Pennie-Proofing

Well, today definitely started out with a case of the Monday’s. We were running late, we had a lot to do this morning that we should have done yesterday, and Addie was a little grump-meister. But once I got her into her classroom, she was fine, and started playing before I was even out the door.

Emmie and Pennie were super sweet watching Barbie together this morning while Daddy was getting ready for the day.

Today was the first day of Mega Sports Camp at Generations Church. It’s basically our version of VBS, but it’s sports-centered as well, and each kids gets to choose their sports focus area, plus we have a cooking & crafts area, if you’re just really not into sports. Emmie was very excited to head to church, and stay all day for the special invite-only after camp care for GC families. And you know she picked out her own outfit today.

Emmie is doing cheerleading, for the third year in a row, even though she briefly considered doing cooking instead. But two of the triplets are also doing cheer, so they’ll have a blast together.

My church friend sent me this picture of Emmie from camp today, but I forgot to ask Emmie what they were doing and why her hands were purple!?

Remember yesterday I went and took maternity pictures for Megan & Bo with the triplets? Today, Meg shared all of the best maternity photos on her Facebook & Instagram, and then I shared her post as well. But I want to add some of my very favorites here on the blog too, for posterity’s sake.

Pennie spent the day in her new giant crate in our living room (which we will move to the front bedroom tomorrow), and did really well! Jeff texted me at one point saying he had checked on her on the camera, and she was fine, and I was like, “Yeah I know, I actually just peeked in on her too.” 🤣 (Also, I decided today we were actually going to spell her name “Pennie” with the “ie,” the same way we spell Emmie and Addie, and also Halie. It just seemed too cutesy to not do it.)

And speaking of Pennie, I made this cute little TikTok video this morning of our adoption “journey,” over the first and second visits to the shelter, and brining her home.

 

 

We had kind of a weird night after getting out of work late, lots of rainy traffic, getting the girls from opposite sides of town, and trying to take Pennie outside to potty in the rain after her first day in the crate all day at our house. So with all that, I just put together an easy dinner without having to cook. Addie had her own plate of sliced turkey & cheese, with some chips, Emmie had a little bowl of microwave mac & cheese, and Jeff and I had this simple “charcuterie” plate.

I also didn’t want to spend much time cooking or washing up dishes afterwards, because I had a different project I needed to work on. For years, we’ve kept baskets on the floor behind the couch, one for snacks and one for bread, because we don’t have a pantry in this house, and just needed extra space. Pretzel never dug through the baskets or stole food, but we were worried Pennie might. So I needed to clean out & reorganize our standing IKEA pantry, so that we could fit more inside of it. Here’s our starting point…

These next two pictures are the mid-point, when I had to take a break to get the girls ready for bed…

Then the girls and Pennie and I all snuggled on the couch for Bluey time, while Jeff was a on the phone/computer helping out a friend with some tech stuff.

The girls were both super tired, and both went to sleep very quickly and easily. Then after we got them both down, I recruited Jeff to help out with my Pennie-proofing of the pantry project, so that I could get some help, and so that he could reach the higher shelves I was too short to reach.

I cleaned out all the cookbooks on that middle shelf, saving the best and most sentimental ones, and donating others that I didn’t feel the need to keep. There were also other things that were expired that I got rid of, and a good bit of cans I moved to our other cabinet with the rest of the cans. So now we have a bread/popcorn shelf, and the snack basket is on the very bottom shelf inside the doors, right where it’s easiest for tiny girls to pull it out and grab a snack.

So this is the “after” of our project. Pretzel’s old crate is still back there in the corner, so we need to get ride of that eventually. (We had been saving it for a future dog, but it was too small for Pennie, and her new crate is too big for this space.) We also currently have way too much cereal, after Jeff went a little crazy on the BOGO’s at Publix recently. So once we don’t have 6 family sized cereals anymore, that’ll help get things more organized too. (I also found I have wayyy more powdered sugar than I realized; so I need to bake something so I can use some of that up!)

Feeling good about this small project that I completed, and it’s making me want to find another random, long-neglected space to clean out, tidy up and reorganize….

Mama & Grandmommie did in fact help me with my puzzle yesterday, and we finally got all the edges done correctly, and then even started putting together some of the fruits. Gonna see if I can place a few more pieces tonight before bedtime.