There is a kitchen in here!

It seems to take about a year and a half after each kid was born to re-emerge. I recall it distinctly with Skadi. Like an awakening where I had to drop those extra 10 lbs that didn't fall off naturally after childbirth. And my house was no longer good enough. It was like the fog of "the baby" lifts. I suspect it is all hormone induced. I was lucky to never suffer post-partum depression - I know people who have - but I think for me it was a post-partum fog.


The fog lifted last month and I have gotten down to business. My wonderful Master bedroom emerged last month and this month I found that I do have a kitchen. In fact, I have a great kitchen!


The goal for the month of October was to deep clean, organize my kitchen. It needed it bad. Two weekends in now and I would put it at 75% complete. I have emptied out the cabinets and moved stuff! I am not a rearranger at all - once a piece of furniture is in place I will nearly never move it. Well only on a rare occasion to clean under it (dare I admit). My mom was a rearranger and to be honest, it drove me nuts growing up.


But I went against my gut, listened to my husband's very rational complaints about the cookbooks located in the far back of the pantry, and I moved them! And I love them now! So rearranging isn't awful!


Most of the rest of the kitchen was just emptied out (4 huge garbage bags just this weekend!) and cleaned and put back. Phew! My pantry is lovely, the cookbook shelf is fabulous. The cleaned off and actually purposed as a desk in the kitchen, is lovely too. The rolling cart of crap has been cleaned off, but purpose yet to be determined. The lazy Susan still needs to be tackled as does the very tip top shelf of my glass cabinet that holds stemware we never use (it has been there since we moved into the house - apparently I don't feel the need to put my martinis in a martini glass).


We are hosting a Halloween party in two weeks and panic set in this weekend. Two weeks to get ready! It is always a huge undertaking that is fun and always appreciated by our friends after the fact. But two weeks is NOT enough time! AB suggested that we quit the deep organizing stuff (as beneficial as it is) and start putting lipstick on the pig in the name of the party.


So yeah. Time to lipstick that pig.


Then the last weekend of the month will be spent recovering our kitchen from the madness and finalizing those last couple kitchen things.


And then there is November. I have two thoughts. Back to the Master Bedroom for Thanksgiving week painting and Master bath pick up (easy) and Master closet purge (ugh). OR - I finish Skadi's quilt. I need to finish her quilt.

Homebound weekend

It is incredible how productive a person can be when they are stuck at home. That would be me this past weekend.

Friday night Skadi fell asleep early saying she wasn't feeling well. By 11:30pm, she was up. Every 30 minutes she was up. Until 4am.

We would just start to fall asleep when she would yell again, "MOMMY I FREWUP!"

And AB and I would start the routine all over, AB swapping out towels under her head or changing sheets as necessary, me pulling off her jammies, wiping off her face, getting her a drink of water and comforting her. It was a long night.

We aren't used to this routine. My daughter, like me, gets carsick. But viral stomach stuff isn't a common visitor in our house. I read on Facebook updates from friends whose kids are sick, once again, with the stomach flu and I give thanks that it isn't us. Now, viral respiratory crud knows our address well.

I felt awful for my daughter, but figured I might as well make the most of the weekend stuck at home by actually doing some of the things I have been talking about tackling.

My October goal is to organize spaces. Namely, the kids' drawers and closets, their toys (I am itching to get rid of lots of plastic things that reside in the bottoms of toy buckets - I can't watch Toy Story right now, it might ruin my mojo). I also have stacks upon stacks of things to go back into the pretty play room. I need to go through all that stuff first. I refuse to put things back that we won't use or will just be clutter. I am not getting rid of the kids' Geotrax, the play kitchen and play food or the Little People things. Those items got a free pass back into the playroom. Everything else has had to prove its worthiness. Also on the reorg list is the garage... AB and his sister have been working that.

Accomplished? Skadi's dresser, her closet, her bedroom toys and 80% of the toys sorted for the playroom. Four large Rubbermaid bins were filled with size 2T clothes and baby/toddler toys. Not to mention the garage was worked to the just over 50% point. (Can you tell I am in earned value mode? Percent completes. I deem this project to be on schedule with a positive cost variance... I haven't spent any money on this project... yet.)

