I love my daughter, she says the funniest things.
Skadi: "Is it today mom?"
Me: "Yes."
Skadi: "YAY! I am so glad it is today!"
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I am drinking my last pumpkin spice latte of 2010.
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I bought that remote control helicopter mostly for Leif. I am just so thrilled I bought it for LEIF. I am getting very tired of being chased by it by my husband!
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53 weeks remaining of my 30's.
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One year ago today was the last day my kids saw my mom.
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We made lefse today. It is delicious. The last time I made lefse I made a huge batch and mailed half to my mom since it was about the only thing she was enjoying eating.
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I am looking forward to friends coming over for a game night tonight.
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I used to love downhill skiing. I didn't love it yesterday. It is awfully hard wrangling two young children on the ski slopes.
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But those little bitty things sailing down the slopes with ease are so freaking cute.
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My legs hurt. It is probably good that I didn't ski more than a few runs.
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Pumpkin spice lattes are very, very yummy and it is very, very cruel that they are only available for a few months a year.
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My jeans are feeling a bit tight after all the food over the past few weeks. Maybe it is good pumpkin spice lattes are only available three months a year.
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There's that stupid RC helicopter again.
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I wonder how it would fly if a rotor were missing?
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Lemon meringue pies are a serious pain in the rear to make.
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I don't think I will ever master meringue. Like ever.
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Chain restaurants that sell meringue coated pies have some serious molecular gastronomy thing going on.
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Must remove rotor.
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Speaking of molecular gastronomy, was Top Chef not on this week?
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It's like a hummingbird. And I despise hummingbirds.
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They scare me.
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When I was a kid my grandpa sent me outside to stand next to a hummingbird, I willingly went. I was wearing a sundress. I was attacked. I was never the same.
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Oh, THERE are the sleeves I bought for cds and dvds!
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Must set up my new digital frame tomorrow. I am so excited to get one for my office!
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Wonder how the twins are doing?
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I need to boil down all those chicken and turkey carcasses for pot pies. Tomorrow. I will do it tomorrow.
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The last two weeks have gone way too fast.
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I remember when I was 13 and stayed up till midnight at my best friend's house in Casper. Right after midnight I called my mom to wish her a happy new years! She was sound asleep and so not happy with me.
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I can totally understand my mom right now.
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Wow, I must be really old to need a latte at 6pm to stay awake past 10:30pm.
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I have no idea what to get AB for his birthday. Does the 3 night vacation skiing at Silver Mountain that weekend count?
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Yep, I think I am going to put both kids in ski school when we go to Silver in 2 weeks and go back to the condo and read. The.entire.time.
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How am I EVER going to put down The Girl Who Played With Fire and read The Alchemist for book club next Friday. (Sorry RAB.)
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Love the fact that the RC helicopter has a short battery life. Silence. No hummingbird hovering over my head. (No husband standing around the corner laughing.)
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Wow, that pumpkin spice latte went fast.
Showing posts with label 2010 Holidays. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2010 Holidays. Show all posts
Friday, December 31, 2010
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
4.5 Days Remaining
We are on the downward slope from 2 weeks off. The kids are still enjoying their time off as am I. I haven't reached that point yet where I am longing to get up and go in to my office.
Before the two weeks off I made a list of what I planned to do, let's check the progress:
Organize recipes - Does it count that all my recipes are in one general location?
Before the two weeks off I made a list of what I planned to do, let's check the progress:
Organize recipes - Does it count that all my recipes are in one general location?
- I have recipe boxes from my grandmother. They are old metal boxes with recipes unsorted into categories. Not to mention, that they are recipes that I am unlikely to ever make. I like having them for the attachment to the past. My grandmother was not organized, nor was she a cook. She was a master of one dish casseroles and spaghetti sauce made from tomato soup and Velveeta cheese.
- I have one recipe box that was my mom's and it is the opposite. Neatly written out cards all organized carefully. When my sister asked me for a peanut butter pie recipe and key lime pie recipe, I had my hands on them in a matter of minutes.
- My recipes fall somewhere in between. My large box crashed and burned and not knowing what to do with the gazillion cards at the time I put them in a Ziploc freezer bag. As long as you don't jiggle around the bag, they are still reasonably organized.
- Anyways, obvious that I haven't figured out what to do with these? I am not sure I want to intermingle the eras yet. So for now, the recipes will all sit in one area in my pantry.
Finish quilt - yes, the one that I started, sure I could finish in three weeks, then the dog broke my sewing machine and I had to replace it - the sewing machine, not the dog - and then life got in the way.
- I am happy to report that the quilt top is DONE!
- I am thinking I might venture to JoAnn's today to get fabric for the back and batting.
- I am also thinking that since my new machine has a little opening and this is a huge quilt that I will be handquilting this one. Any advice? I have only handquilted one quilt to this point.
Make salted English toffee.
- Done and it is freaky delicious. I am partial to the sea salt version while my husband prefers the almond one.
