The Weekend....finally!!

 Boy, am I ready for the weekend!!  As we get close to the end of the school year, I always begin to feel the monotony of it all.   It feels I've hardly gotten over the mad rush to get the kids to school and it's time to pick the little ducklings up.  I love the 3 mornings a week when I get to visit my favorite hot yoga studio for some power vinyasa.  Sweating buckets and not thinking about what I have to accomplish the rest of the day is bliss :)  Since my preschooler is home today I'll be setting up my mat YouTube style in my living room.  I'm going to try this video.  I generally don't love to do yoga by video but the fact that she's on a pier overlooking a lake caught my eye. Yesterday I felt like spending some more "me" time in the kitchen trying a new recipe...cooking can be so relaxing sometimes and yet so harried at others, can't it?  I tried this one for Turkey Osso Bucco  courtesy of Gwyneth Paltrow.  It was delish!!  I served it with some Pearl Couscous and Roasted Cauliflower (colorwise not the best choices, but I'm obsessed these days with roasted Cauliflower).  I used turkey legs and because they were cave man style ginormous it definitely took longer than the 2 hours the recipe called for.  It was worth the wait though, and the gremolata gave it a little zing.  I swear I could sprinkle that stuff on everything.  I didn't take a picture, of course, so I'll have to share Gwyneth's.  

Gremolata

1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

1/4 cup toasted pine nuts

1 clove garlic, minced

zest of 1 lemon

pinch of sea salt

Pinch of freshly ground black pepper

 

 

 

The weather is supposed to be sunny and 70 degrees (woohoo) this weekend so I plan to.....

1.  Enjoy some park time with my 3 ducklings

2.  Help the kids plant sugar snap peas in their garden

3.  Put up the hammock in the backyard (maybe even get a chance to sit in it?)

4.  Clean my closet and get out some warm weather items from the attic.  This includes purging some neglected sweaters and winter items for donation.

5.  On Sunday visit Six Flags Great America!!  I'm just as excited as the kids...I LOVE roller coasters.  Just hoping my 5 year old will be tall enough to ride something or there might be tears :(

 

Happy Weekend!!  Here's hoping you get to spend some time outdoors with your lovelies too.





Christmas revisited

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My littlest peanut will turn 3 in a matter of days and I almost cried when I came across this darling picture of her at around 6 weeks. How did she get so big so fast......I'm longing for that new baby smell and the feeling a warm bundle on my lap. I suppose my memories will have to suffice because Daddy says that 3 little ducklings will have to be enough :) I'm attempting to order pictures to finish filling the poor little darling's 12 month picture frame. Here she is almost 3 and if you looked at the pictures around my house, you'd swear she doesn't even exist!! The going is slow though as all three kids are climbing all over me and asking a million questions about every picture they see on my computer screen. They've given up on watching the Bears lose on television with Daddy and are now pestering me. On that note though....I've decided to steal the BEST idea ever from a random parenting mag. I'm going put all of our pictures on DVD's so that the kids can watch slide shows of them on long car rides. They love seeing themselves as babies and will get a real kick out of it. The problem? Actually getting around to executing this new plan!!

Some things to cook this weekend

I know that weekends are supposed to be about ordering pizza and eating at restaurants but sometimes I just love to try out a new recipe on a Saturday or

Sunday afternoon just because I can.  It's so relaxing to cook without homework, soccer practice and choir rehearsal looming in the evening.  Here are the recipes I'll be trying out on my family.  Hope these veggies make your mouth water too!!

Skillet Carrots by way of Orangette

Sweet Potatoes with pecans and goat cheese thanks to Smitten Kitchen

Savory Tomato Jam done by Wicked Good Dinner

Our hearts grow tender with childhood memories and love of kindred, and we are better throughout the year for having, in spirit, become a child again at Christmas-time.  ~Laura Ingalls Wilder

Doesn't that say it all!!  I'm trying so hard to enjoy every moment of these last days before Christmas with my little darlings.  And if that means all the cookies don't get baked or the presents aren't wrapped up in a Martha Stewart worthy fashion...oh well.  Because shouldn't I be playing in the snow and assisting in the making of bead and pipe cleaner candy canes instead.  And let's face it, all the Christmas finery in the world doesn't compare to being snuggled up with your 3 favorite little people in front of the fire. 

My kids are hard core in love with both The Mitten and Gingerbread Baby, by Jan Bret this year and can't get enough of them. 

Hoping you're snuggled up with the ones you love too!!  And don't forget to read a Christmas book, drink some hot cocoa and let yourself feel like a kid again.