Anxiety dream

I had an anxiety dream last night that we were having a big party and I didn't have time to clean before people showed up.  Even worse, I went to get the Bold Rock cases out of the storage room and the kids had opened them all and put little toys in them, so they were undrinkable. Well, the good news this morning is that the Bold Rock is safe and available for drinking.  The house on the other hand... filthy and cluttered up and 8 loads of laundry in progress. Trip report and photos to follow later.

Messed up week

The kids are definitely on to this time change scam and even Emily is protesting going to bed while it is still light out.  An hour after I thought she went to bed tonight I noticed that her light was on and she was puttering around her room. There was a neatly folded pile of knitted place mats on the floor, normally used for American Girl doll something or other. I didn't want to discourage her cleaning habits so I just praised her and put her back in bed. Patrick sometimes cleans his room too but in general cleaning by children is only done under a militant eye.

Anyway, the way I reacted to this time change was that at 9pm on Sunday it felt like 10pm. That's right, when it should have felt like 8pm. The worst part about all this is that I am so ready for lounging clothes and perhaps an unfashionable bathrobe while it is still light out. Sean only tolerates this because he is just happy to not be deployed. His standards have been lowered.

In other unfashionable news, I'm trying to pack for spring break and it turns out that the girls have very few items of clothing that aren't stained or ripped. I suspected that Patrick was in bad shape (and let's not discuss what the preschool people must think of his very own wardrobe selections) so I bought him stuff for this trip specifically a few weeks ago, but I failed to consider what the girls would wear. We are so close to summer clothes and then UNIFORMS (!!) that I am in no mood to buy them anything long sleeved. So this will be interesting. Don't worry, we will be sure to tell everyone we meet that we are from Kansas, ha.

Here is the painting, looks better in person, very textural. I needed some spring. Now for some warmer temps....

PS no breezeway

There will be no breezeway in the new house. While we want Sean's office to be separate from the main house, I'm thinking a closed in extended mud room of sorts will be best. Sean has mentioned his dislike of our breezeway during the winter months a few... thousand times. And then to drill this fact into my head he likes to request that I deliver things to him in his office during the winter months (water, tylenol, candy, something freshly baked, etc), just so I understand what it's like when he has to go back and forth no less than 45 times in one night. I'm pretty sure that's what the count was last night. He says he kept thinking they were done calling him on so he'd come back to his real bed and it was like a rush of cold air every time. Have we discussed that there is a bed in his office? With real bedding, I set him up in style. Does this sound like a passive aggressive post? If so, it's just because I'm tired. From being woken up like a new mom all night last night. Waaaah. However you type that. I think we're even for the new painting.

Speaking of new painting (all Kitra's fault by the way), I was pointing out to Sean that one perk to living here is that we've gotten to know a lot of the local business owners so it's fun to go in their shops and restaurants and have a real conversation. Then he says dismissively, "oh, like that gets you a discount". I swear, I wasn't setting him up for this, but YES, it does! Frequent customer rewards. So go to the Strecker-Nelson Gallery downtown, do not be intimidated, nicest people ever with cute little dog sniffing around, and buy lots of stuff so you can be a frequent customer too... eventually they will show you the basement with the extra inventory, good stuff. They also do great framing and the gallery on the first floor has lots of cheaper stuff, good for gifts, which was the whole reason I went there....  You can also find their whole inventory online:  http://www.strecker-nelsongallery.com My favorite new artist is Kristin Goering, reminds me of Zak Barnes but her works are smaller and cheaper. Go check it out!

House of the Day

This is going to be random and perhaps long, we'll see how quiet the kids stay tonight. Anyway, I'll start with the House of the Day. After having anxiety dreams about not knowing what style of house we liked, let alone what the name is, I spent quite a bit of time digging deep into the internet for guidance. Tiffany told me they are going with Santa Barbara Mediterranean which was intimidating to me. So specific! Suddenly "umm, traditional?" sounded kind of vague. And lame. So I present to you, my favorite today (and yesterday when I sent this to a few fellow die-hards): Pennsylvania something! Maybe horse farm, which is perfect for me as I have a healthy respect/deathly fear of horses.

 Love the little side entrance, for kids and their junk.

 Do we need words for this? Nope.

 Not totally crazy about the porch that isn't screened in, I mean, nothing is perfect.

 I lied, this kitchen is totally perfect. I even have that LeCreuset pot.

Here is where the noise happens. Love the layout and I love that the facade is so modest that you'd never guess it is 7500 sq ft. We wouldn't need that, but we do need more than 1800 sq ft which was the first house we bought in Texas. Totally happy there, could never move back though.

