Festivities

This morning I was about to congratulate myself for not digging into the big bags of Halloween candy we have ready and waiting for tomorrow night. That is, until I remembered that things haven’t been all kale and kefir around here. Have you seen my Instagram stream?

Perhaps you remember these?

I’m pretty sure I was responsible for polishing off seventy-five percent of that bowl, which is much larger than it appears in this photo.

Today, we had a Halloween playdate brunch, and my kitchen would have made even the sweetest tooth proud.

We had cinnamon apples,

cinnamon rolls,

and caramel apples for party favors.

(Do you notice a theme here? We went apple picking yesterday, only due to a late frost, there were no apples to pick, but plenty to buy. So I did what I could have done at the grocery store, or farmer’s market, if I’m feeling fancy – I bought apples.)

(There were some savory things, too, but I didn’t take any pictures.)

Everyone left, the kids both napped (even Bub, bringing his weekly nap total to… ONE.)

After naps, we carved pumpkins and I made roasted pumpkin seeds. You know, because we hadn’t eaten enough.

(Be warned, if you’ve never attempted this, there are approximately 900 different methods/temperatures/lengths of time for roasting seeds, but that recipe worked for me today.

Tomorrow marks our first Halloween in the new house, and since this neighborhood is new to everyone, we have no idea what to expect. My husband has the day off (yay, furlough days!) so we’re making the preschool Hallween carnival a family affair, then we’re going to trick or treat until we drop. Fingers crossed that this neighborhood is feeling the Halloween spirit, pun unintended.

What are your Halloween* plans?

*Every time I spell Halloween, and I mean every, single time, I sing a song we learned in fourth grade: H-A-double L-O-W- double E-N.

Insta-Friday

     

Swinging at the one of four pumpkin patches visited last week.

We started a Friday night movie night tradition with Bub several months ago. It’s  now a weekly highlight for all of us. Last week, I was in a treat kind of mood, obviously.

More treats. Cinnamon sugar pretzel bites. We’re sure to see these again.

My college roommate/maid of honor got engaged! She met her fiancé right around the time I met my husband… and we’re married with two children now. I’m SO excited for her.

Tuesday afternoon and nothing to do.

The BEST cake pops ever at book club.  They were JUST CAKE. None of this cake-plus-frosting business. She had an actual cake pop maker that made perfectly round balls of cake, which she then dipped in ganache.

Drummin’ at music class.

My current favorite shirt. It was $4, it’s orange, and stripey, and SO comfortable.

Costume test run, minus her little frosting cap. Also, she’s pretty  much a walker all the time. Be careful what you wish for, people.

Linking up with Life Rearranged this week.

On fieldtrips, and more

Would you like to watch me make a mountain out of a mole hill?

Travel back in time with me to four weeks ago when I got a notice in Bub’s folder at school that his class would be going on a field trip to a pumpkin patch.

My first thought was, "Cute! His first field trip!”

They needed parent chaperones to drive and help out, siblings were not allowed to attend, and if you weren’t able to drive, then you needed to leave your child’s car seat at school.

And this is where I began to overreact freak out.

If I’m not there, then I’m trusting another parent to keep my child alive. Another parent who is also on their child’s first field trip and wanting to capture every minute with their dSLR.  If I’m not there, then someone needs to install my car seat into their car. Who’s to say if they’ll know how to install the car seat, or if they’ll care to do it perfectly. After all, it’s not their child’s life at risk.

If I do go, then I need to pay a fortune for a sitter, or ask my mom, who has watched Bubette so much recently, that I feel guilty for even asking.

In the end, I asked my mom to watch Bubette and she was more than happy to do so. In fact, when my dad found out on Sunday  night that the baby would be there, he was upset that my mom hadn’t let him know earlier. He had an unmissable conference call that he would have rearranged to be home if he had known. Note to self: Grandchild time isn’t a burden, especially when you’re giving the gift of just one child at a time.

And this kid had his very first field trip, with his mother there to capture it on only her phone, because I left the memory card for the camera at home, in the computer of course.

