Novemberrrrrr

Hardly Novemberrrr!  Not yet, anyway.  The weather today, Veteran's Day, was gorg!  Couldn't ask for better weather in mid-November in upstate NY.  We were out and about, spending time together and enjoying the weather!

Wait....  Not even close.

Molly had some weird nausea thing that involved us:
1.  having strong desire to get bagels.
2.  Finally getting packed up in the car to get said bagels from Bagel Grove.
3.  Molly vomited in the car on Paris Road... about half mile from our house.
4.  Us stopping in to Mimi's house to clean up and reassess.
5.  Deciding, yes, we shall try again to get bagels, because clearly that vomiting thing was a fluke.
6.  Driving back home, probably 1/3 mile away, and changing pants.
7.  Molly vomited in the car on Paris Road AGAIN.
8.  Pulling over on a side street and reassessing.
9.  And yes, it was at THIS point, that I realized..... forget the effing bagels.  I would say steps 1-9 took probably.. about an hour and a half to complete.

So, we came back home.  We cleaned everything up.  And by we, I of course mean I.  We got a nice little garbage can with a nice Target bag that had no holes and we embraced our new friend all day.

Molly was fine all afternoon and all evening, so I am still not convinced it was a true stomach bug.  We did play outside for a while at least, so we did enjoy the super nice day.  And, I was at home, with all 3 kids, so the day was rather wonderful for that reason alone.

Moving on.

Nothing too exciting has happened, but considering this is my blog, I shall tell my tales.

Halloween was an amazing day!  I spent the morning with my daycare kids and the afternoon with Molly at her school.  It was the first time that I spent Halloween during the day with my kids, attending their parties and school festivities, and it was well worth it!  I was there on that special day for them.  Daycare's event was really cute, hectic but really cute, and Molly's school knows how to do Halloween and make it special.  Molly's school had a parade in front of the school, and the weather was very agreeable, unlike some years.  Cale came too, and I stayed at Molly's school before and after the parade to help get the kids ready and then to help out with the party.  I am so thrilled and honored to be able to have the role as Room Mother in my daughter's kindergarten class, so happy that I had the opportunity to help her class and for Molly and I to experience this event together and for her to see me at her school.  I really had a blast that day.  In the evening, Cale and I took turns taking the girls trick or treating in our neighborhood, and it was a pretty relaxed night.  I thought we'd get more trick or treaters than we did, probably was the same amount as we used to get in our old neighborhood.  The leftover candy went to school with me to help bribe my students :)

I'll have to upload pictures another time, but you can visualize- Molly was SpongeBob, Emily was Tinkerbell, and Andrew was a bumblebee.  And I was also a bumblebee.  I was able to squeeze lunch in with Cale at Five Guys and I was planning on wearing my costume, but he caught me in the car before I went in and was like "NO."  What a buzzzzzzzzkill.

This past weekend, we spent the overnight in Syracuse, just to get away.  I had been toying with the idea of going to NYC for a day with just Molly, and even considered going for a quick overnight and day with the whole family (with the main goal of being able to visit with my BFF, Alison), but ultimately decided that it was just a bit too much to go with everyone right now, and I couldn't stand being away from Andrew for that long, so we decided last minute to at least have the feeling of getting away by spending the night at the Embassy Suites in Syracuse.  So, we packed our bathing suits, packed up in the car, and had a really great time!  We left later than we wanted, of course, but the girls and daddy got some swim time in Saturday night, then I went in with them on Sunday morning.  We had breakfast at the hotel (which was fairly terrible... they had a really nice spread and it all looked pretty decent, but the quality was not there... I guess it was free, so that's about what it was worth), then after swimming and drying off and all that, spent a few hours at Destiny.  After being disappointed we couldn't make NYC happened, it was a really great alternative and we had a ton of fun!  I would definitely do this again.

