gratitude

Hope your Thanksgiving Day was full of turkeys...


sweets...


and gratitude.


Ours sure was...

lime juice

Tonight was girls' night out with the Fork gang. We ate at Cafe Shish Kebab, Turkish cuisine. It was very good... I'd recommend it!

I picked up my new polarizing filter tonight. Very excited about it! The outdoor photo at right was taken with the filter. I definitely did not have enough time to play with it tonight.

Also picked up my long-ago reserved copy of The Creative Family from the library. I'm very excited to process the ideas in this book. The projects might be geared for kids a bit older, but it never hurts to plant the seed.

Even though I missed Bible study tonight to hang out with the girls, I am still working on my reading and journaling. With the new lighting in our bedroom, I can keep it at my bedside as an easy reminder.

While I was at Fork tonight, John and JT went to the grocery store. Apparently JT was peeved that John kept putting everything out of reach. So John gave him a bottle of lime juice for entertainment. Mind you, we didn't need lime juice and he didn't intend to buy it. Well, I guess when they got to the checkout, JT screamed when John handed the lime juice to the cashier for scanning. And that was the only time he let it out of his sight. Weirdo.

cottage cheese

Now there is a blog post title I never thought I'd write. Hehe.

The boys are both asleep and the house is totally quiet. An hour ago I could think of nothing but sleep myself, but now I'm relishing the quiet time. I will regret in the morning.

JT is asserting his independence lately. I guess when you learn how to walk on your own, you are pretty much on your own, right? Bah.

He has been turning down new foods not so much because he doesn't like them, but because they arrive at his mouth on a spoon handled by his mother. He'd much rather feed himself. Oh, but wait. He can't use a spoon. Minor detail.

So last night after failed attempts to feed him some cottage cheese. I just let him have the bowl while I finished my dinner. Once again, I thought, "I will regret this, I'm sure."

He picked up the bowl.

Stuck his hand in it.

He scooped up some cottage cheese. And ate it.

He did this 3 or 4 times. "Sweet... he got some more nutrition in him," I think to myself. Then he performed a scientific experiment testing a hypothesis on gravity.

He finds once again that gravity is always at work and everything he lets go over the side of the high chair does indeed hit the floor. And the wall. And the carpet.

We decided to go for a walk after this. I think there is still some cottage cheese around here...

if you like trolls...

I'm in my pajamas, eating turtle cheesecake. Ahh, a moment of peace. I know - it is completely contrary to the weight goals I posted last week. I'm still working on those, just indulging a little today.

My friend Sarah is off to Australia for 5 weeks, so tonight was her bon voyage party at the Chocolate Cafe. We are going to miss her and be very envious of her traveling gypsy ways. And no blog for us. Can you believe there is no internet access in the outback?!

On Sunday I watched a show on PBS that was awesome. I'm sure there are plenty of shows on PBS that I rarely watch that are excellent. I had tuned in for Artzine and this documentary came on right afterwards. It's called The World Was Ours. It is about an amazing community of Jewish people in pre-World War II Lithuania. I didn't get to see the whole thing, so I will be watching for it to air again.

They interviewed people telling of their memories of Vilna. One lady was remembering that as a child, when she was sick, her mother would put a pillow on her lap and place her on the pillow. She'd pull the little girl close to her and sing Yiddish lullabies to her. The lady said she always wished to be sick so she could have her mother sing to her.

Oh! My eyes are welling up right now. Isn't that the most heart-wrenching story? I thought, her mother must have been so busy that only when her kids were sick did she have time to sing to them. I have to remember to slow it down and make time for those little moments with my boy.

And speaking of mothers, my mom brought us back a little present from Florida after Easter. It's the three billy goats gruff and the troll under the bridge. I'm pretty much in love with it. I love the colors, the size of the troll, and how he just blends right into the hillside. It has some meaning attached to it also... recently we discovered that my dad is pretty good at making up stories for kids. Unfortunately, all the stories involve goats, trolls, and a gruesome scene.

love the snow

Staying up late crafting is catching up with me. I'm off to bed soon.

For tonight, I made JT some fruit cubes to last a couple weeks. The pears are so delicious... juicy! And we are going to experiment with an apple/kiwi blend. Don't make faces, it's actually very good (yes, I tried it).

And now I leave you with JT's reaction to the snow:

it's good to be king

We visited Uncle Bill and Aunt Theresa in Wooster last weekend. JT showed them all his new tricks: waving, biting, drooling, etc. JT also got to know his cousin Bailey. Maybe we are bad parents... but we let him have the full experience of doggie kisses. JT was amazed that there is a being out there that gives wetter kisses than he does!

