Le Prince Part II

Sarah says:  Check out what Liam got!  No, not the wine, a desk!  Now that we are two months into 1st grade, I discovered that Liam needed a place to do homework.  We were using the kitchen table for awhile, but we didn't have a good place for "stuff".  We had a pile of important information stacked on a chair, and we had pencils, markers, glue, and paper in miscellaneous spots all over the apartment.  It made homework time an impossible time.  We spent 10 minutes just looking for the last place we left the markers.  So, when we saw this desk on clearance at IKEA, we couldn't resist. 

I know what you are thinking, it's so plain and boring... that's the point.  It's perfect.  Plain and boring = no distractions.  I'm even still a little unsure about the paper holders on top.  That gives him something else to focus on other than the assignment in front of him, but I like that it allows him to have certain tools readily available (numbers chart, current weeks spelling list, blank paper).  I got a drawer organizer, so now pencils have a spot, markers have a spot, crayons have a spot, glue has a spot, tape has a spot, erasers have a spot, rulers have a spot, index cards have a spot, staples have a spot, scissors have a spot... you get the point.  Liam now has a place, that is all his, that allows him to get focused on his work without the "excuses" of being unable to find something, and the distractions of the kitchen table (ie, Mary).  I made sure the lighting was right, and the chair was adjustable to just the right height.

$70 or so later, we have a homework spot.  It was worth every single penny.  At this point, I'm not handing out advice to ADHD parents yet, I'm mostly just soaking in anything that I can.  But, if I was forced to say something, I would say this: get a desk.  It's made a world of difference for us.  Not only does it allow us to avoid the obstacles mentioned above, but it gives Liam some independence.  He can get his own supplies, without getting frustrated when things aren't where he expects them to be, which caused us to be annoyed, which caused him to get upset.  Now, he finds things without needing help, and he knows where to put them back.  It  also gives him a space to try his homework without Jon and I starring down his back, but we are still close enough that he can call for help when he needs it.  Get a desk. 

Then, go open a bottle of wine, and sit back and watch your child grow.

Le Prince De Courthezon

Description on the bottle:  Our cellar was founded in 1924 in Courthezon, a historic town rich in medieval history that was once governed by the Princes of Orange.  Our Cotes-du-Rhone blanc is comprised of the three main white grape varieties of the region:  Grenach Blanc (65%), Clairette (25%), and Bourboulenc (10%), harvested from prime vineyards on the clay and sand soils that bring the local wines such complexity.  2012 was an excellent vintage for white Rhone and Prince de Courthezon is a wine with considerable freshness and depth of flavor.  The wine displays gentle floral notes with hints of peach and apricot on the nose and palate, underpinned by the attractive minerality, which leads to a well-rounded, complex finish.  This is the perfect wine to enjoy on its own or as a partner for fish, seafood and out local goats' cheese.

Sarah says:  There is something about wine with white grapes, I never enjoy them as much.  They have such a strong flavor that it is overwhelming.  It's almost painful to swallow.  Not because it's bad, but because you it feels like it's burning as it goes down.  It's hard to explain, but I don't love it.  I won't dread finishing the bottle, but I wouldn't seek out another bottle of this either.

Overall rating:  Thumbs down.

Sarah says:  It's three days before Halloween, and I'm dumbfounded.  What's wrong with women?  We judge other women based on their size so quickly.  I almost wish I was from the medieval times in France, being larger wasn't such a horrible thing.  Here's my observations:  a larger woman says she wants to loose weight, we encourage her.  A thinner woman says she wants to loose weight, we laugh at her.  A larger woman successfully looses weight, we encourage her to eat fattening foods again, thus gaining the weight back.  A thinner woman puts on 5 lbs, we talk about her behind her back.  We encourage others to be thin, as long as we are the thinnest.  We want to remain thin, but give off the impression that we can maintain it with little to no effort. 

