Scattered thoughts from a busy week

Are "quick takes" for Fridays?  If not, I'll still use the concept as an excuse for scattered thoughts...


1.  Our family tried St. Louis Catholic's recipe for French dip sandwiches (see the comments section of this post), and yes-- it's THE recipe!  Incredible flavor. My husband loved it; I loved it; and it was unbelievably simple to make in my slow cooker...  Thank you, Mrs. Timman!!  This meal is going on our regular schedule.

2.  Lately naps have scarcely overlapped at all, so I've had very little free time during the day-- although I'll admit that I've been carving out an early-morning coffee hour by letting the girls hang out in their cribs a bit longer before breakfast.  (So long as they're not crying...!?)

3.  With my toddler, I've fallen into an unfortunate habit of using videos as a distraction during diaper changes and her baby sister's pre-nap feeding/rocking session.  True, she watches (what I consider to be) good stuff: excerpts from The Nutcracker ballet, orchestras playing classical music, scenes from Disney's Cinderella, a half-hour alphabet video from Sesame Street...  But I can see that video is becoming an addiction for her, as she's constantly requesting it outside of the normal times.

4. With regard to the above, I'm beginning to create my own short videos of the toddler's books-- sort of a virtual storytime.  With the camera zoomed in close to the page, I read, point out fun bits of illustration ("Do you see the puppydog?" etc.)...  While of course this can't possibly replace actual storytime, I figure that this sort of video has to be a cut above Cinderella!  Especially if our toddler has the books, too, in her hands, so that she could potentially follow along... Again, not ideal-- but perhaps a slight improvement.

5. One final thought:  Our seven-month-old does better push-ups than I do.

Have a great weekend!