Friday's Bisque

The Bisque was a success!  So was Wills' bedtime routine! 

We can't take any credit for the recipe.  This is one of my dad's recipes that he tweaked from a friend at Land's End. 

And, honestly, I can't take any credit for the outcome.  This was all William.  I poured a glass of wine, kept him company, and took a few pictures. 

We gathered the ingredients. 

William poured a little lemon juice on the crab meat.

He sauteed the onions and celery in butter.  Then, added the crab meat.

After heating for a few minutes, we added the cream, milk, hot sauce, Worcestershire, and cream of celery.  You use equal amounts of half and half and milk. 

He heated that, and added the Ritz crackers, to thicken it up, and the mushrooms. 

The final touch is a dollop of Sherry on top!

The Wise Men approve!

I wish I had a better picture.  It was hard to capture the real beauty of the bisque.  But trust me; it was delicious! 

Bisque for Two

It’s Friday! Woo hoo! I made it through my second week of work!

And…guess who slept 9 hours last night? 9 whole hours?

Of course, sweet Finnster did.

But Wills did, too! Yay!  I can’t believe it! We are keeping our fingers crossed for another great night, tonight.

Before I forget...at Wills’ two month appointment he weighed 13.4 pounds and was 24 inches long. Our sweet boy did great with his shots and didn’t cry too much.

 

Now…back to Friday night. I don’t know of anything better than warm, creamy crab bisque, red wine, Christmas lights, and a fire, after a long week of work. William and I LOVE to cook something special on Friday nights. We haven’t lately, because we’ve been a little busy figuring out our evening routines with Wills. But, since he did so well last night and has pretty much established a bedtime of 8:30, later tonight is for us and our kitchen! Crab bisque is our Christmas Eve tradition, so we are practicing. :)

It’s really easy…that is, after you pick the crabs.

And, since I’m breastfeeding, and supposedly burning 500 extra calories a day, I can justify all of the cream, right? Ha! I better be careful. But, not tonight. :)

I will let you drool over a picture of its deliciousness, tomorrow. Off to enjoy Wills until 8:30 and my husband afterwards.

The Stockings Were Hung...

Look whose stocking came in the mail?

The tree is finally decorated…after three days of hanging out naked in the stand. What can we say? We like au natural.

I love my eclectic tree of ornaments and lights. I know it’s not Southern Living or Cudos worthy with beautiful bows, white lights, and designer matching ornaments. But it’s mine. And it is full of love and memories. It is perfect for our home and nowhere else. It belongs here, and that means something to me.

For as long as I can remember, my mom has given us an ornament each year for Christmas. When I moved to Athens, she boxed up all of the ornaments she had given over the years, and gave them to me to put on my Christmas tree. It was so nice to already have meaningful ornaments for my very first Christmas tree. And lucky for us, the tradition continues…William gets an ornament every year, and now, hopefully Wills will get one too.

My new favorite ornament.

Wills loves the lights!

Off to curl up on the couch with my three boys and watch Love Actually, for the 3rd time in a month.

Have I mentioned that I LOVE Christmas? :)

All in a Cup

Wills, like his Mommy, is all smiles in the morning. His Daddy on the other hand...not much of a morning person. But, since Wills’ breakfast is happening closer to 7am these days, Daddy has taken over the morning feeding, and he’s doing a great job being chipper…or faking it. :)

These smiles make me giddy in the morning and make it oh so hard to walk out of the door.

But, if I have to leave my smiling, wide awake, bundle of joy, I should be able to treat myself to a cup of joy…right? Not to be mistaken, at $4 each, this is just an OCCASIONAL treat – at least until I open my Christmas stocking and find a gift card, or two. Santa knows what I like, and if I’m lucky, since he’s made an appearance and all, he reads my blog.

As cliché as it sounds, a Skinny Peppermint Mocha from Starbucks really is Christmas in a cup.

Instead of dreaming of sugarplum fairies, it makes me dream of a stroll through New York City, bundled up in boots and a cute scarf, stopping to watch the ice skaters outside of Rockefeller center, holding my husband’s hand, my coffee in the other hand, spending a weekend shopping at FAO Shwarz for my boy.

For now, instead of dwelling on the fact that I had to leave my boys, I will drink my coffee, dream about Christmas traditions, and look forward to 3 o’clock.

Finding Time

The days seem to be running together. The hours seem to fly. Except when I’m at work. Yes, last week was my first week back since my sweet baby boy was born, and I must admit, I counted the minutes, waiting to get home to him. Some say, absence makes the heart grow fonder. I don’t know if this heart can grow any fonder, and the absence thing, let’s just say it was hard. His short stint in the hospital, right before I was to return to work, didn’t help matters. But, I’m optimistic. And I’m hoping that it will get easier to be away. He is in great hands with all of our family helping out to care for him. This Mommy just needs to relax and try to enjoy her other 100 children who also need her attention. :)

Wills was two months old last week! Where has the time gone? He is so much more alert and active! We are enjoying every minute of parenthood – even the middle of the night feedings. Really, we are. We talk daily about Christmas, showing Wills the manger scene and telling him about Baby Jesus. We sing to him all the time. Daddy sings “You’ll always be my baby” to him, and he loves it. His baby Einstein gym is, by far, his favorite activity – the octopus being his object of admiration. He’s a great eater, sleeper, and pooper. Ha! What more could we ask for?

Before I went back to work, Wills and I spent a beautiful day at the park.

. 

He met some of his Mommy's favorite people in the world.

After being sick, we decided to keep the little peanut home on Thanksgiving. 

