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Three More Sleeps …

Sunday morning at 9 AM I will be ready and rearing to go for my FOURTH half marathon. I started training late, but I’ve been strong. I will be happy if I can just match my pace from October, 2:30 ish, but I will be elated if I can knock off 5 or (dare to dream) 10 minutes. It might be doable. I’ve had some good training runs.

The forecast looks decent. My body is strong. My sneakers are laced up. I’ve got great people to run with. I’ve got a player full of great music and a new book. Fingers crossed, folks. I’m really looking forward to this race.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend!!

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Ben at 23 Months

My forgotten second child sneaked into his 24th month with hardly a nod from me. Seriously, where did March go??? As he quickly approaches two, I have been amazed by his changes. We had our friends’ boys over this past weekend and it was like all of a sudden, he’s one of the kids. He no longer just plays at being one of them, he IS one of them. It’s quite amazing and sudden.

I’ve also noticed a marked improvement in his vocabulary. We have a couple picture/word books that he loves to go through with us or Tabby. He points and says the word or waits for us to supply it. Sometimes he’ll mimic what we say, other times he just files it away only to bring it out again a few days later. Owing to this and that I hadn’t been through the book with him in a couple of weeks and suddenly he’d gone from knowing about 10% of the words to about 40% of them.

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Salmon Rice Bowls

When we lived in Nashville, we frequented a little place off of Division St., right near Vanderbilt called Ken’s Sushi. It’s definitely not the fanciest place but it has good pretty cheap eats and my favorite Japanese entree I’ve ever had, Sakegohan. It’s a rice bowl with seaweed and salmon and some sauce. I’ve never seen it anywhere else and so I have only get to have the super yummy salmon bowl when we got back to Nashville and managed to make it to Ken’s.

So when I saw the salmon rice bowl idea featured on Dinner a Love Story, I was more than a little intrigued. So we tried it out – well our own version anyway – and while it isn’t EXACTLY a Sakegohan, it’s darn good – a keeper.

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The Weekend o’ Projects

Wow! What a weekend. We are usually quite productive but I must say, even I’m a bit in awe at what we accomplished this weekend. Thursday we found out that our friends needed us to watch their boys from Friday night through mid-day Saturday. They are great kids and play so well with ours we never mind. So Saturday morning, after Breakfast Creme Brulee, we sent the kids down to the playroom and watched them on the video monitor while we went nuts on the kitchen. We cleaned out the pantry (way way overdue) and also dumped out and organized three drawers. In the garage, we cleaned out and organized the garage pantry (i.e. Costco Overflow) and cleaned up the area in front of it to make it easier to access. It was punctuated by interruptions by kids, but we got a LOT accomplished in a relatively small amount of time.

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Links I Like

So it’s been a pretty good week. We’re always crazy-busy but we’ve been accomplishing things. I’ve gotten in all of my planned workouts. I’ve cooked dinner EVERY NIGHT (I’m taking tonight off since Matt is out of town and I have to accomplish swim lessons and getting kids to my parents’ house) and with one exception, everything has been tasty. At work my projects are going well and I’ve learned some really cool new things about databases. I definitely appreciate good weeks like this one!!

Anyhow, here’s some fun web things that are making my already excellent week extra excellent:

  • hooked up with an AWESOME Erica, an artist on Etsy who created an amazing graphic for me to use for the kids’ birthday party give-aways (personalized placemats, printed and laminated by me) -it’s pretty similar to this one, but with a mermaid. She was awesome to work with and turned things around in like 24 hours! If you have any graphicky things that need done totally check her out.
  • Also saw this amazing light fixture while poking around on Etsy … I have no idea where I’d put it, but I LOVE LOVE LOVE it.
  • I had never heard of this before, but given my recent history with cloth napkins, I’d love to try these ombre napkins out. They’re so pretty!
  • Something about these newsprint nails just makes me smile.
  • The people at Make Magazine share this technique for making a hidden safe in your door.
  • If you’re looking for leggings or tights, you’ve got to check out this site … they have tons in practically every color and size (toddler to plus) imaginable.
  • How cool would  it be to visit some of the abandoned Tube Stations in London as a bar or concert hall? I’m all in.
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Recovered Bar Stools

Way back when we were first married and living in Madison, WI, we purchased a set of four bar stools. Being as we had little $$ we got them super cheap – under $10/each from a weird little K Mart style store called Shopko. Our apartment had a breakfast bar and so at first, rather than pony up the cash for a dining table, we at our meals on the stools at the breakfast bar. I’ve always liked them. They’ve got nice simple clean lines.