 

There’s a crazy thing happening now, and I only realize it when I’m alone with Bub. I’m spending a lot of time parenting from the sidelines. When we arrived at the pumpkin patch, Bub joined his classmates in running and screaming through the grass.  I spent a lot of time just following him as he attached himself to one friend or another, making choices on his own, like the haunted house or the corn maze. He picked his own pumpkin and carried it to the wagon. He managed his own lunch – opening, eating, packing it away – while I sat at the next table.

  He raises his hand to ask questions. I had NO IDEA he knew how to do this.

Despite all of this, I’m still a helicopter parent at heart, so my eyes were always on him. After lunch, when the kids abandoned the picnic tables and resumed running and screaming through the grass, I watched the different personality styles of the kids and parents becoming glaringly obvious.  The grass area was separated from the parking lot by a short fence, with an opening at the far side. Naturally, the kids gravitated toward that opening, so I positioned myself in that general area. I want to be the parent who can trust that her child won’t make a beeline for the parking lot, but I’m not. It’s exhausting always thinking about what could happen, what might happen if I let my guard down for a second.

The next few years, and their increasing independence, terrify me. My kids are always going to be the kids with the mom who might worry a little bit too much. They’re always going to be the kid with the mom who says “Be careful!” as often as she says, “I love you.” I see a lot of That’s not fair! in my future, from kids who would like their mom to just lighten up already. And this right here, these never ending thoughts of tomorrow, and next year, and what if, are what make a simple field trip to the pumpkin patch something for me to get completely worked up over.

This post  has, uh, kind of gone off the rails, so let’s end on a happy note. Here’s my current favorite photo of the baby.

Can you even stand the pigtails?

Pop Quiz

It’s 5:00 pm. You call someone, let’s say your spouse for the sake of this example, and tell them that you’ll be leaving in fifteen minutes. Since you’re fifteen minutes away at most, that puts your arrival at 5:30.

At 5:15 you’re not ready to leave like you thought you would be. Do you:

a) Call your spouse (for example) and let her know that you’re running a little bit behind and give her a new ETA.

b) Just keep working, ignoring the fact that dinner will shortly be on the table, and children’s fuses will be getting dangerously short. Calling now will just be annoying.

c) Go back in time and tell your spouse (FOR EXAMPLE) that you’ll be home at 6:00, because despite all of your best efforts to make this the year that you come home early, it’s just not happening.

What do you do?

Dinner Winners

(Lame post-title alert!)

When the school year started I fell into a bit of a cooking rut. We had been grilling so often over the summer that I rarely had to plan a meal. Once my husband was back at work I would find myself staring into a woefully under-stocked refrigerator around 4:00pm, wondering what I could throw together. September was rough.

While I’m certainly no kitchen master, I feel like I’m getting my dinner groove back. Here are some recent winners.

Crock Pot Chicken Soup Confession: This isn’t the recipe I used, nor did I make my soup in the crock pot. However, I plan to make it in the crock pot in the future, and this recipe is close enough to the one I used (and just about every other chicken soup recipe out there.)

Homemade Dinner Rolls to serve with the chicken soup, of course. Do not be afraid of making your own rolls. If I can make these, you can make these.

Crock Pot Spaghetti Sauce Obviously this is more of a method than a recipe. It’s just so much easier to throw everything in the crock pot after everyone goes down for a nap, than to try to manage one more thing on the stove at 5:00pm. I cheat and use Trader Joe’s jarred pasta sauce for this.

Chili Mac This is kind of embarassing, but it was a hit. I make chili about once a week during the fall, weather permitting or not. I had a ton leftover, so I used my leftover chili and adapted this recipe for the next night.

Mexican Cornbread Casserole I first made this when Erica originally posted it to Food Lush and it remains one of my husband’s favorites. The beauty of this recipe is that I can use all of the leftovers from taco night. I usually add a can of black beans to this recipe. Originally, my intent was to fill out the leftover turkey, since I didn’t think I had enough, but now I can’t imagine making this without them.

