Naturally Optimistic

Well, I guess I'm winning the Eating Lottery this week. Aside from the taquitos incident, this week has been EASY! Tonight - potluck/picnic at August's pre-school. His LAST EVENT at Pre-SCHOOL - FOR.EVER. AND EVER. *sigh* I digress. So the kids had: August: some plain crackers, a handful of cheetos, apple juice and a cookie (not homemade - one with all sorts of crap in it). Dahlia: some meat balls in marinara (about this I was COMPLETELY SHOCKED!), fruit salad (various melon & one grape), cheetos, crackers, the same "fake" cookie that August had and a brownie with apple juice. AY YI YI At least EVERY OTHER SINGLE KID THERE was eating the same thing. *sigh* Okay - tomorrow on the menu plan - MICKEY MOUSE WAFFLES and bacon. Yup. It was Dahlia's turn to pick a meal. So be it. We will load up on vitamins & cantaloupe, won't we......

Ugh - been failing at the whole feeding my family well thing since the first post. Last night I had a birthday dinner with some girlfriends that I went to. I made the kids some Star Wars Mac & Cheese (I always add a little greek yogurt these days for extra creaminess) and green beans. I'm not sure what Steve ate. I had a delicious bacon-cheeseburger with fries. I don't often eat red meat so when I actually want it, I indulge. It was good. Tonight I worked late; I had a soup on the meal plan and it was 80+ degrees all day so in no way did I want to consume, nor make soup. I suggested spinach strawberry salads - that got no one excited, except for me. Steve ended up eating up frozen leftover Chinese (yes, he reported that it tasted as good as that sounds....blech) and the kids had leftover dinner from last night. I never did get around to making that salad....I ate what was left on August's plate after he magically disappeared from the dinner table, and reappeared on...

Last autumn a friend of mine posted on Facebook that he was looking for people, parents in particular, who were willing to read Karen Le Billon's books about getting your kids to eat & have a healthy attitude about doing so. Not just to "eat" but to eat things that are GOOD for you; that have layers of tastes & textures. Having a well-rounded palette and not being expected to be catered to. Hi, my name is Carrie and I have two small children. ONE who is particularly challenging when it comes to eating anything other than "Creamy Macaroni" or frozen nuggets & fries. *sigh* The other one isn't far from that mark either but at least gives an effort and occasionally finds something new that he loves. YES! I want to take this challenge. I want to read these books, implement ideas, try new things, blog about it - perhaps correspond with the author? Sure! Sign me up. And then...the holidays. And then....randomly, suddenly and unexpectedly w...

Okay  - so it wasn't "vacation," but it might as well have been. My kids got to hang out with cousins & grandparents, eat popcorn every day, go have fun "Sassy Strawberry" frozen yogurt treats, make craft projects, play with video games (Dahlia is seriously ridiculously good at Wii bowling - what the heck?!?0, get spoiled by grandparents, see Great Grandma (what an excellent 'title'); there were train tracks, board games, super-yummy meals, sleeping over (in Mommy's bed - SHOCKING!), ETC. We love going to Grandma & Grandpa's house. We played, created, enjoyed, indulged, etc. And then I had to drive home. Bahhhhhhh. I absolutely LOVE my parents. And my sister. And her kids (duh, of course my family/kids). We have so much fun. I feel a TAD BIT like I'm a lazy loser as my Mom & Dad prepare food, activities, etc while I 'zone out' and knit or run errands or whatever....but seriously - we all love it. If my kids constit...

This is a stupidly, ridiculous, fun time. And the people that came up with it are probably millionaires by now. Give people wine/cider, a canvas, the paint, the painting/inspiration, an instructor & a Friday night to work it all out. GENIUS. We did ours for My Mom's & Aunt's bday's and it was AT the actual vineyard. So much fun....... I could do this once a week. I'm not lying. Ordering beverages My blank canvas, paint, brushes & my cider (no ACTUAL Chardonnay - lame!) Ready-set-go! Blank canvases in front of us..... Step 2 Serious concentration Step 3 Uh....Step...whatever.... And another step (note, my painting is upside-down...) A weird panoramic of all of our paintings. My latest work of "art." I adore how these all look together!!

