Accomplishment #10: Cabin getaway with Hubby
I’m a bit late posting this, since we went over my birthday weekend at the beginning of December, but I really want to write about the fantastic time we had. We stayed in a private cabin at the Big Cedar Lodge Resort in Branson, MO. The cabin was everything I’d wanted…rustic wood floors, log walls with wide chinking, stone wood-burning fireplace, huge back deck…it even had a gorgeously decorated Christmas tree, and lights outlining the entire outside!
This trip had a dual purpose – my birthday celebration (crossing the last item off my 30 at 30 list before I turned 31) and a mini-babymoon. Since we’d already done two big vacations this year, we decided that instead of taking a long trip somewhere before baby comes, we’d just do a quick weekend getaway. It was perfect. I highly recommend it to all of you expectant parents out there who can…taking just a few days away, driving a short distance, and staying in a beautiful place…the perfect celebration of baby coming and free time becoming less…well, free. Some of the highlights of this trip:
– fire in the fireplace
We had planned to take a wagon ride around the resort to admire their intricate light displays the first night we got there, but with rain pouring down and everything sopping wet, the ride was cancelled. I was a little disappointed, but our evening ended up being much better than riding around in a cold, wet wagon would have been. Thanks to my highly capable, eagle-scout husband, we had a fire blazing in our fireplace in no time. Nothing like cuddling on the couch in front of a roaring fire to make you feel all warm and toasty…inside and out!
– Putting together a puzzle
It was very chilly and damp the next day of our stay too, but fortunately we had come prepared for indoor amusement. In the morning we went Christmas shopping (though we ended up with more baby clothes than gifts…oh well, merry Christmas little one!). After we’d gotten sufficiently chilled and worn-out, we holed up in our cabin for the rest of the afternoon. We’d brought a Disney puzzle to do, which we spread out over the dining room table and spend the afternoon piecing together. I love a good jigsaw puzzle, and this one was not too big or too hard…it was full of familiar Disney characters which were easy to recognize and fit in place. I played my “show-tunes” mix (coincidentally full of songs like “Be Our Guest” and “Under the Sea”), a perfect accompaniment to the activity. We were able to finish it that day, which of course is important to me. I just wouldn’t have felt right about putting a half-done puzzle back in the box. 🙂 (yes, there’s that “completer drive” rearing its ugly head)
-Massage at the Carriage House Spa
This is the third time Chris and I have indulged in massages. Not everyone likes them, but I’ve found nothing better for relaxation and to smooth out all the tension I carry (not sure why I’m so tense…until I remember that I deal with hormonal 7th graders on a daily basis…oh yeah, that’s why I have knots the size of golf balls in my shoulder muscles). If you’ve never tried one I think you should…especially if you have stress in your life (and who doesn’t these days?)
Isn’t the building picturesque?
– Snowflakes falling as we left
Now, most of you know that I am not a fan of snow. After living through ten winters in the Colorado foothills I’ve seen enough of the white stuff to last a lifetime. However, there is something beautiful and magical about watching snow drift down around you in December…it just set the perfect tone for the end of my birthday celebration and the start of the Christmas season. Thankfully all it did was flurry for a bit…nothing stuck. Driving home from Branson with snow on the road would not have been a pleasant way to end our getaway! (You think Colorado roads are windy…Ozark roads could give them a run for their money. And there is no highway from NW Arkansas to Branson, so you have to take tiny back roads the whole way. It makes for quite the adventure, but not one I would enjoy with slick roads and white-out conditions).
Lesson learned from this trip? Sometimes a quick getaway for the weekend is just as special and memorable as a week in an exotic resort…and much easier to afford! 🙂
List of Movie Locales
When I begin daydreaming that I am far away from here (which I will do more and more frequently as the winter progresses) I find that the places I picture have often been featured on the big screen. I don’t mean just that watching James Bond makes me want to go to Florida, I mean that I want to go to Miami Beach as it was featured in Goldfinger, watch Sean Connery do a swan dive off the diving board and soak up the rays in my modest yet chic 60s era two-piece. Do you know what I mean? Do you ever watch a movie and say to yourself, “I want to be there!” Here are a few of my favorite day-dream destinations, as featured on the big screen:
1. The remote yet beautiful Greek island in Mamma Mia!
Yes, the plot was ridiculous, the constant ABBA songs were obnoxious, and Pierce Brosnan’s singing was atrocious, but the scenery was absolutely fabulous!
