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Packing for our Beach Vacation-“Are You Kidding Me!”

 

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“Are you kidding me!” exclaims my husband, every time he sees everything stacked up for the beach and ready for crunch time loading our SUV. This has been going on for nearly 22 years now. (That’s our beach history, not our years of marriage). I could literally start a business to organize some of the clueless wives/moms/grandmothers, and guys, who don’t know where to begin their preparations for a week at the beach with family and friends.

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  Just the list making could boggle the mind but you have to start somewhere. Even if the lemon/lime squeezer gets on the same planning page as #4 Pampers Night Time Pull-ups, it’s ok, because when it’s all said and done, they may both end up stuffed in the oversized salad bowl til we get there.

Here is what you need if you are foodies, which we are. If you want to skip preparing any of the food yourself, or IF you want to take the chance of waiting until you’re on that remote island to see if their grocer has Alimentum by Similac ( the only formula the twins have digested in the last 5 months), then go right ahead and plan on spending 95% of your leisure time driving around in the tropical temperatures looking for essentials. No thanks, sister. I went to the grocery one time in a week and witnessed what looked like the aftermath of hurricane preparation- no fish, no fresh veggies, no ice, no bread…..I could go on and on.IMG_6654

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This is a bit of my list of essentials. Included are the ingredients that can be put on the shelf and grabbed last minute for appetizers, lunch on the beach and some easy no fuss breakfasts.

DRY IN BAGS:

  1.  Orzo, dry spaghetti ( I packed Buchatini ), tiny roasting potatoes ( fingerling are yummy), quinoa. garlic, onion, for quick stir fry or baked veggies
  2.  Cereal, pancake mix, flour tortillas, bread( either gluton free or loaf)
  3.  Dry snacks- almonds ( love Trader Joe’s Marcona with Rosemary), popcorn, corn chips, kettle potato chips, crackers, dry fruit especially raisins or cherries
  4. Spices- Kosher salt, peppercorns, cayenne pepper, dried thyme, Tony Chachere’s cajun spices or other brand, cumin,  cinnamon, sugar, tarragon ( I carried fresh basil, rosemary, mint, parsley, and cilantro from my herb garden wrapped in paper.

CANNED OR BOTTLED:

Olive oil, vegetable oil, vinegar (Balsamic, Rice wine), homemade or bottled dressing, Tabasco, catsup, yellow and spicy   mustard, small mayonnaise, artichoke hearts, olives ( Kalamato), green olives in juice for Martinis. Roasted red peppers – piquillo ( great for last minute tortilla wraps) GOT THOSE CHECKED?

FOR THE KIDS: Peanut butter and or Almond butter- honey, jelly or jam ( hot pepper jelly), jar of Dulce de Leche'(Trader Joe’s)

IN COOLER ON ICE : Can buy there or bring some for the first few days so you can avoid the grocery store

Bottled water, sodas, La Croix, small milk, half and half, butter, cheese especially parmasan,  half dozen eggs, snacking cheese and Feta, cream cheese, sliced ham and or salami,  easy fruit-apples, oranges, lemons,  blueberries, tiny tomatoes, lettuce, avocados, squash or corn if you have room!!

Frozen entree’s  in disposable baking aluminum ( I have brought chicken parmasan, noodles, black beans, shrimp creole,  meat sauce or meatballs, spinach dip, soup of any kind including gumbo). NOT ALL ON SAME TRIP!

CONTAINERS/STORAGE:

Aluminum foil, Plastic storage bags, plastic cups, sippy cups for little guys, plastic wrap or waxed paper, paper towels, toilet paper ( unless provided), Kleenex or other tissues, napkins

Great aromatic candle and dinner candles for a sit down dinner – lighter and/ or matches

Wine opener, can opener, bottle opener, hand grater ( good luck if you don’t bring them

Le Cruset- one great pot with lid

One very good serated knife ( in case they don’t have one at the rental)

Sparkling water, beer, wine, liquor, tea, cranberry juice, lemonade- I bought most of this and crammed it in the car since the price and selection anywhere near the beach is high and few in number.

