Week in Review: Goodbye March, Happy Birthday Gammy and Shop Talk

 Happy last day of March!  March has always been a hardish month for me, full of typically bad weather and sickness and no days off from work or school.  I am happy to welcome April tomorrow.

We have had strep going through our house for a couple weeks, and it's been presenting in weird ways.  The kids have complained about headaches and stomachaches more than sore throats.  They have fevers for days, and even when they start the course of antibiotics, they seem to take awhile to feel better.  Poor little babies.  I am hoping we are through the worst of it and I'll be washing sheets and opening bedroom windows this weekend for a fresh start.

I can't help but sing "shots, shots, shots, shots, shots, shots" as I pour these out.

It's All in the Family: From Maggie's Ice Cream to The Ice Cream Cottage

Back in the summer of 1986, Maggie and John Sweeney opened up a tiny homemade ice cream shop in the village of Osterville on Cape Cod.  John was a custom builder and Maggie was a nurse, but they traded in their hammers and stethoscopes for scoops and took the leap of faith in starting their own family business.  Their six children, aged 19, 16, 15, 13, 7, and 5 at the time, were either working as the crew or happy to be taste testers until they were old enough to work.  It didn't take long to realize that even a 5 and 7 year old could wipe down a table and fill napkins and spoon holders.  Maggie's Ice Cream was born!

Week in Review: Dinner for Eight, Shop Talk and Trips with Friends

Thank you all so much on your kind and encouraging comments on my last post!!

Favorite dinner of the week was a Southwestern Chicken Salad with a loaf of store-bought french bread:

Phil just sprinkled some rotisserie chicken seasoning on top of the chicken breast and grilled them (above was only the first batch of chicken).  I set up a salad bar with lettuce, black beans (made the kids take their ages in beans), corn, cheese, scallions, fritos, bacon, and I added some smoked paprika and chili powder to a Peppercorn Ranch dressing to make it a little more southwesterny.

Big News!!

We have been keeping a secret...

Coming this May....

Week in Review: St. Patty's Celebrating, Almost Dating, Game Winning and Grateful Healing

Happy St. Patty's Day to ye!  Our Bishop gave a dispensation to allow us to eat meat on this Friday in Lent and while I think that says a lot about how weak we are, I will indeed be indulging in the meats to celebrate my Irish heritage.  But not corned beef, nope, blech, ick.  

I wore my lucky sneakers to work today (dress down day!) that I wore when I ran my last half-marathon on St. Patty's Day.

We will be having homemade Shamrock Shakes for dessert, following this recipe:

And remember, even if you're not 100% Irish like me:

We are known for our hospitality after all!

Laundry Talk

One would think that a girl who grew up in a house with eight people in her family, then went on to marry a boy who grew up with eight people in his family, and together created a family of nine would have a good handle on How to Do Laundry in a Big Family.

Surprise!  It alludes us.  Still.  After *almost* 21 years of marriage and 20 years of child-rearing, we have yet to get our act together about the laundry.

Over the years, we've tried many things.  In the beginning, I would do the laundry (located in our scary basement) and fold and put away everybody's clothes.  When I was pregnant, Phil would take over laundry duty because going up and down two to three sets of stairs, holding a big hamper of clothes while pregnant is not the best idea.

Now you know why I kept myself pregnant for all those years ;)

We finally moved the laundry upstairs to the second floor, where all the kids bedrooms are located.  This was much better than the scary basement, and Phil and I continued doing the laundry in the same fashion - everything that was dirty from the day gets thrown in together.