Cranberry Sauce

I grew up hating cranberry sauce.

Little did I know that it didn't have to look or taste like the gross jelly that was served every Thanksgiving. When I was older (much older) I had homemade cranberry sauce it was delicious it complemented the turkey wonderfully. Then come to find out it is simple to make. This year I made my own and it was easy and delicious. I think what is so puzzling to me is that my Nana and Papa were in walking distance to multiple cranberry bogs and could probably have bought fresh cranberries at a moments notice. However, this was not to be done! This family only eats cranberry sauce from a can! This is what we have done for generations and damn it we will not try something else! Fresh homemade sauce?! That's ridiculous!

How did we pull it off. The children of the "can" have all stepped outside the boundaries of tradition and moved into the world of fresh made cranberry sauce. We have broken free, the sky is the limit, who knows what may fall next Land-O-Lakes your history, Bon-Ami see you later. This strange Family-based brand loyalty is offically dead.

The Bins

2kool4skool Power Thrifting at The Bins

I've always wanted to be more of a thrift store shopper, it plays to one of my strengths (cheapness). A good friend of ours, 2kool4skool, is an amazing thrift store shopper and she was more than happy to take me to the mother of all thrift stores for a lesson. Locally and perhaps nationally the this experience is known as shopping at "The Bins."

"The Bins are the dumping grounds for goods that don't sell at the other Goodwill stores--goods that Goodwill is desperate to get rid of." - Portland Mercury

We spent an hour at The Bins and I left with about 8 articles of clothing for a grand total of six dollars. Not to bad and the experience wasn't unpleasant either. Once again it all comes down to time, how much time do I really have to spend searching The Bins for kids clothing. I don't believe that the next time I think something like "Z needs a new jacket" that my next thought would be "Let me just go pick one up at The Bins." This does not mean that I'm not a fan of The Bins it just means that I'm not sure of how they fit in to my life. I'm sure they'll find away on occasion.

My three girls.

It is 8:02 PM on Friday and all three of my girls are sleeping, well the smallest of the three is still awake mumbling and rustling about but she's in bed and probably will not be coming out until morning. I wish I had a video camera in her room, I'm pretty sure she gets out of bed and walks around. When we first moved her into her own room we soon realized that locking the door was a necessity. So in typical fashion we jammed clothing between the door and the door frame, this lasted for many many months. However this seemed to have about a 80% success rate (not high enough) of keeping the door locked. Finally the CEO got fed up enough that she put a hook latch on the door. I know none of this sounds like great parenting but it works. Lately we been unlatching the door when we go to bed and she hasn't been getting out and bothering us. All we want is sleep and at this point even six hours of uninterrupted sleep seems like a miracle.

The playing field has been leveled.

This time I'm beating the CEO to the punch.

We are going to be having two boys!!!!

I really thought it was going to be two girls and The CEO was thinking one and one. Both of us were speachless. This whole parenting thing is quite a wild ride.