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Missing Skill

Today’s bloganury prompt is all about the missing skill you wish you had. I haven’t participated bloganury yet, but with nothing else compelling to write here I am. The one missing skill I wish I had was singing. I cannot carry a tune to save my life and I love singing. In fact, I’m quite jealous of all the amazing singers in my life. This is also why I was in band and not choir.

So I was finally able to workout today. I’ve taken the past couple of days off because I jacked my knee up. Consequently, I substituted body weight exercises for the plyometric exercises. While I was able to get through the workout, my knee didn’t tolerate it very well. It’s swollen and a bit weak. I’m probably gonna need to wear a knee brace when I run and workout. Obviously, I have my fingers crossed hoping I can run tomorrow. If my knee doesn’t tolerate it, I’ll pivot to walking immediately.

Since the boys are back in school, it’s back to the status quo during the day. My door is always open to my sales assistant, who never judge me for my missing skill. Even if I’m singing Metallica poorly at the top of my lungs. They probably think I’m trying to speak their language. Nonetheless, thank god for dogs that love us unconditionally.

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Winter Break

Winter break is over for the boys. They’ll finally head back to school tomorrow after a nice break. Of course, they’re just in time for the omicron variant, which means we’ll receive a boundless number of emails from school about it. Honestly, the Covid fatigue is real. I’m over all of it. Fortunately, there is no chance that they’ll go virtual, which will save my sanity.

Tomorrow the puppies and I will get back to our well established routine. While the boys are home, the puppies are a bit all over the place. They bark to get into our room and then bark or get out. Unfortunately, there’s just so much going on that they can’t decide where they want to hangout. Normally, I leave my door open so they can come and go as they please. However, that isn’t feasible when the boys are home from school.

I finished The Diary of Ann Boleyn, by Robin Maxwell last night. It was an entertaining read that fed my Tudor obsession very nicely. I’ve already ordered her other books about the Tudors. It’s all Hillary Mantel’s fault. Her Wolf Hall trilogy about Thomas Cromwell is absolutely outstanding. I can’t recommend it highly enough. Tonight I’ll be starting another Mantel novel albeit not one that involves the Tudors. After this book, I’ll circle back to Robin Maxwell and the Tudors.

Reading has long been a love of mine. For many years, I neglected this love, but not anymore. I’ve made reading daily a priority for the last three years, which has been wonderful. I’m slowly working my way through the top 500 novels. What books have you been reading? Did you ready anything interesting over winter break?

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Back To It

Well I was back to it today after taking most of last week off. Unfortunately my computer, or more to the point my wifi, didn’t want to cooperate this morning. Fortunately, I was able to resolve the issue relatively quickly and then had no issues the rest of the day. Thankfully, I was much busier at work today than I have been. Woohoo!


It felt good to be back. Admittedly, I like and need the structure. Before going back to work today, I spent the weekend relaxing at home. I baked a tiramisu and prime rib roast on Saturday, which was mighty tasty. Yesterday, the hubby and I took the puppies for a walk in the Glades. It was an absolutely beautiful morning. The puppies had a great time. I, however, was disappointed that we didn’t see any alligators.

The rest of the day, we binge watched the Office and It’s Always Sunny. We had planned on having leftovers for dinner, but I changed my mind. Consequently, I sent Goalielocks and his GF to the store to get supplies for homemade pizzas. The only crust they had available was mini pizzas and a brand I’ve never eaten before. Thankfully, the new crust was mighty tasty and the perfect size.


Hubby and the Mayor are back to it tonight. That is back at hockey practice as we resume our normal schedule. This of course means a mad dash until SAHOF (the state tournament.) I’m loving my new planner and productivity stickers. Hopefully, I’ll be able to stay on top of our collective, crazy schedules.

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Happy New Year

Happy New Year to my friends, family and the blogosphere. It’s hard to believe 2021 has come and gone because quite frankly it feels like 2020 never left. 2021 is a year I won’t soon forget although I’d definitely like to forget some of it. In late January, we said goodbye to my Great Grandma, who was a sprite 104 years and 10 months old. To put her age in travel sports terms, she was a 16. Much like Betty White, she lived a full life and had her faculties until the end.

We had some great trips to Charlotte and Utah. Although we’d all like to go up to Minnesota to see our family. We haven’t been up there since 2019, which is the longest we’ve been away since we moved to Florida. Hopefully, we will be able to make the trip as a family in 2022. I’m also looking forward to Momcation 3.0, which has been two years in the making. I can’t wait to see my girls!

2022 will be another landmark as Goalielocks will be graduating high school. This is absolutely crazy since I’m pretty sure he was born yesterday. When he graduates, he’ll graduate with some great credentials. He’ll have his medical administrative certificate, telemetry, phlebotomist, medical assistant and pharmacy tech certificates. Thankfully, he’s been able to do clinicals this year, which is great. This will help these kids decide if they really want to pursue a career in medicine before spending money on college.

