First off, I've got a story about why my head hurts so much this morning. Last night, I had a dream about Friends - more specifically about Chandler dancing - when I woke up from that dream and heard someone rustling papers downstairs. Matt heard it too and all he could say was "no way..." Gabe was in bed with us because I had pulled him in to feed him about an hour before. I was freaking out and didn't know what to do. I told Matt to do something, or say something but he was just frozen. All he could say was "get out" and he could barely say it louder than a whisper. I started panicing even more so I yelled "get out" and the person downstairs yelled back "Kevin." Not as in "Kevin, let's get out of here!" but as in, "Hi, my name is Kevin." This freaked me out even more because it meant he wasn't planning on just leaving - so this time I just screamed "GET OUT!" ...and then I really woke up this time. Oh, and I woke Matt and Gabe up too. After I stopped hyperventilating I asked Matt, who was by this time really worried about me, to go check and see if anyone was in the house. I knew they weren't but I also knew I wouldn't get back to sleep until he went and checked. I put Gabe down in his crib (I really did have him with me) and then got back to bed the same time Matt finished checking the house - and there wasn't anyone in it, named Kevin or not. Man, I felt like an idiot! I started playing through in my head all the details of my dream that should have tipped me off that it was a dream. For example, there are no papers on our main floor that people could just flip through, the bedroom in my dream was taller and narrower than ours actually is and our bed was higher in my dream. But they were small enough details and dream Matt was agreeing with me about someone being in the house, so it was enough to really scare me at the time. Never mind the fact that Matt and I both check the deadbolts on our door every night, that our dog barks at the slightest sound in the night and that I can hear my baby breathing in the next room so how on earth is someone supposed to get in our squeeky front door without me hearing??? Well, that was 4:30 a.m. At 5:30 a.m. I was still awake. I figured I should probably just get up but I decided that I'd try a little bit longer to get back to sleep - I should've just got up. I did fall asleep but I was so exhausted that it wasn't good sleep. It was the type of sleep that no matter how long it goes on for you actually feel worse after than before. So now my eyes are dry, my head hurts and my kitchen isn't clean - which is what I planned to do if I had gotten up at 5:30 this morning.
Well, enough about stupid dreams and bad sleeps. Let me tell you about the fun that was last night! At some point yesterday afternoon I was sitting in one of my wingback chairs next to the fishtank and I just happened to look over and saw one of my guppies give birth! It was crazy! So I ran and grabbed a net and started catching babies. I caught a couple and then I left the net in the tank and went to get dinner started. Matt came in shortly after and recognized what the net in the tank meant and kindly informed me that there were two more babies in my net waiting for me to put them in the hatchery. It turns out the female decided the net was a safe place to have babies so she'd swim into it, pop a few out and then swim back out. Well, we had 14 babies before this - 6 bigger ones and 8 fairly new ones. Yesterday we caught 15 brand new babies. And there's still some in the tank, not to mention two more females who will probably have their babies today or tomorrow. Oh yah, and I got to see the female give birth 3 or 4 times more. It was pretty sweet.
I had my meeting last night with the rental company too. It sucked having to drive out in the pouring rain to get to the meeting, but at least it was at a Starbucks so I could drink coffee the whole meeting. The meeting went well and my clients will get a wicked awesome discount if they book through her. On my way home I noticed that some parts of the road looked more wet than others. I realized that one of the lanes was completely flooded and that the snow was getting heavier. Stupid snow. I was fine with the rain - really. I even like rainy days. No one likes a snowy day at the end of April.
Well, today I am finishing up the majority of my cleaning and doing some grocery shopping. Tomorrow I'll be doing all of my chopping in advance to make things as speedy as possible for Saturday.
I will post that recipe for the Black Bean and Corn Salsa that my sister made for my mom's tea party. It was so good that I'm making it for the baby dedication. I hate black beans and red onion and I loved this so if you don't think you'll like it, make it for someone else's party and taste a bit while you're there. It's amazing.