Some other delicious wins from this week that aren’t dinner, but still totally worth making:

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Hello, gorgeous, shadowy cookie. (Can you see the shape of my hand and iPhone in the shadow?)

Cinnamon Sugar Pretzel Bites

I really have no words for these. They’re very Sandra Lee Semi-Homemade, without the tablescape and themed cocktail, but they’re delicious.

(Evidently, I only take pictures of dessert.)

Belt-Tightening, The Reality

So, week one of my stop spending stupid money on things plan went... okay.

Some highlights:

I had to pay for parking at Bub's field trip on Monday. Unavoidable.

I had to pay for Bubette's music class. Also, unavoidable.

I forgot that I had lunch plans with a friend on Tuesday. She was driving an hour to see me, and doesn't have children, so I think she probably would have frowned upon a lunch of PBJ and Teddy Grahams. We went out.

I went to the slightly less convenient frozen yogurt place because I had a gift card.

I went to Old Navy because I had a free item coupon and ONLY GOT THE FREE THING. Usually I would talk myself into buying something because I feel bad about using a free thing coupon, or convince myself that I should get something because I'm saving so much money.

I went to Target with a list of three things and left with three things. I bypassed the Dollar Spot, but walked through the kids clothes. There was nothing that I absolutely had to have, but there was an entire rack of cute sweater dresses that might work for Thanksgiving and/or Christmas, on sale for $10! I didn't commit to anything. Fortunately, there is never a shortage of cute clothes for girls. If I had seen the perfect shirt for Bub I would have grabbed it, because we all know there are 75% fewer boy clothes and they're kept in the dark, cobwebby corner of the store.

I had to talk myself out of buying a few little things to use for a Boo! gift. I kind of thought I might start Boo-ing my neighbors, but really I was just trying to justify spending money on things I totally don't need. Nor do my neighbors. I can always do a freshly baked Boo gift, right?*

I went back to Target (it's *right next* to Bub's preschool and it's open early) and returned a few things. Part of the return went back on a gift card, so that's totally fair game for use during the next three weeks. The rest is cash, and even applying the principle of free-money to money earned on returns, it doesn't count. We'll call that making up for lunch on Tuesday.

Here's the thing. I tend to spend any money that I have ten times in my head. Spending $20 at Target isn't really a big deal, but it is a big deal if I do that every week. Also, there's always something coming up that I need/want to spend money on and these impulse purchases leave me whining that I never get to do anything fun. I've always been this way with money. Oddly, I hoard gift cards, which should serve me well during this challenge.

As for my other two challenges, I don't miss soda at all. I walked, but it was definitely just to check something off of the list, not because I wanted to, AT ALL.

*I can pretty much guarantee you this isn't going to happen.

Where we are

Bub is four, Bubette is 16 months and here's what things are like these days.

Restaurants are a nightmare. If it's just one of them, it's manageable, but with both it just isn't worth it. I think Bubette is the more difficult one. She needs her food cut into tiny pieces, she grabs anything she can get her hands on, she screeches. It's just not worth it. We went to lunch on Saturday after a trip to the pumpkin patch and I ended up bringing my lunch home, rather than dodge the grabby hands of a pre-nap toddler.

Bub is phasing out his nap. This shouldn't really come as any surprise because he's closing in on four and a half, but I'm not letting go easily. The factors in the problem are: Bubette takes a loooong nap, so when he naps with her, it's GLORIOUSLY quiet in the house. However, on days he takes a nap, bedtime is later and a much bigger issue. On days he doesn't nap he's passed out at 7:30 and we don't see him again until the morning. He is tired after school and could probably use a nap most school days, but won't always fall asleep, and if he does, will sleep way too long and is a complete nightmare to wake up. As it stands now we're working on a system where we do something together when Bubette goes to sleep, then he has quiet time for an hour, while I do... whatever, and then we do something together. Nap, or no nap, from 4:00 until bedtime the witching hour is upon us and I start desperately texting my husband to get an ETA.

