I've been up since 4:15 this morning thanks to, in order: The Hubby, The Little Miss, The Cat Formerly Known As Fluffernutter, and The @$#! Birds Outside. I have a date with the Starbucks drive-thru just as soon as I can get myself moving.
In honor of the bright and early start to my day, I thought I would share a little glimpse into my first few minutes of consciousness on this fine Friday morning in August.
A few months ago, I taught The Little Miss to knock on Daddy's office door before just barging in. Now, whenever she wants to go through a closed door, she knocks first. This is true even if she is opening her own door. So at 4:30 this morning, as I'm trying to drift back to sleep after being awakened by The Hubby's trip to the bathroom, I am jolted back to full consciousness by BANG! BANG! BANG! Then the sound of her door opening, little feet shuffling to my bedroom door, and a tiny whispering voice announcing that she needs to hit the bathroom pronto. Off we go.
And though it was way too early in the morning, I still find it hilarious that she always knocks on her door even when she is leaving her own room.
Friday, August 19, 2011
Thursday, August 18, 2011
T.G.I.T.
Today was Sitter Thursday. I have a college student come over to play with The Girl on Thursday mornings while I do things around the house or run errands. I felt a little guilty about it at first because it seemed a bit luxurious to have a mother's helper when I'm a stay-at-home mom, but I'm so glad I moved past that because it has been awesome. The sitter is terrific with her and it has been nice for me to get some time to do rather mundane things alone.
Today's little slice of heaven was as follows:
- Swing by Goodwill and drop off several bags of clothes and old toys. I finally got rid of the infant toys that have been sitting in our garage for close to a year! On this point alone, I would call today a roaring success. But wait, it gets better.
- A quick trip to Michael's to get some random craft supplies. Rain is in the forecast and I'm starting to run out of ideas. I am ready for a few days of crappy weather now!
- Walked next door to Office Max and stocked up on school and office supplies at their killer sale. Notebooks for a penny? Check! Two boxes of crayons for $.20 a piece? Check! Glue for $.50? Yep! The Little Girl lurves her some glue! Storage containers at buy 2 get 1 free to hold all of the crap I keep buying at Michael's? Hello Dolly! I practically floated out of the store.
- Bed, Bath & Beyond was a bust. I'm hunting for a step stool that is tall enough for The Little Miss to turn on the bathroom sink faucet without having to hoist herself up onto the counter. The stool we have is not tall enough and the one at BB&B was even shorter. The search continues.
- Made a deposit at the bank. Who doesn't love that?
-Stopped at the flooring store to look at the showroom. We'd like to replace the hideous flooring in our sunroom and entry way. I had a lovely chat with the owner and left with 4 floor samples to check out at home. Which in retrospect was a little stupid because I really need my mom's advice and she is away for the next few weeks. Mom, if you're reading this, I'll need to do this exercise all over again when you get home.
-And, finally, bliss.
I also had to buy the awesome sitter a Starbucks card because *sob* this was the last Sitter Thursday. We're going away next week and then she goes back to school. But it was awesome while it lasted.
Today's little slice of heaven was as follows:
- Swing by Goodwill and drop off several bags of clothes and old toys. I finally got rid of the infant toys that have been sitting in our garage for close to a year! On this point alone, I would call today a roaring success. But wait, it gets better.
- A quick trip to Michael's to get some random craft supplies. Rain is in the forecast and I'm starting to run out of ideas. I am ready for a few days of crappy weather now!
- Walked next door to Office Max and stocked up on school and office supplies at their killer sale. Notebooks for a penny? Check! Two boxes of crayons for $.20 a piece? Check! Glue for $.50? Yep! The Little Girl lurves her some glue! Storage containers at buy 2 get 1 free to hold all of the crap I keep buying at Michael's? Hello Dolly! I practically floated out of the store.
- Bed, Bath & Beyond was a bust. I'm hunting for a step stool that is tall enough for The Little Miss to turn on the bathroom sink faucet without having to hoist herself up onto the counter. The stool we have is not tall enough and the one at BB&B was even shorter. The search continues.
- Made a deposit at the bank. Who doesn't love that?
-Stopped at the flooring store to look at the showroom. We'd like to replace the hideous flooring in our sunroom and entry way. I had a lovely chat with the owner and left with 4 floor samples to check out at home. Which in retrospect was a little stupid because I really need my mom's advice and she is away for the next few weeks. Mom, if you're reading this, I'll need to do this exercise all over again when you get home.
-And, finally, bliss.
I cannot resist your siren song, vanilla soy latte.
I also had to buy the awesome sitter a Starbucks card because *sob* this was the last Sitter Thursday. We're going away next week and then she goes back to school. But it was awesome while it lasted.