Black bean and corn salsa:
19 oz can black beans, rinsed
1 c kernel corn
1 avocado, diced
1 large tomato, finely chopped
1/3 c finely chopped red onion
1/3 c chopped cilantro
1/4 c fresh lime juice
1 tbsp olive oil
2 to 3 tsp jalapeno pepper, minced
1/2 tsp salt
If you are making ahead, don't chop and add the avocado until just before or else it will brown. Just toss all the ingredients together (except, I hate cilantro so I'll be leaving that out of mine!)
Well, I hope you all are feeling better than I am today and that the snow melts quickly for all of our sakes.
Mrs. Vander Leek ;)
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Curb Appeal
I was just looking through the Better Homes and Gardens website while I was taking a break from cleaning and I found a photo album of before and afters of houses that had remodelled their exteriors. Some of these houses were dismal before - just plain and boring - but all of the after pictures were fantastic! My first thoughts were, "Yah, if I had a load of money I could make my house look like that too," but my next thoughts were more along the lines of, "Wow, it doesn't take much to make a big difference," and, "I could do that!" I pulled up a picture of the exterior of our house from before we moved it. We've already added a load of curb appeal simply by cutting down some trees and putting up a fence, but there have been a few things that have always bothered me about our house. The first I'd have to say is the position of the front door. When we hadn't seen the house yet but had only seen pictures I thought that there was only one side door. The house I grew up in had a front facing door that left you no doubt of where to go. This house - not so much. The second thing about this place is the color. It's yellow. Not sickeningly yellow, but definately dated yellow. Matt and I had tossed around the idea of residing this house but we also were talking alot about movie into a bigger place, so it seemed like a silly investment.
Well, Looking at this album inspired me. I opened that picture of our house in Paint and, very primatively, drew on some additions: I moved the door, added a front walk-way, colored the trim... Things that would require some, but not a huge amount of work, and definately would change our house for the better. Now all I have to do is convince my hubby!
Actually, my sister's house is one example of how easy it can be to change your house. When they first moved in the house had faded grey stucco and blue trim. It looked like a barn. Last summer they painted the stucco a dark brown and the trim black and now it looks like a new house! With only painting! The difference to their place has definately been an improvement.
I'm watching my guppies in the tank right now and one of them is just about to have her babies. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised to see them just popping out any second now. Then we have another female who will probably have her babies in a couple days, and another one due next week. Fortunately that tank at the hospital is large so that we can put any extra guppies we have in there!
I finished cleaning Gabe's room before lunch today and then I was fortunately enough to have Matt come home for lunch! We just had some soup, nothing fancy, but it was really nice seeing him in the middle of the day. Once Gabe wakes up from his nap we'll go upstairs to play for a bit and then I'll start cleaning our bedroom. I forgot that I have to make dinner tonight since I haven't had to in nearly a week, so I'd better figure that out. But I already know what we're having for dessert... wedding cake! We had kept the top tier of our wedding cake in our freezer and Matt suggested we pull it out today. I forgot just how gorgeous it was! I definately didn't forget how yummy it was though! I'm excited for it!
Mrs. Vander Leek ;)
Well, Looking at this album inspired me. I opened that picture of our house in Paint and, very primatively, drew on some additions: I moved the door, added a front walk-way, colored the trim... Things that would require some, but not a huge amount of work, and definately would change our house for the better. Now all I have to do is convince my hubby!
Actually, my sister's house is one example of how easy it can be to change your house. When they first moved in the house had faded grey stucco and blue trim. It looked like a barn. Last summer they painted the stucco a dark brown and the trim black and now it looks like a new house! With only painting! The difference to their place has definately been an improvement.
I'm watching my guppies in the tank right now and one of them is just about to have her babies. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised to see them just popping out any second now. Then we have another female who will probably have her babies in a couple days, and another one due next week. Fortunately that tank at the hospital is large so that we can put any extra guppies we have in there!
I finished cleaning Gabe's room before lunch today and then I was fortunately enough to have Matt come home for lunch! We just had some soup, nothing fancy, but it was really nice seeing him in the middle of the day. Once Gabe wakes up from his nap we'll go upstairs to play for a bit and then I'll start cleaning our bedroom. I forgot that I have to make dinner tonight since I haven't had to in nearly a week, so I'd better figure that out. But I already know what we're having for dessert... wedding cake! We had kept the top tier of our wedding cake in our freezer and Matt suggested we pull it out today. I forgot just how gorgeous it was! I definately didn't forget how yummy it was though! I'm excited for it!
