Playing Catch-Up

Miss me?  I get so accustomed to sharing here with you all five days a week, I am quickly lost when the site goes down.  And I hold my breath until it comes back up.  Apparently the host took it down because of some suspicious surge in traffic, and didn’t warn anybody before doing so.  Luckily my ace designer got it back up, alive and well.  Nice to see you all again!  Moving on…

Just a little photo catch-up today, and then tomorrow I’ll share the recipe for the Carnitas Salad.  A busy weekend is on the horizon… fundraiser and birthday dinner for one of Nick’s friends tomorrow night, sleepover and dinner for ten Saturday, a play on Sunday, along with the usual spate of gym work-outs, errands and enjoying sunshine.  There are little peeks of blue skies and big white fluffy clouds lately, giving us a small taste as to what’s coming up, and this girl couldn’t be happier.

Project 365
March 1, 2011, Photo #59
Some of the robots that Madeline’s classmates made.

Project 365
March 2, 2011, Photo #60
If you’re a regular reader here, you know I have no problem with the occasional use of food coloring (or for us, gel food paste), but I draw the line at green ham. It makes my stomach turn just a little bit. This week is Read Across America in the schools, and Nick’s class had a Leprechaun Cafe celebration. No, I don’t quite know why we’re celebrating green and leprechauns three weeks before St. Patrick’s Day (there were also green bagels, as you’ll soon see), but yesterday was also Dr. Seuss’ birthday, hence the green eggs and ham. My mom and I went into Nick’s class to read with him and join the celebration, and I stopped in to Madeline’s class in the morning to read a Dr. Seuss book (Green Eggs and Ham, one of my favorites) to them as well.

These did not taste any better than they looked.

Some of Nick’s artwork in the school hall.

A wall of rainbows… oh how that makes my heart happy. I seriously wanted to take them all and bring them home so I could enjoy them, but I think the other kids might have been a bit upset with me.

Outside one of the younger grades’ classrooms. Don’t be surprised if this turns into an art project for my kids this summer. You know, when I get brave enough to do hand painting with them.

Project 365
March 3, 2011, Photo #61
My lunch today. And I have the burn mark to prove it. Adding to my collection. My arms are like a roadmap to my recipes, still sporting a burn mark from a non-noteworthy recipe for Jamaican Creme Brulee.  This dish was also my dinner the other night. Something I threw together on a whim. So.very.good.

Preview of recipe coming to Betty Crocker’s web site soon … Double Cheese Chicken Fingers. Baked, not fried.

And now you’re all caught up with us.  It’s like I never left.  In honor of Dr. Seuss’ birthday (oh how I love Dr. Seuss!), I’ll share a few of my favorite quotes.  Would love to hear your favorite quote or book!

“You have brains in your head
you have feet in your shoes,
you can steer yourself any direction you choose.
you’re on your own. and you know what you know.
and YOU are the guy who’ll decide where to go…
and will you succeed? yes! you will, indeed!
(98 and 3/4 percent guaranteed.)
kid, you’ll move mountains!”

“Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.”

“You know you’re in love when you can’t fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.”

“Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.”

“And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow,
stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons.
It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags.
And he puzzled and puzzled ’till his puzzler was sore.
Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before.
What if Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store.
What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.”

“I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells.”

“We are all a little weird and life’s a little weird, and when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love.”

“Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it’s a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope.”

“Why fit in when you were born to stand out?”