Virtual Coffee

Welcome to coffee at my house!  Look at the pretty hydrangea centerpiece I've placed on the table.  (And don't you like how that random newspaper there gives this scene the real look of a casual morning cup of coffee?  That was intentional, of course.) 

I'd like to say I grew the hydrangeas in my yard, but they're from the grocery store.  I'm not even sure if those are naturally-occurring hydrangea colors or if they were dyed.  But they are so, so pretty and they make me happy.  They were only $6 for three stems, which makes me think I probably got ripped off at my wedding 7 years ago when the florist told me hydrangeas were $10/stem. 

I'll say one more thing about the flowers and then I'll stop.  The problem with hydrangeas is that they seem to die quickly after they're cut.  If you have a bouquet with a stem of hydrangea in it, inevitably the hydrangea will be the first flower to wither up, which is a problem because it often makes up the bulk of the bouquet.  A trick I learned is to cut little slits in the bottom of the hydrangea stem and fan it out for maximum water absorption.  In my limited flower-arrangement training, the main thing I've learned is that your main goal is maximum water absorption.  That's why you put warm water in a vase, because the warm water molecules travel faster up the stem.  (An exception is with tulips and daffodils, because those are early spring blooms and are therefore used to very cold water.)  That's also why you should cut your stems on an angle, because then you maximize the surface area of the stem that can suck up water.

I don't know why I just said all that.

Anyway.

Oh right, coffee.

Today I'm drinking the Dunkin' Doughnuts limited-time-only Strawberry Shortcake coffee, the kind you buy at the store.  It comes ground-up in bags, rather than in K-cups, so I have to use the special My K-Cup Attachment for the Keurig.  The attachment allows you to fill up the cup with any kind of grounds you want and put them in the Keurig.

Excuse the coffee pun, but I'm a little lukewarm on strawberry coffee.  Strawberries are my all-time favorite fruit (although nectarines are a very close second).  I bought 5 containers of strawberries on Sunday at the store.  My gym water bottle has strawberries on it.  And whenever I have a choice of flavor on anything, I pick strawberry.  But I think maybe that rule might not extend to coffee.  Strawberry coffee is a little bit weird.  I like how it makes the house smell, though.

And I'll probably be having a second cup because I am so, so tired.  Lately bedtimes have been very, very badtimes with Nathan.  (What am I saying, "lately"?  Always.)  Our current challenge comes courtesy of that wonderful extended daylight we get this time of year.  Here's how it goes: around 4:00 in the afternoon I start thinking about how I'd better get the wheels in motion for dinner, so that we can eat at 5:00 and do bathtime and stories and all that and Nathan can be in bed by 7:30.  Then he's in bed at 7:30, but he gets up.  Like a million times.  And eventually it's like 9:00 and he's still not sleeping.  He's not going down until the sun does.  So from the time I start thinking about winding down to the time Nathan finally falls asleep is like five effing hours. 

(Though I should note that I do not, in fact, slave over a hot stove making dinner for a full hour.  When I say I start thinking about dinner at 4:00, I'm really just thinking about turning on the oven, or boiling water or whatever.  I'd prefer a meal that sits in the oven for an hour to a meal where I have to stand there over a stove for 15 minutes or more.   Also I learned from Leigh Ann that the act of frittering around in the kitchen is known as potchkening in Yiddish.)

Back to my point about my kid's sleep, or lack thereof.  Okay, so I realized recently that maybe Nathan has inherited his father's night owl tendencies, which would be okay except (a) The child has many years of school ahead of him, and school starts in the morning, and (b) NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.  I don't want to be over-dramatic, but being married to a person who keeps unconventional hours is A Challenge.

Further compounding today's exhaustion is the fact that the kid woke up at 4 a.m. and didn't go back to sleep.  Oh, and further compounding that, is the fact that I pretty much blame myself for my kid's poor sleep habits.  I say if I were just a better mother, or less selfish, or something, the kid would sleep better.  Nobody else has these problems, right?

Rationally, I know that that most other parents have these problems.  How do I know?  Because Go the F**k to Sleep is currently the #2 bestselling book on Amazon.   I don't own the book, but I read it the other day at Barnes & Noble and it was so, so hilarious and so, so relatable.  And if it's selling so well, that must mean a lot of parents can relate to sleep struggles, which must mean I am not alone.  (My favorite part of the book was where the guy asks, "How is it that you can do so many amazing things, but you can't just roll over and sleep?"  My second favorite part was, "You're thirsty?  You're lying.  That's bullshit.") 

So I know I'm not the only parent who struggles with sleep.  Kids are just reluctant to sleep.  And yet every time my kid stays up too late or wakes up too early, I blame myself.  I think, This is all my fault.  If I just did x or y or had him on a better schedule, he wouldn't do that. 

Then I get into the whole You aren't allowed to feel tired, it's not like you have a job to go to or another kid to watch.  And pretty soon my mind has run through the whole litany of feel-bad thoughts and I've gotten to "And I'm also fat."

