On Your Mark, Get Set, September 1st. GO! \(^-^)/

It is no secret that I am crazy for fall. Crazy, crazy, crazy. In all honesty, I just tolerate the other three seasons and bide my time until autumn comes around again. I look forward to fall more passionately than I look forward to most things. While I do enjoy completely surrounding myself with "cinnamon pumpkin scent," oddly, I've only once partaken in the quintessential fall girl drink - the Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte. (It was good, just not my thing.)  Which is troubling to me.  Am I not the biggest autumnal fan that I can be!?

While I've been worried about not being in love with the Pumpkin Spice Latte like I'm supposed to, I did see that they just released a new fall drink. The Chile Mocha. I might need to try one of those. They sound like the Mexican Hot Chocolate that I used to drink in San Francisco, only the Chile Mocha also has coffee in it. Incidentally, while drinking Mexican Hot Chocolate at The Canvas in San Francisco, I learned that the film that forms on the top of fresh hot chocolate and other heated dairy products, it is called a "ploika" in yiddish.  The end.

Back on track.... Fall. Of course being the fall maniac that I am, you'd better believe that I had my house plastered both inside and out with autumn decorations on September 1st.  Psych! Just kidding, why would I wait so long? The 1st. was a Thursday and I knew that I'd be homeschooling that day, so I just went ahead and spent August 27th, which was a Sunday, putting up every last foam pumpkin and faux leaf that I owned. I also put up an apple wreath that I made for the front door, and apple pie window decorations that I crafted, and the plastic acorns and the scarecrows and black cat and the mini-apple stool with the wool felted gnome and the autumn dish towels and rugs and hand towels and the fall wax warmer with the cinnamon wax melts and the golden glitter pine cones...........and....and....and...and....... THIS YEAR....this year do you know what I did? I SCALED BACK ON THE DECORATIONS!

Here is some of what it looks like. Don't judge. (Not that you ever do.) I just couldn't help myself!!!

A tip that my Mother gave me: If you can't change out your rug at the moment, and it doesn't exactly go with the look that you're trying to create, just ignore it! Pretend the rug is a neutral and just do what you want! That is why I have orange fall cushions and a bright red rug. Just be like: "WHATEVER!"

Excuse me, your slipcover is showing!

Noah was not as enthusiastic as I was about fall decorating.

I fully realize that with the fall bathroom I kind of crossed a line. This room is a bit...out of control and corny. Ha! Pun intended. But I couldn't help myself and Noah loves it, so WHY NOT? 

Why the "H" not?

This is why not. Because you can end up doing this. On the back of your toilet...

Don't tell anyone.

 Did I make up for the bathroom with this "elegant vignette?"

 But LOOK how RESTRAINED I was in the family room. Nary a decoration in sight.

 Thank you Mom, for giving me your couch. And thank you couch for having a slipcover that is PERFECT for the fall and winter, that covers up your 1992 yellow floral chintz that is PERFECT for for spring and summer. Winning.

Jon is not fazed by the decorations. He is a real man.

One day I spent HOURS and HOURS making these paper and marker decorations for the windows.

And I made this faux apple wreath! I love it and had so much fun. I was inspired by The Wood Grain  Cottage.  All you need is a foam wreath frame, some burlap, a hot glue gun and a bunch of fake apples. Voila.

Happy fall y'all!!!!

Love, 

Lauren 

Opening Of the Season

(I'm ready for this view!!!)

I've been quiet around here, I know. So much has happened this past year, enough to not only squash my happy plans to blog regularly, but also to entirely change my life.  In general, I am a "glass is half full" kind of person. I like to look on the bright side! I still am this type of person, but the past ten months have worn me down. I'm exhausted, I feel sad.

Yet, life goes on. As we turn the corner on the school year and today, Memorial Day, marks the opening of the summer season, I look ahead with hope.