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Call of the Wild
My cat Muffin had a big day yesterday. Let me stop for a moment and backtrack. Muffin is everything her name suggests: fluffy in both body and mind. For example, she still hasn't fully mastered the concept of up, as in: look up and make sure Freya isn't on the table waiting to jump down in front of you so she can start a good game of chase. Freya is our other cat. She would rule the world if only she had opposable thumbs. Alas, she is stuck in our house ruling over our family and "playing" with a companion cat who is an idiot intellectually challenged.
There's not a lot we can do about Muffin's fluffy little brain. The body, however, is a different story. Two of Muffin's more charming qualities are her ability to cough up hairballs the size of small infant and the nauseating aroma that regularly wafts from her nether regions.
The hairballs are a lot of fun (I say, because my husband is in charge of clean-up). In a perfect world, Muffin likes to cough them up at 3:00am, taking care to be as loud as possible so she can wake us up. There's also the matter of location, location, location (we all know how important that is). It is critically important that the product of her dead-of-night hacking be strategically placed along the path from the bed to the bathroom, so that a sleepy person getting up with a bright-eyed little girl at 6:02am will step inadvertently step in it. Muffin is shockingly good at picking the precise location. Fortunately for me, that location is almost always located on the hubby's side of the bed.
With the aroma, however, we all suffer. Particularly when it's humid, as it has been lately, the stench can be rather unpleasant. I'm not even going to get into the random things that get stuck because 1) you don't want to know and 2) this is a family blog. Let's just say that when I thought about how cool it would be to have a long-haired cat, these were not the things that crossed my mind.
So yesterday, she took a little trip to the vet to be groomed. Some people may take their cats to groomers, but Muffin has to go to the vet because she needs to be sedated. Have I mentioned that the little fluffball is also the most neurotic cat I have ever known? Yeah, so.
Step one is, of course, getting her into the cat carrier. This is no easy task and stealth is critically important. It is game over if the cat sees the carrier. Luckily, this is Muffin we're talking about. Since she isn't the most observant cat, this was fairly easy. Getting her in, though. Not so much. This is also my husband's job and he did it beautifully.
So off we go to the vet's. I have to admit, I was a little apprehensive but also a little excited. Although I've had her trimmed before, this was the first time that I was going all out. Yep, that's right.
Muffin was getting The Lion Cut.
I dropped her off in the morning and expected to pick her up late afternoon. They called me when she was ready to be picked up and as soon as the Little Miss was up from her nap, we were out the door. I got there and they brought Muffin out to me in her carrier, ready to go home. I really wanted to see what she looked like, but it was hard to tell through the carrier. However, I could tell that she took the whole lion thing to heart because she was hissing, growling, and spitting the entire time. When she lunged at the office cat (thankfully she was still safely contained in her carrier), I decided it was probably time to put her in the car and hope that she chilled on the way home.
The vet assistant told me to let her hang out in a quiet room for a little while so she could decompress. So once home, we brought her up to my bedroom and (guess who?) let her out of her carrier. She jumped out and, rather than acting like a wild animal, she rubbed all of us and was purring.
Of course, by this time I was laughing. You'll see why in just a second. First, so you have a basis of comparison, here is Muffin's "before" shot.
And, drum roll please...ta da!
She's like a third the size of the cat we sent in. I can't say that she loves her new cut, but she is holding her own.
There's not a lot we can do about Muffin's fluffy little brain. The body, however, is a different story. Two of Muffin's more charming qualities are her ability to cough up hairballs the size of small infant and the nauseating aroma that regularly wafts from her nether regions.
The hairballs are a lot of fun (I say, because my husband is in charge of clean-up). In a perfect world, Muffin likes to cough them up at 3:00am, taking care to be as loud as possible so she can wake us up. There's also the matter of location, location, location (we all know how important that is). It is critically important that the product of her dead-of-night hacking be strategically placed along the path from the bed to the bathroom, so that a sleepy person getting up with a bright-eyed little girl at 6:02am will step inadvertently step in it. Muffin is shockingly good at picking the precise location. Fortunately for me, that location is almost always located on the hubby's side of the bed.
With the aroma, however, we all suffer. Particularly when it's humid, as it has been lately, the stench can be rather unpleasant. I'm not even going to get into the random things that get stuck because 1) you don't want to know and 2) this is a family blog. Let's just say that when I thought about how cool it would be to have a long-haired cat, these were not the things that crossed my mind.
So yesterday, she took a little trip to the vet to be groomed. Some people may take their cats to groomers, but Muffin has to go to the vet because she needs to be sedated. Have I mentioned that the little fluffball is also the most neurotic cat I have ever known? Yeah, so.
