Offline Fun

 

This week’s Working Mommy Wednesday prompt has an interesting question - what would you do for fun if you had to give up TV and internet?   While I do love my trash TV, I could survive without it and find other things to do.  However, giving up the internet would be a LOT harder.

But I would find enough to do. 

I’d read more books….

Swim in the pool more….

Play board games….

and build block cities.

That doesn’t sound so bad, does it?!

What’s Lurking Under My Bed

The question shouldn’t be what is under my bed right now, but rather what ISN’T under my bed right now.  Since we live in a townhouse with next to nothing closet space, no attic and no garage, I’ve had to make every possible available (unseen) space into storage.  So what’s under my bed you ask?  Lots of crap stuff:

-       air mattress

-       shoes

-       luggage

-       my  Wedding Dress & Veil (all boxed up)

-       more shoes

-       serving platters that are used 1-2x a year for big parties/holidays

-       sleeping bag

-       tent

-       covered roasting pan (I kid you not this was the only place to store it)

-       did I mention shoes?

You may be asking, how the heck does that all fit under my bed?  For starters we have a king size bed so that makes for lots of square footage underneath and second, we put bed risers on our bed to lift it up a few inches and give us some extra room. 

I cannot wait for the day that we buy a bigger house and I can have a proper closet (or :::GASP:::  a garage)  to store these things in instead.

This post brought to you by the Working Mommy Wednesday prompt from Julia over at Work, Wife, Mom….Life!   What is under your bed right now?

You Spin Me Round & Round

It’s been a while since I’ve participated in Julia’s Working Mommy Wednesday posts.  That’s because I’ve been working a LOT more than I should and sadly my blogging has fallen a bit behind.  Today I’m trying to break that cycle.

As a working mom, routine is my middle name.  During the week we’ve settled into a schedule that ensures we all get out of the house on time, and in one piece :)  A has a very structured day at preschool so at home I try to keep a schedule/routine as best I can to be consistent with what he is doing at preschool. 

Weekdays go something like this:

6 am ‘ish – A wakes up (and wakes us up)

6:10 – my alarm goes off, if I make it that long

6:15-7:00 – I shower and get ready for work while A eats some cheerios and watches TV or plays trains in his room

7:00-7:15 – Walk the dog and get A dressed for school

7:25 – Leave for work (and wake up hubby before I go)

8:30 am – hubby drops A drop off at preschool

5:30 pm – hubby picks up A from preschool

6:30 – I get home from work (on a normal non working late day)

6:45-7:30 – cook & eat dinner (maybe a little playtime with A)

7:30 pm – bedtime process begins

After that it’s anyone’s game.  Do more work…watch some TV….blog…surf the web/facebook….pack A’s school bag for the next day….make lunches to take to work….

….sleep, wake & repeat.  Round and round we go.  Routine, routine, routine.

Now weekends…..that goes a little something like this.

Wake up when we get up

Stay in our PJs until we feel like changing

Play with toys

12:00 – lunch time for A

12:45 – nap time for A

Play with some more toys

Maybe run a few errands

Go outside & play

6:00 – Dinner time

Wind down & cuddling time on the couch

7:30 pm – bedtime process begins

That is if we don’t have a party to attend or something else going on that day.  Then every schedule I could imagine goes out the window, which is fine with me.  We have way too many schedules during the week that we deserve a day off!!

This post brought to you by the Working Mommy Wednesday prompt from Julia over at Work, Wife, Mom….Life!   How important to you, as a working mom, is a schedule/routine for your kids?

WMW: Summer Goals

I don’t normally make summer goals for myself, but this week’s WMW prompt got me thinking that there are some things I would like to get accomplished this summer.  So here they are, in random order:

1. Clean out/organize the built in shelving area in our downstairs.  It has become a kind of make shift storage area that I’ve begun to cover up with Chinese screens so that I don’t have to look at it anymore.  It could use a good purging.

2. Finish transforming A’s room to a ‘big boy’ room.  I’ve already converted back his hutch dresser from being a changing station and replaced the glider with a train table – which has made a huge difference to the room.  But I still want to change his curtains from the valence that matched his crib bedding set to something more updated for a preschooler and change out a few more design aspects of his room.

