Show someone you care!

Was your house been bombarded by red and pink like mine last week? Are your kids bouncing off the walls from the sugared hearts and sticky suckers they received in their Valentine exchanges at school? Did you spend hours creating the perfect Valentine for them to give or the perfect "Mailbox" to house all of their sweets? 

It is a fun holiday, and with the winter that we have endured it has certainly helped add some color and fun into our rather cold, white world! My kids were so excited for all of their parties at school, and to give their teachers the special treats they prepared, or rather their mother, prepared! 

Some consider it a Hallmark holiday. I say bah humbug to that! What better excuse do you need to send a fun card to your favorite aunt or special grandparents? My kids were racing to the mailbox all week to see their cards come with only their name on it! Brighten up your niece or nephew and send them a giant card like my sister did! Seeing the excitement that a gesture like this brings is worth it! And I haven't even mentioned the opportunity to indulge a bit in some chocolate, perfect! So forget your bah humbugs and remember to celebrate those you love. It doesn't take much to show that you care, and bringing a smile to someone is well worth it, on Valentine's Day and every day!

Healthier versions of the old 'tried and true'

With Thanksgiving now just a day away, I feel like I've been fighting cravings for the usual comforting, though calorie-laden meal for more than a week. I believe there are just some things worth sacrificing the calorie count for, like homemade dressing or pumpkin pie. But these happen to be my favorites, and the few times a year I eat them, it's worth it! Now we don't need to go up a pant size every holiday just to get wonderful, flavorful food that still tastes like mom's.

I've been perusing the web for some healthier, skinnier versions of the old tried and true, and I think I've managed to come up with a few winners that may make it onto our dinner table, and maybe yours too! One idea that that sounds like a no-brainer is the Slow Cooker Savory Sweet Potatoes. Not only can you make these ahead of time, they are warm and ready in the crockpot without any of the fuss. 

Slow Cooker Savory Sweet Potatoes

• 1/4 cup Extra Virgin Olive oil
• 2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and diced into 1" cubes
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup sucanat or coconut palm sugar (found in the organic section of most grocery stores) if cannot find, substitute with honey
• 1/8 tsp red pepper flakes
• 1/2 tsp curry powder
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon

Add olive oil to slow cooker and preheat to high while preparing potatoes and garlic. Add potatoes and all remaining ingredients to cooker. Cover and cook on high 2-3 hrs or low 4-5 hrs.
skinnyms.com

Garlic Cauliflower Mashed Potatoes

Makes 4-6 servings

• 1 head of cauliflower
• 3 cups water
• 4 large garlic cloves, peeled
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 Tbsp butter
• Milk (if needed)
• Salt and Pepper

1. Cut the cauliflower into florets and place in the slow cooker.
2. Add in the water, garlic cloves, salt and bay leaf.
3. Cover and cook on HIGH for 2-3 hours or on LOW for 4-6 hours.
4. Remove the garlic cloves and bay leaf. Drain the water.
5. Add in the butter and let it melt.
6. Use a potato masher to mash the cauliflower or if you want to use an immersion blender to make it more creamy you can do that. If it needs milk add it in a tablespoon at a time.
7. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve with chives or green onions.

Review:
I halved this recipe and actually ate the entire thing by myself. What a great way to eat vegetables! Obviously it has a different taste than mashed potatoes but if you like the creamy texture of potatoes this might be a good way to save some calories. 3 1/2 stars.

There are so many ways to keep our calories in check during the holidays. However you choose to celebrate, I hope you enjoy the day to it's fullest, giving thanks, I know I sure will!

Find more great recipe ideas at skinnyms.com.

ME. In a nutshell.

I wake up, it's 6:15 am, I am in this moment, a wife. We say our good mornings a quick smooch, he jumps in the shower. It's 6:32, I am me, alone for a few quiet moments of solitude.

It is 6:34, my youngest child, accompanied by her ever faithful, furry, four-legged brother, climbs/jumps into bed. I am a mother, listening to the tales of my 3-year-old's dreams, snuggling up to her warm, pj-clad body.

Out to the kitchen, rousing the other two children, on full force mommy duty.

Husband emerges, we grab sips of coffee in between rushing kids out the door to school, he to work. Roles merge, I am chaos director, wife, mom, short-order cook, dog walker.

Kids arrive at school, all but one still home with me.

Time is 8:12, off to the gym. Drop remaining child in child watch.

8:18: Alone, I am gym-rat extraordinaire. Work up sweat, chat with a few fellow friends, enjoy a bit of me time. I am me. Alone for awhile.

10:20: Pick up child, resume mommy duty.

Head to grocery store - grab necessities, plan dinner in my head, buy food.

11:10: Pickup child number two, head home. Prepare lunch for kids two and three. Mommy in full force. Play with girls, dog, clean up lunch, laundry.

1:12: Nap number three, bit of TV for number two.

1:32: Jump in shower - ahhh- me time for a few blissful minutes.

3:02: Rouse youngest from nap, load up car with girls and dog, pickup child number one. Listen to son tell about his day, return home, make snack. Check email, referee kids, homework, laundry.

4:46: Prepare dinner, chef hat officially on!

5:36: Set table, gather kids.

5:42: Greet husband- roles merge again. I am wife/mother/cook.

6:45: Prepare for bedtime routine- full mommy mode--baths given, books red, bed.

