The Chocolate and The Cheese

Excuse me while I hurry to finish up making the house look presentable and making food for tonight. Ah, yes! Tonight I'm having my lovelies over for a little birthday get together and I'm cooking up a storm. I'll fill you in on the details later next week after I have finished (hopefully) and there are pictures to document the yumminess. Until then have a lovely weekend. Stay warm if you are in the Northern Hemi, it's been a bit frigid out there! Here's a little quote that will hopefully help make this weekend nice and warm. "Pour down your warmth, great Sun!" -Walt Whitman Happy Weekend!

It seems fitting that on the day that I was planning on writing a post on my favorite books the author of one of my all time favorites past away. JD Salinger past away this morning at the age of ninety-one. You can read his obituary in the New York Times here . I read "The Catcher in the Rye" when I was in high school and chose to do a piece from it for a 'dramatic reading' that we had to do for class. I remember vainly trying to find a section that didn't have any swearing in it. I was still in high school after all. In the end I couldn't find one that I liked, so I bravely said the word, "Damn" in front of my entire English class and my teacher. It was liberating, and scary and made me feel so adult all at the same time. Thanks Mr. Salinger for giving voice to millions of angsty, hormonal teenagers, myself included. On to my list of books. I love to read. Always have. I remember my mom forcing me to go outside and play and forbidding me...

Hello there! It's me again. Yeah, I know that you come here and see me almost everyday, but today I wanted to make sure and say, "Hi, how are you? How is your day going?" You see, I had a couple of ideas about what I wanted to write about today, but then I started thinking about what you might want to read. You! Yes, you! I see you reading this blog everyday, and I'm honored that you take time out of your very busy day to read my little spot on the internet. So what is it that you would like to read about? Any questions that you'd like to ask me? Topics that you would like to see talked about? Really, what is it that you'd like to know? I'm open for suggestions and would really love to hear what you have to say. Leave a little note in the comments or contact me via email at palmer.mary1@gmail.com. I'd love to hear what you have to say! Tomorrow, back to our regularly scheduled programming.

I have a hard time being organized. I'm a pack rat, clutter seems to follow me about and although I love the feeling of throwing/giving things away, I often lack the motivation to do it. Not lately, however. I don't know if it's the exercise, or the start of a new year or the fact that I've been ok with staying home more lately; whatever it is it's making me want to clean, de-clutter and simplify our lives. I'm going through closets, buying baskets and storage bins, throwing things away that I should have tossed years ago. It's therapeutic. There's the clothes that will never fit again, random craft projects, piles of magazines, souvenirs that we brought back from China and are still sitting in our closet. (If anyone needs any chopsticks, let me know. We have many sets.) It feels nice to be able to walk into a room, a closet, the basement and be able to find something and not trip over the junk that's laying all.over.the.floor. LN doesn't...

The little lady that resides here eats a peanut butter and honey sandwich everyday for lunch. Since she's consuming so much bread I got tired of shelling out upwards of $5 per loaf. Crazy! I could easily make a loaf or two a week, thus cutting down our grocery bill, and controlling the quality at the same time. So I've been "auditioning" bread loaves to see what will become my weekly standard. Last week I made a Semolina Loaf. Well, I attempted to make a 100% Semolina Loaf; but I didn't buy enough Semolina flour. So I added a bit of wheat. Then I realized that I didn't have any olive oil, so I subbed some melted butter. The results? Surprisingly really good, especially given the fact that I had to sub so many ingredients. Tasty, soft crumb and the little lady ate it right up. So good in fact, that I want to try it again with all of the correct ingredients! See that little bit of yellow in there? That's the Semolina Flour, pretty isn't it? ...

I have to admit, I kinda like football. In fact, up until about two years ago I think I knew more about football than the Mr. did. I went to every single HS game my Junior year. I was friends with one of the cheerleaders boyfriends, so we drove to all of the Away Games and did dorky things like blast Classical Music like we were thugs. Ah yes, I was so cool in High School. So today the Minnesota Vikings play the New Orleans Saints to determine who will play in the Super Bowl two weeks from now. Emotions are running high over at my house and will only escalate when we drive over to the Mr's parents house to watch the game on their Jumbotron. It's always fun to hang with the family on game day. The Mr's dad makes something and throws it in the crock pot for lunch. There's veggies and chips galore. Today I made some yummy bars that I will tell you all about later. So today is a big day. I guess for as much as I like football I don't really care who wins or l...

Happiness is felt by making other people happy. Go on! This weekend, do something nice for someone else. While you're at it, you might even do something nice for yourself.

So last night I officially crossed one item off of my New Years To-Do List . I attended the Hamline University's open house for the School of Education's Graduate Programs. It's part of my, "What Do I Want To Do When I Grow Up" process. LN is getting older and I need to figure out what I'm going to do with the rest of my life. We may or may not have another child, so either way I want to get a move on and start something for myself. A degree in Anthropology can take you a lot of places, but one place it can't take you is to the Employment section of the newspaper. At least if you're looking for a subsection with it in the title. That leaves one with a host of choices. Too many choices in my opinion and that's why it's taken me this long to decide on my next step. I started the application process last night. I'm not sure what the final outcome will be. I'm choosing to wait and make that decision until after I've heard whe...

