Here are a few of our “Small Successes” from this week:

I finally got around to making Jane and Walt’s tie blankets.  We had bought the fleece on sale before Christmas, and then the chaos of the season delayed the project until this week.  Jane has a Disney Princess blanket, and Walt’s is (what else?) Thomas.  The kids love that they got to pick out the materials and can sleep with them at night.

Pseudo-homeschooling is still going well.  I finished the “circle time” bulletin board calendar.  (More on that another time)  I love having the kids do “tray time.”  I set them up with a project while I’m busy doing something that needs to get done around here.  Here’s Walt coloring alphabet pages with dot markers.

You know he’s concentrating when he does that thing with his lips.  His dad does it, too!

Here’s Jane stringing cut up straws on a ribbon.  

Excuse the post-nap bed head for both of them.

Here’s Jane matching the lowercase letter to the uppercase letter with clothespins.

Tray time helps me to be successful at making our family dinner when Philip is working long hours.  What is it about 4-6 p.m. that makes the little guys so unruly?  

We had this fantastic stew for dinner last night.  

It’s called Slow Cooker Stout and Chicken Stew.  I’ve never cooked with a stout before.  It kind of made me want to revisit high school chemistry because it was fun watching the stout caramelize on the stovetop…then, I remembered how much I despised lab write-ups.  I get a ridiculous sense of accomplishment when dinner is ready to go before noon!  Gotta love crockpots!  I think I might need a bigger one for recipes like this, though… 

It was a liiiiiiiiiiiiiittle snug

Jane tried to evangelize the window guy.  She was carrying around a cross that I received for teaching religious education a few years ago.  The cross doesn’t have the Corpus (Jesus’ Body) on it.  For little Catholic Jane, this is a strange thing.  She said to the window guy, “LOOK!  Jesus is MISSING!  Do you think He escaped when the bad guys were sleeping?!”  (Jane refers to the Roman soldiers as “the bad guys.”)  The window guy loved it!

I decided to abandon housework yesterday afternoon while Jane and Walt napped.  It was Harry’s idea!  I was able to finish an entire book while snuggling him and sipping my coffee.  

Crème Brulée creamer?  Yes, please!  How do you like my iPad cover?  It was a Christmas gift from my boyfriend.

Jane and Walt got their haircuts the other night.  Mr. Walt has never liked getting his haircut.  He usually sits in Philip’s lap while Philip tries to restrain him and the stylist does her best to get the job done.  To our surprise, Walt decided he was ready to sit by himself and happily allowed the stylist to do her thing without making a fuss.  (Nevermind that Philip had an episode of Thomas on his phone playing the whole time…  Baby steps!)  

I *FINALLY* finished the magnetic schedule for the fridge.  I’ll write a more thorough post about it another time.  Walt helped me set it up while Jane was at preschool this morning.  

When Jane came home, she said, “Now, I know everything about my schedule!  This is AWESOME!”

Things got a little crowded on there, so I’m separating the day’s activities by the part of day (wake up-lunch, lunch-snack time after naps, snack time-bedtime).  The kids LOVE being able to follow along with our day.  I’m going to get some cute, colorful magnets that the kids can move themselves as we move from one activity to the next.  I love that I’ll be able to remove it easily when we start having showings next month. 

I had this brilliant idea this morning when I was working on the menu/grocery list, and I had to share it because it will be such a big help!  (At least I thought it was brilliant!)  We like to buy our chicken and beef in bulk.  It’s great for our wallet, but it stinks when I forget to pull it out of the deep freeze in time to thaw for dinner.  I *FINALLY* realized I could set a reminder for myself using my iPhone.  When I was done making the menu, I asked the male Siri guy (whatever his name is) to “remind me to thaw 2 pounds of chicken breasts on Tuesday at 8 a.m.” and “remind me to thaw 1 pound of ground beef on Thursday at 8 a.m.”  This is going to help so much!

I published my first post on my series about postpartum depression yesterday.  What a response!  I am so encouraged and uplifted by the outpouring of messages, e-mails, texts, and phone calls I have received.  Thank you for your kind words, prayers, and continued support!

Your turn!  What are your small successes from this week?  Come on over to CatholicMom to share and join in the fun.  If you’re using social media, use the hashtag #SmallSuccess.