Monthly Archives: September 2011

Momma's Home Tour: The Kitchen

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We’ve been living in our house for about 5 months now and some rooms look quite lived in and established while others of course are still a bit bare and undecided. The kitchen is probably the area we’ve most claimed as our own so I thought I’d give you a little photo tour of our kitchen.

Above is a picture of the kitchen from little BB’s perspective.

As far as she’s concerned, that fridge and those magnets are the only important things going on in here, I’m sure.

Here’s the kitchen from my POV. A nice layout with lots of counter space and a perfect peek into our dining area where BB is just finishing her lunch (we’re still in jammies doing the sick kid thing).

So that’s the general feel of the kitchen from BB’s level and mine, but what about the details? The little things that make this kitchen feel like home?

This is where my morning starts, our little Mr Coffee Espresso maker. It was cheap but it’s just the right size and gets the job done. We also have a stove top espresso maker for when we want a little treat – Mr Coffee makes a good cup of joe, but our stove top espresso maker sometimes just can’t be beat. But M-F it’s all about Mr Coffee.

And this is the coffee we put inside the Mr Coffee Espresso Maker. It’s actually one of the more affordable espressos, you’ll find it in the Ethnic Foods area of your grocery store most likely. And it’s delicious. I highly recommend it (If my recommendation isn’t enough, I saw it in The Pioneer Woman’s kitchen on a blog post once – and frankly if the PW likes it, everyone should).

Not a coffee drinker? I can also get you a cup of tea if you’d prefer. We have a massive selection but this Harney & Sons Hot Cinnamon Spice is by far my favorite. Don’t worry, I buy it in bulk on Amazon. Then I take the tea bags out of the little cardboard package it comes in and put them in the pretty tin I got at the grocery store.

It took us awhile to figure out what kind of pots and pans we like to cook on, but we quickly discovered our love for cast iron. Unfortunately, being a wimpy little Jen, our first skillet was really heavy and I didn’t really like cooking with it due to the heavy factor. So when we stumbled upon this little beauty at our local Targ-mart (I can’t remember which anymore) for an absurdly cheap sale price (like $4 or something) we could not resist and I’m so glad we got it because it’s much lighter and perfect for cooking up eggs, crepes, pancakes, etc.

Want an apple with that? I insisted recently on picking up a big bowl to store fresh fruit in. I figured having it out on the counter would encourage us to eat the good stuff more often. It’s mostly true.

I’m guessing you noticed this pretty little thing in my second picture. That’s the newest member of our team of kitchen workhorses – so new that I have yet to actually bake anything with it! I’ve been stalking this baby on Amazon for over a year now and recently saw it selling for a price way too good to pass up. The picture is a bit dark, but this is the copper color – it’s the KitchenAid Professional 600 series and yup, just checked and the price totally went back up already.

So what should I make with Big Beautiful first? Hubby insists it be chocolate chip cookies but I’m kind of distracted by the mile long list of recipes that I’ve been meaning to try – and happily taking suggestions! So AFTER the cookies for hubby, what recipe do you think I should test out?

Moving on with our tour, this is the Fresh and Clean station where all the dish washing and drying happens. We finally got some curtains hanging up over our window and I’ve got a few little pretty things on the window sill making it feel pretty & homey. Anything to make doing the dishes 18 times a day feel less mundane.

It also helps to put the Tiny Ones to work as early as possible. Luckily, my kids are still young and naive enough to think helping mom clean is FUN. ::insert evil laughter here::

Cause yeah, I’ll take all the help I can get. Well, I guess that pretty much concludes our tour. There’s more I could show you, but that would require more cleaning – and as you can see, I’ve already got dishes to do.

Our Big Fall To-Do List 2011

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autumn leaves

Now that summer is officially over, it’s time to start fresh with a new Season Wishlist – an assortment of things I’m hoping to do, see, taste and enjoy this fall. I’ve even gone all nerdy this fall and organized my list by category.

Things to Do

  • Throw a Halloween Party for the kids featuring an “indoor drive in movie” per MM’s request
  • Decorate the front step for autumn with pumpkins and other fall decor.
  • Go on a family nature walk – collect leaves, sticks, etc. Take lots of pictures of course.
  • Have a classic Thanksgiving Dinner.
  • Jump in a pile of leaves – then rake them up again of course.

Things to Craft

Places to Go

Movies to Watch

These are some movies that I am hoping to see in the next few months – one in theater, several on DVD.

New Recipes to Try

Now that I have a pretty new kitchen aid mixer, there is really no excuse not to be baking all the time. My list of recipes I want to try gets longer and longer. Here are some awesome fall recipes I want to tackle this season.

