Frozen and Food

To continue with my months-belated movie references, we finally watched American Hustle, Dallas Buyers club, and Frozen this weekend! So many Oscar contenders! So long after anyone is talking about them! In sum, though American Hustle was the one I was most excited to watch, it  ended up being my 3rd favorite of the three (though, still a great movie and very fun). Dallas Buyers Club was phenomenal. Seriously so very good- real and sad and funny and poignant. I've decided both men deserved their Oscars, so don't worry Academy, I approve. And then we finally experienced Frozen yesterday afternoon and we've now watched it 3 times. 3 times! You guys, our kids watch approximately 2 hours of TV a week. We're totally anti-electronics and Landon thinks you have to be a married grown-up to watch TV on schooldays and we watched all 3 viewings in like 18 hours. Part bad weather, part good movie, part JP being mad he missed the first 1.5 viewings and insisting on a full redo this morning, complete with all kids snuggling on couches.

Yesterday, after viewings 1 and 2, I googled a bunch of those funny Frozen parody videos everyone has been posting on facebook for months but I've been skipping over because I didn't understand what they were referencing. I (belatedly) like them all! And then we watched the "Let It Go" sing-a-long video on the official Disney youtube channel on my phone until JP made us stop. Cora was also totally over it.

On to food (sorry, I really like it when other people write about their food, mostly because it gives me ideas and weekly menu brainstorming is still my least favorite part about being a grown-up, but I always do food posts on Sundays and Sundays are one of the only nights I always have time to post, so you end up reading a lot about Lag Liv family dinners.):

Tonight was supposed to be Martha Stewart's Christmas Morning Breakfast Bake, though it is neither Christmas nor morning, but I had barre (holy hell, hardest class ever, and my love only grows stronger each time I say that) and then stopped at the grocery store and didn't get home until 4ish and realized we'd be eating about 8:30 if I allowed for all the soaking and baking that was supposed to be happening. So I still made it all (using day-old sourdough bread bought for $1 at the store, diced prosciutto instead of Canadian bacon, and freshly grated Manchego and Basque cheeses leftover from JP and my wine and cheese in-home date night last Saturday) and now it's soaking and ready for baking tomorrow night!

Cora is my helper.  Mostly by smiling and finding it hilarious when I dance, which I do a lot when I cook because I blast all my favorite pandora stations together on shuffle.

After I cleaned up the 3 bowls, 2 pans, and 2 cutting boards from that prep experience, I got even more bowls and cutting boards out for dinner option #2: Greek Quinoa Salad with pita bread.

I can't believe I failed to chop in rainbow order. With the white feta cheese, brown quinoa, and black Kalamata olives, I really had a nice palette going. This recipe was absolutely fantastic. I added diced grilled chicken, subbed raw orange bell pepper for pickled peppers (are those really a thing? I thought they were just a tongue twister), used red quinoa and 1.5x the quantity, made about 2x the dressing (4x the vinegar, 2x everything else), and used way more feta than the "sprinkle" Bobby Flay suggests (and I mixed it all in with the veggies to let marinade rather than just sprinkling on top at the end). I'm sure Bobby's way is good too. The kids loved it and have requested the leftovers in their lunch tomorrow, but they'll have to share because JP and I want more too.

Full week:
Monday: Christmas Breakfast Strata deliciousness, fruit.
Tuesday: Shishless Kebabs. We made it up a few weeks ago when I planned to do shish-kebabs only to discover we didn't own skewers. Basically I do a large dice of raw chicken, fresh pineapple, red pepper, and red onion; spread it all on a baking pan covered in foil, brush/smother with Trader Joe's soyaki sauce, and broil until cooked and the pineapple carmelizes a bit. Serve over rice with extra soyaki sauce. It's Landon's new favorite meal. (And to accommodate my new "I'm trying not to spend 45 minutes on weekday dinners but can't help it because those are the dinners that I like plan," JP has promised to dice all items for me before he goes to lessons so I will just toss and broil them when I get home. Teamwork!)
Wednesday: Pasta of some sort (I have the makings for many options; outcome will depend on how the week is going), garlic bread, veggies.
Thursday: frozen mahi mahi fillets (from Costco), steamed frozen veggies, rice.
Friday: Pancakes (in a reprisal of last week's EXTREMELY popular green pancakes, these will probably also be a color), fried eggs, turkey sausage.

