The Guavalicious Life

The title of this post is only true if partying means sitting in a hotel bed watching Friends reruns at 10:30pm. But honestly, it feels like the perfect end to a low key but great birthday. We’re on day three of our pre-SXSWi vacation and we started the day off in San Antonio and ended it in Austin. I ate a spicy tuna bowl in bed for breakfast, did a quick thirty minute shopping spree at a gigantic Forever 21, had a private tasting at one of my favorite breweries, and then finished the evening off with dinner at Uchi. Yep, pretty awesome.

What’s not so awesome is that the years feel like they are speeding by. Though I am more content in my place in life than I have probably ever been, I still feel like there are so many things missing: dreams, goals, things I used to do, things I want to do.

So I have decided to make a 40 by 40 list. In the next few years I hope to accomplish all forty things. Over the next month or so I will be composing my list here. Stay tuned!

The last two months have been full of goal setting, acheiving, striving, and lots of hard work. What better way to celebrate than with a pre-SXSW Interactive vacation? We flew into Austin early and then drove down to San Antonio, with a stop at the Salt Lick on the way. Incidentally, here is what I thought of Salt Lick:

After filling up on BBQ, we drove down to Blanco to try and visit Real Ale, one of my favorite breweries, but they were closed. They usually only have tours on Friday but we’re hoping to stop by for a brew on Tuesday, my birthday. My husband hopes they let us in because he doesn’t want to see my disappointed face again.

From Blanco, it was about an hour drive to our hotel in San Antonio. We lived in the Alamo city for five years and the drive in was full of us gawking at the changes. Former coworkers of my husband held a small party for us Saturday night where I nommed on amazing Vietmese spring rolls and spent hours chatting with my friend Claire, also known as The Half Hearted Housewife.

Today we dived full on into the surreal by going to eat at our favorite restaurant than driving around our old neighborhood. My stomach got butterflies as we turned onto our street. Soon I saw the bright blue of our house. It looked amazingly the same, down to the Honda in the driveway. We pulled over and got out for a better look. And then, even though my husband begged me not to, I knocked on the door and introduced myself.

The couple could not have been more gracious. They invited us in, showed us around, and talked about the changes they had made and what they still hoped to do. I have to admit, it looked better than when we owned it. They had a more cohesive look and had made improvements we hadn’t gotten to. It was quite surreal, looking around what used to be our home… the house we had our kids in.

We left and drove around a bit more before heading back to the hotel. The changes stayed in my mind all evening, making me think about how we see and treat our homes. I feel inspired to start putting in more of an effort on our home. There were so many things we waited on until we were ready to sell. I want to make the improvements now so I can enjoy them.

Not going to lie, it’s been a tough few weeks. But this information in my email box made me smile… FRANKENWEENIE IS COMING TO THE BIG SCREEN. I have always been a huge fan of the Tim Burton short and am delighted that it is being made into a movie by Walt Disney Pictures.

Here’s what it is about: “Frankenweenie,” a heartwarming tale about a boy and his dog. After unexpectedly losing his beloved dog Sparky, young Victor harnesses the power of science to bring his best friend back to life—with just a few minor adjustments. He tries to hide his home-sewn creation, but when Sparky gets out, Victor’s fellow students, teachers and the entire town all learn that getting a new “leash on life” can be monstrous.  It’s going to be a classic stop-motion animated film, but filmed in black and white and rendered in 3D.

So awesome!

Doesn’t this look delicious?

Would you believe me if I told you in took me ten minutes to make?

Bertolli challenged bloggers to make a weeknight meal special and sent two coupons for their new Bertolli Meal Soups so we could try them out. Like most working parents, getting a meal on the table is hard enough, making it special seems impossible. But weeknights are usually the only time all four of us sit down together to eat dinner together so I had motivation to accept. They gave us an hour prep time limit but I was actually able to shop, put the meal together, and have it on the table in under an hour. Awesome eh?

I took my coupons to the store and checked out the selection (you can find the Bertolli Meal Soups in the ready made dinner section right next to their pasta meals; to locate a store that carries them pick Bertolli Meal Soups on their product locator.) Since my husband has blood pressure issues, I am always careful to note the sodium on any product. The Bertolli Meal Soups obviously have a higher sodium count than homemade soups and stews but the milligrams were lower than the frozen pizzas we often resort to.

For our dinner, I selected the Chicken Minestrone, which is their lowest sodium soup, and the Tuscan Style Beef and Vegetables. To go with them I made easy cheese twists, which literally cook in the time it takes the soup to heat up. They make the perfect pairing soups and are super simple since they use low fat. You can check out how I make them in this You Tube video.

Overall, we gave four thumbs up to the soups. The big winner was the chicken minestrone soup. My husband may have mentioned something about it being better than my homemade version but surely I misheard that right? Okay, I admit. It was better and took way less time. Though we really liked the flavor of the Tuscan Style Beef and Tomato (the broth is out of this world), I wasn’t a fan of the toughness of the beef. It’s so hard to get stew beef right and I am a tiny bit happy that even powerhouses like Bertolli have trouble with it.

