Yesterday's Every Hour

1. 7:00- still in bed, but awake

2. 8:00- letting R type his name on the computer...over and over and over and over again

3. 9:00- folding laundry and watching a Wyatt Earp documentary while R watches Sesame Street

4. 10:00- making kids beds

5. 11:00- getting R's lunch ready (mixed nuts, cheese, crackers, and a clementine orange)

6. Noon- making some chai tea

7. 1:00- eating my lunch (Dewey's candied walnut & grape salad) while I caught up on the internets

8. 2:00- reading from a biography of Andrew Wyeth in the bath tub

9. 3:00- I actually fell in the sleep for about an hour and a half- I've not been sleeping lately

10. 4:00- cleaning the bathrooms

11. 5:00- texting

12. 6:00- making dinner

13. 7:00- with W, putting Valentine's Day themed things in the art center

14. 8:00- literally passed out across the foot of our bed

15. 9:00- watching Gossip Girl

Some Pet Names I Would Use

1. Janice

2. Ron Weasley

3. Newman

4. Ben Fong-Torres

5. Emmylou

6. Lisa Turtle (if it's a turtle)

7. Jose Oquendo

8. Eleanor Rigby

9. Jordan Catalanno (if it's a cat)

10. Zoila

11. Chuck Bass (if it's a fish)

12. If we got two little pets at the same time, they would obviously be named Zack and Kelly. Or Joey and Pacey? Hmmm, decisions, decisions.

13. Crystal Gayle (this is from W...she thinks it's a beautiful name)

14. Speaking of, Loretta Lynn would be a great cat name. If I liked cats.

This Week

1. Pack for an 8-day trip to Arkansas

2. Go by Penzey's to pick up a few things

3. Buy my niece a birthday gift

4. Make W's Valentine's box (her friend Eric's coming over to do his, too- second date!)

5. Start working on potty training R- first step was buying Mickey Mouse big boy undies and getting him interested in those...check.

6. Cook dinner for friends on Wednesday night

7. Bake a loaf of banana bread for my husband

8. Get my blood tested...I've been putting that one off as long as I can

Around the House Dislikes

1. Dirty dishes in the sink that are filled with water. Hate it!

2. When the kitchen counters get littered with things. I like them to be perfectly clean. I blame my mother.

3. Fingerprints on the living room tables, but alas, it's a winless game I'm playing.

4. The dustbunnies that form and hang out along our hallway wall

5. When our middle blanket comes...nevermind. My bed rules could be a whole list in and of itself.

6. When A puts the dishes in the dishwasher the wrong way. For instance, I like to keep silverware handle up and I always start filling it up from the back.

7. Exposed cords

8. I don't like the setup of the kid's room, and am irritated that there really isn't another option.

9. When people hang their toilet paper the wrong way. Ha!

10. Lights off in the main living area during the day

These Days

1. What I'm Eating- Almost every day, for lunch or supper, I eat a wrap that has tons of veggies and some kind of beans, and some kind of grain in it. Sometimes I add a scrambled egg. I affectionately call it a "Beans-n-Grains-n-Things," which is what Whole Foods in LR was called before it was called Whole Foods and before it was called Wild Oats Market.

2. What I'm Listening To- I'm really into Trampled By Turtles right now. Also Emmylou Harris. And Ricky Skaggs.

3. What I'm Reading- The Sistine Secrets: Michelangelo's Forbidden Messages in the Heart of the Vatican. I'm also finishing up Empire of the Summer Moon. It's so good and meaty and I re-read most of the paragraphs for retention purposes.

4. What I'm Doing- I'm trolling the library, my art book collection, art magazines, and my saved paper treasures for pieces to use for a board I'm making for a friend

5. What I'm Drinking- Tazo Thrive nearly 3 times a day. It keeps me warm and my metabolism going

6. What I'm Interested In- NPR. I don't love radio music, so mostly in the car if the kids allow me, I listen to NPR. I despise watching the news on TV. NPR allows me to feel connected intellectually to the world.