Bubette is a toddler. Newsflash, right? I guess I had just forgotten what this actually means is that her body is far more capable than her mind. Because she's capable of climbing the stairs, she thinks it's a good idea. Because she can reach the knobs on the stove, they should be turned. Because the pantry is full of shelves with items within grabbing distance, they must be scattered on the floor. She's adorable and sweet and gives kisses and hugs and looks like the tiniest drunk Spring Break-er ever when she walks, so we forgive her, but man alive this age kills me.

I wish I could buy: Striped Cardigan

Since I’m not shopping for myself this month, I thought maybe I would tell you what I would buy, if I were impulse buying.

The marketing geniuses at Target place the groceries at the far corner of the store, knowing I’ll likely walk through and grab something for me, or the kids, or both on my way.

This week, I’m loving this Mossimo cardigan. (I would like to personally thank whoever is responsible for the drapey cardigan and poncho trends. My baked goods addiction appreciates the forgiving nature of these trends.)

 

This cardigan is sold out online, but is in Target’s weekly ad for $24.99, so it should be readily available in stores. Go on, someone should have this perfect-for-fall sweater if it can’t be me.

Bookshelves!

 

Well, I sure do know how to drag out a simple project. I think I bought these shelves in August, painted them some time in September, and finally hung them on the wall last weekend.

Before:

After:

I added the rug (which I think is too small for the room, but is staying because I ripped the tag off,) unpacked the doll highchair and crib (a birthday gift from my mom, the stroller is downstairs,) hung a picture on the wall and hung the shelves. Her room is very pink, but the walls and shutters are so neutral that it doesn’t bother me.  

I’ve toyed with the idea of doing a gallery wall on the space behind the rocking chair, but I think I’m done messing with her room for now.

Pre-Holiday Belt-Tightening (and a winner!)

First, we have a winner from the  Pay it Forward Giveaway.

Commenter #1 Saly!

Congratulations, Saly. I’ll be emailing you soon to figure out the details.

***

As of today, I'm going to minimize a few things.

First up, a one month spending freeze. This doesn't include things like groceries obviously. I've never understood how someone can manage to eat from their pantry for a month. What about produce? And dairy? My family goes through two and a half gallons of milk a week (and I don't drink milk!) No, groceries are fair game, and so is the following: using gift cards, one breakfast a week with a friend, and holiday outfits for the kids. Bub may actually be all set in this department, but Bubette needs a Thanksgiving and Christmas dress (two Christmas dresses actually.) If I find a great deal before my spending freeze is up, I'm buying them. 

It does include all of the random crap I pick up at Target every week, driving through McDonald's for an iced coffee when I'm perfectly capable of making one at home, any and all online shopping (unless it's for the above mentioned holiday outfits, or using a gift card.)

And we're going to apple country in two weeks, and money has already been set aside for that trip, so that doesn't count either.

(Crap, there's one more: I'll be spending for Saly's Pay it Forward package, too. But that was a pre-determined expense. I assure you, walking through Target and not buying anything for myself will be a huge challenge.)

Does it sound like this isn't a challenge? It will be. Now that I can't go home while Bub's in preschool, I'm spending so much money on things for me and the kids that we just don't need, because it's easy to go shopping to kill the time. 

Second, I'm eliminating soda and juice. The end goal is to drink more water, obviously, but coffee and tea are still allowed. I don't really drink juice, but am a water-avoider, so I'll drink it if it's around and replacing soda with juice isn't really a great trade off. 

Finally, in my quest to consume all things pumpkin, my clothes aren't exactly fitting like I would like them to. In an attempt to create a new habit, I'm committing to walking three days a week, either with the kids, or without. Pushing 100-plus pounds of kids and stroller is a better workout, in theory, but the stops to redistribute snacks and tell the baby for the 100th time to stop hitting her brother make that seem like the less desirable option. I might also find a good walking route while Bub is in school, both keeping me out of Target, and away from Starbucks cake pops. (I'm rolling in Starbucks gift cards.)

Would anyone like to join me in any of the above pursuits? Or do you have a challenge of your own that you want to take on for the next month?

