It's Not You, It's Me!

No, I haven't fallen off the face of the earth after imbibing in a fall off the wagon carb extravaganza.  I've just been busy somewhere in the confines of Mommyland.  I'm in the groove with South Beach but, to be perfectly honest, am now giving my kitchen dirty looks every time I go in there now.  I make two breakfasts and lunches every day.  One for the kids, one for me, and then we all eat the same dinner.  I am seeing results, however slowly I feel that might be.  I hate surprises and am the "turn to the last page of the book to see who the killer is after having read two chapters" type of girl, so you can imagine how painful it is for me to wait.  I want the weight off NOW but it took me longer than two weeks to put that weight on, so it will take me longer than two weeks to take that weight off.

My mom, god bless her soul, sends me my favorite things in care packages.  You cannot get Reese cups here unless you are willing to pay the equivalent of $3.00 for a package, which I'm not.  So, she sends me Reese cups.  Germans aren't big on peanut butter.  Nutella, yes, peanut butter, not so much.  My husband, who thinks cold pickled herring wrapped around a dill pickle is a delicacy, claims PB to be "disgusting". You can see why he's not allowed to cook (that and he usually completely forgets he's cooking and the kitchen fills with smoke).  I've been eyeballing my Reese cups, hearing them call out sweetly to me.  I had to have "the talk" to them. 

"Listen, my chocolately peanut buttery, sweetheart, it's not you, it's me.  You are an addiction.  I love you so much that I can never, never get enough of you and, because of that, my ass and hips have reached epic proportions.  I need a break from you for a while until I can get my priorities in order.  It won't be long!  I promise!  Don't call me, I'll call you."

It's also been Spring Break here in the land of the cows (I call my village that because sometimes I feel like the cow to human ratio is frightfully close) and Girly Girl has been home now for a full week.  Her first day off we made Easter Nest cookies from the recipe I got off of penniesonaplatter.com, which, along with annies-eats.com, have THE BEST recipes on this side of the universe.  I ran out of regular white flour so I substituted the rest with whole wheat flour and am told by Girly Girl they turned out "super duper yummylicious".   I also made bunny and chick cookies from the same dough and the girls decorated the bunny and chick cookies and I decorated the nest cookies.  Great fun was had by all and I am proud to say, I did not eat one single cookie or drop of frosting.  Great joy was had by friends and neighbors and Herr Hubby's co-workers as I passed them out to get them out of the house, we had somewhere along the lines of fifty cookies.  My one year old nephew loved the buttercream frosting so much, he scraped it off the cookie with his teeth, green smeared all over his face, while looking around frantically for more green goo to hype up with. 

Other than that, I have been trying to keep Girly Girl busy with lots of mom and GG type activities.  Yesterday we went to a bistro to meet up with other ex-pats to proofread the articles for the upcoming issue of the magazine our club puts out.  I was editor for this edition and Girly Girl really enjoyed being around tons of grown women, feeling the relaxed atmosphere as we all chatted and proofed at a leisurely place.  Girly Girl rarely gets to go to downtown HH anymore and thrives on the whole adventure of Mommy finding the perfect parking space and then walking along quaint, tree-lined streets while we go about finding our destinations.  She also loved the fact that we parked near a station house for policemen and stopped to tell them, "We parked right there.  Can you watch our car?"  Which was sweet, but the meter only let you pay for an hour at the time, which meant I had to creep about Mission Impossible style to get back to the meter to feed it or face a ticket.  Bless her heart, she was so proud of herself for making sure our car was safe.

We also attented a tradition that I still don't quite understand but find fun anyway, the Osterfeuer, or to translate it, the Easter bonfire.  Our village gathered up plenty of dry kindle and started a blazing bonfire, well, the volunteer fire department did.  Tents were set up for hot chocolate, Glühwein (spiced wine warmed with a shot of rum), beer, Stockbrot dough (wrap around a stick and rotate over fire, a different version of roasting marshmellows) and plenty of hot dogs and what not.  Wild Child went on a mission to find as many rocks and sticks as possible and Girly Girl found friends and went about baking her bread over the fire.  After a while, Wild Child ran up and asked if we could go home.  So I drove her home and Herr Hubby stayed with Girly Girl.  It was a nice way for our little family to get out and for me to get a change of scenery. 

I look forward to seeing what the Easter Bunny will bring the girls (ahem, meaning I have to get the stuff out of my locked closet) and going on an Easter egg hunt out in the wild with the family here.  I hope everyone has a relaxing Easter and manages to enjoy themselves in whichever way possible.