You Know, Stuff

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Once again, I'm reduced to creating a hodge-podge post of all my goings on because I couldn't get my act together this week. *sigh* But, what do you expect?? Life happens. 
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SICK KIDS...

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Both of our kids were ill this past weekend. Blah. Aidan had a bad cough that didn't seem to want to die down. Dylan got an eye infection, so a few hours were spent at Children's Hospital. Thankfully, he wasn't running a temperature and didn't have to be admitted. Small favors, right? 

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WHAT HE SAID...

"I'm ALIVE. Thinking about it, noticing it, is new. You do things and don't watch. Then all of a sudden you look and see what you're doing and it's the first time, really."

-- Ray Bradbury

Saw this quote today and thought it was pretty great. Really summed a lot of what I've been feeling lately. 
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TASTINESS... 

Here are a couple tasty things we made this weekend. Sadly, I was pretty lazy with the camera, so not many of our delish meals were captured. Oh well.

I always make a big batch of multigrain pancakes on the weekend and freeze some so the kids can have them through the week. We like to play around with different ingredients for the pancakes, but there are certain flavors that are the biggest hits, like this weekend's batch...

Multigrain Blueberry Pancakes w/ Pure Ohio Maple Syrup

We really love doing a Pizza Night every other week. Very tough to beat homemade pizza! This is another menu item that we like to change up frequently; the sky's the limit when it comes to toppings. This weekend's pizza was TO DIE FOR...

MEDI PIZZA

Our Mediterran-style pizza:

fire-roasted red peppers, artichoke hearts, chopped almonds (that I had roasted not long ago), fresh basil, Kalamata olives, crumbled goat cheese (wanted something a little creamier than Feta that night), grated extra-sharp Provolone, and EVOO on a garlic and herb crust.

We served it up with a little spring mix salad with red wine vinaigrette.

DELISH! A veritable veggie orgy!!

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POETRY...

I CHOP SOME PARSLEY WHILE LISTENING TO ART BLAKEY'S VERSION OF "THREE BLIND MICE" 

by Billy Collins

And I start wondering how they came to be blind.
If it was congenital, they could be brothers and sister,
and I think of the poor mother
brooding over her sightless young triplets.

Or was it a common accident, all three caught
in a searing explosion, a firework perhaps?
If not,
if each came to his or her blindness separately,

how did they ever manage to find one another?
Would it not be difficult for a blind mouse
to locate even one fellow mouse with vision
let alone two other blind ones?

And how, in their tiny darkness,
could they possibly have run after a farmer's wife
or anyone else's wife for that matter?
Not to mention why.

Just so she could cut off their tails
with a carving knife, is the cynic's answer,
but the thought of them without eyes
and now without tails to trail through the moist grass

or slip around the corner of a baseboard
has the cynic who always lounges within me
up off his couch and at the window
trying to hide the rising softness that he feels.

By now I am on to dicing an onion
which might account for the wet stinging
in my own eyes, though Freddie Hubbard's
mournful trumpet on "Blue Moon,"

which happens to be the next cut,
cannot be said to be making matters any better.


I dig Billy Collins and I'm super excited that he was chosen to be Bexley's Community Book Club Author for 2011. I can't wait to see him in April!! 
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NEW STUFF...

I bought a few things this weekend in addition to the usual suspects (tolietries, bananas, etc.):

A pretty tablecloth to cover the hideous table currently residing in our dining room (too bad I couldn't cover the chairs also...ugh). This will have to do until we pick out a dining room set.

And a few clothing pieces that were on sale (whoo hoo!). A lavender shirt (I'm not really a purple gal, but it is the hubs' favorite color, so I try to work it in, occasionally), $3. A pair of distressed boot cut jeans (my fave!), $4. A cute little black dress (can you ever have too many?), $5. Yay for Target finds!

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CHEMO...

I had treatment yesterday. Boo. However, I did end up with some SUPER news. I thought I wouldn't finish my treatments until the end of September, but my doc said that by his calculations, my treatments will end at the beginning of August. HOOOOOORAY!!!! How exciting is that??

Unfortunately, I have to start on my hormone therapy this week. Blechety-blech.
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TUNAGE...

I've spent the past several days listening to one of my all-time favorite albums, by one of my all-time favorite bands...Big Calm by Morcheeba.

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I think it's impossible to be stressed out by anything when listening to the melodic tunes on this album. Hello? The serenity is right there in the title...Big Calm! 

It is my ultimate go-to album for chilling out, and this week I've seemed to need it more than ever. I have belted out Blindfold more times than I can count, but it has done wonders for my mood. A couple glasses of wine and some Morcheeba go a long way to helping me achieve a zen-like state of mind.


Switching gears slightly but keeping within the muzak category, I present my lineup...
 
5 SONGS I'M RUNNING TO THIS WEEK:
Higher Ground - Red Hot Chili Peppers
Sinnerman - Nina Simone
Ballroom Blitz - The Sweet
I Just Wanna Live - Good Charlotte
Immigrant Song - Led Zeppelin

COOL DOWN & BE COOL SONG OF THE WEEK:
Hit Me Baby One More Time - Travis
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EVERYTHING ELSE...

Well, I have to save something for future posts, 
don't I??