Cravings

Craving: an intense, urgent, or abnormal desire or longing
(Merriam Webster Online Dictionary)

I've been thinking on and off again about "cravings". Reading that definition really makes you want to call it something different, does it? Many pregnant women typically have cravings. During my first pregnancy I escaped with very few (though I had some intense aversions to certain food). This pregnancy I seem to have more cravings. Interestingly, my husband seems to have them much more often than I do! Recently I've noticed, everyone has some kind of craving (which may in fact not even be food... but that's another post). Here are some observations and ideas about "taking care" of pesky food cravings.

Halloween Grinch

I have affectionately named myself the "Halloween Grinch". Here are all small things that bug me about this "holiday":

1. I don't want to spend money on a costume my child will wear once.
2. I'm not very creative or even comfortable dressing up (nor can I make a costume creatively for cheap...I've tried).
3. I REALLY don't want my child eating a whole bunch of candy and getting sick with all of the other trick-or-treaters (who put halloween at the beginning of flu season anyway..or is that what STARTS flu season...?).
4. I don't like being scared, scary movies, being afraid, etc.
5. Honestly, what are we "celebrating" anyway? Nothing! Though it's not longer really considered a "pagan" holiday, it still has it's origins in one (which is why some religions don't celebrate it at all).
6. It's a really UNSAFE holiday. Ever since I was small I always feel scared on Halloween night, even if I'm not going outside. Who knows what crazy person will show up at your door, or even at your church party (seriously...I've heard stories).

That being said, I somehow feel "sad" I'm missing out on all the excitement of this time of year. Who's not getting a pumpkin and picking a cute costume, right? Yet, "missing out" is not a real reason for me to want to "celebrate" Halloween (just like the excitement of the first day of school with all of the pictures and cute new outfits alone can't justify me sending my children to public school).

While I still decide what to do here are some ideas I've recently read/heard (please comment with any ideas you may have):

Quality Time in My Kitchen

It's almost finished! My kitchen, which we started remodeling at the beginning of the year, is almost done. In fact, it's hard not to put everything else off and just work on the kitchen because I CAN SEE THE END!
With everything from painting and sanding to cooking (or experimenting), I've spent a lot of quality time in the kitchen lately. It was a big goal of mine to improve the health of the food we eat this year. While I'm still not where I want to be (baby steps...baby steps...), I ran across a menu of ours from the very beginning of this year and laughed! I don't think we eat ANYTHING on that list anymore. It's been a crazy adventure and one I consider a worthwhile life-long pursuit.
I thought I'd take a minute to list some of the new recipes we've tried and what we thought about them (5 stars being the highest). I'm not the kind of person to go out and buy every little detail for a recipe, so I've added what we have experimented/tried/changed in the recipes too. ENJOY!

ReUpholstering

...is not as hard as it sounds. My sister Cristina has been doing some research on different blogs and got a real craving to do it. Since she's not sure what will happen with her current couches, I told her to come help me do my kitchen chairs. I had to shorten the curtain fabric anyway, so we had some extra material to use that already matched my new (well still coming along) kitchen.

Here are the steps:

1. Take off the old fabric. This is the hardest part and I recommend getting a strong man (like my husband) to do it, or using a good staple remover. Make sure to note (we took pictures - another blog suggestion) how the fabric was stapled/attached so you can reattach in the same way.

2. After carefully removing the fabric, use it as a pattern to measure and cut your new fabric the same way. Make sure that they face the same way when you cut (both fabric "bottoms" down, or both "tops" down).

3. Pull the fabric over the surface again (making sure to evenly pull) and staple in place, as was done with the old fabric. I found it helpful to have two people at this point - one pulling and one stapling. (Guess we needed one more to take a picture)

4. Reassemble the furniture.

Cristina said that all the blogs she looked at the ladies waited until their kids were in bed and they had pictures of them in their pj's :) We just had to do the same (at least I'm in pj's).

In addition to the new fabric, we also spray painted the chair a dark brown. For about $7 (for all of the chairs) this was MUCH cheaper than buying a new table. They even look brand new. The best part is it can be done over and over again!