So hard to choose!!!

You might know that I am that crazy lady with a camera in her kid's face.  In the bath.  At the park.  At the store.  Awake.  Asleep.  Crying. 

What you might not know is that I've been taking a picture (often times more) every day for his first year to create something special in the end to showcase his first proper orbit around the sun.  Some days I forget and have to sneak into his bedroom and snap a photo late at night.  Other days it's really hard to choose just one to count for that day. 

Can you?

You'll thank me later

Quelf.
Buy this game. 
Now. 
Don't even hesitate or doubt.

IT. IS. AWESOME.

You'll love it too. 
Even if you get the card that forces you to snort like a pig whenever you laugh.  Trust me.  I know. 

My default camera face

Is apparently genetic.
Or Miller's had one too many too.
You be the judge.

LEMONFACE!!!

Recharged

What do you get when you mix together a relatively easy road trip,

friendships that span more than a dozen years (some more than twenty),

giggles, wine, good food and games,

quality time in the form of leisurely strolls, swims and fashion magazine critiques,

and a BEAUTIFUL location?

You get an amazing, refreshing and absolutely lovely girls' weekend. I can't wait for next year!

First Tunes

After a particularly rough night with teething Miller (four teeth at once. how is that fair?), I'm forced to remind myself of all the cute things he's doing lately in contrast to his protesting a good night's sleep.

One of his latest tricks is bobbing his head when he hears music. I discovered this at the grocery store the other day when he started swaying to Tom Petty's "American Girl". Not only was I proud to shop in a store that played Tom Petty, but I was also very proud that my kid's first "dance" moment was set to such a great (and in my opinion, classic) song.

I realize he's not going to start having real memories for another couple years, but it got me thinking about my own first memories of music and how music is such an innate love for everyone.

Here are the first musical loves I can remember for your listening and viewing pleasure:

{I remember singing this with my mom driving around in her yellow fiat. I was maybe 2? 3?}

{I loved this song so much that my birthday cake that year said "Happy Birthday Jessie's Girl"}

{Somewhere in the world there a cassette tape of three year old me singing this. How cute am I, right?}

What are some of your earliest musical memories?

Cranking up the knobs on my "Glam-o-meter"

After admiring such beautiful gowns at the Oscars this past Sunday (my faves: Sandra Bullock, Cameron Diaz, Rachel McAdams), I realized that my life is in serious need of some glam. It's not like I personally am uber fantastic, but I have managed to sneak or beg my way into a few industry parties or premieres while I was actually working within the business. Now that I'm an industry outlier, hip swanky events are a little harder to come by and I find myself wearing the same uniform everyday (jeans, tee, cardigan anyone?).

I do get to enjoy this more:

{Miller deciding on his Oscar picks}

{My faves. And yes, Evan is reading to Miller a book on the history of the Italian mafia. **Evan has corrected me; that is a book about Sicilian mafia. My bad.}

{Quiet moments to get some writing done. And drink diet coke.}

Spending my energy on them trumps blisters from sexy high heels any day!

Instead, I'll cyber hunt some esty glam into my life. Even if the event of my day is walking to the bakery down the street.

{Styley Walls}

{Vie Moderne}
{Heavens to Betsy}

Weekended

Evan's been suffering from a bad cold the last few days. Sunday night with a sad little voice, he asked me to make one of his favorite meals- garlicky tortellini soup. Not wanting to hurt his feverish sniffly feelings, I obliged. And it helps that I love it too.

I'm not exactly sure where this recipe came from. I used to make it A LOT when I worked at an Italian deli in college. (Yes, I was that cute girl in the back whipping up soups, cookies, and pasta salads.) Just like when I make it at my house, it was ALWAYS a hit at the shop.

It's SUPER easy, SUPER delish and SUPER comforting especially if you are feeling under the weather. And all of the ingredients are things you probably already have in your cupboards.


Cook pasta in a seperate pot until al dente. (You can use cheese tortelinni, raviolis, penne, whatever. One time I even used cannelinni beans because I didn't have pasta on hand.)
Heat 1 T olive oil and 1 T butter in a pot on medium heat.
Add chopped garlic (Fresh is best and add anywhere from 4 to 8 cloves. Sometimes more is SOOOO much better.)
Saute until fragrant.
Add one can of diced (low sodium) tomatoes with its water.
Salt and pepper to taste.
Add a couple pinches of oregano for kicks.
Pour in about 4 cups (or more) of stock (chicken or veggie is best).
Let heat through.
Add about 1 to 2 cups frozen spinach.
Continue to heat through on low for about 15 to 20 minutes to make sure all the ingredients get EXTRA garlicky.
Add about 1 to 2 tablespoons chopped basil (fresh is best, or frozen cubes are good too.)
Stir and remove from heat.
You can add pasta directly to soup now or you can serve it up in each bowl. (It tends to break down the next day if you have leftovers.)

Hope you like it as much as we do. Evan and his sorry little cold sure did.

Have a good weekend everyone!

Thankfully the days are getting longer

Loads and loads of laundry have been ignored this past month. Good thing teachers don't wear shorts to work.

With Miller teething and therefore EXTRA needy, I start to feel that my days are all about surviving. Night rolls around and I'm left feeling inadequate and unproductive.

It's a good thing I stumbled upon this post the other day on MartaWrites. Marta put into words the cravings I feel to be more energized, more creative, a better wife, a better mom and a better friend.

What have you discovered lately that revives your spirit?

Birthday love

We celebrated my mother in law's birthday last night with a DELICIOUS dinner followed by equally delicious pie pockets (courtesy of Martha; find the super easy recipe here. I used premade pie crust and that made it even easier. My hearts were a slightly more rustic than Ms. Stewart's, but I'm positive just as tasty.)

Sadly, I didn't get a picture of the dinner we had which was one of the best chicken meals I've ever made. Along with from scratch baking, meat dishes tend to frighten me when it comes to experimenting. Luckily, I went against my better judgement and tried playing around with flavors anyway. Here's what I did; enjoy the recipe:

Preheat oven to 425 Rub olive oil on chicken (I used a package of chicken breasts. Next time I think I'll do this with a whole chicken). Salt and pepper. Place chicken on the bottom of a roasting pan (or in my case since I don't have a fancy roasting pan, a metal baking/casserole pan). Sprinkle a pinch of dried thyme over chicken. (You could use fresh too; I just had none on hand.) In a seperate bowl toss 4 heartily diced red potatoes, a whole bag of frozen green beans, 2-3 diced shallots. Sprinkle more olive oil, salt and pepper and thyme on veggies until they are evenly coated; not too heavy. Place veggies in pan completely covering chicken (or if using a whole chicken, spread evenly around.) Place clusters of red grapes on top of veggies generously throughout the pan. Cover loosely with foil and cook for about 45 minutes. Take foil off and cook for another 30ish minutes (every so often shift veggies around in the pan as they tend to roast quicker than the chicken can cook). Once chicken is cooked through take out of oven, let rest for a few minutes and enjoy.

Three more teeth are creeping in

The furniture is very sad.

Fun with boxes!

Miller had a playdate the other day with our friend Jack. And by "playdate" I mean "Evan and I were exhausted coming up with creative activities to entertain this energetic two year old." We need to start working out more.

Good thing we're procrastinators and we had some boxes waiting at the door to be recycled. Insert "Jack in the box" photo/joke here.

Finding Jack absolutely fascinating, it was only natural that Miller wanted to do whatever Jack did.