Digital Music (I am sure I am supposed to organize it, organize my playlists, upload my cds or something here. My digital music simply needs attention)
- I was funny to think I would get to this... Maybe it will be a goal for February?
Make lefse
- Plan to do this on New Years Day, I think.
Make and decorate sugar cookies
- Done and do I admit that they are very nearly all on my thighs right now?
Take kids to see Tangled
- Done and it was a great flick. Even Leif liked it and talks about it. Skadi's favorite part was "all of it".
Take kids to open gym one (or more) afternoon at Garlands
- Done once and not relishing the thought of doing it again. In fact, I haven't even told them this is an option. Love Coach and talked to him for a bit while there, and it was super that one of our friends brought his daughter with. But there were A LOT of kids there and I spend much of the time fretting about where Skadi was. I couldn't see her around all the equipment. The kids don't even realize going another day would be an option.
Organize Kitchen Desk and Desk Cupboard
- Done, done, done! Yippee yay yay! And I even found the long lost address book and at the last minute got cards out. Phew!
Catch up on our recorded shows
- We are working our way through this season of Glee and AB is anxious to get to the Halloween week themed one. (Hope he doesn't read this and find out that his secret is out!) We have not watched any Boardwalk Empire though because it appears that our DVR has been spotty with recording it. Sigh.
- We did however, rent a movie! Actually I have seen two! Tara and I rented Sex and the City 2 which was a fun and lighthearted movie. I enjoyed it. AB and I rented Inception and it only took me three nights to get through it. Very good, but I kept falling asleep in it. Irony?
Drink
- See my thighs.
- AB's orange Turkish coffees are amazing. So were those couple bottles of wine we delved into. And my Ruby Red martinis...
Wear my pajamas past 7am.
- This one was easy to accomplish since the kids have given us a reprieve and have been sleeping in until 8am most days. *I* have been sleeping in till nearly 8am.
Watch entire movies, not just bits from the kitchen, with my children. (I am allowing magazines or Kindles to be in my hands through this though.)
- Yes, I have done this. I am all the way through my magazines and have a new high score on iPhone SkeeBall.
Plan my house projects for 2011
- Done
Other things that have popped on the list? We are headed up skiing tomorrow. I am tackling Christmas decorations today. Walks on most days. Phone calls with family. All the stuff that matters!
The Zone
I have learned, during my days off over the holidays, that I really am not a good candidate for a work from home gig.
When I was a grad student I attempted to write my dissertation from home. That didn't work. I could not force myself to sit at the computer and write. Instead I cooked and baked, I took the dog for walks, I watched bad daytime TV and I called my mom. I cleaned. I would look around and see things that needed to be done and instead of doing what I really needed to do, I would get up and clean the catbox, or the fridge, or vacuum the apartment carpet that never seemed to get clean. Not to mention the internet... I would surf the net.
If I wanted to finish my dissertation I had to give it all up. I had to get up and go into my lab each morning and sit at the computer and write without allowing myself the pleasure of browsing the internet (huge time suck). I gave up my discussion board for a few months too. I had to finish that 300 page tomb.
Since then I have never really attempted to work from home. Sure there were days when one of the kids was sick and I would come home and put them in bed or in front of the TV and I would work.
That is so so so different from having two, very healthy children who play and fight and bicker and want to do art and play Wii and play on the computer or need a glass of apple juice or can I have this snack? and never at the same time.
There have been a few fires that have needed put out at work the past few weeks. Really, everything was semi-typical and all in the course of a normal days work. But doing this all from home? Really not my forte.
I suppose that it is easier if both kids are say over the age of 5. Leif is pretty independent and understands that "mommy needs to take this phone call now". But Skadi just does not care. I was attempting a three way phone call with two male coworkers and ended up saying, "not now honey" and may never hear the end of that.
Something happens when I get work on the brain. I get in this zone. It is like I am a race horse with blinders on making me incapable of hearing or addressing things going on around me. I am normally a good multi-tasker - able to handle lots of projects and WORK issues at the same time. This does not extend to home life and children.
I get the work groove going, my blinders are on and until whatever issue needs to be addressed is solved, my pace quickens, my mind races, my food goes untouched and my heart beats a bit faster.
Thankfully last night when I started getting e-mails from my east coast client (at 6:15pm), AB was there to jump in and save our children from starving and to let me pace the house with my phone in my hand, my fingers texting, my laptop remoted in.
And until things were solved (sorry to my coworkers I was texting at 9pm) to the level that I was satisfied and the product line notified on the latest actions, I was in the zone. Could.not.extract.myself.
And in the end - I was terribly pleased with myself for handling the issues that needed to be dealt with.
I know people who work from home, and quite effectively at that.
Not me. I need the serenity of my office with a door I can shut (and a window overlooking the river for occasional daydreaming) with little guilt. Guilt that comes from my own head as the zone pulls me from "make your own pizza night". Guilt that I place on myself for dividing my attention with an unfavorable advantage towards my work.
