Our last fire of the year…
Category Archives: House & Home
NO MORE SLIME!!
FYI if any parent (or the school) sends slime home with either of my children, it’s going straight into the garbage and I will haunt your dreams. That is all.
Let’s just say I now know it’s 2/3 vinegar to 1/3 water. And Katie learned how to scrub the carpet.
Our first fire in our new fire pit.
Dinner. Don’t judge.
Our first and last fire!
We have a new fire pit so for our first fire of the season we burned one last fire in the old one.
Also, for it being Spring Break Day 2, it wasn’t too bad—just a few minor issues with the kids. But I was still going to have a margarita, though. Because duh.
The kids liked my new egg chair.
A new margarita flavor!
Orange pineapple!! I’m starting with two. Hoping they are just as delicious as my favorite Strawberry Lime…
Decent, but not even close to my fave.
Saturday Night Dinner
Testing out a new sign!
You can’t see it but I’m holding a margarita. SURPRISE! 😂 Ready for a Saturday Night Dinner!!
I’ll pass on intestines in the future.
I went to visit a neighbor’s new baby and ended up being fed fresh homemade Cambodian spring rolls. I also tried a steamed bun, sticky rice with jackfruit, and intestine. I’ll take a pass on the intestine in the future but I did try it. 🤣
Sharing our bounty!
We figured we’d eat some of the cake and share some with friends.
It really is beautiful. They do a great job decorating and wrapping.
But surprise! A hole where we hoped (assumed?) frosting would be. 😄
Plates to share…
Our first smoked butt roast was amazing.
Kudos to Chef Tom who did the whole thing.
It was a wee bit windy.
When I asked for seafood, they delivered.
Our good friends and amazing chefs invited us for dinner. They don’t do seafood with their regular dinner group so were excited when I said we’d be ALL IN for as seafood extravaganza. And what an extravaganza it was…
Pre-dinner drinks! Jami tried to give me a margarita replacement. It was okay but I really missed the sugar!!
Salmon Rilletes and Gingered Crab Potato Nests
David’s homemade soppressata and cheese.
Lobster Cheesecake
Seared Scallop on Truffled Parsnip Purée
Lobster Bisque w/Anchovy Butter toasts
Lobster Stuffed Chateaubriand with Bernaise Sauce, asparagus, and failed duck fat potatoes.
Raspberry Soufflé
One additional special thing that happened… Tom and I finally opened a bottle of wine we bought after our first cruise in 2006. We had done a wine tasting on board and liked that so bought it once we got home. Then we didn’t remember what we needed to drink it with and never looked it up and just moved out around with us. So tonight it was time. And it was okay but not my style at all.
All in all an amazing night of friendship and food.
Homemade pizzas on the grill
It’s been awhile since we’ve made homemade pizza and Tom had been wanting to try them on his new grill…
Our pizza? Garlic aioli, sopresseto, caramelized onions, home-smoked cheddar, and some tomato mix we forgot to spread on top of the aioli.
The kids? Peanut butter and jelly.
Owen tried ours and then asked for ours!! What?!
THE LESSON I LEARNED TODAY
Just don’t ever shovel. EVER. I wanted to get the slush off the end of the driveway. I was out there for like five minutes. Picked up like three shovels of slush. Really hurt my back. Like can barely walk. #neveragain #ihatewinter
Oh and yes, I know the “right” way to shovel…I was just stupid and didn’t think five minutes would hurt.
HALLLLLLLLLLP MEEEEEEE!!!!
Why is it I can organize someone else’s closet or pantry (hi Stacey!) but when it comes to my own I’m a hot mess? Nothing fits where I want it to fit and I have too much stuff to fit in this armoire but it’s my only option. I hate complaining about such a first world problem but this setup is literally the bane of my work existence. I normally just shut the doors and try to ignore it but I had to get everything out for Heidi’s demo last night so now I’ve decided that it needs to be put back together nicely. And I’ve been procrastinating all morning but Tom will kill me if it’s like this when he gets home. 😂
THREE HOURS LATER…The stuff on the top still makes me twitchy but I can live with it for now.
What exactly is a serving size?
You gotta love personal cookie delivery!!! And just so we’re clear, is a serving size a sleeve or the box?
It’s a bit icy.
Polar Vortex Day 2
When the entire outside is a freezer you take advantage (chocolate covered caramel corn).
You also take advantage of cool science tricks!! I’ve always wanted to do this but we’ve never been anywhere it got cold enough (I think it needs to be like a minimum of -20°). The kids weren’t nearly as excited as I was (heaven forbid we interrupt a damn Xbox game) but we did it twice because it was so cool!
Trying out an almost life-size Connect Four. It held their interest for maybe 30 minutes.
Then how about a game of GUESS WHAT’S IN THE CUP ON DAY TWO OF POLAR VORTEX SNOW DAYS AND THE KIDS ARE GETTING ON EACH OTHER’S NERVES.
If you guessed a margarita you’d be correct. If you didn’t, I don’t think you really know me.
