deviant housewife.: June 2010

Get him to the greek

Last weekend we watched Get Him to the Greek, and I loved it. I expected it to be funny and it was - and it was also cute and heartfelt and ultimately happy.

Hubby's always liked Russell Brand, but I never did until now. I really like him now. Enough to put My Booky Wook on my to-read list. Which makes me even like Katy Perry. Any couple that gets matching tattoos of go with the flow can't be bad. They seem cute together.

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Here is my goal: to remember. This is why, I think, I do things like write down stuff, take photographs. Sometimes I wonder what will happen when I die, to my thoughts and memories and photographs. This is what I wonder, what I worry about. Will someone buy my album from goodwill for $1 and scan the vintage photos and use them for scrapbook decorations? But really, it doesn’t matter. If they are buried with me, if they are cheapened, or unappreciated, or forgotten. They are for me, and only me, to remember in my lifetime, the wonderful, fragile, perfect bits and moments, imperfectly recorded and never quite matching up to what they are.

This is what I want to remember right now: I am blessed. So enormously blessed and loved and full of love. I feel perfect in my life and in my physical body, right now in this moment. Why? I don’t know and I can’t figure it out, but that too, doesn’t matter. It’s enough that I am. I want to remember in the moments when petty aggrivation and sadness come, how blessed and happy I am. That whatever it is can’t possibly match up. That I have no cause or excuse for even the tiniest amount of sadness. That this life is extraordinary, remarkable, and that it is mine. How? I don’t know that either. I’ve been entrusted with the most perfect, caring, person in the universe and he is mine. This is what I feel blessed for most in my life, and luckiest for. This is what I am thankful for almost every second, and what I should be thankful for every single second. How I found him I’ll never know, but I am happy.

I used to feel guilty for all that I have, when I don’t deserve any of it. But lately I feel that I do, as much as anyone ever can. And instead of guilt, now I just feel gratitude.

eat, pray, love

I absolutely, unexpectedly, loved this book. I alternately cried and laughed out loud, and could not put it down until I was finished.

It's the first time in a long time that I underlined passages. Or would have had it not been borrowed, instead I copied them here:

It is better to live your own destiny perfectly than to live an imitation of someone else's life with perfection.

Just as there exists in writing a literal truth and a poetic truth, there also exists in a human body a literal anatomy and a poetic anatomy. One, you can see; one you can't. One is made of bones and teeth and flesh; the other is made of energy and memory and faith. But they are both equally true.

You are, after all, what you think. Your emotions are the slaves to your thoughts, and you are the slave to your emotions.

And my favorite one:

Happiness is the consequence of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it. You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestations of your own blessings.

sexiest shoes in the world, part 2

Shoe shopping today, and my stylist picked these out for me:

They are exactly what I was looking for, although I didn't know it until I saw them...

I promptly put them on right then and there and wore them for the rest of the shopping... surprisingly comfortable for 4 1/2 inch heels.

Oh, and it broke 100 degrees (in the car) for the first time this summer:

Every girl needs one of these:

I am soooooo lucky.

yesterday...

We spent the evening outside, grilling and gardening...

and then came the best meal ever:

(deserving of cloth napkins, even!)

followed by the best ice cream ever:

(680 calories for a cup... isn't that crazy? A cereal bowl full would exceed your daily calories! But this ice cream was actually worth it!)

What a perfect summer evening. You really can't go outside before the evening, though, because it is just too hot. Yesterday's car reading said it was way to hot to run errands (but I did it anyway):

new shoes!

Not the fun kind though:

But kind of fun. Silver and purple.

Since I've been working out again (walking and running to my dvd 3-5 miles, 4 days a week. Yay!), and since my only pair of tennis shoes were at least 6 years old (I know, right? I can't remember when I bought them, but I know I had them in 2004. I only wore them for exercising, and if you barely exercise they last a while...), I went and picked up a new pair. Now, where can I get unembellished, comfortable, short, drawstring shorts in black or gray?

wtf?

I love my Dragon Lady Velvet Matte lip pencil so much, but Nars, we have a problem. I consider this a bit of false advertisement:

Would I have purchased this for $24 knowing only about an inch of this lip pencil was full of color? Probably not. Knowing that it would last less than two months of only wearing once or twice a week? Definitely not.

I feel like not buying it again on principle, but now that I know how great the color is and how easy it is to put on, I don't know if I can resist...

happy father's day!

