Vacation Bliss

So our first family trip on a plane was relatively painless. Security in the Sunport moved along at a quick pace and the plane ride itself was smooth. EmBea said she had butterflies in her tummy and on her shirt. It was amazing to be re-amazed. Watching my children revel in the joys of jetting above our planet and hanging out in the atmosphere became just that, a joy. CS & CB sat across the aisle and seemed equally enthralled.

The trek through O'Hare to get to my MIL seemed a marathon but in a good way. EmBea was patching so it was a bit of chore to make sure that she wasn't running into people. There was much more hustle and bustle than either of the kids had ever been exposed to before. I cannot wait to take them into Chi-town proper.

Right now I am sitting in the serenity of my in-laws lovely home. We are surrounded by flowers, greenery, lakes and local wildlife. Well there was serenity until my oldest decided that everything was too quiet and stomped through the house like a herd of wild elephants. Damn I sounded like my own mother just then, no wonder she used to get so cranky when we did stuff like that. CB just went a round with the OJ and the OJ won. Citrus in the eye, not pretty.

I am very thankful to be here. It is a good warm up for the impending move. It also happens to be quite nice to be on an actual vacation for once. My little family is coming along quite nicely and it bodes well for things to come. Sometimes it is very easy to get caught up in the mom-ness (being mom). I think it is good to look at it through the eyes of a grandparent or aunt or uncle. They have so much more patience for letting them just be kids.

Well I have rambled on a bit and sucked away some of my vacation time into the internet vortex. I bid you all farewell and hope that you find the bliss in your family today as I have found in mine.

PLGC- family

A good day.

First off I'd like to say that CS totally ruined my Shia LeBeouf fantasy. Why does he have to bring up Holes, which then makes me think of Even Stevens and ewww. The potential cougar in me just walks away and begs me to forget she was ever there. So on that note we took the kiddos to see Transformers 2 today. CS and myself are a transformered out, but in a good like my head is vibrating with this sound, sorta way.

In other news; I am on day 2 of the Nutra Nail 5-7 Day Growth Calcium Formula. I have high hopes based on a reveiew from a friend. I am still recovering from a bad fake nail incedent a couple of months ago. Incedentally I think that would be a great name for a crazy chick rock band. I'd listen to that.

So here is the wind up to my day. Barbie Hollywood Hair Salon. My daughter and I were casting Barbie in film and musical; so they had to look just right. Below are the acheived results, enjoy.

isn't she beautiful!

PLGC-Barbie mama's everywhere.

freaky friday

sometimes even i think i am a mean mom. but i am not really. i just can't stand fits and crying. i really don't think that i am being unreasonable. i have never and i mean never (contrary to popular belief) given into the demands of a screaming child o'mine. i may have eased it back when they realized i wasn't budging. i may have even dropped it when i realized it wasn't worth the fight. i did not give in, i follow through.

embea had me at my wits end today. there was no consequence big enough for the back talk she was dishing in between her dime sized tears. i still to this late hour have no clue as to what her effing problem was (i should get used to this feeling, right?). there were moments of sweet beauteous clarity, very few and very far between. she is sleeping now, man i love that kid!

cb on the otherhand was quite unlike his usual self today. he was all charm (of course we had a swim date audience) and articulation. i am seriously thinking that maybe the children had some sort of freaky friday experience where they switched bodies and hatched some crazy scheme to not tell me. yea i know they're 3 & 6 but i am totally buying into my own conspiracy.

it was a cuh-razy day. so i will leave you with this lovely photo that said children forced asked me to take of their play dough sculptures. i guess they were just too beautiful to not have a memento. i have no freaking clue what they were but i am leaning toward voodoo.

voodoo playdough dolls

It has been a very productive day. The house is clean, the kids are chill and so is the HD (hot-daddy aka CS Novus)! I seems like yesterday's shenanigans and today's housebound activities left everyone feelin' a-ok. so while i am not in the mood to be all jibber-jawed about it...i thought i'd leave a pic of the kids at our outing yesterday. PLGC blogiverse -out

Butterfly Pavillion at the Botanical Gardens

Saturday

It takes 21 days to build a habit. i am hoping that blogging everyday in June will help me build the habit of writing daily. i don't necessarily mean here on this blog, but for myself. i think it is important to quit talking about what i want to do and do it. i hope to teach my children through my examples not just by my words. ironic.

we had a wonderful day today. i got up with CS at 5:30 to help him get ready to go white water rafting. i was psyched that he got to go & it was totally free. beautiful northern NM, a river and a raft. a perfect sort of day for my guy. the kids and i hit the aquarium & botanical gardens around 1pm. the fish are always a plus, but the gardens were in full bloom and looking lovely.

we did the whole bit, butterfly pavillion, heritage farm and japanese garden. we just took a slow pace and brought lots of water and healthy snacks. for some reason on outings like this i can really get the little buggers to go for the fruit instead of the fruit rollup. it was a nice way to spend the day.

so here i am 10:13 and ready to wrap it up. i remember saturday nights of years past when i was just getting ready to start the night. ahh but those days are much fewer and far between. i'd way rather say goodnight to you dear internet. i am off to snuggle up with that hot daddy of mine and some netflix. PLGC -out

p.s. go take a peak at your sleeping children (if you have kids :) and relish in how fricking cute they look when they are sleeping.