I'm not feeling any today. I started to peruse my favorite photo site to try and garner some inspiration, but it didn't come. I found a lot of pretty pictures, but nothing to write about. I'm headed out tonight for the ESL Masters informational session. I'm excited and nervous to learn more about this possible new chapter in my life. But I can't really talk about it yet since I haven't gone to it. I also started the Couch to 5K program last week, but I don't really want to talk about that either since I just started it. There's just really not that much going on around here today. It's getting cold again outside and has gone back to gray. So I'll just leave you with these few images that I found somewhat inspiring, absolutely beautiful or just plain awesome. Enjoy!

I used to drink a lot of water everyday. When I was still nursing LN I was making liquid, so I had a water bottle with me at all times. I would try and drink eight to ten ounces every time I nursed. Surprisingly, I didn't have to pee all that often. Now I frequently go to the gym, only to forget my water bottle at home. I make do with quick trips to the fountain between sets and before and after my run. By the time I get home I'm so thirsty that I drown about twelve ounces in one gulp. I pour another glass and it sits there on the counter until dinner time. I've been getting headaches the past week or so. Fairly painful, I tried giving up coffee, but they only got worse. So I've cut back to one cup in the morning; two if I can feel it being 'one of those days'. It seems to have worked, for the time being. Instead of the coffee I'm trying to drink more tea and definitely more water. I was under the impression that an average adult needed to drink ...

Happy Friday everyone! This has been a week; started off by watching three kids three and under, dealt with a sick kiddo and then sick husband and to top if off had to do a major re-work of our budget. Overall, not a lot of fun things going on. Instead of dwelling on the negative, unhappy, icky things that happened this week, let me give you a rundown of the things that went right . Positive vibes, happy thoughts and sunshine all make the world go 'round, don't they? They do in my universe at least. Officially started the Couch25K program. I am loving running, it feels good and I like to see how far I've ran/walked. Took my first yoga class in eighteen months. Felt great while I was doing it and then sore for the next two days. Just like it should. Looking forward to going back next week. Got the dishwasher to start working again. Thank goodness! The dirty dishes were starting to take over the kitchen. Went out with some lovely ladies for dinner and had some yum...

We rented the Wii Fit Plus and balance board right around New Years. I'm wanting to get something for at home that I can use during nap time or the evenings that I feel compelled to move, but not go to the gym. Let it be said that I am not endorsed by Nintendo and this is purely my own thoughts on the product and what it did for me. (Although, if Nintendo felt compelled to give me a Wii Fit and Balance Board I probably wouldn't turn it down. Hear that Nintendo?) It took no time to set up and as an extra bonus did not make the Mr and I fight at all during set up. This is rare, when a new piece of technology enters our house you can usually guarantee some sort of fight will break loose. We're predictable like that. You just synch it up and turn it on. Easy Peasy. We went through the enter Mii set up process and it couldn't have been easier. Well, I guess it would have been easier to stand still for the 'body scan' if there hadn't been a twenty month o...

The other night I was trying to reheat some leftover rice. Two things you need to know about me: 1) I cannot for the life of me make rice on the stove. I must use a rice cooker. 2) I hate re-heated rice. I usually try and make leftover rice into some sort of fried rice. The other night, however, I was too lazy to cut up veggies and we were out of frozen ones. So reheated rice it was. The problem I have with reheated rice is that it gets dry, sticky and generally all ends up in one clump in the middle of my pan. I try adding water to it, but then it just gets gummy, pasty and turns into a big bunch of goo. So the other night I did something different. I dumped the rice into a skillet and then I added two ice cubes . Duh! The ice kind of steamed and slowly melted right into the rice. I kept stirring them around so all the rice had the chance to absorb a little bit of moisture. The result? Perfect, moist, not gummy rice. Yes! I added some extra spices and served it with some...

So sorry for my absence yesterday. Around this time I was attempting to put three toddlers down for naps. Sweet twenty month LN, and her two male cousins; ages two and three. At one point they were all napping...but let's just say that it didn't last for long. Good day overall, but made me completely forget about anything except diapers, snacks and Dora the Explorer. So here we are! At the 100th post of this wee, little blog. See, since I posted twice in one day last week, this is still the big 1-0-0 post. Whew, lucky me! First things first. Allow me to announce the winner of my sweet little giveaway. Using random.org I plugged in the number of comments and allowed it to chose a winner. It came up with number two, Lauren! So Lauren, contact me through email and let me know what two awesome ChicoBags you would like. Score for you! Lauren's favor ite way to celebrate is thus: It depends what I am celebrating... Part of me agrees with Debbie. A glass of wine, great...