7. What I'm Working On- Making our loft livable for the time being. We've been organizing and planning and redoing things to fit our family needs.

8. What I'm Watching- I'm really into PBS right now. Downton Abbey, of course & R is at the perfect age for Sesame Street & I LOVE these American Experience biographies they do (Wyatt Earp, Geronimo, Annie Oakley, etc) & the historic love stories pieces they do.

Truffles I Sampled Last Night At Ka-Ka-O

1. Lavender

2. Milk chocolate

3. Vegan coconut

4. Dark chocolate

5. Yuzu

6. Sea salt caramel

7. (They also sampled bacon pecan brittle, but I obviously passed)

8. Chai

9. Sour cherry

10. Marshmallow pie

11. Earl grey tea

12. Sour cherry pate de fuis

This Tuesday's Stay Home Day Activities

1. Grocery store run

2. Me working on a project for a friend

3. Movie (The Rescuers) and banana-strawberry-chocolate milkshakes

4. Mommy and two kids all in the bath

5. Trip to the library

6. Collage making

7. Relay races and bike riding in the parking garage

8. Mommy night out

My Valentines Day, Birthday, Or Whenever You'd Like To Buy Me a Gift, List

1. Size 7.5 please

2. Black jeans size 4

3. My favorite yoga pants, black size small

4. North Face vest in white (small)

5. iTunes cards

6. Chinos, size 4 in dark oak

7. Ginger tunic in small

8. Maxi skirt, small

9. Another maxi, size 2

10. Pizza pans

11. Sweet dress, medium

12. Amazon cards

13. The super-cute charcoal gray GapBody zip-up jacket that is an obvious lululemon knockoff

14. A new iPhone so that I can get this case

15. This bracelet

Changes At Our House This Weekend

1. We are not going to put the loft on the market this spring.

2. We got rid of nearly half of the books in our bookshelf.

3. We bought black wire mesh baskets for one of the low bookshelfs and are turning that entire bookshelf into toy/puzzles/games central for the kids.

4. We ordered a conversion kit to turn R's crib into a toddler bed.

5. I took down some things I didn't love anymore from the walls and am replacing it with things I love but didn't have room for and have just been in storage.

6. We added another stacking shelf to the kids art center for more paper, etc. storage.

7. We pared down the Brio train track collection.

8. We bought Fishy Murphy a plant for his tank.

A Jeopardy! Game I Could Dominate

The Jeopardy! Round

1. David Gray Lyrics

2. Fruits and Vegetables

3. Gangs

4. New Testament Verses

5. Arkansas

6. Bravo TV

The Double Jeopardy! Round

7. Native Americans

8. Gabriel Garcia Marquez Novels

9. Modern Art

10. Saturday Night Live Commercials

11. Capitols of the World

12. John Hughes Films

The Final Jeopardy! Round

13. George A. Custer

Things I Don't Like

1. Chocolate chip cookie dough anything

2. Our "G" key doesn't work on the laptop. You have to aggressively press it a few times to get one. Then you get four.

3. Everything I really want to buy is really expensive

4. Gum

5. Wearing a coat

6. Exposed socks. I will only wear socks if they are hidden under boots.

7. The violent opposition my son has to potty training

8. This list blog lately

9. Toffee bits

10. High-fives

11. The white film on my car during the wintertime

12. Our tiled shower is really hard to keep clean

13. The month of February

What's In Our Refrigerator

The numbering on this got all messed up, but I'm too lazy to fix it. Sorry!

