And Then I Don't Feel So Bad . . .

My sister-in-law Kimmy inspired me to think a little more positively by listing a few of her "favorite things". So, here are a few of mine!

1. Honestly, my only compensation for no Costco around is Wegmans. I love the place. I love the variety, the quality, and the FANTASTIC service.



2. If you truly know me, you know I would never survive for long without something good to read. Here's what I'm reading right now: "How We Decide" by Jonah Lehrer, "Reading Lolita in Tehran" by Azar Nafisi, "Dandelion Fire" by N.D. Wilson, and "On Food and Cooking" by Harold McGee. I'm always a mystery fan and recently enjoyed this Agatha Christie.



3. The only way to survive the cold here in our poorly-insulated basement has been with my trusty space heater. This one is great because the heater itself does NOT get hot on the outside, so I don't worry about the kids getting burned. I love feeling toasty warm by the heater!



4. I am severely plastic-wrap impaired. It was a major frustration for me, I was always getting it tangled or stuck to itself, it never tore off well, AAAH! Then I discovered Press and Seal Wrap and I will never go back to regular plastic wrap again. Bye-bye frustration!

5. These treadmills have been my salvation this winter. This is Island Health and Fitness (Jake's office is upstairs) and I finally caved and joined a gym for the first time when I pulled a muscle running in single-digit temps. Treadmill running will never be my fav, but I'm so grateful to be able to run, and it's such a nice facility. They also have great child care so dropping off Jack for an hour is not an issue!




6. We LOVE granola at our house. We each have our favorites. This is James' favorite, from Target--Blueberry granola. I couldn't find a picture of my current favorite, but it's also from Target--Pecan Sticky Bun. Jake's favorite vanilla granola comes from the local whole foods bulk section.

7. Has anyone tried Dutch-process cocoa powder? I love it. I just really like that deeper, a little darker chocolate flavor (the spoon on the left is regular cocoa, the one on the right is Dutch-process cocoa). It's a little tough to locate sometimes, but worth it. I'm excited to have finally found this week a source to get mine!

8. I'm a happy subscriber to cooksillustrated.com, my very favorite source for GREAT recipes. They test their recipes, ingredients, and equipment very thoroughly with great results.

9. I am an unabashed chocolate fanatic. I really don't know why you would want to go a day without a little chocolate. It's such tasty stuff.

10. We are really big fans of Aquaphor. It's the greatest stuff. My latest great use: healing up chapped lips, especially on my kids (and that nice red above-the-lip rash!). It also works great for diaper rash, severely dry skin, and finger splits. It's a little pricey but a little bit goes a LONG way.

11. I don't have a picture, but we're so grateful for friends and for people in your life who go above and beyond to help out. A friend from the ward went out of his way to get a plumbing snake, spent two evenings at our house, and got our plugged drain clear. What a blessing!!!

I'd love to see your favorites, too! I went a little crazy, but it's not necessary to post as many as I did! Becky

Homeowner Woes . . .

Well, for the most part I love our house (although I wish the yard looked like this right now instead of bleak and cold and bare!). But we've certainly had some homeowner woes this winter:
1) Mice invasion. (not for the faint of heart, so read this cautiously!) YIKES! I guess I shouldn't say invasion. But we've found/killed 4 mice. We first became aware of the problem one evening a few months ago. Jake was off at churchball and I had just gotten the kids down, the dishes done, and was enjoying a quiet moment on the computer when suddenly I heard rustling. From under the kitchen sink. From some sixth sense somewhere I think I knew it was a mouse. By some miracle it had fallen into the garbage which I had already emptied and put a brand-new bag in. Despite internally FREAKING OUT I carried the garbage outside and left it there. Then I called Jake and externally freaked out! He came home and killed the mouse. Since then, we have kept traps in a few places and killed 3 more mice under the sink (one even left his arm in one trap then got killed in another. YUCK!). Blessedly we haven't killed any more for 2 months or more.
2) We have discovered that our house is VERY poorly insulated. How, do you ask, did we discover this? Well, a few things: drafts, very cold walls and floors, and HIGH heating bills! And, according to our neighbor and do-it-yourselfer, the snow on our roof melts too quickly. So, we are in the process of figuring out how to add some insulation to our garage, crawl space, and maybe attic. Cost yet to be determined . . .
3) Our current issue: a stubbornly plugged kitchen sink. So I was stupid yesterday and put more down the diposal than I should have. 2 bottles of Drano and 2 bottles of foaming pipe snake later, we're still dragging our feet on calling a plumber and hoping we might be able to figure out some way to remove the clog. Bummer!

Warm enough to build a snowman . . .

I know, it sounds weird to say we were excited that it was "warm enough" to build a snowman, but it's true! We've had plenty of snow, but it's just been too plain cold for the snow to stick together to roll a ball. We've had lovely weather this past week with sunshine and 30s.

James came up with the idea of putting small snowballs on the snowman's head so that it looked like he had curly hair.
Jackson loves making snow angels. We're glad we finally bought him some snowpants so he can make his snow angels without getting all wet.

James also wanted to bury himself in snow. But he didn't want his arms covered.

Bustin out. Yay for sunshine!!!

Ice cream, burritos, and walking on the ceiling

Well, since we're tired of the Christmas blog and we haven't done anything too exciting this week other than have Jackson and Becky come down with the stomach flu, here's the hodge-podge blog!

When it's cold outside in New York and there's nothing to do, what better than to wrap up in a blanket like a burrito?
The burrito boys.

Walking on the ceiling is always good entertainment if you're small enough to manage it.

I think James is getting a bit big for this sort of thing. No wonder he and Jake look nervous.

And the mystery blog photo of the day: What is it? Hint: in the blog title . . .

It's James' ice cream with leftover gingerbread house candy--red hots and lemon drops. The novelty wore off after the first few bites, and we thought the leftovers looked very artistic.