Potty Training

When is the right time to potty train? As with everything else, I figure I'll follow my gut and I'll just know when the time is right.

In preparation, I've made a game in the bathroom. Every time the toilet gets flushed, we wave bye bye. Monkey now does this unprompted and even says "buh" while waving (she does this with bath water, too..). Every night before her bath, I sit her on the toilet after taking her diaper off. I ask if she wants to make a pee-pee and flush even though she doesn't do anything. I really just want her to be used to it and not scared of the big toilet when the time does come.

T and I started fooling around a few months ago. I noticed Monkey had a stinky diaper so I turned to T with my finger on my nose and said "Not it!" We've been jokingly doing this to one another ever since.

I started to wonder if the time is getting close. Monkey has started to come to us when she has a dirty diaper - a few times with a clean diaper in tow.

Guess what our darling daughter started to do this week!?! After taking a particularly messy poop, she turned to me smiling with her finger on her nose! And this is her new way of asking to be changed. Every wet fart (she was still getting over that stomach bug and had quite a few) and every poop she's had since, she's turned to me with a big grin and her finger on her nose.

Local Good Eats

I need to be more on top of things with the bread in our house. Actually, no. I need T to tell me when he's almost out of bread. He's a toast eater. Daily for breakfast and many times before bed as a snack. When we first moved in together, I'd wake up to find crumbs had magically appeared overnight, as well (midnight snacks).

This morning, Monkey and I had only 1 slice of bread so I needed to think about what to make for breakfast. I'm not a big egg eater and I'd made some yesterday for the 2 of us, so there was no way I was having eggs again today. I think we only have 1 left in the fridge right now, anyways.

After scratching my head for a minute trying to figure out something both Monkey and I would enjoy, I had a Mommy Ah-HA moment. I pulled out the ploye mix and made up a batch.

I get asked "What is a ploye?" by my non-County friends. A ploye is a cross between a crepe and a pancake. You can top it any way you like. Growing up, my favorite way was to butter it and sprinkle (OK - at that age it was slather) it with brown sugar. This morning we put peanut butter and home made strawberry jam (the only jam you'll now find in this house - store bought makes us wrinkle our noses now because we've spoiled ourselves).

The ploye mix we buy is from Bouchard Family Farms, a farm in Fort Kent (support our local farmers!). Luckily for us, our grocery store in Bangor carries it so it's not one of those things we need to stock up on when we're visiting up north (coffee, anyone?). Their products are also available online.

So when you need a substitute for bread, or just want to try something new, try a ploye!

Outdoor fun

One of my favorite things to do is to decorate. Whether it be "permanent" or seasonal, I just love the planning and implementing. We put out our pumpkins, mums and cornstalks a few weeks ago, but now it's time to put out the spooky stuff!

Monkey and I spent a couple of hours playing outside today. Perfect fall weather is the best!

Because money is obviously an issue (the lack of unlimited funds can be such a downer - HA), I'm at the point in life where I create small vignettes. Over the years, I'll slowly build my supply of decorations so that I can go hog wild but for now, I think smaller.


My current favorite display area is our old wine barrel. We picked this barrel up our first year in the house to use as a rain collector to use to water our flowers. That same year, West Nile virus started to be an issue so when it got put away that fall, it stayed put away. I pulled it back out this summer, plugged up the hole we had made in the top (no standing water for those pesky mosquitoes here!), and I've used it to display flowers. I did have a pumpkin on top but it was all rotten and fallen in on itself when we got home this weekend. Our first pumpkin casualty.


My second favorite is the chair. I need to put a board in where the old seat is so that it's level, but it will do until I find the time to fix it. This chair is one of a pair I bought at a yard sale for $10 a few years ago. My plan had been to fix them up, paint them and put a new seat and use them in my kitchen (at the time, I had 70's rolling chairs at my kitchen table.. UGH). T had been threatening to burn them, so I put them in MY yard sale this summer. One sold and I was left with this. I then had the brilliant idea to put it into my flower beds. The moose antler is the last one T found while he was working summers for Irving Woodlands in college. It's been sitting next to our shed since we bought the house, so I decided to put it to use as well.

My front steps still need something. I haven't decided what will be going there, but this is what we have for now. I saw an article in Martha Stewart Living last fall about plastic skeletal pieces and covering them with glitter to make them eerie to display on glass platters and in glass cake stands. I'm not up to glitter projects with Monkey just yet, but I liked the concept. So I filled my big glass cookie jar with water, put in some food coloring and plopped in a plastic skull. I need to get more water into the skull so it sinks all the way to the bottom, but I doubt I'll find the time for that. ha ha

Also, if you notice to the right of the steps, I have an old metal milk jug. My father in law had a pair in his basement for years and he gave them to me a couple years ago. For some reason, I had it in my head to paint them white. So Trooper T sprayed them white for me. I realized quickly that white didn't work and found this great looking paint at Home Depot in Bangor when the old store was closing. Paint on clearance. Great! No. Not great. Rust-Oleum American Accents Stone paints are horrible. T complained about the coverage (if we had been smart we would have used black spray primer, but we had white on hand). And look how the paint has washed away on the top! We put them out just a couple of weeks ago. Hurricane Kyle came through and washed the new paint off! I liked the look, while it lasted. But I will not be using this paint again - ever. And at $10 a can, it should work!

