Tag: rituals

Date night (vacation week edition)

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, local fun, movies, restaurants
How do you know (promotional poster)

It’s been a while since we’ve been able to have a date night, what with the holidays coming, shopping for the holidays, wrapping for the holidays, hiding presents and then (forgetting where they were hidden) looking for the presents for the holidays….

It was nice to have Christmas behind us and get a little time together for a date (courtesy of our eldest child, who stayed with the youngest child). Going out one night during a week off from work feels totally different from going out on a “school night”. No worrying about getting home early, or having to get up at dawn to spoil things. It was nice to just think about what we wanted to do, where we wanted to go, without outside time constraints.

So, even though we decided to stay local and do the usual dinner and a movie, it felt…nicer. More relaxed. No rushing through the meal to get to the movie on time, since we didn’t have to leave after I’d gotten home from work.

First, we stopped at the Wells Public Library, because I love the library. That was pretty much the only reason. I dropped off some books, then chatted with my friends, the librarians (Cindy, Cindy, and Cindel), about blogging and the book that I’m writing (almost finished!!).

Next, we were headed to Ruby’s in York, when my husband (on a whim) made a U-turn and we went to East instead. What are you gonna do? It’s a man’s prerogative to change his mind at the last minute! The food was great, as was the service. The only annoying thing was the woman at the table next to us who wouldn’t shut up about how cold it was (it wasn’t) in there.

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Then we saw How do you know at the Wells Five Star Cinema. I loved it. He did not love it (as evidenced by him saying to the ticket seller after the movie, “You could’ve warned me!”). Okay, so I’m saying it: Bill, you’re the best husband ever for sitting through that movie and still having a smile on your face at the end!

One of the Best Christmases ever

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, family, Holidays, italian, quest for the best, tweens
Our tree!

I originally thought that this would be one of the worst Christmases ever.  It had three strikes against it before it even started:

  1. I had to work late and wouldn’t get home until 8:20PM Christmas Eve.
  2. My husband had to work early Christmas Day, leaving at 5:10 AM, and would be gone the entire day and night.
  3. My son had to work Christmas Day as well. He was home in the morning, which was nice, but then couldn’t come with us to have dinner with relatives.

We tried to make the best of it. The kids each opened a couple of gifts with Dad on Christmas Eve while I listened in from work over the phone. My husband and I had a little time to exchange our gifts Christmas Eve.

Christmas morning, after Bill went to work, I stayed up and baked some bread and then put our traditional Christmas morning breakfast (cinnamon buns) into the oven. We opened up the gifts, then got ready for our (mostly separate) day.

We stopped to see Grammy and Papa before heading to my brother’s house for Christmas dinner…which may well have been one of the Best Christmas Dinners of all time. We played Wii games between dinner and dessert, rationalizing that we’d have more room for tiramisu (was that wrong?).

Then we brought some dinner to my son and his girlfriend Lauren at work. Unfortunately, we didn’t get there until 6:30PM…oh well. The food was worth the wait! My sister-in-law Andrea is an excellent cook!

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Gratitude

by Karen, posted in family, good grief, Holidays, Midlife Crisis
Simple Abundance Journal

I’ve been keeping a gratitude journal this year. A long time ago, I read Simple Abundance by Sarah Ban Breathnach and decided to give the “keeping the journal all year” thing a shot. 

It was an easy enough premise: write down at least three things that you are grateful for each day. That’s it. It starts off fairly easily, but as the days, weeks, and months go on, it can get more difficult. I did it though, and completed the journal on December 31, 1998.

A few years ago, I found another one of these hardcover Simple Abundance Gratitude Journals at a yard sale for a buck; I bought it.  It had one or two entries in it, but I figured that I’d just wite them out and write over them. I brought it home, put the journal away, then promptly forgot all about it.

