The Chocolate and The Cheese

Hello folks! I can't wait for the little lady to wake up today so we can go outside and enjoy this spectacular Spring weather. Sixty-nine degrees and the wind is out of the South! A perfect day for the park, followed by some free, yummy pizza . Is it really still March?! So I wanted to give a little update on my New Year's list. You know, the one over there --->? So far I have very little crossed off of my list. I attended the Open House. I made a decision about Grad School and my application will be completed and sent in before April 1st (yes, I am aware that is Thursday). I am planning out most of my meals every week, but I would like to become more consistent. I have an idea I will outline in a future post. I have two failures and they are that I have decided to forgo the Couch to 5K program. I just have to come to terms that I don't like running, it doesn't feel good to me and I can't commit to something right now that takes so much time. Maybe i...

Everybody has a case of the Mondays over here. Tantrums, messes, no naps; this is the kind of day that take out restaurants love. The kinds of days that, by five o'clock I'm done. The house is destroyed (which, after the bust weekend we had, it started out that way) and I'm tired, hungry and in no mood to cook. So, instead of letting the day get me down I decided to find a quote to cheer me up/make me laugh and move along to picking up the pieces. It's not a perfect solution, but so far, it seems to have worked. Here's hoping that your Monday is going much, much better than mine! "Well," said Pooh, "what I like best," and then he had to stop and think. Because although Eating Honey was a very good thing to do, there was a moment just before you began to eat it which was better than when you were, but he didn't know what it was called. ~A.A. Milne

Because I may seem like I don't like myself very much, because the sun is shining today and because I scored two awesome Little Black Dresses on clearance yesterday I'm going to let you in on five awesome things I am good at. Toot, toot! Here goes my horn! Ha nd Rolled Cigarettes : I studied in Alnwick, England for a semester in college and when I headed over there I was flat out broke. I have always been a prolific social smoker, so I asked one of my good guy buddies to teach me to "roll my own". They're awesome and so much cheaper! I still can roll a mean cigarette, but don't anymore since the tobacco usually goes stale before I can finish a whole pouch. Best Dish Picker : I have this knack of picking the best stuff on the menu. Usually when I order something at a restaurant the Mr. ends up wanting to switch with me. I just know what is going to be good! The same can be said of my ability to pick out restaurants, my intuition is mostly right on. Pe...

It occurred to me the other day that I have a job. Yes, taking care of the little lady full time is a job, but that's not the one I'm referring to. No, I'm talking about the one that requires full-time dedication, motivation, organization and a eye for detail. The never ending job of keeping a house clean and tidy. For whatever reason I always saw housework as a shared job between the Mr. and myself. Or, I should clarify, what should have been a shared job between the two of us. But it's not. It's up to me. Now, I've never claimed to be a good housekeeper. In fact, I'm quickly coming to realize that I'm quite a sh*tty housekeeper. I can cook, bake, sew and make people feel comfortable, but my house? That's another story. It's not just that I hate doing housework; I don't know how to clean my house some days and when I do, I'm just not that good at it. There are cobwebs on the ceiling, dust everywhere and clutter! Oh, the clutt...

Today is one of those days that most things just seem to go right. The little lady woke at a decent hour and sat in bed and talked with us until 7am. Then she actually ate breakfast and colored quietly so I could check Facebook and my email. The dishes were put in the dishwasher, no toys were taken out, so the house remained some sort of clean. After the Mr. left for work we got in the car and drove over to a new friend's house for one of the best play dates we've ever had. Kids played. Moms drank coffee and chatted. There were no tears. No fights. No drama. Plus, the sun shone. Hallelujah! To make it even better the kid fell asleep on the way home and is still happily sleeping upstairs in her room. OMG, I feel like I'm jinxing something. I'm pretty sure something terrible will happen when she wakes up. After nap time we'll head to the park, because it's Spring in Minnesota! Where dad will come and pick up the little lady so I can get my hair cut an...

