I know, I know, it's a late start. But hey, it's Saturday!

We're getting ready to join our usual Saturday gang for breakfast, then I'll probably have to take Audrey & Maggie to a birthday party at the Delaware Museum of Natural History. That should be interesting. It's for one of Maggie's classmates, I didn't know they had a special room for parties?
I'm not sure yet just what the rest of the weekend will be like, Monica and I have been playing phone tag.

Morning Cottage! Have fun at breakfast. That is a wonderful idea for a birthday party...fun and education all rolled into one!

It is a really nasty day here. Thunder, lightening, rain etc. And of course I'm having a dinner party tonight! I had planned on grilled fish, but decided I'd better nix that idea and am going with eggplant lasagna instead...won't get wet fixing that! I dread having to get out in this storm to go shop for the ingredients though. Ah, well.

Off to hit the fluidity bar (which by the way IS working...I can really feel it and have moved on to the intermediate dvd) then off to the tub and then need to clean out the fridge, shop for food, clean the house and try to keep wet dogs off of the floors. geez.

Morning Chicks-

Cottage - I love the idea of a museum party. I would have enjoyed those more than Chuckie Cheese

Cat - Sounds like challenging weather. I tried the eggplant lasagna the other night and it was a big hit.

Normal quiet weekend here. We are making our periodic trip to Whole Foods today. I might check out Trader Joe's again too. I wasn't too impressed before but after seeing all the glowing posts here I might give it another look. Problem is it gets crazy crowded and that puts me off. There are things we can't get at our Co-op we get at Whole Foods, but it's also a good excuse to go to our favorite restaurant for lunch You can substitute really yummy steamed veggie mixes for rice - gotta love that!

I'm finally making that white bean and escarole soup. Couldn't find escarole anywhere in my neck of the woods last weekend and didn't want to drive 30 miles to get it. this weekend I'm prepared!

I'll be back later. Have a good day all!

Late start? I'm wondering why the heck I'm up so early! The kids did not stay at Grandma's last night, and DS woke me up at 7:00 coughing.
I'd planned to hit the Pa Dutch Market this morning, but I don't shop with kids, so I'll clean instead. DS has a birthday party at noon, and they both have one tomorrow at noon at the little amusement park nearby. DS needs new riding boots, and the closest store for horse-stuff is near the park, so we'll get that done too. Gotta love efficiency! The kids may go to my mom's tonight, if so I'll do my grocery shopping, but I've got to be careful not to buy too much. My refrigerator is acting up again, and I'm on travel half of the week, so I don't want to overstock. Otherwise, I've got a few little projects around here to work on. Hooray, a 3-day weekend! I also want to do that WATP tape at least twice.

Have fun at the museum cottage! What a great way to spend a Saturday - will you be able to walk around while they're at the party? I love museums - the Natural History Museum in Washington is my favorite! Closely followed by the Museum of American History, and the Baltimore Museum of Art.
I love to hear about your dinner parties, Cat! One day when I've got my dining room finished, I hope to get back to having dinner parties. In the meantime, I have to entertain in the backyard, or only have friends over that are close enough so they don't mind eating at the kitchen table.
Is that soup recipe posted here Cyndi? I don't remember that one. I made the white bean and sausage last week, and I have lots of frozen Kale, so I threw a pkg in there, it was a perfect combination. I'll bet the escarole will be similar. I may skip making my customary pot of soup this weekend, as I made a double recipe of the split pea last weekend, and I'll be eating it for months!

No wet dogs here, Cat, although Hershey came in covered with snow. It's very cold out there (below zero F) but she just loves to roll in the stuff and do a sort of snow bath.

Cottage, I think a museum birthday party is an excellent idea. It does my schoolteacher heart good to think of it.

Our Annual Vestry Meeting for Church is this morning at 8 but I am not going to be able to go. Aside from the snow, getting in and out of a car would be a problem. The group will come over here after the meeting and plan to load me up with wood and get rid of some of my ashes. Hershey may even get a walk out of the deal! I love having "people"!

Not much else happening - doing my exercises, napping, trying to eat healthy stuff, poking away at taxes and Fair stuff. Each day is supposed to be a bit better but it's a bit hard to tell. Today is certainly better than last Saturday - maybe by the week is how to compare.

Schmoodle and Ruth - we simul-posted!

Ruth - glad to hear you're making progress. We've got the cold here to but are above zero anyway.

Hi Ruth, lol, maybe it's like weighing - daily is too much, once a week is better!

