Joys In My Life

We got the earliest snows this year ever!!!  I don't ever remember it snowing in Philadelphia in October. Maybe a freak snow late in March, but never this early.  Here's some views from our back deck.   I was very motivated today.  As Marcia would say, I ate a lot of frogs. But oh, they tasted so good!!!!  The saying means to do the biggest, most important stuff you need to do in the day.  Today I did the following: Cleaned the kitchen very good, including kitchen appliances wiped down, the inside of the microwave, the top of the stove, and I mopped the floor. Drove Tom to the train station.  He's opening a new office in NYC in the morning.  He'll be back for trick or treating in the afternoon. Vacuumed and shampooed all the carpets on the second floor and the back staircase.  I am sorry to say it was the first time ever since we moved in 2006.  They look awesome! Did the same to the living room where the boys play.  I swear, ...

Feeling minorly overwhelmed right now.  There is so much I need and want to get done.  I'm hoping to have time to do it all.  I keep making my lists and then I get distracted by my daughter getting sick, working from home and having a toddler or two come over to me and the computer, a husband that needs to talk about something, etc.  I know things are moving in a forward direction, but I'm having such a hard time not feeling that I wish I was getting things done faster and able to avoid distractions. On another note, I recently read Julie and Julia and I have to admit I liked the book much better than the movie.  In the movie, I thought Julie was kind of whiney and Julia Child saved the movie.  The book is much different.  I can completely get into where she is in her mind.  Did you know the book character Julie has PCOS and part of her issue that drove her to cooking was doctor's telling her that she better try to have children now because of h...

BTW, we did get a phone call from the gluten-free girl's mom on Monday after school thanking us for handling her daughter's diet restrictions so easily and making her seem like she was eating what everyone else was eating. Here's a pic of the girls all asleep at 9 AM on Sunday morning.  Phoebe is the one on the left air mattress that looks like she's running in her sleep. And here is Phoebe in her 1950s finest for the cotillion party that Sunday night. And yes, I'm a Yankee that makes her daughter do cotillion.  It's the only thing we've not given her a choice on.  This is her first year and I think we'll do it again next year.  For those that don't know what cotillion is, it's a very Southern USA thing where children are forced to dress up (boys must wear suits and girls must wear skirts that are not more than 2 inches above their knee) and learn to dance ballroom dances such as the Rumba, waltz, cha cha, etc. and learn about table mann...

Wow!  What a weekend!  I don't know what to do other than give it to you in chronological order with all the fun details. Friday night we went out to a great French bistro restaurant in Philly called Zinc .  The food was amazing!  The wine was amazing.  I say if you are in the Philly area and want to try the best yet unpretentious French food in the area, make a reservation and get thee to this place!  It was by far the best restaurant I've ever been to and had the best service.  Our server actually recommended the white wine - a wonderful white Bordeaux which is my current favorite wine nwo.  I have a case on order from my local wine shop.  It's very reasonably priced when you're not at a restaurant markup price.  I also highly recomment their private label French sparkling wine.  We had it with our appetizers and it was very very good. Saturday we ran errands getting ready for our daughter's sleepover party that night....

Wow!  It's been a long time.  I'll try to get better, but things have been very busy lately in a good way.  We've been working hard at living intentionally.  Doing things around the house and having good family fun.  We went to the Renaissance Faire this past weekend.  Here's a pic Phoebe took of the boys and I with a knight.  Tom was off in a long line for a pint of beer, LOL! Phoebe also had her 11th birthday and got braces.  Here you can see both! And a few weeks ago we went to a wine tasting, corn maze, fall fun stuff for kids to do at a local vineyard that we hadn't been to before.  Went with a fellow blogger in the area who her and her husband are so much fun!  And their daughter is way cute!  Here is a pic of Tom and the boys that day.  Liam does have an odd expression on his face in this pic. I started working out again last night, so I'm feeling pleasantly sore.  I'm doing the P90X and I'm working on gett...