Last House on the Right

Count Your Blessings

2012-01-18T21:41:00.001-06:00

Too often, I think we take our lives for granted. And when life throws us a curve, we respond as if life as we know it has ended instead of taking it in stride. I believe I am guilty of doing exactly that.

Today, I am writing to you from Bellingham Washington. Why, you might ask, are you in Washington? Back in December I wrote briefly about my sister and that is the subject of today's post. She has had a tough month. Along with the infection that took her by surprise, the subsequent hospitalization, the mental fight she had with the hospital (who refused to comprehend that SHE.DID.NOT.HAVE.THE.SUPPORT in Kentucky), the release AMA (and subsequent threat, by the hospital staff that her insurance would not cover her illness), the flight across country to check into a Washington hospital, determine the infection has spread to her blood, the immediate need to remove (on Christmas Eve) the prosthetic hip to stem the infection, the "need" of the surgeon to fracture her femur to remove the joint resulting in massive quantities of pain, the fact that they are unable to replace the hip until they can verify the infection has been removed (8 weeks from removal) so a temporary "spacer" was placed where her hip should be meaning she is unable to place any weight on the hip (seriously...stop and ponder the ramifications of this, for 8 weeks, unable to place any weight on half of your body), being moved from a hospital to a convalescent home for two weeks, followed by her release yesterday. To sit at her boyfriend's home and "recover". Recovery means counting the days by performing 3/day antibiotic iv infusions, high doses of narcotics, until her body tests free from the infection. Then, and only then, will they go in and put in ANOTHER prosthetic hip. And she will then get to recover from that. Again. For the third time.

So, I flew out yesterday to help her out. I was at the airport in time. Went through security fine, got to my gate, waited for my flight to Chicago to be called where I would fly out later direct to Seattle, land at 1130 at night and rent a car and drive the 100 miles to Bellingham. But as I attempted to board my flight, I was told that I was scheduled for the next day. Since I HAD looked at all the flights on Tuesday AND Wednesday, I thought "OMG how could I have made that big of a mistake (and gotten through security in the process)" when the attendant informed me the issue was my Chicago-Seattle flight had been cancelled because Seattle was expecting a huge storm and they had rescheduled me for the next day. Instead of panicking, I waited to find out what the alternative was, if there was one, and as luck would have it, they got me on a different airline, a DIRECT flight, that left in an hour and would put me into Seattle at 830 vs 1130. Through it all, I tried to be accepting of what was happening. I don't know if it worked in my favor, but I know that instead of arriving at an ungodly hour in the morning, I made it at a reasonable hour, even given having to drive under some less than ideal conditions (as of this morning I was looking at 12 inches of snow). My goal this week is just to try and make my sister's life a little more comfortable.

So, when life throws those curves, it might be a good time to count your blessings. Because those curves? Sometimes they just need a little perspective.

Momma Always Said...

2012-01-06T11:35:00.001-06:00

Do you have sayings in your "mom" repertoire that you can trace DIRECTLY back to initially hearing from your mom? I do. More than I can count. And of course my husband mocks many of them. "Six of one, half a dozen of the other" is one he mocks. Now days, I just say "same-sies". Fewer words needed. Sorta like texting.

But one of the cute little saying my mom was fond of was "you can catch more flies with honey than you can with vinegar". Now, we all know most of these sayings ARE true, but it's always nice to see them play out. I got a chance to do just that.

We have a trip to Mexico planned. Everything was all booked and shortly before Christmas I got the dreaded email saying that our flight information had changed. And as we all know, changing flights are RARELY for the better. So, I did what I normally do and put off dealing with it until after the holiday. Heck, I put it off until after I had my tree down. Finally I "grabbed the bull by the horns" (see what I did there?) and tacked the issue. Our airline was American (yes, that was fun too, hearing they had filed for bankruptcy AFTER we had our flight booked) so I went online to see if there were any options that might work for us better than what our new changes were. There was. Although, the options returning (the changes they made had us returning at 1145 at night with the kids needing to go to school the next morning) meant that we would put ourselves at risk if we didn't get through customs quickly in DFW, so I decided to just deal with the outbound flight.

I called American and when I got hooked up with an actual person, I was, well, sweet as honey. I explained my dilemma (flight has us arriving later than I had hoped), had some options where the representative could start. The representative found the changes that I wanted before I even suggested it and offered the change at no fee. He then asked if I had any issues with the return trip. I said I did, but even though it would mean some tired children upon return, I was OK with leaving it. He made the changes, took my email address and said he would send me a change of itinerary. I disconnected feeling very satisfied and thinking that people really DO respond better when approached in a nice way. I went to my email and checked the changes and the representative had gone ahead and reconfigured our return flights such that the delay was minimized an we would be landing 2 hours earlier than expected. BONUS!

This experience wasn't really anything new to me. Well, the extra effort the representative went to was nice and unexpected, but more and more I have found that the simple rule..."people respond in kind" almost always holds true. Especially when you are dealing with customer service issues. I suspect that they have a SUCKY job. And hopefully, it just takes one person being nice to make their day.

I like making people's day. I find that "what goes around, comes around". ;-)

Christmas Day 2011

2011-12-29T15:00:00.000-06:00

Our Christmas Day began much later than I expected but that could be the kids now have infinitely more patience than they did in earlier years or it could be that they know that Santa doesn't wrap gifts so they can amuse themselves with their Santa big gift and stocking gifts, then put everything back and make it look as it originally did so they can act surprised at all the wonderful presents Santa brought. If I were a betting woman, I'd put big money on option two.

As you can clearly see, this year the quantity of gifts paled considerably from years past (when they were backed ALL THE WAY under the tree and then out another 4 feet from under it). They were told, repeatedly, we have Mexico in our future so we have scaled WAY back. They all seemed not only to accept this but to be really happy with what they did receive. Oh each gave me a very specific list to work from, however, I will frequently "deviate". Apparently the deviations were good.
Before we joined the kids for gifts, I put the cinnamon rolls in the oven, the sausage on the back burner, and grabbed a cup of coffee. I only had to scramble eggs and we had our Christmas morning feast was ready:

Fairly typical, SOMEONE couldn't wait.
Our Christmas Day then turns lazy. We don't so much beyond watching whatever movies ended up in stockings. The husband and youngest took a walk through the woods and as luck would have it, friends on the other side had a nice fire and beverages waiting when he got there.
I did get the prime rib prepped and ready for the oven. Years ago, I was watching TBS's Dinner and a Movie and they were showing Ghostbusters (a favorite) and teaching how to cook a roast...specifically a tenderloin roast. Their goal was to produce a delicious gravy and make it fool proof. The episode? I Ain't Afraid of No Roast. I use this for the base of all my roast cooking. HOWEVER...cook a Tenderloin at 450? NOT.ON.YOUR.LIFE. Oh, that temp is OK for searing, but you don't fully cook it at that temp. This is where I deviate (hey...there's that word again). Lucky you..you get the journal version. First I take a nice prime rib roast (this was the first time I had it rolled):

Before I begin the preparation of the meat, I set up my pan. I spray a large roasting pan with oil and load up a mirepoix (a combination of chopped carrots, onion and celery) that the roast will be placed on to be roasted. You don't want these veggies cut too small (not minced) as they will fry to the pan, but you don't want them too large or they won't cook through:

Then I make slits all over the roast and stuff slivers of garlic into the slits deep into the meat:

Then I rub the whole thing with Kitchen Bouquet (which will give it a lovely brown crust), followed by olive oil and fresh cracked pepper and kosher salt and place it on the mirepoix and add beef broth to the bottom of the pan. Is it not a thing of beauty?

You can use water, but IMO you want as much flavor as you can get. Put roast in a preheated 500 (yes, that high...or as high as your oven goes) for 20 minutes. This will sear the outside. Then, place a probe thermometer (the kind that sits on your counter) in the center of the roast and turn the oven ALL THE WAY back to 200 degrees and close the oven. The key: DO.NOT.OPEN.OVEN.DOOR. You want to do a slow roast and every time you open the door you let the heat out and then the oven has to come back up to temp. THAT is why you need the probe temp. If you don't have one, get one. It will sit on your counter and beep when the roast hits the desired temperature.

When it's done, it should look like this:

(NOTE...I did have to open the oven once to add more broth to the pan. The more often you do, the longer it will take but sometimes you have to)
Remove the probe and lift the roast of the veggies (scraping the bottom to get all the veggies back in the pan) and place on a platter. You can cover to keep warm.
Put pan back on stove and turn heat to med-high. Add 1 cup good red wine to deglaze the pan, scraping up all the brown bits. Cook until the wine is reduced by half then I throw EVERYTHING in the blender (be careful, it will be hot and create a lot of steam pressure and blow the lid of the blender, crack the lid). Once I get everything pureed, I put it back in the pan with about 1 qt of beef stock and season to taste. I will either thicken more with a cornstarch and water mixture (this will make it more transparent) or a water and flour mixture that I have strained to remove the lumps (this will make it more opaque). And let it simmer.
Now, I typically make popovers which take about 45 minutes after the roast comes out of the oven to bake so I have to have everything ready and get the popovers in before starting on the gravy. But, IMO, the two, the prime rib and awesome gravy just GO with popovers.
See:

The final outcome?

In answer to your question. No. It doesn't get any better. Unless you do this:

Starting at 12 o'clock we have: yukon gold mashed potatoes with THE gravy, popover, oven roasted asparagus (those went in when the oven was turned down for the popovers), prime rib with fresh horseradish and mushrooms sauteed in butter, wine and garlic (all day). Not in the picture, a lovely glass of Franciscan Cabernet Sauvignon. I can't remember a meal turning out as well as this one. Yeah, me!

My son mocked me as I pulled out my camera to snap this last picture. He'll thank me one day that I have provided him with not only step by step instructions on how to turn half a cow into a thing of beauty, but also pictures of how it should look.

And a very Merry Christmas was had by all. I hope all were as equally blessed!

Christmas Eve 2011

2011-12-27T19:54:00.000-06:00

Another Christmas has come and gone and even with all the changes to our "traditional" Christmas that went on this year, we probably had one of the best Christmas' ever. Christmas Eve is typically spent at the ILs but this year, since my SIL has just sold her house and she wanted one last memory in it, we held it at her house. Which for us was more convenient being as she is/was only about 2 miles from us. We also shook things up a bit by attending the family service at our church vs the mass at the ILs Catholic church. Oh and my sister being wheeled into surgery in Washington State to remove her hip. That's not typical for our Christmas Eve celebrations. Those were the only big changes this year.

The rest? The massive quantities of appetizers? Check! The arrival of the Santa bag? Check! The cousins' gift exchange? Check! The white elephant adult exchange? Check! The only thing missing this year was snow. And while I would have LOVED to have a huge storm howling outside, I knew that such a storm means that someone has to keep the roads safe, and unfortunately away from HIS family on Christmas. So, I willingly sacrifice snow. (yes...as if I have a say in that anyhow).

Since I had already made my cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning and my Creme Brulee for Christmas dinner dessert, there wasn't really that much for me to do Christmas Eve morning. I had to pick up oldest daughter from a sleepover and then just gather up all that we would need for a day at the SILs. The coordinating apparel colors (for which I am eternally grateful to my family for putting up with this little idiosyncrasy of mine) for this year were black and gray and none of the girls chose curls for Christmas this year...a win-win for me! We stopped at friends to have a Christmas Eve afternoon drink with friends before hauling the family over to the SILs.

LUCKILY, this year, I got to be a party to the making of the TRADITIONAL Tom and Jerry's that are a staple every Christmas Eve. If you have never had a Tom and Jerry, let me just say, you are missing out. I missed out my first 29 years of life and have spent the rest making up for it! It is sorta like a warm egg nog and before you groan and say YUCK, I suggest you give it a try. I looked at many recipes and found that often people use warm milk in theirs. We don't. The recipe goes like this:
Tom and Jerry's
12 warm eggs separated
1 3/4 lb powdered sugar (Yes that's POUNDS not cups)
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp baking soda
3-5 drops of cinnamon oil
5 shakes nutmeg
Beat warm egg whites for 5 minutes. Slowly add 1 lb powdered sugar to egg whites. Add cream of tartar and baking soda. Continue to beat for 15 minutes.

In a separate bowl, beat egg yolks for 5 minutes.

Add 3/4 lb powdered sugar and beat for NO MORE than 15 minutes (too much beating will cause the yolks to become hard and difficult to combine with egg whites).

Slowly fold in egg yolks into egg whites adding 3-5 drops of cinnamon oil (NOTE...this is NOT extract. You want OIL. A cooking store will carry this) and 5 shakes of nutmeg.

Mix/fold slowly so as not to lose your egg white volume but making sure the batter is uniform in color. Put batter into pretty punch bowl and sprinkle the top with nutmeg.

To serve, place 1 1/2 heaping Tbs batter into a mug. Add 1/2 oz of brandy (or more...I won't watch) and 1/2 oz of rum (samsies). Fill remainder of cup with simmering hot water and mix well. Sprinkle with an additional shake of nutmeg and enjoy.

Then, we all packed up and headed to church. It was a joy not to have to arrive 1 1/2 hours in advance in order that the family get to sit together. We arrived about 20 minutes before the service began and easily found seats for all 21 of us. It was a family service that told the story of Jesus' birth through the biblical verses acted out by children. What could be more perfect? And entertaining. You just never know what will happen with children. Pastor Mike's short sermon at the end left me filled with hope.

Back to the SILs for what seemed to be a 6 hour long food orgy. I tried to spread mine out throughout the evening. There were meatballs and shrimp. There was a pumpkin butter and cheese. I made a spinach dip but I think the girls devoured that before church. There was a hot artichoke dip and a sushi platter. I made bruschetta and guess what? The girls devoured that too. Then I popped into the oven meat candy (that's what I call bacon wrapped smokies topped with brown sugar and baked). My nephew made his famous wings. My SIL showed off her culinary expertise by making sausage and mushroom canapes that were delicious. My final appetizer was Martha Stewart's Upside Down Mushroom Tartlets but made them in a regular muffin tin, making them a bit more appetizer sized...a bit.

In between the appetizers, my daughter and nieces took part in a fashion show of sorts. My oldest niece still had all her "formal" dresses from her high school years and offered them to the girls. We got to see each of them in all the dresses. So do you:

And yes, I can answer the question that is burning in your mind: he has 2, one's a 40, the other a 45. FYI.

This is usually the time Santa arrives and drops off his goodie filled bag, which somehow, magically (because, DUH, it's Santa) makes it back to Santa for next year. This when the fun really begins. The youngest (17 and under) do a gift exchange by drawing names. There are 10 of them. Then they get their gifts from their grandparents and give their gifts to their grandparents. Up next: adult white elephant exchange. This started out 2 years ago after we had done it with friends and had a ball. But instead of trying to find the ugliest, pointless gift (clown), we have upped the ante as it were and try to give the gift that everyone wants which makes the opening so much more fun. Our gifts, in keeping with the aforementioned theme were: a car emergency kit and a floating bobber-cooler. The gifts we received: a box full of Leinies stuff and a box with a pound of Starbucks coffee and a box of Oregon Chai. One of the funniest gifts, however, was a can of:

Not something you see in most local grocery stores. The evening wound down and we were soon packing up and heading home.

Home...where the Christmas adventure would continue...

What are you, TWELVE?

2011-12-23T21:21:00.001-06:00

I guess I should fess up and let y'all know that I am not typically one to rush out and spend money on myself. Yes, I'll give you moment to absorb that. It took me forever to accept that it was OK for me to spend more than $20 on a pair of jeans, especially ones that fit. I usually buy most of my clothes off the clearance rack. Yeah yeah, I hear you thinking, tell us something we don't know.

So a couple years ago, I was browsing the clearance rack at Kohls (SHOCK) in the shoe department and I ran across a pair of shoes in the juniors section. They were Union Bay and sorta like Doc Martin knockoffs (and NO, I have never owned Doc Martin either). For giggles I tried them on and was surprised at three things: 1. they fit. I have wide feet and shoes rarely fit 2. they were comfortable. and 3. they made my enormous feet looks small. I figured for $10 why not. They became my favorite shoe for winter mostly because of the waffle stomping sole which gave me traction in snow.

Well, over the past couple years the sole has split in in MN that isn't really a good thing. Especially in winter. Then the heel started pulling away from the shoe (only really noticeable when I was driving). I figured I got my $10 out of them and started looking for a new pair. My oldest daughter was very happy as she said they looked butch to her. I think referencing something similar to Sandra Bullock's line in Miss Congeniality..."I get these made special by the guy who put the tattoo on my a$$".

So, I was shopping at Famous Footwear (where I never buy for me, only for the kids) with their buy one get one half off and an additional 20% off coupon and I found a pair of shoes that were pretty similar to what I was currently wearing. I got boots for the youngest and the shoes for me, feeling all proud. I even put them on in the car and wore them the rest of the day. They are REALLY comfortable. No breaking in needed.

It took 2 days (the 48 hour rule) to for anyone to notice but they did while I was washing dishes and all the kids were in the kitchen. My oldest daughter commented that YES, they looked like the old ones...still butch and turned to my son for confirmation.

(not that I frequently turn to my son for fashion advice)

He replied..."Are those Sketchers? What are you, TWELVE?"

What does a forty something mother say to that?

We Interrupt your Holiday Happiness for a Short Christmas Whine

2011-12-21T10:13:00.002-06:00

I love Christmas. Yes, Christmas. Not the "Holiday Season" but Christmas. I love everything about it. I love the shopping, the baking, the shopping, the wrapping, the shopping, the eating, the shopping, the family memories. Did I mention shopping? Yeah, well, I love that too. Best of all, I love sitting at church and being FULLY reminded of what the whole season is about: the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. I love the WHOLE story.

What I don't love is that I am so NOT a planner. I fly by the seat of my pants and, in doing so, I destroy my Norman Rockwell-esque vision of what our Christmas will look like by adding to my own stress.

As I cross things off my internal list (because let's face it, if I actually MADE a physical list, I'd leave it at home), I start to feel the stress dissipate. For example, I had my step-mom's gift bought 2 weeks ago, but it has been sitting in a bag waiting for me to put it together, box it, wrap it and mail it out. BUT, I put off putting it together, boxing it, wrapping it, because when I mailed it out I had intended on sending our Christmas card and newsletter which were not done (trying to get 4 kids' pictures when they are moving in different directions at any given time which means I really need to learn how to photo shop people into pics). I finally got it boxed up, wrapped and sent, without the card (I'll spend the $.45 to send it separately) and VOILA...stress level...less. But you see my dilemma right? I'm trying to be cost effective by putting all the items in the same box going out. Or time effective by gathering up all the gifts (which still are not ALL purchased but I'm almost there) and boxing and wrapping at one time so that I only have the wrapping trappings out once instead of dragging it out multiple times. Or shopping effective, which is made SO much more fun when the kids' wish list changes daily/hourly. Yeah, I can hear you now thinking "Good Luck with THAT". I think you can figure out, or at least understand why I'm a bit stressed.

