What the girls ate for lunch #2 - w/e 8/28/09

So, the second full week of school has come and gone. The girls are settling in nicely - they like their teachers, their friends and Tara is just so thrilled to be going off to her school with her big sister each day!!! Of course, you would think Tara was 16, the way she plans her wardrobe each night before bed. If she wakes before me in the morning, she is standing at the top of the stairs with her clothes in her arms ready to get dressed. She is my little diva, for sure.

Anyway, on to lunches - although I packed lunch for them four days - taking Wednesday off - I only remembered to take pictures of two. I will try to do better next week!

On Monday, the girls had ditalini pasta (Savannah had a red sauce in the little green condiment container), strawberries, cheese cubes and sugar snaps with ranch dressing in the little container. It was a good lunch - they ate most every bite, except for a few sugar snaps that Tara finished on the way home.



On Friday, they had baloney and cheese roll ups, pretzels, fresh pineapple and mini baby carrots. Savannah came home and announced that she did not like her cheese in a roll up...funny, she liked it a month ago...oh well.


We have been doing pretty good with the waste-free lunches. The girls love their thermoses and napkins. We all love the napkins - I am thinking of getting a bunch for the house and eliminating paper napkins and paper towels for the most part! But, don't judge me too harshly, when you see the individually wrapped fruit leathers I got for the occasional lunch treat - hey, they're organic...

What the girls ate for lunch #1 - w/e 8/21/09

Okay, so here is where I am going to keep up with what I am sending the girls for lunch each week. My goal is to blog about the previous week's lunches on the. I am planning to send them lunch 4 days out of 5! Here goes:

Monday: imitation crab legs, babybel cheese, crackers, strawberries, carrots and ranch dressing

Tuesday: Ham and cheese rollups cut into slices, red bell pepper strips, apple chunks, and a cereal bar for Savannah and a yogurt for Tara.



Wednesday: Savannah was sick, so it was only Tara today - she had a boiled egg, a babybel cheese, red pepper strips and strawberries.




Thursday:

Cafeteria Day!

Friday: Tortallini (only a couple for Savannah, cuz she doesn't really like them, although I keeep trying...), 1/2 a boiled egg, babybel cheese, wheat thins, red pepper strips and strawberries.

So now that I have posted these lunchs, I need to go to the kitchen and make lunches for tomorrow. Savannah wanted pineapple, so I have to cut one up - wish me luck (and expect to see it in lunches all week! :-) )

Hmmm...guilt much?

Haven’t updated the blog in several days and that makes me feel guilty. Yeah, like I have a big audience out there and they are all so disappointed that they are sitting at their computers looking at my blog and hitting the refresh button in vain every few minutes. I have had so much going on lately and I find myself thinking, that would make great blog material…I need picture of X for my blog. But, here I am, no recent updates in sight.

Yesterday, I read a blog entry from a dear friend from my mommy forum. She is a beautiful soul with 3 gorgeous children – one of whom happens to have special needs. You can read her blog post here: http://colofisch.blogspot.com/2009/08/iceberg.html

I can’t even begin to compare myself to Jenny – I can only hope that if faced with the same set up circumstances, I would able to do it with as much strength and grace as she does. So aside from all that – she brings up a really good points about parents in general whether she meant to or not. And that is what has been stewing around in the back of my mind since I read her post.

As parents, as moms, we are constantly being judged – or at least that is how we feel. Mommy Guilt is something that jumps out to bite me more than I care to admit. And that, my friends, is really just a fear of being judged – by other parents, by teachers, by family members, heck, even by my kids. I am a working mama! I love my job and sometimes, I feel so guilty that I do! And I feel like maybe other parents who spend more time home with their kids doing all those fun crafty things that it never occurs to me to do are judging me – Psssttt…that woman would rather be in an office all day than be at home raising her babies. Well, I do love being in an office and I also love raising my babies. Anyone who has met my little princesses would have to admit that I (okay, we – me and Dan) have done a pretty darn good job! They are sweet, smart, well-mannered (most of the time) – and I love them both to pieces!!! But, there is that little niggling voice in the back of my head that tells me that maybe I lack somehow because I want to go to work – I choose to leave my girls each day. I look at them and sometimes wonder if they would have been better off if I had stayed home with them? Then I think, no, I don’t see how they could be – aren’t they already perfect?