It makes no sense.  Personally, I'm semi-in-shape.  Nearly 4 years, I worked really freaking hard to loose weight, and it worked.  I am by no means skinny, but I'm a lot healthier than I used to be.  I'm anticipating eating a larger than normal amount of candy this weekend (thanks to my kids hard Trick or Treating work!), so I'm trying to eat a little better than normal this week to prepare.  People look at me like I'm crazy.  Why crazy?  I don't want to gain back the 20 lbs I lost.  Eating bad this week, eating bad this weekend, I would just be setting myself up to fail, and I get the impression that is what the ladies want me to do.

I think we need to find the right balance between encouraging each other and just staying out of each others business.  Weight is personal.  You don't need to know what I'm eating or how I'm working out.  You don't need to know my size or that my pants are feeling tighter this week.  It's my body, stop staring at it.  Feel free to tell me I look good, but only if it's sincere.  I'm pretty sure a day doesn't go by where the word calories or fat doesn't pop into my mind.  We women should be trying to keep those words out of our vocabulary, but the pressure to be thin makes that impossible.

In the midst of candy bowls, caramel apples, pies, & lattes, I don't know what your staying healthy strategy is, but mine is to block out the rest of the world and just focus on me.  Salad & wine today, kit kat & wine tomorrow!

Ascencion Part II

Sarah says:  This wine is way better the second time around. Maybe it's because as a part of the wine club, I've been exposing myself to more reds, and they are growing on me.  Is it my favorite wine, no,  But is it totally drinkable, yup!  Speaking of the wine club, I have 5 bottles left, and my next shipment comes in two weeks.  Eeekkk!  I'm not ready.  My original plan was one bottle a week.  A couple weeks out of town, and 3 bonus bottles on my first shipment, means I'm totally behind.  I have some catching up to do.  Halloween is good for wine drinking, right?

The flowers in the background are from Jon for Sweetest Day, which was sweet, but unexpected.  As a general rule, Jon and I don't celebrate Sweetest Day.  During the first several years of our relationship, we got in pretty big fights on every "romantic" holiday, and it ruined our plans every time.  There was the time that Jon got me a stuffed animal pig because I thought it was cute, seriously Jon... a pig?  (Word of advice to guys, don't every buy a girl a pig, never never never)  Then there was the time that Jon took me on a special date.... to the freaking movie theater that we went to every single week.  Eventually, we stopped recognizing them as special days, and the fights stopped too!

Although, not a sweetest day plan, we attempted an impromptu date night on Friday.  We even got a last minute babysitter, who offered a sleepover with no strings attached (THANKS ANNE!!!).  I've said it before, and I'll say it again, I love my kids, but I love my time without them too.  I wasn't about to turn this down, so we packed the kids up and sent them off.  This all started because Jon really wanted to go to the movies.  I know what you all think - Jon works at the theater, don't we see movies all the time?  The answer is no.  We see every cartoon movie that comes out, but adult movies...  not so much.  7 years ago, sure, we saw a movie every weekend.  That's one of those things that goes out the window once you have kids.  Not that we are complaining one bit, normally we're fine with it, we rent movies in the evenings instead of going out.  But this particular night, we had the urge to see a movie, in a theater, without kids reaching for our popcorn or back washing in our pop, without some blue drawing as the main character.

So, there we are, kid free, full from hummus and chicken shawarma (something the kids would balk at), and we're scanning the movie listings.  Jon wanted to see Carrie or Escape Plan.  I wanted to see Gravity or Captain Phillips.  There is no compromise (for the record, I was way more willing to see Jon's movies than he was mine), but it just wasn't happening.  So instead, we went home and went to bed.  Which was equally as awesome.  Sleep is also something that has declined since having kids.

But that got me wondering, would it have been so awful if we each went and saw our own movie?  

I'm very torn about this.  Even though we see considerably more of each other than we did a year ago, Jon and I still don't get a lot of together time.  Between work, kids, church & school, there is always something going on.  So, since we had this evening, it would have felt "wrong" to split up.  But, seeing a movie isn't exactly quality time.  Sitting quietly together, or sitting quietly apart, same result, right?  But then we'd be missing out on the opportunity to have quality conversation afterwards about what we both just saw.  But, we could argue that we could still chat, each about our respective movies, but would it not be as meaningful?