Now, add to that, my two teenage girls who run with gangs of girls. The LOUD variety. Each has about 6 friends in their "gang". Now, the younger of the two girls, her gang decided on doing a secret Santa, which I applauded. Once the secret Santa drawing occurred, they all...wait for it...went and bought gifts for everyone. I'll give you a moment to scratch your head on that one. Of course, she had basketball on almost every Saturday/Sunday this month and this past Sunday, the Vikings Game followed by Holidazzle. Evenings are spent driving kids to various activities (church, basketball, dance) so that wasn't an option. The procurement of said gifts fell squarely on my lap. She did come up with a nice idea for her "bff" and ever the helpful mother I offered to help her make a fleece blanket. So yesterday, while on the floor with 4 yards of fleece, box of long pins, a rotary cutter, a rubber mat and a measured straight edge, I asked my son to please stuff a dirty sock in my mouth if I should ever open it to volunteer in such a manner. It's done, it just needs to be tied, which she will do tomorrow (can you say Mother's not the only one who cuts things close? I knew you could.) The rest of the gifts were great finds (on my part).
My older daughter went the simple route by buying (or having ME buy) frames and she filled them (or I sent the pictures in for printing, paid and picked them up) with cute pics of her and the recipient. OH, but of course she has two girls in her gaggle for whom she is CLOSER so she had to do something EXTRA for them. Extra for one meant her making a homemade hot chocolate mix (thinking of course that it would be inexpensive...we could have flown to San Francisco and had hot chocolate on Pier 39 for the actual cost*).

Please, don't' get me wrong. I am not against these girls giving gifts. Nor do I mind doing or helping with the shopping. What I have problems with is the lack of appreciation for the effort I go through for them and the fact that it never seems to be enough (for them). I really do think they are at an age where they should realize that I have made an effort on their behalf and behave accordingly. They don't. And this makes me sad (which adds to my stress because I don't WANT to be sad).

My son isn't a whole lot better, although I give him credit for doing at least his girlfriend shopping on his own, as he threw a gift bag, a baby shower one, at me because I happened to comment, "What are you putting in that baby shower bag?" Apparently boys being boys don't recognize pastel color bags without the words "Congratulations on your New Baby" as being inappropriate wrapping for one's girlfriend at Christmas. And of course they were exchanging gifts later that day so the opportunity to purchase a large enough bag was gone. (YES...I see the similarities here too).

My youngest has remained a bit above the gift giving fray but we've had our own struggles with her completing her homework on time and as a result suffering the consequences. In case you haven't read somewhere in my blog, I AM NOT A HOVER PARENT. She, however, is making me play one in her life.

My whine wouldn't be complete unless I referenced the husband, who has been very good at decreasing my stress level by calmly rubbing my back while stating "Gee, you sure seem to have put everything off til the last minute this year. You're just going to have to find the time to get it** all done." Brings a smile to your fact doesn't it, to have that kind of emotional support?

And finally, there is my family. We are pretty spread out and I don't get to see them much. It used to be my dad came here for Christmas because it was easiest for him to do so but his health has been tenuous the past few years and the trip would be difficult at best. This year he is dealing with his step-daughters why are all dealing with a variety of health issues, from auto-immune disease to cancer so my step mom has her hands full, bless her heart. My only sister was hospitalized last week with an infection and they found out late last week that the infection had entered her prosthesis hip. She is in KY but had her hip replaced by a surgeon in WA and would prefer to be under his care (her boyfriend is in WA) but the hospital in KY has given her such a runaround that she finally released herself this morning, after 9 days, AMA and is (hopefully by now) winging her way to WA where, when she lands, she will go straight to the ER. Her words..."do not pass go, do not collect $200". One of the options that were bandied about was that I would fly to KY and assist in getting her to WA, but apparently her boyfriend did the honors (THANK-YOU BRUCE!!! But I WOULD have done it. In a heartbeat.) I bring this up only to show it's not just the normal every day stress of the season. I DO have a few other things on my plate.

My purpose in writing? I think a little catharsis. I sometimes find that if I can just release what's bothering me, I can get myself in a better frame of mind. Most people don't want to hear about the downers of the season, as if you don't say anything about it, it magically goes away. And guess what? Yeah. It helped. So now I'm going to put on a happy face, finish my gift shopping, do my grocery shopping, do a little more baking (sadly, I have realized I will NOT be completing 12 cookies of Christmas, BUT...I will give you links to additional cookies I have done that will work in a pinch). I'll call my sister to see if she's made it safely to WA and is all ensconced in a nice comfy hospital bed.

I'm almost there. Actually, when I think about not having bought into (mostly because my kids are too old, Praise the Lord) the Elf on a Shelf bull$hit, that would not only add to my stress but probably put me in a straight jacket, I am TRULY able to see how thankful and blessed I really am.

I have 4 days left. I'll make the best of them.

But for now, I'll send you back to your regularly scheduled Christmas merry making.

*that was a hyperbole. Sorta.
**it=all Christmas shopping for my family and his, all the wrapping for my family(which needs to be mailed) and his, the Christmas card pictures taken, sent in, ordered (he DID pick them up), the newsletter written, printed up, stuffed in with the Christmas card, the baking done, the groceries shopped for, the appetizers made for Christmas Eve with his family, the Christmas dinner he waits all year for planned and everything needed for that purchased

Five GOLDEN Treats! Peanut Butter Blossoms

2011-12-20T07:18:00.000-06:00

I lived a cookie deprived life up until I was in my mid 20s. Mom wasn't much of a baker and since the family seemed OK with Archway cookies, that is typically what we had. I still remember the first time I had Peanut Butter Blossoms when I was working at Lockheed in Sunnyvale and I prevailed upon the baker (Jane...DANG, I'm good, although I will say, it took me a while to remember her name) for the recipe. I'm sure there are a zillion out there but this recipe is easy and everyone loves it, so I stick with it. I think you'll love it too:
Peanut Butter Blossoms (makes about 4 dozen cookies)
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup shortening (I used butter flavor crisco)
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
2 Tbs milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Sift flour, soda and salt together and set aside.
Cream peanut butter and shortening until well mixed then add sugars. When well creamed, add egg and mix well, vanilla and mix well, and milk and mix well. Add dry ingredients and mix well. You should have a fairly stiff dough that looks like this:

Roll dough into 1 in balls (I use the smallest pampered chef scoop) and roll in sugar (for the first time, I used vanilla sugar, only because I wanted to see if you could taste the subtle vanilla flavor. You can. Plain granulated sugar is fine):

Then place the dough on those awesome heavy aluminum baking sheets you rushed out to get. You DID rush out and got them right? If not, when you finally break down and do, you'll be kicking yourself for not having gotten them the first time I suggested it.

Bake in a 375 preheated oven for 8 minutes then remove and the cookies, which, no are NOT done yet will look like this:

Ever so gently, place a Hershey's kiss (after it's been defoiled of course) gently in the center of each each cookie and press down. Return pan to oven for another 2-4 minutes. Remove and let cool slightly on pan. IF you used that awesome aluminum cookie sheet, the cookies will pop right off with a slight nudge. If not, well...
End result are a plateful of these peanutbuttery goodnesses:

I'll bet your checking your cabinets to see if you have some Hershey's Kisses aren't you?

Song #4

2011-12-19T09:26:00.000-06:00

OK, I AM seeing a bit of a theme going on in my tastes. I believe it is because I was raised by parents who LOVED music, but most specifically, jazz. While few people my age have an appreciation of it, it will remain one of my favorite types.
Today's favorite always brings to mind Catwoman from the original Batman TV series. Because that is who is singing. Eartha Kitt does Santa Baby and there is NO.FREAKIN'.WAY Madonna's version comes in the same realm as Eartha.
Santa Baby by Eartha Kitt on Grooveshark

Holidazzle 2011

2011-12-19T07:45:00.003-06:00

Last night was the final night of the Minneapolis Holidazzle parade. We hadn't done the parade in years, mostly because it is either too cold, or it's snowing, or it's freezing rain. Not ideal conditions by any stretch but then add 4 children into the mix and you have a recipe for disaster. But we have had a little break in the weather and friends suggested we go. When we asked the kids, they had zero recollection of ever going (see...those memories of frozen feet, fighting for a spot on a skyway in huge crowds are forever burned into my memory) so away we went.
Actually, we went down in shifts because the husband and middle daughter had the opportunity to go to the Vikings game. AND passes to the Gridiron club. That's a once in a lifetime opportunity for an adult so she'll have quite the story to tell in school today. We met up with the boys with the rest of the kids (minus the boy) at Rock Bottom Brewery for dinner before the parade then walked the 2 blocks to Nicolett Mall and LaSalle and managed to find a nice little square for the kids to sit until the parade started.

The husband went to Target and bought a giant box of candy canes and distributed them to everyone around us.

Luckily we didn't have too long to wait before the parade started:

And it really doesn't go on for very long, maybe 20-25 minutes. I ended up moving back so little kids could see but I managed to get a few of the fun floats (I missed the circus train :-( ) like Pinocchio:

Hansel and Gretel:

The Nutcracker:

And of course Santa:

We could not have asked for a better night. It was clear low 40s, no snow, no rain. Just perfect. I hope this is one of those memories that last them because I'm not sure if the weather will cooperate again. EVER.

And I'm too old for cold wet feet. Just sayin'.

Song #3

2011-12-18T22:37:00.000-06:00

My husband will hate me for this but I love it. Frank Sinatra doing Jingle Bells. A Jolly Christmas Jingle Bells. Yeah. It's different. But I like it.
A jolly christmas jingle bells by Frank Sinatra on Grooveshark

Treat #4

2011-12-18T21:58:00.002-06:00

Nope, today's post is not a cookie but it is just as good if not better than a cookie. And to think I made it well into my adult life before I had ever tried it. It=Peppermint Bark. Just a couple years ago my SIL introduced me to Peppermint Bark and I was HOOKED. But not just ANY peppermint bark. William-Sonoma Peppermint Bark. OH YES...there is a difference. However, I think I've said (repeatedly) that I am cheap and sometimes (like in the above link) they're sold out. But mostly I'm cheap. So I did what everyone does. HELLO Bing. And when you put in the above words WITH recipe, well, one pops up. A recipe that is. So, I tried it and Ba-da BING! Perfection.

Peppermint Bark
12 oz chocolate chips (fairly good quality...best to use semi-sweet)
12 oz white chocolate (look at pkg and make sure it has cocoa in it, I could only find Ghiradelli bars, the others were only vanilla chips. So I used 3- 4 oz bars)
1/2 tsp peppermint extract
1/2 cup crushed peppermint candies (I use candy canes, smashed with a mallet)

Line a 9x13 pan with foil and spray. Spread semi sweet chocolate chips over foil

and place in a 250 degree oven for 5 minutes til chocolate is melted. Smooth with an offset spatula and cool until firm (about 20 min or so in fridge).

Melt white chocolate in a double boiler or in a metal bowl over simmering water (don’t let bottom of bowl touch water), until chocolate is almost melted. You can use your microwave for this if you’re brave but be CAREFUL or your chocolate will seize!

Remove bowl from water and stir until completely melted, stirring in extract. Let cool a little bit so it doesn’t melt the chocolate layer when you pour it on top. Pour this over chocolate layer, and, working quickly, spread to cover.

Sprinkle with crushed candy.

When it's all done, you will want to hide it. Because EVERYONE will want a piece and it'll be gone before you can say "Bob's your uncle" (by the way, he is). Might as well hit William-Sonoma and buy it. OR you hide it. The choice is yours. Choose wisely Grasshopper.

Song #2

2011-12-17T21:33:00.000-06:00

The next version of Christmas songs: Do You Hear What I Hear? by Carrie Underwood. My husband turned me onto her (he obviously had already been turned on ;-) ):
Do You Hear What I Hear by Carrie Underwood on Grooveshark

What is YOUR Favorite?

2011-12-16T14:25:00.000-06:00

Everyone has a favorite version of a song. And especially Christmas songs, because these seem to be remade with regular frequency. So, I decided that these last 9 days (SHOCKED aren't you? Yes...there are only 9 days til Christmas), I'm going to post my favorite versions of Christmas songs.
First one is Baby, It's Cold Outside...my favorite version is Zooey Deschanel/Leon Redbone from Elf. One of the reasons why I like this version so much is because, unlike the Dean Martin, this version isn't about one voice (Dean's) but rather it is a cool combination of both male and female parts and you can hear both sides.
Never heard it...well...this is your lucky day.
Baby, It's Cold Outside by Zooey Deschanel on Grooveshark

Sugah.....Ah, Honey, Honey Cookie #3

2011-12-16T09:38:00.001-06:00

My mom never made sugar cookies, well, not the kind you see today. She would make her version (or recipe) that were a sour milk cookie with a dough that you rolled out. I remember making them once, then staying up really late (I think I was in HS) by myself to decorate them. What I remember most was that they were a lot of work to decorate.

Then, with the birth of my middle daughter, co-workers sent me a cookie bouquet. OMG did I ever love those cookies and thought, I need to make these. Of course, I recognize my limitations with regard to how they would look* but I still thought I could get close. And as luck would have it, Ladies Home Journal happened to put a recipe in one of their magazines for a Soft Sugar Cookie. Right up my alley. Here it is:

1 cup butter softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp grated orange zest
4 1/3 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
8 ounces sour cream (I use lite)
Mix dry ingredients in a medium bowl.
In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar, beating 1-2 minutes). Add eggs, vanilla and orange zest and mix well. Add in flour mixture alternately with sour cream scraping the bowl often until well mixed. Divide dough into 3 equal portions, wrap in plastic and refrigerate until firm (several hours). Note...this dough is VERY soft when it warms so work with it quickly and be sure to keep your surface well floured. It's the softness of the dough that makes the cookie so tender so working with it quickly helps you NOT to incorporate too much flour.
Heat oven to 400. On lightly floured surface roll out dough one portion at a time, keeping the remainder refrigerated, to 1/4 in thickness. Cut with cookie cutters, place on cookie sheet (those AWESOME aluminum ones you went out and bought from Sams Club because you NEEDED good cookie sheets) 1 inch apart. If you are NOT decorating with frosting, you can sprinkle with colored sugar and bake for 6-9 minutes until edges start to turn golden brown. Let cool slightly on pan before removing to rack to cool completely.

Now, I will be up front and honest when I say, I love watching Martha Stewart especially when she works with Royal Icing, BUT, that stuff scares the sh!t out of me. I have never tried it either, but it does. So one day I went searching for a recipe that was similar and came across Toba Garrett's Glace. It's super easy to make and to work with:
1 lb confectioners (powdered) sugar
3/8 cup milk (I use skim)
3/8 cup corn syrup
flavoring and colors (I actually use concentrated food gel/paste to color)

Mix all together well.
Now, what I do is I found these squeeze bottles at Walmart and bought a bunch at $.50 each and fill those with the icing. It makes it easy to control where it goes. If you get your icing to the right consistancy, it will not drip off the cookie. I use the same process as Martha (just a little more ghetto) by outlining the cookie then flooding it (although I have found that using the tip of the bottle to move the icing around allows you not to over flood and the icing will stay on the cookie). Sometimes I'll add colored sugars, sprinkles, or even additional colors and take a tooth pick and drag it through the cookie to create some fun designs. Here are my girls (and her buddy) decorating:

ENJOY...I always do.

*oddly, in only a few areas do I really care about looks. And cookies seem to be one of them. I've had to learn to let go. Not an easy task but then the alternative is me being up until 2am decorating cookies. I've decided I like my sleep more than pretty cookies.

This Just In...Boiling Water is HOT!

2011-12-15T08:56:00.002-06:00

Warning....picture to follow is pretty gross. You can decide for yourself if you wish to continue. So, this past Sunday, the boy was making his own dinner of Ramen noodles. Well, he was doing what any 17 year old boy would do, he was eating his dessert of homemade vanilla bean cheesecake FIRST and he allowed his water for his "entree" to boil rapidly. He made his noodles and was pouring it into a bowl while holding the bowl over the sink* and water/broth sloshed over the rim of the bowl and onto his left hand. He called me and I told him to do what I knew to do for burns...run it under cold water to cool down the burn as quickly as possible. I got him a cup of ice water for him to submerge his fingers in. He did so but he claimed to be in A LOT of pain. Now, ever the sympathetic mother who rushes to console my children for all their bumps and bruises *pause for those who know me to stop laughing*, I said C'mon Bud, it's a burn, it hurts. I get it. Man up.** I did get him a super strong pain reliever so that he could sleep and I allowed him to miss his first hour the next day when he left a note for me that he didn't get to sleep until late and could he miss his study hall in the morning. (see...I'm not COMPLETELY heartless). He had wrapped his pinky, ring and middle finger for the night and for Monday. He said that his ring finger was all shiny but somewhat numb. Tuesday it blistered, he drained the blister then pulled at the skin and it came right off. Wednesday morning I got my first look at it and I became alarmed. It didn't appear to be infected but OMG it looks HORRIBLE. He had been really good about keeping antibiotic ointment on it but still...UGH...So I asked him to have his school nurse take a look at it and maybe dress it appropriately. I got the text from the boy saying the nurse said it really needs to be looked at by a Dr. Followed by the phone call from the nurse telling me that she responded as I had...initially. A little over exaggeration until she saw it. Hence, the phone call saying please, Please, PLEASE get him in to a Dr. Some of the worst infections she's ever seen came from burns. So, I called, got him in, picked him up, took him to the Drs and this was the pic as he removed the bandage we had put on that morning:

Nasty right? He lost several layers of skin all the way around his finger. The good news (if you can call it that) was the Dr said that while it looked bad (a deep 2nd degree burn), it looked good. Meaning that everything we had been doing was right. She said continue to keep it covered with antibiotic cream for a couple more days so that the new skin growth will be protected, then by Saturday he needs to start leaving off the bandage. The only "issue" is that he needs to start bending the knuckle (which he can't) so that he retains flexibility in the new skin growth.

The other good new is that it shouldn't scar horribly. He'll have a pink discoloration for a while but that should eventually fade. WHEW!

Let's recap:

1. Pouring boiling hot water into a bowl while holding said bowl...bad.

2. Potholders..good.

3. Mother appears to be missing the compassion (or at least empathy) chromosome.

4. Boiling water is hot.

*I give him credit for doing this over the sink. It DID save me from having a mess of broken pottery, Ramen noodles, and chicken broth all over my floor and base cabinets. Well done son!

**NO...I did not actually tell him to Man up. At least not out loud.

Bite o' Biscotti=Cookie #2

2011-12-14T19:19:00.001-06:00

My friend Beth introduced me to the joys of biscotti. Oh, I had seen them in coffee shops and I may have tried one, but I'm sure it paled in comparison to that which one produces with one's own nimble fingers.

One of the reasons I love biscotti (now) is because they are the perfect foil on a cold tundra (I mean winter's) night with a pot of tea. This is SO something my mom would do as she loved her winter pot of tea (gunpowder loose if she had her choice) with cookies. She would have adored these.

So, here is the "basic" recipe Beth passed on to me:
1/3 cup butter
2/3 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
1 egg yolk beaten
1 Tbs water
*chocolate variation add 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
Preheat oven to 375
Cream first 3 ingredients. Add vanilla. Add dry ingredients and mix well. Add nuts and chocolate chips last.

Make a long flat loaf approx 5-6" wide by 15" long.

Combine egg yolk with water and brush loaf. Bake for 25 minutes.

Remove let cool half hour, slice in 3/4 inch slices, lay slices on sides bake at 325 for 15 minutes each side, or until dry.

Cool and store in an airtight container.

