WFD? WTF?

Women on my baby board occasionally begin threads titled "WFD." It took me forever to figure out what the heck WFD stood for. Who Farts Daily maybe? Well, who doesn't? Who F***ed Dave? Who's Dave?!

As it turned out, WFD? is an abbreviation for What's For Dinner? In the world of mommy blogging, dinner planning is a hot topic. Organized ladies love planning out aweekly menu...and other ladies love looking at these menus.

Usually, when I see these weekly menus, I'm envious of how with-it these women are. This week, I actually get to join in! In fact, I'm so with it, I'm posting MY menu plan on SUNDAY - a whole day BEFORE orgjunkie's "Menu Plan Mondays." On top of being so awesome, I'm also trying to plan healthier, more well-rounded meals...hence, the healthy sampling of Gina's Weight Watchers Recipes.

That's right, ladies - organized AND healthy. Eat my powdered sugar. ;)

Monday: Santa Fe Chicken, Rice, Salad
Tuesday: Warm-Ups since Christian works late
Wednesday: Homemade Manicotti, Salad, Rolls
Thursday: Italian Stuffed Artichokes, Sweet Potato Fries
Friday: Pizza
Saturday: Chicken Quesadillas, Corn
Sunday: Broiled Tilapia Parmesan, Italian Vegetables, Rolls

Jericho Needed "The Preacher"

I am happy to live in "the bushes" (thank you for that phrase, Buba Misawa) for many reasons. One of those reasons is the amazing craftsmanship readily available for a reasonable price. Our dining room table and TV stand came from Amos, a Mennonite, and our dining room benches came from Eli, an Amish guy. They're well-built, beautiful, and great conversation starters.

Our recent showcase of local talent is our dining room ceiling. Thanks to a leaky upstairs shower and the resulting hole cut up through the first-floor ceiling, we had a rectangular peephole to repair. Once the hole was patched, The Preacher swirled a design into the mud. Yes, I know him only as The Preacher. Both our plumber and our drywall guy - two separate men - referred him to us by this name. He's tall and lanky with an authoritative voice; helpful, I'm sure, if he really is or was a preacher. Who knows? I just know he works a mean design into some drywall mud.

And because I'm obligated as a proud mom to take every chance I get, please take a minute and vote for Silas in My Baby's the Cutest Contest. He could win a $200 savings bond, which will help defray the cost for taking one of Dr. Misawa's classes. Or at least the cost of the books.

The Apostle of the Alleghenies

Christian and I just came home from an amazing weekend camping (well...cabining) at Prince Gallitzin State Park on Glendale Lake. Silas visited GramMommy and Pops for the weekend, our cabin was right next to the Lake, the shower was hot and the bed was plastic...it was perfect. The weather was hideous (snow in APRIL?! c'mon!), but this worked to our advantage. It gave us a great excuse to forgo outdoorsy-type-stuff and do some marital reconnecting over movies on the laptop, frozen dinners, and self-indulgent reading. OK, so I guess that last part was pretty solitary, but it was still shamelessly enjoyable to read a celebrity gossip magazine instead of a sleep training book for a change. Sorry we missed you, Mother Nature. Maybe next time.

Some of our weekend highlights include:
1) Off-roading in the minivan to visit an old backwoods cemetery.
2) Denny's Beer Barrel Pub. Insane idea, decent food. Christian claimed he "wasn't hungry enough" to do the 2-pound challenge. Instead, he ordered a cheeseburger, 10 wings with celery and bleu cheese, 2 breadsticks, and fries. Huh.
3) Historica Plus. 32,000 square feet of antiques in the old Leitzinger Department Store. Four stories. Kind of surreal and creepy. And totally Christian's idea.
4) Catching up with my coworker friends at a birthday party. I perfected Guitar Hero drumming and voluntarily stayed up until 4am for the first time since Vegas. Thank you, all, for easing my apprehension of returning to work.
5) A date night with the hubs to see Date Night. Funny movie and some inspiration for people watching the next time we eat out (if you've seen it, you know what I mean).

It was fantastic.

But not quite as fantastic as unpacking and reestablishing ourselves in our home. And I especially didn't mind getting up twice last night to rock and feed Silas. It's true. As nice as it was to get away for a few days, it made our coming home and routines even more magnificent and appreciated.

PeaFOUL

Yesterday, I wrote about the pressure to have life events worth discussing online. Clearly that pressure is even stronger than I thought because last night, I had a DREAM about this blog.

Seriously. How wacko is THAT?

Admittedly, I've been having some strange dreams lately. Last week, I dreamt that my friend Julie had a beard. "Wow, she looks like a man," my dream self thought when I saw her. However, we were on a vacation together and she had brought TWO boyfriends along. "Maybe," I was then thinking in my dream, "I should grow a beard, too...?" I blame the baby and his night wakings for these weird subconscious revelations. And the amounts of caffeine I drink to avoid falling asleep while changing diapers. And Weight Watchers and the obsessive counting fool they've made me.

My dreams from last night are a bit hazy, but there was something about a man wearing a onesie to a bachelor party, a mouse that lived in my kitchen wall and ate my Ziploc baggies, and an ex-boyfriend in a leather jacket (and yet somehow THAT was the oddest part of my dream).

