Oh Pasta, How I Love Thee!

 

Today is a backwards WFMW.  Instead of sharing our tips, we get to ask for help from other bloggers.  My questions are about making pasta.  Here is the background….

Last week, I decided to make some pasta.  I had made up my mind a while ago to start making my own pasta, but I hadn’t gotten around to making enough to store it in the pantry. 

After remembering the recipe for pasta incorrectly, I ended up making a TON of pasta.  (I thought it was 2 cups of flour to 1 egg, and it’s actually 2 eggs to 1 cup of flour)

Here is what my kitchen looked like….

I really need a pasta drying rack!!

These little bits at the end made for a yummy pasta lunch (pasta with Prego.  You can’t get easier than that!)

After I was done making and hanging the pasta, Boozle and I went to the library for story time.  When we came back after a few errands, this is what I found…

The pasta had dried and started to break off onto the counters (and floor!).  It was quite a mess! If you just breathed, they broke into pieces.

  

In the end, I ended up with three big containers full of pasta.  The pasta is all different lengths, because they all broke at different points.  And, to get them to fit into the containers, I had to break them down even further.  It’s not very pretty! 

 

Believe it or not, this will only last a few dinners.  We really love our pasta!

If anyone out there is a pasta expert, can you tell me how to keep it from being so brittle?  And how can I make it straighter? I’m not sure I have enough countertop space to lay it all out flat.  Do you have a better pasta recipe? 

Thanks for stopping by!  If you’d like to see if you can help out other bloggers with their questions, head on over to We Are THAT Family and see who has linked up today!

Motherhood

This post isn’t a long dissertation on what it’s like being a mother.  I just read over at We Are THAT Family about Kristen’s definition of Motherhood.  She said '”…it’s about the impromptu kisses and hugs.”  I can only add one more thing to that short list.  Laughter.  Kisses, hugs, and laughter is what Motherhood is about.  Well, it’s what the good stuff is about.  I know it’s about the tears, fears, and spills too, but let’s focus on the happy times for now.

This made me think of these three pictures.  They are the definition of Motherhood.  One of the pictures is Jack with his Grandma, and it’s fuzzy, but it captures the best moment.  I have to imagine that the only thing better than Motherhood is Grand-Motherhood!

I love being a mom!!!

10 Days and Counting!

I’ve officially made it one third of the way through the 30 Day Fitness Challenge.  10 days done!

The thing that keeps me going isn’t that my friend is doing it with me (or rather, I’m doing it with her), but that if I miss a day, I have to go back to day 1.  That’s what’s making me stick with this challenge. 

I’ve been walking around our neighborhood with Jack in his stroller, but once I walked in a mall and another time or two I did a Leslie Sansone’s Walk Away the Pounds video.  Boy, that woman is perky!  Tonight, I did the video while Jack was playing in the room.  It was fun to Walk (Around Jack) Away the Pounds. I didn’t kick him or step on him once!

If you’re doing this challenge, or if you’d like some tips for exercise and healthy living, check out Heather’s Tip of the Day during the challenge.  It’s simple stuff like staying hydrated, stretching (which I never seem to remember to do), and getting good sleep.  She’s really doing a great job of encouraging us through this challenge.

So, that wasn’t interesting to most of you, but I thought I’d share anyway!  As a reward for reading this far, here are some pictures of my cute little painted Buddha from yesterday.  He likes to paint himself rather than the paper.  We’re working on that.

 

Mommy Retreat Recap

This past weekend was what every Mommy needs.  It was a chance for great friends to get together, taking a break from their families.  It’s not that we don’t love our families or that we wanted to shirk our responsibilities.  It’s that we needed a recharge.  In order to be the best Mommy for your family, sometimes you need to step away from them.  And boy did it work for me!   Here is a ‘brief’ recap of this weekend.

First, let’s just say the cabin was A.DOR.A.BLE!  It was just the right size for the five of us.  It had a comfy couch and a gas fireplace.  (Jen almost singed her eyebrows off trying to get it started – and the darn thing didn’t stay on!)

One of the best things about this cabin in the woods was that it had a HOT TUB!  I’m not a huge hot tub fan, because it’s usually too hot for me to enjoy.  Since we all agreed that it’s no fun to be too hot in a hot tub, we worked with the temperature to get it just right for the four of us (one is pregnant, so she didn’t get to get in).  I think we all could have stayed in that thing the entire weekend.  At just about every hour of the day, you could find at least one person in the hot tub.  It was super relaxing!

Most of the weekend can be summed up with two words: Reading and Laughing.  We could have gone hiking in a beautiful area of South East Ohio, but instead, we chose to stay in and relax.  We brought a TON of books to read and some games to play.  As I looked around from time to time, I noticed how relaxed our visiting  was.  At one point, two people would be deep in conversation, while the other three were playing board games.  Then the dynamics would completely change and one person may be in the hot tub by herself while three or four others were enjoying reading or talking together.  It’s hard to explain, but it was definitely wonderful to experience.  At no time did anyone feel ‘left out’ or pressured to do what they didn’t want to do.  (Except one time when I made Heather and Nichole play Scattergories and they didn’t want to!)

 

While we were blissfully sleeping through the night, and sleeping in as late as we wanted (which turned out to be 7:30 am), we were visited by a friendly, hungry little mouse.  The zip-top bag our blueberry muffins were stored in was gnawed through, and one muffin was missing a considerable amount of  its muffin top.  I think we had a happy, fat mouse (probably hyped up on sugar overload) as our 6th cabin guest.  Luckily we never saw it!

The highlight of the whole weekend (besides the many hours spent in the hot tub) was Saturday night.  We decided to play Jenga; Truth or Dare, minus the Jenga part.  Without going into much detail, let’s just say that we all must have lost 10 pounds laughing so hard (I wish!).  Brooms were slow danced with, pregnant bellies were raspberried, and songs were sung at the top of our lungs.  It was a riot. 

The best part may have been when I drove into the driveway, and my husband and son were there to greet me.  You could see the excitement in Jack’s face as he pointed and shouted at his Mama.  Rick looked more handsome than ever, even though I’m pretty sure he didn’t manage to get a shower all weekend.  (That’s a skill that takes months to perfect.)  I was glad to be home.

I highly recommend a Mommy Retreat to any and all mommies.  Every mommy needs a break from her kids and husband.  It makes us love them that much more!

*Thanks to Heather for letting me ‘steal’ all her photos.  I left my camera at home with the bebe and daddy and wouldn’t you know, no pictures were taken all weekend!  I could have taken mine after all!