Glistening blue waters…sun bleach stone walls…traditionally dressed Greek matrons who abandon their housewifely duties and instead flock to the pier to sing and perform a delightfully spontaneous (yet choreographed) dance, then jump in the ocean! Yes please! I’d also gladly make the hike up the hundreds of steps in order to experience sunset through the windows of that ancient stone church.
2. Austria in The Sound of Music
Okay, so I know WWII was going on and it was German occupied, but come on, who wouldn’t want to experience every bit of that setting! Throw my arms wide and run across the rolling green hills…ride the bus to a fanciful manor house…jump around the benches of a gazebo while a thunderstorm crashes around me…dress up in old drapes and cycle my way around Salzburg…heck, I’d even hike over the Alps to escape the Nazi’s, because the path the Von Trapp’s took was so pretty!
3. New York City in You’ve Got Mail
Bagel shops and coffee bars…a children’s bookstore that had more character than Hans Christian Anderson…singing silly songs in a round after Thanksgiving dinner…intimate soiree’s where you just might bump into your arch-nemesis…street fairs and story time and farmers’ markets and flower gardens…If I could just talk Kathleen Kelly into sub-letting me that cozy apartment that oozed charm, I could experience all New York through all the seasons!
4. The Australian Outback in Crocodile Dundee
Now, if I’m going to venture into the unforgiving land of the Aborigines, of course I’d want an experienced guide who’d been on enough walkabouts to learn how to hypnotize a water buffalo and gut a crocodile with only his bowie knife. Hmm…don’t know that I could handle eating whatever lizards or snakes he catches, but it might be fun to sneak up on a group of natives performing traditional song and dance. Just as long as they didn’t expect me to join in. One thing I do know, I would not chase a group of kangaroos off-road, just in case I damaged my rented Land Rover and had to set it on fire in order to signal for help. Those vehicles are expensive, and I don’t think insurance covers arson, even if it does save your life.
5. Cameron Diaz’s ginormous California bungalo in The Holiday
Now, I know Kate Winslet’s English cottage was much more picturesque, but come on. A swimming pool, workout room, gourmet kitchen and fully automatic blinds in the bedroom trumps wood-burning fireplace, claw foot tub and stone walls any day. I also wouldn’t mind meeting one of the great writers from Hollywood’s Golden Era and getting his advice and movie recommendations. Playing Name that Soundtrack in Blockbuster with Jack Black would be pretty fun too, especially if you run into Dustin Hoffman while humming the tune from The Graduate.
There are many, many more…this post may end up with a part 2. So if you could go to the setting of a movie, where would it be?
List of snow day activities
I’ll admit, I had mixed feelings about having our first snow day. I prefer them closer to the end of January, or even better, February, when it takes all my will-power to drag myself from the clutches of my cozy covers. And of course, the more snow days we have the longer into the summer we’ll go (I shudder as I recall last year, when a record 10 snow days kept us toiling away until mid-June). However, whenever snow falls to the ground so do my students’ attention spans. If I had to respond to one more “Do you think we’ll get out of school early?” query yesterday I might have done bodily harm. So it was with relief that I picked up my buzzing phone to read the “no school due to weather” message from my assistant principal. I did manage to crawl out of bed and have breakfast with my hubby before he headed in to the office (our home office) to work. Since I’d made it that far, I decided to go ahead and be a little productive. What follows is a list of my activities, in no particular order. I spent the majority of the day on one item, but I’ll let you guess which one. 🙂
1. Worked on our itinerary for my birthday celebration trip to Walt Disney World (#6 on my list of 30 at 30)
Call me crazy, but if we’re going to brave the crowds over Spring Break at the happiest place on earth, we’re going to have a serious plan of attack. I’m actually having way to much fun doing this. The plan is much too detailed to record here (plus you might be appalled by my ridiculous tendency to over-prepare) so I’ll have to save it for another post. I will probably end up making a list of all the ways my plan didn’t work the way I expected it to. Let me just admit that yes, I’ve already decided which park we’ll visit on which day, and yes, I’ve made time slots for every ride, and yes, I’ve colored coded each type of activity, and yes, I began by prioritizing every attraction…ok, that’s enough of a glimpse into my madness for now.
