Review and Giveaway- Canvas Factory

Hello, lovely readers!

As you are no doubt aware, I recently moved.

Moving is hard as hell. There's the stress of going through everything you own and putting it in boxes, then there's the stress of relocating all those boxes, and then there's the stress of trying to figure out how to take them out again and put them into an entirely different space with entirely different needs. If you've never done it, it's hell, trust me.

One of the fun things about it, though, is getting a chance to make stuff you already have perfect for the first time. For me, that's been all about putting my art on the walls.

In case you didn't know, I have a lot of art and photographs, and I take its placement very seriously. This time around, I am straight up killing it in the gallery wall department. Behold-

That's the wall behind me in my office right now. A thing of glory, isn't it?

But what about my treasured family photographs? I started to put them up, I shuffled frames a million times, and I got to the point where I was pretty happy with what I had. Pretty happy, but not awesome purple gallery wall happy.

It's not bad, right? But it's not perfect. Just looking at this collection of photographs, I knew what was wrong. I needed my wedding picture to be bigger. Those are 5"x7" prints of the girls' school pictures. And they're GORGEOUS. But an 8"x10" photo in a landscape orientation just didn't fit. It's my favorite of our wedding pictures (and if you don't know Cheryl, our amazing photographer, you should 100% check her out and then throw all your money at her), and this was the largest print I had. When we got married and lived just the two of us in our Pilsen apartment, that was fine. And when we lived in our crowded condo in Hyde Park, that was fine, too. But we're suburbanites now. We show off our pictures like we mean it.

And that was when the amazing people at The Canvas Factory came calling. Seriously, it's like they have psychics on staff, just waiting for bloggers like me to have photograph printing needs, and then they pounce.

They offered me a free canvas print, to try out. So I did what any totally obsessive new homeowner would do- I solved the most pressing and important problem in my life. What to do about my wedding portrait.

Picking out how I wanted the print done was AMAZING and easy. They give you all sorts of filters and alterations to choose from- I could have had my wedding picture not only in black and white or sepia, but they gave me all sorts of options for softening, sharpening, fading, texturing, modifying the picture in any way I could imagine. They let me choose if I wanted the photo wrapped around the sides, or if I preferred a single color for the visible edges. It was so detailed, but still so simple, I was completely confident about the finished product before I'd made all my decisions.

I submitted my order, and waited.

When you know something perfect is coming in the mail, waiting can be hard. And being used to being in the next day Amazon delivery area will spoil a person when it comes to waiting for mail. But even with my ridiculous impatience, it didn't take long. Less than a week later, I got my canvas in the mail. And it's everything I hoped it would be.

Ahhhhhh, soooooooooo pretty!!!!!!!

That's a 20"x16" printed canvas hovering about the three 5"x7" school pictures. And it looks SO MUCH BETTER. The color is amazing. The DPIs are crazy high. It's utterly gorgeous, even though I DID crop the picture a little, to center the two of us a bit more in the frame. It looks simply amazing, and it's incredible what a little change like having a high quality, gigantic and beloved image on canvas can do for a space.

It looks so good, people.

And it's a good quality framing job, too. It's all exposed canvas, of course, but the mounting hardware on the back is totally ideal, and makes putting it on the wall a breeze. And I mean, COME ON. How good does that look????

You know you want one.

And lucky you, YOU CAN HAVE ONE TOO!!!

That's right, the amazing psychics at the Canvas Factory are giving one of you lovely readers a code for a completely free 16"x20" print as well! WITH FREE SHIPPING!!!!

All you have to do is post a comment, telling me what picture you'd get printed gigantic and perfect if you could. You don't have to use that one, of course, I just want to know what wonderful memories you want writ large all over your homes. Because it's a beautiful thing to have your happiest moments preserved and presented so lovingly in your home. I smile a big warm smile every time I walk past it. It's rapidly becoming one of my favorite walls in the house. Yes, even compared to my lovely purple office.

So check out The Canvas Factory, and let me know what picture YOU'D get printed in the comments!

