These Days

I actually had a really productive day yesterday but don't really have anything interesting to show for it.  So....that's boring.

We ran a couple of grocery-related errands in the morning which brings up a point that maybe can lead to something interesting:  how do you select your (sandwich) bread and milk?

I've never been loyal to any particular bread brand.  Sometime back, I decided I wanted to avoid bread with high fructose corn syrup which is actually not an easy feat.  I only buy bread with whole wheat but fluctuate on the exact kind.   As for milk, some of you might remember our first Christmas letter (2001) when I detailed the drama of having to buy two different kinds of milk for our wee household.  Many years ago, the BG came down to 2% from whole but isn't interested in going "lower."  So I have been buying skim and 2% for some time.   Maybe a year ago, I committed to buying organic milk so would get organic skim (for the 3 of us) and regular 2% (for him) because somehow that seemed like a compromise all the way around.   Then I had a conversation with loyal reader Anne about how maybe skim milk isn't the way to go since a lot of the "good stuff" is filtered out so I, in all my wisdom, decided organic 1% would be the way to go.  And that's where we've been.

A friend here has gotten into the 100 Days of Real Food idea, which is just a focus on avoiding highly-processed foods.  Purchased food should have fewer than 5 ingredients which, guess what, is so not the case with sandwich bread even when it's devoid of HFCS and full of whole wheat.  So she has been buying bread, butter, and milk from a local farm and I decided I wanted to dip my toe in these waters.  (Another part of the 100 Days thing is consuming only full-fat dairy products, which is directly related to what Anne had been saying about the nutrients coming out with the fat.  I'm really having trouble with the idea of drinking whole milk now after sooooo many years of choosing low-fat options, though, so no changes there yet.)

ANYWAY.   Miss C and I returned to the little bread shop yesterday to buy our 2nd loaf of honey whole wheat (containing only ww flour, water, honey, salt, yeast).  Then we went next door to the organic market to buy the ingredients we needed to get through the week so I wouldn't have to go to another store-- which wasn't that much because I already have a lot of stuff on hand.   (The only price that really made me cry was the orange juice.  It was almost 2.5x as expensive as the regular oj I usually get the BG.)   All the produce is organic and, while it's absolutely more expensive, I have to remind myself that what I buy doesn't weigh very much.  I mean, the price per pound of bananas is definitely more-- but do I really need to be upset that my bananas cost a whopping $1.60 instead of  $1.00?  I can probably handle that.

So... what say you?   Where are you on bread and milk?   Or anything else?   All these issues of health and nutrition seem to be so complex-- and, as soon as we hear one thing from "the experts," we'll probably soon hear the opposite.  I'm just muddling along...

Oh-- and this is what we look like these days:

Don't we look SO MUCH HEALTHIER after a week of eating non-junk-filled bread??!   :-)

Readers are Leaders

And by that, I mean leaders AT LOUNGING!

We made a local library stop recently and the B-man immediately made himself comfortable to read a little Geronimo Stilton:

Miss C still makes a beeline for "Piggie and Gerald" and then found herself a squishy reading place:

(And, if you look closely in the upper right, you can see that B has changed reading positions!)

Friday Faces

Enjoying a sample of apple streusel bread while oot and aboot:

Pretty serious mustache-- that kefir stuff is thick!

Modeling a fancy robe:

And....the best one.   We had the most marvelous window of sunshine and warm temps yesterday afternoon.   We went outside and B found the first crocus of the year.   I wanted to take a pic of it--and I obviously did--but the snap also managed to capture the wailing girl in the background.   Note:  DO NOT WAKE UP THE LITTLE MISS FROM A (first time in forever) NAP.   EVEN IF IT'S TO GO PLAY OUTSIDE!  :-)

Happy Friday!!!

Perspective

They've installed this digital screen outside the exit of our Trader Joe's.  I forget about it every single time and get startled when I come out and put away my cart.    I pointed it out to Miss C yesterday and said, "Check out that TV!"

Her response?   "That's an iPhone!"

Christmas in March

As is not uncommon at the house of an online shopper, a truck dropped off a box yesterday on our front porch.  Sadly, I knew it could only be something the BG recently ordered for football so I brought it inside without even looking at it.

Flash forward to sometime later, as I was cooking dinner, and the BG asked me what I'd gotten in the mail from (LOYAL READER) Karen I.   I had no idea what he was talking about.  Turns out--oops!--the package was actually for me!!!  Aren't out-of-the-blue treats the best? (I mean, if you actually realize they're for you!!)

We immediately ripped into it and, I gotta say, she wins the Best Reader Prize because she sent me a box full of....

...jigsaw puzzles!!!!!!

I had to tend to my cookin' so Miss C and the BG took the box into the living room to get a closer look.  I soon heard some squealing and went in there to discover there was another surprise inside:


Such a fun treat-- THANK YOU, KAREN!!