1. Almond milk

2. 1% milk

3. Orange juice

4. Lots of Naked Juice- Mighty Mango and Red Machine

5. Lots of Odwalla Juice- Mo Beta and Mango Tango

6. One can of Coke

7. Cream cheese

8. Butter and Earth Balance

9. 3 kinds of jam- 2 grapes for A and 1 Fruits of the Forest for the kids

10. Horizon organic 1% milk boxes

11. Honest Kids juice boxes- very berry lemonade

12. Jar of minced garlic

13. Lemon and lime juice

14. Egg Beaters

15. Lots of bottles of Shock Top beer

16. 6 bottles of Woodchuck Hard Cider

17. Cheese (slices and block cheddar)

18. Deli meat- A's rotisserie chicken

19. Morningstar fake bacon slices

20. Whole wheat tortillas

21. Mustard, ketchup, pickles, BBQ sauce

22. Chia seeds, hemp seeds, wheat germ, and flax seeds

23. Maple syrup

24. Chocolate syrup

25. Kalamata olives

26. Eggs

27. Leftover beans

28. Leftover soy taco

29. Chai tea concentrate

30. Tomato sauce

21. Club soda

22. Vegetable broth

23. Chocolate chips

24. Apples

25. Strawberries

26. Blueberries

27. Tomatoes

28. Baby spinach

29. Beets

30. Red pepper

31. Avocado

32. Green onions

33. Broccoli

34. Red onion

35. Coconut water

Some Home Items I'm Loving From The New Catalogs

1. My pouf obsession continues

2. Bedding

3. Pillow

4. Accent table

5. If you spend $400 on a pouf, you definitely have a problem. But I want it for W's room.

6. Sheets

7. Terraniums

8. I want that bunny. Okay, and the cow. And I wouldn't be sad if I got the hen, too.

9. Beautiful mirror

10. Duvet cover

11. Sofa

12. Pillow

13. LOVE IT! But I'll give you one guess who would hate it...that's right. My husband. Especially at $110/roll.

14. We need this for our record collection

What's In My Burrito

1. Buena Vida whole wheat tortilla

2. Smashed half of an avocado

3. Garlic

4. Sweet potato cubes

5. Baby spinach

6. Curly kale

7. Shredded Imo's provel cheese

8. Pinto beans

9. Ground flax seed, chia seeds, wheat germ, and hemp seeds

10. Diced cherry tomatoes

To-Do This Week

1. Finish W's sight word cards

2. Figure out and schedule our upcoming Arkansas trip

3. Make board for a friend

4. Take a painting to ArtMart to be mounted in shadowbox

5. Check to see if we were ever credited for some returned boots

6. Do a list for Golden Globes show

7. Buy a swiffer, because mine has just vanished

8. Exchange a tank from the Gap. The color of my current one is the exact color of my skin, and it's very disconcerting.

9. Make cinnamon chip french toast

Movies We Own

1. Bottle Rocket

2. Rushmore

3. Snatch

4. Napoleon Dynamite

5. The Big Lebowski

6. Anchorman

7. Old School

8. Meet the Parents

9. Black Sheep

10. Office Space

11. Zoolander

12. Once

13. About A Boy

14. Little Miss Sunshine

15. Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels

16. Good Will Hunting

17. Training Day

18. Man on Fire

19. The Last Samurai

20. X-Men

21. Matrix (all 3 of them)

22. Fight Club

23. Spiderman

24. The Italian Job

25. The Bourne Identity

26. In America

27. Radio

28. Remember the Titans

29. Rudy

30. Rounders

31. Gangs of New York

32. Les Miserables

33. The Manchurian Candidate

34. Shanghai Knights

35. O Brother, Where Art Thou

36. The Emperor's Club

37. Runaway Jury

38. L.A. Confidential

39. The Pianist

40. Batman Returns

41. The Dark Knight

42. When Harry Met Sally

43. America's Sweethearts

44. Mona Lisa Smile

45. How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days

46. I Am Sam

47. Love Actually

48. Grosse Point Blank

49. Hands on a Hard Body

50. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

51. Twilight

52. Romeo + Juliet

53. About Schmidt

54. The Terminal

55. You Can Count on Me

56. Say Anything

57. The Man in the Moon

58. Moulin Rouge

59. Chicago

60. White Oleander

61. The Bourne Ultimatum

62. The Bourne Supremacy

