Random

School's not even out yet and the house already looks like it is. Flip flops piled by the door and misc. toys and library books and bits and pieces of the kids make-believe games everywhere. They were playing Ben 10 Alien Force all weekend. Anders stuffed about 25 teeny-tiny Star Wars guns, blasters and sabers into his snack bag. This morning while packing snacks, I dumped them on the couch 'cause I didn't want to send him to school with contraband weapons. I hope I got them all and that he doesn't whip out a Boba Fett blaster with his snack this morning.

I'm a good mom that way.

Despite the fact that both kids have blueberry cake for their snack today. I'm also out of snack/lunch mojo and will resort to whatever is on hand vs. what is good for you. Dagny has penne a la vodka for lunch. So, obvs, I won't send guns with my son, however I've no problem sending alcohol-laced pasta with my girl. Both kids love, love, love, pink-puffy-heart adore penne a la vodka. Good enough for me!

Road trips, sleeping-in (sorta), and relaxation ahead!

Writer's block

Mom at her limit

Please stop the ride. I want to get off.

(Image of the Kingda Ka at Six Flags New Jersey. Follow the link to check out a YouTube video of the ride. I almost threw up just watching.)

The thing about summer...

While the rest of the country is enjoying the first tastes of local produce after the long cold winter, we're winding up the commercial growing season here in Florida.

This was our first year of belonging to a CSA and it was wonderful. Sweetwater Farm is a local (well, Tampa), organic community farm and I was delighted with the quality and quantity of food we got. We joined with a group of three other families, all with young kids, and the amount of food was just about perfect. Next year only three of us are in, so we ought to be swimming in fresh carrots, lettuce, kale and radishes by next January. Hopefully, supplemented by our homegrown tomatoes and herbs.

So, eat up Florida! The Florida blueberry crop is great this year, as are the local cantaloupes and the delicious Florida corn. By July all you'll be able to get is stuff brought in from elsewhere. Unless you need some scotch bonnet peppers. Then I can hook you up from our garden.

So. Tired.

Three almost-sleepless nights in a row. Anders still running a small fever, so although he's got plenty of energy, no school until he's fever-free. I'm guessing he won't go at all this week, which is fine. If only he'd sleep at night!

On the up side, "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest," the final book in the amazing Stieg Larsson Millennium trilogy just shipped from Amazon. Can't wait to read it!

The cook is in the kitchen!

Mondays are usually a "me" day since Anders is in school in the morning. My day to clean up from the weekend, put things (i.e., toys) away, and run personal errands. However Anders has been pretty sick since early Sunday morning and so I've kept him home today with his high fever & stuffy nose. He's very lethargic too, rare for him, so I'm indulging him with some Disney while he lolls on the couch.

But, despite getting a total of about 4 hours of sleep since Saturday night, I am raring to go! It's a beautiful hot morning and I'm in the mood to get stuff DONE. So after I buzzed through my chores I turned my attention to the produce I have lingering around the house: some almost-too-ripe bananas; a bunch of tomatoes & scotch bonnet peppers; some plums & blackberries*. I'm making roasted banana ice cream using a cool new ice cream recipe that doesn't use a custard so no slaving over a stove praying that your egg yolks don't curdle. Then I threw together a plum & blackberry crisp. I can't wait to have this for dessert with some whipped cream. And then the kids can eat it for breakfast. And finally I made a humongous batch of salsa using green scotch bonnets from our garden. They've got a little more intensity than jalapeno, but a fruitier, crisper taste than if they were totally red/orange-ripe. I've never made salsa before, but this stuff BLOWS AWAY the jarred stuff. I can't wait to have it with some tortillas & guacamole for lunch. Or on quesadillas for dinner. Or as a side with some jerk pork later this week. Or as part of a seven-layer salad for Memorial Day. Or on a late night bunch of nachos with pepper jack. Yum yum.

Definitely got the creative cooking juices flowing today!

*Plums & blackberries being the odd man out in our fridge. Watermelon, cherries, cantaloupe, and blueberries are eaten almost as fast as I can unpack & wash them.

Eat mor chikn

Free chikn!

http://www.getspicychicken.com/

St. Gaetanus

St. Gaetanus is the patron saint of job seekers (also an attorney, so apropos for our situation). We are praying non-stop. Mr. J is trying to keep his spirits up; he's had tons of first interviews. Just can't convert to second meetings or close the deal with an offer. We are fighting off the fear and anxiety, but it is hard. Some days harder than others.

Did I mention that after our torrential rain last night a huge crater opened up in the backyard? Nice timing, huh? It's definitely not a sinkhole (thank you Lord) but now we have to figure out what/why/how to fix. All things that take money. Yikes. Our landscaper, bless his heart, volunteered that it might be a leaking sewer line. I guess I should say some prayers to the patron saint of plumbing.