On a random note, I made pesto for this first time tonight.  I followed the advice from here regarding using a blender (basically because i googled making pesto using a blender because my food processor is not an option currently) and this recipe from Food Network.  It was very easy, good, but not great.  I would make it again, but I think it needed something.  To explain better:  Cale ate it with no protest, but agreed it needed something to give it more flavor.  So if you have any suggestions, let me know!  I really have no idea what I'm doing in the kitchen, improvising usually makes me nervous.  I might have just used broil for the first time in my life last week.... I did not know what broil was (some different version of boiling?  Can't be... it's in the oven....  best stay away from that concept)....  So...  basically I'm thankful the internet exists for my lack of knowledge.  I am slowly improving :)

Well, I think about my blog all the time, and think "oh I'm going to add this and that" and then I sit down to do it, and I forget everything I was going to write about.  I can tell you that this month has some nice stuff that I'm looking forward to, and is a fair amount of busy.  Two family Thanksgivings, a hockey game, preparing for Christmas, and lots of little goodies of events.  Basically, November is Yesvember.  I hope to post again soon, and include pictures :)

Welp, I didn't want to wait that long before posting again, but life got in the way!  :)

Our 3-day Columbus Day weekend has just begun, and I am psyched to spend a lot of time at home and with the kids.  I'm hoping to work on the final frontier, aka our home office, which is the last space in our new home that isn't organized and put away.  And, I would like to either start painting (yeah, right) or at least pick out the paint color for Andrew's room, that would be good.

As far as an update on our health, which was a big chunk of my last post- Cale and Molly are off of their antibiotics and feeling fine.  The only one who is under the weather is Andrew, which had small liver lining- I had to take Tuesday off and spend the day with him.  I heart the days when I can be a SAHM.

Here's my poor little guy, very snoozy that day.  He seems to be improving.  

Partially due to this new addition.  Probably the 5th humidifier I've purchased in the last 12 years.  If there is one thing I miss about our old house, it would be our whole-house humidifier that was hooked into our forced air heating system.  I will miss it this winter when the air gets dry!!!  At least Andrew has this new snazzy humidifier, works really nice. 

I have spent a little bit of time over the last week or two decorating for the fall, which might be more than decorating for Christmas!

(in case you were wondering, yes, I have had to clean up these leaves several times from Emily scattering them wherever.  Yes, they are currently on my floor.  Yes, it is worth it cuz I love the way it looks.)

Those would be spider lights.

I left my dead plant, to add to the spooky effect!

I have a leaf throw pillow.  And it's awesome.  

Also notice the original couch artwork by Emily.  She also defaced our ottoman and her entire body, scalp to toe nails.  SCALP TO TOE NAILS.  grr.

But Saturday improved.  Keep reading.

On to fooooooood :)  

Made this lemon chicken romano on Saturday and it was ahhhhmazing.  Will definitely be doing it again.  It tasted super fresh.  Chicken and lemon is a great combo, I always felt that way.

Those are crescent rolls.  And frozen white rice w/ veggies.  I'm just keepin' it real.

Then, Saturday night post-dinner, we did early bath and mani-pedis with the girls.  And it was awesome!!!

Sunday we played outside and took selfies--

And Monday, I prepared some food for the week....  I also wanted to make this AMAZING mac and cheese in advance, but it didn't happen.  I take comfort in knowing I have all the necessary ingredients in the house.  Basically I kicked ass the last time I went grocery shopping.

So I think I prepped this stuff on Monday and didn't actually make it until Thursday, but again, it was a stress-reducer knowing it was there and ready!!!  Even if I got sick of seeing it on my counter.  This week, we had girl scouts and dance, so it was one of the busier nights.  Which reminds me, we have a non-girl scout cookie fundraiser for girl scouts.  I'll have to post it on here and on Facebook.  A little annoying, but hey, if you were going to buy a magazine subscription or candy anyway, you could buy it through Molly.  Gosh, I hate fundraisers!!!  Necessary evils, they are.  Except girl scout cookies.  That's not really a fundraiser, it's more of a public service.

Last weekend didn't pan out exactly as planned.  Molly had that weird infection (and was cranky) and Cale ended up having strep throat.  Beautiful weather, and we didn't get to take advantage as much as I had hoped.  But, we all still got out and enjoyed ourselves a little.

The apple cake is now pretty much gone :)

The stupid pumpkin chocolate chip bread still hasn't been made, but I am DETERMINED to make this happen tonight!!!  Pumpkin + chocolate = amazing!!!

Here's some photos from our latest adventures..

 This is the amazing apple cake.  It was super delicious.  The recipe I ended up actually using was this.

 The ice cream truck came!!!  Although my girls argue with me that it's not the ice cream truck, it's the popsicle truck.

