Beating the Winter Doldrums...Maybe?

In the winter, I try to do a lot to keep myself busy but really end up doing very little. Last weekend, the hubs and I made a gallery wall in our red room (which is not red, nor had it been for at least 4 years or so, but old habits die hard), and it came out alright despite me kind of flying by the seat of my pants and not making a plan at all. Well, that's not entirely true. My plan was to take pictures I had laying around and put them on the wall. So, success.

Also since the house is still up for sale, there's a ton cleaning and upkeep, besides just picking up the same toys for the 67th time in a day. But I'm trying to keep busy in other, more personally satisfying ways too. Here are a few:
Today is library day at our house, so I'm starting the Modern Mrs. Darcy 2025 Reading Challenge, and I encourage you to check it out as well. It's only 12 books total for the year. Totally do-able, right? There are 12 categories, and you just pick a book from each and read it. You don't have to do it in any order, and there's no book club, and no pressure. I'm psyched about the "Book by a Favorite Author" and "Book You Should Have Read in High School" categories, and not so much for the "Book Your Mom Loves" one...yeah, we have markedly different tastes, and our interests really no not intersect at all. Any time either of us has recommended a book to the other, we've both kind of regretted it. That said, January is almost done, so I'm a bit behind and I'm excited to go to the library and get started!
I'm also participating in Sarah Mae's 31 Days to Clean, cuz to be honest? The abode could use a little boost this time of year, and so could my spirits. It always helps me when I can look around and not feel like I'm living in the basement of a junk store. So I'm following her steps and hoping that at the end, I have a more comfortable space for everyone. Yesterday I started in the kitchen and today? I need to clean the fridge and the microwave. Just to let you know an embarrassing truth about myself: I store all kinds of crap in my microwave. We so rarely use it to just nuke anything, but I am forever putting open bags of popcorn and other junk in it. See?

Right now there's a bunch of leftover candy canes and Christmas stocking candy in a Halloween candy bin, because obviously that's how I do. Oh, and hot sauce popcorn. And a tin full of Hershey kisses, and about a thousand ring pops (why are ring pops so popular for little kids at Christmas? They drive me nuts). I'm embarrassed, but I'm so much more embarrassed of what the inside of my fridge looks like that I'm not even going to show it to you. It's that bad. I've got my work cut out for me!
Also, I'm trying to get out and walk or run a little more every day. Has it been working? NO. But do I feel better when I do it? Oh hell yes.
What do you do when it feels like winter is never going to end (and you're not even halfway through)? Help a sister out!

What I've Been Doing Lately, and What I HAVEN'T been doing...

So you obviously already know that I haven't been posting...so what else haven't I been doing? Here's a non-exhaustive list:

• running
• Jazzercising
• blogging
• reading
• baking
• sleeping (for the most part until very recently)
• dieting

And here, dear readers, are the things I have been doing:

• hiking a TON, and trail running some
• prepping the house for showings, yes again
• hanging out with the kiddos
• camping
• travelling
• enjoying October, my absolute favorite month
• starting to get some sleep (when Cua sleeps)
• catching up on fall TV shows...in the near future, expect super-nerdy and comic book-y reviews/critiques of Gotham and The Walking Dead, among others

So I haven't hit a ton of goals this year. I haven't really been editing, writing, blogging, crafting, baking, recipe-making, working towards my half-marathon, losing weight, or anything super-productive like that. I've been learning to take it slow with the kids after a very long time of not taking it slow at all and you know what? I like this pace in this season of my life. It just feels right.
You'll hear from me a little more now, because I feel like I finally found that balance I've been looking for for so long and maybe I can handle it a little better now! Hope you're enjoying your fall!

