The aging...it's happening quickly

Tonight was the moving up meeting for Lower Elementary to Upper Elementary.  Yes, it's 8 months away - but the opportunity to hear what the next 3 years will be like will help us navigate and focus Arden toward getting ready for the intensity that is Upper Elementary for the remainder of this school year.

And over the summer -- she gets a summer reading list this year!

I am immeasurably impressed by what we learned tonight.  This is definitely not the Montessori school of my childhood - the expectations are much higher, and for that I think Dora and I are both glad.  Arden might disagree ... that remains to be seen.  Although she's working on a project with Upper Elementary already and is pretty obsessed with how awesome it is.  Geothermal energy for the win!

Just about 4 years ago to the day we toured the school for the first time, contemplating starting her for Kindergarten. 

Seriously.  Look at her.  Oh Gymboree, how I miss being allowed to shop in your store.  

We opted to keep her at her daycare for Kindergarten, a decision I think we might regret, but the past is the past.  So she started a year later, in Lower Elementary.  And the third graders in her class seemed so old.  And the 4th graders even older.  And now she's a third grader just a blink away from moving on up.

It is insane.

Days January 20 and 21 on the Gay Agenda

Well, I made it to mid-January for posting on a daily basis.  That's some sort of record for me.  I haven't blogged the last few days.  I tried to do it from my phone but couldn't figure out how to upload photos so gave up.  I've been leaving the laptop closed in recent days because I am knee deep in this:

                                        

In case you can't read microscopic words, it's Sue Monk Kidd's The Invention of Wings. Someday I will pick less intense books.  I am wholly sucked in with about 200 pages left to read.  Almost time to figure out what's next.

Anyhoo, the rest of our long weekend involved hockey and downtime. 

Arden is officially the UNH Lady Wildcats' biggest fan.  We went up again on Sunday and brought two of her friends.  

                                              

She spends a fair amount of time on her feet during these games.  She's just so into it.  It's hilarious.  And yes she wants to play.  And yes we're contemplating.  And by we I mean me, because Dora already said she will not be driving to 5AM practices.

                                     

Toward the end of the game, her buddy C was the lucky recipient of a puck that went over the glass.  All three kids decided to relocate after that happened because Arden and and R decided they too needed pucks -- and they'd just go catch their own.

Of note, they didn't catch them.  But I have a feeling this is where she will want to sit from now on.  Time to get a face mask.

All three kids had a grand old time, and C and R have asked if I'll just swing by to pick them up for the rest of the season's games.  Guess that's a good sign.  I'll probably have to promise not to overindulge them every time as I did this time -- too many treats for anyone's good. But once in awhile it's fun to be that mom.

Monday was MLK Day.  Arden and I were both home - Dora had to work.  We had a much needed lazy day.  There was a lot of iPad time and we didn't get out of our pjs.

I was semi-productive in getting us ready for the week, baking these for A's snacks Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Muffins.  They're made with applesauce and were a shockingly big hit.

I also experimented with the crock pot - trying to come up with new and different ways to finish off the pork in the freezer before our new pig arrives in a month.  The jury is still out on what I made.  I think the recipe was short on flavor.  That said - the crock pot is obviously the world's best only way to make pork chops.  They were so soft - and that meat is typically just so tough. 

Experimenting again tonight with my tried and true marinade.  We shall see.

So we've had some highs and just some averages the last few days.  And we've spent a lot of time staring out the window.  The sun is alluring.  Until you step outside and it is negative 5. So you go back and sit on the couch and keep staring out the window.  Because spring will be here before we know it.  Right?

Surprise! It's SNOWING. Again.

Arden and I took this creature and her sister to the vet this morning.  Where else would anyone want to be at 8AM on a Saturday?

We drove home in the pouring rain which at some point turned into driving snow.  That lasted for oh...twelve hours.  And counting.

We had plans with friends that we'd all be looking forward to and we almost took a rain check because the roads were a hot mess since the snow took everyone by surprise -- everyone, including every single meteorologist in New England, apparently.  But, we took our chances and made the 15 minute drive to their house.  Sure it took 40ish minutes to get there but it was worth it.  And the scenery was nice.

I thought the trees behind their house were crazy picturesque.  Don't you agree?

The roads were down to pavement on the way home so Dora let me drive.  I'm apparently not to be trusted in snow.  ;)

Easy drive home, the plows are coming by again to get us cleaned up because of our super awesome new mayor.  The plows haven't been by this much in the last 4 years under the criminal mayor.

