Anniversary Pic

Can it be a true anniversary picture if only one person is in it?

Our fourteenth anniversay was this week. We went to North Carolina to visit Robert's family this weekend. They baby-sat and we went to a fancy restaurant in Sylva. We had chocolate martinis and filet mignon while listening to live music -- woo-hoo!

Anyway, here's a picture of me in front of the restaurant.

Thanks, Julie!

You might have noticed I hadn't blogged very much for the past couple months. Then recently I got an e-mail from my buddy Julie, which said (among other things):

Keep on blogging.
(snip)
Your writing is always refreshing and insightful. I still think you
need
to submit your writing to mags. Get a little paying gig on the side.

Well how nice! :)

Actually, years ago I did get paid for my writing several times, and hopefully will again someday. The problem, though, is that researching the market takes more time and energy than the actual writing, and at the moment I'm not up to doing that.

But, Julie has inspired me to catch up and write some stuff here!

Thanks for the encouragement!

Lego Creation

Fortunately I have a husband who will see something like this and take the picture.

If you can't tell, it says "Rachael," with a penguin next to it.

Successful Meal #1

Okay, tonight's dinner was pretty good. Easy, healthy, and fairly well-appreciated, although Rachael, that crazy kid, refuses to eat the chocolate-chip pancakes.

Here it is:

1) Cocoa Chocolate-Chip Pancakes from The Sneaky Chef.

This is much healthier than it sounds. It's sweetened with honey instead of sugar or (God forbid!) corn syrup, and has wheat germ, whole wheat flour, and baby food jars of apple/blueberry combo. It's real good, too! (unless your name is Rachael) The two younger kids will eat it cold like a brownie for a snack too.

2) Morningside Farms "fake bacon."

I think it's soy bacon or something. I actually like it more than real bacon because it's not so greasy. Benjamin calls it "ca-cogs" (hot dogs).

3) Raspberries.

All the kids devour raspberries. Of course their favorite fruit has to be the one that costs a fortune.

Benjamin's Carz

Here are some cute pictures Robert took of Benjamin and his "Carz!"

I'm pretty sure Robert built this car from a model kit he bought at HobbyTown.



Benjamin just loves cars, trucks, and "cool" (construction equipment).
Are all little boys like this? It's so funny, especially after having two girls.

Getting a handle on this meal thing

Okay, I'm determined to do better with handling meals around here. I don't know about you -- maybe there's just something wrong with me -- but between trying to find something that's fairly healthy, fairly quick and easy, and that at least some of the five of us will like, feeding everybody always seems like quite a challenge.

Breakfast is easy. Rachael eats oatmeal with wheat germ, every day, forever and ever, amen. Rebecca has a waffle, or possibly pancakes or a bagel and cream cheese. Benjamin has one or more of the things the girls are having.

But it seems like every day at lunchtime and dinnertime I stand around saying, "Hmm, now what are we going to eat ...?"

And then I think, "Um, haven't we eaten before? What do we normally do at mealtime?"

And the answer, of course, is: Stand around saying, "Hmm, now what are we going to eat ...?"

I should point out that my husband doesn't eat dinner with us, so that makes it more tricky, somehow. Of course, maybe if he did eat with us, it would be even harder, because I'd have one more person and their opinion to worry about.

So ...

Whenever we eat a meal that seems like a success, in some sense of the word, I'm going to post it here, for a few reasons:

1) So that I can remember it;
2) Because someone else may want to try it;
3) To prove that I'm not a totally horrible mother and we do have a decent meal around here every once and a while

Recent Read-Alouds

I've always kinda said that the reason I had kids was so that I'd have an excuse to play with their toys, watch their TV shows, and read their books.

Lately I've been reading more chapter books to the girls (who are ages five and seven).

You already know we read Ramona the Pest a month or two ago. Since then, we've read:

The Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle series (except for Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle's Farm, which we quit halfway through. It had a different illustrator and a completely different feel, and we all thought it was pretty boring.)

Mr. Popper Penguins (which I had never read before)

Charlotte's Web (which we just started yesterday. Of course we will have to watch the movie which means that of course I will cry.)