What weekends should be like...

Sapori Market -- 327 Romany Road

Two weekends ago, Marc had a terrible weekend.  It went like this:  Saturday morning funeral; Saturday afternoon visit mom in nursing home; later Saturday afternoon attend church vestry retreat,  Sunday morning attend more church vestry retreat; Sunday afternoon visit mom in nursing home.  He said, "I didn't get a weekend."

This past weekend?  Much better.  Friday night -- hang out with wife and daughter (always good hanging out with the girls).  Saturday morning visit mom in nursing home but be home by lunch.  Saturday afternoon, well, this was the best part.  Marc walked with me to a home showing. 

I always fantasize about walking or riding my bike to show property but it's never very practical.  I usually have stuff I have to carry, the houses are too far apart, and there are people who would probably think it was weird.  The clients I was meeting on Saturday are special though -- we've known each other since I helped them buy their first home right before they got married several years ago.  They now have the world's sweetest baby (she could be Mary Rollins' twin). The wife also dreams of being able to ride her bike to work and they want the world's cutest baby be able to walk to school one day.  Naturally, they now want to live in Chevy Chase. 

I also figured they'd not mind a bit, and actually like, that I walked to a showing and Marc was super excited to come along.  He'd never met my clients before, although I talk about them a lot,  and the husband is also a CPA.  You know how accountants are; they are always super excited to meet other accountants!!  Plus, I told him he could be my intern for the day and turn the lights on and off in the house.  He was super excited.  And, I suggested that he could bring money and buy us frozen yogurt on Romany Road on the way home.  You can probably feel his excitement jumping out of the screen, can't you?

It turned out to be just as super fun and super exciting as he had anticipated.  We showed the house and Marc did an excellent job turning the lights on and off, the CPAs met and are now BFFs,  and we stopped for yogurt at Orange Leaf.  It was perfect.  I'm still a bigger fan of Fro-Jos but alas I cannot walk or bike to Fro-Jos. 

It was also a day of making new friends.  We discovered Sapori D'Italia Market, an Italian Neighborhood Market located across the street from Wheeler's and next door to Orange Leaf.  I think it was the sight of the lovely cheese case that lured us in.  I know it was the cheese case that lured us in, for we have never met a cheese case we didn't like.  We also met the owner, we liked him too.  He gave us a quick tour highlighting not only his lovely cheeses, but also his beautiful sauces, casseroles and soups made from his Italian wife's family recipes, gorgeous prosciutto and salami, tempting homemade pastas, and his own BBQ. We sampled some delicious Italian tea and wished at that moment we hadn't a two mile walk ahead of us for we had nowhere to carry home any of his delights and spent all of our money on yogurt.  We'll be back though -- next time with money and hungry bellies.

Cheese, Glorious Cheese!

We finished our walk, had dinner with friends, watched our last episode of Mad Men on Netflix, and a good weekend was had by all.  As Marc went to bed last night, he said, "now that's how a weekend should be...I just need six more days of it."  

We need to talk...

On the way to school yesterday Will said, in a most serious-kind of voice, "Mom, can we talk about something?"

"Sure," and I anxiously awaited our heart-to-heart.

"You know how when I get out of the car at school you like to say 'I love you, Honey and have a great day, Sweetie?"

"Yes."

"Do you think you could possibly say that before I open the car door?"

Lakehouse, anyone?

Remember how the name of this blog used to Moving2CentralKY?  Well, if you don't live in Central Kentucky this house might seriously make you want to move here.

Kentucky is funny place with lots of funny little counties.  And, when I say little counties, that's what I mean -- little.  We have 120 counties which is the third largest number of counties for a US state behind Texas and Georgia.  You might find that interesting if you look at a map as Kentucky's size?  Not all that big.  So, we have a bunch of small counties.  Fayette aka Lexington is my favorite, naturally, but I have a lot of close seconds.  One of my favorite drives is heading north on Paris Pike which takes me through two of them -- passing huge horse farms, the historic stone fences that so characterize the Kentucky landscape, a myriad of antebellum and victorian homes, the charming towns of Paris and Millersburg.  If you keep going north from Millersburg, the land gets a little less manicured, the hills a bit more rolly and you might have to slow down for an Amish buggy or because you're distracted by sheep (I love sheep) and the occasional cute donkey.  Nicholas County lies on the top end of Bourbon County and is home to the sweet town of Carlisle.  You can even visit the doll & toy museum on Main Street in Carlisle if you're looking for something interesting (possibly creepy?) to kill some time.

Or, you can visit my fabulous new listing on Lake Carnico.  Better yet, you can buy it while you're there.   Trust me, you'll want to!  