Mrs. Vander Leek ;)
God is Good :)
God is so good - you know? Like, really, really, unfathomably good. Monday night was an amazing night. Matt and I grabbed a quick dinner out for our anniversary and then we went to our bible study thingy called Auxano. All day Matt and I had been talking about something sort of disappointing that had occurred recently and it was weighing on us so heavy. The teachings that night hit the topic bang on at one point. It was insane! Then we went over to the pub we hang out at afterwards and talked theology with one of our friends and out of no where he came out and said something that was, again, bang on topic for what Matt and I had been struggling with and it totally reassured us. The thing is, this guy had no clue about what Matt and I had been talking about all day and he actually went off topic in our current conversation to say what he did. After that evening we totally felt reaffirmed, reassured and unburdened. Only God could craft things so amazingly.
Yesterday was Gabriel's first birthday! It's crazy to think that I have a one year old! And such a perfect one too! If you don't believe me just ask any of his aunts, uncles or grandparents :)
For Gabe's birthday I finally broke down and let him have wheat... in the form of a cookie! Well, not really a cookie. A biscuit. An arrowroot. Since there are some major allergies on my side we decided to hold off on all wheat, dairy and egg whites until he was a year old. He really liked the biscuit though and he nibbled off little pieces over the span of 15 minutes.
During the day Gabe and I played downstairs. And by that I mean he played and I cleaned. And I got it all done! One area down! 3 to go! Oh, and the weather is not supposed to be good for Saturday so somehow we're going to have the baby dedication in our house. I suppose we'll be moving the table into the kitchen to make more room for people to come in and sit and there may be some standing-room only for the service. Ah well, I'll feed them all well enough that they won't care where they sit (or don't sit).
Today I'm supposed to get the bedrooms cleaned. This one won't be very hard. The only mess we really ever have in bedrooms is laundry and all of it is clean so it's just putting it all away. The living room will actually be a shared venture between Matt and I. The largest part of the mess in the living room is reno stuff - materials, tools, paint, etc. Most of that stuff doesn't even belong in the house but actually in Matt's work van. So Matt will clean anything to do with renos and I will clean the rest. I really think I'm getting the better end of the deal!
Tonight I have another meeting for my event planning business. This time it's with a rental company. I think it will go well, I believe the girl running it is only a few years older than me, has young kids and even lives in the same district as me. We seem to have alot in common so we'll probably work well together. And hey, even if the meeting doesn't go as planned, it's at Starbucks so at least I'll get coffee out of the deal.
I need to get a perm again. On Monday night at the pub, somehow my hair managed to curl a perfect ringlet in the front which means over the next two months ringlets will start popping up all over at random times. The reason I get perms is to control how my hair curls. I've just been waiting for my hair to be long enough to get it done again and really, it's Matt's favorite way that I do my hair. I always found that so frustrating - I'd spend a couple hours doing my hair: washing, blow drying, straightening, styling... and then Matt would say, "Oh, why didn't you just leave it down and curly?" Which is how my hair dries when I don't do anything to it. I'm happy that he loves me the way I am without any effort to look better, but sometimes it's just frustrating!
Well, I suppose I should get cleaning soon since I've got to do some decorating today too - I want to have a decor display in each room for Saturday. In the bathroom I have shelves up that I change the items on them out each season and they're still stuck in winter, the living room will have a floral arrangement, the kitchen will have food (nuf said), the basement will have a manly display of bikes and hockey stuff, Gabe's room will have his toys set up all cute and fluffy and our bedroom will have something... I'm not sure what yet.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy this wet and cold day and I sincerely hope that it does not snow.
Mrs. Vander Leek ;)
Yesterday was Gabriel's first birthday! It's crazy to think that I have a one year old! And such a perfect one too! If you don't believe me just ask any of his aunts, uncles or grandparents :)
For Gabe's birthday I finally broke down and let him have wheat... in the form of a cookie! Well, not really a cookie. A biscuit. An arrowroot. Since there are some major allergies on my side we decided to hold off on all wheat, dairy and egg whites until he was a year old. He really liked the biscuit though and he nibbled off little pieces over the span of 15 minutes.
