Do You Ever...

Go to the beach when it's raining? I think it's just as beautiful and calming as when it's sunny and warm. This is why we packed everyone up last year and moved. Man, I love where we live.

Today Griffin was NOT sleeping. Did not take his usual morning nap so I could clean, cook and blog. So instead of fighting it, I threw him in the car with my umbrella, rain boots and camera. We made a little stop at Starbucks and drove here. Griffy sleeps well in the car so I was able to read my book ( C.S. Lewis', Mere Christianity...loving it.) This is my new favorite thing to do when the baby won't nap at home...throw him in the carseat, drive til he falls asleep and head to the beach. I can read, take a nap, think. And, it gets me out of my house.

Maybe it'll rain again tomorrow....

The Rainy Day

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The day is cold, and dark and dreary;

It rains, and the wind is never weary;

The vine still clings to the moldering wall,

But at every gust the dead leaves fall,

And the day is dark and dreary.

My life is cold and dark and dreary;

It rains and the wind is never weary;

My thoughts still cling to the  Moldering Past,

But the hopes of youth fall thick in the blast,

And the days are dark and dreary.

Be still, sad heart! and cease repining;

Behind the clouds is the sun still shining;

Thy fate is the common fate of all,

Into each life some rain must fall,

Some days must be dark and dreary.

Love/hate Target

Sometimes I think we are becoming one big giant Target. Don't get me wrong..I LOVE Target. I spend most of my husbands paycheck there, especially since the new one up the road is not only a Target, it also has a full grocery store in it. Since when does Target carry chicken and strawberries?

When we lived in Europe I loved shopping in the little town with my little wicker basket. I felt so...European. At the time I only had one baby and we'd walk into town every day. We'd stop at the bakery for fresh bread and a treat for Stephen, at the meat market, the produce market...and we'd shop for our dinner that day. I got to know the shop owners. It was a simple way to live and I liked it.

Here everything is so BIG...SUPER SIZED. The stores we shop in, the food we eat out at restaraunts, the cars we drive, the televisions we watch, the houses we live in...the bigger the better right? I get the Target's and the Walmart's...I think they were intended to simplify. And for the most part they do. One stop shopping at it's best.

I like small. Quaint little antique stores, boutiques, cafe's and cottages. But tomorrow I'll be back at Target..you just wait.  I need some cleaning supplies, wrapping paper and maybe even strawberries if they look good.

Crap

While watching the news the other night there was a piece on Vice President Biden. He apparently dropped the F-bomb on live t.v. I'm sure you've all seen it...they played it over and over and over again. I watched President Obama's face as he heard Biden say it...I don't think he was pleased. I know I wouldn't be. I mean do you really need to say that? I think swearing is gross. Especially that word. I don't like hearing it when a man says it but hearing it come out of a womans mouth is even grosser.  Now, I'm not going to sit here and pretend that I've never sworn...but I will tell you that the word I use most..and it's not pretty either..is crap. I wish I could stop saying it. It doesn't sound nice but I guess it's better than what Biden said.

I remember a friend of mine told me I should have "CRAP" on my liscence plate...I guess I say it that much. I also remember Will when he was little saying..."twap". That's great. Again, I guess it could be worse. I will tell you that I don't say things like..."cut the crap" or "holy crap" or  "he crapped himself"...that's just bad. One time when Stephen was little..around 2 or 3..we were living in Germany. We were traveling and found ourselves in line at a breakfast place behind some other American military family. The father said to the mother..."oh great, the kid just crapped himself". How gross is that? Stephen heard it and for a long time he said it too...

I grew up in a house where we weren't even allowed to say shut up. I still don't say it and tell my kids their not to say it either. There is a nicer way to tell someone to be quiet. The whole bleeping thing doesn't make much sense to me either...do they think we don't know what they're saying behind the bleep? Have you watched the American Music Awards or the Grammy's lately? Some wrapper will be performing and the whole song is bleeped out...stupid I think. That's not music to me..but that's a whole other subject.

