in the thicket

When all the interesting stuff happens, I find I'm too busy to blog

Or too busy to gather my thoughts to blog coherently and say something interesting? I find that I can compose short posts for messageboards but something "blog worthy" seems overwhelming. So this is just a little post to say "Happy Saturday Morning" to any one reading and to try to get back in the bloggy mood.

And I leave you with a little cuteness this morning... this is Gwen at Charlotte's last day of Little Gym. No, I haven't scrapped Charlotte's pictures yet... oh, this LO actually won me a $6.99 gift certificate to Sweet Shoppe Designs... haven't spent it yet, so indecisive!

God grant me the serenity...

I tend to obsess about stuff. Worry about things. Most of which I can't control. My dad has been quoting the Serenity Prayer to me for years- "God grant me the Serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can, and Wisdom to know the difference."

It's hard, but I have been consciously trying to focus on that which is in my control, primarily my relationship with my husband and daughters, and extended family. Which is good, since we will probably stay home more and "enjoy each other's company" with the rising gas prices. (*Deep breath, something I can't control.*) I feel like I'm already ahead of the game because we truly do enjoy each other and spending time together. So when I put a little extra effort into our daily life, it pays huge dividends.

This weekend Jason and I watched a movie together. We haven't done that in ages. In anticipation of hopefully getting out to see the new Indiana Jones movie (though it may be at the $1.50 theater by the time we do) we watched "Raiders of the Lost Ark." I just really missed watching movies with him, and I hope that's something we can turn into a habit once or twice a month.

We will officially start the homeschooling program "Five in a Row" with Charlotte in the fall, but because we are in the middle of the heat wave now, I decided to do a practice run this week with "The Story of Ping." I chose it because of the upcoming Olympics, as a way to introduce Charlotte to China. And because some of the activities involve water, also a wise choice for this week. I had planned to just spend 30 minutes on it this morning, but we enjoyed it so much it stretched to longer. Then C wanted to work on one of the workbooks I recently bought her ("Get Ready for the Code, book A") and I couldn't get her to stop. Hmmm, she's like her mother. I might have to put a time limit on her, because I was hoping the two work-books I got would last the whole summer!

So, I just prayerfully acknowledge that the world feels unsettling, but I'm trying to set emotional and mental boundaries for myself and as Jason suggests "think about what makes me happy, do what makes me happy" as much as I can. I'm trying to read more fiction, more encouraging books. And I've accepted that though digital scrapbooking may not be the most efficient use of my time, I truly love it and it's good for my mental health, so I'll continue. I mean, who wouldn't feel better after scrapping a page of this little cutie?

Oh, and if you're looking for a fun summer read, just wanted to throw it out there that I really enjoyed "Comfort Food" by Kate Jacobs.

Twenty-five years

I woke up June 3rd, 1983 expecting to go to my last day of kindergarten. Instead, my dad told me and my brother that our mother had passed away.

I was six, she was 30 years old. I realized that I am now older than she was! The strange thing is that I am living in the same house she lived in when she passed away, and have two young children... my oldest is almost exactly the same age my brother was when she died.

Obviously my grief is not as "strong" as it was when I was younger, but I have a greater understanding of what she left behind. She actually committed suicide, and was very depressed for a number of years. For this reason, I am a great advocate of people who struggle with depression, especially mothers, seeking help if they feel overwhelmed or depressed or worthless. My mother honestly thought we would be better off without her, but that is not true at all. Her death still affects me today, and I am so sad she doesn't know her sweet granddaughters. And even in her depression, I believe she was a good mother. I have many wonderful memories of her.

If anyone is reading this and you are have the false belief that your life is not worth living, I beg of you, think again. You don't know  how much your children and unborn grandchildren will miss you. My four year old talks about her "grandma who isn't alive, and I'll see her in Heaven with Jesus... Mommy she will get a new body too, right?" I hope and pray so though I really don't know of course.

I'll snuggle these girls a little closer today... I'm thankful that my mental health is better than my mother's and that truly nothing could compell me to leave these little girls. And I lift up my mother to God, who is the only one who truly knew her or knows where she is. Lord have mercy.

Cuteness abounds

Sometimes my girls are just so darn cute and interesting I can hardly stand it. Really... Just some highlights from the past few days...

