jesser – Page 7 – making it up as i go along

January 12, 2016

Soup Time

We eat a LOT of soup. It is not unusual for us to eat soup two or three times a week, and the vast majority is home made. It’s easy and usually quick (or crock-pottable), generally healthy, a complete meal and … delicious.

Some of our favorite soups:

Things that I find invaluable in frequent soup preparation:

The Ninja Slow Cooker – This is the slow cooker we have. It’s listed on Amazon for $132 but I’m pretty sure that’s not what we paid for it. I recall we got it on clearance at Target for under $70. It’s got some silly sear function that stinks, but the slow cooking feature is perfect, it’s completely non-stick and it holds a TON. Highly recommend.

Cuisinart Immersion Blender – You only need one, but this is a super cheap investment to make. I LOVE this thing. It superbly simplifies making marinades, dressings and especially soups. It allows you to easily blend soups right in the pot. Soooo much easier than transferring them to the blender. When you’re done, the blending end separates for easy cleaning.

Ikea Small Bowls – It may seem silly to have a favorite bowl, but these are mine. These are a really good size, not so ginormous and they stack and wear very well. We have at least a dozen and they’re a great size for kids, ice cream (not too much of that!) and sampling multiple soups on soup night.

Soup Spoons – This may be just as crazy as having favorite bowls, but these little guys make it easier on the kiddos to eat soup and they’re fun and pretty. Mine came from Pearl River Mart in Chinatown (NYC) and they’re delightful. I shall pick up some more when we get back there.

Let’s hear it for SOUP.

January 11, 2016

2016 Resolutions

While I understand that January 1 (11th) is a pretty arbitrary time to look over one’s life, assess and resolve to change, there is a part of me who likes the “clean slate” of the new year.

Once again, I don’t really feel like I have any truly hard fast resolutions … and maybe that’s probably setting me up for failure (goals are supposed to be specific, measurable and come with a time limit), but I don’t really feel like hard fast goals are where I’m at right now.

But a few ideals I want to strive for:

be kind, to myself and those around me, slower to anger, to judgement, to assume
less work (work work and house work) and more leisure … and I don’t mean planned leisure (camping, having friends over), I mean leisure leisure … doing NOTHING!
more blogging and photography and creating in general … I didn’t do so much of these this year, and I missed it
more treat yo self – walking at the park during lunch, a nice hot shower before bed, a walk around the ‘hood, hot tea
run my half marathon

I’m overall really happy with the way life is going. I feel blessed beyond measure and I’m very very grateful.

January 11, 2016

2015 in Review

2015 was in many ways an excellent year for me and mine. The second full year following Mom’s death had it’s own pitfalls and moments of sorrow, but it went on and was definitely more happy than sad.

Family

We soaked up lots of family time, skiing, hiking, camping, backpacking, cooking, walking, reading, playing and just hanging together. It’s odd – I thought things might get quieter as the kids got older – I think because I thought they’d take less of my time to manage, and they do! – but we do so much more together.

Tabby is turning into a young lady right before our very eyes. She’s worked hard at school and at home and generally has a great attitude and work ethic. She reads like it’s breathing and impresses me constantly with her artistic abilities and insights. She got her ears pierced over Christmas break after working hard for this all semester, and it makes her look even more grown up. She’s enjoying learning piano and getting pretty good and has fun with karate and swimming.

Benji is still our darling little guy. I’m so glad he’s not too big or cool to give me lots of hugs and kisses and snuggles. School can be a struggle for him with all the requirements to sit down and concentrate, but he does well academically and we’re grateful for that. At home he’s a huge ball of energy. He spends his freetime building either with legos or in Minecraft. We’ve also gotten him interested in running on the treadmill and we’re hoping to help him beat some winter blahs that way (fully supervised of course). He’s a force to be reckoned with on the slopes and so so much fun. He also had a major puncture this year, but it was of the unscheduled variety – he had his finger slammed and badly injured in a door at school and a few hours at the emergency room later and minus a fingernail, he is much improved.

Matt and I are doing our usual balancing act, making sure everyone’s fed, bills are paid and the house doesn’t look like too much of a disaster zone. We bought a second treadmill on a crazy sale in early December so we can workout together in the evenings … important because we’re training for another half marathon in April! We sneak away just the two of us whenever we can manage it – date nights when dad takes the kids or sometimes a day off when the kids are at school and occasionally, we hire a sitter to watch the kids so we can go for a run or a bike ride. It’s a nice little luxury.

