Happiness is...
...2 clean little boys with clothes (matching Jeter shirts) over their pajamas playing with an enormous train track while waiting to go to Cub Scout Pack Meeting.
...parent/teacher conferences with wonderful teachers who value your children.
...mini-hamburgers for dinner. 15 minutes to make and they gobbled them up!
...an overnighter with your husband. Really it does wonders!
...to have a week after Thanksgiving before the crush of Christmas is upon us
...feeling like I'm catching up because I was on vacation for a week, although I didn't fly anywhere, I vacationed at home with my mom and sister.
Cornbread stuffing
Right now, Mark is on his way to fetch my mom and sister from the airport! Yeah!
Last night, I was going over some things with my mom about our little feast. And she reminded me how she didn't like to eat much of Thanksgiving Dinner. In fact, we never had Thanksgiving at our house growing up, we always went to my Grandma's or to an aunt's house.
Well, I married into a family that really loves Thanksgiving! And I love spending it with them! One of the best recent Thanksgiving memories I have was when Mark's sister Joyce was visiting, and she and her girls and I started cooking on Wednesday. We had the best time in the kitchen together, knocking out the various dishes. One of my favorite parts of Mark's family's menu is cornbread stuffing. This recipe originates from his grandma, who spent most of her life in Alabama. It's Southern and I love it and I love the verbage in the recipe. I love that it is a heritage recipe. Here it is emailed to me by my sweet mother in law, Peggy...
Corn Bread
1 1/2 cups WHITE corn meal
3 Tablespoons flour
1 tsp salt
t tsp soda
1 egg
1 1/2 to 2 cups buttermilk
2 Tablespoons melter butter
Mix dry ingredients in bowl. Add egg and buttermilk, stirring
until combined. Add butter. mixture should be soupy -- add more
buttermilk if needed. Grease pan. Bake in VERY hot oven
(475 degrees ) 15 - 20 minutes Watch -- this may be too long.
One of my recipes says about 12 minutes.
Cornbread Stuffing
Break up about 12 - 13 pieces of bread (use slides of bread, ends,
rolls, etc. Lay it out for awhile to dry but that probably won't work
in NY. It doesn't have to be dry.) add to broken up cornbread.
Chop 1/2 to 1 onion. Chop some celery. Boil onion and celery for 15
minutes. Drain water. Save, you may want to use it to moisten. Add celery
and onion to bread. Moisten with hot water and chicken broth (I like Swanson's), (or
use a boullion cube) Add salt, poultry seasoning. Butter pan generously. Add a few dots of
butter or margarine to top of stuffing before baking. Bake at 400 degrees until brown.
I'm not sure of the time and it depends on the depth of the stuffing. My mother used to put it
in tin pie plates.
Please no stories
So I have made 6 trips to the place I like to go to get things framed in the last 3 weeks. 3 trips to drop off items to be framed and 3 different trips to pick the said items up again.
This framing place is so New York. It's in a more urban neighborhood. I started going there because of the coupons you get in the mail and they did a fine job and seemed reasonably priced, so I developed a strange loyalty to them (this is the same with our drycleaner as well.)
On the first of the six trips, I noticed some new handwritten signs kind of propped up on the large table where people lay out their items. "No stories please," "This is not a playground", "No cell phones", "Questions--$20", "Coffee outside only" etc. I can't say it really made for a warm and fuzzy atmosphere.
So, I was picking up the first of my 3 pictures after it was framed, and started to say something like, "this is a picture of the place we vacation every year, " only to stop myself and point at the sign (please no stories) and say sorry. The owner said, "You know, every picture has a story."
And know, ah ha, I can understand his perspective a bit more. I wouldn't want to hear 40 stories a day about people's pictures either. I respect that he set boundaries. And I returned there 4 more times despite the signs.
Some signs I might like to have are: Put the toilet seat up or down, this is not a playground, please no whining, keep your food in the kitchen, put your shoes in the shoe rack, be kind to your siblings, etc...but I don't dare. I care too much what other people think.
