Get Your Party On...2 Days Left of Chrisapalooza

It's that time of year again...that week long celebration that celebrates the life of my husband.  I'm sure you recall last year's kickoff?  And then the Chrisapalooza party-week itself?  No one does a Palooza party like our friends.

This year's kickoff came in the form of a T-shirt transferred from the poster that was worn last week to the wine tasting to "advertise" the upcoming Chrisapalooza.  The comment most repeated?  "Wow, that looks like Will Ferrell".

Then last night came the gifts:

The items on the left...his.  On the right...mine.  Don't you worry...I don't intend to drink it all in one setting.

There may yet be a few more surprises in the Chrisapalooza birthday week.  You'll have to stay tuned to find out. 

Sweet Child O' Mine

After your sisters postings you came to me asking why I hadn't done a birthday post on you.  It was a fair question.  The simple answer is that I didn't THINK to do this until Beanie's birthday.  The more complicated answer is that I was at a loss as to what to write without making you sound like some type of fictional super hero, which we both know you are not.  Adding to that is the fact that of all 4 of my children, you are the one most like me in so many ways, some good, and some bad and I wasn't sure I was prepared to explore that not just about you but about me.  Yet funny enough you have figured out a way of making the bad ways better.  And isn't that what we hope for for our children.  Let's start with looks.  At a year, it was obvious to me that, yes, you DO look like me, minus the dimple.

At 15, you are everything I wished I had been at 15.  The thing you got from your dad...the metabolism...if I were you I'd thank him EVERY day for it.  You can thank me for the height.  You're welcome.

You and I are both pretty sensitive and we get our feelings hurt easily.  You, at 15, have learned to let it go.  I have not.  Believe me, that learning to let go is a blessing.  I think you are a good judge of character as you have surrounded yourself with smart, goofy, loving friends who love you as you are.  That is a gift.

You amaze me with your ability to come into a group of strangers, whether children or adults, and treat them as if they have been your friends your whole life.

You don't take yourself too seriously.  Nothing is off limits to you and that includes your own mistakes, whether  intended or not.  Embrace that ability to laugh at yourself because it will serve you well your whole life.

You scare me with your ability to make a rational argument, even at a young age.  Yes, at 15, I CAN sometimes say, "because I said so" and YES you must accept that.  But I so admire how you are able to calmly discuss and use logic and facts to make your point.  While I don't think the world needs any more lawyers, if you choose that path, I have NO doubt you will excel.

Lest all think you are some kind of imaginary perfect child, I feel it necessary to inform the masses that, yes, like me, you are a slob.  Sorry sweetie.  This one, I suggest you not so much embrace as try to reform.  Reformation will be not only YOUR friend, but your future roommate's friend as well.

You are also like most teenagers and self absorbed and *I* struggle with this.  How to get you (and your brother and sisters) to think outside of your own little "me" world?  My prayers are that maturity will play a factor there and that I'll be around to see that day.

When we first allowed you a facebook page, I was touched that you tagged me as "the person you can talk to about ANYTHING".  That meant a lot to me because you KNOW that I neither want nor seek your friendship.  You have friends for that role.  I am your mother and as such, it is not my responsibility to tell you what you want to hear.  I am here to help to guide you when you have to make decisions, sometimes life altering ones.  To set boundaries for you because life is full of boundaries and it's best to learn that now.  To show you that yes, there ARE repercussions to your actions and I will NOT insulate you from those.  There will be times when you won't like me and I'm sure there will be times when the feeling is mutual.   The purpose of your friends is to be there and like you.   I have a different purpose.  My purpose is not to have you like me (although, it would be an added bonus).  My purpose is to raise you to be a respectful, responsible, intelligent adult.  To always put your faith in God first, yourself second, your dad and me third. 

I think we're halfway there, Sweet Child O' Mine.  

Happy 15th Birthday!

Weekend Update

Sunday evening and I am POOPED!  Activities abounded.

