grrrace’s Neighborhood

Show us the last thing you bought.

Ice Milk Goodness

Yesterday I picked these up and stashed them in our deep freeze.  Today, they are a gift for my husband - it's his birthday!

But another quite recent purchase of a greater magnitude:

Yep!  We're now mini-van folk.  We're quite happy with the deal we got on it, though now we have to sell the Lancer.  (We're quite keen on staying a one-car family.)  We bought it from a used dealership and ended up with a much nicer edition than one we would have initially wanted, but that was ok because it was still in our budget.   I'm loving that there are tinted windows (the sun and heat is really getting to me!)  and there is tonnes of space which we will eventually fill up.  It has lots of 'power' things - doors, windows, seats, etc. which are nice, but I would be ok without.  (It took me way to long to figure out how to move up me seat!)  And for now, it just feels huge after our car, but I'm sure I"ll get over that.  :)

Let's start this off by saying... being a mom is the hardest and most fun job I've ever had.

After having a conversation with someone about my boredom with life and my routine the other day, I decided to shake things up and find something fun for the kids and me to do last night.  You would have thought I suggested pooring hot acid into their eyeballs the way they reacted.

Seriously.

They are use to coming home and going straight to their friends house to play until dinner.  I know it's a right of passage during childhood to do so, but I kinda miss the little rugrats and wanted to do something fun with them.  So I declared Thursday nights as "family night" and they have to hang out with me. 

I suggested Joe's Crab Shack for dinner... then IHOP... then a movie... or go to the pool at the Gym.  Each time it was "Can I bring _____?"  ... they wanted to bring their friends WITH them.  I was trying to explain to them that, no, we needed to do something together as a family.  Actually, Nate was all for it, it was my 6-year-old-going-on-13 that claimed she wasn't leaving the house unless she was allowed to go play with her friends.

Sigh.  Are you kidding me?!?  I am willing to drop a good chunk of change on entertainment and food and you don't want to go?!?  When did I stop being a good enough companion for my kids?  Use to they couldn't wait to go somewhere with me.  They wouldn't let me out of their site for more than 10 minutes.  They couldn't even go to the BATHROOM by themselves.  !!!

So I finally talk them into this restaurant with a huge-tastic sandbox/sand volleyball for playing in and live band on the patio.  We ate dinner, Jenna played volleyball with some other kids... Nate ran from me and tried to bury my car keys in the sand (thank god the electric fob for the doors still works).  I had a martini to keep my sanity.  Yeah, It was fun. 

 

Then they talked me into a movie.  They wanted to go see "The Dark Knight"... but I have heard it's pretty dark and violent, so I nixed that.  We decided on "Mamma Mia".

SUCH FUN! The singing and the dancing kept the kids enthralled, and although there is a bit of adult content, it's vague and vieled enough that it was easy to explain away to the kids (namely Jenna) when she asked some questions about it.  Now we want to buy the soundtrack (and I am not even really an ABBA fan at all, but might be changing my mind now). I totally recommend it... the acting and singing is fantastic and humorous... and did I mention just FUN?!

The downside was on the way out.  I am having HUGE (and I mean SERIOUS) issues with Nate running from me in public... he's fine at home, but get him in a restaurant, store, movie theater and he thinks is HILLARIOUS to run from me. The ONLY thing that works to calm him down and show him the seriousness of the amount of trouble he is in is to spank him. I swear to GOD one of these days he is going to get run over or stolen. I scares the crap outta me.

So last night we are at the movie theater, he had been really good until we went to leave, he TAKES OFF... so far ahead of me in the crowd that by the time we get to the lobby, I can't find him. My heart is hammering. I am scared and mad and embarrassed.

I am that frantic mom you see in public, oblivious to the stares, yelling for her child to come here.  RIGHT.  THIS.  MINUTE.  Then counting to  one... Two... THREE... feeling my bloodpressure rise with each number uttered. 

I finally find him OUTSIDE, by himself, without me, laughing through the glass door at me - as I am frantically looking and calling for him.

I was sooooo MAD. I gripped his little hand and stomped back to the car with him. I wanted to spank him soooo bad, cause he was still laughing at me, but was AFRAID to spank my own child because so many people were around and we live in the kind of nieghborhood that I would certainly be turned into CPS for doing such a thing.  People don't spank their kids here.  They spoil them to the point of ridiculousness.

But then that meant, by the time we got home, the situation is so long gone that a punishment is less effective. He still got a time out, but really could have cared less at that point. Time out does nothing for him.  I was just so frustrated at the situation. And don't get me wrong... I HATE spanking him, but it's the ONLY thing that makes him stop laughing at me and take me seriously. He has ZERO respect for my authority.  He doesn't listen.  Everything I say is a big joke.  I don't know what to do with him.  It totally ruined the fun of the night for me because of his behavior. 

We have an appointment next week to have him evaluated for ADHD, not for meds (he's too young for that) but for behavior therapy. I am at the end of my rope with him and don't have any more ideas.

So moral of the story:  Go see "Mamma Mia", but don't take your kid if he tends to run from you in public.

 

 

I was 17, Todd was 19. (That's no excuse for my backwards baseball hat or Todd's white socks, but still.)

We were at his little sister's soccer game.

His mum took the photo.

We were falling in love.

13 years later I feel fortunate to be able to look at him and think, I got SO lucky.

I HIGHLY recommend this marinade from Trader Joe's. It was so good, I wanted to bathe myself in it and hop on a hot grill.  Okay, not really.  But it was so good my imagination got carried away. :)

Alright – we’re off (very early tomorrow morning) for our summer family tour!  We’re heading back to the East Coast for almost two weeks.  The main reason to go is for the Beloved’s folks’ 50th wedding anniversary – we’re meeting them at one of their favorite places on the “Northern Neck” of Virginia on the Chesapeake Bay.  Should be fun – that’s a part of the Bay I’ve never seen before.