Now...how *I* do it. Even though I started out with Chocolate Crinkles, *I* am not a huge fan of chocolate. Yes, I'll pause a moment to let you absorb that...a woman...NOT enamored with chocolate. OK, are you done? Continuing. So, what I do is I substitute the chocolate (chips in this case) with dried cherries. Dried cranberries or even blueberries would also work but I happen to like cherries. Now, I happen to adore walnuts but I like how macadamia nuts work with the cherries. And since I.LOVE.NUTS, I put in twice as much (I do that with pretty much anything that calls for nuts so that shouldn't be earth shattering news for you). If I have it available, I will also add some citrus rind, with this combination, I would do either orange or lemon zest. Maybe a tsp or so. Just to add a little zing. And if I'm feeling REALLY festive, I will drizzle the top with some white and dark chocolate. 'Cause that's how I roll.

Here is the kicker with biscotti: you can do what YOU like. It is pretty forgiving if you use the basic recipe. I haven't deviated much, mostly because I happen to be the only one in the family who eats these and *I* like them so what's the point in deviating and having NO ONE eat them? But I'm thinking of changing it up a little. Switching out the cherries for a little crystallized ginger, maybe some white chocolate (YES chocolate) and pistachios. Doesn't that sound intriguing?

No tea, but it sure goes great with coffee.

The Meaning of Christmas

2011-12-08T17:22:00.000-06:00

I came across this song in a very peculiar way. I was given the CD for having ordered some digital scrap booking items. The musicians are a band called 259 and they are REALLY good. Most of their songs are a capella. But I LOVE this song. You should too.

i heard the bells on christmas day by 259 on Grooveshark

Betty Who?

2011-12-08T12:48:00.000-06:00

I saw a post today that said 16 shopping days til Christmas and panicked. A little. We're planning on taking the kids to Mexico in February and they were warned that we are scaling back this Christmas. I think they know what that means but I don't think they GET what that means. That's ok. They will.

Still, scaling back doesn't mean that I can't/won't do the plethora of baking I do every year. Or most years anyhow. I mean, I always do SOME baking, but not always at the same level every year. This year, since I volunteered to bring 5-6 dozen cookies for the production of "The Gospel According to Scrooge" at church this year, I thought I would do my version of the 12 days of Christmas...in cookies/treats that I do around Christmas. Oh, you might occasionally see some of these varieties around my house during the rest of the year, but almost always these will be present at Christmas.

Today's cookie: Chocolate Crinkles. Most of my cookies have a story and this one is no different. I don't remember the exact year that these became a family cookie but I do remember that we were living at Andrews AFB so it had to be sometime between 1970-1974. My mom was not really a big cookie person as I don't remember her ever making cookies, just to make cookies. UNTIL she came into the possession of the Betty Crocker "Cooky Cookbook" (yes, that's with a Y), which, what is left of it is now in my possession (and you know it's 9/10th of the law right?). After what is probably about 40 years (or so...no need to get REALLY specific), this is what is left of it:

You have undoubtedly noted the lack of a hard cover. Yes, alas it is gone. Not sure when the last part of it fell off and was discarded but it's gone. This is still my "go to" book for most cookies. To the point where I have started to write notes in the margin of the book so that I can remember what has worked for me (yes, go ahead and say it, I AM that old). See (and note, this is the Snickerdoodle recipe I use):

Onto the actual recipe:
4 oz unsweetened chocolate
1/2 cup vegetable oil (LOL...who uses that anymore? Canola is fine)
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup SIFTED confectioners (powdered) sugar
Melt chocolate with oil (I do this in 30 second increments in the microwave so as not to scorch the chocolate). Stir til chocolate is completely melted then add 2 cups sugar. Stir and add 4 eggs and vanilla. The batter will look like this:

Mix flour, baking powder and salt together and add to dough. Now it will look like this:

Refrigerate the batter for several hours. I suggest making these in the evening and let refrigerate overnight. You want the dough to be VERY stiff. It will look like this after refrigerated:

But that's because I live in the Minnesota tundra and I put the dough on the deck to chill. Most people don't have this "advantage" (if you're lucky) so I suggest overnight. At any rate, I use the smallest Pampered Chef scoop (which of course isn't marked but I think it is a 1 Tbs scoop) and roll into balls and place on a plate with sifted powdered sugar:

Then roll them around until they are completely coated with sugar:

Then place them on an ungreased cookie sheet (if you don't yet have them, PLEASE, pretty please with sifted powdered sugar on top, go to Sams and buy the double set of heavy aluminum 10x15 jelly roll pans. I promise you will NOT be sorry) about 2 inches apart. I easily fit 15 on each sheet:

Bake at 350 for 11-12 minutes. I think my oven is a little off because I think 12 minutes is perfect but this time they seemed to need a bit longer. They will be all puffed up when they come out of the oven, then they will settle a little.

With the end result being this:

Your kids will think you a rock star. Their friends will want YOU as their mom just so they can have these delicious mouth watering bites of heaven. This makes about 5 dozen (I actually ended up with 59 and NO, I do NOT eat cookie dough).

They call me Crocker...Betty Crocker.

Unexpected Accolades

2011-11-27T11:53:00.002-06:00

Wednesday, before we left town for yearly Thanksgiving jaunt to Fr. Dicks, I received a phone call. From the school (or so the caller ID said). Nervously I answered because, calls from the school usually mean a sick child. NOT what you need as you're headed out of town.

Wednesday's call happened to be my oldest daughter's Spanish teacher who introduced himself and let me know off the bat, that this was NOT one of "those" calls. I'm sure you can imagine what "those" calls are even if you haven't been a recipient of one. The call where your child's teacher expresses a problem with your child that the teacher has been unable to resolve on their own and are seeking your, the parent's, help. Thankfully, with 4 children, these calls have been few and far between. Actually, as I think of it, I'm not even sure I have received one, which is NOT to say we haven't had our issues at school, just that a phone call wasn't the method of delivery.

Her teacher let me know that, all too often, the "good" kids in school tend to get "overlooked" as they, the teachers, deal with those who either don't grasp the material or are behavioral issues. He said that he makes it a point to call the parents of those "good" kids and let them (the parents) know how much he enjoys having their children in his class. He then proceeded to outline our daughter's behavior in his class: she comes prepared for class and participates. She is respectful of him and other students. She goes beyond the expectations of his class, to the point where she is doing the work of students from his CIS (College in School) class.

These types of accolades from teachers are not rare for this child and yet they always seem to choke me up a bit. Because in these days of laziness and/or sloth, (and yes, even with THIS child), it's nice to get a little reaffirmation that we are doing something correct. Oh, make no mistake, this is all about HER and the fact that for some reason, Spanish seems to have sparked a real fire in her (if only I could get her to approach her math classes with the same level of excitement) but I think that as parents, we have instilled in her a desire to do her best, regardless of her level of interest.

So praise of this type is always welcome. And a nice way to start of our Thanksgiving weekend.

Baby Alive

2011-11-16T11:45:00.002-06:00

My oldest daughter is taking a Child Development class (she's a sophomore) in school and it appears this week is her week in "the hot seat" as she brought home her "project" yesterday: a 12 pound lifelike baby for whom she is responsible. It is life like only up to a point: it cries, it eats, it needs to be burped, it has sensors that indicate a diaper change (without an ACTUAL diaper change), it has sensors that indicate that it's neck isn't being adequately supported. And all these sensors feed a database that tells the teacher how well the child was cared for.

Now, I'm of the belief that the teachers set up "the hot seat" based on a student's schedule and activities. On of her friends played varsity soccer and was responsible for her baby during her soccer season. My daughter is just gearing up to start her dance season and oh...guess what...she now has the baby. OK...I GET this that babies, especially with high school students, are NEVER planned (or 99.999% of them aren't), so this needs to hit home. But I wonder if it couldn't have been done in a more random way (like drawing straws).

Regardless, it has been less than a day and I'm already seeing the positive aspects of this and believe that it really should be mandatory for all high school students, girls AND boys. She got home from dance practice (one of the managers "babysat" during practice) only to have to feed (half hour) burp (half hour) settle (half hour) and start all over again. She managed to get some of her homework done during lull periods. She came up this morning (after less than a full day with the baby) asking if she could skip first hour at school because the baby had her up at 430am for a morning feeding. I said no. This is life. She needs to rename the baby Consequences because sex has consequences. You don't get to skip school because you're tired. Just like you don't get to miss meetings in the real world because you didn't get any/enough sleep due to children. You adjust. And hopefully you learn. She should be counting her blessings that, while she is learning a tough lesson, it WILL be over with in a week. The real thing would have her altering her life for the next 18 years and putting her though emotions that she didn't knew she had AND will never want to experience again.

My only beef with this experiment is the role *I* need to play. Because she has a dance tournament on Saturday that will entail her being gone ALL DAY, someone has to take responsibility for Consequences. And because it is a VERY expensive piece of equipment not just anyone, like, say a blonde 10 year old, would be capable of taking responsibility for it. That leaves me and/or the husband dealing with Consequences. lt turns into a major catch-22 for me. I wouldn't mind so much if it were a real baby, because I LOVE babies, even crabby ones. But since it's not real (THANKFULLY), I'm resentful at MY loss of time and freedom for a piece of plastic (and sensors).

I guess I need to look at this from the end-game position. If one week of this cements in her head how much work a baby is and how not everyone is going to JUMP at the opportunity to take responsibility while she goes off and does her own thing, then it will be worth it. At the 12 hour mark I asked if she had changed her mind about the 6 kids she was planning. I believe just her expression confirmed that yes, perhaps she was a little hasty in thinking 6 was a good number. And perhaps even at age 25, it is too soon to have children.

Learning by doing ALWAYS seems to be the way to go. Here's hoping this lesson sticks with her for 15 more years.

Defining Insanity

2011-11-09T11:24:00.002-06:00

Albert Einstein defines insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. There is a reason why he was considered a genius. I think he was talking to ME. And I believe I have hit the insanity threshold.

This week's chosen path towards my inevitable insanity involves employment and financial remuneration...aka "the chore list". I wish I could say this has been an experiment that really only involves some fine tuning, but I'd be lying. So, I am taking another approach, a similar approach (which I guess is insane on my part) but different in that it involves choice.

Like Einstein, one needs to first define the problem one wishes to address. In my case, it's many tiered. At the highest level, the problem is that I have a family of 6 and 4 of them do as little as possible with high expectations of rewards (and yes, I believe we are responsible for that misconception). Second, to force the realization that YES appearances DO matter (YES children, I am humiliated by the state of the common bathroom when unexpected people stop by, AND YOU SHOULD BE TOO). Third, help them to the realization that this household is NOT a communist household where we follow the motto "from each according to his ability, to each according to his need". Um...no. Especially not when weekly Caribou runs at $5/child are deemed a "need". And finally, which point 3 alludes to, these children need to understand the difference between wants and needs and should be willing to sacrifice to achieve their "wants". Which addresses receiving financial remuneration for services provided and learning to live within their means.

So, my first step was to take the old chore list and remove any assignments. Now to be fair, the original chore list which delineates chores assignments by color(it was really pretty too), I had assigned WITH APPROVAL to each child. That didn't work so well, so it is now back to black and white. NO chores are assigned to a person. They are now each assigned a monetary value as well as a frequency. They get to choose what they do and when they do it. So, the kitchen needs cleaning after dinner, I'm not going to ask anyone, I'm just going to wait and see who does it. If they just load the dish washer, they get paid $1. If they wipe the counters/stove, wash the pots and pans and sweep the floor they get paid more. I am the arbitrator as to how well a job was done. Expectations for such jobs are made clear in advance. They choose not to do chores, they will get NO money. It seems like a fairly simple concept.

Since we're not good at keeping track of who has received what money in advance, and since they NEED to learn to budget, I made the decision to pay them monthly. I know, that's a tough one, especially for my oldest daughter who can't seem to keep a nickle in her pocket. Not every job (as in real employment) she has will pay her on a weekly basis. Some will pay every 2 weeks, and some will even pay once/month. If she can learn to budget the once/month jobs, she can EASILY learn to budget being paid on a more frequent basis. So, at the end of each month, I will tally up their "financial remuneration" for the month and place that amount in their accounts. Last time, I made the mistake of paying them FIRST. (I'll give you a moment to ponder the stupidity of that decision) I won't be making that one again. Nor will I be providing those "extras" that they seem to be able to finagle from me (I just need to get the husband on board with that).

Of course, I will still match any money they choose to move into savings. Thus far this hasn't been an issue. And sadly, I don't see it being an issue with my "new and improved" experiment in insanity and I find that a little sad. But I have to look at this as this is THEIR loss, not mine. Hopefully they will one day realize what they gave up by making their wants needs and learn from that error.

I really think I am toeing the line with regard to this whole insanity gig, just trying to figure out what is going to work with my kids. Still, there is a tiny part voice that is whispering to me (yes insanity rules), saying..."YOU are a fool. They are playing you like a deck of cards. They have no intention of defining their wants and needs, of helping you out, of learning to be responsible people who CARE about appearances. They are children and they want IMMEDIATE gratification and will settle for no less. Towards that end, they just need to get you to keep trying these little experiments until they're gone, then they're going to go there merry little way."

And it scares the hell out of me that the tiny little voice may be right. Which means, as a parent, I have failed.

Failure mixed with insanity, I suspect, never ends well.

Things My Dad Taught Me: Number 736

2011-11-08T15:13:00.003-06:00

One of my dad's signature desserts has been a checkerboard cake. If you have never had a checkerboard cake, well, you've missed out. It's a 3 layer cake that when you cut into it, the interior resembles a checkerboard, making you scratch your head and wonder...how the heck did he do that?

Well, Dad is something of an experimenter. Kinda like and "inspector gadget" of the kitchen. He took 3 9 inch cake pans and made 6 rings in 2 sizes from paper bags to fit concentrically inside the cake pans. Then he would make a 2 cake batters: one chocolate and one white. He would then CAREFULLY place them thusly in each of the 3 pans: in 2 pans starting from the center, he would put chocolate, white, chocolate; in the third pan he would place the batter from the center white, chocolate, white. Then he would CAREFULLY pull out the paper rings and bake. When stacked correctly, voila...a checkerboard cake.

I had seen Dad do this several times and knew that I was capable of producing the same cake. I may have done it once or twice but frankly, it was A LOT of work, what with cutting the bags, getting the rings the EXACT size. Then, I happened to stumble upon one of these several years ago:

It came with 3-9 in pans and a snap on set of rings:

Now, that alleviates some of the issue, but I'll be honest, it's still a lot of work.

So, last week was a friend's birthday and I volunteered to bring the cake. Ever a "culinary wanna-be overachiever", I decided to make a checkerboard cake.

Now, I'll tell you a little known secret that my friend Tami clued me in on: Duncan Hines/Pillsbury/Betty Crocker...they have done all the hard work. And they're fine. But if you substitute milk for the water, butter for the oil, and add an extra egg...you will turn that "fine" cake into EXTRAORDINARY. And so, that's what I did.

I thought I'd be able to pour the batter but really, that didn't work well and I ended up spooning each layer into the rings. This is to help keep the batter in the like layers before carefully removing the rings. You can do 2 pans (identical...chocolate, white, chocolate), then you have to wash the rings before doing the third pan in the reverse order (white, chocolate, white). You should end up with this:

Bake according to the directions for a 9" cake. Let cool slightly, then remove from the pans and allow to cool completely before frosting. My preference for frosting is buttercream. Equal parts butter and butter flavored Crisco (about 1/2 cup each). Then I start beating in confectioners sugar until it won't take any more. Then I add vanilla and half and half (or milk) to taste and consistency. Once I get it where I want it, I remove about 1/3 of the frosting and mix 2-3 Tbs of Karo syrup to make a crumb coat. The crumb coat is a THIN layer of frosting that will allow some of the crumbs from the cake to roll into the frosting. DON'T WORRY. You're going to cover the whole cake with a second layer that will hide all the crumbs. This is what a crumb coat on one layer looks like:

You will also note that I put wax/parchment paper under the edges of the cake so I can pull them away when the cake is frosted and leave me with a clean serving plate. I also put fresh strawberry slices in between each layer, completed the crumb coat on whole cake, then used the remainder of the frosting to cover the crumb coat. Then, of course, I had to add a little "bling". Because that's how I roll.

Here's the best part. This tasted as good as it looked. The cake was very moist, the strawberries added a nice surprise and the frosting wasn't coyingly sweet, neither did it leave that film on the roof of your mouth like some bakery frostings will.

Thanks Dad. Lesson learned.

Fall Ball 2011

2011-10-31T23:54:00.003-05:00

Well, it's over. The build up to each years Fall Ball is a bit unnerving as each year I ponder...can we do better than last year? Will more people come? Will they like my food? Will they have a good time? Will they come back next year? It really is enough to keep you up at night wondering. Of course, that's only a fraction of the questions that clog my brain. I wonder...will I get the costumes completed and will they work? Will I get my house cleaned? Did I over extend myself on the food? And yes, occasionally I have the nightmare...will we run out of beer?

This year, in keeping with having a theme, I decided that costumes would be of cartoon characters. In my mind, there were 70 years of characters from which to choose and figured that there was little chance of repeat costumes. Then, of course, I worried...waiting to hear the words of the Master..."you chose WISELY Grasshopper"* that someone would have my costume, AND do it better than I.

With this being our 6th Fall Ball, our 5th costumed Fall Ball, I think I have finally figured out the timing. I got 70% of my cooking done on Friday. The Cuban Black Bean soup was made and refrigerated. I made shrimp salsa and Texas Caviar. I made a raw apple cake and tried a new recipe for Martha Stewart's Pumpkin Swirl Brownies. I also put the finishing touches on our costumes. Saturday I woke up early, knowing I had TONS to do I still laid in bed until 8am before getting up to complete preparations. I put together a Chicken Tortilla soup using a stock I had made the previous day. I toasted corn tortilla strips to put on the soup and chopped up some additional toppings for it (cilantro, avocado, red onion, tomato). I made some guacamole and some cajun spiced pecans. Right before everyone arrived, I made rice for the black bean soup and fluffy cornbread.

Then I cracked the whip and put the kids to work. And we were DONE by 1pm.(if only it was always that easy) Everything was ready. So I did what most people would do: I took my oldest daughter out mattress shopping (I don't think I can technically tell you how old her mattress is without fear that CPS will be called on us). Yes. I did. No. We didn't find what we were looking for. When we got home, I took step one to my costume: I dyed my hair red. Yes. I'll let you absorb that. Technically it was called Light Auburn, but it still looked red to me. I had a back up plan if it was HORRIBLE (that being, my natural hair color in "reserve") but surprisingly, it didn't turn out THAT red**. Red enough to lend some authenticity to my costume: the husband and I were Woody and Jessie from Toy Story.

The costumes I made or came from Good will. Well, except the hats and his boots. Cowboy boots are hard to find at Good Will. Happy Anniversary Honey (that was yesterday).

The best part of these costumes is that Woody was "authentic". Right down to his pull string. Well, that's not completely accurate. My husband's Woody's lines were...um...slightly off color. PG-13 with a possible R rating in some southern states.

Since I KNOW you're dying to know...in order of appearance:

Charlie Brown and Betty Rubble

Followed by Charlie Brown and Snoopy.

Then Cruella arrived. Followed by:

Holy Zig-Zag Shirts Batman...is that ANOTHER Charlie Brown with the Great Pumpkin? Well, hang onto your jericurl, cause you ain't seen nuthin' yet.

Daphne and Fred, who brought Scooby Snacks.

Superman (apparently impersonating Elvis with a bad haircut) with Wonderwoman. I won't mention how long ago she had a baby except to say I hate her. Not really. OK...a little.

Is a party complete with out the Simpsons? I think not.

Then Clark Kent and Rainbow Bright arrived with Inspect Her Gadget (no...I did NOT mistype).

And Fred and Wilma.

Marge and Homer the second.