But now, Karen.....AVERT YOUR EYES.  I walked back in the living room later in the evening and saw this:

Thankfully, the little miss really did just take off the lids-- she didn't touch/move any of the pieces inside.  (whew.)  

Oh, and the dinner I was making?    Pretty tasty!  (Although, I'd recommend adding more of the paprika and cumin to the meat since it was not quite flavorful enough.  Really nice meld with the vinegar-y slaw, though!)

Beef Chorizo Tacos with Cabbage Slaw

(We added avocado.)

Running the Race

B's elementary school had a (free) fun run on Sunday afternoon so we all put on our sneakers to go:

All ready to race!

Turns out that B took off with all the "big kids" so really only one of us needed to go alongside Miss C.  I was waiting...a long time...for them to come around the corner at the end and this is what I saw.  Pretty classic:

Obviously, so many of his mother's traits are delightful in the B-man, but here's hoping his more athletic daddy can help make up for the, um, less positive ones (yes, he's holding his side.   Yes, the 4-year old, who face-planted right at the beginning and was at the back of the pack, is in the lead.)

Here's to a spring/summer of getting stronger!

See You Later, Snow!

(At least, we hope so!!)

Friday's snow disappeared quickly with the arrival of sun on Saturday.   What does that mean?  Outside exploration, of course!

Can you find The Flying Brookster?

I need to go back through the files and start a folder of these tree pics every year!  Miss C was very excited that she "can climb the tree now!"

We walked down to the woods at the end of our street.  Sometimes I wonder if the BG will sneak down there in the middle of the night and chop up more firewood-- ha ha!

C wanted to take our pic and this is what she got.  We're cool.   If you look behind us on the right, you can see a really old house with a giant fenced-in garden and BEES (in the boxes).  The house is actually on the market-- anyone wanna be our neighbor?   (You'll probably have to get your own bees, though...)

First Day of Spring!!

You can tell, right??!

It's hard to tell in this pic but the snow is falling pretty steadily.  As you can see, however, it's not sticking to the roadways since it's been so warm lately, so school is happening per usual.

Hope everybody has a "comfy cozy" (Miss C's favorite term) weekend!  Maybe just snuggle in like these two?

Before/After (Dinner)

I needed to go to the grocery store yesterday so I ended up waiting until Mr. B got home.  While I always secretly hope that all the "mini carts" will be missing so it's not even an issue, we found yesterday that they had plenty.  And I only had to tell them 87 different times to get out of people's way!

Among other items, we were picking up a few ingredients to try a new recipe. I completely forgot to take a picture of it in the skillet, but here's a shot of the leftovers!  It was another one-pot meal, this time from Cooking Light-- Braised Chicken Thighs with Wild Rice Pilaf:

Little Leprechauns

We had a little green visitor yesterday and the girls had fun spending some time in the sunshine:

We even went for a little walk:

(Good thing since it's supposed to snow on Friday!!!)

Spontaneous Sunday

First activity Sunday morning?  The one the kids will tell you was their favorite:  swimming in the pool, of course!    We had the pool to ourselves which is often quite hard to do at a hotel!

The above shot is the first in a series of less-than-good pics.  I'm not even going to bother posting the horribly dark/blurry ones from the metro ride, but we hopped on a train and took it a few stops east where we emerged to get some tasty fried treats I'd read about (not included in the current "40 Eats" list but still worthy of a culinary visit!).   We were there too early for the fried chicken but take a look at the gourmet doughnut flavor options:

After our second brekkie (oh, did I mention that I also filled a tray with food for the fam from the extensive hotel breakfast bar?!), we walked along to our next destination.  Along the way, I was struck on two different occasions by happening upon churches just tucked right in along the more urban landscape:

Finally (we walked a lot-- the kids did a great job!), we arrived at our destination, the National Building Museum.  I had many months ago bought a coupon deal for admission to it and its Play Work Build exhibit and decided this little weekend adventure was the perfect time to use it!

Mr. Science Teacher immediately got busy helping another dad and kids build this mathematical arch-- the numbered blocks had to be stacked just so in order for it to stand:

 
For a sense of scale  (the place is HUGE):

The exhibit had a big area with foam blocks for building:

The B-man engaged in his approximately 7 minutes of play before announcing he was bored because they didn't have Legos:

We stayed at the museum for awhile and checked out various exhibits, as well as all the amazing scale models they have displayed of unique buildings all over the world.   Very neat!

I was eager to try to get one more new restaurant into the mix for lunch after the museum, but we ended up at a nearby Cosi.  Figured it was kind to end the trip on the happiest of notes for the young sir, who is not known for his interests in food exploration!