Good morning, everyone! It's a wet morning here too. Brian and I need to go out and pick up the Scouting for Food bags that we left on doors last weekend. Hopefully people have filled them with canned goods that will go to the local food bank. Normally we knock on doors if they didn't leave a bag but I'm not sure if we are going to do that if it is raining. Hopefully Brian will stay warm and dry enough since I'm dropping him off with his Dad at noon. I do have spare shoes/socks in the car for him since I'm sure those will get wet.

I need to see about picking up a new cell phone this weekend. Mine cuts out during calls and I'm pretty sure it is out of warranty. Talk to y'all later.

Barb, picking up the food is definitely harder than leaving the bags. We did ours back in October, I don't think we can convince people to collect food in New Jersey in February.

cottage The museum sounds like a great place for a children's b-day party. Every place seems to have a room for children's b-day parties lately.

schmoodle Must be great living so close to all the Smithsonian Museums. I think I'd be there all the time if I lived close. I never go to any museums in New York because once you pay for the bridge tolls and parking, I really don't want to pay for museum admission too.

I'm taking my son today to the Garden State Discovery museum. It's a nice children's museum although a little boring for an adult. Tomorrow, I have to take him to a b-day party a Chuck-E-cheese.

Happy weekend!

Cottage: I agree with everyone else - birthdays and education are great together. We used to have our birthday parties at the zoo and they gave us a special tour (which was most likely their regular tour with birthday hats ). What fun!!

Cat: Yikes! Your weather sounds awful. We had a 50% chance of thunderstorms last night, but nothing happened. I bet your dinner party will be a hit, as usual! Be careful in that nasty weather!

Cyndi: I'm SO curious about Trader Joe's! One of these days we'll vacation in a town that has one and I'll see what they're all about. Have fun at Whole Foods - I could spend hours there! Hope the soup turns out yummy. Finding escarole out here would be nothing short of a miracle!

Schmoodle: I hope you love the WATP tape. I can't get enough of them - such a great workout without even realizing it!! Hope the DS' cough isn't too bad and that it goes away quickly. I also hope the fridge keeps working and that you enjoy your three-day weekend!

Ruth: I'm sure your "people" love you too! I'm glad you're in such great spirits - I'm positive attitude has a lot to do with recovery. Hope you enjoy your day!

Barb: Hope you and Brian stay dry! What a wonderful organization Scouts is. I'm sure it will make such a huge difference in the way Brian handles life. Great preparation for the future. You go, mom!

Neko: Ugh - I hate that Chuck-E-Cheese place! DH's little sister used to have every birthday party there and we had to go find a salad place afterwards - and get a shower to wash the grease-smell off. It is loads of fun for the kids, though! Try and have fun at the museum today!

Me: There have been snow flurries all morning, but nothing's sticking as it's been warm all week. Today is my last weekend home until March, so there will be a lot of homework and laundry and housecleaning to do. I'm just going to make a list of what needs to get accomplished and keep crossing things off until they're done - even if I'm up late both tonight and tomorrow. Well, I'd better get back to work. The laundry isn't going to put itself away!

Have a great weekend!

Doesn't any one sleep in on Saturdays?? I kept the covers over my head until 8:30 am. My DH has his monthly Carmelite meeting until noon. When he comes home we are going to take about a month's worth of laundry to the laundromat. That should take a couple of hours. Our washer quit on us and we haven't had someone to see what is wrong with it.

I have managed to lose 5 of the 7 lbs that I gained when I returned "home" for 5 days. I know that it is because of being "irregular" and all the sodium in the food but even though it still is a blow and I am still feeling blue about that. It is a struggle to get back on SBD after having eaten out every day at a restaurant for a week. Even I have my limit on doing that!

My weekends are for relaxing! Period! I hate planning to do too much. I like to "make it up as I go". Save all the planning and structure for the work week is my motto.

I am watching "CSI" reruns while I was shopping online (one of my favorite pastimes). Got some cute stuff for the kitchen I am also finished with. Roosters, red country stars with some Americana thrown in for accents. It just evolved. I've collected roosters "forever". I never get tired of continually redoing my "digs". My home is my haven.

Weather is nice and mild here in GA. No precip planned that I am aware of. Museums sound fun but my legs are still smarting from all of the walking that I did last week. I used to be very involved with the Scouts and some of my favorite memories were of "those days". Good clean fun. When my daughter was little we "lived" at Chuck-E-Cheese. I thought the food was horrible then but she had a good time so I shrugged it off.

Still working on finishing up my bathroom and kitchen. My goal is February 29th for being finished. I love to decorate!!

No animals or pets for us. We like our independence too much to have to worry about what to do with a pet if we want to go somewhere. When I saw my sister's cats this past week though I did get a little "love sick" for one of them though.