During the day Gabe and I played downstairs. And by that I mean he played and I cleaned. And I got it all done! One area down! 3 to go! Oh, and the weather is not supposed to be good for Saturday so somehow we're going to have the baby dedication in our house. I suppose we'll be moving the table into the kitchen to make more room for people to come in and sit and there may be some standing-room only for the service. Ah well, I'll feed them all well enough that they won't care where they sit (or don't sit).
Today I'm supposed to get the bedrooms cleaned. This one won't be very hard. The only mess we really ever have in bedrooms is laundry and all of it is clean so it's just putting it all away. The living room will actually be a shared venture between Matt and I. The largest part of the mess in the living room is reno stuff - materials, tools, paint, etc. Most of that stuff doesn't even belong in the house but actually in Matt's work van. So Matt will clean anything to do with renos and I will clean the rest. I really think I'm getting the better end of the deal!
Tonight I have another meeting for my event planning business. This time it's with a rental company. I think it will go well, I believe the girl running it is only a few years older than me, has young kids and even lives in the same district as me. We seem to have alot in common so we'll probably work well together. And hey, even if the meeting doesn't go as planned, it's at Starbucks so at least I'll get coffee out of the deal.
I need to get a perm again. On Monday night at the pub, somehow my hair managed to curl a perfect ringlet in the front which means over the next two months ringlets will start popping up all over at random times. The reason I get perms is to control how my hair curls. I've just been waiting for my hair to be long enough to get it done again and really, it's Matt's favorite way that I do my hair. I always found that so frustrating - I'd spend a couple hours doing my hair: washing, blow drying, straightening, styling... and then Matt would say, "Oh, why didn't you just leave it down and curly?" Which is how my hair dries when I don't do anything to it. I'm happy that he loves me the way I am without any effort to look better, but sometimes it's just frustrating!
Well, I suppose I should get cleaning soon since I've got to do some decorating today too - I want to have a decor display in each room for Saturday. In the bathroom I have shelves up that I change the items on them out each season and they're still stuck in winter, the living room will have a floral arrangement, the kitchen will have food (nuf said), the basement will have a manly display of bikes and hockey stuff, Gabe's room will have his toys set up all cute and fluffy and our bedroom will have something... I'm not sure what yet.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy this wet and cold day and I sincerely hope that it does not snow.
Mrs. Vander Leek ;)
Monday, April 26, 2010
Anniversary
Happy anniversary to me! Two years ago today I married the man of my dreams :) It was an amazing day. We got married in the mountains out by Canmore. At 2:00 p.m. I started the 2.5 minute long aisle walk from the door of my chalet, down a rocky staircase with mounds of snow on either side, and up into the lodge. We took pictures in a park by the river with the Three Sisters in the background and then came back to the lodge for an amazing dinner of roast beef and lemon-mint chicken. My cousin made the cake which was huge and gorgeous, my bridesmaids and I made the bouquets and my friend Mike sang for us. We actually had quite the soundtrack for our wedding. The boys walked into Pachelbel's Canon D as played by Trace Bundy, an amazing guitarist with a very unique style. The bridesmaids walked into the song Butterfly by the Finnish group Rajaton - amazing song! I came in to the song "Your Hands are Cold" by Dario Marianelli from the Pride and Prejudice soundtrack. If you've seen the movie it's the song that's playing as Mr. Darcy is walking across the misty field coming to tell Elizabeth that he still loves her. It has this gorgeous swell filled with string instruments at 2 minutes and 11 seconds into the song and somehow, even though I couldn't hear the music since most of my walk as outdoors, I came into the lodge at the head of the aisle just as the music swelled. I think it as God's wedding present to me :)
Back to the song list - the song for our signing was The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face as performed by Johnny Cash. Then the recessional was Would You Go With Me by Josh Turner. I really wanted that song in the wedding - the words are so perfect:
If I gave you my hand ould you take it
And make me the happiest man in the world
If I told you my heart couldn't beat one more minute without you, girl
Would you accompany me to the edge of the sea
Let me know if you're really a dream
I love you so, so would you go with me?