FIR '11 Question: Do book reviews influence your decision to read a book?

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Fall into Reading @ Callapidder DaysAs part of the Fall into Reading challenge hosted by Kat @ Callapidder Days, Kat will be asking a weekly reading question for us to answer at our blogs. Because what’s better than reading a great book? Talking about reading! It’s also a great way to get to know the other challenge participants in between reading. And you know me, I can’t pass up a chance to talk about myself!

This week her question is :

How much do book reviews influence your decision to acquire and/or read a book?

I think word of mouth has always been a huge factor in my decision to do or buy things. I’d trust a review of a fellow reader over the advertisement on the book for sure – and with all the tempting books out there, reading some reviews helps me to narrow the playing field and find the books most likely to interest me.

That said, taste in books can run so different from person to person (I blogged about this in detail at 5 Minutes for Books recently) – so I think it’s important to know what you like in books so that you can read a book review with the ability to determine if that book would be right for you.

Just like when you are reading a review at Amazon for an MP3 player or a new computer – different people place priorities in different areas. Know what specs in reading are important to you – plot or prose? Character driven novels or no? What genres really work for you and which ones typically don’t. If you can arm yourself with this information, then reading reviews can be very helpful. I also like to find book reviewers with similar taste to me and look to them first for recommendations.

In this digital world, book reviews are simply a powerful tool that it would be silly to ignore. As a book obsessed momma, having a handful of great book reviewers to read is an incredible resource – and it’s often how I hear about books as they are coming out and decide which ones I want to check out. If I see a book in a library I haven’t heard of, I will probably look into on Amazon and then check and see if any of my favorite book reviewers have read it yet and what they thought.

How about you? Do book reviewers have a lot of influence in your reading choices?

Book Review: Finding Aster by Dina McQueen

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Finding AsterOne of the last books I read was Cutting For Stone, a novel my book club was reading, which tells the story of Marion and Shiva Stone, twins born into a missionary hospital in Ethiopia. It was a brilliant story for a lot of reasons but I’m telling you about it here because I started reading it around the same time that I heard about Finding Aster by Dina McQueen.

Finding Aster is Dina and her husband’s story of adopting a little girl from Ethiopia  – about the things in her life which lead up to her decision to adopt and about the process of international adoption that they went through.

I could not stop marveling over the odds that both of these books would so randomly make their way onto my bookshelf at the same time – a brilliant novel that focuses mostly on medicine and family ; and a non-fiction portrayal of the one woman’s experience in the world of international adoption – both of which take place partly in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and partly in America.

That is obviously where the similarities between the two books end, but I just had to share that tidbit with you so that you’d know I’ve been reading about Ethiopia for almost two months now, long before picking up my review copy of Finding Aster. Between the two books, I’ve read so much about the poverty that has existed in Ethiopia for so long – the lack of medical attention that mothers there receive, never mind the rest of the population (actually both books also talk about fistulas and the causes and results of this problem which often goes untreated – did you know that in Ethiopia, there are an estimated 100,000 women suffering with untreated fistula, and another 9,000 women who develop fistula each year?) which is a major reason that there are so many little babies in Ethiopia looking for a home. I have no plans to adopt a child either domestically or internationally, but this book was still fascinating to me from a humanitarian outlook.

I thought it was great that McQueen outlined all of the high points and low points of her adoption story, many that I’m sure most adopting families can relate to or would want to know about beforehand – in addition to all the wonderful facts and information and resources that she outlines throughout the book. This would be a great resource for any families considering adoption, domestic or international – and a story that will simply touch others.

The book does not touch upon a lot of Dina’s experience actually parenting Aster (apart from the first few days of the adoption), this is truly just her story of “finding” Aster and finding motherhood – it’s a well told, heart warming and informative book – and also a quick read. You won’t have a problem finishing this one quickly in between all the other demands in your life vying for your attention.

In short, I definitely recommend this book. It was very good, an easy read and very informative. Thanks to Stephanie at PR by the book and Dina McQueen for providing this complimentary book in exchange for my honest review.

Coincidentally this book also marks the first book I have finished in my Fall Into Reading Challenge hosted by Kat @ Callapidder Days. You can see the rest of the books on my list here.

Nightstand: September

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What's on your nightstand @ 5 minutes for booksWriting up my nightstand post today almost feels redundant after having just posted my Fall into Reading list last week, but being a creature of habit, I cannot resist. Besides, this post will help me establish what I plan to read in the more immediate future as opposed to the many books I hope to read this fall.

