Rainy day (or in our case too hot to play outside day)

Salt dough has been a revelation. Until a few weeks ago I had no idea it existed. I have made other non-edible dough but never have I seen 2 people have more fun than my kids and this dough. There is no "cooking" except the 20 mins in the oven and you most likely have everything around the house for this one. Salt, flour, oil, water. It can be that simple but then we decided to paint them. We used poster paint mixed with PVA or craft glue (Elmers) but I would recommend using acrylic paint if you have it. The glue makes it nice and shiny so I would still mix it in to the paint. If your kids are big paint wasters (yep) then maybe just stick with poster paint. Its way cheaper. This was a great activity for us because Poppy, being 7, is a little more advanced artistically than Asher who considers all activities in this world a type of smashing game. But they both had fun and can do it to their own skill level. I gave them a huge pile of kitchen gadgets like the garlic crusher, forks, paper clips, erasers, plastic bottles and lids, cookie cutters, anything you can use to make a pattern is fun. 

**I can not stress enough that this is a non toxic dough but it is in no way edible! YUCK.**

You will need 

a big bowl

the recipe

cookie/play dough cutters

kitchen/play dough gadgets

rolling pins 

a baking tray

paint

PVA glue

and a big pile of news paper

Rolled out and ready for the oven

Just out of the oven

Aren't we supposed to be painting the dough?

Some of the finished projects

Recipe
300g(10 oz) plain flour
200ml(1/3 pint) water
300g (10 oz) table salt
2 tsp oil
mix and squish until a dough forms
(adapted from the Rainy Day Book by Jane Bull)

You can play with this the way it is or shape it and bake it for 20 mins at 180º/350º. Some pieces may take less or more time depending on size and thickness.

This dough will last a couple of weeks in a air tight container. It does get softer as the salt absorbs moisture but we just added more flour.

Don't use kosher or flake salt for this or the dough will be to rough for little hands.

Poppy's Lorax Party

My daughter turned 7 last week and after much conversation we decided on a pizza and movie party with optional sleepover. The next question was which movie. I knew I needed a movie so I could figure out the theme of the cake and food. I was so happy when she decided on the Lorax. There was just so much colour and fun things to work with. So off we went and found some fun stuff for invitations. 

Then I searched the internet for ideas. I immediately found a beautiful cake that I knew I wanted to make... Pinterest of course. And a few other Pinterest finds. All in all it was a wonderful party and the girls had a fantastic time. 

I love how the cake turned out. The cotton candy/fairy floss didn't last long. It was a very hot day. 

I found these on pinterest. They were very popular with the girls and super easy to make. Just a marshmallow dipped in white chocolate and rolled in sprinkles. 

Poppy cookies for my Poppy. This is just a simple sugar cookie with lemon icing. 

Cucumber truffula trees

I found a mustache template by googling "Lorax Mustache" and then cut it out with an exacto knife. We used these on the straws and on popcorn bags and also on the goody bags.

These cake pops later became the candle holders. I was worried the fairy floss would catch fire so I decided to put the candles around the edge of the cake. 

The cake pops were a little fiddly but basically they were plain cake pops dipped in white chocolate. I was lucky enough to find these cool straws at the dollar store. I used the same mustache template just shrunk down. I then placed parchment over the template and piped white chocolate with yellow food colouring. The eyes were dots of white chocolate and I drew the pupils with a food writer pen. I just "glued everything in place with melted white chocolate.

I made the "save the trees" banner with cardboard triangles and letters I printed from a word document. I think the font was Baskerville 300pt. I punched holes and threaded it on string. And the tissue paper pompoms (I thought they looked like the tops of truffula trees) are dollar store finds. 

These goodie bags were just orange paper bags I found in the party store. I used a Lorax pumpkin carving template and just printed it the size I wanted on yellow paper. We added googly eyes for fun.

We decided to do a quick take home craft so I found these paper pots and put together this little poem from Lorax quotes and printed it to attach to the pots. The girls planted pompom marigolds and zinnias.