Speaking of my weight, I went on a bit of a carbohydrate bender last week, and I was up two pounds at Weight Watchers yesterday.  Time to get serious again.  This week, I will kick some Weight Watchers ass.  For breakfast this morning I had mini-quiches, which I whipped up yesterday and put in the fridge.  I'm going to give you the recipe so this post has some redeeming value beyond my general whining and self-pity.  The recipe comes from the May 15-21 weekly handout at Weight Watchers, which the leader always calls the Weekly Reader, making me think of those little magazines kids get in school. 

Muffin Tin Mini-Quiches (Makes 12; 4 Weight Watchers Points Plus each)

• 4 eggs
• 2 cups nonfat or lowfat milk
• 1 cup Bisquick or Fiber One pancake mix
• Whatever vegetables you have (I have used spinach, mushrooms, onions, and bell peppers, all of which I sauteed before adding)
• 2 cups shredded lowfat cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Spray a 12-hole muffin tin with nonstick spray.  Mix together ingredients and spoon into muffin tin.  (NOTE: If you use a lot of vegetables you might get more than 12 muffins, thus necessitating another muffin tin.)  Bake for 35-40 minutes.

They are really good!  Obviously they're not the kind of thing you can just whip up on a weekday morning, but they work really well if you make them ahead and reheat them.  I was able to make 22 quiches with this recipe yesterday, which lowered the Weight Watchers points value to 2 points per quiche. 

Also yesterday I made this recipe from SkinnyTaste.com.  It is like a Weight Watchers-friendly version of the biscuits they serve at Red Lobster.

In other news, I've been meaning to talk about how happy I am that Nathan and I have resumed our summer Saturday traditions.  This year I've signed him up for swimming lessons on Saturday mornings, which is actually not part of the tradition because last year he took the weekday lessons.  I just felt like only going to lessons once a week this year.  I took this slightly crummy picture of swim lessons:

I had to buy Nathan that bright green swim shirt/rash guard because it makes it easier to spot him in the crowd at the public pool. 

Don't worry, I'll get a better picture next week.  The first week all the kids in the preschool class have to start out in the baby pool, where parents have to sit too far away to get good pictures.  But Nathan got moved up to the big pool for next week, so I'll get better pictures.  (Unfortunately the parental sitting area for the bigger pool is in the direct sunlight.)  Swim lessons kind of play to my mostly unpleasant competitive nature, because there is always an opportunity to move up, or change pools, or use fewer floats on your belt than the next kid.  I kind of hate it, because I try to avoid situations where I am forced to compare my kid to other kids, and I especially try to avoid pushing him too hard in an activity where I excelled as a kid.  (Though my mom will tell you that I did not so much excel in early-childhood swim lessons.)  (Oh and also I should say that I understand that I can't totally avoid situations where I'm forced to compare my kid to other kids.  Obviously the entire grading system in school is based on comparing a kid to other kids.  But I wouldn't want to, say, have a discussion with another parent about her kid's performance in school, because my worry and insecurity come out really quickly in those situations.)

Anyway, the traditional part of our Saturdays happens after swim lessons.  First we go to the farmer's market.  Contrary to the name, a farmer's market may not be the best place to be when you're on Weight Watchers.  There are, like, two booths at the place that sell items grown on an actual farm.  Then there is the Cheese Booth.  Oh, so many wonderful, beautiful cheeses.  And the person who, umm, cuts the cheese is always so passionate and excited about the cheese.  You feel somehow like you are some kind of important chef buying farm-fresh artisinal cheeses.  There are the aged sharp cheddars and the smoked string cheeses and the goat cheese that I once heard a snobby lady call chevre.  Oh, and right next door is the bakery booth, where they sell these big baguettes of pretzel bread that somehow meander into your mouth as you browse the other booths.  Then you buy an overpriced $4 container of raspberries to assuage your guilt about the bread and cheese.

We go to the library after the farmer's market.  Then we make our way home, stopping at garage sales.  I will admit that before last year, I hated garage sales.  But then I discovered that they're a really cheap way to make my kid happy with new toys.  Unfortunately, we now have so many toys that we should be the ones selling the toys, not buying more.  But it's fun.  I don't usually find anything for myself at the sales, because most of the time I'm of the opinion that if I owned those items, I'd sell them too.  Occasionally I find vases or kitchen supplies.  Last year I got some cool Fiestaware coasters and cheese spreaders.  (You wouldn't think I would have a use for cheese spreaders.  You wouldn't think anybody would have a use for cheese spreaders.  But since the Laughing Cow spreadable cheese is like your BFF on Weight Watchers, I use those cheese spreaders a lot.)

So then by lunchtime on Saturday we make our way home with our new wares.  And we're so full from the farmer's market snacking that I don't have to make lunch.  I'm glad summer Saturdays are back.  

Well, let's see ... what else?  Today is Day #2 of camp, during which I will be going to the gym and running errands.  Then Nathan has a dentist appointment in the afternoon, followed by what I hope will be a barbecued chicken dinner.  And then ... crashing.

Whew, that was long!  Thanks for coffee today!