I fell in love with that song the first year Matt and I were dating and it still made me giddy every time I heard it a couple years later. The last song of note was our first dance which was All I Ever Wanted by Brian Melo - again a perfect song lyrically:
Slow down make it last
I'm having the time of my life
So take a photograph
I don't want to leave this behind
What seemed so out of reach
We're holding it right in our hands
Let's give up everything
Let's jump in and never look back
It was such a beautiful day! Sure there were some things that didn't go as planned and our feet were sore and the poor boys necks were raw from the stiff collars in their shirts, and sure I made a poorly timed joke that ended up getting around at our church, but when the day was over I was married to my best friend and we could look back fondly on the day without having had anything crazy happen.
Matt unexpectedly got today off when his job fell through until tomorrow and that was a very welcome anniversary present! We got some painting done instead of cleaning the basement, so our bench seat just needs to dry overnight and then we can put the lids on and it's done! Then Matt and I went out and checked out the fish tank in the Peds unit at the hospital that we are assuming care of. Once a month we'll go in and clean the tank and we'll provide the fish - mostly cheap feeder goldfish but also any excess guppies from our tank. Which, we can donate one of our males for sure. We went to pick some stuff up for the hospital tank at Petsmart and I was showing Gabe the guppies and I saw a beautiful red male with black spots and shark-like fins. He was so pretty! So we bought him for Gabe's birthday present!
Well, in an hour or so Matt and I are going for a quick dinner before Auxano. Maybe I should go make myself look pretty for him!
Mrs. Vander Leek ;)
Back to the song list - the song for our signing was The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face as performed by Johnny Cash. Then the recessional was Would You Go With Me by Josh Turner. I really wanted that song in the wedding - the words are so perfect:
If I gave you my hand ould you take it
And make me the happiest man in the world
If I told you my heart couldn't beat one more minute without you, girl
Would you accompany me to the edge of the sea
Let me know if you're really a dream
I love you so, so would you go with me?
I fell in love with that song the first year Matt and I were dating and it still made me giddy every time I heard it a couple years later. The last song of note was our first dance which was All I Ever Wanted by Brian Melo - again a perfect song lyrically:
Slow down make it last
I'm having the time of my life
So take a photograph
I don't want to leave this behind
What seemed so out of reach
We're holding it right in our hands
Let's give up everything
Let's jump in and never look back
It was such a beautiful day! Sure there were some things that didn't go as planned and our feet were sore and the poor boys necks were raw from the stiff collars in their shirts, and sure I made a poorly timed joke that ended up getting around at our church, but when the day was over I was married to my best friend and we could look back fondly on the day without having had anything crazy happen.
Matt unexpectedly got today off when his job fell through until tomorrow and that was a very welcome anniversary present! We got some painting done instead of cleaning the basement, so our bench seat just needs to dry overnight and then we can put the lids on and it's done! Then Matt and I went out and checked out the fish tank in the Peds unit at the hospital that we are assuming care of. Once a month we'll go in and clean the tank and we'll provide the fish - mostly cheap feeder goldfish but also any excess guppies from our tank. Which, we can donate one of our males for sure. We went to pick some stuff up for the hospital tank at Petsmart and I was showing Gabe the guppies and I saw a beautiful red male with black spots and shark-like fins. He was so pretty! So we bought him for Gabe's birthday present!
Well, in an hour or so Matt and I are going for a quick dinner before Auxano. Maybe I should go make myself look pretty for him!
