MY LADY HATH HAD A GOOD TIME!

I fulfilled a decade long dream last night.  I went to Medieval Times with my family. 

I love history.  I love hokey stuff.  I love watching my boys' faces when they see swords and weaponry.  I love having someone else do the cooking.

On all fronts, the night was a major success.  I mean, the Knight was a major success. 

For one thing, I was continually addressed by everyone there as "My Lady."  I'm telling you right now -- that's addictive.

For another thing, my younger son actually ate - and enjoyed - soup.  I realize this picture is lousy, but such a momentous occasion needed to be documented.  It was tomato soup, and you drink out of the bowl, because they don't give you any utensils with your meal. 

It's so Medieval!!

We got seated in the Yellow Knight's section.  Here he is.

Hath he not valor?   He also hath a red carnation, which he threw into the audience at a fair maiden.

Which this fair maiden caught.

OK, well, he threw at least 15 carnations, and many of the other maidens were grandmothers or 8 year old girls.  Still, we all are fair!

It was so Medieval!! Except for that packaged moist towelette they handed out at the end of the meal.

Which I really needed after eating 1/4 roast chicken, spare rib and half a baked potato with my bare hands.  The food was delicious!

There were terrific sword fights, with sparks flying off the blades.    The horses were beautiful to watch.  The bad knight was bested by the good Blue Knight, and all was well in the Kingdom.

I had wanted to take the kids when they were younger, but we never got around to it.  I was worried that maybe they were too old, but we all had fun.  We walked through the torture museum, during which I purposely left my glasses in my purse so I wouldn't have to see the scary painful stuff clearly.  My younger son got a sword in the gift shop, and my older one (15) admired, but did not procure, an axe. 

The whole thing was great. My 15 year old admitted, "I didn't have that bad a time."

A Knight to remember!

How I Spent My Blizzard

All of us in New Jersey were in full panic mode last week with the onset of Nemo The Blizzard.  This is what it looked like on Friday morning when I drove the kids to school at 7:30 a.m.

Just a few flakes on the windshield.  The kids got out of school early.  This is how it looked when my oldest walked Baxter at 3 p.m.

Still not too bad. 

This is how it looked at bedtime.

Yes, super cozy.  Inside, we were doing this:

And playing "Fact or Crap" -- a super fun family board game.  My children did not fight at all during that game, nor did they tease, roughhouse, spit chips by accident when they talked or knock anything over.

Then overnight, we got more snow.  Usually, my favorite part of snow is sledding with my kids, but now they're old enough to sled on their own, with their friends.  I need some mom friends that want to go sledding.  Anyone?

I made my youngest go sledding with me, even though he had already been sledding with his friends for 2 hours.  We had a lot of fun.  And then he made me this.

It's a snowball in the shape of a heart.

I love snow.

GOT MILK?

We drink a lot of milk in this house.  I hate running out of milk and having to make a special trip to the store.  So when I shop on the weekend, I always load up.

I used to buy three gallons every Saturday.  By Thursday, I would be opening the third one.  I started calling it "Third Gallon Thursday."  Naming my days with little slogans makes me feel fun and special.

But this Thursday, we had a problem.

The third gallon was almost gone.  I had to run to the store to get a fourth.  Milk is $3.99 a gallon at our store.  Ouch.

The thing is, the more milk your kids drink, the more they grow, and then before you know it, you're at the store buying them new shoes and jeans.

Today is Monday.  I opened the second gallon of milk this morning.  I'm looking forward to Fourth Gallon Friday.

Got cookies?

ALL THE FLU FROM A TO B

We got our flu shots.  All of us.  Way back in October.  And yet ...

Yeah.  That happened.

On Saturday my youngest son got tired, then he got a high fever, then a cough.  Monday I took him to the doctor and they swabbed him.  Positive for Flu B.

They put him on Tamiflu.  They put me on Tamiflu, prophylactically.

That same day, my other son went to school.  He came home half an hour later.  He had a fever.

On Tuesday the doctor put him on Tamiflu, and put my husband on Tamiflu prophylactically.

That is the last time I am going type prophylactically in this post.  It is a bear to type.

My older son started to feel better.  My younger son did not.  I used this a million times a day.

It usually said 103.

Wednesday my husband started to feel bad.  Thursday I took the two boys back to the doctor, and this happened.

Now they are on antibiotics (ear infection), and a nebulizer, because their coughs are so bad and they are wheezing.

I wash my hands so much the skin is cracking.  I run around the house using these.

Then my husband got worse.  It's so bad he's eating soup in bed.  I keep thinking I'm getting sick, and that I have a fever, but then I realize its just another hot flash.

Menopause and flu can be so confusing.

I think maybe the boys are feeling a little bit better.  They were fighting and roughhousing yesterday.  Then again, they must still be pretty sick, because they admitted that video games give them a headache.

On the bright side, I read a wonderful book with my younger son.

"Nothing to Fear" by Jackie French Koller.  It is a very funny, moving and realistic historical novel about a family in the Depression in a tenement apartment in Manhattan.  Go get it from the library now before you're too sick to move.