Dear kind woman at the gym: Thank you for giving me the nice compliment as you were leaving today. It wasn't much, but it made my morning! Being in the locker room at the gym is always a little intimidating. I'm not a size 0 and my body jiggles in places that it probably shouldn't. Previous to your kind comment I had been thinking how much I would kill to look like you. Not overly skinny, but toned, muscular and fit. It's nice to know that even people that look like you sometimes admire things about me too! On my way out I complimented the woman who was watching my daughter. I hope that she passes on a compliment to someone else during the day. See what you hopefully started? A chain of sunshine, if that doesn't sound too cliched. So thank you, again, for being so nice. I can only hope someone tells you how great your hair looks too. Sincerely, MP Have you entered my Giveaway yet? Why not!? At the very least click over here to find out what you could w...

I'm on self-imposed house arrest over here today. In fact, most of this week I've been laying low and staying home. Those of you who know me in real life this must come as a surprise. I'm usually the one who is, more often than not, away from home. My days are packed with to-do lists and stops to make. This week however, I decided to respect the season and slow down a little. Enjoy the look at snow from my armchair, feel warm and snug inside the house. Take time to finish those projects that have been building up around the house and get back into a routine with LN. I'm lovin' it. The house is slowly getting de-cluttered, emails are being answered, closets purged, decorations hung, food baked, recipes found...all in all a very productive few days. And throughout it all there has also been snuggles and kisses and "more mama's" and crazy dancing and lots of laughter. Being home can be good. But it's good to have a plan. Now, where shall we...

So, I finally decided on a prize! Woo-hoo, you guys are going to love it! The winners of the Giveaway that I announced yesterday will receive: Any two ChicoBags ($7.99 or less) delivered right to your home*! These bags are awesome. They fold up small, are durable and can hold up to twenty-five pounds (a gallon of milk weighs about seven pounds). There are tons of colors/patterns/styles to choose from. The winner will email me with their choices and home address and I will order and send out the goods to you. Happy Be-lated Holidays to you! *If it was me I'd take this one in Gray and this one in Pacific Blue. What are you waiting for? Click over to yesterday's post and enter to win!

The Mr. and I fight, a lot. This isn't a cry for help, or really any big declaration. We're both stubborn, independent people. We butt heads, always think we're the correct ones and then we get over it. I guess you could say that we have an unique knack for driving each other crazy. It's a good thing we love each other! So this morning I was driving him to work and I was talking about how I'm going to start getting up earlier that LN in the mornings. I haven't set an alarm in almost two years - I just wait for the little lady to get up, and then I get up too. Well, she's been getting up at 7:45, and that's just too late for me to be getting up. I have things to do people! So, anyway, I'm going to get up early from now on. The Mr. told me good luck. Not in the, "Hey, good luck MP! I'm rooting for you!" More like the snarky, half-smile, uh-huh, sure kind of good luck. Well, that stung. So I told him that I have no problem gett...

Well fellow inter-friends, I was going to post today about my experience with the Wii Fit. However, upon looking at my post number I realized that today was post #95. Which means that I get to announce the nifty little giveaway I have planned for post #100. Giveaway you say? Oh yes, just keep reading folks. I'm not going to get too introspective and sentimental today. After all, I have to leave myself something to write for the hundredth post. I'm excited that I made it this far. When I started out I really, really hoped that I'd actually write in this space and feel motivated enough to keep writing here. And I do! I like having something to do everyday that is for me, and really (sorry to disappoint you) only me. We can discuss this at more length next week, when I've actually made it to one hundred. So, the details. I want to know more about who you are. Yes, you! The people that come and read my stuff everyday. Or every week. Heck, if you're just pa...

The temperature outside is four degrees, but it feels likes a healthy negative nine. The Mr. has the car today, so that means LN and I are housebound. Not that I really mind, it is pretty cold out there! I love days like today. I feel no regret for hanging out at home, making a big pasta dinner and sitting snuggled up on the couch. We need these kind of days, especially after the busy holiday season. So I'm saving the post about my experience with the Wii Fit until tomorrow. For today I'm going to curl up with my cup of tea and write out what's making me happy today. Try doing writing things out, it makes the day better and those little irritations seem trivial. So here goes: The warm, yellow sun streaming in through the window. Being able to rock LN to sleep, and her now still being asleep. A cozy house. Friends that brave the cold to come and play. An upcoming birthday. Cooking dinner. A bright new year, full of possibilities. Having this space to write and talk ...

So since my post on Wednesday I've been thinking about the goals and things that I want to accomplish and finish this year. I have a number of projects that I would like to complete and see finished by this time next year. Some of them are dorky, some of them are fun. Some pertain to the family, some are solely personal to me. Enough with the talking about it already, let's go to the list! (Note: I'm not even going to number them, I don't want to inadvertently place importance on one over another. These are all important and can be finished in any order.) Attend the Masters of ESL Open House at Hamline and make a decision about Grad School. Find a new family tradition that we can do year round. Maybe one night a month is indoor picnic/camping night. Contact our Realtor to set in motion putting our house on the market later this Spring. Buy the Wii Balance Board and commit to using it; especially with LN. Plan out my weekly meals to cut down on grocery costs and l...