Noah has been struggling this year. It's been so complex and unrelenting. When his severe anxiety kept him from attending school, I became a homeschooling Mom. When I became a homeschooling Mom, Noah's anxiety and sadness and frustration made it very very very difficult to get through to him and to "teach." I felt trapped and confused. I still do in a way. Many kind people have mentioned what a "good" Mom I am to homeschool my child when he had special emotional needs. The truth is though, it has nothing to do with being a good mother or a bad one, I simply had no choice. No matter what we tried or what wonderful educator, doctor or specialist we've worked with, nobody has been able to get Noah back into school yet. I have wanted to stop homeschooling and I do believe that Noah would be better off not at home everyday, but I have no choice.

Luckily, in March we met a wonderful new friend and former teacher from Noah's school, Kevin. While I do homeschool, or at least try to homeschool Noah, five times a week, around 1:30, I take him to Kevin's for socializing with other homeschooling kids like him, and for educational support.

June 12th is our last day. I will miss the interaction. Because of his anxiety, we've yet been able to sign Noah up for day camp or a sports team or a class for the summer. Now it will just be he and I again. Day in and day out. He's not a huge fan of leaving the house, not very into being social, and has a deep aversion to traveling far. 

On top of this, be it part of his sadness or just normal, eleven-and-a-half-year-old, "tween" behavior, but Noah is also quite annoyed and frustrated with me, and even the simplest of requests cause him to baulk disproportionately to the request. This is where my worn out part comes from. 

All we can and will do is keep working on things. Keep striving to understand Noah's personality and meet his needs. Keep up with our support team and friends and have, as I said before, hope. Hope that it'll get easier and that with age and reasoning, Noah's anxiety will wain a bit, as it did for myself around the age of thirteen or fourteen. I have hope.

In the meantime, Jon and I have been re-writing our new normal. We drive more, to and from Kevin's and appointments. We've learned to stop pushing our child to do things that he's not ready or able to do. Our expectations are different and my personal boundaries are different. This is a blessing. I used to say "yes" to everything, even when it was too much for me. Now I say "no" all of the time, both because I want to and I need to. You know those times in life when you're just trying to survive? That's where I am, and "no" is a lifesaver. 

I've found some great online groups for parents with children who have emotional and/or learning differences and needs. Those who are "differently wired." We share stories, listen and swap helpful ideas. Recently I've been really enjoying Tilt Parenting's website and podcast, both are upbeat, inspiring resources.

Things have a way of working out, I believe it. Once we're able to get Noah feeling happier, less worried, then everything will be better. In fact, I kind of really like so many aspects of the homeschooling world and my new life.

As the school year is winding down and I will soon have more time on my hands, I realize how important it is to take short breaks and care for myself and for Jon. Of course as a Mom, I feel completely wrong and guilty worrying about "self-care, " but it is so incredibly important. I can't remember, I honestly can not remember the last time that Jon and I have been out for a "date night" or away from Noah other than his trips to Kevin's. We need to start figuring out the logistics of getting away for coffee or dinner from time to time, and maybe even a short trip. That would be amazing.

Also, on the same front, I've come to understand that it truly is, as they say,  "the little things in life."  The little things like the changing of the seasons and watching birds at my feeder or baking a cake, they make me feel so happy!!! \(^-^)/

I need to celebrate the small things, I whole-heartedly intend to! 

(I have never seen our wisteria vine so in bloom. It was amazing!!!)

As today is a day of remembrance for those who served so bravely in our military, and as the symbolic opening of the summer season here in the US, I pronounce this the start of my "Celebrate the Small Things Season!"  I don't even know exactly what that means, but I'd love to write about small joys that come with every time of the year, because I am CRAZY for seasons and holidays. 

Of course, I'll still write about gray hair too. Don't worry.

A few more items of business. For posterity's sake. In the past month, I have gotten in a small car accident, found out that I had basal cell on my forehead, had Mohs surgery to remove it, shattered my cell phone and broke our blinds. It was a strange, LONG month. Honestly, I love the mystical , astrological concept of "mercury in retrograde," that everything goes haywire during these periods several times a year, but I did not believe it until this past retrograde, which happened exactly when all the bad things were going on. Now I truly truly wonder... 