63. Chappelle's Show season 1

64. Arrested Development all seasons

65. Friends all seasons

66. Dawson's Creek all seasons

67. Charlotte's Web

68. Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas

69. Christmas Set (Frosty, Rudolph, Santa Claus is Comin to Town)

70. National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

71. Alvin and the Chipmunk's A Chipmunk Christmas

72. Elf

73. Band of Brothers

74. David Gray Live From the Artist's De

75. Seinfeld season 4

76. The Kids in the Hall

77. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy

78. Alice in Wonderland

79. The Three Musketeers

80. He-Man all seasons

81. Spirit, Stallion of the Cimarron

82. Follow That Bird

83. Ice Age Dawn of the Dinosaurs

84. The Aristocats

85. Peter Pan

86. An American Tail

87. Home on the Range

88. Beauty and the Beast

89. The Little Mermaid

90. The Lion King 1 1/2

91. Angelina Ballerina Rose Fairy Princess

92. Piglet's Big Movie

93. Lady and the Tramp II Scamp's Adventure

Clothes I Want

1. Denim shirt

2. I want this to be my summer suit

3. Light pink jeans

4. Black cropped skinny jeans

5. Dark brown leggings

6. A perfect A-line skirt to replace the one the dry cleaners "lost," i.e. stole

7. And leave it to me to fall in love with these

8. Boy-shirt style plaid top

9. A perfect, lightweight black long sleeve top- my current one is falling apart from overuse

10. A green fitted button-up cardigan

11. I am always in the market for a lovely dress

12. These pants. If you order a size up from what you'd normally wear, they are the perfect boyfriend fit ankle pants.

January Fun Stuff

1. Going on a church women's retreat this weekend- so excited

2. Civil Wars concert

3. Out with girlfriends a couple times

4. Bowling with W's school

5. W Star Day- also pajama day

6. Chocolate tasting at Kakao in Maplewood with art fair team

7. Trip to Arkansas to meet my new nephew

My Cooking Goals This Week

1. Because I almost caved and bought the always-desirable-to-me brown toaster strudels, I made these this morning and thought they were dangerously delicious

2. Our friend Stephen's coming to dinner tonight...I like to try out new things when he's here, so these will be on the side of whatever my husband grills

3. While the men eat grilled meat, the kids and I are going to try these cakes out

4. I think these cuties will be a hit with my whole family, so I'm making them as a special breakfast before I go out of town Friday

5. I am going to make some pureed fruit "ice cubes" for the kids on Thursday because W saw them while I was internet surfing the other day and thought they were magical

6. I need to finish eating the unreasonable amount of pinto beans I made on Monday

Every Hour

1. 8:00- driving W to preschool, per W's request- listening to Gillian Welch

2. 9:00- was next door- I couldn't get one of my new boots off, my neighbor's mom had to help

3. 10:00- baking brownies for a friend

4. 11:00- making R, Teddy, and me lunch (roasted sweet potatoes, eggplant, and mushrooms, pinto beans, and cheese toast) and singing to David Gray

5. Noon- driving to pick up W from school

6. 1:00- online browsing

7. 2:00- going through stored artwork and seeing if I want to switch anything out

8. 3:00- helping the kids draw birds and elephants

9. 4:00- wrapping a birthday gift for W's sweet friend- this necklace (she loves hippos)- for a party this weekend and planning her outfit, a sticky sweet Hannah Anderson tutu and bow top

10. 5:00- looking around the kitchen, deciding what to cook for dinner

11. 6:00- serving dinner

12. 7:00- doing dishes

13. 8:00- piddling around in the bathroom

14. 9:00- watching an episode of Ken Burns: The West

15. 10:00- watching a Friends rerun- one of my favorites..."I'm Joey, I'm disgusting. I take my underwear off in other people's homes."

