Phew

For the month of July our electric bill was nearly $400. We like to keep it 74-75 degrees around here...but that was just too much. So I decided that we could get used to 77 degrees and to see how much a difference that would make in our bill. So since then we have kept the house at the temp. of 77 degrees and our bill went down to $237. Much better.

My Quiet Garden

I found this really cool Garden pillow online you can harvest the fruit and veggies... and I was excited to find this because in our little once a week preschool thing I do with three other moms, it was my turn to teach and this months theme is plants. I was teaching about Fruits and Vegetables. I thought, oh I am going to make that someday, but didn't think to apply it to my lesson yet... Until I read Quiet in the Garden by Aliki. At the end of the book it mentions how to make your own quiet garden (a real one)...and I thought of Quiet books that we might make/bring for our children to play with in Church...and how I'd like to make a Felt quiet book someday...then suddenly all these thoughts came together and I decided to have the 'kids' aka moms...make our own quiet felt gardens!

I'm not a talented sewer person (yet) so making the fruits and veggies as well as the ones in the pillow wasn't an option. I also thought it would be cute if the kids can hang this quiet garden in their rooms. So it's more like a garden flag...works better with flatter fruits and veggies. Also it has one orange carrot, three green snap peas, and two red strawberries...see what I did there? The peas, I really wanted to sew on snaps, but somehow the snaps I thought I bought, weren't in the bag...I think Liam threw them out of the cart. So I used velcro. But snaps would have been better. Here is a video of the cut out materials and then the finished product. I wanted pictures, but again, my camera isn't working.

Cleaning Life Cycle.

7 days in a week. This doesn't include the moments I spend to cook food.

1. Spend Monday cleaning for preschool on Tuesday. Take "breaks" to help babies find things to do, feed them and go grocery shopping.

2. Tuesday no cleaning...need a break. Preschool in the morning to afternoon, then kids nap and I get on facebook or read or nap. The house is now on it's way to messy again.

3. Wednesday, spend time with kids and do the dishes, but the kitchen floor and table already have food all over them...living room has cereal and cracker crumbs plus a ton of toys.

4. Thursday, gather trash to take out. Spend kid time, a load of dishes, laundry, sweep the floor.

5. Friday pick up living room enough to vacuum, wipe counters down, fold laundry...still it's not enough cleaning and the house is a mess...might leave the dishes. Everytime I stop to clean, kids go crazy without my attention and make a mess elsewhere.

6. Saturday, attempt to really clean, but again, I clean something, turn around and the babies have made a mess, they want my full attention. I try to do a family activity if David is home (he's been working Saturdays all month).

7. Sunday. Day of rest... meanwhile the messy house gets worse...hence the cleaning all day and night on Monday.

Adventures at the HMNS

Back on Thursday, July 23rd, David's client gave us tickets to participate in a night at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. They shut the place down to the public and let their company come for a family night. We decided to take Liam with us, but left Violet with Tata overnight. We went and had dinner at the mall where we enjoyed some Chick-fi-la... I tried to have a gyro but the meat wasn't good.

The Museum was so cool. They had cotton candy machines, popcorn, chips, candy bars, cupcakes and drinks set up all over, even in the dinosaur area with tables and chairs to sit down if you wished. We had to get in line for the 3D Imax right when we got there. So while we waited in line we let Liam have some cotton candy. He wasn't sure he wanted to try it, but once he hesitantly did, he was in love and had the biggest smile on his face.

Liam was too cute in the 3D movie. It was about Sharks but not at all scary. He kept grabbing for the fish and when they would show a shark he would yell "A SHARK!".

Then, because I love museums, David and Liam indulged me and we ran through to look at the Terra Cotta Warriors exhibit, the Ghengis Khan exhibit, and the dinosaurs of course. Then we let Liam munch on some popcorn, while we had cokes and water. It was so much fun.

I kind of ruined the evening for David though :( All he remembers is me in a bad mood. But I wasn't...only in the car when he kept missing turns even though we have a GPS... I need to work on my car riding manners and learn to relax when we miss a turn.

Here is a short dark video of Liam in the 3D Imax with his glasses on before the show started...

Violet Learned to Walk!

Adventures in the Pool