We also introduced JT to fine dining.

Oh wait, that's not the photo of fine dining, that was the fast food on the way home. heehee.

On Saturday night we dined at South Market Bistro. The food is phenomenal. They feature seasonal produce and local ingredients. The chocolate fondant was out-of-this-world delicious. JT went with us. He was so good... charming everyone he met.

No pictures from the Bistro, guess I'll have to go back sometime soon!

just chillin'

I wish I was just chillin'... I am so tired. We just watched the end of the super bowl. That was the first time I'd sat down since mid-day. I spent the whole day making baby food for JT. We were almost OUT completely. I bought a bunch of stuff last week on Thursday and didn't get to make it up until today.

Here is the work in progress:

And here is the freezer full of goodies:

Many thanks to Ellen... the food processor and the white ice cube trays are all on loan from her. She also gave me the great idea for mango-applesauce. JT loves it! Today I made up several new foods for him, including cauliflower, carrots, and spaghetti squash. His new food over the weekend was YoBaby yogurt. The vanilla is delicious.

Oh, and I should mention... the baby food is freezing right now in our BRAND... NEW.... REFRIGERATOR!!!

The best feature? Ice and water in the door. Good-bye ice cube trays and water filtration pitcher!

Caesar... salad.

We had PF Changs takout for dinner. You know what that means... lettuce wraps, mmm-mmm.


Caesar... salad., originally uploaded by brungrrl.

Hey JT, you look like Caesar. Caesar salad!!

C'mon, lettuce go get a bath. :-)

learning to eat

Here JT tries bananas for the first time:

eating cereal

After a few weeks of putting the spoon in his mouth, JT has figured out eating rice cereal. Here is his Aunt Theresa feeding him some...

taste of dublin

Third day of a blog post in a row! I'm on a roll... look out world! Well what else am I going to do while I sit around with my pudgy ankles propped up?

Tonight we went to Taste of Dublin after work with our friends Jenny and Robert. Becka invited us since she was working the event. We love food. These are the same people we hit the fish fry circuit with during Lent. (Picture of John is from a fish fry... I was too busy eating tonight to take any photos.) Jenny is the co-founder of Fork. So of course we should attend Taste of Dublin together!

I have to say... we filled up a few times at the Hoggy's booth. Yummers... beef brisket and macaroni with cheese. Panera had several varieties of brownies. I'd like to recommend the brownie with the raspberry topping. But my favorite thing? The chocolate dipped strawberries from Edible Arrangements. Was it wrong to stand there and eat them as fast as they can refill the table?! And do you see a theme with me and the chocolate with fruit?! I could seriously have a straight diet of chocolate covered fruit.

So we are all about these "Taste" events now. Looks like Upper Arlington's is coming up in August, the 14th. Who's in?!

Oooh, you know what else I have almost forgotten about? It's May... time to start hitting the local markets on Saturday mornings. Yahoo! I love the market.

All this talk of food on the blog... anyone want to wager that I'll be blogging more about exercise in 6 months or so?! :-)

not blogging leads to...

Not blogging often enough can lead to really random blog posts! I don't even know where to start, there is so much to tell. And for once, I even have a few photos to go with my words!

This weekend has been awesome. The weather was beautiful all weekend long. I took Friday off as a "psychological day". I needed a "me day" to just chill out. I went to a few yard sales and had an acupuncture appointment. I ate lunch outside at Panera and did a little shopping.

The past couple weeks I've been keeping a more strict to-do list. I have had so many projects and things to do lately (and so very little time to actually do anything). So I made a list about two weeks ago and started crossing things off as I did them. I gave myself Monday through Friday to get everything done... and really I only expected to finish 80% of the list. So with those expectations, I didn't feel so bad when few things were still on the list for the past week. So last week, same process... about 10-12 things on the list and it took me most of the week to get things done, but I did it.

So Friday afternoon I spent working on one of my list items... packing up my craft stuff that was stashed in the guest room so it could be moved to the basement. That little amount of work about wore me out! So on Saturday morning, while I went to a few more yard sales with a friend, John moved all the stuff to the basement AND cleaned the bathrooms. Woo-hoo! More tasks done and I didn't have to wear myself out with it.

