Bradley was pretty good for two.  He didn’t really get the whole “attitude” thing until about 3.  But now that he’s 5 1/2?  Well, he’s perfected it.  When he gets in trouble…holy moly, look out.  I mean, we’re talking full on heinous.  Complete with talking back, yelling, crying, ginormous neck vein that pops out and takes over the entire living room.  It is baaaaaaad.

But then he goes and does something cute that I can’t get over.  

Take today for instance…in the middle of a tickle fight with Daddy he uhhh.  Sunk his teeth into Dave’s thigh.  Ok, in his defense it was an intense tickle fight and my guess is it was an act of “holy cow I don’t know how to handle all this energy so I think I’ll take a hunk out of  Dad’s leg.”  At least that’s how I envision it in my head.

So after getting in trouble, whining, screaming, crying, and just plain ugliness he gets sent to his room.  Once upstairs he must have no way to get his frustration out (other than biting Dave’s leg) so he decides to write a little note:

Sign says: “I’m not playing.”  The “I” that looks like an “E” is actually Bradley’s I with an = sign.  He uses = signs as spaces. lol

So he was proving to us that while he was in trouble he was also following the rules by not playing in his room during his punishment. lol  Kids.

HELP!

Oh, p.s. he officially doesn’t have long hair anymore.  When he’s not being a demon I’ll get a pic.

(click on the pics and links for more info!)

Our CSA share that starts on May 18!

This blog.

This adorable kimono and the pattern itself.

These plates.  I absolutely ADORE these!

This book.  1,504 pages of fantastic midwifery goodness.  How could you NOT want this book!?  Unless of course you’re not as obsessed with midwifery, mamas, and babies as I am.   My goal is to amass some Amazon gift cards for my birthday so I can purchase this sucker.  Man.  I wonder what shipping would be.  Hmmm.  It weighs 6.8 pounds.  What’d you think?

These earrings.  Seriously, how STUNNING are these?

BB would LOVE these!

What are you loving right now?

Amanda’s first book, The Creative Family, is SUCH an inspiration to me.  Along with her blog, Soule Mama, I have a feeling these two books will help me get on my path to simplicity in life.  I’m longing to make my life as easy as possible and as fun as possible and removing destractions in my home is something I’ve been longing to do for awhile.  I want to be able to create with my oh-so-crafty son, and I can’t do that while my home is in its current state.  It’s too destracting and depressing.

So, as I read up on the Soule family’s life and devour her wonderful books I hope I can be one step closer to achieving my goal of beautiful bliss and relaxation.   Wish me luck!  (Oh, and pick up Amanda’s first book while you’re at it!)

Yep. T-O-T-A-L-L-Y!

Kate Winslet on body image.

There’s an unspoken agreement in our house.  When it comes time for laundry to be done a conversation between Dave and I ensues that goes something like this:

Me: Man, I really need to do laundry.  I have nothing to wear and B needs pants.

Dave: It’s ok, I’ll do laundry.

Me: Honey, you really don’t have to, I can do it. (Both of us knowing FULL well that Dave will automatically end up doing it ’cause I don’t wanna and he’s cool like that.)

Dave: It’s cool, I don’t mind.

Sweet.  Mission accomplished.  The laundry gets done and I get to check my email. heh.

But today, well, today was a different story.  Dave was out back playing with boy and the dog in the snow so I thought I’d take the bed sheets off the bed and be a good wife and actually do some darn laundry.  Well, when God (or whomever) made man (and woman) he decided that he’d like me to be short.  Curses.  So I grab the overflowing basket of laundry and make my way down the stairs, upon which the leg of my pants makes its way under my right foot rendering the stairs a veritable ice rink.  Awesome.

Ten points if you can figure out what happens next.

Yea.  I face planted.  Well, not so much a face plant as an ass plant all the way down each stair.  Yay.  So that’s why my butt hurts.  And that’s why Dave does the laundry.

Aren’t those amazing?  Anyone who knows me knows how dedicated I am to midwifery and women’s health, so to come across these through the Midwifery Today e-newsletter was so exciting!   I totally need to get some of these!

I did as much as I could in advance: I brined the turkey, made the pie & the mousse for dessert, prepared one of the appetizers and everything.  I was so proud of myself.

Then this morning we headed over to my Grandma’s to cook the turkey.  The recipe I have (Alton Brown’s from the Food Network, in fact) calls for cooking the bird at 500 degrees for 30 minutes to give it a nice brown, crispy skin and then lowering the temp to 350 to cook for 2 – 2 1/2 hours for the perfect, moist, delicious turkey.  Things were going SO well and I was timing everything perfectly.  At 1:00 pm I put the turkey in the oven and cooked it at 500 for 30 minutes.  Then I took it out, as required by the recipe, and tented the breast with foil so it wouldn’t burn for the remaining cooking time and put it back in the oven.  Then I headed off to the living room with my warm cup of cider to play Killer Sorry (that’s another post) with my family while the bird cooked.    Great, right?

Yea, well, if you’ve actually been following this post you will have seen the debacle start a few sentences ago.  Mmmm hmmmm.  I flippin’ forgot to turn the damn oven back to 350.  So TWO HOURS later I went to pull the turkey out when I noticed that the oven was still set at 500.  I flipped.  F-L-I-P-P-E-D!  And then pulled the bird out.

Here’s what I served for Thanksgiving.  ::Hangs head in shame::

Dude, how awful looking is that???   Ugh, I’m so ashamed.  This turkey would have been PERFECT if I had changed the freakin’ temp!  lol OMG it looks so gross you guys.

But here’s the thing.  The turkey breast was actually REALLY good!  It was moist and flavorful. lol  So unless you like crispy, burnt dark meat, I’d say stick with the white.  Or flippin’ follow the recipe for Pete’s sake.  ::sigh::

Anyhow.  I hope your turkey turned out better than mine and that you had a great Thanksgiving.

Happy turkey day all!

xoxo
Steph