Work

Matt took on a new and extended role about halfway through 2015 and it’s making him happy and keeping him busy! He goes to the office about once a week and traveling more (none of us loves this, but it’s good for him and his career).

Work has been going great for me as well. I work long hours sometimes, but usually it’s very manageable. We’ve picked up a ton of work this year and really gotten our “hit rates” up – that’s marketing speak for how often we win work. Some of it is the improving economy, I’m sure, but I fancy that some of it has to do with some cool new things we’ve been doing. Cheeeeeers!

Travel

It was a fun travel year. The coolest trip we took, was probably the surprise trip we took in May! It deserves its own post (which it never got), but I won (!!) a trip to San Francisco to go to MakerFaire! So Matt and I took off while my dad watched the kids and we flew to CA and did it up right! It was a blast!

We also had a few ski trips throughout the winter and filled up the summer with camping trips and our first ever family backpacking trip.

Our longest trip was from Denver to Nashville, with some stops along the way. We pulled the pop-up to Missouri and dropped it off at my mom’s cousin’s house. Then we went onto Nashville, spent a few days there, including a great trip to Mammoth Cave in KY, and then picked it up, took it to family reunion and came home. Exhausting, but wonderful!

We finished off the year with an amazing trip to Big Sky, Montana over Christmas to ski!

Home Improvement

We did lots of little projects around the house throughout the year. We organized our laundry room and some kitchen drawers. We did a bunch of yard work. We planted a garden.

But probably the biggest project of the year finished up right before Christmas when Matt installed our new barn door!!! He and a family friend worked for HOURS on it and it turned out so amazing. And trust me, it’s even better in person.

There are probably another load of things I could and maybe should talk about, but those are some of the highlights. It was a good year.

December 21, 2015December 29, 2015

Proud Moments in Parenting

This parenting gig is hard. I think (hope) that Matt and I are pretty good parents. We don’t do it all right by any means, but I think (hope) that we get to the heart of what matters and pick the important battles. I think (hope) we find balance between homework, activities, family time and free time. I think (hope) my kids greatest memories from childhood will be of fun times spent with us and not of the few times when one of us really lost our freaking temper and hit the roof. I think (hope) they’ll remember the time when we pulled them out of bed at 9:30 to drive up the hill and look at a particularly beautiful full moon. Or our many many camping and ski trips. Or the hours we spend cooking and playing games together.

But there are those days when you just wonder if you’re doing anything right at all. When, after taking them on an amazing adventure (one, that, coincidentally, put tons of stress on you to achieve), they get home and completely break down over not getting one tiny little insignificant thing. And you wonder, “Am I raising a totally entitled brat?” We’ve had a couple of those days recently, and like a lot of bad things, they tend to stand out in your mind more. It’s probably some sort of instinctual mechanism to produce change.

Then there are those other times when you see the person your child has become and you are just. so. damn. proud. And that’s what I’m going to focus on.

1. Lego Generosity
Recently, my inlaws were in town and they generously gave each of the kids some money to spend as they chose. Tabby went to the American Girl store and made a couple of purchases and after that, Ben went to the Lego store. He saw a Lego set that he really really wanted, and not only that, but it is one they claim they will soon be retiring, but he didn’t have enough money to purchase it. Seeing how much her brother wanted it and that he would likely not have time to save the difference before it was retired, Tabby generously volunteered her remaining money to make up the difference. She wanted him to have it and was excited to get to build it with him. Ben was very grateful and thanked her profusely.

2. Give, Save, Spend
A while back, we started the kids on a new allowance/chore system. I won’t bore you with the details, but they get $5/week and have to complete a couple of chores every day. This $5 they divide into give ($1)/save ($2)/spend ($2). “Spend” is spent freely, “save” goes for specific goals, and “give” is to help others. Extra money they earn for extra chores ($1/basket of laundry folded) they can choose to put in their “accounts” as desired but if they choose “give” for extra money, we reward them by doubling this generosity towards others.

“Give” has been fun for the kids. When they give, we match dollar for dollar what they give. We got to pick out school supplies for our favorite local charity back in September. They were both giddy imagining the other kids with new backpacks and calculators. And this month, a family friend who teaches at an impoverished school in our area requested help and we got to purchase new winter coats, pajamas, and other fun things for her students. Tabby and I also got to involve her Girl Scout troop and give back in a pretty big way (two cars, totally packed with clothes, books, gifts, etc.).

