What am I going to do with 8 silver champagne coupes? Aside from sitting pretty in the hutch, I don’t have a clue…and yet for $20, I couldn’t leave them at the store. They were crying out for a good home. Fancy drink vessels need homes too.
Category: Random
The Goon Room 2011
WordPress put out a Year In Review for The Goon Room. It’s so fun to see all the stats and memories from the past year! Thank you for reading TGR and I hope to keep you entertained for another year. Just 8 posts to go until I hit 300 – yikes!
Here’s an excerpt:
The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 16,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 6 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.
2012 Resolutions
I have never been much of a resolution maker – I’m just not patient enough to wait until the new year. If I’m going to make a change, it’s now or never!
Last year I decided I needed to get serious about volunteering and also about our garden. I failed miserable on the volunteering – Travis T. Dog was just not up for visits to the nursing home and when we lost him in March, that was it for Pets On Wheels. I am however, a Room Mom and on a few fundraising committees at B’s school – a little too self-serving to be considered serious volunteering, but it’s a start.
I did do much much better with the gardening. I managed to keep our tomato plants alive all summer. That is not a small feat in the Arizona heat – not to mention this past one was the third hottest in history. I may have looked like a freak with a double layer of shade screen AND an umbrella, but damn if those tomatoes aren’t producing a second round of fruit right now! The lettuce table is on round two now and there is only minimal frost damage on our plants (so far….) so I think I’m winning on this end.
I’ve still got some more work to do – I am a bonified killer of rose bushes. I think I’m up to 5 now. Which is embarrassing. I’ve got a theory about their untimely deaths and I think the solution lies in 1. a new tree and 2. a super cool sail shade that will stretch from the wall to the roof of the garage. Details to follow…
2012 brings a new round of resolutions: first, to be more spontaneous. I like a schedule and I despise unpredictability. I also don’t like being bored so we plan a lot of things to do and places to go. But because of that, we’re rarely available to meander down the street and play with our neighbors. Or go for a walk with our friend and her baby. I decided I need to do more in less time and let some things fall off / get re-prioritized. If we end up having frozen pizza for dinner instead of a home cooked meal because we decided the park was just too fun to leave, then that’s ok. I don’t think Bay will be traumatized too badly and if she is, well then she’ll have more to talk about in therapy.
Which leads me to my next resolution: cook more, less often. I tend to make way too much of any meal because PW and I like having leftovers for lunches. But I am going to make even a little more than usual so that I can throw a tupperware into the freezer. That way we get a home cooked dinner, but without the extra time to make it.
Simple resolutions? Maybe. But they will hopefully have a lasting impact that will mean happy and even more fulfilling moments with our family. Happy 2012!!
Give a Little – Or a Lot
When Baylor was a baby, I sat crying while watching a story on the news about families in need. They described a mom asking for help when she did not have enough formula left to feed her starving 3 month old.
I couldn’t help but think about Baylor. When she needed a bottle in the middle of the night, I was annoyed having to get out of my warm bed and make a bottle. I couldn’t get the thought out of my head – what if I didn’t have formula? And what if I didn’t have the money to buy more? What if my sweet little girl was hungry and I knew there was nothing I could give her to fill her belly. It crushed me.
This is one of the reasons I love The Crisis Nursery. It is an amazing organization that provides relief to families that are stuck in the middle – families that have more income that what qualifies them for aid, but too little to really survive. And to families who are victims of violence. They provide food, a warm bed, toys, counseling and other aid for parents, kids and families.
It’s important all year to give to amazing organizations like this – but it’s especially important around the holidays so that these special kiddos get the Christmas they deserve. When you look at their wish list, they need baby wipes before they need toys. Socks and underwear. Shoes and soap. That’s where the donations go first so they need extra to be able to give toys and gifts to the kids as well.
If you have some extra – or even if you don’t – consider giving to a great charity this season to make someone’s Christmas brighter. Monetary donations or of items are great ways to help – I think it’s never too young to start. Bay and I did a clean out of her toys and we talked about how we were going to give them to kids who really needed them. At first, she was hesitant to let go. But after a few minutes she was lovingly kissing a few toys good-bye and placing them in a bag saying “you’re going to someone who really needs you!”.
We are all so fortunate to have what we have so lets spread it around.
