Last Person Blogging

It's Oh So Quiet

2012-01-03T09:07:00.000-08:00

Almost too quiet. I just got back from dropping off the kids at school for their first day back from Christmas break. And I actually feel a little sad, which is good, because that means I wasn't so frazzled and tired and stressed that I couldn't wait for school to start up again. I am, however, glad to be back to a schedule and structure and the chance to run errands by myself or get things done when I can be really productive. Or just a chance to ride the exercise bike without 17 interruptions.

We had a good morning and the kids were both at school on time. Ben and I had to wait for a minute or two for the teachers to show up at the dropoff area, which suited him fine, because he did not want to be back at school today. The biggest issue was the fact that he had to leave his little Fisher-Price girl with me instead of keeping it with him. That lead to a traumatic separation. Then he decided that focusing on the zipper of my coat was a good idea. I think he decided that focusing on the zipper would just make it all go away.

Minor fit when I handed him over, but by the time I drove by to leave the parking lot, he had a smile on his face. Hopefully he enjoys his time back.

We found out over Christmas break that Ben has been having some issues in the church nursery with being aggressive towards other kids, pulling hair and grabbing at their faces, etc. Not really sure how to prevent that as we still can't have a conversation with him about appropriate behavior and set down expectations. We pretty much have to deal with things in the moment. It would have been if they had kept us informed instead of just dumping it on us that he'd had some problems in the past (including an incident during the Christmas Eve service this year, which lead to us finding out that he'd had other run-ins).

The main thing that comes to mind is that certain things are triggers for him to act out physically - if it's really loud all of a sudden or if a child is crying or screaming, if someone gets in his face, if someone tries to take a toy - but those are things that are difficult if not impossible to prevent in an environment like a church nursery. He's been doing well at school and I think there's just been one incidence of him trying to hit another child during snack time. He was removed from snack time and was all done, and that seemed to make enough of an impression on him that it hasn't happened again.

I'm not sure how they prevent aggression at his preschool, which has a mix of developmentally delayed children and typically developing children. I think I'm going to e-mail his teacher, though, and see if she has any tips that I can pass along.

I really don't like starting out the new year with this kind of stress and anxiety, not knowing if he'll keep up with the behavior and if we'll be told at some point that he can't be in the nursery anymore - or if one of us will always need to be in there with him to monitor things.

Are You Depressed?

2011-10-25T11:12:00.000-07:00

For some reason, I got to thinking today about a guy I knew in high school youth group. After graduation, he married a girl from our youth group who had graduated a year or two before. She had a daughter from a previous relationship. They seemed very happy, and though the little girl wasn't his biologically, he doted on her and I don't think he could have loved her more.

But a year or two after they married, he killed himself. I didn't know Randy all that well, just from youth group events. I have no idea what might have been happening in his life at the time or what had happened up until that point. But I can't help wondering if he was in the throes of clinical depression and just couldn't take it anymore.

I experienced that in my freshman year of college, and that's been the worst experience of my life. I just felt bad all the time and as if there was no hope of ever feeling better, no happiness in my future. On many days, I simply hoped that my life would end so I could stop feeling so bad. I never put much thought into suicide, though, because as a Christian, I believed that I would go to hell if I killed myself.

In reading through a book of Q&A from Max Lucado called Max On Life, he had some interesting things to say about that. Here's part of his answer:

Let's be clear: suicide is the wrong choice. The date of our death is God's to choose, not ours. He gives life, and he takes it. When people orchestrate their own death, they make the wrong choice.

But is the mistake a spiritually fatal one? Do we despair of any hope of their eternal salvation? Are we left with the nightmarish conclusion that heaven holds no place for them?

By no means. For while suicide is the wrong choice, have not we all made wrong choices? And did Christ not come for people like us? Frame their lives rightly. Remember good decisions. Catalog blue-ribbon days. Jesus said, "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." (Matt. 11:28 NKJV). God does not measure a person by one decision, nor should we.

I appreciated his thoughts on this subject, and pondering it myself, it does make sense that God wouldn't choose this one sin as the unforgivable one, particularly as it is often driven by mental illness.

So how did I come out of my depression? Basically just by waiting it out and through the support of a friend of mine who was a greater encouragement to me than I think he ever knew. I didn't recognize what was happening to me, and if anyone else did, they didn't tell me. It wasn't until several years later, when I read a checklist of symptoms of clinical depression, that I realized what I had experienced and why it felt so hopeless.