Back to the spooky decor. Here is Monkey helping me bury fake skeletal bones. I found an idea in one of the many magazines I read on making fake headstones out of styrofoam coolers. I had already purchased these at the Dollar Tree, but next year, we'll make a couple more so we can make a larger "graveyard" out front.

My last little area is right in front of our side deck. I saw something similar in a magazine years ago and had ripped it out to file away in my ideas binder. It needs another punch of color but I don't currently have anything to put there. Maybe next year I'll remember to buy one extra mum. You can also see a small white spot on the front of this metal jug as well. It didn't get as horrible a beating as the one in the front of the house, though.

We're hoping for another wonderful day on Thursday so we can make a scarecrow or 2 (or a family of them, if I'm really ambitious). We also need to make and hang a few (or bunch) of ghosts from the trees out front.

This weekend, we attack the interior Halloween decorating. Should be fun. I have a project for making cheese cloth ghosts with a sugar and water "glue" that I plan to let Monkey get messy with.

*mental note - don't wash kitchen floor until the ghosts are made*

Long weekend

Monkey had a great day with her Memere & Pepere on Thursday. It gave me a few hours to hang out with my Mom alone. We had to run to Kmart for a few odds and ends. While in Madawaska, we went to a new (new to me, anyways!) store called Fashion Connection. We spent way too much time there and ended up not being able to go the antique store. But we both got a couple of great shirts (considering we were going in looking for a winter coat for Monkey - which we didn't find).

That night, for the second time in as many weeks, I started feeling ill. For the rest of our visit, Monkey and I were enjoying a wonderful little stomach bug. Fun times, I tell you. My poor Mom got sick after we left, too. I think we've finally kicked it.

Saturday, Mom and Monkey did the Alzheimer's walk. My Mom, Grandmother D and myself had a grand total of $700 in donations!! How awesome is that?

Luckily, Monkey did great and there were no diaper blowouts during the 4 mile event. It was a cold day, though. Grammy had a hard time keeping her bonnet on her head. My mother-in-law happened to be outside at the funeral home when they were on their way past and she said just in that small stretch of road, she saw my mom have to replace the hat twice. I couldn't help but laugh.

And you know, a funeral isn't horrible enough in itself. I was sick the entire day. T went out alone that night.

Speaking of funeral. The eulogist shared a poem I thought was beautiful and powerful so I'm going to end this morning by sharing it.

The Dash
copyright 1996 Linda Ellis
I read of a man who stood to speak
at the funeral of a friend.
He referred to the dates on her tombstone
from the beginning...to the end.

He noted that first came the date of her birth
and spoke of the following date with tears,
but he said what mattered most of all
was the dash between those years.

For that dash represents all the time
that she spent alive on earth...
and now only those who loved her
know what that little line is worth.

For it matters not, how much we own;
the cars....the house...the cash.
What matters is how we live and love
and how we spend our dash.

So think about this long and hard...
are there things you'd like to change?
For you never know how much time is left
that can still be rearranged.

If we could just slow down enough
to consider what's true and real,
and always try to understand
the way other people feel.

And be less quick to anger,
and show appreciation more
and love the people in our lives
like we've never loved before.

If we treat each other with respect,
and more often wear a smile...
remembering that this special dash
might only last a little while.

So, when your eulogy is being read
with your life's actions to rehash...
would you be proud of the things they
say about how you spend your dash?

In the North Country

Monkey and I arrived after a 4 hour drive with my father-in-law yesterday. He was kind enough to make the extra 30 minute drive to drop us off at my parents house because waiting for my mother would have kept us in town another 4 hours. Sleepy Monkey needed her crib at Gram's house. The little turkey only slept for about 15 minutes on the entire drive. And there was too much excitement at Gram's house to stop and take a nap after all.

My bro was home sick yesterday. So the 3 of us played on the swing set a bit. Bro has a new kitten. Unfortunately, I promised my husband I would never bring another cat into our home (he's not a cat lover) because Monkey LOVES the kitty. He seems to enjoy her as well, even with the tail pulling and the smoosh me hugs.

Monkey is going to see T's mom for a while later today. My mom and I are going to make a run to Madawaska to Kmart. And then we're going across to Canada to go to an antique store that opened up a few years back. She's only brought me there once, but I loved it. Since we're pushing off a weekend long antiquing trip on Route 1 for the 3rd year in a row, an hour in 1 store will have to suffice.

And lucky me - I'm going for a much needed hair cut today. I look like a shaggy dog right now.

Mom & I have been doing a ton of online window shopping the past couple of weeks. She wants a cheap kitchen re-do until she can afford her dream kitchen (she's saving but I think she wants a pool more right now.. ha ha). We've been having a lot of fun planning this new, temporary kitchen. And I think we've found a couple of great pieces that can carry her through the dream kitchen construction (even if it's only 10 years from now!).

I also found a great bed online this week. T and I agreed it was time to upgrade our old hand me down that was a freebie that is completely falling apart headboard. JCPenny.com. (Code "SURVEY" gets you an extra 15% off for right now - thanks C for that tidbit!) I ordered it this morning and already can't wait for it to come in! Along with the gallon of paint I purchased and our new bedspread, we might actually end up with a bedroom that doesn't look like college students live there. I'm hoping to do the painting this fall. Not to mention, I have a project I'd like to ask my dad to make for me for the room, also.

Monkey has just awaken from her nap, so it's time to get us showered and ready to go see her Memere.