This is the aftermath of hours in the baby pool, planting seeds, pass the parcel, pizza making, dancing, a movie, popcorn, milk shakes, slushies and cake. These kids were wrecked.

All in all this was a great party. The next morning we had fruit and crepes with nutella. Out of 10 girls 5 slept over. Everyone was picked up on time and we were exhausted. What an experience. I think maybe we will leave the sleepovers until they are a little older but we are very lucky that these are all wonderful kids. 

The Dinner Cup

Scene
3 months ago, in our kitchen, 5pm.
Husband: "What are the kids having for dinner?"
Me: "Not sure. Lets see what we have"
Husband:  "Ok. What about leftovers?"
Me: "Fine, we have pasta bake or stroganoff. She likes both of those."
Husband: "OK. Pasta bake then. That should be ok... right? She will eat that right? Maybe if we make some broccoli too?"
Me: "ok that should work."

15 mins later little brother stuffing his face.

Miss P: "I'M NOT EATING THIS!!!!! THIS ISN'T WHAT I WANTED!!!
Me: "Well that's what is for dinner so just eat some of it and then you can have a piece of fruit."
Miss P: "No. Its not what I wanted."
Me: "Well what did you want?"
Miss P: "I don't know!"
Me: "This isn't a restaurant miss."
Miss P: "Well I am still not eating it."
Me: "Fine go hungry then."
8pm
Miss P: "Mummy I'm hungry."
Me: UGGGGGGGHHH!!
You get the idea.

Then a few weeks ago I had the idea! The idea that changed our lives. The Dinner Cup. We wrote down as many dinners as we could think of that she likes. Then we wrote them on little pieces of paper and put them in a cup and every 4-5 days she pulls a few out and decides with me which meals go on each day. Luckily they are all pretty much well balanced meals with veggies and protein and a few fun things thrown in. Most are things the grown ups like too so we can have family meals together.
Then I go shopping. Simple as that. No really.
Not once since we started doing it have we had any argument. Not one. And second dinner is a thing of the past. It is brilliant and I wish I would have thought of it sooner. I am thinking of implementing a dessert cup too. The idea being that we can put actual dessert in with fruit and cheese and eliminate that argument too.
I should say that for years she has been a wonderful eater and this issue had come to the surface in the last year or so. All we can figure is she is the type of kid that needs some control over the little things. By no means does she run the kitchen. We came up with the meals together they include things like meatloaf and veggies, vegetable risotto, chicken cutlets with broccoli and homemade pizza.
Tonight we are having lettuce cups and fried rice. Yum.

This is our dinner cup... it just happens to be this fancy cup we had hanging around

A Very Hungry Caterpillar Party

My little man turned one recently and I love to throw a party. I felt inspired by the Hungry Caterpillar book and so here is what we came up with...

Cute invites

Obviously a Caterpillar cake was essential

Caterpillar food

Cookies for sure













And a few caterpillar decorations

So the garland is cheap paper plates I painted in the style of Eric Carle (meaning all splotchy and not very even) and I found a Happy Birthday sign at the $1 store so I pulled it apart and used the letters. I used construction paper for the facial features. This was a really fun project to do with my 5 yr old. She did some of the painting and glueing.
We got the paper for the table and the napkins and party hats from the Eric Carle museum. They were really cute.
On the table we had all the different pieces of fruit. 1 apple, 2 pears, 3 plums...
I made caterpillar sandwiches. You could put anything in them but I did ham and cheese so the grown ups had food too. The faces were a cherry tomato, with cucumber skin for the antennae and cucumber for the eyes I used the lid from a squeeze bottle for the cutter. HINT: the cucumber is difficult to stick to the tomato so they each either have to be very dry(difficult) or I used guacamole for glue. Use whatever is easiest.
We did fruit caterpillars with honeydew melon and watermelon.
The cookies were the goodie bag this time. It was a butterfly and a poppy. As for the cake well maybe that is another blog. But if I forget and you need instructions I would be happy to help. Just ask...

