Silent... Afternoon...

It's 4 p.m. on a bitterly cold Sunday. Gabe and Anna: Sleeping! Y-E-S! I worked in the morning, Now Manny is... For the 2 hours our jobs overlapped, my friend Beth came to stay with the kids until I got back. Thank goodness for her goodness.

This weekend, Manny is working at the CBS Evening News. Usually he does the CBS Early Show on Saturday's (because he is at The View during the week) and is home right after the news cast ends at 9 a.m. We've been spoiled because for a period of about 8 months, we managed to somehow reclaim our weekends! The evening news gig is for one or two weekends a month...

I've one-, two-, three-upped my wifey-ness, making sure he comes home, rests, and is able to just sit on the couch and hold Anna while I chase Gabe around and tackle everything else that needs done. (We even had a date-night on Friday to take a break.) 

I think the clue to needing to "gently enforce" hubby's healthy sleeping and eating came when I found him sleeping on the shower floor, hot water dousing him for 30 minutes and me wondering, "Is he still in the shower....?" There was my hard-working hubs, "Zzzzzz....." 

I've also been really successful in one of my three resolutions, and that is adhering to "a penny saved is a penny earned..." 

To name a few of my cost cutting ventures, one: I am no longer paying for my eyebrow-shaping once a month at the nearby spa... I actually started doing it myself, and after three or four times, I am getting the feel for the tweezers and doing all right... I mean, no one has mistaken me for a man or anything.

(My sister Katie and I consistently complain that we inherited our dad's hairy eye brows. Sorry pops, as a guy you can carry it. We'd never have seen a date without an eyebrow wax here or there.) 

A second cost-cutter has been going back to my natural brunette and not getting high lights every 3 months. I've actually made it 5 months since my last hair touch-up, and it's looking pretty good. (I still get the cat-calls on city streets, well, when I don't have Anna or Gabe with me. Which is basically never... So no... Nothing has changed.) 

A third, you ask? We used to be take-out crazy, and would always go out or order in since it is just so convenient (and sorta cheap) here! I've taken my favorite places off speed dial and have been cooking 7 nights a week. Read: Every night. (This is a major breakthrough for this former non-cook. I once had to call my mom and ask her if I baked the potato in the microwave with the aluminum foil on or off... Think about it.) But alas, so far, it's been great! I control what I ingredients I'm using, my portion-size, and my wallet size. It's been very fruitful for our bellies and the bank account.

A fourth, rather simple, way of cutting costs has been (UPDATE ALERT!) We haven't spent any money on MOUSE TRAPS since December! Can I get an AMEN! *knock on wood* We haven't heard a mouse or seen a poo-mound in months. Operation Mousecapade: SUCCESS!

Now if only I can get back on track to making it to one extra Mass a week besides Sunday, I can get back on track to other things too. Like losing those ten pounds I gained over ThanksChrisNewsYearsWeddingInaugamas. 

Seriously, can the celebrating (and cookies) be over for a while?