My Daddy Snores, and Other Avoidable Bedtime Catastrophes

DD and SI testing out mattresses

(This is a sponsored post. I was given the book I review, but all of the opinions are my own.)

You probably don't know this, but sleep health is sort of a pet issue of mine. From the time I was about eight and a half until well into my adulthood, I suffered from severe insomnia.

And I mean SEVERE insomnia.

By the time I was ten my mother essentially gave up on forcing me to go to sleep. Eventually, she tucked me in on the couch, handed me a collection of Ray Bradbury short stories, and poured me a shot of Peach Schnapps that she directed me to, "Sip slowly." Which I did.

I think her intention was to relax me and ease me into sleep. Sadly, it didn't work.

I completely covered the wall at 16

By the time I was in high school, I had a nighttime routine. I'd lay in bed for about an hour, listening to quiet music and meditating (my father's attempts to help had been guided meditation techniques). After my CD had ended, I'd lie in the dark feeling frustrated. Then I'd get up and ransack every recycling basket in the house for magazines, catalogs, and newspapers, and cut every single eye out and tape it to my wall.

Creepy? Sure. I'm not making excuses.

After that, I'd lay down again, and switch CDs. Sometimes, I managed to fall asleep. When I didn't, I'd put on my shoes and sneak out of the house. I'd wander around the neighborhood, pilfering roses from the house at Ferdon and Granger, and leaving them on my friends' doorsteps. I walked past the frat houses, through the quiet downtown, swing on the swings at Burns Park Elementary School...

And when the sky started to get that hazy, pre-dawn look to it, I'd walk home, climb into bed, and fall asleep. Just in time to be shaken awake for school the next day.

I tell you all of this because I GET IT- sleep is important. It might sound like I was having a blast, but I suffered through my insomnia. Not sleeping? That's a big deal. Not sleeping well? It's almost as bad. Sometimes, it's worse.

A few weeks ago, I was lucky to attend a Sleepy's event, with Nancy Rothstein, Sleep Ambassador and author of "My Daddy Snores."

Nancy Rothstein has written a children's book about the importance of sleep. More importantly, she's likable book about the importance of sleep. My kids LOVE this book.
written a funny, engaging,

It's a silly tale of woe- poor Mommy can't get any sleep because Daddy snores. The illustrations are
adorable. And eventually, Mommy has HAD IT and takes Daddy to the doctor- and the doctor cures Daddy of snoring.

There are three, yes three, incredibly effective takeaways for kids from this short picture book.

1. Snoring is a curable condition, and going to a doctor can make it stop. This is great- kids have no filter, and the admonition of children is a HUGE motivator for adults. I might not be able to approach my father in law and say, "You should really see a doctor about that snoring," but my kids sure can. Because kids are awesome at just saying things like they are, as they see it.

Bouncing on beds with balloons

2. Sleep, healthy sleep, is important. It's worth fighting for, it's worth working for, and it is its own reward.

3. Going to see the doctor when something isn't quite right about your body is okay. This is a big problem in our society- this machismo regarding our health. Unless we're bleeding out of our ears, we don't want to see a doctor.

My kids love this book- and they play-act around it regularly.

"Mommy! This picture is of Johnny the Spider! His daddy snores! His daddy snores SO LOUD! They need to go to a doctor so everyone can sleep!"

It's pretty cute.

So Ms. Rothstein, the Sleep Ambassador, handed out a few spectacular tips for improving your night's sleep.

1. Turn off your devices. The light emitted by televisions, computer monitors, your phone, your kindle... those are are blue spectrum lights. Those are lights that confuse your brain about the time of day and throw off your circadian rhythm. The only color light that doesn't? Red. Which is bad news if you don't particularly like sleeping in a dark room, but great news if your kids are obsessed with pink and want a pink nightlight. That pink nightlight will be less disruptive to their sleep than a white or blue light.

