This N That

Sometimes my thoughts are little pieces of information. I offer them to you just the same...in no particular order of importance.

--Books--I just placed an order through Amazon.com for the following books: Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert, Mother's Rule of Life by Holly Pierlot, Boundaries by Henry Cloud and John Townsend, and Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld . I love books. I could buy and buy and buy them, but I refrain. I've been guilty of buying on a whim and not reading them all...or all the way through. Most of these I have thought about for longer than a couple of weeks. I have one whim and that is the "Boundaries" one which was recommended by someone who read my blog on my "Just Say NO!!" blog. But you know what? It sounds like something I need. I could tell my sister was a little frustrated that I bought these books before she could get any of them for me for Christmas. I guess I'm not patient enough.

--A Goal to Healthier Eating--I bought a rice cooker/vegetable steamer for $20 and a $20 food chopper so I can do my very own pureeing! OK, I'm might be crazy to think I could actually start pureeing my vegetables and putting them in our meals, not only to give the kids more vegetables, but me and Ted as well! See...I like vegetables, but I don't always take the time to cook them and I especially don't cook the kind that are really good for you: broccoli, spinach, carrots, cauliflower, squash, etc. I tend to throw in red onions, yellow onions, peppers, mushrooms, etc into whatever I make. So I figure a $40 investment in something that could totally tank, is worth it...especially when it comes to our health. I'll let you know how it goes. I'm waiting for the cook book to come in the mail. At the very least, we might be eating more rice!

--Halloween--We have two Halloween functions this week, which means 6 costumes must be completed!! Yikes!! Sam wants to be Anikan Skywalker (he actually wanted to be Darth Maul, but Dad thought that was too evil), Abby is going to be a rock star, Ben will be Spiderman (hand me down...Thank God), Mary is going to be dressed like a princess with a sash saying "Drama Queen" (my sister's BRILLIANT idea!!). Ted and I should be something because we are going to a trivia night where many adults (and kids) will be dressed up. Hmmm...we could follow the Star Wars theme or do something easier. Whatever it is, I need to decide quickly! I'll take pictures and post them.

--Ben and Mary--Ben and Mary are playing so much better together. Less fighting and more together play. Ben is actually playing dolls with her! He's not hooked on the video games as much anymore. I'm SO grateful for that.

--California Wildfires--Watching the California wildfires made me think, if I had an hour's notice to escape my house what would I take? I imagine that all I would be able to take is what can fit into both cars. Ted and I thought about it together and it was a pretty easy decision. This is our list compiled together: The kids, fully dressed in shoes and jackets, laptop, computer downstairs, fire proof safe (contains legal documents, film negatives and CD's of saved digital pictures), purse, wallet, some food, a cooler of drinks and cold food, dual screen portable DVD Player (for a possible long car ride), mine and Ted's memory boxes from storage, camera, video camera, home movies, cell and palm pilot chargers and the kids' memory boxes. If we had any more time and room, I would throw in clothes. I appreciate any article of clothing I can have for the kids. I love hand me downs and having to buy as few clothes as possible. If I had to leave all of our clothes and start all over for six people...UGH. It would be a pain. Starting over would be a pain period...repurchasing sheets, towels, furniture, A HOUSE!...but that's better than losing things that are irreplaceable. I heard about a family that loaded all their prized possessions in the car and after they escaped their home and drove through smoke and fire, they climbed out of their car to give a big hooray...looked back and their car was on fire!! Later on they found out their house was FINE!!!

--TV Shows--I'm not really into any reality shows. They don't feel very real to me. I LOVE shows like Dateline, 48 hours and 60 minutes. I used to watch them as we caught them on TV. It took me a while to realize I could be recording these with our DVR. I've started recording them and I'm having a lot of fun watching them with Ted after the kids go down and during the day while I fold laundry in my bedroom. I love the way they weave a tail of mystery and watching it unfold. All within one hour (or really, less, because I fast forward the commercials)

--Chillier weather--This past weekend we aerated the yard, seeded in problem areas and sealed the driveway. I shouldn't say "we"....Ted did it all. He said it felt really good to accomplish it but missed his chance to relax this weekend.

A week ago we had a fire in the fire pit. It was very relaxing. The neighbors came over and joined us. We've visited their fires before, so it was fun to break out ours.

--Meal Planning--Meal planning has been going great! I'm such an unstructured person in this category, I rarely eat the meal planned for the day. But I feel I have lots of choices...and I switch it around a bit, but the purpose is served. Last night we had homemade pizzas! I used the bread machine for the dough and split it into two pizzas. After rolling out the dough, I rubbed them with olive oil, and sprinkled the unbaked crust with garlic and Parmesan cheese. After cooking the crust, I topped one with "Four Cheese Alfredo Sauce", cooked, cut up chicken, red onions, mushrooms, artichokes, and mozzarella and provolone cheese. It was so good!! The other pizza was for the kids and I just sprinkled cheese over pizza sauce.

Ok...I think you got a snapshot of my mind. I better go be productive.