Cora's menu: bottles; all the chewy toys

In other food happenings, I'm completely obsessed with these giant and amazing apple fritters from Paul's Donuts, Subs, and Gyros on Hemphill near downtown (if you live here, GO!). The owner's family is a client of JP's and they're constantly giving us free donuts and other delicacies that I both love and hate to have in the house. On Saturday while I went to barre, JP took the kids to get donuts and gyros to take to the park. I was feeling so virtuous for missing the whole adventure (and a little sad, but barre is good for me and I'm refusing to feel guilty for taking the time to do it, though clearly I still have a few issues with it since I just bothered to type that out- ANYWAY), but then I came home to this little baby sitting in a white bakery box because JP loves me and knew that when I told him not to bring anything home for me that I was lying. I inhaled it while standing over the sink.

I don't even like fritters, baked fruit, or fried things that aren't french fries and I would eat one of these every day if I wasn't afraid I'd have a heart attack.

When not watching Frozen (and when the sun decided to show up), the kids played outside a lot. I took a break from taking pictures of Cora smiling and zoomed in on them doing exactly what we hoped they'd do when we invested in the swingset.

When did she get so big?

Time to stop typing and humming Frozen songs ("Let it go... Let it g-oooooo...") and go to bed. I hope you all have a marvelous week! and that I stop singing these songs before JP tries to kill me. I think I just need to get them out of my system, a timely 4 months after everyone else did.

Checking In (and mora Cora, of course)

I took testimony today. It was great fun; my assistant director floated in and out of the room while I took apart our witness exhibit by exhibit over 8 hours. Should I go back to a firm one day, running my own cases, and particularly my own depositions, will be something I'll sorely miss.

In other news: Cora was diagnosed with her first ear infection on Monday (milestone!); Claire had a fairly severe skin reaction to some sunscreen on Tuesday and her cheeks are just now almost back to her normal pink instead of swollen tomato red, poor thing; and Landon has his first loose tooth ("FINALLY!" he would exclaim if he were reading this; and he can read absolutely everything which means I can't just type and read whatever I want when he's in the room anymore. He started reading aloud from my kindle screen the other day when I had set it down to pick up Cora and I had to run back in the room with "ahhh! that is not for you." I read nothing remotely child appropriate. I barely read things that are adult appropriate. )

But back to Cora because every week brings a new adventure and/or baby booking/bloggable event. Since she turned 4 months old last week, we thought we'd give rice cereal a try. Cora was not impressed

Then she finally swallowed a tiny amount and was like, hmm, this tastes like my bottle, maybe it's okay? I'll smile just in case it's actually okay.

Then she started looking for her bottle. I can taste it, but where IS it?

Oh, oh, wait, here? Inside this fancy necklace?

WHERE'S MY MILKS WOMAN?!

[No words; T-minus 10 seconds from meltdown]

The sobbing was swift and strong and stopped immediately when I popped a bottle in her mouth and she did that thing where they glare at you while furiously drinking. It took like 7 minutes for her to forgive me. As it turns out, her pediatrician actually recommends delaying all cereal and baby foods until just before the 6th month, so we'll be doing that. Cora, if she hadn't been newly furious over her shots and all the impacted wax the doctor had to fish out of her ear, would have been very relieved. Smiles reign again.

On Monday I forgot to dress anyone in green, so I redeemed myself with green pancakes, GREEN MILK (highlight of the kids' lives; screw the ski vacation, just drop a dot of green food coloring in some milk and it's all they talk about for days), fried eggs, and fruit for dinner. Then I took myself to barre class next to an Irish pub and had to wade through many drunk revelers with my pink yoga mat and fuzzy moccasin slippers that I forgot to exchange for real shoes before leaving.

Cora had her 4-month check-up on Monday morning. She's in the 95th percentile for length (26"), 65th for weight (15 lbs.), and 55th for head. So tall, moderately chunky, and average headed, plus SUPER smiley. Cora's world was briefly torn apart by some shots and a thorough inspection of what turned out to be an infected ear. She'd woken up several times the night before, which is extremely uncharacteristic of her, so it was lovely to have the pediatrician karma of an 8:30 a.m. regularly scheduled check-up the next morning. So far this third-baby thing is working out pretty awesome.

I'm off to bed- insomnia + headaches + ear-achey baby + lots of extra work hours prepping for testimony all week make for a very tired me (how is it 11 pm already?), but overall things are great. Despite the insomnia, work craziness, antibiotic-induced baby tummy troubles, Claire's chemically burnt face (she's okay now though, really), and Landon's accidental introduction to vampire romance novels, there's been an ease about this week that has been missing from the last two. It's nice to have it back.

