Feb
01
2012

My Favorite Spot

By jesser | Published: 1:14 pm

We’ve been doing a lot of work around the house the past month or so, but there is one spot, not too glamorous that I wanted to show you. It’s our height timeline wall. A couple of years ago, I don’t even remember why, I started marking the kids heights on that little section of wall in our kitchen. I just use a sharpie and a little, sometimes not too straight line, and mark their name and age. And slowly, the marks have piled up. We don’t mark regularly, maybe twice a year or so, but there they are, proof that my kids are growing.

Sometimes, when I would have sworn it was Ben who did all the growing, the wall surprises me and shows me that in fact, Tabby has made the biggest leap over the past six months. It also reveals that age for age, Ben is trending quite a bit taller than Tabby. It’s not a huge surprise and I always wonder when he’ll catch up to her. Months? Years? Not too soon, I hope.

Every time I see the wall it makes me smile, even if it’s a bit nostalgically. It’s one of those things that, were we ever to move, I would want to take with me, no matter how unrealistic that is. I absolutely love it.

Posted in Home Improvement, Parenting | 2 Comments
Jan
31
2012

Chicken Minestrone

By jesser | Published: 8:47 am

Well the month and our experiment with The Zone is almost up as is my whirlwind tour of Zone Meals in Seconds cookbook. It’s been … interesting. I’ve done well on The Zone, losing about 9 lbs, which for a month is pretty good (and technically, I still have ’til Friday for my four weeks to be up, and I’ll be Zoned until then). I can’t say it’s something I feel like I could live with permanently. I like a bit more wiggle room in my life … I like food, good food, way too much to be this restricted, but I think it put me back on track with what I know to be healthy and reinforced some good lessons. Lean meat, healthy vegetables, less starches, little sugar, good fats.

The cookbook itself was a meh. Let’s say a 4 out of 10. This book had two kinds of recipes … one was real recipes as we think of them, the other, just thrown together ingredients. They were both a mix of awesome and blech! with a few meh … thrown in there. My samplings:

  1. Tex Mex meatloaf – seriously tasty; I’ve recommended this to a few people and it was very well received
  2. Salmon Tagine – loved the spinach, but the Salmon was just so-so
  3. Apple Spice Oatmeal – protein powder completely screwed up the texture; edible, but not yummy
  4. Moroccan chicken stew – ICK. Way too much of the cream of soup.
  5. Zoned Apple Muffins – These were good, but not great. Not a ton of flavor/taste.
  6. Mexican chicken chili – not so much a recipe, just a list of things to throw together in a bowl; pretty tasty though
  7. Blueberry and banana creme freeze – pretty tasty, even liked the sour cream in here – may post this one later.
  8. Chicken Minestrone – quite good!

Anyhow, more about Chicken Minestrone. This is one of those recipe that I don’t even really consider to be a recipe because there’s just not much to it. Just a couple of raw ingredients, the rest from cans or the freezer section, but I know a lot of people struggle with even this and it could be a gateway recipe, so I will post it. It really is tasty and super healthy. This makes 4 4-block meals (a TON of soup)

Ingredients

  • 3 cups of cubed frozen chicken
  • 1 10 oz package cut green beans
  • 1 can of kidney beans, drained and rinsed
  • 1 qt low sodium chicken broth/stock
  • 1 jar marinara sauce
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2-3 zucchini quartered and sliced
  • 3 T EVOO
  • dried oregano and basil

Directions

Heat the EVOO in a dutch oven. While the oil is heating, cook the green beans to about 75% done in the microwave. Add the chicken, garlic, zucchini, green beans and herbs to the dutch oven and cook until all are warmed through and fragrant. Add the kidney beans, broth and marinara. Stir to combine and bring to a boil and simmer for a few minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

 

I really enjoyed experimenting with this cookbook this month. It’s not one that I expect to turn to often but it gave me a couple good new recipes. Next month will be The Biggest Loser Family Cookbook.

Posted in Chicken/Poultry, Clean, Cookbook Challenge, Cooking/Food, Family, Italian, Lighter, Quick, Recipes, Soup, Zoned | Leave a comment
Jan
30
2012

Paradise Falls

By jesser | Published: 6:37 pm

One time my dad made the comment that Matt and I reminded him of Carl and Elle trying to save for their trip to Paradise Falls. We are very good about putting away money, but something always seems to come up and we have to smash the jar.

I know I’ve mentioned our ING accounts more than once. We tuck away a lot of money every month for retirement and college savings, but also for a host of other things including, but not limited to: car-related expenses, insurance premiums, home improvement, Christmas and Loki.

