Friday Night leftovers

• This week has been insane. Way too much weekday excitement. Nantucket Tuesday, big dinner last night, and this morning - I drove to the cabin for a visit with Grandma.
• Last night, I was able to repay some of the kindness from my India trip. My friend that I visited India to see get married was here for work, and I had him over for dinner. I made a roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, home baked bread, and an apple pie. I tried to make it the most American meal I could! And I sent him back to the hotel with a loaf of banana bread. It was great to catch up with him and let him meet the kids.
• But pulling off a dinner like that in the middle of the work week is hard work!
• Right now, I'm sitting at the clubhouse while the kids are at the cabin with Grandma. We are visiting for the first time since she's moved up here. I'm hopeful all is going well with her and the kids, while I enjoy working with a view of the lake and the rain drumming on the roof.
• This week, Maggie has been a complete devil. I'm really hoping she shapes up today because it's exhausting.
• Tomorrow is the trip to the zoo. I was so fed up with everyone this morning and the weather looked so dismal, I almost didn't bring the kids costumes. But last minute, I grabbed things out of the dress up box. I'm glad I did, because all of a sudden, the weather forecast went from 50% chance of rain to 70 degrees and sunny. Gotta love New England in the fall.
• I pulled stuff from the dress up bin (Maggie will be a fairy, and Cam The Hulk) because both kids costumes are fleece and HOT.
• I have friends who get books sent to their Kindles free from the library. I thought this sounded like a fabulous idea. So I requested the next book club book. And then spent hours figuring out how to download the damn thing. When I finally got it downloaded, I found out I requested a audio recording and not the book. I was annoyed.
• But on the drive to the cabin this morning, both kids were plugged into the DVD player and I blissfully listened to my book for two hours. Fortuitous mistake.'
• One of the things I made in my last freezer cooking stint was steel cut oats in the slow cooker. Then you freeze it in the extra large muffin tins (fits a cup of oatmeal). I had it for the first time this morning, with an apple cut up in it. OMG. So good. And such an easy way to have oatmeal in the morning. Faster than the crappy instant stuff.