What We're Eating This Week 2/52

 SO MUCH Pioneer Woman!  Because Jack bought her new book with his Christmas money because he is ADORABLE.

Sunday:  PW BBQ slow cooker chicken, pasta salad-- I used shells this time and no one wanted to eat it because different is bad, coleslaw, chips and dip, Christmas Tree ice cream for dessert because we need to eat those before it's next Christmas.  ($35, but that's OK because we have 2 hockey practices tonight and plan to eat the exact! same! thing! So it;s really on $17.50/night, which comes out to $2.92/person per night.  AMAZING).

Monday: Leftovers

Tuesday: PW stuffed bell peppers and corn on the cob (frozen!  I didn't even know that was a THING until Ben asked me to buy some!) PB cookies for dessert.  ($34 or about $5.70/person-- I used organic meat and needed some random stuff for the cookies, driving up the price.  Also, organic bell peppers were a million dollars each).

Wednesday: Spaghetti with ground turkey in the sauce, bread machine french bread, canned green beans because I have a not-so-secret crush on canned green beans, canned pineapple because DITTO ($9.  TOTAL FOR THE WHOLE DINNER ARE YOU KIDDING I LOVE ALDO SO MUCH or $1.50/person)

Thursday:  PW Lobster Mac and Cheese, cooked spinach. ( I happened to have some lobster tails in the freezer, so this cost $27 because I had to by some weird cheese or $4.50/person)

Friday: Costco take n bake pizza, popcorn, candy ($18 or $3/person)

Saturday: Chicken tacos, chips and salsa, beer, brownies ($55, but we might have friends over, so that drives the per person cost down to like $5.  I was out of just about everything taco-related, so I had to start from scratch there, including veggies, rice, etc..  Plus cocoa and eggs for brownies.  And, you know, beer.  I feel like these supplies come out in the wash, though, because I happen to have other things on hand other weeks, you know? And!  I got a ton of chicken and hope to repurpose the leftover meat for burrito bowls on Sunday)

A whole week of eating for less that $6/person a night.  But I still spend an entire mortgage payment a month at the grocery store.  Gah!

The Slave: A Book Review

Disclaimer: I received an advanced reader copy of Anand Dilvar's The Slave so that I could review it on his blog. 

The pull quote on the back of the book The Slave says, "I cam to the understanding that life is the only opportunity we have to be ourselves." Not only does this nicely summarize the main character's journey in The Slave, but it makes m think that Jack has already figured out life.  I mean, you guys.  He went to school with his new Pioneer Woman cookbook in his backpack so he could read it during silent reading time.  He used his Christmas money to buy a Pioneer Woman cookbook.  He wants to remain in Boy Scouts even though we have tried to talk him out of it.  He knows who he is and what he wants, and he is living his life according to those principles. No spiritual journey necessary.

This is not the case for Dilvar's main character, an unnamed man because, the author reasons, the character is so universal.  Following a drunk driving incident after a night of partying, the main character is in a coma, and his girlfriend and estranged family don't know where he is.  Motionless in a hospital ed, he copes with he physical pain of his accident and the spiritual pain of a life not-so-well-lived.

The Slave is not the kind of book I normally read, but it did remind me of the short story "The Nightingale" about a woman in a coma begging her family to pull the plug.  but the begging only happens in her head because she can't move.  Such an amazing story.  I remember not making it into a final round of prose reading at college speech nationals because my teammate performed that story in the semifinal and it made me sob and sob--- right before I was supposed to perform.  She got third in the final round, by the way.

If you are looking for a story of redemption and self-actualization, this is the book for you.  Blurbs claim that this book is a page-turner, and I did read it quickly, although I was pretty sure our character would wake up to the beauty of his life.  It's a good parable for a new year. 

NYE With Kids: Life Hacks You Need

Eleven years into this parenting thing, we have TOTES figured out how to have fun on New Year's Eve.  And really, that's only because we have fun and fabulous friends. 

We rang in both 2015 and 2016 at raucous house parties teeming with small children, yummy apps, and champagne.  2016 even featured a genius upstairs/downstairs dinner party, and the adults sat down and ate fancy food at a fancy table.  It was awesome.

