January 2013

It's been a while since I've posted so here's wishing you and yours a very Happy (belated) New Year!

Things I've been reminded not to take for granted this month:

• working hot water tanks
• husbands with untwisted ankles
• water service without main breaks
• cell phones that have not been dropped in a bowl of reserve drinking water
• healthy kids
• healthy ears (mine)
• sleep
• people who really care about me (thanks, if you're reading!)
• like my grandma says, there's no such thing as perfect
• working car batteries
• super wonderful clowns who had our kids in high spirits after a couple of ouchie vaccinations, thanks Sunny
• and the Caesar's Pizza guys who let me cut through their mini mall pizza place to get from parking lot to parking lot when I couldn't find a regular spot...and then let me cut through again an hour later with a newly immunized little boy. I said to them, "If you ever decide to have kids I hope someone is as nice to you as you were to me." and I meant it.

You know, the usual...

Anyways, I found a great recipe for my favorite Vietnamese dish - Charbroiled Pork Vermicelli (Bun Thit Nuong), here...

P.S. This website comes with free meal plans and accompanying grocery lists

I realized that toothpicks are the perfect size for kid fruit kabobs. Two pineapple and grape kabobs + 4 chocolate chips and a swish of whipped cream for dessert reinstated me as her best mom ever, phew...

This is not my photo, find it here. Obviously this is not a new idea - but who cares?!

I found The Eight Step Home Cure at the library so now I don't have to buy it and store it somewhere...

"About the Book: From not enough space and too many things to not knowing what color to paint the living room walls, many of us struggle with our homes. Now Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan, frequent makeover expert on HGTV's Mission: Organization and Small Spaces, Big Style, shares the do-it-yourself strategies that have enabled his clients and fans to transform their apartments into well-organized, beautiful places that suit their style and budget.Week by week, Apartment Therapy will guide you to treat common problems, eliminate clutter, and revamp even the tiniest space. Here is an eight-step process that includes:

• A therapeutic questionnaire
 to help you get in touch with your personal taste and diagnose your home's physical, emotional, and energy flow issues

• A prescription
 with recommendations for each room based on your needs and lifestyle: including tips on how to use color, lighting, and accessories

• A treatment plan
, including regular maintenance schedules to ensure the ongoing health of your space

• Illustrations of floor plans
 and decorative examples that allow you to visualize concepts before you begin

With surprising ease and without elaborate professional help, Apartment Therapy will help you clear a path through disorder and indecision, to reveal a home you'll love. 

Ok, ok,  warning/disclaimer/whatever about the book - the author (and co-founder of one of my favorite sites ApartmentTherapy.com) and his wife are splitting up...

"He believes chasing the perfect domestic life led to the end of his marriage, telling Page Six, 'You start out with certain hopes and dreams, and you get stuck on perfection." 
Excerpt here. 

That may be depressing, mostly for them, but it's a good reminder for me that a magazine style house doesn't = a happy marriage. But, both would be nice...hey, I'm only human.