Peter Pan and Tinkerbell.

And OMG...what do we have here...Charlie Brown and Lucy. Did you lose count? Let me help you out:

There...all better?
And finally:

Popeye and Olive Oyl.

My son stopped by with some of his friends whose parents (3 separate couples) were at our party. OH...he acted all embarrassed but I know secretly, he was digging it. (yes...I said digging it).***

As you may know from previous years, a Fall Ball isn't a Fall Ball unless my husband ends up with someone else's wig on his head. This year was no different:

Lucy brought us shot glasses that were actually ice cubes. Rainbow Bright shows us how it's done:

So, I'm sure you are all wondering...prizes right? There were prizes. Best Male Costume went to:

Inspect Her Gadget. First...the name play. AWESOME! Second, the headgear...totally original. Kudos!
Best Female Costume goes to:

Because see Maggie...she MADE Maggie! I especially liked how Maggie's eyes went in different directions. But I'm weird that way.

Best Character Line went to Woody. Yes, I know, bad form having a host win a prize, but he didn't just have one line. He used about 8 different lines. Every time you pulled his string.

Now, here's the part of the night that I loved, Loved, LOVED. After the voting (from those who remained) was over, the discussion became, what will "we" do for next year's theme. THIS party was not even over and they're already talking next year.

They like me...they REALLY like me. (OK...my parties...but I'm good with that).

*how lame am I that I reached back to Kung-Fu?
**I also knew from past experience trying to put red hilites in my hair, that it would probably wash out quickly. 2 days post dye and most people don't even notice.
***how do I know he was "digging it"? Because he came home today with some OTHER friends, all of whom wanted to know what they had to do to get on next years invitation list.

Walk in My Shoes

2011-10-26T19:56:00.001-05:00

I have had an internal debate on whether or not I should writing about this, and I finally decided to because I find that writing my thoughts can be something of a catharsis. I've spent almost a week thinking about this and feel I can be somewhat objective. This weekend, it was brought to my attention that people have quit reading my blog because I am perpetually talking about "offloading" my kids. This took me by surprise.

So, I stayed up one night and read this blog from beginning to end and I.AM.PUZZLED. I'm hoping I get some responses simply because I'm missing it. And maybe that's because I am too close and just not seeing it. Now, I will readily admit that I was anxious for the kids to be back in school (as I am every year, for the same reason) because THEY.WERE/ARE.BORED. And when they're bored, they fight. Incessantly. Had I not provided a summer of activity for them, I'd take responsibility for that. But I did. So I won't. I don't think it's fair to include my desire to see the kids back in school and engaged in something other than fighting with their siblings as "offloading" so I chose not to include those posts as I perused this blog.

I found one instance where I commented in a negative way about having my child around and the reality is, they wouldn't understand it unless they had been there. All we wanted was to sit and relax and my youngest expected us to entertain her. On a 19 ft boat. At 9pm at night. She was unhappy that we were unwilling and she made sure we knew it. But by in large, I believe I am fairly complementary about my kids, however I do not write this blog to be a shrine to them. For the most part, they're great kids. But sometimes they're little shits. Yeah...I said it. And I'm not going to apologize because EVERYONE, at some point in their parenting years, will think of their kids in this manner. If you don't, then you're drugged and you just don't care.

Here is the thing: I am with my kids 24/7. If I am not with them, then I am at their beck and call. I don't do things for me because, for the most part, it is too difficult to arrange seeing THEIR needs are met seamlessly. (I was trying to think of the last time I had time away from them that was for no other reason than *I* wanted/needed it; it was about 5 years ago, when my husband and I went to Mexico) Then, it would follow that when they have the opportunity to go someplace, whether it be a friend sleepover, or a church event, I am enthusiastic. I keep track of Sleepover Syndrome and will not allow sleepovers if I see attitude problems arise (which, means *I* double suffer: one their syndrome, and two their anger at being prevented another sleepover) . So, this isn't all about me and my needs. Just having one less child on any given night changes the dynamic of our interactions. For example, one of my girls talks non-stop. If she's not there then we get a chance to hear the other kids. This past week was Fall Retreat with church and my older two girls went. We got to see a dynamic of JUST my son and his little sister and how they interact without interruption of his other sisters butting in (and let's be clear, they DO butt in).

The reality of my situation is that it is NOT their situation. It never will be. I have 4 individual little souls for whom I am responsible for seeing to their welfare. And if you DO read this blog you will see that they are for the most part as different as night and day and normally I celebrate those differences. But, when you put them all together they don't typically act on their similarities, but rather their differences which puts me in referee mode. Constantly. So go ahead and judge me for wanting to remove the stripes for an evening or two.

I asked my oldest daughter, who keeps pretty close tabs on this blog, if there was anything that I had written that she felt was inappropriate or showed her and/or her siblings in a bad light and she responded no. She said that I typically write about our life. The good, the bad and the ugly. That set my mind at ease.

I think, really, it comes down to perspective. They don't walk in my shoes. And don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. I happen to love my shoes. They fit me well. But if they're going to make judgements on my shoes, then perhaps they should walk a mile in them. Then get back to me.

And funny enough, this blog is NOT required reading. Anywhere. I do this for ME. I write because I hope to someday print off my blog for my kids to read when THEY have kids and hopefully they will see that, yeah this parenting gig isn't always easy. Sometimes it's tough. Sometimes it's funny. Sometimes I try to make tough situations funny. I want my kids to know that if I can do it (and survive) they can too. I have chosen not to do ANY advertising (except for the blogs that I like reading) so I don't get paid for people coming to read my blog. This is nothing more that a little voyeurism into our family life written from my perspective. But if they can't understand my perspective, don't hesitate to make use of the little "x" in the upper right corner. I promise, I won't be offended.

Fallout

2011-10-14T07:59:00.001-05:00

YIKES...I didn't realize it was that long since Homecoming and I never updated the outcome. So, here it is.

When we last left our overly emotional highly strung mother who has a tendency towards acting first and thinking second (although, in her defense, I will say that she had her husband and son and daughter proof read the email that went to the administration before sending), she was awaiting word from the administration as to how they were planning on handling this situation. And when the word came from the principal it was "this email left me befuddled. I would be happy to have a face to face or telephone conversation with you."

UM...anyone getting the feeling that there are some serious wires crossed?

Me too.

So, I called, and set up a phone appointment where the principal would call me at a given time. When the call came through, the principal was in her car, on her way from a local t-shirt place, attempting to find some resolution/fix to the SOPHOMORE t-shirts. The ones that said "Bust the Trojans". According to my daughter (who spoke with the designer) the logo was fully approved by the administration. (and I'm going to call BS on that...the administration is NOT going to approve a condom referenced slogan). Then they supposedly back peddled. The final resolution for the Sophomore shirts was that "Bust" had to be taped over if the shirt was to be worn in school.

The Senior shirt issue was more complicated, I think because there were more "fingers in the pot"...so to speak. The principal stated, flat out to me (and to the Seniors) that she wasn't a fan of the second shirt ("Sit Down!") and it is her wish that they not wear them in school. She said she didn't say that they COULDN'T, but that she would hoped they wouldn't simply because she had asked them not to. My question on how did they get approved was never really answered to my satisfaction. I suspect this is where the "fingers" of the assistant administration came into play and in an attempt to back her administration while playing the "inclusive" game, she made the decision she did.

We did talk a little about the "animosity" that she perceives as being present between the classes. Things like, during pep fests, when the Juniors do their class chant the other classes boo. And she sees this as disrespectful. I see this as normal class rivalry and forcing "niceness" is going to backfire. In fact, my son said that they didn't boo the other classes during the pep fest, instead they all pulled out newspapers and feigned indifference. So, which is worse? A reaction or none?

End game was the boy wore his "Seniors are taking over the world" shirt to school and his "sit down" shirt to the game. Which I guess is a fair resolution. But the burning question is how did this get to this point? Was there not a procedure in place where the administration approved the shirts and signed off on them making this whole situation moot?

It's over. Things are back to normal, whatever normal is. The last home football game is today. Our team has an undefeated season, which I should say is a LONG.TIME.COMING. And my son wore his "Sit Down!" shirt to school today. We'll see how that goes over.

Homecoming took a left turn

2011-09-28T08:39:00.001-05:00

My son is a senior. Several weeks ago one of his classmates took it upon herself to organize Senior shirts for Homecoming. In the end there were two to choose from: One said "Seniors 2012" on front and "The world isn't ending, Seniors are just taking over" on the back (an obvious reference to the Mayan calendar), and the second says "What part of Senior don't you understand?" (on the front) and "Sit Down!" on the back (a reference to the preferential treatment Seniors get for sporting events). He came home with the shirts (yes both) on Monday and was told that they couldn't wear the second shirt. Why you might ask? Because the school administration deemed it non-inclusive of the lower class men.

I'll give you a second to TRY and wrap your brain around that one.

Couldn't do it? Me either.

Now, you'd think a school administration that was having issues with something so BENIGN as this would be completely walking over egg shells with regards to all the t-shirts designed by students for Homecoming, right? OH, NO...my daughter's homecoming shirt which reads "Sophomores 2014" on the front and "Bust the Trojans" on the back seemed to sneak past the administration's "blatant condom reference" filter. Or perhaps the school is more concerned with being "inclusive" then they are about our children wearing tawdry sexual referenced t-shirts. I don't know. You decide.

All I know is that this seems to be political correctness run amok. They are concerned that SOMEONE (no one as of yet) MIGHT be offended, in effect, looking for the perpetually offended to raise their ugly head, instead of allowing the Seniors to REVEL in the fact that they are SENIORS...an accomplishment in their own right. At present, there is a petition circulating the high school that to my knowledge EVERY STUDENT has signed, stating that NO...they are not offended.

My son explained to me this morning what the administration's intent is and frankly, I'm calling B.S. According to him, the administration sees these shirts as the seniors placing themselves above the lower class men. Ummm...YEAH. The seniors ARE above the lower class men (wonder if the administration has striken upper class men from their "inclusive" dictionary as it now delineates the classes marking a separation that leads to a lack of inclusiveness) They have earned their position, just as next year's Seniors will have earned theirs as well. It's called a rite of passage. Or maybe that's been removed as well from their "inclusive" dictionary for not being politically correct.

Seriously folks, we have to find a way to nip this in the bud or we are going to find our way of life watered down to a point where we are not going to even be allowed an opinion. Because SOMEONE, SOMEWHERE will be offended. I fired off an email to the administration this morning expressing my concern for their new policy of pandering to the lowest common denominator (yeah...I like using that term), which in this case is ZERO. Well, until they can convince someone that they NEED to be offended.

Then, we'll be off and running.

Homecoming 2011...and so it begins

2011-09-26T10:14:00.000-05:00

Today starts the week long, fun filled, activity laced, sports watching week of Homecoming. And you had better believe that we have been prepping for it.

Saturday my son asked his girlfriend. And yes, they all seem to ask it in a fun little way. Mine chose a fairly public manner and I have to give him credit for that. Of course she said yes. Whew.

Oldest daughter went shopping (because, I mean, what ELSE would she do). We chose NOT to purchase her a new dress for the dance since the dress she had planned to wear for the Snoball dance last year and didn't go due to illness is still hanging in her closet. Tags still attached. She, however, is not liking our decision because, well, because she wants a new dress. Her thoughts were that her Snoball dance dress is geared more towards a WINTER dance, what with hit being pink and black,strapless, short with "pickups", so she showed me the one she wants...the OTHER pink and black, strapless short dress (no, no pickups). Umm...no. She had to settle for a borrowed one. I think she really just wanted to buy something so she went out with friends and bought items for pajama day and funny tshirt day. Hopefully it was enough retail therapy to keep her from nagging me about a new dress.

Middle daughter decorated a pair of thrift store jeans with a friend. And are they ever cute! She also had 8 girls over Saturday afternoon to tye-dye shirts. Those are still drying. In my basement. And every time I touch them to roll them over, I get black or red dye on my hands. OY!

So, today is pajama day. And I want to give my oldest daughter credit for being brave. Her and two friends. Braver than I would be. As they were dressed this morning:

Let the Homecoming fun begin.

Humble Pie

2011-09-16T15:43:00.000-05:00

Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking of yourself less. ~ Rick Warren

I think instilling humility in my children has probably been the hardest part of raising them. So far. Mostly because aside from modeling it, you can't really teach it. As a parent one hopes that your child will see that the act of being humble isn't a sign of weakness but rather a sign of maturity. Now, I get, we expect our children to mature slowly...they just don't wake up and BAM, they're mature. But, if you model a behavior correctly, you should see progress and a lack of progress should be a red flag. It was for me.

As I look back on my own "modeling" behavior, I can readily admit to a degree of arrogance. However, I have ALWAYS accepted responsibility for my shortcomings and errors and owned them. I've apologized when needed and attempted to "fix" things I've broken. I get that it isn't always possible, sometimes things are broken beyond repair. But you have to make an effort even if you know it's just a token.

What, you may be asking, brought this on? Well, my son is filling out college applications. Applications that require an essay. I threw out the suggestion that instead of writing about what he is, perhaps he should write about what he isn't and left it at that.

His essay:

Since I was old enough to talk and understand things and why they happened, my parents have been trying to drill into my character and install virtues that they thought seemed necessary. I had no trouble with most of these virtues throughout my childhood, except one. Instead of being like every other applicant who boasts of what they are and what they have accomplished, I am going to try to be as humble as possible, which was actually the biggest issue of my character as a small child through my early teen years. Growing up, if I did something wrong I never wanted to admit that I had made a mistake. I would come up with excuses or push it off on someone else, but I almost never humbled myself. The past few years have opened my eyes as I see my friends humble themselves with their parents, and my own parents humble themselves in front of each other and in front of me and my siblings. I believe that the past few years of my life I have used the responsibility my parents have given me pretty well, and turned around my anti-humble streak. To prove that, instead of writing about what I am in a college application essay, I wrote about what I was not, but now I am. I think Purdue will do the same thing my parents did for me just in a different way. It will take my character, drill in life experiences, advanced education, and very important morals and values, and in 4 to 6 years will spit out a new young man ready to take on life.

I think I can put away my red flags.

Unexpected Packages

2011-09-15T10:21:00.000-05:00

Yesterday felt a little like Christmas in September. I came home from grocery shopping to find an unexpected package on my front door step. So, I did what most women without a lick of self control would do...I ignored the groceries in the back of the truck and ran to find out if the package on the step might possibly be pour moi.

(yes, I have the maturity of a 6 year old)

Apparently yesterday was my lucky day. And it involves a backstory.

About 6 months ago, I became a watcher/lurker on the websites No More Rack , My Habit and The Gilt Group . If you aren't familiar with these sites, here is how they work (or at least No More Rack). Each day they get in new items and for me, it changes at 11am and the items and prices are in effect for 23 hours 59 minutes or until the item sells out. So, you have to be on the ball if you see something you really like. I get the emails from the sites daily and honestly, I only look at the No More Rack ones because it's more my style (and price range). No More Rack=T.J. Max while My Habit and The Gilt Group is a little more like...oh, Bergdorffs, where the price of a cashmere scarf IS 60% off but still over $100. And that's ok.

So, we've established I'm a No More Rack kinda girl. My first purchase was a purse. Normally $100, the price on it was $28. BUT, I had a gift card for $10 for signing up, and another gift card for $10 (the site went down and anyone who was attempting a purchase lost out, so they apologized and compensated). Shipping for any item is $2. So my $100 purse cost me $10. WOOT!

My only regret with the purse was that I wish I had gotten it in blue instead of tan. So, I watched for another blue purse. This past July, a purse came up. Not a blue one mind you, but one that was funky without being TOO out there. Something FUN. This one was twice as expensive (but had a $300+ retail price on it), but I went ahead and pulled the trigger. I was all excited about it (yes, my maturity level again), only to get a phone call about 3 days later, from No More Rack that there was some weird problem with the distributor and they didn't get the purses in stock. They were refunding my money and would send me a purse, gratis, as reimbursement for my disappointment. I had no idea what purse they would send (and really, it wasn't necessary but it was thoughtful) but figured who cares, right?

Fast forward 2 months. Since no purse was forthcoming, I figured I had misunderstood when they called (and I was at a family reunion when they called so it was HIGHLY likely). And even when I saw the package, I didn't think it would be a purse. But then I saw the return address and thought "HEY...maybe they DID send me a purse".

But no...they didn't send me a purse. They sent me THE purse.

JEALOUS?

I'm giving No More Rack two thumbs WAY up. Not because they gave me free stuff. But because they stand behind what they do. Even when they don't have to.

AND...They're OFF! UPDATED...BANNER

2011-09-06T11:19:00.001-05:00

Believe it or not, the last child JUST left for school (1104am...and no, he won't be late. Seniors and Juniors had a late start to accommodate the Sophomore orientation. This year I actually have TWO in one school. Whoopie! OH, the time I will save on conferences not having to hit FOUR schools.

Without further ado...the kids in order of their exodus to school:
The middle schooler (who STILL has a stye but the swelling and redness has finally abated...somewhat), whose bus picked her up right on time at 712am for a 755am start time:

The sophomore, who was out the door at 8am for an 820am school start time and will be riding with her brother to school for the remainder of the school year:

The grade schooler (5th) who, sadly, I have to take each and every morning since we open enroll, who was up at gawd-awful-thirty early this morning and I dropped at 850am for a 905 am start time:

And last, but most certainly not least, the senior, who relished his extra FOUR hours in bed this morning, toddling off to school at 11am:

And now, as much as I would LOVE a nap (you think just THEY were excited?), I am taking myself off for a well deserved and quiet pedicure to contemplate what I should do with MY break.

UPDATED with banner (and in case you're wondering, YES, he is a pill about this, but since he sorta cooperated, I let them stand on the deck...not one of my finer decisions quality wise):

Almost There

2011-09-05T20:55:00.001-05:00

With sincere apologies to Clement Clarke Moore, I give you:

The Day Before School Starts
'Twas the day before school starts no time to be lazy,
Four kids and a dog, my day has been crazy.

Sweet rolls for the morning, I still had not made,
And so I got myself busy with my white Kitchen-Aid.

The banner they hold had not been updated,
OK by them, they all seemed to hate it.

Tracey called here quite early to invite us for dinner,
Steaks back in the fridge, ribs are tonight's winner.

The boy, he had plans he informed me late morning,
A pot luck with friends, but what should he bring?

I made him my standard quick Special K treats,
Hoping some mother would send something with meat.

My daughter finally quit playing with her hair,
For by tomorrow she must read, the classic "Jane Eyre".

Tomorrow our birthday girl may want to cry,
If she can't seem to shake the huge stye in her eye.

The youngest has stayed pretty much out of my way,
Making cupcakes with neighbors and selling for pay.

The banner is fixed, and the rolls are all made,
The alarms are all set and the clothes have been laid.

For most it may seem that their break is all finished,
But tomorrow, MY break, well, it just hath beginneth.

Emily Dickinson has NUTHIN' on me!

Round One

2011-09-03T15:52:00.000-05:00

You would think the week before school starts, I would have better things to do with my time then to to stand it in front of a sink peeling 50 pounds of tomatoes. But there I stood on Thursday. Peeling tomatoes.

Each year I usually make two batches of spaghetti sauce. Each batch will produce anywhere from 25-27 quarts of sauce, and two batches ensures we have enough for the up coming year (and yes, I AM out of sauce). For some reason I think I usually do this later, after school starts because I don't normally recall having kids around when I do it (and you can guess why). But Thursday, my two oldest girls were home. So, I put them to work. One peeled and diced onions (and cried), the other chopped carrots and measured out my spices while I peeled away. A short 2 hours later the pot was ready to move to the stove, which in and of itself is quite a manuever because *I* cannot lift it.