This year, though, we knew we would be out of town for my dad's birthday weekend, so we had to find new NYE plans.  When you are celebrating what is usually an adults-only kind of night with kids, you need to make sure EVERYONE is set up to have fun.  To do this, you need
1.  To NOT be driving.  Contained parties work best because there are a lot of drunks on the road on NYE.
2.  To be somewhere your kids can express their feelings about being up so late.
3.  To have a plan with plenty of room for spontaneity.
4.  To have a breakfast plan because you might be feeling not your best, most sparkly self in the morning, but you know who WON'T be hungover?  The kids.
5.  To buy an extra bottle or two of champagne because mimosas are perfect for New Year's Day.  I really love Costco's Kirkland brand prosecco.
6.  To buy all of the silly, sparkly, messy, noisy NYE party accessories you can find.  We heaped a ton of them in a big bowl on the kitchen table in our hotel room, and the kids LOVED it.
7.  To buy a bunch of candy for the children so they can be up late and TOTALLY wired.  We also got juice boxes, goldfish crackers, and fruit snacks.  And our candy came in plastic champagne bottles so that was another touch of festive.

We started the day with lunch at our favorite sports bar in Pekin-- favorite because they make their own chips, and I can never resist that.

Then we decided to do something we never did in college:  GO TO A BRADLEY BASKETBALL GAME.  It was SUPER FREAKING FUN, even though we sat in the nosebleed section ($10 for a ticket, a hot dog, and a soda-- the kids loved it).

After that, I heeded my own advice above, and we went to the dollar store and to Costco for party supplies, which we immediately set up in our hotel.

And enjoyed before dinner

Also before dinner, we met up with our fabulous college friends and their adorable kids and went swimming.  Not pictured because I am almost 40.

Dinner was at another sports bar (but I got a truly delicious salmon salad), and the kids were magically well behaved, and we had the whole upstairs to ourselves.  And they suddenly developed an interest in shuffle board.

And the adults?  Just enjoyed the heck out of talking to each other.

After dinner, we went back to the hotel for more swimming, and the adults actually got in the water-- the hot tub AND the actual pool, where we played a game of keep away with a football we wisely snagged at the dollar store.  It was fun, which is something I rarely say about swimming in a hotel pool.

And then!  The best part!  Everyone put on their jammies, and we rang in the New Year together!  (Heads Up was a super fun addition to the night, BTW-- kids and adults loved it.  We wanted to play What Do You Meme, but the kids would not stay in the bedroom long enough.  Major bummer.)

And because we were at a hotel, the next morning was easy peasy

I hope 2018 is a s fun as our night leads me to believe it will be!

As you can see, the professional pictures were WAY BETTER

 Ben and I went out to dinner with my brother and Caleb the night before my dad's 70th birthday party.  When we got home and got out of the car, we noticed immediately that it smelled like natural gas outside.  Like, a lot.  Inside the house was fine, and everyone got mad at me when I called the gas number, but you guys!  You are supposed to call when you smell gas!

I mean, it was freezing, and no one wants to lose heat or hot water the night before a party, but still!

Long story short, crews showed up, called the leak "a big fucking deal" and that's an official quite, and destroyed the front yard fixing it.  They arrived around 10 and were done by 4 am, at which point I pissed everyone off again by asking them to please not talk in the entry way because if the kids woke up at 4 they'd be up for the day.  That's me, making friends everywhere I go.

 But seriously, it was fun to watch.

 We also played Speak Out again.

 And spent a ton of time watching the robot vacuum that Jon and Caleb got my dad.

 It's not party prep until you hit up the canned meat aisle.

 Jon and Caleb got Ben a calendar of dogs pooping, and it brought Cooper exponential joy.  And then I hung it in the kitchen.

 After barely making it to Pekin (we turned around and went home for a couple hours because of snow and ice on the way down, pissing everyone off even before the gas leak), we got tons of snow while we were there.  Since it was a balmy 15 degrees (compared with HIGHS of negative 9 later in our stay), we went sledding.

 Including a trip to the high school hill, which is where I went sledding when I was little-- so fun!

 My parents' side yard was lovely

 I forgot snow pants and boots, so Harry and I had to take turns wearing his.  Tweens are handy.

 There were even more presents

 Some scrambled eggs

 Selfies

 General silliness

 My mom's brother came for the party

 And there was a lot of cheese.

Also juggling.

 A cake!

 And, of course, Jell-O shots.

The evening ended just in time for me and my biggest little Badger fan to watch the Orange Bowl.

Such a fun family weekend, gas leak and all!