The Mom Thing...

I constantly feel that I am woefully unequipped for motherhood.  You would think I'd have it down by now.  

I have a messy house, live in the shadow of a laundry pile, and have a perpetually empty fridge.  I feel like I work way to hard to have so many loose ends.  I can't leave the house with out forgetting something or everything. 

Other moms seem to have it together.  My friend A has a five year old and three year old twins (twins!) and she works all day at the craziest job ever and her husband travels a lot and SHE manages.   Why can't I get it? 

Life was much easier when I went to work everyday.  This stay-at-home mom stuff is for the birds!

That Cake...

Andy and I are training for a 10k in March.  We're trying to eat reasonably.  That didn't stop us from finishing the birthday cake.

I made butter cream frosting for the first time.  I thought it would be enough to ice the cake and do some piping too.  It was not.  Two sticks of butter and 1/2 cup of shortening did not make enough icing to decorate with.  The frosting was tasty though.



I've been the anti-grocery-shopper lately.  The whole week of Snowmageddon, we survived on my sparse pantry and now I'm at it again.  Yesterday, I made this amazingly healthy dish that I surprisingly had all of the ingredients for.  (Why, you ask, do I have Kielbasa on hand? It was a BOGO at Kroger when I was making some black bean and sausage dish from Martha Stewart. Really good.  Really. Anyway, I figured it keeps for ever so maybe I would use the second one someday.  Today was that day.)  Eating reasonably, what?  Beside the fact that it was totally unhealthy, it was quite good.  I'm pretty sure Andy helped himself to thirds.

 Does anyone else make a huge mess in the kitchen? I'm usually pretty organized and keep stuff on the counters to a minimum and wash dishes as I go but I'm super messy.  Yesterday was worse than usual.  This is our kitchen, post mac and cheese. I was a disorganized mess. When dumping the cooked sausage into the mac and cheese, I dropped several greasy sausage pieces on the floor.  I burned all kinds of crap to the cook top.  (Don't get me started on hating the cook top. )  My apparently cracked measuring cup leaked milk all over the counter. Cleaning up was not fun. 

Cake

The in-laws are coming.  Tomorrow.  Yay!  I actually love my in-laws, they're really super fantastic people.  I couldn't have asked for a better family to marry in to.  They have their quirks like any family but, wow, I got lucky - a fantastic husband who has fantastic parents that make fantastic grandparents.

So, those "quirks".  Kathy is persnickety.  I think that's why I like her so much.  We're both persnickety.  Anyway, she gives the best gifts.  They're always good and always surprises (Mark insists on surprises).  Our birthdays also happen to be five days apart and next week.  I was so tickled when I found the perfect gift on a post Christmas Homegoods clearance.  I then ordered a perfect accompaniment to the perfect gift on Amazon.com.  BUT, thanks to Snowmageddon, UPS, and the US Mail for that matter, have not delivered to us in a week.  A WEEK!  So much for two day shipping.    Here's to hoping my packages come today.  Andy and I counted.  We have some 9 odd packages on their way to us, apparently via the Oregon Trail.

To make up for my half gift failure which was no fault of my own, I was going to head to my favorite bakery and buy her a birthday cake.  After about an hour of reading their long list of cakes and going back and forth between my favorite options, I decided that the four of us really don't need 30lbs of cake.  Not to mention that I don't need to spend $35 on a cake.

So, I baked a cake.  From a box.  It just didn't seem to rise like I hoped and the two layers stacked on top of each other looked pathetic. So, like any reasonable person would do, I baked another cake. From another box.  Chocolate. It looks better.  However, now in the works, is a massive four layer cake.

Excuse my food photography... needs work.

In order to finish cake-zilla, a trip to Publix is in order.  We need groceries so bad that Andy and I actually ate the uneven vanilla cake top for breakfast.  How pathetic is that?  It's freak snow storms like these that make me wish I was better at stocking up on frozen foods or really any foods.  Maybe I'll be a grown-up someday?

Snowmageddon 2011: So Over It

Atlanta is an ice skating rink. STILL.  (Yes, I am yelling.) FOUR DAYS LATER.  I'm sitting in the living room, in my pajamas, watching cars slide down our street as our desperate neighbors make fleeting attempts at freedom.  Don't get me wrong, if it wasn't for K and my responsibility to her, I would so be out there.  I have all wheel drive, after all.  Shouldn't I use it on the one occasion it has been warranted in the last three years of using way too much gas for no good reason?

GET ME OUT! 

The self employed and the retired being good neighbors.

Sleep

Not going to do it.  Just don't want to. You can't make me.