FIRST AID, SUNSCREEN, BUG SPRAY, DIGESTION AIDS, PAIN RELIEF, ETC. :. Bring the following without a doubt:

  1. Bandaids, Antibacterial ointment, spray and stick sunscreens ( from #30 plus), fever and pain reducer,  children’s pain and fever relief (leave to their parents or if you are the parent- pack plenty), seltzer or other help with upset stomach, cold/ allergy relief, moisturizer for dry skin
  2. EASY HORS’D’OEUVRES & DESSERT: Use your artichokes, mayo, and grated parmasan cheese ( almost equal amounts). Chop up artichokes and combine with mayo and cheese. Bake in ovenproof container for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Smells heavenly. Serve with whatever you have in the rental ( chips, crackers, or bread).
  3. Serve those delicious Marcona Rosemary Almonds from Trader Joe’s in a bowl by themselves
  4. Spread hot pepper jelly over cream cheese
  5. Serve cheeses with olives, salami, fruit
  6. Serve black beans (leftover) with tortilla chips, tomatoes and cheese, warming in the oven to make nachos
  7. Roast tomatoes with rosemary, salt, pepper, and olive oil for 30 minutes at 350 degrees or more depending on oven. Serve over French bread and top with parmasan cheese.
  8. Quinoa ideas- prepare Quinoa (use water or chicken stock if you have it). Mix in ripe avocado, nuts, raisins or dried cherries, i/4 small red onion, celery, blueberries, Feta,  olive oil, salt and pepper to taste. Use as many or as few of these ingredients as you like.
  9. Use Romaine lettuce as the container and fill with prepared Quinoa (see ideas above).
  10. Roll up cheese, avocado, picquillo peppers, chopped celery, and cumin, in tortilla to make a wrap- cut in smaller portions and serve. Can add some of that sliced ham if the kids haven’t eaten it first.
  11. For the kids: cinnamon toast with apples,  celery with peanut butter, ham roll-up with cheese inside, or send some kind soul to the store for popcycles and ice cream (with warm Dulce de Leche’)  for dessert

PERSONAL PACKING

Now it’s time to pack your own clothes and see if you can fit them- including: along with your beach towels, large blanket, flip flops, swimsuit coverups, a casual long dress for a dinner out, digging tools, chairs (skip these and rent),  Fadoras, golf equipment (we rented it), horseshoes, Bocce balls, hair straighteners, and de-frizzers………….

Important- Have fun and relax, whatever doesn’t fit into your vehicle- take a deep breath and let it go. Maybe you can bring it next year!

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Our Last Walk with Molly

A description of Molly must start with some history of our time with her. She is what my husband calls our “Rent a Dog”.  For five years now Molly has been our informal greeter as we ascend Star Mountain Drive to our cabin. She rushes from her house three doors down the mountain and beats us to the front porch of our cabin every time. Of course she does. She’s a black lab mix who lives with a kind gentleman who answers her barks and scratches at the door by allowing her to expend some of her endless energy and scutter down to the Froeba image1(2).jpeg Molly on porch excitedcabin. There she waits patiently for a run, a walk, and some serious tummy scratches. With us she fills her need to pounce into every water hole and running stream. Her place is on our front steps, though she enters at will and tries with all her might to sit still on our deck or gazebo waiting for half-time during college football season to coax us into a standing position.  It never works. She lasts at most 3 minutes before her cold nose is edging you out of your seat toward the walking stick and hiking boots.image1(1)

Nothing but true canine love will send a person outside when the temperature is hovering at 35 degrees and the wind chill is well past ridiculous. That doesn’t stop Molly from batting her tail by our bedroom window at around 5 o’clock in the morning, barking incessantly at imaginary predators. To give her credit, she only does this the first morning we’re there. Then she settles down and allows us to sleep in til half past 6.  We hit the road on Star Mountain and never cease to be amazed at how many times she can scale the sides of a hill and stay ahead of us during the 3-4 mile hike we take down to the valley. She has absolutely no car sense, so guiding her out of the middle of the road has been a long teaching process. Even though she’s had to succumb to wearing a leash as of late, she never complains but heels beautifully for a country dog who has never been restrained.

Now comes the hard part. Molly has cancer. I’ve said it. She was diagnosed over two weeks ago and she’s already lost considerable weight, another five pounds in the last seven days.  Her owner took her to the Veterinary Clinic at UGA in Athens, GA when he noticed a sore that wasn’t healing on her back leg. After several biopsies, they FullSizeRender(30)found cancer inside her body cavitiy as well as in the external spots that were so obvious. The doctors said she only has a few months to live.  From what I’ve seen this weekend, she won’t be here in a few weeks when we return. Though we couldn’t discourage her from walking with us, her enthusiasm and bounce were gone. She was so exhausted after the first five minutes, that she lay down in the middle of the road. I sat with her crying and rubbing her back and neck, anything to make me feel better for her. When she refused to eat smoked turkey but sat with her head on her paws trying to lick her wounds, I poured milk into her bowl and watched as she lapped up the cold liquid and thanked me with her eyes. Her blood left patterns on the wood porch and reminded me that even though the vet continued to say the sores would heal, the cancer inside was still ravaging her body.