I really wish someone had said "Maybe you should go see a doctor or the college health department." I know that my moods and attitude were evident to some of those around me, although not all. If you think that someone in your life might be going through depression, please talk to them about it. You may be surprised at how open they are to discussing it, and it might spur them on to get the help that they need to get through it.

So how do you know if you are depressed? Here are some of the symptoms:

Feelings of sadness or unhappiness
Irritability or frustration, even over small matters
Loss of interest or pleasure in normal activities
Insomnia or excessive sleeping
Changes in appetite — depression often causes decreased appetite and weight loss, but in some people it causes increased cravings for food and weight gain
Agitation or restlessness — for example, pacing, hand-wringing or an inability to sit still
Indecisiveness, distractibility and decreased concentration
Fatigue, tiredness and loss of energy — even small tasks may seem to require a lot of effort
Feelings of worthlessness or guilt, fixating on past failures or blaming yourself when things aren't going right
Trouble thinking, concentrating, making decisions and remembering things
Frequent thoughts of death, dying or suicide
Crying spells for no apparent reason
Unexplained physical problems, such as back pain or headaches

I went through a minor depression last year and finally went to a doctor. It turned out that I had very low levels of vitamin D, and she put me on a supplement that made a world of difference after just a few weeks. Sometimes it's as simple as that, sometimes it might take counseling or antidepressant medication or other interventions. But there's no shame in getting help for depression.

If you need help and you don't have insurance or aren't sure where to turn, you can check out the Mental Health Services locator on this web page:
http://store.samhsa.gov/mhlocator

Please don't feel like you have to go through it alone or just wait it out.

The Pity Party Never Lasts Long

2011-09-13T13:28:00.000-07:00

I found myself recently feeling a little sorry for myself. Sometimes it's a little tiring having two kids who are not "typical." It can be draining, emotionally, mentally and physically. But you know what? There are definitely worse situations we could be experiencing as parents. And it seems like whenever I start to feel sorry for myself, I'm reminded that there are others who have much tougher challenges than we do.

We were in Seattle this weekend and visited Mars Hill. One of the executive pastors was preaching, and he shared about his infant son, who died at the hospital after several months of surgeries and treatment without ever being able to go home. In fact, they couldn't even hold him much while he was alive because he was hooked up to so many tubes and machines.

Then this morning, I watched part of a show on two people with mysterious medical conditions that cause them to age very slowly. One was a 40-year-old man and one was a 6-year-old little girl. The man was able to move independently to an extent, and the little girl needed to be carried everywhere as she's still largely in an infantile state. I only caught the last third or so of the show, so I didn't see if they were able to communicate much beyond what I saw in the part I did watch, but it appeared that both were mostly in their own worlds and unable to interact very much.

And during both of these times, I realized that I am fortunate. I have a daughter who is bright and funny, who cares about others and does thoughtful things for people, who likes to be creative and write stories and enjoys music, and who is a delight to be around. Not always, but frequently! I have a son who is full of joy and laughter, who has a wicked sense of humor even if he can't tell us jokes yet, who gives wonderful giant tight hugs and holds his arm out for kisses up and down it as he beams a beautiful smile, and who loves his family beyond compare.

I'm thankful that our children don't struggle with serious physical ailments or terminal diseases. I'm thankful that we can enjoy communicating with them, even if we need to work harder to understand what Ben needs and aren't always successful. I'm thankful that we have resources available to us - medical specialists and therapists and medication and developmental school programs - especially because I know that not everyone has access to such things, and because we have insurance to pay for those things that cost us money. I'm thankful for supportive family and friends and for prayer and for the knowledge that God is in control and that He knew exactly what He was doing when He gave us these special children, and when He gave us to them.

August Already?

2011-08-01T21:42:00.000-07:00

I was nervous about this summer, but it hasn't been too bad. A few rough spots with Rachel, but they have been brief for the most part, and we're figuring out triggers and better ways to diffuse them. We're already past the halfway point of summer, and while I'm looking forward to school starting back up, the has gone faster than I expected.