Mrs. Vander Leek ;)
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Painting
This was a good weekend! Not to sound too surprised, but at 10 a.m. on Friday morning I was rather worried about how it would turn out. But, as you may have read, my sister came, the food was great and everyone had fun. Now I have 6 days to get ready for the baby dedication and more and more people keep getting invited :) Tonight Matt and I went to get our anniversary present - a frame for our painting! Unfortunately, it won't be done in time for our baby dedication, but that's okay - we've got about 7 pictures sitting in our office just waiting for wall space. I have a painting of a couple in Venice going to a Masquerade that will look perfect in that wall space. When Matt and I were in the gallery picking out our frame we saw some art by a guy named Len Krenzler. His paintings feature WWII planes in battle with amazing detail and beautiful colors. Matt and I had decided a while ago that when we have a game room (some day) we'll buy a piece of his art and hang it in there. Well, the lady who was helping us said that each painting is actually based on a real life situation. The artist interviews pilots and paints the battle scene with the real numbers and artwork from their planes, then he gets the pilots to sign the art. Now we really want one! What a cool concept! There's one of a plane going right under the Eiffel Tower - the footnote on it says "Signed by Bill Overstreet - 357th Fighter Group - Spring of 1944" We totally thought that a scene like that would never have happened, but apparently it did and Bill Overstreet was there in the Spring of 1944. Here's a link to check out some of his work:
http://www.actionart.ca/
Speaking of painting, I painted all of our doors upstairs tonight. All of the wood in our house was a beautiful walnut color but as nice as it looks, we need it to be white now. So we've been painting doors and baseboards for a while and we just had those doors upstairs left to do. So now that they are done the whole house looks updated! Just don't open our office door :)
Tomorrow is our anniversary and we're still going to Auxano. We are, however, dropping Gabe off with Matt's parents earlier and going to grab a quick dinner before it starts. Then I have a bottle of our favorite wine that we'll crack into after Gabe goes to bed and we'll drink from our special Anniversary glasses! Yay!
Also, tomorrow is the start of my crazy cleaning week. I'm doing the basement tomorrow so hopefully Gabe cooperates so that I can get it all done. The hardest area to get ready will be the yard. Cash likes to get into our recycling and rip up the boxes and drag them all over the yard. So there's garbage all over it. That and I haven't planted my flower beds yet so I'll want to at least do that. Hopefully it only takes one day! Just in case though I might do that on Tuesday so that if I don't get it done that day I'll have lots of time to finish.
Well Matt and I are watching some Friends right now and then it's bedtime before a busy week!
Mrs. Vander Leek ;)
http://www.actionart.ca/
Speaking of painting, I painted all of our doors upstairs tonight. All of the wood in our house was a beautiful walnut color but as nice as it looks, we need it to be white now. So we've been painting doors and baseboards for a while and we just had those doors upstairs left to do. So now that they are done the whole house looks updated! Just don't open our office door :)
Tomorrow is our anniversary and we're still going to Auxano. We are, however, dropping Gabe off with Matt's parents earlier and going to grab a quick dinner before it starts. Then I have a bottle of our favorite wine that we'll crack into after Gabe goes to bed and we'll drink from our special Anniversary glasses! Yay!
Also, tomorrow is the start of my crazy cleaning week. I'm doing the basement tomorrow so hopefully Gabe cooperates so that I can get it all done. The hardest area to get ready will be the yard. Cash likes to get into our recycling and rip up the boxes and drag them all over the yard. So there's garbage all over it. That and I haven't planted my flower beds yet so I'll want to at least do that. Hopefully it only takes one day! Just in case though I might do that on Tuesday so that if I don't get it done that day I'll have lots of time to finish.
Well Matt and I are watching some Friends right now and then it's bedtime before a busy week!
Mrs. Vander Leek ;)
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Tea Party Success!
Yahoo! Event #2 of 3 for this month is done! And it went great!
When people came in they helped themselves to pre-plated black bean and corn salsa with blue corn tortilla chips (which, by the way, was fantastic! I didn't expect to like it!) and some of the proscuitto wrapped apples. Then after chatting and waiting for everyone else to arrive we went to the table for tea, scones and more food. The Cream of Earl Grey tea was a really big hit. The cupcakes my sister made were amazing too. They were supposed to be lavender-honey poppy seed but you know what's really hard to find? Lavender honey. Fortunately I had bought a jar of raspberry flavoured honey in Kimberley on my honeymoon two years back and it finally came in handy. So we substituted the sour cream in the recipe for whipping cream and used the raspberry honey and they were light and mild and not too cakey. I really liked them. The watermelon cubes with feta and mint went over really well and they didn't even need a balsamic reduction to be great. Oh yah, and the sherbet is almost all gone. Even though we stuffed all of the guests the whole afternoon, nearly all of them wanted the sherbet at the end of the party. I nearly forgot about the tea cup favours but fortunately remembered before anyone left.
