TGIF Fun Facts

Since we last talked, a lot has changed. Alright, maybe just one major thing: we moved. So instead of just adjusting to life with two little G's, now we are in a totally different setting.

I asked my mother the other day, when I would stop feeling frazzled, when I could actually take a breath and relax. "Oh, when the girls are in school," she said. This led to more hyperventilating, "You mean in 4 years?! I have to wait 4 years to relax?!"

So, in that spirit, I am going to kick off my return to blogging with random statements said in no particular order, aka "fun facts." Let's hope for all of our sakes that my writing becomes more coherent in the upcoming days, weeks, months, YEARS, you know when I can actually relax.

1. We are kind of potty training now. I say kinda because I still don't want to and G is not totally there yet. But it does provide interesting dinnertime fodder. Like she wanted me to read her 'Curious George and the Chocolate Factory' while she tried to poop on the potty today.

2. When we were going through our moving/selling/kitchen remodel hell, we lost all standards. Chocolate shake for dinner? If it will make you not run around the restaurant like a crazy person, awesome! And you want to dip asparagus in the shake, all the better! That makes me feel better about myself even though I think it's gross. Yes, that happened. And it was G by the way, though I was getting close to that point since I was 9 months pregnant, due the next day, and not allowed in my house. Any rules about food we had, we abandoned for sheer survival. And you know what, we all did survive. We are slowly making our way back to normalcy and it's tough. We are trying to instill a 'no snacks after dinner' rule and if anything, it's making G a big breakfast eater. I think she ate 4 eggs this morning.

3. I now have a gas oven and I am in love. However, I did spend the first week burning everything. I'm sorry, Angie, but the lovely crisp you made was truly a crisp. I did dig out the bottom layer and that was delightful.

4. I also have drawers in my bathroom. Lots of drawers. And some cupboards. And a linen closet. I could live in my bathroom. I didn't have drawers for the last 6 years. This is a big deal people!

5. My book comes out in 2 weeks! I am so excited to finally share it with people, and to have my own copy as I was tired of having to look up my recipes on my computer or find one of the random index cards that I use for documenting. And I realize that I probably should have a better filing system. Maybe in 4 years....

6. On the subject of books, I went a month with no cookbooks. I have my books back and it's like hanging out with old friends. Is that sad? Anyone who says that cookbooks are going to be replaced by the internet has not found their true cookbook soul mate...and will not be invited to my book signing.

7. G and I have started doing Hip Hop Abs together, but she calls it Hop Hop Adam. I have a brother in law named Adam and apparently, she is referring to him. Can I just express he looks and acts nothing like Shaun T? She's a helluva trainer. I tried to do a different workout, and she was so relentless about dancing to 'Hop Hop Adam' that we eventually changed workouts. "Come on Mama, let's dance." It's a highlight of my day, but I am afraid she is going to show off my moves in a public setting.

8. I was so worried about selling out to Disney for Halloween that I didn't realize until too late that we sold out to another major corporation: G is going to be Bugs Bunny, my husband is going to be Michael Jordan from Space Jam aka he is going to wear a Toon Squad jersey, and G2 is going to be a carrot. 

9. Are we the only people who watch Space Jam on a regular basis? We have decided we are going to judge our new neighbors based on how they react to the costumes. If they recognize it, we will be friends. If they think it is cool, they have an automatic invite to dinner.

10. This weekend, my husband and I have our first no kids outing together. Unless you count furniture shopping, but we both hate furniture shopping, so that doesn't count. I'm excited to feel like a grown up for a few hours and it's even for a good cause. We are going to the Gio's Garden Gala, it's a non-profit you need to know about, so go check them out: Gio's Garden!

Happy Friday everyone!

Tell me a random fact about your week. I'd love to hear it. And I promise to be back to you with something useful next time.

Fun Facts Friday

Hi Folks!

I am going to try to keep this short. I'm actually writing this Thursday as we are leaving Friday for St. Louis for a weekend visit to my brother and his family. 6 hours in a car with a toddler: wish us luck!

Let's just get right into it, shall we?

1. I heard the best description the other day: to-do-list-itis. I suffer from that greatly. It's when your to-do list takes over your sense of self. Add on to that the fact that I think I can do way more than is ever physically possible, I feel defeated at the end of most days. Really trying to work on this. It's so hard because there is so much I want to do, but only so much I can do. Damn Donna Reed for making it look so freaking easy all the time.

