A week in the life…

I haven’t been in a bloggity blog mood lately.  I dunno why.  It’s been 8 days since I last posted.  I definitely don’t feel like Doogie Howser anymore.  Here’s the low down on what I’ve been doing:

It’s fall and I like it.  There was a bit of a scare when it snowed in September, but it’s November and it’s 50 degrees.  That’s, like, above average for this time of year.  And so the leaves are still dropping and it reminds me of when I was a kid.  I often wonder if my kids will look back on these memories fondly, if they’ll remember how carefree childhood is.  

My niece came over for a slumber party.

I caught my dh laying on the kitchen countertops and…..finally putting in the accent lights.  (I’ve had those things for a year!)

and they make everything look so pretty.

We’ve enjoyed the weather as much as we could, even taking impromptu walks.  and poses.

and spins.

I made a pair of mittens for my dd.  One is round on the top and one is pointy.  I am still unsure how this happened.  But I do know that when you buy a 5.00 pair of mittens, they were NOT hand knit!  (all this knitting makes me appreciate knitwear so much more!)

My dh had his gallbladder taken out yesterday.  While we were waiting, I decided to get him a teddybear or somn’.  So, I went in the gift shop and they were having a drawing for bouquets of flowers.  Well, wouldn’t it be the cutest thing if I won one for him?  So I put my name in and sure enough I WON THE GRAND PRIZE!  A two dozen bouqet of roses with the vase and with snowflake decorations.  My oh my, fancy me.  My dh was the talk of the surgery recovery floor (someone must love him A LOT to get such a big bouquet of beauty)

and that’s been my week in a nutshell.

I have a video for you, I hope you like it:

Tatah.

sun dried tomatoes

During the summer, I was worried I wouldn’t have enough tomatoes.  But alas, in came the end of summer.  Since I plucked all of the green ones and let them ripen on the counter, I’ve run out of things to make with them.  I already made 2 batches of salsa.  So, I decided to sun ripen them.

The sun hasn’t been out and it is freeeezing, so I did it the oven method.

I cut the tomatoes in half, placed cut side up on a baking sheet, sprinkled with kosher salt, and baked at 200 degrees for 5 hours (it can take up to 12 hours, but since I had little ones, it didn’t take as long).

That many tomatoes made just enough for half a sandwich baggie.  They store indefinitely, but I have plans for them for Thanksgiving, so stay tuned…

Halloween

Halloween was spookily busy for me.  Because this is my blog and kinda like my diary, I am going to give you an outline of my day:

Woke up at 6:45 am, yikes.  Went to water aerobics (see, I really do work out…sometimes), where I was the youngest by at least 20 or 30 years.  And that doesn’t bother me at all, because then I feel real good about myself if I can keep up.  I also feel kinda cute in my bathing suit.  ;)  Went home and picked up dd, brought her to ballet, where I tried to sneak in some knitting time.  After that, we went to Target to get halloween candy, because you can never have enough.  Why is that?  But of course, I got distracted and ended up buying a week’s worth of groceries and some treats for our friends for later.  Remind me never to shop at Target, I spend my life savings at that store every time I walk in.

Then, we went to a surprise party for this really, really funny girl I know, which also happened to be a kids halloween dress up party.  My ds hid in the basement and ate their Schmorgasborg of food/candy while we all hid out upstairs waiting for my friend to get there so we could jump out and say surprise.  By the time we left, he said he was gonna throw up.  I’m like, “kid, pace yourself, it’s halloween.”

We had cake outside, where the kids jumped in the leaves.  Why didn’t I think of this cheap/exhausting/fun activity for kids?  I mean, I know that’s what people do; pile up the leaves and jump in them, but I am always afraid of the leaves going everywhere again and having to re-rake (but my dh would probably say, “do you rake anyway?”).  I was surprised the kids loved it so much.  I mean, they could have done it for hours and hours and hours.  And I would have been fine with that, but we had other shizzle to do.

On our way out, I gave my friend her gift, which was the knitted peace sign washcloth but it was wrapped in a peach detox tea box.  She didn’t open it at first, because she thought it was the tea that was her gift.  She said she would have loved the tea, too.  But me and my damn big mouth said, “you can’t have it anyway, because pregnant people can’t have it.”  And she said, “I’m not pregnant.”  I think my heart fell into the pit of my stomach, because of all the secrets that you can spill, this would be the worst.  And I did it in front of everyone she knew!  OMG!!!!  I was having a freak attack for the rest of the day.  I’ll tell you what happened in a minizule…

Next, we went to my friend Laura’s for some pumpkin pinata fun…

Fun, fun, fun!  We could have stayed there all day, but we had to get home and get our house ready for the evening.  A friend of my ds and his mom were coming out trick or treating with us.  I’d never met either of them before so I had to tidy up a bit before they came over.  And we had to get our costumes all finalized.  Here they are:

In the mean time, I emailed my friend asking her who invited the big mouth and she replied it was no big deal.  So, whew, but I think she had been messing with me and I just didn’t stick around to find out the joke was on me.

When my ds’s friend and his mom got here, the first thing she said to me was, “awww, you’re expecting?”  and I just thought, ‘you know, karma’s a bitch.’  (cuz I am NOT expecting!!)