Book Recommendations

I'm always hesitant to tell someone that I loved a book, or to recommend a book for someone to read, because what if you judge me on my book preferences? What if you read the book, or even worse, if you can't finish the book because it's so awful, and that says something to you, about me?

Regardless, I'm going to step way out of my comfort zone and tell you to read these books. If you want. Don't blame me if you hate them.

Girls in White Dresses by Jennifer Close

When I picked this up at the library, I thought it would probably be chick lit: light and fluffy with a side of ridiculous. (I'm not knocking chick lit! I've read everything Sophie Kinsella/Madeleine Wickham has ever written, and when I found Mini-Shopaholic in the Kindle store, I stayed in the rocking chair long past the point Bubette had been nursed back to sleep.) It wasn't that, really. There was zero ridiculous. It felt like reading real stories of real people dealing with real relationships. There was one point in the story where I thought it might possibly be completely depressing, but it wasn't. And, at the end of the book, each of the stories is brought to a completely reasonable resolution. I hate when an author makes me guess what happens next. It's not my book! You tell me! Oh, and this book is Elizabeth approved also, for further endorsement.

Left Neglected and Still Alice, both by Lisa Genova

Left Neglected was our book club book this month. It's about a woman trying to balance everything: a major career, a husband, three small children. She's in an accident and damage to the right side of her brain leaves her with Left Neglect (a real thing) where she's unaware of the left of anything. (All of this is information on the book jacket.) She doesn't see people standing to her left, the food on the left side of her plate, the things on the left side of the room. She has to remind herself that she has a left arm, left leg, a left side of her face. It's fascinating, really.

Still Alice is about a woman with early onset Alzheimer's. It takes you through the steps of discovery and then the effects of the disease on her and her family. It's been a few years since I've read this book, but I remember it reading like a memoir.

Both books have the potential to be seriously depressing, (and Still Alice knocks a huge window into the possibilities of your own life, or the life of your parents, or husband, or...) but both are really wonderful stories of family. AND, both books are brought to a nice, neat, believable resolution.

Bonus: If you're in a book club, all of these books have plenty to talk about, if your group is the kind to actually talk about the book.

Why I Love the Internet

When I was in college, we had to have a special card installed in our computer in order to be able to connect to the internet. It wasn't really easy to manage yourself, so they would send techie students out to help you. I remember sitting wordlessly while a stranger, who would become a friend (who remains pretty tech-y and has created an amazing cooking app) fixed my computer for me, opening up an entirely different world. We had impossibly long email addresses; in those days it was all about AIM and ICQ. As I type this, I'm remembering that I was constantly tweaking my AOL profile to reflect... I'm not sure what exactly. I think it was more of just a string of inside jokes than anything else.

***

Three years after college graduation, I would tell my parents that I had someone that I wanted them to meet. Someone that I had met online. My dad was shocked, to say the least, but I reminded him that the internet isn't exactly the Wild Wild West. Sure, it's easier to lie online. It's easy to post pictures that are old, or deceiving, or not even really you. Ultimately though, you have to use some caution when meeting anyone, and I had met this particular person at an Angel game, where we would have an audience of 40,000 witnesses, should he attempt to kidnap me for ransom.

He didn't. I married him six years ago, and because of him, I have these two precious babes.

***

In August, I attended BlogHer. While it made me feel like a very, very small fish, I had a great time. Mostly, I can attribute that to my roommates. I really got to “know” Erica when we were pregnant with Bubette and Sam at the same time  (That’s grammatically awkward. She was pregnant with Sam while, I was pregnant with Bubette.) Any nerves I had about being the new girl in Erica and Donna’s friendship flew out the window with seconds.

I came home from the weekend giddy, and registered for The Blathering the same day. As of now, I’m not going to The Blathering anymore and I’m very, very whiny about it. In two weeks I’ll either take an extended break from Twitter, or I’ll watch it like a hawk so I can feel jealous in real time.