Yesterday we were playing in the front yard as we often do, and a strange cat wandered in our yard. We've seen our share of wandering kitties, but not this one. Well, this was a very friendly cat! Much friendlier than our own cats, even! The girls played with this cat for about an hour! I kept cautioning them not to tease or try to pick it up, and generally they didn't. The cat just settled down after greeting everyone and then the girls decided they were kitties and Charlotte stuck a dead bunch of leaves in the back of her pants as her "tail" and they clomped around our front yard meowing. Very cute. Everything went well until dh came home and while he was watching them Charlotte picked the cat up and tried to bring it inside our house because it was her "best kitty friend."

Charlotte is identifying more and more words every day, and showing more and more "everyday math knowledge." Like instinctively knowing if you ask her, "So you have 3 of those, how many more do you need to have 5?" Little stuff like that. And seeing simple words and knowing what they are. And she's so logical. Today at Little Gym she told her teacher that her stuffed kitty who accompanies her to class was going to be in a concert tonight and she wanted her teacher to come... the teacher laughed and said she was working tonight. Charlotte said, "Well, really it's going to be tomorrow night. No, actually it's going to be the next Little Gym day!" Thus demolishing her teacher's excuse for not attending. :) I just love how whereever she is, even if it's a boring place like the waiting room of the ER she does a great job amusing herself with songs and making up stories about everything, and how she includes her little sister too. Just such a great age.

Gwendolyn of course is so precious and precocious with the non-stop climbing and exploring. She's a night/day kind of kid. One minute so agreeable, the next minute arms crossed and pouting. But she quickly recovers from that. And she's always joining in Charlotte's imaginary scenarious as she can. She's moving on to longer sentences and her pronunciation is really improving. For a long time, she's called her sister "Ghar" or something like that. Today she had a breakthrough at Little Gym. She was REALLY ready to leave, so she started calling for her sister, "Ghar-lotte!" So she's working on two syllables now! I'm not sure why it's taken her so long with Charlotte, she can call all her cousins by their full 2 & 3 syllable names.

I also love how she takes your hand and leads you around to what she wants to do, saying, "Come on, come on!" And her happy exclamations, "I got it!" whenever she does something. And the pleading, "Holp mommy peas holp..." Her favorite stories (since she's in the read it again stage) are "Hands are not for hitting," "Caps for Sale," "Kittens are like that" (origin of another favorite phrase, "warm and cozy"), "Big Red Barn," "Bear Snores On," "Jesse Bear", "The Foot Book", "Is there a Wocket in Your Pocket" aka "Wocket Pocket", and for some reason a book I find tedious, "Is this the House of Mistress Mouse?"

Both the girls love to draw, of course, and Charlotte is finally drawing houses and flowers and adding even more character to her people. It was cute the other day she taped one of her drawings over her bed, and then taped one Gwen did over her crib (that she doesn't sleep in, lol.)

Anyway, I just wanted to record some of what they're up to recently. My memory really does fade!

Gotta love that reverse psychology...

Cranky, sick 2 yo Gwen conks out after a hard morning at play with big sister and Charlotte is not pleased. Whining commences... "Is she asleep? But I don't wanna play by myself! It's so boring."

I pull a trick out of my bag learned from the master of parenting "tricks", my dad. "Well, I'm sorry you are disappointed, but she needs to sleep. Maybe you could play with the house elf. But whatever you do, DON'T play with your ponies. They are taking a nap and said they don't want to be disturbed."

A deep knowing four year-old sigh. "No they're not!"

"Really, they are. I couldn't get them to go to sleep last night, they are worn out! You should leave them alone."

Minutes later she's hopping down the stairs, with ponies in hand...

Gotta love that reverse psychology... I figure it does no harm, since my kid is smart enough to see right through me.

Note to self: read this review later

Review: The Procrastinator's Handbook at The Simple Dollar.

Ha ha.

Menu Plan Monday May 12th Edition

I'm going to try to make a habit of this, so I really need to grab a graphic from Laura! (note to self). I apologize for the wonky fonts, I cut & pasted and typepad is not making it easy for me to fix formatting...

Random thoughts, not my menu: I had a realization this weekend... I am a better cook than most restaurant cooks where we can afford to eat, lol. Because it was Mother's Day weekend we ate out a bit more than I prefer... we had Starbuck's pastry offerings Sunday morning, and they just weren't as good as I remember. *scratching head* It's been a while since I ate food from there, I wonder what changed. And then for dinner Sunday night we went to a local barbeque restaurant, and honestly I could barely eat the barbeque because it was too spicy for me! It's usually not, so that was unusual. In contrast, Saturday we had a delicious dinner of pork chops on the grill, rice, corn, grilled zuchinni and broccoli. We grilled 3 pork chops and the girls just loved it and ate it all up! I think we need to grill four chops next time!