My youngest stepson drew this in a little father's day school project booklet, on the page asking them to draw a picture of your dad. This cracks me up so much, because it is easily the position that they see him in most, working from bed.

books

I've renewed my resolution to read a book a month for the year, and here's the current:

Full disclosure, I'm only reading this because my neighbors wanted to do a book club on it and I figure it won't kill me. I hate murder mysteries, but my mom likes them so I figure I can pass it off on her when I'm done. It was pretty uggg when I started reading it yesterday, but now at page 68 I'm starting to wonder who-done-it, and I don't even know what was done yet, so I guess that's a good sign.

I also picked up Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, who I honestly hadn't even heard of until about a month ago, but now she seems to be popping up everywhere, so I took that as a sign. It's another whopper, I'm not even about to start reading it until I finish War & Peace (which I've abandoned again at page 854... So close. Not. That's actually only (almost) 60% done. )

pretty nails

I learned to stick to the nail polish colors I know I like, have a few bottles that I wear out then replace, and just say no to impulse buying. But lately, I've been treating myself to a bottle at the grocery store, a I-survived-a-grocery-store-trip-with-the-kids treat that's adding up, so that in addition to my normal dark purple and bright red, I now have Bright blue (Denim Dash) and sparkly fushia (Byte):

Sparkly purple (Purple Pulse), muddy taupe (You Don't Know Jaques!), and a clear coat that changes the finish from shiny to matte:

and of course, two bottles of my favorite purple black (Lincoln Park After Dark):

The collection is, surprisingly, getting a bit heavy on the sparkly side, and I am way too old for that, but it's ok since I'd only use those colors on my toes. That makes it ok, right?

vicarious

Hubby went to New York on a quick business trip and brought me back a little surprise:

There's nothing better than a just because present, one not tied to any special occasion like your birthday or Christmas. It matches my favorite pair of earrings:

Plus, I figure if I pick just one up every time we go to New York, eventually my wrist will look like this:

Of course, a present doesn't quite make up for not being able to go, I had to live vicariously through picture messages:

Photoshoots on the street:

And being able to walk to the Chanel store anytime you want:

I love New York so much!

43things

So, my sister showed me this website called 43 things, where you can list goals and track your progress towards them. I pretty much love it because I absolutely love making lists. (It's sort of like using goodreads to track all the books I want to read and when and where I've read them.) It's my kind of thing.

Sometimes, I just look at the main page where they randomly list people's goals. It's pretty bizarre. For example, here's a list of the all-time most popular goals:

Lose weight and get married, no surprise. But it really surprises me that so many people want to write books and go on road trips without destinations.

chili

Yay! for a new pot so that I can cook some of my favorite recipes, including Wendy's chili! We've been using my giant stock pot to catch water when the roof leaks, and the thought of cooking in it after that just grosses me out. I was trying to hold out for a Le Creuset dutch oven, but saw this at the grocery store on the cheap and picked it up. It was only $20 bucks, so if I make it to the Le Creuset outlet anytime soon, I won't feel bad about buying one of those too.

It amazes me that this:

(plus a little chopped celery, onion, and meat) can turn into this:

It's so satisfying to let it simmer away for hours. I've decided to try at least one new recipe a week. Last week, I made Parmigiano and Herb Chicken Breast Tenders from Rachel Ray (the boys loved them), and next week I plan to try Molten Chocolate Cake (from my new Martha Stewart cookbook) in honor of Father's Day.

I'm shocked I've not posted the recipe for Wendy's Chili before, it's maybe my favorite recipe ever because it's so easy, and so good, and because you can have all the ingredients on hand at all time since they are either cans or frozen:

2 lbs. ground beef

1 (29 oz.) can tomato sauce

1 (29 oz.) can kidney beans, with liquid

1 (29 oz.) can pinto beans, with liquid

1 c. diced onion (1 medium onion)

1/4 c. diced celery (1 stalk)

1 (29 oz.) can diced tomatos with green chilis

2-3 tsp. cumin powder

3 tbsp. chili powder

1 1/2 tsp. black pepper

2 tsp. salt

2 c. water

Brown the ground beef in a skillet over medium heat.
In a large pot, combine the beef plus all the remaining ingredients, and bring to a simmer over low heat.
Cook, stirring every 15 minutes, for 2 to 3 hours.

That's it! It makes a huge pot, so I usually freeze the leftovers when we are tired of eating it.