If you are new to the What’s On Your Nightstand? meme hosted monthly by 5 Minutes for Books, it is very easy to join in – just write up a blog post about what books you are either currently reading, read recently or plan to read soon – or all of the above! Feel free to include pictures of your actual nightstand for added fun!

When we last nightstanded together I was reading Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese. I was not able to finish it in time for my book club discussion but I did manage to finally finish reading it on September 19th. Part of my challenge was in the fact that I spent a lot of this month reading a couple books at a time, trying to catch up on my review reading since we made the decision recently to shut down the review blog, it was important to me to finish my current review products which was mostly books.

Anyway, here is a brief review of the books I’ve read this month:

  1. The Hour That Matters Most by Les Parrott, Stephanie Allen, Tina Kuna – Finished September 2, 2011- I really enjoyed this book and got a lot more out of it than I’d originally thought I would. The premise of this book is why eating meals together as a family, especially dinner, is so important to each individual in your family as well as your family unit on a whole. What I got out of this book was a lot of terrific information on improving your conversations with your kids and spouse as well as improving your relationship. How to make your home the safe haven that your children can come home to and speak honestly in. This was one of those books that had me constantly quoting passages to my husband and trying ideas out with the kids as I read it. I definitely recommend it to anyone struggling to eat together as a family or even just looking for tips on how to improve that hour you are already eating together. – full review -
  2. The Entitlement Trap by Richard and Linda Eyre – finished September 18, 2011 – While I found some aspects of this book interesting and useful, I do feel like they could have gotten their point across in a faster, less repetitive way. This is a book with good ideas, especially for parents of school-aged children, to help your kids become less entitled and to take ownership of their things, their lives, etc. but the actual process of reading the book did become a bit tedious. – full review -
  3. Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese - finished September 19, 2011 – I really enjoyed this story. Although there is a LOT of medical jargon, it still manages to be a fascinating tale. I loved the many layers of this story and how everything seems to connect at the end. I loved the comparison of Ethiopia to America through both medicine and life and how many stories and thoughts and ideas are presented in one book. Really good.
  4. Finding Aster by Dina McQueen - finished September 25, 2011 – I enjoyed this book which describes Dina’s experience adopting a little girl from Ethiopia – from the series of events that brought her to the decision to adopt, through to the actual process of international adoption. Though the story is filled with personal details, it reads a bit more like practical information that would be good to know if you were planning to adopt yourself. And though I have no plans for adoption, I still enjoyed this book and found it interesting. – full review coming soon -

Which means I am now all caught up on my review reading and have just one review left to write up, which I hope to do in the next couple days. Now I am turning my attention to my FIR list which includes several books that have been sitting impatiently on my bookshelves for awhile now.

A Little Bit Wicked by Kristin ChenowethI am currently reading: A Little Bit Wicked by Kristin Chenoweth and already just adoring it at only 30 pages in. I love a good celebrity memoir and this one is a great example of why. Funny, thoughtful and informative with tons of information I never knew about an actress I love!

Description from goodreads: “In this lively, laugh-out-loud book, Kristin shares her journey from Oklahoma beauty queen to Broadway leading lady, reflecting on how faith and family have kept her grounded in the dysfunctional rodeo of show biz. The daughter of an engineer and a nurse, Kristin was singing in front of thousands at Baptist conventions by age twelve and winning beauty pageants by age twenty-two. (Well, actually she was second runner-up almost every freaking time. But, hey, she’s not bitter.) On her way to a career as a professional opera singer, she stopped in New York to visit a friend and went on a whim to an audition. Through a combination of talent, hard work, and (she’s quick to add) the grace of God, Kristin took Broadway by storm. But of course, into every storm, the occasional drizzle of disaster must fall.“

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro When I finish this book I plan to start our next book club pick, Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro : Here’s the description from goodreads.com: “One of Kazuo Ishiguro’s greatest novelistic skills is his restraint. A writer who never reveals more than we need to know, he doles out details in small, carefully rationed increments, like delicacies too rich to squander — leaving readers craving more. Nowhere is this skill more apparent than in this dark, dystopian tale of three former friends, all alumni of a British boarding school, who unravel a horrifying secret about their alma mater.” This book sounds really good and it was a very popular pick in our book club, too, so I’m looking forward to the discussion.

Something Borrowed by Emily GiffinThen if time permits, another book I may read in the next month is Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin : I keep seeing trailers for the movie version of this book and OMG I need to hurry up and read the book before I break down and see the movie! “Rachel White is the consummate good girl. A hard-working attorney at a large Manhattan law firm and a diligent maid of honor to her charmed best friend Darcy, Rachel has always played by all the rules. Since grade school, she has watched Darcy shine, quietly accepting the sidekick role in their lopsided friendship. But that suddenly changes the night of her thirtieth birthday when Rachel finally confesses her feelings to Darcy’s fiance, and is both horrified and thrilled to discover that he feels the same way.“

So what’s on your nightstand right now?

