Monday, January 07, 2013

Downton and lack of sleep. With a dinosaur hat. But a healthy urinary tract. Oh, snap (peas)!

The Bullet Version
  • Look, it was a hard morning. And then I couldn't find my hat.
  • Bedtime: 11:30
  • Awake with India: 2:00-4:00 am. Feeding, shushing, rocking, applying gum numbing stuff. Up at 6:30.
  • Caffeine: 2 cups of tea. 2 cups of coffee.
  • Weird smoothie ingredient of the day: Snap peas.

The Text and Photo Version
Jordan's dinosaur hat: It's is a bit tight and uncomfortable, but better than cold ears. And I quite like the look. I think it says danger! Prehistoric danger! I can totally kick your ass, paleontologically speaking!

Yes. I am a tremendous dork, if that's what you're thinking.

Bedtime: So it's my fault that I stayed up until 11 pm watching the Downton premiere, but you guys, Downton!

I don't know if you've read The Night Circus, but I decided last summer that if I could live between there and Downton, I'd be delighted. Recognizing that both are fictional. And that I'd want my family to come along.

Anyway.

I have to say, I was underwhelmed with the premiere. It was fine, but for me to stay up until 11 when my daughter is sure to rip me out of a sound sleep within three hours, I need spectacular.

For starters, I wanted more wedding. I thought the Matthew inheritance thing was sketch. And Shirley MacLaine's lines weren't clever. She was kind of flat and overdone.

Which is not to say that I don't want Downton playing on a continuous loop at my house, because I still do.

OK. So now let's talk about this one fact that underlines everything in my life at the moment:

MY BABY IS KILLING ME. She has woken up no fewer than three times per night for weeks now. Sometimes more like five or eight times. It is fucking brutal.

She's hungry! And she's teething! And standing! And I am old and tired, oh so tired. Tired like I want to do shots of hard liquor and crawl into a warm, dark hole and sleep for three days straight. Kind of like a little hibernating bear.

Caffeine: See above for explanation.

The smoothie business: So, in an effort to eat better and incorporate more vegetables into our lives, as a present to ourselves, we got a Vitamix for Christmas. We have just begun exploring the possibilities.

I learned immediately that yes, you can have too many beets in your juice. And that if your husband has never eaten a beet in his life, he will be alarmed when it comes out the other end.

Anyway.

Nick has, very kindly and enthusiastically, been making smoothies for us every morning. He gets up before me, or gets up when I'm nursing India, and he gets all kinds of things done before I stagger downstairs. For which I am grateful.


The smoothies, however, are...unconventional.There's always a mystery ingredient that I can't quite place and wouldn't choose, if left to my own devices.

One morning it was an innocuous brownish green. I took a sip, and ooh, it was tart, oh so tart!

"What's in this?"

"Apple, pear, spinach, carrot, banana, blueberries, orange..."

"It's kind of, uh..."

"And cranberries! We have a lot of frozen cranberries! I may have gone overboard."

Good for our urinary tracts, anyway.

Another morning it was cauliflower. Which turns out to be kind of a bold flavor in a beverage.

This morning's tasted kind of like grass clippings. I was trying to put my finger on the flavor.

"Snap peas!"

21 comments:

  1. About Downton, the premiere, Shirley MacLaine, all of it!, I agree completely.
    Plus, you look cute in the hat.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Dana! I have a deep and abiding love of Downton, but I wanted more out of them last night. I am hoping it just gets better and better.

      As for the hat, thank you. I feel like it squeezes my head too much to look good, but I do love the dinos.

      Delete
  2. You in the hat is dino-mite!

    I watch Downton. Please still be my friend. Perhaps getting caught up on the show could be #2 on my list of 2013 resolutions (behind family).

    I love the bullet points and photo with the post.

    Perhaps Nick could surprise you and throw in some tequila or vodka with tomorrow's smoothie to fulfill the liquor-induced sleep. Either way, I hope you're able to rest easy soon xoxo HK

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This was supposed to say:
      I don't watch Downton. Please still be my friend.

      Delete
    2. I love that you just said "dino-mite!" Love love love!

