Prayers

Feeling so anxious and unsettled about some things this morning.  Not to be cryptic, just trying to protect someone's privacy until more is known.  If you pray, please say a prayer for us today.  God will know what it's for.

Thank you.

November 29 MPM

Organizing Junkie

Now, back to reality, well, as real as December gets anyway.  It's going to be a busy, busy time around here.  I  imagine at your house as well.  A meal plan will be more important than ever, although I am definitely not motivated to get to the grocery store or to spend more $$.  lol.

Okay, I've tried, I've really, really tried.  Looking ahead at the next couple of weeks just makes me want to curl up in a corner with a blankie somewhere.  Aye!  Why is December always like this???  Look at my meal plan!  Do you see all those holes.  Eventually, I'll get my shit act together and come up with something.  Not much choice is there?

When I add things I'll put them in italics because I like the way it looks so you can see where I've filled in and don't think I'm crazy. As I make the meals I'm crossing them out, yup, I need that much help staying on track right now.

Monday (dance):  Turkey pot pie
Tuesday (piano, dance):  Chili spaghetti, brownie bites
Wednesday (scouts, first night of Hanukkah):  Baked chicken, finger potatoes, veggie from freezer
Thursday (dance):  Orange chicken, rice
Friday (Rebekah has a friend spending the weekend, piano recital): Taco Night!  (Stay tuned for a giveaway this week.)
Saturday breakfast (friend staying, SS program rehearsal): ??  French toast??  Maybe.
Saturday lunch:  sandwiches, chips, fruit
Saturday dinner (Hanukkah party for 16):  Brisket, noodle pudding, latkes, applesauce, some veggie or another, sugar cookie cutouts, rugelach  Not the recipe I use, but it's supposed to be a good one.
Sunday breakfast (friends still here):  Bagels & cream cheese, fruit
Sunday lunch (church):  Lasagna, salad, bread
Sunday dinner (SS program): 
Monday (dance):  Turkey Soup (tried this last year, it's made from the turkey carcass, and it's truly awesome.  You should try it.)
Tuesday (piano, dance):  Comfort food meatballs, noodles for piano, mashed potatoes for us, green beans, dinner rolls, some kind of dessert, maybe the reindeer cupcakes from this month's Family Fun.  I'd link to it, but the same cupcake doesn't appear to be on their site.
Wednesday (scouts):  Salisbury Steak w/Mushrooms, latkes (substituted for the buttered noodles I was going to serve.  Jacob was very indignant that latkes weren't on the menu last Wednesday), brown sugar carrots
Thursday (dance):  Spaghetti & Meatballs

I've told you money's tight.  I'm pretty certain it is for most of you as well.  I learned about a great contest on 5 Minutes for Mom:  Rayovac's holding a great contest to win a $1000.00!  That's right, $1000.00!!!  All you have to do is tell Rayovoc how you (or your mom) Rock the Holidays and be entered to win $1000 Cash!

1. “Like” Rayovac on Facebook: Facebook.com/Rayovac
2. Go to Rayovac.com, complete the entry form and at their option, tell Rayovac in 120 words or less how you (or your mom) rocks the holidays.

Grand Prize: Three (3) Lucky winners will win $1,000 cash from Rayovac.
Runner Up Prizes: Twenty (20) First Place Prize winners will receive a Rayovac Jam kit including a Paper Jamz guitar, drum, amp and guitar strap as well as 2 packs of Rayovac Alkaline AAA 24 packs (prize package valued at $90).
The sweepstakes runs through Monday, December 5th.

Good luck! 

Have a good week.  : )

Thanksgiving

Today I'm bringing you Thanksgiving in bullet points because....well, because it's about as coherent as I can get.

