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So lovelies, How are you gearing up for Christmas, if you celebrate it? With food on the brain, of course. Let’s pretend you don’t need my last-minute shopping gift guide and you’re simply contemplating your table spread. Here we are at Week Eats, my weekly comment in linkup food planning for those of us who are terrible at it. So comment with your food ideas or link to your blog with the link below. Thanks in advance for all your suggestions. You’re changing our lives! For your perusal: the first week when I had lots of pictures. The second week when you had lots of ideas. The third week when I was out of steam and you guys saved the bacon // dinner. The fourth week which doubled as THANKSGIVING PREP! The fifth week when I had high hopes for a few of these recipes. Don’t ask me why this is volume 7. I just follow the numbers. I’m planning for a really stellar Christmas Day dinner, with a light spread to be eaten over the course of Christmas Eve (when we open gifts), sprinkling in lots of semi-healthy treats and a few dishes because most of my family is in town and we have lots of folks crammed in the house who need to eat. Monday Chicken, asparagus, & penne. simple, simple. Following this recipe: for Creamy Chicken & Asparagus Pasta. Tuesday Frittata again! This time, from PW’s (that’s Pioneer Woman to you): Sunday Frittata. Sorry it’s on a Tuesday,…
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In light of BabyLoves turning a full 7 months today, going on 18 months practically speaking, we’re running a Freshly Picked Moccasin giveaway!!! The team over there is so lovely and so generous as to send me a pair of my choosing to tell you about, and for one of you lucky folks to make your own selection as well! Check their beautiful site for styles ranging from everything your heart desires for your daughter to everything you ever dreamed of for any bebe. The unique design of these means there’s a hidden elastic band so these cannot come off. I mean, cannot. I mean, the baby who kicks and kicks and the toddler who flails can’t drop them at church under the pew or under the restaurant booth table. No losing shoes. WIN. And the bottom of them feels like leather butter. No exaggeration. Incredibly soft & durable. These are going to survive my baby’s antics, yes indeeeeedie. I selected the AMERICA ones. Above all their fabulous style lines, this one called to me right away. You see, my little brother is in the Army and he’s Godfather to both our boys so for his littlest Godson, of course this was the perfect fit. It also goes great with the festive holiday leggings I just made mr size 18months. And the wool shirt he shares with his pint-sized older sister {{they’re on sale!!}} My brother is the apple of all our eyes, as he’s the youngest of the five and has four older…
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A few months back I posted a pic to my instagram account of BabyLoves chilling in his Go-Pod. People asked what is that? where did you get it? how do you like it? Let me tell you: not only do I love the one I bought a few years back, but I LOVE that the president of KidCo agreed to give one to a lucky one of you. What a nice company! But first, allow me to tell you what it is not and what it is. It’s not an exersaucer that takes up your whole living room and has strobe lights. It’s not a walker (THOSE ARE NOT SAFE!!!). | | >>> see those spindly legs in the background? Not the potty toilet, the black plastic legs. That’s what the bottom of it looks like. There’s even a canvas down there to catch the spit up or other bodily fluids. It is a baby stashing device that also folds up and can be carried along anywhere or stored easily in your closet. Think: sports event chair. Canvas sack et al. Yup, same here. It is soft and comfortable so that they can either bear weight on their legs, or just laze backwards. It does have loops for you to latch a zillion toys to so the baby won’t go insane while you run to the freezer for some gelato. Or do laundry real quick. Or wipe your toddler. My sister originally told me about it years back. I used it sparingly…
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My girlfriend Haley & her husband Daniel wrote another cook book. !!! Raise the roof emoji!!! For a woman (ahem, me) who loves to cook but sucks at finding recipes (except at 4pm that call for defrosted (I didn’t do that step) meat), I couldn’t be more delighted. It’s called MORE FEASTS, as in, it’s their second book and the first one was titled FEASTS! Click over here to take a peeks. They paired up food from the culture of the saint’s feast day. I mean, for an attempting-homeschooler like me this combines geography, religion, history, and multi-culti + dinner time. It’s an all-in-one. I’m especially looking forward to this recipe for Saint Kateri Tekakwitha: Roast Acorn Squash and Wild Rice with Cranberries. She’s a Mohawk Native American Indian who died in her early twenties and is revered as a saint in our tradition. Read more about her life here. Growing up, she was one of our very very favorites and the meal they’ve paired with her is using specific North American particulars that were probably eaten by her tribe at the time (17th century). Being a Minnesotan means that wild rice is native to our lakes & rivers (it’s a form of grass. brace yourself.) We love it and we lurrrrrve roasting squash. YUM! She’s offering this awesome deal: through tonight, December 15th, you can use the code HAPPYFEAST to get 25% off both ebooks. And the original ebook is on sale for $4.99 (from $7.99) through the end of Advent. The…
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I’m still a novice spouse myself, almost six years in. So don’t take anything here as word from on high. In fact, take it with two fistfuls of salt because what you do with your spouse is probably totally different than what I do with mine with respect to this. But given that I have a blog and love to feel like an expert {NOT}, you get my take on this. For the first time in our marriage these past few months, I felt guilty like I was really neglecting my husband. I mean, I kept the kids alive and I talked to him. So that’s good. Right? But him as a person and me as as person were not resonating on the same level. We were like two robotic puppets (now there’s a weird image for you) going through the motions of gathering together our energies and household, but not actually connecting. That’s in part why I wrote my last post about seeking common experiences outside of family life and work life, outside of talking over drinks or snuggling in the bedroom, or for the cosleepers among us, snuggling somewhere other than the bedroom. I thought about this idea of not connecting. Then I thought about vows. Then I thought about how SweetPea thinks vehemently believes one of Santa’s reindeer is named Victim. Then I thought about Grace’s last post about Bash’s talking. Then I thought about how Bridget had her baby, Anders!!! Then I circled back to vows.…
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We realized this the other weekend. We need more than a “date night” in our lives. We need actual time together. Sans kids. Not time when we’re talking over a candlelit coffee or dinner. Not time when we’re having marital intimacy (TMI ALERT!!!!!!!!). Time when we are sharing experiences outside the bounds of parenting. I could go on and on about what this means, or doesn’t mean, or what it could look like, or doesn’t look like, but the simple fact is that shared experiences are what feed a relationship good solid barley kind of meals, not fluffy puffed rice cereal kinda meals. Like when we were dating and we went for runs together. Okay, my husband won state 7, you read that right SEVEN–or was it 12?–times in high school and ran for Notre Dame. He’s a real runner. I jogged alongside him while we were flirtatiously working out in law school. He probably was basically walking and I didn’t even notice. I did once run through a corn field to get back to my burning vegetables in the oven and sliced up my thigh. Prickly brambles on the outer edge: not so sexy to return to the apartment when he was already there stretching with a bleeding thigh. But experiences. Like watching and laughing uproariously to Arrested Development together. Or Parks & Rec. Or something equally not a period piece that I love and want to subject him to. {did you hear Haley & Christy’s podcast dedicated to…
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