There was some grown up food and drinks because, well, one year olds don't care and 5 yr olds just want you to go away... hehe. So spinach pie, asparagus soup and salad. Oh and a few pink bubbles.
In truth you could really go a lot crazier than I did but he is only one so I kept it low key. But there is a Very Hungry Caterpillar board game that would be fun. We had a super cute craft planned but never got around to it. The craft was gluing really big pompoms together with giant googly eyes to make a caterpillar. You can also do it on a big craft stick (tongue depressor) for the little kids.



Kids are a gift and this is my way of telling mine I truly believe they are my jewels. It is a labor of love. And super fun! Love you P&A

Peanut butter cookies

Untangle your panties people. I know peanut butter is the enemy but these are the best cookies I have had in forever. It is a little like short bread but with extra protein. Plus you can decorate them however you want with a few sprinkles. So cute and so tasty. These were very easy and so a winner when I want to bake with my daughter(5). Also it is a big batch so I bake 12 and then scoop and freeze the rest on a cookie tray and then put them in ziplock bag. When we want some cookies we pull them out and put them on the tray and while the oven heats up they get soft enough to squish. I did not create this recipe but I love it and I did add vanilla. We can't stop eating them. I do have to stress PLEASE do not take these to school with you. It could be dangerous for the kids with peanut allergies and even if there isn't any kids with allergies the crazy peanut nazis will kill you with their dirty looks and passive aggressive bullshit.

Peanut Butter Cookies Recipe
INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 egg
1 1/4 cup flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
METHOD
1 Cream the butter for 2 minutes. Add the sugars, cream for 2 more minutes. Mix in the peanut butter and egg. Mix together the dry ingredients - flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Stir into the sugar butter mixture.
2 Wrap dough in plastic and refrigerate at least 3 hours.
3 Preheat oven to 375°F. Shape dough into 1 1/4 inch balls. Place about 3 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten in crisscross pattern with a fork. Bake until light brown, 9 to 10 minutes. Cool on baking sheets for a minute; transfer to rack to cool completely.
Makes about 2 dozen cookies.
For chewier cookies, bake at 300°F for 15 minutes.
This recipe is from simply recipes.

Comfort in a hurry

Mmmm mini meatloaf... yes you can have meatloaf in 40 or so mins.
My gang loves meatloaf. But I rarely make it because it takes forever to cook.That is probably because when I really want to make a meat loaf I get beef, veal and pork... lets just say it is very large. Then there is gravy. You get the idea.
Well today I decided to put the meatloaf in a cupcake pan and bake mini meat loaves. OOOhhh why didn't I think of this before. For a weeknight dinner I also like to add veggies into the meat and... well they love veggies but I can get an extra serving in by adding a few things. Heres what is so great all of us can have the same dinner. The baby will eat all of that without needing to puree or mash it. SO it is a whole family meal.
So give it a try. They were moist, tasty and cooked really fast. Perfect with the mashed potatoes/parsnips and the broccoli. Yay for mini food.
Oven 350º
Recipe.
1lb of extra lean beef
2 carrots
1 onion
1 cup Broccoli stems from the broccoli you serve with dinner otherwise you can use a zucchini or leave it out
3/4 cup old fashioned oats
1/4 cup flax seed meal
2 eggs
1/4 cup ketchup
4-5 splashes worcestershire
1/4 teaspoon dry mustard
1 tsp dried parsley or fresh if you have it or any other herb you like
generous shake of 21 seasoning salute from Trader Joes
1/4 tsp salt
pepper
An additional 1/4 cup of ketchup and 4 big splashes of worcestershire mixed together, keep to the side
Put the oatmeal and the flax seed meal in a food processor and process for 30 seconds or until it breaks up a little ( you can do it more if you like). Add to a large bowl.
Put the onion, carrot, broccoli in a food processor and process until it is VERY fine.
Add to the oats. Stir.
Add the meat, eggs, seasonings and sauces and gently smush with your hands until it is mixed.

