Grateful List - September 2011

(T vacuuming, F's artwork from school "my picture is about a beautiful breezy day and there is a rainbow and hearts because it is a holiday")


ARTS
1. Miss Moss's Electric Spring Mix (esp. Velvet Elvis by Alex Winston)
2. Jennifer Egan's A Visit from the Goon Squad
(the best book I've read this year)
3. Foley's purple mix (I have a good friend from high school that makes me wonderful mix CDs, this was his best yet)
4. The return of Modern Family (we've missed it this summer)
5. Muppets: The Green Album
6. Streaming old episodes of Coupling through Netflix before bed at night
7. Tori Amos' Night Of Hunters


FOOD
8. Balsamic asparagus pasta
9. Vegetarian southern-style collard greens (via Food.com)
10. Baked ziti and summer vegetables (via Cooking Light)
11. Kale, sausage, and white beans
12. Poached asian pears with vanilla ice cream - we get so many of these from our CSA but they're too hard to really munch on so I'm glad we finally found a good way to cook them
13. Beef brisket tacos with mango bbq sauce
14. Slow cooker baked apples
15. Salsa chicken in the slow cooker (from Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook (NYM Series))
16. Dan and T making breakfast together - "I make eggs mommy. i make eggs."
17, Drinks with Shannon at Founding Farmers
18. The cabbage soup diet (sometimes when you feel out of whack, this helps, as crazy as that sounds)

STUFF
19. Frigits Deluxe (best toy ever, the whole family loves these)
20. T and his Melissa & Doug Cutting Food Box
(he loves this toy)
21. Bug spray (constant rain = lots of mosquitos)
22. Our new apple peeler/corer

PLACES
23. Long Branch nature center in the rain with T
24. Spending mornings at the zoo with T while the girls are in school
25. Checking out all the water snakes at Huntley Meadows (seriously, there were TONS of them)
26. Apple picking at Stribling Orchard

ETC
27. P telling Dan "daddy, don't worry you'll always be my super special daddy. always. until you become soil."
28. The girls playing warrior princess (tiarra + light saber = not a bad combination)
29. T always asking "why?" and "whatcha doing?"
30. Checking out the koi pond with T and P after we drop F off at kindergarten
31. Picking F up from kindergarten and hearing all her stories about the day (ex - "Today I met a new friend, Rebecca. I think she could be a fashion designer or something because she's so stylish and fancy.")
32. Getting through F's first day of kindergarten with P ("even TV is lonely without F. I keep trying to tell her stories but she's not there.")
33. The back to school picnic at F's elementary school, it was such a pleasure to be part of such a diverse group of people.
34. T always wanting cuddles and saying "miss you!"
35. T walking all the way to preschool without a stroller
36. P's excitement about her new best friend (another P)
37. Attending Shay Cochrane's photography workshop in Charlottesville
38. Margie's "art show" for the kids (they asked her to paint certain things then watched her paint them).
39. T pushing trains around everywhere
40. F's "All About Me" book
41. P and her friend, C, building a princess castle out of magnatiles and legos
42. Exercise videos with F after school
43. My yoga teacher telling me my wheel is gorgeous (sometimes, it's the little things that make you happy)
44. T's fascination with the house they're building across the street (some days we just sit outside and watch)
45. KM's wonderful Mexican fiesta playgroup

T's List - apple juice, milk, my friends, drive cars upstairs [at preschool], daddy, cuddles, playground, tractor, hayride

P's List - my family, dollies, my bunkbed, my cousins, F, my friend L, my new friends at preschool, Sabrina

F's List - P, vacations, going to my cousins' house, watching movies, starting kindergarten, wii fit, the morning news [at school], worksheets, my new friends, princess isabella stories, cybil lily, art projects