Life: An Adventurous Few Months

Hi all! Bet you didn't think I'd be back, like, ever. It's been a crazy few months. I know that having a new baby is a big adjustment, but I was not expecting this caliber of crazy. Stenni was a terrible eater but a great sleeper. Cuatro? A great eater (well, sometimes too good...I can't possibly nurse him enough), and probably because he's such a good eater and wants at it round the clock, not such a wonderful sleeper. So our household, which was used to a bare minimum of a solid 8 hours of lights-out, lock-down, quiet time awesome sleep, has really taken a hit, this mama especially. I feel like my immune system's really taken a hit by the lack of sleep and the total lack of sunshine, and I've been sick off and on since the end of November, which kind of sucks when you're already a little beat as it is. We've gotten a ton of snow this year (y'know, being in the northeast and all) and winter feels never-ending, and there's really nowhere to get out and exercise, which is kind of another bummer especially in regards to the rapidly-approaching half-marathon I had planned to run at the end of April. All of these things are kind of tricky, but right now it feels like there is enough sweetness in my house to last me right through til all of this ridiculous snow melts and the sun comes back again (which I suspect will be some time around June).
I will be back very soon with the most delicious tea bread recipe that I've ever tasted, some fitness goals and updates, and a post about doing things that scare you, just because you can ( hint/teaser: I'm doing one of them tomorrow and I'm terrified/super-psyched).

Kiddos, cuddling. Is there anything sweeter than siblings who still get along?

Cooperstown...once again

Hubs took me on a long weekend in Cooperstown this past week for a belated birthday/Memorial Day celebration/much-needed rest. The trip included several strolls around town, super-competitive mini-golf, lengthy mud hikes, a little wiffle ball, and a few nights in which I got 12+ hours of sleep without even realizing it (for real, I totally did need it). Oh, and a few episodes of the new season on Arrested Development streamed and watched in bed on my iPhone. More on that another time. Now, for the highlights:

Hubs and I in obligatory iPhone self-portrait.

Council Rock Park, where Lake Otsego ends and the Susquehanna River begins. My favorite quiet romantic spot in the whole town, and also where I usually eat breakfast.

Another view of Lake Otsego (also known as Glimmerglass to those familiar with James Fenimore Cooper's Leatherstocking Tales)

Doubleday Field. Unfortunately, there were no games going on at this time (there was one the day before), but we did hang out there and eat breakfast one day to just admire the scenery. It's a beautiful, old-fashioned park, built in the days of the WPA!

Hubs and his pastry. He waved once he realized that I was taking pictures of him.

Another view of the park. Did you know that they shot some of the scenes from A League of Their Own here? I think I've told you that before.

Creepy fog near High Point State Park on the way home. It was a long, rainy drive back.

One of those days...

Today is just one of those days where I have to ask myself, why is it not a valid life choice to sit around watching 30 Rock and eating Handi-Snacks all day? I can handle all that. It's about on my level.
Is it better for me to take a baby step up and make myself a microwave lunch and research graphic novels on the internet without putting them on hold at the library, knowing that although I want to read them I'll totally forget about them later (I'm looking at you, The Tragical Comedy or Comical Tragedy of Mr. Punch by Neil Gaiman)? No, probably not.
So how is it that I will get myself together and win my battle against the pile of dishes from last night's dinner?
How am I going to get down to the basement and finish the never-ending pile of laundry?
How will I get the floors cleaned and the dog walked and dinner made and the bedroom picked up and the desk straightened up and the baby's room spring cleaned and my seasonal clothes put away?
The truth is, I probably won't do half of it.
And that's my secret. 
If I get the dishes done, the beds made, the floor swept and the dog walked, that's enough for me (some days). Everything else? It can wait. As long as I keep up on the big stuff in the main part of the house, as long as the kitchen table and counters stay pretty clear and the clutter is kept under control and the bathroom is clean, and as long as we all have clean-ish clothes and we aren't starving, I can have my slacking days when I just don't feel like I can do much else. (Like I can have my Handi-Snack days as long as I mostly keep up on my exercise regimen. No need to be extreme.)
Listen, there's no such thing as superwoman, except in the comic books. I certainly don't consider myself super-anything (except maybe super-awesome). So some days, I just need to give myself the license not to try to be her.
As long as it doesn't turn into everyday, it's necessary and healthy to give the routine a rest once in a while. It won't hurt anything in the long run, and these chances to slack off honestly don't come around often. So I'm taking this opportunity to chill out.

