A Bull in a China Shop

I've decided to begin keeping a running tally record of every item Ben breaks in this house. And then, on that wonderfully momentous day when he starts his first job and brings home his first paycheck, shortly after congratulating him and taking his picture, I'm going to hold out my hand and collect what he owes us in damaged goods and replacement costs.

And then we'll most likely be able to retire.

Trade Off

My children are both incredibly sleep sensitive. Which means that if they miss their naps or if they don't sleep as long as their overly-delicate bodies require, they turn into little children monsters. Ben becomes incredibly crazy, sometimes literally banging his head into a corner wall or experimenting with climbing up the wall. Ella becomes fussy and only comforted if I sit in a specific chair, hold her a specific way, don't move a muscle and declare from the rooftops that my whole world NOW REVOLVES AROUND HER. Also, I know for a fact they conspire ways to team up and torment their mother (because I've totally seen them "huddled up" and I'm sure Ben has some sort of power-point presentation up his sleeve that maps out the whole darn strategy. Ben is the brains behind the operation, and sweet Ella just wants to please her big brother. How did I become chopped liver in this equation? Must I remind them the number of hours I was in labor with them? Or the PAIN I endured to bring them in this world? MUST I? Because we have DVD footage of both deliveries, children. And I am NOT AFRAID to unveil them.)

***WINE BREAK***

And, exhale.

On these particular days, I can become flustered to the point of literally pulling my hair out when Dan walks through the door. Today was one of those days. If I had to grade my kids on their napping performance today, both children would score a "D+". And it's only in the generous D range because I'm writing this post-wine break. So instead of greeting Dan with a sweet hello darling this afternoon, it was something more along the lines of, "YOU MUST DO SOMETHING WITH YOUR CHILDREN."

Which I think I scared him because off the three of them went into Ben's room for a very, very long time.

But here's the thing. The bad news is that on days such as these I don't get much "down time" during the day, I don't get to enjoy a peaceful uninterrupted lunch or quiet respite before the afternoon/dinner madhouse rush. And usually on these days I choke down my dinner, battling indigestion with every bite I take as the children-monsters cry and complain and practically BEG for bedtime. Dan & I are lucky if we get one sentence in at the dinner table. Sometimes Ben is so wired-tired that he'll just fall out of his chair for no reason. You get the idea...a real Norman Rockwell kind of scenario.

And now, for the good news. It's 6:30, the children monsters have left and sleeping angels have taken their places. I'm now on my second glass of wine, the house is quiet, and Dan and I are in alone-time heaven. We're preparing to decorate the tree and have entire conversations where we will have the opportunity to complete our sentences and/or have entire thought processes. Who knows, maybe we'll even get crazy and stay up past 10.  People, stop the press because this is what we call a Christmas Miracle.

So everyone, please raise your glasses. Oh. Just me? Okay, my glass has been raised. Cheers! Here's to a new day tomorrow, where I will have the opportunity to do it all over again! I'm off to give Dan a well-deserved high five.

Nighty-night my sleeping angels. Sleep and sleep and sleep and sleep.

The New Coiffure

The other day Dan offhandedly mentioned that Ella's hair is resembling a MULLET more & more these days. First, I was offended- because even if it's slightly true, it's not something you are allowed to actually say out loud. You can't blame the poor one year-old baby who's hair is challenged in the whole growing-on-top-of-the-head department (and um, no offense my darling Dan, but maybe that is something she inherited from....you). And, please! With eyes as big and brown as hers, who has time to even notice her hair? Then my crazy Mom Panic kicked in so I began introducing her to new and exciting ways to style her little locks of baby hair. She had no idea there was a whole world of hair bands and bows just waiting to be discovered. This was my second attempt at pig-tails, and although I realize I'm slightly biased, have you ever seen anything cuter in your life? And the two of them together? Playing "Mommy & Daddy"? I'm downright smitten with the whole darn thing. Mullet no more!

A Perfectly Logical Explaination

Ben has been uncharacteristically mellow this morning. He's done a couple of unsual things, including sleeping in and requesting me to "cuddle up" with him (as opposed to the reverse). Of course, with it being a chilly morning at the height of flu season, this had me a little worried and suspicious. Here's what just happened:

Me: Buddy, are you feeling okay? Is everything alright?
Ben: (in a very unconvincing tone) Yes.....
Me: Are you sure?
Ben: Well, it's just that I'm having a hard time.
Me: (my panic increasing) Why? Does your tummy hurt? Do you have a sore throat? Is your body achey?
Ben: No....it's just that.....
Me: Sweetie, what is it?
Ben: I'm just so, so, so tired.
Me: Okay, well why do you think it is, buddy? Do you feel sick?
Ben: No. It's just that I feel like I'm going to have a baby really soon.
Me: Oh! Well....that really explains...everything. (Breathe sigh of relief)