On top of the reorg going on in the house we also tackled spaghetti sauce this weekend and ended Saturday with 19 containers of fresh (now frozen) sauce. AB and I started this ritual either before or after Leif was born. We can't really remember. But in the 6 or so years we have perfected our recipe and even the kids don't care for the bottled stuff. We eat a lot of spaghetti sauce throughout the year - this should last us about 6 months we figure. I like knowing that this staple of ours all fresh at the peak vegies and no sugar.

I think it was Alice Waters who said, "if you have to add sugar to your spaghetti sauce then make pesto".

On Sunday we started the morning with homemade pumpkin pie (described yesterday) and load after load of laundry.

Of course the downside to this extreme productivity in a germ laden house is that come Monday night child #2 started vomiting. AB and I felt the nausea worm over us that evening and both woke up and told respective employers we would see them Wednesday.

As I am feeling much better I am thinking I can attempt continued organization efforts upstairs.

Or I could just go watch Glee instead.

On 2010 Goals

I got a lot accomplished with my goals method this year. And I still have a bit of time left. 2011 will be better, I know it will.

In August I meant to paint to my dining room and redecorate a bit. We started on this and then AB got a bee in his bonnet. (I love that saying.) He decided to replace the nasty flooring in the playroom with bamboo laminate. It is now complete, but the dining room redecorate went on hold. Then when success was in sight for the playroom it went on an even bigger hold when I decided that part of the dining room redecorate WILL involve installation of hard wood floors. We need a bit of time to save for this renovation, AB needs a few weekends whereby floor install is not on his list, and then new floors in the dining room (and office across the foyer… you can’t do one and not the other) will be mine!

So that takes us to October goals… I need to get the playroom reassembled. Yes, I know I can dump everything we pulled out of there back in likely this Sunday. But I have a fear of this. Because in the stacks of stuff, we have baby toys and way too much crap that the kids don’t use.

October is going to be the organization month. My goal is to go through the kids’ toys and throw away, donate, give away the stuff that is going unused. Then I need to settle on an organization strategy for the playroom. I am planning clothesline style art hangers for the kids’ (read Skadi’s) art. I am also moving the big, huge photos of the kids up there. And I am loading my sister in law up with whatever she is willing to take furniture-wise from that room.

In addition to organizing the playroom I also need to go through the kids’ dressers. Change out the summer stuff for winter stuff. Remove the stuff they have grown out of, etc.

AB’s October goals? (Yes, he IS jumping onto my goals bandwagon!) It’s to organize the garage. Oh and I think he wants help with that.

Also on the October list, now that I have a new sewing machine (thank you Freya dog…) is to resume and finish my quilting project.

November goals? Dare I say replace the floors in the dining room and office? No. I probably shouldn’t. The thought of having my dining room torn up over Thanksgiving isn’t appealing to me. Not sure…

Seriously I have the best husband ever.

"I will take Leif to the party, I know you have a lot of stuff you want to finish this weekend."

Seriously I have THE best husband ever. The birthday party was even during the Seahawks game. Given the Seahawks pitiful season though I think he was maybe looking for a reason not to be subjected to the humility. Though when I noted they were actually winning, I did hit record for him.

I finished up my touch up painting in the bathroom. This was so not what I felt like doing at every opportunity this weekend - standing on a ladder with a cup of paint and a tiny little watercolor brush in my hand. But when I finished the first phase - the shower/toilet area - I realized how really nice it looked to have the hairy edges touched up and my resolve was restored to finish the task.

Finally, I can call the Master Bathroom nearly done. That last 1% will be complete when AB nails a few small pieces of trim into place. I even found bamboo/glass containers that match the one I bought a few months ago at Target. All my storage items match, my paint looks finished and the bathroom is now my oasis... as long as I pay attention to where I step watching out for kids toys, shoes and the ever-present evidence on the wall behind my toilet that I have a little boy.

I didn't get to that last corner in the bedroom this weekend, but it will be an easy thing to do next weekend.

Now the big question lingers... which room to do next?

I had intended to get started on the kitchen, but the patio work we had done last week hit our savings account and I am not sure I can justify a kitchen redo that will be the most expensive room in our house (new floor and cabinet pull outs to name a few key items). Not to mention the fact that we will be out of town for 8 days and have a houseguest for another weekend in November.

The room that truly needs attention the most is the utility room. It will be inexpensive, though time consuming as it seems to be the ugly "catch all" location of my house. Two closets to be organized, crummy floor to be cleaned (since my housecleaner tended to miss that floor... wait... old houscleaner. Yes, another housecleaner down. We will be getting YET a new one this week supposidly) and two sets of cabinets in need of storage solutions.

