• Food,  I've Got Mad Skillz

    Liveblogging the Latke-palooza

    Wow, November 30th already?? I can’t believe NaBloPoMo is over today: I’ve blogged every single stinkin’ day (sometimes twice!) for the entire month of November. This has been the best NaBloPoMo/NaBloPoMoFo for me personally and I’m not sure why. I’m ending the month with almost all of my “just in case” drafts still snug in the draft folder, and I never once felt like I was struggling with finding something to write about. (Most of the time, LACK OF TIME was the problem!) Of course, it helped that I did a little traveling this month: it’s always easier to write about things when you’re not living the normal routine. Anyway,…

  • Best Thing Ever,  Blessings

    Just Friday.

    I currently have two pumpkin pies in the oven. The turkey’s going in around noon. I know, Thanksgiving was yesterday. I didn’t make the traditional Thanksgiving dinner yesterday though. Because it was just the four of us plus my sister and my parents (my in-laws couldn’t make it this year) we decided to make reservations at the Brazilian steakhouse for meat-on-a-stick. I can’t let the Thanksgiving weekend go by without making a turkey, so today it is. (And tomorrow? Latkes and blintzes for our big Hanukkah family celebration. THAT’S MY SUPER BOWL, you guys.) Thanksgiving is such a weird holiday for us, and I’m not even talking about how Hanukkah…

  • Amazing People,  Family Fun,  My Kids Have Mad Skillz

    Truly Thankful.

    After all of the grumbling I’ve done about getting the Hanukkah decorations up and how I just couldn’t manage to get it done in a timely manner—and before the holiday actually started, even—because a whole chain of events had to take place first, like dusting and vacuuming, getting my work done, blogging, laundry, coloring my hair, grocery shopping, and procrastinating in every other way possible, I had a revelation. Granted, I didn’t see the light until we were in the midst of placing each of the menorahs of our family collection in their own special places around the house, but I saw it. Jim had driven to Wisconsin to retrieve…

  • Confessions,  Do I Really Want My Readers To Know This?

    HanukkahBlah

    No really, I’m excited about Hanukkah. (Really!) The boys are home this week (er, one is en route) and my parents will be here tomorrow for Thanksgiving with a little Hanukkah on the side. It’s just that I haven’t decorated yet, and at this point–since the holiday begins at sundown TONIGHT (I thought it was tomorrow, arggghhh!)–I’m once again thinking that it would be easier to just quietly scoot those boxes of decorations back into the corner of the crawl space. It’s not the first time this kind of thing has happened; in fact, when I searched through my blog archives just now I found the post I wrote three…

  • Review

    Minted Holiday Cards For 2013: Crowdsourcing At Its Coolest!

    A few days ago I wrote about how I need to begin thinking about the holiday cards I’m going to send this year. The World Wide Web has made things so much easier for people like me who prefer a custom design of some sort over just picking up a couple of boxes of cards at the store. (Not judging: nothing wrong with doing it that way, either!) Just like magic, I received an email from the folks at Minted, asking me to check out their website and 2013 holiday card collection (Disclosure: and write about it in exchange for a credit towards the purchase of my holiday cards!). I…

  • Food,  I've Got Mad Skillz

    Easiest Muffin Recipe Ever (You’re Welcome!)

    In my never-ending quest to confuse my readers about my niche as a “Life Blogger” by tossing in a Food Blogger-ish recipe every now and then, today I present you with another family favorite around here: the muffin recipe I use ALL THE TIME. My Mom calls them “Sweeter Muffins” but the title I copied into my recipe book is “Twin Mountain Muffins” and I don’t know if that has a double meaning or not (Get your mind out of the gutter, OMG! And take mine with you!) so I’m just calling this recipe “The Easiest Muffin Recipe Ever” because I’m at a loss and that title describes it very…

  • Amazing People,  Confessions,  I've Got Mad Skillz,  My Kid Has Mad Skillz,  Reflections on Parenting

    Something Wonderful

    Something wonderful is happening around here. (Indulge me while I brag for a moment. Thank you.) Although it seems like yesterday that we were in the midst of his college search, D is finishing his coursework a semester early. He’ll be done with classes in less than a month! It’s a pretty spectacular accomplishment: he achieved it via a combination of some AP testing for college credit, testing into (and then passing) an advanced German course which earned him the credit for that class plus the year he skipped, and mostly due to his staying the course with his major and getting awesome grades (Dean’s List all the way!). Did…

  • Roxie

    Roxie’s Rug

    We have lived in our current house for thirteen years in December. Though this was not the first house we ever bought–that honor goes to a house in Kenosha, Wisconsin–we did buy this one after renting for three years, so it was very exciting to make plans for a few pieces of new furniture and paint colors other than “Landlord’s Choice White”. When we first starting hunting for new home items, Jim picked out a Prairie-style recliner for the family room. We both adore the chair–if we could afford it, our entire home would look like Frank Lloyd Wright provided the furnishings himself–but I was more excited about a rug…

  • Confessions,  Do I Really Want My Readers To Know This?

    When A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words About Another Picture

    It’s the time of year when I start to plan what I’m going to do for holiday cards. I’m one of the dinosaurs that still sends them, you see. I used to make them myself: papercrafting, when I had time to do it, was a blast. I loved expressing my creativity on my holiday card project every year, and if the card didn’t have a picture element attached to it, I included one in the envelope so our friends and relatives who don’t see us very often can check out how much the boys have grown during the year. For the last few years, I’ve ordered cards online, and that’s…

  • Friends,  I've Got Mad Skillz

    Somebody’s Gotta Do It.

    It’s probably not news to you, but I’m very extroverted. I can talk to just about anyone, I’m very comfortable in group situations, and I do tend to, as my sister calls it, “always choose the Fun Pass”. (My sister ORIGINATED the Fun Pass, by the way. We’re good at Fun.) A dear friend I’ve known since high school is not extroverted. (Nothing wrong with that!) In fact, we’ve had countless conversations over the years about how anti-social and introverted she is, in direct comparison to my place on the other end of the spectrum. If I had a nickel for every time I’ve heard her say, “I’m just not…