Stream of Consciousness

WordPress tells me this is the sixth time I’ve written a stream of consciousness post.

Somehow, I thought I’d done more than that.

Weird.

So, let’s see. What’s going on in my brain right now?

For starters, I sort of can’t believe that Thanksgiving is next week. The kind of warm weather we’ve had here on the east coast is throwing me off.

I think we’re going to take most of next week off of school, so, yay! And then Christmas break is comin’ up not super long after that, which is another yay!

School is actually going quite well this year, mind you, but even when it goes well, it does take up a lot of time, and so it’s fun to have a break.

A thing that is helping school go better this year: even my youngest kid is getting to be quite independent with her schoolwork. This is pretty marvelous.

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Yesterday, I picked up another book (Servant’s Hall) by Margaret Powell, who wrote Below Stairs.   I’d put it on hold at the library, and I was super excited when I got the email saying it had arrived.

Even though it was a packed day, I did manage to squeeze in a few chapters of reading and so far, this one is every bit as good as Below Stairs.

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I got a bag of Brussels sprouts in my produce box, and I decided to try Cook’s Illustrated’s recent salad recipe, which has a warm bacon dressing.

None of us are particularly fond of Brussels sprouts, but all six of us thought they were fairly tolerable this way.

Basically, I consider that to be a cruciferous vegetable win.

(Could everyone get them down the hatch?   Yes?   Super.)

I would probably not ever purchase Brussels sprouts on my own, and that’s why I keep getting my produce box…it expands my boundaries a bit.

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Joshua and I spent several hours dealing with the leaves in our yard on Monday, and now, two days later, it’s a little bit hard to tell we did anything.

Oh well.   We’ll keep at it, and eventually, the trees WILL stop dropping leaves.

Although I do have mixed feelings about that, because bare trees are sort of not my favorite thing in the whole world.

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I finally got around to taking Joshua in to get his learner’s permit.

(I may or may not have put this off because a trip to the DMV always involves large amounts of waiting.)

He passed the test (with ease, despite his nerves) and that means I’m about to embark on the journey of teaching someone how to drive for the first time.

I will be a pro at this by the time Zoe gets her permit, but right now, I’m a total noob.   Fortunately, Mr. FG and I have navigated all of our other parental newbie moments passably well, so I have faith that we will get through this.

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I had a “duh!” moment this week when a reader left a comment about this peeler, which I’ve owned for 3 years.   She said she loved the Kuhn Rikon peeler, and my goodness, isn’t that little helper tool on the side helpful for removing eyes?!

And I was like, “Wait, what?   Does my peeler have that?”

Sure enough, it does.   But I never noticed it in 3 years.

I’m a little slow on the uptake sometimes.   Ahem.

But I’m pleased to say I totally used the side tool to remove several potato eyes yesterday and it WAS indeed epic.

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So.   That’s the stuff that’s   running through my brain right now.   😉

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P.S. I keep forgetting to tell you all that the winner of the Amani Ya Juu giveaway was Laura J.   Laura, you’ve been emailed!