Look Up

Well from the looks of my blog reader, aside from Ohdeedoh and the forever hard-working Centsational Girl and Emily, ya'll are taking a vacation this week.  That's okay, I'll forgive you.  I too am on vacation and will be using this week to get a couple of much needed projects done around the house. I only have a couple of goals and I think they're rather simple and achievable.  What do you think?

1. Clean out the kid's closets and donate toys to Goodwill
2. Clean out my own closet and donate old work clothes to our local woman's shelter
3. Get a manicure
4. Cook every night (this one's the easiest I think)

I'm saying goodbye to my girls Giada and Ina for a while and saying hello to Bob.  Bob Greene that is and his Best Life Cookbook.  It's my go-to cookbook for relatively easy and very healthy recipes that have loads of taste and flavor.  Last night I made Tilapia with a carrot ginger puree and a side of Israeli couscous.  Have you ever tried Israeli couscous?  They sell it at Trader Joe's and it is much loftier and moister than traditional couscous.  I added some pine nuts, parsley and raisins to mine last night and it was dee-lish!  The rest of the week's menu looks like this:

• Chicken Poached in White Wine with Tomatoes
• Lamb Chops with Balsamic Roasted Garlic Puree
• Flank Steak with Potatoes and Garlic
• Roasted Chicken Breasts with Herbs on Collared Greens

The only night I will not be cooking is on NYE.  We're going out to an early bird special dinner with some friends and will be home by 9 PM to ring in the east coast New Year with our kiddos.  Are you all cooking something special this week to ring in the New Year?  Or are you trying to get back to somewhat healthy cooking?  If you're whipping up something that doesn't involve 2 sticks of butter and a pound of cheese, please share!  I always like trying new healthy recipes.

On another note, I'm still debating whether to wait until after New Years to take down all our Christmas decorations, as is our usual tradition.  The live garland isn't looking so lively these days and quite frankly it's becoming a bit of a fire hazard so we might be breaking tradition this year.  Do you guys take down decorations the day after Christmas or wait until New Years?

I stumbled upon this blog entry by Roger Ebert and it has got  me thinking so much.  The very last video in the entry How to Be Alone is very interesting to watch...Thoughts?

The last thing I wanted to share with you all is this lovely tree we collected berries from yesterday on our walk.

 It's about 5 houses down from ours and I had never noticed it before.  It just took me slowing down a bit to take the time to look up.  The kids had a ball just collecting the berries that fell on the ground, and they look so pretty settled in a little vase back at home.

Yesterday was a truly lovely day...one of those simple days that as a mom you'll look back on and think "that was a great parenting day".  No yelling, no repeating directions, no fighting.  Just simple, relaxing fun.  Art inadvertently took my car keys to work yesterday and we had to in turn reschedule a playdate.  It turned out to be the best gift he could have given me, because we ended up having hours to ourselves to take our time at things.  He finally did bring me back my keys, and we made it out to do our errands, mainly the bank and grocery shopping.  Do you know how much more enjoyable Costco is when you can take your time to wait for the samples?  My kids love the Costco samples.  Anyhow, it was a great day and a nice way to set the tone for this week at home.

Now I'm off to an eye doctor's appointment!  I hope you all are having a wonderful start to your week too!