It was really fun! I was kinda stressed at about 1:00 when I still needed to change and make most of the food since it was a last-minute prep kinda menu, but we got everything cleaned up and plated before the party started so it worked great! I am however quite full of tea. We went through probably a dozen pots of tea between 9 women over 2 hours. Crazy, eh? I guess it's a good thing I didn't serve mimosas!
Matt got the bench seat built today so tomorrow we're painting it and then cleaning up all the reno tools and materials. Then each day this week I'm devoting to cleaning one area. First the basement, then the living room, then the backyard, then the bedrooms and bathroom and finally the kitchen. I have to leave the kitchen for last because of the amount of use it gets throughout the week. Although, this week won't be so bad in it. Besides making food for the baby dedication, Monday is our anniversary so we're having a quick dinner out before our bible study, then Tuesday is Gabe's birthday so we'll be over at my parents' house. Wednesday I have a meeting so we'll be having a quick dinner. Thursday and Friday aren't full yet but we might have one of Matt's friends over on the Thursday and whenever that happens I usually clean the kitchen the morning of and then clean it back up right after dinner while the men have their dessert and coffee (yep, that's how I roll). The menu is still pretty simple for Saturday - the grocery list even simpler. There are very few things I need to pick up besides produce and baguettes and that's the way I want to keep it. I can make a few things in advance - like the honey mustard sauce that is crucial to making the mini #5's. I do have to figure out decor for each room of the house which may be a task since I hadn't been planning on changing it until June but it will be a fun task at least! Ah yes, and I have to remember to buy a cake for Gabe. I almost feel like I'm cheating by buying an ice cream cake, but really they are so good! I particularly love the gel icing they use at Dairy Queen on their cakes. But maybe it's the cheating feeling that makes me want to make more food. And also since people are arriving at 2:00 and due to scheduling hiccups the service isn't starting until 3:00 and we didn't want to break cake out until after, so it's best to have food out for people.
I am being kind to myself in one major aspect - paper plates, plastic cups and limited serving trays. When Matt and I first got married he could never understand why I would cook the food in one dish and then put it in another one to bring it to the table, even on nights when it was just us. I've tried to lick that habit, especially on nights when he has to do the dishes, but this Saturday I'll be really good about it. Besides, I don't want to make a mess in the house I'll have worked all week on to get clean!
Well, Matt's playing Guitar Hero, Gabe's been asleep pretty much since we got home (he only had one nap today!) and I am going to go have a hot, relaxing bath. And read some Pride and Prejudice!
Mrs. Vander Leek ;)
When people came in they helped themselves to pre-plated black bean and corn salsa with blue corn tortilla chips (which, by the way, was fantastic! I didn't expect to like it!) and some of the proscuitto wrapped apples. Then after chatting and waiting for everyone else to arrive we went to the table for tea, scones and more food. The Cream of Earl Grey tea was a really big hit. The cupcakes my sister made were amazing too. They were supposed to be lavender-honey poppy seed but you know what's really hard to find? Lavender honey. Fortunately I had bought a jar of raspberry flavoured honey in Kimberley on my honeymoon two years back and it finally came in handy. So we substituted the sour cream in the recipe for whipping cream and used the raspberry honey and they were light and mild and not too cakey. I really liked them. The watermelon cubes with feta and mint went over really well and they didn't even need a balsamic reduction to be great. Oh yah, and the sherbet is almost all gone. Even though we stuffed all of the guests the whole afternoon, nearly all of them wanted the sherbet at the end of the party. I nearly forgot about the tea cup favours but fortunately remembered before anyone left.
It was really fun! I was kinda stressed at about 1:00 when I still needed to change and make most of the food since it was a last-minute prep kinda menu, but we got everything cleaned up and plated before the party started so it worked great! I am however quite full of tea. We went through probably a dozen pots of tea between 9 women over 2 hours. Crazy, eh? I guess it's a good thing I didn't serve mimosas!
