What we've been up to

Things got very busy, as you might have guessed. Let's see, what's been going on?

I knit some socks

 

We went to an event with J

 

 

I started a new job

 

 

 

Someone got to spend some time outdoors

 

 

 

I kind of fell off the wagon for a while as far as exercise, but things picked up in July. I'm following monthly crossfit challenges via a Facebook group. My knees are not happy.

 

Ditto for the recipes, but J and I started Weight Watchers together a few weeks ago, so I'm always up for good skinny recipes that taste yum!

 

 

 

Scenes from an Easter

Somebody got a pretty Easter basket

 

Easter Bunny #2

 

Easter Bunny #1 (she loves him, we go every year)

 

Showing off our Easter dresses

 

Ready for the first of her (THREE!) Easter egg hunts

 

Checking out her Easter plunder

 

Racing for eggs in her THIRD Easter egg hunt

 

More eggs!

 

Checking out her jelly beans

 

A good time was had by all

A mother's fondest wish

On S's 4th birthday, she announced she is going to marry a little boy in her class (M), have 25 kids, and live one town over from us. She still talks about M regularly, and is still planning on being his wife. I love how her life is planned out at age 4.

The other day I asked what it was about M that made him such a good catch. Her reply?

"Because he is gentle and kind to me"

If she can say that about every boy she likes from now to eternity, I will be the happiest momma ever.

Montessori update

I'm not sure if I told y'all about S's school this year, so here's an update. She started a half-day Montessori program in the fall, and has loved it pretty much from Day 1. This coming fall she'll start full days, it's going so well.

In the meantime, each classroom learns about a country every school year. The learning culminates in a party of sorts for the parents. This year S's class learned about Colombia. Since the end of 2013 I've heard about how she loves to dress up in Colombian clothes every morning with her classmates. S and her friends made corn cakes and Colombian coffee (they ground the beans themselves!) and had us come visit. Here are a couple of pictures from my visit. S is wearing a Colombian shawl, and the second picture shows the flowers she made for me. Love!

Resolutions continue!

1. I tried The Best Pumpkin Bread recipe ever and made mini loaves. Best breakfast ever!

2. Not much time to work on the sweater as the grandparents are in town, but it's still in the queue until Sock Madness starts.

3. Exercise has fallen off a bit because the grandparents are in town and I'm doing a lot of driving. But I'll get back on the horse soon.

Cute things my child is saying

We live near a hospital. Each time we drive by it on the way home, S says, "There's our HOSbibal!"

Her past tense of catch is cooch (oo like book or wool, not poop). It's so funny to hear her say, "I cooched it Mama"

What's new, resolution wise

1. Today is J's birthday (happy birthday J!), so we broke out the vanilla cupcake recipe. I found this recipe for buttercream frosting and I think it worked out really well. Last night we tried baked honey sesame chicken (minus the sesame seeds) and really liked it. I also discovered that cornstarch is apparently the secret ingredient in Chinese food.

2. S's sweater continues to progress. As of this writing I have all of the body pieces done and I've started the first sleeve. So far so good!

3. Most of my exercise has been of the outdoor variety. This week I've taken S to the sledding hill twice, I've shoveled snow at least twice, and I dragged S on her sled UP the sledding hill. Which also makes me hungry, which is probably the reason my pants don't fit. *sigh*

Pic of the babe, aka gold medalist snowboarder, Olympics 2034

NY resolution update

1. I took a cupcake decorating class at Joann Fabrics over the weekend. We never have any cake mix in the house, so I cast about to find a scratch recipe that didn't require anything fancy. Enter Amy Sedaris's vanilla cupcakes. Super yum, funny instructions, and I totally want to make them again.

2. S's sweater is coming along great! So far I have the back and the left front done, and made a LOT of progress on the right front yesterday. I haven't had time to work on it today (freelancing calls), but tonight I might be able to squeeze some in.

3. My sore throat turned into a full-on cold this weekend, so exercise wasn't high on the list. But I'm feeling better now and have hit the treadmill again. I also found a 25-minute yoga sequence for hips that I want to try.

And a picture of the babe with her favorite man

NY resolution update

1. Revisited the beef and broccoli recipe. Loved it even more. Tonight we tried slow cooker teriyaki chicken. J didn't like the smell (lots of honey and soy sauce), but it was super yum. We even got fancy and put some in lettuce cups. Yum!

2. I finished Pisqu! Both are ginormous, so I'm either finding a big-footed friend or ripping them back to make them fit. In the meantime, I'm joining an Olympics themed knitting competition, and plan on finishing S's fair isle cardigan

3. I missed 2 days of exercise, but I'm blaming it on the sore throat and congestion I'm feeling lately. I did make it out to the park this week, and I shoveled snow at least twice. Plus S had me drag her on her sled through the backyard. Lots of work I tell ya!