The kid crawled into bed pretty quickly and was out like a light.  Busy day tomorrow - hopefully she'll sleep past 6AM.

Friday

Friday is my favorite day of the week.  It holds so much promise, don't you think?  Sure, we have work and school but the light that awaits is so bright.  Today's light is particularly bright since it's a three day weekend.  Win.

Dora had a date with her horse ladies tonight so Arden and I were on our own.  We opted for English muffin pizzas and salad.  

Sous Chef and Master Cheese Grater

Gourmet dining!  English muffin pizzas, salad, and wine. (I was recently turned on to Tempranillo as a replacement for my beloved Malbec.)  All the food groups are represented here.  Because wine is made of grapes.

We watched the first Percy Jackson tonight.  It is terrifyingly intense.  Much more so than the second!  Arden loved it and spent a fair amount of time telling me the back story of the different Gods.  I wonder if public school will be impressed the depths of her mythical knowledge should we go that direction some day.  Guess unless it's on an MCAS test that's a no.  

Shelby found the movie terrifying and ended up on top of us.  Cheater.  She's not allowed up with me.

This little creature was wholly invested in the movie and crashed soon after.  Friday night after a long week equals one exhausted child.

I also made cookie batter for our friends' house tomorrow.  

So as you can see, it's been another groundbreaking night on the Gay Agenda.  You really can see why the right-wingers need to take us down, can't you?

The Gold Dude

Today was Oscar nomination day.  Look!  It's Ellen!  And she's hosting again, because the Academy is smart.

I used to be a movie aficionado.  I'd see every Oscar nominated movie -- without fail.  And then Arden happened and my movie watching went to the same place that my 5AM workouts went.

(Yep, totally making excuses.  It's my blog, I can do that.)

I have seen approximately zero of this year's major nominated movies.  I must remedy this. AMC Theaters usually does an Oscar weekend leading up where they play all the films nominated for Best Picture.  Hopefully they'll do that again.  I doubt I'll see all of them but if I have the opportunity in the coming couple of months I will see:

• Captain Phillips (My future husband, Tom Hanks, was robbed by not being nominated for this or Saving Mr. Banks.  Because he is wonderful and no I am not biased.)
• Philomena (It left my theater last weekend, epic fail, Erin.  Hopefully it makes another appearance.)
• 12 Years a Slave
• Her (Looks very, very weird but I've heard is incredibly powerful.)
• Gravity

I have utterly no desire to see The Wolf of Wall Street.

Meryl and Julia (yeah, first name basis) are both nominated for Osage County and I've already got plans to see that this weekend.  

I've already seen what will obviously win Best Original Song and Best Animated Picture three times.  If it doesn't win I will probably sue the Academy.

And I sort of want to have an Oscar party so there will be someone in the house to enjoy it with me since Dora hates all things award shows.  I know, right??

Because in N.E. in January, 43 is a Heatwave

Not only was it almost 50 for a high today, and about 43 when we got home...it was light out until almost 5!  We are inching toward the light, folks.

Arden and I took Shelby for a walk since it was oh-so toasty out.  But really, we have to take advantage of the over 30 degrees days.  She needed the 3 miles and frankly, so did we.

It was a well spent 45ish minutes - even if I had to force myself outside.

She had to finish homework when we got home.  She was wandering around the house looking for her pencil.  Which, apparently, she stuck in our defunct ice maker.  

Naturally.

Do You Want to Build a Snowman?

When I picked Arden up from school today she went dashing off to grab something special someone gave her today.  Her teacher happened to be there late and asked if I had left a little something for Arden in our school mailbox.  I hadn't.

Arden came barreling at me with this ...

She marveled at it.  I marveled at it.  Mrs. O. marveled at it.  It was a hot topic for LE2 today - who is the mystery gifter?

No one will confirm or deny so we will just revel in this blessed state of gratitude.  Our kid, and we, sure are lucky to have you in our lives...whomever you are.

Winter in New England AKA the Death of Fitness

Don't you hate it when your (negative) premonitions come true?

We knew it would be hard to maintain the same level of fitness once winter hit -- and we got back into the normal insane routine of life.  We were totally right.

I asked Santa (are your parents still considered Santa when you're an adult?) for a gift card to REI for Christmas to stock up on cold weather gear and new sneakers.

