Random Snippets

We had a busy but fabulous Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years!  I feel like I've been running around with my head cut off for months.  I assigned myself a huge project that made me a little insane as Christmas grew ever closer.  I have been a huge slacker when it comes to transferring family videos off of whatever medium they were originally recorded on, to a medium that is easily viewable.  So I decided to reform my ways, get up to date, and present my dearest hubby with a stack of freshly minted Family DVD's for Christmas.  I was five and a half years behind.  Fourteen hours of video and 8 DVD's later, I accomplished my mammoth task.  It took a LOT of time.  I even included slideshows of many many pictures - 2,947 to be exact.  And even better?  AFTER Christmas I burned another two hours on the 9th DVD so I am STILL up to date.  Which is awesome.  But it also means I've been slacking on almost every other area in my life, including blogging.  

What did I learn from burning sixteen hours of family fun?  

Our lives can be summed up as:

Jace's Birthday

Easter

Hubby's Birthday

Summer Fun (usually camping or some kind of water something or other)

Dane's Birthday

Diva's Birthday

Halloween

My Birthday (surprisingly recorded twice during the 5 1/2 year span)

Thanksgiving (only if we had company or went somewhere)

Peanut's Birthday

Erik's Birthday

Christmas

... and repeat.

Throw in some occasional random dancing and recently a soccer game or two (or more ...) and you can guess how our lives have been and will be for many years to come.

So, things I missed telling you while I was sorting through family festivities:

1) We survived four kids in soccer!  Hurrah!  Hurray!  But now we're thinking four kids in soccer was easier than one kid in wrestling ... we'll see if we survive this newest adventure!  A few soccer highlights:

 

 
(You do not need to watch all 1:09 minutes.  Just watch from second :21 (Erik is the second "header") to about second :42, after Erik's throw-in and missed kick. Unless you want to enjoy a Father's Commentary on a Soccer Son, using the wrong name of course ;-)  You can also hear Peanut yelling for his brother.

2) My baby is THREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Ack!  My cute little Peanut is growing up.  I need to snuggle a baby so I don't decide I need my own.  Maybe it's time for a kitten ...

3) I have a teenager now.  Erik is officially 13.  Yikes.

4) Dane's Christmas List:

hamster
snake
Chinese Water Dragon baby
turtle
crab
chameleon
baby gorilla
two headed lizard
dog
cat
lizard with no legs but not a snake
crocodile biting turtle

basilisk
rabbit
toy horns
grabber
pointer
bubblegum
money

(The first six pets have been a constant plea.  When he realized I was writing them down he started getting a little creative.  I love how he ends his exotic list with bubblegum and money.  Unfortunately, no live animals greeted him on Christmas morning.  But he did get some bubblegum!)

 

5) I FINISHED THE STOCKINGS!!  Many eons ago, when I was pregnant with Jace, I made lovely matching stockings for my family.  They were cute.  I even sewed an extra one for the not-yet-on-the-horizon baby #3.  When Diva arrived I simply decorated her stocking in the same manner as the other stockings.  Then Dane arrived.  Poor, poor stockingless Dane.  I finally managed to sew a matching stocking for him, but it remained blank for many years.  Then Peanut was born.  Poor, poor stockingless Peanut.  He didn't even GET a stocking sewn for him, but used whatever we had on hand.  But finally!  Finally!  This year Dane got his stocking decorated, Peanut got a stocking sewn, and then, miracle of miracles, Peanut got his newly sewn stocking decorated.  Yes, I have had more than three children for 5 1/2 years.  And yes, my stockings finally show it.  In other words, it has taken me over five years to accomplish a fraction of what my much-younger-less-child-encumbered self did in a few weeks.  I would show you a picture, but horror of horrors, you would see our REAL NAMES.  Perhaps I'll facebook it.

6) We made gingerbread ... er ... I mean graham cracker houses.  Well, we can't really call them "houses".  Shall we say "Creations With Graham Crackers and Royal Icing and Lots of Candy"?