We will miss this precious dog, who never asked for anything but to walk with us. She accepted every family member and friend who visited, never displaying a moment’s worth of possessiveness or impatience, even when one of the grandchildren would pull her tail or step on her paw.  The memory of her boundless energy will linger IMG_4397as we slow down our gate and try to be the kind of neighbor she was, without the added part (Mulitple Meal Molly) of grazing at each doorstep for treats. What a great role model she has been to all of us on Star Mountain, to love our neighbors unconditionally!

Another Miracle- The Twinnies are Here!

As much as I love food, recipes and creating something from nothing, I have to put things into perspective. At this time in my life, grandchildren are what make everything taste better. These past several years, I have been able to witness the outcome of some truly remarkable feats of nature and medicine with a lot of love and endurance thrown into the equation.  My husband and I have two older beautiful grand boys, Rayfe, in Atlanta, GA. and Paxton, in Houston TX.  The four year old in Houston was conceived using IVF (invitrofertilization) and the two year old in Atlanta, was conceived naturally.  Both are incredible little human beings whom you will hear about in my posts now that I’m blogging about life and priorities.IMG_3583 The twins are the newest miracles  added to the Houston family, a boy and a girl,  Gibson Grant, and Grier Lynne, three months old now, who have, like the first two grandchildren,  stolen my heart.  As their brother,  Paxton,  they too were conceived through  IVF and born at Women’s Hospital.  My daughter, Alison and her husband , Grant, had gone for the second time,  to Houston IVF, but not before  several hiccups that sent discouragement and anxiety through their souls. It is not a trip for the impatient ( which worried me), or for the weak of heart, because there is a lot of pain along the way.  Having lost one twin, early in the first pregnancy with their four year old, they were nervous when toward the beginning of this pregnancy, the ultrasound  once again showed two babies. Twins are always a higher risk than a single birth, and  their gestation period gets more complicated each month with crowding, somersaulting , and general pressure on the mother’s body to keep both happy and healthy so they can go as close to  full term as possible before delivery.  December 23rd had been set for a C-section delivery, but early on the morning of the 21st, my daughter started to bleed and was told to get to the hospital, after which her doctor came in and got the babies out in a hurry.  Both went to the NICU ( Neonatal Intensive Care Unit). Gibson weighed 4lb. 15 oz. and Grier weighed 5lb. 5oz.  The doctors were concerned that  Gibbs wasn’t able to maintain his body temperature and eat efficiently. Grier just seemed to adjust well to her whole new life outside the womb  and quickly went into the regular nursery the following day. Meanwhile,  my daughter’s blood pressure had skyrocketed after the birth.  With no earlier sign of pre-eclampsia, the doctors were surprised but quickly responded with a special IV to lower her pressure and anti-anxiety medicine to help her relax and sleep.  She began to look more like herself after three days and both babies  were cleared for coming home with all carseats tested and checked. Everyone  was released on Christmas Eve afternoon to the pleasure and surprise of us all! A Merrier or more Blessed Christmas couldn’t have been possible. Now, didn’t that sound easy!IMG_3640