3. Utilize the pool at our complex more.  We have a beautiful pool that it literally a few feet from our doorstep and we hardly use it.  Truthfully it’s because we’re so busy over the summer that we’re not around much on the weekends to go.  But this year A is really into swimming so I want to make more time to take him, even if it’s for an hour in the morning.  I took him one morning over this past weekend and it was perfect.  We practically had the pool to ourselves!  We did some swimming, enjoyed some snacks pool side (coffee for Mommy) and then went inside for lunch and a nap – I could definitely get used to that kind of a morning.

4. Loose these last 10 stubborn pounds!!  As you can see from my lack of dieting posts, I’ve taken a little break from WW.  After 5 months on it, I decided it was time for a break before I completely lost my mind.  Right now I’m just maintaining and doing a little bit of watching what I eat (mostly during the week so that I can enjoy the weekends).  I know summer is a hard time to diet with all the BBQs that go on, but I’m going to attempt to get rid of these last pesky pounds.

5. Take more walks.  This could hopefully help with #4.  We have a big complex and another one across the street from us that are great for walking around and not worrying about traffic.  A just got a bike for his birthday in April, so what a perfect opportunity to bring him with me.

This week’s Working Mommy Wednesday prompt from Julia over at Work, Wife, Mom….Life! is: Top 5 goals for this summer.

 

The Early Bird Catches the Worm

I am always early to everything.  I find it rude to make people wait so I try not to make others wait for me unless it’s absolutely unavoidable.   Like the saying goes “to be early is to be on time, to be on time is to be late”.  Both my husband and I are early people so you can guarantee that unless something blows up, we’ll be there 10-15 minutes early for any party, appointment, etc…  (that is, as long as it’s an event we want to be at.  LOL)

It drives me completely bananas at work that everyone at my job thinks it’s acceptable to be late to meetings.  They call it being on ___ time.  (The blank being the name of my company.)  However when I have a crammed day, the last thing I want to be doing is wasting 15 minutes waiting for a meeting to start when I could have used those minutes to get some extra work done.

I thought having a baby would immediately throw my time stamp out the window, but it hasn’t.  I just know that I need to start getting things ready to go a little bit earlier than I did before I had a kid.  Plus there’s my husband who is there to keep us on time as well.

This week’s Working Mommy Wednesday prompt from Julia over at Work, Wife, Mom….Life! is: Do you typically run early, on time, or late?

Eyes Wide Open

I woke up in the middle of the night a couple weeks ago and for some reason had a feeling I should open my eyes vs. rolling over and trying to drift back off to sleep.  When I opened my eyes I almost screamed out of sheer surprise.  Staring right back at me was my son – standing next to our bed!  He had walked over to our room because he too had woken up in the middle of the night.  It took me a minute to process if I was dreaming or not since he wasn’t saying anything, he was just standing there looking at me.  Then he said “Hi Mama, I couldn’t sleep.”

I walked him back to bed and then went back to bed myself, but I couldn’t quite fall asleep.  I kept opening my eyes expecting to see him back at my bedside.  I think it might be time for a lock on our bedroom door. LOL

This week’s Working Mommy Wednesday prompt from Julia over at Work, Wife, Mom….Life! is: I woke up in the middle of the night and....

WMW: Bringing Work Home

One of the drawbacks of my career is that most nights I have to take my work home with me. It’s just part of the industry culture I work in and I’ve gotten used to it. To minimize the amount that I have to take home I typically eat my lunch at my desk and work on the train ride home.  However, it never fails that someone comes to me at 4:45 needing something done before the end of the day :/ 

Once I get home I take the first 90 minutes to spend some time with A and my husband, have dinner do bath time and put A to bed.  Then once he’s asleep I can log back in and get done what I have to do while I sit on the couch…with a glass of wine of course.

I wish I could leave work at work, but it’s just not in my job description to turn off when the clock strikes 5.  My crackberry blackberry is pretty much glued to my hand and you’ll find me answering work emails at midnight sometimes.  It sounds crazy but in my head it’s easier to just answer it then than waiting until the morning when 25 of its friends join my inbox.  I have been getting better at trying to not check in as much once I leave the office, but I just can't help but get the urge to check my messages when I see that little flashing red light ;)

This week’s Working Mommy Wednesday prompt from Julia over at Work, Wife, Mom….Life! is: Do you bring your work home with you? Why or why not?