Saturday evening we went to Cirque du Soleil's show, Corteo. My brother and I had gotten the tickets for my mom for Christmas, so we'd been looking forward to this for a while. I made reservations for dinner at Basi Italia. We sat on the patio... it was gorgeous. The food was amazing!! I love their small patio, it is so quaint. The food is very unique... all the dishes have so much subtle flavor. I admit... we fought over the brownie. It was swirled with cheesecake and had berries baked right into it. Yum, yum, yum.

The show was great. The second half after intermission wasn't as fantastic as the last show we saw (Varekai). It was still a good show. It's about a clown who dreams of his funeral procession and all his friends. He has flashbacks from his life in the dream. It's a very cool concept. The acrobatics were amazing, of course. The costumes beautiful... loved the music... a total experience, as you'd expect from a Cirque du Soleil show!

So today after church... with the house pretty much all cleaned up and no clutter around, I felt like I finally had a day to do whatever I wanted. Another gorgeous day... and somehow the only way I can think to get out and enjoy it was to clean my car. How nice will that be to get in a clean car to go to work in the morning?! (Never mind that I found out last week that I need new tires - in addition to the other maintenance I've been postponing.) But after cleaning the car I think John and I sat on the porch for at least 2 hours. Just taking in the sun and watching people go by. We chatted on the phone and with each other... just relaxed. I wish that we could be this relaxed on Sundays more often!

As for this week's to-do list, I'm hoping it's a short one. I can crank it out and maybe enjoy another nice weekend in a few days. Sound good?

pizza bagels

I'm working too much to have much interesting to blog about. But tonight I actually made time to make dinner. So while I was at it, I snapped a few shots to share with you. (And I say why the heck not snap photos of what you eat!? It's part of our heritage, right? I mean, I don't think either of my grandmothers were much into pizza bagels back in the 1950s.)
There is no time for dinner. When things are less hectic, we're more into meal planning. For the past two weeks, I've been on a taco salads and pizza bagels kick. I know... poor John. Has to eat the same thing all the time. Whutever.

Really, don't feel bad for him. He LOVES the pizza bagels. I tried them once on a whim and he fell in love. Lucky for me, he likes the stuff that's easy to make and the harder stuff he usually could live without. So I'll tell ya how we make pizza bagels here. They are QUITE delish...

The shopping list:

• 1 package of refrigerator bagels (I usually buy the Lender's whole wheat variety)
• pepperoni
• pizza sauce
• mozzerella (I buy it in a block and shred it myself, it melts better that way)
  
• banana peppers
• fresh mushrooms (you could buy the ones in the jar... but fresh work well)
  
• can of sliced or chopped black olives
• onion (I happened to have some scallions leftover from the previous night's taco salads)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 365 F. Split the bagels into halves, lay on baking stone or pan. (Usually one bagel serves on person.) Shred cheese, set aside. Spread pizza sauce over each bagel half. Line with pepperoni. Add other toppings. Top with cheese. Bake for 20 minutes.

We like different things on our pizzas... so usually John has banana peppers on his and I have black olives and onions on mine. Great meal for kids... they can top their own!

chocolate raspberry truffle

Well, swolen ankles may help me keep up with blogging. By evening I am ready for some feet-propped-up time. And while I am sitting here, I may as well catch up on some email and blogging!

I cleaned three windows and the back sliding door this evening. Now, all the other windows in the house look EVEN DIRTIER. Grrreat. Well that moment of inspired-cleaning backfired. If I focus on just those back windows, though... they do look stunning. And I achieved a sparkling view of my back yard that I raked and weeded into shape yesterday evening. Man, I need a patio back there! (Photo from last year.)

Here is a hot cleaning tip for you: Clean windows with a linen cloth to prevent streaking and small bits of cotton fiber left on the window. My windows are supposed to be wiped with just water. So I use a wet linen towel and a dry one to get them really clean. But even if you are using amonia + hot water or window cleaner, try the linen cloth.

We met B&J for ice cream tonight. I had a scoop of chocolate raspberry truffle in a (warm) waffle cone. YUM YUM YUM. I am going to dream about that for a while. Actually, I'll just add it onto the dreams of Dairy Queen ice cream cake I was already having. Yeah, if you are watching what you eat, I'd recommend avoiding me. I am a bad, bad influence. Come back in August to find out how that's working out for me. :-)

Has anyone read The Secret by Rhonda Byrne? Folks keep talking about it. I'm not usually into self-help books, but I'm intrigued by what I'm hearing about this one. Have you read it? Did you try anything the book suggests? If so, how is that going?