Posted on

What’s Cooking: Volume 14

Summer marches on! We continue to be busy busy at our house and enjoying every minute of it. I have less to say these days about our cooking habits, though it’s not because we’re not cooking. We’ve been very diligent on the homecooking front. But we’ve had a lot of repeats and quickies and simplicity. And I like it that way, especially in the summer.

Some of the things we’ve been eating:
• personal pizzas, constructed on sandwich thins
• quiche! lots and lots of quiche – the asparagus mushroom bacon one was the biggest hit
• corn on the cob
• popcicles – mostly store bought, sorry to disappoint (the hubby, he loves the bomb pops!)
• tortellinis with meatballs (one of the kids favorites and something I almost always make when Matt is out of town)
• stirfry
• squash casserole
• sandwiches!!
• breakfast burritos (only with Boulder Sausage Co. chorizo, thank you very much)

This weekend we are headed to the mountains. I am making up a big batch of turkey bean chili and some chewy chocolate cookies. I also plan to make some berry french toast (with bacon, duh).

We have yet to visit a farmer’s market this summer. I want to get to one for the sights and sounds alone. We’ve been completely spoiled with Sunflower Markets so nearby and get great deals on good produce from them. And if I had all the $$/time in the world, I would take the whole family to the Olathe Sweet Corn festival as well as peach-picing on the western slope.

Summer is all too brief!

Posted on

Big Gulp of Mommy Guilt

Neither of my kids is much for separation anxiety. I took Tabby to her sitter's for the first time when she was around 2 months old and she was there full time from about 3 months on. They have both stayed overnight with my parents, starting around 6 months. We have had moments here and there. Tabby would occasionally take a notion when we dropped her off at her sitter's house in the morning and cry when we tried to leave, but she was always over it as soon as we left. And one time, she didn't want to stay overnight at Grammy and Papa's. I think this was just before Ben was born. There was a similar incident when she stayed with them for a few days right after she was born.

I've never seen any of this from Ben and it's been a long time for Tabby (over a year?). For the most part, we are unceremoniously shoved out the door with subtle or not so subtle hints. “Bye Mommy and Daddy” or “You need to go now so we can play!”

And then there was this morning. I was getting out of the shower (running late) when Tabby walked into the bathroom and greeted me good morning. As I dried off and got dressed, we chatted. I gave her hugs and kisses and she seemed in a pretty good mood (even if she was up a bit too early). Then she asked me if I was going to take her to her sitter's house.

I told her that I wasn't. Daddy would take her as usual and I would head off to work. I expected her to be like she always is, unperturbed by these things. Instead, her little face clouded over and she wailed, “I want YOU to take me to Stephanie's!!” She immediately burst into tears.

I gathered her up and snuggled her and asked her what the matter was. Matt almost always takes her to the sitters. It allows me to get into work early so I can work my 4 10s and have Fridays off with her and Ben. She reiterated her desire that I should take her to Stephanie's. Then she said the killer, “I want you. You are always at work!” Yikes … right through the heart.

Logically I know that if I had taken her to her sitter's, she probably would have rushed in and not even given me a backwards glance. I know that she probably woke up way too early and was overtired and also a bit thrown by the fact that I took her all last week when Matt was out of town. I know that I work for many good, logical and well-thought-out reasons. But man, that is rough to hear.

Posted on

Five Things Friday

1. I’ve been doing loads of ExerSurfing on my Walkstation. I can even keep up a 2MPH pace. It’s great fun and I feel like it sort of keeps me from wasting time on the computer. There’s more of an active mentality while you’re walking versus a passive mentality while sitting. Soon, though, I think I shall try playing Farm Frenzy.

2. It has been rainy here this week. I really like the rain because we don’t get much of it. The only bummer is that I’d like to use the cooler weather to my advantage and do some runs in it, but Matt has been out of town, so I’ve been confined to the treadmill.

3. It is getting rather hard to stuff Ben’s feet in his baby Keens (size 6, yo). I might have to grab the 7s that Tabby wore last summer and try them out. Happily, they are blue and green, not pink, or even purple.

4. Our friends’ boys are staying over tonight. We had dinner and then took everyone to the park. For fun, I brought out the Lens Baby that I all-too-rarely play with and photographed the kids playing. I got some pretty fun shots of them.

5. I made two types of quiche this week: broccoli cheddar and bacon mushroom asparagus. The later reigned supreme. What is so very very yummy about bacon? Tabby gobbled down two slices in one sitting and didn’t say word one about the green stuff lurking in her pie. I love me some quiche in the summer, with a green salad … this time I did eggwhites which was very successful and quite healthful. Yay me.

Posted on

Decked Out Laptop

I am slowly but surely getting some use out of my Silhouette. It is time-consuming to do crafty things when you know what you’re doing, but learning it as well? So I am SLOW.

I’ve practiced the cutting on a couple of pieces of cardstock (cheap!). The level of detail you can achieve with the machine is really impressive. I also learned that you can use the software to do a print/cut, where you use your printer to print the image on whatever paper you like. The software adds some guidelines for the machine to read to the printout and then you run it through the cutter to get the final cut. Very cool (still have to try this).