7) My husband greeted the world on Christmas Eve with our annual Christmas Blog.  If you haven't read it, you need to.  He doesn't let me read it until he's done writing it and I haven't laughed that hard all year.  If you missed the deluge of emails and facebook statuses alerting our friends that it was available for viewing, let me know and I'll send you the web address.  It's uses our REAL NAMES (shocker!) but he justifies it by making it public only two weeks every year, so you have a few more days to enjoy it ... and READER BEWARE!  He is already planning a music video for next year.  Oh me oh my.

These are a few of my favorite things ...

I know some adults who don't really care one way or another if it's their birthday.  What?  Seriously?  I LOVE my birthday.  Call me childish, I don't really care.  I don't even expect loved people to spoil and fete me, though that is always pleasant.  Not strangers.  Please leave me alone, don't look at me, I don't know you.  But people I love.  Celebrate away!!  But I don't need it.  I just like giving myself a day to do whatever I want, within the confines of my job as Mother.  I am nicer to myself and nicer to others.  It is a fabulous day.  SO ... to celebrate one of my favorite days I am going to list some of my favorite things, outside of my husband and children.  And being a Mom.  Because if I include those things this post would be WAY too long.  Warning - this will mostly be a shallow list, I'm not really in the mood for deep.  And it might even be full of consumerism.  And probably a lot of food.  You are hereby warned.

My Favorite Things

-  Chocolate.  I really do love chocolate.  So much so, I've discovered, that's it's one of the main things people remember about me.  Which, if you think about it, is really pathetic.  But I'm okay with it.  As I've aged :-) my chocolate sensibilities have refined - I now prefer high quality DARK chocolate.  A fabulous friend and I taste tested 60% and 70% chocolate of affordable yet decent (ie: can be found at Target) quality.  I know, the things I'll do for science.  The results?  Lindt all the way.  Dove generally came second, Ghirardelli last, with some random brands (Green and Black, can't remember what else) scattered throughout.  Dove was always the smoothest but not the chocolatiest.  And Ghirardelli, when compared with others, always had a strange "note".  Yes, we tasted notes.  And were totally vindicated later when we read this article.  Wine tasters?  Pshaw.  I'm a Chocolate Taster.

-  And on that note, I LOVE my Dad's Chocolate Creme Brulee, minus the Brulee, because I don't have a kitchen torch.  Made with 70% Lindt.  Oh my.  Heaven.

-  I. love. my. Mac. 

- Bread, and by extension, my bread maker.  I LOVE my breadmaker.  It is a Zojirushi.  It is awesome.  I use it everyday.  I've even worn out the kneading blade because I used it so much.  (And a replacement blade cost only $6!  Thrilling!)  I read an article about how useless breadmakers were and how you could buy better tasting bread at the store.  Poor, stupid people.  I make delicious bread.  My french bread is so much yummier than anything I've bought.  My children will balk at "healthy" store bought bread, but will devour almost any bread I make, regardless of how much wheat, or oats, or quinoa, or barley, or graham flour, or whathaveyou I put in it. 

-  I really do like math.  And now that I finally have a 7th grader, I've re-remembered how much I love algebra.  I really do.  Call me strange.  Geometry can go hang itself.  But algebra ...

- My husband's sense of humor.  My favorite thing of all time.  He can make me collapse with giggles.


-  The other thing I am most remembered for seems to be my love of books.  I really do love them, in all shapes and sizes and genres.  I just love to read.  My dream job?  Repairing old books.  If there was a Repairing Old Books School I would go to it.  If I knew a Book Repairer I would apprentice myself.  It would be such a fun craft to learn.  I love devouring new books, savoring old favorites, finding new authors, sharing books I love with people I love.