We had a great New Year’s Eve at the rink watching the Mayor and his friends play in a 4-on-4 tournament. The kids had a blast, but I think the parents may have had more fun. Perhaps, they had too much fun. I’m only kidding there’s no such thing as hockey parents having too much fun. After the tournament, we headed to a friend’s house for dinner and then all drop. Unfortunately, the Mayor had a headache, so we left around 11:00 pm.

Now we’re watching the Winter Classic. Unfortunately, I don’t think the Wild decided to show up. To be fair, we are missing some key players. Nevertheless, it would have been nice to have a competitive game and not a blow out. By the way, it’s so cold there that they have to warm the ice. And people wonder why we moved to Florida! Happy New Year!

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2021

2021 is almost over and I can’t wait. It’s not been an awesome year in many respects. On the other hand, it’s been a fantastic year. Professionally, I excelled an am a top producer on my team. More importantly I love my job. I look forward to what 2022 will bring me from a professional standpoint.

2021 saw us move our son out of his first apartment. This was quite the milestone for all of us. Fortunately, we had a great deal of support from our family both emotionally and literally. My folks travelled to Utah to help us get Jake packed. We wanted to take as much work of his shoulders as we could. Thankfully, we did a great job getting him situated while maximizing his free time.

This fall has brought a number of challenges, not all of which will be shared here, that seemed insurmountable. First, I broke my little toe. How something so little can hurt so much is a mystery to me. Also, I learned to avoid MD Now at all costs. Then the Hubby nearly sawed the tips of his fingers off. Again this experience reiterated why we should continue to avoid MD Now. Next a goon kicked the Mayor in the thigh with his skate resulting in a large gash. Fortunately, MedExpress was able to treat him .

Of course one of the biggest challenge of the early fall was saying goodbye to Maya. She has been such an important part of our life for the last twelve years. I miss being greeted by her deep bark when I come home. We miss here dearly and so do Anakin and Athena. They’re adjusting well, but Athena was depressed for a couple of months after Amaya passed.

This year I did a great job of running and doing BBG regularly. I’ll definitely look to continue this trend in 2022. Although to be honest, I’ve taken off the last week and a half due to a cold. I finally started running again Tuesday and my lungs felt like they were going to explode. My run today and yesterday went much better and my lungs feel good. Tomorrow we’ll ring in the New Year with a 4 on 4 tournament at Skatezone. Should be fun.

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A Little Poetry

I was in a poetry mood this evening, so I thought I’d share a beautiful poem by Emily Dickinson.

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Christmas

We had a great Christmas even if it was a little more low key than previous years. My Christmas started when I rolled over in bed and the Mayor was there to wake me up. As soon as I rolled over, he asked if it was time to open up gifts. Spoiler alert, he also did the same thing the next morning only that time he was asking to go to Dunkin’. Eventually, the Mayor was able to coax me out of bed, so he could open gifts.

The bigger hurdle in the early morning wasn’t me, but Goalielocks. Unsurprisingly, he took awhile to wake up. Once up both boys were excited to open their gifts. Honestly, it was a weird holiday since they opened some accessories, but their main present was still in transit. This year we bought to big family gifts, a squat rack and a new tv for the loft. Naturally, the boys were excited for both.

Our annual Christmas brunch was an absolute success. Fortunately, we had very little leftovers, which is great. I certainly don’t need to eat caramel rolls for a week. We put Anakin in his crate since he gets aggressive when people come into the house. Unfortunately, he doesn’t do well with very little kids, so he stayed in his crate until Ava left. Meanwhile, Athena was showered with lots of sweet love and attention by Ava. Athena was so patient and loving with her.

Some how we started watching the Best of the Crocodile Hunter, so that was the background music to our brunch. I forgot how much I loved Steve Irwin and his show. He had the best energy and was just a riot to watch. Shortly, after I told my brother Jake probably wouldn’t be able to c due to work, Jake called. Honestly, Jake’s call home was the best gift ever. After company left, we napped and relaxed before heading to the Kennedy’s for dinner.

Dinner at the Kennedy’s was wonderful. As always, Hanh cooked an absolute feast for everyone. She’s an amazing cook! After dinner, we had some drinks before deciding to play some games. Note to self, the games may have gone better sober. We had an absolute blast playing Heads Up and Scattergories. I’ll tell you one lesson the Hubby and I took away from the evening, the Mayor isn’t allowed to play Scattegories with the grandparents. All in all, Christmas was a wonderful reminder of how blessed we are.

