This New House

I haven't been posting here on the blog as much as I would like. Sure I have free time while Val naps, or the couple hours a week I have my sitter, but those are now all filled up with my (I should say "our") latest project - we are building a house.

We are building the house where we will live for the next 30 years of our lives. The house in which our kids will grow up, and have sleepovers and celebrate birthdays. The house in which we will throw parties and have family over on holidays. The house where our girls will invite friends over to watch movies in the basement...possibly boys...that they might like...who might like them...who

M standing next to our foundation!

might try to smooch my babies (or vice versa if they are my girls - ha)...so we obviously don't want an enclosed television area in the basement right? Because we don't want our kids to feel comfortable making out with other kids in the basement, RIGHT?

These are the types of things we are thinking about as we build this house. It is amazing what comes into your head when you are trying to figure out floor plans and paint colors and kitchen countertops. I didn't think for a second about not putting a door on a theater room in the basement, but my husband brought up the making out thing and said he is going to make it as hard as possible for our girls to even think about bringing someone down there to make out with. HA! The things that go through a dad's head.

We decided to make a bigger closet in the guest room in case one day we have one or more parents that might need to live with us. We have already discussed the likelihood of the girls changing bedrooms when they get older (as one bedroom of theirs is bigger than the other and someone might want to move to the guest room). Among many other possible future happenings!

We are only in the framing portion of the build and this whole process is already taken over my life. Let me just say that, I am loving every second of this madness, but it is madness and we are still only 5% of the way done. I have spent most of my free time visiting tile stores, looking at granite and marble slabs, meeting with kitchen cabinet people, meeting with our contractor, so everything else has kind of fallen by the wayside.

If I am at home and have free time I can be found at my computer on Pinterest. What would I do without Pinterest? What did people do before Pinterest? Yes, I know - looked through magazines and cut things out. I will full admit that I am addicted. I check to see if there are any white kitchen cabinet photos that I haven't seen basically 2-3 times an hour. I have about 350+ pinned, but there are surely more out there, so I need to constantly check, right? Call me crazy (because that is what I have become).

I am at the point that the design of the house is all I think about - like it keeps me up at night. I know that if I get up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night there is no way I am falling back asleep for at least 45 minutes because my mental house folders are turned on and I start thinking about everything from door knobs to toilet placement.

I have also become anally organized with this project. I have fancy file folders for different rooms, print outs of my ideas with color coded notes written on them, as well as a plethora of color coordinated paper and binder clips that I carry around with me. I am not organized in any other aspect of my life in half this much!

This is the house in which we will live out our Wonder Years as a family - where most of our memories will be made, so I want it to be as perfect as can be. So yes, call me insane for losing sleep over the placement of the kitchen stove, but wherever it goes, I will have to live with it for the majority of my adult life! These are big decisions people.

And big decisions I am so excited to make. We are so lucky to be able to be building our dream house at our age, this I know. Little did I know how much time it would take out of our lives, and how other things would suffer in the process, like the blog and my sleep.

I wasn't sure I would even share this whole process with you all, but I have made the choice to talk about the house build on the blog, as it is such a big part of my life right now. I will continue to tell the silly and hilarious stories of our every day lives with the girls, of course, but get ready to help me make some design decisions (because right now it is just me doing it as Hubs couldn't care less what our kitchen looked like!)

Ok - spent way too much time away from Pinterest - must go check for more kitchen cabinet ideas!!! I wish I could get paid to pin things!

Pick Parlee Farms

It's time for pick-your-own season.  The season that starts with robust, red strawberries that smell of the sun and end with pumpkins waiting patiently for a face.  This is an unabashed promotion of my favorite place, which I'm almost loathe to tell you about, as I don't want to spoil the uncrowded, not-in-Boston-anymore feel.

Bypass the farms close to the city and those that (gasp) make you pay to enter.  Go straight up to Parlee Farms in Tyngsborough.  It may take you a while, but it's well worth it.  Everything I pick there tastes better, not just better than the grocery, but better than every other pick-your-own place.  On Friday, my kids and I sat amongst the long-rows of knee-high plants and had a hard time choosing which berries we would pick.  Every one was a perfect, magazine-style berry, there are not enough metaphors to describe this fruit.  Evenly red, perfectly shaped, lovely green top.  But they tasted every better - warm and luscious.  My kids had berry-stained fingers and chins all day. 

In a few weeks, the blueberries will be ready.  The last time I went, people left the fields with buckets full of the nickel-sized fruit.  So juicy and sweet and so easy for little hands to pick.  Apple season is as picture-book as you can imagine with hay rides and hay mazes and long lines of pumpkins. 

There is also a small animal petting area to keep your kids busy - baby goats, bunnies, and chickens.  Bring some change for the feeding machines. 

In addition to the fruit, I'd drive all the way up Route 3 for the donuts.  Depending on what they're picking, the donut changes.  So right now, it's strawberry donuts.  Little golf-ball sized bites of melt-in-your mouth pleasure.  The batter is mixed with pureed strawberries and then the cooked nuggets are rolled in sugar.  Hot off the old-style, automated cooker (fun for kids to watch), these are probably one of the five best things I've ever tasted...and I eat a lot!  Although the strawberry shortcake from the farmstand is also a can't miss.  They use their own strawberries, a good biscuit, and top it with ice cream and whipped cream.  It's like everything you'd expect from a fresh, farm dessert.

Before you head to the farm, and you really must, check the site or their Facebook page for a status of the picking conditions.  They're good about preventing over-picking, which means sometimes the farm closes early.  It's best to go early in the morning when the fruit is still plentiful and before it gets too hot.  Strawberry season is winding down, so if you miss it, put blueberry season on your calendar.  I hope it becomes "the" place to pick for your family.