Fast forward to December 2010: I found both that journal, and the one I kept in 1998. I decided to start the journal January 1, 2010, and I have kept it up all year. Periodically, if things were especially happy (or alternately, tough) for me in 2010, I would look back to 1998 to see how I was doing on that day twelve years ago. There were lots of ups and downs in 1998: I was expecting my second child, and my father died from cancer that year. It was difficult to read some of the entries. Turns out that the emotions may be different, but feel every bit as strong all these years later as they did back then when it happened.

Today, I was thinking that things hadn’t been going that well for the past few days, and it was looking like 2010 was not going to end on a high note. After I finished my journal entry, I decided to look back to see what I had written on this day last year. One line stood right out: “I am grateful for my life.”

It’s as true today as it was twelve years ago when I wrote it. Thank you, past self, for reminding me of this tonight, when I needed it so much.

The best yoga class ever!

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, baking, fitness, friends, quest for the best, yoga
Kathy, Alexis, Kristen (our teacher!), Janna, Me, Jeannie
Last night was a special yoga class at Windsong Yoga Studio in South Berwick. My friend Kristen (right in the center) is the instructor, and she teaches nice blend of many different styles of yoga. She has studied with some of the top teachers in the United States,  including Doug Keller, Desiree Rumbaugh, Sianna Sherman, and Judith Lasater, to name just a few. A bonus: she teaches women (no men allowed!). 🙂
She planned a special class to celebrate the winter solstice (the shortest day of the year).
After this excellent class, we were treated to an excellent meal, prepared for us by Kristen. A Tempeh Wreath was the main course, accompanied by a side salad of mixed greens, lightly dressed. Dessert was partially by way of Whole Foods  (and may I just say, OMG! Especially the chocolate covered figs? Unbelievable!). There were also some delicious Christmas cookies made for us by Janna, because, after all, what is Christmas without the cut outs? I ask  you.
Now, if you are someone who practices yoga, and midway through most classes you start thinking about pizza and/or assorted baked goods, this was like a class made in heaven. Thank you, Kristen! Put that Tempeh Wreath recipe in your cookbook!
What holiday celebrations are you participating in this year?

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Dinner, revised

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, family, tweens

As I was rushing to get out the door the other morning, trying to make it to the gym before my workday, I heard my daughter say to my husband, “What’s for supper tonight?” He replied, “I don’t know yet. What do you want to have?”

I didn’t hear the response, having made it outside and to the bottom of the stairs by then, but I thought about it often throughout the day after I got to work.

Making supper every night had usually been my job, since after we had kids that were old enough to sit at the table and eat human food, I usually worked during the day, and my husband usually worked at night. About five years ago, however, we did a 180. I started a new job that required me to work evenings at first,  and so my husband changed his work schedule, and became the primary supper cook.

Now, it’s not like he had never cooked a meal before; he was a restaurant cook when we met, and he’d worked as a pizza maker for several years as well. It’s just something that he had rarely been called on to do at home, since a) I loved doing that job and b) he wasn’t home at suppertime. 🙂

His style of cooking is quite different from mine. I usually think about it for hours in advance, shop for all the things I need or may potentially someday need, and often will painstakingly follow a recipe, but he almost always just walks into the kitchen, looks around to see what we have, and then makes something out of what’s there. If there isn’t anything appealing in the house already, then he’ll go to the grocery store, and do basically the same thing: look around to see what they have that looks good, then go home and put the ingredients together into a meal…

…a meal that the kids (more often than not) actually like, and will eat. Really, what more could a parent ask?

So, here’s to all the Dad’s that are cooking dinner for the fam tonight; YOU ROCK!

Buon Natale

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, family, italian, local fun, tweens
Izzy at Buon Natale

I took my daughter to Buon Natale, the Italian Christmas bazaar at St. Peter’s Church on Federal St. in Portland. This was something my Italian grandmother always took me to when I was growing  up, and it remains a happy childhood memory for me to this day. I wanted to share this with my daughter.

It was at the same site as the Italian Feast was in the summer. It was held inside the church, which usually would be a good thing, since November in Portland is often a cruel month.

