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...