- And in that vein, I adore libraries.  And bookstores.  But in libraries I can TAKE HOME any book I covet, whereas bookstores I try to exercise some restraint.  I could browse either for hours.  If I was alone.  Which doesn't usually (ever) happen.  So let's just say I can browse until Meltdown is imminent. 

- When my two year old says "Okay".  He says it all the time and in the cutest way. 

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- Panera.  Target.  Trader Joes.  I am so sad I am currently not living by a Trader Joes!  Ack!  Where will I get my supply of Dark Chocolate Covered Peppermint Joe Joe's (think fabulous mint oreos smothered in luscious chocolate sprinkled with peppermint)?  And my Dark Chocolate Covered Pretzel Thins?  Hmm, I'm sensing a theme.  But even non-chocolate edibles are yummy.  Thankfully I have a fabulous sister-in-law who WORKS at this fabulous place.  And also thankfully, when she visits she brings yummy things with her.


- And speaking of Trader Joes, but deserving it's own category, is Sipping Chocolate.  I would call it liquid gold, but liquid gold would certainly not taste as good as this stuff.  You have to make it the "Sipping Chocolate" way, which doesn't require very much milk.  Which is why it is so good.  I also love Hot Chocolate.  But Sipping Chocolate is a step above.



- Thumb Promises, which are reserved for when Pinkie Promises are just not convincing enough.  At least according to my 5 year old.

- My shoes.  I have one pair of summer shoes (mine are NOT bronze) and one pair of winter shoes that I tend to wear every single day.  They are SO comfortable.  I have other shoes, but they just get to hang out with each other in my closet.  I love my favorite shoes.

- I love the color Brown.  I know!  What a drab color!  But it's really not.  It's rich and warm and yummy.  I also love deep reds and deep blues and deep greens.  But brown is probably my favorite color to wear.  I have worn the color brown on my birthday since high school, which I realize is weird and random.  But it's okay to be weird and random.

- I love that my two oldest boys love to read.  What joy to talk books with my boys!  And to see them devouring some of my favorites! 

- I love new recipes.  I just realized I follow over 7 recipe blogs/sites and love them all.  OurBestBites is probably my favorite, but I also love BrownEyedBaker (the name! I love the name!)  I also love my friends' recipe blogs and have even started a recipe blog with my family.  New recipes keep the every day "what's for dinner" question at least sometimes exciting. 

- Being girly with my daughter.  Painting fingernails, doing hair, planning outfits - she is just precious.


- Yosemite is one of my favorite places on earth.

-  I also love Maine - the coasts, the woods, the people, NOT the lobster.  Because seafood is not one of my Favorite Things.  I loved living in Maine.

-  Even though I don't like living there, I love Boston.  What a FUN city to visit!  Fun places to shop, walk, learn about ... eating Italian food in the North End, followed by dessert at Mike's Pastry, is definitely one of my Favorite Things.

-  My brothers are among my Favorite Things.  I am so lucky I am friends with all of my brothers.  I love that they are all a part of my life even though I don't live very close to most of them.  I love their wives, their children, their parents :-), their interests - everything about them.  I also love that I am friends with my parents.  I love my family!

-  My friends are also definitely one of my Favorite Things, which gets me sappier than I meant to get.  But I have great friends.  When my husband was away for months at a time, I had a Friend who would leave her family of many children to hang out at my house twice a week, sometimes leaving in the wee hours of the morning.  We played Super Mario Brothers Wii (and conquered it, thank you very much.)  And watched movies.  And Gilmore Girls.  And ate vast amounts of delicious chocolate.  She also spent her Mother's Day morning making me breakfast.  How many people would do that?  Not many.  I have amazing people in my life.

So there you go.  Some of my favorite things.  I have a good life.

Birthday Girl

 

My Diva is 8!!  Woohoo!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, those are marshmallows AND sprinkles on her cake.

She was baptized on Saturday in the dress my Mom made and I was baptized in.  Her Uncle, Aunt, and cousins (including a brand new one!) came to celebrate.  It was a fabulous day.