First things first I got these bad boys .... Salomon XR Mission .  They are like couches for the feet, folks.

And this Jacket- which actually unexpectedly coordinates quite perfectly with the sneakers. The good news is I pretty much glow in the dark now.

I've used them on the (very) few days that the snow and ice have been melted enough to walk without breaking my neck.  Have I mentioned I hate winter in New England?

The good news is at least I'm comfortable when I can get out.

I also got this super handy gadget for Christmas: Fitbit Flex.  It tracks my steps, tracks calories and water in take etc.  It's pretty fantastic.  It also validates my knowledge that I am a seriously crappy sleeper in my old age.

This week involves me going down to the gym and joining it - got to have something regular until this winter ends.  Because fitness is awesome and makes me a much, much nicer person.  Just ask my wife.

Videos of the Weekend

It's been a standout weekend for moving videos.

This is one of those videos that I want everyone in the world to see.  You cannot watch me and tell me that anything is wrong with same-sex relationships.  Seriously.  They love each other.  They bring each other joy.  How is that wrong to anyone?

A Love Story

Great use of Sara Bareilles' "Brave" - I think it's a scoche overplayed but this is perfect.

Bing - Heroic Women

Austerity January (Annette, do you get residuals for the title?)

Do you ever look back at your bank account post the holidays and wonder what the hell happened?

We're doing quite a lot of that right now -- hoooboy!  Good thing I'm driving a new Lexus and enjoyed that trip to Paris.  Oh...wait...

We can be pretty responsible with the green stuff but apparently from October on we just decided to set fire to our money.  Which leads us to...stolen from my smart sister-in-law ....

Austerity January!

It still counts if we didn't really start until January 10th, right? This weekend, and for the foreseeable future (because really Austerity 2014 should be our goal) we are sticking close to home. 

We spent the day listening to (and watching) the rain pour from the skies.  Nothing like a good rainy day with nowhere to be!

And because I am morally obligated to bake if the weather is inclement I decided to take a crack at a new recipe. 

This is one of the recipe books I added to my collection when we cleaned out my grandparents' house almost eleven (wow) years ago.  I almost never pull these books out because I just go straight to Google for recipes anymore...but I think 2014 will be the year of the cookbook throwback.

I contemplated an aggressive recipe like a cake but opted for the Chocolate Shortbread Cookies.  I used my new beater again!  Love this thing ... love it!  If you bake and you have a Kitchen Aid, get one.  You can thank me later.

The finished product.  They say use a square cookie cutter but I went wild and made chocolate shortbread people.  

Delicious recipe - a bit time intensive but hey, what else did I have to do today? Not finish putting away Christmas decorations...nope, not me....

Obviously home is the safest place to be to ensure we're not spending all of the money, but we'll plan some budget friendly adventures too.  With the kid's new found - and my renewed - love of college sports I see much of that in our future.  Tickets are practically free for the women's games and if we have dinner there we can do it for less than $20.

We're also buckling down on the random supermarket trips.  No food shopping until the fridge is empty.  If we're out of produce just swing by for produce, etcetera.  For example - tomorrow will bring the end of the coffee and if we want to survive beyond tomorrow I must remedy that.  But that does not mean buy everything else in the supermarket.  Like a $5 papaya.  Yep, that happened last week.  I don't even know if I like papaya.

So there we are.  I'm pretty sure we'll be millionaires by December. 

HOCKEY

Around Christmas time Arden asked to go to a Bruins game.  Given we have not yet won the lottery -- and had no idea if she'd actually like and pay attention to a game ... well, nope.  

After some contemplation I decided to take her to a UNH Lady Wildcats game.  I surprised her with that and we had the best time.  Dora opted not to join, because ... well...sports.

We made it to Durham easily (PS: I want to move there) and had our pick of seats because no one goes to women's athletics (still!!!!).  I thought things might have changed since I was one of three people back in the day at the UNLV Lady Rebels games.  

She was fiercely intent on the entire game.  There was no fidgeting or boredom.  

On her feet every time they scored.  

She may have had some spun sugar.

As we drove out of the hockey arena we stumbled on this (not our photo!) -- the UNH Horse Stables.  She has now proclaimed with vehemence that she will go to UNH because they have a huge horse facility, hockey and soccer.  The TRIFECTA.