On the menu this week

• Sauteed shrimp with carrots, squash, zucchini and thyme; yellow rice
• Oven fried chicken, green beans, noodles, fennel and orange salad
• Pancakes & sausage
• Tuna melts on homemade English Muffins; summer chopped salad
• Vegetarian pad thai

I've only one dessert planned: pavlova with lemon curd cream and strawberries. I might make some mint chocolate chip ice cream later this week, but we've got a lot going on: end-of-year meetings Mon, Tue. & Thurs. night.

There's going to be a floody, floody

Have you ever heard the super cute song "Rise & Shine" (aka Arky, Arky)? Anders' class put on a Noah's Ark play for their end of the year project and this was the highlight. Anders was an elephant (so funny, since he's the smallest boy in the class) and it was just great. What's that? You want pictures? Well, Mr. J was the photog for this event, so maybe in about 5 years he'll get his camera offloaded. He's terrible about that stuff.

Anyway, all so apropos today since it is POURING here. Good for the garden; good day to stay inside and chill, relax, laze. Or clean. I could clean.

Ripe for the pickin'

One of the few benefits to Matt being home these days is that stuff is really getting done around here. Our yard is fenced about 60% of the way, curtains hung, and the backyard is looking awesome! In March we decided to put in a small vegetable garden that has since grown to be quite a good size.

The first of the tomatoes are just coming in. Talk about DELICIOUS. They're even better than the ones from the Farmer's Market (for some reason our CSA farm doesn't do tomatoes). Last night, in addition to a great grilled flat-iron steak, we had a wonderful yellow-boy tomato, sliced, sprinkled with fleur de sel, and served with buttered bread. Yummy! (Note to self: this would taste even better with homemade bread. Might be worth heating up the house one or two days a week.)

Plus we've got sproutlings/seedlings everywhere! In the next few weeks we'll have LOTS more tomatoes, including some little cherry tomatoes (homemade salsa anyone?), radishes, green onions, scotch bonnet peppers, pole beans, yellow squash, watermelon, cucumbers, cilantro, basil, rosemary, oregano, thyme, mint, lemon balm, dill, chives and sunflowers! I can't believe we can actually grow all that stuff in our own backyard! If everything goes well, maybe we can even do lettuce and carrots one day and at that point we won't even need to belong to a CSA share anymore.

Plus, even though I truly dislike gardening, it's different when you can eat your work.

Who's your daddy?

There are two kinds of husbands*:

One that will, when told at 12:30 a.m. that there is a rustling, crackling, creepy sound coming from the corner of their darling daughter's bedroom, will grab a shoe, a roll of paper towels and a can of Raid and hunt mercilessly for the offending critter; a hunt that will only end when, to the relief of all concerned, proof-positive in the form of a corpse is presented and then unceremoniously thrown out the front door.

ORRRRRRR....

The other kind that will, when informed of the same scenario, poke around in the corners for 2 minutes and then declare that is was "just the window shade rustling from the ceiling fan."

* Honey, I love you no matter what you do.

Countdown to summer

22 more days of school! Woohooo!

Dagny adamantly refused to participate in any camps, Vacation Bible Schools, sports, classes or other organized activities this summer. Anders isn't quite ready for sports or lessons either (although he'll do swim classes and T-ball in the fall when he is 4, thus officially starting my life as a taxi cab mom. I'm glad Dags is pretty lazy low-key and I haven't had to drive around to too much yet.). So what's a Mama to do? We're ROAD TRIPPING!

First stop to see my BFF and her family in Atlanta to do some major catching up (we haven't been up in two long years!) Then on to Kansas to visit my BIL, SIL and their family on their farm, give the kids a taste of country life, learn how to milk goats, and stock up on homemade soap and jam. Woo! Then, from Kansas, we're driving to Denver for a few days for a mini-reunion with some of my sorority sisters! I haven't seen these ladies in about 20 years, so it will be a blast! 1H1W!

In between friends & family I'm hoping to do a bit of exploring and I know I'll enjoy checking out America from the driver's seat instead of from 30,000 feet up in the air. We were planning a stop in Nashville, but given the flooding we might pass. Definitely St. Louis for the Arch though and other than that, we're playing it by ear.

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to the two special Moms in our lives:

Grandma J, Anders & I at Pisgah National Forest in 2007. Dagny took the pic.

My mom & I at Anders' baby shower in 2006.

We love you very much!

Squeee! Talbots giveaway!

Puttin' on the G.R.I.T.S. is hosting a giveaway for a Talbot's gift card! To enter I have to post a link to (one of) my favorite looks from their new collection. So hard to choose! I already posted the beaut green dress that I have to have, so I'm going to pick:

paisley crops! so cute with a crisp white shirt

straw tote! great size.

possibly the cutest one-piece I've seen in a while

Check out the Talbots' blog Red Chair Confessions! (Jenn - scroll down to check out the cool aqua cuff! I see you in that!)

