Archive for September, 2008
I am *so* excited. My husband mentioned it the other day, and I said, “Hmm … we could always make that our family Christmas gift, in lieu of buying small presents for each other.” He thought that sounded like a good plan. Unfortunately, we couldn’t seem to find one at our local stores. But Jeff did some searching online the other night and found a *great* deal. Can’t wait for it to arrive! And we have plenty of space in our bonus room for moving around, dancing around, and whatever else Wii owners do (I’m pretty clueless about the entire thing, although I keep hearing about how fantastic Wii Fit is). Way better than a weight loss pill! :) I can’t wait to get up and get moving. And this will be something fun that we can enjoy as a family!
Lucas is at preschool right now. Ahh, how I love this time! :) It’s fantastic for Luke because he *loves* preschool so very much, and it’s terrific for Meredith and me to spend some time together. Also, I’m able to get some things done … like making phone calls without screaming in the background! :) I could *so* go for a nap right now, though. This breezy autumn weather is perfect for sleeping. I think that I’m still a bit tired from that flu bug that I had last week, too. I’m feeling much better now, thank goodness.
Oh, and our leaves are *really* starting to change. The bright red and orange trees are my favorite! Here’s a picture that I took yesterday in our driveway. This season is my absolute favorite in upstate New York. I feel *so* happy that we’ve gotten to experience it for eight years now! I can’t wait to take the kids to Vermont soon and see the leaves, stop somewhere for lunch, visit Robert Frost’s grave, and do some fall shopping! Pure maple syrup, anyone?
Yes, I realize that Christmas is several months away. But … is anyone up for a discussion about egg nog recipes? :) What’s your opinion about this creamy, rich beverage enjoyed during the yuletide season? Do you partake in some every year, or do you steer clear of it whenever possible?
When I was growing up, we *always* enjoyed a small glass of egg nog while putting up our Christmas tree (typically, the weekend after Thanksgiving). It was always such a special treat. My mom doesn’t like nutmeg sprinkled on top of hers, but my dad and I both do. (Freshly grated nutmeg is even better!) When we became more health-conscious, though, I remember that we tried making egg nog from scratch by using Egg Beaters. Yes, it tasted a bit different, but it was still delicious. Or sometimes we would mix regular egg nog with skim milk to lighten it up a little bit. (I wonder whether egg nog with Splenda is available nowadays?) Regular egg nog is *seriously* rich ~ but ohhh, the taste! I adore it! And only having it at Christmastime makes it *so* very special!
When I was pregnant with Lucas, someone told me that pregnant women couldn’t drink egg nog. I was *so* sad to hear that. But when I consulted with my doctor, he said that only the unpasteurized kind was unsafe for pregnant women ~ but most commercial egg nogs are pasteurized anyway, so they’re absolutely fine. Of course, the spiked stuff was off limits back then … :)
My husband isn’t a fan of egg nog (plus, he’s lactose intolerant!), and I have no idea whether our kids have even tried it (I don’t think so). But every year, I *love* continuing the tradition of enjoying some egg nog while putting up our Christmas tree. And I’ve noticed that our grocery store has several different flavors of egg nog, too ~ cinnamon, French vanilla, sugar cookie, and even pumpkin! (Hmm … maybe some Halloween and Thanksgiving pumpkin egg nog should be a new tradition!) Here are some yummy-sounding recipes that use flavored egg nogs.
And of course, I can’t end this blog entry without mentioning Starbucks’ egg nog latté. Just heavenly. I love having at least one of those every season. There’s also a cute little coffee shop in our area called Presto Coffee, and they put up signs everywhere saying that their egg nog lattés are *real*. I actually think that theirs may be slightly better than Starbucks’. Last year, I told the owners of our local café that they should try making egg nog lattés, too. (Mmm, how good would it be to combine chai tea and egg nog to make a chai tea egg nog latté? Ahh, maybe I’ve invented something new!)
Also, have you ever tried making an egg nog cake? We went to a New Year’s Eve party once where someone brought one. It was delicious. Egg nog cupcakes would be *so* adorable. I’ve also had egg nog truffles before ~ totally indulgent and rich! And I can’t forget about egg nog-scented bath and body products. I could write an entire blog entry just about those. SO amazing!!!
This Christmas, I look forward to relaxing with a small glass of egg nog while looking at the lights on our newly decorated Christmas tree. And I think that we still have a bit of bourbon in our pantry ~ even better! :) So … how many hours of working out would be required to “burn off” a single glass of egg nog? I don’t even want to think about it!