• Jason & Lori unexpectedly had to go to New York last Tuesday and Wednesday and I watched Matt & Lily.  Very sad for J&L, Lori's grandmother passed away, but we had a wonderful time with the kids and it's so nice knowing we can truly do something that helps them.
• Rebekah came home Tuesday night.  She's been busy with friends, very helpful, and wonderful to be around even though I know it's a little hard and weird for her to be here--she loves school and her friends there so much.  I love seeing her.  I love having her here.  She's grown and matured so much, more change than I expected in such a short time.
• Thursday was a very nice day.  I was off my cooking mojo.  No idea why, that's just the way it is sometimes.  Anyway, it was a relaxing day with family, Jason & Lori joined us mid-afternoon, and we had a wonderful time.  Most of the food was very good.  The turkey was slightly overcooked and the stuffing was "eh", but it all seemed to disappear, so I guess it was mostly fine.
• Friday morning Matthew ended up in the hospital with an asthma attack.  I'm not sure I have words for everything I've felt about that.  Sick with worry, wanting to help, impotent to help.  Worried for Matthew, obviously, but also worried for Jason & Lori.  I can't imagine how stressful it must be to have a child literally struggle to breathe.  They've had such a long week, with the emotionalness of the funeral; the physical, mental and emotional exhaustion of traveling to New York and back in less than 48 hours, the list goes on and on.  Anyway, thankfully, Matt's much better.  Hopefully he'll continue to improve.
•  Friday we went to Build-A-Bear to take advantage of their $5.00 special.  They were supposed to have $5 male and female moose available plus a $5 dress for the girl moose.  Julianna wanted to spend some money she'd been saving so we headed out.  The promotion had started 2 hours earlier, it was supposed to last 3 days.  Unfortunately, by the time we got there, they were sold out of the girl moose.  Of course.  *sigh*  After a bit of angst, she decided to get the "other" moose (now called a girl, even with it's beautiful antlers).  We bought J&J each a moose, she used her money for a fancy Christmas dress and a good time was had by all.
• Friday afternoon we also went to see Tangled.  I liked it a lot.  So did Mark, Rebekah and Jacob.  Julianna?  Well, thankfully, by the end of the movie she liked it, but getting there was a very frustrating experience.  It's like Julianna is convinced she can't just relax and enjoy a movie--she fights it tooth and nail.  I thought Mark was going to scream when Julianna complained and moaned and freaked out during the whole movie, then proclaimed her love for it as we were leaving.  Kids.
• Friday night home for Thanksgiving leftovers.  Truly my favorite part of Thanksgiving.  I always enjoy the leftovers far more than the meal.  When we sit down for the meal I'm exhausted and done with cooking, working, everything.  Leftovers are the perfect answer--still the good food, none of the work.
• Saturday we had a nice lazy morning, then Mark and I took off to do some Christmas shopping.  SO nice to have Rebekah back to babysit.  :)  I was actually surprised at how little we bought.  I bet I've bought probably 75% of Christmas/Hanukkah online this year.  It seems easier than ever and boxes are flowing in.  The trick for me is paying attention to what I've bought and knowing when to stop.  I think we are done with J&J, Matt, Lily, Lori, and Jason.  We still need to buy for my mom and dad, and Rebekah.  Not bad with 4 weeks or so to go.

Well, that's our Thanksgiving.  All in all, it was wonderful.  So much to be grateful and thankful for.  Most of all I'm thankful Matt's all right.

I hope your Thanksgiving's went well also.

Prayers

My parents are traveling this Thanksgiving.  They're going far.  They're old.  It could be a wonderful trip or it could be a terribly stressful, horrible trip.  I'm praying all goes well for them.

Lori's grandmother died.  Jason and Lori are traveling to Syracuse for the funeral.  In not great weather.  With all the other holiday traffic.  I'm praying for them.

Mark's picking Rebekah up from college tonight.  In all the holiday traffic.  I'm praying for their safe travel.

One of my children has something going on that is worrying me greatly.  Next week we start down the road for answers.  I'm praying for that.

I'm so grateful for all my blessings, and, probably because of my brother dying when I was young I'm so aware that life can change in a literal blink of the eye.  I'm praying.

I hope wherever you are, however you celebrate this Thanksgiving, that all goes well and that you can continue to take for granted the wonderful normal of your days.

Visions of Sugar Plums...

Because it's always fun to dream, here's a list of what's on my dream list.  What's on yours?
(These are in no particular order, just dreaming out loud, so to speak.)

1. Babysitting.  We love our kidlets, but it is nice to be able to listen to each other actually complete sentences once in a while.
2. Alan Jackson's 34 Number Ones.  
3. Toffee.  Caramels.  I love toffee and caramel.  yum!
4. Fine Cooking or Cooks Illustrated.  Two of the best cooking magazines out there. 
5. Gift certificate to a restaurant (CPK, Cheesecake Factory, Molly Woos, PF Changs) or movie.  Mark and I love date nights.
6. Gift certificate to my favorite hair salon.  Even as much as I'm working, I feel guilty about getting my hair done.  It's heavenly to get it done and not feel guilty about it.
7. Cooking classes, preferably with Mark, from Sur La Table.  Date Night cooking, Elegant New Year's, heck, even knife skills sound like it could be a lot of fun. 
8. All Clad anything.  Well, almost anything.  Not non-stick.  What's the point of that?  I love the sticky, flavorful stuff left behind in the pan.  I always wondered if  All-Clad could possibly be worth the cost.  Well, I have one pan and I can honestly tell you, yes, it absolutely is.  It's amazing the difference.  I'm sure the cookware sets are fabulous, but right now I just drool over the french skillets, frying pans and saute pans.  Truly things of beauty, as beautiful to cook with as they are to look at.
9. 4 1/2 quart Le Creuset Dutch Oven.   I've got a 7(?) quart and a 3 1/2 quart braising pan.  My sights are set now on a smaller Dutch oven, reflecting the smaller batches I find myself cooking now.
10. Guilt Free Shopping...always fun.  :)

What fills your head with visions of sugar plums?