Here are some of my favorites:
The Crisis Nursery: http://www.crisisnurseryphx.org/index.htm
Circle the City: http://circlethecity.org/
Pets on Wheels: http://www.petsonwheelsscottsdale.org
Wrap It Up
It’s Scottsdale Moms Blog Friday! Check out my post on DIY wrapping paper – but please don’t judge. The pictures I took came out horrible and I think it looks a little uninspired…but that’s the way the cookie crumbles sometimes! Happy weekend!
The Winnah!
Thanks to all who entered to win The Hall Girls~Bows, Tutus and Everything Girlie giveaway! I’m so glad you all got to see the adorable things that Ashley and Amber are making. Be sure to give them some business! I’m ordering red pig tail bows next week for Baylor’s Christmas outfit – I need them to match her red cowboy boots.
So now, drumroll please! The winner is….Katherine Green! Yea! Enjoy Katherine!
Garlic Shots
Two weeks. We are closing in on two weeks of sickness around here. As soon as one of us starts feeling better, another is feeling worse. And then we switch.
A family friend told me about a Mexican homeopathic remedy that was sure to ward off whatever illness I have an also keep me healthy. As I was scribbling down the recipe, I started feeling a little queasy at the thought of ingesting the concoction. But I’m into natural remedies and I would like to get rid of my Rudolph nose, so I was in.
I gathered all of the ingredients and then began mixing: 2 cloves of garlic finely crushed. Juice of 1 lemon. Honey. A little hot water. And I added some crushed ginger because it too is a great immunity booster, and if you’re going to drink something disgusting, it might as well be really sick. I stirred all the ingredients together in a high ball glass because it made it feel a little more fancy.
Then the moment had come. I couldn’t mix any more so it was time to drink. I picked up the glass and chugged that beast like it was Thursday at Dirtbags and the glass was filled to the rim with a Sicilian Whore.
And really? It was not the worse thing I had ever had. It sort of tasted like a sauce you would use on chicken – a little spicy and sweet. So if you see a recipe here soon with those ingredients, you’ll know where the idea came from.
As for the immunity properties, I’m undecided. I think it might do better if you were trying to stay healthy rather than get healthy. So Bay and I opted for a trip around the medical complex (our doctor’s are right next door to each other) and got loaded up with antibiotics. We’ll save the lemon garlic honey mix for the chicken.
Commitment (breaking) Phob
I was supposed to run the 5k portion of the Women’s Half Marathon this past Sunday. Read “supposed to”. I contracted Baylor’s croup sometime Thursday and by Saturday night, I was feeling miserable. Coughing, sore throat and just a general feeling of crap. I was set that I had to run on Sunday morning and would just battle through it. I had made a commitment to run and damn it, I’m tough.
Around 10pm Saturday and after a major coughing fit, PW sweetly looked at me and said “please don’t get mad. But I really think you should skip the run tomorrow”. And damn it if he’s not right that I would have gotten mad if he hadn’t said it. At first I refused. But after I thought about another week of feeling crummy, I decided he was right. I had to skip it. I sadly texted Stephanie (who finished 13 out of like 2000 runners!!!) that I was out for the run and for our breakfast plans after.
I woke up Sunday around 7:15 and felt…human. I didn’t feel horrible. PW and Bay ventured out to Bosa Doughnuts and we sat on the couch, watched CBS Sunday morning, ate fresh doughnuts and bacon, drank coffee and turned on the fireplace for the first time this season. I’m not sure if it was the uninterrupted family time, the doughnuts or the sleep that made me feel so much better.
It got me thinking that I get too uptight about keeping commitments. Yes, it’s important to follow through. To go to the events that you’ve RSVP’d for, to complete the race, to finish the project. But sometimes it equally if not more important to cancel and stay in. To say no to the world and yes to snuggling your family on the couch.
Weekend Recap
There are a thousand adjectives I can think of when describing our weekend; fun, exhausting, sweaty, family oriented, precious, memory making…the list goes on. We planted flowers, played in the yard, made waffles and watched College Game Day, went to a friend’s surprise birthday brunch, to a school carnival and read lots of books and snuggled in to watch a movie. In a word, I need a weekend after our weekend. But my favorite part is this picture of B after the St. Theresa’s carnival:
The look of sticky satisfaction over the cheap stuffed animal she won and her sucker is priceless!
I Mean, Really.
If the post -its aren’t enough, let’s talk about the actual amount of desk that is visible. Sheesh. I need an assistant. Or, like 5 more hours of nap time.
The Goon Room 