My Favorite Things, Cont’d.

I can’t remember if I’ve done more than one of these posts, but I know I at least did one a long time ago.  (If I was a real blogger I would totally link to it.  A – I’m not a real blogger, B – Way too lazy.)  Anyway, so I couldn’t in good conscience title this post “My Favorite Things, Part II” because this could be part III.  It’s hard to be lazy and have a conscience.

Let’s start off with something that has kind of revolutionized our lives.   It’s even done it’s part in preserving our marriage.  There were few things Brennan liked hearing less than:  “Can you please get your scheduler/phone so we can calendar some things for the week/month?”  And, there were few things I liked hearing less than, “You never told me you were going out of town for the weekend, I can’t be here I’ve got a golf tournament.”  So, what is this revolutionizing, marriage saving tool you ask?  Google Calendar!!!  I know, I know it’s been around basically since the dinosaurs left, but for those of you who are even less hip and happening than I am you have got to get onboard!  I can put all of my appointments, kids’ games, practices, lessons,  etc. on my calendar from my computer and I can pull it up on my phone wherever I go.  That way when my child’s soccer game ends and no one seems to have brought the snack and I can pull my calendar up and see that yes, indeed, it was our turn for snack.  Perhaps my favorite feature though is that I all the events that involve Brennan needing to be home so I can go somewhere or needing him to attend, I just invite him, then hack his email account, accept the invitations and voila they magically appear on his calendar on his phone which he actually looks at.   With four kids playing soccer right now, this calendar has saved me.  We’ve only spaced two practices!!!

The second “favorite thing” is: 

I realize that wheat grinders aren’t the most sensational things out there, but until you’ve had the thrill of dumping wheat in it and having the loudest noise you’ve ever heard and then taking the top off and seeing a tub full of whole wheat flour – you just won’t understand.  Or, when you’re making homemade pizza and you pull your bag of ground cornmeal (popcorn kernels) to sprinkle on the pan before you put your whole wheat dough on it.  It’s like combining homemaking and power tools.  It’s fantastic.

Two Christmases ago, we got the boys these: 

They’re great, and many of you will be shocked to hear that our kids ride them inside.  Those babies have gotten us through two Winters.  One of the advantages of not having real wood floors I might stress a little more about that, but we just have a laminate.  Yes, our baseboards will need to be repainted, and probably sanded down to …okay so we may need new baseboards, but I’m telling you it’s worth it.  Even Joshy can cruise around on these and entertain himself for a long time.  However, for some reason they’re kind of loud.  There’s no motor or anything, just the noise of the wheels in motion gets loud and we’re doing loud just fine without their help.  So, for last Christmas Nate and Abby each got one of these:

Anna, Abby and Nate and their friends have literally spent hours and hours and hours on these riding around and around the dining room table, and they’re SILENT!!!!!  Abby and Nate often have a tendency to really clash – a lot.  However, I think there might just be hope for their relationship all because of the time they’ve spent laughing, crashing and riding their ripstiks around the dining room table together.

Finally, I’ve been baking a lot of whole wheat bread and we all love it.  It has been a little troubling though that the best way to eat this healthy wholesome treat is to smother it with butter.  I saw this at Costco one day and it was love at first bite. 

We also love cheese, but again there’s that whole troublesome fat/calorie issue so this my friends is the perfect spread.  It’s light and creamy and cheesy and delicious!!! 

That’s for this edition of Andrea’s Favorite Things!  Kind of lame and anti-climatic I know, but there won’t be any elves giving you each of these things.