Confession. Yes, already.

I ate chocolate. :( See, I warned you...the stuff has complete control over me. No excuses. July 25th it is. And the husband says, "Why don't you try realistic goals?" "Like what?" "I dunno...run a mile or something...but you not eating chocolate? Come on." Nice, eh? So here's my game face. It's on, baby. Again.

I read Men's Health magazine. I'm not sure why I get all these free magazine subscriptions, but Men's Health is one of them. I really enjoy it too. Jimmy the Bartender's Q&A column is the best.

So, tonight I made my husband's specialty for dinner. Okay, not really his specialty, but something he makes often. Herb crusted salmon and mashed potatoes and sauteed asparagus. Yum. I was psyching myself out about the removal of the skin from the salmon but when I got down to it, it was surprisingly easy. And I think this may have been the first time I made a decent bit of mashed potatoes. I mashed them with a meat tenderizer. I don't cook much, by the way. Or well, usually. Colson, my 2 year old, wanted to help. She got to put the potatoes into the pot of water. So I was feeling pretty empowered until I started trying to de-stem my thyme. Can anyone say pain in the arse? I need to figure out how one does this efficiently. Anyhow, my empowerment returned when I started sauteing the salmon. It smelled so wonderfully rustic and delicious...like I was cooking in the cozy English cottage in my head, with stone floors and herbs hanging from the ceiling. It was fantastic. So, I dished up and it looked pretty and tasted...well, mediocre. But I enjoyed the cooking, and that's a fairly rare sensation for me. Plus, I'm used to my husband's cooking (a chef...yes, ladies and gentlemen...I am blessed) so perhaps my standards are a bit high. He, by the way, rated it an 8 out of 10, which I thought a bit generous and quite possibly a lie. But the best part. The icing on my salmon cake...was my girls playing together and keeping each other happy.

My second daughter is 5 months, Finley. And she's now showing (a lot of) interest in playing and toys and sitting up on her own. Up until now Colson's been great about sharing and I was expecting a good drop in friendliness once Finley actually cared to be shared with, but so far so good. My girls adore each other and for now, most of the time, fingers crossed knocking on wood...they're sweet to each other. Yay!

I'm thinking about cloth diapers. I should've thought about them sooner, but it's never too late right? And Finley's still got a good year at least of diaper days ahead of her. I think in the long run it would be cheaper, I just think the upfront cost will be more. But what really got me going on this was reading some statistic (that I don't remember) about the amount of diapers in landfills. And just knowing how many I've already thrown away in my lifetime. Yikes. So I'm looking into it. I have a fresh box of Pampers and I'm thinking maybe, hopefully by the time that's used I'll be starting with cloth. Wish me luck!

Oops, it's almost 3 AM...