Fall weather. Grey skies. Apples all over our lawn and kitchen. Scents in the air touched with cinnamon. Crunchy leaves. Sweaters. All things I love. I realize I will shortly be griping about freezing my butt off and it taking 45 minutes to get everyone out the door, but for now, aaaaaah.
There is something about fall. It makes me all at once happy and nostalgic. It is sort of my New Year's. This is when I tend to reflect and renew and daydream. Some years fall has been a fabulously happy time, and others it has been heavy and hard. This year is some of both, but more happy than hard. When I was nose to nose with my smiling baby today (who incidentally was rocking a sweet grey sweater vest), well, that's bliss. Noah actually tossed and caught a football with the rest of the family after dinner. That's big. Like tears in my eyes big. Maybe that's making me a bit sentimentally foggy tonight.
Fall is when I see beauty all around. To all those I love, past and present, all those who inspire, uplift and enlighten me, those who make me laugh until it hurts, those who love me even at my most unlovable, those angels in my life who masquerade as mere mortals, to kind strangers, beautiful souls, Happy Autumn.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Of Bread and Beefcake
Sometimes you shouldn't go into a grocery store hungry. And you probably shouldn't get a sample of bread, let alone when that bread is called "White Chocolate and Pecan Artisan Bread.". I did not buy any. I may or may not have been coming up with excuses to go back to said grocery store in the middle of the night while up feeding baby. If you see me excitedly running through a parking lot with a paper bag tucked under my arm in a football hold, I am not on a klepto high. I'm just transporting some very good very bad bread home where I may or may not hide it behind some canned goods in the pantry.
On another note, if I see Mike "The Situation" lifting his shirt and showing his abs in one more picture I may die of a massive eye roll. Seriously, dude. We get it. You have abdominal muscles. Yay for you! Abdominal muscles that you spend time sculpting and developing more than you do your brain or personality. Impressive. Go eat some Artisan Bread and put your shirt down.
That is all.
On another note, if I see Mike "The Situation" lifting his shirt and showing his abs in one more picture I may die of a massive eye roll. Seriously, dude. We get it. You have abdominal muscles. Yay for you! Abdominal muscles that you spend time sculpting and developing more than you do your brain or personality. Impressive. Go eat some Artisan Bread and put your shirt down.
That is all.
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
All You Need to Know
The next time someone asks me how I'm doing, I will refer them to this photo.
This was taken a few days ago. That's my baby's socks. He had kicked them off while we sat at the dinner table one night last week. I didn't pick them up. I thought about it, but I was too tired. On the socks is some spaghetti. Spaghetti is my fall-back meal when I am sleep-walking through the dinner time hour. Note how dried out the spaghetti is. That is because it too fell on the floor at dinnertime last week. Again, I was too tired to pick it up. The kicker? The two events were not even on the same night. The socks fell one night, the spaghetti the next. And I left them both there, overnight, and I didn't even feel that bad about it. Until the next day. I cannot believe what I allow sometimes as far as cleanliness goes these days. It's disgusting, I know. It's all cleaned up now. But the picture is quite a good response to the query "How are you doing?". Dried spaghetti on baby socks on my kitchen floor for over 24 hours. That's how I'm doing.
This was taken a few days ago. That's my baby's socks. He had kicked them off while we sat at the dinner table one night last week. I didn't pick them up. I thought about it, but I was too tired. On the socks is some spaghetti. Spaghetti is my fall-back meal when I am sleep-walking through the dinner time hour. Note how dried out the spaghetti is. That is because it too fell on the floor at dinnertime last week. Again, I was too tired to pick it up. The kicker? The two events were not even on the same night. The socks fell one night, the spaghetti the next. And I left them both there, overnight, and I didn't even feel that bad about it. Until the next day. I cannot believe what I allow sometimes as far as cleanliness goes these days. It's disgusting, I know. It's all cleaned up now. But the picture is quite a good response to the query "How are you doing?". Dried spaghetti on baby socks on my kitchen floor for over 24 hours. That's how I'm doing.
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Versatile Blogger. Yup.
I've been awarded. I'm award-winning.