We will definitely be giving these a try on those nights when we want something special to sit down to together when we are short on time. Going the extra step to make a side dish and get the table set was totally worth it. And since it took me such a short amount of time I sat down completely relaxed. That may have been the most important element!

Thank you to Bertolli for giving me a chance to try their new line and for compensating me for my time. Betolli can be found on Facebook, Twitter, and of course their website.

Can you believe Valentine’s Day is barely two weeks away? I admit that we are not big Valentine’s Day people, no fancy gifts in our household. Our celebrating is usually limited to a decorated breakfast table and a picnic dinner at home. And oh, lots and lots of chocolate eating.

Chocolate, how I love it. But as I have gotten older my taste buds have gotten snobby and decided that the regular old drugstore candy bar just won’t do. Luckily gourmet chocolate has gone mainstream and there are tons of options to please my picky taste buds. In honor of Valentine’s day I thought I would share some of my finds with you.

First off, Angell Organic candy bars. I received some of these to review in December and planned to share them with visiting family. The only problem was, I couldn’t stop myself from scarfing them down. But really, can you blame me. I mean they are almost healthy really. They only have 5-7 ingredients per bar, all of which you can actually pronounce. And there’s no GMO products or corn syrup. Best part? There’s less than 200 calories per bar. And no guilty conscience: Angell candy bars are fair trade.

All flavors are kosher and the Angell Crisp is gluten free and the Dark Angell is vegan. You can find them at a store near you as well as online. They are around $2 each.

Confession: I am a secret hoarder. Out in my garage we have a gigantic stash of used plastics. You see, our city as great as it is, only recycles one and two plastics. So we save up our yogurt tubs and cheese lids and ferry them to Dallas when we visit family. Yep, we are a little bit crazy about recycling. We are one step away from joining the earth liberation army.

Suffice to say, I am a wee bit into green living. So I jumped at the chance to test out Tide Coldwater. We almost always wash our clothes in cold water but I haven’t used a detergent made specifically for cold water laundry. I love my natural detergents but I admit that they don’t always tackle the stains that two five year old girls leave on their play clothes.

And it totally came through. Even without any kind of pre-treatment. I am so looking forward to pulling that off of my laundry shelf and adding less plastic to our garage stash.

Disclosure: I received a product sample and was compensated with a $50 gift card.

So this is the new series on my blog, a baby book of sorts for us lazy parents. Each Sunday I post a question and answer it. You comment with your own answer, or write it on your blog, or jot it down on a random scrap of paper. It doesn’t matter where, just capture these fleeting moments.

This week’s question: what talent does your child currently posses?

Desmonda Drama obviously inherited her father’s musical talents rather than my onw tone deafness because she regularly amazes us with the songs she creates. She will riff on a familiar tune, making up her own words, often. But she also makes up completely original melodies. We really need to get her into music lessons stat.

Calamity Jane is a bit harder to pin down. She’s pretty funny but I son’t know if that counts as a talent. The thing that stands out for me right now is her amazing memory. She remembers EVERYTHING. For example, she put on a hat today and mentioned that the last time she had worn it was when she went ice skating (over a year ago.)

So I took a break from blogging after the new year to get to work on my resolutions. This is the year I jump back into working professionally (because staying at home and freelancing are definitely work yo.) But I knew in order to do that successfully I had to get a handle on the house situation. Let’s just say I am not a natural homemaker. A few years ago I was using the Motivated Moms system (basically chore breakdowns by day) and my house looked awesome. So I ponied up the $10 for the iPhone app and am back on the horse.

One thing I love about the lists are the reminders to do things like work on your kids’ scrapbooks and baby books. Because we have no scrapbooks and the girls’ baby books are close to empty. Of course now that they are four I need some prompts besides first tooth and the date they first laughed (like I am going to remember that.) Hence this brand new bloggging series, The Lazy Parent Baby Book. Each Sunday I will be listing a prompt and writing a blog post based off it. Because after all, aren’t blogs the modern scrapbook?

I hope you will leave a comment if you join me. I would love to see what you write!

This week’s prompt : Is your kid a collector? What do they like to amass multiples of?

When I was a kid, I was very into collecting things: matchbox cars, Strawberry Shortcake dolls, rocks, roly poly bugs, stickers, coins. So I thought my kids would be the same way. I don’t know if it’s a function of being twins and sharing most of their toys or that my adult anti-pack rat habit has rubbed off on them, but the girls really aren’t in to collecting things.

They only have a couple of possessions that are favorites (their blankets and the Pook-a-Look Minnie and Goofy we got them at Disney Social Media Moms last year.) Besides those items, they are much more into pure imagination (the couch cushions are their favorite “toys” much to my husband’s dismay) and art than toys.