The Chronic-What?-cles of Ikea

Please tell me you all get the reference to the brilliant SNL Digital Short Lazy Sunday? If not, click and watch immediately. 

So yesterday was the third day in a row of heavy downpours in the Boston area. I was desperate to get out of the house, so I strapped M into our ark and we paddled down route 24 to Ikea. The parking lot was jammed already at 11, which was surprising as kids are back in school and it is usually pretty calm during the week. Apparently every other stay at home mom and nanny in Souther New England had the same idea...

The kiddie area at the cafeteria was packed with toddlers, whose mothers sat around at the outer counters. There was one of those mother-types that I can't stand that barks at her kids every second she can "William, eat your food. William, I better see a meatball in your mouth right now. William, I told you to eat. William use your fork. Jennifer, tell your brother to eat. Jennifer, hands to yourself. Jennifer, I said hands to yourself. Jennifer are you listening to me? Jennifer! William!"

AHHHHH!!! I wanted to scream at her "WOMAN get off your ass and go over to your kids instead of yelling all the way across the room at them. It is obvious to everyone around you it isn't working. Oh and SHUT UP."

Anyhoo - we then went and explored the children's area of the showroom. Now I have been to Ikea 100 times since it has opened, but this was the first time that M actually took advantage of the experience. She was running from bed to bed, and I would put her on them and she would say "So comfy. Night Night Mama." And then she would go in all the little room set ups, "so cute Mama! So pretty!"

She has also recently started showing a big interest in any kid that she comes in contact with. She says hi to them, and just stares, and wants to do whatever they are doing. Since there were so many kids there she was getting a huge kick out of just watching them run around, sliding down this toy slide that was set up, sitting at the kiddie tables with them. It was the best time she has had in a while.

Then of course our great trip ended in a meltdown where I had to abandon a cart full of goodies and run for the exit. It wasn't a tantrum, as she just started crying and was burrowing her face in my shoulder and hugging me. I have no idea if something spooked her, or if she was just exhausted, or not happy with the glasses and dishes I was about to purchase, but she did not want any part of being there.

So we didn't get to experience the actual play area, but we did have meatballs for lunch, so my day was made! Next time you are looking for something fun to do with the kids indoors, head to Ikea for some Guud Times.

Tour de Castle Island

First I want to apologize to readers for the lack of new posts. All of us Mamas have been busy with vacations the last few weeks, so the posts have been few and far between. I have about 6 in the works so stay tuned for some good stuff!

Cat's out of the bag - now you know what M & I look like!
Yes, I added the skirt and the drag make-up to this photo. 

About two months ago my parents gave me a bike. It had been sitting in their garage for about 10 years, unused. They asked if I wanted it - free bike? Of course! Do I ride bikes? I seriously can't remember the last time I rode a bike that wasn't a stationary bike at the gym. They had it refurbished (new chains, new seat with added padding for my giant arse, etc.) and delivered it to my house. And in my garage it has sat since.

I was obviously not going to ride this bike by myself. There was going to be a small child on the back of it when it was in motion, and to make that happen without serious injury I had a lot of gear to purchase. I did some research online and discovered that to gear-up to ride bikes is not cheap. We needed helmets, a toddler seat, someone to install that toddler seat, and a mechanism to mount the bike on the outside of my car, whether it be the trunk or roof of our SUV...all adding up to many hundreds of dollars, so I put off these purchases for a couple months. Then I discovered that a dear friend of mine had a bike too, and she had been dying to ride it with her toddler in tow. I had a biking buddy, therefore I had some motivation.

Our first purchase was the helmets. You would think a kid that has worn a helmet half her life wouldn't mind trying on helmets. Fast forward to me holding her in my arms, pinning her arms down, as the poor guy at LL Bean is trying to fit her for a helmet as she screams her head off. Helmets: check!

Then I went to 5 different bike and sporting goods stores to find a bike seat for M. Finally decided to go to a small local bike shop around the corner (Adi's Bikes on Grove Street) and ordered it special from him. He was the only person not charging me for installation (what up Adi!) and I like to throw small businesses a bone. Two days later we were with the Rolls Royce of bike seats attached to my rusting mountain bike.

Instead of spending $400-$500 to get a hitch on my car (cannot use the strap holder thing with our car) and then a hitch trailer jobby, I just detach the toddler seat shove the bike into our Highlander. We were ready for action!

And today we went for our first adventure. I don't think I have been so nervous for something since my last dance performance in 2004. I should have test drove the bike by myself at some point, but I didn't think to do that of course. We met Mama L and her son X at Castle Island in South Boston (where I used to walk my dog every morning for 5 years), strapped our kids in place, took a few deep breaths and off we went. And like they say, it is just like riding a bike!!

After a few hundred feet we were in our groove, and the kids were loving it. To my great surprise M didn't try to take off her helmet! She was so excited to be going fast and seeing doggies and "burdies" and trees, and having even more fun kicking my bum. And 10 minutes later she was fast asleep, and I was finally relaxed - although my bum felt like I had been riding a horse for hours already!

I called Dada J (who was cool as a cucumber this morning when I left him off at the train) on the car ride home and the conversation went something like this:

Mama: Mission Accomplished!
Dada: Is everyone ok? No one got hurt??
Mama: Of course we are ok! We had so much fun! M loved it!
Dada: Do you realize how nervous I have been?
Mama: What? Why?
Dada: Because you have fallen with her in your arms when you were walking, and ended up in the hospital! And you were on bikes, going fast, by the water...

So now I am looking forward to all of our future biking adventures around Boston! Does anyone have any suggestions about where to go? Next stop France! Watch out Lance...