The Best Meal I Ever Had

While on one hand I could write about the cheeseburger I ate in recovery after having my son and how it was one of the best burgers I ever ate in my life, not because of the taste but because of the circumstances, but I won’t.  Instead I’m going to tell you about what I consider to be the best brunch.…hands down (and no, I’m not being compensated to write any of this).

A while back my husband and I went out with our family to Sunday brunch at Restaurant X located in Congers, NY.  It was a sit down brunch where the food was served tableside by waiters and included a large number of different entrée selections that ranged from eggs benedict to rack of lamb.  It was nice to be served for once rather than fighting with people in a buffet line.   We lost count around 12 courses and just when we thought we couldn’t possibly eat another bite they would bring something else irresistible out that we would just have to try.  Needless to say we left brunch stuffed and very satisfied.

I highly, highly recommend this place if you are looking for a special brunch. But keep in mind that if you decide to go, it’s a meal that is best enjoyed away from the kids.  If you must bring them the ones that still fit in the infant carriers would do just fine for the long meal, but toddlers probably not so much.

 

This week’s Working Mommy Wednesday prompt over on Work, Wife, Mom….Life! is to write about the best food I ever had.

Sarcasm City: Admit One

Humor is a good thing.  I have it, use it, love it, but sometimes maybe I use a bit too much sarcasm. But who wants to be boring, right?  As you see by my post titles I like to be witty and use catchy blog titles….gets your attention doesn’t it?    

Whoever said that sarcasm is the lowest form of humor needs to have his head examined, and yes I said his.  It requires quick whit and always gets a laugh.  However, using humor and sarcasm in the written form can be extremely difficult.  Whether it is via email, blog, message board etc. it is hard to express tone and sometimes humor/sarcasm can be misinterpreted.  That’s not going to stop me though.  I like to make people laugh and I'd like to think that people find me humorous (or then again maybe they’re just laughing AT me…haha).

So maybe I use sarcasm and humor because I’m a little bitter...or maybe it’s a defense mechanism...or maybe it’s just because I’m a New Yorker.  But to know me is to love me and to love my sarcasm is to love me even more.  That’s just me :)

This week’s Working Mommy Wednesday prompt over on Work, Wife, Mom….Life! is to write about a personality trait that, for good or bad, is just a part of you.

My Life in Pictures

This week’s Working Mommy Wednesday prompt over on Work, Wife, Mom….Life! is to “Show us your life! (work, house, family, etc in pictures.)”  What a fun post!!  I have been taking pics over the last week to give you all a little glimpse into my life.  Hope you enjoy!

My Family:  My favorite recent picture of my husband, son and I

Our first “baby””.  We adopted Layla when she was 8 weeks old.  She turns 7 years old next month....and is officially now a "senior" :(

Our Home: It’s small for now, but it’s our little piece of heaven.

Our beautiful new bathroom that we completely renovated this past summer.  I love it!!

 One of my favorite rooms in the house.  We completely redecorated our guest room when I got pregnant.  I am thrilled with how the color block wall came out.

The downstairs playroom area.  This is where we spend most of our time.

our bar!  very useful on stressful nights after work ;-)

My Daily Commute:  I’m so lucky to pass through such a beautiful and historic building every day. Most evenings I'm sprinting across this room to make my train, but on nights like the one when I took this picture I had a few extra moments to linger in the main hall and take in the beauty of Grand Central.

 

My "mini" office where I usually work to/from the city.  a.k.a Metro-North Railroad.

My Job:  Where I spend 8+ hrs/day.  Usually with a big cup of coffee.

My View:  This is the view from my window….and yes, the brick building in the foreground is a Pub.

Nobody’s Perfect

None of us are perfect….far from it.  Anyone who thinks they are just hasn’t looked closely enough at themselves.  All of us have different things we do well which are what makes us all so unique.

