The Great Clean-Out

B. and baby S. play with the magnets

The pasta was so good it was necessary to eat it with two hands!

B. and I had a lovely and productive weekend. We got to see one of our favorite babies and her mom (Jaynes Ave), share of bottle of the very yummy wine we brought back from my dad's house, and continued the great clean-out of 2007. What is the "great clean-out" you ask? Well, when B. and I moved into our house last August, life was sprinting at a full and frenetic pace. We were homeless for three weeks, only had one car, both had new jobs, were gone every single weekend for various weddings and other events, etc. It was all we could do to unpack, to say nothing for weeding out.

So we have begun the weeding out process. It's going very slowly as we've had very few weekends at home, but it's coming along. This weekend B. tackled the boxes of random items that have been hidden behind a screen in the "man room" for a year now. To illustrate just how random the boxes were, some of the items he ran across were: His Eagle Scout badge, old cub scout uniform (which he tried on), his original birth certificate, a picture of the lead singer of Tar Beach with Carmen Electra, old sheets, soap, golf balls, etc. By the time we're through, the Salvation Army will need a dump truck to load everything up!

On a different note, we managed to be kick ass menu planners this week. About once every six weeks we are actually home on a weekend with enough time to pour through recipes, plan out our dinners, and go grocery shopping for all the necessary ingredients. I poured through all of my old Cooking Lite magazines (which I LOVE) and pulled out tons of recipes. We picked about two weeks worth of dinners and loaded up our cabinets. Of course, it was about 9pm by the time we got home, so instead of the roast chicken we were planning, we went for a much easier dinner: Grilled cheese made on french bread with shredded sharp cheddar, tomatoes, and fresh basil, with a side of organic tomato soup. I wish I could say I made the soup, but I haven't ventured there yet.

On a separate note, please say some prayers and well wishes for our dear friends who are going through a rough time right now. We love them so much and want nothing but the best for them. The nature of blogs is that they are edited for optimism - people don't often want to read about the harsher truths of life, but sometimes that's just what life is.