We'll be watching a baseball game on television with the kids and if the umpire makes a call that the player doesn't like you can see him swearing. What about the kids that are sitting in the front row of that baseball game and can hear it? We pay these guys MILLIONS of dollars a year to throw a ball around...can't they watch their mouth? Like it or not, they are role models and if I were their coach they'd be fined or suspended or both. Or maybe I'd wash his mouth out with soap. (I've never washed anyones mouth out with soap and I've never had mine either...just sayin.)

"A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger"~ Proverbs 15:1

Babybook Friday-baby names

Griffy just loves the beach. He loves playing with the sand. Oh he is going to be fun this summer on the beach!

Naming babies is the best isn't it? Boys names for me have always been the hardest though...Stephen was named after his dad...Will has his great great Grandfathers name which includes two middle names. When we found out we were having our 3rd boy it took us a while to name him. I love using family names...so we really thought about Jack..after my Dad. There are a MILLION Jacks out there. I love the  name Jack and I think if I were to ever have another baby and it was a boy it would be Jack...(sorry Dad!). Griffin's name came to us as Steve and I were walking on the beach last winter. We were thinking of family names and couldn't come up with anything....Steve asked what my Dad's mother's maiden name was and I stopped short. Griffin! And so it was. Thomas is his middle name...after Steve's grandmothers maiden name.

Now give me a girl and I could go to town naming her. Hannah was named not after a family member but a character in Little Women. Remember Hannah?..she helped take care of Jo, Meg, Beth and Amy. Little Women is one of my favorite books and movie. Oh to live back then when a tangerine was a treat! Anyway, there is a family that was featured a few years back in Child magazine..(remember that magazine?). They were the cutest family. The mom had just given birth to their 7th baby and I LOVED all the kids names..especially the girls. I still have that issue and would look back at it from time to time. Well sure enough in this months issue of Country Living the family is featured again. They live in Nashville and the mom Kayce runs a clothing design business...really cute stuff! Their girls' names are Sophie, Charlotte, Olivia, Clare and Audrey. Oh do I love all those names! Even their dogs  names are cute...Jack and Lily...I love the name Phoebe and Isabel and Eleanor and Lizzie and Jane. Just Jane. Maybe that's why I didn't have any more girls..I could never come up with just one name.  Oh one more baby...

Turkey on my doorstep

Look what arrived on my front step this morning. Not a package from Amazon...just a turkey. He scared the living day lights out of me! These guys just don't show up on our street.  He was really pretty and  calm. He knew I was watching him...he walked all around the yard. I watched him for about an hour..carrying my coffee and camera.   I thought about how I am not an animal person at all but am so glad there are people out there that are. Animals know that I am not an animal person so they seem to latch on to me more than other people...I'm not kidding. I can't stand cats. I'm very allergic to them and I really don't like their attitudes...but whenever I come into contact with one they're all over me. Maybe the turkey and his friends just wanted to freak me out today so they sent one of their guys over to my doorstep.

I have a friend who lives in Colorado and if I could lead a double life..I'd live her life. She lives on a beautiful ranch with gardens and lots of animals...she's like a mini Pioneer Woman minus the homeschooling. She is a great host and entertainer even though I've never been to her house. She's a fabulous cook even though she's never cooked me dinner. Maybe someday. I don't think I could give up my ocean for her mountains though. I love the mountains...but I need the ocean. Anyway, check out her blog  Out of Colorado . I bet she'll have some advice on what I should do about my new turkey friend. He's cute and all but I hope this isn't his daily stop now. I'd rather have an amazon package on my doorstep.

My Thing

Friday night is family pizza/movie night here. I make the dough during the day and later Steve assembles pizza for us and calzones for the kids. The kids love his calzones. Steve has gotten so many compliments on his pizza and calzones he's threatened to quit his day job. Please don't Steve. I don't think opening up a pizza joint is in the cards for us right now...Stephen is off to college in THREE years.