Yes, I think I am leaning towards the utility room for November and the kitchen for December and likely January. It will be a big job that will require time and a serious influx of cash.

Slowing down

I haven't been my normal avid blogging self the past few weeks. I was a little surprised to look at my blogging stats to see that I have a total of 9 posts for October so far and it is already the 20th. Somehow I managed 30 posts in September. I am running about half as many in October and additionally I have fallen behind on my newspaper blog. Must catch up!

There really is a reason for my slipping. Ok... maybe four or five reasons.

First this little girl here...

She is at that age where she is demanding a lot of attention lately.

Her list of choice people around the house goes something like this: Leif, Daddy, Winny, Mommy, Lucky. At least I beat the cat. One would think that given this list my time would be free right? Wrong. She does insist on her daddy putting her to bed instead of me - and the man so firmly wrapped around this little girl's pinky finger is only too happy to oblige her.

Skadi's big brother gets a lot of attention from her lately and we laugh at how hard she works to do things exactly as he does. Laying down on the floor to watch TV the other day she made sure to get her little body in the exact same configuration as Leif's and corrected it a few times when she noted she wasn't exactly parallel with him. Hmmm... analytical a little?

Whenever I sit down at the computer though I become Skadi's favorite person. She runs to me, crawls on my lap screaming, "Mahna Mahna Mahna Mahna"! And it doesn't work to play it only once and scootch her on her way. Nope, she will watch it and say "again" as long as you sit there. Removing her results in a tantrum of epic proportions. I don't get much done on the computer around her.

Skadi's first response to everything lately is an emphatic "NO!" even if she has to go back seconds later and change her mind. She gets that this is a woman's perogative and doesn't have a problem with admitting she is wrong.

She is baby obsessed. Seriously all dolls are "babies". My old Strawberry Shortcake dolls have found new life in her eyes - as well as her Cabbage Patch baby and her other baby dolls. She has even become a little obsessed about what they are wearing.

We are considering moving her crib into Leif's room potentially permanently in a few weeks. We have two houseguests coming to visit at different times over the next six weeks though this is NOT the main reason we are considering this move for her though.

We have friends with children the same ages and genders who despite having a much larger house than we do, share a room. They prefer being together and they believe this has helped with their daughter sleeping through the night. When we asked Leif what he thought of this notion he responded excitedly about the prospect of Skadi sleeping in his room. I don't need to ask Skadi - she practically lives in his room as it is. We will give this a shot when my MIL visits in early November and depending on how it goes, she may just stay in there. Anyone with thoughts or experience in this vein please post or e-mail me. We wouldn't expect them to share for long, once Leif wants more privacy (I know, ha ha ha, Leif privacy? But he may someday...) we would seperate them.

Second reason why my blog has been less busy lately, as you can probably guess, is this not so little person here:

I am pretty sure he just went through a growth spurt and much to Leif's disappointment, I really have a difficult time carrying him anymore. When he gets out of the tub and wrapped up in his towel he wants to be carried and snuggled. Since AB is usually putting Skadi to bed at this time, it is up to me. Suffice to say that Leif has been walking himself to his bedroom the past few weeks.

Ok, truth be told though, he isn't needy like his sister and thus preventing me from blogging so much. In fact, it is the opposite. Leif has become very independent lately and if anything, has afforded me more time to myself. However, he has become pretty proficient at the computer - particularly the Curious George website (the caatapult game is his favorite) and... ok, I might as well just admit it... You Tube, which means *I* don't get my computer time - so that is why Leif made it to this list.

Yes, I see you. Look at me with scorn if you must, but Leif loves You Tube. Of course I have to keep a very close ear on what is playing, but once you pull up a video he will navigate the site to continue pulling up related videos he likes.

The Swedish Chef. Leif is obsessed with the Swedish Chef and isn't half bad at imitating him. I have been a little surprised how violent the Swedish Chef can be though! Lobsters toting guns and all. Leif will spend an hour in watching various Swedish Chef clips and will run back and forth to me to tell me which one he pulled up this time and what they did. Hilarious fun.

Moving onto number three... Christmas.

Yes, Christmas preparations are killing my blogging mojo right now. Mainly my determination to complete some Blurb books for Christmas. Whenever I sit down at the computer the Blurb icon stares me in the face and guilts me into opening my Alaska photo book project instead of blogging out of fear that Christmas is going to arrive and I am not going to have gifts. (We won't even talk about the fact that I haven't started Leif's 3-4 year birthday book.)