Tis The Season (For Soup)

It's borderline FREEZING around here (my toes are on the verge of hypothermia, I'm just sure of it...), and of course we're on the "economically-friendly" heating plan in this house. Which means we walk around bundled in multiple layers, sporting big bulky socks and sweaters, and practically watch our breath puff out with every word we utter. Then we wait for the house to drop to 60 degrees, at which point the heater kicks in and begins defrosting little fingers and toes. So, it's not surprising that lately all I can think about is soup. And if my family would let me, I'd make a wide variety of soups all week long. But they keep insisting I focus on other foods, like breakfast and lunch, too. Luckily for me, we've got some big rain storms approaching in our forecast, so it seems appropriate to be in this soup phase. And I feel like I'm doing my family a huge favor by serving them up big steaming bowls of soup.

I thought I'd share one of my favorite and easiest go-to soup recipes-- it's incredibly delicious and easy on the pocket book, too (which is why I named it what I did)! Usually I'm not a huge fan of using canned foods because I love, prefer & encourage using fresh ingredients, but this soup is perfect for a long busy day because it can be ready as quickly as 10 minutes. And since it's paired with fresh garlic and fresh basil, you would never guess it wasn't all prepared from scratch. (Wow, that sounded dangerously close to something that goon from the Food Network, Sandra Lee, would say....)

*Fun variations: try throwing in some Italian sausage in there, or mini raviolis or tortellini. Or some sort of whole grain, such as barley. I also like to add sliced zucchini or green beans. Bottom line: use this recipe as your base, and then throw in whatever the heck sounds good to you. 

"Poor Woman Soup"

Ingredients:
1 can whole plum tomatoes (with basil, if possible- T.J.'s sells it)
1 can diced tomatoes
2 cans Cannellini beans (white Italian kidney beans)
1 large onion, chopped
3-4 cloves garlic, crushed
1 cup fresh basil, chopped
1 cup parmesan
3 T. olive oil
1 carton low-sodium chicken or vegetable stock (about 4 cups)
1 loaf stale bread, cubed
Salt & pepper, to taste

Directions:
In a large pot, add olive oil and saute garlic and onions. Add both cans of tomatoes and stir to combine. Add chicken (or vegetable) stock. When soup comes to a slow simmer, add cubed bread and cannellini beans and half of the chopped basil. Season to taste with salt & pepper. When serving soup, top with other half of the chopped basil, parmesan cheese and shot of olive oil on top.

Happy Soup!

Little Ears

For well over a year now, I've been diligently reminding Dan (and occasionally myself) the heightened importance of watching every single word that we utter in Ben's presence. Ben simply picks up on everything that is said these days, especially the occasional "slip-up" (gasp!) or less than flattering words that sporadically enter our vocabulary on a day-to-day basis. This self-censorship is a necessary (but painful) learned parental skill, and although Dan has certainly improved over the years when determining what is and is not appropriate to say in the presence of our 3.5 year old, there is still room for improvement. Which is precisely why I gave Dan the evil eye look of death when, one recent morning, Ben decided his new favorite thing to say to me is:

"Just don't freak out, Babe!"

This is absurd (and admittedly, kindda funny) on many levels. Not only is my son now referring to me as "babe", but now he's ordering me to not freak out sometimes several times a day. Ah, how precious. His first Father-ism. I'm bracing myself for the day he turns to me asks me to bring him a "cold one".

A Brief Moment On The Soapbox

Dan & I finally watched the recently released DVD, Food, Inc. For those of you who haven't seen it or heard of it, it's a riveting documentary where the filmmaker's hope is to "lift the veil" on our nation's food history and present day circumstances and expose the governmental and corporate control that is held on our food sources and supply. (Incidentally, it's also been nominated for the 2010 Indie Film Spirit Awards.) It's unflattering, it's scary, it's infuriating and so incredibly important for us to see.

In short, we were completely fascinated- and utterly shocked by what we learned in this film. At times it was painful to even watch. I'm not usually one to get on a bandwagon and yell my 2 cents from the rooftop, but it is not an exaggeration to say that this film has truly changed me and the way that I feel about what we eat and how it's produced. It has forced both Dan & I to take a long hard look at what we're eating, and most importantly, what we're feeding our children. It has also fostered a new hope in consumers, empowering those who care enough to turn the tables, to realize we have a voice and we can make the changes that need to happen. By no means am I trying to subtly suggest taking radical or drastic measures- as far as I know, we are not making any abrupt conversions to vegetarianism. (Because Lord knows how I love me some pork.....). But I do encourage, even beg of you to watch this film and do what you feel is best for you and your loved ones. I am so grateful we did.