      And I will always adore you. I don't care what you watch. But I do think you would really enjoy Downton. I do.

      Nick goes out of town tonight, but maybe he can really jazz it up on the weekend! :)

      Delete
  3. You are spot on with the DA review! I wanted at least like, 15 minutes, about the honeymoon. But no, they're just back and we're supposed to go with it.

    RE: the Vitamix, it sounds like typical boy experimentation in the kitchen. As in, your life is a snapshot of my future life with The Lawyer. I can totally see, "I added cucumbers! And pomegranate! With dragonfruit!" Mmm hmm...props to you for drinking it!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes! More of the pretty wedding, and some honeymoon!

      He said that his approach is to go through the fridge and see what we have. It is good in that historically we've let lots of veggies go bad. Since he's never really eaten vegetables, my assumption is the weirdness of some of the combos has just not occurred to him.

      Delete
  4. I would think that snap peas would be preferable, in smoothie form, to brussels sprouts. Which I quite enjoy, roasted with a little sea salt. But I suspect they'd be repugnant as a beverage.

    And I love, LOVE, the hat on you.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I actually asked him to please not put Brussels sprouts in a smoothie. He hates them, so we are safe. I have a high tolerance for weird beverages, it turns out, but I would have to draw the line.

      And thank you! I actually don't think it's attractive on me, but I do like the fierce little guys on there.

      Delete
  5. I still need to look into this Downton phenomenon! Anyway, I <3 <3 my Vitamix. The combo I've been loving lately is: 1 banana, 3 celery sticks, handful parsley, couple handfuls kale, frozen pineapple, frozen blueberries, some ice, some water, BAM, blend it, yum! The blueberries ensure it is always a pretty purple and not brownish green =).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, drink the Kool Aid! It is such a pleasure!

      And I am super excited about it. That combo sounds great! We haven't been at it long, so we're working on it. :)

      Delete
  6. LOVE LOVE LOVE my vitamix. This one sounds odd,but it totally works and you get your coffee and your smoothie!

    Ingredients
    Cup of coffee made however you like it.
    A few scoops of greek yogurt (I use vanilla)
    Spinach
    Carrots
    Whatever else you want to stick in there
    Ice
    Blend.

    Tastes like frozen coffee!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This doesn't actually sound odd. It sounds fantastic! I would never have thought about putting coffee in, but sounds delicious!

      Delete
  7. I agree about wanting to see more of the wedding and honeymoon. When they shot to them driving up the road after the honeymoon, my Mom and I both went, "WHAT?!?! Where was the wedding?"

    I love the show and am so happy its back, but so far its not as good as the first 2 seasons. I hope it gets better.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. YES! I saw this car careening up the road, and I was all, who are those people? WHAT??

      I hope so, too! I need to find out about what happens with Bates.

      Delete
  8. Catching up on the posts I've missed. Happy new year! Sorry to hear India is keeping you up. It's not forever is my repeated mantra, over and over and over!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes! I keep repeating that old adage: the days (or in this case, nights) are long, but the years are short!

      Sometimes it works!

      Delete
  9. Maybe cereal for India? My kids are grown now - I know things are different these days. But if she's close to a year - might help her sleep more, thereby, helping you sleep more...

    A friend gave me a Jack LaLane juicer last year. I juiced everything for a month. But the clean-up, yow. Haven't juiced in a while. Is the vitamix easier? Anyway, love the hat and I hope you get some uninterrupted sleep soon.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nick has been all about the cereal. It hasn't helped, alas.

      And the Vitamix grinds up everything. It's basically an insanely strong blender, as I see it. So there's no horrible cleanup. And you're getting all the fiber!

      Delete
  10. We are green juicers, which I think is rather in the same vein as smoothiers, and yes, some veg works better than others.

    I hope that little girl of yours lets you get some sleep soon, I think I remember Hen pulling that same crap at that age. Little jerks ;)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think we're probably doing the same thing? Lots of greens in our smoothies, all ground up.

      Yes - little jerks! But so delicious as well!

      Delete

Tell me about it.