Usually this means is useless to try and buy them theme presents. Often by the time they got something they like they have already moved on to something else. And sometimes I wish they did collect something just so I would have a ready made gift idea. But most of the time I am just happy there’s not more stuff in my house!

Last night I lay fully clothed (in my comfy clothes), covered by a blanket and down comforter, drinking spiked hot chocolate, eating chocolate covered potato chips, and muttering to myself “winter is coming.”* This is not normal behavior for me.

I am not sure what has got me so down this year. I woke up grumpy yesterday and begged my husband to take the girls to his parents for the new year weekend. Instead of utilizing focus moments and therapy techniques, I rolled my eyes and told the girls to get over it when they fought. Instead of leaving the tree up until New Year’s Day like usual, I started pulling the tinsel off.

Post Christmas Depression is the armchair diagnosis but that’s not it. Christmas was pretty great. We hosted and though I was secretly in agony from a bad flare up, I muddled through by just forgetting everything else that I had to do (sorry local blog, sorry niece who never received last Christmas gift, sorry relatives and friends who usually receive cards from me) and concentrating on family. We hosted my husband’s family for the first time and I think it went well. Christmas dinner was kind of a bust but everyone skimmed over that and just drank more wine instead, hurrah.

And usually I love this post Christmas week. I hit all the sales, go crazy cleaning the house, sit by the lighted Christmas tree finishing off the last of the holiday booze and goodies so I can start the new year off fresh and sober like, and spend way too much time composing my (never to be done) resolutions.

But this year I just want to sit under the blankets and eat chocolate covered potato chips. Which just end up making me feel yucky.

A note about those chocolate covered potato chips. I am an extremely hard person to buy gifts for. It is a burden for my husband. Two years ago he bought my chocolate covered potato chips from our local candy store. I ate a few and liked them and now I get them every Christmas in my stocking. They are not as good when you have to eat the entire bag. They put the chocolate on too thick and they make me feel sick (rhyme intentional.)

Yet under the blanket I sit eating them. I think I have SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) or DOWD (Dread of Winter Disorder which I just made up). This makes no sense as I lived in Minnesota for a year and frackin** loved winter. I loved the snow; I loved my down coat that kept me warm in twenty below; I loved walking through tunnels to get everywhere; I loved it all. Besides the fact that it nearly turned me into an alcoholic (it gets dark at like twelve thirty and obviously when it’s dark you should start drinking), there was nothing I hated about the great frozen North’s winters.

But the Midwest winters depress me. It’s nothing but coldish (over thirty, under fifty) weather that makes you shiver but is not enough to warrant wearing a down coat (unless you want people to mock you), dead snowless grass, and pointless snow days where the streets are clear by nine but my kids are still home with me all day bored out of their little skulls. Let me point out that in Minnesota there was NOT ONE snow day and children in the elementary school across the street routinely (ROUTINELY) played outside in frigid weather. I observed them safe behind my window as I sat on the radiator drinking my one o’clock hot chocolate with Kahlua.

So instead of doing my usual new year prep routine of eating/drinking, cleaning, and resoluting I am instead just laying in bed under blankets doing the first one. I consider this to be okay since I am a bona fide suffered of DOWD. Tomorrow I will plan my nervous breakdown.

XOXO
Guava

*Yes that was a Game of Thrones reference. Over the past year I have morphed into a total nerd.
**Confirmation of above, BG reference.

Here is one for you last minute shoppers out there. Bookstores are the one size fits all, easy place to get something for everyone on your list. And I even have a list for you!

Steve Jobs: Unless the recepient lives under a rock, they are probably intrigued by Steve Jobs. Which makes this biograpgy the perfect book for anyone from 16 on up. It delves deeeply into the psyche of the genius behind Apple. Who wouldn’t want a peek into his mind?

Brave Irene: The kid on your list is probably a smidge too young to see Iron Lady but they will love this book read by Merly Streep. Brave Irene by William Steig is the story of Irene a dressmaker’s daughter who takes on a journey to deliver a dress in time for a fancy party. It takes place during a snow storm making it the perfect winter book. The gift comes with the bonus of pleasing the parent of the kiddo you give it to. Books on CD are perfect for car trips. They can be played when it’s dark out and make a great diversion during the day since kids can follow the story through the pictures.

My Teenage Werewolf ” target=”_blank”>My Teenage Werewolf: Got a mom on your list? Any mother will be fascinated by this account of a mom, inspired by the tough relationship with her daughter, who puts on her journalist hat to delve into the primal relationship between teenage girls and their moms. Even though my twins are only four, I found myself totally enrossged in this book. I also immediately started as therapy and spa vacation fund.

300 Best Rice Cooker Recipes: Let’s admit it, we all have a spare kitchen appliance hanging around that we’re not sure what to do with. And half of those are rice cookers. This book will have your friends cooking full on meals from that rice cooker languishing in the back of the cabinet. Hopefully they will be so grateful that they will have you over for dinner.