Busy Busy Busy

We have been busy!

We have been trying to get the house clean for Santa to come visit. Santa really likes it when the houses he visits are clean. (Mom does too!)

We have been getting some cookies ready, because Santa loves to have a cookie or two.

We are finishing the last of the Christmas surprises. And wrapped presents are starting to appear under the tree.

These are not for us however. Just for others. The ones for us are all hidden away still. And I've only had to re-wrap one of the presents so far. 

On this shortest day of the year we are keeping busy and trying to focus on what it is ahead. Christmas is coming full speed ahead. 

Magical Grocery Shopping

Today is our first day of Christmas break! Yahoo!

And can I tell you about my own little Wednesday miracle?

M and I usually go grocery shopping on Mondays while C was at school. But Monday was the Christmas program so that didn't happen. And yesterday M taking a nap won out over grocery shopping again. But we needed some groceries.

So it was either take both kids or figure something else out. And guys HyVee Aisles Online came to the rescue. Since we already shop there in our rotation with our fuel saver card, they had a list of "favorite items" and most of what I needed was on there anyway. So it took me about 10 minutes online. Then for $2.95 someone else walked around the store collecting my groceries and bagged them up.

All I had to do was load the kids into the car and drive up. I called the number and about two minutes later my groceries were loaded into my car for me.

God Bless America. Obviously this isn't an all the time solution for my family, because Aldi does save us a bundle on groceries every week. But for the times when I want a specific brand (looking at you Heinz Ketchup) this is a reasonable solution. For real the $2.95 was less money than the impulse buys that would have occurred almost certainly.

And we have enough food now to get through the next bit before Christmas!

I should add here that I was talking this experience up as magical and C was slightly disappointed that the groceries didn't fly out to our car... so there's that. But it was in fact, grown up magic to me!!

The TK Christmas Program

This afternoon I got to go to the TK Christmas program! I know, try to contain your excitement.

But I cannot because seriously how cute is this kid in his Christmas sweater?!

Anyway, the kids sang:

• All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth
• Jolly Old St. Nicholas
• Away in a Manger
• Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer
• Quiet Night
• Santa Clause is Coming to Town
• We Wish You A Merry Christmas

I didn't have a super good seat because I volunteered to help set out the cookies before hand but that's Husband's head directly in front of him and he took a video and pictures so... that is awesome. 

I love our Parish school and I am glad C has had a place to shine and be loved for his 2017/18 school year! Only one more day of school until Christmas break! That's crazy!

A Nearly Perfect Weekend

Oh my friends. This weekend has been a balm for my soul. That is over-dramatic certainly, since nothing in life has been bad. But this weekend has just been great.

Friday I made that viral Pinterest/Facebook hot chocolate recipe in anticipation for the #clanunseen Elf Twitter party. Basically, we all watched Elf at the same time and tweeted about it using the hashtag. They have been doing this since 2012 and it's funny to go back and see my old tweets. This year did not disappoint.

The hot chocolate was good. Super rich but definitely good for a party. The movie was funny. And I loved feeling connected to other families all while spending time with mine. It's really the best kind of party honestly.

Then come to find out that Younger Season 4 dropped on Hulu. We have been waiting since September for this and we... binged the whole thing and didn't go to sleep until 2:00 AM! I know! We're crazy! But we couldn't stop and we just love it. It was just as good as I anticipated. Charles yelling at Liza on his birthday in his office? Yeah, that is my favorite moment so far of the whole show.

Yesterday was super low-key. Because we stayed up super late the night before. And you may think between reading and television that is all I do these days. But we actually cleaned our porch, built a bookshelf and completely cleaned out and reorganized our toy cupboard. And people just looking at my playroom with our "grown up bookshelf" *cough Ikea over Walmart so super fancy upgrade obviously* and very little that doesn't have a place to live... it brings my heart peace. 

No clutter = inner calm. God bless my clean house. 