When I was a grad student I attempted to write my dissertation from home. That didn't work. I could not force myself to sit at the computer and write. Instead I cooked and baked, I took the dog for walks, I watched bad daytime TV and I called my mom. I cleaned. I would look around and see things that needed to be done and instead of doing what I really needed to do, I would get up and clean the catbox, or the fridge, or vacuum the apartment carpet that never seemed to get clean. Not to mention the internet... I would surf the net.
If I wanted to finish my dissertation I had to give it all up. I had to get up and go into my lab each morning and sit at the computer and write without allowing myself the pleasure of browsing the internet (huge time suck). I gave up my discussion board for a few months too. I had to finish that 300 page tomb.
Since then I have never really attempted to work from home. Sure there were days when one of the kids was sick and I would come home and put them in bed or in front of the TV and I would work.
That is so so so different from having two, very healthy children who play and fight and bicker and want to do art and play Wii and play on the computer or need a glass of apple juice or can I have this snack? and never at the same time.
There have been a few fires that have needed put out at work the past few weeks. Really, everything was semi-typical and all in the course of a normal days work. But doing this all from home? Really not my forte.
I suppose that it is easier if both kids are say over the age of 5. Leif is pretty independent and understands that "mommy needs to take this phone call now". But Skadi just does not care. I was attempting a three way phone call with two male coworkers and ended up saying, "not now honey" and may never hear the end of that.
Something happens when I get work on the brain. I get in this zone. It is like I am a race horse with blinders on making me incapable of hearing or addressing things going on around me. I am normally a good multi-tasker - able to handle lots of projects and WORK issues at the same time. This does not extend to home life and children.
I get the work groove going, my blinders are on and until whatever issue needs to be addressed is solved, my pace quickens, my mind races, my food goes untouched and my heart beats a bit faster.
Thankfully last night when I started getting e-mails from my east coast client (at 6:15pm), AB was there to jump in and save our children from starving and to let me pace the house with my phone in my hand, my fingers texting, my laptop remoted in.
And until things were solved (sorry to my coworkers I was texting at 9pm) to the level that I was satisfied and the product line notified on the latest actions, I was in the zone. Could.not.extract.myself.
And in the end - I was terribly pleased with myself for handling the issues that needed to be dealt with.
I know people who work from home, and quite effectively at that.
Not me. I need the serenity of my office with a door I can shut (and a window overlooking the river for occasional daydreaming) with little guilt. Guilt that comes from my own head as the zone pulls me from "make your own pizza night". Guilt that I place on myself for dividing my attention with an unfavorable advantage towards my work.
Sunday, December 26, 2010
Merry Christmas!
We had a quiet Christmas. It is the first Christmas in years that we have not travelled. I used to get a bit bent out of shape about always traveling for the holidays. Annoyed that no one would come to us for holidays. Now the fact that we are home is a bit bittersweet. In one instance I am relishing being in our own home for the holidays, while the next instant that fact is soured because the reason we are not traveling is that my mom is no longer with us. It hasn't been easy.
Little events have brought loads of memories. I normally do Christmas cookies early so that we can enjoy them through the season. Doing cookies this year was a bit tough and I procrastinated them until just a few days before Christmas. Memories of Christmas both as a child, as a teenager and adult flood through of doing cookies with my mom.
When I was a child my mom would cut them and bake them - making sure to never put different shapes on the same cookie sheet when baking so that they would all cook evenly. I thought she was horribly boring that way. Guess how I do them now? Yes, the exact same way.
Memories of "retarded" angels. No, I don't really mean to be anti-PC here - but back in 1980, "retarded" wasn't a horrible thing to say. When I was a kid we would always try and put faces on our angel cookies. My mom would laugh and tell us that was definitely a "retarded" angel.
As a high schooler, my mom would try to cut corners and change up the labor intensive cookie recipe that was my great grandmother's. It wouldn't take so long if we did this other recipe she would tell us. And my sister and I would roll our eyes. Because they never TASTED as good.
And as an adult my mom would wait to do cookies until we arrived in town and then we would go down to my sister's house and decorate them with her kids and occasionally my aunt and cousins would come down too.
Our Christmas Eve tradition was always to eat seafood and open one gift. Those lean years where we didn't have much, we would still have snow crab legs and my sister and I thought we were the luckiest kids alive. I made a friend's boulliabaisse recipe this year and it turned out fabulous and we were lucky enough to have king crab shipped directly from Alaska to put in it.
My kids had their one gift to open on Christmas eve which surprisingly turned out to be pajamas! (Do you know how hard it is to find Christmas - not winter - themed pajamas for boys in size 7??) Skadi cracked us all up when she opened hers, jumped around the room with a huge grin squealing, "It is EXACTLY what I always wanted!"
I may be deluding myself, or maybe it is what I need to believe to make things easier, but I believe that this was the first year that my mom was in our house with us on Christmas. I felt as though she was here watching all these traditions and partaking with us.