I just love the fact that my time is my own. Sundays is always church and then dinner afterwards at our favorite restaurant. I am reorganizing our built in dining room cabinet---so I can put more "stuff" in it. I might consider painting it on the inside too--we'll see.

Hope everyone has a great weekend.

I wish I had the luxury to relax all weekend. It used to be that way, but ever since going back to school, the weekends have to have a plan or I'd be behind on everything; laundry, homework, housecleaning. When you get home from class at 8 pm and have been gone at work all day, the last thing on your mind is getting a load of laundry in! One day I'll get my weekends back - then I'll have my degree and be able to quit my current job (which is great, but let's face it, the long hours and pretty regular travel aren't a favorite of mine). Can't wait for that day. Until then, I guess my motto will be, plan the crap out of your weekends or you'll never get out alive!!

Neko, we have one of those Garden State Discovery Museums down here, too, and the kids love it! Luckily, their cousin (Tom's brother's daughter) is a member, so we got in for free all of the times we've been! Have fun!

Linda, hope your museum day is also a hit!

Cyndi, I spent hours in Whole Foods on Wednesday because Trader Joe's was closed. It's still a bit expensive for what I really should spend on groceries, but everything is so much fun to look at in there. AND their Stonyfield Farms yogurts were cheaper than at the Shop Rite!

Pam, hope you get all the relaxing you can handle out of this weekend!

Kim, your life is so crazy right now! I'm willing to bet if you didn't plan your weekends, you'd be snowed under in hours!

Ruth, keep healing up! One of these days you'll just up and do a jig and be done with the recuperating!

Schmoodle, sorry to hear your son's under the weather! Hope he gets better soon!

Cat, enjoy your dinner party! I'm sure your guests will love the lasagna as much as they would've enjoyed the fish. And they'll really appreciate you not dripping rain all over the meal!!!

Barbara, good luck with the food collecting!

We're having a nice, relaxing afternoon here at home. My parents are gone for the weekend so I'm watching the dogs (one of them is mine anyway) for them. I got my run in on the way over this morning. Their house is only half a mile from my in-laws' but I took the circuitous route to get my four miles. Then the kids and I walked back over at lunch time to play some fetch and refill the water bowl. I'll get another walk in to scoop out their dinner tonight and then one last one to let them out before bed.

My father-in-law took us out for breakfast this morning, which was very sweet. I got a veggie omelet and was able to substitute cottage cheese for the toast, which worked out well because if I have wheat in the morning I have to battle the Craving Monster all day. I've finally reached the point where I can honestly say, "It's just not worth it," and not pine for the toast. I found some rice crackers at the store the other day so I'm going to try them with some Laughing Cow garlic cheese this afternoon. It'll be my first Laughing Cow experience, so I'm excited!

On the way home from church tomorrow I'm going to stop at Wegman's and see if they have any of the Walden's Farms products. I *think* that's where I found the salad dressings before. Then we're going to visit with Tom's brother and his wife and two kids. Should be fun!

Kara

I survived Trader Joes though it was every bit as crowded as last time. The frozen artichokes motivated me and I found them! Also found some fake chicken and steak strips that look yummy. Added some low carb whole wheat tortillas to the cart (low carb is important in our house per diabetes) and I'm pleased. I'm going to try to get there on a week day when it's less crazy so I can look around more. Crowds wear me out.

I also stopped at a thrift store in the area because I'm desperate for black jeans. I found two pairs and a really cute pair of brown work slacks in size 10. For at least a week they will be my favorite clothing item because of the size
When I started this I was struggling into size 18 jeans because I refused to buy 20s again. Thus ends my brag for the day!

The soup seems to be coming along. I left it in the crock pot this morning. I don't actually have a recipe, or measure things (it's the Italian) but found this recipe, http://www.thedailygreen.com/healthy...an-soup-recipe which looks good. I would throw in some fresh rosemary and celery with the leaves.

Woohoo!!! Look at you, skinny minny! I find Trader Joe's to be MUCH more managable on a mid-afternoon weekday. We used to spend a LOT of time there because they stocked some particular things that Connor could eat that "regular" grocery stores (or the commissary, at least) were not in the habit of stocking five years ago. I actually took an entire case of Joe's O's and four cases of fruit leathers with us to Texas when we moved there because there wasn't a Trader Joe's for five states, or something like that!

It's nearly dinner time here and we're just having a nice, slow day. The dogs have been fun. Connor seems to have a sore throat so he's resting on the couch watching an animal rescue show on TV. Hopefully it'll clear up soon. I had a sore throat yesterday and the day before but it's gone today and now I feel terribly guilty for passing it on to him. Hope he gets over it fast! I always feel so bad for the young 'uns when they're down and out.

Kara