November 2009

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Monday After Thanksgiving Dread

November 30, 2009 in Uncategorized | 2 comments

I am having a serious case of denial/dread about all the work and chaos that will inevitably come crashing down after 5 days of being off. I so needed the break that Thanksgiving offered, and I’m now feeling very spoiled about the whole thing and wanting about 5 more YEARS off. It doesn’t help that I’m planning Sweet Girl’s birthday party this week so soon after hosting Thanksgiving, and the best course of action might just be to go pull the covers over my head and not come out again until Christmas.

I will say that one of the things that is currently helping me feel like I can manage what the next weeks will bring is the fact that I’ve started running again (this after a nasty case of shin splints followed up by some plantar fasciitis, for those of you just joining us). Oh, the irony that expending more energy somehow yields higher energy levels. Go figure. Anyways, I decided last week was as good a time as any to hit the pavement again, and I’ve not regretted it for a moment. I had to run in the rain tonight, but given that I’ve run in sleet, snow, and freezing rain previously, a few drops of regular old rain seemed like no big deal. And I figure that if the next weeks are as intense as I imagine they’ll be, I’ll need the outlet even more.

On a totally different note (yes, I am the master of random and sometimes painful transitions and segues), I just peeled off one of those pore cleansing strips, and MAN, there is nothing more cathartic than that feeling of stripping off a layer of skin and seeing the junk that was clogging your pores mere moments ago. Gross, for sure, but very satisfying. Surely I’m not the only person who feels this way?

Anyways, it’s time to go hide under the covers, plug my ears, and say “lalalalalala” until morning. Happy Monday, y’all.

© 2009, OneShoeOff. All rights reserved.

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Bananagrams Review

November 29, 2009 in Uncategorized | No comments

Not too long ago, my friend Alex recommended the game Bananagrams as a fun alternative to Scrabble. I have never loved Scrabble (although I will admit it’s been years and years since I last played it), and so we went ahead and purchased Bananagrams last week. I LOVE this game. It’s challenging, but a little silly, too (we’ve had words like ‘farts’ and ‘shiv’ turn up in the game). And although I hold a graduate degree in English literature and my husband doesn’t, he totally schooled me in it last night. It’s not only about coming up with great words (I put down ‘dovetail’ tonight), but strategizing about the usage of short, easy words can completely alter the course of the game. We’ve played it with 2 people and more, and it’s fun either way, and I can totally see it working with slightly older school-aged children who have a pretty solid handle on spelling and vocabulary. And for $14, it’s totally worth it. Another added bonus? For someone like me who can be very attuned to tactile stimulus, the pieces are very soothing to hold and move around. In a nutshell, it’s totally worth it!

And for the record, nobody is paying me a dime to say any of this. I purchased the game with my own hard-earned cash, and if it sucked, I would be telling you that, too. So there.

© 2009, OneShoeOff. All rights reserved.

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Internet Hiatus

November 28, 2009 in Uncategorized | No comments

I can hardly believe it, but it’s been basically 2 days since I’ve been here, and not just HERE here, but 2 whole days since I’ve been on teh interwebz more generally speaking. In summary, our entire world got swallowed up into the all-consuming, yet delicious, maw that is preparing for Thankgiving when it’s going to be hosted at your house. It all went off without a hitch, the turkey was perfectly cooked, the side dishes were appropriately carb and butter-laden, there was enough food to feed 3 times the number of people that attended, and Mr. Shoe and I had dinner cooked and on the table in 3 1/2 hours flat (minus 2 desserts and cranberry sauce which were prepped the day before). We are a well-oiled Thanksgiving machine, I tell you. This comes from having cooked Thanksgiving dinner every year, except 1, for the past 9 years. Might I be so bold as to suggest that we are Thanksgiving rock stars? Because, seriously, we’re really, really good at doing this.

But anyways, this means I owe you a few more Nablopomo posts for missing the past two days, and therefore this experiment in whether or not I could post every day for a month (which I have failed pretty spectacularly, if I do say so myself) will likely continue on into December.

So, in honor of this lovely Thanksgiving weekend, I’d like to share a few things I’m thankful for.

My family. I love them; they love me. I’m so freaking amazed that these awesome people are a part of my life, and I wouldn’t know what to do without them.

My chosen family. Both the ones I see frequently, and the ones I have thanks to the magic of the internet. The support I get from these people is what gets me through the crap that life dishes out. I can only hope to be as good to them as they are to me.

My job. I have one (which is kind of a big deal in this particular slice of our history). I’m good at it, and I like it even if it drives me up the wall some days. It’s provided me with opportunities for growth and learning in my professional life while allowing me to continue to grow and learn in my personal life through motherhood. It’s a beautiful (albeit chaotic) thing.

