Thursday's Deep Thought

Artichokes could, possibly, be the least user friendly vegetable. Who first looked at the blossom of the thistle plant and thought "what the heck, I'll hack off most of the outside of this and eat whatever is inside..."?

They are inordinately pretty, though. I would, almost rather have them whole as a centerpiece than go to the work of actually preparing them. But maybe that is just being lazy...

Back By Popular Demand

Highs

• Winning a local Chili Cook-off with Sous Chef H (Hurrah!)
• Watching General Conference and the RS Session
• Maintaining exercise 5x a week at 5:15 a.m.
• Developing a "almost there" gourmet cupcake recipe incorporating 5 or 6 baking discoveries (haven't yet mastered the frosting, but it is super close)
• Visiting Teaching = done!
• Spending the weekend with [prego] Auntie Mer and [not prego] Uncle Ben!
• Finding out some Really Good News!
• Enjoying the, finally, cool weather. Hallelujah!!!!!!!!!
• Not desiring dessert or second helpings
• Basking in the autonomy of the boys ages
• Bowling a dang good game
• Wrestling with the boys in the front room
• Coming to the surprising realization that I'd really like the next baby in the family to be a boy
• Planning the details of hosting Thanksgiving
• Reading The Hunger Games
• Finding chicken breast on sale for $1.25 per pound
• Bottling 15 pints of chicken (Thanks, Ashley!!!)
• Getting invited to dinner
• Loving the structure that having a child in school brings
• Napping next to my babies
• Making new friends
• Riding bikes to school and not sweating profusely
• Enjoying the simple luxury of living in a small town (paid the local doctor in cinnamon rolls after he pulled a rock out of A's nose...it's another story for another time)
• Spending most of the grocery budget in the first week...again (p.s. We need a cow, preferably lactating)
• Finishing the laundry all in one day, including putting it all away! (this is big, folks)

Lows

• Watching General Conference in HD = the uncomfortable feeling of being personally perched on the podium (I noticed bad teeth, red and tired eyes, moist nostrils, interesting skin discolorations, the works...)
• Feeling very, very tired
• Gaining weight despite the awesome exercise routine
• Eating pounds and pounds of candy corn, mellowcreme pumpkins and "cowboy mix" (shoot me)
• Eating dessert and second helpings despite having no real desire to do so (this may correlate to that pesky weight gain thing...)
• Putting away the skinnier "goal jeans" for awhile
• Just feeling very chunky lately (...are we sensing a theme here...cupcakes, feeling fat...)
• Forgetting to send H's homework with him when it was due
• Making some interestingly creative end-of-the-month sack lunches for H and, suddenly realizing that, despite all, I have turned into my mother
• Telling an entire roomful of peers that I never clean my kitchen floors (it is true, but still)
• Reading most of Genesis with Aaron and feeling very much annoyed (Is the entire Old Testament solely about procreation? And incest? Hmmmmm.)
• Making a cookie recipe from a local bakery using shortening (shudder), and throwing most of them away
• Wasting precious calories by eating some of the aforementioned disgusting cookies
• Trying to run an organization with dwindling participants and tiring of the grind
• Going to the RS Session's Stake before-the-broadcast social = older ladies, older lady food, older lady conversation, older lady smells, etc