Thursday, December 23, 2010
The 23rd already?!
Day six. I can pretty officially say that the holiday is in full swing. My work e-mail has dropped off to nearly nonexistent - I did get two e-mails from one client this morning. I replied with a note of thanks for letting me know and Happy Holidays. You know to acknowledge that I am here for them, then to remain open to all denominations and all, but to mostly say "HELLO I AM ON HOLIDAY!"
Yesterday there was a flurry of work activity again that sent me scampering on the way out to go see Tangled with the kids. At a recent review in Washington DC I had dropped my business card in many people's hands, like I am supposed to do. Normally I never hear anything back... but every once in awhile...
It was a visit request from a high ranking military official. I quickly replied back that I would be happy to arrange the visit and copied it to many levels of my management, like I am supposed to do. Of course pretty quickly thereafter I got a note back from the sector saying that this request will require extensive sector involvement and that they will be providing assistance in scheduling this visit and even went so far as to suggest that maybe we should suggest holding the meeting in Seattle to minimize potential weather interferences and travel difficulties on their part. We want to make sure there isn't ANY reason why they aren't able to meet with us. I will be working dang hard to keep my foot in this...
Oh that's right... we aren't talking work now. We are on holiday! And vacation! My focus is not work!
Tangled! Yes, we went and saw Tangled yesterday! It was very good. Really well done. Even Leif liked it. Skadi was mesmerized the entire time and announced her favorite part was "all of it was my favorite part". Truly well done and I highly recommend it.
AB and Leif played their parts (Innkeeper and Shepherd) in the Living Nativity. 12 of 15 shows down as of tonight. They are finishing the shows off tonight and I look forward to having my family home with me in the evenings again. Whenever I start feeling selfish I read the posts from local friends on Facebook who rave about the experience. Then pride swells. Leif has been great. He hasn't missed a show and has worked hard at his character role. I am proud of my husband for handling the torch well and "hip-checking" the donkey into place and not butchering the cranky camels. I am not sure camel would taste good...
Skadi and I have enjoyed our evenings together with Aunt Tara too.
My accomplishments:
Butter Toffee - Check!
Sugar Cookies Baked and Decorated - Check!
Divinity - Check! (Attempted at least, so it ended in the trash...)
Wrapping - Check! (AMAZING!)
Laundry - Ongoing Check!
New Tires for my Car - Merry Christmas!
Fish Stock made for Bouillibaise - Check!
Organize kitchen desk and cupboards - Check!
That list of things I want to do? (Quilt, Organize Recipes, Address my Digital Music...) It's moving up in ranks.
Yesterday there was a flurry of work activity again that sent me scampering on the way out to go see Tangled with the kids. At a recent review in Washington DC I had dropped my business card in many people's hands, like I am supposed to do. Normally I never hear anything back... but every once in awhile...
It was a visit request from a high ranking military official. I quickly replied back that I would be happy to arrange the visit and copied it to many levels of my management, like I am supposed to do. Of course pretty quickly thereafter I got a note back from the sector saying that this request will require extensive sector involvement and that they will be providing assistance in scheduling this visit and even went so far as to suggest that maybe we should suggest holding the meeting in Seattle to minimize potential weather interferences and travel difficulties on their part. We want to make sure there isn't ANY reason why they aren't able to meet with us. I will be working dang hard to keep my foot in this...
Oh that's right... we aren't talking work now. We are on holiday! And vacation! My focus is not work!
Tangled! Yes, we went and saw Tangled yesterday! It was very good. Really well done. Even Leif liked it. Skadi was mesmerized the entire time and announced her favorite part was "all of it was my favorite part". Truly well done and I highly recommend it.
AB and Leif played their parts (Innkeeper and Shepherd) in the Living Nativity. 12 of 15 shows down as of tonight. They are finishing the shows off tonight and I look forward to having my family home with me in the evenings again. Whenever I start feeling selfish I read the posts from local friends on Facebook who rave about the experience. Then pride swells. Leif has been great. He hasn't missed a show and has worked hard at his character role. I am proud of my husband for handling the torch well and "hip-checking" the donkey into place and not butchering the cranky camels. I am not sure camel would taste good...
Skadi and I have enjoyed our evenings together with Aunt Tara too.
My accomplishments:
Butter Toffee - Check!
Sugar Cookies Baked and Decorated - Check!
Divinity - Check! (Attempted at least, so it ended in the trash...)
Wrapping - Check! (AMAZING!)
Laundry - Ongoing Check!
New Tires for my Car - Merry Christmas!
Fish Stock made for Bouillibaise - Check!
Organize kitchen desk and cupboards - Check!
That list of things I want to do? (Quilt, Organize Recipes, Address my Digital Music...) It's moving up in ranks.
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Day four
Today is my fourth day of two weeks of vacation. I have learned today that "working from home" just isn't really an option at this point in my life. My 6 year old views it as an option to prey on my weakness of needing time on my laptop by requesting computer game time on NickJr. I have a hard time saying no, because it keeps him well occupied for when I need to be on the phone with a client. But there is no such negotiation with my daughter who simply sees my being on the computer as "not being with her".
