The Breakfast Collection - Canvases

Ari has recently decided that he is an artist. And when he is is involved in the creative process he cannot be disturbed.




When Uncle Mike and him spent some time together, Ari channeled his creative energy and created "The Breakfast Collection."

Here is it:




If you are interested in purchasing "The Breakfast Collection" it is sold only as a set. You'll have to negotiate a price with the artist who can be contacted at: oldschoolnewschoolmom@oldschoolnewschoolmom.com

Additionally, the artist is willing to be hired for special events, especially weddings and baby showers.

Ari Feeds Kitty

I busted Ari feeding his spaghetti dinner to the cats...again.

Unfortunately the lighting in my kitchen sucks so this video turned out really dark. I had two choices (as I saw it) one, post it as an incredibly dark video or two experiment with color contrast and post something stylized. I chose option two.

Fresh Direct Comes Through

After much ado about a coupon (See previous post here, here and here) Fresh Direct sent me the coupon I was originally entitled to:

YAY!

And now for the shopping!

I Don't Know How to Clean, But Chris Cervelli Does!

I was on the phone with Donna this morning, complaining about the snow, being sick, and having no energy to clean my house. She suggested, wisely, that I should make a list of things I needed to do today, things that I haven't gotten to yet and wanted to accomplish.

I started the list. One of things I wanted to do was conquer all the dishes in my sink**.
**I know this picture is going to upset Cordy and Chaim who once cleaned the pants off my kitchen. Sorry guys.

This task seemed overwhelming to me in my feverish state. So we agreed that I would, instead, wash three major dishes, meaning three large dishes such as pots or pans. Donna's boyfriend, Chris, overheard our conversation and started vetoing this idea in the background. There's something you should know about Chris, he is an excellent cleaner.

Whenever I visit Donna and Chris' apartment I am constantly impressed by their spotless floors, which Chris is in charge of cleaning. I was so intrigued by Mr. Cervelli's vocal dissonance in the background that I asked to speak with him directly.

"If you want to do the dishes," Chris (the cleaning voice of reason) began "Don't do three of them, do all of them."

"Chris," I began "I feel really sick. But seeing the dishes in the sink really bothers me!"

"If you don't feel well, you shouldn't be doing the dishes, you should be doing something more useful, like resting. When you feel better, then conquer the dishes."
"Okay..." I said still feeling bad about the dishes.

Somehow, we started on the topic of cleaning. I was raised in a household where my mom ended up cleaning my room for me because she could never manage to get me to do it myself. I admit it, I was spoiled. Anyway, the point is I never learned how to clean. At 30 years old, I think it's about damn time that I took the cleaning leap. Here is what Chris Cervelli, master cleaner, taught me about cleaning:

• In order to properly clean, you need to have as little in your apartment as possible. That means throw away, or donate to charity, items and/or furniture you don't use
  
• Purchase a good broom- a good broom doesn't need to be expensive. It means that it has hard bristles and is durable
  
• Purchase a mini broom and dustpan set like this:

This will be excellent for spot cleaning-- meaning if you see some Cherrios on the floor and you quickly want to trap them. Having the dwarf sized broom will prolong the life of the big broom.

• If you have cats (which I do) have a separate broom for cat litter then you have for regular daily sweeping
  
• This is a big one: NO SHOES IN THE HOUSE! Shoes track dirt and nastiness onto your floors. You can make occasional exceptions to this rule if you have a party and you don't want to demand that all of your guests remove their shoes.
  

Thank you Chris Cervelli, master cleaner for your tips! I am now inspired to clean my house!

Daddy Catches Ari Watching Snow

This morning Wil let me sleep in, which (as I mentioned before) is an urban legend as far as my life is concerned. When I woke from my slumber, I found this video on the desktop of Wil's computer. Apparently, he caught Ari watching the snow!

Weaving

Back in the old days when Old Navy didn't exist, people actually made their own clothes, they wove them. Today I was subbing for a 5th grade class and this afternoon they had a weaving workshop.

All the kids in the class and me (the teacher for the day) got to weave!

Cynthia, who recently opened her own weaving studio, was really nice and patient with the kids. Then I found out she was Filipino and I loved her even more.

She looked at pictures of Ari (my son) who is 1/4 Filipino and she oooohed and aaahed. We shared a moment.

I plan to visit Cynthia's weaving studio at some point. Maybe I can even take Ari with me when I go!

Weaving was a lot of fun. Take a look at what we created:

The Couple's Journal

This morning, I feel okay about Wil's night shift. The reason I feel alright about it is because of something called "The Couple's Journal." I recently wrote a post complaining about my boyfriend (Wilhem's) night shift. Click here to read it.

Essentially the gist of the post, if you are too lazy to read it, is that Wil works from 8pm to 5am in the morning. I never see him at night, and he sleeps during the day. It's a really lonely and frustrating situation. In the post, I asked if anyone had been through a similar experience:

My brilliant friend, Amanda, who writes Stumptowncrunch, posted a comment that said the following:

YES! The first year of our marriage Yasir worked from midnight-8am, slept for 3 hours, worked his second job from noon to 8pm, slept for 3 hours, and started all over again. We'd keep a "couple's journal" that we wrote in since we'd often go a week or more without seeing each other's faces (I worked and took night classes 5 days a week) so it was hard!!!

I found an old journal in my bookcase and I placed it in the most obvious place I could think of that Wil and I both frequent: the bathroom:


I have to admit, when Amanda suggested the Couple's Journal as a solution, my immediate thought was:

I know I'll write in it. But Wil probably won't.

So I took a shot at it. Last night I wrote Wil a note in the journal about how difficult Ari was being, and how he kicked me in the face and all he wanted to do was watch TV. I wrote about how tired I was and how I missed him.

The next morning (today) I awoke and asked sleepy Wil if he wrote in the journal. He mumbled "Yes." So I went into the bathroom to check it out.

Low and behold he did write in it! And it was a long letter about how work was boring and how he hated his shift. He even drew a picture of all three of us:

So far I like the Couple's Journal. Thanks Amanda!