Form the meatloaf or minis and smear the remaining ketchup mix over the top.
You can make one big loaf or 12 cupcake size ones. One large one will take 1.5 hours at 350º cupcakes about 35-40 mins. Please get them to 160º

Caterpillars and such

As a mom I have found there are certain go to items you have in your bag of tricks... this became very apparent when my daughter was wanting to make the same craft AGAIN today. This particular craft is caterpillars made with craft sticks, colorful pompoms, googly eyes and pipe cleaners. Basically a dollar tree one stop shop craft. Some how we always have these things on hand and when she was about 2 I came up with this idea and well... I guess we have made it dozens of times. Guilty! I even took it to pre school once as the small group activity. They loved it.

But it got me thinking what else am I doing that we ALWAYS do??? I think we all have some dinners we know our kids will eat (in our house cheese fondue is a winner), books we know will calm them down songs or movies. When we were in Seattle we went to the Zoomazium (or pandemazium as I like to call it) now it is the Atlantis Aquarium, but I know it is a winner every time. So I am wondering about other moms and their "go to" lists. Things that will make you and your kids happy. Is it a special park, the beach, library? Kids are hard but they like routine and repetition which is so funny because they get bored so easily. Why is it they will do something over and over again and still want to do it some more? Hello...how many moms know every word in the Aristocats or Finding Nemo? I honestly don't know how we stay sane, I really did not want to make caterpillars today. lol.

For this craft you will need a bag of colorful pompoms, some craft sticks(colored ones are better), pipe cleaners, googly eyes and craft glue. Stick the pompoms to the stick add eyes. Cut a pipe cleaner in half and then fold it in half and spiral the 2 ends with your thumb and middle finger till you get a curly Q. Glue this on last and do not move it for at least an hour if you have a clothes peg laying around clip it on to the antennae to hold them while the glue dries but not essential. Think about doing a whole learning pod with this... caterpillar, cocoon with cotton wool or paper mache, then butterflies(I will cover this one later) read The Very Hungry Caterpillar and then get yourself one of those kits where you can watch a butterfly emerge from a cocoon... so cool
You can buy all of this at your local Dollar Tree or a Michaels. Good luck.

Christmas Time is Here

I just love Christmas. Every year I look forward to it... the decorations, the music, the movies, the food, and of course the presents. I don't mean getting, I love making and giving them. It is so fun to make stuff for people and have them enjoy it. This year I am in the thick of my usual holiday baking (even with a broken oven). This time with a mini helper... Poppy.

She is so great helping with cookies. She measures and sifts the flour, cracks the eggs, rolls the cookies in sugar. It is so much more fun to make them with her. In years past she was just too young but now she is really interested. I encourage all of you to get your kids to get in the kitchen this Holiday season. I think it gives her such satisfaction and pride to know she helped bake the cookies and then we give them as gifts to people she knows and sees them eat and enjoy. It seems as though 5 might be the perfect age to enjoy Christmas. Old enough to understand and young enough to still believe. I am dreading the time when the Santa myth has been smashed and hope it takes a long time for that to happen. (Hello Britney on Glee) So this year around here we have baby's first Christmas and Miss P's first year really knowing about it. Choosing her own gifts for people.

My Christmakkah Tree

Note please I say Christmas and not "The Holidays". That is for my Mother. Hehe. Some years ago I my hub and I sent out some lovely hand made cards in which we wrote many different greetings and salutations. One of which was "Happy Holidays". For those of you who have family in another country not the USA I advise you do not write Happy Holidays. Because even though Happy Holidays can cover many bases including New Years it is simply not the same as writing Merry Christmas which I guess is the ONLY thing appropriate to write in Australia. I was in trouble for the next 12 months. So this year I say Happy Holidays, Happy Kwanza, Happy Hannukah, Merry Christmas, Happy Solstice, and Seasons Greetings. I only hope that I didn't leave anyone out.

mom groups... are they for you???

