7 Days

T

This is said to be a lucky number. And I suppose it is for us today. Hurricane Irene hit in the wee hours of last Sunday morning. And with it came damaging ( this is really understating it) winds and lots of rain. So in these wee hours of last sunday morning, our power was knocked out. And 7 days later it has been restored. Yes folks it has taken 7 whole days for us to regain power. I will never again take electricity and running water for granted. We have been living in our house all week with no electricity or running water. Thank heavens for rain barrels. They have allowed us to carry buckets full of water inside the house to flush toilets. Our preparations ahead of time gave us a tub full of water to use for washing. Ice bags in the freezer saved our meat for 4 days when we moved it to a friends house. We lost everything in our fridge. Have been cooking on the grill. 100% of our town lost power. 140 roads in our town alone were affected. You couldn't drive down a road without a downed tree or power line. Our road was blocked at one end due to a tree on a power line. We didn't even know if we could get off our road for a couple of days. Irene was actually downgraded to a tropical storm before it hit CT. And I tell you I feel for those that have have been through full blown hurricanes. I really hope you never have to experience this. And I hope I never do again. There is really only so much preparation that can be done. And then it happens. And you deal with the aftermath. And it was so surreal. Here we are living in the stone age while some parts of the state never lost power. And they were not that many miles away. Maybe less than 20. So I am thankful tonight to not have to brush my teeth by flashlight with a cup of cold tub water. And I will sleep well after a nice hot shower and clean sheets. And wake up to a cup of real ( not instant) coffee that I have to walk outside to the grill to make.

Boys

This is what my boys are up to these days:

Nicholas "reading" his Toys R Us catalog on the potty.


Alexander: Pushing himself up after nap to look at me through the crib bars.

Does life get better than this?

For this I am sure

I am sure there are more productive things I should be doing while the boys are napping.
However, I am snuggled in my own bed reading this romance novel letting the cool damp air filter through the window.
Now that's a nice Saturday afternoon.

Staples

No I am not talking about the office supply store.
But instead about the staples you keep in your fridge. The items you buy immediately when you run out. Besides the obvious milk, eggs, bread, I keep real Parmesan. Not that jarred, pre-grated fake stuff. No a block of real Parmesan cheese.
And a must have is the microplane grater. I have this style shown. I use my Parmesan on pasta, rice, bread, in breadcrumbs, meatballs, etc etc etc.
I am telling you, buy the real stuff. It lasts Forever! And if it gets a little mold on it. Just cut it off. It's cheese after all.





















While searching for a picture of Parmesan cheesed I found this picture of cheese making. I did this. When I studied in Switzerland we made cheese. I am the one that got to scrape the curds out of the vat. We used a cloth like this but I had to hold one end in my mouth as well. It was a tough process but so much fun and an experience I will always treasure.

Another item always in our fridge is hummus and peppers. My son LOVES this. If given a plate of food such as hummus with peppers, chicken nuggets and pasta. He will eat the hummus and peppers first. And usually ask for more. I have to tell him to eat his nuggets.

He also loves cheese wraps, with the shredded cheese. So to keep all the cheese from falling out, I spread the tortilla with hummus first. He devours it.

PJ Day

Today is a rainy day outside.
Inside we are having a lazy pj day. I love it. But we are going a little crazy keeping occupied.

This is not either of my kids, but how cute.

Finally!

So I have finally ordered our bathroom cabinets. This is a project that has been 16 months in the making. But the cabinets are on their way so maybe in the next year we'll have them installed. J/K! The goal is to have them in by spring. I'll try to post pictures when complete. But I wouldn't hold your breath.

Sylvester and Tweety

We have our own little cat-mouse duo on our deck. Watch the video!!! These 2 wrens made a next in our propane tank and have thier little babies in there. The birds land on our deck railing and like to "sing" very loudly. They pick bugs out of the planters. Our cat is much tormented I think. She can't catch them and so must just let them sing in her ear. It reminds of me of Sylvester and Tweety-bird. Ha! Ha!