Here, There and Everywhere plus a Meal Plan

Oh my goodness, would someone please stop the world just for a day or two?  Things have been crazy around here.  I can't figure out a way to do justice to each event, yet I also can't seem to move forward until I do, so here's a hurried recap of some highlights.

We went to Cincinnati this year to celebrate my birthday with my parents.  It was a lot of fun and I felt very lucky to share that day with them.  I look around my house and I see many, many wonderful things my parents have given me over the years, but the most important thing that they've given to me was to instill in me a sense of family.  I know, without a shadow of a doubt that the best thing I have in my life is my family--I am blessed to have parents who love me completely, I have a husband whom I love and who loves me, I have 4 wonderful children who I could not love anymore and who I am blessed that they show that love to me in return.  Truly love of family is the driving force in my life and it guides the decisions that I make.

The Sunday after my birthday we came home and Jason, Lori, Matt & Lily came over to celebrate with me.  Jason made me an incredible dinner.  Chicken!  (Exclamation is because Jason's a vegetarian and he not only does not eat meat, it grosses him out to handle it as well.  That was true Mommy-love and very much appreciated.)  Lori baked me a delicious cake, chocolate, with chocolate frosting, yum!  They brought me beautiful flowers and great movies, but most of all it was fun to feel so spoiled and loved.

Last week, we celebrated Passover and Easter and it was wonderful.  I missed Rebekah, lots, but that's the way it goes sometimes.  We got to share other times with Jason, Matt and Lily (Lori was away), or my parents, and Jacob and Julianna always love being surrounded by family.


Of course, there was cooking.  Oh the cooking!  I'm feeling a little cooked-out, but hopefully that's temporary.  I need to get much better about taking pictures, I'm sorry that I don't have any here, too busy living in the moment, I guess.  (Okay, truth in advertising here, too busy running around like a chicken with my head cut off is much more accurate.) Some of the highlights from the last three days:   Matzo Ball Soup (delicious!), Wedding Soup (yum!), skirt steak fajitas, grilled veggies, con queso rice and beans, citrusy-spicy black beans, sausage-egg pizza roll (Wow!, so delicious, easy and well-received, I cannot wait to make this again.  My version used breakfast sausage, mushrooms, eggs and cheddar-jack cheese, seriously yum!), brown sugar-honey glazed ham (best ham I have ever made!  I wish everyone in my family enjoyed ham, but sadly my guys do not), the Holy-Grail of sweet potatoes, crockpot green beans w/ham hocks...I've been cooking a lot, and thankfully, everything turned out really, really well.  Ironically, last night I had to go buy a new garbage disposal, I guess the weekend was just too much for it.  :)


This week, for better or worse, is going to be much easier.  Well, at least until the weekend.  Saturday Rebekah's coming home (Yay!) and bringing a friend with her (Yay! Yay!), so it will be back to cooking.  :)  Check out more Meal Plans at Organizing Junkie's.

Tonight, there's leftover Matzo Ball Soup or Wedding Soup.
Tuesday (dance, piano):  Spaghetti & Meatballs w/baby broccoli, brownie bites
Wednesday (I'm out with some friends):
Thursday:  Pulled pork sandwiches, cole slaw, baked sweet potato fries
Friday (date night)
Saturday lunch: 
Saturday dinner:  Marinated flank steak, loaded baked potatoes, garlic butter roasted mushrooms, salad
Sunday brunch:  Waffles w/ strawberries and ham
Sunday dinner:


Mark's still struggling with his cough.  He's having some testing this week, I'd appreciate it if you said a prayer for him that it's nothing serious.  I'm mostly sure it's not a big deal, but it's been going on a very long time and it does worry me.

Washington DC

You're welcome.  I spared you the hundreds of photos we took while in DC and opted instead to do a Picnik collage.  It doesn't truly do our trip justice, but you get the idea.  :)

I'm not sure I have the words to do our trip justice.  We left Tuesday morning, and had a beautiful drive...until the snow started flying when we hit Maryland.  It panicked me as I had packed nothing remotely winter-like.  Fortunately, as we went south toward DC while it didn't exactly get warm, it did at least get too warm to snow.  :-)

I was not in the greatest of moods, which I guess is to be expected, as I was still very sad from the funeral the day before.  Two weeks later and I'm still very sad, yet it's also a good reminder, as death so often is, to treasure the wonderful people in my life.