Comings and Goings
We just found out a dear family in our school is moving back to Australia! I am so depressed about this. Our kids were the same ages. The mom, Jenny, is someone I always enjoyed hanging out with at school events. I felt Jenny also was genuinely interested in my kids and kept a special eye out for them say if she were chaperoning a field trip or supervising them at dance recital rehearsal.
It also just reminds me how transient this area can be!! And as we get ready to send out Christmas cards this year, how I don't want Jenny and her family just to be a name on our Christmas card list. After all we shared! The birthday parties! Preschool programs! The playdates! Watching our girls on the soccer field! The "kindergarten romance" between my son and her daughter!
But usually when people move on from here--New York--it's for really good things. Things like a great job opportunity, to be closer to family, a better home or apartment, more reasonable hours and commute, laundry in their own home and all of the above. So I always wish the friends that have leave lots of good luck and much happiness because their life will be better/easier in their next place. It takes the sting away a bit too. And also it's good to remember they made my life better/easier when they were here because they were a friend.
Sometimes I feel like we'll be the last ones standing and it's okay. We love it here. But please, don't anyone else move, not until 2008 at least.
Notes to Self, volume 3
1) When discarding of 4 large jack-o-laterns, it's best to use a seperate garbage bag for each one, or perhaps a maximum 2 pumpkins per garbage bag. You may not want to put them all in the same garbage bag, that was already filled with stryfoam peanuts. Your bag might rip open, spill on your front steps, and all the peanuts fly out 10 minutes after your lawn people left.
2) Don't get too excited when you hear a message saying, "You won the door prize at the school fair." When I called back, they asked if I would come get it. "It's some sports books." Well, how bad can this be? It could be some children's sports books that everyone in our family might like. Up for grabs: The Art of a Quarterback by Joe Montana, the autobiography of Marcus Allen and the best one Sharks among Dolphins, the remaking of the Miami Dolphins.
3) Next year when disposing of candy, (thanks for all the strategies), remember to just save one milky way for daughter. Life will be much easier.
4) Reminder that while daylight savings time does make bedtime easier (they are dropping like flies!), the mornings are still early.
5) After years of picking up puzzles, today I finally designated one ziploc bag to put all stray puzzle pieces. Then if you are doing a puzzle and missing a piece, just head to that bag, and hopefully you will find it.
Strategies
While yesterday was all about getting candy, today is all about getting rid of the candy!
I polled several people throughout the day to get their thoughts on what they do with the candy.
I do remember reading in a magazine once that one mom saved the candy for the gingerbread houses. That's a great idea if you make gingerbread houses. That's not something I am really capable of.
Moms at Matthew's gymnastics class said they have the kids pick 5 and they just throw away the rest.
The always resourceful and amazing younger sister Julie (mother of seven no less) says she pools all the candy from all of the kids in a big bowl and they can have one after dinner and after they finish their chores.
I don't remember having a candy strategy before this year, but I really am trying to be better at making good eating choices, so I want it out of my house.
I thought about making myself actually put all the wrappers of the candy I ate in a jar so I would be forced to know just how much candy I consumed. But I am hoping these other things will work.
Samuel did not get any candy. When he refused to put on his costume, I refused to let him out of the stroller. We just handed him a couple of things throughout the night. So his bag was empty.
For Matthew, I took out all of his chocolate candy (as that is the only candy that tempts me) and I put it in a ziploc and put it in the freezer downstairs. He didn't even ask for candy today except he told Mark that he wanted candy for breakfast. Out of sight, out of mind.
For Josh, I asked him to pick 15 pieces and said I would give him a baseball card for the rest. He obliged as he loves to earn baseball cards.
Caroline had a friend over today so I didn't get a chance to talk to her about it, but following my friend Juliane's strategy, I will offer to pay her for her candy.
So, not one option for all 3 children, but 3 different strategies. Regardless, Mark has a big ziploc of candy to take to work tomorrow.
