Minutiae

Yesterday I left for work early - I had an all-day meeting and needed to make sure I wasn't late. M. dropped the kids off, and since I was up early, he and the kids were up and ready early, too. He dropped them off right around 7 am. My meeting, which was supposed to end by 4:30, was still going strong when I snuck out the door at 5:20 in order to make it to school by its 6:00 p.m. closing time. I barely made it. This meant the kids were at daycare for just about 11 hours yesterday.

In an effort to distract the kids from our abbreviated evening, I got them Burger King for dinner. Kind of like bribery, but they didn't know why I was bribing them.

Today I picked the kids up on the early side, to make up for the extra long day at daycare yesterday. I offered to play with the kids before starting dinner, since it was still pretty early - spend some unrushed, quality time together that we don't usually get. They decided to watch TV instead.

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It drives me nuts that as soon as I get home each night with the kids, I am bombarded with demands. Help me get my coat/shoes off (Lucy, who is actually perfectly capable of doing those tasks herself), turn on the TV (both kids), put on a different show (usually Finn), get me a snack (both kids), feed me (cat, accompanied by annoying ankle-rubbing and other trip-causing behavior), cook dinner STAT (me/the "schedule"), make something healthy (also me), make soemthing kid-friendly (kids again), get me another snack (kids, accompanied by the inevitable whining when I say no), start emptying the dishwasher so M. doesn't have to do it later (M.), clean as I go (just nice to do, and I don't always do it, as I'm not very nice). All this happens in the roughly 45 minutes I have before M. gets home from work.

I wish that I could be left alone to cook [food I like] in peace.

Also, I need more "pleases" in my life.

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My Weight Watchers weigh-in for the week is tomorrow morning. I ate tacos for dinner tonight. Even though I did use the 40% less sodium seasoning, this was probably not a smart dinner choice.
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There are 5 loads of laundry sitting in a mountain on the floor of my basement, waiting to be folded.

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Last Sunday I baked all afternoon with Finn. First we made Buttermilk Oatmeal muffins, mostly so I could use up the rest of the container of buttermilk I had in my fridge. To finish off the milk, I had to make a double batch - 36 muffins. I figured this was OK, as I could give them to the kids each morning as a pre-school snack, and also freeze some. Finn and Lucy ate one bite each, and declared they don't like them.

*I* like them, and M. likes them. However, I hadn't planned on eating 34 of them.

We also made zucchini cookies, as Finn was curious how you could make a cookie with a vegetable. It took us an ungodly amount of time to shred up the zucchini with the brand new food mill my mom gave me for Christmas. Should have gone low-tech and used a shredder, I guess, but at least it was a good upper body workout.

The kids *kind of* like the cookies, but still prefer other dessert foods.

There are far too many delicious baked goods in this house for my liking (and my diet's existence), and too few people to eat them.

I wish I could eat anything I wanted to, and still be healthy.


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I have been good about getting back on track with exercise, jogging three times this week. I have not been so good about not eating all the things.

This is directly related to the plethora of baked goods in my house. And also the container of Two-Bite Brownies that sustained me throughout my all-day meeting yesterday. Two-Bite Brownies are a weakness of mine. There's just something about the slightly crispy outer layer, and gooey soft inner layer, that makes my soul happy. But not my scale, of course.

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Lucy is completely potty trained, even at night. This family? Is done with diapers. In Memoriam: October 2006 - January 2012. They lived a short (yet too long), filled (if not exactly fulfilling) life. May they rest in peace.

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Lucy sometimes hisses at us. She loves chapstick, princesses, Tinker Bell, Hello Kitty, Luke Skywalker, Annakin Skywalker, and Darth Vader. She does not like Emperor Palpatine. She has been getting in trouble for hitting at school lately. She wears 3T, will be 3 years old in just a few months. She looks adorable in a pony tail, and despises having her hair brushed. Her favorite song right now is "Moonshadow" by Cat Stevens. She won't wear a hat or mittens most days, and is a pretty picky eater. Her favorite food at the moment is macaroni and cheese, or so she claims - she occasionally goes rogue and turns her nose up at it. Her favorite TV show is Super Why. She still sleeps in a crib. She likes to tell her father that he's handsome, but she still asks for me to be the one to put her to bed most nights (and brush her teeth, and get her out of bed, and take her to the bathroom...).
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Finn has also been getting in trouble at school for hitting lately. We really know how to raise them, eh? He has now watched all 6 of the Star Wars movies, and is officially obsessed. He is capable of asking 3,472 questions about Star Wars on any given day. He plays with Star Wars toys, reads Star Wars books, and likely dreams about Star Wars. He is starting to get the hang of reading simple words, and whips through his math homework with little to no help. He is sweet and sensitive, always trying to make sure that the people he loves don't feel bad. He wants to win at games, but doesn't want us to lose, at least not too badly. He is taking swim lessons right now. His favorite food is still pizza, and his favorite TV show is The Wild Kratts. He whines A LOT (seriously, when does that end??). He is stubborn and frustrating and funny and loving. He still gives us spontaneous hugs and kisses. One of his latest tics involves a droning, constant humming while he's zoned out, which is about as annoying as it sounds. He now sleeps until at least 7 am on the weekends, and is damn hard to get out of bed on the weekdays.