Wow I never thought I would be in a moms group probably due to my cynical nature and previous inability to warm up to people quickly. Well that has changed!!! When "they" say having kids changes you believe it. I definitely became a lot more friendly?? Not that I was totally unfriendly I was just happy with the friends I had and didn't really bother makng new ones. Then along comes polkadot and suddenly I am talking to total strangers in the park!!!  And now... moms groups. I had always had a somewhat skeptical impression of these groups but had many friends that joined them. My friend Ang swore by her PEPS group and I would just listen and think really?! Why? But she loved it. It is just so curious to me that we would join a group based only on the fact we reproduced. Anyone can do that! Its not like joining a group where you have common interests say a sport team(I would never do that) or common values like a church. But for the love of our kids we join. And are exposed to new and interesting people and sometimes not. But what do you do if there is a "bad" or unappealing mom in the group? Not that I have had this experience but wouldn't it be awful if someone turned up smoking and reeking of liquor to a playdate at the park. I secretly wish that would happen so I can write about it. But so far all the moms I have met have been charming, non smoking and sober. Boring! Only kidding. Hopefully some of these playdates will produce some lasting friendships for me and my kids. For right now at least we have something to do and someone to do it with.

I would love to hear any thoughts about this.

feed the baby

For me it was a no brainer when Pop was ready for solids I made her food. I mean duh! Plus I tasted the jarred baby food and gagged. Why would you feed that to anyone. No wonder kids don't like veggies. So I jumped in with both feet. I didn't have to buy anything really because as many of my friends know I have every kitchen gadget known to man. The one thing I did buy was a cheap food mill. You do not need this but it does help create some different textures in the food. What you do need is a food processor (not a blender) some ice cube trays, lots of ziplock bags and a total lack of fear.
I feel like I got lucky because she was a good eater. She ate whatever I gave her. This kid would eat babaganoush! But that is not where we started.  We did as the experts advise and start off with rice cereal ... no go! She flat out hated it! So next roasted sweet potatoes, carrots, peas, spinach, pumpkin, broccoli, cauliflower then bananas, apples, pears, peaches etc. Now I know there are rules but I am terrible at following rules so I did put salt and pepper and butter. Yep butter. Why? Because it tastes good! I was not afraid to season the food. When I made carrots I put in ginger and a little agave nectar. Peas had s&p and butter and sometimes mint(yum!), sweet potato had cumin. It was yummy. So why do baby food manufacturers make the food so gross? When we started meat it was a little trickier because meat has such weird texture if it is all ground up in the food processor. I quickly discovered it will make your baby gag and choke. My solution was ground beef, chicken, lamb etc. Much better. One particular chicken dish has become a family favorite. I make it all the time. The best part about this dish is you can use it in a 1000 different ways. So make this...

1 lb of ground chicken (organic)
2 inch piece of fresh ginger
2 cloves of garlic
1 medium yellow onion
1 can water chestnuts
2 tbl fish sauce
1 tbl soy sauce
1 tbl raw sugar
juice of 1 lime
oil for frying

Peel the ginger and add it with the garlic and the onion to the food processor and chop finely. If you don't have a food processor then just chop as finely as possible or use a grater. Chop the water chestnuts finely.
Coat a wok or pan with oil. On medium heat add the onion mix. Cook for a few mins until soft. Add the chicken and brown. Add the rest of the ingredients and season with salt and pepper.
This recipe can be doubled.
I freeze this in a large ziplock bag. I flatten the whole thing out and then you can break pieces of it off for the baby.

We use this in the following ways.

Lettuce cups serve with rice
In soft tortillas with sauteed veggies(my hubby calls these chinesey tacos) and hoisin sauce
As a soup add chicken broth and greens(bok choy) or thicken the broth and serve over rice
Quesadillas
Wrapped into summer rolls with veggies and peanuts and noodles
For the baby mix with any veggie puree and rice

This dish is now in the family menu everyone loves it. I hope some of you out there will think about making your own baby food because it just isn't as difficult as you think. And the best part is you can start your baby off with a much more broad palate.

mmmouse snack

These are one of miss polkadots favorite snacks. We call them apple mice. Duh.

If you absolutely need a recipe.

Take an apple and slice it thin into mouse shapes

spread with peanut butter or some other nutty substance

add currants for eyes and fruit leather for a tail.

