Month: April 2010

There’s nothing like a party to inspire some spring cleaning, and I’ve been trying to declutter while I’m at it. I have a stack of books I plan to list on Paperback Swap, and another to donate to the library. Once upon a time I thought it was better to sell used books, but for the price… unless it’s a rare book I find it’s more convenient to do something else.

So tomorrow is the big day, and we’re pretty much all set. I have to make macaroni & cheese and a salad in the morning, but goodness knows I’ll be up early enough where that won’t be a problem. The weather is supposed to be very warm, so I plan on having everyone eat on the deck. The kids will all enjoy running around and playing on the swings, so that will work out great! Let’s just hope everything else falls into place.

It seems as though I have Saturday’s party pretty well under wraps. There are just a couple last-minute items to pick up tomorrow. I also need to do a quick-tidy of the house and do some food prep. Then I’ll move onto the next party: Laura’s first birthday! I can’t believe it’s just about a month away. It doesn’t seem that long ago that I was getting my spinal and having a pulse oximeter placed on my finger before the c-section. (I’m glad I will never have to go through that again.)

I bought invitations a while ago, but now I can’t remember where I put them. I am also still undecided about the cake. Do I make it? Do I buy it? Honestly, I’m not the most fantastic baker. I’m probably better off ordering a cake, but we’ll see. In the meantime I need to figure out a gift for her and find a cute birthday outfit 🙂

Check out this pileated woodpecker outside my kitchen window today. It’s definitely the largest I’ve seen. He was working at that stump for quite some time.

I will be so glad when this week is over. Jake’s first Communion is on Saturday and everything is annoying me. Today the students had a retreat. Yes, that’s right. On a Tuesday afternoon. And no, they don’t go to Catholic school. So I had to write a note to pull Jake out for something that, in my opinion, would have been better suited to a Saturday morning or afternoon.

When we picked up our kids we got a note with very specific instructions for the day. Girls are not to wear gloves or carry purses (common with girls’ dresses). Children are not allowed to carry prayer books or rosaries. And they are not allowed to carry flowers. Now, I ordered a boutonniere for Jake’s suit. If someone tells me he has to take it off, I can’t even begin to tell you how I’m going to lose it.  It’s not something to be carried; it’ll be pinned onto his lapel. Let’s hope this doesn’t present an issue.

I also have to laugh over the issue of the tickets. There are only like 10 or 12 kids making their first Communion this year, so apparently the number of tickets each family gets is large compared to previous years. I’ve never known a church to give out tickets for an event such as this to begin with, but hey – whatever. But when I checked out the tickets, I had to laugh. They are each embossed with the church’s seal, as if counterfeit tickets are going to be hot on the Rhinebeck streets. “Oh, yeah — I’ll take two for the side, a whippet, and can you throw in some human growth hormone too?” Seriously, people.

I just remind myself that I’ve made it this far and there’s only a couple days left to go.

Ha! I just had to share this. One of the sites I write for has a lot of “how to” articles. I’ve written on things like “How to add Twitter updates to your website” and “How to flavor olive oil for dipping.” There are a lot of really bad topics, though. This one is right up there: “How to pop blackheads.” Ewww!

First of all, popping pimples is a big no-no and a good way to get an infection. If someone really wants to look for blackheads treatment, squeezing is not the way the way to go. I wonder if anyone actually wrote that article up. I can only imagine the photo they chose to go with it, LOL!

I gained a few pounds on our vacation at the beginning of March and I’ve been trying to whittle them off, as well as those last few pounds that are keeping me from my goal weight. And while the scale hasn’t really tilted heavily the way I want it to (a little, but it could go down a little more, a little faster – heh), seems I must be doing something right because I bought new jeans on Friday, and they are a size smaller than I’ve bought in a long time! Oddly enough, I also had to buy the “short” length because the “medium” length was really long! Anyway, I’m just happy for my progress. I’m lucky I don’t need to rely on weight loss products to get there. I know how hard it is to lose weight, especially when you can’t easily make time to put yourself first and work out like we all know we should.

Well, I think I pulled off a successful birthday for my husband today. For dinner I made (his choice) hot & sour soup and a copycat version of P.F. Chang’s lettuce wraps. I’d never made the lettuce wraps before but they came out really good and I know I’ll be making them again. Truthfully, it’s been so long since I last had them (and I think the one time I had lettuce wraps at P.F. Chang’s they were actually the vegetarian ones), so I can’t vouch for how close they resemble the restaurant dish. But with some tweaking to the recipe I used, I think I stumbled onto a good thing. I positioned them as “Asian tacos” to get the boys to try them. Noah wouldn’t eat it, but Jake thought they were pretty good. Progress. For dessert I bought a chocolate crunch cake from Holy Cow, a local ice cream shop in Red Hook. Oh, the deliciousness! We all enjoyed it. I expect Drew and I to enjoy another slice after the kids are in bed 😉

The weather was beautiful today and if it were just slightly warmer we could have eaten on the deck. Speaking of which I would really like to spruce it up before Jake’s first Communion. I need to clean our patio cushions and get my planters going. While the idea of outdoor rugs is appealing, I wonder just how weatherproof they really are. And I don’t need to go crazy here. Just some pansies or petunias will make a big difference.

I think tonight we’ll just hang out. I am exhausted this week for some reason. I think an evening vegging out with a movie sounds pretty good.