The Underside of Joy: a book review

Sometimes a book hooks me on the setting. Sometimes I find a novel pulling me in with great characters or an amazing plot. The Underside of Joy by Sere Prince Halverson had it all -- a descriptively wrought setting that had the scent of redwoods and damp moss in the air, characters I wanted as my neighbors and a storyline I could discuss for days.

Years ago, I was part of a funny little Bible study at my church. We were all moms with young children and we met weekly. We were a fun mix of people, I think, well-educated but few of us had really read the Bible before on a regular basis.  We were all pretty much never afraid to say what we really thought even if it was irreverent and possibly sacrilegious. We seemed to have several discussion themes we came back to frequently, one being that there's no quick fix for anything, another that we as parents have a tendency to super-size things, and finally that joy was something different from happiness. Possibly that last theme was one of my favorites and derived directly from my go-to Carl Jung observation that there is no coming to consciousness without pain.



And there you have The Underside of Joy. Ella Beene is happily married to a wonderful man with two adorable children from a previous marriage living in an impossibly sweet town in Northern California. They seem to live a charmed and messy life full of nature hikes, great sex and organic food. In her happiness, Ella lives totally in the moment blissfully blind to anything that threatens the contentment of the life she has built with her husband and step-children -- did I mention that they are adorable. All of that changes in an instant and Ella is forced to look at the reality of her life, her family and what love really means.



One of my favorite parts of The Underside of Joy is the kind way that the author treats all of the characters. While told from Like real life, sometimes there isn't a bad guy. And as much as we sometimes want and need to blame someone else, that's not the way of responsibility or the way of love. 

I think I finished reading The Underside of Joy a wiser and more hopeful person than I started it.  And yes, I know it's fiction but a story doesn't have to be true to tell Truths.  Quite possibly, The Underside of Joy will be one of my favorite books I read this year.  And, don't be fooled by the girlie flower on the cover.  I handed the book to Marc when I finished it at the lakehouse.  He read it in less than 24 hours, handed it back to me and said, "I hope the next BlogHer Book Club book you get to read is as good as this one."

Just so you know, while I was compensated for this review for BlogHer, the opinions expressed here are always and entirely my own...

Project Vegetable: A Resolution Update

To my dear sister who resolved to laugh hysterically at attempts to make Will eat more vegetables, guess what!!  Project Vegetable is working.  Will's vegetable-eating quotient is way high.  This time last year Will would eat french fries, raw carrots and edamames (which unfortunately are the ONLY vegetable that Mary Rollins won't eat...go figure).

So far this year we have made amazing progress.  Since the beginning of January he has eaten: carrots, potatoes in a more natural and un-fried state, spinach salad, Caesar salad, salad with feta & craisins (you know the one if you've ever eaten at my house), salad with blue cheese & granny smith apples (you know the one if you've ever eaten at my house), two bites of eggplant  AND sweet potatoes.

It's so exciting!  Here's how he'll eat sweet potatoes which has become one of my favorite ways to eat them:

Sweet Potato Fries

Pre-heat oven to 425.

Scrub about 2 - 3 lbs. of sweet potatoes.  Don't peel but cut into wedges (think over-sized steak fries).  Toss with about 1/2 cup of olive oil -- this is best done in a gallon-sized zip lock bag.  Then throw in about 3 tablespoons of brown sugar and about a tablespoon of ground cumin and shake it all up.  You could add other things I suppose like chili powder and/or red pepper but Marc has that weird allergy to those spices so I don't. 

Pour the sweet potatoes wedges onto a rimmed baking sheet --Half-way through pre-heating the oven I like to put the pan in the oven to get hot -- and spread them out, cut sides down if possible and bake for 30 minutes.  They don't get too crispy but they do get delicious and are really good for you!

MR likes to make a yummy honey and cinnamon mixture to dip them in and Will likes to dip them in blue cheese.  Me, I like them both ways -- sweet or salty...

Why Women Need Fat: A Book Review

Hooray, butter is not the enemy!!


The last diet book I read was Skinny Bitch. It was about four years ago and for the life of me I can’t remember why I read it. Perhaps I had some crazy notion that I was just one grapefruit away from looking like Kate Moss. I think it was the title I couldn’t resist though. So last week I read Why Women Need Fat for the Blogher Book Club. Who wouldn’t want to read a book called Why Women Need Fat? It has an even more irresistable title and arrived in perfect time to help shape my New Year’s resolution to eat closer to the earth!

Why Women Need Fat written by William D. Lassek, M.D. and Steven J.C. Gaulin, Ph.D., has a subtitle that says it all, How “Healthy” Food Makes Us Gain Excess Weight and the Surprising Solution to Losing It Forever, these guys go in depth to explain why so many women today weigh more than their mothers and grandmothers did. And, how changes in the food industry over the last few decades have contributed to American women’s increasing waistlines.