But being the ingenious person I am (yeah, right), I move the pot to a towel covered chair. Then I push the chair to the stove. THEN I bring another chair over and *I* stand on the second chair, giving me the leverage to lift the pot and set it on the burner. Thank-you...thank-you very much.

This pot is so big, that my father-in-law had to fashion a special wooden spoon in order to reach all the way to the bottom of the pot.

So, the hard work really is done. Now I get the sauce up to a nice simmer, turn it down, stir it every 2-3 hours (yes, even during the night) and let it cook for about 48 hours. When I am ready to can, it looks like this:

Yes, it IS so thick that the above mentioned spoon stands straight up in the pot. The actual canning process doesn't take too long as long a I'm careful as I'm filling the hot jars. Hot jars+hot sauce+hot lids=no processing. The jars seal themselves. Woot!

And today's haul? 28 3/4 quarts!

Things to note: The jar in the foreground...no it is not full. That will go into the fridge. The spoon in the pot in the sink? Yes, that long stick protruding from the humongous pot? That is touching the bottom the pot. Things not to note: the pile of papers in the corner, the veggies on the counter (dinner) and the plethora of waterbottles to the right of the coffee pot which my children, for some reason will NOT put away once they are removed from the dishwasher.

This was my first foray into "family building spaghetti sauce" and were I to grade it, I'd give it a solid B. Why you might ask? Because when the girls were done, they left EVERYTHING right where it was. Empty canola oil jar? On the counter. Extra onion? On the counter. Paper from opening new spice jars? On the counter. If they help with round 2 (hopefully, tomorrow), we'll see if we can get that grade up to an A.

Weekend at Bernie's...er...Al's

2011-08-29T17:08:00.001-05:00

We (minus the boy...he had to work) spent the weekend with friends up at their cabin. And a lovely weekend it was. The weather? PERFECT. The kids...well, they were kids, but I will say given we had 6 girls ranging from 6-15 years, they did better than I expected.

Friday, we started out with a pontoon ride to a part of the lake that had this:

And they ALL jumped off of it. From the 6 year old:

On up:

It must be said, these boat rides are NOT all about the kids:

It was back to the ranch for fish tacos and a side of steak:

We were all up bright and early (OK...I exaggerated the bright part and flat out lied about "early"), made some breakfast burritos and had a late breakfast on the deck. Then, it was time to break out the fun boats. What, you may ask, are fun boats? Why...this is a fun boat:

It is a small boat, that runs on an electric battery that shoots water...or ferries passengers:

Yeah, right...they "claim" they're excellent drivers:

But it must be said...fun boats are NOT just for kids:

And to answer the age old question...exactly HOW many clowns can you fit on a water trampoline...well, you count:

And as luck would have it, Saturday was our friends' 17th anniversary. And boy...do they do up the gifts:

In case you're wondering, that beautiful 3D fish mug holds nine Miller Lite Silos. Yes, NINE.

The girls also did a little tubing. OH....a camera:

I think the girls had a good weekend.

Sunday was a fairly quiet day. There was the packing up, some brats cooked over an open fire, some fishing. What was really cool was that there was a next of young eagles that would occasionally screech (and not in unison). Occasionally we'd see one flying about:

How lucky are we?

Road Trip

2011-08-22T14:58:00.000-05:00

If it's August, it must be time for a ROAAADDDD TRRIIPPPP. I know. I made that sound really fun, right? Like Animal House fun right? Like y'all just WISH you got to go along with me, right? WEEELLLL...let me disabuse you of that notion.

The goal of my road trip was to take the boy to Indiana for a tour of my Alma mater, Purdue. He was scheduled for a tour on Thursday morning and from there we were headed to Peru...Circus City of the world (Barnum-Bailey used to winter there) to spend the remainder of the weekend with my cousins, who I see only every few years when I make this road trip.

When we arrived at Purdue on Wednesday night (after a 9 hour drive with 4 children either looking at or touching each other...quite a feat given they had an entire SUBURBAN to spread out...but I digress), I had ZERO recollection of the campus, even though I DO have a Purdue University Bachelor of Science (Mathematics) diploma with MY name on it. Apparently 25 years makes a WORLD of difference. Well, that, and the fact that I never lived in the dorms as a student and our entrance to the campus was through student housing. It never occurred to me to wander through that part of the campus. I might have to learn it if this is where he ends up.

The tour was Thursday morning and we left the hotel with plenty of time to spare. Which was a good thing because I had our tour time off by an hour. So in reality, we were right on time. I learned more about Purdue as a school than I ever knew as a student. Apparently, you have to be pretty smart to go there. Who knew?

We then did a bus tour that I think would have been better as a walking tour but it IS a huge campus. We finished the tour and walked through the Engineering Mall, the area the boy will probably be spending most of his time (as an engineering major). Armstrong Hall...the new aerospace building was awesome. I got this pic of the boy with Neil Armstrong:

We headed to Peru after verifying Harry's Chocolate Shoppe (a misnomer as it is a B.A.R.) and Triple XXX were still present and accounted for:

and having a fine mid day repast at Five Guys. Yum. Along the way we stopped in Logansport, where my grandma used to live. Down the alley from her house is the Sycamore Drive In Frozen Custard stand so OF COURSE we had to partake:

I also drove by what was my grandma's house, then a radio station, now a realtor office:

Not much had changed except the entrance to the back porch was new.

In Peru, we did what we typically do when visiting my cousins: We eat. We drink (a lot). We swim. Not to be missed is the Indiana pork tenderloin

The reason you see two pieces is that the tenderloin is SO big (how big is it?). It is SO big that when it arrives it completely covers BOTH buns. Thus the need to cut in half and double decker it. And yes, I ate the whole thing. No where else but Indiana baby!

Then there is the swimming part. Now this is kinda funny. You know how things sometimes go full circle? Well, here is my cuz and middle daughter in 2003:

And here is my youngest daughter with my cuz's daughter:

What goes around, does indeed, come around.

The only low point (well, aside from the 9 hours there and the 9 hours home) was when my son decided Saturday evening that he was going with a neighbor and her friends to the Indiana State fair...with the hopes of MAYBE getting into see Sugarland. As they were getting ready to go, bad weather was headed our way. Since it was close to 7pm before they were able to leave, it was an hour and 30 minute trip there and one friend had to be home early, they decided not to go...just as the stage at the fairgrounds collapsed. Our prayers are with those families who lost loved ones.

So...the weekend was a success. I made it there and back without the use of duct tape (barely). My son was introduced to one of the finest institutions of higher learning available to him. We got to eat BOTH frozen custard and pork tenderloins. And last but not least, we got to visit with my favorite people in the world.

I'd call it a Win-Win situation.

Derby Days 2011

2011-08-09T13:22:00.001-05:00

Our charming little metropolis, like most, has its own community celebration the first weekend in August: Derby Days. It is 5 days of fun filled frivolity.

We usually skip Wednesday's events and join in the fun Thursday for the Taste of Shakopee. Various vendors and service organizations set up booths that offer to the community, a "taste" of what they have to offer. One area is set aside for food booths, and while the rest is geared more towards services that are offered through the town. It was fairly busy:

Then we came across this group of juvenile delinquents:

And one needs to finish off "the taste" with a slide down a gigantic Titanic like blow up ship right?

Friday is usually the beer tent night with the band, but we decided to forgo in place of giant porterhouse steaks. Wise choice eh?
Saturday was gorgeous so we grabbed most of the kids (Beanie was off for the day) and went out on the boat. The girls, doing what they do best:

The boy, doing what he does best:

And then, pigs flew, as the boy stayed in the water and helped his sister in her attempt to get up on the wakeboard. SHHHHHHH....don't tell him I got this picture, or it will become a collectors item:

And in an effort to prove that, while I am in fact approaching it, I am not yet OVER the hill:

Yup...that's me (wide thighs notwithstanding), up on ONE ski. FIRST attempt. Yeah me! (and yes...I am still paying for that in sore muscles).

Saturday night is the fireworks and we headed down to the park. First we went to the beer tent though and I'm just going to say it...it was lot like the website "People of Walmart". A LOT. In the distance we could see what looked to be a storm rolling in, but I held out hope it would either miss us or be so light as to be inconsequential. We wouldn't be so lucky. As the first fireworks went off, the first of many several large cold drops of rain fell. We had lightening to the left, and fireworks to the right and in the middle....a huge park of very wet people as a torrential downpour let loose. We stayed put, figuring it's just rain right? The fireworks continues for about 5 minutes and about the time we figured we might as well stay for them all, we were already soaked, they ended. We headed back to friends to watch the remainder of the lightening show.

Sunday Derby Days end with the parade. My girls have danced in the parade each year for the past 7 years but last year, it was so unbelievably hot, they chose not to. Their mistake as this year the temperature was much cooler and there were even a few shading clouds to make it a much more enjoyable event for those who were in it.

Beanie wanted to make sure that the candy throwers knew where to throw their candy:

The kids had their collection bags (well, the younger ones did, the older ones just let them do all the work):

Parades aren't really parades without unicycles in formation right?

And the blue haired clown (he's on the left):

And really, parades are learning experiences. I learned that my daughter and her friend suffer from no lack of self esteem:

But the best part...the skipping home. Because I really don't think people skip enough.

Wild Crazy Wacky Family Reunion

2011-08-02T12:17:00.011-05:00

Let's face it, with 60 plus people in attendance, how could it be anything but? This past weekend was the occasion of my mother in law's second family reunion (which seems to be happening about every 3 years). And interestingly enough, only 6 people were missing (the boy, on a college tour of Madison, then off to the OshKosh Air Show was one of the six).

The reunion began Friday afternoon with about 20 people playing "best ball" or "scramble" golf (depend on who you talk to). Surprisingly it took about 4 hours to play 9 holes...but then again, considering the source, maybe NOT so surprising. Dinner was provided by the party host (lest you think they got all the work, each family provided a meal so the burden didn't fall to just one family).

Saturday began with the husband helping his brother launch his boat amid a torrential downpour along with hail. There might still be dent marks in their two heads...I'm not sure. It cleared up nicely (steamy, as would be expected) but the lake we were on, Mill Lacs, is a huge lake and when a breeze happens, you get big chop. Glad I wasn't on the boat for the ride from the launch to the house. Yes, self preservation is a good thing.

My sister-in-law provided games for the kids and she did a PHENOMENAL job. She divided all the kids from age 2-26 into 4 teams of 5-6, assigning them each a color (and provided matching bandanas):

The activities ranged from the expected...like wheelbarrow races:

And ball hop, where my niece excelled:

To the water balloon behind the back. Let's just say there were a lot of wet backs:

The teams then divided up and half shot Polish horseshoes:

And the other half...hold onto your hats...went on a crawfish hunt. Remember that because they will continue to play a role in the day's activities:

Then they switched. After crawfish were accumulated, it was time for the cookie slide. I could explain it, but it's so much easier to show you. Cookie on forehead:

Work cookie, without touching with hands down to mouth:

And the winner is:

Would you look at that technique?

So...remember those crawfish from above? Yeah, well, it doesn't do for them to languish about, so what better way to put them to use then to race them? First up, each team had their own circle from which their chosen crawfish had to make its way out from the center. COMPLETELY out:

Then there was the "group" race...all in one circle:

And of course, there is always at least one...the angry crawfish:

You would think that after this much activity, they'd be ready for naps (I was). But NOOOO...out to the lake they went for the swimming competition. Beanie took second in the freestyle, but won with her backstroke:

That pretty much concluded the children's games for the day (night games to come). The adults had a Polish horseshoe tournament. Then it was time for dinner (Spaghetti, provided by "our" family). You ever tried to cook spaghetti noodles for 60? Yeah, well, it ain't pretty. About this time, the lake started to get a little windier and the husband helped his brother take his boat back. And they picked a good time because shortly after they left, the lightening started. HUGE lightening storm. As we watched the storm cross the lake with us in its direct path, the power went out. Luckily, we had fed almost everyone...but the husband pushed his luck and the electricity went out as we were making the last batch of pasta. Note...noodles soaked in hot water do NOT cook. They just become paste. Thought you should know. So, the rain hit but was quickly gone, although the wind stayed, making the "seas angry":

But as Katy says..."after the hurricane, comes the rainbow":

The party moved to the garage to avoid the wind. The brother in law corralled the children, all 15 of them, into a rousing game of Spoons:

The sneaky ones excelled (of course, look to see who has the spoon already. Yes, I'm SO proud that my children excel at sneaky):

While in Highlander the saying goes..."there can be only one", the girls refused to have a loser:

So, we removed the children (but they keep finding a way back) from the garage and the cousins played "Up Jingle". Technically, a drinking game, but then I believe all games played over the age of 21 can be made into a drinking game. The game is fairly simple. Two teams line both sides of the table. With hands under the table one team passes a quarter back and forth, under the table, out of the sight of the other team until the opposing team says "up jingle" at which point the team with the quarter all fist their hands and put their elbows on the table:

On the count of three, they then slam their hands down on the table, concealing the quarter under their hand:

The goal is for the opposing team to guess where the quarter is in 3 guesses. Now IF this were a drinking game, one would drink: if you guessed wrong, if your team didn't guess in 3 guesses the whole team drinks, or if the team does guess, the team with the quarter drinks. But this wasn't.

Although a funny aside. My middle daughter came into the game not knowing what was going on. She saw this:

Then the team with the quarters happened to slam their hands down hard enough to knock over the green cup which spilled all over the table. Her question to me was..."Is whomever gets spilled on the loser?" Well, yes, but that's not the game.

The next day Father served mass in the yard, we had a FABULOUS lunch of tacos, walking tacos, soft tacos, nachos. The boat had been brought back and the "seas" were calm enough for some wake boarding:

After that, families slowly departed. We switched children with my sister in law, so I now have two boys in addition to Beanie. I'm finding I sorta like it.

All in all, it was a wonderful weekend. Kudos to Bob and Jean for making it so. Brava to Nikki for her well planned children's games. And thanks to everyone else for making the weekend something special, something we are all are sure to remember.

That's Not My Name

2011-07-27T21:05:00.001-05:00

It's stupid. I know. But it's something that just grates on my nerves. Especially when it is done out of laziness. My name...it's Carolyn. Not Caroline. Not Carol. But Carolyn. I'm not particularly fond of my name but it was the one given to me, and given to me for a reason. I was named after my maternal grandmother who died when my mom was a year old. So, while not being a name I would have chosen for myself (I think it's very 60s...where Caroline seems to have transcended that "era" naming), I have chosen to embrace it. It's CAROLYN.

*edit- This does not include those who have known me for years and have placed their own twist on my name. My husband, for example, will occasionally call me Carol Ann (which always reminds me of Poltergeist). A close friend calls me Carolina...but we all have Spanish twists on our names so it works.

So, when I get emails, letters, or messages addressed to Caroline or Carol, it irritates me to no end. Sometimes, I get it...it's an honest mistake. But sometimes I find it's just plain laziness. Scroll the heck up/down and see how to spell my name if you are in doubt. Really. It only takes a second and it shows me that you hold me in high enough regard that I am worth a second EXTRA of your time. But when my name is spelled correctly in front of you and you choose to call me by another name...well...all I can say is:

This concludes my mid week rant.

Spontaneity

2011-07-26T12:00:00.001-05:00

With July winding down and we have a few things on our "bucket list" in which we are trying to cross off. One included an evening boat ride. And you know how sometimes the best laid plans go awry? Well, we decided that spontaneity would be the driving force.

Dinner yesterday was spontaneous. We asked friends to join us. I made stilton stuffed blue cheese burgers for the guys, smoked black pepper cheddar burgers for the chicks and plain old American cheese burgers for the girls. I made home made fries, roasted vegetables (freshly picked an hour earlier from our garden), and all the fixin's for the burgers (lettuce also freshly picked). As we sat around wondering if we SHOULD load up the boat and go, a spontaneous decision was made TO.JUST.GO.
So, we gassed up the boat, grabbed a couple bottles of wine, and we went.

From the time the decision was made to the time we were on the lake? About 20 minutes (yes, it helps having a lake close by).

Had we dithered, we would have missed out on this sunset:

And this bottle of wine:

And this smile:

And he's happiest at the helm:

Or floating with a glass of wine:

But most of all...because this is how we roll:

THIS...we could have done without:

Now, onto the next item on the bucket list.

50 Days and Counting

2011-07-18T13:17:00.001-05:00

My threshold has been reached. I'm now counting. 50 days til school starts.

Go ahead...talk smack about me...how I am a horrible parent for not embracing this time with my children. How I am going to regret "wishing them away" (or at least, in another room...or someone else's house). How they'll be gone before I know it and oh, I'll be SOOO sad.

Know what? I'm still counting. Here's why.
I'll start with the youngest two, who cannot seem to find a nice word to say to one another. EVER. Every simple statement, request, anything is examined by the other for content, tone, manners, etc and ALWAYS found lacking. And thus the bickering starts. And does not stop. EVER.

The chore thing went well for the first month. This month, well, not so much. Even though there is a weekly list on the fridge of their individual jobs and frequency, they don't seem to be able to keep up. So, they had their allowances cut by 25% this month. Negative reinforcement. The positive stuff didn't cut it. Hit'em where it hurts is my motto. My oldest two will definitely need to practice a little frugality this month.

When I think of the amount of money I spent this summer in an attempt to keep these children occupied because GOD FORBID they use their imagination or brain (for something other than keeping their skull in tact), I just want to cry. I should sit down and figure what the grand total has been so far, but if I do, I KNOW I will cry. I know that any hint of a possibility of replacing my 17 year old appliances in my kitchen...gone. Of pulling up the disgusting carpet in my living room...gone. YES...we're talking THAT.MUCH.MONEY. I bet you'd cry too.
So...most of the organized activities end this week and some next week. Then most of August, we're on our own. And I'm scared to death. Scared that it will be next to impossible to keep 4 children with varied interests active without taking on a second mortgage or them killing each other. Scared that I'll be hearing "what are we doing TODAY, Mommy?" in my sleep and I'll not have an appropriate activity planned. Like that dream where you're standing in front of people naked. Um... sorry, that was never a favorite of mine.

OH, and lest we forget...there is ALWAYS back to school shopping to look forward to. But I'll save that rant for another day.
It probably sounds like I'm looking for sympathy, and yet I can still hear my dad's words echo, "Darlin' if you're looking for sympathy, you can find it in the dictionary between shit and syphilis". Dad has a way with words. But I don't really want sympathy. I think I want empathy. I want someone to tell me that I'm not the only mom out there who has bent over backwards attempting to give my children the summer of their dreams only to realize that it's not enough. It will never be enough.

So, I count.

49 days 18 hours and 53 minutes.

Fourth of July...here's how we roll

2011-07-05T21:55:00.002-05:00

It's been a wild and crazy weekend here. Yes...our weekend ended today. We spent it at the ILs cabin which is a 90 mile drive via highway which then takes about 2 hours, or a 100 mile drive via back roads which we can do in about an hour 45 min. Yeah...we ALWAYS take the back roads.

This year, we let our son bring along a friend so it was important that we be on our best behavior. Yeah, well...maybe not. I should have guessed the direction the weekend was going to take when we barely got out of town, following motorcycles when the motorcycles seemed to part...and there, standing in the middle of the road was a raccoon. A live raccoon. It was a scene that immediately brought to mind Elf, however, there was NO WAY I was going within 10 feet of that raccoon. He looked PISSED. I don't care if it needed a hug or not, I wasn't offering.