We were very excited because on the way to DC there's an incredible candy store.  We've had the pleasure of stopping there on our last few trips to DC, but we've never known exactly where it was, so it's always a bit of a crap-shoot as to whether or not we'll be able to find it again.  All we've ever remembered is that it's off route 68, just over the border into Maryland from West Virginia.  That's it.  Well, after getting off at 3 exits to no avail, we'd pretty much given up hope when Mark found it.  It's impossible to adequately describe this place, but it has bin after bin of candy, pretty much every candy you've ever heard of, all in bulk.  The kids had a ball and we each filled a small bag.  The trip definitely was starting to look sweeter.  (sorry)  (By the way, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday our weather was terrific and the one day of truly cats and dogs rain we had planned for an inside day anyway, so it was all good.)

We found our hotel, just outside of DC in Rockville, Maryland.  We stayed at a Best Western Plus, not the hotel we had originally planned on, but when we had to reschedule our trip, this was the best price I could find.  The hotel was (relatively) reasonable, it was clean and fresh looking, and it included a hot breakfast buffet every morning.  Perfect.  Plus, it was right off the highway, making getting anywhere very easy.

It was late when we got into DC, so we settled into the hotel, went out for a quick dinner (Fuddruckers in Rockville--reasonably priced burgers, fries, I recommend it for families with kids.  J&J loved it.), and headed into DC.  That night we saw the cherry blossoms along the tidal basin (in full, beautiful bloom), the Jefferson Memorial, and the FDR memorial, which the kids were completely entranced with.  We headed back to the hotel, exhausted, but very excited just to be there.

Wednesday morning we headed to the National Cathedral.  I do not have the words to adequately describe what a moving experience that was.  We spent three hours there and Mark and I could easily have spent at least that many more.  So much to see!  Gorgeous, and awe-inspiring and every superlative adjective you could imagine.  However, after 3 hours it was obvious that Jacob and Julianna simply could not absorb anymore and we headed out for lunch.  We ate at a mexican restaurant near the cathedral, at a place called Cactus Cantina.  Unfortunately I can't recommend it, the food was merely okay, and I honestly think you can do better.  After dinner we headed to the National Zoo.  Again, a home run.  We all loved it, we always do.  It was a sunshiny, warm day and the animals were showing off, making for a very fun experience.

Thursday morning we spent at Arlington National Cemetery, where it is impossible not to be emotionally affected.  The sea of white tombstones is almost overwhelming.  I feel so grateful every time we're there for the sacrifice of so many so that I can lead the life I lead.  We saw the usual sights there, the eternal flame at John F Kennedy's grave, the changing of the guard.  I love Arlington, I love the peace and tranquility and the visual reminder that freedom certainly is not free.  Next, we headed back into DC for lunch at The Post Office Pavillion (again, don't really recommend, next time I think we'd do Union Station), then to The Mall.  We found the Carousel, for the first time ever, and had lots of fun riding, then we did all the monuments and felt incredibly lucky just to be there.  (By this time we could all barely walk, we truly should have 'trained' for our trip.  Ouch!  Our feet hurt!)  Unfortunately, I had a flare-up of sun-poisoning from our time at the zoo and at The Mall, and by the time we got back to the hotel that night I was itching like crazy and very sick.  Luckily, a few Advil and an anti-histamine and I was (almost) good as new by the next day.

Friday, was a rainy, yucky weather day, with the threat of a government shut-down looming, we decided to head back to The Mall to the Smithsonian museums--American History and Natural History.  I think every other tourist in town had the same idea because crowded does not adequately describe the museums.  Still, there were some fantastic moments, I loved seeing Julia Child's kitchen and I highly recommend The Spark Lab in the basement of American History.  Jacob and Julianna had a fabulous time spending a good hour and a half doing science experiments and all kinds of hands-on projects there.  It was really something.  We looked at as much of the museum as we could, (like I said, tons of people), then had lunch.  It was fine, though I certainly can not in good consciousness recommend the cafeteria in American History, then we headed to Natural History.  Normally, I love the museums, but they truly were insanely crowded this time, curbing the specialness just a bit.  Still, we saw lions and dinosaurs and butterflies, Oh My! and headed back to Rockville for dinner.  We went to a lovely restaurant I had researched ahead of time, Matchbox.  It was everything we needed at that moment--not too expensive, delicious food and excellent service.  We had wood-fire pizza and it really was a restorative evening.

Saturday, we headed back into DC to spend the morning at the International Spy Museum.  Truthfully, we had been going there simply because Jacob wanted to so badly.  Well, Jacob enjoyed it, but Mark and I definitely enjoyed it more.  I learned a lot and I hope to get back there the next time we're in DC.  It's not cheap, but I think it's worth it.  Lunch was in Chinatown, at a place called Wok 'N Roll, which was delicious and exactly what we needed before we headed back home.