Why Women Need Fat is a great alternative to the seemingly endless supply of diet books that lead us to believe that we could all look like a runway model if we just gave up a particular food group, say carbs??? Refreshingly, Drs. Lassek and Gaulin preach that there’s no quick fix for losing weight! And, that dieting/starving ourselves is counterproductive to maintaining a long-term healthy body size. And perhaps, more importantly, this book is a great reminder that we are not all meant to look like Heidi Klum. I won’t bore you with all the scientific and well-researched data in this book, but I will say it’s worthwhile read even if you aren’t trying to lose weight. The authors explore myths about the “healthy” fats and talk about approaches to determining your natural weight. Their research supports what we know from those skinny French women – natural food in moderation does not make you fat.

And, now we can officially celebrate that butter is not the enemy and instead go throw away our nasty soybean oils!



Just so you know, I was compensated for this review, however, the opinions expressed here are always my own.

Oh sweet dum-dums!!

One of my favorite Mathews pre-Christmas traditions is the decorating of the Gingerbread house.  One of my favorite post-Christmas traditions is the annual blowing up of the Gingerbread house.  You could save them from year to year but blowing them up is so much more fun!

The Year of the Vegetable

Well, we are deep into 2012 and I have yet to talk about one of my favorite things:  New Year's Resolutions!  Last year, after much (possibly way too much?) debate, I decided to take a year off from New Year's resolutions -- I resolved not to resolve.  This year, I'm back on track though and looking forward to my resolution.  One of my favorite quotes is "Always, we begin again" from the Benedictine school of thought.  I'd like to pretend I'm an expert on the Benedictines but I'm not, I know just enough to say that quote.

And, so I love celebrating the New Year because it's such a great time to begin again, to do better, to take on something new.  And this year, on New Year's I declared that I will be living closer to the earth, that I shall do better to serve more local foods, eat less processed foods, and buy more at the farmer's market.

On Sunday night, aka New Year's Day, we were having a family discussion of resolutions as we munched away on hamburgers and new potatoes, mushrooms, zucchini and onion tossed with some great herb mix I bought at the farmer's market last year.  I asked MR and Will if they had any resolutions and MR nicely started to say, "I want to be healthier" to which her brother began to laugh, perhaps guffaw is a better word choice.  Even I felt my mouth twitch at the corner and Marc raised an eyebrow ever so slightly.

Will said, "Ugly (his pet name for Mary Rollins), how do you propose to be healthier?  You're the healthiest freak I know.  Could you eat more salad? What do you plan to eat? Dirt?"

My favorite veggies:  Brussel sprouts
and aspargus tossed with olive oil, sundried
tomatoes, and a bit of garlic salt, oregano,
and basil.  Roasted and garnished
with freshly grated Parmesan cheese. 

And, he does have a point -- not about the Ugly or freak part -- but Mary Rollins is the healthiest, most balanced person I know.  She, in fact, shames me frequently and I often find myself running an extra mile or skipping out on bad-for-me goodies because I know she'd be so proud of me.

Mary Rollins, ever the cool sister responded to her brother with, "you know Will, you could try to eat a little better..."  And, with that bit of sisterly frost, I mean inspiration, I have a decided to tweak my resolution to what it really means.  My resolution is quite simply: to make Will eat more vegetables in 2012.

Do you have a resolution?

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! 

A lot of Monopoly was played in between our
other Lakehouse activies which included the boys disappearing
in the kayak for 6 hours without a return to the house for anything
(they had packed a lunch and snacks). 

Happy New Year from Will & MR!

New Year's Eve bacon.  Will's favorite food...

Happy New Year from the Fatness who would like some of the bacon
pictured above.  And, eggs to go with it, please.

I hope that the end of 2011 went out with a bang for everyone.  We spent our last hours of the year whiling away the time at the lake.  It was wonderful.  I sold a house using my new iPad, had an extra teen-age boy, enjoyed the Distaola family recipe for meatballs, braciole and sauce cooked by Marc in his extra 24 hours at the lake by himself (he should spend more time alone -- very productive, he is), watched movies, finished three books, ran and walked, and beat all the boys at Monopoly multiple times!  The latter was quite satisfying and I tried to point out that I am a real estate professional and therefore have extreme Monopoly skills.  The phrase "dang it" was heard repeatedly from both boys.  They think I'm just lucky but I'm pretty sure it's the real estate license.

At the stroke of midnight, the boys set off the best backyard fireworks I've ever seen.  I have no idea where the point of origin for these beauties was but the mortor and fireworks accompanied Will's friend, John, on the journey to the lake and proved to the best end we could have to a wonderful year.

How did you celebrate the end of the year?