To do...

Organizing, organizing, organizing.

No, not my "stuff", my thoughts.

Here's what's on my to-do list this week:

Monday

• match Julianna's socks, pitch ones w/o mates.  :(  I may cry.  She has adorable socks, but they do disappear.
• wash my new wine glasses (woot!).  No, they're not the Mikasa that I loved at Bed, Bath & Beyond and mistakenly thought were 4/$10, but were really way more than that, they're wonderful, delicate (yikes), Libby glasses that won't make me cry if one accidentally gets broken.
• clean up kitchen, put away anything that can be gotten out of the way
• make a to-do list (yes, I am just this anal to put making my to-do list on my to-do list).
• clean Julianna's clean laundry off Rebekah's bed because she's going to need it soon!!!  
• homework  :(
• piano
• take Julianna out to dinner for book club
• dance
• read bedtime stories--this has slipped away from us as Julianna and Jacob have gotten very! excited! about the books they're individually reading, but I'm not ready to give it up completely yet

Tuesday

• make pie crusts and refrigerate
• clean out refrigerator, pitch leftovers to make room for more.  :)
• make chili, brownie bites
• make lasagna, if I can find room in the fridge to put it (for Wednesday).  
• clean bathrooms
• vacuum
• light dusting.  3-8 kids here at any certain time, I'm not wasting my time doing any deep cleaning.
• laundry
• piano
• Rebekah!!!
• Matt & Lily

Wednesday

• No daycare today!!  
• piano
• Jacob haircut, if it hasn't already gotten done
• make apple, pumpkin and pecan pies
• make 7-Up Jello Salad
• make lasagna (if I haven't already)
• make cranberry sauce
• seed pomegranate
• candy bacon for quiches (quiches, is that a word?)
• crockpot green beans
• wash tablecloth
• watch Matt & Lily and try to keep the chaos down.  5 day weekend, plus 2 beloved niece and nephew, plus mom trying to get a lot done, is going to equal an interesting equation.

Thursday

• prepare quiche, cinnamon rolls
• watch parade, yay!
• make  stuffing
• prepare turkey
• stuff & roast turkey
• prepare sweet potato syrup
• roast sweet potatoes
• cook potatoes
• roast brussels sprouts
• make gravy
• enjoy family  :)
• worry about what I'm forgetting
• remember cornbread and crescent rolls
• eat like crazy
• try not to be too tired to enjoy it

I honestly can't wait.  :)
I know your weeks are apt to be insane too.  I hope you find time to savor the chaos.

November 22 MPM

Tom Cheney

Finally I'm getting excited about Thanksgiving.  It took a while this year, for a whole variety of reasons, but I'm ever so thankful that I'm there.  I also think I've got my meal plan set, and, more importantly, I think I'm done grocery shopping.  Knock, knock, knocking.  I hate grocery shopping Thanksgiving week.

Hey, I discovered a wonderful, easy, sort-of-quick meal this week.  I say sort-of because the oven does need to preheat at 500 degrees for an hour (with a baking stone, if you have it), but then it comes together quickly.  I bought multi-grain pizza dough at Whole Foods, plus their pizza sauce and sauteed spinach & garlic.  I bought a 1/3 lb. of their chicken italian sausage and some fresh ricotta and mozzarella.  Rolled out the dough, topped it with sauce and sliced mozzarella.  I sauteed the sausage and added it to the pizza, followed by the spinach.  I also put on some cut up roasted tomatoes I had on hand.  Plop on little blobs of ricotta and bake.  I baked ours for about 15 minutes and it came out absolutely delicious.  At least as good as a gourmet pizza shop.  Yay!  Now, I have pizza dough in the freezer, plus the sauce and some of the sausage already sauteed.  Next time the craving hits I'll be ready.  :)

If you have any experience with cappuccino/expresso makers, let me know what you think.  We're thinking about an inexpensive one as a Christmas present.

On to the meal plan.  Here's what we'll (most likely) be eating this week:

Monday:  Potluck/Julianna and I out.  We've started a book club.  We've finished our first book (The Magic Half by Annie Barrows, EXCELLENT, we both loved it!) so now it's out to dinner to discuss before dance class.

Tuesday  (Rebekah home!!!):  Chili, cornbread and fixings
Wednesday:  Lasagna
Thanksgiving:  Cinnamon Rolls and/or mini quiches
                            Cheese & Fruit w/crackers

Thanksgiving dinner:  Roast Turkey w/bread stuffing, mashed potatoes & gravy, sweet potatoes, crockpot green beans, roasted brussels sprouts w/pomegranates and vanilla pecan butter, cranberry sauce, 7-Up Jello Salad, cornbread, crescent rolls, apple pie w/cinnamon ice cream, pecan pie, pumpkin pie w/vanilla ice cream.  Kung Fu Girl Reisling, quite possibly my favorite wine.
Friday:  Leftovers!


Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  I hope you get to spend it with people you care deeply for.  I hope it finds you able to count your blessings, I know so many people are suffering horrible hurts and this time of year can be very difficult.

Santa needs some advice

Yes, I know everyone's busy with their own lives, it's the weekend and there's always a million and one things to do besides blog, but...

I need your input! 

So, whenever you get to it, if you could share your wisdom, I'd be quite grateful.

I'm thinking of getting someone a cappuccino machine.  Now, if I had unlimited funds, I'm sure there are all kinds of fancy-shmancy machines I would choose from and I'm sure any of them would be wonderful.  But,

shocker...

I do not have unlimited funds.

Anyway, I've found a couple of relatively inexpensive machines, but I'm wondering if anyone out there has some advice for me.

I'd like a machine that makes good cappuccino as well as expresso.  A machine that will froth milk.

Anyone have one they like?  One they hate?  One they like, but...

Thanks.

Thank you!

I appreciate the responses to my quandary.  I'm still mulling it over, but it did help me see there's lots of room for any position.  Matt, Lily, Jacob and Julianna will be getting their gifts that night.  I'm still not sure if I'll do anything besides gelt for the college kids or not.  Maybe some real gelt in the mix, I love that idea.

In related news, in case you ever know anyone in this situation, I found peanut-free gelt on line last night!  Oh! Nuts carries it and other peanut-safe products.  Woohoo!  They had a pretty good selection of Hanukkah items, including the candles I like to buy.  I was very happy to find them.

Gelt is such a traditional treat for my kids for Hanukkah, it wouldn't be Hanukkah for them without it.  I wanted Matthew to be able to experience the fun of chocolate coins too.  One of these days I'll probably rant my frustration about how hard it is to fine peanut-safe anything anymore.  Manufacturer's are really missing out on a big market, the way peanut allergies are on the rise.  It's impossible for me to believe that M&M's couldn't dedicate one of their factories to plain M&Ms.  Can you imagine living your whole life without M&Ms?  There are worse tragedies, I know, but still...  :)

Have a wonderful weekend.

A Quandary...WWYD Edition

Hanukkah is one of our favorite holidays.  As I've gone on and one about said,with working as much as I am it's hard to find time to fit everything in and make as big of a deal about things as we used to.   

I'm struggling to figure out when/how to celebrate this year.  When Jason and Rebekah were little we gave them a present every night of Hanukkah, plus Santa always came, plus there were presents from Mommy and Daddy of course.  Somewhere along the way that evolved into presents just the first and last nights of Hannukah. (Plus Santa and Mommy & Daddy at Christmas of course!)  This year I'm thinking we should tweak that again.


It makes sense to me to celebrate Hanukkah once this year, right in the middle on Saturday night.  Rebekah's invited some friends from school, I'd like to invite Jason, Lori, Matt & Lily, cook like crazy, and just have a great time.  The dilemma?  


Presents.


I'd like to give Jacob & Julianna one Hanukkah present, at our Hanukkah party.  Barring that, I'd like to give them a present that night and a present the last night.  Truly not a big deal, we'll figure that one out.  Matt & Lily will get their present from us that night as well.


I think we need to get some type of a token gift for each of the college students and Rebekah, Jason and Lori.  Mark thinks we should give everyone a bag of gelt and that's it.  With Jason, somewhere along the way we stopped giving him a Hanukkah present because, for us, it's really for the kids.  It seems like college is a natural time to make that break with Rebekah.  However, this is a party and presents seem appropriate to me at a Hanukkah party.


What do you think?  Any ideas what you might do?  Should I leave it at a token bag of gelt, and if so is it a bad idea to give the younger ones their presents that night?  Should I get some sort of token gift for everyone and if so, any ideas?  I'd love to hear your thoughts.

But What If It Is Broke?

There's the saying "If it ain't broke don't fix it". I think a lot of us tend to live with, "it might be broke but it's too ___________ (fill in the blank) to fix it".

I don't want to do that anymore.

There are things that are broken.

I need to figure out steps to take to fix them.

It's hard.

Part of me honestly doesn't want to.

Hopefully a bigger part of me doesn't want to live with the brokenness anymore.

I guess we'll see...

The thing is, when habits are ingrained, good or bad, it's hard to know how to change them.

Harder still to know how to change who you are.

But I have to try.

I want to like me again.

Christmas Stumpers

Help! Some of our Christmas shopping is well underway. Some of it? Not so much.

I need really good gift ideas for:

• A just-turned-two year old. Not urgent. Obviously a 2-year old is not going to be picky and I'll figure out something that hopefully she'll enjoy, but if you've got a great idea, I'd love to hear it. She has a baby she loves. For her birthday later this month we're giving her a highchair and some play baby food. One of her Christmas gifts will be a toy vacuum and for Hanukkah we're giving Matt and her some art supplies because Santa *might* be bringing them an easel. A few years ago I started a tradition of giving 3 gifts for Christmas to reflect the 3 gifts given in the bible, and I'm fresh out of inspiration.
• Jason. Ugh. I love him dearly, truly, but it can be very difficult to buy gifts for him. I've got nothing. Zilch. Zero. No ideas. My budget's modest, but if you've got a couple of great gift ideas for a mid-twenties man, I'm all ears.
• My parents. Together or separate. They're in their mid-70's. They have everything they need. They have everything I could afford to give them that they want. Usually I try to come up with some kind of theme gift. For example, one year I gave them a night in. We bought them Kobe steaks (my dad had expressed he'd like to try them), potatoes, veggies, bread, etc. Dessert. A movie. That kind of thing. I'm completely out of inspiration for them too. If you've got a great parent gift, for both of them or just for my mom, just for my dad, again, I'm all ears. Once again though, keep in mind I'm on a budget.
  

Everyone else I think we're good on. Matthew's easy. He's done. Julianna should be done, but I keep adding. I have to stop that! Rebekah's not begun, but her list is pretty good, I think again my problem will be stopping, not coming up with ideas. Jacob's always easy. I've never seen a child that liked to play more. Mark and I don't give gifts to each other, it's an easy way to keep the budget down. Teachers will be getting homemade goodies. Lori's done. I'm excited about what we've gotten her, I hope she likes it.

So...help me out. Share your inspiration.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Speaking of Christmas and gifts...
Have you checked out the 5 Minutes for Mom Christmas Giveaways?

They're really awesome. There are several I'm hoping to win. :)

November 14 Meal Plan

I think, one thing long-term meal planning is teaching me, is to R-E-L-A-X. Life doesn't go exactly as planned, and that's all right. Some nights, other things are going to come up, and that's all right. It's good to have a plan, but it's equally as good to know when to let the plan go. I like it.

Edited: Okay, maybe I'm taking this relax thing a bit far, lol. We had Chuck E. Cheese to celebrate great report cards Thursday, date night Friday, spontaneous-just-because dinner out Saturday, and Oops! there's-no-power dinner out last night. Expensive, but I will admit the break from cooking was nice.

For the first time ever, I am very tempted to go our for Thanksgiving. My parents, who normally join us, made other plans; Jason & Lori can't figure out what they're doing, and one of our favorite restaurants is having a buffet that sounds scrumptious. I'm just not in the mood for all the work of Thanksgiving, probably because I'm working so much now. However, I know Rebekah's really counting on a home-cooked Thanksgiving straight out of her memories and, oddly enough, so is Julianna, so suck-it-up and cook I will. What about you? Would you ever go out for Thanksgiving dinner? In my defense I will say I've cooked 25 of the last 27 Thanksgivings. I'm tired. :)

Also, what kind of turkey do you buy? El Cheapy? Butterball or Honeysuckle White? Or, premium, free-range, all natural, no-hormones turkey? I'm having a tough time deciding. I've bought el cheapo, I've bought Honesuckle and Butterball, I even once bought a free-range, but for some reason I'm paralyzed to make a decision this year. I feel like there's a lot riding on this Thanksgiving--Rebekah's homesick and I know it's going to mean a lot to her, I'd like to make it as special as possible (hence the not going out), but when I'm just not feeling the cooking mojo it tends to make it hard for me to be decisive. Help a girl out.

Friday--Date night. Woot!
Saturday lunch--pot luck
Saturday dinner--
Sunday lunch--Chinese BBQ pork, fried rice, veggie
Sunday dinner (Nutcracker practice)--
Monday (ballet w/parent)--Wonton Soup, egg rolls
Tuesday (piano, jazz/Hip Hop)--spaghetti & meatballs, bread, salad, easy dessert
Wednesday (scouts)--Chicken wraps w/Pioneer Woman's Fried Chicken Strips, fruit
Thursday (Hip/Hop)--Trader Joe's tamales & corn cakes
Friday--California Pizza Kitchen Thai Chicken Pizza (cheese for the kids)
Saturday lunch--Tortilla Soup
Saturday dinner--Seared sea scallops and pasta, broccoli, bread
Sunday lunch--Southwestern Brown Rice & Black Bean Burgers, rolled tortillas,
Sunday dinner (Nutcracker practice)--Nachos
Monday (ballet)--Southwestern Chicken Salads
Tuesday (Rebekah home!!!! piano, dance)--Chili & Cornbread & fixins, brownie bites
Wednesday--Lasagna
Thursday/Thanksgiving lunch--posted separately later
Thanksgiving Dinner--posted separately later

Have a great week!

Julianna's Birthday Party PSF

Eight is great!

I took over a 100 photos of Julianna's birthday party. You're welcome for not sticking them all in this post. Thank you Picnik! I finally took the plunge and plunked down my money to upgrade so I can have access to decent collages. I really, really love Picnik, if you're not using it, check it out. I have Photoshop Elements, which I know I should love, but I find Picnik so much easier to use and do what I want to do.


Anyway...her birthday party went great. We had it at her dance studio. One of the perks to being on the "family plan" at dance (you pay year-round instead of just 10 months), is that birthday parties are half-price. Yes please! Sign us up! A terrific party for her closest friends for less than $50.00. Awesome! I do not understand all the parties in our area that are in the $300 and up price range. Definitely not something we can ever afford to do.


The girls had a dance lesson for an hour, Julianna was able to pick a genre (ballet) and a theme (American Girls). The party was complete with props and costumes and I think all the girls had a wonderful time, even ones with no dance background. The teacher was terrific at making everyone feel included and involved. After the dance lesson, we had cupcakes (I wish America had picked up on the English name "fairy cakes". I love that!) and opened presents, then back into the dance studio for some parachute play. Julianna had a wonderful time, the kids had a wonderful time, and it was such a good feeling to be able to make her birthday dreams come true.

After the party, she had to be back at the studio an hour later for a two and a half hour Nutcracker rehearsal. She's definitely getting a taste of what it's like to be a serious dancer!

Hosted by Cecily and Lolli

November 7 MPM

Great week, I hope yours was too. The two week meal plan had mixed success. I've noted how it went and how I've adjusted for the week ahead. I'm definitely going to try it again next weekend. I was just surprised at the number of times we ended up skipping what I had planned or skipping a meal altogether. Not sure how you can plan for that, I guess you just roll with it.

Friday--Taquito & Flautas Seriously, these are awesome--a fun, yummy dinner.
Saturday lunch--soup from Weilands Yum!
Saturday dinner--
Sunday brunch--Pancakes
Sunday (very early) dinner (Halloween & Nutcracker practice)--Abuelos (kid's eat free in costume)
Monday (Julianna's B'day!!)--ribs, baked potatoes, broccoli, chocolate cake, chocolate ice cream

Tuesday (piano, dance)--Spaghetti & Meatballs (from the freezer!), salad, Fat Witch Apple Spice Bars--Julianna took a day off from activities, I got my hair cut and banished the gray and Mark, Jacob and Julianna had leftover birthday dinner.

Wednesday (scouts)--Beef w/Snow Peas, grilled bok choy, rice This was sooo yummy! We loved the stir-fry, although I substituted sugar snap peas for the snow peas. I loved the grilled bok choy. We'll definitely enjoy that again. Really satisfied the chinese craving. :) I also served Trader Joe's potstickers with this. Oh my goodness! SO GOOD! I've tried frozen potstickers before and always been at best underwhelmed and at worst disappointed with them. There's always been some sort of an unpleasant after-taste. These were completely different. Delicious and no after-taste. Easy to prepare too. Highly recommended.

Thursday (dance)--Chicken Gyros, potato wedges

Friday--Trader Joe's Tamales, corn cakes These got bumped, Rebekah requested some homemade food, so I took her Barefoot Contessa's wedding soup as well as Matzo Ball soup; served a choice of either for dinner, and killed two birds with one stone, so to speak. :) I absolutely love these recipes.