If you want to take baby steps towards getting involved, here are 10 simple things you can do to change our food system. Or you can visit Take Part to learn even more.

If that hasn't lured you in yet, then here's the movie's trailer for your viewing information:

A Week In Review

We had a great Thanksgiving Break. It's holidays such as these that make me truly grateful for Dan's job as a teacher and that fortunate break schedule of his! He was off work and home to help the day before Thanksgiving, and people, let me tell you...I needed every last minute to get my act together. Because, yes. I tend to be a wait til the last minute type of gal. Dan & I initially offered to "host" this year, but then we panicked when the numbers kept increasing (and by "panic", I mean a vary grateful, happy panic- we loved having all 22 people be a part of the celebration this year!) AND, we kept thinking about all of the carpeting and lack of tile flooring in our house, and well...it made my palms sweaty just thinking about it. So, we moved the party to good ol' Mom & Dad's house and combined efforts. This proved to be a very wise decision. I also heavily delegated everything this year and my awesome family, as per usual, stepped it up and contributed above and beyond their call of duty. And look how amazing it all turned out!

The dinner table:

Here is the "funny" part of this posting where I do a very un-Nicole thing and break down how I embraced my new-found table craftiness. This year I dabbled in the world of Martha Stewart's decor ideas and although she didn't give me this exact idea (she used pears- soooooo "expected"), she was definitely the inspiration behind it. I took persimmons from the giant persimmon orchard on my parents property and used these for place card settings. Not only was this beautiful with all the orange screaming "HAPPY THANKSGIVING", but it was also free! I cut out chocolate brown leaves using card stock, punched a hold in it, and tied it with twine onto the persimmon stem. I wrote each person's name on the leaf and voila! Place cards telling everyone where to park themselves!

Honestly, figuring out who to put where at the table proved to be a more difficult task then my fancy-schmancy place card set-up.

There was lots of family lovin'. Here, Josh (a.k.a. Turkey BBQ chef) & Miss Mia snuggle in between turkey bastings.

 

The best part about Mimi & Papa's house is that the grandkids love to pile in their room/on their bed and cozy up together to watch movies. Here, 5 of the 7 grandkids were captured cuddled up, mesmerized by some Tom & Jerry, Thanksgiving style.

Geno, Isabel and Ben:

Mia and Ava:

 

Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of the whole Thanksgiving spread because I was too busy chasing my kids and my wine glass around and getting last minute details together, but I did get a nice head shot of the bird. All almost 24 pounds of her. And at this point, I know you're probably all on turkey overload and slightly tired of any turkey visuals that might remind you of the week's worth of calories you may have ingested in one sitting. (and to be honest, even I gagged a little bit when I saw this picture). But let's give credit where credit is due- and let me just say, ours truly was G-O-O-D.

Here's the proud turkey chef, my brother Josh, gloating in his BBQ turkey success. I'll admit, I wasn't too sure how it would all turn out, this whole "BBQ turkey" thing. I mean, who BBQ's their turkey? We did. It didn't cook as fast as he was hoping for, but I won't even mention the fact that we had to eat almost three hours later than we had planned. Because it was so moist and delicious and not at all smokey (as I was worried it would be) that it was well worth the wait. Well done, Josh. You've made a believer out of me.

Here's Favi, who made up half of "Team Gravy". (I was the other half but couldn't figure out how to take a picture of us working so earnestly on our roux.) Lots of whisking- and look! Her arms are whisking so fast, they're blurry!

The night ended with three varieties of pie and our first Christmas movie of the year, Elf. Nothing says Merry Christmas quite like spending Thanksgiving evening with Will Ferrell.

After all that eating together, the family decided we needed to have an active outing. So we all left the kiddos at home, headed up to Stanford for their last game of the season against Notre Dame and sat and watched a fantastic game (for the record: Stanford won). It was pretty chilly (relatively speaking, I know. Overlook that, Edith) so we bundled up and thoroughly enjoyed Mom & Dad's new wool blanket. I also thoroughly enjoyed my recession-unfriendly $5 hot dog. Somehow Dad is barely in the picture (we should fire our photographer), but everyone else made it in.

 

When the game was over, the crowd went bananas and charged the field. It was pretty great to watch. I thought about going down there myself, but then my claustrophobia set in, so I watched from the comfort of my seat.

It really was a great week. Thank you, family, for being so much fun to be with and for your expertise on having a good time. I am thankful, most of all, for you.

And in case you were secretly hoping for some recent Dewig Family pictures (minus me, as I seem to be the only one inspired to actually TAKE the pictures...), here you go: