Forever Ago?

Pictures from the ski trip in February!! (I just re-located the camera)



The magic carpet - LOVE IT.


Allison in Ski School


Jacob in Ski School.


Are we there yet?

Party, Party

Jacob has a birthday party to go today from 1-3:30pm.

Allison has a birthday party to go to today from 1:30-4:30pm.

By my math that is 2 hours without kids in the house.

Party on!

What's For Dinner?

For my birthday, a friend of mine gave me a subscription to The Six O'clock Scramble, which is a website that e-mails you weekly recipes with sorted and organized grocery lists. Many recipes are easy to prepare (between 20-40 minutes) and all are from scratch. You can change your menu options, but we've decided to try most of what they send us.

So tonight was a roasted chicken with sweet onions, herb red potatoes, and lemony spinach. It was good. It was one of the longer recipes time-wise, so we did it on the weekend. We had enough leftover to save some chicken for sandwiches and create a broth for risotto later this week. (the broth is what's in the pan).



But we were eating and I was thinking about when we moved to Madison and decided we were going to try and eat healthier. We created meals around a protein, a veggie, and a starch. I remember feeling like an Adult. Ah - food world - we'd arrived! I loved those frozen pasta dinners from Bertolli and boxed potato and salad mixes were standard fare.

Our menus are now much more diverse (healthier.... ah, it's a toss up). But eating a meal tonight which was protein, veggie, starch - was kindof fun. Reflecting on my new favorites - scallops and risotto, french onion soup, or (compliments of the Scramble) - grilled spinach and brie - made me think about how much I enjoy food now. For those who knew me even 5 years ago may now marvel that I bought the largest box of spinach available at the store, or that I enjoyed the potato leek soup we made last week, drink coffee, and even manage to have a taco night every once in a while.

Of course, in the interest of Karma, we are not blessed with children who also enjoy the foods we cook - or at the very least - never BOTH of them on the same night (exceptions include Pizza Hut night and Breakfast for Dinner nights - see, we're not total food snobs). The kids tonight had chicken, potatoes, grapes, and pudding and it does not take a rocket scientist to figure out which two components of the meal they ate. Oh well. Perhaps they'll also come around in about 30 years....

a week and a half

The last day of classes is next Wednesday. Not that I'm counting down or anything. We get to this point in the semester and it always causes me to reflect on one of the key differences I noticed about Brian and I - way back when. Getting to the end of a long, arduous task (let's say a long bike ride), we're both tired and ready to be done. This generally causes Brian to dig into some sort of deep energy reserve that says to him (presumably) "here you go - take this energy and get it done!" at which point he conveniently speeds up under the plan of "if I can get there faster, it'll be done sooner."

My inner voice (on the contrary) stats reminding me how tired I am, how much farther I still need to go, and how much better I'd feel if I just slowed down. I can conserve my energy, thus improving my chances of having enough to make it to the end.

I think of this as I stare at the second-to-last homework assignments of the semester. The second to last week of classes. The last chapter of material to cover. I'm tired of grading, the thought of opening up 150 AutoCAD inventor files fills me with dread.

I need a second wind. I need to power through and get it done. Or - LOL - perhaps I can get Brian to do it.

TV is back on

Last week, we pushed the kids to participate in "Turn off the TV week." There was some unspecified reward, but with the trip to Illinois - they forgot about that. Allison's first question on Tuesday morning was "can I watch the Wiggly Waffle Show." I'm generally not too concerned about their TV watching now that the weather is nice and both prefer to be outside after school kicking the bouncy balls on the roof and jumping rope with the neighbors.

I do find the TV a convenient distraction for the kids in the morning before school and sometimes while I'm preparing dinner. We no longer do a bedtime show, and Jacob freely says he finds TV "boring." (although that's only because if the TV is on - he would rather it be a video game, which we've had to limit because otherwise he would do that all day.)

I don't see us being people who forgo the TV entirely, but I'm glad that the kids would generally rather do other things these days.

Jacob says...

I'm going to teach the dog to pee and catch a ball at the same time. I can do that.

The arborvitae