Friday night we had tickets to the Senior Class fundraiser...Wine and Beer tasting.  We went with friends, and SIL, and met more there.  We started backwards and worked our way around the venue, which made us similar to salmon swimming upstream to spawn, but like the fish, we made it work.  While there were a couple wines that were OK, we actually REALLY enjoyed many of the beers.  I'm thinking #9 (yes, that was the name of the beer) will become our new summer beer.  After we made the rounds, we headed to the Cove for burgers.  At that point, we had to cut the evening short as my middle daughter had her state basketball tournament.  First game?  8am.  Location?  An hour away.  OY!

The husband needed to head north to visit his uncle in the hospital so I got the basketball duty.  Up at 6am...on a Saturday morning.  Yeah me.

So, we're in a double elimination tournament, so we had to lose two games to be out.  OK, this is where the whole parent thing is sorta shot to heck, because, I was SO done with basketball. *aside-was it written in anyone's manual the number of weekends we as parents are required to give up so our children can pursue their athletic abilities?  I didn't think so.  BUT...I was the dutiful parent and went and cheered on my baby and her team.  Game one...WON.  Game two...LOST.  Now had they won both games, they would be done and we'd be looking at game three at...yes, 8am Sunday morning.  But having lost one game that meant there would be a game three on Saturday.  Game three...won.  Which meant game four at?  8am Sunday morning.  Yeah me.  OK...yeah husband.

We got home and I was greeted with 4 huge porterhouses the husband had picked up and plans to have friends over.  Details of that will be up at A Side of Steak but I'll let you know it included ginormous buffalo shrimp, and seared tuna steak and the aforementioned porterhouses.  The oldest daughter went to Beastly and had a sleepover.  Middle daughter (she of the basketball games) had a sleepover birthday party which we had let her know in advance, it was possible that she would not be able to do the sleepover part due to the hour in which she would need to be picked up.  Her brother picked her up at 11pm.  So ending the day with friends, food and a bunch of wine..what more could a girl want.

Sunday arrived with, yes game four.  We played nose goes.  I won.  Husband went.  Game four...lost.  In overtime.  Does silently cheering it being over (even though I wasn't at the game) make me a bad parent?  Yes,  I thought so.  However, this actually fell in well with the plans we made LAST weekend and that was to use a Groupon that was supposed to expire last week but they extended since we couldn't get reservations last week.  We went to Santorinis for brunch.  HOLY BUCKETS was it ever fabulous!  We pub crawled home.  And hot tubbed.  And ordered pizza.  And watched Easy-A with the little girls.

Now, I think there is a pillow with my name on it.

Old Wine and Old Friends are Good Provisions

You know that saying that starts out..."The best laid plans..."?  Well, that was how yesterday started.  I had purchased a Groupon for Sunday brunch and it was due to expire today.  So, we made plans to have brunch with friends and made arrangements to pick them up after church yesterday.  I printed off the groupon before church and as I was reading it it said "reservations STRONGLY recommended".  OOPS!  So I quickly tried to call before service only to get no answer.  As soon as church was over I tried again only to find that they were completely booked.  NO WAY were we getting in yesterday BUT they agreed to extend the groupon til next week so I made reservations for then.

That left us with plans and no place to go.  OH, we could have found another venue but decided that nothing would be as good as what I could do at home (nor as cheap) so we did brunch at our house especially given that I had everything I needed on hand.  So,  I made breakfast burritos and bloody marys.  BOTH were fabulous.  We had no real plans for the day so we pulled out some games and decided on Yahtzee.  Several games of Yahtzee later, we decided to move the action to the hot tub.

It really was a perfect day for the hot tub.  The temp was perfect...no so hot that we couldn't extend our time in it.  The outside temp wasn't too cold and there was NO wind at all.  

We had to make a quick house run to grab some provisions.

The boy cooked up a huge bowl of ruffalo wings (his version), the husband grilled a couple steaks because, ya know, it's not a weekend without a side of steak and since the unintended goal of the day was to NOT spend money, we made due with the "extras" that were in the freezer(s): 2 ribeyes and a strip steak.  