I just ate a ham-and-cheese sandwich. Why is that huge news? Because the last time that I ate one (my freshman year of college), I came down with the stomach flu shortly thereafter ~ and I haven’t been able to eat a ham-and-cheese sandwich since. It’s a psychological thing. (Those of you who know about my anxiety disorder probably aren’t surprised!) But I actually thought that ham sounded good today for lunch, and I decided it was time to get over that silly fear. I know that Jeff likes ham, so that’s why I bought some at the store. I *never* buy it, but I figured that he might enjoy something different for a change. Anyway … yay me! :)
I’m enjoying some quiet “me time” this morning while Jeff and the kids are at church, but they’re due home very soon. Last night, Jeff washed the floor in our bonus room and straightened up some of the kids’ toys, so I continued his cleaning mission today by completely rearranging things and getting the room organized. I put away the toys that Lucas and Meredith don’t play with much anymore, and I dusted everything. I also cleared off our computer desks (nothing frustrates me more than a messy work space!). Now, all that’s left is to wash the windows and vacuum the floor. It looks super in here. Jeff’s parents will more than likely be sleeping in our bonus room when they come to visit for Meredith’s second birthday, so I want everything to look great. We spend most of our time up here, too, and it gets messy fast. :(
I scheduled a Halloween portrait session for Luke and Meri on Wednesday. So excited about that! They have adorable Halloween outfits to wear courtesy of my parents (oh, I can’t *wait* for you to see Meri’s new Halloween dress!). Meredith has actually never had her picture taken professionally, believe it or not. Plus, her birthday is on Halloween, so it’s a *very* special time for all of us. It’ll be interesting to see how the photographer handles two rambunctious toddlers. I hope that they stand still long enough for a good photo! But hey, if it doesn’t work out, then I can always try to “stage” a photo here at home.
I’m also excited because a lady is coming on Friday to tune our new piano! It belonged to my grandparents and is *extremely* special to me. Some of the keys don’t play, and I’m not sure why ~ but hopefully the piano tuner can fix that. I’m curious to see exactly how out of tune the piano is, although it doesn’t sound bad to me. A piano teacher friend of mine advised us to let the piano “rest” for a while and get used to its new environment since it was moved all the way here from Indiana (back in June), so that’s why we waited a while before having the tuning done. I hadn’t touched a piano in years, and it’s *so* wonderful to now have music in our home!
Shawna over at Airing Dirty Laundry invited her readers to comment on her entry and receive a letter from her. She chose “b” for me, but she stipulated that I could *not* use anything related to baths (bubbles, bathtub, etc.). Oooooh, tricky! I *love* a challenge! :) Here are my answers, in no particular order (and please leave a comment letting me know that you’d like to participate ~ and I’ll assign you a letter, too!):
1. Bread. Freshly baked, homemade. Slathered with *real* butter or dipped into an infused extra-virgin olive oil. Also quick breads. Lemon, pumpkin, chocolate-chip zucchini … I could make an entire meal from bread alone!
2. Blogging. (Pretty obvious, huh?)
3. Brand-new office supplies (notebooks, pens, notecards, stationery, and so on). I went to Staples last week and *seriously* had to restrain myself.
4. Baking (especially this time of year!). I just baked blueberry-lemon mini quick breads this morning, actually. Sold them at our town’s farmers’ market.
5. Buying new clothes for myself (a rarity these days because it’s impossible to try on clothes with two children in tow).
6. Baby snuggles and giggles.
7. Burning candles (I can’t *wait* to receive the new Café au Lait Yankee Candle that I just ordered!).
8. Buying the Sunday paper and then cutting out all of the coupons. (P.S. Speaking of coupons and discounts, if you’re looking for some laptop memory, here’s a good deal.)
9. Beverages. I *love* trying new and different ones. I’m a sucker for flavored coffee drinks (not good for my waistline at all, *sigh*).
10. Bloomington, IN (where Jeff and I went to college). Great town and lots of fun. I miss some of our old “haunts.” Would *love* to enjoy some Dragon Express and have a Blind Dave’s Mocha at the Runcible Spoon right now!