Then today. Pink Sunday. (I know, rose. I get it. But seriously... it's pink and that's okay.) Mass was good. Then my Vikings went ahead and made themselves division champs. CBS only showed the game until halftime because it wasn't interesting enough. I think I could solve the problem of no one watching football by having them just air the game they say they will air but I am not a network executive. 

My fantasy football team is in the playoffs and somehow it's a two week game, I handily won last week. But this week isn't going so well... eh. It would defy odds to have a Vikings win, Packers loss and a Down By the Schoolyard win all on the same week. 2/3 is okay. (And Julio Jones could have an amazing day tomorrow which would really help the cause.) 

Anyway. I've got a roast to get from the crockpot to the table so I will leave you here. I hope your weekend has been equally wonderful!

Totally Tuesday

I am very happy to report in on this Tuesday that everything is fine. Our gingerbread house has survived thus far. Which in all honesty surprised me. It has never been something I've worried about but I fully anticipated waking up on Sunday morning to disaster. 

My Monday was about as typical Monday as it gets. There wasn't anything particularly remarkable about it. I did two loads of laundry. Ran the dishwasher. Took C to school. Went grocery shopping. Picked C up from school. Etc. 

M spotted these "cooker mittens" at Aldi. 

It was sunny for the bulk of the day but in the mid afternoon it flurried/rained. Our news outlets really want it to snow and they keep throwing the word around trying to will it into existence. Yesterday was about as minimally flurried as it can get to still call it flurries. Which for the record I am 100% okay with. I know we are supposed to dream about a white Christmas but since our holiday involves driving I am a dreaming about clear and safe road conditions. 

Woah. That is probably the lamest, most ridiculous paragraph that has ever been blogged. 

Anyway, we've been slowly watching The Crown. I am trying to savor it. Usually I am a binge watcher. But the show is so gorgeously done that I fear it will come to an end rather quickly. We'll still probably be done with it by this time next week, with only ten episodes total. 

Today M and I have a play date while C is at school and she is ridiculously excited about it. It otherwise is shaping up to be another mostly regular day. Well, it is Taco Tuesday. And we will be having a taco party for dinner. What makes it a taco party? That is a good question. 

Whenever I plan for a dinner that at least one member of my family is bound to not enjoy, (In this instance C and due to peer pressure or the fun of copycatting probably M too.) I call it a party to make it more enticing. This means I will add chips and salsa to the table along with the traditional taco fare of meat, cheese, tomatoes, lettuce and rice. We only serve dragon approved taco toppings and even still one taco will probably have to be cajoled into a food pipe. 

Ah real life. So un-glamorous and boring to read about. Alas, that is what's going on in my world. Have a good regular Tuesday! 

Gingerbread 2017

It is that time of year again! Yesterday was Gingerbread Day 2017. It is one of my most favorite days of the holiday season. We make a gingerbread house (or houses) from scratch every year. Everything on our houses must be edible which is kind of a dumb rule since we never, ever, eat them ever. Nor would we want to because food safety is absolutely not our concern while we are making them.

We started the evening with the kid houses. We prebuild their houses because they aren't quite patient enough to hold the walls and roof in place until they're dry. They truly weren't all that patient anyway and asked approximately 97 times whether it was time yet.

Pinterest will tell you about the muffin tin to hold the candy. It really isn't a bad idea. We offered M&Ms, jelly beans, chocolate chips, Christmas tree sprinkles, bite sized Airheads and mini Swedish fish. 

After we were all set up... we let the kids loose! 

And their results were lovely! Obviously the advent candles are lit for ambiance and not accuracy. 

Kids Houses 2017

After we got our children nestled snug in their beds... we got to work on the adult house. This is our sixth year doing a gingerbread house as a team, but this year we really dove in. My entire goal of this house was to do windows. 

And we added windows. But we also added chocolate work, impressions and a very specific house to emulate with a roof that is best served not by gingerbread. 

This was our house in the process. We were testing the windows but I just stuck some tea lights in there, and they were flickering as candles do. And there's no roof and Husband thought it looked a little bit like Tara burning. I was pleased with how the windows turned out for our first attempt. I followed Martha Stewart's video for making windows.  And while ours definitely tasted burnt, since I didn't care if it was tasty it worked out just fine. 