Inside and Outside the Comfort Zone

I finally tried NIA today.  The whole concept of a dance-based class with bouts of free-form movement scared me so much that I'd checked-in and canceled twice before, but today I was determined.  And then, in case my determination failed (and it did), I told JP to make me go.  And he did, getting the kids to cheerfully say goodbye and wish me luck at my dance class.  Very effective.

It wasn't quite as scary as I'd feared- about 75% of the class is choreographed, but it's so far out of my comfort zone I don't know that I'll ever be able to make myself go again.  I'm pro-boundary pushing, but this was uncomfortable in a way that didn't ease until I was back in my car 75 minutes later.  There were whole intervals of "just feel the music" and "follow your body's way."  My body's way is precisely what I'm told it is.  This why I adore barre: clear instructions, repeat 16 times, feel the burn, do it again.  I will work through out of control muscle spasms and leg shaking and pain if a teacher/authority figure tells me to, but I cannot wave my hands in the air at a general suggestion to do so.  But because I've been told to do something, I also can't just stand still, so I end up awkwardly swaying and counting down the seconds until I get directions to do something else.  It is very uncomfortable.  Clearly though no on else in the class thought so- they were smiling and dancing around, moving their heads and feet and arms and CELEBRATING THE BODY just like I was supposed to be doing.  I walked out and immediately checked-in on my phone for the barre class that was starting 2 hours later.  I like math problems with answers boxed in and excel spreadsheets of document discovery.  Nia is simply not for me.

But I went, and I'm glad I tried it.  It was a good work out.  You don't stand still ever (unless you are awkwardly swaying like me, and then you're almost still, but not still enough to be disobeying the teacher because Type A lawyer oldest children don't do that), and the time went by quickly when not in free-form mode.  If you like dance and are more uninhibited than me (not hard), you'd probably love it as much as everyone in the class seemed to.  But I'll stick with barre, which I still love with every fiber of my being.  A year ago I never would have thought I'd write that sentence about an exercise class, but it's true.  Saturday's class nearly killed me and I walked out filled with muscle spasms of JOY.

helping

Other than my 3 workout classes and JP's swim practice, we've enjoyed a lazy weekend.  No travel, no big tasks, no errands except for Trader Joe's.  JP and I enjoyed a wine and cheese date night at the dining room table after the kids went to bed last night and it was lovely.  He had lots of swim school work today (he's totally booked for spring and registration opened 3 days ago!) and then he went for a 3 mile run with Landon riding his bike beside him.  This is their new favorite thing to do together and I love it.  Cora took her 3 daily naps and was delighted not to leave the house all weekend- moving from her crib to someone's arms to her monkey bouncer to her playmat.  Always surrounded by her family and smiling anytime anyone made eye contact.

spied the mommy behind the camera

I made a delicious bolognese sauce for dinner tonight that made our whole house smell good, and I think I have a fool proof menu plan for the rest of the week.  I hope so anyway.  JP was home all of spring break (the pool he coaches at follows the school schedule, so it was closed) and it was WONDERFUL. He and Landon had big adventures every day- from bike rides to hikes to multiple stops at our favorite neighborhood donut shop and in the grand finale, a Lego movie excursion, and he dropped off the girls late and picked them up early from school, so I came home every day to three happy kids and dinner cooking on the stove.  We ate early, played games and read long books before bed (multiple long books even! so different from our usual pre-bed refrain of "okay, but pick a short one."), and everyone enjoyed enjoyed a mommy who could fully enjoy everyone else.

I miss it already.

Cora and Co

There are a few things that are completely crappy right now, but Cora and the big kids aren't one of them. I've been due for a baby update on the Corabunny, but words fail- beyond just trying to describe over and over how utterly delightful she is, to the core of her tiny little being, I fear I'm being repetitive.

She's 4 months old today and I have never enjoyed each stage with a baby more. I'm just trying to soak it all up and I'm sad each night when I put her in bed and say goodbye to another evening with her. I've never felt this way with a baby- with Landon we were mostly surviving, loving him, of course, but SURVIVING. Claire taught us that babies can be more fun than work, but it took at least 6 months before we could really relax and stop waiting for something to go terribly wrong. With Cora, we began with a mindset of some babies are hard, some are easy, but if you make it to 12 months it all gets pretty awesome, and then we were blessed with a baby even smilier and easier than Clairebear and we were able to enjoy it from the beginning.