Step one is, of course, getting her into the cat carrier. This is no easy task and stealth is critically important. It is game over if the cat sees the carrier. Luckily, this is Muffin we're talking about. Since she isn't the most observant cat, this was fairly easy. Getting her in, though. Not so much. This is also my husband's job and he did it beautifully.
This is going to hurt me more than it hurts you. No really, it is.
P.S. - Do you just love Freya checking it out from behind the doorway across the hall?
So off we go to the vet's. I have to admit, I was a little apprehensive but also a little excited. Although I've had her trimmed before, this was the first time that I was going all out. Yep, that's right.
Muffin was getting The Lion Cut.
I dropped her off in the morning and expected to pick her up late afternoon. They called me when she was ready to be picked up and as soon as the Little Miss was up from her nap, we were out the door. I got there and they brought Muffin out to me in her carrier, ready to go home. I really wanted to see what she looked like, but it was hard to tell through the carrier. However, I could tell that she took the whole lion thing to heart because she was hissing, growling, and spitting the entire time. When she lunged at the office cat (thankfully she was still safely contained in her carrier), I decided it was probably time to put her in the car and hope that she chilled on the way home.
The vet assistant told me to let her hang out in a quiet room for a little while so she could decompress. So once home, we brought her up to my bedroom and (guess who?) let her out of her carrier. She jumped out and, rather than acting like a wild animal, she rubbed all of us and was purring.
Of course, by this time I was laughing. You'll see why in just a second. First, so you have a basis of comparison, here is Muffin's "before" shot.
I am a hairball-making machine.
Why, yes, I am that beautiful. Now stop taking my picture. What's going on?
And, drum roll please...ta da!
I would be plotting my revenge over this indignity if I could remember that there was an indignity in the first place.
Hey, I wonder if I can make a decent hairball with my paw hair.
She's like a third the size of the cat we sent in. I can't say that she loves her new cut, but she is holding her own.
Don't gloat. You're getting four teeth out on the 29th.
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Say Cheese!
About a month ago, Living Social had an awesome deal for a studio photography session. I'm not a huge fan of in-studio photographs, but it was only $17 for a one hour session and more prints than I could possibly know what to do with. Besides, as my mother likes to remind me, I shelled out $$$ for a fabulous photographer for The Little Girl's one year photos and liked so many pictures that I purchased the CD...then never printed any out. So 17 bucks for already printed photos for the grandparents? Sign. me. up.
The photo shoot was yesterday and I'd be lying if I didn't say I was a little worried about how it would go. Turned out, I had nothing to fear. Someone was a natural. The Little Miss smiled away and was happy to try out all sorts of poses. I even got this gem from the photographer:
"She is so good about following directions." Hahahahahahahaha. You are invited to my house around 7:00 any evening to see if you want to stand by that statement.
So after several photos, The Little Miss declared that she was all done taking pictures and we waited around to see the results. I wondered how many of the pictures would have her classic "camera face." This is when she scrunches up her face, squints her eyes, and gives a huge cheesy smile. It is the exclusive pose I get whenever I take her picture at home.
My plan was to just use the deal I bought and resist the push to buy more shots. Counting on camera face to bolster my resolve, I approached the photo slide show confident in my ability to pick one - and only one - pose. Camera face did its part...there were quite a few pictures with that cheesy grin. But then...there was a shot of her lying down just looking at the camera. Precious. Then another shot of her with her head in her hands. Love it. I felt my resolve crumble and by the time I got to the one that was a classic shot for the extended family, I knew that I was toast. The classic shot is adorable. My little girl with her scraggly pigtails and medium-level camera face looks so ridiculously happy in her flower dress against a white backdrop. See what I mean? It's classic, but also kind of boring. So see I needed the other pictures for contrast.
I'm glad I did it. They're not the beautiful outdoor shots by a professional photographer that I love, but they still capture everything about who my daughter is right now and I love that. And the grandparents are finally going to get some pictures.
The photo shoot was yesterday and I'd be lying if I didn't say I was a little worried about how it would go. Turned out, I had nothing to fear. Someone was a natural. The Little Miss smiled away and was happy to try out all sorts of poses. I even got this gem from the photographer:
"She is so good about following directions." Hahahahahahahaha. You are invited to my house around 7:00 any evening to see if you want to stand by that statement.
So after several photos, The Little Miss declared that she was all done taking pictures and we waited around to see the results. I wondered how many of the pictures would have her classic "camera face." This is when she scrunches up her face, squints her eyes, and gives a huge cheesy smile. It is the exclusive pose I get whenever I take her picture at home.