2. Yesterday G got stuck in her crib. My mother was here and I learned a very important lesson: my mother is not a good person to have around in an emergency. G was screaming, her knee was completely stuck between the slats and my mother was wringing her hands and tell me that I had to call my husband because we'd have to cut her out of the crib. I don't think my mom realizes that my husband is not a handy man. God love him, it's just not his strength. G was stuck for quite awhile but we finally got her to lay down and we were able to slide her leg out. Everyone involved was traumatized. I think we will be getting her a toddler bed very soon. If I have my say, it'd be next week. We can no longer let her 'cry it out' at night because I'm worried she's stuck.

3. We totally fell off our meal plan this week. First two days went great (so what if one the days was going out to eat?) and then we had the crib incident. Abandoned the meal and we were supposed to use a bunch of the CSA in it. I'm going to try to use the produce in a frittata tonight.  I wonder if there is a condition called CSA-itis.....

4. Been obsessed with beet salads this week. Beets + Goat Cheese + Apple + Sweet Onion + Toasted Walnuts + Balsamic Vinegar + Spinach/Arugula/Sorrel = what I could eat every single day. Thank goodness for Costco where I bought beets, goat cheese, and balsamic vinegar in bulk.

5.  G is such a toddler now. We tried two outings yesterday morning and I wish I could drink because I could have used one. Took her to Barnes and Noble and things were fine until she decided to pull any book she could reach off the shelf as she ran through the store screaming. Rather than take her home (which would have been the right thing to do), I then tried to take her out to lunch with my mom as a belated Mother's Day treat. We were those people: G decided to just stand on her chair and scream. We took turns devouring our food and walking her around the restaurant. It was a nightmare. For the record, it was really out of character for her. So much for my extra special morning with my mom...

6. In happier news, I found some great maternity running/golfing gear!  I got some great tops at Impact Fitness Wear and some great golfing/running skirts at Running Skirts.  I've been really impressed with them and I actually feel kinda cute wearing them. Makes working out just a little bit easier.

7. I discovered three additional bins of maternity clothes in my basement that I forgot I had. It could not have come at a better time. I am moving into the next size of maternity gear and was thinking I would have to do more shopping. I am so thankful for my sister-in-law and best friend as it is almost all of their hand-me-down gear. It's also stuff that I couldn't wear last time because the seasons didn't line up so it feels like new clothes for me.

That's it for me. I hope you have a wonderful weekend. Would love to hear a random fact from you about your week. Any adventures? Best discovery of the week?

Fun Facts Friday April 20-24

First of all, I owe you a recipe post. It's half written and if I get a good nap today, you will get it later today. If not, then soon. I promise. No more Fun Fact Fridays without a recipe. After today.

I am so glad it's Friday.

Here goes...

1. Both my husband and I are always exhausted by Friday. I used to get a little bonus sleeping in every morning but I have started running so good bye extra zzzz's. It's totally worth it, but what I would give for a morning to just sleep. Thank goodness for coffee. Do you remember when we all used to go out on Friday nights? Now I look forward to lounging on my couch and hopefully getting G to bed at a decent time. And going to bed really early. I feel old and boring, but I'm so tired I don't care.

2. Speaking of running, I have registered for a 5k and have a second one picked out. With Baby G, I ran until 32 weeks, but most of it was treadmill running. I have been running every day and am up to about 2.5 miles. I am really excited to do some races pregnant. Now, to be honest, to call it running may be a stretch. I can definitely say that I am not walking, but running? I won't even wear my Garmin because I don't want to know how slow I am going, but it makes me feel happy when I do it, so I'm going to do it til I can't.

3. In other preggo fitness news, I am having a heck of a time finding maternity golf wear. I am also determined to play golf until I physically can't.  I already don't fit into my regular golf clothes (thank you hips), but given the lack of selection and the price of what I have found, I may need to buy just bigger non-maternity pants and skirts, and then pair it with some maternity tank tops. Hope the club isn't strict on the collared shirt rule.

4. We went to Costco this week. Until this point, I have not been a huge Costco person. We don't eat a lot of packaged snacks or foods. I was super impressed with the produce section. I don't know if I should be proud or embarrassed, but this family of 3 has almost polished off 4 pounds of strawberries in 4 days. I think they should be gone by the weekend. In addition to snacking on them, I have been serving them as a dessert to Baby G (and me) with plain Greek yogurt for dipping. Yum! I will definitely have to add Costco in my grocery store rotation for produce.

