Mommin' It Up!

July 12, 2013

InstaFriday

Today I’m linking up with our friend Jeannett from Life Rearranged for InstaFriday – the stories behind the pictures.

Last Thursday at Kate’s swim meet, Sam pitched an enormous fit because he wanted to play games on my phone and I wanted him to play games in real life with the 10,000 little kids surrounding him. Enormous fit. Like, we were that family for a few minutes. So I put him in timeout, and while I was ignoring his screams and the looks of all the people around us, I searched for four leaf clovers.

It is my only talent.

Five minutes after the conclusion of Sam’s fit and subsequent time out, this is what he looked like.

That’s right, judgy people, he was tired.

And BTW, when did his legs get so long and skinny? I don’t know how those little matchsticks of his could even be functional.

Friday night, we loaded up and went to the drive in.

Despicable Me 2 was the first feature, and it was fantastic. Loved it. Monsters U played next but we only made it about halfway through before hitting the wall of tired. As soon as we got in the car and headed home it started pouring down rain, so we were glad that we left when we did.

Saturday, Kate and I went on a date.

Because we are super fancy, we went to Bravo. The boys dropped us off and went on a man date at Fazoli’s, because they are not super fancy. And also because they like plastic bibs. Then we all went to Kilwins for dessert.

Sunday night the kids went to VBS and Andy and I went on a super fancy date to hike at the local nature reserve. I fell in the mud and Andy had to hose me off in the front yard before I was fit to go inside our house. We know how to party when the kids are away.

Can’t get enough of this fascinating content (and Jenny’s face)? Follow us on Instagram.

What have you been Instagramming this week?

July 10, 2013

More Stuff We’re Going to Abolish

Last week I wrote about words I think should be abolished from the English language, and – hurray! – you all agreed with me! We are one step closer to world domination, my friends.

And not only did you agree with me, but through comments on here and on Facebook, you added a number of words, phrases and activities that should be ILLEGAL. I want to get them down in one place so we can get rid of this nonsense once and for all!

Here we go!

From Jennifer – I would also add blergh, woot, question marks where the don’t belong. Like this? Freaking makes me angry. Also “this is happening”.

From Michelle – The whole “said no one ever” can die a slow death. Hate.

From Emilie – The camera is not a mirror, people. (Jenny’s response: SELFIE!!!!! THE CAMERA IS A MIRROR!!! Actually, I don’t use that word much. But I DO perpetrate the act.)

Jeannett spoke up for the selfies (in a totally serious way, clearly!) – But selfies brought the world the Peace Sign Duck Face Toilet pictures!!! Those are like a newly discovered gem. Like, totally.

From Jenny, queen of the selfie – I also hate “that moment”. And “that awkward moment”. I do enjoy the periods after every word when appropriate. I don’t think I over-use it too much but I could. easily. go there.

From Briana – “besties.” “hubster”

From Michelle – Mine? Has started to die out thankfully. My pet peeve is the #FML people with first world problems. Okay, you spilled coffee. That sucks. But really? It deserves a #FML hashtag? Also? 27 hashtags after EVERYTHING. Drives me nuts. One or two – that is fine.

From UP – Mine is calibrate, as in “…let’s get together and calibrate on…”. In reality it means “…we’re having this meeting so you’ll know exactly how I feel about this and how you should as well…”

From Anna – Totes. Karson agrees – That is exactly what I was going to put! Totes! Once again Jenny’s in the minority – BUT I LOVE TOTES! You guys are no fun.

From Emily – “Epic”. Maybe it shouldn’t be erradicated completely but it is definitely overused these days. No, your Starbucks this morning was not epic, neither was your child using the toilet or your trip to the beach. There are plenty of other words in the English language you can use.

And, in honor of Jenny’s trip to the beach (without me), I would like to add one more thing that NO ONE SHOULD EVER DO AGAIN.

I was doing it, I was like, "wow I am such a dweeb!" -Jenny Rapson — I was doing it, I was like, “wow I am such a dweeb!” -Jenny Rapson

July 8, 2013

Finally, Pinterest actually worked for me.

So after my dried strawberry pinterest fail, I’ve been somewhat skeptical of Pinterest recipes… not enough to keep me from obsessively searching and pinning, just enough to keep me from actually doing them.

But let’s be real, isn’t that the point of pinterest? Pinning things you’re never really going to do?

Also – as another side note – remember when Pinterest served as a bulletin board of sorts, rather than a search engine? No? Well, it did. And it was better then, because people actually pinned new things instead of repinning old things. The problem with repinning old things is that if you don’t click through, you might just be pinning a pretty picture that has no recipe and no content at all. Which is useless.

Anyway.

I tried a few things over the 4th of July weekend that actually turned out, so I thought I’d share them!

First of all – red, white and blue popcorn.

I liked this recipe because it was basic – no karo syrup, jello, or anything else random – just sugar, water, popcorn and food coloring. It was GOOD, people. So good, in fact, that I woke up Friday morning and threw away the rest of the batch, because I knew I’d eat every bite of it before the day ended.

Here’s another one – minted watermelon, cucumber, and blueberry salad.

It was healthy, fresh, and pretty!

These cheese-stuffed grilled peppers were good, but they were missing something. What, I’m not sure, but if I make them again I’d change the filling so it had more flavor. I liked the theory, though, and I will probably try them again!

I never seem to be on the ball enough to marinate meat before we grill it, so I’m always on the lookout for a good dry rub. I found Rock’s T-Bone Steak Rub on allrecipes.com, and Andy and I both really liked it. I doubled the recipe for 6 steaks and had a little left over. I’d probably cut back a little on the cayenne pepper next time, though.

What Pinterest wins have you found recently? Leave a link in the comments so we can repin!