7 Quick Takes (Vol. 12), Epic "Fail" Edition

1. What? People with blogs are supposed to update them? Huh? I have to occasionally write stuff? That people might want to read? Who knew?

2. So, I've been busy. Doing what, you ask? Well, let's start with swim lessons for little C. Actually, she's not so little-- she's growing like a weed these days. The first 3 (of 8) swim lessons were roughly akin to having someone pull out all of my hair, strand by strand, then hot-glue each one back on. I know... it was THAT fun. To illustrate what I'm talking about, there was actually one day where my dear, sweet daughter ran out of the ENTIRE pool facility, through two gates, and across a bridge that goes to the parking lot, pursued by her swim instructor. Lessons 4-7 actually made moms ask me what I did to my child to inspire such a positive turn-around (I left H with a sitter, took C to the pool for an hour, and made her do everything her class had been learning in the first 3 lessons. Oh, and I bribed her with M&M's). I've chosen to block lesson 8 out of my memory, because we has a slight (ha!) regression in the progress we'd been making.

3. I should know by now, but if I'm going to get big expectations about how wonderful an anniversary dinner will be with my hubby (Happy 5 years several weeks ago, M!), I should probably not: bring the kids, who will try to crawl under the table; plan to use a gift card loaded with tons of money that apparently expired TWO years ago (how did I miss that? Oh yeah... I had a newborn BABY and a toddler); make the plans to go out over the phone with my hubby as he's driving home in terrible traffic after he's had a rough day; do this on a Friday after a rough week when I'm exhausted and cranky myself. We're planning a romantic do-over at some point soon, without the kiddos.

4. These "Quick Takes" are anything BUT quick. FAIL on my part. :-)

5. Suddenly, I'm having diaper rash issues with our cloth diapers. Out of nowhere. H's diet? Too much acid from orange juice (not that he's drinking any more than he used to)? His bladder control is increasing, so when he does pee, it's in greater quantities and therefore more soaking occurs? Gotta get a handle on this, because the past 10+ months of using these having been successful, and I'd like to continue with them for the next few months before I start potty-training with him.

6. I've started making homemade salsa on a regular basis. I'll have to type up the recipe because it's soooooo easy and delicious. The other day I was cleaning the fridge and threw out a few containers of old homemade marinara sauce (I went through a phrase where I experimented daily with making marinara sauce differently each time to find a perfect one, since M and I have different opinions on what a good marinara sauce tastes like). I dumped a HUGE container down the drain and then realized... what I was smelling wasn't basil and oregano, but cilantro. Yep, I tossed my best batch of salsa yet. Ugh. And since it's hubby's favorite snack when he gets home from work, and I have no cilantro or peppers in the fridge now, I can't make more until I hit the grocery store.

7. The biggest FAIL is that I've let these disappointments get me down-- I've focused on the things that have gone wrong lately and missed all of the amazing things going on. More about the good things next week! Back to playing with kids and cleaning for the weekend.