Every year around this time, I seem to come down with it. Last year, I ushered in October with body aches, chills, headaches, etc. And this season is proving extremely similar, unfortunately. :(
Last night I was snuggling with Lucas and Meredith and watching Star Wars, and I noticed that my throat suddenly felt sore. So did the glands on both sides of my neck. Just great. I chalked it up to allergies or something, though, and didn’t think much of it. When they fell asleep around 8:30, I went to my computer and worked on a freelance assignment. I took a break around 9 p.m. and decided to fold some laundry that had piled up on our bed. Thing is, I could barely do it. It was a *huge* effort just to pick up some clothes that had fallen on the floor. Every part of my body ached. It even hurt to brush my hair. :( Right then, I knew that I had the flu.
Thank goodness it’s just a regular flu, though, and nothing worse ~ body aches, chills, headache. I can deal with that. It was just about all that I could do to drive Lucas to preschool today, though. I’m sure that I looked absolutely awful … no makeup, no contact lenses (because Jeff accidentally poured mine down the drain a few weeks ago!) … so I tried not to stay for very long (besides, I didn’t want to get anyone else sick). I also hope that I didn’t pass along any yucky germs to Carol yesterday when she was visiting. It sucks to be sick anytime ~ but especially when you have a *ton* of things to get done. Moms sure don’t get sick days, do they? :(
I’d love to swig some Nyquil or take a Tylenol P.M. this evening and get some good rest, but I don’t think that would mesh well with my anxiety medication. I’m just going to ride it out. And hopefully it won’t last for too long. Thanks to everyone who has wished me well via Facebook.
And, so as not to end on a negative note, *many* congratulations being sent to my friend Laura in Scotland, who just gave birth five days ago to her handsome son (and third child), Ruairidh. She sounds deliriously happy right now, and I’m *so* excited for her and her family. And congratulations to another fellow blogger, Chastity, who just welcomed her brand-new twin girls into the world! Such happy news!
I’ve been so busy today that I’m just now getting around to posting a photo for Wordless Wednesday. The other night, I gave Meredith a bath. Got her out of the tub when she was done, wrapped her in a towel, dried her off, applied lotion, put on a new diaper, dressed her in comfy pajamas, brushed her hair ~ the works. Then, what did she do? Ran down the hallway at breakneck speed and jumped right back into the bathtub. Fully clothed.
I guess that she’s just a “bathtub junkie” like her mama. :)
- I was kind of bummed that I couldn’t stay to watch Lucas do his first show-and-tell at preschool today. Parents are welcome to stay only through “calendar time,” which I completely understand. I did bring our old camera to capture a short video of him during preschool, though, and I’m attempting to upload it to Flickr right now. Luke was in charge of bringing a snack for the class today, so we brought dog bone-shaped “Scooby Snacks” (graham crackers ~ thanks, Mom and Dad!) and white bread shaped like puppies with strawberry jam on top along with apple juice. He brought Learning Puppy and Blue for show-and-tell, so I tried to continue the theme. :)
- I’m swamped with freelancing right now. I have a book edit due on Thursday, then I have another book to edit after that. I’m interviewing two people tomorrow for a feature story that I’m writing, and I also need to make an appointment with someone else for a different article. Hope that I can get it all done. The end of the month is always hectic for me.
- I gave Meredith a bath last night. Dried her off, gave her a new diaper, changed her into pajamas ~ the works. And what did she do? Ran down the hallway and jumped right back into the bathtub. Fully clothed. It was hilarious!
- My husband has a business trip for work this week ~ just two days at West Point. He left this morning and gets back on Thursday.