We opened a bottle of Bogle and the message on the cork was "Old Wine and Old Friends are Good Provisions"  by George Herbert from Outlandish Proverbs 1640.

And all God's people said...AMEN!

Creative Juices

A clever and competent (yes BB...I stole that line) commenter suggested that it doesn't take a rocket scientist to make the typewriter bracelet from my previous post.  And he is absolutely correct, given that yesterday I received the additional link to the bracelet that I added all by myself with the aid of a pair of needle nose pliers thus making the bracelet fit as it is intended.  Anyway, it got me thinking about all the avenues for my creativity (or lack thereof) that I have invested in over the years and have brought me...well...naught.

First, the Creative Memories/Scrapbooking.  While I have not really given up on this endeavor, I have found that it is really so much easier to do scrapbooking digitally.  The problem is...I have massive quantities of pictures that I would be required to scan in order to do so.  Over the years I have downloaded BOATLOADS of free kits (FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY), paired with Photo Shop Elements, I have the tools available to do this.  BUT...during the years immediately prior to the "downloading" years, I also bought massive quantities of traditional scrapbooking supplies, including albums (most of which are still shrink wrapped), paper (GALORE), special pens, stickers, etc...all I need is the, um, incentive.  And a direction.

I was at Once Upon a Child (a second had children's clothing store) one day and I saw these cute socks that had beads crocheted to the fold over cuff.  And some had these really cute buttons attached on the ankle with ribbon behind them.  My thought?  *I* can do that.  So I went to Michaels and used my weekly 40% off coupon to buy big bins of tri-beads.  Which meant that I had to separate the beads into individual colors.  Then I had to buy crochet thread and a needle small enough to be able to fit through the hole in each bead.  And the ribbon.  And THEN the buttons.  HOLY HANNAH...do you know what  those buttons cost?  I have pairs of buttons (STILL) that cost from $2-3.50.  Maybe 25 pairs of these. Here's what's in my abandoned  "sock" bag...not including the various spools of ribbon OR crochet thread:

Then, there was the "Stampin' Up" craze.  My SIL introduced me to this new edge for my creativity and linked it to the scrapbooking thing and you know how well THAT has worked for me.  Actually, I can't blame her for that.  It's my fault.  I am a sucker for "free".  And we all know nothing is ever "free".  So, I now have a full set of all the stamp pads and probably 30 sets (ranging from small to large) of rubber stamps.  Maybe 40% have not even been attached to the wood block.  So the question I know that's burning in your mind is..."So, how's that workin' out for ya?"  Ahem.

And let's not forget the purses.  My SIL (yes the same one) managed to obtain a pattern for these cool bucket purses, made with coordinating materials (most were an upholstery grade fabric).  She originally trimmed the edge of the purses with maribou feathers.  Here is where we parted.  I am SO not a "feather" person (much to my husband's dismay...I think ALL men secretly wish there were more "feathers" in their wives lives) and I suggested that maybe she switch up the trim and use beads.  I started scouting out Michaels and JoAnns and yes, even Walmart for bead trim...for HER to make.  Then I decided, just make them yourself.  Ever helpful, SIL showed me how to go about making them and I did.  As you can see from above, I'm not one to dip my toe in the water but rather to go flying in cannon-ball style.  I spent several afternoons cutting out 6x6 in squares and 6x10 in squares and muslin (these purses were LINED!) and fold over cuffs and straps...and then thought...WHY AM I DOING THIS?  I had no market for them.  Back in grade school, this would be called busy work.  4 kids and I'm not busy enough?  Here was my favorite one:

Ironically, I now limit my "creative juices" to the one thing that I never thought I would ever do...write.  Well, write and cook.  Either way, it is so much less expensive than previous endeavors.