The polar vortex can bite me.
All of the windows in this house are horrible and leak air. We have tried covering them with the insulating plastic wrap but this is what happens. It’s useless.
So I thought I’d try this hack: bubble wrap. Not perfect by any stretch but doable. (Guess what? It didn’t work.)
And I did the same thing in the master bedroom to my window plus put a towel over the crack because the cold air was just pouring in.
The house couldn’t get past 64° with the furnace running all day (it was 61° when I got up, and it should have been 72°). Long story short—after some texts to the landlord and an HVAC guy—our problem was the furnace filters!! We had expensive 3M allergy filters and he said those were the worst thing you could use and to take it out immediately. We did, and the house heated up to 68 within two hours. Lesson learned.
After an unexpected snow day with everyone at home…it’s time.
This might have been more prep then we did for dinner.
When the flue sticks shut and we didn’t quite notice in time.
We were really surprised at how quickly the smoke filled up the house. But we now know the smoke detectors work!!
Yes, we’re doing this. #konmari2019
We started the Netflix show tonight and are pumped to get going.
I read both of her books while we were in Virginia (around 2016). I did some of the tips—mostly the clothes-folding techniques after my closet was wiped out when I lost all the weight.
I think the hardest part for me is I PAID GOOD MONEY FOR THIS STUFF and it’s hard to just let go. I think her philosophy (IIRC) is you paid for it, you used the value, so let it go. But it’s hard.
I also don’t know what to do with all the stuff. If I’m going to let it go, it needs to just go in one fell swoop so I’m researching who will come take it all.
8:58pm: We’re going out of order but I wanted to start so tonight we spent one hour in the office. One bag of trash gone and one bin of electronics and stuff to go away. Yay us.
When you’re cleaning out the office and you find a rolled banner that you’re sure is his and he swears it’s yours…and you’re both kind of right.
Trees be gone!
Our neighbor innocently texted our landlord noting some concern about these trees.
So since Tom is amazingly handy, this happened.
And then since there was a crap ton of wood and branches to get rid of, this happened two full days in a row.
It’s like we’re homeowners or something.
That’s not really helping, Maggie.
This is where Maggie had to be when I was helping Owen sort clothes in his new room.
These are the kind of baths we like in our house.
We didn’t have a special NYE dinner so we’re doing it tonight. #cowboyribeye #samsclub #NYEredo
I might have ended up burning the dressing just a bit but once I picked off the worst of it, it was still pretty good. Owen LOVED it!!!!
I’m not kidding. It’s happening.
King guest bed being torn down.
The junk under Owen’s bed after I had already pulled out everything I could reach before the mattress was removed.
Owen finally broke me today.
We’re moving him to the guest room (half the size) and he’s losing half of his stuff. He’s had at least three warnings over the past six months yet he was surprised I was serious and he wanted more chances. Sorry, no. Mom doesn’t play. ESPECIALLY after the events of the day.
Background:
His room is always a disaster. I only ask that every so often it gets picked up so I don’t have to pole vault to walk in—laundry in baskets, legos picked up, etc. But his laundry is from one end to the other (under the bed, in the closet, in toy bins, etc.) and I am tired of getting clean clothes in the dirty laundry. Things get shoved every place imaginable and he can never find anything. Yes I know this is mostly typical kid stuff, but he gives us unbelievable attitude when we ask that he do something as simple as gather laundry. I’ve gone in with him multiple times (as has Grannie) to clean and organize and he always whines and moans and complains…but agrees to keep it clean. We told him when we moved in he got the big room so he had room for him and Katie (and friends) to play but with his room always a mess, no one can play in there. And he won’t pick it up. So he’s been warned multiple times that if he can’t keep it REMOTELY picked up, he will be losing stuff and moving to the smaller guest bedroom.
So…I’ve spent the last two hours in his room just going through and throwing shit away and sorting stuff to keep and give away. He will be starting with a very small selection of books and a handful of Legos and Pokémon cards. If he can keep his room (somewhat) clean, he’ll earn back more.
#HappyF’ingNewYear #WorstNYEyet #NowMyBackHurts #TimeForMargaritas
Owen broke the wall.
The kids were being loud playing upstairs then we heard a really loud THUNK and soon Miss Tattletale was running down to us to tell us Owen put a hole in the wall. Okay, whatever, let me go see.
HOLY SHIT.
Yeah…. He was doing gymnastic front rolls in the tiny hallway space upstairs and managed to kick his heel through the wall.
This was after a stressful morning during which both kids were amazingly annoying.
Breathe. Breathe. Breathe.
These woods are for the birds!!
Uncle Doug and Aunt Marie took all the kids to Hartwick Pines and the kids got to hand-feed the birds! Katie got too freaked out but Owen did it!!
Relaxed Maggie
Maggie spends most of vacation sleeping…either on my lap or a blanket on a chair. (She’s a really good dog and knows to only lay on a blanket on the leather furniture. If the blanket slides off, she will usually lay on it on the floor!)