I swear every day she's just proving what an excellent decision we made to finally toss the birth control and make baby #3 a reality instead of a much debated abstract being.

She is truly just SO happy to be on the Lag Liv family team. Her joy infuses her every ounce and is impossibly contagious.

Landon and Claire feel it too. They remain besotted. Even Claire, who I thought might have a few sharing the spotlight issues still just says every day, "I'm so glad we have our baby Mommy." They still want to hold her, touch her, talk to her. They exclaim when she smiles at them and they try to include her in everything they do, even if it's just running over to whatever baby station she's hanging out in to tell her what's happening.

Yesterday, a randomly gorgeous 80-degree afternoon, we set up shop outside as soon as I got home from work (at 3:30, because insomnia is trying to kill me and I gave up on sleeping and went in at 6:30) and didn't go back in until bedtime at 7:30. I put Cora in her playmat on the patio while the kids sang and danced and played basketball. In a typical set-up, the boys were actually playing the basketball, Claire was watching nearby with babies and plastic high heels, and Cora was set a little further back, watching her big siblings intently.

JP mocked the bow I felt Cora needed, but it was Claire who ran inside and found a pair of her sunglasses and popped them on Cora, stepping back and exclaiming, "Mommy! She looks AMAZING." And she did indeeed.

Rationally, I know Cora is my last baby. JP is not kidding when he says we're not having more, and while there are very few things he would deny me, a fourth baby is emphatically one of them. And yet I don't feel like I'm done. I don't feel like I'm not done either, and our life, schedule, house, and budget are completely incompatible with a fourth child, I just thought that if and when we had a third, I'd feel capital-D Done. I figured that throughout the pregnancy, recovery, and babyhood, I'd be happy it was happening but I'd know and revel in the fact that it wasn't happening again. But from the day I found out I was pregnant (a year ago today exactly), I never had that feeling. Pregnancy was fine, recovery was easy, infancy was wonderful. I even fit back into my regular clothes months earlier than usual! In every way Cora has made her addition easy and I almost wish for something that would make me think, "Well thank goodness this is the last time we're doing that!". Not really, but almost.

Last night I snapped a picture right between steps 1 and 2 of her complicated nighttime routine (in bed; light off). And then I picked her back up and squeezed her because you guys, I cannot get enough.

When I relinquished her to her bed and closed the door, and checked in on L & C to find them sleeping snugly in their own, I thought of a woman we talked to at my grandparents' retirement community last weekend. We'd just piled in the elevator and I was holding Claire's hand and directing Landon on which floor to press, and JP was holding our bags and Cora's infant carrier, and this lovely woman who looked to be in her mid-80's was smiling at us with such a soft look in her eye and said "Oh, I remember those days." And she didn't say it in the sort of wry "don't worry you'll get past this" way or the overly fond "time clearly erases all memories of tantrums" way, she just said it simply, with a soft smile. And that's exactly how I think of it now- fondly, with a bit of wistfulness at how it's already moving forward too fast. It's not that life with small children is always easy or I don't have days that I long to come home and care only for myself. But I also don't find it nearly as awful or soul-sucking as the kind-of-funny-but-mostly-mean internet postings try to make it seem. I love this time with small kids in the house and I think that's part of why I can't believe Cora's the end for us- I don't want to leave this phase and by my logic, as long as we keep having babies, I don't have to.

Cora's Great-Grand Tour

As I mentioned on Friday, we embarked on a Lag Liv family tour of central Texas on Saturday. We left the house at 8:30 a.m., battled rain and SXSW traffic to first eat lunch with friends in our old stomping grounds of Southwest Austin. We got to catch up, pass Cora around the table, and return a bunch of baby gear I'd borrowed from them because Cora has already grown out of things and JP won't let me have another baby, before pressing onward to San Antone to see both sets of my grandparents and introduce them to their newest great-grandchild.

We headed up to my mom's parents first (the Swedish ones, for those who keep track that way) and JP got this picture of my grandpa meeting his new great-granddaughter for the first time.

I truly could not love that picture more. My grandpa has struggled so much with his back these last few years (chronic injuries caused by his ejection from his fighter jet when he was shot down in the Vietnam War) and I know it's been so hard to have daily pain amid the realization that it might never go away even after so many surgeries, but he was just SO HAPPY- overjoyed is probably a better word- to see us and to meet little Cora that I keep crying when I look at the pictures.