2. Almond milk! That old wives tale about a glass of milk? Not so great for sleeping, as it turns out. But almonds are loaded with compounds, like theanine, that aid sleep. So replacing a pre-bedtime glass of milk with almond milk? I've been doing this at home and I can tell you- it works.

3. Bedtime music. Some music keeps you awake, and some helps you sleep. So what helps you sleep? Sounds that are somewhat unfamiliar. When your brain starts falling into familiar patterns, it wants to complete them- keeping it awake. But unfamiliar sounds... I think this is why so many lullabies are written in minor keys. We tend to associate so much of music (particularly kids' music) with major keys- those minor tones can sound discordant. And that's good- that will help them sleep. So cue up the creepy lullabies- they're better for bedtime than Twinkle Twinkle!

Baby on the move!

4. Yoga! Doing yoga before bed relaxes your mind and body, making it easier for your mind to make the transition. There is so much literature that opposes working out before bed, and there's a lot to it, but a simple, relaxing yoga routine before hitting the hay can help make the transition to unconsciousness a lot easier.

5. Consistency! It might seem like the number on the clock isn't that important, but it is. A rigid routine has lasting effects- it's almost Pavlovian. So make sure you start your bedtime routine at the same time every night.

6. Last but not least, your mattress. Ms. Rothstein pointed out that we spend a full third of our lives sleeping. So why would you choose to spend all of that time on a mattress that didn't help you sleep? People balk at dropping a few thousand dollars on a mattress (I am still balking), but she's right- you really can't put a price on high quality sleep. I could spend $2,500 on a good mattress that would keep me sleeping better for ten years, or I could spend $100 a month on the xanax that frequently helps me get to sleep, for a total of $12,000 over the same time period. That's a pretty simple cost/ benefit analysis.

With all that said, I have definitely started bugging my husband about the quality of our mattress- which is more than ten years old, crushed on one side, and has NEVER been terribly comfortable for me. So that's definitely happening in the not too distant future.

And I am taking the bedtime routine for my kids more seriously. I know the long-term consequences of poor sleep personally, and if I can help my kids avoid them?

Awesome.

More Than Meal Plans

Mmm... cheese...

I have a weird relationship with food.

First of all, I love food.  I love to eat it.  I love to cook it.  I love to smell it.

I'm a total (albeit vegetarian) foodie.

That said, I totally suck at eating.  If I'm hungry, and I'm the only person around who's hungry, I'm not going to bother cooking anything.  I'll just eat something- anything- already edible and on hand.

The most "cooking" I do when I haven't eating in six or eight hours tends to be the assemblage of a s'more.

That said, I try to cook dinner every night.  I love sitting down to dinner as a family, all eating the same food, all talking, catching up on our days... you know, the idyllic family scene.  I live for that.

So once upon a time, I was incapable of cooking a dinner for just me and M.  Every time I cooked, I made about eight people's worth of food.  That's how I learned to do it.  When I was a teenager, there were four teenagers living in the house, two parents, and usually a random friend or two for dinner.

There needed to be lots of food at each meal.

So over four years of marriage, I slowly and meticulously trained myself to cook for two.  For just me and M.

And I've finally figured out how dumb that was.  Why?

LEFTOVERS.

I am now almost entirely subsisting on leftover food.

It's great- I'll cook dinner one night, have the leftovers for brunch (I only tend to eat two meals a day- brunch and dinner), and then make dinner.

Repeat.

And that is why now I'm eating leftover gigantes (that's incredibly delicious Greek style lima beans) and day old bread.

The best part?  It's really helping with the girls' picky eating.  If they liked it, or just sort of tried it but didn't really eat it, I can present it to them again the next day.  Let it become familiar.

So hopefully, cooking all sorts of delicious and relatively healthy foods (how healthy is a hunk of bread even if you DID make it yourself?) will lead to me starving less, and therefore screaming less.

Hopefully, it will lead to me not counting a s'more as a meal.

And best part?  So much cheaper.

You plan your meals for the week around what you already have, and what ingredients you need to buy.

I know that every time I buy parsley, at least half of it goes to waste.  So I planned three meals this week that include parsley.  BOOM- a whole bunch of parsley, eaten up!