So, we avoided the raccoon and were soon on our way north via back roads. When we started out the outside temp (around 4pm) was 96 degrees. Over the next 30 minutes we watched the temp slowly drop...then quickly drop. I was keeping my eye on the west because there were some fairly ugly black clouds moving east and north that had some really weird low clouds atop them that had what appeared to be fingers dropping down intermittently, then they were sucked back into the cloud. I watched this, a tad bit alarmed, given the now rapidly dropping temp thinking this is what tornado's are sprung from (yeah...I've seen Twister...I know). Then the sky took on a bit of a greenish cast. But then my oldest daughter brought my attention to the clouds on MY side and HOLY.CRAP. They looked like this:

The temp was now 30 degrees lower than it had been half an hour ago. And before I knew it we hit it. First came the wind. Then the rain. Then the hail. THEN...the rain that came in sheets, moving horizontal to the ground. As we crept along, I watched the wind take down trees. Suddenly what little traffic there was stopped. We had hit an area that was free of trees and I think everyone had the same idea...didn't want to get hit by falling trees. Still, some people continued to move and after a few minutes, we decided to as well. We went about 10 miles and seemed to be moving out of the storm. Oh, it was still raining but the rain was actually falling now. We thought we were out of it. So we pressed onto the cabin. We were about 10 miles from the cabin when we got a text from the family already there saying that they were in a tornado shelter...the sirens had gone off. I let them know we were about 10 miles away and would be there soon. The weather was so much better than it had been I just figured what was hitting them was what we had just driven through. Uh...as we approached the town one over, we drove through it again. This time the sky wasn't green...EVERYTHING had a green cast. The rain was so blinding we couldn't see 3 ft in front of the car, so it was fortuitous that we happened to pull into Pearl Lake Lodge. For safety reasons of course.
We emptied out the truck of children and walked into "the lodge" to hear a guy at the bar doing a PERFECT impression of:

OH how it fit! We were in the bar only briefly before the electricity went out. LUCKILY, taps do NOT run on electricity.
We made it to the cabin a little while later, only to see the electricity go out there. And stay out for the next 18 hours or so. Our cabin adventure had quickly morphed into a camping adventure. If you know what I mean. (think...well water...electric pump...'nuff said). Here was the other side of the lake shortly after we arrived:

Saturday arrived (without electricity) with the sun shining brightly and not a cloud in the sky. It was a busy day. We had to go to Cold Spring Bakery for peanut holes (seriously...you haven't lived til you've had a peanut hole...or 6). Then the fun began. First, there is fishing. In your jammies. Because, dontchaknow, that's how we roll here in Minnesota. And occasionally you'll reel in a crappie:

Then there was tubing. Lots of tubing. Kids who want to go fast. Kids who want to go slow. They mixed it up. They used a lot of gas. Then there was skiing/wakeboarding. This was more interesting. My oldest wakeboards and attempted to get his friend J up on the board. J does EVERYTHING. And it appears J does everything very well. But wakeboarding escaped him. Still, first time out on skiing he made it up...after I had already assumed he was down and called it. And he still smiles. Here's J on his first attempt at skiing, followed by the boy, suave and debonair wakeboarding one handed:

I tried my hand at skiing and I can officially say...D@MN...I'm old. It has NEVER taken me more than one attempt to get up on one ski. And sore? Holy crap. There should be a way to exercise the muscles you use when you ski.
Sunday, we found an old tennis net and set it up in the water as a volley ball net. Can I just say...wow...boys are competitive:

Of course, all this activity, combined with hours on end of sun AND staying up late, and you might find yourself in this position:

It needs to be noted that J was warned well in advance that such a position would, well, put him at risk. I mean, there were 6 12-15 year old girls in the cabin, each armed with a bag of fingernail polish. I can't be around 24/7 to prevent the inevitable. Nor will I tell what color his toenail ended up. I'm no snitch. I think he was hoping the worst he had to deal with was having his underwear frozen in the freezer. But, we were on our best behavior.

Monday was more skiing/wakeboarding/tubing. More water volleyball. And of course, it's not a holiday unless the polish horseshoes (corn hole? bean bags?) game is brought out and a tournament is played. Teams are chosen by luck of the draw. Money is ALWAYS the prize. And the games were on. My oldest daughter made it to the final. Blew a HUGE lead. It came down to LAST THROW...for the championship. Last throw...HAD to be in the hole. Last throw? It's in the hole (now...you have to say that like Bill Murray in Caddyshack). Just look at that form:

Then...the youngest nephew, well he got a little bold. And in the process found himself hogtied, all the while giggling:

There was hotbox and freeze tag played. Rousing games of BS. The lake was walked. The resort was visited. The fireworks were watched (I do believe Grand Lake has some very happy mosquitoes today). I'm guessing, were I to rank the holiday on a scale of 1 to 10, it would probably be a 14.

I hope everyone was as blessed.

When You Have to Spell It Out

2011-06-30T11:29:00.001-05:00

My youngest has a favorite question that she feels compelled to ask me each and every day: "What are we doing today?" And I have to say it sets my teeth on edge. She's 10 and she still expects me to...I'm not exactly sure what she expects me to do. It could be she expects me to provide her with an activity for all of her waking moments. THAT I am not willing to do.

Earlier this month, I posted our "anticipated" June calendar for the kids' summer activities. Since this is the last day of June, I decided to go back and take stock of what we've "done" this month. Here is our June roundup:
15 softball games
2 boat trips
1 cabin trip
26 sleepovers
2 weekends at cousins' cabin
1 Taylor Swift concert
6 days of basketball camp
24 hours of swim camp
15 hours of dance workshop
9 days of drivers ed
2 ortho appointments
1 doctor appointment
1 dentist appointment
6 movies seen
17 games of beach volleyball played
2 9 hole rounds of golf played
6 days spent at Valley Fair*
1 pool party church event
1 day spent at Cascade Bay Outdoor Waterpark

HOLY CRAP...I want to be my kids. This is just ONE month. It certainly is eye opening. My goal with the calendar was more to make sure that they were where they needed to be when they needed to be there. But it has turned into a very useful tool to do just this...show my children now BLESSED they are that we are able to provide this kind of "entertainment" for them.

And maybe, in between, they can find ways entertain themselves. With the trampoline, the Wii, the bikes, the scooters, the acre of property, the swingset, and the myriad of other accoutrements we have provided for their entertainment, it shouldn't be TOO difficult.

One can hope.

*Valley Fair...I believe that with just one month into summer we have gotten our money out of the season passes.

A Prodigy

2011-06-29T21:03:00.002-05:00

She's 10. She knows how to uncork a bottle. Is this a bad thing?

Rules for Thee, But Not for Me

2011-06-27T10:49:00.002-05:00

I can't stand looking at people who don't bother to part their hair.

THERE. I said it. Whew, what a relief. I can't tell you how much that has bugged me, especially since NOT parting one's hair has become vogue. It's right up there with bras as fashion accessories. OK, these aren't RULES per se, but I guess they just fall into what I deem the "common sense" arena.

But then there are rules...or in some cases laws, that for some reason people think they don't have to follow and this I just can't seem to wrap my brain around. Maybe someone can help me. Case in point...Facebook. Most of the rules for Facebook are straightforward, so what I don't understand is why parents allow their kids to break them. Rule 1 under registration and account security You will not provide any false personal information on Facebook, or create an account for anyone other than yourself without permission. And rule 5 You will not use Facebook if you are under 13. So, if you are under 13 and using Facebook, you are breaking 2 rules as you had to use false information in order to create the account (incorrect birthday). And usually with mom and dad's permission, because, you know, THEY know best and these "arbitrary" rules shouldn't apply to their precious little prodigy. GREAT. Now stop and think. Why do you suppose Facebook was set up this way? I'm going to guess that there wasn't an arbitrary age picked just for the purpose of thwarting those under 13, but rather it was a safety issue. And to be honest, I can see why. My niece who is not yet 13 has had a facebook account for over a year. She has posted pictures of herself and she looks NOWHERE near 13. In some, she looks 17-18. In others she looks younger. Yeah...smart move. OH, but wait...all her friends have one so she should too...right? RIGHT???

I also know of a family who handed the keys to a car over to their 14 year old. She drives. Illegally. There is not a state in this country that allows you to drive without an adult in the car...legally. Yet, this family believes that they know best. Now isn't that special? Won't you be thrilled to be the family who gets hit by this child KNOWING that this was sanctioned by the parents.

So, what exactly are we teaching our children? There are rules in place for everyone else...BUT YOU. Because, we know best. We know that at 11, you are more than capable of handling yourself online with minimal supervision. We know that at 14 you are capable of making mature decisions when driving a piece of machinery that is 300 times your weight. Really? NO...REALLY? We know that it just isn't in your nature to wait. So, we just "bend" the rules. For you. Because you're "different" from all those other 11 year olds or 14 year olds. You're the 11 year old who is well schooled with dealing with online predators. Or the 14 year old who has full control of a vehicle while hydroplaning. Right?

When did it become vogue NOT to say "NO" to our kids? When did we cease being parents and turn into our children's friends? When did we decide that rules were for everyone else's kids...not ours?

When are we going to wake up to the fact that by not saying no, by not following established guidelines, by making OUR child the "exception", we are actually TEACHING our children to be dishonest. To cheat. To lie. Because it's all good as long as we get what we want, right?

I'm trying to let go of the little stuff. The non-part. Or the visible underwear. But the big stuff? It worries me. And it should you.

Feelin' Like a Rock Star

2011-06-15T14:05:00.000-05:00

Or maybe a country star. Which is Taylor Swift? Regardless, my oldest daughter had a friend with an extra ticket to the Taylor Swift concert last night and she asked my daughter. Like I was gonna say no (although...in keeping with the whole allowance you pay for it yourself experiment she did have to pay for her ticket herself...and with last night being the last day of her month before payday it was looking like she wasn't going to be able to afford it. LUCKILY, a last minute neighborhood babysitting job saved her fanny). The seats were on the floor but she said it was 3 rows from the back on the floor. And she went, dare I say it, parentless. *SHOCK*

However, as luck would have it, she was right next to a mini stage and Taylor came out and sang 3 songs from there. AND...TOUCHED HER HAND. OMG...OMG...TAYLOR SWIFT TOUCHED MY DAUGHTER. I doubt she'll wash her hand. EVER.

She said it was an amazing show...almost a theatrical event vs a concert. Every song wasn't just sung, but enacted.

This gives an idea as to how close they were to the "mini" stage:

Close enough for her to get this picture with her camera NOT on zoom:

I dunno...I'm just not sure she had a good time. Whaddya think?

Now...I have the dubious task of peeling the smile off her face. Or maybe I'll let her keep it. Until she washes her hand.

Weekends Were Made for...

2011-06-12T21:39:00.000-05:00

spending at the cabin. I only wish we had better weather. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't as bad as it has been in years past, but good heavens, it's JUNE. We should be able to expect to have at the minimum low 70s. We maybe got a couple minutes of low 70s on occasion when it the sun was out (that would be the time frame I was sleeping in the boat, so I can't say with any "certitude"), but when that sun went under cover, the temp seemed to drop 15 degrees.

Beanie was our only child this weekend. Well, for clarity, she was the only of OUR children we brought. She brought a friend and as luck would have it, they had a ball...the weather be damned.

First, they tried their hand at bass fishing, having spotted a large bass swimming under the dock with a large hook in it's mouth:

The next morning, when the polar bears were coming out of their caves, they decided they wanted to play in the water...

Since we had already launched the boat (I got to drive...whoo-hoo), the girls, already wet, decided to tube. Here, let me narrate. To clarify, Beanie's friend had never tubed before, and Beanie is something of a dare-devil...tubing at least. So an easy start was a good thing:

And of course, one always needs to consider...safety first. Here, let me fix that...

Then they seemed to hit a rhythm:

HOLY CRAP...GET ME OFF THIS THING:

A little less speed, and I think I'm OK, I mean, wake hopping is fun right?

I'm getting the hang of this now:

Or maybe not. Can I be done?

We're still trying to peel the smile off Beanie.

A little later, after no luck on the docks, they took the pontoon out to see if they could find something worth catching. They hit the mutha load:

40 sunnies+Saturday evening fish cleaning =Sunday afternoon fish fry:

Unfortunately, Sunday (today) was less than stellar. We got no sun, well except the sunnies and let me tell you...THAT'S DELICIOUS!

We ended up heading back a bit earlier than normal. Normally we would have stayed for a spaghetti dinner but there was nothing but cold windy weather keeping us inside and there seemed no point (well, except now, I'm hungry and if I want spaghetti I have to make it myself), so we headed back...arriving in town to see the sun come out in all its glory< insert Mutley doing his ratsrfrasa sound>.
All in all, I'm going to say, weather notwithstanding...the weekend was a success. And really, who could ask for anything more?

What I Did on My Summer Vacation

2011-06-08T10:59:00.001-05:00

I struggle with summer. OK, I'll give you a second to pick yourself up off the floor with that revelation. No, I seriously struggle with summer and what to do with my kids. The week before school let out my husband came to me with the idea of a trampoline. We've watched the kids on friends' trampolines and they all, EVEN the boy, have a ball on them. However, funsucker that I am, I kept recalling the pediatrician who visited a Mom's Club meeting, way back when I went to Mom's Club meetings, who said that the number one cause of ER visits during the summer is trampolines.

I, however, was overruled. This now occupies the spot next to the deck:

I wish I could say that it has solved numerous problems of keeping the kids busy during the day, but I can't. Beanie doesn't want to be on it unless someone else is on it with her and the others don't want to be on it with anyone else. Yeah me!

In an attempt to try and keep myself organized (so NOT me) I made out a calendar with the kids' activities, color coding the children. Son is red (note the absence of ANY red on the calendar), oldest daughter is purple, middle daughter is green and youngest is blue. The calendar was made up about a month ago when I finalized (finalized=wrote out the plethora of checks) their activities so additional changes are written in. Kinda makes it look a little more ghetto right? I also decided that I was going to keep track of sleepovers and with whom so I can attempt to track SOS* which is noted by arrows from one day to next. So, are you ready for this?

You would think this would be enough to keep them busy, right? Well, no, apparently it is not. It seems as though as well as keeping track of the activities, I am also to fill in the "down" hours with additional activities. One wonders why exactly we have a swing set, bikes, scooters, rollerblades, sprinklers, parks, etc close at hand. And what is the only thing my youngest wants to do? She wants to spend her days at Holiday (gas station that has a wide variety of crap on which she wants to spend the money she hasn't earned), because, you know, I don't keep ANY SNACKS OR CANDY of any sort in this house. *snort*

The thing that bugs me most is the more we have, the less they want to do. Unless it involves spending money. And this is SO far removed from how I grew up. We were out the door as soon as we finished our Apple Jacks in the morning and my parents rarely saw us until the street lights came on at night. We made our own fun, mostly playing in the woods and catching tadpoles in the creek. We had bikes that we rode across town (2-3 miles..without helmets) in blistering heat to get to the pool, where we swam all day before riding our bikes the 2-3 miles home. Then went and played softball at night. And if the 'skeeters weren't bad, we would sometimes drag our sleeping bags out into the yard and sleep in the yard.

My girls call me from their friends house to pick them and their bikes up. The friend lives less than half a mile away. And they always seem to act surprised when we laugh into the phone before saying..."get your fanny on your bike and ride it home".

If I'm going to make it through this summer with my sanity in check, I'm going to have to start with Bloody Mary's in the morning. Just sayin'.

*SOS=Sleep Over Syndrome...the attitude a child develops having stayed up most of the night and then, the next day thinks that the whole world is "off" and they're just fine.

Not Yet Saladed Out

2011-06-07T12:46:00.001-05:00

I would hope not. Not with the 90+ degree weather we have had here recently with more on tap for today. I have no desire to heat up the kitchen any so I'm thinking we'll be eating a lot of salads until this weather breaks (hopefully tomorrow...but here it's feast of famine...either 90s or 60s...very little in between). Last night I grilled up some boneless chicken thighs with a chili lime rub on them and made use of the leftover bean salsa from Saturday. Step by step instructions on how to build a better salad.
Start with a bed of lettuce (romaine) and add a hand full of Archer Farms Blue Corn Chips with flax seed (honestly, these chips are da BOMB):

Then top with Texas Caviar (aka bean salsa):

Diced chili lime rubbed chicken thighs:

Diced roma tomatoes:

Diced avocado:

I dress with light ranch, my husband douses with blue cheese. We take to the deck and enjoy with a glass of wine. Not sure if summer gets any better than this.

Assassins...Nerf Assassins

2011-06-06T08:50:00.004-05:00

Let me begin by saying if you aren't a fan of guns of ANY kind, move along...nothing to see here. If you are a fan of kids finding imaginative, clean, non damaging (permanently anyhow) summer fun, read on.

My (now) senior son and 48 of his classmates got together last week and set up a game that has me chuckling each and every night. They actually got together last Thursday night and set up the ground rules for...Nerf Assassin. The rules are fairly simple: no attacks at one's place of work, and no attacks in one's house. Shot must to be the head (which immediately puts the boy at a disadvantage because he has an enormous noggin' and explains why he wanted me to take his hair down with a number 4 blade on the clippers) and witnessed by two people. The boys are divided up into 8 teams of around 6 boys each. Last man standing...their team wins.

When I first heard of the game, I assumed that it was a one night thing. OH, NO. This is an ongoing game intended to last all summer. And of course, there's money involved. Incentive for the 17 year old boy (who is currently without summer employment, hoping that changes at the end of the month with his birthday).

What he quickly found out, not being a Survivor fan, was that there are alliances to be made, pacts to be negotiated...basically ways to pick off "weaker" teams. The first night of the game, he came home to an ambush of his two friends (different team) who laid in wait (for over an hour) in our yard, dressed in ski masks (I probably should be worried about the obvious skills they're acquiring, but I'll take the optimist view and call it patience) waiting for my son to arrive home. The friend who dropped him off heard what was happening before the boy and managed to call out a warning with enough time for him to get to safety. Luckily, the only thing we heard was the dog bark when he came in. The dog never barks at night. So the boy lived to shoot another day (and has since made an alliance with his friends).

He has now made alliances with other teams AND the graduating senior boys have joined in the game. He also knows, he goes nowhere without his gun (not sure if he needs a CC license for nerf guns). Thus far there have been 2 ALMOST kills. One ambush. One situation where the gun jammed.

I think, however that the boys have notched it up a level, given the condition of my son's car this morning. Behold:

Now, I'm not an assassin, but I believe my son is now a marked man. I'm just sayin'.

A GLORIOUS Spring Fling!

2011-06-05T20:10:00.005-05:00

Yesterday was the 6th Annual Spring Fling and I'm going on record to say that this had to be the BEST one evah! The weather was absolutely stunning. Upper 70s, low 80s, no bugs...very similar to last year's Spring Fling My final head count of adults was 20 and I couldn't tell you the number of kids because some (mostly mine) were coming and going all night. So this required some careful planning. Because not only did we have that many people coming over to our house, we had a graduation party to attend immediately before our event. Careful planning indeed!

I started the evening with 3 appetizers: marinated tomatoes on grilled french bread rounds, Texas Caviar, and shrimp salsa. OH, I also made a giant container of White Sangria with fruit marinating for 24 hours before hand. Today? GONE...it's all gone. But it looked like this:

I made my usual asian pasta chicken salad, and strawberry chicken with candied almonds, but I also added two new salads to the evening: steak caesar and a chicken pear and pistachia with a curry serrano chili dressing.

