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It's been a while. The thing is I haven't had the brain space for a long while to keep up with anything other than a stupid app game on my iPad. It's like when I was young and I'd visit my (future) in-laws and I'd play The Sims all the time but worse because I own this so can play it whenever I want. I'm trying though to get back to reading and writing and doing things I use to love. But everything is so busy lately, work being incredibly stressful as of late and multiple sports things happening with Bub. But now that he is down to one sport and the big project I am in charge settling down into a rhythm I might be able to get my head together.

I've had several blog topic ideas lately but I've forgotten them right now, of course. I'm not sure anyone is interested in the struggles of a Collection Development Librarian or in my latest management difficulties. But I'm going to try to get back into doing the things I use to like doing. 

Pat on the back

I feel like giving myself a high five these days. I have successfully been meal planning and weekly grocery shopping since April. That's a long time for me since I tend to lack follow-through on my grand plans (see also: exercising, limiting electronic use, cleaning out the cabinets, homemade baby food, etc.).  Plus I've been using my reusable grocery bags at every trip and even have BT doing the same when he goes. It cuts down on the amount of plastic bags we have AND is very environmentally conscious.  We tend to eat the same things a lot but I've developed enough of a menu so that it's not the same thing every week. Plus when BT is off on weekdays he can do the cooking and that saves me some time and energy.

The other thing I managed to do was clean out Bub's room. His birthday and Christmas are coming up and so he is going to get more toys so I wanted to start parring down what he has now. He was away overnight this past weekend so I gathered all of the toys that were spread out all over the floor and under the bed and put them into garbage bags so that, soon, the two of us can go through them and decide what to keep and what to get rid of and find places for the stuff he wants. He has a lot of toys and quite of few of them are in pieces or half together or kind of babyish for his age. I'm really terrible at getting rid of things. I weeded his bookcase and pulled out quite a few "baby" books and put them in Button's room. I rearranged his room and put the little couch from Button's room into his room so now he has a sitting area and she has more room for a new bed that we will get in the next few months (hopefully). I'm going to go through her room and get it back into shape next weekend.

The other plan I have to is take one cabinet a weekend and go through it and organize it. It seems like every cabinet in the place is chockablock full of just stuff and I need to neaten it up. This is a more ambitious plan since it requires quite a bit of follow-through so we'll see. I'm going to try.

Repainting

We've lived in our house a little over 6 years. When we moved in all the rooms were painted with a flat green or beige paint which is terrible when you have a toddler like we did at the time. Slowly over the years each room has been repainted to a prettier and more kid-friendly finish with the exception being the master bedroom. Finally though we are getting a bedroom redo. I got a new bedspread set for my birthday and then the next day I picked out some samples to go with it and painted a few swatches on the walls to live with for a while to see how I feel about them. Pretty good as it turns out. The bedroom is going to be sort of a dark teal and the bathroom a yellow. What's amazing about this is how much research I've put into finish.

Everyone, it seems, has a different opinion of what should go where. I usually go for a satin or a semi-gloss because both are easy to clean but I have to paint the ceiling in the bathroom because of mildew issues. I don't want it to be too shiny up there. I also had to make a decision of color. I think I'm going to paint the ceiling in the bathroom the same color as the walls and see how I like that. I'm nervous that it might be too much but what the hay, right? It's just paint. My cousin said satin would be fine up there and she's painted more rooms than I have so I think I will go with that. I'm excited to finally have my bedroom and bath have some color and look pretty. I've already starting priming the bathroom with a mold and mildew resistant priming and I'm looking forward to getting the paint on the walls.

A sham and the paint samples

Winning and then not {Update}

I enter a lot of contests because you really never know. At most it costs me email spams, not that big of a deal. So I won one the other day and by other day I mean 3 weeks ago for a baby girl lace romper, headband, and necklace Halloween set. Yay! I emailed the people my address and then started looking for it about a week after I'd won. Now almost 3 weeks later, it still hasn't arrived and so I debated. Do I just let it go since basically I've lost nothing and I didn't pay for anything? Or do I let them know?

I let them know. I can't let it go. Yes, I've lost nothing but I also don't think it's fair to go through a contest with people expecting something and then not giving it. So I debated about how. The thing is with social media it is just all too easy to call out a company on bad or suspect behavior to the public and I don't always think that is fair. The only email I had was by the person I thought was only running the contest and I didn't know if she was the right one to talk to. I could write on their Facebook page but that is really public. Instead I opted to FB message them. It turned out to be the same person over email. She said it was "an inner company miscommunication" which I took to mean that they forgot. She offered a Christmas set instead since Halloween was over but the thing is that I had plans for the purple romper for Button's birthday and a Christmas one wouldn't be the same. I felt ungenerous sort of demanding the one that I actually won which is weird. Don't get me wrong. The Christmas set is very pretty. I just like the purple and it will probably get more wear than a red. I finished messaging her this morning and  I hope to hear from her soon and get this sorted out. 

This isn't the first time this has happened. Once I won some books from a pretty well known YA author. I forgot about the books actually for a while and then one day a few months later I remembered. So I emailed her and it took several reminders for her to finally send them out. I try not to be an ass about so many things but apparently have strong feelings on contests. I just think that if you are going to say you are giving something away, you should actually give something away.