And as we all know, 3 year olds are the most self centered human beings ever. It is ALL about them.
It was a rough night since Skadi has decided again that sleeping through the night really isn't a great idea. Leif then got up at 6:06am. Then once in our bed, under the covers, he fell asleep again. But I was awake.
I got up and finished off cutting out Christmas sugar cookies.
Then things started going haywire at work and I just had a horrible time dividing my attention between my one needy daughter, my tuned out son and work.
Then I tore myself away from both and snuck out and had lunch with a coworker.
Then ran home and grabbed the kids to head to Open Gym. On the way home I was impulsive and stopped and grabbed a Starbucks - which I have been avoiding lately both for a calorie and cash perspective. But I decided I deserved it but was disappointed to find out that pumpkin spice is already passe at this Starbucks, but they decided to gift me with whatever option I wanted instead. So it only cost me the calories.
We ran out and picked up our farm share and I am excited by the assortment in our box.
I am four days in and my to do list is nowhere to be found. Things that I have wanted to do? Not done at all. Things I have needed to do at home? Not done. I still have a stack of gifts - mostly for Skadi - to wrap. She loves to help wrap and since I resist in allowing her to wrap her own gifts, I still have a stack of Skadi gifts to wrap.
Today was AB's last day at work and so I am somewhat optimistic that my success in getting our house ready for Christmas at least will start. We need to score a few things for Christmas dinner. I need to get a few stocking stuffers. And I am hoping to send that last deliverable off.
Overall, the kids had a good day - lots of fun at the Open Gym. I got a really nice note from a coworker friend who helped remind me what the really important things are in life - he came by to get our cosleeper last night for their brand new twins who will hopefully be out of the NICU for Christmas and I handed him dinner last night too. It hadn't been much for me to double my batch of soup and pack it up with all the fixings. But it made a big difference to them as they travel back and forth to the hospital every three hours day and night for feedings.
It reminds me that so far this week, I have done the important things. I built a snowman. I made soup for a new family. I kept my mom's tradition of making sugar cookies - I am quite confident she was there rolling out the dough with me. And I did my best to balance life at home with my kids and things that need to be done at work, striving not to let my team down or my family down.
Monday, December 20, 2010
Multi-tasking fail
Famous last words - "I am going to work from home some next week."
I have a big deliverable due Monday cob. (Do you know how long it took me to figure out what "cob" was when I started working here? Like forever. For those of you like me, that would be "close of business".)
But I needed time off. I needed a full two weeks off. Not 4 days and a week. A full two weeks.
Today I worked on laundry, I folded laundry, I spent lots of hours remoted in to my work computer, I made Christmas cookies, I played in the snow with the kids, I watched movies with my kids.
While this sounds productive, it is not.
See I did like one load of laundry and never got it it moved over to the dryer.
I started folding the five baskets of laundry in my bedroom and got like one load folded.
I did deliver the two major components (of three components) to my client. All the while ticking off at least one or two team members.
I burnt two batches of cookies while on the phone with a coworker and my daughter squealed in both our ears. And I called him "honey". Actually I called my daughter honey, but then had to answer when he said, "did you call me honey?"
I watched movies from the kitchen and listened to them on my computer.
But I DID play in the snow with the kids and get a snowman built.
And as AB reminded me, I did get dinner fixed (and half of it packaged up for my friend who just had twins) and it was yummy.
I am hoping for more success tomorrow. Though I am not terribly confident. I still have that one deliverable component pending, lunch with a coworker and then I promised the kids I would take them to open gym.
We will see if things loosen up then.
I have a big deliverable due Monday cob. (Do you know how long it took me to figure out what "cob" was when I started working here? Like forever. For those of you like me, that would be "close of business".)
But I needed time off. I needed a full two weeks off. Not 4 days and a week. A full two weeks.
Today I worked on laundry, I folded laundry, I spent lots of hours remoted in to my work computer, I made Christmas cookies, I played in the snow with the kids, I watched movies with my kids.
While this sounds productive, it is not.
See I did like one load of laundry and never got it it moved over to the dryer.
I started folding the five baskets of laundry in my bedroom and got like one load folded.
I did deliver the two major components (of three components) to my client. All the while ticking off at least one or two team members.
I burnt two batches of cookies while on the phone with a coworker and my daughter squealed in both our ears. And I called him "honey". Actually I called my daughter honey, but then had to answer when he said, "did you call me honey?"
I watched movies from the kitchen and listened to them on my computer.
But I DID play in the snow with the kids and get a snowman built.
And as AB reminded me, I did get dinner fixed (and half of it packaged up for my friend who just had twins) and it was yummy.
I am hoping for more success tomorrow. Though I am not terribly confident. I still have that one deliverable component pending, lunch with a coworker and then I promised the kids I would take them to open gym.
