me now, and that’s saying a lot!

Your Daddy and I love you so much.  And as you have started to say, we love you to the moon and heaven and back real slowly.

Love Always,

 Mommy

 

Clare Quotes 4 Years Old Edition

Here are a few gems from Clare's 4th year of life!

Me: I can't remember off the top of my head...
Clare: Is it in the bottom of your head?

While walking on the edge of a lake and peering over:  Is there a whale in there?

While eating honey:  Oh those bees, they do such a good job making something so delicious.

While finding a good spot on the shore to fish:  Where do you think the fishes table is where they eat?  That's where we need to be fishing.

Clare: I love you even when you're stinky.

Clare: I love you to the moon and heaven and back... real slowly.

When we were visiting William's grave, we were crying and trying to explain why we were sad.  So then Clare told Kevin.  "Daddy you'll have another baby and if you don't, you can be a grandpa and I'll have a baby for us to love."

Why I Quit the Homemade Laundry Detergent Craze

 



Homemade Laundry detergent.  It was so appealing in the beginning.  You will find recipes and fantastic photos of it plastered all over Pinterest.  You can save so much money compared to buying it at the grocery story.  As an extremely frugal housewife, there was nothing more appealing than the cost savings.  I'm so cheap, I once decided against buying a shirt because it was $7.  So of course, I jumped at the opportunity to save a few cents.  But the honeymoon stage only lasted for so long...

4. Preparation - While I'm known for being very thrifty, I'm also known for being lazy.  I even had a friend (Thanks, Mandi) who would buy, grate, and deliver the soap bars to me.  Even then, I still got annoyed at having to mix together all the other ingredients.  I much prefer throwing a bottle into my shopping cart as I cruise for groceries down the isles.

3. Lack of smell - When your grating the soap bar, your kitchen will smell of lovely cleanliness.  When your clothes are swishing away in the washing machine, your laundry room will smell fantastic.  But when you pull those warm, clean clothes out of the dryer, you will smell... nothing.  Not stinky, but not fragrant.  Just the odd, normal scent of cloth.

2. Phantom grey stains - Does your Grandma's use those huge white, thin tea towels?  Both of mine always have, and my mother does, and so do I now.  Most of mine were given to me by my Grandmother that passed away last year.  Now I'm not saying that the homemade detergent caused these little grey splotches all over them, but they were never there before then and they never showed up again after I quit.

1. Grease Stains - Maybe it's a sign that I'm a messy cook, but every single one of my shirts ends up with some sort of olive oil stain on it everyday.  This detergent doesn't come close to cutting through those stains.  Every shirt needed to be rubbed down with liquid dish detergent before washing.  I always thought detergent commercials that boast stain fighting boosters were just exaggerating, but now I'm a believer.