Smokey Spice

My food nerd friend, Heather, did this first. I think my spice is right on.

You Are Cumin

You are warm, unique, and pretty dominant. It's also pretty likely that you smoke or like fire. You are energetic and intense. You definitely stimulate people.

What Spice Are You?

At camp this weekend, we tried to drive the Odyssey up the hill to the rec center. But the icy hill and hairpin curves foiled us, and we had to back down the hill. Our camp friends fired up two John Deere Gators--one of which I got to drive. Liam LOVED the Gators, but little did he know that his mommy loved driving them even more. There's another "first" on my list--driving a John Deere. And ENJOYING it. Yikes! Never saw that one comin'.

C is for cookie

So, I've been singing "C is for cookie" --but changing the letter to suit my kids' names and sing about them--for about 5 years now.

Today after lunch we cleaned up our places and sat down to eat our cookies for dessert. We were talking 'Cookie Monster' (me like cookie, um, um, um) when Liam asked me to sing "L is for Liam", then "E is for Elli", I had to ad-lib "A is for Addi" because I've not sung that to her yet. After I finished, Liam started singing "J is for mommy". (You think I was going to stop and correct him? No way--I totally knew what he meant and there was no stinkin' way I was going to stop his song because I couldn't wait to hear what he came up with!)

"J is for mommy, she is a really good mommy" (yes, I was sobbing by this point)
"J is for mommy, she likes purple"
"J is for mommy, she likes candies that are chocolate"
"Oh J is for mommy, mommy, mommy.

I even got a second verse, but I can't remember any of it. It was just totally unexpected and sweet. Especially after we had a bit of a 'rough' morning.

Even more shocking--I can't believe how well he knows me--even the second verse was spot-on things about just me. Not generic like "she is a girl" or "she has yellow hair". Shocking because children are totally ego-centric until between ages 4-6. Liam's not yet 5.

That, and a bunch of other things I can't talk about here, really made my day today. Speaking of C is for cookie...I'm gonna go get me 'nother cookie before the kids wake up from their naps. See ya!

I miss bonfires!

It's winter, but summer's comin'!

My big little stack of 'dirty' books

I'm so thankful our local library has self-checkout. If I had taken this mammoth stack of sex books to a librarian to check out for, I think they would have been mortified. And rightly so.

I can just imagine one of them leaping over to the computer system to 'flag' my account as a possible sex fiend after checking out the titles I did. Then using Purell to cleanse their hands and eyes from what they had just been subjected to looking at. And I picked the 'tame' titles! There were a few steamy ones I had to make myself put back on the shelves. Some were inappropriate and some were perplexing to this aspiring sex kitten. Meow?

For each LAB meeting, I endeavor to provide as many resources as possible on the topic at hand. In preparation for Monday night's LAB meeting (on returning to intimacy after baby--or the sex pep-talk) I wanted to have a wide variety of marriage, intimacy, communication, and sex books available for anyone brave enough to come to the meeting.

Here is what I checked out:

• The Sex-Starved Marriage: A Couple's Guide to Boosting Their Marriage Libido by Michele Weiner Davis


• The Proper Care & Feeding of Husbands by Dr. Laura Schlessinger


• Sex God: Exploring the Endless Connections Between Sexuality and Spirituality by Rob Bell


• Sometimes I Wake Up Grumpy... and Sometimes I Let Him Sleep by Karen Scalf Linamen


• Sex 101: Getting Your Sex Life Off to a Great Start by Clifford & Joyce Penner


• Five Essentials for Lifelong Intimacy by Dr. James Dobson


• Now What?: The Chapman Guide to Marriage After Children by Gary Chapman


• Living Romantically Every Day by Barbara Taylor Bradford


• the Seventeen guide to SEX and YOUR BODY by Sabrina Solin


• Sex on the Brain: The Biological Differences Between Men and Women by Deborah Blum


• The Marriage you've Always Wanted by Dr. Gary Chapman


• The Four Seasons of Marriage by Gary Chapman


• Is That All He Thinks About?: How to Enjoy Great Sex with Your Husband by Marla Taviano (my friend with whom I went to college)
  


• Every Man's Battle: Every Man's Guide to...Winning the War on Sexual Temptation One Victory at a Time by Stephen Arterburn and Fred Stoeker with Mike Yorkey

• Why Do Men Fall Asleep After Sex?: More Questions You'd Only Ask a Doctor After Your Third Whiskey Sour by Mark Leyner and Dr. Billy Goldberg (this book is hilarious, and is apparently a sequel to Why Do Men Have Nipples? Hundreds of Questions You'd Only Ask a Doctor After Your Third Martini--I've gotta get this book too!)

I've also read and reviewed Sex Begins in the Kitchen: Because Love is an All-Day Affair and Is there Really Sex After Kids? on the blog before.

So, I'd love to sit and chat, but I have some reading to do. Then a husband...to...cough...cough...giggle...do.

you know you're an old fart when...

...Virginia Woolf's insane proliferations are more appealing to you than the Grammy's.

Cooking up a storm

Cold weather outside is my perfect excuse to fire up the oven inside.

Saturday night I whipped up some spinach artichoke dip for Dan and I to enjoy while watching "Hero". Oh...it was amazing. The dip, that is. I'd share the recipe but I don't cook from recipes, so...sorry! I liked the movie a lot too. And the Cap'n Morgan...

Sunday I put an eye of round roast in the oven to slow-cook all day, made hand-mashed champ and organic green bean casserole. This meal tasted so much like childhood Sundays to me that I ate two platefuls and forced myself not to indulge in a third.

This afternoon I wandered into the realm of brownies from scratch. I just cannot help myself from adding health to everything I cook, however. And although I could have easily made a dense, gooey, moist, buttery decadence of a batch of brownies, I "snuck" in pumpkin puree and raisins, while cutting down the sugar and butter called for in the recipe. They're smashing with a glass okf milk, cup of coffee, slathered in natural peanut butter, Fluff, some leftover chocolate frosting, or Cool Whip.

Ding!

I just had the most serious epiphany.

THE INTERNET IS THE NEW ANSWERING MACHINE

Seriously. We shut our laptops to go watch TV (or in some cases go play video games) then run back afterwards to check and see what we 'missed' while we were 'gone'. We sleep at night just to wake up in the morning and check in to see what went on overnight.

This is just crazy to me.

(Or maybe I should re-arrange that last sentence to say 'me is just this to[o] crazy'?)