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...