Traffic suddenly stopped and I rear-ended a service van going about ten miles an hour. Luckily nobody was hurt, thank God. Unluckily, I had a rather large bruise in the shape of a steering wheel across my chest for a week and cause $9,000 worth of damage to my car. Luckily, I have insurance.

I have been going for regular skin checks at my dermatologist for the past ten years, every six months, solely due to an obsessive skin cancer fear. Ironically, last month, I was diagnosed with skin cancer! It's too scary and upsetting to talk about much, but I am so so so thankful that my dermatologist listen to my concern when I came in with a small, pink spot above my eyebrow that was a little dry. I thought at most it was an actinic keratosis, a sun spot, but to my shock, it was a bit of basal cell. I was very lucky to find it early. Two weeks later I had what is called "Moh's Surgery," where they take thin layers of your skin until they have clear margins on all sides of your spot. Everybody could not have been nicer during my procedure. I was there for four hours and left with a fairly long incision from the side of my left eye, up around my eyebrow and ten stitches. Although my spot was small, the surgeon needed to make a longer incision so that the sutures could lay flat. Something like that. I'm missing part of my eyebrow, but it will grow back. I just had my stitches removed and I look a bit scary, but over time, knock-on-wood, I hope my scar will fade. In fact, I just purchased some recommended scar therapy patches, so that's good!

I have been pretty careful with sunscreen and sun hats as an adult, but during my teenage days, I went to lake Michigan too often without sunscreen. Please friends, be careful out in the sun, and if you do enjoy the rays, find a good dermatologist that you can trust. It's so important. <3 p="">

Here's my small thing for today, to celebrate the coming of summer! 

This is my happy place. :)

A little hobby that many of you know I have had for nearly five years. I make original window decorations for the children in the nursery school two doors down. They take almost daily walks for big portions of the year and it seems that they enjoy the ever changing decorations that I put up. I also make my creations for the many passers by that we get as we're on a sort of walking path. So many nice people have taken the time to stop and say that they have fun waiting and seeing what the next theme will be.

So for the month of June, or summer if I become too lazy, the theme is....honey bees!

I like how things turned out this time around. It's truly easy. All you need is some colored paper, a glue stick, some scissors or an exact-o knife. I also use double-sided tape and sometimes glitter and markers. Having a creative outlet in my life is not only essential for me, but one of my very favorite things.

It feels incredibly nice to at least try to make other people smile, and in the meantime make your house a cozy home. Anyone can do it, why don't you give it a try to celebrate summer!?

Until Next Time,

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo,

Lauren 

Way More than You Ever Even Wanted to Know or Care to Know about What I Have Done for the Past Two Weeks

Dear Internets,

Hi everybody! 

Oh gosh, do you know what it's like to have a running blog post in your head for two weeks!? One that you just can't seem to find the time to get out?  I've been itching to write again, but like so many of us I'm sure, I'm just ANNOYINGLY BUSY at the moment!!!!!

I kept waiting to come up with a decent chunk of time to write a nice post, but I'm starting to realize that if I want to get something out, I need to just do what I can, long or short post for now. Otherwise, I'll have a month of updates all at once!   (UPDATE! That is almost literally what happened.) Wait, get it? What LITERALLY just happened!? Ha! I crack myself up.

Things have been going well over here in the little yellow house. It's fall, so everything has to be happy and awesome and BETTER of course! Fall also means that busy rush as we go back to school. There's homework and playdates and dinners that have to get on the table in a timely manner. We've been to conferences already and had several classroom events. Halloween rolled around which was perfect, minus the rain. And then....then....Jon's birthday! And now, it's almost Noah's birthday! We have Thanksgiving after that, directly followed by Chanukah, followed by Christmas and New Years. Even just typing this paragraph makes me feel tired.