Several years ago the decision would have been easy, Jon picks this week, I pick next week.  But, since this was a now or never type of situation, there is no next week to even it up.  Apparently we choose never.  We had the attitude that if I can't see the movie I want, no one is seeing a movie.  Kind of like my kids would.  And it's not like we went and did something else fun together, we literately ceased conversation, and slept.  See, going out on sweetest day never works for us!

What would you have done?

DeLoach Chardonnay

Description on the bottle:  We take great pride in producing distinctive wines that highlight the unique nuances of each appellation, while at the same time nourishing the land with eco-friendly viticulture and minimally intrusive Burgundian wine-making.  Floral and citrus aromas fill the glass, with flavors of grapefruit, whit peach, melon and spice.  This Chardonnay has good structure and balance, with wonderful length and complexity.

Sarah says:  I have no idea what the first sentence on the bottle means, but I think I like it.  I also think I like this wine, but I'm leery.  Generally, once the word spice is introduced, I run away screaming.  I'm ok with it for the moment, but I haven't had much to eat, and I fear that if I tried to pair it with food, I'd have a different opinion.  For those curious, the wine notes indicates it best with a poultry based meal.  This chardonnay is quite flavorful, and I would think any food would mute that flavor.  I say keep it simple and drink it alone after your kids go to bed.  Keep food away from it.

Overall rating:  Thumbs mid-way up.

Sarah says:  As I pondered a topic tonight, I found myself says to myself "well, I used to use the wine name as a topic starter, but now that I'm in the wine club, the names aren't very interesting.  How can I incorporate the name DeLoach in my thoughts?"  Throughout this thought, I realized that I do a lot of looking back on my life.  Maybe it's the auditor in me where we'd spend weeks, months if you include the planning time (yup, we'd plan our look backwards), looking at what happened over the past year at a client, then we'd spend just a couple of hours asking about what's coming up for the next year.  Now that I'm at the Township, the mentality is the opposite, instead of looking at what happened, we are looking at what is going to happen (or that is what we are supposed to be looking at, I'm obviously still struggling to get on board with that).  We're working on the 2015 budget.  What?!  I'm still in 2013 mode, and what about 2014?  We've got time, why do we need to look so far forward?  (says the stubborn, doesn't want to change her ways, me).  As I sit in my office and pout, I realized that I'm constantly looking backwards. I'm re-evaluating how things have turned out, re-asking what would have happened if only if..., did it go the way I expected, why or why not.  It's time to start looking forward.  It's like Rafiki from "The Lion King" says "It doesn't matter, it's in the past".  No more dwelling over Liam's kindergarten experience - we're on to 1st grade now, it's bigger and better.  No more pondering about the Southfield house and what we could of, should of done different... it's in the past.  No more being mad about the ice cream that I ate that didn't need, time to focus on the healthy eating that will take place going forward. 

That's not to say you can't remember previous experience and learn from them, I'm just saying I won't be stewing over them anymore.  I read an inspirational saying once, and I can't find the exact words (google let me down!), but the idea had something to do with our life's being like a book.  We have to constantly move forward, closing one chapter and starting a new one.  You can remember the previous chapters, but the focus is on the current one, not the past.

How will this better me?  Well, it will free up a lot of time in my mind.  Instead of pondering what could be different in my life if previous things had gone differently, I'll be thinking about my future and how exciting that it can be!  And when things don't go as planned, I'll just think forward and come up with a new future.  The possibilities are endless with forward thinking.  Backwards thinking just gets you stuck in a rut and you feel out of options.  Forward thinking allows for mistakes, but ends positively anyways.  I'm totally looking forward to it.

Tonight I drink to moving forward!

What have you been looking backwards at?  Is it time to head in a different direction?

