Foodbox
View out my window this morning:
So timely on this first real snowy day of the season: I got my Blogging By Mail 3 box today! (It was a food swap, for you non-food-bloggers.)
This is from Beth of St. Louis, Missouri. Go midwest! Should we be surprised that a family tradition of hers involves a can of spray cheese, or those little boxes of Life Savers? Holy 5th grade memories! Also included: some Easter candy! What luck to find it at this time of year! And the food section of her local paper. And a very nice letter explaining family traditions. And recipe cards.
But best of all, a tin of homemade Coconut Rum Diamonds! These are so great, I tell you. For someone who is off the booze due to growing a Mitten for another 5 months, anything vaguely rummy is always appreciated, plus I love coconut and so does Rodney. I doubt this tin of cookies will last long. They’re like Shortbreads 2.0–just add rum, coconut, and powdered-sugar glaze. Yum!!!
And now for my next trick:
This I learned from my brother’s wife last weekend. I’m not really ready to post blatant belly shots (Mitten is shy) but regular pants don’t fit, and this is a handy trick. You need one heavy-duty rubber band like the kind that comes on a bunch of broccoli, and you’ll get yourself at least an extra month out of your regular jeans this way!
Because guess what? Shopping for maternity jeans sucks.
Today’s most pressing issue in the Kalamazoo area: How come, on two separate occasions, approximately two weeks apart, but in two different locations within a couple blocks of our house, have I found a whole pile of school-cafeteria-sized containers of chocolate milk dumped on the side of the street? Who would do that? I can see chucking one empty out a window, if you’re a teenager lucky enough to get a ride home after school with your pot-head buddies, but who in their right mind would dump like 25 containers (most still full) on the side of the road? TWICE?
Heidi said,
November 17, 2005 @ 3:49 pm
Weird! About the chocolate milk, I mean. And the snow, too. It’s always hard for me to reconcile our weather with the rest of the country. I’m looking out the window at work now and I see students wearing shorts and tank tops because it’s 75 degrees. I miss snow in November!
Those cookies look fabulous–I can almost smell them!
Kristin said,
November 17, 2005 @ 5:02 pm
WOW! What a difference in weather bewteen KZoo and Detroit. Don’t get me wrong – it is freezing here! But they keep talking about snow on the news and we saw approximately 15 flakes fall yesterday. I would love to wake up to that!
andrea said,
November 17, 2005 @ 5:02 pm
yay snow!
and i love that pic of the rubber band, so funny. and a really smart tip that i’ve filed away in my brain for future use.
hi mitten
Catrin said,
November 18, 2005 @ 11:23 am
Snow….. No snow yet here in Stockholm – but the weather man is talking about some snowing this evening or tonight.. This is the first week we have a temprature below zero.. It has really been a warm autumn… Let´s have some snow now..
Have a nice weekend!
jena said,
November 18, 2005 @ 11:38 am
Great action shot of the rubber band trick! I’m intrigued by the Bella Bands product as another pants-extending tool. (Not that I need to be buying such items for myself… just thinking in advance, you know.)
Mia said,
November 18, 2005 @ 2:34 pm
I love the shot out your window. It was cold enough last night for snow but the sky was clear. And I love your windows. They look like ones that should be in my house except someone redid all of the windows in the 70′s and used regualr 1 over 1 instead. And since I have something like 28 windows that would need to be replaced all at once, I will keep what I have.
And you BBM3 package looks really good. I am waiting for mine to arrive from England.
mari said,
November 18, 2005 @ 6:08 pm
I’m nowhere near ready for maternity but I know I can use that rubber band trick in about a week after I’ve stuffed myself silly from Thanksgiving dinner. That Easter egg ‘train’ you received is so cute!
Jenn said,
November 19, 2005 @ 7:01 am
Ah I miss snowy days like the one outside your window. Congratulations on “Mitten!” Incedentally, that’s my brother’s cat name (only with an additional “s,”) and it made me think of how he nicknamed his wife’s belly “Paco” when she was pregnant, because they both thought for some reason they were going to have a boy. His wife would get playfully annoyed, “Stop calling him Paco!” and my brother would reply “But that’s his naaaaaame!” As it is they have a beautiful little girl, Leah, now.
I like your BBM3 package. So the holiday in question was Easter, I’m guessing? I love and miss Triscuits, so good with sliced cheese and popped in the microwave for a few seconds! Those cookies look DEELISH, too!
pippy said,
November 21, 2005 @ 8:32 am
That chocolate milk thing is just so weird.
carolyn said,
November 21, 2005 @ 2:39 pm
wow i’m so jealous. i love lifesaver story books, my grandma used to send us those at christmas. i’m always very very jealous of the snow! but i’m sure you knew that already!
Catrin said,
November 24, 2005 @ 3:01 pm
We did get som snow last weekend – but since then it has been raining.. All snow is gone.
Happy Thanksgiving and have a great weekend, i´m going to the first christmas market on Saturday.
Cathi said,
December 5, 2005 @ 4:44 pm
My trick throughout both of my pregnancies was to get bigger regular jeans and just use belts, if needed. It’s cheaper, they feel like normal clothes, and can be used post-baby if it takes a little bit to get back into your hot mama pants. I hope this doesn’t sound pushy or is too prying, but once your belly pops out a bit (or if it already has), it’s easy to put the waist of the pants below the belly, and you can usually get away with only going up a size or two. True, there is the issue of having shirts long enough so as not to subject people to your gut hanging out if you ever bend over, but that is true with a lot of the giant maternity panels as well. Just my .02.