There's always a man or a woman at the corner when I drive up. Doesn't matter the time of year; they're out there rain or snow or hot, humid day. I think they take shifts. I drove by one day at "shift change", I heard one say to another, "The pickin's aren't so good today." Sometimes I drive an extra five minutes around, just so I don't have to pass them. Their signs say different things. "Homeless, anything helps." "No job, no money. Please help." I can't look them in the eye as I drive by. I tell myself that I want to help the world, but I can't even stop to help these sad, desperate people. It's not like I drive a fancy car and give the impression of money. I'm pretty sure that my yellow, rusty, missing one mirror, 2001 Ford doesn't put me in the "has it all" category. But it still gets me from Point A to Point B, warms in the winter, cools in the summer and carries the things I ...

If this list was "Five Things I'm Good At", procrastination would be at the top. Making lists would also be up there, but that's because I enjoy planning everything out, only to procrastinate following it through. I never said that I was normal. So here it is, the top five things that I love to procrastinate on. I don't have an explanation as to why; it's just the way I am. The Laundry. Have we covered this topic extensively enough? Yes? Alright, let's move on. Leaving the House. This one mystifies me. The Little Lady and I love to leave the house, I'd put it up there as one of our favorite pastimes. However, I'm almost always running late. I think, "I can just read one more blog or do a load of dishes." Heh, wrong. I always underestimate how long it takes us to get out of the house and to our destination. Deadlines . I work my best at the end of a deadline. Papers turned in at 11:59 PM, the day they are due. Tickets pai...

Growing up my parents were fairly strict. We knew our limits, and we were reigned in close. Looking back, my mom was a little bit "crunchy". Our clothes never had wording or brands displayed on them, often the were homemade. She baked/cooked everything from scratch. We were allowed to watch a bare minimum of TV everyday, we didn't have cable. Our toys were fairly gender neutral, except for the few knock-off Barbies I had or were given as gifts. We all played with the trucks, the Legos, the games; my sister and I read a lot of books. I don't remember my mom playing with me, not that she was neglectful, but getting down on the floor to play? Not in my recollection. I do remember that she would color with me at night sometimes. Sometimes. She expected us to play on our own, and we did! My mom emphasized things like, good food, a comfortable house, togetherness. We did a lot together as a family. All vacations were taken together. We ate dinner together ever...

"...understand that to nurture and love others with the grace you desire means taking care of yourself and cultivating your own inner harmony. Inner harmony grows not by finding ways to get away from your child, but by giving yourself the gift of a hot bath at the end of a long day, reading a book of poetry, talking to a friend on the phone, taking a nap, crying, getting a massage, having a day off from cleaning and cooking, staying in your pajamas all day, swimming, going out to eat, or attending a conference. Do something for yourself as you give. Learn to laugh at yourself and not take yourself so seriously." Peggy O'Mara , The Way Back Home I found this quote via Amanda Soule's blog , Soulemama, and it really struck a chord with me. I struggle so hard sometimes balancing life as a mom, wife, friend and human being that it's nice to be reminded that I not only need to take some time for myself, I deserve it as well. And so do you. Whether you're a mom...

Something wonderful happens in Minnesota, in the Spring, when the sun shines. People leave their houses, they greet their neighbors, you see children riding bikes down the street, music wafting from backyards where the scent of the barbecue lingers in the air. Kids jump in puddles, poke sticks into the snow piles that still remain, covered in black soot and gravel from the long months of Winter. You can see peoples skin again. Everyone has a smile on their face. Hands swing as they go down the street. Car windows come retract and people start looking at each other, not past and down the street. They connect; recognize their humanity, see each other as equals, not just as faceless blobs that hurry down to get wherever they are going to. You'll never have a friend like a Minnesotan friend in the Spring. The whole world seems lighter. And it is. Literally. The sun shines and the wind becomes milder; not the hot, humid breeze of Summer, but the soft, gentle wind that encourag...