All in all, we had a fabulous time and I'm very thankful for the memories we made.  I know I'll always remember our trip and it was so much fun seeing DC through Jacob and Julianna's eyes.  Julianna had studied Washington earlier this school year and she was so excited and appreciative of everything she saw.  Jacob definitely enjoyed the trip too.  There was lots of laughter, lots of togetherness, and there's very little I would do differently.

Favorite Things Friday

I'm back, sort of.  Still trying to figure out how I want my life to look, what things I want to change, what things are worth investing time in.  The funeral was wonderful, everything a funeral should be.  (Can a funeral be wonderful?  No idea, they're so horrifyingly wrong too.)  I still can't believe Dave's gone, and my friend is making a lot of very big changes in her life.  I think she's on the right track, it's not that, it's just a lot of major change all at once.

Washington was great, I think I'm all blocked up about writing about it because there were a lot of complicating things about it--I wasn't really "in the mood" for the first day and a half or so.  A major miscommunication resulted in us not really having the money I thought we did and we really should not have gone at all.  A flare up of sun poisoning nearly derailed the trip...but even with all those factors, we had a fabulous time and I'm thankful for all the memories we made.  Maybe even extra thankful in light of the "life's short" lessons we've been absorbing lately..

Lately I'm doing a lot of thinking about life.  Today, I'm focusing on five of my favorite things--little things, not the big obvious ones like my wonderful family and good health.  Actually, very little things, today I'm writing about five things that make me a bad mom, that actually make me a good mom.

Chocolate milk.  It's the only milk my daughter will drink and I'm letting go of the guilt and choosing to be thankful that she enjoys it and is getting the bone-strengthening benefits of milk.  (I'm also absurdly excited that our favorite milk, Snowville, is rolling out a chocolate milk.  Yay!!!)

Video games.  Okay, the bad mom confession, this one should really be titled, "too much video games".  Not my thing, not at all, but my 10 year old (and 26 year old, and hubby), looovvveee them and how can I not embrace something that brings my guys so much joy?

Freedom to quit..somtimes.  Yesterday Jacob came home from school and I asked him how his day was...expecting a pretty typical exchange.  Instead, he told me it was "terrible".  Why?  Because it was dance day.  Something snapped.  Looong story short, he's not dancing anymore.  He does not enjoy it.  Why are we doing it then?  There are reasons, but I decided that none of them were really worth seeing my 10 year old unhappy, over-scheduled and over-stressed.  Life is short, remember?

Fluffernutters.  Yes, letting go of the guilt over this one too.  My child loves a good fluffernutter (peanut butter and marshmallow cream sandwiches for those who are blissfully ignorant), and even though it's full of sugar, I'm choosing the glass-half-full attitude of it's full of protein too to get him through the afternoon.  I may not pack them every day, but again, seeing how happy such a basically worthless combination makes him, makes me happy.

Saying yes.  I say yes to questionable things, and I think it's part of what my kids will remember fondly someday.  Of course you can not wear your glasses to school so the Minnie ears you're wearing for hat day are more comfortable.  The hat you've planned all week on making, the pink hat you're so excited about because your teacher's daughter is battling cancer and you want to do something extra-special to be supportive?  The hat that turned out all wrong because we really didn't have the right things to make it and though you tried to suck-it-up and use what we had, it turned out all wrong?  Yes, we'll go to the store and get new supplies and start over.  Yes, I'll buy Pop-Tarts for a weekend treat.  Yup, you can stay up late reading tonight, even though it means you could be a cranky mess tomorrow.  Saying yes sometimes, even when maybe I "shouldn't", is definitely one of my favorite things.

What about you?  What's your favorite way to be a "bad" good mom?

Happy Birthday

Our girl turns 19 today.  (The big girl, we are blessed with two.)

Nineteen!

I'm trying, but I really can't wrap my brain around that.

It sounds trite, but it really flies by in the blink of an eye.

It's the first of her birthdays that I won't be with her.

That makes me sad.

I'm glad though, that she has plans she's excited about.

That she's thriving.

That she's happy.

I have so many wishes for my girl, it's hard to articulate them all.

I wish that she always has faith in her life.

I wish that she'll find fulfillment in her life.

I wish that she has the gift of friendships in her life.

I wish that someday she finds someone who is worthy of her to share her life with.

I wish that she will enjoy good health in her life.

I wish that she will always appreciate the love of her family for her.

I wish that she will always be true to herself.

I wish that she could somehow know how very proud of her I am and how very, very much I love her.

She's the little girl I always wanted to have.

I still remember vividly when we found out she was on her way to us.

I knew immediately how blessed we were and I was definitely right.

Happy Birthday Sweetie.

Have a very special day,

may all your dreams come true.

xoxo

<3