What's In Our Art Center Right Now

1. Paper- construction, little sheets, envelopes, big manilla sheets

2. Magazines

3. Glue sticks

4. Scissors

5. Markers and dot markers

6. Crayons

7. Old photo cards

8. Stickers

9. Stamps

10. Feathers and pom poms

11. Popsicle sticks

12. Pipe cleaners

13. Greeting cards

What I Want To...

1. Go See- Melancholia and My Week With Marilyn. Both playing at the Tivoli, so I might pull a double-feature.

2. Go See- The Artist at Plaza Frontenac

3. Read- The Great Gatsby and Brave New World

4. Eat- Black Bean Enchiladas. My Mexican meter is dangerously low, as I haven't been to Mexican Villa in over a year. Feed me burritos, feed me burritos...

5. Do- take the kids to the science center

6. Eat- a broiled grapefruit. I saw it on Pinterest, and it's all I can think about.

7. Make- I need to get started on a piece I am making for our friend's dental office

8. Take the Kids to- the Penguin Parade at the zoo

9. Watch- House of Lies

10. Make- a little terranium

11. Plan- a mom's night out for W's preschool class moms

12. Buy- this dress

13. Buy- a medium-wash denim shirt that I have in my head but haven't found yet

New Births At The St. Louis Zoo

1. An East African black rhino male named Ruka, the firstborn of parents Kati Rain and Ajabu. At four days old, he weighs the same amount as I do.

2. A female Asian elephant named Kenzi, born to Rani and Raja. The STL Zoo has three generations of this elephant family living there with the grandmother being the 40 year old named Pearl, who is Raja's mama.

3. Imani, an African lion cub whose name means "faith" in Swahili. Her sister was stillborn, and so Imani had to be bottle-fed at the vet hospital because she was becoming dehydrated (just one cub doesn't provide enough lactation stimulation for the mama).

Today

1. Took W to school and stayed with her for Friday morning chapel

2. Came home with R and busied myself around the house

3. Went to my husband's office to take my new cactus to live there for a while. He has tons of direct sunlight to get the little gal going. Our loft does not.

4. Watched Ken Burns Civil War while the kiddies slept

5. Took the kids to Lafayette Park and met some friends from school there to play for 2 hours

6. Home for dinner- avocado and caramelized onion veggie burger and tater tots

7. Cotton Bowl! Razorbacks win!

8. Off to sleep- the game ended at 11:15, and I don't know how I managed to stay up that late. The last quarter was spent on the floor under a blanket.

Dislikes Of The Week

1. Beer can chicken- nothing's as sadly disgusting as seeing them innocently perched on a beer can, looking like a fat little baby on the grill. Top Chef this week scarred me deeply.

2. Having pimple on your forehead that causes your two-year-old son to ask, "You have ladybug on your head?"

3. W being overly-dramatic and her new phrase being, "You're breaking my whole life!" which I assume is a variation of you're breaking my heart. Common phrases just aren't enough for my girl.

4. Losing one tiny itty bity little toy- I just can't let it go. I spent 4 hours trying to find the one-inch tall Chip (of Chip and Dale fame). Success came when I took the cover off of R's carseat and found it deep in the base.

5. Dairy yogurt. It has gone the way of milk, and I find it completely disgusting.

6. Getting a ticket for rolling a stop sign in the residential neighborhood behind W's school

7. Two sad and dead, naked Christmas trees still in my loft

8. Not being able to see my grandparents more

9. Not being able to go to Schnucks and have my children not scream and whine for a free cookie. A perfect example of doing something once and having to do it forever. Should have never went down the free cookie road.

10. Where, oh where, are Mad Men and 30 Rock?

11. TV shows thinking they're in college and taking these long winter breaks

12. No curly-haired Disney princesses- my daughter longs for Sleeping Beauty's long, straight, blond hair and doesn't appreciate how beautiful her hair is.

13. What a picky eater my daughter is

14. Homeless Christmas toys have taken over my loft.

15. W's teacher aide resigned to take on full-time cookie sales. I am so devastated, as I thought she was nothing short of the cat's pajamas.