I never win anything. And yet, thanks to a new friend-through-blogging, I feel as though I have. I will spare you all the ramblings of an impromptu acceptance speech, but now, as per the bloggy award rules:
*Thank the blogger who has awarded me and link back to them
*Share seven things about myself
*Pass the award along to 15 other newly discovered blogs
A BIG thank-you to the lovely Ms. Clay at http://12hourstobedtime.blogspot.com/
So seven things about me- it may be hard to do this without repeating things I have already posted. Hmmm.
1. I am Canadian. I have lived in the U.S. for 15 years, but I am still Canadian.
2. I have had 5 babies, at home, all with the same midwife. I consider these to be some of the greatest blessings of my life.
3. I lived in Belgium for a summer when I was 19. I spoke fluent French, ate the best bread, cheese, and chocolate of my life, and had a wild terrifying ride in the back of a police car when I took a day-trip to Paris. I did nothing wrong, but was guilty of being a cute 19 year old that these two policiers just had to help. I think one of their phone numbers is still floating around in a photo album somewhere...
4. I was a full-time actor up until I had kids, and at some point hope to get back at it.
5. I am a nearly 16-year vegetarian. During this time I have experimented with veganism, and raw foodism, but I'll always be a veggie-head.
6. I had never driven a stick shift or pumped my own gas by the time I got married. Both things changed fast.
7. I was a Highland dancer for a few years growing up. I was quite good, won several medals, but sprain-prone ankles finally did me in.
Here's my list of 15 blogs to whom I will pass this award. They are not all brand new, but they're some of what I regularly read:
http://imadhis.blogspot.com/
http://theproulxs.blogspot.com/
http://jorgensensblog.blogspot.com/
http://werewinginit.blogspot.com/
http://motherblogginguilt.blogspot.com/
http://benandjanet.blogspot.com/?zx=b7dd5b66b4dd0e92
http://peace-forme.blogspot.com/
http://bleylbanter.blogspot.com/
http://rachelparkerbishop.wordpress.com/
http://pieandbear.wordpress.com/
http://wouldbewritersguild.blogspot.com/
http://5boycheesesandwiches.blogspot.com/
http://chezshumway.blogspot.com/
http://meganknorpp.blogspot.com/
http://colquittclan.blogspot.com/
http://thesuperangie.blogspot.com/
I could add more, but some folks have private blogs, and I must spend time on other things today. Everybody should have a blog. And write on it often. Hint, hint.
I never win anything. And yet, thanks to a new friend-through-blogging, I feel as though I have. I will spare you all the ramblings of an impromptu acceptance speech, but now, as per the bloggy award rules:
*Thank the blogger who has awarded me and link back to them
*Share seven things about myself
*Pass the award along to 15 other newly discovered blogs
A BIG thank-you to the lovely Ms. Clay at http://12hourstobedtime.blogspot.com/
So seven things about me- it may be hard to do this without repeating things I have already posted. Hmmm.
1. I am Canadian. I have lived in the U.S. for 15 years, but I am still Canadian.
2. I have had 5 babies, at home, all with the same midwife. I consider these to be some of the greatest blessings of my life.
3. I lived in Belgium for a summer when I was 19. I spoke fluent French, ate the best bread, cheese, and chocolate of my life, and had a wild terrifying ride in the back of a police car when I took a day-trip to Paris. I did nothing wrong, but was guilty of being a cute 19 year old that these two policiers just had to help. I think one of their phone numbers is still floating around in a photo album somewhere...
4. I was a full-time actor up until I had kids, and at some point hope to get back at it.
5. I am a nearly 16-year vegetarian. During this time I have experimented with veganism, and raw foodism, but I'll always be a veggie-head.
6. I had never driven a stick shift or pumped my own gas by the time I got married. Both things changed fast.
7. I was a Highland dancer for a few years growing up. I was quite good, won several medals, but sprain-prone ankles finally did me in.
Here's my list of 15 blogs to whom I will pass this award. They are not all brand new, but they're some of what I regularly read:
http://imadhis.blogspot.com/
http://theproulxs.blogspot.com/
http://jorgensensblog.blogspot.com/
http://werewinginit.blogspot.com/
http://motherblogginguilt.blogspot.com/
http://benandjanet.blogspot.com/?zx=b7dd5b66b4dd0e92
http://peace-forme.blogspot.com/
http://bleylbanter.blogspot.com/
http://rachelparkerbishop.wordpress.com/
http://pieandbear.wordpress.com/
http://wouldbewritersguild.blogspot.com/
http://5boycheesesandwiches.blogspot.com/
http://chezshumway.blogspot.com/
http://meganknorpp.blogspot.com/
http://colquittclan.blogspot.com/
http://thesuperangie.blogspot.com/
I could add more, but some folks have private blogs, and I must spend time on other things today. Everybody should have a blog. And write on it often. Hint, hint.