All in all, we had just a wonderful time.  This experience solidified for me that, as much as I'd like to have nice things in my house and closet, I think I'd be happier spending money instead on fun little jaunts like this!     Where will we visit/EAT next??!

Spontaneous Saturday

We're soon going to be at a point in the spring schedule where the BG will have football team-related responsibilities every weekend.  It will be very sad (for me).  In the meantime, we have been spending many of our free weekends doing....absolutely nothing.  Which, no lie, I absolutely love-- until it's the end of the weekend and I think, "Wow, we totally wasted the time to accomplish things."

This past weekend was shaping up to be exactly the same:  nothing on the schedule and lots of lying around in the forecast.  For some reason, however, I was really affected by the Friday paper's coverage of the 40 dishes every local needs to eat right now and it just wouldn't stop niggling at me.  I planned to go to an exercise class Saturday morning but ended up talking myself out of it to get some household-management stuff done on the computer (SHOCKER. Also, it was really because there was a big sale at gap.com and I scored some shorts for the BG for super cheap and online bargain hunting isn't quick, y'all.)  ANYWAY.  I am so glad that I stayed at home, on the computer, because it allowed my brain to run with the growing idea and, within an hour or so, I'd designed an entire spontaneous adventure, centered around that food list, for us to ensure we would not have another lazy weekend!

Miss C soooooo excited to use her new Trunki for the first time:

Once I plotted our travel route, I realized that our drive into town took us by one of the eateries on the list: a fabulous bakery!   Unfortunately, they were sold out of the chocolate chip cookies that the list featured, but I was able to scoop up a shamrock cookie, a triple chocolate cookie (both eaten before I thought to take a pic), and this delightfully flaky individual monkey bread:

When we got into the city, we aimed our car not for the scooped-up-at-the-spontaneous-last-minute hotel, but rather a parking garage that I found through Parking Panda.   I can't recommend this online experience enough!   The hotel charged $44 for overnight parking.  I used the PP website to locate a garage about 0.5 miles away where we could park our car for 24 hours for $13.....and then I found an online promo code that took off $5.  So yes, we parked our car in a garage overnight for $8.  AND....when we walked upstairs from the garage, we found ourselves near this establishment that pretty much required we make a purchase....or a half-dozen:

The kiddies enjoying some more sugar in our hotel room:

I had used various internet searches to pinpoint a good last-minute hotel deal near the restaurant where we wanted to get dinner.  I also had to keep in mind the parking situation, metro stations, etc, etc....and I could not have been happier with the results!  I somehow ended up scoring a deal at Embassy Suites which not only gave us two separate rooms but also featured an indoor pool!   And free food!    I had booked a suite with 2 Queen beds but, when I checked in and the guy said, "2 beds and a pull-out couch," I realized that, if the kids were going to be on the pull-out couch, then we really only needed 1 bed and could pretend to be giants and get a King.  When I asked if there were still a King available, he said, "I'll just upgrade you to a Junior Executive Suite."  BOOM.   You just never know!!!

Our hotel was about 5 blocks from Trader Joe's so we took a walk there to counter all the treats we'd already enjoyed.  The kids each picked an apple to eat on our next walk to dinner:

As we neared the address of the restaurant that had started this entire plan, we saw throngs of people.  On multiple corners.  Wearing green.  Oh my goodness, it was a St. Patrick's Day Pub Crawl.

 (Karen I:  do you recognize these corners??!!   So close to our old office and I also feel like you talked about going to the location in the top photo in your younger days!!  HA HA!!)

Of course it turned out that the storefront boasting BUB'S ITALIAN HOAGIE was seriously in between two of the bars participating in these festivities.  So the inside was as cramped with, um, boisterous people as you can imagine.   The BG and the kids found one last little table but we decided to switch our order to carryout when we realized how crazy everything was going to be.  (Ask B-man to describe rap music for you the next time you see him-- it's pretty funny!)

So back to the hotel we walked, armed with our newspaper-endorsed hoagie and a San Marzano French Bread pizza slice for the kids.   Spoiler Alert:  it was ALL AMAZING:

And our Jr Exec suite gave us a big ole table on which we laid out our dinner, complete with Trader Joe's popcorn, and we chowed down!

And then everybody was asleep by 9:30.    We had Spontaneous Sunday still to come!!!   (stay tuned)

Food on Friday

I've really fallen out of the habit of meal-planning.  Between sickness, energy-zapping dark and cold nights, and the ongoing struggle to not have dinner be a battle with the elder child, the creative cooking hasn't been happening much around here.   I am starting to get a little bit back on track, however, and tried some new recipes this week.   Admittedly, they were recipes searched for on the internet by ingredient list so as to use the items I already had on hand (as opposed to selecting a recipe first and then buying accordingly) but, hey, improvement is improvement.