Daybook: September 26th

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Accidental bokeh picture of the rain outside my window

Today

Outside my window: it is currently not raining but I’m sure if we wait five minutes it will start again. It’s been a rainy weekend with no signs of stopping for long anytime soon.

a big girl bed!

This weekend: we took down the crib in BB’s room! We’ve been talking about doing it for awhile, had a few things we needed to fix / baby proof first and also kept thinking, “Maybe we should just wait” but we both really wanted to take it down and felt she was ready so this weekend we took the plunge and did it and I have to say I’m thrilled. It hasn’t been a perfect transition but she does seem to love her big girl bed and I’m proud of how well she’s doing.

tucking in all her babies

We also: spent a lot of time indoors due to previously mentioned inclement weather. I got more of my review reading done and will be posting my review of Finding Aster very soon.

rain rain go away

Right now I’m reading: A Little Bit Wicked by Kristin Chenoweth. I’m only about twelve pages in but I can already tell I am really going to love this one. I’ve recently discovered a love for celebrity memoirs and I knew this one would be right up my alley. I’m glad I’m finally reading it!

Things you should click:

  • You know how sometimes you just cannot find the exact piece of furniture or clothing that you want and it’s so frustrating because you have this idea in your mind but cannot find it in the stores for a reasonable price? I am loving the idea to make your own dining room table – the table Stylizimo made came out just gorgeous. I sense future carpentry plans for the handy husband coming on…
  • Speaking of handmade things my husband needs to make me, I am pretty sure it’s crucial that I become the proud owner of a Bender hat, don’t you?
  • Tsh at Simple Mom just posted this fantastic list of everything she packs to wear when she travels. Genius.

One last picture to share before I go: have to share this little collage of cell phone snapshots I took of BB at the Little Gym today. Her friend invited us to come along for their Bring A Friend day and I am so glad we went – she had such a great time and clearly has a future in gymnastics!

our future gymnast

The hoodie.

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This hoodie is something of a treasured family heirloom in the making. It was MM’s when he was younger than BB – purchased from my husband’s alma mater. I found it in the basement the other day and noticed the size 18 months – ack!

Luckily it runs a tad large because it fits BB perfectly right now! I had her put it on that afternoon to pick up MM from the bus stop and of course took a million pictures to preserve this moment because lord knows how long it will fit her.

I think she could tell that this was a special photo shoot, because she pulled out all the stops for me.

Look at that smize. Tyra would be so proud of my little girl and her mad modeling skills.

Blowing kisses to the paparazzi.

“Okay mom, I played along, are you done now? Cause we do still have to get MM from the bus stop, you know.”

When she’s had enough, she’ll try to break eye contact with the camera, studiously ignoring me. But I’m too persistent for that so I follow her around, moving the camera to her eye level.

Or embracing the profile shots.

Taking notice of the props and showcasing the little things that make BB’s universe spin.

Then we went to the bus stop.

About my angst with the Cat in the Hat.

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Last week I was spending some quality time with Facebook while the kids were watching The Cat in the Hat on PBS. And for about the 800th time I thought to myself that this show bugged me more than a little bit. So I thought I’d throw it out there and see if anyone else felt the same way.

“Am I the only one who finds the Cat in the Hat extremely creepy?”

I went on to describe exactly what it was about this show that bothered me. It’s really something which has always bothered me about not just the show but the book as well.

The whole concept, really, is a bit strange – there is a giant talking cat (or is it a man in a cat costume?) asking kids to go on adventures with him. “You’re mother will not mind at all if you do!“

Notice he doesn’t actually say “Ask your mom” and in my opinion, the mom clearly has no idea her children are actually going anywhere – it’s obvious she thinks they are just pretending. If she knew there was really a giant man cat outside trying to take her kids to the jungle of kalamodoon or whatever, I’m pretty sure she’d call the cops.

With all our emphasis in society on “don’t talk to strangers” and “don’t get into cars with strangers” it kind of bugs me that this show has the kids getting into the thingamajigger with him, no questions asked and the parents have clearly never met him.

That night I talked to my husband about it and he agreed that it bothered him, too ; and we decided we didn’t want the kids watching it anymore since it undermines an important lesson that we’ve been trying to teach MM in particular who is very friendly and trusting by nature.