Tenuta Di Somaro

Description on the bottle:  Despite Italy's long and illustrious wine history, there are still small vineyard plots that have been lost or forgotten that the more intrepid of wine enthusiasts (such as myself) can only wish to discover.  So, when I stumbled upon a small parcel of gnarled old bush vines deep in the Puglian countryside, in an area better known for olives than vines, I was eager to track down the owner and persuade him to allow me to coax the vines back into production.  I did and we christened the vineyard "Somaro" after the local breed of donkey which originally worked the land.  This is a sumptuous blend of two of Southern Italy's best loved grapes: Aglianico, which provides depth and a mineral quality to the wine, and Primitivo, which gives ripe blackberry notes of vanilla and leather from six months ageing in small oak barrels.  This complex wine is the perfect accompaniment to roast beef, spicy pasta dishes and full-flavored cheeses.  Mario Ercolino, Winemaker

 

Sarah says:  All this time I've been drinking American wine, Italy is where the good things are.  This red wine is delicious.  I did enjoy it with spicy pasta (Hamburger with red pepper counts, right?) and then I enjoyed some more after dinner, while relaxing with my hubby.  I am thankful to my wine club for this bottle, I never would have tried it if it wasn't for them!  This is absolutely something that I would drink again, and it's perfect for sharing at a party.  As a side note, I also love the story on the bottle, who doesn't love someone who saves a dying vine and turns it into something great?!

 

Overall rating:  Thumbs up

 

Sarah says:  Where have I been?!  It's been over a month since my last post.  I wish I had some great stories about what I've been up to over the past month, but I do not.  I've simply been living. 

 

We're 6 weeks into 1st grade, and it's pretty demanding.  I'm suddenly terrified for middle and high school.  Everyday we have math and reading homework, and we have a spelling test every Friday to study for.  While this homework is fairly small, it takes us hours.  Our teacher has said she can adjust the work for Liam if we need to, but I'm not ready for that.  For now, I want her and Liam to know that I expect him to do the same work as everyone else.  We're not going to be the people that use ADHD to get out of certain things.  When Liam doesn't finish is work in class because he's distracted, she sends it home and we finish it here.  Liam's teacher is so freaking wonderful though, she is the best thing to happen to Liam in awhile. She's so encouraging and uplifting, she finds his strengths and praises them (unlike some other teachers I know that only point out the things that he did wrong).  I couldn't ask for a better teacher.

 

We're also 5 weeks into preschool.  Mary is the complete opposite of Liam (not that either way is good or bad, they are just different!).  Where Liam needs and wants a lot of help, Mary wants none of it.  She wants nothing more than to be 100% independent.  She has the attitude that she can and will do anything that she wants.  While I totally admire this spirit, and I don't want to "burn out her light", it can be incredibly frustrating when I actually need her to do something specific... like get dressed.  I've spent a lot of time over the past month trying to convince Mary to wear reasonable clothes.

 

I've also spent a lot of time not at home this past month.  I went to California with my sister and Dad to watch my beautiful cousin, Tish, get married (congrats lady!  It was awesome!). 

 

toes in the sand

Tish is married!

Speaking of cousins, I also got together with all of my cousins on my Mom's side of the family, and all of our significant others.  This is quite the accomplishment!  We talk about getting together, but this is the first time it has happened, and we all actually made it!  And to top it off, our grandparents (Garby and Pa!) made a surprise visit!  I got to spent an evening talking, laughing, drinking, and catching up with my family.  Loved it.

cousins!

 

I also spent a weekend in Holland celebrating my 8 year wedding anniversary with the hubs.  Side note:  We also ran a 5K at a winery while on this trip - which was awesome and hard!  The run was uphill, through wet grass, through skinny vines, through the woods, not an easy run.  The only thing that kept me going was the wine at the end (and the carefully placed signs that said "Don't whine now, wine later!" 

 

Winery 5k with Jon and Aunt Terry!

Here's something I learned over the course of these trips, since none of them included kids, closing your eyes is a luxury that I never appreciated in my life pre-kid.  Side note:  I don't get people who never leave their kids!  I love mine!  Watching them learn and grow through school this past month is awesome.  Talking with them is hilarious.  Playing games with them is totally freeing.  But, holy cow, I love getting away.  Both the CA and Holland trips included pool/hot tub time, both trips I found myself marveling in the fact that I could close my eyes and not worry about someone drowning.  Closing your eyes around water is totally relaxing, and I soaked up every minute of it! 

 

So, while I haven't been doing anything crazy and awesome this month, I've still been a mom, a wife, a sister, a daughter, a cousin, and that's crazy awesome enough for me.

 

What have you been up to?