So, here's my menu for this week... I'm noting lunch ideas for myself here. It will be challenging because we have a busy week, which makes eating at home hard, but I'm going to try. Some of my ideas are portable- it sounds terrible but the girls are OK with cold cheese quesedilla's in particular...

Lunch Ideas: (served with fruit of choice)

TurkeySandwiches

Mac & Cheese

Cheese Quesadilla

Beans & Rice

Scrambled eggs w/ toast

Buttered Noodles

Dinner Menu

Monday- Spaghetti

Tuesday- Baked Chicken Teriyaki with rice and broccoli (new recipe I think I found posted last week?)

Wednesday- Vietnam Fried Rice from More With Less- with leftover chicken or chicken breast from freezer

Thursday- Easy Beef Stroganoff (PCHEF, see below) & green beans

Friday- Pizza from Costco (dad recommends, I still haven’t mastered pizza dough)

Saturday- Grill something yummy

Sunday- Crock pot chicken- still seeking best recipe

Recipe note for Easy Beef Stroganoff: This is a Pampered Chef recipe I got at a demonstration. I use "Make AHead Ground Beef" which I make up with lean ground beef I buy from Costco... I double the following recipe and freeze:

3 lbs 90% lean ground beef

3 medium onions (I only use one large, personal taste)

3 cloves of garlic

Chop onions. Brown everything in a large skillet, make sure you combine it well. Divide into equal portions and freeze.

The sheet I have provides six different recipes- I've tried them all, they are pretty good!

Here's the Easy Beef Stroganoff recipe...

To 1 portion Make-Ahead Beef, add:

8 oz sliced mushrooms

1 can Cream of Mushroom soup (I'm trying the recipe in the More with Less cookbook)

1/4 cup of water

1 tsp ground paprika (I omitted last time b/c I didn't have it)

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp black pepper (I actually just use Jane's Crazy Mixed up Salt in any recipe calling for salt & pepper)

Combine all ingredients in skillet and bring to a simmer over medium heat.

Stir 8 oz sour cream into beef mixture.

Cook 1 lb egg noodles- serve stroganoff over noodles. :)

I thought this was really yummy & easy! I'm looking forward to it again. :)

My pantry is getting empty...

I forsee a major shopping trip in my future... I've been trying to cook from my pantry and freezer as much as I can as a way to use up we have and to save money. I still have plenty stockpiled, but I'm now out of necessities such as all-purpose flour, , rice, SALT, cocoa powder, CHOCOLATE CHIPS lol, cooking oil, and some spices. I also want to buy a big bag of popcorn kernels... Jason is driving me crazy because he is always getting into snacks I reserve for the girls at night. I think I have plenty of something, and then check and it's half gone! I asked him the other night would he eat popcorn at night, lightly salted, instead of junky food or the girls snacks, and he enthusiastically said, "Yes!" So that's fine by me- popcorn is cheap and relatively healthy (the way we make it).

I wish he would give up night-time snacking, but I don't think that will happen. He's tried, but he really likes to have something to munch on at night. I'm usually fine after dinner myself.

More with Less cookbook

Some online friends clued me in about this fabulous little gem of a cookbook, More with Less. I feel like I've been missing out all this time! I love that it is really basic cooking, and the recipes are intended to be flexible and open to substitutions. That's one thing that always bothered me about Nourishing Traditions- I felt if you didn't do it exactly as written, it might not turn out.

Also, I was never really taught basic cooking skills... how to make a white sauce, turn it into "cream of mushroom", "cream of celery" etc to use as an ingredient. Just how to get good basic healthy meals on the table. I learned how to cook some things from my late step-grandmother, "Grandmama", but she tended to be a bit cranky and would send me out of the kitchen just when it was getting interesting. I remember she froze lots of veggies from their garden, more than canning them I think. She also made a yummy pot roast, chicken & dumplins', this baked chicken with a vinegar gravy that was served with mashed potatoes and coleslaw (I make this sometimes), cube steak with onions & gravy, and spaghetti. I also remember my step-grandfather, "Papa" would do a pan-fried fish... on the grill! So the house wouldn't get stunk up.

