Super Bowl Week

Aurora enjoys "helping" fold the laundry.  "Helping" includes throwing everything out of the laundry basket or just dumping it and picking up and "refolding" laundry I already have folded.  Another great activity is seeing how many items she can put on at once.  Here she has her outfit from the day which included stockings, a skirt, an undershirt and a long sleeve shirt.  She proceeded to add my running shorts and my Steelers jersey.  This is minimal compared to some days.

Here we started our Steelers cookies.  Aurora enjoys helping with anything and everything, especially when it involves things she can eat….  especially cookie dough we found out. 

The final product. Yes, Aurora did all the ;)

Jacob had been growing a pretty good beard.  He tried to talk me into condoning his child molester mustache for a while.  I was scared he was going to keep it but I secretly think he knows how creepy it is so he did shave it. 

Did you hear that commercial on the radio a few months ago for Giant Eagles' food perks/fuel perks.   It went something like what do you buy when you have 20% worth of food perks and the woman lists a ton of food to feed her teenage boys.  Well, we buy $258 worth of dried beans.  And they were on sale that week.  Yes, you do get to use the perks on up to $300 worth of groceries.  No, that $42 did not go to waste, I bought normal groceries to bring me up to the $300. 

Mom's Shoes

I love the moments when I see and hear Aurora learning.  I love it for her because she is growing and it affirms all the time spent trying to teach her things.  Today she was in the living room playing while I was in the kitchen and I heard her count from 1 to 10 very clearly without stumbling.  Little things like this make me so proud of her even when it is just me. Now, if I could only get her to share better without prompting…

 Shag carpet up for grabs.  More will be pulled out of Aurora's room eventually if you need a lot.

And now for the shoes part. She found these in the closest. 

Now that we have these on let's try to stand up.  

Well, walking isn't so easy in these, can you pick me up? 

Shorts in January

I'm a cold person. Even when everyone else is ready to wear shorts and a t-shirt… I may need a sweatshirt still.  Not this past Sunday morning in Wilmington.  Jacob had said it was warm the previous morning so when he told me again on Sunday I figured it was "Jacob warm"  not "Molly warm."  But sure enough I walked outside and couldn't believe it.  I sat in the sun in jeans in a thin long sleeve t-shirt and quickly got hot.  I changed into shorts, a t-shirt and sweatshirt and as soon as the only cloud in the sky passed my sweatshirt was gone too. By 10:30 am I was sitting in a tank in shorts. We had a wonderful  morning just enjoying the sunshine.  This gorgeous weather made it even harder to leave that afternoon.
Aurora had a wonderful time just being outside.  Her clothing also disappeared as the morning went on. She started in a dress and stockings. Then her stockings came off, then her dress so she was just running around in her diaper and undershirt.  She was thrilled. Unfortunately our camera died and alas, we did not have our second battery so there are no pictures of this. But there are pictures from the great park by my dad and Jackie's from Saturday.  The weather was not quite as warm but still fantastic…

 

 

 My little climber. Yes, she climbed the whole way up herself.

Oh, and there are pictures from the beach Saturday evening as well. 

50 and Sunny

 On a summer day 50 some degrees would be pretty disappointing but on January 28, it is pretty awesome.  Even better that the sun was shinning.  I love taking Aurora outside and not worrying about layers and cold and being cold myself.  We took a walk to look for the park this morning, which we couldn't find.  We later found out we just gave up about 100 yards too soon.  But after getting back to Papa and Grandma's house Aurora was completely content just running around the back yard.  Thrilled actually.  I was completely content watching here with the sun shining on my face.  

 I have to explain this. First, Jacob was totally against this, especially taking pictures of it.  We took the dogs with us for the walk this morning. Aurora liked holding the leash.  So when we were playing and she found the leash she wanted to wear it like the dogs.  I figured if it was in the backyard just for playing, there couldn't be too much harm in it.

 Then she wanted to walk Zoie again.  This pretty much resulted in Zoie not moving, the leash getting tangled and Zoie pulling Aurora.  

Other random things of the day:  My grandma DiFucci  is here visiting my dad as well.  Her and I spent the evening playing Parcheese by ourselves after everyone else was in bed or too tired. It was so nice to spend some one on one time with her and somehow it was even better that we were doing something so classic.  

Lastly, I have again misplaced my engagement and wedding rings… I do this frequently but it freaks me out even more that it is in someone else's house. 

Who Am I?

I often ask myself this question….  I am loving being a stay at home mom more than I thought I would. I thought I would miss the career I thought I wanted but never really had.  I realize God knew what he was doing after all and this being a mother is really the most important job for me. I cherish every day with Aurora.  Although some days I long for a break, I find myself missing something after a few hours without her.
I do help out with the family finances by managing our rental properties but I am wishing to do something more…. while staying at home with Aurora of course.
I am a purist, basic type of person.  I love to cook and bake.  I try to keep it homemade, healthy and natural.  I am trying to get back to a regular exercise schedule with I enjoy for stress relief and so I can enjoy food more.  I love shopping, especially bargain hunting.  I keep my faith close to my heart.  I love reading, especially historical fiction.  Gardening is great too.  There is something very therapeutic about weeding to me.
Homemade in Heels… well I like to keep things homemade; our food and our fun a lot of times too.  I really want to be a good mother and for me, to be a good mother, I need to feel good.  I feel better when I am confident and I am confident when I feel put together.   And I believe I do all things better when I achieve this balance. So I may not be making a homemade dinner, playing play dough or going to the zoo in heels but it speaks to the need for balance between mommyhood and self.  And I do love to break out the heals for the occasional personal time.

Quick Lemon Basil Spinach and Chicken

I love this meal because it only requires two pots, the less the better.  It does not require too much cutting or chopping. If you don't have fresh basil or garlic just use dried. It would also be very easy to substitute the vegetables, broccoli, any squash... pretty versatile.
The problem with meals I throw together is I never measure, I just start throwing things in a pot. This is a good quick meal with hardly any cutting or prep.
Ingredients
Frozen Chicken
Frozen Spinach
Zucchini
Olive Oil
Butter
Whole Wheat Pasta
Lemon
Basil
Garlic

I threw frozen chicken and a package of frozen spinach in a pot with a little water in the bottom to defrost and steam them. I thew some salt and dried lemon peel over both to add some flavor while they were cooking. While those were cooking I cut up two small zucchinis.  When the spinach was defrosted and the chicken mostly cooked I thew in the zucchini with some olive oil.  I started to boil the noodles. Then I put some lemon juice, lemon peel, a bit more salt, just a bit of butter, chopped garlic and fresh basil in the pot with chicken.  I kept a lid on the whole time to keep it moist.
I served with some grated Italian cheese.

A Sunny Day for a Gray Day

I had planned on doing more this weekend but we ended up sticking around here. It was Saturday morning but it warmed up in the afternoon and we went down Biebrich.  You can walk along the Rhine and there is a nice park with paths behind the castle.  Most importantly, there is also a playground.  We managed to get Aurora to keep her sunglasses on a for a little while.  Of course she loved the playground.

The castle is in the middle in the back there.... I swear

Today was a really crappy day unfortunately.  It was miserably gray and rainy all day.  We stay inside but Aurora managed to make the best of it with capes and books.