Then there is the matter of what they eat - am I doing the right things? I pack lunches most days, I try to be "green" and I think I do a pretty job, but I did not get there overnight. The first time I ever packed Savannah's lunch (she was not quite 2), I packed her 1/2 of a lunchable and a half a banana. Some people would gasp at the sodium. Others might just say I was being lazy. But hey, she was being fed, she was happy. :) Nowadays, my new thing is a waste-free lunch - lunch bag, thermos, even cloth napkins. I pack them "bento style" and get a kick out of putting things in little compartments and making it look cute. So which is better? Is either one really? In both cases, it got the job done? Just saying...

It goes on and on - whay they eat, what they wear, what we do in our spare time...

I saw a post on facebook today about a coworker who recently had a baby and decided to leave her job at SJ to take something that would allow her more time at home. On the one hand, I am thinking great for her, and I am reading all the congrats she got - all the kudos for "choosing what it important," "work will always be there, but your babies are only little one." Bam! Judging - mommy guilt!!! Now I know that there was really no judging there - those people making those (very nice) comments don't even know me. But...that is how it felt to me.

I am sitting her blogging while the girls watch Bindi the Jungle girl and Savannah eats an ice cream cone and Tara walks around in my high heels that I wore to work. Should I be spending this time doing some creative activity with them? But as Savannah climbs up beside me to talk about her day and hug on me and tell me she loves me and Tara climbs up in her "me too" mode - Nah...for now at least we are all exactly where we need to be.

America's next top model...

...well, maybe if I wasn't 36!!! So my mom is a great seamstress and she recently came across a "how-to"
online to make a version of the dress generally know as a Le Sac dress. It is basically a sheath dress with a tie at the top that you can wear several different ways depending how how you adjust the sheath and the tie. She made me two (I love being a daughter!!!!) - one in black and one in lilac. I told her I would model it different ways to show the different ways you can wear it. I used the black tie with the lilac dress in all the styles so that you could see how each is tied. Some of them I think will look better with a tie of the same color. Anyway, here you go:

This is a Grecian style:

This is a more basic style:

This is a halter style. I used a rhinestone clip-on earring in the center of the "V" in the front.

And another halter style. This is one of my favorites:






I love this dress! You can really play with the fabric - pulling and tucking it to get the look you want to get. There are several other ways to wear it and I will try to post those later.

Now I just need someplace to go...

Shameless showing off of the progeny...

Open letter to Wendy's

Dear Wendys...or McDonalds...or Sonic...or [insert your fast food restaurant of choice here] -

I appreciate fast food. Heck, I love fast food. And, shameful as it is for me to admit, I have managed to ensure that my girls love fast food too. I swear for a lot of months in her toddlerhood, Tara thought every drive up window was a Wendy's (bank, drive thru cleaners - all Wendys!!!). And Sonic!!! Need I expound of the virtues and wonders that are my medium vanilla coke that I get every morning on the way to work? I think not. I LOVE FAST FOOD... Ummm....did I say that already?

Here is what I don't love and I think I can speak for most parents out there...we do not love those stupid little bags of 5 gazillion little cardboard pieces that you put in the kids meal / happy meal / wacky pak. Or those little blow up thingys. Or the CD-Rom trivia games. We HATE them!!! All that means is that we have to spend the entire drive home, saying no, we can't open that now... We hate that. And then we spend the first half hour we get home at the end of our long work day "helping" little girls put together 3D cardboard puzzles that will not lock together and that come apart on one end when you try to attach something on the other end... We hate that. Then we have to step in and mediate / stop the impending bloodshed when one little girl's innocent shove...ummm....nudge causes the other little girl's puzzle to collapse... We hate that. Then we have to yell...ummmm...request that said little girls choose another activity before bedtime. We hate that. Oh, yes and then we have to clean up the gazillion pieces that have managed to get spread from one end of the house to the other... We REALLY hate that.

So, I am begging you Wendys, McDonalds, Sonic and all you other fast food chains out there...

Just put a stupid little mini stuffed animal in the bag and call it a day.

On the dark side...

So, I went on Saturday for my every-other-month hair appointment. I knew when I went I wanted something darker. I am...um, was, very blond - really - I have been highlighting of some kind for most of my life!!! I have been darker blonde and lighter blond, but even at my darkests, I will still blond enough to qualify as "dark blonde."

No more, people. I am brunette - officially! I feel smarter already...