We will see if things loosen up then.
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Progress
Nearly two days marked off of my two weeks "off". Not that I am counting, or anything. No, I am not anxious to go running back to my office. Yet.
That said, my company has unveiled a lot of remote working technologies recently that enables me to use my kitchen table as my office easily. I can remote directly to my computer and get stuff done. Which has been vital in my taking two weeks "off". I have a large deliverable going out on Monday and no intention of setting foot in the office.
Anyways, my evenings have been quiet. AB and Leif are performing nightly in our church's Living Nativity. They volunteered to be shepherds and AB was suddenly - the night before the media performace - promoted to Innkeeper. They seem to be enjoying it despite the long hours every single night until the 23rd.
Skadi and Aunt Tara and I have spent our evenings watching movies and hanging together. Skadi, I believe, has really enjoyed this one on one time.
Saturday I decided to start out my days off on a good note by getting up and mixing up divinity.
Then we went to the last swimming lesson of this session - since it had snowed two inches that morning, the kids were the only ones at their respective lessons and lucked out with private lessons.
We went and saw Dancer and Prancer at Beaver Bark. Leif asked - as he does everytime we go there - if they have a Venus Flytrap plant. (Still no.) Then we headed to Leif's last basketball game. It is always nice when these YMCA team sports come to an end. We are ignoring the existence of Indoor Soccer next month. Shhh.
We got back and unfortunately the divinity was still the texture and consistency of marshmallow cream. (Not terribly surprising. I bat about 50% with candy.)
We mixed up sugar cookies. My great grandmother's recipe that is tempermental at best - but I have mastered it. And my kids will also master it. Skadi was a bit disappointed to hear that the dough needed a full 12 hours - no shorter - in the fridge and it would be tomorrow before we could roll it out. Leif was just disappointed there was no chocolate in it.
Sunday I decided to tackle the kitchen desk (worst ever design idea in the world... I would far rather have extra counter/work space than a desk in the kitchen. I organized that space and cleaned out the cupboards above.
It's the cupboards above I am struggling with. I don't know what to put there. I do realize it is of huge benefit to actually have empty cupboards in my kitchen. But I have plenty of things that NEED spaces. It is just a decision to decide what to put there. The cabinets are not terribly easily accessible. (They currently hold the phone book - who really uses that anymore? As well as light bulbs and vitamins, essentially.)
What would you put in cupboards above a desk in a kitchen?
Oh and the last thing I did today before leaving the kitchen a mess and landing on the couch with Skadi for our evening movie?
Butter Toffee.
I am fine with the 50% batting average with candy, as long as the butter toffee turns out. And oh wow, it did. Wow.
Butter toffee, English toffee, Almond Roca, whatever you call it.
Delicious.
I did half a batch with sliced almonds and the other half with sea salt.
Sea salt butter toffee. This is where my hips grow a few inches.
That said, my company has unveiled a lot of remote working technologies recently that enables me to use my kitchen table as my office easily. I can remote directly to my computer and get stuff done. Which has been vital in my taking two weeks "off". I have a large deliverable going out on Monday and no intention of setting foot in the office.
Anyways, my evenings have been quiet. AB and Leif are performing nightly in our church's Living Nativity. They volunteered to be shepherds and AB was suddenly - the night before the media performace - promoted to Innkeeper. They seem to be enjoying it despite the long hours every single night until the 23rd.
Skadi and Aunt Tara and I have spent our evenings watching movies and hanging together. Skadi, I believe, has really enjoyed this one on one time.
Saturday I decided to start out my days off on a good note by getting up and mixing up divinity.
Then we went to the last swimming lesson of this session - since it had snowed two inches that morning, the kids were the only ones at their respective lessons and lucked out with private lessons.
We went and saw Dancer and Prancer at Beaver Bark. Leif asked - as he does everytime we go there - if they have a Venus Flytrap plant. (Still no.) Then we headed to Leif's last basketball game. It is always nice when these YMCA team sports come to an end. We are ignoring the existence of Indoor Soccer next month. Shhh.
We got back and unfortunately the divinity was still the texture and consistency of marshmallow cream. (Not terribly surprising. I bat about 50% with candy.)
We mixed up sugar cookies. My great grandmother's recipe that is tempermental at best - but I have mastered it. And my kids will also master it. Skadi was a bit disappointed to hear that the dough needed a full 12 hours - no shorter - in the fridge and it would be tomorrow before we could roll it out. Leif was just disappointed there was no chocolate in it.
Sunday I decided to tackle the kitchen desk (worst ever design idea in the world... I would far rather have extra counter/work space than a desk in the kitchen. I organized that space and cleaned out the cupboards above.
It's the cupboards above I am struggling with. I don't know what to put there. I do realize it is of huge benefit to actually have empty cupboards in my kitchen. But I have plenty of things that NEED spaces. It is just a decision to decide what to put there. The cabinets are not terribly easily accessible. (They currently hold the phone book - who really uses that anymore? As well as light bulbs and vitamins, essentially.)