But this was my first “project.” I took some of the stock artwork I used on the blog’s template and imported it into the software. All I had to “find the edges” on the images, which is just a simple command. Then I had the Silhouette use those traced edges to cut out the pink vinyl which I then stuck to the back of my laptop. Voila … cute running girls on my laptop.

Yesterday I placed an order with Expressions Vinyl for a bunch more vinyl and some t’shirt transfers, so this will not be the last you see of my Silhouette projects.

Posted on

For the Fourth

We all really enjoyed our Fourth of July. Tabby had spent Saturday night at Grammy and Papa’s, so after I ran with some friends that morning, Matt and I got to hang out with just Ben, which was a really nice treat. We even got naps!

I had a minor disaster while preparing my potluck contribution, Squash Casserole. The pyrex dish (one of my favorite sizes with a nice plastic lid!) cracked and broke in the oven. I was only able to salvage about 1/3 of it. Boohoo.

We went over to our friends’ house for a BBQ in the early evening. We were hoping the weather would improve so we could do our BBQ out-of-doors and have our outdoor movie. Neither really happened. We got maybe 30 minutes of outdoor picnicking before we had to move it inside and it rained all evening, so the movie (The Great Race) was shown indoors. To add insult to injury, the fireworks display was called off.

The kids didn’t seem to mind. They got to play with their friends, wear their cute 4th of July outfits, eat way too much sugar, and stay up LATE. Not a bad deal! Continue reading “For the Fourth”

Posted on

Digging, Watching, Reading

I need tell you guys all about our fab weekend and show you photos, but the camera is broken (not so broken we can’t use it, just broken enough to make getting photos off of it a pain in the bum!), so it will have to wait until tonight. Until then …

Digging
I just got an evite for a baby shower (that we sadly cannot attend!) from Paperless Post. It is a really pretty alternative to evite. I haven’t had much of a chance to check it out, but it seems really cool. It seems like the perfect melding of e-invite and PRETTY.

My Silhouette is fabulous, you guys! I have only had about 2 hours total to play with it, but I think I’m in love. It can do tons of cool stuff and I know I’ve just barely scratched the surface of its potential. Gratuitous lovey dovey post to follow.

My Walkstation is working beautifully. I have yet to watch TV on it while running, but I have had a few very successful sessions of walking + computing. I can only trudge along at about 1.5 MPH, but it is enough. Now I want one for my office.

Watching
I have really not been watching much TV. It’s been busy and I’ve been running outside more often, plus we’re still suffering the ill-effects of BLITZEN, i.e. no Wii for Netflix streaming.

But I did pick up one new show, Work of Art. It’s like Top Chef for artists. They’ve already killed off my least favorite artists, so it’s gotten even better.

I also hear Make it or Break It is back and I cannot wait to get back to my catty gymnastics FUN. Also, it has excellent music for running.

Royal Pains, a fave from last summer is back, too. I love this show because it’s like House meets MacGyver with some gorgeous scenery thrown in. Burn Notice, another USA favorite is back as well, though I am behind on it and need to catch up.

And of course, our perennial favorite, Top Chef, is back for a new season. No one has really won me over yet. I guess I’m currently pulling for Kelly, who’s from Vail, CO. She seems pretty talented. Continue reading “Digging, Watching, Reading”

Posted on

What Can I Say?

It's been a good week, people.

I made a point of cutting down on our outings from the house in the evening. We did a pool trip. We took a walk around the neighborhood. We had our friend and her boys over for dinner and the kids got to play. Tonight, my mom's watching the kids and we're going to D*Note to play Geeks Who Drink Pub Quiz.

Work (office) has been a bit less manic (which I love and hate – manic days go SUPER fast). But I did get to spend a great day on a job-site visit. Those are always fun. It's incredible to see a building go from dirt to shell to nearly complete structure. I am also learning jquery for a project and I'm kind of in love (boy was that a nerdy statement!).

I spent a bit of time finalizing a client's website earlier this week. It's up and I am very happy with it. My own freelance site is basically done and I have almost finalized a business card design. Now I finally get to start on Ani's site and my hubby has also requested a new look for his much touted, often neglected woodworking blog.

Last, but certainly not least, a bloggy friend, Kjersten and her husband and their two children welcomed a new (and lovely!!) addition to their family, Sweet Miss Elizabeth. *swooon*

I am very much looking forward to the long weekend. Tomorrow we have no plans (other than the compulsory LONG RUN in the morning). I want to make cupcakes with Tabby because we're attending a 4th of July Pic-a-Nic on Sunday. Our friends are having all manner of acquaintances, neighbors, family, etc. over for a chaotic hoe-down. Food, fireworks over their small suburb and an outdoor movie to cap it off.

I also want to spend some time playing with my new toy … AND maybe take Tabby to see Toy Story 3. Did I mention I love summer?