Many months in a row, the money goes in and we just leave it there and let it accumulate. But eventually, we have to smash the jar. This month, the money in our home improvement fund which I had sort of ear-marked for work on Tabby’s room or our master bath (still has the dreaded carpet) went to buying a new fridge. It didn’t cover it all the way and we’ll have to take the balance from the small cushion in our budget. And we haven’t even priced the fix on the floors yet. We also had to smash the car-expense fund. Matt’s car needed new brakes. And we have plate renewals for both as well.

I know it’s not unique to us and I’m realistic enough to know that we’re very lucky to have money to tuck away for these eventualities and I even feel somewhat victorious when we use these funds and our budget doesn’t have to take a hit. But I also do not like seeing two of our most often-used funds almost at $0.00. Ick.

Posted in Organization & Home Keeping | Leave a comment
Jan
29
2012

Weeeeekend!

By jesser | Published: 8:40 pm

You’ll hardly ever hear me complain about a weekend. I love my job but man, I’m always so glad for a weekend. This one was particularly CHILL. Friday we didn’t leave the house at all (so so rare). We watched the snow. We took naps. I finished up a freelance project (and yelled at the kids because they were disturbing me). My family came over.

Saturday we had great plans to take the kids to the Zoo (the big reason I finished up my freelance work on Friday), but on the way to the car dealership to drop off Matt’s car for service, Ben screamed the whole way there, saying he had a stomach ache. Tabby was tired too and the weather was less than stellar, so we headed back home. The kids had naps and lunch and quiet time. I worked on my site (like the new look?) and we attempted to go to dinner (Ben’s stomachache had disappeared) which was thwarted by a 40 minute wait (at 5:30!!). After a tossed together homemade dinner the kids went to bed, Matt and I tore apart the kitchen and reorganized it and got rid of a bunch of junk. We finished off the evening watching old eps of How I Met Your Mother.

Sunday we started off the morning with a run on N Table Mesa with some friends. It wasn’t long, but it was a good tough run and we both enjoyed it. Then we took the kiddos to the zoo – everyone had a wonderful time, even though it wasn’t really warm. After a stop by Starbucks for tea for me and a donut for the kids, we grabbed a few groceries and headed home. The kids settled in for quiet time while Matt and I FINALLY took down Christmas. I made some Crack Broccoli and Quinoa Mac ‘n’ Cheese for dinner – both winners, I HIGHLY recommend!! While the mac was cooking, we installed Ben’s new tree decal on his wall. I wasn’t sure about it before we put it up, but I love love it!

Now the kids are in bed and so are we … dueling laptops, getting this and that done before a busy week starts. Can you believe it’s almost February???

Posted in Benjamin, Cooking/Food, Fitness/Outdoors, Home Improvement, Organization & Home Keeping | 1 Comment
Jan
26
2012

Tabby’s Turn

By jesser | Published: 7:52 am

It’s been all about Ben this week and though the kids don’t read the blog yet, I didn’t want Tabby to feel left out in the future when she reads the archives (because I’m oh-so-sure she’ll be fascinated, right?). A quick rundown on the happenings in Tabby land.

  • All of a sudden, she gets the reading thing! she can sound it out and figure it out and put it all together! It’s slow, but it’s happening!
  • She is eating us out of house and home and I anticipate a major growth spurt soon.
  • She is super excited for her 5th birthday, coming up in about a month (?!?!) she has all sorts of plans. We probably need to get on a few of those, right?
  • We have started teaching her to use knives for dinner prep after her begging us to let her try. My sister read about a chef who taught his kids with one hand tied behind their back at first and that is how we’ve been doing it. She’s doing pretty well.
  • She has mastered the art of the high-five (her system for routine in the mornings and evenings) and is well on her way to earning a trip to the movies or a new DVD.
  • She is a wee bit jealous of Ben’s new bed and she will soon have completely outgrown the darling toddler bed Matt made her before Ben was born, so we are making plans to upgrade her room a bit. Here are the ideas so far on Tabby’s New Room Pinterest board.
  • She has been begging us to let her take dance lessons, but thanks to our rec districts short-sided scheduling policies (nothing after 4:30 PM), we can’t get her into dance classes. So she is happily starting ICE SKATING at the end of February (after another round of swim lessons). She’s totally excited. Which reminds me – I need to figure out about a pair of ice skates for her.
  • She’s been learning all about the months of the year and the days of the week at school, so we have been looking at her calendar together. She’s excited for her upcoming events (Valentines Day, her birthday, etc.), visits from her Nashville family and our friends and their baby, our upcoming trips (FL in May, Sand Dunes in May) and the big one … KINDERGARTEN!
  • The questions are getting harder to answer: Who was the first mommy? How does the music get in the car and to our ears? Why can’t babies talk and walk when they’re born (horses do)? I find myself babbling about evolutionary advantage and tympanic membranes way more than I ever thought I would. It’s hilarious.