I'd love to tell you more about my week, but its time to nebulize somebody.  I think we're having pancakes for dinner.  And I might need a whiskey.  Does that go with pancakes?

SO LONG, SCUM!

I am a college-educated, well-read, up-to-date, hyphen-comfortable, with-it woman who started this blog to be funny and entertaining.  Now, today, I am going to tell you about an amazing household cleaning product.

Yeah.  It's happening.

I'll keep it brief, because, I don't want to talk about cleaning the bathroom any more than I actually want to clean the bathroom.  But I had a real soap scum problem.  And I found this scrubber that is a miracle worker.

I am not getting any money for saying this. Although, I am going to include an Affiliate Ad at the end of this blog just for fun. 

This is my bathroom tile. 

See how the tiles on the right are whiter and more soap scummy than the ones of the left?  No?  Well, trust me. 

The tiles on the right are the "before" tiles.  I tried scrubbing with regular cleaners, I tried vinegar, I tried lemon, I tried pretending I didn't care.  Nothing worked.

(Just to recap:  I went to college.)

Then I tried this Scotch Brite scrubber on a whim.  It looks like this.

You moisten it, scrub with the white part, then wipe with the blue part.  The white part is made up of magic stuff that dissolves your soap scum.  It is fast, easy and slightly aerobic, since you do have to scrub reasonably hard.  I counted it as my cardio workout for the day.

The white part gradually fades away as you use it, but I did most of my tiles with one sponge.  You get two in a pack.  I also tried it on my tub, which has had a dismaying, grayish bathtub ring that I have been trying for years to get rid of.

I'm probably sharing too much.

In any case, the grayish stuff, which must have been soap scum that became discolored, is gone and my tub looks brandnew!

(DePaul University, BFA, 1982.  I'm just sayin'.)

I am sharing this with you because I am guessing if you like my writing you also hate housework.  Give this thing a try.  You won't be sorry.

 
Please let me know if you have any miracle housework tips that will make my home look better and give me more time to read a book.  No fair suggesting a cleaning lady.  Thank you.

I HAVEN'T TAKEN MY COAT OFF IN THREE DAYS

These past few days have been so busy, all I do is run in and out of the house doing errands.  Last week the kids had extra rehearsals for the Winter Concert at school, most of us were sick and had to visit a doctor, and then there was the shopping.

I was very late this year -- I just started my shopping on Wednesday.  Between my regular schedule and all the extra Christmas errands, I noticed that I just never took off my coat.

This is me, shopping online, with my coat on.

I would put on my coat to say, walk the dog, and then somehow, I just never took it off again until dinnertime.  My schedule would be like this:  walk the dog (outside), then grab lunch (inside) then go pick up a child (outside) then do some quick online shopping (inside), then go out to the mall (outside) then come back and eat a snack standing up (inside), then run out to the post office to overnight some presents (outside).

At one point my husband came home from work to find me unloading the dishwasher and talking on the phone with my coat on.  "Are you going somewhere?" he asked. 

I am always going somewhere!!

Yesterday at 6 p.m., I finally finished my errands with some food shopping at Trader Joe's.

Looking forward to hanging up my coat, and sitting down to relax!

Wishing you all peace.

   

I'LL HAVE THAT FOR LUNCH

The other morning I was packing lunch for my son.  He likes cold cuts on a roll with lettuce.  When I finished making the sandwich, I had this left over.

That's a half a leaf of romaine.  I wrapped it up for later.

Yes, I have become someone who wraps up half a leaf of lettuce and eats it later.  This is partly economics ... why should I throw out perfectly good food? ... and partly labor saving.  If I had to wash a whole new leaf of lettuce for my sandwich, I might just skip it and eat my sandwich without any lettuce at all, thereby depriving my body of important Vitamin Whatevertheheck.

But since I have a clean and crisp leaf waiting for me in the fridge, healthy sandwich making is a snap!

One night after dinner I wrapped up these.

Those are two slices of a baguette.  Miraculously, they survived dinner with two hungry boys and a husband who never eats lunch.  They stayed nice and fresh in the plastic bag until I enjoyed them the next day with some cheese and a pear.

I remember my mom wrapping up, like, the last three tablespoons of ham casserole after dinner for her lunch the next day.  I remember thinking how that seemed sort of sad ... was that really her lunch?  Did we need to be that careful about saving food? Now, I think, boy it sure would taste good to have a few bites of ham casserole right now.

I also eat: the brown bananas no one else wants, the heel of the bread, the dregs of the cereal in the box that kids call "dust." Today it was Honey Smacks.  Not my favorite, but pretty good with raisins.

I love food, and I'm not picky, and mostly, I'm in a huge hurry all the time.  So having portion ready snacks is a must.

I'm not the only one saving food around here.  When my husband makes a lemon twist for our cocktails, he saves the rest of the lemon and puts it back in the fridge like this.

Lemonade, anyone?