This week over at Work, Wife, Mom…Life! The talk is about strengths and weaknesses.  I’ve combined both prompts this week to look at what I do well and what I need to work on.   So except for the obvious Mom factor (which I totally rock at), here are my lists.

I rock at:

• Organizing.  There’s a system for everything and everything has a system….don’t let my house fool you. My son’s things are the most organized thing in the house.  (I’m working on the rest of the rooms)
• Planning.  I have a to-do list and spreadsheet for almost anything you can imagine. 
• Being on time.  Both my Husband and I are prompt, if not early people.  I hate waiting for people so I try not to do the same to them.
• My job.  Have to ‘toot toot’ my own horn on this one.  I think I’m pretty great at what I do and have found my grove juggling both work & baby.
• Multi-tasking.  I think this is a female thing since my husband is terrible at it!
• Cooking.  I enjoy cooking and have come a long way from my microwave macaroni cooking days in college.

I need to work on:

• Keeping up with housework.  Hardly anybody likes cleaning, but I really loathe it.  I love a clean house but hate doing it.  So much so that I put it off until I can’t take it anymore and end up spending an entire Saturday cleaning the house top to bottom.
• Actively listening to my Hubby.  I’m so horrible at this.  I usually yes him to death and then 5 minutes later have no idea what he just said.  Usually it’s because I’m doing 10 other things around the house.
• Focusing too much on the little things.  I’ll get tripped up on getting a small detail right and let it delay an entire project I’m working on.
• Going with the flow.  Kind of comes with the territory of being a planner.
• Trying new things.  I like my comfort zone and can be stubborn about leaving it.
• Waking up in the mornings. I am such a grouch until about 10.

WMW: Why I Blog

This week’s Working Mommy Wednesday prompts are:

#1- What drives/motivates you everyday?

or

#2- Do you feel starting a blog has improved your life or added one too many things on your plate?

I am a brand new blogger and have only been doing it for about 4 months.  But if I felt that starting this was adding too many things to my plate then I wouldn’t have even bothered or would have given up already.  I’ve had people ask me, “where do you find the time?”  Between working 40+ hrs a week, commuting 3 hrs a day, cooking, cleaning, laundry and taking care of an almost 3 year old I truly don’t know where I’m finding this time.  Most days I don’t sit down on the couch until after 9pm, but that’s the time when I grab the laptop and start writing.  Whether it’s something to post that night or something I keep for a later date, that’s my time to work on this.  I’m surprised at myself that I’ve been keeping up with it as much as I have.  Who knows how I’ll feel about it in another 6 months, but for now I’m enjoying it. 

Over the last 4 months I’ve discovered a few things:

(1)   that I am not a terrible writer

(2)   that I like designing and have a knack for creating graphics.  I created the header graphic and the buttons on my page and am working on other graphics & features to enhance my blog 

When I started this I convinced myself that nobody was going to read this.  Even my husband didn’t quite understand why I was bothering.  But I’ve found writing somewhat therapeutic and in some ways I feel that I’ve discovered my voice.  Whether 1 or 100 people are reading, it doesn’t matter to me.

Dear Mommy

This week’s Working Mommy Wednesday prompt over at Work, Wife, Mom...Life! is a fun one.  Today was a crazy day at work so I’m posting this very late in the day, but it was one I couldn’t pass up.  “What was she thinking: A post from the view point of your child, about yourself”. 

Dear Mommy,

I had a great time at daycare today, but I missed you a lot.  I played cars with my best friend Chase and sat next to my girlfriend Sarah at lunch.  We had macaroni & cheese to eat.  My teacher even got me to sit on the potty a few times!!  I don’t mind that you have to work every day because I get to go and play with my friends all day.  It’s lots of fun.  I am a good helper to my teachers and help out all of the younger kids in my class.  I will miss them when I move to the big boy classroom in a couple months.

I can’t wait for you to get home from work so I can yell out “Mommy’s home” and give you one of my ‘super duper great big hugs’.  I know that you mean well when you want me to sit down and eat my dinner, but don’t you understand that playing with my Thomas trains is just much more important to me?  and don’t get me started on that white thing you want me to sit on in the bathroom.  Just give me the stickers & prizes now and we can forget about that thing…I’m just not ready; I’ll let you know when I am. 