FOOOOOD, glorious food (that I'm too lazy to make)

I am having some food-related issues lately. Like as in I'd like to eat everything but I don't really feel like cooking. Baking, maybe, but I can't live on muffins and sourdough bread. Well I could, but it wouldn't be pretty and I'd also have to start living in my yoga pants.

In trying to "research" and help myself, I decided to seek out a few new recipes to shake it up a bit. So here are some food-related tidbits for y'all: 

Here's a list of 50-something healthy meals you can make in less than 15 minutes. Totally beats crappy canned soup.

If you're feeling adventurous, why not try these cauliflower pizza bites?



Do you know about Joy the Baker? Because you totally should. Her blog is always in inspiration to try new recipes! I have made several of her recipes throughout the past year and all have been super incredibly delicious, I promise. Plus I have a huge girl crush on her.

Speaking of girl crushes, one of my BFFLs and I are going to try something new on this blog. She is of Middle Eastern descent and sometimes asks for a few pointers on preparing non-Middle Eastern recipes. Since she lives like an hour away and I only get to see her about once a month (and when we do get together we usually focus on hookahs, celebrity gossip and truth-or-dare without any dares and totally don't want to fixate on cooking), we are going to try to arrange bloggy cooking tutorials for a few recipes. We will be starting this month!

So after all that "research" I still need to go figure out what I'm making for dinner before my hungry hubs walks through the door, which is in about 15 minutes. Wish me luck!

Make this the year of no more resolutions

I loathe resolutions, I do. I understand the idea of a fresh start with a new year, but to be honest, any of us can resolve to do anything we want pretty much whenever we want. New Years is just the time they market it to you the hardest. My hubs always says its silly to start diet-related resolutions until MLK day anyway, since the house is pretty much filled with cake pops and chocolate and all manner of delicious-but-bad-for-you noms until then anyway. And he's pretty much right. But are New Year's resolutions made to fail?
Well, mine are I think. My resolutions generally last until about the week before Valentine's day, if I'm lucky. I think I've read every article on creating attainable goals and making resolutions stick, but if the goals don't have a natural start and end point, I'm liable to give up halfway through. So this year I'm taking a different approach: I'm setting life goals, or creating a "bucket list" of sorts. It's my list of things I'd like to do before I'm too old or my life changes too drastically and I'm no longer physically able. So here is a short list of my "life goals" and a bit of explanation for each. This is by no means an exhaustive list, so I'll add to it from time to time as I can (or as I think of them). Remember, the timeline is my life, not be next week or next year, but these are all things I want to accomplish and I can accomplish.

• I want to run a half marathon. Hubs and I did our first 5k this past Thanksgiving. Then we started some longer runs. Currently I max out at about 6 miles, so of course since a half marathon is more than double that, I've got some work to do. But this is a long term goal. I'd like to plan for one in 2014, which means lots of running in the interim.
• I want to compete in the lumberjack/lumberjill competition. I didn't say win, I just said compete. This year is a research year. I'd like to know a little more about all of the events, and maybe get some practice with a chainsaw, before I compete against anyone. I'm ok with the splitting wedge, but the chainsaw? That's gonna take a while.
• I want to do a polar bear plunge. I just missed the sign-ups for the one in Asbury Park this year, and I was super sad about it. I'd really like to do this in 2013 (it was December 30th this year), because it's been on my to-do list for years and it looks like so much fun! 
• I want to play the harmonica and sing on stage with the hubs. This is tricky since hubs does not currently have a functioning band, and there's a fine line between me drinking enough to have the courage to do these things and well, drinking too much to be good at them. But I can do them at home!
• I want to save more money. Self-explanatory. Who doesn't? I'm currently formulating a plan to do just that.
• I want to read more. And I already read a ton this year. But a lot of it was re-reading things I'd already read, blogs, reading to Stenni, and comic books (which totally count, I know). But I want to read more books that I've never even heard of. I need some recommendations, people!
• Oh, and PS, I'd like to hear from more people who stop by the blog! And since you're reading this, that means you! I'd like to take this blogging thing a bit more seriously this year and I've already got some ideas on that! But more than anything, I'd like to hear from all of you.