Anyway... here is our finished house:

"In an old house in Paris..."

Peg Dolls from Punch and Judy Pegs. 

I am super duper pleased with how this house turned out in the end. But man did we put the effort in this year. We were working on it until about 1:30 this morning which is late even for us. 

Now, this is where I need to write things to remember in the future. We started baking really late. Like at 2:30 or so. We were really battling the royal icing and next year we need to buy more powdered sugar. One can never ever have enough powdered sugar available on Gingerbread day!! But the Just Whites company needs to start making the powdered egged white again because last year with meringue powder the icing was too stiff, and this year with pasteurized liquid egg whites it was too loose. 

Husband and I had some miscommunication. He did brick impressions on the whole house and I thought we were just doing them on the chimneys. As it happens, I didn't even get brick impressions on the chimneys which is a funny little twist that wasn't super funny to me in the heat of the moment. We take our gingerbread seriously and at that point it was a little too seriously. 

We definitely aimed high this year and man did it throw some challenges our way. (Picture me with my hair dryer trying to cure the roof... because that absolutely happened.) It was the first time in our six years I truly thought Husband was going to call it quits. In fact he did suggest that we just leave the roof off and deal with it in the morning. But we persevered and I am so glad we did!

What We've Been Up To and I've Been Reading

Wow wow wow. It's Thursday. 2017 is slipping away from me here and I don't like it one bit! It really blows my mind that it is already a week into December!

St. Nicholas found us yesterday. Which is always fun. This year he brought Disney Christmas pajamas, and some books for the Christmas book basket.

We also made the Fluffy the Snowman pancakes for dinner last night.

It wasn't a complete Pinterest fail situation. Of course ours doesn't look as lovely as the IHop website picture but it was still pretty cute and tasty. A nice winter dinner anyhow! 

I have one of my book clubs tonight. About 6 months ago we turned a corner and our meetups to discuss the books have been very thematic. Tonight's book to discuss is Where'd You Go, Bernadette.

I wrote about it a few weeks ago. It's a little hard to describe without completely spoiling the whole book, but basically the book revolves around Bernadette an agoraphobic architect who goes missing before her family's trip to Antarctica. (Colleen if you see this, this is definitely a book for adults but would be rated PG! But I know fiction isn't your thing!)

Anyway as it turns out, Husband has a work event tonight and I was a moron and forgot about it when we scheduled book club. So I can't go. But... that's actually kind of thematic to the book since, Bernadette disappears and all. So I didn't tell my friends I wasn't going to be there and instead had Husband dropped off this package this morning. 

Manjula is Bernadette's assistant. Inside I wrote a letter explaining my whereabouts and some of my thoughts on the book. That is also thematic because the book is epistolary in style for the bulk of it. But then I also included a copy of next month's book for all of them as a Christmas gift. (I picked the book and it's a fairly new release so I am hedging my bets they don't all own it already.) What can I say? I like a good theme! 

This picture is actually a picture the host took and texted out to all of us letting us know it arrived. I didn't want to be the only one not to respond so I sent a thumbs up emoji. I can't wait to see what they think tonight. 

In more book news, I was on quite a few wait lists through my library and obviously Murphy's Law, I got all 4 books automatically checked out to me within days of each other! So this past week I have read: 

Radio Girls. Historical fiction about women who work at the BCC at the very beginning of the organization. Also a really good, for adults but pretty PG read. There's a little bit of suspense but not so much to kick it out of the historical fiction genre. This would be a wonderful book club pick! 

Before We Were Yours. Once again a PG read but it was intense for me at time. The story follows Avery who returns home to help her senator father in the midst of his declining health. She happens to meet a senior citizen named May. Avery decides to find out more information about May and discovers a hushed up history of stolen children and illegal adoptions. 