I thought I had this all figured out and was feeling pretty proud of myself until I sat down with MM to let him know the bad news (about one of his favorite tv shows by the way). I told him that we didn’t want him watching it anymore and he immediately looked crestfallen. “Why not?” he of course wanted to know.

And despite all my yammering to myself and Dan I realized how unprepared I was for the conversation – but I muscled through it and explained in my best kid speak all the issues I felt the show was undermining.

And as I began attempting to explain our reasoning I realized that this wasn’t what I wanted either. When a show or a movie or a book presents a concept I don’t agree with – do I really want my solution to be “don’t let the kids see it!” Should we shield them from every opinion or issue that troubles us?

Or should we let this be a teaching opportunity – a chance to say, “You know it bothers me that the Cat in the Hat never asks the kids’ parents himself if they can go somewhere with him.” And “Do you think the Cat in the Hat has met their parents or maybe has dinner with them sometimes. Does this make him a stranger?” And then open this up to discussion and make sure that our kids understand WHY talking to strangers is bad and what makes someone a stranger in the first place.

I want MM to avoid talking to strangers because he gets why it’s dangerous and knows better and values his own safety – not just because mom said no. And I think that he is capable of learning this lesson AND watching an educational show on PBS that maybe toes the line a bit on this topic but is otherwise harmless.

So again the hubby and I talked about it and he somewhat reluctantly agreed that I was right. It’s not the easy solution, but I do think it’s the smart one. I think that by banning a show cold turkey that we are passing up an opportunity to really teach our kids – and also telling them that we don’t think they are capable of understanding the lessons to be learned there.

So in the end, I told him that the next time he watches The Cat in the Hat that I’d like to watch it with him so we can talk about it. Which obviously thrilled him.

I know this will not be the last conversation we have on the topic of strangers and it won’t be the last tv show that I’ll need to make a decision like this about (it will certainly be the most harmless of the bunch!) but it really showed me a side to my parenting values that I hadn’t fully tested yet and I’m glad I did. I hope this prepares me for the tougher issues we’ll face in the future as the kids get older and the topics get harder.

What tv shows do your kids love that you can’t stand or maybe have issues with the subject matter? How do you handle this?

Botanical Gardens = My New Favorite Thing

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My walking group met at the local botanical gardens last week for a stroll through all the various indoor and outdoor gardens. Of course I brought the “good camera” as well as my cell phone and used both to snap almost 200 pictures. Don’t worry, I’m only forcing you to flip through like 20 or so. You’re welcome.

Of course there were lots of pretty flowers, even in September there was plenty of pretty to look at and take pictures of.

Little BB was in her glory, running from beautiful thing to beautiful thing.

And mommy was in her glory taking pictures of every pretty thing she saw. Until she realized that everything was pretty and she’d probably better not stop literally every two feet to take pictures.

So I only stopped like every 5 feet or so instead. Better, right? Hey, I tried!

How cool is this little rock pond thingy? I spent a lot of time crawling around in the grass taking pictures of that. I’m a camera nerd, I know. It’s okay.

Even the leaves were just begging to have their pictures taken.

And other strange pretty things that I don’t know the name of. Would you believe this thing (whatever it is) was as soft as a kitten? True story.

Meet my favorite butterfly. This pretty little thang sat around flapping her wings for me while I snapped dozens of pictures and didn’t even think about flying away until AFTER I put my camera away. Such a cooperative model!

Don’t worry – she didn’t pick those pretty flowers. We saw them lying on the ground and let her admire them for awhile as we walked.

Which made for more pretty pictures!

Bottom line: We had a fantastic time. The weather cooperated beautifully, we had  great company, got in some exercise and I got to take pretty pictures. Even better? It was totally free. I can’t wait to go back!

techy notes: The first 6 pictures were taken with my cell phone, the rest of them were taken with a Nikon D40 using mostly the Macro mode for close ups, landscape mode for well landscapes and usually action mode or child mode to keep up with BB (or whatever mode I was already in as there wasn’t time to switch).

Hello Kitty!

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I’ve got this major back log of pictures that I haven’t shown you yet on account of I’m still getting everything squared away in Linux world and it took me awhile to realize that the Beta version of Picasa for Linux that I was using wasn’t worth my time or patience.

I finally got it fixed though (okay, fine, Dan fixed it) so I’m trying to post as many of these pretty pictures as I can – but I’m spacing them out between a few posts so that you don’t hate me. So here are some pictures I took on Tuesday of LAST week (Sept 20th) of BB in her pretty new Hello Kitty t-shirt, giving me a lot of sass.

I call this one “I whip my hair back and forth!” Get it?

I’m pretty sure she’s plotting against me right there. Notice the devilish grin.

Hmmm….