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Category: family

Another Boring Sunday…

payin’ bills, and loving it
Today’s been a quiet day around the house. I’ve gotten exactly one half of one row knit. I’m supposed to be paying bills, and I will, but I thought I would blog first.

Tomorrow’s the first day back to school after a 10-day spring break. As usual, the mom and dad are glad to be getting back to some semblance of routine, but the kids? Not so much… BoyZilla just had a twelfth-degree meltdown, figuring that if he didn’t go to bed, then maybe tomorrow wouldn’t come. I know kid, ends of vacations bite. Suck it up.

I’m teleworking tomorrow, and I’m glad, because I really hate Mondays. Don’t tell the BoyZilla, but I have a colossal meltdown EVERY Sunday night, only a telework Monday seems to soften the blow. At least a little.

Spring seems to be making an earnest attempt at hanging around now, which makes me happy. And the pool is opening in about a month already, and I’m kinda kicking myself. This year has flown by! (My mother told me it happens when you get older… it sucks, doesn’t it?)

The thing is that this was the year I kept telling myself that there were a lot of things I was going to fix. So far, none have really happened. Get organized. Exercise. Eat well. Lose weight. (A LOT of weight.) Sleep more than three or four hours at a time. Be nicer to people. Sounds like quite a list, doesn’t it?

That’s the problem. My list is so long, I don’t even know where to start. I feel pretty alone and overwhelmed by my goals most of the time. So it’s like I have them on a shelf, right next to me. I can see the goals nearby, staring at me and taunting me. I know, I should tackle them one by one, and in little bits at a time. And then I think that they’re ALL so pressing, each one needs to come first. They’re all important. I’d probably feel better if I just somehow did all of the things on my list, and then so much more would be possible because I did. And yet, it’s all too overwhelming.

So what do I do? I blog. And I knit. And I generally spend too much time on the computer, pushing all of the things I really need to do out of my mind, and out of the way.

It’s not what I’m supposed to be doing and it’s not really working. Someday, I’ll sort it all out. But for now, I gotta pay bills. Argh! See you later.

And now, I leave you with a smile:

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April 19, 2009
Family Movies

Not much happening today; just another lazy Sunday. Didn’t get much knitting done and haven’t finished photo editing from knit group yesterday. So, I leave you with these two clips of family moments of the week.

This first one is what happens when you let the cat’s water bowl run dry; she’s not shy about getting her point across!

And this is what happens when you let BoyZilla browse among the electronic musical toys at Target on a Friday night:

Both kids came home with excellent report cards on Friday so we let them go to Target and choose a small reward. For Her Highness the Teen it was the Twilight DVD, which has now been watched a handful of times. BoyZilla picked a light sabre toy from Star Wars: The Clone Wars, which is the new hot thing around here among 6-8 year old boys. I got another pair of headphones for my iPod. Exciting, huh?

Well, I guess I have some work to catch up on before morning gets here, which is already too soon from now. Ciao!

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April 5, 2009
Fog

Trees through the fog
FOG

The fog comes
on little cat feet.

It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.

Carl Sandburg

This is the view from my yard this morning, looking not much past my next-door neighbor’s yard. Every time I see a foggy day, I think of Carl Sandburg. “Fog” was the first poem I ever had to memorize. It was third grade, in Mrs. Goldstein’s class. So on this dreary, gray morning, here I sit with a mug of tea, brewed VERY black for extra punch, trying to gather what’s left of my energy for this last work day of the week.

The fog of course isn’t helping my energy level. My toes are still cold and I’d really just rather crawl under the blankets and sleep til noon. This kind of gray, damp weather really doesn’t lend itself to a high energy sort of workday! But at least I know that the grayness of my sky is a small sacrifice compared to what the folks along the Red River must be going through right now. I suppose I’d take a little fog any day over that.

Thankfully, there’s a bit of knitting time before I have to sign on for work. I’d better get to it, before it slips away. Happy Friday! Here’s hoping for a sunny afternoon.

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March 27, 2009
Is It Soup Yet?

Easy Vegetable Pot Roast Stew
I’ve never done this before, but tonight I’m taking a page from sheriatheloopyewe and posting a recipe. Spring is here, but it’s still nippy, and I’ve been craving soup. Plus my mom gave me a fabulous new crock pot for Christmas and I’ve been wanting to use it more often.