Two meals with chard.

Two meals with the can of fake chicken I'm going to open up tonight.

And of course, a bottle of wine for the week.

This week's meal plan was:

Monday:

Baked polenta with swiss chard

Gigantes

Spinach salad

Tuseday:

Moroccan Lentil and Chickpea Soup

Oatmeal bread

Wednesday:

Chilequiles

Guacamole

Thursday:

Roasted potatoes

Grilled chicken/fake chicken

Broccoli

Friday:

Cauliflower curry soup

Whole wheat raisin bread

Salad

Saturday:

Keugle

Vegetable chard Soup

Sunday:

Roasted pepper soup

Honey wheat bread

Spinach salad

So how am I accomplishing this remarkable feat of culinary acuity?

MIT has cooler food robots than me.

Robots.

Yeah, that's right.  Robots.

I have this super awesome slow cooker- it comes with three different interchangeable dutch over type pots.  That means that even if I don't get to cleaning one before nap time the next day, I have a different pot.  I just have to make sure that I'm not counting on using the same size pot two days in a row.  So, I have a slow cooking robot.  This week, it's in charge of the lentil soup, the cauliflower soup, the gigantes, and the roasted potatoes.  Boo-ya.

My other robot?  The bread machine.

Dear god, I love my bread machine.

And that, lovely readers, is how I am able to enjoy a meal while my children are at school.

Unicornucopia

Unicornocopia

That's right.  Last year was Pandamonium, this year was a Unicornucopia.

Otherwise known as, a Unicorn themed party for my newly three year old daughters.

I knew what they probably really wanted was a Princess party, but I couldn't bring myself to do it.  As you may know from reading this blog regularly, I despise the whole Princess thing.

So I figured, what else do my children love that will appeal to the same aesthetic?

Why, unicorns, of course!

After all, I have previously turned my daughters into unicorns, why couldn't I turn all the kids into unicorns?

It was incredibly simple, and cheap.  Nearly a perfect party.

See those cookies?  Grandma made a heap of unicorn poop cookies!

First, the favors.  I have lots of paper hanging out- it's kind of a side effect of being an artist.  One large sheet of watercolor paper and a little rainbow ribbon became...

DIY unicorn horns and puppets

That's right- unicorn horns for all!  I cleared off the girls' little table, set out the markers, and let them go to town.

Even RH got to be a unicorn!

Bonus- lots of little unicorns for them to color, and some popsicle sticks so that the kids had the choice to make their unicorns into puppets, or put them on...

The castle!

It's a castle!  We always have tons of cardboard recycling around here.  Disposable diapers, pull ups and wipes come from Sam's Club or the like, and what with the regular packages filled with toys for the girls... there was tons of cardboard to go around.  One of these towers is actually made of a Mrs. T's Pierogi box.  I used packing tape to put the whole thing together, and then covered it with art paper.  Best part?  This is hiding the awesome toy kitchen... which is great for a few kids, but when presented with the likliehood of total toddler chaos at a party, I decided that hiding the kitchen was best.  With all the food and magnets and whatnot, it seemed like a recipe for disaster.  So- the kitchen became a castle.

So, the favors for the kids were, unicorn horns to color themselves, unicorns to color and turn into puppets or art, and...

Unicorns!

I picked up these little ponies from a local toy store.  Local?  Awesome.  Unicorns/ponies?  Perfect.  When half the kids coming are two year olds, you can be confident that they won't notice that their "unicorns" are horn-free.  So, I picked up a heap of two dollar unicorns/ponies, stashed the little things that could be choking hazards for little kids, and gave them each a tag with a kids' name on them.

But the most important thing for any birthday party?  The cake.  We were anticipating eleven adults and eight cake eating aged children, so I figured that making each of the girls their own cake was a safe bet.

