Heather Hodges

In an effort to provide better nutrition for my family I picked up Jessica Seinfeld’s new cookbook “Deceptively Delicious.” What a great resource! It is chocked full of recipes that hide nutritive rich vegetables in every day kid food. Last night I gave the boys macaroni and cheese that had 2 yellow squash pureed in the cheese. This morning they gobbled up French toast with pureed sweet potatoes in the batter. For lunch I’m going to try grilled cheese with carrot puree. Wade even tried the mac-n-cheese and decided he liked it better with the squash. I’m feeling a little sneaky, but not one bit guilty about tricking the kids. Tonight will be brownies with spinach, apples and carrots. YUMMMM !

We’ve now been without power for 30 hours, however, we are doing quite well considering.  I finally got out of the house today and found a McDonald’s with WiFi.

The boys think the power outage is a scream and they are having the time of their lives.  We are staying warm thanks to our natural gas fire place.  We are also able to cook with the gas cook stove and on top of all those blessings, we also have hot water.  On the down side, Wade will have a mess to clean up in the backyard.  Our trees have not weathered the storm well at all.

Our neighbor’s tree touching the ground on our side of the fence.

The oaks are having the toughest time, since they still had a few leaves on them.  Notice how the tops of all the trees are bent over.

The ice is weighing down the trees and they are laying on top of our playground.

Wade’s muscle car finally has teeth and a beard.

Icicles on a patio chair.

After putting the boys to bed the other night I heard them giggling and whispering about Christmas. They finally settled down and when I went to check on them, they had fallen asleep in the same bed. Wade moved Caleb back to his own bed before he had the chance to push his brother to the floor. Only in slumber can they be in such close proximity to each other without engaging in warfare. Perhaps it was the visions of sugarplums dancing in their heads.

I rarely get excited about new household appliances, especially the ones that are intended for that dreaded domestic chore - cleaning. YUCK!!!! But today I’m singing the praises of my new vacuum cleaner. Yes, that’s right, my new vacuum cleaner.

After my old vacuum cleaner died at the hands of a six-year-old, I decided to do a little reseach about the models currently on the market. I was drawn to the Dyson because of a commercial I’d seen of a British guy talking about his vacuum that never lost suction. He said, “I just believe things ought to work properly.” Well, I agree 100% with that statement; I’m so tired of buying something over and over because the product was a poor design or inferior construction. So after reading dozens of reviews, I ordered the Dyson DC14 on Monday night. It arrived on Wednesday and I immediately put it to work. It’s phenomenal!!!!! The house had just been cleaned on Tuesday, but I re-vacuumed and was completely surprised at the amount of dirt, cat hair, etc. that was still in my carpet. This vacuum is one mighty sucker. It has a 17 foot attachment wand, a 30 foot cord, and is so quiet my cat isn’t afraid of it. And on top of all that, it just looks cool.

So, after two days of ownership….I give the Dyson DC14 five stars. Check back with me in a year or two and I’ll let you know how it holds up to rigorous use in the Hodges’ household.