And you know, these are the things that absorb the vast majority of time and energy these days, so that pretty much covers it for me. I hope you all had a really marvelous Thanksgiving. Now, cue Christmas music!

© 2009, OneShoeOff. All rights reserved.

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Thanksgiving Feast

November 25, 2009 in Uncategorized | 2 comments

ETA: I totally forgot to post this last night after I finished writing it. Oops.

Well, I’ve spent the last half hour prepping my Thanksgiving 2009 Plan of Attack since we are D minus 2 days from the big feast, and without a plan, I couldn’t pull this off. Here’s what the menu will include:

Appetizers:
Artichoke dip
Veggie tray with hummus
Relish tray including home-canned dilly beans

Dinner
Turkey (duh)
With Stuffing (also duh for our family)
Classic Sweet Potato Casserole (more like dessert than a side dish)
Corn Casserole (my MIL’s recipe and very corn pudding-like)
Mashed Potatoes (with lots of butter and milk)
Green Beans Almandine (hands down the healthiest thing on the dinner menu)
Cranberry Apple Relish (wait, this may actually be healthier than the beans)
Bacon with Brussels Sprouts (Mr. Shoe loves brussels sprouts. I don’t. But even I can tolerate brussels sprouts if they’re bathed in bacon-y goodness)
Gravy
Rolls (because why NOT have a few more carbs)

Beverages
Sparkling apple cider garnished with pomegranate seeds
Red Wine (no, I can’t be more specific, I don’t know what we’re drinking yet)

Dessert
Pumpkin Cheesecake
Pumpkin Cream cookies
Dutch Apple Pie
Whipped Cream (why yes, this is a dish in and of itself)

I’m full already.

© 2009, OneShoeOff. All rights reserved.

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Food Bank-Making Good on My Promise

November 24, 2009 in Uncategorized | 2 comments

Firstly, between work and now this post, I feel like I’ve been writing my fool head off all night. Secondly, there are worse feelings. I actually kind of like writing now that I have some critical distance on Dante’s seventh circle graduate school and I’m no longer required to spew forth academic nonsense on command. Incidentally, for those of you academics and recovering academics out there, have you seen this Random Academic Sentence Generator from the University of Chicago? It’s hilarious, although it brings back memories of that intense terror that I’m the only person in the classroom that doesn’t know what the hell is going on. So yeah, funny in a traumatic kind of way. Ha?

So summary of previous paragraph: writing = good, graduate school = v. expensive therapy

Right. Moving on.

I took Sweet Girl down to the Mid-Ohio Foodbank today to drop off some food per our previous conversation. We had never been down there before, and I was thoroughly impressed by what I saw. The people there were so kind and helpful, and took the time to talk to us despite the fact that they were noticeably busy. When they gave away Christmas baskets last year, they gave away 1 million pounds of food in two days. I can’t get my head around that number. They typically have about 3 million pounds of food stored away at any given time. They have a HUUUUGE warehouse that we got to see, and they have massive scales to weigh it all as it arrives. I have to admit that I teared up when I walked into the warehouse. It was SO MUCH FOOD. And our donation of about 30 pounds was so small. And despite all that food, people still don’t have enough to eat. I can’t get my head around that either. I am BEYOND privileged (I refuse to say ‘blessed’ because despite my currently ambivalent religious leanings, I refuse to believe that God ‘blesses’ some with enough to eat and then would rather the rest of us starve). My daughter is growing up with all she needs and then some. It is our responsibility to give what we can, and it is our responsibility to foster that little seed of generosity in our child. So we’re going to look into some opportunities there to volunteer where Sweet Girl can participate. They’re apparently starting up a young kid’s program at the food bank, and we’ll see if it’s something she can be a part of. Again, throwing this out to the locals: anyone else interested in joining up? Or maybe the local Columbus bloggers could host a food drive for them? Or something? Help me out here, peeps.

Finally, I’ve been telling Sweet Girl about all the things you guys do to give back and help the hungry. She likes that. She asks some questions while we talk, but it’s obvious she’s thinking about all of this and taking it all in. I know it’s a lot to ask a nearly 3-year old to think about. Hell, it’s a lot for me to think about, too. But I want her to know that there are lots of good people in this world who do good things, and that she has the potential to do her own good things to make a sometimes crappy world a little better. And if that resonates with her? Well, what more could I ask for?

© 2009, OneShoeOff. All rights reserved.

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Questions That Keep Me Up at Night

November 23, 2009 in Uncategorized | 2 comments

Okay, so maybe they don’t keep me up THAT late because usually I’m too stinkin’ tired to do anything but fall on my pillow and commence drooling, but still.

