Thursday, November 29, 2012

Ten on Tuesday.Wednesday.Thursday.

1. This is the Ten on Tuesday that began on Sunday, wasn't thought about again until Wednesday, and is being completed on Thursday.

2. Thanksgiving was a smashing success here, and I am defining success by the fact that every recipe new and old was a keeper and will be repeated for next year. I have now assembled my Thanksgiving section in our family recipe book, complete with grocery list and step by step directions. I've been cooking Thanksgiving dinner since 1999 and I can truly say that it's taken this long to streamline the process.

3. Perhaps a better definition of success is when your kids eat Thanksgiving dinner and, for the first time ever, eat leftovers and like it!

4. Ron is teaching the kids to play Chess, and like War and Battleship and Spot It and any other game I can't think of at the moment, Fisher has Chess on the brain and is asking to play it just as soon as Daddy's headlights are spotted in the driveway every evening.

5. Not to be left out, Alla is catching on very quickly as well and was instrumental in teaching ME.

6. I am nearly obsessed with chocolate covered raisins.

7. I am so very glad for the extra week of holiday season/Christmas prep this year, but holy jeez December is still just about here!

8. There are about 48 things on each of my 59 to-do lists. Consequently, my fun reading has fallen by the wayside. I will, however, loosely say that I am re-reading The Passage in order to move on to The Twelve.

9. At least the kids and I are in the midst of a fun read - The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles.

10. Is it possible that four year old boys are littler than four year old girls?

Sunday, November 25, 2012

Thanksgiving 2012.

I didn't take too many pictures on Thanksgiving; it's one of those holidays where things get busy and really I've cooked enough turkeys that it's not necessary for me to have a picture of each one. Plus it was amazingly warm in the days leading up to the holiday so we spent a good deal of time outside soaking up our last bits of vitamin D.

The few I did take tell our Thanksgiving story, though. Kids making placecards and other art with their four and seven year old hands.
 
Creating truly wonderful ten-dollar gluten-free stuffing by painstakingly buttering both sides of the bread.
 

And my favorite, a note written to me by Alla on Tuesday when the cooking began, and which gladdened my heart through the next days of mixing and measuring and basting. We are so full here.

Tuesday, November 06, 2012

Ten on Tuesday.

1. It's Election Day! Go vote. At one point in history, no one in our family of four would have been allowed to vote. Now, at least two of us are, and the other two will be allowed when they've come of age.

2. As this is my seventh fall in Minnesota, I've decided that the SweeTango is my favorite apple variety. Sadly, they have a short season and are now gone from the stores til next year.

3. On Sunday evening I served roasted carrots with our roasted chicken, and Fisher quickly decided he did not like "toasted carrots." With very few exceptions, my children prefer their vegetables raw.

4. We have been wanting some new sheets for awhile, and by "awhile" I do mean a few years, since I had to retire a set due to actual holes. Trouble is, I'm very picky about sheets and have to feel them in person. Since winter is approaching, I thought we'd get some more wintery sheets, and came across these microloft ones on the Bed Bath and Beyond website. Of course I had to feel them in person, and was skeptical, because they basically felt like a fleece blanket. The cashier, however, reassured me that I could return them for any reason. So I washed them, dried them (they take hours on low heat), and then had the best sleep ever. They are the warmest, coziest, softest sheets, without being at all stifling. Best sheets ever.

5. Another product recommendation: St. Ives Naturally Smooth Hand Cream.

6. Is there room here for another one: Blistex Moisture Melt. Love this stuff, a great cheap addition to your purse or your nightstand. Very moisturizing, stays on for several hours. OK, that's all the product I am recommending for today.

7. I am completely over fall weather. Once you get past the colorful leaves, the falling leaves, the fallen leaves, the leaf jumping, and the raking, all you are left with is a dreary gray sky that puts a chill in your bones. I'll take a big pile of snow to give me and the boy something to do.

8. Speaking of cold, got a favorite soup recipe? I could use a new few.

9. For our Election Day dinner, we had Sloppy Joe's, an old throwback kind of dinner that my parents lovingly nicknamed "Sloppy Jennifer Jo's" when I was a kid. Both kids gobbled up their dinner, which always fills my bucket.

10. Something else reminiscent of childhood these days: dog-earing all of the Christmas catalogs that come in the mail.

Monday, November 05, 2012

Halloween 2012.



We had a Ninja and a firefighter (again! yay, budget-conscious children - right!) this year for Halloween, and it was perhaps the best Trick or Treat ever.

Reason no. 1: My mom here to pass out candy again.
Reason no. 2: The four of us got to trick or treat together, which was super fun.
Reason no. 3: It was relatively mild, weather-speaking.
Reason no. 4: However mild it was for us grown-ups, Ninja costumes are apparently not that arm, so after a trip around the block, Little Miss Ninja was chilly and called it a night. We then returned home, where each costumed child counted out their ten favorites and promptly put the rest in the donate pile. We hit up the city "spooky house" (where they offer wine to grown-ups, what!??), and then put the little ghosties to bed.
Reason no. 5: The day after Halloween I took the rest of the candy to the food shelter, so it is no longer in our home, except for what remains of the kids' ten favorites, of course.
Reason no. 6: The gifts that the kids traded in the rest of their candy for, a Secret of the Wings DVD and a REAL Vacuum Vic (alas!), respectively. Period.

linkwithin

linkwithin