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That's life, lately. Just wanted to get something down, to get back to writing something, ANYTHING, here. To keep a record of life, for the days to come when we look back and try to remember how it all was.

It's better than it sounds, though. Writing out the details, it can seem miserable. On a day-to-day basis, life can BE miserable. But over all, we are fortunate and happy and decidedly NOT miserable. These kids, they are work. They are frustration in a short package. But they bring so much to our lives, and I know it's all worth it. These two little beings, that turn their noses up at my cooking and beat the crap out of each other, they are awesome. I recognize it every day, and make mental note of it. I'm just not that good at capturing it here, to share with all of you (and my future, memory-addled self). I need to get better at that, at putting down here all the good details. I hope I do.

Food "Pin"spiration

Well, I did it – I surrendered myself (finally? Seems like everyone else is already doing it) to yet another internet movement/fad/obsession. I crossed over to the dark side and requested a Pinterest account (still holding out on Twitter, though...). Mainly because I’ve become a bit addicted to browsing through food blogs. Seriously, I can’t stop looking at all these delicious, beautiful looking pictures of food, and dreaming of making them. How’s that for diet inspiration – not so good, eh? Anyway, I would like to actually COOK some of these delightful recipes (the healthy ones, of course... and maybe one or two not-so-healthy-but-oh-so-yummy-looking ones), instead of just drooling over them. But I don’t want to end up with a stack of messy, crumply, tree-killing, bound-to-be-lost-and/or-stained sheets of 8.5 X 11 paper. So I’m joining Pinterest (well, I’m on the “wait list”, so I *may* be joining Pinterest, if they extend me an invitation), which I plan to use to “pin” these recipes all in one place, a place I can then reference for inspiration when I’m menu planning and what not. We’ll see if my usage extends beyond that – I’ve heard that once you start browsing and pinning, it’s hard to stop.

How about you? Do you have a Pinterest account? If you do, what do you use it for?

Also note that, to better feed my food blog obsession, I’ve started a new blogroll to the right to make it easier for me to frequent some of my favorite "food porn" sites. I’m sure I will be adding to this list. I encourage you to browse, too – you’d have to be the most heartless, dedicated, food-hater to not come away with a rumbly tummy and an intense desire to cook something absolutely fabulous!

Yet Another New Year's Resolution Post

I'm trying to work back to some kind of momentum, not just for blogging (which I have clearly been lacking), but in many aspects of my life. The winter holiday season is something I look forward to every year, yet something that also keeps me in perpetual wonderment of whether I'll be able to keep my head above water with all the rushing, rushing, rushing to create a magical, or even just OK, experience for my family. Christmas is so much more stressful once you have kids!

Christmas this year was great, fun, different, and exhausting. We traveled to Wisconsin, as we do every other year. New this year was that our time in Wisconsin was spent at an indoor water park in the Wisconsin Dells. SO. FUN. The kids had a blast, we had a blast. But oh my god, was it exhausting! Take all the planning and shopping for Christmas, figure out how to transport it to another (far away) state, and then add in countless hours of running around in a bathing suit, whipping down slides, and making sure no one drowns.

Once we got back in to town, we dealt with some of the typical traveling/winter illnesses that are inevitable (Lucy! Puked on the plane! This was a first for us! But we survived! She left the plane without any pants on!), particularly when one spends a great deal of time with hundreds of other people in a very warm, water-filled, indoor area. By the time New Year's was over, it had been nearly two weeks since I'd last been in the office. Needless to say, getting back into the swing of our everyday routine has been tough.

Also tough? Getting back in to the swing of: Exercising. Blogging (obviously). Being a responsible adult. General career motivation. Eating healthy.

Regarding that last one - I realize it's pretty common to derail one's eating habits for a time over the holidays. I certainly don't want to deprive myself of these goodies that only come around once a year or so. So I gave myself leeway. But now? I can't stop. I am eating ALL THE FOOD. Things that I never would have let myself eat a mere three weeks ago, even. Bundt cake on the common table at work? MUST EAT. And there is a fresh new bundt cake every Monday morning. Mini chocolates on the common table at work? Again, MUST EAT. And some evil person fills that damn candy basket, every damn day.

I have no will power.