The best part of my day is when you and I sit down in my room, snuggle and read books before bed.  I always make sure you read my favorite book last (Goodnight Moon) and I like it when we take turns saying the words. 

You are the best mommy and little boy could ever ask for and I love you very much.

Love,
Anthony

10 Things I Believe In

1. I believe the right pair of shoes can make any outfit fabulous

2. I believe in teaching our children manners

3. I believe in karma; it will come back to bite those that piss it off

4. I believe a good bottle of wine can solve (or at least take away) most problems

5. I believe in the power of laughter and try to practice it often

6. I believe a little mascara can go a long way for self confidence

7. I believe in traveling to as many places as you can before settling down & starting a family

8. I believe you don’t need 100 friends to make you happy, just a select special few

9. I believe you don’t fully appreciate your parents until you become a parent yourself

10. I believe in picking your battles, you won’t win them all so at least pick the ones that mean the most to you

What’s something you believe in?

Oreo Truffles

This week’s Working Mommy Wednesday prompt is a favorite recipe.  This is not only one of my favorites but super easy to make and a crowd pleaser.

Oreo Truffles

 

Ingredients:

1 package (16 oz) Oreo Cookies

1 (8 oz) package cream cheese (softened)

1 lb dark chocolate, melted (can use milk chocolate too)

½ lb white chocolate, melted

Directions:

1. Using a food processor, grind cookies to a fine powder.
2. With a mixer, blend cookie powder, cream cheese and vanilla extract until thoroughly mixed (there should be no white traces of cream cheese and it should be a dough consistency)
3. Roll into small balls (1 inch) and place on wax-lined cookie sheet. Refrigerate for 45-60 minutes
4. Line two cookie sheets with wax paper. In double-boiler, melt dark chocolate. Dip balls and coat thoroughly. With slotted spoon, lift balls out of chocolate and let excess chocolate drip off. Place on wax-paper-lined cookie sheet & refrigerate 15 minutes or until chocolate is firm.
5. In separate double boiler, melt white chocolate. Using a fork, drizzle white chocolate over balls. Refrigerate again for 15 minutes or until chocolate is firm.
6. Store in airtight container, in refrigerator.

Notes:

1. You can modify flavors by using the vanilla or even the mint oreos
2. Chocolate can also be melted in the microwave by heating on 50% power for a few minutes at a time & stirring
3. When I am exceedingly lazy, I forego the chocolate 'dip' and merely roll my truffles into various mixtures - chopped nuts, chocolate sprinkles, vari-coloured candy sprinkles, cocoa powder, chocolate shavings, coloured sugars -- still pretty -- less work.  If doing this don’t refrigerate the truffles before rolling into mixtures.

A Christmas Memory

 

This is my first time participating in Working Mommy Wednesday.  The prompts this week are  #1 A Christmas memory... from this year or year's past  #2. Biggest challenge for the new year.  Since you all know already that my biggest challenge for the new year, I’ll give you a memory.

#1 A Christmas memory... from this year or year's past

It was so heartwarming to watch A this holiday season.  This is the first year he really ‘got it’ and it was amazing to watch his reactions.  We have this dancing snowman that plays “Frosty the Snowman” and A would play it (and dance/sing along) every single day, multiple times a day.  Each day when he came home from daycare he would stand in front of the tree and say “it’s so sparkly”. This year was especially fun because A was old enough to understand the whole Santa thing. While he was petrified to sit on Santa’s lap he enjoyed talking about him, we “called” him on the phone a few times to tell him what A wanted and on Christmas Eve we put out milk & cookies for Santa. 

So Christmas morning I parked myself next to the tree and set up the camera prepared to film an excited A coming down the stairs and running over to see what Santa left.  Well, when my H came downstairs with him, A casually walked over to me (didn’t even notice the presents) and asked to go downstairs to play with his cars!  When I pointed out that Santa had left presents for him and ate the cookies and drank the milk he left for him, A replied “No Mommy, Layla ate the cookies and drank the milk.”  (Layla is our 5 yo lab mix)  I just had to laugh.  That’s my kid….

Of course once he realized the pretty packages beneath the tree held toys we got this reaction from almost everything he opened:  Priceless!