This book is historical fiction in that the characters we meet are primarily made up. But the children's home and staff members at the children's home were real and some of the situations you read about are taken from accounts of children who survived it. A lot of what they go through is truly horrific and you can't believe the injustice. I liken the reading experience to reading Orphan Train or The Nightingale. Well written and important. 

Little Fires Everywhere. This was probably my favorite book I've read in a while. It is my second book I've read by Celeste Ng and I personally really like her style. She has a slow and steady pace, and she jumps around in time a lot. This book is a drama, mystery, family psychology, storytelling from many points of view... and I enjoyed it. That said, I know that some people really don't like her style so take that as you will.

It is hard to describe the plot because it's kind of a little of everything but it primarily follows two families in a seemingly perfectly planned out suburban town. These families are completely different but become intertwined and a very public custody battle plays out and line are drawn.

I really liked the book but it is definitely a PG-13 read.  However reading this immediately after Before We Were Yours I declared to Husband that I did not want to read another book about adoption for a while.

I still have two books I am currently reading so when I am mysteriously absent from the blog I am probably just reading. :) Of course after these next two I am sure there are more on the horizon. It's my final push for 2017 books read.

"The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel"

"The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" "full season" dropped on Wednesday. Full season in quotes because we got seven more episodes. And, I know. I know I sit here in my little tiny corner of the blog-o-sphere and go on and on about Amy Sherman-Palladino and how wonderful she is. But you guys, this show is good. It is so good.

Let's go ahead and state from nearly the beginning that it is definitely rated R for language. (Swears and sexual content.) So if language bothers you, this isn't your show. It also isn't for children. That said,

Somehow AS-P has conceived, written and directed show that showcases her artistry. It's fast and smart like "Gilmore Girls." It's charming like "Bunheads." But it does it's own thing and it gets deep and personal. In the final ten minutes of the season finale, to quote Amy here, my poor little heart couldn't take it! I became so emotionally invested in Midge, Joel and Susie in eight episodes. But the cherry on top of this amazing AS-P sundae is that in addition to being fast, smart, charming, deep and personal, this show is funny. It is deeply funny in a way that I didn't really realize a show could be funny.

There's situational comedy, subtle comedy, high comedy, stand-up comedy... it is intriguing and heartfelt, you are Anton Chekhov-ing it all the way home because if you are not laughing you are crying. This show made me feel. It made me reexamine my life and goals. Can I do more? Should I do more? Am I helping or hurting my marriage?

What Amy does well is she makes everything so personal but she shows all sides of a situation. No one in real-life is all good or bad. We find a balance. And that is how Amy writes her characters and shows. Her heroines are good but they make poor choices sometimes. But the true strength of AS-P is that she doesn't just write characters. She writes a whole world. Midge gives us insight into so many facets of life in the 50s (good and bad) that you can't help but be amazed.

It is a deeply satisfying show that is charming, funny and brilliant. If you do not already have Amazon Prime to be able to watch "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel", it would be a very good time to get the free 30-day trial. Eight episodes is easy enough to get through in that time plus free two-day shipping for Christmas. It's a win win.

Disney on Ice 2017

Last night was the kickoff to our Christmas season because we went to our 6th annual Disney on Ice. And now December can begin!

This year we had the whole section to ourselves which was really nice. It has been a few years since that's happened. Actually it hasn't happened since M has been attending come to think of it. We waved hello to Minnie and Mickey, then thoroughly enjoyed watching the rest of the show.

This morning we opened the first doors on our Advent calendars and we are ready to rock December!

Thursday Happy Thoughts

I have a few random things that make me laugh and smile to share with you. Other than the fact they make me happy, they are pretty much unrelated.

Last week I bought all the ingredients for the recipe Beth suggested for Terriyaki sheet pan dinner. I went into the kitchen to start making the dinner and Husband was already working on it. He figured out that since I have gotten all my sheet pan recipes from Beth lately, that's where I got this one. So he went to her blog, found the recipe and started cooking. It was hilarious to me that he was so clever as to do that and super helpful to boot!!