SI insisted that she wanted a yellow cake.  DD insisted that she wanted a pink cake.  So rather than use food coloring, or just color the frosting, I kinda went all in.  I made DD a strawberry cake, and SI a lemon cake.  From scratch.  The only artificial anything that went in was a little yellow food coloring to make that yellow frosting just a *bit* yellower.  And to decorate?  Unicorns, of course!

Recipe here

A pink strawberry unicorn cake

Lemon sour cream cake- yeah, it's as good as it sounds

A yellow lemon unicorn cake

 Aren't those unicorns cool???  I made them using this super easy technique.  The only thing?  You've got to make sure that the frosting is *really* frozen before you try to transfer your decals.  Really, really frozen.  And just in case, keep some frosting for fixing any... injuries.  Also?  Unlike me, you might want to have real decorating tools.  I think some more precision tools would have really helped me out.

So how did it go?

This castle has a few princes and princesses, a dragon, a cat, a gargoyle, and plenty of unicorns!

I think everyone had a pretty good time.  :)

Bowling and Babies

She's still in there.

Well, lovely readers, I'm sorry to tell you...

I'm still pregnant.

Super, gigantor, ungodly pregnant.

I had hoped that all of this running around doing fun stuff would get things going, and I'm pleased to say... it did!  Just, you know, not enough.

Last night my doctor had me run into the hospital for an NST and some contraction monitoring.  The result?  M and I came back, still pregnant, at about 2am.

We're holding steady at, nope- not in labor yet.  Bizarrely, they decided not to bother ultrasounding Baby X to find out where she is.  She's still floating, but she could be heads up or heads down, and they seem to think there's still plenty of space for her to turn.

So who knows what's going on.

What brought on this new development in the continuing story of my not having a baby?

Bowling!

I don't know if you've heard of kidsbowlfree.com.

You know I don't generally promote stuff on my blog, but this thing is great.  You sign up (which is free), and your kids each get passes for two free games of bowling every day all summer at a local bowling alley.  Our participating alley is Waveland Bowl, conveniently directly across the street from my favorite pizza parlor.

Now, it doesn't include shoe rentals.  Or food.  Or adult games.

...but if you have cooperative kids and you don't want to lug both a baby and a bowling ball around with you every time you stand up, it's a pretty good deal.

So with it being ninety degrees outside and humid, we took the girls bowling for the first time.  And then to their first pizza parlor.  In her usual fashion, DD ate grilled cheese.

SI cleaned up at the alley.  For real.  Poppa only managed to eke past her score at the very end.

DD had so much fun throwing the bowling ball- which took FOREVER to make its way down the lane and actually got stuck in the pins once because it was moving so slowly- that she kept faulting.  Not that she cared in the slightest.

And now?  Photo spam!

Grandmommy and Poppa explain the finer details of bowling

It's a long, slow road to the pins.  But fraught with excitement.

"I DID IT!"

Poppa showing off his skillz.  This was a gutter ball.  He was very upset
that I didn't get a picture of his first shot- a strike.

Sophie's strike

Poor M didn't have a great game.  I think the cheering section who went
wild every time he had a lousy shot was throwing him off.

She's so funny- at home she constantly claims, "I can't do it."
But out of the house?  She is little miss independent, 

SI does it all by herself too.  :)

The bowling shoes SLAY me!

DD and Daddy trying to pick up the spare

That ball is practically as big as she is

You're reading that right.  Poppa won.  By one point.  DD came in last, and I
didn't play.  But we all had tons of fun at Waveland Bowl!

---

And a fun new development- my Baby X widget seems to have developed a mind of its own.  Now it's counting UP the days until Baby X is due.  So now, instead of being past due, I have two days to go.

Thanks, widget.  You're really encouraging.  >.<

Family Train Trip (I think I can I think I can I think I can...)

Train rides are FUN!

Last weekend, my little family found itself in a bit of a pickle.  How to get from Chicago to the Twin Cities and back as quickly as possible for M's grandpa's funeral.