We had a school carnival at Dahlia's school tonight. It is put on every fall by an education "club" from UMD. A very busy evening of activities & dinner put on by bright-faced, energetic, future teachers. It's a lot of fun. We skipped the dinner (spaghetti) in favor of doing all the activities. Last year we ran out of time. The kids participated in an inter-active "funhouse" (they were training to be clowns - had to stretch, do jumping jacks, hula hoop, jump rope & do crunches); They played charades; they made a bouncy ball at the science table, an optical illusion at the optical illusion table; did some math & spelling & played a "musical chairs" type game featuring different world cultures. They also got to make a cotton candy art project & eat REAL cotton candy (they both like it for about 3 bites & they are done). The made masks & got a free book too. It's a little crazy & hectic, but they really had fun ...

Well, I didn't really take any pics of Steve opening his gifts ( Hullo Pillow , Brewhouse t-shirt, wood burning tool) and I am only now making his bday dessert (pumpkin bars) AND we didn't even MAKE IT out for dinner last night....so we're headed to the Brewhouse tonight. Launching the boats. We stopped at "our creek beach" and launched some boats. It was quite hilarious to hear the kids scream in terror as if the boats would be lost forever (the creek is very slow going this time of year...all were rescued). My handsome husband. We did take a lovely hike. Well, mostly lovely. Dahlia crabbed & screamed & whined most of the way until I bribed her with snacks & then she had fun. Oy vey. Heartbreaking when she says she "doesn't like hiking" any  more. She's going to be in for a rude awakening when that's what we're going to keep doing! Me & my little cutie (photo by Dahlia). We stopped in the middle of the c...

Day one of NaBloPoMo - we'll see how I do this year! Hopefully I will be inspired & committed to posting each day in November. It's always hard but let's do it! DPL Main Library Staff Halloween was a lot of fun and a lot of hectic too. Work was good. A lot of us dressed up - especially from Circulation which is always a good time. I was pretty lazy with my costume this year. I couldn't get inspired. I ended up buying a bright orange wig & thought maybe I'd be a scarecrow, but ended up being some kind of "good witch" instead. It worked okay. ;) Me, dorky as usual Farmer Jess I left work a bit easy to get the kids "early" so we could attempt to eat & get our pumpkins out before going trick-or-treating. It's always such a hectic mess. Trying to get two hyper kids to cooperate sometimes is like herding cats. Spiderman & Mike Wazowski Our friends Tomas & Angie headed over with their son M...

I'm a big failure! UGH! One 12-hour period slips into one day slips into two days slips into practically a week. No blogging. I am lame. I have been doodling more, does that count? Also....just booked 4 plane tickets to AZ for a winter family vacation - yay!!! Can't wait! The end. I'll try to be less lame tomorrow.

Ahhhhh.... Saturday! I have been looking forward to you since Monday. This week I really REALLY REALLY felt the need for you. Bad. Thank God you happened. The breakfast thing worked out okay - the kids actually slept til about 7:15 which is about an hour 15 longer than I thought they would. I hooked them up with a DVD & their breakfast boxes & went back to bed. IT WAS AMAZING. I was sort of in that hazy in between sleep & awakeness for about another hour which was fantastic. Loved it. August relaxing in the "Pillow Pit" from the night before. Love his repose.  We had some "hometime" which consisted of dragging most toys out of their homes & spreading them throughout the house. It also included multiple snacks & requests to play PBS kids on the computer & watch more movie (I said no...such a terrible Mom....) A little jammie-painting time before moving on to anything else.  By lunchtime I wanted to get out for a bit. I bought a SU...

Wow - Yesterday was a big day in the Boberg household.  At long last & after much anticipation Dahlia started KINDERGARTEN! Last spring I was so worried about which school she'd be going to. Would there be enough to challenge her? Would there be a lot of kids with behavioral & emotional problems (there's a long story behind that...I don't just randomly worry about such things)? Would she slip through the cracks because she's not the 'squeaky wheel?' I set those worries aside earlier this summer & decided to embrace our neighborhood school. We'll see how it goes! I do know that this school has become one of the most sought after schools in the city! It's a "new" school - well, a combination of two of the more 'urban' schools in the district. It's in an OLD building, but is very much renovated & added on to. it's beautiful. We saw it for the first time last Friday. They've done a great job. BUT...enough a...