I remembered to snap a pic last night.   I'm a HUGE fan of one-skillet meals.  I mean, even the pasta cooked in the skillet so there really was just one pan to wash.  (Shout-out to the BG for doing the dishes every night!)   And it was a winner in combining my desired components:  butternut squash, sweet basil chicken sausage, and spinach!   And all 4 of us ate it....with only minimal complaints!

Skillet Butternut Squash, Sausage, and Penne Pasta

HAPPY FRIDAY!

Transformation

From rocker girl:

To lady who lunches:

PS:  BIG BABY CONGRATS go out to loyal reader Carrie on the arrival of Gavin Michael yesterday!!!   I'm sure big sister Quinn is super excited to have a playmate!

The Wild Life

Mr. Biology Teacher recently got a wildlife camera (with night vision!) that he's attached to a tree in our back yard.  It can be set to take either pictures or 10-second video clips when it senses motion.   We've been getting a lot of "false alarms" of late with the wind moving the trees and creating shadows that confuse the camera but there have been some interesting sightings, too.

We see a LOT of this guy (or this guy and a friend-- still trying to figure out how to distinguish the visitors):



And then there's this one:



And then, scariest of all:

Warm-Up

Just a few days ago there was this:

But now there's coat-less exploration of a much less frosty terrain:

The Wonders of Technology

After several days of "toughing it out" and hoping that my swollen tonsils would subside, I finally decided to go to the doctor on Saturday.   In hindsight, I absolutely should've gone on Friday when it wouldn't have been considered "urgent care" but all the snow on Thursday just kinda made Friday seem like a day to stay inside....not to mention we had a 1000-piece puzzle to finish!  (Which we did....after HOURS.  Those things are a challenge!)

In any case, Saturday was bright and sunny and I had nothing else going on so I made the first available appointment, which wasn't until 1:20pm.  I got to the center, waited until my name was called, met with a nurse who took vitals and sent me downstairs to the lab for the Rapid Strep Test.  After that, I came back up to the area to wait once again for my name to be called, this time to see the doctor for an exam.

Ah, but this is the 21st century!  While I was passing the time waiting to go in to see the doctor, I checked my email on my phone and had a message with my test result.  Indeed, I knew before even going back in that my strep test was:  POSITIVE.  (Side note:  I was not expecting this. Who gets strep throat as an adult whose kids haven't had it?  Bizarre.)

Saw doctor, peppered him with 87 questions, picked up meds, and got back home....when I started to feel pretty uncomfortable so thank goodness I hadn't waited any longer!!

I crawled into my bed at 7:41 pm and didn't leave for a very long time.  (Shout-out to the BG for taking care of everything this weekend!!!)   The kids were scheduled to sing in church yesterday but I didn't think I should go.   Thanks again to the digital age, however, I was able to see/hear them anyway over the church's live stream!!!

Here's to being on the mend!   Between B's week of stomach bug, which overlapped a bit with C's fever/cold, which led pretty much straight into my ailments, it's been a loooong two weeks.   It's nice that blue skies and warmer temps are here-- makes me ready to air things out and get refocused on health and wellness!!  

Passing the Time

Knowing that a storm was on the way, I snatched up a Super Mario Bros-themed K'Nex building set that I happened upon randomly during some shopping on Tuesday.  After a Lego bonanza between Christmas and his birthday, the B-man hasn't had much to build of late.  Since he's really been enjoying playing "Mario" as a video game, I figured perhaps he and his daddy might have fun doing some themed construction during a snow day.   And, although there were some premature "I can't do this because it's not the kind of Legos I know how to build" protests, they ended up finishing the "Flying Cloud" and it's pretty cool!

It didn't stop snowing until after 5 pm (I think we probably got 7+ inches) but we all went outside around 4:00 to play.  I was feeling better and also finally tracked down some snow pants after needing some for several years.   I didn't take the camera outside to capture any of our sledding activities but the littlest family member got cold/tired pretty early and went back inside to hang out.   When I went in to check on her later, it took me awhile to track her down to the little place between the coffee table and the couch:

They announced today's school cancellation late yesterday afternoon so it's a 4-day weekend for us.  On tap today?  This other little gem I picked up on Tuesday in anticipation:

HAPPY FRIDAY!

PS:   A friend on FB reminded me that the new Netflix series The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, starring Ellie Kemper from The Office and created by Tina Fey, became available for streaming at midnight.  Since we were up plenty early this morning, I went ahead and watched the first 2 episodes.  It's pretty over-the-top but enjoyable.  Curious to hear what others of you might think...??!

Another Snow Day

Pretty sure many of my Texas readers join us today in the land of wintry weather!  It's just now starting to snow here so we're settling in.  I still don't feel great so there will be lots of lying around again today.  But there have already been, in a departure from Snonuts, WAFFLE-NUTS (and a pink sprinkle one, of course!)