Today…

Outside my window: it is what I am officially dubbing “Jen’s favorite weather” as it is warm enough to be comfortable in capris and a tank top, sunny blue skies and the absolutely perfect breeze to keep everyone comfortable. Nature’s air conditioner has finally turned on and I am loving being able to open the balcony door and let in that luscious breeze. Now if only it could stay like this all the time…

This weekend we: meant to take the kids to the beach and enjoy the weather but life seemed to keep getting in the way and by life I mean errands, grocery shopping, “Oh darn, we need to go get this…” and “hey lets just run to the store and look at that…” I am contemplating getting myself a netbook in the semi-near future and we managed to finally run to a Game Stop and trade in a bunch of old video games. I got Dan some Mario game for the Wii and the newer Professor Layton DS game for myself. So it was a good weekend in that we were productive but I do wish we’d gotten the kids out more. They were very much prone to temper tantrums after being dragged around left and right.

We also: made a huge batch of meatballs which we then stuck in the freezer. I’m planning to make some meatball subs tonight and spaghetti and meatballs later this week and we’ll still have more leftover for future weeks. Dan also made pizza last night because he is Super Chef. We added some zucchini and yellow summer squash from our CSA share and also had a salad with some fresh cucumber and grape tomatoes. We’re also drowning in fresh corn which I’ll probably cook up some to go with dinner tonight. This corn is probably the best I’ve ever eaten – did I mention I puffy heart fresh CSA veggies? SO worth it.

– edit – Oh my lordie, I forgot to tell you about Saturday night’s dinner! I made this fantastic dish from Parents Magazine called End of Summer Pasta – basically you just cook up some pasta and then saute eggplants, tomatoes and garlic in some EVOO for about 30 minutes (add in the eggplant first because it takes the longest) until gets all soft, squishy and sauce-like. Dan says it’s similar to Ratatouille – we both say it’s oh my god delicious, especially with our ultra fresh CSA veggies. I’m planning to try it again with other vegetables like zucchini, squash or whatever else we may happen to have. I was really shocked at how good it was because, well, it looked kind of gross. I can guarantee you that as a kid I wouldn’t have touched it but now? I want more like right away!

Right now I’m reading: She’s Gone Country by Jane Porter and of course loving it so far. This weekend I finished Peony in Love and while I mostly enjoyed it, I definitely prefered Snow Flower and the Secret Fan which seems to be the general consensus of everyone I know whose read both. I felt like even with half a million plot twists that surprised me, I always figured out the twists long before the main character. Always. It really got on my nerves how forever dense she seemed to be.

This week: Dan has the “after hours pager” which means that he is basically on call 24/7 until next Monday. Which means… this week might suck, and we are trying to plan to be as close to home as possible this week. He needs to be 10 minutes away from his job at all times basically. Boo.

Some other links I think you should click:

• I’m loving this cute craft idea from Blissfully Domestic to design your own baseball hat. I might do this with MM if I can get my hands on a cheap baseball hat and some fabric paint.
• How cute is this Open Face Omelet idea from Cooking With My Kid? I wonder if this would get my son to eat veggies or god forbid eggs?
• I am kind of ridiculous in that I am desperately looking forward to Back To School pictures (and school supplies… did I mention what a big huge nerd I am?). I love these photo tips from the I Heart Faces blog for back to school.
• Such a clever idea from Ohdeedoh – look magically delicious beans!
• I tried to make these homemade poptarts (recipe from Once a Month Mom) twice this weekend. The first day I realized we were nearly out of jelly. Bought jelly. Second day I realized my refrigerated pie dough is like 2 months past it’s expiration date. Ewww. Next weekend I’m buying pie dough and then I swear these pop tarts will be mine!

One last picture to share before I go: After taking pictures of my daughter crying (she  was sobbing pathetically like that because she wanted the camera by the way – did I mention how spoiled she is?) I decided to change the pace and play with a TOY with her instead. She immediately became a happy, beautiful baby again so I made Dan take pictures as proof that she was instantly fine afterward.