7 Quick Takes Friday – June 25, 2010

1. Today is Rosie Girl’s birthday party!  She is having three girls sleeping over.  PWM is next door at his mom’s “cottage” working on writing.  He mentioned something about “estrogen overload” – I have no idea what he’s talking about!!

2. After much wailing and gnashing of teeth (or maybe just redoing the icing and complaining a lot), Rosie Girl’s birthday cake is done.  I made the first batch of icing too thin, so I had to redo it.  Then, the design was too complicated for my skills, so Rosie Girl simplified it for me.  Finally, about an hour ago, I finished it.  Not my best work, but it’s infused with 15 years of love!

3. PWM and I bought a new bed yesterday and it’s being delivered tomorrow!  The bed we’re sleeping on now is the one that we bought from Grandma a few years ago (long story) and we’re giving it back to her since she’s moving next door.  Since we get a new one, we’re getting a queen sized bed again so that I don’t elbow PWM in the back anymore!

4. Wild Man and Grandma are on their way home!  They left California yesterday, but they won’t get back here until the end of next week.  Thankfully, they’ll get to go to most of Family Camp!  And I get my Wild Man back!

5. Mental Floss has a quiz about The Princess Bride today.  PWM scored 90%, I scored 80%, and Rosie Girl scored 70%.  Can you tell that this is one of our favorite movies?

6. I made Paula Deen’s beef stroganoff last night.  It was quite good, but I still prefer the recipe from my Better Homes and Gardens red and white checked cookbook.  It’s a bit more of an annoyance to make since it calls for 2Tbsp of tomato paste and some white wine.  In any case, I chop my mushrooms and onions very fine because I don’t like the texture of mushrooms. 

7. PWM’s book on CurrClick is selling pretty well.  Make sure to check it out – My Favorite Spacecraft!

Go to Conversion Diary to see what others are saying today!

7 Quick Takes Friday

It’s a rainy, icky Friday afternoon here in the Upper Midwest which means it’s time for 7 Quick Takes Friday!

1. We are part of a CSA (community supported agriculture) this year, so in a week or two we will start getting a box of produce from a local farm every week filled with our share of whatever they harvested that week.  I’m excited but nervous at the same time.  I’m not much of a veggie eater, so I’m going to have to/get to try lots of new stuff.  I hear that we get beets early on, so Rosie Girl and I are going to try making borscht.

2. Speaking of veggies, I ate fennel this week.  The first time I had it, we just shaved it on our salads.  I could definitely taste the mild licorice-like flavor to it, but it wasn’t over-powering.  Last night, PWM roasted it in the oven.  Yummy!!

3. I painted my nails this week.  I have no idea why.  I haven’t had painted nails since my third year of medical school because you can’t have polished nails when you are in the operating room and I have been in a position where I could have been called in to emergency surgery from the time I was in third year medical school until I quit working (five years ago).  So, I now have light blue fingernails.

4. Wild Man told me yesterday that I was scaring him.  First I ate a new vegetable and then I painted my nails.  What else am I going to do while he’s gone??

5. We totally LOVE Jungle Jam!!  We used to own a bunch of the CDs, but they have almost all gotten lost or scratched.  I downloaded a new episode tonight and it was as funny as the originals.  Instead of buying new CDs, I’m going to buy the episodes that I want and download them – they’re cheaper that way and we can just burn the episodes we want for driving to camp.  BTW, if you haven’t listened to Jungle Jam, you should download one episode to check it out (they’re only $3.95).  They’re hysterical for kids and adults alike.

6. We got a water softener this week!!  I never thought I’d be so excited about a water softener, but scrubbing the bathtub last week was seriously un-fun.  Not only that, but we’ve been having to clean tons of lime scale from our dishwasher.  I don’t like the taste of the water nearly as much, but we won’t go through nearly as much vinegar now!!

7. Rosie Girl and I played Set together today and she whupped me!!  I love playing Set, but the Topamax I’m taking has slowed my thinking so much that I wasn’t much competition at all for her.  Normally, she and I are pretty equally matched.  Not so right now!

Check out what others are up to at 7 Quick Takes Friday!

Missing Wild Man

Wild Man has been gone on his trip with Grandma now for about 3 weeks, although I’ve only been away from him for 2 weeks.  There are some pros and cons to him being gone.

Pros:

1. It’s really quiet around here.  I love my boy, but he’s a constant source of sound.
2. Less nagging to do.  One less kid means less time I have to spend making sure he does his chores.
3. Less clutter.  Wild Man tends to leave a mess in his wake!
4. He’s learning a lot and having a great time.