What is normally an eight hour drive would undoubtedly last MUCH longer with the inclusion of one pregnant lady and two potty training toddlers, and taking an airplane would have been SOOOOOOOOO expensive!  Add to that our travel curse, and you get one family that is very reluctant to jump in the car and drive for a whole day without much warning.  Whilst complaining about this lack of options to Poppa, he threw out a suggestion that simply had not occurred to me.

My vision for our entire trip.

"Why don't you take the train?"

...I thought it over.

I used to take the train a LOT.  There is a train that goes pretty much straight from Chicago to my old hometown of Ann Arbor, Michigan, and each time I returned from college for some event or other, that was my method.  I learned that the train can be very... unreliable.  Either it goes perfectly, or it does NOT.  I had days that I would pull into the station before my parents had even left their house to collect me, but then there were other days...  Like when my grandfather was dying, and 20 minutes outside of Ann Arbor we hit a person.  Yes, a person.  Our train was immediately labeled "crime scene," and nobody was allowed off.  For six hours.  It was unbearable.

Sadly, M's only experience with the train had been with me, taking it to Passover with my family in upstate New York.  That is *supposed* to be about 13 hours on the train.  Sadly, it took us more like 19 or 20.  Our return trip from that event wasn't a whole lot better.

Never underestimate the soporific power of "Milo and Otis"

He was skeptical, naturally, about taking such an unreliable mode of transportation to such an important event.  That was when Poppa's quick and able research paid off- for a little more than the cost for one person to fly the round trip, our whole family could get a private four bunk room on the train- including meals- both ways.

We were sold.

We threw together our suitcases, and in a mad rush we boarded a train.

There are some complications when a family with two toddlers attempts to travel without a car.  First of all, car seats.  While they aren't a requirement ON the train, in order to GET to the train, or to get around once disembarking the train, you sort of need them with you.

That, and the train ride was supposed to last about eight and a half hours.  About the same as driving.  Only without the children strapped to their seats.  We grabbed an entire suitcase worth of distractions.  We also naively brought both of our backpacks in order to do homework (HA!), two diaper bags that turn into booster seats, a suitcase full of grown-up clothes, a suitcase full of toddler clothes, a bag of food and drink for the train (Who knew what options would be available for my CRAZY limited gall-bladder diet?  And would the children cooperate and eat it?), our winter coats, and some bedding- in case it was possible to actually put our children to sleep on the train.

It's easier to forgive somebody when you have champagne.

So picture, if you will, my husband lugging three suitcases, a gigantic red canvas bag, two diaper bags, a backpack, and two car seats as I trudge along behind, with a second backpack and two toddlers in tow (each wearing their own backpacks) the mere half a block from our car to Union Station.

I think, in that moment, M may have actually considered divorcing me for having dared to suggest a train ride in the first place.

His bad mood naturally lasted until we had checked two suitcases and the car seats, and was almost completely soothed by a peaceful wait in the special sleeping car waiting area while our girls colored with crayons and I collected him chocolate pastries.

They carried those train schedules with them all day!

The train was, in a word, amazing.  Really.  When things go well on the train, they go really well.  Our trip began, unexpectedly, with complementary champagne.  It was kind of fun the way that every single nook and cranny of the tiny compartment were usable.  It wasn't easy to get us settled into the space, but once we were in?  It was great.  And dinner was surprisingly really good- and totally edible in my current dietary state.  There was also virtually unlimited coffee for M and juice for me and the girls.  That was nice.

The girls loved the train- they kept exclaiming in joy that it was MOVING!  They loved watching the scenery go by out the window.  They even slept for a few hours!  When not sleeping, we read books, watched cartoons on the laptop, and M performed his Yo Gabba Gabba Dancey Dance act (he called it "The Chicken") with the girls' Christmas presents.  Something that certainly can't be accomplished on car trips!