My grandma is doing great. She's been alcohol-free for more than 3.5 years now and has truly seemed to age backward since she quit. I know she worries about my grandpa, it would be so hard to see the person you love in pain, but she too was just overjoyed to meet and "get her hands on" her third great-grandbaby.

We hung out for a bit in their apartment, catching up on the rest of the family and answering all their questions about the minute details of our lives. My grandpa loves hearing my work stories and they wanted to know everything about JP's business and the kids' school and whether Cora is really always as happy as she was the whole time we were in their apartment (yes, she is). Landon wanted to read my grandpa a book, which I loved spying on through the patio glass door, remembering when I sat next to him after one of his surgeries (shoulder replacement maybe?) when I was in 5th or 6th grade and I read and talked to him by the hour.

Landon then asked to see my grandpa's medals and model airplanes and JP, Landon, and a very happy Grandpa Glenn headed to the study to immerse themselves in Air Force stories and memorabilia.

The girls stayed in the living room and my former-Kindergarten-teacher grandma sang Claire the story of The Three Bears about 16 times.

My grandma raised 4 kids, often on her own while my grandpa was away on tours, so I love this picture of her surrounded by my 3 little ones. The optimism and happiness that I feel I got from my mom began with her- everything will work out, my grandma always says, and everything always does, especially when you doggedly refuse to let anything else get you down along the way. My grandpa hung a "You Are My Sunshine" plaque for here over their bed, and that's exactly right.

They are so special to me- all four of my grandparents. The one thing I truly regret in leaving Austin- more than the hills and hiking and fabulous restaurants- is being 3 hours further away from them and not being able to visit as often as we used to. I'm so lucky to have all of my grandparents alive and healthy and living in the same community, I wish I could take advantage of it more.

Next on our tour, we headed down 6 floors to my dad's parent's apartment. As always they were snappily dressed and ready for a cocktail and conversation. Also as always, they had "a few things for the kids" wrapped in bags that the kiddos were very excited to open. They met Cora while Landon and Claire tried in vain to love on their cat and then Landon got to show them some of his work from school.

We gathered for a group photo, Landon inexplicably clutching my grandfather's shoe horn and Claire holding a cat toy and then we headed down for a group dinner in the downstairs bistro.

We enjoyed a tasty and early dinner, catching up more as we ate and then gathered the greats and great-grands for one final picture (poor Cora was finally getting her dinner and it was interrupted for the shot, the girl can only be pushed so far) before piling back in the car and driving the four hours back to Fort Worth.

We pulled up at 10, tucked our tired kids in their beds, and uploaded the pictures that made me smile as I got ready for my own bed later. I thanked JP for driving the 9+ hours in heavy wind, rain, and occasional traffic- he loves my family, but he signs on for trips like that without complaint because what matters to me matters to him, period. And seeing them, and introducing them to Cora, mattered an awful lot.

Friday Round-Up

Quick things before I go to bed and get separated from my computer all day tomorrow:

1. JP and I just watched Catching Fire tonight and OMG it was SO good.  Because we have young children and prefer eating dinner out where we can talk on the rare date night, we haven't seen a movie in theaters in over a year, so we are terribly behind on all movie pop culture references and have no idea what anyone is talking about re: the Oscars, but Catching Fire was my favorite book of the Hunger Games trilogy and I have been counting down FOREVER until I could see it at home.  Not as good as the book of course, but still fun and a better adaption than the first in my opinion.

2. We drive to Austin and San Antonio and back tomorrow to visit friends and all four great-grandparents.  A whirlwind showcase of the Lag Liv family (mostly Cora)- leave at 8:30 a.m., drive a total of 9 hours, back home by 10 p.m.  Should be fun!  (I'm actually not being sarcastic, but we'll see which tone is appropriate when I wrote about it on Sunday.)

3. Thank you for your dinner ideas on the last post. I'm happy to report that this week's meals were all a great success!  Everything was tasty and I didn't want to kill anyone by the time they were prepared.  The kids and I even read books and played Uno on multiple nights while things simmered!  Now I just have to do that again, every night, for the next 12 years or so.

4. I took off work today because I was so sad I was going to miss my barre class tomorrow that I wanted to go to this morning's in its place.  This is how obsessed I am.  As an added benefit, I got to volunteer to hand out snacks at Landon's school walk-a-thon where the kids marched around the school several times to raise money to buy a cover for their playground (it is Texas and they have no covered outdoor space).  I made JP go with me and we had lots of fun handing out pretzels and water bottles and cheering on the kids at our sweet little neighborhood school.

