Speaking of Fall...

Lucas took an epic fall this weekend. He's 14 months, and refuses to walk. He can walk, if he had a desire to, but to be honest, homeslice is scared of falling. We have 542 toys to encourage walking, and he'll pull himself up on one, but the second he realizes that it moves, his legs shake so hard that his knees knock.

We were outside this weekend, a few kids from the block were over playing with Cecilia outside while we raked and did general fall yard clean up. Lucas was miffed because he was too small for the bounce house, too small for the car, and no one wanted to play blocks with him. He was crawling around, looking for something to do, when he missed a step on the patio, and did a faceplant onto the concrete.

His lips hurt real bad.

Fall Behind

It's been a huge rush of organization here at the Costa Casa. I have a deep rooted hatred for clutter. I despise it. My husband, on the other hand, is a hoarder and packrat. He can't help it, it's in his genes. It makes for difficult situations at our house, as I find things we no longer use and set them aside to recycle, freecycle, or donate.

We have two main problem areas - One is the utility room. It's a roughly 12x12 unfinished room in our house. It's where we keep our deep freezer and miscellaneous tools, etc. Since it is filled almost entirely with stuff that isn't mine, I generally close the door and keep my mouth shut. But when it gets so chaotic that I can't make a clear path from the door to the freezer, it's time for intervention. We spent two days this weekend decluttering, donating, sweeping, and organizing. It looks lovely.

Today I moved on to cabinets upstairs. I could hear the dismay in his voice as I called him at work*

Saki: I found this old Apple laptop. it's in like twelve pieces and all the wires are snipped. We get get rid of this, right?

The Hubbin', clearing his throat: Are you uh, organizing?

Saki: Yes. So. Trash?

The Hubbin': Well. I mean....

Saki: If you have a legitimate reason to keep it, we can keep it

The Hubbin': Well, i'd like to keep it.

Saki: What are you going to do with it?

The Hubbin': Fine. Get rid of it

I'm now in the process of moving on to the hall closet, which is the second of our major problem areas. It's a closet that homes all of the homeless stuff in our house. And our coats. Too much stuff in too little space. To give you an idea of the sheer volume of brick-a-brack in this closet, see exhibit A and B:

Oh. My. God. I can't believe I actually posted pictures of that mess on the internet. See the lengths that I go to for you, blogfans? Don't say I never did anything for you.

*My husband loves when I call him at work, and usually responds with great enthusiasm**

** This is a lie.

Home.

I have been very happy with my home, but homes really are no more than the people who live in them. - Nancy Reagan

'Tis the Season

Even though Thanksgiving is almost three weeks away, stores are already pulling out all the stops, and sending holiday fliers in the mail, and tucking them into my Washington Post. We got a pretty hefty catalogue from Target the other day, filled with nothing but toys, toys, toys.

This is the first year that Cecilia is really understanding Santa Claus, so I handed her the catalogue and a marker and told her to circle things that she might like to ask Santa for this year. She sat at the kitchen table, intent in her work while I made dinner. As dinner was ready to be set on the table, the conversation went as such:

Saki: Sissy, put your stuff away, dinner is ready. You can finish after you eat.

Cecilia: Just a second Mommy, I'm still circling my Toy Menu.

Saki: Your what?

Cecilia, holding up the catalogue: My Toy Menu.

NaNope

November is National Novel Writing Month - NaNoWriMo for short. The goal is to crank out 50,000 words (175 pages) between November 1st and midnight on November 30th. It's a race against yourself, valuing quantity over quality to get over your writers block, and get the creativity flowing. NaNo'ers spend hours, daily pecking out their novels.

Since I have two small children, I have exactly 48 free seconds every day* and therefore have decided against participating in NaNoWriMo. However, since I'm with my NaNo'ing friends in spirit, I've made November my own personal NaBloWriMo. (National Blog Writing Month, obviously.) And I hereby vow to make a blog post every day in the month of November**

So prepare yourselves, internets, you'll be hearing a lot from me this month.

* I'm currently writing this post from the shower, where I'm washing not only myself, but the lunch dishes.

** I know I've already missed a day. I will make up for it with two posts one day soon. Stop being so nitpicky, BlogFans.

I made that, you know.

No really, I did.

Cooking with Saki

Welcome back, guys! I know I've been neglecting my blog, you're probably pretty hungry out there in the land of the internets. So today, we're going to make a delicious fall recipe! Cranberry-Orange Crunch Muffins. This is an oldie-but-goodie I got from a friend way back when, who would probably die if she knew I was posting it for you, dear blogfans. So, let's keep this our little secret, okay? Put your uggs on, we're going to the store to get:

1.5 cups fresh cranberries, cut in half and rinsed

2TBL flour

2.5 cups flour

2tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 cup butter

1/3 cup white sugar

2 large eggs

1 TBL orange zest

1 cup milk

Topping:

1/4 cup white sugar

1/4 almonds

2 TBL flour

2 TBL butter

Rinse your halved berries and pat dry. Toss with 2 TBL flour and set aside. Mix milk and orange zest and set aside. Cream together butter and sugar. Add eggs. Mix all dry ingredients well, and slowly add to butter mixture, alternating with milk/zest. Mix well, and pour into lined muffin tins.

Place all topping ingredients into a food processor/mini chopper until well combined and crumbly. Sprinkle on top of muffins.

Bake at 350F for 35-45 mins.

Enjoy :)