Rachel started swim lessons today and is doing much better this year than she did last year. Last year was her first year of lessons, and she was so afraid of putting her face in the water or anything else that she didn't make much progress over the 16 or so lessons she had. I think she made more progress in today's lesson than she did over the entire course of lessons last year. She has an older lady for a teacher, in her 60s I'd guess, and the woman is no-nonsense and is making sure that she calls Rachel's attention back to her when it starts to wander elsewhere. Rachel needs to work on some of her techniques for floating and kicking, but she's giving it good effort even though she's still afraid of water going up her nose, which happened today. She's learning to do a better job of blowing out through her nose when she goes into the water, though!

Ben has been really sweet and started a few weeks ago to ask for "Hugs!" and "Kisses!" He's always been big on hugging and gives AWESOME hugs, but he's also starting to give kisses again, something he hasn't done in a long time. And when we say hi to him, he's responding much more regularly with "Hi! Hi!", too. He was in the church nursery during the mornings while the rest of us were involved in a week of Vacation Bible School, and he did very well in there. The main nursery care provider told me that it was a joy to have Ben there, and that's so nice to hear! It always makes me a little nervous when we have to leave Ben with people who haven't been around him much since I don't know how he'll do and, to a lesser extend, what they'll think.

I *am* finding out that people are generally pretty understanding and many even have experience dealing with kids on the autism spectrum. In fact, one of the other nursery workers during VBS used to work with severely affected autistic children. So neat the way that God works out the details for things when we don't even think to ask Him for the specifics!

We're taking a vacation in a few weeks, and I'm looking forward to that. We're staying in town because it's easier to deal with Ben's sleeping arrangements if we can just sleep in our own beds at night, but this way we'll be able to play tourist locally and do some of the things about which we keep saying "We should totally do that sometime!" We're planning on renewing our zoo membership for the Point Defiance Zoo and going there one of the days, along with a stop at Fort Nisqually afterward. We're planning on two day trips to Seattle to go to the Children's Museum, Space Needle, University of Washington Arboretum and probably one or two other places. Some of them won't take long, so we're hoping to do maybe 2 things a day plus lunch in between. I'm hoping to find a good Cuban restaurant in Seattle on one of those days. There's also a park not too far away that has a fountain play area that I think the kids would enjoy, judging by the fun they had at a similar fountain in Victoria, B.C. last year. It will be nice to just take it easy that week and let ourselves be in vacation mode. We'll have to resist the temptation to do yard work, though. That wouldn't be vacation for me.

Coconut Pecan Frosting Recipe

2011-07-16T10:01:00.000-07:00

We're headed to a family reunion today, and I decided to make some cookie bars to take with us, along with some layered bean dip and tortilla chips. The cookie bars are awesome - a buttery firm bottom crust, semisweet chocolate chips sprinkled over it, a rich coconut pecan frosting layer (the kind of frosting you use in German chocolate cake) and a top crust of the same mixture as the bottom, thinned with a little milk. I've blogged about them here. The problem with the bars, though, is that all of the canned coconut pecan frostings I've seen have red dye 40 in them for some reason, and Rachel can't have red dye 40, so she didn't get to eat them whenever I made them.

I thought I'd try my hand at a homemade coconut pecan frosting instead, since I knew I could make it dye-free. I found this recipe on Allrecipes.com, my favorite go-to website when I'm looking to try something new. I made it yesterday, and BOY, did it turn out yummy! I probably won't buy the canned kind again. It's convenient, but there's also a weird tang or aftertaste, and I'm guessing that's due to the preservatives. I'd much rather just make it myself know that I know it's not difficult and tastes so great.

Doesn't that make your mouth water?

Two notes: I toasted the coconut and pecans before adding them to the frosting, and I stirred the frosting on the stove at a low boil for about 11 or 12 minutes. I didn't stir constantly, but very regularly, since it can get lumpy if you don't keep it well stirred.

I encourage you to give it a try, and if you do, let me know what you think of your results!

Hi, and Stuff

2011-07-15T10:28:00.000-07:00

So I was on a real streak there at the beginning of this month, but then I got busy and forgot to post and/or to write some posts ahead of time. Then I just kind of drew a blank when I thought about what to write.