Ok, so the random picture of spaghetti and sauce:  I finally made a really easy, but super delicious sauce.  I'm half Italian, and I've never been great at it.  I had tried a few recipes lately, determined to learn how to make my own sauce that I could make weekly, and none of them came out great (no thanks to you, Mario Batali!)

This is what I did, and it seriously came out super phenomenal:

1 28-oz can tuttorosso whole peeled tomatoes
1 28-oz can tuttorosso tomato sauce
2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley (and by fresh I mean about a week old, starting to brown :)
1 whole yellow onion, chopped
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 tbsp sugar
Some dried oregano and basil and olive oil

I put some olive oil in the pot, cooked the onion and garlic for 6 minutes or so, so the onions became translucent.  Also known as when I got the baby to stop crying.  Then I added everything else, stirred it around, and cooked it for an hour or so.  Then I used my brand new immersion blender and blended that mother until it was smooth.  It was thick, smooth, delicious, and tasted fresh, and EASY to make!  Yay!  Sauce is not rocket science, but we all learn at different speeds :)

Bring on October!!!

Welp, today was an interesting day.  I had a lockdown at the school I work at, and Molly had a lockdown in her school.  Hers lasted all day.  At the end of the day, I got a phone call from her school's nurse- she basically had an inexplicably swollen finger.  Long story short, went to the pediatrician's, Molly has a prescription for an antibiotic, and we are to soak her finger once an hour.  While we were there, both girls got their flu shots.   Tonight, we are looking at eating their favorite dinner (Annie's mac & cheese), watching a movie, and getting froyo.  Basically, anything we can do to counteract the rotten mood Molly is in since she isn't feeling great!!!

While the mac & cheese cooked and Andrew napped in his carseat, I found a few recipes I'm going to try out:

Pumpkin bread , and it makes two loaves, so I'm going to freeze one for later!

Apple cake, looks pretty good and has a fancy sounding name.  I might skip the glaze though.

I'm still on the lookout for a PERFECT and EASY spaghetti sauce recipe.  All of the recipes I've tried so far are meh.  I'm embarrassed to say that here I am, a 30 year old half-Sicilian, and I still don't make a good sauce.  So we're going to change that.

Coming, Andrew!!

About blogging.....

So at this point, I've posted twice on my blog, but I still have not publicized it on my FB page.  I'm really shy about it for some reason!!

Here is one of the blogging websites I read that inspired me to do a blog.  I ignored one bit of advice that I kept reading, and that is to do it on Wordpress.  Wordpress looks great and all, but I'm not convinced of the longevity of my dedication to maintaining my blog, so I wasn't about to spend money on my own site.  If this ends up "taking off" in terms of my own dedication to it, maybe eventually I will.  This was supposed to be a fun, little activity for me to do, with no strings!  (BTW, I haven't read a whole lot on their blog, but "The Minimalists" seems cool.)

So far I'm enjoying it, and so far I have noted that I feel like I want to post more, but then when I get a chance to actually sit down and write, I have a hard time because I think everything I want to say is stupid.  haha!  So hopefully I'll increase my confidence in this.

Welcome Fall :)

All summer, I dread fall, but usually by the time fall officially rolls around, I'm ready for all things fall.  Tonight, we began decorating our house for fall.  We don't have much, but I'm hoping to increase our fall decorations inexpensively (aka run to one of my favorite stores:  The Dollar Tree!  lol).  If you have any inexpensive decorating tips, send them my way!

One of my FAVORITE fall activities is apple picking.  We went on Sunday to North Star Orchards.  I love it there- it's close by and I get my farm fix very easily.  I nursed the baby in the van when we first arrived, so I sent Cale in with the girls to prepay for a bag.  He bought a half bushel, which means nothing to me, or meant nothing to me at the time.  Basically, a half bushel is a big ass bag of apples. We met up with Aunt Liz, Uncle Jason, our little cousin, and Aunt Elizabeth, and off we went!  We picked McIntosh's, and they were/are excellent!

I'm looking forward to a weekend of experimenting with baking treats with apples.  I've already made applesauce and had a great time doing it.  The apple sauce recipe I used was pretty good, and I remember from last year that no sugar is necessary!  The McIntosh's are sweet enough for my liking, and I've gotten so used to buying unsweetened applesauce (organic when I am not feeling too poor) that overly sweetened apple sauce grosses me out.  Naturally, my children will not touch the fantastic, homemade applesauce, but I keep on trying.