We were just as proud to see that this past Sunday when we celebrated Christmas a little early (we will be traveling over the holiday) that when my dad gave the kids cash, they each ran right to their give/save/spend boxes and put money appropriately in each category. We had not really addressed what to do with gifts but just on their own, they knew.

3. Inclusiveness
I can count at least three times I have seen Tabby gently persuade friends who were trying to exclude others that this wasn’t a kind thing to do. She is not pushy or mean about it, but she goes all mother hen and says things like, “That’s not nice. She can play with us,” and, “Everyone can play. She’s not too little.” I am so proud of her and hope that this is a good sign that I’ll see this behavior into the tween and teen years.

I think (hope) they’re growing up pretty good.

November 14, 2015December 29, 2015

On Entertaining

We entertain a lot. For example, this past weekend, we hosted dinner at our house every single night – Friday, Saturday, Sunday – of the weekend. Extra space for entertaining was one of the biggest reasons we moved. This probably sounds about half insane – and maybe it is – but I think we have a slightly different definition of what it means to entertain than most people.

You will not find any carefully curated tablescapes at my house. You will most of the time find it relatively neat, but mostly because I personally like a neat house, not because I feel it necessary to have my house in perfect order before I have people over.

You will also not find elaborate multi-course meals, at least not most of the time (if it’s your birthday, or another special occasion, I will pull out all the stops). I will generally have at least one dish that I prepared myself and that took at least a modicum of care. The rest will be store bought or brought by guests. A pot of soup with bread and salad or apples is a frequent menu. So is something grilled or slow-cooked with chips, fruit salad and four bean salad from Costco. Homemade pizza with fun toppings is usually a hit.

Sometimes we will eat off our every-day dishes (we don’t own china or “good” silverware). Sometimes we will eat off paper. There is always a box of wine in the corner bar and usually a few soft drinks in the fridge (I favor LaCroix water these days, but Matt usually has Coke around too). We usually have a few cans or bottles of beer somewhere. Matt always has whiskey to pour. Our guests frequently bring their own if they want something different We always have the electric kettle ready for tea and a ridiculous selection of teas.

But really, none of this stuff is the point. Sure, I want the meal to be enjoyable for everyone, but the point is to be together.

The kids go do what kids do best – play. Sometimes we have to handle “situations” and they usually make a mess, but those are easily cleaned up. Sometimes we setup the outdoor theatre for the kids and pop them some popcorn. They cluster together in age or gender divisions. They usually look out for and help one another. They’re typically very kind.

The adults hang around our big island or at our long kitchen table – we don’t have a dining room table – and chat or maybe do dishes. When everyone’s fed, we sometimes break out the games – Cards Against Humanity, Trivial Pursuit, Cranium, or Settlers of Catan – sometimes we just chat. Sometimes we have a project going on and game play or chatter is punctuated by people running off for short periods to put another coat of something on something. We drink many cups of tea and maybe whiskey.

It’s always nice to be together. And I’m almost certain no one minds that my house isn’t perfect and there isn’t a giant fancy spread in front of them or that I said “a salad would be great” when they asked what they could bring. They’re happy to be hanging with people they enjoy talking about tribulations and triumphs and catching up on each other’s lives. It’s a great sense of community. We get and give advice. We make plans for other adventures. We google endless things to end squabbles and share funny videos. We laugh a lot. We feel very lucky to have such great people in our lives.

September 24, 2015

The Symbols of Me

I listened this morning to one of my favorite podcasts, Happier with Gretchen Rubin (author of such excellent books as The Happiness Project and Happier at Home) where she and her sister (and co-host of this podcast) discussed personal symbols. I love this idea and the graphic nerd in me immediately thought of a poster with my symbols (once I figured out what they’d be). So when I got to work, I spent the next 15 minutes coming up with this fun graphic. The meanings behind it below ….

Continue reading “The Symbols of Me”

August 10, 2015August 10, 2015

How I Spent My 35th Birthday

Six days have come and gone since my 35th birthday, but despite my blogging hiatus, I wanted to take just a minute and remember a few things about my 35th birthday.

I got up early. I’m pretty sure I worked out, but I’m not sure if it was a run or a random Jillian Michaels video. I had a granola bar for breakfast. Then I went to work.