We use nantes currants and target fruit leather. It doesn't matter what flavor.

Enjoy!

What do your kids like???

lactation cookies

These came from epicurious. It is not my recipe! I like to add craisins and golden raisins. Really you can add a cup or more of any fruit or more chocolate chips and they work out just fine. These have worked great for me. 

These are made to help nursing mothers milk supply. They taste great and really work.
I would eat 4 or more a day.

Servings: 12 dozen

ingredients

1 C butter
1 C sugar
1 C brown sugar
4 T water
2 T flaxseed meal (no subs)
2 Lg eggs
1 t vanilla
2 C flour
1 t baking soda
1 t salt
3 C Thick cut oats
1 C Chocolate chips
2 T Brewers Yeast (no substitutions)

preparation

Preheat oven at 375.

Mix 2 T of flaxseed meal and water, set aside 3-5 minutes.
Cream butter and sugar.
Add eggs.
Stir flaxseed mix into butter mix and add vanilla.
Beat until well blended.
Sift: dry ingredients, except oats and choc chips.
Add butter mix to dry ing.
Stir in the oats and then the choc chips.
Drop on parchmant paper on baking sheet.
Bake 8-12 minutes.

Read More http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/member/views/LACTATION-COOKIES-1252680#ixzz0w4S9Vy8V

dating

I have recently rejoined the world of dating, not the kind you are thinking. Mom dates. I had my first blind date ever a few days ago and thankfully it went great. My daughter Poppy came home from pre school with a note from the teacher that said another little girl had asked her mom to set up a play date. So I called and boom... blind mom date. Huh. Really it was a play date for our girls but since it was the first I stayed and hung out. Lucky for us it was great. I am not sure it will always be like that when she meets other kids and wants to do play dates. You can't really count on the fact your kids will like kids that have parents you get along with. Then I was talking to some other moms who have encountered the same situation and yes they jokingly call them dates. It was funny because they were saying things like, "should I call", "is is too soon". Seems a little too familiar. So we are at the point in life where our kids are the ones choosing our friends for us. Lucky my daughter has good taste.

what kids watch

What is it about what kids watch these days? The shows are crazy. Like have you ever watched Dora? Are our kids mentally challenged or deaf because she says everything 4 times. And well she just has bad luck to run into so many obstacles on each mission. Then there is things like Yo Gabba Gabba... um smoke pot much!? But the worst are the things like Hi 5 where the girls dress and dance sexy or the Fresh Beat Band with 30 somethings dancing to tragic choreography. What are these grown adults doing? And the bigger question why do our kids love them so?
I know I hear you saying it! Don't let her watch it. I agree. But in our crazy life tv has become a necessity for her safety. There are times in the day when I am breast feeding our baby or trying to get him to sleep where I just need her to be in one place. So here I am watching these people who just seem way to old to be doing this stupid dance. And she is happy. There are some shows which are surprisingy educational and some that make me laugh so hard (Peep).
We tried to be the type of parents who didn't let our daughter watch tv but in the end I realized we would have been raising an outcast. All her friends watch it so when they ask her who she likes on bla bla she can answer. What I do know is kids can be brutal so why give them more ammo. Tv is not the same now as it was when we were kids. My daughter knows chinese thank you Kai Lan, she knows what a giganotosaurus is thank you Dinosaur Train. I can't say I could do that at 4. And when we were kids the characters were all trying to kill, maim or eat each other. Remember the one with the sheep dog and the wolf? And if they weren't doing that they were super sexy.. hello  Josie and the Pussycats! I would take Peep any day. Everything in moderation I guess.
So if it means an extra half hour of sleep or a quiet undisturbed meal for my 3 month old then bring on the tv!