2. Organized my Poetry unit folder
Ok, so I have a bit of a reputation at school for being obsessively organized. It may have something to do with the fact that I went as Organizer Girl for Superhero Day during Spirit Week a couple of years ago (complete with a utility belt of rulers, pens, paper clips, and sticky-notes). One of my co-workers positively gloated when I couldn’t find a permission form for my new homeroom student before a field trip (his idea of organization involves piles of random papers placed in strategic locations around his classroom). Anyway, it will shock some of my co-workers to know that at the end of my poetry unit last year I simply tossed all the materials I had used into one folder, without any kind of sorting or consolidation. Naturally when I pulled the folder out this year to begin planning, I couldn’t make heads or tails of it. It took me a couple hours of sorting and compiling before I was satisfied. Of course I ended up re-writing my lesson plans while I was at it…but who wants to do the same boring thing as last year anyway?
3. Made Chili from scratch (my Mom’s recipe)
I’ve already mentioned my latent housewife gene that has only recently manifested, thanks to my current state of wedded bliss. Cooking confidently is among my recent accomplishments. Anyone who has eaten at my parents’ house knows that both my mom and dad are very talented home cooks. A combination of intimidation (what if I can’t live up to their reputation?) and laziness (I don’t need to learn how to cook that, I’ll just go over to mom and dad’s) has kept me from doing much cooking…or at least from being confident in my ability to deviate from a recipe. Chili, however, is a dish that Mom ingrained in me at a young age. Her version is extremely tasty and very easy. It can be done in the morning and left to simmer in a crock pot all day, or made on the stove top with only 20 minutes or so of “mingle” time. And even a left-over hater like me will admit it’s even better the next day. It’s the perfect lunch to take to school on a frigid winter’s day, especially when two of the boilers are out and your classroom doesn’t get warmer than 65. On that note, someone please explain to me why a fairly new school installed a furnace whose parts are so rare it takes weeks for them to come in. We’ve been without decent heat since the week before Christmas. The Science room at the end of the hall maintains a frosty 54. No wonder the kids are working so diligently on their energy projects! I digress…here’s the recipe for Mom’s chili if you’re interested (I tweaked it a bit).
Ingredients:
1 bell pepper
1/2 onion
1 lb lean ground beef (or ground chuck if you don’t mind the fat grams)
2 cans diced tomatoes (you can use whole tomatoes like my Mom, but I prefer to disguise them as much as possible)
1 c. tomato sauce
1 can dark red kidney beans (or 2 if you like more beans…I prefer less)
1/2 to 1 c. water
garlic, chili powder, kosher salt, and ground pepper to taste
In a large skillet, brown the ground beef, along with the bell pepper and onion. Add spices to taste.
While the meat is cooking, combine the tomatoes, tomato sauce, and kidney beans in a dutch oven (large pot).
When you don’t see any more pink in the meat, drain the excess grease, then add to the tomato and bean mixture. Add water until the consistency looks right (not too watery). Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Add more salt and chili powder to taste. Add more water if it looks too thick. Reduce heat, simmer for 15-30 minutes (or as long as you want to…the longer it cooks the more the flavors mingle. If you plan on letting it cook for hours I suggesting using a crock pot.)
See, simple as pie! I usually make corn bread muffins to go with it, and top each bowl of chili with a helping of shredded cheddar. Yummy!
4. Updated my blog
5. Read some of my “adult” (not young adult) novel
I haven’t actually done this yet, since I’m still on item 4, but I plan to as soon as I post this. I’m reading the fourth book in the Wine Country mysteries series by Ellen Crosby. This one is cleverly titled The Riesling Retribution. Ok, so the names are ridiculous, but the writing is actually pretty good for your run-of-the-mill murder mysteries series. The characters have some depth, the heroine is gusty but flawed, and the setting is beautifully described (it’s actually set in rural Virginia, not Napa Valley as I’d assumed when I picked them out). There are definitely “adult themes” as I’d warn my students, but nothing graphic or overtly offensive in my opinion. The mysteries are fairly clever too…I’m about halfway through this one and haven’t fingered the murderer yet. If you like a little historical accuracy, wine recommendations, and soul-searching served up with your crime story, you’d probably like these books. But don’t take my word for it! =)
So there you have it…my first snow day of the year. Looking back over it, I might have been a little too productive. Maybe next time I’ll spend less time lesson planning and more time with my novel. Did you have a snow day today? How did you spend it? Do tell!
List Lady 