The crazy thing is that Erica is exactly in person like I imagined her to be, which is a great relief. Her voice and accent, however, I didn’t anticipate.  Many of the people going to The Blathering have started doing the accent vlog as a way of getting to know each other, which is genius. Erica posted hers today, and well, I think you should watch it, even if you just skip ahead to the last 45 seconds to hear her explain the origins of WAYNEDEAN. It will make your day. It totally made mine.

Doing Good (A giveaway!)

I’ve had a little bit of luck on the internet lately. First, I won a couple of things in Jessica Gottlieb’s 20,000 Twitter follower giveaway, namely a week with a brand new Acura. Buh-bye minivan! For a week at least! Although I do, truly, love my minivan, it will be nice to park it for a week and drive something that doesn’t smell like Goldfish. I also won the Citrus Lane giveaway from Leah, just in time for three close friends to announce their pregnancies. So, it seems like it’s my turn to do a little something to pass this along.

I’m always hoping to win a Pay it Forward contest (origin:? I want to say Swistle, but I think that is just the first place I saw it) so that I can send a box of fun things to someone, but never have. I sent someone a Crappy Day Present recently, and it was fun to shop for things that I would like to buy for myself, and then send it to someone else. It occurs to me and my pea-sized brain that I can start my own Pay it Forward rotation.

So, here’s what you do. Leave a comment*, any comment, and you’ll be entered to win a package from me, sponsored by me, full of things of my choosing, but (hopefully) fun for you. Then, you host** your own Pay it Forward giveaway, and pass along the love. Got it? I'll leave comments open through Sunday, 10/9.

*If you need some comment inspiration, tell me what you’re watching on TV these days.

**You do NOT need a blog to participate. If you win, and you’re blog-less, I’m happy to host the contest here, and pass along all of the relevant information.

Oh! Be sure to leave an email, or a blog link, or some way for me to contact you in your comment!

Housekeeping

First, Marie Green commented on my post about Bubette walking that our grass looks fake. It is!

In our last house we had a tiny backyard, and we struggled to keep our grass green. The dog killed it, the rabbits ate it down to nothing, and the water toys in the summer alternately burned or drenched it. So, we went fake and we loved it. When we were landscaping this backyard we knew we wanted fake grass again. It’s not inexpensive, but it is low/no maintenance. If you don’t have a pet you could put it in and never think about it again. We have a dog, so we rinse it off occasionally, and that’s about it.

Moving on.

I’ve long since wanted to drop the Bub/Bubette names from this blog, like, since before there even was a Bubette. A few things have stopped me, namely the name of the blog itself. But, also I’ve wondered what I would call them. I don’t really want to use their real names. They’re not a secret, but that’s just not really an option for me. So, what would I call them. Do I use made up names? I know a lot of people do this, but how do I rename my children? Although, I suppose that anything I choose couldn’t be any worse that Bubette, right? I would love to hear your thoughts on this. Also, if you would like to name my children, be my guest. (No, really. It took nine agonizing months to name them the first time, I’m not sure I can do it again.)

16 Months

Likes: People who will hold her. Snacks. Breakfast. Lunch. Dinner. Bubbles. Playing with water. Things that stack or nest inside each other. Music. Being dirty. Hitting (If you have any advice for stopping this, let me know! Our current plan starts and stops with trying desperately not to laugh.)

Dislikes: Waiting for food. Riding in the car alone.

Stats: At 15 months she was 28 pounds! Although she’s taking steps, she’s not a walker yet, and my arm/back/entire body is killing me!

Sleep: AMAZING. She didn’t sleep through the night until she was one, and now she sleeps a solid 11.5 hours at night and takes a good 3-4 hour nap. The very best part is that she goes to sleep easily. There’s no complicated routine, no waiting until she’s asleep enough to put her in bed. We do have a routine, but sometimes we’re racing to get home for naptime and I just set her in bed and out she goes. It’s a dream. I still do the naptime song and dance with Bub, and he’s four(!) so I’m shocked every single time I realize she went to sleep without a fight.

She’s the sweetest girl. Truly, if all babies were like her, I would have one hundred more.