Cons:

1. Fewer hugs and less cuddling.  Wild Man is very affectionate and I’m seriously missing my hugs and just cuddling on the sofa.  Rosie Girl is doing her best to make up for it, though.
2. Less silliness.  PWM and Rosie Girl are silly, but Wild Man is often the catalyst to even more silliness.
3. Chores.  The rest of us have to do Wild Man’s chores!  PWM and I split taking out the trash, but I’m looking forward to not having to clean the bathtub anymore.
4. Fun and games.  Wild Man loves to play games.  I rarely initiate the game playing and often have to turn him down because of headaches, but I do love to play games with him.  PWM and Rosie Girl are doing Pokemon and Zelda playing together this summer as their “bonding” activities.

The numbers may be even, but I think the “cons” win out and I MISS MY SON!!  Nonetheless, he said he had a great time at Carlsbad Caverns the other day.  They’re working their way toward Albuquerque right about now.  I love getting to see the pictures and hear all about the day’s activities whenever he calls.  But, I’ll really love seeing him whenever he gets home!

Rosie Girl and I are supposed to work on painting the dining room, but the darn migraines keep messing up my plans.  We did get to bond over my having a serious dizzy spell this morning.  Thankfully, some liquids and some more sleep cleared things up, but she sat beside me till I was better.  What a great kid!!  I may miss my Wild Man, but I’m thankful for my Rosie Girl!

How have you dealt with your children being gone for long periods of time?  Any more survival tips for me?

Our Week In Review – June 5, 2010

And what a week it has been!!  The first week of June is always a little crazy because of dance recital, but there’s been a ton of stuff this week.  So, hang on tight!!

Wild Man went to Tampa with Grams and Grandpa on Sunday.  They all stayed with Grandma on Sunday night and Grams and Grandpa went back to West Palm Beach on Monday, leaving Wild Man and Grandma to get ready for their trip.  And, get ready, they did!!  They got the van ready on Monday so they could leave first thing Tuesday morning.

On Tuesday, they drove to Pensacola so that they could see the Blue Angels perform Wednesday morning and visit the museum afterwards.  Afterwards, they drove on to Mobile, AL.

Thursday was their day to visit the USS Alabama.  In addition, they got to see the submarine and various aircraft that are also there.  And I told Wild Man that he could NOT have a battleship gun in his bedroom when he gets home.

That afternoon, they drove to Slidell, LA.  Of course, if you know Grandma, you would know that she has to stop and take a picture of Wild Man at every state line!!

They spent Thursday night with a friend of Grandma’s in Slidell and then went on to Baton Rouge on Friday.  Last night (Friday), Wild Man and his great uncle sat up and watched the LSU baseball team win their game in extra innings.  Nothing like two die-hard LSU fans.  This morning, they went to the Louisiana state capitol building where Wild Man got to actually see the bullet holes from Huey Long’s assassination.  Talk about making history come alive!!

I think that things are going to slow down a little for a week or so.  I think the next big stop is the Alamo.  That’s OK, though, because Wild Man has had enough excitement to tie him over for quite a while!!

Rosie Girl had her last week of school (homeschool and public school) as well as the week before dance recital this week.  We did finally do the fetal pig dissection.  I did the actual dissection and we did it as a demonstration.  I was pleased to see that Rosie Girl remembered a good bit of the biology that she has learned through the year.  (And in consideration of my non-biologically science inclined readers, I won’t post pictures of the pig.)

Rosie Girl had two finals, but they just watched videos for both of them, because they were for choir and art.  She went to the school picnic on Thursday, got her yearbook, and hung around with her friends for a while as well as getting lots of signatures.  On Friday, she went to her usual classes (2nd and 3rd periods) but then was allowed to spend the rest of the day (it was a short day) going to classes with a friend.  Her friends and teachers are trying to get her to go to public school full-time, but she’s not interested.  She likes taking her two classes and doing everything else on her own schedule.

The dance rehearsals were the real fun and tiring thing for Rosie Girl (and PWM).  She had rehearsal every day this week except Wednesday.  She is dancing with her tap class and she and PWM are doing the Daddy-Daughter dance.  The first two shows were today.  I made it to the first one – Rosie Girl is just amazing at tap!!  And, the rest of the show was wonderful, too.  I am optimistic that my head will cooperate to let me go to the show tomorrow.  Rosie Girl’s best friend from school is also coming and it’s tradition to go out after the recital.

 

I have had some wicked headaches this week, but I’m only mildly bummed out about not being able to mop the kitchen floor!  I got to go see the Milwaukee Public Museum’s Dead Sea Scrolls and the Bible exhibit.  I’ll write a whole post on that day.  A friend and I went together on Thursday and had a wonderful day!!

It’s been a really busy week.  I’m hoping to start painting the dining room next week, but we might just need to take a few days off to breathe!!

Check out Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers to see what others have been up to!!