We even took a break in the lounge car, to try to watch "Finding Nemo" where we could plug the laptop in to recharge.  Oddly, none of the outlets in the lounge car worked, but it turned out the outlet labeled "Razors Only!" in our compartment did the trick just fine.  While we were there, another family sent their daughter over to watch with our kids.  It was a little odd- the parents never so much as said "Hello," to us, but they sent their kid to our table and just went about their business.  I think I would have at least... you know... acknowledged the lone mom sitting with two toddlers and a laptop and obviously pregnant before adding another kid into the mix (M was off getting beverages- it took him probably half an hour).  But, as they were probably utterly exhausted as well AND had an infant in tow, I figured I'd just ignore them right back and make small talk with the little girl.

DD, Grandpa, and SI

That little girl?  SI decided she was her new BEST FRIEND.  She inched up to her, practically wrapped her arms around the bigger girl's shoulders (it looked like a, "How YOU doin'?" moment for sure!), and proceeded to show her the train schedule over and over again, pointing at the picture on the front and exclaiming, "We on this train RIGHT NOW!"  It was pretty darn cute.  Although the little girl DEFINITELY didn't appreciate having her name abbreviated to "Ape."

We arrived only forty five minutes late, and Grandpa was there to collect us.  An added perk- it is SO much easier to get to the train station (almost anywhere) than to the airport.  So it was a very quick trip- with car seats!- from the station to Grandma and Grandpa's house.

When I say M's family is huge, I'm not kidding.

We had a chaotic day in the Twin Cities, filled with family and love and much happiness, despite the sad occasion.  It would have made DeLloyd very happy to see all his family together, laughing, eating, and talking over every subject under the sun.

At the crack of dawn, we awoke, and began rushing through breakfast in order to have a repeat of our very peaceful ride from Chicago to St. Paul.  Unfortunately, our train home was a slightly different story than the original.

Before arriving in St. Paul to pick us up, our train got trapped behind a disabled freight train.  So despite our mad rush to get out of the house in order to catch our 7:50am train, we didn't actually board the thing until after 11am.

Playing with Grandma in the *fancy* waiting room

I have to say, waiting around OUTSIDE the train while it goes through a miserable delay is MUCH better than being actually ON the train during the delay.  No comparison.

Our return was in many ways much worse, and in some MUCH better.  On the worse side, the compartment was MUCH OLDER!  Almost everything was *slightly* broken, from the tray table we set the laptop on for movies, to the closet holding our coats, to the bed the girls could sleep/sit on while looking out the window.  We found solutions for just about everything, but it really drove home how important little things are on a trip like that.  Our car attendant on our return trip obviously didn't give a crap about what kind of job he was doing- he tried to get out of bringing us our meal!  I actually had to have a fight with the dining car manager in order to get our food- and a good thing I did!  He was forcing our attendant to bring us our meal, but he had refused to take our order!  He was going to bring me, a vegetarian Jew, a bacon cheeeseburger, and he was going to bring my vegetarian toddlers chicken fingers.  I was pretty freakin' livid.

M's sleeping feet, the sleeping girls, and the
place in which I was to shortly pass out.

He also tried to kick us out of our compartment an hour outside of Chicago so he wouldn't have to stay on after we disembarked to clean it up.  (Yes, he told us that.)  M was much more polite than I was ready to be. He just lied and told him we didn't use any of the bedding, and he could forget about having to change things.

As far as things that were better, the scenery was GORGEOUS, and as it was daytime we could actually enjoy it.  The girls just lay down and slept for almost the entire first half of the journey.  M and I ALSO got to sleep for a few hours!  It was WONDERFUL.  The food was, quite possibly, better- as it turned out my veggie burger and the girls' grilled cheese were just fine, and M thoroughly enjoyed that bacon cheeseburger I wouldn't have had any interest in.  Lastly, it seems that older train cars have more spacious bathrooms.  Believe me, when one of you is pregnant, one of you is a giant, and the other two require assistance... that matters.

Best of all?  The train conductor was trying to make up for lost time from before they picked us up, so we actually spent about an hour less on the train that we otherwise would have.

Me and my girls on the train

Or... maybe.. the REAL best thing was the Red Cap guy back at Union Station who piled us into a cargo carrier, drove us almost all the way to the parking garage, and then waited with me and the girls while M got the car, installed the car seats, and then came to pick us up.

