Today…

If you looked outside my window: it’s another cold but calm day. It’s been a pretty mild winter here in Wisconsin and I’m guessing that’s not normal but it is funny after all the talk from people about how hard Wisconsin winters are and blah blah blah and now Massachusetts is apparently getting swamped in comparison. I’m not gloating or anything, but… yeah… yeah I am.

I am reading: The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner’s Dilemma by Trenton Lee Stewart. I just finished reading Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater which I’ll try to review soon. The ending of Shiver left me feeling kind of lack luster and confused so sinking into a tried and true series for me was kind of nice but I really only just started it so my mind is currently jumbled up with thoughts of both books at the same time which is a bit confusing.

Last night: Dan and I took BB on a little Valentines Date and MM got to spend time with his first non-family member babysitter, the twelve year old daughter of one of Dan’s coworkers. We dropped him off at her house and then went to see When in Rome (which was better than Dan expected – cute and funny and only sort of predictable – loved the main characters and okay actually the whole cast) and went to dinner at Biaggi’s – an upscale Italian chain that we’d never been to and enjoyed a lot. It didn’t feel like a chain restaurant at all and although it was expensive, we shared an appetizer and entree and dessert so we were able to keep the cost down but still feel pampered and not completely blow our diets. And MM basically fell in love with his baby sitter and her family and was pretty disappointed when we picked him up to come home. I think he thought / hoped we’d move in and stay forever!

In the kitchen:

• Monday: Lazy Chiles Rellenos
• Tuesday: Fettuccine Alfredo with Mushrooms
• Wednesday: Macaroni and Cheese
• Thursday: French Onion Soup
• Friday: Deep Fried Shrimp with Couscous and Carrots

How cute is: this “M” shaped grilled cheese sandwich that Dan made for MM for lunch yesterday?

I really want to make: this baked fudge recipe from The Pioneer Woman – because it’s also totally the “Chocolate Stuff” recipe from The Sweet Potato Queens Book of Love, I am convinced. It’s decadent and very high in calories but I lost the recipe awhile ago from SPQ so I have to try this and see if it’s the same thing, which I’m pretty sure it is. I’m kind of excited.

Also this Smitten Kitchen recipe for a simple spaghetti with cheese and black pepper is really calling out to me. I’m all kinds of carb crazed these days.

This weekend we: also went to a birthday party for one of MM’s new friends from playgroup. It was a “clown themed” party so we were supposed to dress him up accordingly but it proved a lot more difficult than I’d expected as almost all of his clothes match at this point. I ended up putting him in an orange shirt and mismatched socks and calling it a day. It worked out in my favor when he picked out these snazzy orange sunglasses as a party favor.

Some interesting quotes I’ve heard recently:

“When faced with two choices, simply toss a coin. It works not because it settles the question for you, but because, in that brief moment with the coin is in the air, you suddenly know what you are hoping for.” [Minimal]

“It is only possible to live happily ever after on a day-to-day basis.” — Margaret Bonnano

Some other links I think you should click:

• If you keep reading about sorting books by color but think, “But how will I ever find the book I want?” definitely read this Bookilicious article about someone who thought the same thing then MADE IT WORK.
• Speaking of color theory, this is a great explanation about designing your own color palette. It had me playing around with my blog colors for awhile (which have now changed ever so slightly).
• Valentines Day is officially in the past but I loved this idea which I saw at Design Mom and Our Daily Big Top for cute homemade Valentines – I might have to try this one when my kiddos are in school.
• Lifehacker has a great tip on attaching a homemade self portrait mirror to your camera.

One last thing I want to tell you about before I go: Last week Dan came home with a free bookcase that he scored at work from their “please take me home” hallway. It’s slightly bigger than some other bookshelves we’ve been using to house MM’s books and I moved things around and repurposed so that most of the kids’ quality books, i.e. the things we don’t want destroyed are now in the large bookcase he brought home, in our bedroom.

The rest of the board books and more durable books and less special books are now in one of the smaller shelves in our living room in the corner where we used to have this round spinny shelf thing that used to be on my desk that MM and I kept bumping into because it was really too big for that corner but the bookshelf fits… perfectly. On top of it I put all of his coloring books and crayons and finished “artwork.”I just moved his books and I’m pretty excited for MM to “wake up” from his nap and see my handiwork because I think he’s going to love it. All of his books have been trapped in mommy and daddy’s room for a long time which I felt bad about but this kid is so tough on his books, he really can’t handle having them all in his own room with no supervision. This works perfectly because now he can read during the day again without having to ask permission but I can keep an eye on all his books and feel all “in control” and such.

And more importantly the other small bookshelf I put next to my “haven’t read” shelf which was over flowing and had boxes of books next to it and I turned the little one into my “high priority” TBR bookshelf and everything fits perfectly and it’s awesome and I’m in book organizing heaven.