Friday Things
1. My gosh, Joseph has become absolutely hysterical lately… especially when we’re sitting down and eating our meals, he tells us the funniest stories! Sometimes he recounts things that have happened, and sometimes he makes up stories. I just adore his imagination and love seeing and hearing what a little boy he’s becoming. His sing-a-long spring program at school was ADORABLE – he was smiling the whole time, singing and doing the little hand motions. I’m so proud of the little person he’s becoming.
I’ve loved seeing Dominic’s personality really shine and blossom over the last few weeks. It’s been so interesting for me to see how different he is from Joseph (and similar in many ways – they both love routine and order!) and learn how to cater to his individual tastes. While Joseph was always very serious and liked quiet activities (reading books, building towers with blocks, etc.), Dominic much prefers to be active, silly and laugh. He LOVES to be chased and giggles non-stop, and thinks that scaring us with toy dinosaurs is the funniest thing ever. I’m so looking forward to getting back to swim class with him and also seeing how he likes music class this summer!
2. Isabelle is four weeks old today, and she’ll be one month on Sunday! She’s growing so nicely, is so sweet, and such a wonderful baby. I know I say this all the time, but she is truly an almost perfect baby! Yesterday was really the first day that she had some fussy fits, but I was able to calm her fairly easily. I love looking into those little blue eyes now that they’re open and so much more alert more often! Her looks keep changing; for awhile I thought she looked just like Joseph as a baby, and then Dominic, and now I feel like she’s just a mix or, more accurately, just Isabelle :)
3. Let’s talk laundry. For the longest time, I’ve done laundry twice a week, however since Isabelle joined our brood I feel like our laundry situation has exploded. Now there is an insane amount when I do it, so I’m thinking I need to switch to doing it more often. If you have multiple littles, how often do you do laundry?
4. Earlier this week I went on to Amazon and saw a huge ad for their deal of the day – boxes of Lindt truffles. They totally trolled me… I added them to my cart and then eventually “saved for later”. So tempting!
5. My Facebook feed has been full of Mother’s Day themed posts and videos (like this one and this one and this one), that I inevitably read while I’m feeding Isabelle in the middle of the night and, without fail, make me ridiculously emotional and teary-eyed. Whyyyyyyy do they have to grow up?!
6. Are you celebrating Cinco de Mayo this weekend? If so, check out some of my favorite Mexican recipes! –>
The Best Guacamole / Margarita Cupcakes / Tres Leches Cake / Copycat Chipotle Chicken / Copycat Chipotle Cilantro-Lime Rice / Restaurant-Style Salsa / Taco Dip / Beef Enchiladas
7. Okay, I tried drinking coffee… first, I tried black (bleh!)… then, I tried it with the Dunkin Donuts Extra Extra creamer (still just eh)… I couldn’t finish the cup, I just didn’t like it. Next I’m going to try the cold brew since so many of you have said that it’s much less bitter. Fingers crossed!
8. The NHL playoffs are taking years off of my life, per usual. Rooting for my Penguins, of course, and for Vegas in the west!
9. New show we started watching – Bosch on Amazon Prime. It’s a bit of a dark detective show (do we watch any other kind? ha!) set in LA, based on crime novels by Michael Connelly. We’re a handful of episodes into the first season and enjoying it so far.
10. TGIF! I hope you have an incredibly happy weekend with people you love!
Isabelle is such a beautiful baby, and I love the pictures of the boys. They are adorable and growing so fast. Happy Mother’s Day to you and your wonderful family! I am so excited myself…this August I’m going to be a grandma with my first grandbaby, a boy, and I absolutely can’t wait!
Congratulations to you Carol! Prayers for a safe delivery and healthy baby in August!
I have 3 kids and when they were little it was a load every day. It was easier to maintain and then I didn’t feel so overwhelmed by the piles of laundry.
Laundry: Since I work from home, I’ve always had this rule. It feels deliciously indulgent, but it also really works well for me. I do one load a day. If there’s no full load, I get a day off. Which load do I do? The biggest dirty pile. If two piles are roughly equal, I take the one that regenerates the fastest. For me, it’s simple and it’s part of the rhythm of my day.
Good luck finding your own rhythm!
I work full time outside the house so laundry usually gets done once a week on Saturday (about 8 loads or so). What I do throughout the day is take each load from the drier and move the basket to the TV room and stack them up.
Saturday is always a bath night in our house so my husband bathes the kids after dinner and does the whole bedtime routine. I get to then watch MY show (usually about 2), sit on my bum for those TWO WHOLE HOURS!! and fold laundry & put the kids’ outfits on hangers right away. It’s permission to sit…yes I’m doing a chore. But two hours with no one interrupting me while I can concentrate on a show or two that no one else enjoys but me is such a wonderful luxury.
I have a huge issue with bitter foods and flavors and absolutely hated the taste of coffee (loved the smell though!), but then I started baking with instant coffee in the occasional baked goods and a small amount in a white hot chocolate recipe so I think that slowly reduced my distaste for the flavor in general. Recently I started mixing about half warm milk and half regular coffee with a couple tablespoons of English toffee syrup and I am actually starting to kind of like it and adapt to the bitterness. Just thought I would throw this out there in case it is helpful.