Any parent out there will understand why each of these activities, holidays and birthdays takes so much time and effort to pull off. I had a striking thought last month, that before having a child (and lesser so, before a house),  if I thought I wanted to go get a coffee or stop at the bookstore, I'd just walk out of the door. Now though, I could never just do that. For one, I'd have to stop whatever I'm working on at home, like at this moment for example, the two three loads of bedding that are currently in the washer and dryer, or the tomatoes that need to be chopped in a few minutes for our dinner tonight. I'd have to stop the work that I'm doing for home, and then I'd have to calculate what time Noah needed picking up, verses the time that I had to go to the coffee shop or bookstore. It's essentially just a new level of complication.  Before, celebrating a birthday might be last-minute dinner plans on a Friday night, and a gift picked up that afternoon. Christmas was basically showing up at my parent's on the 25th with a package or two under my arm. Halloween was just staying home, I didn't have any pressure to make a classroom snack to feed twenty, only a snack to feed one while I watched MTV's Real World.

These days, everything just takes more time and more planning.

It's all so strange how your life morphs into something so profoundly different. Partially without even realizing while it's happening. HOW does that happen!?

I'm off on a tangent that is no use treading down now. Except to say, busy days aside, I would love to blog and blog and go back to my lattes at the coffee shop - slash - writing sessions as soon as possible! 

So without further babbling, here is what's been going on around our neck of the woods.........

If you are a Trader Joe's fan, you will understand it when I say, that it was as if they were taken over  by the Great Pumpkin in October. Can you imagine the great pumpkin standing behind the big manager's desk? Ringing the bell over and over, while extolling the virtues of a sincere pumpkin patch?

They had pumpkin ravioli, pumpkin body butter, pumpkin cereal bars and pumpkin cake mix just to name a FEW pumpkin products. Our favorite hands-down though, are the organic, frosted, pumpkin toaster pastries. Like pumpkin crack. And soon, they will all be goooooooooooone. Good thing I still have two un-opened boxes in the pantry. When something is this good, you've got to stock up!

And whilst this is not a "pumpkin" product per-say, the Cinnamon Broom still counts as a much anticipated Trader Joe's autumn favorite. Yes, I present to you, the awesome cinnamon Broom ever. At $4.99, how could you not buy one, and make your entire home smell like it was doused in cinnamon by a gigantic giant who just dipped you in a cinnamon bucket. If a cinnamon bucket is such a thing?

Click on the picture to read the label. It's hilarious. That Trader Joe's, so funny. Haha.

Here she is next to the fireplace. Looking all cute and smelling like a candy red hot. 

My father is obsessed with outfitting Noah when cold weather rolls around. Which, I don't completely understand, but it's fine by me! Here he has sent Noah an adorable Patagonia Kid's fleece "Retro" vest, a pair of water-resistant Merrell Kid's "Jungle Mocs", and the cutest Gap Kid's hat and convertible mitten/glove set. I think he looks ready for late fall. Do you?

I absolutely adore the vest's styling. The colors too. It's quite thin though, with low-pile fleece and a nylon inner layer to stop the wind. It's perfect for early fall, and using for layering later on. The Merrell shoes are a classic, and surprisingly our first pair! Noah says that the heels are slipping, so I'm wondering if they're a bit big. Aside from that, the Jungle Moc is the perfect slip-on and go shoe for a young boy who's ready to run outside over wet leaves and mud.

The Kid's Gap fleece hat and gloves are fantastic. I love the bright, fun plaid pattern and the fleece is as soft as can be. As an added bonus, my hands actually fit into the mitten-glove, so I will steal them form Noah.

Thanks Dad!