Seriously, it is dark. It has only been two days, so I am still doing double takes when I see my reflection in a mirror - or any mirrored surface for that matter. When I got home on Saturday, the girls came to the stairs to see me and just got the most confused grins on thier faces. Yeah, they were looking around for Ashton Kutcher and the rest of the Punk'd crew. But, they say they like it, so I guess that means I can keep it.

So far, all the feedback from my fans...er, friends, has been really good. And right after they say, Ooooohhhh, I like it, they then say, "So, what does Dan think?" For the record, he likes it too. Although, honestly, I think he would be fine if I colored it purple so long as I don't cut it! :)

With odds like that, I oughta go play Vegas...

Today as I was leaving a meeting (a very successful one that I help organize and facilitate, thankyouverymuch...) I was in an elevator with a coworker. My hands were full with meeting stuff and as I am stepping off the elevator, I feel my carefully constructed pile of stuff start to slide. I hear a clatter on the floor and know that yes, I have once again dropped my phone or my blackberry (Yes, I have both - you have a problem with that? No, one of them is not an I-Phone and I have a problem with that...)... So as I am looking all around my feet, I hear my normally uber-mellow co-worker say, "Oh, S&*t!!!" I am all like What?!? He is trying not to laugh and motions to the floor. I am like all umm, yes, I know I dropped something - now where is it. He tells me, the elevator shaft...

Ummm...what?!?!?

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, somehow, I managed to drop my blackberry, have it disengage from its "protective" case, turn upright on its side at just the precise angle to slide in between that abyss of a crack between the elevator and the lobby floor.

Cue the sick feeling in my stomach....

So, I could explain how it all went from there, but I am sure the only part you are interested in is the facgt that I had to explain to about 20 people what happened. After they all stopped laughing, I find out that the very nice man from maintenance was able to go down the basement and retrieve it.

Can you believe it still works perfectly. Not even a scratch. I am feeling pretty smug right about now...

But something tells me that someday, sometime this little scenerio is all gonna come back and haunt me in some coy little company skit or something...

Coulda been worse, I guess...

I coulda dropped it in the toilet...

Your wish is my command...

So, usually, when I have an opportunity to sum myself up in a sentence or 2, I say something like this:

From 9-5 I am an attorney for a wonderful organization, which makes a great cover for my real identity - Queen Stephenie. Hey - it must be true as I am mama to two little princesses!

Lately, though I am rethinking that. As queen, shouldn't I have more of a life of leisure? Seems I spend all my time responding to commands...er...requests to "Make me some chocolate milk!" and "I need something to eat!" and "Put on Max and Ruby!" and, not to be omitted, "Wipe my bottom!!!!" (okay, that one is from Tara, my littlest princess and to be fair, she is only 3!)

Seems to me that I am no queen...

I'm a body servant.

Day 1

Here we go. So, lately, I have been wanting to give the blogging world a try again... (some of you may remember The Princess Diaries, which were pretty much an open love letter to my little princesses). And Lord knows, I read enough of them. So here I am. Why Trixieland? Heck if I know. I just like Trixie - it is what I call my little bow-making hobby that I do - you will probably hear more about that later. Anyway, just sounds carefree to me and a little crazy - at least that part is certainly true - ummmm... the crazy part, not the carefree part.

So, here is what you will get here in Trixieland - hopefully come good commentary on whatever is going on in my life at the moment - lots about my kids (the little darlings I put to bed an hour early tonight because, hello??? I am just done with the bickering!!!) Some stuff about my marriage and my darling prince charming of a husband - who I will just call PC here. What you won't here are any details about any arguments we may have or whatever - borrrriinnng, I know - but it just goes agains my grain to air dirty laundry of that sort - even here. Now dish on the little princesses - I can guarentee you a lot of that - they are about the biggest part of my life!

Hmmm...about the work part? I am an attorney and I work for one of the most amazing places in the world - I am so blessed to be able to do what I do in the place that I do it. But, let's just leave it at for 8 hours a day, five days a week, I do my thing to earn my part of the family paycheck and leave it at that.

I am a foodie blog stalker - specifically the bento variety, so I am going to try to do my share to contibute to the bento web space. School starts next week for the little prinesses and I am determined to send lunch for them most days.
So, I have to figure out all the stuff about posting photos and linkbacks and all that stuff. Bear with me and I will get it down...I hope. I also have a groovy new camera and I am having a good time documenting the lives of the little princesses, so I can pretty mch guarentee that you will be seeing those... :)

Enough of an intro - I guess it is time to hit publish or whatever... See you!