 

 

Posted in Tabitha | 2 Comments
Jan
25
2012

Ben’s Treehouse Bed

By jesser | Published: 8:10 am

We seriously LOVE having our friends’ kids over. They’ve grown up with our kids and so when they’re together, they just pick up from where they left off last time and play together so well. They know our house rules and follow them (at least as well as our own kids d0) and best of all, they are a great distraction for our kids.

So with the kids good and distracted, we leapt into the final stages of Ben’s treehouse bed. We just had a bit of sanding and polying to do and then we took all the pieces of wood up to his room for assembly. They started out looking like this:  Read More »

Posted in Benjamin, Home Improvement, Woodworking | 3 Comments
Jan
24
2012

Ben Speaks

By jesser | Published: 7:34 am

That son of mine. Dang he’s cute. He knows it too and uses it shamelessly to get away with his mischief. Today he is 2 yrs, 9 months old which means he’s having a birthday in 3 months. For an update, I thought I’d share some of the funny things Ben says (there are MANY – I just wish I could remember them all).

Last night at the grocery store, he was riding along with me in the cart and a man near us sneezed. Ben: “Aww, man. You OK?”

Later on, still at the grocery store, he started singing one of Sissy’s favorite tunes. “Down by da baaaay. Where da wattamelons groooow. Back to my home. I didn’t go. Fo if I do. My mutter will say: Did you eva see a moose kissing a goose? Down by da baaaay.” Completely tuneless. Completely adorable.

Lately, all he wants to talk about is “going to the races.” I’m still not sure where this came from, but whenever we get in the car, “Are we goin to da waces?” We had a full-on break down over not going to the races (just to Target) last night.

He is also obsessed with his upcoming  birthday. “I write my name? On my birfday? Wike Sissy? At school?”

At dinner, he is quite opinionated. Sometimes he likes dinner. “I wike dis dinna. Mmmmmmmm!” Sometimes he doesn’t. “Mommy, dis dinner is icky! I no wike dis dinner.”

And he is never afraid to tell us what he wants. He is well known for getting out of bed and coming downstairs all on his own or going up to the fridge or pantry, opening it up and having at it. He will access a container of food (crate of oranges, container of muffins, bag of craisins) and then just leave it in the middle of the kitchen floor. Subtle? Sneaky? He is not. So I tell him that if he leaves the food in Loki’s reach, he will eat it. Ben says, “I share da food wif Woki.” Kudos on the sharing, kid. Tsk on inadvertently feeding the dog 21 muffins.

As funny as he can be, I love the sweet stuff that comes out of his mouth. You can’t help but melt, just a little, even when he’s being totally difficult when he says, “I wuv you, Mama.” Insanely cute, that kid.

Posted in Benjamin | 1 Comment
Jan
23
2012

New Chill Chest

By jesser | Published: 7:26 am

Whew! What a weekend. Believe me when I say heading back to work today sounds easy by comparison. But before we get to the weekend, I will tell you about my Thursday night. When we last left our hero (me) she was busy wrangling two kids while her beloved (Javier Matt) was out of town. On the way to pick up the kids to take them to Grammy and Papa’s house on Thursday night, she stopped at home briefly to let the fierce defender of her home (Loki) out for a tinkle break.

So I walk into the kitchen from the garage and immediately spot a ginormous puddle behind our fridge. Joy. With some technical support by phone, I turned off the water that feeds our ice maker and cleaned up the mess. I noticed, however, that our lovely wood floors (a mere year old!) were warped. Yay. This is not the first time this has happened. See the line into the fridge will sometimes freeze up, then the water has nowhere to go and it backs up and floods. Apparently a new hose, etc. is not an option because the failure is where it couples to the fridge. Had Matt been home, we probably wouldn’t have had such a big mess because it would have been caught sooner, but murphy’s law and all that.