Matt got the bench seat built today so tomorrow we're painting it and then cleaning up all the reno tools and materials. Then each day this week I'm devoting to cleaning one area. First the basement, then the living room, then the backyard, then the bedrooms and bathroom and finally the kitchen. I have to leave the kitchen for last because of the amount of use it gets throughout the week. Although, this week won't be so bad in it. Besides making food for the baby dedication, Monday is our anniversary so we're having a quick dinner out before our bible study, then Tuesday is Gabe's birthday so we'll be over at my parents' house. Wednesday I have a meeting so we'll be having a quick dinner. Thursday and Friday aren't full yet but we might have one of Matt's friends over on the Thursday and whenever that happens I usually clean the kitchen the morning of and then clean it back up right after dinner while the men have their dessert and coffee (yep, that's how I roll). The menu is still pretty simple for Saturday - the grocery list even simpler. There are very few things I need to pick up besides produce and baguettes and that's the way I want to keep it. I can make a few things in advance - like the honey mustard sauce that is crucial to making the mini #5's. I do have to figure out decor for each room of the house which may be a task since I hadn't been planning on changing it until June but it will be a fun task at least! Ah yes, and I have to remember to buy a cake for Gabe. I almost feel like I'm cheating by buying an ice cream cake, but really they are so good! I particularly love the gel icing they use at Dairy Queen on their cakes. But maybe it's the cheating feeling that makes me want to make more food. And also since people are arriving at 2:00 and due to scheduling hiccups the service isn't starting until 3:00 and we didn't want to break cake out until after, so it's best to have food out for people.
I am being kind to myself in one major aspect - paper plates, plastic cups and limited serving trays. When Matt and I first got married he could never understand why I would cook the food in one dish and then put it in another one to bring it to the table, even on nights when it was just us. I've tried to lick that habit, especially on nights when he has to do the dishes, but this Saturday I'll be really good about it. Besides, I don't want to make a mess in the house I'll have worked all week on to get clean!
Well, Matt's playing Guitar Hero, Gabe's been asleep pretty much since we got home (he only had one nap today!) and I am going to go have a hot, relaxing bath. And read some Pride and Prejudice!
Mrs. Vander Leek ;)
Friday, April 23, 2010
Weekend saved!
Whew! What potentially could have been a crappy day has actually been a really nice one. My mom called me this morning to say that my sister was sick last night and might not be coming to town to help me with the tea party! Suckiness all over! First off I would have had to make cupcakes and a dip myself and secondly - and more importantly - I wouldn't have had my sister to hang out with all weekend! Well, she came :) So we spent today playing cards, drinking tea and playing with babies. I just ran out to pick up some groceries and grabbed myself some sushi and when I got back Matt phoned to ask me what type of bubble tea he could bring me! I love him! My poor husband - he worked all day and I should have brought him stuff while he was working and then the first thing he does when he gets off work is offers to spoil me. Oh yah, and this morning when I got up I noticed on my chalk board (that I use as my menu board) that he had made a list of things that he loves about me. It was quite extensive.
I made my scone mix this morning so tomorrow all I have to do is add cheese/blueberries and water. Super fast! Then I have to cube the watermelon and stuff it with the feta and mint, slice the apples, wrap them in proscuitto and then fry them in the pan. I'm making my sherbet this evening so that I can make sure it freezes properly and then I have very little left to do in the morning! Yay!
The kids are being absolutely adorable today and saying a whole bunch of things - Gabe said "all done" (well actually, it was more of a "ah dun" but he did the gesture for the end of his meal too so we knew what it meant)
Well, I'm going to go start my sherbet since I have to stir it every half hour for four hours straight. I hope your day went well too!
Mrs. Vander Leek ;)
I made my scone mix this morning so tomorrow all I have to do is add cheese/blueberries and water. Super fast! Then I have to cube the watermelon and stuff it with the feta and mint, slice the apples, wrap them in proscuitto and then fry them in the pan. I'm making my sherbet this evening so that I can make sure it freezes properly and then I have very little left to do in the morning! Yay!
The kids are being absolutely adorable today and saying a whole bunch of things - Gabe said "all done" (well actually, it was more of a "ah dun" but he did the gesture for the end of his meal too so we knew what it meant)
Well, I'm going to go start my sherbet since I have to stir it every half hour for four hours straight. I hope your day went well too!
Mrs. Vander Leek ;)
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