7:22: First tucked in. Only two trips back to get her settled.

7:34: Second child in bed. First trip a success.

7:46: Sit down with husband and kid number one, I am mommy/wife.

8:08: Last child down for the night.

8:12: Ahhh--wife mode--chat with husband, make tea and watch a bit of television.

9:36: Let fur-baby out (mommy mode still on!).

9:48 Head to bedroom--grab book of the moment--ahh a bit of me time!

10:27: Husband snuggles in--out for the night.

10:34: Kick dog off the bed, NOW, out for the night, ALL ME TIME!

Book club is about more than reading books!

Well, our book club has just celebrated it's one-year anniversary. 

We've read some wonderful, must-read books like The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom. They inspired us and ignited some fantastic, lively conversation. We've also read some real duds, like the second book by Anthony Bourdain called Medium Raw. Also a bomb for our group was How to Be a Woman by Caitlin Moran, who was claimed to be the British Tina Fey, a claim I wholeheartedly disagree with! However, as much as we did not enjoy the book itself, the bad reads brought about some great conversation, specifically related to women and women's rights, something us six ladies could relate to!

Our latest read, Wild by Cheryl Strayed, was great for most of us. It is a true story about a woman who loses her mother to cancer, how her world starts to fall apart, so she decides to hike the Pacific Coast Trail, the PCT, alone. Two of my fellow book club members have lost parents to cancer. They had a much harder time getting through the book and could very closely relate to the experience the author wrote about. We had such a good talk, that we may start our next get together still discussing this book! It's been fun to see how each of us interprets each of the reads in our own way. Like for the book Wild, some of us thought of it as a foolish adventure, and others saw it as a cathartic healing journey. It was probably a bit of both, but either way it's worth the read!

We've chosen My Name is Memory, by Ann Brashares, for our next meeting, and after that it's onto Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov. We sometimes choose books with strong feminine characters, and sometimes it's just the opposite. Whether a great page-turning novel, or a dud of a book, I always enjoy the time we spend together. Our discussions aren't always about the books we've read, they are more importantly about each other and what's been happening in each of our lives. This has proved very cathartic, and worth every dull page I may have had to read to get there.

Book club favorites

Wet! Wet! And more wet!

If I had to pick a theme for my life from the past week I think I'd keep it simple and call it "WET."

From my constantly wet, dirty floors, to the damp snow pants, hats, mittens, etc.

We get the swim stuff from swimming lessons and swim team, to the constant sneezing happening with all three kids. Then there is the giant dog who resembles a 100-pound woolly mammoth with snowballs instead of paws. He likes to come in from outside and rub all the snow off onto the furniture, so not only are the floors wet, so is the sofa and all of the chairs too!

Wet.

My vehicle is caked in yuck, both inside and out. I'm terrified to clean it, what's the point? I'd just have to wash and repeat again tomorrow! So to combat this, I've taken to looking the other way at my floors, until the end of the day when I can stand it no longer and Swiffer them until they gleam! The sneezing will eventually run its course, and except to totally shave my dog, he's going to continue to enjoy the snow and bring it in for all of us to enjoy too, in one form or another. And I say, "Van Schmann," it looks like everyone else's car right now anyway! That's why they call it spring cleaning right?

So I'll just turn on the fireplace and curl up with a hot cup of something, try to find a relatively dry spot on the couch, and roll with these wet winter punches.

Thoughts on warm-weather meals?

It's hard to drum up an appetite with such oppressive heat day after day. Trying to please everyone in my household is challenge enough.

Any thoughts on good warm-weather meals to please even the fussiest eater?

Tonight we will be having fresh corn on the cob and BLT sandwiches. Some will opt for only a B some will be BL, some might just do plain toast! I need to make a visit to the farmer's market and look for inspiration this weekend. My husband makes fun of me for buying so much fresh produce, but it's available for such a short time and it just doesn't get any better than local, fresh ingredients!

Let me know what inspires you on these hot summer days.

Fun on the 4th

Fun is celebrating the fourth of July with a great group of people and watching your kids have the time of their lives playing with new friends.

Fun is watching your 4-year-old's face light up while twirling a sparkler running around as carefree as ever. Fun is letting your 7-year-old eat only dessert for dinner.

Fun is watching their expressions as they take in the fireworks well past their bedtime!

Fun is tucking your children in at night and smelling their baby skin as it smells like summer, sunscreen, heat, and bug spray.

Agony is the morning after letting your kids stay up well past their bedtimes and eating only dessert for dinner.

Finding summertime balance

Well it's official, I think I should become a taxi driver. I have done more running around with my kids and their summer schedule this second week of break than ever! I am trying to find a happy balance between structured activity and plain 'ol summertime fun.

Then to top it off is the struggle to fit in some "me" time as well! We went to basketball camp, the Y, a reading tutor, a swim meet and a playdate all on a Tuesday! That was after we skipped tennis and swimming lessons!! I tried not to over schedule this summer but I don't think I have succeeded. I need to remember that kids are happy just being kids.

The highlight of our week was when they successfully managed to retrieve a rock stuck in a sewer grate. They got to enlist the help of the older, cooler neighbor kids and were beyond excited to show me their rescued rock! Honestly, there is so much to say for doing nothing! I'm off to set up the sprinkler now…