In our house though we do not have a breakfast bar so we keep two of them in the basement and the other two are in our kitchen as occasional seating. They also get to serve as a landing strip for lots of stuff (bags, laundry baskets, etc.). A year ago or so I noticed that the upholstery was looking pretty bad. Who knows what variety of schmutz had been deposited on them between this and that. Finally I decided to do something about them. The process was pretty simple and I love the results.

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Hula Pizza

The folks at my house are big pizza fans (I know it’s rare to find an American who isn’t). We’re completely happy with the garden variety mushroom and pepperoni variety (we frequently order it from down the block), but we also like something a bit different. We’ve put lots of different things on pizzas including buffalo chicken, shrimp scampi and various “Mexican” combinations. I don’t think we’ve had a loser yet. Surely this wasn’t it! This pizza, adapted from a Devin Alexander recipe I saw in the Biggest Loser Family cookbook, combines slightly disparate but always yummy ingredients into something really tasty and unexpected. It was a hit with the whole family. Matt and I ate it in its entirety.Tabby (who normally loves pineapple) ate all of the chicken and handed Ben her pineapple.  Ben picked off and ate all pineapple, including Tabby’s and then licked off all the cheese. #facepalm

Hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

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A Tale of Haves and Have Nots

What I Have Not:

  • any photos to show you (it just wasn’t that sort of weekend)
  • planted any of the seeds that arrived Friday
  • plane tickets for any of the trips we’re taking this year (swore we were going to do that this weekend)
  • any sign of improvement to this blog
  • nicely coiffed hair (still no haircut … think it’s been 2 months)

What I Have:

  • new fabric all ready to cover up our grody bar stools
  • two darling kiddos mostly done with illness (I hope)
  • funny new one liners courtesy of the awesome comic we saw saturday night, Lamont Ferguson
  • 90% of the invites for the kids’ party delivered
  • run 10 miles and almost feel ready for the half marathon 2 wks from yesterday
  • drawers full of clean laundry
  • a fridge full of healthy food
  • a cabinet all cleaned out and ready to store water bottles
  • a successful execution of a new recipe (shrimp & grits)

Not 100%, but I’ll take it!!

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On My Mind

We are trying to plan travel for this year. It is never an easy prospect. We have to arrange loads of things like people’s work schedules, plane tickets, accommodations, and the like. And it’s getting better, but still the thought of traveling with our two kiddos and all it entails sort of makes me break out into hives. But we will do it and it will be fine. It’s a bit like getting a shot … it’s much worse in my imagination than in reality. Anyhow, we are planning to visit our Nashville family sometime in late June (when my SIL and BIL can get time off). We want to go to the Gatlinburg/Seiverville area and rent a cabin for a while. It’s gorgeous there. Then in September we want to go to NYC to do the fun NYC stuff and also to check out Maker Faire, a big ol’ nerd fest where inventors (makers) bring their projects and show them off. These clips from Martha Stewart will totally make you want to check it out.

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Weekend Rundown

Some highlights from the weekend:

  • Flat Stanley was pretty cute and Tabby LOVED it
  • Playing at the indoor playground at the REI flagship store.
  • Also got to buy socks and browse clearance racks.
  • GIANT slices of NY style pizza with our friends.
  • Had family over for chili on Friday.
  • Ran 9 miles.
  • Picked up our pottery pieces from the shop … they turned out great!
  • B’day party at the pool (everyone exhausted afterward).
  • Mounted the kids’ Computer/TV on the wall of the playroom.
  • Reorganized the playroom.
  • Made the first burgers of the season (sadly not on the grill – it ran out of propane).
  • Super tasty Tuna Noodle Casserole dinner.
  • Made yet ANOTHER batch of granola bars.
  • Cleaned up the back yard.
  • Sorted out the “tupperware” cabinet (I know … you wish you could be me).
  • Did about 10 loads of laundry.
  • Grocery shopping!
  • Naps!!
  • Also, I am apparently a good better cook. Who knew.

One big highlight of our weekend was that we actually were at home all afternoon on Saturday. We didn’t go anywhere and I could focus for 10 seconds on things around the house other than the weeknight firedrills of dinner and declutter. We need to do a lot of work around our house … clean out kids’ rooms and some other messy corners. I hope to start tackling this in the next few weeks.