Not today though; it was 64 degrees when we arrived about 12 noon. It easily could have been held outdoors. Inside, we were greeted by a nice lady that said, “Did you park in the Rite Aid parking lot? They’ll tow you if you did!” We assured her that we had not, and thanked her for her concern.

There was a “garage sale” room, with tables set up that had been well picked over by the time we arrived. The doors opened at 8am, so it was well more than half over. We browsed a bit in the craft show section, but then we got down to the real business of visiting any Italian venue: the food.

They had a similar menu to what was offered at the feast in the summer. Ziti with meatballs, meatball subs, Sicilian style pizza, eggplant parmigiana sub, and pasta fagioli were the main entrees. After much discussion (and viewing of what other people were ordering) we settled on the pasta fagioli to split.

For three bucks, we got a bowl big enough to fill us both up for lunch. It was the best pasta fagioli ever. 🙂

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For dessert? What else would these two Italian girls get?  Tiramisu, of course! We split that as well, but afterward, we second guessed that choice. “We should have both got one!” my girl pointed out. Note to self for next time: to each her own tiramisu. 🙂

Girls’ Night

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, books, family, friends, local fun, restaurants, tweens

On the (rare) days when the male members of the family are off at work, but the females have the day off, we have a Girls’ Night. Today, Girls’ Nights started early, at 7:24AM. The men were out for the day so the females were left to  our own pursuits. This is what my daughter and I did today:

  1. Breakfast: Cream of wheat for Izzy and egg white omelet with spinach, mushrooms, and roasted red peppers for me. OJ and coffee, respectively.
  2. Met up with friends at Cafe Perfecto in Kennebunk. We split a gingerbread muffin. We ate it too quickly to photograph it. It was goooooooooooooooooooooooooood. 🙂
  3. Next, browsing at Kennebooks. We bought some cards, some books, and a really cool mushroom shaped eraser with the sharpener built right in. 

    Coolest mushroom eraser/sharpener ever!
  4. Home for lunch: PB&H on homemade bread for me; grilled cheese and bacon on whole wheat bread for Iz. Then she caught up with a friend on the phone, while I caught up on the laundry, chicken tasks, and dishes. Yay.
  5. Next, North Berwick Farmers Market. My friend Rebecca was there so we got to visit a bit. Lucky for us, it was the day of their Pie Contest, and we got to try a piece of the winning pie, baked by a 9 year old girl; very impressive. Besides pie, we got some fudge, some granola, herbs to mix with oil for bread-dipping, oatmeal coconut cookies…hmmm, seems like something is missing. What is it? Oh! The (token healthy food that was the excuse for going to the farmers market) apple! I ate that at the next stop.
  6. Izzy had a riding lesson and I spent the time in the car catching up on the last 2 days of newspapers that I hadn’t gotten to yet.
  7. At 6Pm, lesson over, we headed to Johnson’s Seafood and Steak. This is our new favorite restaurant, partly because it’s right on the way home after riding, but mostly because of the pumpkin cheesecake. OMG. It’s worth going just for that.
  8. Finally, home for a movie night. We watched The Clique. Izzy had seen it before and wanted to watch it again with me. Great mother-daughter movie.

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That’s it.  She’s gone to bed; I’m getting ready to. We had a great day. 🙂

Fall!

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, baking, restaurants
Dunkin Donuts Pumpkin Muffin

Fall is a time when a young(ish) woman’s thoughts lightly turn to…pumpkin muffins! What is a better harbinger of the new season? I ask you. 

Pumpkin muffin is a term that should be used loosely; more of a suggestion than an edict. There are many different versions of the pumpkin muffin. 