Food is kind of my thing. The house won't be cleaned for days but you will have a good, healthy meal in your belly. Meal preparation for a family of 6 (ok..Griffy isn't really eating yet)..takes quite a bit of work. After 16 years of marriage, I think I have it down. I'm all about planning. On Sunday, I could tell you what we are having for dinner on Friday...ok, pizza..I just told you that...but you get the idea. I spend the weekend looking through cookbooks, magazines, and online recipes to figure out what we're having for the week. I take into account nights that are busier than others..like Tuesday. Tuesday I drive kids all afternoon...CCD, ballet, baseball..so that night is usually something in the crockpot or something that I've made in advance. For me, there is no worse feeling than wondering what we're having for dinner at 5:00. Heck, I don't like to feel that at noon.

My meal planning doesn't just stop at dinner. There are 2 other meals plus snacks during the day that I have to consider..I told you this was time consuming. For breakfast I usually feed the kids pancakes, french toast or oatmeal...usually with fruit that has been pre-cut. I will make up the pancake batter the night before. I make Steve's lunch the night before also...yes, I pack his lunch everyday..unless he has a business lunch out. Usually he takes a salad, hummus/veggies, yogurt or leftovers. Stephen buys lunch everyday...Hannah and Will both bring their lunches everyday. Neither one of them has ever bought lunch. Let's stop and do the math here...That's 15 breakfast's and 15 lunches Monday through Friday. That's a lot of food! Hannah usually takes soup, yogurt, hummus/pretzels, salad, or grapefruit...Will has a ham/turkey sub. Now, that's just their lunch...there are also 2 snacks each in there. I don't  do pre-packaged snacks, cookies etc. I do my best to make homemade banana breads, muffins, cookies.

O.k, so they've had breakfast and lunch and they're now home from school. Snack time. Usually it's a smoothie..we make a lot of these. Yogurt, fruit, flax oil, protein powder....I need to mix these up a bit though. Time for a smoothie cookbook! And a new blender..mine is on it's way out.

We hardly ever eat out...it's too much work and too expensive for our whole family to go out. Plus, I'm a bit of a food snob I guess. I get nervous about who is touching my food back in the kitchen....weird I know. So, here we are back to cooking dinner. I try to change up the meals quite a bit. We don't eat a lot of meat...I try and cook fish at least once a week. I could eat it every night but the rest of the family wouldn't be happy. In the winter I do a lot of soups, stews and crockpot cooking. I have a great crockpot cookbook that isn't all that Campbells cream of crap...it's all real food...It's called....Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook...I'm too lazy to get up and find the author for you right now. I'm sure you could google it if you're interested or if anyone is even reading this still. Anyway, in the summer we grill..a lot...

So when someone asks me what I do all day long while home with the baby...I'm cooking, planning, shopping, cleaning up after cooking, putting groceries away...man that is a lot of hours put into our meals! But, it's my thing...scrubbing floors is not my thing.

When I get it together I'll post recipes....I LOVE blogs that have their menu for the week on the side. I need to learn how to do that! Computers aren't my thing either...it's amazing I'm even here.

My Oprah moment

I used to be a HUGE Oprah fan. She was like my BFF for years and she didn't even know it. I would never miss a show. I would plan the kids' naps around her show. I loved her book club and angel network and of course Oprahs favorite things. If Oprah said to jump I was the first one yelling..."How high Oprah??"  Over the past few years I haven't watched her as much, in fact, I can't tell you the last time I watched her show.  Maybe I'm too busy, maybe just not interested in what she's got on...I don't know. Anyway, a few years ago I got to go see Oprah. And  I didn't just get to go sit in the audience either...I was front row, had a microphone on and even got to go "backstage". I swear she looked at my shoes and smiled. Let me tell you, this was right up there with giving birth to my kids.

I still love Oprah, I just think it's time to call it quits. She's had a great run. She's done terrific things...it's just time, I think. I never understood why shows like Seinfeld, Cheers, Friends, all went off the air when they did. Now I do. It's good to go out on top.

Anyway, thanks Missy and Jill for making it happen! It is a time I will never forget! And thanks Lara and Missy for putting my butt on the plane and holding my hand the whole way there while I was hysterical thinking the plane was going to crash and  burn.....Oprah was worth it.