R's Day So Far

1. Breakfast- he had pumpkin chocolate chip mini muffins and a mixed berry and banana smoothie

2. He built a train track and played with his trains for a while

3. He and I worked with the bristle blocks and built a city and a couple abstract Buzz Lightyears

4. R watched today's episode of Sesame Street on my bed and snuggled with Puddy, our dog

5. He got out his horses and barn and played with those for a while

6. While I worked on cleaning out W's closet, he did a little art project with monkey and frog stickers and markers and crayons

7. Lunch- he ate quinoa and hemp seeds with olive oil, blueberries, Annie's cheddar snack mix, and a glass of water

8. Dance party with Momma- we slow danced to John Mayer's Free Fallin' and Garth Brooks' Night Rider's Lament and then busted out our best dance moves to Amy Winehouse's Rehab and ABC by the Jackson 5

9. He beat me playing our new Memory game- Princess Matching Game. I was not letting him win. W also beat me last night. They have really good memories, apparently.

10. Rode with me and Puddy to pick up his sister from preschool

11. A turn swinging

12. Naptime

What I'm Loving Lately

1. Ready-to eat beets from Trader Joes

2. Pearl Jam Vitalogy- it's like an old, cozy friend

3. My new boots

4. W's new haircut

5. M&Ms- my whole family has given in to the addiction

6. A new year, new beginnings

7. PBS Masterpiece Classics

8. Mushrooms

9. Empire of the Summer Moon- the best book I've read in a long time

10. My new book gifted to me from my sister-in-law and brother-in-law, Domino The Book of Decorating

11. Annie's Organic Cheddar Snack Mix

12. Hot teas

13. Our indoor swing

14. Friends reruns

Randoms

1. Cashews are my least favorite of the nuts.

2. I did used to love cashew chicken (Springfield, MO cashew chicken which is different and more delicious than other cashew chicken) when I was little.

3. I am really excited about Project Runway All-Stars starting this Thursday night.

4. Chai tea is keeping me warm this winter.

5. I am utterly disgusted with how awful the JCrew store is at the Galleria. Totally unacceptable. It's worse than the JCrew outlet in Alabama. I will only go to the one at Plaza Frontenac from this day forth.

6. My husband has a to-do list for today that contains 15 items.

7. My team came in a surprising last place in our STL scavenger hunt.

8. Today's lunch with friends was Imos pizza and Dewey's salad for the adults and pizza and their choice of strawberries, blueberries, carrots, peas, and sweet potatoes for the kids.

9. If we ever get a new pet, I want to name it Ron Weasley.

10. I wish the Harry Potter series had gone on, maybe focusing less on Harry's magical woes, and more on Hermoine and Ron...maybe "Ron and Hermoine Get a Flat."

11. My husband has to take my starter cactus to work with him because our loft does not get enough direct sunlight.

12. W is excited to cut up our Christmas cards to make a "friend collage."

13. R wants to wear his new Buzz and Woody shirt every single day.

14. Hoping we have a huge Cotton Bowl victory this weekend- Let's Go HOGS!

My Sad, But Glorious New Years Day

1. Had a late night celebrating with friends after a NYE scavenger hunt

2. Slept until 11:00 because the kids are at their grandparent's house

3. Got up and cleaned out my junk drawer

4. Made myself some chickpea salad and ate it with Terra Chips

5. Back to bed to watch Pearl Jam Twenty and the second half of Legally Blonde

6. To the Galleria to return some items at JCrew

7. To Dewey's to pick up a salad to bring to

8. Dinner at my in-laws

9. Home to clean the house to make up for my day of lazy (well, that was planned, but I think I'm going to go back to bed)

Today's Food

1. Breakfast- Cinnamon toast and chai tea

2. Lunch- Whole wheat orzo with broccoli, spinach, and green peas

3. Dinner- Black bean burger and mashed potatoes from Llywelyns