Summer continues, as does Rachel's dramatic tendencies. And she's not dramatic in a good way. She's in Vacation Bible School this week, and I thought having something to do in the mornings would keep her busy and entertained enough so that the rest of the day would go more smoothly. Instead, she's been dragging her feet about getting ready in the morning, which leads to me nagging and getting all stressed out. Then she's been moody and easily upset in the afternoons and evenings. Mostly we've done alright, but she's had to go into time out a few times, and it's been a battle to get her there.

We had an appointment with the neurobehavioral pediatrician on Monday. Based upon how she's currently doing and the last report he received from her teacher at school, the doctor decided to put Rachel on a very low dosage of medication to help with her attention issues. He believes that she has a significant enough problem with attention span that it's causing the other problems with time management, defiance, oppositionality, emotional maturity, etc. And he feels that finding the right dosage of medication will help her brain to function like those of other 7-year-olds so that she has the chance to choose more appropriate behavior as a general rule.

It was odd to have him prescribe medication now because we weren't expecting it. I think he wanted to deal with the worst of her defiance and behavior problems with a method of parenting that works well for children like Rachel, and he probably also wanted us to retrain ourselves to be able to respond more calmly. And now that we're doing those things and she's still having problems, it's more evident that there is indeed a neurobehavioral issue with her brain chemistry. He likened it to a child with diabetes who needs insulin to regulate their blood sugar and help it to function correctly.

I know that there are some who believe it's wrong to medicate children with attention-span issues. I'm thinking those people have never had to deal with the type of extreme behavior we've seen. And they probably also don't think of the chemistry of the brain as a physical issue that sometimes needs physical treatment. And yet if a child *did* have insulin-dependent diabetes, most people wouldn't dream of telling the parents that they needed to just be stronger and more consistent in their parenting, or just wait it out and the child would outgrow it.

I'm not interested in a debate over how we're proceeding with Rachel, but wanted to share what's going on for those of you who may have been following along with us. We're watching Rachel carefully and will be talking with the doctor regularly so that he can monitor her progress. He'll be seeing her again in August and at the beginning of October. He's a very caring, concerned doctor who wants what is best for his young patients, and it's been good for us to see that so that we can trust his care of her. We're keeping this in prayer and trusting in God and in our parental instincts to make sure that Rachel is getting all that she needs to be successful and to feel more joy and less frustration. And if we as parents are able to feel the same as she makes progress, all the better!

Tenderizing Your Steak

2011-07-06T10:02:00.000-07:00

As part of my pledge to widen my repertoire of grilling options, I decided to make steak and chicken for the 4th of July. I was looking for ways to prepare both, and I came across a method for tenderizing steak that works even on cheaper, sometimes tougher, cuts of beef. I found it at the food blog Steamy Kitchen, on this page. You can go there to read her full description of what to do, including diagrams, and why it works. In a nutshell, here it is:

Your cut of steak should be 1" thick or more.
Liberally salt your steak 1 hour before cooking for every inch of thickness. For a 1" thick steak, you'll leave the salt on for an hour. For a 1.25" steak, you'll leave it on for 1 1/4 hours, and so on.
Once the time is up, rinse all of the salt off and pat the steak dry.
Prepare as planned - grill, broil, etc.

Why does it work? Salting the meat just before you grill brings out the moisture and causes it to basically be steamed. It also doesn't allow the salt to really penetrate to give you good flavor.

If you salt ahead of time, it draws out excess moisture, but this doesn't leave your steak dry. The salt is drawn into the meat and breaks down the protein cells, causing them to become more tender and mix in with the fat cells.

Apparently this can also work wonders with chicken and roasts, although I haven't yet tried that. But I did try it for the 4th of July with my steaks, and they came out tender and flavorful. Jaden at Steamy Kitchen also notes that you can add other items during the salting process to pull some of that flavor into the meat. I used garlic powder, and there is definitely a mild garlic taste to the meat. Kinda wishing I had added more!

Busy, Busy, Dreadfully Busy

2011-07-05T20:45:00.000-07:00

It's amazing how busy I can be sometimes now that I stay at home full-time. I used to think I would have long boring stretches of the day where I didn't have enough to do. Not everything I do is all that exciting, but it is frequently productive (decluttering, cleaning), useful (putting away laundry, keeping up with the dishes) and/or valuable in the long run (doing my best to teach our children to be well-behaved and respectful, to uphold their part of things in the household and to love Jesus). And my to-do list always has things that need to be done, so it's not like I just sit around thinking "Boy, if I just had more to do." Much better than the job I had in my mid-twenties where I was the only person in the office 95% of the time and only had enough work to fill up maybe 15% of the day, and that was on a good day.