Welcome my good friend Emily to The Chocolate and The Cheese today as she graciously enough wrote up a great post for us today. Em and I have been friends for years; roommates, classmates, moms-in-crime. I'm so grateful for her friendship and the fact that our lives have taken similar courses. Take it away Emily! My dear friend, MP asked me to write a guest post for this wonderful blog and true to form, I’m turning it in about a month late (oh, okay, six weeks)—but I haven’t just been procrastinating, I swear! The truth is that I’ve been struggling to come up with a post written cleverly enough to befit this space—no promises about the end result of my efforts. Anyway, I considered writing about what a kind, intelligent and all-around wonderful person, MP is, but nixed the idea after realizing she’d probably just think that I was about to ask her for a REALLY big favor. So, instead I’m going to tell you about my guilty pleasure. We all have them, but mine is, perhaps, a wee bit ...

Sometimes I think this blog is dangerously close to becoming a self-help site. If you feel the same, please let me know. However, until I here somebody complain, I'm going to continue with my train of thought. And those trains keep coming back to how I want to change my life. Now, I don't want you to get the impression that I'm unhappy. Quite the contrary. I simply have been evaluating some elements in my life and want to make some changes. Blame it on the season. Maybe it's Spring cleaning on overdrive? Or perhaps it because even bigger changes may be coming down the turnpike. In any case I've decided that since I am an adult, a mother, a wife and much closer to thirty than I have ever been in my life, it's time for me to "grow up". Not that I'm out until 2am every night and living the night life. (Ha, the thought of me doing that now actually made me laugh out loud. As if I could stay up until 2am and then function with a toddler all ...

Hello folks! Do you spend as much time on the internet as I do? I am embarassed to admit how much time I'm online, so I'm not even going let you guess how many hours a day I log. So, what am I reading? Well, I'm glad you asked! My daily blog roll changes frequently, by I wanted to share with you some of the fun new blogs I'm currently checking out. Let me know what you think. Rainy Day Gal ljcfyi Yes and Yes Already Pretty One N Jen Globetrotting in Heels The Wednesday Chef What blogs do you read everyday?

The last few weeks I've been in a funk. Crabby, cranky and generally just feeling rather off balance. The little lady wasn't sleeping well (which meant the rest of the family wasn't sleeping well), the winter seemed to drag on and I just couldn't bring myself out of the blues. Finally last week the sun came out, the weather turned a bit warmer and I began to come to terms with the fact the we may be a no nap house from here on out. After reading my good friend Sarah's blog post last Thursday I decided to turn my day upside down and shake this funk for good. We went about our morning routine like any old, normal day. I went to the gym, the lady got to hang at the daycare and afterward we ran some errands. Then came nap time. Dun, dun, dunnnn. After just one attempt at putting the aforementioned lady down I decided to scoop her up and finish the errands that I didn't get to in the morning. We returned some movies, grabbed some apple juice and mama juice...

After a tough week there's nothing I look forward to more than the weekend. The weekend means that I have back up, some free time and more importantly, time to spend bonding with the family. After the Mr. and I had the little lady we realized the need to get out and about as often as possible. Thing is, kids can be expensive. However, if you get a little more creatively you don't have to spend much more than a couple of bucks per outing. So for this Fridays Five Things post I'm going to give you some things that you can do this weekend, on the cheap! The library. This is a great place to head to on the weekend. You don't even have to check anything out, just sit and peruse the selection! Did you know that you can also borrow DVDs and CDs from the library? And audio books too? The library is a great resource and place to spend some time. Explore a new part of your town . If you live in a city chances are you spend quite a bit of time in your own neighborhood....

I'm sick, the kid is running around like the small tornado she is and I have a To-Do list about "yey long" to finish. Like, should have finished last night, but was too tired because I was sick. Pity myself much? So that being said I leave you with some words that will hopefully brighten your day.

The sun is shining, the birds are singing and everyone in this part of the world is looking forward to spring. Snow is melting, green grass is tentatively poking up and I'm not listening to those of you who keep reminding me that March is typically the snowiest month. Shush. Let me enjoy my sunshine and meltiness; at least for today. This weekend we took our bikes in for a tune-up, which means that biking around town is just around the corner! We also took a bunch of walks around the neighborhood and our favorite places around town. It was fantastic. It's so nice that I think a walk is in order for this afternoon. Wearing our (wait for it...) Spring Jackets! So if it's sunny where you are today, go and take a walk. You deserve a little taste of Spring after the long Winter!