But I am approximately two weeks away from my one-year anniversary with Weight Watchers. And still 10 (OK, after Xmas, 13) pounds away from my "goal weight." I need to get this shit under control.

So, a few goals. Not resolutions, per se, but goals. I set some last year, and did a so-so job of meeting them. I found some new recipes to add in to our family meal rotation, I ran one long-ish race and one 5K, and we did a few new things in the area with the kids to get out of our shopping all weekend routine. But I didn't really broaden my work horizons (for example, I thought I might try my hand at writing some freelance stuff, even if unpaid), I didn't read my camera manual to try to take better pictures, and we (clearly) didn't move up to New England to be closer to family. Though to be fair, the last goal was really to "start working toward" moving up to New England, which I did do - I applied for a few jobs, and even had a few phone interviews. But nothing that was a great fit, so it's back to square one there.

New year, new (ish) goals:

1) Reach my G-D Weight Watchers goal weight already. Work the plan (it really does work when you properly "work it"), drop the last 13 pounds, and become a lifetime member. I just need to DO THIS already.

2) Run a couple of short races. Find a 10 mile race to enter. Make ample use of my new cold weather running apparel (don't be a wimp!). Only allow myself to watch season 2 episodes of Downton Abbey if I'm on the treadmill (shouldn't be too hard, as M. refuses to watch with me, and the treadmill is the only solo TV watching time I allow myself).

3) Estate planning - make a will, etc. Can't believe we haven't done this yet, and am very ashamed to admit that we haven't. It is utterly ridiculous, of course, and we need to stop putting it off. Anyone have recommendations of a good lawyer in the Montgomery County area who could help with this?

4) Meet with a financial advisor. More boring responsible adult-type stuff that we should already be doing.

5) Read at least 15 books this year. M. got me a Kindle for Christmas, so I'm hoping I'll be motivated to stay on top of my reading. I really LIKE books, I just (ever since Finn was born) tend to zonk out after only 5 minutes of reading each night. Makes it hard to finish anything in less than an eon, by which point I've usually lost enthusiasm for or forgotten the plot.

6) Learn to use my NEW camera. Yes, I was not successful in reading the user manual and learning how to use my camera to its fullest potential last year. But I WAS successful in obtaining a newer, better camera - a Nikon DSLR - an extremely generous Christmas gift from my parents. It is insanely nice and expensive, and I have no idea how to use it. But I've at least bought myself a new camera bag and a book on exposure, and am starting to work my way through the user manual. I have no great desire to take professional grade photographs, but I don't want to look like a bumbling idiot with this fancy thing around my neck, and I'd like some decent pictures of my family and our experiences. This must happen.

7) Continue to work toward moving up to New England. This includes figuring out what the hell I'd like to do with my career (because what I do now is just not easily transferrable to any region of the country), applying for many, many jobs, and getting our house in shape for either selling or renting. The home improvement projects will hopefully include getting hardwood floors on the main level, new countertops in the kitchen, and maybe a few new windows. With any luck and no major unexpected/emergency household expenses.

8) Post here more. I'm happier when I do. It makes me feel more fulfilled than the slug that sits on the couch watching TV at night that I otherwise become.

The last two goals are the most important:

9) Be a more patient, respectful, present parent to Finn and Lucy. I want to lead by example. I know that I already do (we all do), I'm just not happy with the example I'm setting. I yell, so they yell. Because of me, they are learning to treat each other and their parents disrespectfully. I want to be more mindful of my actions, and how they rub off on the kids. I expect this to be hard.

10) Put M. first more. He is a great parent, and a wonderful husband. He, out of guilt and a desire to be selfless, I'm sure, doesn't take any time for himself. But he always encourages me to do so - he wants me to buy things that make me happy, he is very encouraging of my time spent running or at Weight Watchers meetings. He is always willing to let me hang out with a friend or two, sans kids. He lets me put myself first, but yet never puts himself first. I want to spend more time encouraging him, and allowing him to be more selfish.

That's a lot of goals, I know. What can I say? Maybe I'm finally feeling motivated for a fresh start, only 5 days later than everyone else. Wish me luck!

And Happy New Year, from our family to yours!

Hello Again

Nearly forgot my login, it's been so long. Sorry, wasn't planning a blogcation, but got a bit swept up in work and Christmas preparations. To ease back in, I give you an entirely photo-based post. And by "post," I mean "no substance whatsoever beyond the actual photographs." Yeah, it's late, I'm tired, so no captions. I will say that the photos draw from the following events/activities: Thanksgiving with my parents, celebrating my dad's 60th birthday, child labor, "Captain Christmas," decorating the house for Christmas, baking and frosting 7 dozen cookies, and other random photos. Enjoy! Will try to be back soon with something a bit more substantial!