TV

We all watch it. Well most of us. We have become so spoiled with todays technology no one really watches regular tv at all. DVR's and TiVo have changed our lives. Our very good friend Peter was the first person we knew that had a TiVo and he regularly gave us an infomercial whenever we went to their house for some tv watching. We were soon sold. Somehow from our love of tv we ended forming a life time bond with our friend Peter and his wife and another couple who also had a love of tv as insatiable as ours.
The bond started when I was surfing reruns (pre TiVo) and came across a show called Buffy The Vampire Slayer. I introduced my husband to it and we were hooked. Silly but true. When I say it changed our life I really mean it. We soon found out some other friends were also fans and decided to have dinner and watch the show. They then asked if their friends could come along too. So in September of 2002 Buffy Night was born! We had dinner every Tuesday or Wednesday for the next 8 years. With a few exceptions for births and a small bout of cancer, we did it every week.  Yes, every week!
Some weeks were all out gourmet and others were takeout and beer. Most involved tv especially Buffy, until its sad demise. Then we watched other things like American Idol and other crap but as the years went by tv moved into the background and life took over. We all had babies first one couple then we all had babies at the same time. Over the years the conversation evolved from tv to the houses we bought, then to the weddings we were planning, then to cervixes, vaginas and stretch marks, then to poop and pee and kids kids kids. We all grew into a family the kids acting like cousins the parents like aunts and uncles. We had a few joiners on the way and they were most welcome but the core group were faithful to the Buffy.
Sadly in February my husband and I broke up the group! We made the difficult decision to move across country away from our Buffy family. Strangely the TiVo we had had since the first Buffy dinners died on the move to NY. I think we broke its heart. I wish there were a way to keep that ever faithful weekly routine both for the great conversations and delicious food but it is not to be for now. I miss Sandy's baked meat and would love to relive the dinner where Peter made a collection of soft food (by accident). I was constantly inspired to cook amazing food for these amazing friends because it made them as happy to eat it as it did for me to cook it.
So Buffy gave me my surrogate family for the last 8 years... thanks tv!

Change

No one ever really likes change I guess its how you cope with it that makes all the difference. I have spent a lot of my time lately thinking about this subject because I have recently undergone some huge and unsettling changes which I admit freely I have not done my best to deal with. In the past 6 months my family uprooted ourselves form our very nice life in Seattle and moved our butts all the way to the very tip of Long Island. Big deal right! Did I mention I was 8 months pregnant? Which comes to change number two... new baby! Then we decided to move house again on my due date. Yes we are crazy.

So now we have been in the new lovely big farm house for 3 months and there are still boxes in almost every room of the house. This is my way of not dealing with the fact that I don't really like it here. Don't get me wrong it is a very nice place. If you can overlook the litter! 

Back to not dealing with change again. One way to deal with change is to not compare the new thing with the old thing. That is where you get in to trouble. You see if we had had a shit life in our former city then things would be dreamy here but alas we had a great life. Awesome friends, great neighbors, a cute house, beautiful garden, great stores to shop at, clean green city. We do not yet have these things and some we can't have here. So the question is can we live without them? I do miss the cleanness of Seattle and the fact that people put away their shopping carts. I miss drive through espresso stands and the weather. Laugh all you will but there has been more inches of rain here so far this year than a whole year in Seattle and it is only July! Any way back to change. My husband and I have always joked that we are not very good with change. But it is true. He worked for the same restaurant for 10 years! Have you ever heard of such a thing? So when we do make changes we do them big. Maybe that is why we don't like change!? So as we settle in I look at my 4 yr old and think what are we teaching her? How not to cope with big life changes. Soooo change it is otherwise you are stuck in the day to day of life and you never go any where or do anything. I am hoping to help her make a whole new set of friends and maybe she will help me make some too. 

Everything changes but most things are gradual,  like how your kids grow or your ass expands or your hair goes grey. You buy a new car and then it is an old car. Suddenly you are shopping for school stuff or now I have to buy clothes for my daughter in the big kids section not the section where the sizes are Baby - 5yrs. My usually very active mum can't do half the stuff she wants. When did that happen? So I am changing my attitude about change. Well I'm gonna try. So I wait for the next inevitable change... the leaves and the seasons. At least I know what to expect with that one (insert emoitcon here).

Embrace the change!