Posts

Showing posts from 2018

Nine Lives & Onions

T hey say a cat has nine lives, and my husband affectionately refers to me as his cat...oh the double entendre here, but the kids don't have to know about that until they get waaaay older.  In our family of 4, two of us are cats and two of us are dogs...what I mean by that is, my husband and daughter are like a puppy dog when they give affection...very in your face, all over you, totally overwhelming, smooching like if you don't cover every square inch of a face with slobber, it wasn't done correctly so you must begin all over again...you know, just to make sure you didn't miss a spot with germs and drool.   My son and I are the cats in the family...totally content with a solid smooch and hug and then happy to saunter off into the corner to... you know do cat stuff... like having space and enjoying not being held down and tortured with the affectionate energy of a growing puppy... all the time... probably the real subconscious reason why I won't get the kids a p

Help Prevent Sunburn By Doing This...

Image
N o more tantrums, fights, or parent vs. squirmy child to get that sunblock on their face.  The sun is hot, brutal and blistering, in fact it's close to 100 degrees here almost every day in August, and there is no way I am enjoying more than 15 minutes in our Florida sunshine without sunblock and of course without sweating like I am in a sauna, and that is NOT the goal today.  I am sitting behind my bright computer screen hammering away on the keys in my gloriously cool house watching the birds outside fighting for the shade of my bottle brush tree.   This Wednesday, my friend Stacey and I and our tribe of children got together for a summer movie, lunch and some playing out in that Florida sunshine at the downtown splash pad.  My other friend, Michelle and her two kiddos joined us late afternoon at the splash pad and they got to test the new Mermaid Sunblock firsthand. I am not joking when I say they were practically fighting each other to get to the gloriously colored and

Grown-up Popsicles

Image
S ummer quickly approaches and I can tell by the amount of Naughty Bits & Pits I have been using, and by the way my front lawn grass is folding over on itself in protest to the scorching sun.  Our summer starts in Florida in the month of April, literally a week after Easter, and as a mom, I longingly look over at the amount of popsicles my children are consuming without worry of those luscious calories sitting on their bodies like us parents do...I mean the sugar alone in them, you might as well pour a cup of sugar into a bowl and give them a spoon, sooooo that was out for me.  However, I started thinking about how this lady could incorporate the refreshing feeling of a pop without all the sugar, and lets add in some heart healthy benefits...that's right...WINE! I know I have joked about this before, but I am certain that my entire family that doesn't see me at my house every day, really thinks I am a bonified W-I-N-O.  I assure you I am not, I mean I TRY to drink m

Spring Sangria Recipe

Image
S angria is kind of...like my jam...and by that, I mean, I enjoy making it, I like sharing my recipes with friends, and I especially looooooove drinking it.  It makes my taste buds happy, it is refreshing, it has two of my favorite things in it...wine and fruit, and it is good for you, you know, for a sane mind...have a glass after a long day and you will start to relax kind of good for you.   I had a really great batch at this restaurant in Miami called Naked Taco with my friend Teresa last month while we were waiting to attend the SOBE WFF.  We had a sip and ordered a pitcher...to which we polished off the entire thing within two hours.  It was cold and tasty and made with brewed tea instead of fruit juice so it wasn't overly sweet.  I told her the next time I came across a mediocre batch of wine that I was going to brew up some of this deliciousness.  That mediocre bottle came last night.  I opened a zinfandel that was a bit acidic and sharp and I couldn't drink it rig

Wine Wellness & 5K's

Image
A new year means new resolutions...and this year is no exception.  This year I set a goal for myself to walk a 5K at least three times a week, rain or shine.  I also have this notion from being a mother to two wonderful kids, that time should not be wasted, and multi tasking is a must.  So when 5 o'clock hits, mama gets to cooking dinner and pours herself a glass of red wine...you know, for the heart benefits...so it got me thinking...what if I combined my love of red wine with my loathing of exercising to make it more bearable...and it worked! Every Monday, Wednesday & Friday at 5:30pm I log in to Facebook and Instagram Live and my friend, and kind of neighbor, Hilary and I go to town demonstrating one exercise to torture ourselves with and build up our strength.  Then we walk like shorty shorts speed walkers minus the sweet head and wrist bands, with a lidded tumbler full of 5-6 ounces of the elixir of the gods...AKA red wine...and see if we can beat our time from the past