My favorite comment was: "I thought I knew what my favorite would be, but as I worked my way around the plate, each one made me rethink. But the end, they were all my favorites."

Of course, dessert is a "moral imperative" so I had made a lemon blueberry pound cake:

I also made macadamia milk chocolate brownies which were SO good.

Here is what we do at the Spring Fling:

And my middle daughter seemed to take charge of the little kids, rounding them up for games, seeing that they had sloppy joes, fruit and brownies. Note to self...must reward middle daughter.

The event was scheduled to go from 4-9pm and at 9pm the guys pulled out the polish horseshoe (bean bags...corn hole...different name depending on where you are) game and the ladder golf and had a little tournament going in the front.

I think the last guest left around 1am. Good friends, good food, good wine, great weather... I'd call the evening a resounding success. Yeah me!

Welcome to My Silly* Life...

2011-05-25T21:55:00.000-05:00

We're in the home stretch and yet somehow, instead of a finish line, I feel like I'm headed towards the edge of a cliff. A week from tomorrow is the official last day of school and we still have LOTS to do before then.

Monday was Beanie's birthday. She wanted to go to Chili's and who are we to tell her no. Here's the birthday girl:

And her freeloading siblings:

Ah...a rare picture when they aren't snarking at each other for having "borrowed" something.

And of course the boy to prove that he still exists.

I would have taken a picture of the giant brownie sundae they brought her at the end of the meal but I leaned over to get my new mother's day camera and it was as if a school of piranhas had devoured it...in a heartbeat. There was nothing left but a little smudge of chocolate on the edge of the plate.

From Chili's we headed to the ball field to drop off middle daughter for softball practice.

Tuesday we went and watched the middle daughter's "pop" choir concert. Then raced to the softball field for Beanie's practice.

Today, I decided to cook. I made Sunny Anderson's Cider-Brined Fried Chicken and macaroni salad. Holy Hannah the chicken was PHENOMENAL! Seriously. Make it. One word of caution...do not brine it longer than an hour. I also was feeling ambitious so I made Sunny's Patriotic Trifle. The only thing I did different was instead of using one lb of cream cheese I used 8 oz of cream cheese and 8 oz of mascapone cheese. The rest of the way, I followed the recipe. It was WONDERFUL. See?

I used a small angel food cake and I think it was too small. Next time I'll either use 2 or a bigger cake. It was still YUMMY.

Then we raced off to middle daughter's first softball game (are you seeing a theme here?). We made it just as she was coming up to her first at bat. Before I could get the camera ready, the ball was pitched and she nailed it into center field. Sigh...But I did get some interesting shots of the rest of the game. It went alot like this:

No...no ball. None were hit to her. Heck...I'm not sure the ball was hit more than 7-9 times in the entire game. But they won. 10-8. And is it wrong of me to thank GOD for the 5 run rule (ESPECIALLY as it applies to batters being walked around the bases)? Yeah, I thought so.

On the agenda for the rest of the week: Beanie has a band meeting tomorrow right after school. She'll be playing the flute next year at school and this is to get all the info. Then she has her first softball game. Friday she has a field trip on a Mississippi Riverboat and a birthday slumber party.

And this is a slow week. Once school officially lets out, multiply this by 4 and this will be my life.
Yay me.

*silly...actually, I think crazy fits better, but silly are the lyrics, so I went with it.

Money, Money, Money

2011-05-23T09:23:00.000-05:00

I seem to look at this time of year as a mixed blessing. CRAZY busy. My younger two started softball last week, each on a different night of the week which means my Mon-Thurs evenings are shot (and really only the bars will suffer). My oldest daughter's Dance Line has been in major fundraising mode and as secretary of the booster club (no, I hadn't been to the afore mentioned bars before I volunteered for that role) I am duty bound to participate. Choir concerts, Track and Field days, and of course those end of the year field trips where no one volunteers to chaperone and you feel guilty and do it even though you've chaperoned countless times before.

Then we have the check issue. HOLY CRAP have I written a lot of checks. It's funny because I always think once the dance recital is over with, I can breathe a little easier on the 'writing check' front. BWHAHAHAHAHAHA. Checks thus far: Drivers ed? Check. YMCA Sleep away camp? Check. Swim Camp? Check. Babysitting training? Check (hoping that one comes back to me in kind). 3 Day Dance Team Camp in Brainerd? Check (ok...that's only half a check...still waiting on the final numbers from the fundraisers). Dance Team workshop? Check. Checks left to write? Dance class registration, workshop and camp for potentially all 3 girls again as the middle is debating going back. FROG (church) camp for Beanie.

I'm sure you've noted the absence of anything related to the boy. Oh, PUH-LEEZ...he's the one who is going to break the bank. Between senior pictures this summer (no...don't tell me what those will cost, let me have a heart attack when I get the bill), school tours (headed to Purdue in Aug for a campus tour and north west to UND/NDSU in June), testing fees (although we might be done with those given he did really well on his last ACT), college application fees..no wonder kids can't afford college anymore. That doesn't even include the eventual deposits followed by the actual payment of tuition.

I remember the good old days, back when they were in diapers and formula. I can recall thinking "I can't WAIT til we are done with these, oh the money we'll save." I think God has a really odd sense of humor because undoubtedly, I'll go broke paying for these kids and their activities and have no money left for my own diapers (Depends) and formula(Ensure) for my Golden Years. I guess that's why we put out all this money for our kids right? So they can complete the Circle of Life.

And nothing explains this as well as ABBA. (note to self...must get me a fringe dress)

MY Mother's Day

2011-05-09T13:34:00.001-05:00

Aside from being exhausted from the day before, Mother's Day here was a fairly quiet affair. We went to early church service (where I got a couple yummy chocolates) and heard yet another awesome sermon. Came home and had breakfast burritos.

Then it was present time. :-) My children got me a new point and shoot camera. Specifically a Canon PowerShot ELPH 100HS. Most of my pictures I take are from the Nikon D50 my husband gave me for Christmas several years ago. And I LOVE it. Especially for action pictures. But it is the size of a 35mm camera and so can be bothersome carrying it to events where I just want to do a point and shoot. I will occasionally use the girls' point and shoot cameras but usually when I need them the batteries are run down or the memory card is full (do you know how many pictures teenage girls take of themselves? YES they can in fact fill a memory card). I just wanted something small I could keep in my purse for when I needed it and it fits the bill. No bells and whistles but it takes pretty sharp pictures.

Here are my rhododendrons in full bloom yesterday with the new camera:

Then we got a call to have burgers with friends. Burgers turned into a side of steak and I offered to bring my pasta salad. Again with the camera:

Isn't that gorgeous? 3 different colored peppers, purple onions, asparagus, broccoli, toasted sesame seeds and almonds and a yummy asian dressing. This is our summer staple.

Nice camera. I think I'll keep it. First I may have to hide it though.

Recital and Prom and Mother's Day...all rolled into one

2011-05-07T22:49:00.001-05:00

First time ever (and not that it matters since this was the first time any COULD go) dance recital day fell on the same day as the Jr/Sr Prom. And since most of the family would be at the recital, the husband decided to just throw in an early Mother's Day for his mom as well. So, to say that today has been a bit hectic...-hecticer (yes, I'm calling that a word) than the AVERAGE dance recital day (which, those of you who know me, know that it's unbelievably hectic) is a bit of an understatement. We had corsages to pick up that weren't ready. Yes, today is prom. Yes, they opened at 8am but apparently the workers who took the order did not inform me that they prefer for them to be picked up AFTER 1030am. So my 830am arrival seemed to throw them a little. So, along with painting the orchid rim purple, there were supposed to be small purple flowers surrounding it. There weren't.

Ah...nothing gets the heart started on a hectic morning than Murphy putting in an early appearance.

Headed back home as I had to have the oldest daughter on the bus to the recital at 10 and the youngest at 1030. When I left for the florist, she had decided that she did not in fact like the rag curls that we produced in an attempt to create big bouncy curls in her thick stick straight hair, so she was just going to "fix a few that seemed flat". I came home to her hair completely redone with a curling iron. Note to self: rag curls=EPIC FAIL. Still all in all they were both ready and I was able to get pictures of them in their first dance costumes before they left. Beanie danced tap to Rock Star (Prima J) and the oldest daughter danced to Move Shake Drop (DJ Laz and Flo Rida) they also had funky hats they made themself...very gangsta.

Some may note the absence in my middle daughter. She decided to forgo dance (with a little $$ incentive from Daddy).
Then at the end, the girls looked like this (with Beanie having already changed from her jazz costume to her tap...grrrr). The older daughter's Jazz dance was to My First Kiss. Beanie's jazz was to Something's Got a Hold on Me. After the first show:

From the recital, I raced back to our humble little hamlet so that I could get pictures of the boy before he headed off to the Grand March for prom. They could not have had a more perfect day for prom...a nice sunny 70 degrees!

His date was stunning!

I will say that those girls shopped with all the precision of a military strike...making sure that no one had the same color/style of dress.

And of course the guys were well matched with their ties. These three were the ones in the group that went with the black shirt with coordinating ties.

The vests look white but they were silver. When I took all the pictures I needed, I headed home to await the family.
Dinner consisted of several racks of baby back ribs that were falling off the bone tender, thanks to BIL, cheesy potatoes, cole slaw, baked beans, fresh fruit and apple and peach pies. I believe I am beyond stuffed.
All in all, hecticness (yes, I'm calling that a word too) and Murphy's appearance notwithstanding, a good day was had by all.
Well...we're still awaiting word on the specifics from the prom. That will have to wait for tomorrow.

Something Borrowed

2011-05-06T21:05:00.001-05:00

I took myself to the movies as a sorta pre-Mother's Day treat to see Something Borrowed. I don't usually go to the movies by myself but I really wanted to see this. I wanted to see it without dealing with children having to get up during the movie to go to the bathroom, I didn't want to drag my husband to it as I knew he would not care for it, and to a small degree, I just wanted to enjoy a movie without distractions.

So, first let me state...my boy, I feel your pain. It was JUST me at a matinee movie and I got a junior popcorn and a junior pop and it cost me $16.44. Yes, you read that right. Now, I know, mostly because I do it all the time, that the better deal is to get the super combo that includes a large pop and popcorn, but I had NO desire to eat that much popcorn (although, I was a little nervous that my small popcorn wouldn't last til the movie started...it lasted well into it), but what if you are by yourself and don't want that much junk? (YES, I could and NO I should NOT). There is no combo for smaller items and I think that sucks. So, broken down, matinee movie ticket $6.50, junior popcorn and pop $9.94. No candy, no other treats. My question is...how the heck can a 16 year old boy take a date to the movies and not go broke (or his parents go broke)?

I love people watching and unfortunately this was not the movie to do it. Besides me, there was an older pair of women who I think had volume control issues with their intermittent comments, but were far from disruptive. And another two single, older people sat behind me, separately. That was it. All 5 of us. WEEEEeeeeee.

I happen to love previews and today's did not disappoint. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. I believe I may break down and see that in IMAX 3D. Next preview was for Friends with Benefits. The older two ladies in front of me informed the theater that they would NOT be watching it. The final movie was Crazy Stupid Love which also looked good. Mostly because I have become a big fan of Emma Stone and even though she doesn't have a huge part, it'll be worth it just to see her.

So, Something Borrowed. I read the book years ago (and if you want to, read the second in the series, Something Blue) and thoroughly enjoyed the movie. Eh...no, I take that back, the scene with Rachel and Darcy dancing with Marcus (where Rachel pulls something) was a little awkward, but all in all, good movie.

BUT...here's the thing. I couldn't stop staring at Dex...Colin Egglesfield. He reminded me of...someone. My first thought was a co-worker back in California (from my MUCH younger days), Dan. But then, every now and then there would be a flash of someone else and it wasn't long before I pegged it as a very young (and WAY better looking Tom Cruise). Mostly Dan though. A little Tom. Having figured it out, I thought I could concentrate more on the movie. I couldn't. He was too cute not to ogle. So ogle I did.

My oldest daughter went to the same movie later this afternoon. And she concurred. About everything.

Pre-Prom Pictures

2011-05-05T20:34:00.000-05:00

So, the boy picked up his tux tonight as prom is Saturday. He DID go with my suggestion of a black shirt. The rest...well that was all him. And IMO, he done good!

And full length:

And because he can sometimes be goofy...

I think I'll keep him. This week.

Friends in High Places

2011-04-29T07:57:00.001-05:00

The husband gave me a call last night saying a friend of ours had extra tickets to the Viking Draft Party and would I mind if he and the boy went. Of course I wouldn't let him pass up this opportunity. Especially since I knew, given who he was going with, they would provide me with material. And fodder they gave me.

Apparently, Sasquatch put in an early appearance:

Not many even saw him, he moved so quickly. Hence the blur.

I thoroughly enjoyed my boys showing the cheerleaders how to do "toe pops" as they called them.

Um...boys...they're called "digs". Any father/brother with sisters involved in dance for 11 years would know that. And I'm sure the cheerleaders found your "toe pops"...um...amusing.

But I doubt it was as amusing as the "Forrest Gump" wave.

Oh, to have a bubble cartoon over those cheerleaders heads...the fun I could have.

All in all it was a fairly early night. They left after the Vikings chose FSU's Christian Ponder (which some say was a bad move. Given the Vikings NEED for a QB and the fact that this was the first time since 1999 that 3 QBs went in the top 10, I'm going to say we're lucky to have him. Brains AND brawn...UFF-ta!) and were home by 930 with t-shirts, Vikings glasses (the drinking variety) and various paraphernalia.

With apologies to Mel Brooks..."It's good to know the Kings".

The Bank of Mom

2011-04-28T11:27:00.000-05:00

Ever feel like an ATM machine? Yeah...me too. And the next few weeks are going to get SO much worse.

I'll start with the boy. A week from Saturday is prom. At least he didn't wait til the last minute to ask someone but still, it is NOT a cheap night. Tickets=$120 (pair). Tux=$130(and that was with a $40 coupon). Bus=$30@ (his date is buying those...bless her heart). Corsage=$30. That's the MUSTS. I'm sure I'll be nickeled and dimed the week before. We agreed to split the cost of his expenses. Then there was the second ACT test with the writing portion=$48 PLUS $10x3 for the three additional reporting fees to scholarship programs. And while we have sent his ACT scores to desired colleges, those colleges will require an application with a $35-50 fee...x4. This summer, we have senior pictures which I believe will be a MINIMUM of $400. Those are the expenses I KNOW about. I'm afraid to think about the ones I don't know about.

Then there is my oldest daughter. The 15 year old. Yes...that means Drivers Ed this summer=$340. Plus her dance workshop=$45 (which is actually CHEAP), the overnight dance camp=$300 (maybe less, depends on the result of fund raising). Doesn't sound like THAT much but I happen to know that come fall, I will have TONS of dance line (school) related expenses. She'll HAVE to have a new warm up suit as they changed the style this year and last year's she will not be able to wear except as scrubs. And new shoes, one in nude, one in black. And I'm sure there'll be other accessories.

Next is the middle daughter. We're sending her to a YMCA camp this year for 5 days. That's $525. Then there is basketball camp=$65. And softball=$97.

Finally there's Beanie. She will be participating in a swim camp to improve her stroke technique=$185. And softball=$97. And dance camp=$100. And FROG (church) camp=$50. We're still debating basketball camp.

Can you say cha-CHING?

So, my husband and I are, AGAIN (this is an ongoing experiment), attempting to find a way for them to help out around the house to off set some of the costs and learn how to manage money. My oldest daughter...can't keep a dime in her pocket that she doesn't spend it and this actually scares me. So, here is the plan: starting May 1, the younger two will be receiving weekly allowances but I will have debit accounts set up for the older two. They will be paid 2x/month based on chores they have chosen (I have a list) to do. From their accounts they have to pay for ANYTHING they want. I'll make sure they have their summer basics, but beyond that, they'll have to buy it. Movies? Their account. Caribou? cha-Ching. Birthday gifts? Their responsibility. OK...you get the picture. Now, my goal here is two fold. One is to teach them to not just budget, but to figure out what is a "want" and what is a "need". And the second is that I want them to find a way to save (by save...I mean save for the future, not for next week). But I think there needs to be some incentive. So, I have agreed to match any amount of money they choose to transfer to their savings, with the understanding that once it is in their savings, it is no longer "touchable". They want to save for some expensive piece of electronics (Itouch) or a ridiculous piece of apparel (yes, that would be the "Miss Me" jeans), then it is on THEM. No help from this front. The other key to this will be payment on chores performed. They don't do them, they don't get paid. This is how the real world works (or should). Our house is NOT a welfare state. Hopefully an added benefit that will shake out of this will be that the older two learn how to prioritize and time management, two skills that BOTH are lacking and BOTH will need in the not too distant future.

We'll see how the great experiment plays out. I am determined to make it work. And really (no REALLY) not for my benefit but for theirs. Fingers crossed.

How Quickly the Face Changes

2011-04-26T18:41:00.000-05:00

Last week, it was the face of happiness...braces off.

Today, this is the face of strep. :-(

Just breaks my heart seeing them sick.

Two Down, One to Go

2011-04-22T17:26:00.004-05:00

It was a banner day yesterday. My middle daughter did what my oldest son couldn't: She got her braces off AHEAD of schedule. Heck...my son went over his prescribed 2 years, mostly because he didn't (wouldn't) wear his bands consistently. Need a refresher? Click here. She however was VERY good at wearing her bands and as a result got the braces off 3 months ahead of schedule.

As a mom am I allowed to say wow? No I mean WOW!!!

She is one happy camper. I would be too if I was minus all that hardware in my mouth. I never had braces so I wouldn't know. I just know that I honestly don't think I could go a two years without popcorn (well neither could she).

So, we're left with Beanie. She's the child I was positive wouldn't need braces because her teeth came in PERFECT. Ah...but...she chose to forgo a soother (binky), opting for her index finger. When she decides to quit her finger, we'll be working on the third set of full mouth braces.

And since today IS Good Friday, I'm going to post another Sister Act 2 song. This one is Joyful Joyful...mostly because it's one of those feel good songs that make me a little (OK, alot) weepy. But it's a weepy glee. Enjoy!

Fill us with the light of day INDEED!

Do Overs

2011-04-19T08:33:00.000-05:00

I love our church. I love the pastor. I love how I can walk out of service each week and feel like the sermon was for me. All me. The current series is on praying and how it can change your life. And how little of it we do and when we DO pray it is usually during times of duress. Two Sundays ago, the lead pastor made a comment that has forced me to really turn introspective: he said are you living a life filled with bitterness and unable/willing to forgive? Why yes, I am. But the question was WHOSE forgiveness did I need?

About 18 months ago, friends of 8 years severed their friendship with us. While we had had some recent difficulties, assurances from them that "we have this connection" and "everything was back to better than good" seemed to diminish as we pushed for a reason why. The reason? "Other people" wouldn't like it if they continued their friendship with us so they were taking the path of least resistance.

I spent several months digging through my memory and pulling up each of my transgressions, some real, some imagined and apologizing for them, because I simply couldn't wrap my brain around who outside of 7th grade allows someone else to dictate who their friends can be? When that didn't change, I sat back to examine our friendship and came to some startling (for me, for my husband not so startling) realizations. The fault lay completely and totally with me.