We've been on and hosted some fun playdates in the last few weeks. Something that goes into having get togethers for the kids is snack planning, especially after school. Last year I blogged about making this quick and easy caramel sauce for apple dipping. I thought it would make the perfect after school fall snack. And, it's half kind of junk-food-ish and fun, but half healthy! (Depending on which half you eat the most of. ) 

Here is the recipe that I was emailed by my sweet friend Anna Margaret:

CARAMEL  DIP  FOR  APPLES

1 can eagle brand milk ( the sweet one )

1 tsp. cinnamon    

2 Tbsp. cider vinegar    

6 oz. butterscotch chips

________________________________________

Melt over low heat, pour into fondue pot or other

Serves 4-6   * the apples can be cut in wedges or cubed for the dipping*

Can make ahead and reheat slowly.  Don't microwave

I had this at a friend's gathering and she made it in a cast iron skillet (small)

The only down-side was that the boys were too busy playing to stop and eat. (Sigh...) I asked,  but they just never really made it to the mini-crock pot. Oh well. If you make some for your family and friends, I'm sure they'll enjoy it, it's delicious!

Sometimes playdates last until dinner time, and sometimes they end after dinner. On this particular day it was a play and dinner playdate. When we have little friends over, I try to make mealtime fun, and figured that I would try something new - these slightly healthier, baked mozzarella cheese sticks. (They went with spaghetti and peas.) You can find the recipe HERE.  Essentially, choose the mozzarella cheese sticks of your choice. (I like Trader Joe's low-fat, organic sticks) Then you cut each in half, dredge in flour, egg whites and a bit of bread crumbs and bake! They are quite good, and nice to dip into a simple marinara sauce. I recommend!

Also, we amazingly had ANOTHER playdate the next day. I prepared extra sticks the day before and popped them in the freezer instead of baking them. So, for our second get together, all I had to do was take a few from the freezer and put them in the over. In less than ten minutes, a snack! Voila!

Because of parent-teacher conferences and an in-service day, Noah had a couple of days off of school. Jon was also traveling, so I had to get creative with filling all of that down-time. Well, not "filling it", I'm a firm believer in relaxed days in pajamas with books and toys and cartoons, but we also needed an adventure of two. 

I've been missing my favorite coffee shop, so Noah and I walked over one day for hot chocolates and a game of chess. Mario chess to be exact. I'm not even going to tell you who won the game.......

For you holiday shoppers out there, I wanted to tell you that we've had this Mario Chess set for at least three years now, and I would say Noah has gotten well over it's worth in play. I highly recommend it. A set like this helps foster a love of chess in children, but also, the characters are great for imaginative play. It's a fun gift for many!

Some other fun that went on in October was our trip to Greenfield Village's "Hallowe'en in Greenfield Village". It was spectacular! Basically, a one-mile path is set up around the Greenfield Village. (For those of you who don't know, the village is basically a living American history museum. It's pretty cool.) The path is lined with carved and candle lit jack-o-lanters. It's INCREDIBLE! I was told there are roughly 1,000 pumpkins along the route, but I feel like it has to be many more. Along the path you stop at a whole bunch of Halloween and history inspired vignettes and skits and interactive displays. Things like a mad scientist's lab, pirates, a fortune teller, some ghosts and even singing pumpkins. There are also stations set up where treats are handed out, and lots and lots of fabulous costumes.

I was busy following Noah and it was quite dark out, so we don't have too may photos from the night, but here are a couple.  It's difficult to make out, but this was a 30-40' foot tree that was full of pumpkins. I'm guessing these were the carved foam pumpkins, but it was so cool!

This is Noah at the "Broom Shop" which the witches ran. As a wizard, he fit right in. 

This was such a fun event, I can't wait to go back next year!

And........as soon as Halloween was over.......Christmas began!

Home Depot started selling their holiday decorations. Noah immediately spied a giant, plastic candy cane and started dancing with it. And then somehow, he convinced me to er.....buy it. 

And now I'm going to show you where I found it..... I'm none too happy......

In his secret "Weapons area"! You see, his father and I are mean, and we refuse to buy him weapon-like toys, so instead, he has conned other people  into buying him weapon-like toys, or he has turned peaceful objects into tools of death, and coyly stashed them next to a toy piano and behind some Lincoln Logs. I'm on to him now!