One might think "That sounds awesome!", but this was before the internet was in common usage. I spent my days playing minesweeper and hearts, working on a huge cross-stitch picture with different kinds of wild cats, reading books and even occasionally locking the door, curling up in the easy chair and taking a nap. No one came into the office except a delivery person from FedEx, every once in a blue moon. I was a temp and it was a long-term assignment, and I was preparing to move out of state. Otherwise, there's no way I could have stayed in that job even for the six months I was there. I'd much rather be really busy than have hardly anything to do and a bunch of time to fill.

Baking Tips - Cakes & Cupcakes

2011-07-01T09:32:00.000-07:00

In my desire to become a better baker, I've been searching out tips for cakes and cupcakes. Here are some of the things I found:

Ingredients should all be measured properly. Use a glass measuring cup on a level surface for wet ingredients, and use a flat-topped measuring nesting type of measuring cup for dry ingredients, using the flat edge of a knife to level it before you add it to the recipe.
Sifting flour and sugar can help prevent lumps in your batter.
Bring cold ingredients (such as butter or eggs) to room temperature before mixing, leaving them out for about an hour before you need to use them. Butter will incorporate into a batter or dough easier if it's softened, and the whites of warm eggs can actually take on more volume than cold eggs. Plus, cold eggs could potentially cause the softened butter in dough to become clumpy during the mixing process. To bring eggs and butter to room temperature quickly, you can put eggs in a container of warm water for about 10 minutes. Cutting up the butter into small pieces will speed the softening process, especially if you put it on a plate over the container with the eggs. The warmth from the water will help things move along faster.
Add ingredients a little at a time, mixing in between each addition. If you are adding both wet ingredients and dry ingredients, begin and end with the dry, alternating with wet. You'll achieve a better consistency that way.
If you're making cupcakes, add batter evenly to all of your cups, filling them 1/2 to 1/3 full, depending upon how much rise you typically get out of that type of batter. To make sure, you can bake a test cupcake and either add more or less to the remainder of the batch as needed. A cupcake/cookie scoop or an ice cream scoop can help to achieve even batter in each cup, which will ensure more even baking from one cupcake to the next.
Most standard-size cupcakes take anywhere from 18 to 25 minutes to bake. Start checking for doneness at the low end of the suggested baking time. As a general rule, a toothpick should come out clean when inserted into the center of a cupcake. You can also press gently on the top of a cupcake. If it's done, it should bounce back.
Cool cupcakes for 10 to 15 minutes in the pan, then turn them out onto a baking rack to finish cooling. Make sure that they are completely cool before they're frosted, or you'll have soft, sometimes even melted frosting as a result.
You can freeze unfrosted cupcakes for up to 3 months or so. Thaw them in the refrigerator or out on the counter, then frost them once they're completely thawed.

My Latest Pursuits in Baking

2011-06-30T13:00:00.000-07:00

I've been keeping busy with baking projects lately. Ben's birthday was on May 12. He's a fan of Elmo and of chocolate (especially M&Ms), so I made this for him:

Triple chocolate cake with homemade chocolate fudgy frosting and M&M trim. He liked the look of it and the M&Ms, but he's just not a cake eater (yet). I think he knew it was just for him and enjoyed that, though.

Next up was a school carnival at Rachel's elementary school on June 3. They were having a cake walk, so I made this for my contribution:

This was the same recipe for Triple Chocolate Cake and the fudgy frosting, but with Oreos for garnish. I think this would be great with a filling of an Oreo-cream-like nature. Either way, it was one of the earlier items picked up from the cake walk table - we arrived at the carnival about 25 minutes after it started and saw someone walking around with it, so that made me happy.

Rachel's birthday was on June 12, and we did a movie theme for the party. She wanted these cupcakes for dessert:

She requested vanilla cupcakes and vanilla frosting, and that's what she got.