5. For the second part of my random day off I got a full bikini wax and went shopping for new summer shorts because I have faith that warm weather is coming.  I found myself in Express, thrilled to find shorts similar to the ones I was replacing (purchased in 2003, when I was a junior in college), but wondering if maybe I'm now too old to shop at Express.  The girls in the dressing room next to me were complaining about their 9 a.m. class on Fridays and how hungover they were after going out last night.  I've been at work for 1.5 hours by 9 a.m. and can't remember the last time I thought Thursday was a "going out" night (well, yes I can, it was college. a decade ago.).  But if I have the weirdly narrow hips of a 15 year old, does that make it okay?  I ended up with 2 pairs of shorts (light denim and mint green), a skinny white belt, and some rhinestone anchor earrings and then left the mall to pick up my 3 children from school/daycare.

6. JP and I also just finished House of Cards Season 2.  Very fun.  Not the Great Drama it might want to be, but deeply enjoyable nonetheless.  Mostly because Frank and Claire's marriage absolutely fascinates me.  Someone needs to write a college thesis on it. Maybe those girls I was trying on clothes with in Express.

7. A Cora post is coming.  She'll be 4 months old in 5 days and I'm really not exaggerating when I say she is the sweetest.  No, that doesn't even cover it - she's the easiest-happiest-awesomest-snuggliest. There are not words for the glory of this multi-chinned baby who sleeps from 7-7 every night.  We all adore her and she is simply delighted to be here.

Off to bed to rest up for our brief tour of central Texas tomorrow, happy Friday everyone!

Food Glorious Food

I am still wrapping my head around menu items that don't require extensive prep. It's not that I want to make complicated food, and really, my food isn't complicated, we just prefer fresh simple things that involve way more chopping and standing over the stove than I realized. Mostly because for the last year I've had a job that got me home early and two big kids who went and played outside or in their play room or otherwise by themselves with minimal input from me, so I could stand in the kitchen and spend 45 minutes making a dinner and think nothing of it. This is no longer my reality and even last week when I was trying to make dishes that could be thrown together quickly and then left alone, I would still find myself standing in the kitchen bouncing Cora's monkey bouncer with my foot with 2 chopping boards and 5 different pans in use at once and realize I'd taken a terribly wrong turn at some point in the dinner planning.

But, this week, thanks to a revival of firm-like weekend prep and cooking, I think I've got it!

Sunday: Brunswick stew, adapted; ciabatta bread.
Monday: Lasagna (made my Aunt's sauce and simmered it all Sunday afternoon; composed the lasagna after dinner that night); garlic bread made Monday morning and wrapped in foil. I was DETERMINED to conquer the craziness of Monday evening/JP's latest night at the pool.
Tuesday: Leftover Brunswick stew over brown rice; frozen Sister Schubert's wheat rolls (my fave, they're like fluffy clouds of carbohydrates).
Wednesday: Chicken and broccoli in the crock pot, served over rice; crescent rolls.
Thursday: Fresh tortellini with the leftover spaghetti sauce I made for the lasagna; the twin of the garlic loaf I made on Monday.
Friday: Homemade pizza, always.

The Brunswick stew was delicious and very different in flavor from the usual soups and stews I make. It was also a great way to use up the random 2 cups of pulled pork we had leftover from our pretzel roll pork sliders we ate last Thursday. According to the internet there are strong opinions about what is supposed to be in a Brunswick Stew (okra, no okra, potatoes, no potatoes, lima beans, other beans, etc.), but I found this one and it looked delicious and then I changed lots of things because that's what I do.