How is everyone else handling the resolution thing this year?  Any changes from last year?

all good intentions...

ah, the Christmas season. time for presents and cookies and carolling and blowing out your knee walking down the stairs with a toddler on your hip. wait what? yup.

on sunday, after two days of 5+ mile runs, i thought i was listening to my body. it said, go and get a few beers and about 2 dozen hot wings at the bar while your parents take stenni to santa brunch. so i did. i took it a little easy because my knee was hurting a little but i figured, hey, double digit pavement runs will do that to you, plus my whole body hurt. so monday morning rolled around and i took jazzercise. then i did the same thing tuesday. then i returned some presents at the mall, bought some new ones, and came home. i pulled down the driveway, took stenni and my bags out of the car, and headed for the house.

and then i walked down the steps.

OUCH! then boom.

and now even though i have to go in to jazzercise to work 2 more days this week, and even though i have presents to wrap and cleaning to do and 7 dozen cookies and 12 chocolate babkas to make and a 7 mile run scheduled for saturday, i'm laid up.

moral of the story: listen to your body. for reals. because if you ignore it, it will screw you.

i'll be back soon with some Christmas-related fun, promise!

i'm not really a runner, but...

i thought you could probably use this!  i know i totally could!
i don't really run, but hubs and i have taken up going for a run a few days a week to try to train for a 5k this thanksgiving morning. it's not always fun but i normally feel way better afterwards. sometimes my husband  has to literally drag me out the door, but other times i'm rarin' to go (though after a mile or two i usually want to throw myself off a cliff). i really didn't ever run before, except during what we all called "hell week" for field hockey in high school, which really was like hell because of all of the wind sprints and marathon runs. i remember going through like entire tubs of icy hot and gallons of water. once i gave up on sports i was glad to put that all behind me!
anyway hubs and i are up to about 3.5-4 miles on a good day, and that's totally awesome since i started basically from scratch about 10 weeks ago. but i found this infographic on greatist.com this morning and i wanted to share it:

Get health and fitness tips at Greatist.com


what about you? any runners out there? how do you train, and do you always enjoy it?

from the department of random...

i really, reeeeally want a dress with swans on it. it might sound silly, but i like swans a lot. i'll miss the swans on my lake when we move, which is probably never because we haven't had any bites in forever on the house and i feel like i did something really bad and now i'm stuck here as punishment. we wrote a strongly-worded but professional-sounding letter to our realtor, from whom we had not heard for about a month, asking why our home was listed as "not for sale" on zillow and why she seems to be MIA, and when we can expect to have an open-house of any kind. we obviously have not heard back yet. but back to the dress...it would be silly to buy it now when i have so much stuff to buy/do for stenni's 2nd birthday party! that's right. as of this friday, my little on will be TWO YEARS OLD. we are throwing her a rainbow pool party and giving her the weekend of her young life, including trips to the lake, the shore, land of make believe, and the zoo. i think by next tuesday we will all be ready to collapse into our respective beds for like a month. but i'd rather give her experiences than stuff for a few reasons. the first is that she has too much stuff. the second is that we have too much stuff as a family. the third is that i can't think of anything she really wants or needs that we can actually give her. she's spoiled rotten already.
i want to do a picture post/tutorial later in the week to show you all of our fun rainbow projects in time for the party. maybe i'll finally do it!