So, I got the baked chicken and cube steak recipes from her. I also learned how to make salmon cakes as a youngun', which we really like. Toward the end of college during my "always on Weight Watchers" stage I found Cooking Light. Which is a good magazine, but it is one that I was reluctant to make changes to many of the recipes initially, and would find myself buying occassional exotic or expensive ingredients for one dish. I have kept a few of the recipes I picked up from that period in our regular rotation, one dish we call "Ginger chicken" which is a stir-fry chicken recipe with bell peppers, green onions, garlic, ginger, and lemon juice. Very yummy! Also a beef stir-fry recipe which called for "baked Ramen noodles" that were low-fat... they don't even make them any more, so I use curly noodles or regular ramen for that.

Whew, started rambling there! But hey, it's my blog. :) Anyway, I love the section in the More is Less cookbook (hereby I will call it MiS)  where she talks about different "meal" ideas... not recipes, but here, this is a balanced meal... some that I think will work for our family are:

-Salad Meal with bread- just get a nice bowl of greens and an assortment of toppings.

-Casserole Meal

-Slow Cooker Combination Meal- meats, grains, legumes in a pot

-Soup Meal

-Rice Meal- steamed or fried rice

and my PERSONAL favorite,

-Ice-cream Meal- make some homemade icecream, offer toppings and fruit! It IS protein!

She (Doris) elaborates on all those meals and gives ideas how you can do "More with Less" with them in terms of using leftovers, making ahead, filling out the meal, etc. What I appreciate about it is I have various recipes but I don't really think about it in terms of meals across a week... I like to mix up my proteins in a given week, but I also like to mix up the "style" of my meals. This overview gave me a good idea, and thoughts about how to do more with less. Like my dh adores chef salads and chicken caesar salads... so if I roast a chicken, save the meat for a chef salad the next day. Also save bits to put in fried rice. All very basic stuff that I sort of know but tend to forget in the scuffle of grocery planning. It seems intuitive to some cooks, but not to me.

In order to get the most out of this fabulous cookbook, I think I'm going to go through it and jot down my observations, recipes to try or how the ones I make turn out. So I can remember, mostly!

A day for giggles...

Do you ever wake up and know you're going to be in a silly mood that day, and that you will see jokes in everything? I do, I love days like that. Laughter is just so good, it's like a special treat when I'm in a mood when everything is funny...

This morning about 7:30 we heard a scream. Not unusual in our house. Then patter-patter-patter. I send dh to investigate. In the hall, Charlotte tells him, "I woke up and I felt lonely all by myself." (I guess that's why she screamed.) "I want to come in and cuddle for a little bit."

"Well, OK, if you're very quiet and don't talk."

"I needed to see if Gwendolyn is asleep." She comes in, talking all the while, peers at Gwendolyn who is asleep on my arm, and then announces. "Okay, I'm going to go to my bathroom and take my pull-up off."

Dh gets back in the bed. The contrast between the sleeping baby toddler on me and the four year old strikes as funny. "You know, she used to be a baby who didn't talk," I say to dh who starts giggling because he also finds it funny. We know it's true, but it's hard to believe sometimes. Who would have thought, as we anxiously awaited each new word, that we would be so "blessed" by so many of her words before we knew it?

I also got the giggles this morning after someone's not so great experience with a nursing support group reminded me of someone I know who has her own take on nursing support. "Pick up that crying baby and feed her. She knows what she wants... hmmmm. She wants her some sugar!" It's rather shocking the first time you meet her, but she does grow on you. Sometimes it's nice to be around someone who says it like it is. It's a good thing I feel that way, living with Charlotte.

Oh, one more giggle inducing thing... Gwen is officially corrupted. She has stopped ignoring the TV and watching it (blah) and her favorite show that she asks for ALL the time is "Max an Ru-by" (imagine someone with a mouthful of marbles saying that, and you'll get the effect.) When it comes on, she gets so excited she chants, "Max an Ru-BY! MAX an Ru-by!" and JUMPS up and down, with a hugely gleeful expression on her face.

It's a puzzle to me that my girls love a show so much where there really is no mommy to speak of... just a bossy older sister. Uh-oh, well that sort of was their life yesterday when I was way to involved in finishing my mini-kit (which only 16 people have downloaded, oh well!) Gotta get back to actually being the mommy today... after I finish my coffee.