Our radio station started playing Christmas music at the beginning of November. That is too early and I love Christmas music. So we held out until Tuesday of this week. We were sitting in car line and "My Favorite Things" came on. C looks at me and with great shock/confusion/knowledge says "This isn't a Christmas song. This is from The Sound of Music!" Then he face palms. And I laughed so hard. Because first of all I didn't know he knew how to face palm, and second he is 100% correct on all counts. Singing about snowflakes and sleigh bells does not automatically make a song Christmas-y.

We got a surprise Christmas cheer package yesterday from a blogger you probably know and love. It delighted my children to no end. M seriously did not take off this Minnie Mouse hat for hours. And she has already put it back on today. She sent C a Write Your Own Story Book and he is busy like a bee learning and writing. Marie truly just had some things laying around she thought my kids would enjoy and then sent them to us. How wonderful this world really is!!

C had his first spelling test! And I love it. I cropped out his name because he wrote first and last.

Clearly he has some room to grow with the whole writing on the lines thing... (and the capital As and Ds all the time thing is driving me mad) but all in all I am happy he is doing so well! Over thanksgiving he was making his own activity books for people to do and he spelled activity from memory... he shocks me daily with his knowledge.

So those are my Thursday Happy Thoughts. I hope you have a wonderful day today!

Top Five of Thanksgiving Weekend

one. The first best thing about my Thanksgiving was hanging out with my family. I haven't seen my brothers since May which is a little too long for my liking. So I totally was digging the time with them. But I also got to spend some quality time with my parents.

My dad and I went to Costco together and then we also went to Hy-Vee. I have always enjoyed errands with my dad, plus he buys me things! I've been out of his house for seven years but if he still wants to buy my family a box of mandarin oranges I will let him!

My mom and I went to visit my grandpa who is recovering from a partial hip replacement. This is what the complex sign said:

But my mom and I also went to Walgreen's together and we made a mock instagram of food because for whatever reason my mom doesn't get why people take pictures of their food and post it. She also doesn't give a hoot when I ask her about her dinner or tell her what we had. It was a fun laugh.

Turkey Sandwich and water! #lunch #sotasty #thanksgivinggoeson #leftovers

two. Seeing Wonder. I did dedicate an entire post to it yesterday after all. But we so rarely get out to something fun, and even rarer that I spend time alone. Plus it was just a great movie. I highly recommend it.

three. Going to Ikea. I was a little A LOT overwhelmed with the idea of going ANYWHERE near the Mall of America on Black Friday but my mom and Husband were quite persuasive. And then... there was no one there. Sure there were people walking across Lindau Lane to get to the mall but Ikea was dead. I truly don't think I've ever been there when it was that empty. Easily the best trip ever. Husband and I walked around the whole maze and talked. We tried out rooms we'll never buy and chairs that we might. And the whole reason for the trip was a bookcase for C's room and it's perfection.

four. Board games. We played Catan, and Catan: Cities and Knights. And I loved every single round it. It was the first time playing Cities and Knights for us and there was a fairly steep learning curve but now I really understand the strategy and love it! My brothers are also known for mixing random games together, their Jumanjopolife (Jumanji, Monopoly and Life) game is the stuff of legends. We created Trivial Who, which was Trival Pursuit and Guess Who. So many laughs and so much fun.

five. Escape Room! Last Christmas my mom planned for us to go to an escape room. It was SO much fun! So she got us another one for Thanksgiving! And we went and we loved it yet again. It was rated the "most difficult" rating but since we only played one side of the room it made it a little easier because we for sure escaped with 19:58 left and we only used two hints. Our first hint I stand by because we truly were never going to figure it out. Had I known how close we were to the end I probably wouldn't have gotten the last clue. We did take the traditional post escape picture but I know my brothers would hate if I posted it.

So those were the top 5 things about my Thanksgiving weekend. A quick bonus thing was that we passed an Amish buggy on the drive from Husband's Grandma's house to my parents which is the BEST part of that drive! 