Saturday lunch (OU--Rebekah!)--out, cupcakes for Jul. bday
Saturday dinner--Seared sea scallops and pasta, salad, bread--Too full from lunch, this got bumped.
Sunday lunch (Julianna's birthday party)--leftovers
Sunday dinner--Flank steak, spinach salad, baked potatoes--Delicious!
Monday (dance)--Antipasta Salad, bread We'll have either pot luck or leftovers, I don't want to spend the $$ on this. Maybe more flautas and taquitos, we'll see. Dance from 5:30-6:30 is just killing our family dinners and with incorporating the time change, I don't really see dinner happening this night.
Tuesday (piano, dance)--Lasagna Style Baked Ziti (I'm going to make one for piano and divide ours in half, putting one in freezer for another day) bread, salad, Pumpkin Crisp (keeps getting bumped, I'll fit it in for sure(??) this rotation eventually.) Actually, bumping it already, I think I'm going to make something from The Fat Witch cookbook instead.
Wednesday (scouts)--Chinese BBQ pork, fried rice, grilled bok choy? Some veggie from the freezer is going to have to do.
Thursday (dance)--Trader Joe's Orange Chicken, rice, szechwan green beans
Friday--Wonton Soup, egg rolls

Hope you have a wonderful week. Check out Organizing Junkie's for more meal plans.

{this moment} Eight

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Check out The Dinoia Family for more {this moments}, or to add your own.

You Capture...Halloween and Silence

This week the theme of You Capture was Halloween and Silence. (Wishful thinking by a mom, IMO.) Halloween and Silence do not usually go together, in my experience. :) Unfortunately, my life has gotten so crazy busy that I don't have the time right now to devote to practicing photography that I would like. I'm hoping by participating in some of the photo challenges out there it will force me to at least pick it up and take some pictures, eventually leading to an increase in the quality of the pictures. Hoping.

My mom made the wall hanging and this haunted house for us years ago. Definitely some of my most prized possessions.

I made this witch-bag for Rebekah many moons ago. How fun that it's still being used every year for trick or treat. Did I mention we've been trick or treating for 25 continuous years now as parents? Yikes!

Ahh, the best sign of Halloween, the bursting candy bags.

I'm definitely not one of those parents who makes their kids toss their candy or donate it all or sell it to the dentist or whatever. My kids love the idea of having all that candy. Jacob will happily eat 2-3 pieces a day for weeks or until he gets tired of it. That's fine by me. It honestly won't be that long until he's tired of it and months from now I'll throw it all away, probably in time for the Easter candy.

One of my favorite Halloween pics. It so perfectly captures J&J.

Now, for the second part of the assignment...
Silence.
Naturally, when they're sleeping is all I could come up with. :)

They're genuinely sleeping. I tried to capture it w/o flash, but then it was just pitch black and I couldn't mess with settings and film speed and the like because I was terrified I would wake them. (Yes, it makes perfect sense that I just used the flash instead, and no, that did not wake them up, thank goodness!)

Next week's Capture is Serene. Hmmm...

Will This Be the Year???

All right. This is tres embarrassing my bloggy friends. Tres.

I am a terrible person. Truly. Every year I buy holiday cards, and every year they gather dust under my bed. I buy get well soon and sympathy cards and never get it together enough to get them stamped and in the mail. Many thank you notes collect dust and never make it to their recipient. I am not proud of any of this. Normally I would be way too mortified about this to ever admit it publicly. Until recently, I was sure I was alone in my horribleness. Then, I read Half Baked by Alexa Stevenson, author of the blog, Flotsam. Alexa’s as bad as I am, so she’s given me the courage to come out, so to speak. Surely there are others out there like us.

Anyway, this is the year. I resolve to turn over a new leaf. This year, I will send out holiday cards. Shutterfly’s giving me the perfect push with their 50 free holiday cards campaign. Now, decisions, decisions. Maybe I'll go with the Christmas cards. Of course the Holiday Photo Cards are a wonderful option. Maybe, just maybe, I'll get really ambitious and go for the Holiday Story Cards. Perhaps I could invent a nice, socially acceptable explanation as to why I haven't sent holiday cards in years. That could be a nice touch.

Anyway, thanks to Shutterfly, I'm looking forward to changing my ways and sending out our best cards ever. Thanks Shutterfly!

Tell me, are you a closet correspondence failure too?