Anyway, the kids got candy galore.  Here they are post trick or treating:

After the friend and his mom left, we had a mini movie theatre in my room with popcorn and all.  After the kids went to bed, I managed to fit in a little more knitting time while we handed out the last of the candy  to the stragglers and finished my latest project.  Here it is:

(here’s the pattern, even though mine looks nothing like the pattern. http://www.lionbrand.com/patterns/50722-2.html?noImages=0)

When I say momma rocks, I mean it.  riiighhht?  right.

AND I got an extra hour in bed this mornin’ to cuddle with my man (daylight savings! don’t forget).  woot woot.

 

homemade pizzaahhhh.

I’m Italian, but I need all the help I can get.  So, I used my bread maker to rise the dough.  and the recipe from the bread machine cookbook.  Here it is:

1 1/3 c water

2 1/2 tsp olive oil

2/3 tsp. salt

2 c all purpose flour

2 c whole wheat flour

packet of yeast

when it’s finished rising (about 1 hr 20 min), roll it out with a pin and top with ingredients.  Tonight we used green olives, kalamata olives, turkey sausage (we cooked ourselves and cut up), and tomatoes from my garden.

For fun, here are some pics of my husband being goofy while topping the pizza w/cheese:

 

wooo oooo Halloween preparations….

are underway.

eeek, did you see the double of my ds?  :0

it’s a bodyless pumpkinhead.

Roller skating fun.

How could I forget that we went roller skating?  Here are some cute pics:

(she’s got the gangsta look goin’ on – one sock down, one sock up.)

This is a funny picture sequence:

You say tomato, I say tomato.

So, I am in the process of jotting down the notes of the failures and successes of my summer garden.  In the mean time, while we wait for me to make a post of those, I’d like to tell you about the tomatoes…There wasn’t any time to wait for them to ripen on the vine, so I picked them, put them in a paper bag, and hoped they’d ripen on their own.  And that they did!!!  As they started to turn, I would take them out of the bag and put them in the windowsill.  And once they were really red, I’d put them in a bowl to gather a few for salsa.

Here’s my salsa recipe:

lots of tomatoes

some basil, and a peppermint leaf

lots of garlic

a little bit of onion

1/2 bushel trimmed cilantro

a few pinches of kosher salt

a jalapeno – 1/2 if you don’t like it too spicy, 1/4 if you like it milder

squirt of lemon

blend in a food processor.  It gets a bit frothy, but yummmmmmmmmmm it’s delicio!!!

I put into containers and freeze for the winter!!!  Lots of fresh salsa is really, really, really good for you!

besides drinking the vino, I like to have play dates

I like play dates.  What’s a stay at home mom to do with her days, besides a lil bit of laundry, cleaning, story telling, and play dates?  My mom says she remembers the days when you sent your kids out to play and you didn’t see them until the break of dusk.  But times aren’t like they used to be, momma.  We can’t send them out into the scary world that it is.  So, we’ve found other ways to meet the needs of the rambunctious kids and lonely mommas; it’s called a play date.

Besides being on a few chat forums (which is how you meet other mommas now a days), I’m in a “play group.”  Actually, it’s a group that met via online (so there ya go).  I adore these mamas.  We meet every Friday and take turns playing at each other’s homes.  Usually, it’s a 2 hour play time with a snack time and craft time thrown in.  Kind of like preschool, but at your house.  That’s how I like to see it anyway.

It’s always the same play group.  I’ll throw down dome names now: Kristy, Laura, Casey, Vanessa, Sandi, Diana, Julie, Cyndi, and me.  We all have kids in the same toddler/preschool age range (even though my ds accompanies us when school’s out).  Sometimes, I like to invite other mommas I know outside of the group, to mix things up, too.

Anyway, this week the part-ay was at my house.  Since it was halloween, we had a few fun things going on.  First, we had a sticker/coloring activity.  Then, we made ghost shaped muffins and decorated them with icing and sprinkles.  After that, it was free play and the kids played school.

So, I got some pix of what we did:

momma just wants a glass of wine.

HA!

Okay, I aint gonna lie, I like to have a glass of wine every now and then.  And one night I was taking a sip when my ds, who has been learning about DARE at school and how alcohol and cigarettes are bad for you, asks me what’s in my cup.  I replied, “an adult drink.”  He asked, “is it wine?”  I said, “yes, it is,”  thinking that was the end of the conversation.  He went on to ask why a person would drink alcohol when you know it’s so bad for you.  I dunno, because I am an adult and I can.  I went on about “choices” and how candy isn’t really good for you either.  He said he was afraid that I’d get in an accident, so I promised I wouldn’t drive.  For Pete’s sake, I was having one drink!  And that was that.  Until, a few minutes later, he said “I am really scared you are going to die, because the alcohol is going to get in your liver and your brain and then they won’t work anymore so you’ll die.  So, I really just don’t want you to drink that, okay?”  What’s a mom to do, but say “okay.”  Shit, lets add that to the list of things I can’t do around my kids.  No crack smoking – kidding!!-, no butt smoking, no cussing, no making out, no R rated movies, and now no drinking a lousy glass of wine? sheesh.

2 new knit projects

It’s getting cold, so I’ve been busy knitting.

How stylin’ is that?

And..I made a cowel that I thought was going to turn out differently, but turned out fine as is anyway.

I must be thinking about keeping my neck warm.  Hmm, interesting.