I missed the boat on Earth Day

Because we were up in Cooperstown (which was AWESOME, btw. You should check it out if you like beer, wine, baseball, or delicious cheese), I missed Earth Day completely. This is a little troubling for me. I've got to admit, for having a hippie hubby, I've slipped off the earth friendly bandwagon recently. Yes, I still do the normal stuff like recycling everything I can and reusing things for a long time and using eco-friendly non-toxic cleaning products and whatnot, but I know that I'm not doing all I can. I've slipped in recent years. I no longer make my own cleaners. I don't hang my clothes out to dry (this is really because of my fear of the cave crickets in my area, who are huge and gross and crawl inside everything and would give me a heart attack if I found one in my sleeve). We occasionally eat red meat, and haven't had tofu anything in MONTHS. I even leave my computer on when I'm not in the room. I know, I know, that should be punishable by death. But let me tell you what happened, because I think it's a common story.
My kid was born.
Yeah, that did it. Before Stenni came around, I thought I would exclusively breastfeed and cloth diaper. Well, I mostly breastfed, with some pumping and a little bit of formula because the pediatrician really pushed for it at first when Stenni was really little. Cloth diapering? Yeah, not so much. My parents, who watch the baby a lot, wouldn't hear of it, and when she was born I had trouble finding small enough cloth diapers! Then I just gave up, despite knowing how easy it was supposed to be. Maybe I'll try again the next time around.
But there were other places where I gave in when she was born too. My mother-in-law came over with a Costco-sized case of paper towels and a million paper plates (along with pizza and beer, which were obviously appreciated), which had both long been banned from my house. But they just seemed so EASY! They made things tremendously effortless. So I jumped on the paper goods bandwagon, and still haven' t jumped off. We generally use them as kindling when we light fires, which I suppose is repurposing but certainly isn't perfect. I keep depending on these things, especially paper towels, even when I know how easy it would be to stop using them. I admit I've cut back, but they're still haunting my linen closet.
For Earth Day this year, I'm not going to buy paper towels anymore. Not on this trip to the store, and not on the next. And paper plates? Forget them! It takes 2 seconds to wash a dish. It won't kill me. Probably.
However, I can't promise that this effort will continue once the new baby is born and well-meaning in-laws come over with crates full of paper goods.
As an added Earth-Day bonus, me and Stenni are going to bake some banana bread with some old brown bananas that my hubs won't touch. Plus, then I get to eat banana bread. It's a win/win!

my legit good reasons for the lack of posting

actual reasons i haven't been posting:
1. i tried to try out to train to be a jazzercise instructor, but due to my lack of coordination i was not ready. too bad it took me so long to realize that. i wish someone had told me a little earlier...i wasted some valuable spring cleaning time taking extra classes and working on moves in front of a mirror!
2. i have had a sick family. as in the flu, bronchitis, you name it. i think i may have bronchitis, but that takes a backseat to other health issues at the moment.
3. i am pregnant, but i'm not sure if the news is all good. i went for an ultrasound yesterday, and apparently i'm supposed to be 10 weeks along but the tech couldn't find a baby, which should show up at 6 weeks. however, they did find what may either be a cyst or a fertilized egg in my fallopian tube, meaning that it could be an ectopic pregnancy and not at all viable (in fact, if left untreated it could kill me). they're not sure yet though. i went for bloodwork and need to go for more tomorrow. it could just be that i'm not as far along as they thought and that's why they can't see a baby yet. i don't know. i'm hoping and praying that the pregnancy is viable because stenni is already kissing my belly and saying "baby" and "big sister!", but that's really all i can do at this point is hope and pray.
4. i finally made chocolate babka. yes, this does justify my lack of posting because it took all day. was it worth it? yeah, it was. but it'll be one of those things i only make once or twice a year. it was soooo much harder than my regular recipe but so much better too.