Behold the "nunchucks" early American dipped wax candles that Noah made at Greenfield Village. And, some kind of ear-splitting battle horn? That was a party favor that now "hides" the candy cane hook of evil. Please also note the bow conned off my Dad from the Harbor Springs Art Fair and the plastic shotgun that my stepfather bought him in a total act of rebellion against us. (The foam Minecraft pickaxe was our mistake. We thought it was for MINING. Also, the foam sword was purchased from the $1 spot at Target, during July, in a completely pitiful, desperate act of OMG, it's summer vacation, I'm loosing my mind. Here, have a sword and go outside and PLAY!)

So I came up with the following make-shift toy, in hopes of pulling him away from the evils of was candle nun chucks.  
Everybody, please meet "Mystical Rice Quarry".

Take one $3 storage bin from Ikea. Fill with 5lbs of rice. Add some drops of food coloring. Mix. Go to Michael's Craft Store and purchase all of the awesome 1/2 off germs and tiny trinkets that you can find. I bought "diamonds," keys, spooky miniature clocks, and a teeny tiny crystal ball. Then you hide everything in the quarry. You can cover small Tupperware boxes with tin foil as I did, to make mounds. Plop in some little construction vehicles and you're done!

I couldn't believe it. Noah LOVED the mystical rice quarry! I gave it to him with a silly poem that  I wrote about it being a mystical rice quarry and that he had to find the secret hidden treasures to gain powers.

He played.........

...... and played and played. For hours. HOURS!

Also that week, I received a note home in Noah's backpack to send in a set of unbreakable , GLAMOROUS looking plates, forks and knives and goblets. Whaaaaat? GOBLETS!? Glamorous looking plates and goblets!? What's that!? They were to be props for a classroom Harry Potter skit that, so I had a bit of a hunch. I didn't want to spend a lot of money, so this is what I did. They were lumpy, foil covered, plastic jewel encrusted, puffy glitter painted goblets and plates. But they worked!

This fall has been gorgeous. The weather has been lovely and the colors even more so. There's a tree just outside my bedroom window. It is more vibrantly yellow than any tree I have ever seen. It's just gorgeous. I feel lucky to have it right there.

Halloween was extra rainy. The week had beautiful weather, and just as Halloween rolled around, the rain came. It didn't matter I suppose. It was an adventure. I wanted to make our dinner a little fun, so I lit candles, and thought it gave everything a "spooky" feel. But it turns out only I am spooked by candles.

Noah dressed up as a wizard. I thought he was adorable. Noah received mounds of candy that night. Mounds! I told him afterwards, and I do think this is true (so listen up boys!), if you are a boy and you wear a "cute" costume instead of a creepy, gory costume, you will receive more candy. I have to believe that this theory is true. There were a lot of women at doors going: "Awwwww.....and stuffing handfuls of candy into his orange plastic pumpkin.
At one point, the pumpkin was so full that he had to dump his candy into my backpack and start collecting all over again.

He we are at the beginning of the wet night. Noah and I wore our Bog boots, so we stayed dry. Jon, not so much. Poor Jon.

Oh! And for my gray-haired readers, this is what gray hair looks like after standing out in the drizzle for two hours. Ok, so probably the same way black or brown or blond hair looks after standing out in the drizzle for two hours. It's strange how less gray my hair looks, when I pull back the top layer. Hmmm.

Another fall-ish thing that I did in hopes to make Halloween night fun, was to try out homemade Autumn Potpourri.
Basically, using my peeeeeeerfect Le Creuset cast iron pumpkin, I put in cinnamon sticks, some pure vanilla extract, a sliced apple and then, I filled most of the pumpkin up with apple cider and some water. It smelled delicious! You can add a bit of ground cinnamon for a stronger scent.

Quiche. Have you ever tried the magic, crustless Bisquick quiche. I think it's magic because it's so easy and tastes magically good. You can find the recipe HERE. I've tried this quiche with all kinds of different veggie combos, but this particular time I made it plain, with only some onion and cheese and  a few tomatoes on top for garnish, so Noah would eat it. And.....Noah would not eat it. Sigh.....