Pop & Lily

Happy Birthday

Dear Julianna,
Today, you are eight. Eight! I don't know how that's possible honestly, I feel like the last eight years is all a blur. I do know I love being your mommy and know it's my favorite job in all my life.

You are amazing. Truly. A force to reckon with. You're passionate and organized and loyal and responsible and loving and dependable and honest and many, many wonderful things all rolled up onto an amazing little girl.

Right now, you love school. You do well in school, always trying your best. You just finished your tree project, you chose to write a non-fiction book about the Weeping Cherry, and I was so impressed with your methodical, organized approach. You wanted to know exactly what you needed to do to get the best grade and then, you made sure you did it. Sure enough, you got the best grade, and I was so proud, I knew you worked hard for it and deserved it.

Finally, you embrace the pure joy that is reading. You've always been a good reader, but this past year has brought you the love of reading that will stay with you your whole life. You love reading in your bed after we read together and you'll read as long as you possibly can until you just have to give in and go to sleep. Right now you love reading dancing stories, the Shoes books being particular favorites.

You love all things dance. Ballet is especially your favorite. You used to say you wanted to be a doctor or a teacher. Now, you want to be a ballet teacher when you grow up. You practice your barre work often and love to put together ballet combinations over and over again. I'm so thankful we've been able to give you the gift of dance.

Your piano skills have improved vastly over the past year. You're able to play 'real' songs now and your confidence in your skills is growing. Right now you're hard at work learning to play A Tisket A Tasket so you can play it for your music class at school.

You love your Brownie troop and had a wonderful time at Girl Scout Day Camp last summer. I know you'll want to do it again next year and secretly I'm happy that you're not quite ready for sleep-away camp. You're growing up so fast, I'm not quite ready for you to take that step away from us.

You also love American Girl dolls. You read the stories and play with the dolls, dressing them and doing their hair, but also playing school for hours on end. School, either the real thing, or pretending, is definitely another of your favorite things.

Family is super-important to you, and as such it's been a little bit of a difficult time. You're loving having Jason, Lori, Matt & Lily so close and you relish anytime you get to spend with them. You even invited Jason to be your buddy at the upcoming buddy breakfast. It's very hard for you however to have your beloved sister so far away at college. I know you miss her dearly and can only hope that somehow you're able to achieve that balance of learning to not miss her quite so much when she's absent, but still enjoying her company as you grow. One of my biggest wishes for you is that you will always be close to your family.

Friendships have been a little rocky for you this year. There are two little girls in particular that have a bit of the "queen bee" about them. One of their favorite things is to keep others off balance with proclamations that 'they're not your friend anymore', or, almost worse, they just stop talking to you. You struggle with that and my heart aches for you. It's hard to see you hurting and know there's not much I can do besides encourage you to not chase after them begging them to tell you what's wrong, thereby giving them the power and attention they crave. I also work hard to make home your safe place, where you know you can expect love and kindness.

I've started working much more this year and it's been hard for you. I know you'd love for me to be the mommy who's at school weekly and in the lunchroom collecting money when you come through. I'd love that too sweetie, more than you know, but I'm very thankful that I do have a job that allows me to be home when you get home and when you need me, if you're sick or have a fun day off or for anything else that comes up.

Recently you got your palate expander and braces are the next step. That's been a difficult transition also and I am so proud of how brave you've been. You were so excited to get your palate expander, a fact that seemed like such a cruel joke that I was powerless to tell you the punchline. I had to let you discover on your own that braces were not all you thought they were going to be. We're almost to the end of the 'turning the key' part of the expander and I know you will be so happy when that's done. You need Advil almost every night, a fact that makes me more than a little irritated with the orthodontists office as they told me it didn't hurt at all and wouldn't bother you. It bothers you greatly, but you hold up well and I truly am in awe of your strength.

Well darling, I'm off to bake your birthday cake, chocolate cake with chocolate frosting served with chocolate ice cream. For your birthday dinner you requested BBQ ribs, a fact that I find quite amusing. You've recently discovered you enjoy a good chewy rib and the oriental wings I make are a big favorite too. You're having a bit of buyers remorse however and I know you're wishing you had chosen salmon as your main course instead. There's always next year. We're having baked potatoes, another love, plus broccoli. You also love pasta and asparagus and are existing at school right now on Spaghetti O's as they are easy for you to eat with your expander. I have a feeling that once your braces and expander come off you're never going to want to eat another Spaghetti O in your life.

I love you very much and while I often feel I fall short in being the mommy you deserve, I truly thank God every day for bringing me into your life. I hope you have a wonderful year sweetie and that it's full of growth and friendships and dreams coming true.

xoxo
Mommy