Number four... work.

Just this past week work has invaded my home life. I put out a concept paper for an upcoming proposal call and not only was it accepted, but it multiplied upon request of the sector manager. I am now submitting two proposals that are due Thursday. At least this is one of those short lived impediments and in a few days they will be sent off to oblivion where I will nearly forget about them.

Number five... my goals.

My goals for the year. I gave up on resolutions and instead decided I was going to work my way around my house in fixing things, organizing things, replacing things and keeping my husband busy telling him what to do.

I have one corner left in my Master Suite to organize. I have (in my head) postponed painting the Master bedroom for now. But I plan to finish up the bedroom this coming weekend, do the touch up paint in the bathroom and call it good. I really would like to repaint my bedroom, but right now it just isn't on my radar. I need to finish the Master Suite and move on to something else because I fear I could dawdle in here with things to do for ages. And if I don't call it good then the remainder of my rooms will continue to suffer.

So that's what has been going on here. How about everyone else?

Catching Up

It seems as though a lot has been happening recently, then I go to blog about it and I might have a hill of beans, but only if I tried really hard. So here is a hodge podge post of all that stuff that hangs there, fleeting thoughts really, but aren't really malleable into blog posts of their own.

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AB has just hired a company to come in and tackle our back patio. We started with a narrow wave of concrete back there, then enlisted the help of some really awesome friends to come out and poor a huge patio area for us. It has been nice (particularly with the pergola), but the concrete isn't in great shape. So during the Parade of Homes this year we kept an eye open for concrete treatments.

On Friday AB had a guy specializing in epoxy treatments come and look at the patio. It isn't cheap, but they start on October 22nd and our patio will be out of commission for 3-4 days while they repair the concrete and epoxy coat it. Looking something like this when finished (photo pirated from their webpage):

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I am working towards finishing off my Master bedroom organization goal. I seem to just make it a touch further each weekend either because we are busy, or in the case of this past weekend, because I wasn't feeling great. At this point I need to plow through AB's dresser, clean off the top of it and apply the (likely) faux leather organizers I bought at Target to corral some of his odds and ends. Then I need to tackle the corner where things go to be stacked and ignored. VCR tapes... toss? Garage sale? I hate to just toss them, but they seem pretty worthless. Let me know if you are interested in the titles we have.

Then I need to think about painting. I would love to get it done, but have to admit I am a touch hesitant. I need some thoughts on finishes. I did our bathroom in semi-gloss because I like the sheen in bathrooms. It really lightens it up a lot and I like the way it looks. However, I am not so sure I like the idea of semi-gloss for the Master bedroom. Can I mix the finishes in adjacent rooms connected by a larger archway if I keep the same colors?

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Today I spent money. I am really good at doing this. Up until four years ago I would say my technical savvy level was about 8 out of 10. I wasn't a pro, but I could do most anything from whip up a webpage to program in a few languages (now likely obsolete) and had a lot of the new gadgets. Then well... children put a cramp in my techno ways.

This weekend though AB and I realized that 18 hours on the Tivo hard drive just isn't enough. We were in that first wave of Tivo users. I had thought previously about just getting a hard drive to help the storage issues. But there were other issues... like the phone cord (tripping hazard) running down a hall and across a room. And hating the fact we couldn't record two shows at once. (The only two shows we were really interested in the premiers for were the 2 hour openers of Survivor and Grey's Anatomy and they overlapped by an hour.) Issues like this are just silly in the technology era!

I got with the program and upgraded our DVR to an 80 hour one capable of recording 2 shows and then I bought the wireless adaptor AND a router. I would say we have caught up with the rest of the general public though I noticed when I bought this one it was the lesser of three options and since we don't have HD in our immediate future I will just have to accept being a step or three behind.

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Skadi has become Miss Chatty. She now has a number of words though her favorite is still "no". She says it so quickly and with such determination you KNOW she knows exactly what she wants. And that look in her eyes also says that if you don't comply, a meltdown will ensue. Among her new words are "nana" (banana), "juice", "coat", "socks", "brother" (isn't it easier to say Leif??), "hair", "bug", "bird", "fruit" and "meat" among others I am likely forgetting.

Leif has learned that Skadi can repeat what you say and is taking it upon himself to teach her to talk.

