Thanksgiving Hangover

So I had an idea for a killer sauce to baste the turkey with. It was equal parts maple syrup, melted butter and brown ale. Suffice it to say that it surpassed my expectations and was enjoyed by all. However, I really only needed one bottle of beer for the sauce, but had to buy a six-pack. So I have 5 bottles of beer sitting in my kitchen. Any ideas as to how a non-beer drinker could productively use them? I was thinking chili, but we already have about 10 gallons of turkey soup. Anyway, would really appreciate any insights (both serious and goofy).

Thanks!

Gabe's new shoes

That's our new sofa in the background. Gabe wanted Faith to see what a styling young man he's turned into. We shopped yesterday with Leah of course. Leah is a constant source of entertainment or frustration depending on the time and mood of the day. Sooooo....what do you think Faith?

Fleece

Well...the girls and I went to the store and this is what we ended up with. The fleece was on sale but I have no idea if I got a good price or not. While we were at the store we picked up a flier for "Project Linus". It's an organization that provides donated, new,washable, handmade blankets to children that are either ill or traumatized in some way. How perfect, the flier even says they accept fleece blankets. There is a project coordinator right here in Fair Oaks. I'll contact her to make sure what size blankets they are looking for but I'm pretty sure I got enough fabric to make at least 6 blankets. Yahoo buckaroo. They didn't have much in the way of selection but I figured the lavender was nice for girls and the blue with the cowboy hats or the red with the cowboy boots were suitable for boys or girls according to their taste. Anyway us girls are pretty excited. This fleece is very soft and snuggly.

Christmas Eve idea

On Thanksgiving when we were at Margie's house I noticed this blanket Marge covered herself with and I got an idea. How about if we make some of these tied blankets to donate as a sort of family service project. We could make them a little smaller and donate for infants at a local hospital. What do you all think? These are super simple. Just cut and tie the sides together or even do them as a single layer. Gabe did some of these at EFY and they did them single layer. Either way I think I will take the girls and get some fabric today. It's a kind of fleece type fabric. This one Marge has is really nice. Should be a fun idea and a little more in the spirit of Christmas. The top photo is one of how the sides look.

Gabe's casting call

Emily and I are trying to load a picture and we are both a little challenged in that area. I think I finally figured this out so here is the picture at last...Gabe had an appointment in the casting room and yes indeed...he got the part. Here is the photographic evidence. Another soccer injury. I guess he won't be playing the last tournament of the season. Poor Gabe. Nice red cast though. He looks so good in red.

I tried to get Gabe to buy these shoes when we went shopping yesterday...he wouldn't go for it. I thought they would provide endless entertainment and I just heard that laughter can add 8 years to your life. How did they determine that I wonder?????

Don't you wish you could sleep like Homer Simpson instead of having to count sheep?

I have had insomnia since I was a child. Must have had it my whole life because my mom complained about me not sleeping as an infant and toddler. Once I could fend for myself at night she didn't complain anymore. This time change has totally messed up my sleep which is pretty messed up without the time change. I have been waking up at 3 or 3:30 everyday and I can't go back to sleep. Since this seems to be my new pattern I'm happily, maybe that's too strong of a word, but I figure since I'm up I'll make good use of the time. Today I've already exercised for an hour, watched an episode of "House", I actually did the first two concurrently, and I've got bread baking. I've also edited this blog twice and now I'm bathing Leah, always the high point of my morning. It's great mother daughter bonding time. I'm waiting for some of the "others" to wake up so I can re-clean the carpet. I cleaned it on Tuesday but it isn't clean enough so I'm redoing it very soon, within the next hour or so. All this cleaning of the carpet is in anticipation of my new sofa. I bought a new sofa for the living room. Brick colored leather sofa. Gave Rebecca Wilhelm the green piano and Mary is taking the old flowery sofa so it's a nice empty room right now. Maybe someday when I can sleep I'll dream of all the loveliness in my home. Till then I'll finish baking the bread.

Homesick for Home Ec

My school didn't offer a home economics course, and I had absolutely no interest in pursuing anything akin to it in university. I'm not sure if home ec wasn't an option because at that point (mid 90's) people felt that those classes were part of a greater conspiracy to keep women in the kitchen as much as it was just my school didn't have the size or funding to pull it off. I think the whole conspiracy thing may have been part of the reason I steered way clear of anything to do with home, kids, cooking, finances etc. when I was in college. I vaguely knew that Some Day I would do all that stuff, but I didn't want to study it. Why take home economics when you can learn about Ancient Greek Architecture, or navel-gaze in Beginning Acting or get 75% off lift tickets through the PE ski class, and, lest I forget, focus on my adored major which was my route for gainful employ the day after I received my diploma. No one suggested I learn anything that would have been beneficial for a stay-at-home mom, and if they had I would have laughed and then been mild to medium offended.
Fast forward a few years to the days I'm trying to get nutritious, fast and simple dinners on the table on at least a bi-weekly basis (come on people!) with enough leftovers for Ian to take to lunch on the days he needs a lunch and without busting the budget each month on groceries. Looking back I really wish that I maybe had given home ec some thought. I'm going on three years now since my working has been transferred from a windowless office to my house and it's been a little bit crazy to try to figure it all out. It definitely was not instaknowledge like I had vaguely assumed. The skills I learned in college serve little to no purpose in my new life, except as a topic of conversation. People tell me- "oh, you'll go back to it someday when your kids start school" or "think of all you learned while you were working." Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that I studied what I studied and that I worked for awhile, and I don't know if I'd do anything different if I was to do it over again, to be honest. I guess I just wonder why colleges are dumping out hundreds of thousands of grads every year who can tell you precisely what painter did what when, but blink with wide-eyed wonder if you asked them to prepare a nutritious, economical meal for four each day of the week, or run a household with confident smoothness. I guess I feel like if I had prepared myself for being a mom even a micro faction as much as I prepared myself for my career- I think it would have come in reeaaalll handy right now.

Christmas

After our conference call here are the gift exchange name's drawn by Caleb and Jamie. Look for your name on the left and the name on the right is the person you will buy a gift for ($20 limit):

Ian - Emily
Melissa - Jamie
Caleb - Grace
Jamie - Faith
Nik - Melissa
Faith - Gabe
Gabe - Nik
Emily - Caleb
Grace - Ian

We are set to check into the house Thursday, December 20th after 3pm and we will check out Thursday, December 27th by 11am. You can check out the house at http://pointsantacruz.com/ There is a link that will show you activities that are close by that we can check out. I personally am stoked about going to the surfing museum. Tentative list of activities follows:
Saturday the 22nd - Monterey Bay Aquarium and Carmel by the Sea
Sunday the 23rd - church and a little walking about time
Monday the 24th - surf/body board & Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk
Tuesday the 25th - house/beach possible hike
Wednesday the 26th - Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary/possible bike ride

We are putting together a family calendar so if you have pictures submit them to Jamie or Melissa. If you have a favorite quote submit that too. Deadline for submitting is November 25th. We will have another conference call on the 25th so be prepared with any questions or suggestions.

Nik has been nominated to head up some music for Christmas Eve so make sure to bring your guitar Nikee baby.

I am soliciting any favorite recipes or food requests so that I can plan meals so send those to me. All this sending should be done by email.

We will be baking cookies to use as decorations for the tree so if you have any ideas/suggestions in this area let me know too. Me is Louise in case anyone was wondering. I'm attaching a picture of the house. Please check out the website and come to the next conference call with your ideas.

This is going to be great fun. If we all work together no one will get too burned out and it should be fun for all.

Love you all...Mom