So yesterday morning I got up and put on a pot of soup. It was knit group day anyway so I wanted to have dinner well underway before I left. So, without further ado, this is what I came up with:

Easy Vegetable Pot Roast Soup

2 lbs. cubed beef stew meat
3 cans condensed beef broth
3-4 stalks celery, chopped
1 medium onion, not too finely chopped
1/2 large bag baby carrots
1 3/4 lbs. diced tomatoes, canned
1 3/4 lbs. tomato puree, canned
1 can corn
1 can green beans
about 2 tsps dried chopped rosemary
salt and pepper to taste

Brown the cubed beef in a skillet until it starts to caramelize, but do not over-brown. Place in large crock pot. Pour one can of beef broth into skillet and use liquid to scrape beef drippings from pan. Pour broth with drippings into crock pot. Add the other two cans of broth. Add chopped celery, onions and baby carrots. Add canned ingredients; do not drain before adding. Add rosemary, salt and pepper. Cook on high for an hour or two, then switch to low for the remainder of the afternoon. Serve when you’re ready to eat dinner. I let mine cook for about a total of 7 hours, but you could probably do more or less and be fine. The trick is to cook until the meat falls apart easily with a fork or the edge of a soup spoon.

Serve with yummy bread; we ate ours with Challah from the bakery. Home-cooked heaven! Enjoy.

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March 22, 2009
The Thirteenth Year

Hello, World! Newborn Diana’s Arrival, March 7, 1996

The Night You Were Born

On the night you were born
The moon looked down
Like diamonds on a blanket of deep velvet blue.
The stars were singing an ode to joy
And the snow crunched like clanging bells.

On the night you were born
The hands of angels
Lifted you apart from me
And you cried, “Welcome me world! I am HERE!”
And tears of thanks rolled down our cheeks
As God Himself delivered you safely to our waiting arms.

© 1998 Patricia Day

The day has come! Who would have ever thought that this little bundle, perfect in every way:

Newborn baby Diana

Would one day, just a mere 13 years later, become this:

Diana at 13

A beautiful, smart, funny young woman that I am so proud to call my daughter. I love you, Diana!

But today is not just about being all mushy and sentimental. (The Birthday Princess respectfully requests that I can the mush, like NOW!) It is a day of celebrations. Actually, it is the culmination of several days of celebrations. And I’d like to share with you some moments that helped us mark the occasion.

We had our first celebration at home on Wednesday. My mom and Tony are on a fabulous cruise that started today, so we had a lovely little birthday dinner with them. Of course there was cake:

Diana, blowing out candles

Budding photographer snaps a photo of the birthday girl

Then last night we had dinner at Diana’s favorite restaurant–Olive Garden. Grandma and Grandpa were able to join us and there was much good food, many presents, and lots of fun. Oh, and singing:

Riding Lessons for the Birthday Girl
Then today we went with her friends to a horse farm, where we held a horse mini camp. There was education, and riding lessons for everyone! Some of the girls had never been on a horse before and had a little bit of trepidation. But, in the end, everyone did great! The weather had warmed into the 70s, which was nothing short of a miracle, considering the snowstorm we had last weekend. And the riding instructor was totally awesome. I overheard several of the girls asking their parents for riding lessons or the chance to come back to the farm for summer camp. Yay! I am so glad this all worked out.

Diana works on her balance

The horse poses for a photo

Riding Lesson

Learning to Balance

So, it has been a fun-filled few days around here. Although, if you ask me, I’m still not old enough to be the mother of a teenager. I’m not sure how this happened so fast.

slice of birthday cake

Happy Birthday, Diana. I love you.

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March 7, 2009
Snow!

Her Highness the Tween on the sled
Yay! I got my wish! The kids got their snow day today. They didn’t waste any time, either; they were out shoveling and frolicking in it before I ever even came out of the shower this morning. I don’t know whose idea it was to build a snow ramp for their sleds, but they talked about it all evening last night and I was having a hard time picturing what they were talking about. But build a ramp they did, and boy did it look like they were having fun!

BoyZilla on the sled
So while there were plenty of snowballs and mugs of hot chocolate to go around, I was unfortunately stuck at the computer, working on the tail end of a long-term project for work. Some days I don’t love my job, but when that happens I know that in these times I have to keep up my mantra: “At least I’m lucky enough to have a job I don’t love.” I’m glad they got to go out and play today, though. We’ve been having such an unseasonably dry winter that we’ve had almost no snow at all. I don’t think the kids have had enough snow to play in for probably a couple of years now.

I did manage to sneak in a row or two on my Noro Kureyon blanket. So it wasn’t all bad. More on that tomorrow. For now, I think I’m gonna charge my iPod and head off to bed a bit early for a change.

More later!

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March 2, 2009