Gak (also known as Goop)

My kids are playing with Gak! "What is Gak?" you ask. I found the recipe here. They are in absolute lala land. I added blue food coloring (1 drop) to his and red (to make pink) to hers. Try this with your little ones. The final mix should harden when you initially grab it and dissolve the tighter you hold it.

for this recipe you will need cornstarch, water and food coloring (optional)
4 parts cornstarch (see baking supplies dept. of supermarket)
1 part water
(Can add coloring.)

Add water gradually to cornstarch. Stir with fingers.

Thanks to Earthskids for this recipe, visit their site for other fun recipes & things to do with your kids!

EmBea & CB playing w/ Gak.

PLGC -out

Mom..Referee...Social Network Therapy

Today I totally slept in...translation; I slept until my kid woke me up at 7:30, turned on cartoons, made breakfast & laid back down. Then I got up 50 times to cater to my children's whims. Which in the end negated the laying back down as it was more like exercise.

That being said, I totally know better than to try to lay back down. It really is better to get up and start the intravenous drip of coffee directly into my veins. No, really I have a prescription. Okay so that's a lie, but I drink a lot of effing coffee! Once the neurons started firing I managed to grab a bite for myself in between playing referee to a death match between my kids.

There are days that I think that is all that I do. I was never good at letting them self sooth and thus I have difficulty allowing them to sort it out on their own. I am working on it. We have added another 6 year old girl into our world this summer Mon-Fri. It is definitely making things more interesting. While they keep each other entertained, there are "the spats". Often it is the 2 girls against the boy. So I do tend to try to let them resolve their own conflict. Of course I am covertly watching them through the open window ready to sprint outside at the slightest sign of trouble. And then....I get sidetracked.

I lay out these fabulous plans for my day. It was so much easier with my calendars, inbox and task lists when I still worked my corporate job. Maybe if I could plug the kiddos stats into a spreadsheet I could make a smoother transition. All in all I don't think I am doing a half bad job but I'd like to do a half good job, ya know?

I find many a moment where I am the one in time out, counting to ten, breathing in through my nose and out through the perfect shaped oo of my mouth. Breath AS, that's good, in and out... Then I quickly log into facebook or twitter for a little social network therapy (but only for 5 minutes of course) read about things going on in other peoples universe, hit the stumble task bar, find sites like this and all is well with the world.

PLGC blogiverse. -out

my name is M-U-D

Today has been a busy day. I still am baffled at how much more there is to do now that I am not working. I need to give a huge SHOUT-out to my Madre and CS right now. I am starting to realize how much of the prep and chauffeur duties that they handled. 2-words…A Lot.

I guess I am feeling the SAHM pressure. It’s funny how hard you think it is when you are a working mom and how equally hard you think it is when you are not. The bottom line is that parenting is work. It’s not always hard work but it is constant and you can’t ever stop moving. stick and move; stick and move.

I am finding more laughter in my day. I am slowly learning to just let the kiddos be. They didn’t have me hovering a month ago, I think I should ease back now. Today I felt uber “cool” because I let CB play in the mud. (See muddy feet below.) All that coolness backfired this evening when the kids were having watermelon in the back yard.




I was cleaning up from our delicious dinner of Spaghetti Pie ( a family fave). I realized that I had not heard a peep from either kid in at least 5 minutes. That is in fact all the time it takes to create a new mud puddle and 2 messy kids. I was to busy kicking my coolness in the butt to get a pic of that.

All in all, it was a pleasant but busy day. I am looking forward to an action packed summer, full of arts and crafts, kids, yard sales, and packing up my life once again. Stay tuned as things are moving and grooving in the Novus household. So without further ado I give you;

Spaghetti Pie…

4 oz dried spaghetti
1-2 tablespoon butter or margarine
1 beaten egg
¼ cup grated parmesan cheese
8 oz ground turkey
¼ cup chopped onion
1 clove garlic, minced
½ cup chopped sweet pepper ( we prefer yellow and orange)
2-3 sprigs Italian parsley
1teaspoon salt
1 8 oz jar of your favorite spaghetti sauce
1 teaspoon crushed dried oregano
1 teaspoon thyme
Nonstick cooking spray
1 cup low fat cottage cheese
½ cup shredded mozzarella cheese

1. Cook spaghetti noodles according to package directions and drain.
2. Return spaghetti to saucepan and stir in butter and parmesan.
3. Meanwhile in a medium skillet sauté onion, garlic, Italian parsley and peppers in olive oil until onions start to turn golden. Add ground turkey, salt and brown. Drain liquid. Stir in sauce, oregano and thyme. Heat through.
4. Coat 9” pie pan with cooking spray. Press spaghetti mixture in bottom and up the sides of the plate. Spread cottage cheese over crust and spread meat mixture over the cottage cheese. Sprinkle with mozzarella.
5. Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes, let stand 10 minutes, slice and serve with your favorite bread.

This can be easily made with your favorite meat and dairy substitutes.

I first found this recipe in my better homes and gardens cookbook. The recipe above has been slightly modified from the original.

PLGC-out