My plan was to just use the deal I bought and resist the push to buy more shots. Counting on camera face to bolster my resolve, I approached the photo slide show confident in my ability to pick one - and only one - pose. Camera face did its part...there were quite a few pictures with that cheesy grin. But then...there was a shot of her lying down just looking at the camera. Precious. Then another shot of her with her head in her hands. Love it. I felt my resolve crumble and by the time I got to the one that was a classic shot for the extended family, I knew that I was toast. The classic shot is adorable. My little girl with her scraggly pigtails and medium-level camera face looks so ridiculously happy in her flower dress against a white backdrop. See what I mean? It's classic, but also kind of boring. So see I needed the other pictures for contrast.
I'm glad I did it. They're not the beautiful outdoor shots by a professional photographer that I love, but they still capture everything about who my daughter is right now and I love that. And the grandparents are finally going to get some pictures.
Monday, August 15, 2011
In the Kitchen
I love to cook. Before The Little Miss came along, I could easily spend an entire weekend cooking. It wasn't a chore; it was relaxing. Baking especially is still a huge stress release for me. And now that she's a little older, it's something that the girl and I enjoy doing together, too.
This weekend, I was able to spend some serious time in the kitchen. On Saturday, we went to the local farmer's market. There's one stand in particular that I love. It's a father/son duo (there is a daughter, but I seldom see her) and they are just the nicest people. We've been going there for 3 years now and their stand is always packed with beautiful and tasty produce and a bunch of happy customers. They are friendly and, as we are loyal customers, know us well. Which I think is a nice and rare thing these days. After all, I'm a regular and very good (some - ahem, the husband - might say too good) customer of Amazon, but Mr. Bezos sure isn't sending me a personal message thanking me for my order or throwing in a free book. Which would be awesome, btw, and I really think he should do that.
Anyway, they often throw in an extra something or just don't charge for something I've already picked out. Also, they give The Little Miss random things to try - blueberries, cherry tomatoes, strawberries - which is a very good thing because this kid could eat her body weight in cherry tomatoes before we get back to the car. I tell her we're going to the farmer's market and she is down the stairs getting her shoes on in a nanosecond.
This weekend, I bought the usual suspects - tomatoes, greens, eggplant, bell peppers - but also went for some gorgeous looking blackberries and summer squash. I'm not a super huge berry fan (love blueberries and sweet strawberries, but I find berries generally too tart for me), but I've been dying to make blackberry ice cream and they looked so good.
The squash I bought because I have a recipe for squash pickles that looked really good. Don't turn up your nose. I'm telling you, the recipe sounds pretty ho-hum, but they looked really good. Besides, squash is definitely down at the bottom of the list of summer veggies that I want to eat, but it's fairly cheap and plentiful and I thought it would be nice to try to do something besides roast or grill squash to see if maybe I'd like that better.
So I returned home with my fresh produce and thanks to a particularly dreary Sunday, attempted the new recipes at home. Let's start with the squash first since dessert should really be last. All I can say is...OMG, delicious. These are so good that I will definitely load up on the squash next week and make some more. Although they're in canning jars, I didn't process them. They are refrigerated and good for a month. They won't last that long, I guarantee it. They are delicious eaten as is, but I think will also be good on sandwiches (hello, we're having paninis this week) or even in a pasta salad.
Behold!
Moving on to the ice cream, this was also delicious. The recipe is similar to a strawberry ice cream I made earlier this summer. It calls for blending half of the berries with the ice cream base and then adding the remaining berries at the very end of churning. I thought the strawberry ice cream was a bit too tart with so many chunks of berry in it, so this time, I blended all of the blackberries into the base, but didn't fully puree it so there were some little pieces to give texture. Next time I would sieve out the seeds, but this was also a winner. And, yes, it's vegan.
This weekend, I was able to spend some serious time in the kitchen. On Saturday, we went to the local farmer's market. There's one stand in particular that I love. It's a father/son duo (there is a daughter, but I seldom see her) and they are just the nicest people. We've been going there for 3 years now and their stand is always packed with beautiful and tasty produce and a bunch of happy customers. They are friendly and, as we are loyal customers, know us well. Which I think is a nice and rare thing these days. After all, I'm a regular and very good (some - ahem, the husband - might say too good) customer of Amazon, but Mr. Bezos sure isn't sending me a personal message thanking me for my order or throwing in a free book. Which would be awesome, btw, and I really think he should do that.
Anyway, they often throw in an extra something or just don't charge for something I've already picked out. Also, they give The Little Miss random things to try - blueberries, cherry tomatoes, strawberries - which is a very good thing because this kid could eat her body weight in cherry tomatoes before we get back to the car. I tell her we're going to the farmer's market and she is down the stairs getting her shoes on in a nanosecond.
