Nathalie's Notes

Friday Favorites & This week on Google

Favorite snack: apple slices and almond butter

{a funny thing is happening, things I used to dislike for not being “sweet enough” I’m now acquiring a taste for. Almond butter compared to “normal” sugary peanut butter was like grainy cardboard to me until I cut back on sugar. We had a surplus of apple slices that didn’t fit onto the drying trays and were out of peanut butter … and bread – so I made almond apple sandwiches. Sam, Jake and I had seconds, thirds … and bought  more apple butter today}.

Favorite scrapbooking tool: my stapler + colored staples

{born of laziness, perhaps but now I love it. Example below. }

Favorite kitchen tool: my Pampered Chef chopper

{A friend of mine has the Pampered Chef hookup, so let me know if you’d like one, too}

Favorite kid: just kidding whichever one slept through the night

Website of the week: http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/

{Don’t miss out on this if your baby isn’t new or if you aren’t down with homemade bay food, there are awesome snack idea and easy meal ideas on here.}

This week on Google:

How to get poop out of carpet

Can you compost eggshells?

Easy salmon recipes

Can you compost apples?

Can you compost What to compost

National Room of One’s Own Day

Scrivener

April Henry

Oregon Beach vacations

United States of Americana

Kurt B. Reighley

*It occurs to me that this is a lot like posting a picture of me gazing at my navel. But I even like reading random grocery lists people dropped at Winco so I’m weird like that.

**For Project Lifers, this could make a cool journaling idea.

And now for something lighter...

And now for something a little less navel-gazey ... here are a few fun links for your Friday afternoon ...

For you readers, folks in the real-estate industry and those chronically checking out houses the way some people kick tires, check out Emily Chadwick's cool karma book giveaway: http://emilychadwick.wordpress.com/2010/08/10/the-thank-you-meghan-daum-giveaway/

You can win a copy of Meghan Daum's "Life Would Be Perfect if I Lived in That House" by requesting your local library and/or independent bookstore carry a copy.

And then for you crafty types ... join the back-to-school sew along - or at least admire the cool idea over at Penny Carnival:

http://pennycarnival.typepad.com/penny_carnival/2010/08/a-backtoschool-sew-along.html

And the post that made me understand {and want to} Twitter: http://www.diaryofanewmom.net/2010/08/twitter-ific.html

I lost track of my Google list, meaning I forgot to cut and paste searches and am not technologically clever enough to figure out the history, and really? Who cares? The few I did track:

X Road transfer station

Psalm 34:8

Williams Sonoma car pan

green chile sauce

The painted lady

Word for the tie off used when shooting drugs

Coleslaw recipes

alliteration

IRS

NPR Meatless Monday

Molly Gloss

Reading habits

I've always loved reading. Just recently though, I've re-started my reading a book I enjoybefore bed instead of a book about how to convince kids to eat kale or how to potty train or how to manage money so there is some left after paying bills. I much prefer reading for pleasure, I have Google for the rest.

My reading habits have changed since having kids, if you can believe it. Now I have books in several parts of the house to pick up and read when opportunity strikes. I used to stick with just the one book start to finish but now I'm adjusting to the ADD that comes with motherhood.

Currently, I'm reading:

• The Egg and I by Betty McDonald (bedroom)
• Get Known Before the Book Deal by Christina Katz (office)
• Make your Creative Dreams Real by SARK (living room)
• Super Baby Foods by Ruth Yaron (kitchen)

Sam's reading:

• The Potty Train: Chugga Chugga Poo Poo by David Hochman (living room)
• Just Say Please by Mercer Mayer (Jake's room)
• Pirates Don't Change Diapers by Melinda Long (bedroom)
• I Dream of Trains by Angela Johnson (bedroom)

Our new favorite show is "Chuggington" and I have added digital video recording to my list of things I'm thankful for since the show is on before 6 a.m. Longer, more thoughtful, post to follow if I manage to coordinate simultaneous naps. 

Thailadas

Today's word count: 1, 238 (and one query sent)

Happy Friday! Before I share my Google list for the week, here's something you can't find on Google, until after I post this: Thailadas.

That's what we had for dinner last night. The week started with one dinner disaster followed by another until Wednesday I made a relatively successful stir fry. By "I" I mean Matt. I chopped the veggies and made the rice. He did the rest. So Thursday is our leftover night and you should've seen Matt's face when I told him I put the stir fry leftovers in a blender with the leftover rice, pureed the crap out it and folded them into tortillas.  I poured Thai peanut sauce on them (mixed with a can of lite coconut milk) and baked them for 20 minutes on 425 and served them with salad. It might sound totally disgusting but it was actually pretty good and way better than what I did Monday where Meatless Monday ended with the classic standby of sausage and leftover cabbage salad  because the veggie patties I stayed up making until 11:30 the night before wouldn't cook. At all. Plus they smelled bad. Supid mushrooms. Clearly, I missed an important step.

Then Tuesday, I thought "wouldn't it be fun to do a family fondue night?"

No. It wouldn't. Not with a toddler. What was I thinking?  It doesn't matter if the recipe says "easy" fondue, it's still a lot of spattering (scalding hot) cheese with spears ... Again, what was I thinking?

Clearly, I didn't Google enough recipes this week. But here's a partial list of what I did Google - I kept forgetting to keep track:

breastfeeding symbol

hungarian translation dictionary

strain turns into?

Boys names

Natural  health food stores Newberg

pain in right side when sneezing and coughing

pain in lower right quadrant of stomach when sneezing

spider bites

carlton city hall

Emily Puro

natural treatment for diaper rash

how to make magnetic paper dolls

How about you?