"Shift" Happens

Monday was Valentine's Day.  And it turned out to be a wonderful day indeed.  My husband texted me earlier in the day to ask if I would like  to go out to sushi to celebrate.  While I love sushi and it's been ages since we had it, I also knew that I had some running to do in the evening so I suggested making shrimp scampi instead.  Since my husband's favorite dessert is a banana cream pie, I surprised him with that for dessert.  We don't typically make a big deal out of these kinds of holidays, as I am usually content with a card (and on my part, I am usually running out THAT day to pick up said cards), so I considered that in using my time and talent for his enjoyment, the pie was my gift to him.  Yes...I'm lame.

Much to my amazement, my husband surprised me.  In a couple different ways.  First, a couple months ago, I showed him a bracelet I found on etsy that was pretty funny.  He went in search of it on ebay and found it and gifted me with it for Valentine's Day. Behold:

It is a bracelet, made from old typewriter keys that says "SHIFT"HAPPENS. (using the shift key).  And, for me, it holds bittersweet irony.

Bittersweet because of how I became aware that jewelry was made from typewriter keys.
Irony because of the words and who made me aware of this type of jewelry.  So, my wearing the bracelet will be a little like wearing a hair shirt.

And you know what?  I'm OK with that.  Because I love the bracelet.  And I love my husband more for getting me something I would never have gotten myself.  And for listening to me.  And for making me smile.

Yes indeed..."SHIFT HAPPENS".

The Doldrums

The winter doldrums have hit here.  HARD.  I can usually make it through February if I know I have something to look forward to.  Like a trip to Mexico, or someplace warm.  Just anticipating it gives me the fortitude to make it through these subzero temps in Minnesota in February.  But we went last year and our name is not Rockefeller so there will be no warm escape this year.

And, as if to add insult to injury, I managed to pick up a cold post girls weekend which while not being debilitating has left me completely drained of energy.  I have retreated into bear mode and just want to hibernate the rest of the winter away.

Unfortunately, four active children prevent me from indulging in self pity, so I do what I normally do.  I cook.  I was inspired a bit yesterday when I watched Julie and Julia.  Although I do not have any of Julia Child's cookbooks, I do remember watching her on TV eons ago.  Maybe someday I'll try Julia's recipe for Beef Bourguignon, but yesterday I was running short of time so I went with my own made up version:  "Beef Stew with all the leftover wine from the previous week".   Yes, ok...I'm going to work on the title.

The other impetuous that spurred me on was a gift I received from my sister for Christmas:  a 9 Qt oval sunshine yellow Le Creuset dutch oven.   Oh, yes.  Mine IS bigger than Julia's.
altogether now...That's what she said.

My sister purposefully got me this size so that I can feed my tribe and still lift the pan.  She briefly considered the 13 Qt before realizing that I would have to have a fork lift to lift it out of the oven.  Wise decision.

I washed up the pot and braised my flour and spice coated chuck pieces, removing them as they browned.  When the last of the meat was in, I returned the meat, added a cut up onion and about 2 cups of Cab (and Sangiovese) and a qt of beef stock, two bay leaves and some fresh thyme, covered and let simmer for about an hour.  I then added about 1.5 lbs quartered red and white baby potatoes, about 1 cup of baby carrots, about a cup of sliced celery and let simmer about another hour or so.  I added some sliced mushrooms at the end and let them cook down and served it with a nice crusty loaf of bread.

And for some reason unbeknownst to me, although I think it harkens back to my high school days where certain lunches were always paired with certain desserts, I always make brownies when I make beef stew.  So that we are clear, brownies are always made using Bakers Unsweetened Chocolate and the recipe on the box for One Bowl Brownies.  I use walnuts instead of pecans, and because, my kids are not especially fond of nuts, I tempt them by adding chocolate chips to them, but really they are more than chocolaty enough without them.

As the brownies were cooling I suddenly remembered reading something about how to cut brownies without them ripping to shreds.  I binged "how to cut brownies" and sure enough there is a method to cutting brownies!  Who knew?  The key?  Cut them while they are still warm AND with a plastic knife.  Now, my knife was not sturdy enough to cut through the crunchy edge, but it slid nicely through the rest of the brownie, slicing them evenly without crumbling.


That's how we handle the doldrums in Minnesota.