Brunswick Stew:
(Original recipe here, which I'm sure would be delicious exactly as it's supposed to be)

Ingredients
3 cups shredded chicken (I used a rotisserie)
3 cups pulled pork (I used leftover Costco pulled pork from a dinner last week)
2 cups beef stock
1 medium onion, diced
5 medium red potatoes, diced (I used 7; mine were small)
1 (15-ounce) can Butter beans (in lieu of Lima beans because I hate them; you could use white Navy)
4 cups cream style white corn (2 cans worth)
1 (24-ounce) can diced tomatoes
1/4 cup Stubbs Smokey Mesquite bbq sauce (in lieu of ketchup which didn't sound good and my pulled pork was sauceless; it added a fantastic smokey flavor I wouldn't go without in this stew)
1 cup frozen corn
3 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon Montreal Steak Seasoning
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper (omitted because I'm a wimp who can't even handle that much spice in a giant pot of stew)

Directions:
1. Add shredded chicken and pulled pork to crock pot.
2. Add beef stock, onion, potatoes, beans, corn, diced tomatoes, bbq sauce, brown sugar, apple cider vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, steak seasoning and cayenne pepper to the meats.
3. Cook on low for 6+ hours, or high if you need it sooner. You can also cook it in a stock pot over medium-low heat for just 30 minutes to serve right away. But the crock pot made the whole house delicious!

The whole family loved it and it made enough for 2 dinners and 2 lunches, with considering the amount of food we usually eat is nothing short of amazing.

Four days of food; one day of prep

The menu is working out so far, so now I just need more prep-free ideas for next week!  It's trickier than it seems- dinners I normally I think of as "easy" like tacos and breakfast night really involve more standing over the stove time than Cora prefers.

Not that I can blame this all on Cora, she's pretty much the smiliest and easiest baby ever, I just like to spend some of the evening actually cuddling her and making her smile giant Cora smiles instead of hitting her bouncer with my foot every few minutes while I try avoid setting her clothes on fire by not holding her over the stove.

So crock pot and make ahead meals are my saving grace for now.  Because who wouldn't rather snuggle this many-chinned baby than do just about anything else from 5:30-6:15 pm?

Many Splendored Things

My mom came to town this weekend for a birthday visit. After a Friday evening of homemade pizza and much discussion of details for my sister's upcoming wedding, the two of us headed out at 10 a.m. when stores opened on Saturday and spent the next 6.5 hours shopping. Because when the Gigi and I get together, no TJ Maxx, Marshall's, or Ross within 20 miles is safe. And in the midst of searching for discount clothing gold among racks and racks of more questionable items, we had a glorious time.

Gigi!

Our first stop was accidental- a Nine West store closing sale next to the Ann Taylor where I returned the beautiful Moto jacket I fell in love with but had to divorce due to an extremely unflattering approach to my weird hip-waist measurement ratio. Anyway, at this random Nine West store I finally scored the tall brown dress boots I've been looking for since my old tall brown dress boots fell apart after 7 beautiful years together. I now have the pair pictured below, a birthday gift from mom, for $60 instead of the original $190. They are gorgeous and for once, the calf circumference is small enough to not gap ridiculously like the dozen other pairs I've ordered and returned in my 2 year quest.

Also along the way I scored the flattering maxi dress I've always wanted but never managed to find (like the shoes, I've tried on dozens and returned them all), a maxi skirt (another item I've always loved from a distance), two tees to match the skirt, a black work dress I'm completely obsessed with because of the white zipper in the back, a clingy tank dress with a superfluous hood that is weekend-adorable, a dressy dark green tunic that I can't figure out how it got to the clearance section without being purchased but will look fabulous with skinny jeans (and my boots!), and, finally, the grand finale- a bikini! That I like! And might even wear! And everything was $10-30 and completes a very badly needed update to the casual section of my closet. Yay for birthdays and birthday shopping sprees with mom- I'm already looking forward to next year's.

My Lulu outfit from JP; the back makes my heart smile
(ignore the fuzzy slippers; they're so comfy I've forgotten that they're ugly)

Also on Saturday, after Mom and I finally made it home and collapsed on the couch, Gigi volunteered to watch the kiddos while JP and I went out on a date. Two dates in one month! I don't think that's ever happened since we became parents.

Giddy, in a maxi skirt

We went to a Mexican restaurant downtown in Sundance Square. As it turns out, Fort Worth has quite the Saturday night scene! Streets crowded with people, fountains of water lit up and dancing to music, 45 minute waits for tables for 2! And two parents for once not paying hourly for a sitter who saw a 45 minute wait as an opportunity to order an extra round of margaritas at the bar instead of just $15 more bucks down the babysitting drain. After dinner we explored the Square, walked around like we lived in Chicago again, and found ourselves at a rooftop bar ordering another margarita round at 10 pm on a perfect 65-degree evening. Glorious doesn't even begin to cover it.

And then today we woke up to 15 degree weather and a world covered in sleet and snow. Looks like my swim suit and tank dresses will have to wait, though the brown boots are totally happening as soon as the ice melts.