Here are a few: 

  1. Dunkin Donuts has a Pumpkin Muffin. You may want to know (if you are on Weight Watchers) that it has about 16 POINTS. Really. Almost my total allotment for an entire day. You might prefer to assuage your pumpkin craving with a pumpkin donut if you are at DD; they have about 6 POINTS. (Disclaimer: these point values were calculated last fall with nutrition info from the DD website using the online WW point calculator and I am recalling them to the best of my memory since the pumpkin products aren’t on the DD website at the time of this writing).
  2. Better yet, cheat: make them at home with this recipe from Copykat.
  3. Tim Horton’s version of Pumpkin Spice Muffin is “healthier” at only (count ’em) 9 Weight Watcher’s Points. Hey, it’s better than 16. Way better, actually.
  4. Your local bakery/coffee shop/breakfast place most likely will also have some pumpkin muffins of some sort, and most likely they will be very hard to resist, and probably better than #1 or #3 above.
  5. The local supermarket will probably have pumpkin muffins in their bakery section. Smallish, plain (as in unadorned by streusel topping and/or glaze), unappealing ones are offered at my local market.

The choice is yours. My choice was purely based on proximity; I was driving by DD and had a half an hour to kill before the football game started Sunday morning. I also had a DD card with some money left on it. Can you say DD combo with black french vanilla coffee and a pumpkin muffin??? 

So, only the 3rd day of being back to active weight loss and a pumpkin muffin knocked me off the wagon. At least my daughter split it with me…well, she had a bite of it. 

Tomorrow is another day. 🙂

Wells Harborfest: Straight Lace

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, local fun, tweens
Rotary Chicken Barbecue

This past Saturday was the annual Wells Harborfest at (you guessed it!) the Wells Harbor. There was a chicken barbeque by the Wells Rotary. This year it was extremely well attended. More than once during the time that my daughter and I were in line they thought they were sold out. We were lucky enough to get there in time. The dinner was $10 and consisted of a half chicken, scoop of cole slaw, soft white biscuit with butter, a bag of chips (which my daughter immediately appropriated, along with the roll), and a drink. The sodas were all gone, so we split a bottled water.

For dessert, Sundaes at the Beach was ready with a cooler and 2 scoopers of 4 flavors of their delicious ice cream: the holy trinity: vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry, but with a nice bonus flavor: kahlua chip, which is one of our favorites. One scoop was only a buck.

We finished just in time to grab a seat on a bench for the Straight Lace concert at the Hope Hobbs Gazebo. This has become an annual event for us also. Last year, Helen (one of the singers) even invited some of the younger fans (my daughter included) up on stage to sing with the band, and gave them a percussion instrument to play! This year that didn’t happen, but it was still fun to watch everyone dancing.

Have you been down to the harbor for any of the free concerts? They are every Saturday night at 6:30pm this summer. Pick a band and go! It’s free fun for the fam. 🙂

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Reunions

by Karen, posted in education, family

My 30th high school reunion is coming up this November. I have been to only one thus far, the 10th, mostly because I never received any notice of any of the reunions (found out about the 10th from a friend I happened to run into one day while food shopping). Enter Facebook; suddenly I am findable..and was found.

Coincidently, I recently read the book The Last Time I Saw You by Elizabeth Berg, finishing it just prior to learning about the upcoming reunion, which I believe has put me in a receptive frame of mind for reunion-going.

If I remember correctly, we had in excess of 600 people in my graduating class. One inventive alumnus set up a reunion page on Facebook, and to date, there are about 178 of us accounted for. I say “about”, because the number is growing every day. I think it makes going to the reunion less threatening, more accessible, sort of, when you have the opportunity to “meet” up again with people prior to the actual event.

It’s amazing to chat online with people that you know but haven’t seen or talked to (for the most part) for thirty years. I am thinking it will be more fun if I get motivated to pull out my high school yearbook (hmmm, it’s around here somewhere…) and look back at us then, and next check out the pictures of us on Facebook now. Some of us have kids that now are about the same age that we were when we graduated.

I also learned from a quick google search that there is a website for my graduating class (full disclosure: the first one I found was not for my state. Duh. Note to self: always include the state when googling a city!). Good thing I checked the list of names (of which I recognized none! My first clue that I was in the wrong place!) before I bought the tickets through Paypal.

So, how do you all feel about high school reunions? To go, or not to go…that is the question.