ETA: They got back to me and let me pick out a romper, headband, and necklace of my choice. So that was awesome of them because they could have just as easily sent me the Halloween set and called it fair. Instead I got to pick out what I wanted. This contest just got way better!

Cuckoo for Coconut (Oil)

Ever since I had Button my scalp has been really dry. With Bub it was eczema on my fingers. So apparently something weird happens with my skin postpartum. I've been struggling with it anyway. I am always willing to try something new and the internet and Pinterest tell me coconut oil is the be all, end all of solutions. So I went to Fresh Market and got a jar. A big jar since it was the only jar available. But it has so many uses that I figured it would be okay. At home I found a couple of leftover baby jars that I had used to store small amounts of breast milk and that luckily I had not thrown away when I went on the baby feeding throwing away spree (all the bottles and such were discarded along with some of my breast feeding equipment). The internet told me glass was the best way to store it as the coconut oil will absorb some of the chemicals in plastic. I still had three jars so I filled each jar with coconut oil. One for my bathroom, one for Button's room and one for the shower. I decided to use it for a few purposes.

Button has been having trouble with her diaper area. I think in part because of the cheap store brand diapers I sometimes use. I try to use the 7th Generation diapers because they worked so well with Bub and his eczema issues. They are my favorite hypoallergenic diaper. But sometimes we run out or the budget doesn't fit buying them so I'll buy store brand. Nothing wrong with that except I don't think they agree with her skin. She recently was wearing CVS brand. So when I thought I'd try the coconut oil on her to see if that cut down on the redness and itching. And I think it has. She certainly looks better down there and doesn't seem to be scratching that much. So I am keeping a jar in her room and adding it to their baths. Bub still has really dry skin and is prone to eczema in his elbows and knees. I figure the oil in the bath and then some rubbed into his dry patches will help him.

As for me I've been using it mostly on my hair and face. I read somewhere that it makes a great cleanser so at night I've been rubbing some on my face and then putting a hot washcloth over my face for 10 seconds and then wiping it off. It seems to be working and strangely enough my face is less oily throughout the day. And in the mornings I use it on my hair to smooth out some of the frizz and then mix a tiny tiny bit in with my day time moisturizer too.

But the biggest thing I've done is use it as a hair mask. The first night I had it I put it on my hair for about an hour. The problem was I didn't get it all washed out so my hair looks stringy and greasy. Sunday night I put it on as a mask and slept with it all night. I washed my hair with shampoo the next morning and made sure to get it all out. My hair looks really good right now, very bouncy and shiny and my curls look good. So thumbs up on that. The only issue I had is that it was not that comfortable to sleep with a shower cap. So next time I think I'll go back to the 2 hour thing and try a heated towel over it and see how that works.

I have to say I am always skeptic about things that are claimed to be miraculous but this stuff is living up to its hype. I mean I smell kind of tropical but there are worse thing to smell like after all. And it doesn't last all day anyway. I haven't tried cooking with it and I probably won't use it as a deodorant or toothpaste. But it does help with dry and irritated skin, something that is a chronic problem at my house and I'll try anything to help with that. It does melt quickly especially on contact with body heat and I found out you have to be careful where you store it. But at least I don't have to worry about what will happen if Button finds it and tries to eat it like I would most lotions and body oils.

Back to Book Blogging

I quit book blogging for a year. I just couldn't seem to care with having to take care of a newborn and a kid and reading fell by the wayside. But a year makes a difference because I started up again this year over at The Little Bookworm. But I've changed the way I'm book blogging. There are no more everyday reviews because I have even less time to read everyday than I use to and I don't do challenges anymore. At least not right now. I might do one or two next year for fun. And I've quit commenting so much on other's blogs. That is the only one I really want to change. I just need to find a new reader now that Google Reader is being discontinued. But I feel like if I want others to read what I write I should go out and do that same.

I'm enjoying getting back into it and remembering why I liked it in the first place before it became about book tours and ARCs and publishing everyday. I like the community though. The people are generally nice and very passionate about reading and books. So I am doing my best to provide a little content each week though sometimes it is just a wrap up of the previous week and a "What I'm Reading" feature. And that's ok. I am fine with that.

Rainbow Cupcakes

The other day on Twitter someone linked to spearmint baby's rainbow cupcakes and I knew I had to do this.  With a little help from the boy, that is.  He mostly helped with the mixing of the white cake.  I didn't let him get into the dyed batter.  So I used Pillsbury white cake mix with the egg white recipe as suggested and divided the batter into 6 colors: red (which came out pink), blue, green, orange, purple, and yellow. 

In the end, I didn't divide it evenly enough so when I went to make the layers I ran low on some colors.  I also failed to divide what I did have evenly among the cupcakes.  But that's okay!  While the ones from spearmint baby are very layered, mine ended up with sort of a tie-dyed look which was very cool.

in the pan

out of the pan, you can see through the liner

In the end half got topped with yellow and the other half with purple.  I iced them with a whipped cream frosting by Betty Crocker which was the perfect thing since the cupcakes were light and fluffy and so was the icing.  They went really fast and everyone liked how cute they were.