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I have always bought Leif's clothes ahead of time. In the spring I buy clearance for the following winter. Fall I buy summer clearance for next spring. Leif has (knock on wood) so far never deviated from his growth curve and has always been dead on for size.

Skadi... nothing can be easy with her! Last spring I was sure she was on her growth curve and bought a number of 2T outfits for this fall. Appears she will be wearing most of those next fall. I was happy last week when I finally got to use my Gymbucks to buy her a few cute new outfits for this year. Otherwise she is solidly back in 12-18 month clothes again and should get two years out of most of her outfits from last year. I did buy her Gymborree clothes in 18-24 months being optimistic that it is only October and that by December they will fit her. Except for the red tulle skirt... that I bought in a 2T knowing that I can cinch it in this year and she can (and will) wear it next year as well.

My biggest issue there is going to be keeping it off my son. His best girlfriends are projecting the love of princesses onto him and his little sponge of a brain appears to have soaked it all up.

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Work is good for both AB and I. I had an "informal" lunch meeting last week where I was offered another major project to manage. With the addition of this project my umbrella over this client will be complete. This one wasn't a big surprise or a coup, it was offered up by the current PM to me and it was truly just a matter of time before it scootched over as she moves on.

At my informal lunch meeting last week I was also asked if I would consider taking over management of a project that is pissing off most of the upper management due to its lack of management.

This one will be the major coup. I know enough about it that I qualified my yes answer pretty heavily. I know the project well enough to know that one person in particular may walk off the project if I jump rank. A few others will just be hostile. The program manager didn't seem to have a problem with this and said that he may walk, but he will likely only do the talk since he has nothing else to fall upon. And if he does find something than more power to him and they will have underestimated his resourcefulness.

My saving grace in this regard is that if this comes down, it will come down from up way high and outside of the program. Which should provide me a little bubble to cushion myself when they start storming the gates.

Scared? Me? Damn right I am. But more terrified of being a wuss and not even trying to bring the project back onto the straight and narrow.

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Then the last topic is moving. It is still looming out there. We want a new house. We need a new house. We think.

There are the days we remind ourselves that MANY families live in houses much smaller than ours with no problem. We look around and see all the things we love about our house and our yard (our soon to be gorgeous patio) and wonder what our hurry is. Particularly if I get new floors in the kitchen this winter. And wow we need new carpet. With just a little injection of cash into the house, it would be a really pretty house.

Then we see other homes out there that would give us so much more of what we want and need in a home. And we remember how little storage we have and that we have no real guest room right now. And we complain about the depths of our closet pantry. And needing a three car garage. Then we start looking again.

Basically the update is that we are going forward with preparing our house to either go on the market or possible rent next spring depending on the market. It may happen, or we may decide to build at that point. But hopefully this spring we will have a clearly defined path forward.

Holding steady with the goals

I would like to say that the Master bathroom is finished. But we haven't gotten around to the touch-up painting. Of course this is mostly because my attempts at spray painting the cheap shelves I had hanging up in the bathroom failed. AB suggested I just buy new shelves - which is fine. Fine except that I have anchors and screws in the walls to hang these ones.

Anyways, what that means is that I need to yank out the anchors, patch the walls and paint over them. Not really a big deal, but time consuming enough that I haven't gotten to it yet. Might as well do all the touch up painting at once.

I had intended to be done with the Master Bath by the end of Labor Day, but I keep finding little things in the bathroom to work on. I need to recaulk the shower, work on one of the light switches and AB needs to reattach the trim.


So switching gears to my September goal - the Master Bedroom.


Our Master Bedroom needs serious attention. It is just a sorely neglected room as far as decorating and furniture. We don't like our dressers, but don't want to spend the money on a new bedroom set now.

What I did do was to buy new nightstands. We have never had nightstands and instead have some random small tables next to each of our sides of the bed. So I have ordered new nightstands and they should arrive next week!



They were inexpensive (though solid wood - AB might have strung me up by my toes if I bought anymore laminate particle board stuff) - Overstock.com stuff. But they should match the dressers reasonably well - at least in color if not hardware. They will work for now to help organize our bedside areas. Then after we buy a house, move and buy a new bedroom set (with a king sized bed), we can relegate these nightstands to the guest bedroom.