1) Why don’t people wear their seat belts when they drive? It seems…willfully obtuse. (My apologies if you don’t wear your seat belt routinely, but this is something I just don’t get.)

2) When did they stop teaching rules of right of way? Arch Support nearly got run off the road by a punk frat boy the other day, and it happens to me routinely, too.

3) When does “potty trained” mean really potty trained? Like with no random inexplicable accidents?

4) Why did the previous owners of this house exhibit such great taste, but such cheap-*ss execution on the home-improvement projects they tackled?

5) What will Arch Support do with the millionth bag of beets that I gifted her today from our weekly CSA share?

6) Would I look goofy with longer hair with a perm? Not a spiral perm, but nice loose waves.

7) Where is the missing whale sock that I lost in the wash over a year ago?

8) Will we ever decide we’re ready for more kids?

9) Why don’t they make all kids toys out of soft, squishy materials that compress gently under adult feet? Legos and miniature plastic dolls HURT.

10) Am I going to meet my goal of running a marathon next year? Or will injury or the busy-ness of life get in the way?

Now to go ponder these upon my pillow. G’night, y’all.

© 2009, OneShoeOff. All rights reserved.

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Invasion of Yo Gabba Gabba

November 22, 2009 in Uncategorized | No comments

We’ve been listening to the Yo Gabba Gabba CD ENDLESSLY for the last few weeks. Sweet Girl doesn’t watch the TV show, but she can rock out to just about every song on the CD now. As can I. There’s a song on the CD called “There’s a Party in My Tummy,” and part of the song goes something like this:

Carrots!
Ye-ah!
In My Tummy! Party, party!
Ye-ah!
In My Tummy!
Green Beans!
Ye-ah!

Etcetera, etcetera, ad nauseum, ad infinitum. So now as a result of listening to this song roughly 412348908 times, Mr. Shoe and I will suddenly, randomly bust out with “Carrots!” and the other person in the house will respond “Ye-ah!” and the instigator will respond with “In My Tummy!” Tonight, Sweet Girl was getting in on the singing action at dinnertime and most of dinner’s conversation was some combination of the song lyrics. As we were cleaning up, I jokingly substituted “Carrots!” with “Sweet Girl!” She stopped dead in her tracks and just smiled at me. I tried again, trying to elicit the response “Ye-ah!” Instead she said “No-o!” “Why not?” I ask. “I don’t go in your tummy, Mama. That was only when I was a tiny baby.” And I’ll be honest, my first response was “Why on earth does she think I eat babies?” Yeah, no, clearly the explanation that babies come from mommy’s tummies that we had MONTHS ago stuck on some subconscious (or maybe not so subconscious) level. Have I mentioned that I love how her brain works? Have I also mentioned that I need to get out more? An entire post about a Yo Gabba Gabba song? Oy.

© 2009, OneShoeOff. All rights reserved.

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Recycled Crayons

November 21, 2009 in Uncategorized | 8 comments

I haven’t talked about it much around here, but I’ve got a bit of a crafty streak in me that makes me want to try to make things most people don’t make. There’s plenty of things I can do, like knit and sew, but these activities aren’t particularly kid friendly what with the sharp pokey bits and the fast-moving sharp pokey bits and the sharp scissors and me really wanting to get my kid through childhood with all body parts intact. So anyways, I try to keep my eyes open for kid-friendly hands-on projects, and we tried one this week that was mostly kid-friendly that I thought I might share.

In a nutshell, we took all the broken and nubby crayons we had around, peeled all the paper off of them, broke them into tiny pieces, put them in silicone baking molds and melted them into the oven into new crayons that are WAY more fun to play with than the little nubs. There are tons of tutorials out there with variations on how to do this, but if you’ve got a baking mold you don’t mind never using for food again, crayons, and an oven that heats to 200 degrees you can basically do this project.

Sweet Girl had a blast peeling off the paper and breaking the crayons, then watching them melt. I did have her stand a safe distance back from the oven when I saw how very liquidy and spillable the wax was, and also because I may or may not have skimmed over the portions of the tutorials that said how hot the oven should be, and I may or may not have heated the oven to 350, and the crayons may or may not have been smoking by the time I pulled them out. My new crayons may or may not still be non-toxic after withstanding those temperatures. Ahem.

Anyways, here are the results of our little experiment! (Not the best photos due to crappy light in our house, but you get the idea.)

Recycled Crayons

And a closer look at my favorite of the bunch.

Gingerbread Crayon

So yeah, we’re totally making more of these to give to the cousins for Christmas.

© 2009, OneShoeOff. All rights reserved.

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