What I've Been Up To

Knitting, for Babies.
I'm tackling a cable-knit blanket for one baby and will likely duplicate the effort for another. I'm also attempting to crochet flowers for a baby hat in a groovy eggplant and lime green color.

Beets, Roasting.
Wow. Super easy way to get a really good vegetable in you. Scrub 'em, wrap in foil, seal and roast in hot oven for an hour or two, depending on the size of the beets. When they're cool, the skins slip off and you can slice them up to have on hand. Kids won't touch 'em though, no matter how much I promise their pee will be pink. (Leave it to me to try to coax two kids into eating something by telling them what it'll do to their pee.)

Working, Hard.
Yeah, its been kinda crazy. At the end of the day, I go home and collapse.

Allergies, Full Swing.
My sinuses are killing me.

Gardening, Obsesed.
I drove to the garden at the weekend place and removed about 5 inches of leaves, which kept the plants nice and warm this winter. Sadly, some hyacinths are kinda scraggly and too light a green to be viable this spring but there's always next spring, right? I discovered the joy of deer netting, which is currently covering the garden to protect the tender shoots coming up and I have another car load of shrubs and plants to bring up.

Reading.
I'm finally reading the Memory Keeper's Daughter, which is one of those stories that just sucks you in. I can't wait to find out how it ends.

Cooking, In Advance.
I've been cooking a bunch of things on Sunday so weeknight dinners are a snap. It rocks.

Cocktails, Summer Themed.
I'm trying to decide if this year's summer cocktail theme will revolve around a liquor or another ingredient, like fruit (last year it was mango).

Commuting, by Bicycle.
The bike I own was reviewed to be "crap." But it does the job and I'm seeing results and have begun biking with Sophie on the weekends. Last Sunday she learned the hard way that carrying a purse and biking really don't work.

Star Wars, Harry.
It is all the boy talks about.

McHale, Joel.
John and I were planning a trip to go see him perform in June in Atlantic City. Then we found out the room would cost more than double the cost of the tickets so we'll just keep watching The Soup for free on Friday nights.

There's been much going on in my world. For you, too, yes? I hope it is all good.

Work for me and John has been chock full of deadlines, meetings and other assorted craziness. As for the family life...it feels like we spend so little time with the kids lately. Although they seem fine, I thought (hoped) that perhaps they hadn't noticed it as much as we have that we are getting home later in the evenings.

But they have noticed. It isn't manifesting itself negatively or anything like that but I realized on Wednesday, when it was 92 (!) degrees outside and we arrived home early, grilled up some chicken and ate it outside, together, as a family, that the kids were thrilled to have us there. A midweek family dinner is the exception these day, rather than the rule.

The harmony we shared was was short lived, though. Harry, who'd skipped the funeral we had for Sophie's pet hamster last weekend, asked if we could show him the place where we'd buried Pumpkin so he could dig the box up and say his goodbyes, which infuriated Sophie to bits and hey! Wait a minute...maybe that is the negative manifestation I thought wasn't happening!?