The things I still need for the Master bedroom are a new hamper system. Badly need this. Anyone see any nice, inexpensive hampers out there? And we could also use two matching bedside lamps or sconces. Probably lamps to put on our new nightstands since I have mounted shelves where sconces would go. AB hates the shelves for some reason... truly not sure why. He would trash them and put up lamps. But my shelves hold my huge stack of books to be read.

Since I am so good at plowing through books lately.


Not.


The last thing that needs to be done in the Master bedroom is a coat of paint. It isn't a must, but it would be really nice (and AB agrees in theory) to have the paint color in the bathroom extend into the bedroom.

No way am I finishing all this in September. My summer turned September goals have now become my October goals. Oh well. I am making progress!


I am really looking forward to the kitchen in November. Probably good I am procrastinating that though... because it is going to get pricey. (New floor, pull outs...)

Weekend Wrap Up

AB and I enjoyed four full days off. The poor kids only got three days off, but both were ready to get back by last night. I asked Skadi if she wanted to go to school this morning and she nodded her head wildly. Let's just hope her teacher isn't about ready to boot her by the end of the day - she is trying to push through her last two teeth (as opposed to molars - she still has four of those left to go for a full mouthful) and is a little bear. Her nights have been misery and AB and I have resigned ourselves to one of us just jumping in the extra queen sized bed (currently residing in her nursery) with her to get her back to bed. Sucky habit I know, but we all (including Leif) get more sleep that way. Oh and she IS a cuddler.

After four days off, AB and I were both ready to get back to work. AB started a new position within his same company today. He passed his EIT/FE exam awhile back, his manager braggardly opened his mouth to some of the other managers and shortly after AB was invited to float around a few other groups and find a place where he is happy (not that he isn't) and feels like he will fit long, long term. His manager is the meantime left regretting having bragged about him passing his exam.

Me? I am ready to have a day at work where I don't have 24 lbs hanging around my neck that screams wildly when put down. It's no wonder when I jump on my treadmill to run lately I surprise myself how far I can go before panting and dropping to the ground. She really has been giving me a workout.

So the big news of the weekend is finishing my Master Bath off. For the most part at least. Little details remain like recaulking the shower, sticking the trim back on, figuring out how awful my spray paint job on the shelves went and whether or not I am going to put them back on the wall or not (AB votes for not) and buying new rugs. My bathroom rugs are old and I want some pretty ones, but AB suggests that I wait until we are ready to list the house since my son's aim is pitiful.

I am starting to look towards my Master bedroom planning out my attack. Storage, I need lots of it. Ideally I want to sell our two dressers and put the money towards a new bedroom set. Realistically I need to purge the dresser contents, replace the hardware that has fallen off and deal with it until we move. The walls will need to be painted. It shouldn't (in theory) be a big job. Now October when I hit the kitchen? THAT will be a big job. Maybe I should save the money that would go towards a bedroom set for a new kitchen floor instead.

AB and I started our fall ritual of dealing with food. Leif and AB put what seemed like hundreds of tomatoes through our food mill (it was horribly entertaining for a four year old) and then AB cooked down the purree to about 3 gallons. Then froze it so we can tackle spaghetti sauce another weekend.

I cooked down our Merlot grapes to about 2 gallons of ridiculously sweet juice. Cabernet grapes will be in a few weeks - and I am scared. I took a look at the vine last night and I estimate that I have at least two to three times as many Cab grapes than I did Merlot. AB asked me what I am going to do with the juice other than take up valuable freezer space. Jelly maybe? Sorbet? Sherbet? Maybe all three. My MIL, however, was disappointed to hear that I have no plans to make wine. I don't know... maybe I should try? Maybe it would be a good experiment and a quick way to use up all the juice. Though I am with Andy on this one... why should I make wine when I have the stuff the pros make in my backyard?

I made a big double batch of pumpkin, chocolate chip bread. Recipe courtesy of VG... (who I really wish would start blogging again... she cracks me up and I could use the athletic motivation). Anyways, I ended up with two large loaves and four minis. Though it was good I got it into the freezer (yes another thing in the freezer) quickly. Both my kids will devour the stuff. (I am blaming them 100%, they aren't here to defend themselves or point fingers.)

I had every intention of making and freezing a few nectarine pies - but our freezer is full of grape and tomato stuff. And the kids were starting to look a little pale and neglected like they had seen one too many movie. So instead we jumped in the car with the dog and headed to the park for a play and a short hike in the foothills. It was good for us all as opposed to nectarine pie that only tastes really good.