For dessert I made a few bakes apples using THIS recipe. Sadly, Noah would not eat it......
But I did! Very good, very delicious.

In the past couple of weeks we've also been to the cider mill. We have a wonderful cider mill just ten minutes away. It was built in 1837. That's old! I've been going to this cider mill my whooooole life. In fact, when I was in nursery school, my parents would bribe me with an after-school cider mill trip (it was right around the corner from my school), if I would stop crying at drop-off. 

(It never worked but they still took me to the cider mill.)

A few more things. One is that I am very relieved to say that I finally have ALL of Noah's birthday gifts, Chanukah gifts AND Christmas gifts purchased and mostly wrapped. The other day I wrapped twenty things! (Jon's gift included.)  With Chanukah's eight nights, the gift-count really gets up there. This is all stressing me to no end. When you count in both of our families, included seven nieces and nephews, it adds up to what feels like more than I can handle for Christmas and Chanukah. So far, I'm up to 40 presents needed. I'm just going to say it: I hate that Christmas and Chanukah mean that you have to spend way more money than you'd normally ever spend, any other time. I know that I could make some of our gifts, and I definitely will, but there are a few situations where homemade doesn't make sense or is not enough. Also, homemade costs money too, and takes a lot of extra time that I don't really have. It's just so stressful. I'm thinking for next year, I should start holiday shopping January 1st, and look for deals throughout the year.
I'm sorry to sound "bah-humbug", but it's been on my mind lately.
(Here is Hector helping me wrap.)

 I made this mostly crockpot version of Toovar Dal - Indian lentils. It calls for pigeon peas, AKA yellow split peas. Jon absolutely adores this recipe. It includes some sautéed garlic, tomatoes and lots of spices like turmeric and cumin. You can find the recipe HERE. Serve with Naan and/or rice and don't expect Noah to eat it!

I am still trying to get Noah away from the computer more often. Rather than just saying: "No computer" and being done with it, I want to help make things fun. So, while he was at school today, I came up with a surprise. This is one of my "starters" for creative, imagination play.  I set the scene in hopes that when he got home, Noah would build the rest himself and play!

This is a train track using some of his battery powered Thomas the Tank trains. I also took the pieces from his Mario Brother's chess set and put them in some of the train cars and around the track. Then I also put out the "treasures" from Noah's rice quarry. Some in train cars, some hidden, some in full site. I also started a Lincoln Log station. He can build the rest.

And guess what!? He loves it, and I can hear him in there now making up an imaginary game. It worked perfectly. :)

Today I finally finally made it back to my coffee shop to write. The only problem is, I had complete writers block!  At least there was Coconut Oolong tea. It was soooooo nice to be back.

You see, what's going on here is that it has taken me WEEKS to write this post, so every time that I come back to it, I have new pictures to add and more things to write about. It just keeps getting longer and longer and longer! 

I have to tell you that we just came back from the best dinner. I know, I know I was previously writing about stressing over Christmas spending, and here I am at a restaurant of all things. But, I cook all the time. We eat at home a lot these days, and I cook as often as I can. Sometimes I just feel like going out. And besides, I'd still be spending money on ingredients if I cooked at home!

 Fridays though, many Fridays are my "day off" from cooking and I can't tell you how HAPPY I am about that! 

Tonight we went to a place who's motto is  - "A Neighborhood Joint". It IS my favorite neighborhood joint'!  We walked over. It was freezing, but it was so worth it.  Jon looks happy.

We shared a roasted beet and endive salad. I love beets. Yellow and red! Noah had the kid's steak, Jon a giant burger with avocado and pancetta, and I had an amazing dish of ricotta gnocchi. The gnocchi were amazingly light and fluffy. They were dressed with a rich mushroom sauce that had lots of sauteed garlic, asparagus and spinach in it. The dish was great. 

Sometimes you just need to have someone else cook for you!

Ok, I need to end this post here before it gets even longer!!!!

Until next time!

xoxoxooxoxo,

Lauren