And because things aren't always perfect, and sometimes it feels good to cry.  :)

On another note, back to the blog title: finding time. We are 10 weeks in, with this little peanut, and I feel like there is no other role that suits me as much as the role of Mommy. I feel like I was meant for this job. However, although Mommy defines me these days, I would like to and need to find time for the other things that make me happy. Is it possible to be Mommy and Writer? Or Mommy and Yogi (not that I’m anywhere close, but I would love to be)? And the most important one: Mommy and Wife? Here’s to spending as much time as possible with my little boy and, somehow, finding little moments to blog, read a book, work on my novel, love on my husband, try a new recipe (first I have to find a way to get to the grocery store), exercise, and call a girlfriend. I know that finding the balance will, ultimately, make me a better mom.

Hopefully, there are Christmas cookies in this blog's future!

Lately...

Lately at the Mooney's...

We've been enjoying our precious little boy.  Taking a lot of pictures.  Singing songs.  Hoping to catch a glimpse of his smiles.  Learning more about his sweet personality every day.  We can't get enough!

We went to Isabella's Princess Birthday Party. 



Happy Birthday, Isabella!

Finn loves hanging out with Wills.

Wills loves his Daddy, his kisses, and...

His Guitar!!!  He is mesmerised!

Happy Anniversary!

I realize that lately all of my posts are a bit sappy.  I can't help it.  I'm pretty sentimental as is, but this motherhood experience has increased those emotions dramatically.  Warning: this post, a day after my third anniversary, won't be any different. :)

We all know September 25th is my new favorite day of the year.  But, November 8th is my other favorite day.  On November 8th, 2007, William asked me to marry him, and on November 8th, 2008, we said "I do."  Yesterday, we celebrated these years together.

It was a different type of celebration.  Most things are different these days, but not any less meaningful.  For the past few years, we've taken an anniversary trip.  This year we took a Christmas shopping and Chophouse trip. :)

I had big plans to take a lot of pictures...It's hard to even type, but the camera died just as I snapped the first picture of our seafood stuffed portabella mushrooms.  I was so sad.  William went and put the camera on the charger in the car, so we could get this one photo of the evening.  :(

I guess if I am going to keep up with this blog and record our "moondreams," I need to keep up with charging the camera.  Okay, moving on.

William and I enjoyed great conversation while browsing through a few shops, sipping Cabernet over dinner, and listening to music at French Market West.  We opted out of a movie for this purpose alone: conversation.  And it was so worth it!

Of couse, we talked about our ever changing moondreams.  :)

We also reminisced about the past three years of our marriage.  I asked William, what his Top Three moments were for the two of us. 

Guess what's at the top of the list? 

The day this little boy was born!

I replied and told him that was a no-brainer.  Wills is the best thing that has ever happened to us and not even in the same category as anything else.  What were his next Top Three?

His response (in no particular order) :

Number one.  The Bahamas for his 30th birthday and to make up for our honeymoon sickness.

Number 2.  Land's End. Period.

I made him explain.  He said every moment we've spent together at Land's End, with family, with friends, and by ourselves, is in his Top Three.  I'm so glad he loves it there as much as I do. 

And number three.  Our other two anniversary trips.  We spent one at Chateau Elan and one at Land's End. 

Of course, after he named these three memories, we went on to talk more and more and realized we've had so many "Top" moments in the past three years.  As we continued, we came to the conclusion that the big trips are wonderful get-aways, the concerts are a lot of fun, the once-a-year holidays are something we look forward to, but the little moments, are what make our marriage. 

We love cooking dinner together.  We love dancing in the living room.  I love when William brings home flowers, just because.  We love our morning coffee together.  We love our evening walks through the neighborhood talking about our day.  We love our lazy Sundays after church.  William loves playing music while I try to guess the song and artist.  And now we love hanging out with our baby boy listening to his sweet coos.  It's the simple, silly, daily moments that I'm thankful to share with this man. 

Happy Anniversary, William. 

Now, I think we will snuggle, drink hot chocolate, and watch a Christmas movie.  Another "Top" for me. :)

The Best Keeps Getting Better!

I remember pulling out of the driveway of the beach house in July knowing that the next time we returned to Land's End would be with a BABY and things wouldn't be quite the same.  Although it was different, it was still a relaxing weekend, and so special for us to share for the first time with our little boy. 

Wills' routines continued away from home.  He stayed on his schedule and enjoyed his baths.

I love my husband!

Aunt Sissy and Gammy read to Wills.  My mom has had the beach house ready for children even before Wills arrived.  She has children's books, little chairs, buckets and shovels for the beach, mini fishing poles, and more! 

Although it was windy, we wanted Wills to see the water, so we bundled him up and took him for a walk.

We wanted to get him out of his carseat, but he fell asleep.  It was best to keep him cozy and let him rest. :)

We had a great time Saturday night cheering on the Razorbacks....Pig Sooie!  Yes, we are Georgia Fans in the Lowcountry, and a loss for Spurrier this weekend meant a lot to the Bulldawgs.  We fly our Georgia flag with pride, despite the abundance of Clemson and Carolina fans nearby.

A delicious spread of tailgating food was enjoyed throughout the night.  We had William's wings, crab dip, fried shrimp, pepper poppers, boiled shrimp, and homemade guacamole.

Papa enjoyed some sweet time with Wills in the sun room.

As usual, the pups loved the front porch.  Finn is the one out of line. :)

It's hard to anticipate how life will change with a baby.  The Lord has blessed me with an incredible husband, the best family, great friends, a home away from home, good health, and so much more.  But, I've found that when circumstances, places, traditions, and families, seem like they can't get any better and are perfect as is, just throw in a precious baby boy, and somehow all of it becomes even better!  It's hard to believe, yet it is so true! 

Those bridges, moss covered trees, and salt air get me every time.  They put things in perspective and "make you feel fine, make you feel fine."  Right, Jimmy?

Some call it the magic of the Lowcountry.