Low Country Boil

And again, Emerson woke up at 6:30am. This Mommy could barely keep her eyes open, and may or may not have kept falling asleep while we were cuddled up on the couch watching Octonauts. We woke up Daddy around 8am, and had some cereal together.

We played at home for a while, and attempted to get Emerson to take a short nap with us in the bed. We laid there for about 40 minutes, but I’m pretty sure she only slept for about 5 minutes. We got up and bathed Emmie, and we both showered, and got ready to head out.

Megan & Bo invited the whole fam over for a low country boil for lunch, and we each brought some of the ingredients. We brought onions & a gallon of sweet tea, so our part was cheap & easy 😉

I honestly wasn’t sure if Emerson would eat any of the low country boil food, but they made her a bowl, and girlfriend chowed down on some shrimp!

And I can’t blame her, because it was absolutely delicious! We all gorged ourselves, and there was still a ton left. It was a great meal! And great family time!

Grammy got Emerson some new pull-up diapers, so we can work harder on her potty-training efforts. She put one on at Meg’s house, and then before we left, Grandmommie & Grammy got her to sit on the potty for a while. She sat for about 10 minutes, and eventually she peed on the potty! And she was so proud of herself! When we got home, she wanted to try again before nap time. She sat for a few minutes, and eventually she told me she went, but I don’t know if she actually did or not. She had wanted me to turn the water on while she sat, so I didn’t hear if she went or not. But she was proud of herself either way, so maybe we’re on the right track to get this girl out of diapers!

She went down for her nap super quick & easy, since it was much later than her usual nap time, and she hadn’t taken a cat nap this morning. Jeff ran to Publix really quick (Walmart didn’t have the pork loin I ordered yesterday) while I wrote the first half of this blog post. Then I tidied up the living room & dining room a bit, to get ready to have Jeff’s parents over for dinner, and he mowed the yard, front & back.

Emmie slept for a little over 1.5 hours, and was super excited to watch Daddy finish mowing the yard from the front windows.

I made a pork tenderloin in the Instant Pot. Jeff got a pre-seasoned, herb-flavored one, and I used the instructions from this blog. The plan had been to put it in the crock-pot this morning, but since we didn’t get it in time, the IP worked out great! I also made white rice, black-eyed peas and brussels sprouts. Plus rolls. The traditional Southern New Year’s Day meal is ham or pork, with “hoppin’ John” & greens. We don’t like greens though, and plain white rice & black-eyed peas is my simple version of hoppin’ John. So this is just my version of things to bring us health & wealth & good luck & all that jazz.

Nana also brought over a tub of delicious no-bake cookies that we had for dessert.

Nana was then very sweet and washed up alllll of the dishes for me (just left the IP to soak), and cleaned up my kitchen counter tops! They stayed and chatted for a little while longer, and then headed home. Emmie was ready to put on her nightgown, and also requested her matching robe as well. She is such a cheese-er!

We watched a few night-night videos in the living room, then headed to her bedroom to do our usual bedtime routine. We’ve started reading a couple of stories from her children’s Bible storybook each night, and she’s just soaking them up so sweetly. She needed one extra lullaby tonight, and one extra “Jesus Loves Me,” and then she did her tiny little pitiful “bye-bye Mommy,” as I was walking out of her room. And then she sung herself to sleep for about 10 minutes. She is too much!

And now with no dishes to wash, and the house still clean & tidy, it’s time to snuggle up with my hot peach-ginger tea, under my incredibly soft blanket, and finish watching “The Sound of Music,” which we started last night and is one of my all-time favorite, favorite movies.