Oh, yeah...and there was a peacock that my mom pulled out of her pocket. Only it wasn't a peacock at first...it was a brown suede wallet that transformed into a peacock when she unfolded it. The first thing I thought when the wallet popped open to reveal the peacock was definitely not "WTF?" Instead, it was, "Well now, THIS is something worth writing about!"

I'm losing it. However, I think this might justify adding a few more Weight Watchers points to my daily total. Sorry, Christian - breastfeeding AND insane means I now have significantly more points than you to work with...looks like my bedtime bowl of ice cream is back in the game.

Lead Foot

Blogging is hard, and this has given me a lot of respect for those who maintain blogs for a livelihood. Heather Armstrong, I may have rolled my eyes at your recent rant aimed toward those who just didn't understand the pressure to publish, but now...well...I see how hard it is to have a life interesting enough that others want to know about it. Or to be able to describe your life with enough gusto that it at least seems interesting. And if your life actually is interesting and eventful, there's not a lot of free time to write about it. Quite a quandary, this blogging gig is.

This past weekend, we made the maiden voyage with baby to visit Christian's family in Pittsburgh. On the way home, in my anticipation of returning to our own home and predictable, disinteresting routine, I was pulled over for speeding. Again.

"Ergh. Why does this always happen to me?!" I wailed to Christian, tears streaming down my face from the frustration that my efforts to get home even faster were just annulled.

"Um," he replied, "because you speed. A lot." True enough, I suppose. "BUT!" He added. "At least you'll have something to write about in your blog!"

So this is what my blogging experience has become...turning a ticket for my "failure to obey traffic signs" (cough, cough) into a blog-worthy moment. If that's the case, I'm not sure how much longer I can afford to maintain this....!

Chewing Gum for the Eyes

For days - DAYS!!! - I have had the Hoveround theme song stuck in my head (go, go, go with a Hoveround...) Days. Damn you, Tom Kruse.

On another loosely-related tangent, Silas had some Beech-Nut Turkey Tetrazzini for supper. I've been running low on my stocked supply of homemade baby meats, and I need to get back on prepping and freezing. So anyway, his back-up meaty meal of the day was the Tetrazzini. Honestly, I have no clue what Tetrazzini even is. The only reason I bought this meal was because of the Chicken Tetrazzini lady via The Soup via Maury Povich. And Silas hated it. At least I can rest assured that no hussy is going to use her Tetrazzini to lure my little guy into crawling.

I think these things may be an indication that I watch too much TV....

Eggstra, Eggstra!

Oh man, I am so far behind. Every holiday requires some serious recovery time on my part. Last week, our house was immaculate; you could eat off the floor! Of course, by my standards, being able to eat off the floor means that you will probably still end up eating a cat hair or two...But NOW...Silas dropped his teether on the floor during lunch and I thought I picked up a chinchilla (which, incidentally, we did actually have a chinchilla at one point; RIP, Elvis).

Christmas took a month and a half to regain some semblance of normalcy around here, and Easter's not looking much better. I swear I'm not even over-exaggerating. The guy who is drywalling our sunroom told me today that our house looks "lived in." This same guy also knew he was having a heart attack thanks to a Dr. Oz episode, loves to reminisce about his days spent biking to Pittsburgh to pick up the "white lady," and quite smoking weed a month before his grandson was born because he didn't want the kid to have a "pothead pappy." From these context clues, I'm pretty sure his standard for "lived in" speaks for itself.

I'm trying, though! At lunch today, Christian praised my cleaning efforts because he could "actually see the counters" in the kitchen. There are just so many things I'd rather do with my time. I do really need to recover soon, however...Administrative Professional's Day and Earth Day are back-to-back in two weeks, and who knows how much of a set-back that'll be...

Anyway, while I avoid the laundry a bit longer, here are some highlights from two of our Easter "eggsperiments" (yes, I do so love wordplay).

1. Easter Eggs!
Christian's sister was in to visit for the weekend, and we had a blast coloring eggs for Silas's first Easter. Or at least that's what we told ourselves. I don't have any pictures of Silas pretending to dip an egg into the dye and vinegar mixture because...well...he was already in bed. Oops!

Along with the classic food coloring, we also tried out Martha Stewart's "tie-dye" technique this year (Martha, please hire me for my mad wordplay skills!!). It was super easy and resulted in some pretty impressive Easter egg variety. Check out the close-up on the right. (Note: If you ever decide to try this, we found that darkest, ugliest ties yielded the prettiest, most patterned eggs.)


2. Peep Show!
I came across the Peeps Sunflower Cake last year after Easter and happened to stumble upon it again this year, just in time to whip it up for our family dinner. It turned out beautifully; however, it did require Christian making an impromptu and frenzied trip to one grocery store and two gas stations to find more Peeps.

And with the notion that Peeps can turn a cake into a sunflower, I suppose it's time to continue my excavation efforts. A glass of Black Box Cabernet and the DVRed episode of last night's LOST are planned rewards for rediscovering my foyer floor...or at least for creating a path to the staircase. Though it's a bit overdue, I hope you peeps had an speggtacular Easter weekend! ;)