Wonder

On Friday night, I went to the movies. Husband and my brother went to see Murder on the Orient Express. I went to see Wonder. I first wrote about reading the book here. The book wrecked me. Over the summer I hosted book club for Wonder.

I truly 100% believe this book should be required reading. We could all stand to learn a little something from Auggie. The preview for the movie hit me at the core and I loved it from that moment on. 

So here I am on Friday night in the awesome reclining theater... 

 

And it was the perfect movie going experience. There was no one there. Two people on the opposite side of my row. And one person in the row above me, who I couldn't see at all unless I stood up. (In the middle of the movie, some teenagers came in from another movie just so they could make out the whole time but they weren't movie goers.) Have you ever gone to a movie by yourself? It is one of my favorite things to do and I rarely do it anymore. 

So it really felt like it was just me and the movie, which was perfect. I brought my Kleenex too, no worries. And I needed them. I cried and cried. I cried happy tears. I cried sad tears. I cried parent loving children tears. Apparently in order for a movie to be one of my good cry movies it needs to cast Julia Roberts or Owen Wilson. (Stepmom and Armageddon respectively.)  It's wonderful. So putting them together in the same movie was a bit of a sob fest.

The movie hit all the notes I needed them to hit. The kids they cast were phenomenal. And then there were little extras that made it feel like they took ME into account when they made the move. (They didn't really.) The fact Daisy was played by a border terrier just like my childhood dog Angelo? The glimpse of Patrick Swayze and "Nobody puts Baby in a corner" was an extra tidbit of Madeline love too. 

This is Gidget from the movie.

I never say this about "book movies" but I loved it just as much as the book. It was a different experience but overall they got it spot on. It was as if the book came to life. It was, it is, brilliant. I told my brother and Husband when I met them in the lobby after the movie that we would be buying the movie. We really will. I loved it so much. 

The only part of the movie that left a little to be desired was the ending. I enjoyed hearing the lessons everyone learned from writing their own precepts but it wasn't to be. I guess they had to condense it somehow. So I did desire a little bit more from the end but the rest of the movie was so strong I can forgive that. 

Anyway, I highly highly recommend it. It is rated PG so it is suitable for most people. I think you wouldn't need to read the book prior to the movie but in all honestly you should probably read the book because it's so good. And remember it's written for middle grades (10 to 12 year olds) so it is a fast read for adults! 

A Magical First Haircut

I never ever blogged about our Disney Trip! And if I never blogged it did it really happen? Well, I am going to start working on some posts to share but I have one little sneak peek today.

My girl got her very first haircut at Magic Kingdom. Which I was strangely emotional about. Husband thought I was silly but she was so bald for so long it was hard to explain how I was feeling. It just was the one "baby" thing I was holding on to. We were eating lunch before her appointment and I was just staring at her hair drinking it in. And I took a million before pictures which are trapped on my defunct phone. Boo.

Tucked away on Main Street U.S.A. is the Harmony Barbershop and with an appointment they will give you a haircut! I made a "Baby's First Haircut" appointment for my baby a few months in advance. As you do at WDW. It did not disappoint. In fact it was magical because... Disney.

She got to play with a spiny Rapunzel which is her princess of choice. And Miss Valerie gave her a little trim to even her hair out. I was going for more ceremonial than "actual cut" and she delivered beautifully. It's probably a really good gig to be one of the barbers at the shop because tips and air conditioning! They are all licensed cosmologists and so nice. But who isn't nice at Disney? Not many people that's for sure.

Miss Valerie even put her hair up into pigtails and sprinkled pixie dust on! The whole experience was everything my mom heart needed and wanted from her first haircut. It was special and wonderful. Then because Mickey knew it was her first haircut, she got her very own special ears to commemorate the occasion. All told the package for the haircut, certificate, ears and keepsake hair clippings was only $25. The ears all by themselves are $24 so it is basically a steal. Which if you know WDW, you know there's very little that is, in fact, a steal.