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Prosecco Parfaits

As the name Prosecco parfaits suggest, this truly is the perfect dessert. It’s simple to prepare, but big on elegance and flavor. Truly, you can make it your own by playing around with the wine selection and the accompaniments. For the parfaits I made on Christmas eve, I used Martini & Rossi Asti. I dressed the parfaits with fresh mint and raspberries, which was a great combination. Here’s the recipe:

Prosecco Parfaits
Servings: 6-8
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 8 minutes
Inactive: 4 hours
Total time: 4 hours 23 minutes

Ingredients:


1 750 ML of Prosecco or other sparkling wine
3/4 cup of granulated sugar (divided 1/2 cup and 1/4 cup)
1/2 cup of water
2 1/4 oz packets of unflavored gelatin
1 cup heavy cream
8 oz mascarpone cheese

Instructions:

  1. Combine the wine, 1/2 cup of sugar and water in a large saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat. Once it starts to boil, reduce the heat and let the mixture simmer for five minutes to cook some of the alcohol off. You can adjust the simmer time here depending on how strong you want your jello to be. Five minutes, however, produces a well balanced jello shot with plenty of alcohol. Next remove the pan from the heat and slowly whisk in the the gelatin until its completely dissolved. Once the gelatin has been stirred in and dissolved completely, pour it into a 9×11 or 9×13 baking dish and cool to room temperature before placing the jello in the refridgerator to setup for at least four hours.
  2. In a large bowl, whip the cream to medium stiff peaks. This took me about 4 minutes, but can vary based on the equipment used. Medium stiff peaks are just stiff enough to stand up, but the top will curl over (see pic below.). Place the bowl with the whipped cream in the fridge to keep cool. If you live up North, you can skip this step. I live in Florida, so I need to put it in the fridge to keep it from getting too warm. Next, in a separate large bowl, mix the marscapone cheese and remaining sugar (1/4 cup) untli smooth. Fold in 1/3 of the cool whipped to the marscapone cheese mixture. Lastly, once combined add the marscapone cheese mixture to the rest of the whipped cream.
  3. After the jello is set, you can start assembling the parfaits. I used parfait glasses I purchased from Amazon. Cut the jello into 1×1 squares using a cookie or bisquit cutter and place in the bottom of the parfait cups. Next cover the jello squares with 1/2 of the cream mixuture. Repeat with two or three more layers (depending on the width of your parfait cups) leaving enough cream for a dollop on top.

Notes:

  • For a non-alcoholic version, you can use the sparkiling grape or pear juice found at most grocery store and can skip the five minute simmer.
  • If it’s warm where you’re at, keep the bowl and the beaters in the fridge to keep them cool.
  • If your whipped cream starts to look grainy, you’ve beaten it too long. You can try to fix it by adding a couple more tablespoons and whisking it in by hand. If that doesn’t work, you’ll need to start over.

Tools used:

  • 2 3 quart mixing bowls
  • 1 Hand mixer
  • Parfait cups (disposable)
  • 13×9 baking pan
  • Reynolds wrap
  • Large Saucepan
  • Whisk

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Christmas Eve Eve

It’s Christmas Eve Eve and I’m not any closer to being ready for Christmas than I was this time last week. I’ve still got a ton of baking and shopping to do. Not to mention the horrific job of wrapping the presents. I literally hate wrapping copious amounts of gifts.

Tomorrow I’ll be baking the Finnish cookies, more mint cookies, parfaits, caramels and I’ll start the caramel rolls. It will be a busy day in the kitchen. I’m excited for the Finnish cookies. This year I’ll be making them with cloud berry jelly, lingonberry jelly, huckle berry jelly and gooseberry jelly. These jellies will also go great with the krumkakes I’m making Christmas morning.

I’m excited to make the caramels. I haven’t made them in over twenty years. They’re a bit time consuming, but they are mighty tasty. I’m also going to experiment with trollkrem, which is a Norwegian dessert. I’ll be using the lingonberry jelly to make it since I couldn’t find lingonberries anywhere stateside. We’ll see how the day goes because if I run out of the time, the trollkrem will have to wait for NYE.

It was a bit funny at work because the first email said we’d be getting of three hours early on Christmas. Christmas Eve is the 24th of course, but since Christmas is Saturday my company is observing Christmas on Christmas Eve. Consequently, that makes today Christmas Eve in the eyes of my company. Thank goodness this wasn’t confusing at all.

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Puppy Poetry

“A LITTLE DOG THAT WAGS HIS TAIL” BY EMILY DICKINSON

A little Dog that wags his tail
And knows no other joy
Of such a little Dog am I
Reminded by a Boy

Who gambols all the living Day
Without an earthly cause
Because he is a little Boy
I honestly suppose –

The Cat that in the Corner dwells
Her martial Day forgot
The Mouse but a Tradition now
Of her desireless Lot

Another class remind me
Who neither please nor play
But not to make a ‘bit of noise’
Beseech each little Boy –