- Green Mountain pumpkin spice decaf coffee is AMAZING. We sent some to my dad for his birthday (which was yesterday), and when he totally raved about it, I couldn’t resist buying some for myself. I’m the only one in our household who drinks coffee, and my parents gave me an awesome new four-cup coffee maker for my birthday! A little splash of milk, a sprinkle of sugar … voilà, an instant pumpkin-spice latté. Just delicious. Some of the best coffee that I’ve ever had! All it needs is an apple cider doughnut to go with it. :)
- Looking forward to snuggling with the kids tonight underneath our down comforter and watching a movie. :)
I played lightsabers with Lucas this morning. Afterward, he sat down at our kitchen island and sighed, “All that sword fighting has made me hungry.” :) Isn’t it absolutely *adorable* what kids say sometimes? And the other day, after using his new crayons in his “Handy Manny” coloring book, he turned to me and said, “All that coloring has made me thirsty.” LOL! :)
I enjoyed a mommy-and-daughter adventure on Saturday. Kinderhook, NY, hosted its annual “Harvest Day” at Lindenwald, the home of former U.S. President Martin Van Buren. That’s Meredith playing on the steps. It was *so* much fun spending some one-on-one time. And the event was perfect for her … not crowded, gorgeous weather, lots of animals, not too much walking, and friendly people. She danced almost all afternoon. A wonderful Celtic/Welsh musical group (complete with a dulcimer, just like my grandpa built many years ago) was serenading the crowd, and I encouraged Meri to get onto the dance floor. She started wiggling her shoulders, galloping in circles, and dancing with another two-year-old girl. She was also enthralled with watching the grown-up dancers. Toward the end, she laid flat on her tummy on the dance floor (what can I say … our daughter *loves* having an audience!). She also gave her Learning Puppy to an elderly gentleman in the audience … one of her “adoring fans.” Girl’s gonna be a rock star! LOL! :)
The bunnies were also a *huge* hit. At one point, she plopped down onto her rear and just sat near the cages, watching the rabbits for quite some time. She even fed them. Surprisingly, she wasn’t very into the miniature horses ~ but I think that she was getting tired. She also got to see a sheepdog herding competition, a lady making fresh herbed butter (the free samples were delicious!), a blacksmith, several ducks (oh, how she loved those, too!), a man weaving brooms, some sheep shearing, and oxen. We didn’t tour Lindenwald because I thought she would run around too much (and plus, I would have had to leave our stroller outside). I wanted to go for a horse-drawn carriage ride, but the line was unfortunately *way* too long. Oh, and we also sampled some New York State apples and some warm hazelnut-flavored coffee (yes, Meredith had a tiny sip!).
I also got to chat with a newspaper photographer documenting the event (and took a look at his Nikon ~ wow, nice lens!). Finally, she played for a while on the steps of Lindenwald, and I was able to get some really great photos of her. If you’d like to see the other ones that I took, they’re here.
For dinner that night, I baked a tomato-basil tart. Incredible. I made the pie crust from scratch and used fresh tomatoes and basil from our weekly CSA share. I think that I’m going to make that dish for my MOMS group meeting on Tuesday, too, but with fresh mozzarella. I am *all* about baking when autumn arrives. And I’ve realized that while I don’t have much time to craft anymore with taking care of the kids, cooking is one thing that I *can* do ~ and they enjoy helping, which makes it very memorable. Cooking is definitely a crafty thing, in my opinion.
Hope you’ve enjoyed your weekend, too!
A friend in my photography e-mail group actually guessed what yesterday’s photo was: a base on a baseball diamond! The “quilted” pattern was probably misleading. I am *so* bad at figuring out photo quizzes. Hope you had fun, though!
Speaking of the playground, Meredith kicked me in the face *so* hard yesterday that I thought my nose was broken. We were swinging, and when I went to push her as she came back to me, she suddenly moved her feet behind her and I was standing a bit too close. Her foot, with heavy sneakers on, kicked me right in the nose. I stopped and leaned over the chain-link fence for a while because it hurt *so* freaking much. Thank goodness it’s not broken, and surprisingly there was no bruise ~ but my nose did bleed a little bit. Ouch.
I’ve spent the better part of today baking sugar cookies with almond frosting and tiny multicolored autumn leaf sprinkles on top. Will drop those off to sell at our farmers’ market tomorrow. Lucas and Meredith have consumed *way* too much sugar today, and I feel sorry for Luke’s preschool teachers! LOL! :) Many thanks to my inlaws, who sent the cute fall sprinkles as part of my birthday present. If you’re looking for a sugar cookie mix that’s actually good, Krusteaz makes a nice one. They’re called “bakery-style” sugar cookies. I wasn’t in the mood to make ones from scratch, but they actually taste like I did.
We need to find a new babysitter. Our regular one went back to college this fall, and her schedule is busy to say the least. Her only day off is Tuesday; other than that, she’s busy with classes and a job. I’ve searched Sitter City and actually found someone in our town, and I plan to also e-mail the moms in Lucas’s preschool class to see whether they know of anyone locally who is good. I also have a few other leads that I want to pursue. It would be nice to find someone *here* in our area. I need to conduct an interview on the 24th and have absolutely no one lined up yet. Ugh. :(
Speaking of childcare duties … I smell a stinky diaper! Yuck … time for a baby clothes change! Gotta run!