(arrg.  Emily pooped her pants again.)

Anyway, part of what is so freakin' awesome about making applesauce is this fantastic device that I borrowed from my sis in law:  It peels, slices, and cores apples!  It is easy enough for my 3 year old to use.  Molly had a fun day with her aunt making it, so when I borrowed it, I made sure to do it with Emily.  I'm hoping Aunt Elizabeth doesn't want it back until Sunday night so I can make some different treats!  Basically I need one of my own.  If you have any AWESOME apple recipes, please let me know!  I know one I want to try out is GG's apple cake.

And then there's pumpkin.  :-D   I made these cookies last week, and although they were very good, I think I'll try something else this weekend.  I wouldn't say they were as amazing as "Sally" claimed.  However, by not requiring eggs, I did enjoy a bit more raw batter than I usually would allow myself!

Anyway, that's what I"m looking forward to:  baking and fall-decorating this weekend.  This week was busy, up until tonight, and last weekend we had 2 kids' birthday parties, I had 3 masses to sing at, a playdate at triple F, and then the apple picking, so I look forward to not having anything "to do" this weekend!

Welp, I can't find any pictures of apple picking or making apple sauce...... Cale must have them... so... here's some other great pics from this week.

Emily being a goof- she's got my sunglasses on and Cale's socks on, all the way up to her knees just about:

And here are the girls just before dance practice this week!

Entry #1!!!

I've decided to try my own blog.  On more than one occasion, a friend has said to me, "you really should have your own blog."  Usually it's when I have some ridiculous rant :)

I never thought I'd want to do a blog.

For, you see, I'm not a writer.

Even as a musician, I identify myself as a performer and an appreciate-er... def NOT a composer.

But, I felt myself wanting to express myself MORE on Facebook.  I wanted to write longer status updates or thoughts on the world.  Not only did I want to write more in terms of quantity, there's more content I wanted to write about, but I often felt like I shouldn't.  I often held my tongue on various things, from the mundane to controversial topics, because I didn't want to "start a thing."

After an increase in this feeling of wanting to self-censor to avoid drama, that I started to feel more and more like FB was the wrong venue for what I wanted to do.  Then, it finally occurred to me:  a blog would be perfect!!!

What makes it different from FB?  In the most basic sense, I would be a free agent.  With Facebook, I was linked and associated with people, and vice versa. I couldn't say anything without people commenting, which of course is the point of FB, and by and large I enjoy partaking in and observing these conversations.  And that's not to say that I don't want people commenting on my blog, but the idea that this blog is an independent entity and not tied to others' news feeds or infringing on their own space was freeing.  If anyone wants to read my blog, they do so in their free will!  And, consequently, this would mean they went out of their way to click on my blog, instead of it passively ending up on their newsfeed.  So, you don't have to read my junk; but if you want to, you can.

That's right.  I am burning the proverbial Facebook bra.  I am a free woman now!

(I thought of that this morning.  I waited all day to type that.  bahahaha!  I hope you enjoyed it.)

And I had SO much fun thinking of a good name.  Originally, I was thinking "a real housewife of the O.C. (Oneida County)"... but it was just too much.  And, honestly, I was afraid of copyright stuff, cuz I'm not that well-versed in that stuff.  "Mlog" ~ Maggie Blog was another... which is fairly dumb.  Or "Madge's magical musical mlog."  But I don't plan on writing that much about music.

Then, I tried to think of a saying or quote or something similar.  Which is when I thought of "Life is but a dream."  We all know it, it's the last line of Row Row Row your boat.  I've been told my Grammy Moulaison used to say it all the time.  And I kinda luffff it.  It's perfectly cute and sweet and I like the connection to my great grandmother.

So, without further ado, enjoy an amped up version of my FB page, essentially.  (This may make you excited, or really nervous... I, myself, feel both.  It could get really awkward.  Like, right now it just got awkward.  Probably because the word "awkward" is the most awkward word.  It's like a visual onomatopoeia.)  I plan to write about various aspects of my life, as well as my view on things (again, I just made things awkward.)...  so.. yeah.  Here goes nothing.


The suspense is terrible; I hope it will last...