The Sewing Mom

My sister Karen is celebrating her birthday today! If you’d like to find out how old she is, you’ll have to go visit her and please leave her a comment while you’re there. You see, if she receives the same number of comments as her age, something good will happen!

I hope she’s having a great time on her birthday while visiting her daughter in Florida. That’s a great way to spend the day, much better than being in freezing cold Indiana!

My daughter’s 12th birthday is only 3 weeks away and we’re having a very hard time coming up with what we want to do for her. Last year things were so chaotic with our impending relocation and other things going on, her birthday was all but forgotten. I had promised her a party before we moved, sort of a last get together with all of her friends, but it never happened and I have felt bad about that ever since.

I’ve been talking with her for the last week or so about things she might like to do for her birthday. We’ve all ready decided that we would celebrate it the weekend before her actual birthday because the weekend after we will be busy with Destination Imagination, the Regional Tournament. Other than that, we can’t seem to come up with a good plan. The biggest problem is that she is really missing her friends back in Illinois. She has made a few friends here in Texas, but she’s only known them a few months, whereas, most of her friends in Illinois, she has known since preschool or kindergarten. It’s really tearing at my heartstrings.

My husband and I were talking about trying to have one of her friends come down for a visit, but the school districts don’t have their spring breaks at the same time so that would be very difficult to plan. I’m still toying with the idea and am now thinking of vacation ideas that would possibly incorporate a trip for all three of us. While my husband and I could find romantic things to do in Chicago, my daughter could visit her friends in the suburbs.

Downtown Chicago is a beautiful city. We stayed there when we were house hunting and loved it. A room with a view overlooking Navy Pier and Lake Michigan can be so romantic. There are really a lot of wonderful things to do in Chicago, museums, theater and terrific restaurants. Let’s not even talk about all the wonderful shopping on the Mag Mile! It would be a lot of fun to do all of these things with my husband. It’s been many years since we’ve had the opportunity to do anything, just the two of us.

I’ve signed up for the newsletter at Trusted Tours & Attractions to help me find great deals for planning our trip if that’s what we decide to do. Plus, by signing up, I can win a free digital camera! I think we could all use a getaway, romantic for the adults, fun and friendly for our daughter. I’m looking forward to it!

TGIF!! I started the week off well getting things done around the house. The middle of the week pretty much sucked for me as I’ve been suffering from a migraine and haven’t been functioning too well. After babying my head most of yesterday and last night, including using a lavender cold pack on my eyes that was a gift from my sister, I am feeling somewhat better today and am making an attempt to end the week the way it started, productively.

I just finished cleaning the kitchen and was attempting to do some online banking, but my bank’s website is currently down, so I thought I would come over here and post my Four Foods on Friday, my favorite meme. If you’re interested in joining in, please head over to Valmg’s site and leave her a comment after creating your post.

This week’s questions:

#1. What’s your favorite potato chip? If I’m just eating chips by themselves, I’d have to go with Doritoes. If I’m dipping, I’d go with Ruffles, but when I’m out at a restaurant, I can’t get enough of tortilla chips and salsa!

#2. Do you use butter, margarine, both or neither? I tend to use both, it really depends on what I’m doing. For spreading on toast and bread, I use Country Crock spread with calcium. For cooking, I tend to use real butter.

#3. What’s your favorite mixed alcoholic (or virgin) drink? I enjoy a frozen margarita or daiquiri, but I was recently introduced to the mojito which I found quite tasty!

#4. What’s your favorite vegetable and how do you prepare it? I don’t know if I have a favorite, but I love the taste of potatoes when they’ve been cooked with a roast or in beef stew.

Happy Friday!!