You see, I wanted the friendship so badly that I ignored that voice in the back of my head that said something was not right here. It was mostly character issues where each time a circumstance happened, I shrugged off the voice, convincing myself that it was an aberration without considering that there seem to be A LOT of these aberrations. It was also 8 years of being the house that hosted dinners and parties, being the one to buy concert tickets or play tickets, of making the vacation reservations with little reciprocation. But here is the thing...THIS was who they are. They never hid this or pretended differently so how can I be surprised when something "better" comes along that we are dropped like a dirty diaper. Am I sad at this? Sure I am. But I think my bitterness and unforgiving attitude is more self directed. I CHOSE to place a higher value on the friendship than they did. I CHOSE to ignore the warnings my head was giving me. And my choice cost me.

Oddly enough, my sister in law was with us for the church service and commented that there was a really good article in a recent Oprah magazine on Letting Go that references Frank Luskin, a PhD from Stanford in counseling and health psychology and cofounder and director of the Stanford Forgiveness Project. I just needed to know who I was seeking to forgive. The mirror helped.

But while forgiveness concepts are simple, executing them are a little tougher. "Forgiveness requires you to let go of your anger and hurt by being mindful and focusing on gratitude and kindness." Tough? For me, you bet. Aren't we our own worst critic? But with Easter being this Sunday, I have decided that this is what I am going to do. Because I NEED to. I simply cannot continue to berate myself. Since Spring and Easter are times of rebirth, I decided that this will be my time to emerge as a forgiven soul.

Back to do overs. I know everyone always wants the opportunity to do something over, because we usually learn from our mistakes. But I understand why we can't. Those mistakes make us who we are today. Even if we did have the opportunity for do overs, while we probably wouldn't make the same mistakes, we'd still make other mistakes, and hopefully we'd learn from them as well, and then our life would become like the movie Groundhogs Day. Then where would we be? No. I don't need a do over. What I need is forgiveness. And I'm in the execution process of that.

Competition 'Dos

2011-04-16T12:17:00.003-05:00

It's that time of year again. We are quickly approaching dance recital day. We've already had dance picture day (and I saved Beanie from having to wear curlers to school by using my hot rollers after school and thanking GOD I had 2 hours before her pictures), and today was her dance competition.

Since we had to be up and out of the house by 8am, dressed, make up and hair done, I knew I didn't have the time to get enough coffee in me AND curl her hair (yes, it's all about ME) so I curled her hair last night.

We have two options when going with the overnight curls: blue sponge rollers (the smallest ones Goody makes)

If I use these I count on using about 40 for Beanie's hair. My other option is pink bendable rollers:

I actually prefer these as they are easier to work with. I just thank God *I* am not the one who has to sleep on them.

So, I'll share how I do this. First and grossest. DO NOT WASH HAIR. Seriously. Don't curl hair freshly washed, or even wet. Hair needs to be dry and, yes, dirty for the curl to hold best. My goal is to have her hair washed the day before I intend to curl. Second...put the hair in the style that it is going to be worn. For us, it is usually one of three options: a high pony, a high half pony (front half of hair is pulled up and the back is left down and it's all curled), or a low pony. Yes, there will be little wispies that escape when they sleep but IMO it is much easier to take a comb and spray them in place than it is to attempt to wrap a pony about curled hair and have it be secure. Third...section the hair in SMALL sections. Run hair gel through the section, making sure the entire section is coated but not drenched or the gel will never dry. Roll hair as tight as you can. Repeat. About 50 billion times (no, not really, it just seems like it). When done, it should look something like this:

This was probably about 25-30 rollers. My oldest daughter usually requires about 45-50. At this point, I do NOT spray the hair again. If done correctly, there should be enough gel to hold the curl when they rollers are removed. This is what they looked like (this morning) just out of rollers:

This costume required a scrunchie so I put it in now. Then I combed back and sprayed all those little wispies that fell out of the pony. I DO NOT SPRAY THE CURLS (typically hair spray has enough water that will pull out the curl). Then I separate the curls with my fingers so that it's fuller and pin down the curls in front. Here is the end result:

These curls will last probably a good 2-3 days. But she'll be washing her hair tonight. She can handle dirty hair that long. I can't.

Can You Miss What You Never Had?

2011-04-03T14:32:00.001-05:00

Ah...the question du jour. I had a friend give me one of these on Friday...do you have one?

To the ordinary eye, it would appear to be a pancake turner. NO...not a spatula, as my oldest daughter who took FACS, Family and Consumer Science...AKA Home Ec., learned last year and will tell me each time I request she hand me a spatula that I am calling it by the wrong name. Well, the ordinary eye would be correct. It is in fact a pancake turner. And no, with all the Pampered Chef gadgets and tools I own, I did not, before Friday, own a pancake turner. I had always made due with the other turners in my gadget arsenal.

I made my daughters and their cousins pancakes this afternoon after church. Now I know what I have been missing. No pancakes dripping over the edge to spill their batter before the pancake was turned. It's lovely. And to think, I didn't know what I was missing.

My mom was born 3 months after her father died. Having an AWESOME dad myself, I remember asking my mom, when she was alive, if she ever missed not having a father. And her response was always, you can't miss what you don't have. And like the pancake turner, I can understand that. Oh, she had an uncle who stood in the place of her father and even though he was much older than her father would have been, I'm sure he was an adequate substitute. But he wasn't the real thing.

Are the real things important? Yes, I believe they are. Like the friend who gave me the pancake turner. It was thoughtful. It was silly. It was useful. It made me laugh. And each time I make pancakes now, I will think of that friend. I will think of what I had before she came into my life and KNOW that if she wasn't in my life, you can bet I would miss her. Before I had substitutes, but they can't compare to the real thing.

Can you miss what you never had? No, I guess you can't. But once you have it, you definitely will know what you were missing.

Presentation Matters

2011-03-31T16:21:00.001-05:00

We were invited over to the in-laws for dinner tonight. My husband missed out on pot roast the last time his mom made it so she is making another one...for her "baby". *insert eye roll* However, my mother in law does not do desserts (or rarely). And my father in law LOVES desserts. Banana cream pie in particular. And what a coincidence...I happened to have all the makings of banana cream pie at home. Which makes it a two-fer...I bring dessert and score points with the father in law. WHOOT!

I wish I could say that I have this original recipe for banana cream pie, but I don't. I have found that Betty Crocker's Banana Cream Pie recipe (actually, in the Betty Crocker Cookbook, it's really the Coconut cream pie, minus the coconut and with more vanilla, but the link shows the exact recipe). I DO however take a shortcut. I found years ago that my hands are simply too warm to work with pie dough. My hands melt the shortening in the dough and makes the crust tough. Luckily, I have found Pillsbury All Ready Pie crusts are about as close to the real thing as you can get (AND lots easier). So I use those.

I am going to digress for just a moment. My dad was in the Air Force and he learned through the mess hall that presentation DOES matter. He found that the eye can fool the stomach into believing something will taste as good as it looks. I think most wedding cakes are proof of this. Well, except mine. Mine was the exception because it didn't taste as good as it looked, it was INFINITELY better. But that's another post. So, he taught me early in my "culinary career" that when I served something, that I just needed to take a few extra seconds to make something ordinary, extraordinary. My mashed potatoes for example...I do not set them on the table without a dab of butter in the center and a sprinkle of parsley and paprika on top. It makes it pretty.

So, back to the banana cream pie. I could slather the top with cool whip (GAG) or I could take the extra step and whip up some fresh whipped cream, which really takes seconds. I could slather the top with just whipped cream, but then the Pampered Chef Easy Accent Decorator that I worked so hard to earn back when I was consulting would be yet another tool taking up space in my kitchen drawers. And really, how long did it take to fill the tube, gently decorate the top of the pie? Maybe 5 minutes. Of course that really should have been all that was necessary but in cooking, I can sometimes be a bit of an over achiever (it helps to compensate for those areas in which I fail miserably). So, I thinly slices a strawberry and fanned it out in the center and sprinkled some sliced almonds on top. I think the overall effect works, don't you?

Dad is SO right...presentation matters. But not for the purpose of fooling you. This really does taste as good as it looks. Honest.

An Open Letter to My Daughter's Friends' Parents

2011-03-27T14:36:00.000-05:00

Dear My Middle Daughter's Friends' Parents,

I would like to start off our relationship on the right note, so I'm going to start off by saying, "I'm sorry". Yes, I need to get that out there first.

My daughter is a very different child than the one who clung to my leg as I attempted to drop her off at preschool at the age of three for her one day/week social interaction with children who were not her siblings. I forever lamented that she would be my shy (HA), introverted (HAHA), quiet (ARE.YOU.FRIGGIN'.KIDDING.ME) child. As she approaches her teens, just a short 5+ months away, I have seen the error of my ways. Wrong...WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG. For those of you who think I can't admit when I am wrong...I.WAS.WRONG.

I bring this up because we have had multiple talks about how loud she can be, typically when she is surrounded by her friends, but she can also be that way with family. Last night she had two friends sleepover and I will give them credit for keeping their voices down as we all settled down to sleep. My issue came at 7am...on this Sunday morning...when their (her...she is very distinctive) squeals reverberated through the house, causing me to get out of bed and quietly pull her aside and remind her that the rest of the family was still sleeping and she needed to dial'er back a notch. I could hear her clearly a floor and half a house away. My poor son was in the room right next to her and while he sleeps the sleep of the dead, zombies could not have slept through noise of that decibel. And within 20 minutes, the noise level had returned, so she was again reminded to be considerate of her family members. At the third rising, I was grateful that most of the kids were already up preparing for church so I chose not to offer yet another reminder.

However, realization struck. This child simply cannot modulate her voice any more than she can stop herself from offering that one final "opinion" after I have informed her that a discussion is over. And because she is incapable of maintaining an appropriate noise level for early Sunday morning in her own house, I am left wondering what is she like at YOUR house? I thought so.

And I'm sorry.

Please take note that we ARE aware of this and we are working to correct the situation, but I am not sure if this will be easily fixed. I would ask that if she is exceedingly loud at your house, you not hesitate to address her directly and ask her to pipe down. As many times as is necessary.

And if all else fails...duct tape works.

Sincerely,

Your Daughter's Friend's Mother

Feeling Their Pain

2011-03-24T20:00:00.001-05:00

My son has played baseball for almost 13 years. He was 4 when he started playing t-ball and turned 5 during the season. I was concerned because at the time, he seemed so tiny. And young. But play he did. Every year he played in the town's recreational league. When he was 9-10, my husband coached his team for 2 years.

Then came the time to make the dreaded decision: to play in house or move on to traveling ball. There were SEVERAL factors that we needed to mull over before we made this decision: 3 young girls who would by necessity have to spend practices and games in a dusty hot field, time commitment, GAS commitment, $$ commitment. And last but most certainly not least was the season commitment. Most of these are fairly self explanatory except "season commitment" so let me 'splain.

Minnesota has about 8 months of winter-like weather. Seriously. From late September through April and partially into May, we can count on some frosty temperatures. They actually caution people not to plant their annual pots until after Mother's Day for fear of frost. Now that doesn't mean that we don't get the occasional nice or even beautiful day(s) in March, April, October or November. But the reality is, you can't "count" on summer before June or after September (and sometimes even late Aug). When we spend so much time under weather constraints, the last thing we want to do is spend a beautiful 80 degree Saturday in July dragging 4 kids half way across the state so that the boy can play baseball. Instead of being on a boat, yes, I'll say it, drinking a beer. So when the time came to make this decision, we didn't do it lightly. We told all the kids, no traveling sports. We ended up relenting this year with basketball, mostly because we didn't mind giving up the weekend when the temp was -10 degrees.

So, the boy continued with the recreational league until he started playing for the Jr HS. He continued to play school ball until, well, today.

/vent on

He is a junior this year. He figured he'd be playing baseball, like he has every year since he was 4. He delivered phone books this fall as part of the baseball fundraiser. He also went out and sold discount cards as part of the baseball fundraiser. And last month, he bagged groceries as part of the baseball fundraiser. We paid his $90 to play baseball. He started practice this week even though he has been throwing occasionally on days of open gym. Cuts were today and he learned today that he was cut from baseball. Not just varsity, which he really didn't figure he would make. But JV as well. The coach decided that because he and a few other boys did not play summer ball last year, their skills had not improved enough to make the jump from the "B" squad (basically the 10th grade team) to JV and they were cut from all school baseball. Because as a junior, he can't play down.

So, I have to look at this situation and ask myself honestly...is this MY fault? Should I, as a parent, been willing to give up the one season that makes living in this ice box (OK...we're at the end of winter here and this is the drama queen speaking) bearable just so that our son could have the POSSIBILITY of playing school ball? What about the job he had last summer? He worked lawn maintenance from 6am until 3pm Monday through Thursday.

Let's play "what if?" What if we martyred ourselves and had him play summer ball. Would skills he MAY have acquired last summer, then let go dormant during the winter, be enough to have him on the team? What if he STILL didn't make the team? Then what? A calculated risk where we both lost? What if summer ball last year had interfered with his job, or as I'm sure the coach would phrase that, his job interfered with summer ball? Which one was of greater importance?

The upshot is, the boy just wanted to play baseball for no other reason that he loved playing baseball. But he (and we) wasn't (weren't) willing to make it his life. I am shocked and dismayed that summer ball was made a requirement for him being able to play school ball this year. Knowing that now, would hit have changed our plan of action? No. I think as parents AND as a family, we have to sometimes make decisions that require us to buck the system, especially with regard to the general consensus. The general consensus is that parents give up any semblance of a family life to allow a child to pursue a competitive sport. And I think that until more parents make the right decision for their kids, we're going to see more kids, more competitive and losing their drive earlier because the fun is gone. They will have reaped what they sowed.

That doesn't change my son's pain and disappointment. And I feel it too.

When Words Matter

2011-03-23T20:26:00.001-05:00

It started sleeting last night around 9pm...and continued until 4am. Know how I know? I heard it. ALL.NIGHT.LONG. I kept getting up, checking the computer, SURE that our school district had succumbed to the dreaded "snow day" (of which we have had ZERO). I mean...c'mon, there was 2 inches of ICE on the ground at 4am. That's when the snow started. Up again at 5am to see if the district made the call. Nope. Since my middle daughter gets up first and needed to shower, I checked again at 6am. Alas...there was no snow day today. You don't want to know the "kind" words my children had for the school superintendent.

Since I had so little sleep, and since it was still snowing, and since I had hit the grocery store in preparation of the "winter storm advisory", I knew I didn't have to leave the house until I had to pick up Beanie from school. So, I did what makes me feel good on snow days. I cooked.

I made chocolate chip cookies. I prefer not giving the kids warning when I do this...just have the smell of fresh baked cookies when they walk in the door. But seeing is believing:

Then, since my oldest daughter requested it, I made her more shrimp salsa. I have altered the original recipe a bit. I only use one jar of salsa and use about 6-8 fresh roma tomatoes. I also add a bit of cumin and some pepper. The rest is as written. My daughter was vera, very happy...see:

She asks that you not notice the horrible shape of her nails. It's end of quarter/final week at school. She's a little stressed.

Dinner I started while I had the cookies going. A huge pot of beef vegetable soup. Cubed chuck (beef) seared in a little oil. I added one diced onion, 3 15 oz cans of diced tomatoes, 1 1/2 tsp thyme, 3 bay leaves, 1 tsp black pepper, 2 Tbs Tones beef stock concentrate and 1 qt water. Stir well, bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer. After about an hour add 3 stalks of celery sliced. After another hour add 2-3 potatoes, peeled and cubed and half a bag of baby carrots cut in thirds. Continue to simmer until meat is tender. Add 1 16 oz bag frozen mixed veggies. These will cook very quickly and the soup is ready. I served it with a loaf of french bread warmed in the oven:

So, I had all these smells wafting through the house as my children came home. My son was last to arrive as he had baseball practice. He walked into the kitchen, saw the cookies and said...YES(in that way that you KNOW you just made your child very happy). Then the next question was what all the kids ask me upon seeing me, "What's for dinner?" I replied, "I have a big pot of beef vegetable soup on the stove" to which he replied, "I LOVE coming home to this".

I got a little teary eyed. Words DO matter.

Resistance is Futile

2011-03-21T15:34:00.001-05:00

My youngest got what I thought was a head cold a couple weeks ago. A slight fever that came and went. A really stuffy nose, so much so that I threw out there..."do you want to try a neti-pot?"

"What", she asked, "is a neti-pot?"

I wish I could have been more "been there done that" with her but I had only heard the praises of the neti-pot, but hadn't tried it myself. For those with a fairly strong constitution, read on. For those without, full stop.

This is a neti-pot:

And what it does is flush your sinus cavity with a warm saline solution, pouring the solution up one nostril and draining out the other, making it easier to breathe. Again, EVERYONE who had tried the neti-pot, sang its praises. As I related this to Beanie, she apparently was miserable enough to want to give it a try.

So she tried it. And while she said it felt funny, she continues to ask to use it when her nose gets stuffy. I guess it worked as intended.

I, however, had yet to try it. Until this weekend. I have some kind of head cold happening and nothing is touching the pressure that is inside my head (Insert obvious joke here) so I gave it a whirl. It hasn't really gotten rid of the sinus headache, but it does make it easier to breathe.

It's not really something you wish to do with an audience, but the relief is worth it. I'm not sure why I resisted buying one for so long, probably because of the possible audience factor, but I should have known, resistance is futile.

An Acquired Taste

2011-03-19T13:41:00.002-05:00

St. Patrick's Day has come and gone and we celebrated it with our typical St. Patrick's day fare: corned beef and cabbage. I look forward to this all year, and I'm not exactly sure why I ONLY make it on St. Patrick's day, but I do. This year I found a recipe in Epicurious for Chocolate Guinness Goodness which of course I had to give a try. Then I was left with all the eggwhites so I found a recipe at Epicurious (again) for an Orange Chiffon Cake which I also made. I was in a "makin'" kind of mood.

Anyway, I was on facebook and was a little taken aback at the number of people who not only don't like corned beef and cabbage, but DETEST it. I guess it's one of those meals that you either love it or hate it. I also wonder if it maybe people haven't had it prepared they way I prepare it. I boil the meat in a pot with the pickling spices (and I add more than just the pkg that comes with the corned beef) for 2-3 hours. When the beef is tender I remove it and strain the liquid to remove the spices, then I put it back on the stove and add red potatoes (unpeeled) to the liquid. I cook them until the potatoes are almost done (and of course this will depend on the size) and add a head of cabbage that has been cut into 6ths (with the core...it helps hold the cabbage pieces together) and cook until the core is tender. Usually about 25 min. I slice up the beef and serve with dry mustard that has been reconstituted with beer. Caution: this can be nasal clearing hot. The potatoes I serve with butter salt and pepper. The cabbage I serve with malt vinegar. On the side I serve a rye/pumpernickel bread (no caraway seeds).

Here is a little known secret: if you plan correctly, you can turn this into a scrumptious meal. I usually boil 2 corned beef roasts for this purpose: to make reuben soup. The original recipe came from Taste of Home but I rarely follow it to the letter. Today, for example, I sort of doubled the recipe, I used all beef broth instead of a mixture of beef and chicken broths and I had two potatoes left over from St Patricks day so I diced those and added it to the soup making it a little heartier. I also used the leftover rye/pumpernickel to make croutons which I sprinkled over each bowl of soup.

I don't ever remember not liking corned beef and cabbage. I know my sister has never liked it. I do know that over the years I have come to LOVE it. Maybe it is an acquired taste.