What would you put in cupboards above a desk in a kitchen?
Oh and the last thing I did today before leaving the kitchen a mess and landing on the couch with Skadi for our evening movie?
Butter Toffee.
I am fine with the 50% batting average with candy, as long as the butter toffee turns out. And oh wow, it did. Wow.
Butter toffee, English toffee, Almond Roca, whatever you call it.
Delicious.
I did half a batch with sliced almonds and the other half with sea salt.
Sea salt butter toffee. This is where my hips grow a few inches.
Monday, November 08, 2010
Adding to the list...
Remember when you were 13 years old and you found out that Michael Jackson was coming to town? Ok, so it was to the city 6 hours away, but your dad agreed to take you if you stood in line and got tickets? And there was only a small block of tickets sent to the sporting goods store at the mall in your tiny town, because it was, well, a tiny town comparatively. And so you stood in line, shaking with anticipation! Would you get the tickets?? Would you? Would you be holding Michael Jackson tickets? Or would it all just have been for naught?
Ok, so flash forward 25 years. Technology may be different. But I sat on the computer after the kids were in bed trying to pick up dinner reservations.
Not for the French Laundry. Or Chez Pannise.
Nope. I sat there trying to get reservations for dinner with princesses.
At Disneyworld.
Because I know my daughter would flip.
Yes, I had lunch reservations, but good friends we will be traveling with had coveted dinner reservations they were looking to unload in favor of other options they lucked into. Making the princess dinner my coveted goal. We timed it all. We sat on the phone. And I hit "Search for a Table" over and over and over and over.
Then it happened.
And we cheered.
Thanks for sharing that experience with me. (And yes, when I was 13 I did see Michael Jackson in concert. All five of the Jacksons appeared to be less than an inch tall from our nosebleed seats reserved for the Casper, Wyoming block at the top of Mile High Stadium in Denver. I don't normally readily admit to this. It's your special day.)
-------
I have this huge list of things that before I had kids I swore I would never do... and it seems I just keep adding to that list. I mentioned a few months ago the main one of recent... Disneyworld.
We are well onto our countdown to liftoff. There was a little trauma last week when I realized I had miscounted the days way back when we were on something like 47 sleeps until DisneyWorld. Then last week the numbers got smaller and I realized I was off by a day.
Me: "Sorry Leif, we are really 15 days to DisneyWorld, not 14."
Leif: "WHAT! NO! You are wrong! We counted all this time!"
It was a rough day, with a bit of arguing. Yes, mommy makes mistakes on occasion.
I suppose it could be said that I have embraced this vacation completely.
In typical NM ding dong fashion, I realized last week when I was mapping my hotel that "oh, look, it looks like it is pretty close to SeaWorld." Then I found my hotel online to see if they happened to have shuttle buses and found out that I am actually staying at the Fairfield Inn AT SEAWORLD.
Ok, so that Friday that I have to work a bit, AB and the kids will have an easy source of entertainment at their toes. Love how that works.
I have the hotel booked, park tickets bought. You might think that sounds about normal... but then the list continues... and this is where those lists of things I would never do comes back to haunt me. Covet the reservations. What reservations can I score?
Dinner with the Princesses on Saturday
Pirates and Pals Firework cruise booked
Animal Kingdom Tusker House lunch booked
Finding Nemo musical reserved seating booked
Dinner with friends at Boma booked
Harry Potter Land all scouted out
Dinner at Boatwrights (the old boat making shop) is the special treat for AB.
Leif in typical OCD fashion has become all obsessed with Harry Potter Land and the website. He plans to go to Olivanders first to get his wand (with his own money) and has asked that we bring the special pencil (an eyeliner pencil) to draw his lightning bolt scar on his forehead (or two-head if you are Skadi).
It will be quite an adventure for the family!
Ok, so flash forward 25 years. Technology may be different. But I sat on the computer after the kids were in bed trying to pick up dinner reservations.
Not for the French Laundry. Or Chez Pannise.
Nope. I sat there trying to get reservations for dinner with princesses.
At Disneyworld.
Because I know my daughter would flip.
Yes, I had lunch reservations, but good friends we will be traveling with had coveted dinner reservations they were looking to unload in favor of other options they lucked into. Making the princess dinner my coveted goal. We timed it all. We sat on the phone. And I hit "Search for a Table" over and over and over and over.
Then it happened.
And we cheered.
Thanks for sharing that experience with me. (And yes, when I was 13 I did see Michael Jackson in concert. All five of the Jacksons appeared to be less than an inch tall from our nosebleed seats reserved for the Casper, Wyoming block at the top of Mile High Stadium in Denver. I don't normally readily admit to this. It's your special day.)
-------
I have this huge list of things that before I had kids I swore I would never do... and it seems I just keep adding to that list. I mentioned a few months ago the main one of recent... Disneyworld.
