What's for Dinner?

I have about 6 cookbooks, I basically use one. I like the recipes, they are easy to follow and taste good. When you use one cookbook most of the time it doesn't take long to go through all the recipes(over and over again). I started feeling like I was making the same meals too much, so I started looking on the web for more interesting things to make. That's how I found All Recipes. I like it for several reasons. One, it's free:) I like free. Two you can search different ways. I like to search by ingredients myself. They even offer several different printing layouts so you can have a full sheet or have it fit a recipe card(4x6 or 3x5). I thought that was cool. They also have a list of categories at the bottom including holidays, fast and easy, kids, vegetarian and healthy living. There are lots more categories you can check out for yourself:-) There are ads, but what free site doesn't have ads?! I think you just toon them out after a while. Anyway, if you're looking to expand your recipe index it's got some good ones.

Too Good to Be True

Well yesterday's sleeping in episode proved to be an anomaly. Ryan was up at 7:00 this morning. He also woke up twice during the night. The 1:30 waking was the worst for me. I was so happy in my slumber only to be awakened by a wailing baby. He must have had a bad dream because it took a while for him to calm down enough to go back to sleep. It's funny how none of this seems to affect his mood. He's as happy as a clam. Smiley little baby. He's talking up a storm right now. It's funny because he almost sounds like he's saying real words now. I feel like I should be understanding him. He does have a few words: Mama, Dada, momm, the occasional Daddy, ball, woah!, wassat?, Sak(Zach), hallo and today he added bye-bye just after Jay drove away.

Time to myself...

So, what did I do with all the time to myself this afternoon? I shampooed the carpet! Am I crazy?! I finally get time to myself and I shampoo the carpet. I know that it's useful and I should have done it. So why am I so annoyed at myself?

It's a B-E-A-utiful Day

The sun is shining, the birds are singing. Everyone in our house is in a good mood today. I have some time to myself right now because one boy is at school and the other is napping! Ryan, my wonderful little Monkey, let me sleep in until 9:30 this morning. After a weekend of late nights that's just what I needed! He did that yesterday too. Went to bed at his normal time, 8 and didn't get up until 9:30. I guess he's transitioning to longer nights and less naps. This would be an awesome change. I hope he keeps this up because then I can get my shower in the morning before he gets up. He has not been very cooperative about sitting in his chair in the bathroom while I shower any more, so I have to wait until he gets his first nap. If he sleeps until 9:30 on a regular basis I can get my shower between Jay getting out the door and Ryan getting up. I've been thinking of getting up early so I can get a jump on my day and have some quiet time before everyone else gets up. Maybe now I won't have to! Zach is great about playing quietly in his room(for the most part) and Jay will be off to work. This is getting better and better! The only problem is that I'm thinking Ryan will nap pretty much the whole time Zach is at school, so if I have to run errands I'll have to take both boys in the morning. Zach has not been too fond of running errands for the past few months(I guess he has better things to do.) That should be interesting. Maybe I'm thinking about this way too much because it may not even happen. A girl can dream though, can't she? I guess that depends on how much sleep she manages to get ;-)

Remodel

I've been remodeling a little bit. I added a few links and reorganized my sidebar. You like?
Here are some reasons for my links...
Originally I was interested in this site because I call Ryan Monkey Bean a lot, but it turns out they have great stuff and the prices are not bad.
Of course I've already raved about how much I love Leap Frog and Baby Einstein!
I like Dove Movie Reviews because it gives a good family based idea of the appropriateness of movies for different age groups. The best thing is that they give you the specific reasoning for their ratings so you can decide if you agree.
Zach(5) loves to play games on the Rescue Heros and PBS Kids pages.
I subscribe to Parenting Magazine and Parents Magazine. Both magazines are very good as are the web sites.
So, now you know why I like these sites. I hope they prove helpful for you:-)