Work that day was particularly crazy. I just turned in two proposals for projects this morning. This is not typically part of my day-to-day, but we were hit with an exceptionally crazy couple of weeks where 5 had to go in and so I took some of the heat off my colleague and wrote two of them. So on my birthday, I was busily conducting my work, making sure that all of the pieces of my two proposals were in motion.

At lunch time, I had a strategy meeting for one of the proposals. I’d asked our receptionist to order in lunch. I was a bit puzzled when my box lunch contained a chocolate croissant instead of a cookie like everyone else’s. I found out later when our receptionist dropped by my office that she’d remembered it was my birthday and asked them to give me something special. It was delicious and it was very sweet of her.

I had nice text messages, phone messages and Facebook posts throughout the day from lots of great people.

I reconnoitered with a friend on the way home to collect Tabby and she talked cheerily to me about her day the rest of the way home.

When we got home, I was feeling pretty weary. But I discovered that Matt and the kids had cleaned up the house for me. We had spent the whole weekend “organizing” which of course makes the underbelly cleaner an the surface a disaster, so it was very welcome to see a clean house. I also saw that some very dear friends who I hadn’t seen in way too long had already arrived for our evening together.

Matt made jerk chicken (one of his best executions ever!) and corn on the cob for dinner. Our friends brought a delicious salad and chocolate cake. I made up some green beans with bacon.

It was a nice evening. I even had a couple glasses of red wine. I really enjoyed seeing our friends, my sister and being with Matt and the kids. Both kids were very sweet to me and gave me snuggles. Tabby personally collected hand-washed the dessert dishes.

Our friends stayed late by current standards and we didn’t get to read a chapter of our current read-aloud book, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. But I got to give the kids hugs and kisses before bed and snuggle down just a few minutes later in my own bed with my best friend.

It was a good day.

May 28, 2015

The Denver weather has been crazy the past month. We have had rain almost non-stop which is pretty unusual for our arid climate. We have all been making jokes about buying Nirvana albums and flannel. It’s great for the ground and the flowers, but has been pretty devastating for things like field day and keeping construction projects on schedule. Yikes!

So we were pretty happy to see a bit of sunshine in the forecast for Memorial Day Weekend. Matt and I have been running ourselves ragged and we had only minimal plans for the weekend, so we were really looking forward to it.

Friday we had Ben’s Kindergarten Celebration, so I worked from home all morning and then took off in the middle of the day for that. Since both of our offices closed early for the holiday, we could ease into our Friday night. We’ve been watching some of the classic movies of our childhood with the kids and so we watched the third installment of Indiana Jones. It was a big hit!

Saturday we did the karate thing and then we went to Denver ComicCon. It was a fun event and I’m glad we went, but it was mainly people-watching for us.

The kids got some fun souvenirs and really enjoyed it. But for $100 in tickets for the whole family, I don’t think we’ll be going every year. We were able to meet up with friends at ComicCon and then do dinner in the city, so that was a very nice bonus.

Sunday was our get stuff done day. We worked on the pop-up, did some chores around the house, grocery shopping, etc.

Then we were invited to Dad’s house to celebrate this guy’s b’day, way late. Mother’s Day and a trip had gotten in the way of prompt celebration, but it’s always nice to drag it out anyhow, especially when my dad buys tons of crab and makes his delectable chocolate mayonnaise cake. Not a bad thing at all.

Monday we got up and went right to North Table Mountain to go hiking! It’s right in our backyard, but it’s always a great place to do some hiking or mountain biking or trail running. And it’s especially beautiful when it’s been raining like crazy as it has been lately because then instead of the more arid landscape, you get actual streams and even ….

A waterfall!!! My sister discovered this beauty on Saturday when she was hiking there and we had to see it for ourselves. This is pretty darn rare and we feel very lucky to have seen it because it probably won’t last long. In the way of waterfalls, it’s not super impressive, but it is really fun to find it in such an unexpected place. There are no snow-caps that feed this part of the terrain, so you can only get this with crazy huge rainfall.

Kelly was kind enough to go with us and we all had a great time.

Super super beautiful right now. It’s hardly ever this green and I love this part of the year. The kids were huge troopers, hiking over 7.5 miles!!! I’m so proud of them.

Afterward, we had to hightail it home for showers and refueling. I even stopped and bought them chocolate milk as a little reward for their hiking prowess.