Things to know about the barbershop:

1.  It's tiny. Three chairs only. So appointments are a must. I have read that you can pop in early in the morning to see if you can get on the schedule, but then of course there's no guarantee. 
2. They do not wash your hair. They have spray bottles to dampen it if need be but you are instructed to come with clean, dry hair. 
3. Because the shop is so small there isn't a lot of room for spectators. Fair warning. 
4. Harmony Barbershop is right next to the gates where the Main Street U.S.A. parades start, so if your haircut is close to a parade, you would probably want to give yourself extra time to get there. 

Oh M. I am so glad we were able to take this little girl to WDW, she was totally old enough to love it and find it magical but the fact she was still two meant that she was a guest of Mickey Mouse. (That means she didn't need a ticket!) And I will never forget her first haircut and she'll always be able to say that it was at Magic Kingdom, which I think is pretty neat.

Here's Monday!

Monday.

A new fresh week. I am trying not to be envious of everyone with a full week off for Thanksgiving. I'm not too worried about our little two day school week anyhow.

My goodness today is going to be a wonderful day. It is sunny. The high is in the 50s! Oh glorious day! Thank you Mother Nature for this respite from the cold and dreary.

I will write one last leaf update here. Our city extended free yard waste pickup by a week, but it doesn't even matter because we (and by we, I mean mostly Husband this time around) finished yesterday afternoon. Our lawn looks tidy, our tree bare. This morning the truck took away nine bags and I breathed a deep sigh of relief.

I slept in on Saturday in the first time in a long long while. I had book club yesterday and it was wonderful. I held my girl while she sang "Alleluia" in her little three-year-old voice. This weekend was just what I needed and I am so glad for it.

I hope I can extend that feeling to this week. Have a good Monday everyone!

Friday QT

1. So last night I made the Mongolian Beef that Beth recommended. And... yep. It's a keeper for sure. I will tell you that I do not do spicy so I just skipped the jalapenos all together and I didn't miss them. Also, 1 inch of ginger is the most open to interpretation instruction I think I've ever read in a recipe but even still... mine turned out quite tasty! We served ours with rice and broccoli and the kids enjoyed dipping theirs into the sauce. A meal my kids actually ate? YES.

2. What are your big plans for this weekend? We aren't really doing anything. And that is maybe my most favorite thing to type to you right now. We haven't had a regular weekend since October 6! We had the food show, M's birthday, Halloween, dog sitting and Elton John. Yep. I am ready for a comfy cozy weekend.

3. I read a couple of good books this past week or so.

I feel like everyone read this back when it came out, but I just got to it. I enjoyed this read that is written for twelve-year-olds. It's fun, it's bookish and has a good little life lesson about playing fair. 

This was a very wonderful and thought provoking read. There were times the readers were able to piece together more of Eleanor's life than she was, and there were times where we were completely in the dark over what was going on. 

This is a book I know I will reread to try and glean more insight out of. It is beautifully written and is definitely up there as one of the better books I've read in 2017. It made me feel a lot of feels but I also don't think it's for the faint of heart. It definitely touches on some dark themes. 

This was a fun read though slightly confusing at times until it all came together. I hope there's a sequel in the works because I'd love to know what these characters are up to. 

4. So in case you're wondering how my Goodreads Book Challenge is going... 

It's going pretty well. And I think I am going to set a higher goal for 2018. 

6. I am having a hard time coming to grips with the fact that Thanksgiving this week. I mean... that basically means it's 2018 already. I am not a good Advent-er. In fact I kind of really dislike Advent. But Colleen is going to focus her Advent on her marriage and I think that sounds lovely. I am going to do the same and come out on the Christmas side of things a better wife. 

7. I have never been one to find myself with SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) but November has been rough on me with the gloom. These past few days it actually has been sunny and I have forced myself to get outside and get some of that sunshine into my pocket. I am going to be getting some Vitamin D and kick my step count into gear to make sure those doldrums don't turn into something yucky. 

Probably also going to make a super upbeat playlist so I can dance it out every day. Dancing it out is good stuff. 

Okay everyone. Happy weekend!!