And a picture of the babe to round out the post

Too much sadness these days

Please say another prayer for another little girl whose mom I "met" online. They are going through a horrific trial that no parent or child should have to go through.

http://www.love4jlk.org/

And I want to share this brave mom's plea for funding for pediatric cancer. Please share if you are so inclined

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CLYthNe1k4&feature=youtu.be

NY resolution update

1. Chicken recipes on the menu this year. I don't even remember the recipe, but I used this lemon garlic cream sauce. I tried to substitute whole milk for heavy cream, and it was a massive failure. I ended up just tossing some melted butter and lemon together.

2. Still working on the sock, and it will go into February before it's done. But the progress is pretty good.

3. I skipped the treadmill today due to errands and a school activity, but the rest of the week has gone well. Yay!

NY resolutions, Week 3

1. I tried baking artisan bread in a crockpot. I already had the dough around, might as well not turn on the oven, right? I was disappointed in how it turned out. Back to the oven.

2. Pisqu sock is still in progress. My goal is to get the leg done tonight, and hopefully make progress on the heel tomorrow.

3. I took off exercising last night, since my belly was turbulent, but I hit the treadmill again today. Thank goodness for music on the smart phone :)

New picture of the babe, in a sweater I made for her. Silly S

Please say a prayer

I'm a member of a few message boards. They get a bad rap at times for the drama that can be created, but they can also be a great source of community, comfort, and support. That sense of community shone this week. A mom on my message board experience unimaginable tragedy when she lost her 3-year-old daughter. Our boards came together and raised a ton of money to help with medical and other costs, and the outpouring of support was overwhelming.

So please take a moment to visit this site, and say a little prayer or thoughts of peace for Pixy and her family.

NY resolutions, Week 2

1. Tried 2 new recipes from Pinterest

Easy Carmelized Baked Chicken: This turned out great, if a little on the sweet side. There's enough sauce leftover to use on rice, etc

Beef with Broccoli: Amazing. Just as good as the stuff delivered to our front door

2. Still working on my Pisqu sock. I need to pick up the pace if I want to finish it by the end of the month

3. I still seem to skip a day a week where I don't exercise. But I have been either getting on the treadmill or even hitting the park for some fresh air and exercise. I can see a difference already

And of course, a picture of the babe

 

From the mouths of babes

A slightly rambly post on my clever child.

Last week, on the way to school, S was pointing out all the old bird nests she could see in the trees as we passed by. She informed me that tomorrow the birds would come and lay eggs. I told her that would happen in the spring, at which point she told me that some of the birds would adopt some eggs. Thank you Dinosaur Train. The next thing I know, she's asking whose bellies various family members grew in, all the while putting together the family relationships.

I asked her whose belly she grew in. Smart kid that she is, she announced that "I grew in J's belly, and she took care of me for a few days, and then you and Daddy adopted me into your family".

::swelling with pride::

Tonight she started talking about mommies and daddies. She asked if I could help find her a husband when she grows up. I need to remember with when she's 23! I told her she might find one herself, and she said, "I might have to take some time to choose, because there are a lot of mans in the world." You got that right, kid.

She then proceeded to tell me she needed to find a man as handsome as Daddy. He is indeed handsome.

And just because most of you come here to see pictures of her:

NY Resolution: Week 1

So my new year's resolutions were as follows:

1. Try at least one new Pinterest recipe/project per week
2. Work on at least one unfinished knitting project per month
3. Some as yet undefined exercise resolution, which I decided was going to be at least 10 minutes of exercise a day. Gotta start small, yo.

After one week, here's how we stand

1. I tried apple flaxseed muffins, per this recipe

Verdict: awful. I'm pretty sure flour needed to be added somewhere in there, but I was a good little soldier and followed it to the letter. After 25 minutes of baking, I had squishy, soggy muffins that went into the trash. J was disappointed.

2. I decided to work on my second Pisqu sock, to match the one I already made.

Verdict: so far, so good. I had to rip back several rows, as I dropped a stitch making a fancy braid. But I'm still plugging along.

3. Pretty much anything went in this category

Verdict: I've only missed one day of exercise. I made up for it by building a snow fort with S the next day. And J set up the treadmill again. I can head down to the basement throw in some laundry, fire up the Smartphone, and do an interval circuit.

So all in all not a bad week so far. I have a chicken recipe from Pinterest that I'm going to try tonight. I expect it will go better than the muffins. I plan to work on the sock during S's naptime today (and maybe at sit n knit on Friday). And there's a high-intensity short training module I want to try this weekend. It's scientific, y'all!

And since most of you come here to see pix of the babe, here she is, freezing her butt off in Newport with Daddy and Grania.

Such small things

I just realized yesterday that S is tall enough to turn the light switches off and on. She wanted something from the dining room yesterday, so she just breezed in, turned on the light, and got what she wanted. No asking me for help, no crying that it was too dark in there.

She's getting so big