Once those babies got home and really woke up, the fun IMG_3644began. At this point, there are a few bits of information that you should know if you are getting ready to  either have twins yourself or be around them to help smother with  kisses.  With two newborns, get ready to forget about everyday routines- the news, emails, phone calls,  cooking a meal, adult conversation, putting on make-up or shaving, taking a shower,  walking to the pantry for a bottle of water, blah blah blah.  It just ain’t gonna happen. When you have twins, one of them conspires with the other to howl at the exact moment your foot is touching the enticing bath water or your hand is half way through a text message with the security system at your own house, (since of course the  burglary alarm is going off at that moment). HOW do they know? They  haven’t been on this earth for more than a few days when they know how to squirt you directly in the face at the precise moment their bottoms are exposed to air.  Or, when a dirty diaper has just been changed and  the bottle  is immediatley inserted into the tiny mouth, you hear the  sound of shooting liquidy bullets coming through the clean diaper as if by military timing. When one depletes the entire month’s supply of baby wipes and dirty diaper baggies,  the other will yell to be changed and the process begins all over again. Feeding is a similar experience. If you are the grandparent, never let IMG_3771on to the parents that you have blown in the babies face just to get a break from the  blood curdling screams for a split second. When they are hungry, both will try to out yell the other with a desperation like you have never heard. They have very little confidence in your ability to have food in the house and will display panic unseen by adults in their lifetimes.  (The poor mom, who is frantically pumping breast milk in the master bedroom shouldn’t hear any of what is occurring, or her milk will  dry up and that will cause more baby distress).  So, how do you do it?  Well, you try to anticipate when the babies will wake up, get the bottle in the warmer, and since one baby might like breast milk and the other one prefer formula (don’t try to argue with a newborn), you make sure at least one is coded with a blue/pink band on it to keep the bottles staight.  Then you wait. If Baby Girl has decided to sleep through her feeding, no worries. The breast milk can sit out for awhile, but heaven knows you better get the formula eating Baby Boy to drink it while it’s warm. The special expensive  brand for fussy and gassy babies should be thrown away after an hour or so. Newborns with gas filled digestive systems are unhappy campers and nothing is worse than worrying whether or not it was the formula that brought on three solid hours of wailing. Feeding, burping, feeding some more and juggling to keep the babies awake until they finish what amounts to about two ounces of liquid, takes so long that now it’s almost time for the next feeding.  Once again, there are TWO babies. Don’t forget.

Naps and bed time are a whole new chapter.  Trying to decide where the twinnies will sleep and how to keep them asleep is tricky.  Forget about them closing their eyes to enjoy those gorgeously decorated baby beds with designer bumpers and dust ruffles. They won’t sleep in them, so go ahead and give them some portable tilted bassinets which they will love. Pacifiers, (which the pediatrician will discourage because he hasn’t spent one night with a newborn in over thrity years) are lifesavers, but when they fly out of your hands in the dark room and you fumble for one on the floor, holding at least one baby as you do this, just know that the thirty second rule still applies today.  Stick it back in the baby’s mouth and don’t worry who gets which one.  Perhaps the parents aren’t glancing at the video monitor as you do this. Also, twins love to exchange each other’s germs.

My daughter was definitely thinking ahead when she started asking about night nurses the day she found out she was pregnant. After many friends’ good suggestions, she found a winner in Diane. Working with newborns in the NICU for years, she can swaddle those babies up and feed them both with one arm outstretched and one on the bottles using her chin as guidance. As they’ve gotten bigger, she lays them each in their small basinets on either side of her rocker and uses their Nuby Wubs (pacifiers with little stuffed animals at the end) to angle their bottles and curtail impatient tears. Now, she’s doing most of the training to get them to sleep through the night.  In the meantime, the savings put aside for a night nurse is quickly diminishing.  Since she doesn’t come two nights a week, everyone except four year old Paxton has night duty.  After a couple of those, parents and grand mom are greeting the night nurse at the door with babies in hand. All this may seem to be a lot of trouble but it isn’t. One smile, coo, IMG_4082 IMG_4084giggle, kick, or silent gaze is enough to make all the busyness of twinnies totally worthwhile.  When I nicknamed Gibson, “Billy Goats Gruff” because his cry sounds exactly like a little billy goat, I had to laugh because the first thing the pediatrician’s nurse said at their last check-up was, ” Hey you sound just like a billy goat when you cry”.   Then, there’s Grier, “Miss Bobblehead Moment”, who now wants to sit up and move around like a big girl when just a couple of weeks ago, she would bobble every time she didn’t have a hand directly behind her head.

Everyone asks what reaction Paxton has had to his new siblings.  His IMG_3967big brother love is beyond words. He can’t wait to greet them and hug and squeeze them each morning, begging his mom to let them come snuggle on his bed or in his tent. He was a bit in shock over the crying at first, but now that they are smiling and looking at him like he’s the man, I think he is both proud and a bit possessive.  His new love for being in pictures and  videos is trully unprecedented, as he used to run from the camera or turn his face and shy from it. Not any more.  Also, they look at him with intensity, and whether it’s because they want to be ready for an elbow in the eye or a dinosaur tail sticking them in the arm, who knows, but it’s probably their wonderment at this fellow who is always there to make them smile, or shake them up a little so they can handle some preschool  roughhousing.  Whatever the reason, the love is overwhelming and both sets of grandparents are savoring the memories and recording the smallest details so that we can remember to tell our own kids who are now parents themselves, just how great it is to be a “Grand”!IMG_4074IMG_4059 IMG_4069 IMG_4068 IMG_4070