Anyway, speaking of moving, this is a disappointing time as we have real friends moving away over spring break. Tiffany and JT will be missed but we understand why they are going. Thankfully we can catch the shuttle down to Dallas for some shopping and eating anytime we want. I will probably see Tiffany more now, ha! Actually for someone who is as crazy busy as she is, she has always made time for friends. This is why I don't accept the excuse from people that they are too busy to be friends. I realize that you make time for the people you want to make time for and thus I don't waste my time on the others anymore. Always friendly to people but I'm done making all the effort. Kitra is another who makes time for friends and she is just as busy as Tiffany, this is a bond they share. I bribe them with baked goods, that's my contribution to the group. I do have other real friends in town of course but they are not allowed to move away. I'll have Kitra draw up the contracts...

Transitioning to spring fashion tips

So, who has some of those tips for me? I'm beginning to think people have figured out that I own one winter sweater and while I'm ready to start wearing my two striped spring shirts, it's not pleasant out. That may change soon, I'm hoping by lunch time but patches of snow in our yard remind me that it is still March. Early March. And let's discuss boots, because that's all I wear these days. What do I wear in the spring when winter boots defeat the purpose of capri pants? I hate cold feet so unlike college students, I am not wearing flip flops until my feet are sweaty. Also, ugly feet, it's a curse. Well, I guess for the month of March at least I will just wear gym clothes and let people think I am working out.

Speaking of working out, which I'm not because I am day 2 post actual hair styling, I figured out that last night's dessert success is exactly how I remember the one from Bravo during the legendary San Antonio trip when I had my first Mommy/Emily day three years ago. Best shopper ever in her car seat while Sean went to his moonlighting meeting. I loved that dessert so much that I repeated it the next day with just Emily in the middle of the afternoon out on their patio in perfect Texas April weather. I know it's a chain restaurant, I don't care. Memories. And this is why it is worth spending money on travel because you are making memories to get you through the cold boring days of March. Also, while on vacation, take time to eat extra desserts. Oh Paris... desserts on our way to lunch... why not?

Here is a bonus tip that I learned at the women's conference. Next time you walk into a room and can't remember what you need from there, smile. It activates your frontal lobe and that helps you remember. I was skeptical of this tip but it actually works. Now I smile when this happens to me because I've decided to think it is funny how often that happens to me. And then I remember what I needed. Right now I am remembering that I have leftover dessert and it would make an excellent second breakfast. Apologies to Sean who is missing out because of army. 15 months until working from home! I told him to furlough himself but apparently it doesn't work that way. (p.s. the way furlough works here will end up costing more tax dollars, BRAVO, and I don't mean the delicious Bravo)

Need Spring

I never thought I'd type this, but I am looking forward to daylight savings time because there are days now when the suns wakes me up, not children. Go ahead and cry for me, Argentina. Also, cold weather makes me want to bake and it's a little out of control. When I'm tired of all our usual desserts, I manage to think up something new to make. Tonight I made mixed berry cobbler that someone gave me the recipe for years ago. Just now I remembered it and figured out that I could use up some of the frozen smoothie berries for it. I would post a photo of it but it was inhaled before I thought of it. In case you want to gain some weight before swim suit season, here you go:

Mix together:
1 cup sugar
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk

Then whisk in 1/2 cup melted butter. Pour it in a greased 8x12 pan and then sprinkle 2 cups frozen berries on top with another 1/4 cup of sugar. Bake for one hour at 350.

Not the healthiest way to eat fruit but this isn't a diet blog, duh.

Another Mommy/Emily Day

Whoo-hoo, unlimited My Little Pony! I don't feel as guilty now that Sean has discovered that this has a cult following AMONG MEN and it teaches good lessons about friendship and social interactions. Whatever, it allows me time for hair washing and hair DRYING. My hair gal hates drying my hair and I'm paying her so just imagine how much I hate doing it for free. Ha ha, she has to do it tomorrow! Best part about getting my hair done for real, a free pass on skipping the gym for at least two days. Not about to ruin my rarely styled hair with sweat. Lately I am master of the fast gym visit though so I could probably go and avoid sweating altogether, but don't want to risk it. Today I planned to do cardio for some guilt-free baking, but after 30 minutes without real conversation I was over it. I would say that 30 minutes is better than nothing but that's not true when it leads to more eating. Time to resume Mommy/Emily day.

I took her to use "little shopping cart" which meant by the end I was pushing it crouched over because it's too heavy after milk stop for her to ram it into people. She also refused to wear a coat and since it looks sunny and warm I caved in. Well, still 30 and windy out so I had to keep repeating loudly in the parking lot that she was so silly for not wanting to wear her coat, i.e. don't arrest me for child endangerment. Then we finally managed to find a car wash line that wasn't 45 minutes long and we watched the mud drip off our car. This was followed up with being the target of a flock of birds. I give up. Mommy/Emily day over, usual fighting has resumed.