We are well onto our countdown to liftoff. There was a little trauma last week when I realized I had miscounted the days way back when we were on something like 47 sleeps until DisneyWorld. Then last week the numbers got smaller and I realized I was off by a day.
Me: "Sorry Leif, we are really 15 days to DisneyWorld, not 14."
Leif: "WHAT! NO! You are wrong! We counted all this time!"
It was a rough day, with a bit of arguing. Yes, mommy makes mistakes on occasion.
I suppose it could be said that I have embraced this vacation completely.
In typical NM ding dong fashion, I realized last week when I was mapping my hotel that "oh, look, it looks like it is pretty close to SeaWorld." Then I found my hotel online to see if they happened to have shuttle buses and found out that I am actually staying at the Fairfield Inn AT SEAWORLD.
Ok, so that Friday that I have to work a bit, AB and the kids will have an easy source of entertainment at their toes. Love how that works.
I have the hotel booked, park tickets bought. You might think that sounds about normal... but then the list continues... and this is where those lists of things I would never do comes back to haunt me. Covet the reservations. What reservations can I score?
Dinner with the Princesses on Saturday
Pirates and Pals Firework cruise booked
Animal Kingdom Tusker House lunch booked
Finding Nemo musical reserved seating booked
Dinner with friends at Boma booked
Harry Potter Land all scouted out
Dinner at Boatwrights (the old boat making shop) is the special treat for AB.
Leif in typical OCD fashion has become all obsessed with Harry Potter Land and the website. He plans to go to Olivanders first to get his wand (with his own money) and has asked that we bring the special pencil (an eyeliner pencil) to draw his lightning bolt scar on his forehead (or two-head if you are Skadi).
It will be quite an adventure for the family!
Saturday, October 02, 2010
On the 2010 Holiday Season
Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday. It is about food and friends and family and bringing everyone together to be thankful for what we have. One of my most favorite memories of Thanksgiving was the one when I was about 8 years old, in the kitchen helping my mom cook. I loved that she baked homemade bread for Thanksgiving and I loved having my own little ball of dough to shape and bake. Thanksgiving… I expect won’t be an easy time for me because I have so many memories of the holiday as spent with my mom. This will be my first without her.
I am normally the go all out person for Thanksgiving. This year it will be truly impossible since I won’t even have been at home for the 11 days prior to prepare. AB’s sister and mom will be here and aren’t expecting much. We have prepared them for the fact that there will be no cooking at the Thanksgiving magnitude done on Thursday. I am not sure what we will do. However, we WILL cook our Thanksgiving meal on either Friday or Saturday. This is going to be good for me this year to do something completely different for the holiday that will likely remind me the most of my mom.
Christmas will be in our house! AB and I have agreed that we have no intentions of traveling for the holidays potentially ever again. At least until our kids are grown and we travel to them. We have traveled for so many holidays and have done our share of it. I don’t really expect anyone to come to us, it would be nice, but I won’t be disappointed to host Christmas for my family here in town. I am thinking I will be taking nearly two weeks off and keeping the kids home with me. Yes, my sanity may be called into question at the end of this. I am looking forward to a real Christmas tree, lights on the house, Mina the elf making her appearance the day after Thanksgiving, shopping, planning our Christmas meal, the Living Nativity, Christmas Eve service and teaching what the holiday means to my kids.
Skadi has asked for a “big doll” and I haven’t started looking for one yet, but I have ideas. Leif asked for Wii games and I might have made a mistake in redirecting him. AB rolled his eyes at me when I suggested that maybe he should consider something other than Wii games since he has a lot. Something like maybe a Nintendo DS, for example.
I am normally the go all out person for Thanksgiving. This year it will be truly impossible since I won’t even have been at home for the 11 days prior to prepare. AB’s sister and mom will be here and aren’t expecting much. We have prepared them for the fact that there will be no cooking at the Thanksgiving magnitude done on Thursday. I am not sure what we will do. However, we WILL cook our Thanksgiving meal on either Friday or Saturday. This is going to be good for me this year to do something completely different for the holiday that will likely remind me the most of my mom.
Christmas will be in our house! AB and I have agreed that we have no intentions of traveling for the holidays potentially ever again. At least until our kids are grown and we travel to them. We have traveled for so many holidays and have done our share of it. I don’t really expect anyone to come to us, it would be nice, but I won’t be disappointed to host Christmas for my family here in town. I am thinking I will be taking nearly two weeks off and keeping the kids home with me. Yes, my sanity may be called into question at the end of this. I am looking forward to a real Christmas tree, lights on the house, Mina the elf making her appearance the day after Thanksgiving, shopping, planning our Christmas meal, the Living Nativity, Christmas Eve service and teaching what the holiday means to my kids.
Skadi has asked for a “big doll” and I haven’t started looking for one yet, but I have ideas. Leif asked for Wii games and I might have made a mistake in redirecting him. AB rolled his eyes at me when I suggested that maybe he should consider something other than Wii games since he has a lot. Something like maybe a Nintendo DS, for example.
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