Kelly and Tabby and I spent the afternoon shopping for some new clothes for Tabby who suddenly fits into NOTHING. She got really into it and picked out some very cute things. I had to steer her away from dresses and explained that she needs good playclothes for the summer and she got it and found some stuff she really likes.

We had dinner, worked some more on the pop-up and our long weekend was over like that!

May 1, 2015

Ben Turns 6

Our little guy turned 6 a week ago. All parents know the feeling of watching their big, capable kids and barely being able to connect them to the snuggly little babies they were once upon a time.

It’s amazing and humbling to watch him grow from the Very Hungry Caterpillar who couldn’t get enough milk into his big, almost-done-with-kindergarten self.

This has been a transformative year for Ben. I suppose they all are, but he has had by far the biggest challenges so far this year and it’s been wonderful to watch him work to overcome them. Ben is a typical little boy with lots and lots of energy. He has had to work hard this year to tame that energy and direct it into his school work. It has been an uphill battle and I really appreciate the effort his teacher has put into helping him develop strategies to work through his boundless energy. It’s made a huge difference.

Outside of school, we have fits and starts, but the overall arc is good. He listens better. He picks up well. He is learning to control his temper and his err… smart mouth. His natural bend is to be the class clown and he truly is very funny. I swear he makes us laugh each day. Sometimes it’s accompanied by shaking our heads. He is very inquisitive and extremely intuitive about mechanical and mathematical things. If we can keep him busy, we can keep him happy.

We had a small family party for him at home. His “big” party isn’t for another week, but we asked him to pick what he wanted to do on the very special day and it was super simple – pizza rolls, fruit pizza and a movie at home.

Papa and Gaga got him Legos.

Tabby made him an adorable book entitled, “The 10 Things I Love Best About Ben.” Our present to him will be a Russian Tortoise that we will pickup sometime this week. We were going away for a long weekend and so wanted to wait to get the tortoise until we could be home for a couple of weeks in a row. We do have a name picked out though, “Taco.” Yep, I don’t know either.

He got his wish for his night in, pizza rolls, movie and fruit pizza. I love that his requests are still so uncomplicated. For his party, we will be having a water gun fight in the back yard followed by some cake and ice cream. We’re all looking forward to a good time.

Happy birthday to my darling little guy. Here’s to many many more years of Benji fun and snuggles.

April 21, 2015

Life is Full

Well despite my consciously trying to keep life as simple as possible, it seems to fill up no matter what I do. This blog and my photography have been the casualties lately and while I regret this and would like to fix this, these things will always come behind quality time with friends and family and often behind my job and my mental well being.

The kids are doing well. They are probably the single biggest reason I have found so little time to blog lately. We’ve been busy most every evening with homework, music practice and just having time to ride bikes and go to the park. We are coming up on their spring recitals, so there is a very concerted effort (see what I did there?) to get everyone poised and practiced and ready to go. It’s hard to believe that a month from now we’ll be about done with school. It’s crazy!

We are also in the throes of planning Ben’s birthday. After much debating and negotiating, Ben decided he wanted a bigger party at home. We will be supplying the kids with squirt guns (also their party favors) and letting them go crazy in the back yard. There will also be cake. Apparently, whatever Costco wants to draw on the cake is also no longer good enough. He wants a Minecraft cake. We’ll see how inventive Mommy is feeling in a couple of weeks. Ahem.

Matt and I have also been busy doing many little projects around the house. Or some not so little. We hired our favorite contractor/handyman to frame and drywall in Matt’s shop in the basement and then we have been finishing that off, adding electrical to it.

We’ve also worked quite a bit on our outside living area. We added fairy lights ….

… and mounts for our projector and speakers …

… and a curtain to block the blinding sun that comes our way from the west every evening. And a fair few more things. We’ve got just as big a list to tackle when the shop’s done too.

And then there’s work. Work is a huge time suck and I have to actively work to set boundaries. There are weeks when little can be done but just getting it done and this sometimes means bringing work home with me to do after the piano is practiced, the bedtime stories are read and the kids are in bed. Fortunately, this is an exception, not the rule.

There are times that are frustrating. When I work my tail off and get literally nothing for it. Usually this is due to factors beyond my control and it is maddening to not be able to overcome those. But overall, we have been winning lots of work and as that is the main function of my department, it is great to see us doing our job well. I do love to win.

So that is life right now. A blur of family, work, friends and piano practice. It’s wonderful and I know how lucky I am.