This weekend, I bought the usual suspects - tomatoes, greens, eggplant, bell peppers - but also went for some gorgeous looking blackberries and summer squash. I'm not a super huge berry fan (love blueberries and sweet strawberries, but I find berries generally too tart for me), but I've been dying to make blackberry ice cream and they looked so good.
The squash I bought because I have a recipe for squash pickles that looked really good. Don't turn up your nose. I'm telling you, the recipe sounds pretty ho-hum, but they looked really good. Besides, squash is definitely down at the bottom of the list of summer veggies that I want to eat, but it's fairly cheap and plentiful and I thought it would be nice to try to do something besides roast or grill squash to see if maybe I'd like that better.
So I returned home with my fresh produce and thanks to a particularly dreary Sunday, attempted the new recipes at home. Let's start with the squash first since dessert should really be last. All I can say is...OMG, delicious. These are so good that I will definitely load up on the squash next week and make some more. Although they're in canning jars, I didn't process them. They are refrigerated and good for a month. They won't last that long, I guarantee it. They are delicious eaten as is, but I think will also be good on sandwiches (hello, we're having paninis this week) or even in a pasta salad.
Behold!
First, ignore my crappy phone camera. Second, look at how pretty the squash and peppers look together, marinating in a sugar/vinegar mixture with chopped onion, celery seed, and mustard seed. Pure yumminess.
Moving on to the ice cream, this was also delicious. The recipe is similar to a strawberry ice cream I made earlier this summer. It calls for blending half of the berries with the ice cream base and then adding the remaining berries at the very end of churning. I thought the strawberry ice cream was a bit too tart with so many chunks of berry in it, so this time, I blended all of the blackberries into the base, but didn't fully puree it so there were some little pieces to give texture. Next time I would sieve out the seeds, but this was also a winner. And, yes, it's vegan.
I know, I know, it looks kind of boring sitting in that white bowl, but believe me it didn't last long.
As a bonus, I also went wild on Saturday and baked bread. I used to bake bread every weekend, but now it's just every couple of months. I made Anadama bread...that delicious wheat/cornmeal/molasses combo. Because we are very crunchy (after all, the hubby is from Oregon), we even ground our own wheat berries for the bread. There's nothing like fresh-baked bread and I'm inspired to try to bake it a little more often.
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Still here...
My last post was in February??? Craziness. While I'd like to blame the long absence on my husband who spilled a glass of wine on my laptop and killed it, the truth is that I just didn't get around to posting. Besides, my husband reads this blog, so I'm sure he'd have something to say if I used that as an excuse.
It's June and my life is completely hectic. What better time to get back into blogging?
It's June and my life is completely hectic. What better time to get back into blogging?
Thursday, February 10, 2011
It's a beautiful day!
I was at the Little Girl's art class on Monday and all the moms were talking about that day's beautiful weather. It was partly cloudy and 40 degrees.
And we were happy.
That's what snow does to you. Battling a snowstorm (or two) a week will drive even the sanest person a little batty. My mother had it right when she said she hoped no telemarketers were calling anyone in the northeast since we were all going insane. Even my husband, who most of the time seems well on his way to becoming an elderly shut-in, spent a Saturday outside chipping ice off our driveway and deck and was thrilled to be doing it.
So 40 degrees and no snow in the forecast (OMG...even typing that now is invigorating) is what qualifies as gorgeous weather these days. When the weather forecast strikes fear into the hearts of tough New Englanders, you know it's game over. This week, with somewhat sunny days and kids in school for the first full week since Christmas vacation (gasp!), people are smiling! Who cares if it's 23 degrees today and feels like 11? There's no major snow storm on the horizon, so I'll take it!
And we were happy.
That's what snow does to you. Battling a snowstorm (or two) a week will drive even the sanest person a little batty. My mother had it right when she said she hoped no telemarketers were calling anyone in the northeast since we were all going insane. Even my husband, who most of the time seems well on his way to becoming an elderly shut-in, spent a Saturday outside chipping ice off our driveway and deck and was thrilled to be doing it.
So 40 degrees and no snow in the forecast (OMG...even typing that now is invigorating) is what qualifies as gorgeous weather these days. When the weather forecast strikes fear into the hearts of tough New Englanders, you know it's game over. This week, with somewhat sunny days and kids in school for the first full week since Christmas vacation (gasp!), people are smiling! Who cares if it's 23 degrees today and feels like 11? There's no major snow storm on the horizon, so I'll take it!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)