As much as I hate to get rid of a perfectly good (otherwise) appliance, we do not want the sucker flooding the house while we’re on vacation, etc. (and of course we could turn it off, but it’s another thing to remember before you leave town and let’s face it – a challenge sometimes!). So we could keep the old fridge and have no ice-making or get a new one. We are big-time water drinkers and really use our automatic ice, so we opted for a new one. And technically it’s not gone … it will replaced the model from the 70s that graces our garage and that old energy sucker is out the door.

So the new one (similar to photo) will be delivered today. I am very excited for it, not least of which because we got a great deal on it at the scratch-and-dent store. It’s actually new in the box but was 50% off retail, or about $1000 less than we could have gotten it for at Lowes or Home Depot. Man you know you’re getting old when you’re excited about your new REFRIGERATOR.

Posted in Cooking/Food, Home Improvement | 1 Comment
Jan
19
2012

Zone Slop

By jesser | Published: 8:13 am

We’re in the midst of another one of those busy weeks that I didn’t plan on … it just sort of cropped up. Meetings, deadlines, travel, child-minding, a funeral (not for us, for our sitter), driving around way too much, sleeping way too little.

All the while, I’ve been keeping up with my ZONE project as best I can. I’d say I’ve been solidly 95% adherent. The hunger is either non-existent or terrible. I’m not exactly sure why it’s fine sometimes and almost intolerable others. But I think it probably makes sense to eat a bit more on days when I burn more calories.

I’ve been impressed with my ability to go without, though. I’ve had virtually nothing sugary since I started. I’m sure it’s really good for me and something I should carry forward when this deal is over. I do miss the carbs like pasta and bread. We eat pretty healthfully on a regular basis and we’ve been able to make some of our favorites zone friendly with little trouble, but on Zone you’re encouraged to make as many of your carbs favorable (like vegetables, fruits, and a few legumes)  as possible and eschew more processed carbs like bread and pasta and rice. So when you do have any of these, the portions are small. Like half a slice of sandwich bread small. Like 1/4 cup of pasta small. I’m not saying it’s a bad idea, but it is a big adjustment.

I’ve made two more recipes from the Zone Meals in Seconds Cookbook and both were decidedly a disappointment. The first was “Moroccan Chicken Stew” which involved throwing cooked chicken and some random cans of stuff into a stock pot and seasoning it with cinnamon and cumin. Since one of the things was Cream of Chicken Soup (Healthy Request, of course), I should have been very wary from the beginning, but I will use it in a casserole or two, so I went ahead. Loki was bountifully rewarded with sticky gloppy leftovers. The only good part of that meal was that Tabby helped me make it while Matt was on a conference call. Since it pretty much only required opening cans and stirring, she could do most of it and she love it. She of all of us liked it best (except maybe Loki). It’s something I’ve heard before, but need to remember going forward: kids like food more if they have ownership in it.

The other recipe we made was the “Apple Pie Spiced Oatmeal” – pictured above. Basically it’s cooked oats (I always go for steel cut because I like the texture best) with chopped apple, chopped pecans, apple pie spice and protein powder. Therein lies the problem: the protein powder. Through trial and error I’ve discovered that protein powder is best on oatmeal if you add it at the time of consumption. This calls for it before then and it does this weird thing where it kind of curdles up and makes a very bizarre texture. The taste isn’t too bad, but the texture is icky. I also felt like there was way too much protein powder for the amount of oatmeal – I’d rather have some eggs on the side than overload my oatmeal with the powder.

I’m done with 4 of 8 recipes from this cookbook. I plan to make some muffins this weekend, and a Mexican Chicken Chili and then Chicken Tetrazzini and Chicken Minestrone next week. Are you seeing a chickeny theme here? Yea, me too. Good news is we’re about half way done and we’ve both lost some poundage: 4.5 for me, 5 for Matt. Not too shabby.

Posted in Cookbook Challenge, Cooking/Food, Fitness/Outdoors | Leave a comment
Jan
17
2012

Kinder Registration

By jesser | Published: 9:00 am

Today is the big day. Today we drop off her registration for Kindergarten. How is it possible that in just a few short SHORT months she’ll be ready for big girl school. ALL DAY school. It’s crazy!! Hopefully by August I’ll be ready. Tabby of course, would head off tomorrow. She’s thrilled.

Posted in Tabitha | Leave a comment
  • My name is Jess. I'm a 30ish wife and working mommy. I love spending time with my family and friends, crafting up weird and beautiful things, cooking delicious food and running lots of miles to work it off. I love chocolate, wine, Photoshop, my Nikon and sleeping in. I do freelance design work for fun and marginal profit at JKN Designs. This is my blog. Read more »

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