We had the best night -- she wants to go to every game from here on out.   And play hockey. 

PS:  Hockey is barbaric, chaotic, fast and insanely awesome.  Who knew!??!

Things I Learned Today

• Christmasing is a lot more fun than un-Christmasing
• While 1200 lights make a tree look spectacular, they are angst inducing to remove. And put on, frankly, but at least then you have the reward of the pretty.
• You will hit your 10,000 steps goal on your Fitbit by walking around and around and around the super gorgeous hateful tree trying to unwind said lights.
• I'm way, way excited about my new ornament boxes from my favorite store in the whole wide world.  I couldn't find them last year so snatched them up when I saw them in October.

• Even though I have these super awesome ornament containers that hold all of our ornaments I think I will probably have a hard time throwing away their original boxes. So I might end up with a giant Tupperware of just empty boxes. #hoarder
• When you (and by you I mean the general 8 year old you) nuke a piece of bread for 3 minutes it looks like this:

• It also fills the kitchen with smoke to the point that you can't breathe.  And hangs in the air for hours and hours.  And hours.
• And the child will have much guilt over nearly burning down the house and singeing your lungs and continually offer you her water.
• When you ask your wife to bring you Chardonnay so that you won't release her dog to the wild for peeing in her crate yet again because she liked sleeping on the couch with her human every day for two weeks and is pissed she's being left, she does:

• But by the time it gets here you will be too tired and over it all to waste a glass, so you leave it corked.

What is amazing is these are all the things I learned after 6PM tonight.  It's been a productive 5 hours.  I have to go to bed now because I'm too scared of what might happen next.

Ambition is overrated

I decided soup sounded good on the way home tonight.  Because it's in the single digits with the windchill.  I had made a broth from the chicken I roasted (my LORD I'm such a good Italian wife now) so figured I'd do an Italian Wedding Soup since the kid likes it.  We stopped at the market on the way home and got a couple of things I needed to make it.  I started it at 6:30.  It's 9:30 and we have still not eaten.  Because I suck at making soup.  This girl needs a recipe and I was just sort of throwing things into the pot.

Dora fixed it because she's an ACTUAL Italian and doesn't need those silly recipes.  

I gave up on having it ready for Arden so made her a cheeseburger.  So much for not being a short order cook.  

I had plans for a whole lot of other stuff tonight but guess what's not happening?

I should have just made pancakes for dinner.

New Kitchen Toy

I got a new kitchen toy for Christmas.  It scrapes the bowl while it mixes.  While it mixes!  No need for a spatula!

It totally works.  See?

Its virgin voyage was Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Muffins.

http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/chocolate-chip-oatmeal-muffins

Congratulations on a successful Christmas gift, Annette!

Blue Monday

Did you know that's actually a thing?  

I so appreciate the internet validating my feelings about today.

The holidays give me such a high.  I love decorating the house.  I love the anticipation of Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas.  I love the different activities we can do as a family.  There's a focus for each month - apparently I find that soothing.

And then it's all over.  And it's January and you start to wonder about why money is no object during the last three months of each year.  And you second guess the limitless cookies and bottomless holiday nog.  And you curse the ice and snow on the ground that prohibit walks/runs without a guaranteed broken hip.

It is back to the grind and though there are school vacations in the mix over the next few months, those are more of a scheduling challenge than an exciting time for family bonding.

Silver lining?

101 days until Summer Village opens.

I better join a gym.

Double Feature

Sunday is not my favorite day of the week.  Sure, it's the weekend, but really it's just the day before the insanity begins anew.

We decided to leap outside the proverbial box and go to a double feature on this last day of school vacation.

We all wanted to see this again:

Yes, we'd already seen it twice.  And yes, we would see it again tomorrow.  The story is special.  The music is glorious.  It is the first movie I've ever seen three times in the theater. Arden has already requested we go again next weekend. Ha!  It can't come out of video soon enough.  I can't remember the last time all three of us agreed so very much on a movie.

Then we saw the movie Dora and I have been so excited about, Saving Mr. Banks.  Tom Hanks - my future husband (it's cool, Dora knows) - plus Disney plus Mary Poppins?  Yes please.

I loved every second.  I could see it again tonight.  It was funny and tear inducing all at once. Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson were spectacular.  The story is special -- even more so because it's real.  And it left me wanting to know the rest of Mrs. Travers' story.