Before that though, we’ve scheduled a brief visit with my brother in NJ and a longer one with my sister in MD (I still haven’t seen her new place that she moved into last Spring, mostly because I didn’t go back for Christmas/New Year’s last year…).   And, of course, we’re going to cram in as many visits with friends as we can get.  Should be hectic (and a lot of driving…), but we want to make the most of it.

We’ll probably have pretty spotty internet contact, so don’t drop me from your neighborhoods because I’m not commenting or posting, or force-quit our scrabulous games because they’ve gone “inactive”.

See you in a couple of weeks!

 

I often receive beets in my CSA box and don't always know just what to do with them. Well, this time the CSA newsletter came with a delectable recipe that I have fallen for head over heels (and I rarely wear heels, so it must be good). Even if you're not a "beet" person, this one might convince you to give beets a chance.

 

From Asparagus to Zucchini

Beets, Oranges (or Peaches) and Raspberry Sauce

1 pound beets, scrubbed

1-2 oranges or peaches ( I used both)

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1/2 tsp. salt

2 tablespoon raspberry vinegar

3 Tablespoon olive oil

1 tsp. grated ginger root - optional ( I used it in mine- yum)

 

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Place beets (in their skins) in a baking dish and cover with foil. Roast beets until tender, about 35-55 minutes, depending on their size. When cool peel and slice thinly, and place them in a bowl.

Peel the oranges (or Peaches) and cut in half. Place flatsides down on cutting board and slice each into about 4 wedges. Remove seeds from oranges. Add to beets.

Make a vinaigrette out of the remaining ingredients: mash garlic with the salt, add vinegar, and whisk in olive oil. Stir in grated ginger root, if using. Toss beets and oranges (or peaches). You can serve this immediately, but it is best if allowed to chill and mellow.

 

 

 

If you have kids, you must get these two:

Even if you don't have kids, get them. Seriously. Cutest books I've ever seen.

In the next day or two, I hereby solemnly promise to blog about the following:

1. My new house (I took photos, but some turned out blurry. I'll see if I can take some more this evening).
2. The second half of my trip to Chicago.
3. My "angry dreams."

But first...

It's been a while since I posted some book reviews. But I'm feeling really lazy as the list gets longer and longer, so here is a quick synopsis of what I've been feeding my brain:

 

Born on a Blue Day by Daniel Tammet was the fascinating story of an autistic savant who clearly maps out what its like to live with his condition. My Rating: 8 out of 10 for being really interesting. The man can recite 22,512 digits of pi for goodness sake! I can't get past 3.14...

 

Bertie Wooster Sees It Through by PG Wodehouse is another fun romp by the incomparable Wooster and Jeeves, this time at Aunt Dahlia's house. When Wooster and Dahlia get together, it's pure hilarious magic! My Rating: 8 out of 10 for being such a good diversion from life. I want to live in a Wodehouse novel! 

 

I listened to the audio version of this book -- the Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff -- and really wish I'd read it instead. It's the story of a girl who comes home looking for answers, and it is interwoven the stories of her ancestors. The main character, Willie, came off as whiny and immature. Grow up! But I did enjoy the stories of her family. My Rating: 6 out of 10, but that might be higher were I to read the paper version.

 

Agnes Grey by Anne Brontë -- the lesser-known Brontë -- was the story of a young woman who becomes a governess to help out her family, which is in financial dire straits. My Rating: 7 out of 10 for making me wish Anne was more prolific -- her writing was lovely. As a side note, the book could be renamed The Nanny Diaries: Kids Were Brats in 1847 Too.

 

Jasper Fforde's fifth book in his Thursday Next series is First Among Sequels. It's been several years since I finished the fourth book, so it took me a while to get back into his crazy literary world. My Rating: 6 out of 10 for being a little flat and harder to follow than the first four books.

 

I read Joan Didion's the Year of Magical Thinking for my June book club. I felt the retelling of her husband's death and her daughter's illness was very clinical and not emotional enough. But I can understand that's how she experienced it all. My Rating: 5 out of 10 because I was annoyed that she sort of named dropped. In random news, my old apartment was a block away from her childhood mansion (which was for sale for 1.2 million dollars, if you're interested).

  

In Notes from a Small Island Bill Bryson travels around England, Scotland, and Wales, complaining about the weather, hating modern architecture, but altogether loving Britain. My Rating: 7 out of 10 for being pretty funny, but somewhat competitive and a wee bit whiny.

 

The Gathering by Anne Enright was De. Press. Ing. It was my July book club book, and it was only for the book club that I finished the thing. It featured light-hearted subjects such as suicide, child molestation, alcoholism, child neglect, sexual repression, near-infanticide, attempted murder, affairs, deranged anger, and running away from your problems. Woo! My Rating: 5 out of 10 for being way too dark for my taste, although Enright's writing was very good. But it doesn't matter how good the writing is if I want to gnaw my own arm off while reading it.

The Scene: Grocery store check-out line.

Unknown Woman in Line: [leaning over and rubbing Sister's belly] So how far along are you?

Sister: [leans over and rubs Unknown Woman's not-pregnant belly] Oh, about 5 months?

Unknown Woman: [jumps back, startled that Sister touched her.]

End Scene.

Well, no kidding.  The rules of personal space shouldn't change just because a woman is pregnant!  I'm so proud of my sister.  :)

(I'm proud of you, too, Logan!)