5. This was my other big Costco find.

It came with 20 individual packs of freeze dried fruit for $18.  There were 10 packs of apples, 5 packs of red grapes, and 5 packs of strawberries and pineapples. No added chemicals, oils, salt, or sugar. I have tried them all and they have been great. I love throwing them in my diaper bag. I feel better about giving G these as a snack instead of crackers.

6. In other food news, G pays no heed to what I consider 'food rules.'

In case you can't tell, she is dunking freeze dried mango slices into roasted red pepper hummus. I am trying not to edit her. Maybe she will be a culinary genius? She has also dunked fresh blackberries into adobo sauce (think soy sauce and vinegar). Anyone else's kid like weird combinations?

7. I also want to point out in the above picture that she was two water glasses. My niece bought her a Frozen and Sophia the First (aka Ham the first in our household) glasses and she insists on having both of them at all meals and snacks. With ice.  She's a bit of a prima donna if you ask me.

8. Have you seen this article on creating wardrobe capsules? I am working on minimizing my clothes. I have decided on 2 plastic bins for pre-pregnancy clothes, 1 for post partum clothes, and probably 2 for maternity clothes. Yesterday I got rid of 50 pairs of socks. It felt amazing. I am a bit of a socks hoarder. I hope Goodwill accepts socks.....

9. I kicked butt on my meal plan this week. So far, all of the recipes have been super tasty and the right amount of work and we have kept up on leftovers. It's rare that it works this well so I wanted to celebrate it.


That's all I have for today. I have a recipe blog post I need to write (and laundry to do, a dishwasher to unload, a shower to take, the list goes on and on.....).

Have a great weekend!

********
Do you have any favorite Costco (clean eating) finds?
Does your toddler like any weird food combinations?
Do tell.
:)

Fun Facts Friday April 13-17

One of my favorite bloggers, Clean Eating Chelsea, runs a Fun Facts Friday series. It's just her sharing random facts about her week. For whatever reason, I just love reading it. I thought I would attempt to do my own version of Fun Facts Friday. I can't think of a better name so I'm just going to go with her idea and hope she understands that imitation is the best form of flattery.

1. I can't even express how happy the weather this week has made me. I love our house in the summertime. With our gated deck, I feel like we have an extra play room in our house. It has also meant Baby G has been taking great 2-3 hour naps since we have spent all of our mornings outdoors.

2. Speaking of naps, I continue to struggle with making the most of nap times. I know that I need to get some rest during nap times, but taking a nap leaves me feeling groggy. I can usually snap out of it after a snack and lots of pinning, but it also means I feel way behind on housework.   I also don't want to be working on housework/cooking the whole time. Today was an okay balance of house stuff (1 load of laundry, cleaning out bathroom vanity, emptying the dishwasher) and stuff for me (calling my mom while sitting on the deck, blogging, and hopefully paging through some new magazines).  As for actual working, I try to save that for when my husband is home because I get in a zone when I am writing and I don't like stopping in the middle. Any fellow SAHMs want to share what they do during nap time?

3. My aversion to meat is getting worse and worse. Since the beginning of this pregnancy, the thought of eating a steak has made me gag. Now the only meat I can even think of eating (in small doses) is chicken. And oddly, I am craving lunch meat like no one's business. I guess it's good I have a lot of vegan cookbooks, right?

4. We are planning to go out with another couple tomorrow night to a new-ish restaurant in Madison, Sujeo. It's been way too long since I have gone anywhere even remotely trendy. I am really excited. Oh, and Madisonians, if Sujeo is so last year, don't tell me. Let me live in my bubble.

5. I can't believe how much Baby G is changing every day. She talks like a magpie and it seems like every day she is saying more complete sentences. So far, it hasn't gotten me in trouble, but I know the day is coming soon.

6. I caved in and bought the Frozen soundtrack on my phone. To prevent us listening to it 24/7, I told her we can only listen to it when her friend, PJ, comes over. He comes over at least once a week, so it's often enough for her to accept it. I suspect that she is going to grow up really liking PJ and associating him with the joys of Frozen. I hope this does not lead to therapy of any kind for either of us.

I could probably go on rambling, folks, but I will stop here for now. I would love to hear one great thing you did or thought this week. Have a great weekend!