ooh la la!

snow crazy

 Snow day today. Five days in a row with no school (Thursday and Friday were conference days).  Matt was in Key Largo for the weekend (for work, but still).  I was really looking forward to having Monday morning to myself, to clean, do some yoga, get a start on organizing the crazy messy art cabinet. A quiet morning will have to wait until Tuesday. But the snow is really beautiful and fluffy and not icy at all and covers all the mud and Matthew and I had fun playing outside, so that helps.

   Neither of our snow pants fit. The last time it snowed, a few weeks ago, I could open the adjustable waist of my pants all the way and just barely close them, but now, not quite. They did stay up, though, maybe my coat zippered over the belly held them up, which is good because I can no longer wear regular tights and I don't want to buy any maternity ones because I keep thinking it will get warmer soon. And Matthew's bib pants end just at the top of his boots, so we were quite a stylish pair, I'm sure.  

*Updated Tuesday: No school again today . . . My plan is to go to the zoo. I thought Matthew would be excited about that, but right now he insists he does not want to go . . .

 

 

 

 

Fun!

Try this   www.jacksonpollock.org    Move your mouse slow, fast, and click.  Thanks, Mom!

Brown Out

Today was not a good day. In the last few days, Matthew has had lots of pee accidents here at home and at school and I have no idea why. And today he went into the downstairs bathroom, pooped, stepped in it, and smeared it all over the wall, floor, and tub, while I was in the basement putting laundry in the dryer.  Good times. 

On the upside, I got a nice haircut on Tuesday morning. 

November 4th!

 

I'm so excited for today! I actually voted in-person absentee more than a week ago, so I'm kind of missing that feeling of voting with a big crowd today, but I am not sad to miss waiting for hours and hours (and hours, probably) with Matthew. He came with me to the courthouse to vote absentee (he called it "going boting") and did fine with our 5 minute wait, but I did not want to face those long lines today!

Jammin'

. . . and applesaucin', too.  A few weeks ago we went apple and raspberry picking at a farm in Maryland. The raspberries got eaten pretty quickly, but our 24 pounds of apples went a bit further. Two pies, seven jars of chunky applesauce, and lots of snacks.  So good!

Helpful

Matthew wanted a snack. So he opened a box of cereal.  He does things his own way.  I should have taken a picture of the shards of cereal box all over the kitchen floor.   

Oh, and I can't find the camera, so I can't show the supercute cotton top I made yesterday after watching Amy Karol's FOE tutorial. Just trust me, it's very summery.

I love the rice cooker!

Here is the rice cooker recipe I promised!  I've made this twice now. We all liked it and it doesn't feel like "making do". Another rice cooker meal attempt was OK, but not good enough to be repeated. Anyway, here is what I did:

Put 1 measure white rice in cooker. Drain 1 14 oz can diced tomatoes, reserving liquid.  Use tomato liquid and as much water as you need to make enough liquid to cook rice (as per rice cooker markings).  Chop 1/2 lb lite smoked sausage and add to cooker. Sprinkle generously with garlic powder.  Drain and add to cooker one small can peas and carrots.  Cook!

If I were preparing this in a real kitchen, instead of in the dining room and downstairs bathroom, I would like to use more interesting spices than garlic powder, but that's all I have out right now, because I like it on pizza. Also, the canned veggies were fine, but I think fresh carrots would be much better. But I do love canned tomatoes! The first time I made this I used "fire-roasted" tomatoes. They were really good - a nice smoky taste. But now that I think about it a little more, it creeps me out a little bit to think of what weird chemicals they put in the can to get that smoky taste.  Hmm, maybe plain canned tomatoes next time.

Summer Swap

I got my swap apron (2 weeks ago)!  This beautiful hand stamped card came with it.  Isn't that pretty and summery? The apron is great. A ruffle, rickrack, and tropical pink flowers - very summer! I was pleased that it wasn't necessarily something that I would make - to me, that is the fun of a swap. I will definitely enjoy wearing it. And, wow!, the sewing is really quality! Thanks, Jennifer!

What does it look like? Picture to come - in the new kitchen, maybe!

Out with the Old

Work started on the new kitchen last week. Currently, it looks a bit better than in the "after" photo above. The walls have been repaired, new electric and lighting put in, new plumbing, and tile is being put in at this very moment. They expected to be done with the tiling yesterday, but there was alot of muttering (and maybe cursing?) in Polish when one of the guys started laying the tiles, but things are going smoothly now.

Living without an actual kitchen has been smoother than I would have thought, too. We have the fridge in the basement and a rice cooker and lots of peanut butter sandwiches. I do miss cooking, though. And I cannot wait to have a dishwasher! It's been a long time since we've had a functioning dishwasher. Ten months maybe? Too long.

We had a great all-in-the-rice-cooker meal last week. I want to experiment more with that. I'll post the recipe this week.

I've been working nonstop on this apron since I last posted. Well, not exactly nonstop. Actually, the apron was about 4 days of frequently interrupted work.  On a whim, I joined the Sassy Apron Swap, and it was lots of fun.  Luckily when I signed up I didn't think about how much time I can actually spend sewing nowadays, otherwise I never would have signed up.  I sent my apron off to Australia last week (Tuesday? Wednesday? who knows?) and when I had it all packed up I thought, "Wow, that was fun, I should do that again." Then I remembered that I would be getting a surprise apron in the mail, too, and I got excited about the swap all over again.

Anyway, I have no idea what I've been doing for the last five months. Not knitting. Not as much sewing as I would have liked. I guess mostly I've just been trying to adjust since my world turned upside down when Matthew stopped napping. I did not see it coming, and if I had, I would not have known how hard it would be. For me.

But things are better now.  I'm even considering an ambitious (relatively) blog project. We'll see.