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Halloween. This Year, Meh...
A lobster. That is what my 3 and a half month old baby is going to be for Halloween. There is nothing cute about shellfish, but my baby dressed as a lobster? Come on.
I have friends who sew and make awesome costumes for their kids- I don't. There are not even costume ideas floating around this over-occupied mind right now.
I used to have great ideas. One year during high school I had one of the cooks in my school's dining hall save all the cereal boxes for a week or so, and I went as the cereal section of the grocery store. And in last year's Halloween blog post, I mentioned my very realistic arab costume. We're talking award winning costumes here.
Halloween can get expensive, even if you go the home-made route. Marley would love to be Strawberry Shortcake, but $30 for a costume and another $15 for the must-have accompanying pink wig, for a 2-year-old mind you, is not happening. Part of me doesn't get all this effort and expense just to get a bit of candy. If you're going to get all dressed up, put in all this preparation, shouldn't it be for Christmas, or at least a birthday, where people are giving you actual gifts, and everyone knows exactly who and what you're celebrating?
What are we celebrating again? Costumes? Candy? Scariness? That slimy crud inside pumpkins? I love little kids dressing up, and fall, and all that, but I'm not a fan of the really creepy ghoulish parts of Halloween. The bottom line for me I guess is just letting my kids have an excuse to dress up and run around outside past their bedtimes. But then if that's the case, why do I dress Noah up when he couldn't care less? I mean, at 8, he has only been eating solid food for 2 years, and even then, only a select few foods. He doesn't eat candy. He looks at us with some disdain and minimal tolerance as we're sticking him in some get-up that he has absolutely no use for. And the baby, why do I feel the need to dress him up? Certainly it's not for him. It seems Halloween is as much about the parents' entertainment as the kids'. There's too much pressure to have some brilliant, original or cute costume- this year at least, it feels like pressure.
Why can't I just dress my kids up on a Thursday, pump them full of candy, chuck them into piles of leaves, roast marshmallows over our fire pit, and call it good? On to Christmas, I say. Which this year may feature a very cute Christmas lobster.
I have friends who sew and make awesome costumes for their kids- I don't. There are not even costume ideas floating around this over-occupied mind right now.
I used to have great ideas. One year during high school I had one of the cooks in my school's dining hall save all the cereal boxes for a week or so, and I went as the cereal section of the grocery store. And in last year's Halloween blog post, I mentioned my very realistic arab costume. We're talking award winning costumes here.
Halloween can get expensive, even if you go the home-made route. Marley would love to be Strawberry Shortcake, but $30 for a costume and another $15 for the must-have accompanying pink wig, for a 2-year-old mind you, is not happening. Part of me doesn't get all this effort and expense just to get a bit of candy. If you're going to get all dressed up, put in all this preparation, shouldn't it be for Christmas, or at least a birthday, where people are giving you actual gifts, and everyone knows exactly who and what you're celebrating?
What are we celebrating again? Costumes? Candy? Scariness? That slimy crud inside pumpkins? I love little kids dressing up, and fall, and all that, but I'm not a fan of the really creepy ghoulish parts of Halloween. The bottom line for me I guess is just letting my kids have an excuse to dress up and run around outside past their bedtimes. But then if that's the case, why do I dress Noah up when he couldn't care less? I mean, at 8, he has only been eating solid food for 2 years, and even then, only a select few foods. He doesn't eat candy. He looks at us with some disdain and minimal tolerance as we're sticking him in some get-up that he has absolutely no use for. And the baby, why do I feel the need to dress him up? Certainly it's not for him. It seems Halloween is as much about the parents' entertainment as the kids'. There's too much pressure to have some brilliant, original or cute costume- this year at least, it feels like pressure.
Why can't I just dress my kids up on a Thursday, pump them full of candy, chuck them into piles of leaves, roast marshmallows over our fire pit, and call it good? On to Christmas, I say. Which this year may feature a very cute Christmas lobster.
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