Things will change, of course, once Baby X is in the picture.  But for the time being, I am totally converted.  The train is the only way I want to travel to the Twin Cities and back again.

Even if it means M lugging our entire lives for half a block.

Winning the Holidays

My children found a katydid

This year, I am determined to be on top.

Allow me to rephrase.

I am determined to be on top of something.  Anything at all.  Right now, my whole life is a mess of desperately trying to catch up.  It's a disaster.

So of course, rather than actually put the work into my current projects (like, say, SCHOOL), I am instead determined to be on top of my holidays this year.

To be fair, I pretty much nailed them last year.  We had lovely cards (all hand made by yours truly), we had PERFECT gifts for everyone, and we threw a hell of a holiday party.  Despite toddlers in footy pajamas who refused to go to bed.

Our 2009-2010 Cards

This year, the holidays are mine.  Why?  Because this year, for the first time in my married life, I am making enough money that the holiday spending is all on me.

That is to say, I'm making EXACTLY that much money.  No more, no less.

The money I'm earning by writing at IdeasforWomen.com is officially our holiday reserve fund.

The stakes are high.  The reserve is not so high.  So how am I going to do it?

First of all, I'm going to send out my holiday cards early.  Yeah, I know, that was my plan last year.  But this year I am ON IT!  And I'm going easy on the goods.  Haven't figured out the design yet, but it should be simple.  Simple, but fun.

From our 2008-2009 Holiday Cards

I don't *do* photo cards.  I do art cards.  Last year, I made cards with wintery scenes made of foam and glitter and ink, and individually stamped each darn letter in each of our names.  Oh, AND stamped out all of the addresses.

Because that's how I roll.  I just wish I'd remembered to take a picture.

The year before, I painted a portrait of my daughters, and used the print of that painting as the card front.

The year before that, I created a scene with my newborn babes as Baby New Year.  Didn't turn out perfectly, but it was serviceable.

And the year before that it was an elaborate collage of images of me and M from the entire year.  It was hilarious and awesome.  I even got M in his Thor costume.

Our 2007-2008 Holiday Cards

 Holiday cards are a little complicated when one side of the family is Jewish and the other is Christian.  You can't aim to deliver the cards during either actual holiday- it implies a preference.  Usually I am for New Year's.  This time, I'm aiming for just after Thanksgiving.  That's a fine time for an annual wrap-up, right?

But cards are only one element of the holiday that I'm determined to rock.  The next is the presents.  This is where my new income comes in.  We have a lot of presents to buy.  After all, we celebrate two simultaneous gift giving holidays.  And the way MY family rolls, Channukah means eight days of presents.  You don't skip on celebrating Channukah just because Christmas also falls on that day.  This year, we'll be going to Grandma and Grandpa's church, and then going to my in-laws to light the menorah.

I'm getting all the gifts.  M is totally off the hook.  Lucky him.  :)

So how do I stretch my measly earnings to accomodate the sort of gift giving frenzy I always wished for?  Simple!  It's time to start entering contests like mad.  My grandfather would be proud- he was a contest maniac.

Tickle fight!

Take this one, for example.  Lots of awesome ladies with lots of awesome shops promoting before the holidays.  I'm all about it.  If I can win, great!  Another couple of presents I don't have to pay for!  If I don't, I'm only out a few minutes of my time.

And then, the last hurdle.  The final holiday task that I am determined to crush.

Cookies.

Last year, I only made about two thirds of my planned cookies.  This year, I will start early.  I will freeze cookies.  I will rock cookies.

I just haven't decided which ones just yet.

So there you have it.  Me, determined to be on top of my holiday game.

Granda MADE these sweaters!  So cute!

Too soon to tell whether there's any hope.  But I will tell you this- I've already got my lists.  I'm checking them twice.  And I've got half a dozen pages bookmarked on my browser so that as soon as any item goes on sale, you can bet it's getting shipped post haste to my house to hide out for another two months.

And then...

I will win the holidays.