Oh my goodness! I’ve just been dealing with this same laundry situation. Ultimately I’ve decided Monday is washday! I do all things laundry on Monday. Wash fold iron put away. Socks. Perhaps I’ll put bedding going during the weeks. But clothes only once a week. Otherwise laundry ends up ruling your days!
Love Bosch! Great show!
two things,
Thanks for your recipe for ice cream cake, was an awesome way to celebrate my son’s birthday (just must be sure to have a freezer large enough to accommodate a plate bigger than the cake to sit it flat in the freezer :/ )
Other thing…. don’t fill your coffee cup up too much. Fill your cup a quarter of the way full with coffee or so -go with a hazelnut or vanilla flavor to help with taste. Then put a few scoops of sugar and the rest of the space with milk, half-half or cream. You could steam the milk so that it doesn’t cool your coffee too much. Coffee is too bitter for me, too, so that is how I drink it… if I want to
Hello, Michelle! What a beautiful family you have! When my husband and changed espresso machines, we found that all of our beans tasted burned and bitter. My quest for a smooth cup of coffee led me to Lavazza Super Crema Whole Bean coffee (we buy it on Amazon Prime). It’s our go-to for espresso, but it is delicious as a cup from the drip coffee maker, too. Nice and smooth, and definitely not overly bitter.
Hi! Beautiful family! How did you feel about the direction Homeland took? I for one am angry the big Russian is still alive. I know if my fave Quinn were still on the show he would not be! Hahaha Jave a wonderful weekend.
I was stunned by the end of Homeland! We were like, whaaaaaaaaaaat in the world???!
Originally I thought Isabelle looked like Dominic, then Joseph, and today I’m back to Dominic. But you’re right — she looks like Isabelle.
Coffee. I suggest you use cold brew coffee to make café con leche/café au lait. The cold brew is smoother and more mellow. I use Mark Bittman’s recipe to make the coffee concentrate (https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1017355-cold-brewed-iced-coffee). Use at least a medium roast coffee. Typically it’s mixed with an equal part of water for hot coffee, but for café con leche/café au lait I’d suggest 1/4-1/3 coffee concentrate with the remainder being milk and sweeten to taste with sugar. Then you can adjust it to use more coffee if you like. Though I doubt you’re likely to do this, when I use cold brew for iced coffee, I don’t dilute it at all. The ice will melt and dilute it. My own preference is to add no flavorings.
For Cinco de Mayo I’m thinking fish tacos..
Don’t forget to thank the nurses in your life.
I’ve been following your blog for close to ten years now. It seems you have an extremely similar taste in your tv shows that we do. We watch all of the same shows, down to the British crime dramas! We can’t wait for the next season of Bosch! Might I suggest a show called Patriot? It’s dry and darkly humorous and streams on Amazon Prime and is about to enter into its second season.
I’ll definitely check out Patriot, thanks for the recommendation!
I have 3 children all in the span of 4 1/2 years. The laundry situation just grew right along with them. There was always a load or 2 that could be done each day between clothes for 5 people, bath towels, kitchen towels . . . And when they were in high school, the laundry situation exploded with 6 soccer games & 6 practices a week adding uniforms and practice clothes, lax uniforms & practice clothes, & swim team added lots of wet towels to the laundry chore. Laundry was truly a labor of love for my family. Truthfully, I miss all of that now . . . .
Gah!! I’m having a hard time telling if Duke or Judith is in the picture. Both are gorgeous Goldens. I’m still debating on getting a second Golden – talk about chores exploding – the amount of fur from 1 Golden and then adding another . . . . oy vey! Vacuuming would need to be done a couple of times a day!
GO PENS! We’ll be in Caps territory for Game 5, so that will be interesting. We have a wedding in VA and they’re renting TVs for the reception to catch the game. Die hard Caps fans.
I love the Lindt chocolates. Just let then melt in your mouth for an explosion of chocolate goodness. B4 u give up on HOT coffee, please try flavored. My go to has been cinnamon hazelnut or I sometimes mix different ones.
You are definitely blessed! Too lighten the laundry load… Which is crazy when a large family… Some things, hand wash …you won’t believe the difference in your hamper load! Your kids are adorable! Thanx for keeping on with your posts. I know, it’s not easy. Bucoo props girl! 💯☺
3 kids. Laundry. Every. Day. Sorry!
Caramel Dunkin’ Donuts coffee and 1-2 tbsp each of of ovaltine and natural bliss salted caramel creamer makes my coffee delicious!!!
Hi Michelle,
I’m from Sydney, Australia. We are serious coffee drinkers here.
Try and get your hands on a Latte. In Australia, the coffee is served with frothed milk and you can also get flavoured varieties like Vanilla (my favourite), caramel or even Hazelnut.
Good Luck!
Cool pics, cool boys… next year hopefully we’ll be having a baby… cheers!
I feel you on the laundry!! I have 3 littles – oldest just turned three and baby is 3 months now. If I don’t put in a load a day I am way behind. I try to put it in first thing in the morning so I have the rest of the day to worry about drying it and maybe potentially folding. It can take a whole day to take care of one load, and even that just sometimes sits in the dryer for a day! As I’m sure you feel – with 3 children, the most basic tasks become a huge deal :)
Joseph and Dominic are just too cute. It’s hard to believe Isabelle will be a month old already…it seems like you just brought her home. She’s definitely changing and growing quickly. I do laundry for 3 adults and do it 3 times a week…2 loades each time…occassionally more…lol