Wasting Time...

...because Wednesday is the day I am supposed to clean the bathroom!

1. I am still on the dolly quest. Ben vetoed my favorite because, he says, she is not a baby. He thinks that Sofie should have a doll that is younger than she is (because clearly she could never have birthed a toddler...a baby is so much more believable!) We went to visit a few of the Corolle dollies in the store today, and Sofie happily fed this one a bottle, but I just wasn't convinced. The Middleton doll is Ben's pick and I've added a new choice to the batch. What do you think of her?

2. Planning a first birthday party on a shoestring when you have a ginormous family is quite a task! I have notoriously poo-poohed elaborate birthday parties for children and there's a great big part of me that thinks that they can really get ridiculous, but there's something about the first birthday that is uniquely momentous and deserves to be celebrated in a big way. In reality, I view it as a party for us as a complete family, marking the grand accomplishment of surviving the first year (with most of our hair even!) We are planning to celebrate with family only (Auntie Heidi counts!) but even still the list has nearly fifty people. Oy! I am trying to economize as much as possible but it is proving to be a difficult task. I thought I'd make my own invitations since I have plenty of materials on hand (and plenty of time!) but that was before I realized that our printer is out of ink. Well that and our desktop computer, the one with a decent word processing program, recently quit functioning (we think it's the video card - solvable!) Somehow all of my ideas to attempt to save money seem to end up costing me more than the shortcut would. The goal is to spend less than $100 on everything which might even be remotely realistic since grandma has a pantry that is mysteriously overflowing with party food...

3. My first attempt at once-a-month-cooking, hereafter referred to as OAMC, is looming just around the corner as the month of July comes to an end. I'm awaiting the arrival of a library book that I'm hoping will spell things out pretty exactly since it seems like quite a task to prepare a menu, shopping list, and cooking order (first cook ten pounds of ground beef...ha!) If you'd like to join me in my endeavor, there's still time! Just let me know. Sort of related, we've had two weeks of homemade bread now. The first recipe was laborious. It instructed me to knead the dough for a full ten minutes. Now, I know that doesn't sound like much, but by about four minutes in I had beads of sweat forming on my forehead. If nothing else, I would have some sweet arm muscles if I continued to bake this one, but it was a complete dud. The bread pretty much tasted like cardboard. All that work for nothing! Last weekend I tried a simple recipe, a quite simple recipe, and it turned out great. The recipe is for six loaves and there are instructions regarding how to freeze the loaves (pre-baked) that you don't want to use immediately. A winner! You can find the recipe here. Incidentally, if anyone has some nice loaf pans that they aren't putting to good use I know a certain baker lady that could really take advantage of them since hers are maybe a little bit rusty (bet you didn't know a pan could rust!)

4. Lastly, I have to brag about the kid a little bit because she is just so freaking cute these days. She has begun to sing to herself when she is winding down before bed. Usually she'll flop herself over me and begin crooning her ballad. It takes every ounce of concentration I have not to break out in hysterical laughter, the kid is stone tone deaf! Hopefully I can recruit Ben to catch it on a video soon. She is a complete snuggle bug and she often curls up on top of me and gives me pats. She is starting to give more consistent kisses, although her version is more like a head-butt, on request. Following are a couple short clips of some of her newer tricks...