All About the Journey...

Yessss... another 3 day week end with the kids out of school.  Thank goodness for Presidents of the United States!

I woke up giddy and decided with the near 80 degree days we have been having that it was most definitely a beach day. I hadn't been to Stinson for a spell so Stinson it would be.  I packed up the car with me and the littles.  (Hard to believe that I still call Ella a little at 13 years old.  Saddest day of my life when she refuses my fun like her big brother.  When I asked him if he wanted to go he said he too many things to do....Yea right.)

So by the time we were backing out of the driveway Tom said that he couldn't work because everyone was out of the office....double yes he was coming with us.  

Over the Richmond bridge we go...

And as we were about ready to get off the exit to go to Stinson Beach we realized that all 11 million bay area residents and some tourists to boot were headed there as well.  So we kept right on driving up the 101 and decided to go to Point Reyes seashore so I googled that and we were an hour away.  Say what? How did that happen?  Nope not going to drive that far.  Ok what's next?  Tom googled beaches close by and up comes Rigby's cove.  Perfect only 10 minutes away and you have to hike a mile to the beach so nobody will do it and we will have the beach to ourselves.  Wrong.  All 11 million people and tourists were doing that too.  No parking anywhere...double dang.  OK what's next on the docket? The marin headlands and walk to the Point Bonita light house...I love lighthouses.  

Always have...always will.  

Their seemingly romantic history and guiding ships safely home gets. me. every. time.  

So with our picnic basket over Tom's arm we headed out. Loved it...loved it all.

We ended up finding a beach after all and fighting over who was going to have the last of my sugar cookies...ahhh perfection.

Not ready for our day to be over by a long shot we headed into San Fran and ate dinner at "Little Chihuahua"  our favorite burrito with plantains and black beans followed up by some bi-rite salted caramel and because now I love their creme brulee...a little bit of both to end our day. 

 Just another reminder it is never about the destination but always about the journey.

If we ended up going to Stinson beach where we wanted to go, I would have missed this...

Yea so...I am a messy cook

You know how some people have clean kitchens even when they cook?

Not so much me.

My kitchen looks like an earthquake hit each and every time I cook/bake/enter my kitchen.

I have tried...really I have.  

Sometimes I concentrate on putting things away after I get them out and I close cupboards when I open them or I have Ella follow me around and do it behind me.  It doesn't make a difference my kitchen throws it all up anyway. Every pot is dirty. Every utensil is on the counters and spills to prove what the spoons/whisks/spatulas were used for. Every surface gets used with the ingredients and the making and when that one gets full I move to the next flat area until every area including my kitchen table does not have a clean square inch.  The funny thing is I have to have a really tidy kitchen in between because as messy as it is when I cook in it...my kitchen can't stay like that because then I feel all crazy inside. 

I know it makes no sense. 

Messiest.cook.in.the.world

+

No dishes even allowed in the sink when I am done

=

no sense and a lot of work for myself

I have always known this.  My kiddos have always known this and my honey (who cooks and I can't even tell he has been in there because there is not a spec of his ingredients anywhere or even a spill from the pot.  Oh my gosh I just realized he might me have magical powers because he is so clean...that it is even weirder than my problem) has always known this.  In fact he thinks I'm funny.  That's not even fair because now that I think he has magic powers I don't think it's funny.  Oh and by the way I would put his cooking skills up there with like Alice Waters and I am dead serious.  So he is clean and cooks like Alice Waters.  Now I am just mad.

Anywho I never even think to take pictures of my kitchen in it's disaster state of course but on Sunday we celebrated Valentines with the kids where we have a menu and a special meal that is cute with heart jello and heart pasta and have chocolates and such. Anyway a short story definitely longer I was having a contest with my sis in law over whose view was better at that moment.  We took pictures and exchanged them and she was overlooking the sunset over the pacific ocean and we just had just finished dinner and I was walking into my kitchen getting ready to clean it up.

She won...shocking I realize and I was disgusted with myself.

My favorite comment of my week by far was after I had cleaned up the Valentine dishes for like an hour and then I got tired so I sent Ben in there, which BTW we normally don't make him clean up on Valentines because that is part of our gift...I know we are super nice like that, but I didn't care this year and I took back half of my gift.  I mean he still ate our cute meal and the chocolates so I didn't even feel bad.  I needed help and then he got tired after washing like 8 pots and pans and sent Ella in there.  She was a little shocked as well that she had to clean but again I didn't care and it was at this point that Tom made my favorite comment.  "What is going on there? Someone has been in that kitchen cleaning for like 3 1/2 hours.  All we ate was pasta."

It's true so we all laughed for like 15 minutes straight because seriously we had like pasta and a salad and some veggies and some bread.  Oh and I made my famous sugar cookies.  I don't want to down play the meal...I mean it was good and all but really c'mon 3 hours plus of cleaning up?  

I made pasta.

This is the picture I took for my sis in law and our little contest.  

I lost.

I want to be cute like bloggers and instagrammers and take pictures of my kitchen with me baking and everything looking tidy and adorable.  But if I am being honest with myself I don't think it is possible.  On Sunday I was looking at my insta feed and there was a gals picture of a vase with red roses and a beautiful valentine dinner and a clean kitchen and my concerns were validated I will never ever be able to take amazing pictures of me looking cute with a gorgeous meal in a clean kitchen.

Say what? Is that seriously garlic salt next to my cookies on the kitchen counter?

All these dishes...for pasta