Peekaboo

Is there anything more embarrassing than getting home from running errands and changing out of your spotless white jeans THEN realizing you have been sashaying all over town wearing hot pink underwear? I'm mentally making a list of all the places I've been.... ugh.

Aha moment

Day 10? 9? 14? of the cleanse/diet. I had an a-ha! moment last night when, as I stared at a loaf of forbidden bread, that I really would rather work out than diet. So, I'm going to finish up the next 5? 6? 1? days and then I'm going to throw this crap out and buy a summer pass to our local pool.

In other news, Dagny is making her First Communion this weekend at church. She is first in line... will literally be leading the other children in and then, later, up to Communion. No, not 'cause she's such a great leader. Because she is teeny tiny and they're lined up by height. It's going to be a lovely day, but extremely hectic. Our priest told us last night that this is the largest Communion class our parish has ever had - 50 kids! Multiply than by, let's say, 12 family members in attendance per kid = 600 people just for the class. Plus the rest of the parish. Someone told me yesterday at practice that they're literally packed into the church, through the vestibule and into the choir loft. Yeah, someone's going to be left standing the whole time (most likely Mr. J outside with Anders).

But as Msgr. said last night, it doesn't matter where you are sitting (or standing), it's all about the kids. Amen.

How I Met Your Father

(This post is for a link back to Kelly's Korner where she is doing a "How I Met My Spouse" day.)

For five years in the early 90s, my (future) husband and I lived in the same town, hung out at the same bars, went dancing in the same clubs, liked the same bands and never met each other.

Then he moved to San Francisco and eventually Budapest, Hungary with no intention of ever returning to the Tampa area. I, meanwhile, continued to hang out in the same bars, same clubs, with the same people, while working in the staffing industry and then, eventually, in HR for a tech company.

Then, as fate would have it, my Mr. ended up deciding to go to law school and so moved home to take the LSATs. He decided to make some extra cash by working a temp job... at my company.

It was absolutely, 100%, no-doubt-about-it, love at first sight. In fact, after the interview (of course I hired him!) I sent his resume over to a friend of mine with a cover sheet that read: "I'm going to marry this guy!" (Haha, said Teresa. You can't date coworkers, remember?)

Despite my company's "no dating" policy we snuck around for about 6 months before he left to start law school. Fast forward one year and we were indeed engaged. Fast forward 1o and here we are married with two kids.

I do believe in love at first sight!

Bravo Talbots!

In late breaking fashion news, three cheers for Talbots for completely revitalizing their look!! Their spring collection? A. Ma. Zing. I've always shopped at Talbots, but in the last few years have stuck with basics like tshirts and chinos (items that I used to buy at J. Crew before they decided their target market was anorexics/winos/uninterested in hairbrushes). But their new line is soooo cute. Although much more dressy, the new Talbots stuff kind of reminds me of the new LLBean Signature and Land End Canvas lines. They are a little more polished & pretty than the everyday stuff.

I'll take one of everything, please! Especially this dress. I can so totally rock that color.

Chew on this

Day Two of the Cleanse is DONE. This method of diet control is extremely hard if you like food. My general plan for this week:

A.M. - "Energy" beverage 30 minutes before breakfast

Breakfast - 1 c. oatmeal w/ berries; "cleansing" tea

Snack - Yucky little fake-chocolate chewy things that TOTALLY kill the munchies

Lunch - Protein shake, cleansing tea (this is hard. I want a sandwich.)

Snack - Bunch o' random veggies or some grapes

Dinner - Healthy meal w/ protein & veg

Before bed - More tea!!

Also about 63,000 glasses of water.

My take away so far:

1) I'm not really that hungry. All that liquid and the protein shakes fill me up (not necessarily satisfying, but at least I'm not starving) and they don't taste completely horrible.

2) The "cleansing effect" has been very mild. No nastiness. But I do feel a lot better! My skin is freaking out, but I understand that is normal when you're body is detoxing.

3) I don't crave anything except sugar. Oh how I want a piece of cake; ice cream; whipped cream. I'm in severe withdrawal and am contenting myself with looking at pictures of desserts on Tastespotting.

4) Despite my fears, I've had no problems giving up coffee at all! Surprise, surprise! I've not missed it, I haven't had headaches, I don't feel draggy. In fact, I think I have even more energy! I've already estimated if I can stay caffeine free we'll save about $30 a month at the grocery on coffee.

5) I could never do this more than a week. I'm hoping it gives me just the kick start I need to get a more healthy diet in place and most importantly, kick the sugar habit. I fully admit I'm dependent on desserts, my sweet tooth is my downfall, and I need to change!

So basically, I think this has been a good idea. It's really got me thinking about what I eat, what I want to eat, how I want to look and feel, how I've become a classic "comfort eater". Pretty unusual for someone who isn't usually introspective, even about their food.