all that to say, here's another list of things that i should have been doing instead of posting but haven't:
1. spring cleaning
2. yard work
3. seed starting
4. menu planning

i'll try to be better, i promise (seems i'm always saying this though, huh?)!

the interwebs vs. real life

my posts may become a little more sporadic for a while, for a few reasons. the first is that i'm boring, and have nothing to write about that happens in my real life. as in zip, nada. it's sad, really. plus i'm trying to work a little more reading into my daily routine (i may post about that tomorrow and give you some more reading suggestions). also, and probably most importantly, hubs referred to himself the other day as an "internet widow" and i felt awful about it. i guess i never realized how much time i spent on the computer doing ridiculous things. for each time i pay the bills or manage the banking online or look up some kind of important information, there are other times when i'm playing mah jongg or looking up inane bits of trivia on imdb or doing other useless things that, frankly, are a giant waste of time. i'm going to try to curb these things, but not necessarily cut them out of my life completely. i mean, there will be times when hubs is home and we get into a heated argument over, say, a baseball stat and have to consult the great consultor (the interwebs) lest the argument stretch well into the night.
but what i'm saying is that when my husband is home or the baby is awake, i'm not going to go on the computer if i can help it. some people call it a "media fast" but i just call it an exercise in self-control for a little while until i can make sure i don't go into shock.
you may not see me for a while.

tv makes me lazy

so i was going to rant and rave about how much i loved cooperstown, how i had an anniversary i'll never forget, how we watched a game at doubleday field and went to the baseball hall of fame and hit the beverage trail super hard and while my brewers won i was eating hot wings and drinking beer and having a blast and then the next day we played semi-drunken wiffleball super early in the morning and it was totally, totally awesome...
and i was also going to do a picture/recipes post about how i learned how to make spaghetti squash and it just tastes like squash and kind of resembles bean noodles but i loved it, complete with crappy cell phone pics of all of the steps...
and i was thinking about going on and on about going to atlantic city this coming weekend...
but suffice it to say, i really think that workaholics is super awesome and i don't think that my brain can handle anything else right now.

sorry, so sorry

i haven't posted anything in a while because i had no computer for about a month, after hurricane irene blew through and fried my power source (or something else that sounds similar) in the computer, basically meaning that i couldn't turn it on anymore. i totally dragged my feet on getting it fixed too, because at first, i didn't particularly miss it. then when i finally took it to the shop, the IT guy told me it would take like a week to get the part. That was fine by me, but then when it turned into like three weeks i was about ready to string him up by his ankles and throw rocks at him. still, i didn't miss the computer too much except for the fact that i couldn't check my e-mail or the million blogs i was used to checking all day every day. not having the computer for so long even helped me kick my sims addiction (kind of)! i never realized how much time i wasted on the interwebs! i'm trying to limit for weekday computer usage to like an hour or so so that i can actually return to having a normal life that isn't for lazy people. theoretically.
on a completely unrelated note, i love october for so many reasons but mostly because of the MLB playoffs. they always remind me on when teddy and i got married and how much fun we had in toronto on our honeymoon, running around in the bars and trying to find the playoffs on tv! because of that, we are going to the baseball hall of fame in cooperstown, ny next week for our anniversary and i am SOOOO PSYCHED!!! but right now i can't watch the game because stenni is addicted to yo gabba gabba and despite my feeling that she shouldn't really watch TV since she's a baby, she is being good and quiet and seems happy and i can't argue with that. plus biz markie is on, and that's great. they totally make some good TV shows for babies nowadays. it isn't all barney and that garbage. i LOVE nick jr, probably more than stenni does. plus there are the old standbys like sesame street that all kids love and learn from, and when we get a chance we watch them. I know that "they" say not to let kids under 2 watch TV at all, and i really don't like the idea of using the TV as a babysitter like a lot of people do, but seriously, get real. all babies watch a little TV sometimes. it's a fact of life if you aren't amish. it just is. i still feel guilty about it though! i don't know, does anyone else have the guilt/TV issue?