It was incredibly intense.  I wouldn't take a child younger than Arden - she really was too young for some of the themes  and lots went of her head, but she was intrigued enough to pay attention.  The bottomless candy, popcorn and soda probably didn't hurt either.

So it may have been Sunday, and I may have had to come home and make lunch and iron clothes and steel myself for the week, but today...today was a good day.  

And so it begins...

Arden completed her test for Pony Club D1 Certification today.

She is so proud.  And rightly so, the test was multifaceted and involved riding as well as answering questions about parts of the horse, identification of multiple parts of tack, questions about health, you name it, they ask it.  No room for error -- something she's not quite used to being a Montessori kid!

But!  She passed!

She and Dora went to her Pony Club's holiday party this evening where the kids were recognized for their successes.  I don't know when I've seen her so excited about something. 

Pony Club seems to be the great equalizer she needed in her life.  The kids are all different ages (though she is the youngest by a year or two), they go to all different schools, they board at different barns, they like different things - but horses are this incredible mutual ground obsession. 

She went straight up to her room when she got home to read her Pony Club book and binder so she can participate on the Quiz Team.  In April.  Nothing like a head start.  But for the kid who isn't always keen on reading, when she asks for a flashlight so she can read in bed ... well, everything is right in the world.

Even if she is reading about horses.

Baby it's Cold Outside

Creative title, no?

But seriously, baby, it's cold outside.  Even being inside requires a fair amount of fleece.

When we got up this morning the windchill made it a temperate -15.  Negative Fifteen.  

I can't even.

I'd like to thanks Steve Jobs for the creation of all things technology so I could work from the comfort of my house and my yoga pants rather than risk life and limb going into the city. Yesterday's trip home in the midst of this storm already took approximately 14.3 years off of my life and frankly I felt like keeping the rest of my years.

The weather did inspire me to roast a chicken and pair it with butternut squash and baked apples.  It was delicious, if I do say so myself.  Seriously, the Food Network is going to call soon.  I just know it.  Fingers crossed.

I almost baked cookies but opted to just use the cold as an excuse to eat these delicious morsels that Dora hunted down for my stocking.  Even though they are dark chocolate I don't think they make it into the clean eating world which, theoretically, we're partaking in starting Monday.  (Yes.  Monday.)

We are ending this day watching one of the most hilarious movies to hit theaters in ages:

Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy are two of my favorites.  Together?  Magic.  Watch it.  Because I said so.

I have big plans for tomorrow.  Productivity will abound.

If I say it, it will happen, right?

A Book a Day...

Keeps the shrink away? 

I majored in English in college.  That means a couple of things.  First, everyone will ask you what you plan to be when you graduate.  My favorite was someone at the university (in one of the science departments, shocking) who asked me if I planned to go to law school after graduating with my degree and when I told her no, she asked if I just planned to drive a cab. 
Little known fact, those are the only two options for English majors. 

(Of note, dear science person, I'm doin' alright with my little English degree.)

But I digress.

The other thing you do is read.  All.The.Time.  Big books, little books, short stories, Shakespearean books.

I kept reading pretty regularly until the child made her appearance.  Ahem.  8 years ago. Over the last 8 years I started to lose my ability to read much more than 140 characters.  2014 is the year this changes.  

One of my old high school friends (we are old, our 20-year reunion is next year assuming someone plans it....knowing our class we'll have a 21.5-year reunion), but anyway, she challenged herself to read an average of one book a week this year.  I think it's a wise and (relatively) reasonable plan.

This means I need to get friendly with the library again, and figure out how to get library books (and learn about other lending sites) for the iPad.  I have been anti-reading on electronics since the beginning of time, but in the past few months I've embraced iBooks.  It's full of genius, that app.

I've read some fantastic books in the last few months as I retrained my brain to have an attention span:

Written by JK Rowling under her pseudonym - a marked improvement of her first attempt at a novel directed at adults.

Beautiful and impossibly difficult to read.  But rise above and read it, because it is spectacular.

Intense doesn't begin to describe We are Water.  It is wonderful and powerful.  I was pleasantly surprised.  Another hard read, but worth every emotion. 

This was a quick and great read.  Not particularly mind-enhancing but I'd recommend it.

Fantastic book - she's brilliant at weaving together multiple lives.  I'll be reading more of her work this year.  

This is my current selection at the recommendation of many.  Thus far a page-turner.

What are you reading?