My friend Angie's baby shower was on June 14, and I baked some carrot cake cupcakes with homemade cream cheese frosting. These didn't photograph as pink as they were in reality:

I'd like to find a way for my carrot cake to rise just a bit more during the baking process. This is a dense recipe and tends to bake fairly flat, which works great for cake layers or a sheet cake, but it's nice to have a bit of a dome on cupcakes, I think. The taste is really good, though, so I'm reluctant to mess with it.

These cupcakes did not all turn out the same size. I used 2 different pans and noticed that my results with one were much more uneven than with the other. I'm thinking I need to get some good muffin pans so that I can be more assured of consistent results with cupcakes in the future. I haven't noticed as much of a disparity with other cupcake recipes, but I definitely noticed it with the carrot cake.

And finally, I baked up some goodies for the kids' teachers and for the school office at Rachel's school. This is banana bread, chocolate chip cookies, butterscotch blondies and gooey butter cookies:

I had a really good time baking up the things for the goodie tray. I discovered that I put pressure on myself when I'm making a cake or cupcakes, but cookies and bread are easier because they're a little more foolproof, I think, as long as you don't overbake them. I'd like to take the fun I had in making the goodie trays and learn how to be more that way when I'm making cakes and cupcakes. Perhaps that just means I need to make those more often so I get over being stressed about them turning out well!

Master Chef

2011-06-29T10:00:00.000-07:00

I've really gotten into cooking competition shows in the last couple of years. I like seeing the creativity of the chefs and how they work under pressure, and how their final product rates when it comes time for judging. Plus I like shows where people compete based upon their skills or abilities.

I didn't watch season one of Master Chef, probably because I find Gordon Ramsay's persona to be offputting whenever I see a commercial for Hell's Kitchen. I decided to give this show a try when season two started last month, and I've been enjoying it. It's amazing what these former home cooks can do when presented with unusual ingredients or certain restrictions to follow. Sometimes their dishes are spectacular wipeouts, but frequently they come up with something really great.

Ramsay himself is much softer here than in the promos for Hell's Kitchen. Yes, he still curses like a sailor when presented with a very bad dish, but it's pretty much out of disappointment in what the contestant failed to show and hasn't seemed directed toward any of the cooks as people. He also showed a soft side with some of the contestants during the audition rounds, which surprised me.

Out of the contestants competing, there are 2 in particular that I find offputting:

Max is an 18-year-old student who I'm guessing is a trust fund kid. He's from a wealthy upbringing and has traveled the world extensively, dining in fine restaurants as he went. He then would work on copying the dishes at home. He's talented, but he has such a condescending attitude toward the other cooks. He's very disrespectful, insulting his fellow chefs regularly, and when the other chefs' dishes are being critiqued, he has a look of absolute glee on his face, while everyone else is feeling empathy for the chef whose dish has turned out so badly. I really really don't like him.**
Suzy is a 27-year-old neural engineer. She has come up with some creative dishes and has done multiple dishes for several challenges where only one finished dish was required. Definitely an overachiever, and when judge Graham Elliot said that she reminded him of the girl in school who would always pipe up to say "Teacher, you forgot to give us homework!", she stated that she was indeed that girl. Suzy tends to think she can do no wrong and that the judges instead made the wrong decision when her dish is in the top three but another chef's dish is chosen as the winner, regardless of critiques the judges have made, noting where her dish fell a little short. And when the judges are complimenting her, she just stands there nodding her head with a big grin on her face that looks like she's responding with "I know. Isn't it awesome?" Some thank yous would go a long way for her.

Last night's episode had an elimination challenge where contestants had to make dessert. The winner of the earlier Mystery Box challenge got to choose which ingredient he would use in the elimination challenge (he chose nuts), and which ingredient the other chefs would use (he chose coffee for them). Max is extremely lucky that chef Alvin screwed up bigger than he did, because Max's dish was described as an ill-conceived concept with a rancid taste. I'm bummed that Alvin made such a huge mistake with his dish, which was coffee-filled beignets with a coffee pudding. His use of scientific methods unfortunately did not serve him well, and he went home.

**I wrote this blog post between Monday's episode and Tuesday's episode. Max got eliminated in Tuesday's episode, and I was not sorry to see him go. However, a new contender emerged for unlikable contestants: Christine, a 27-year-old single mom. She has always had a tendency to swear like a sailor and she gets flustered and stressed out in many challenges, but in the aftermath of last night's elimination challenge, she got really out of hand with her behavior. She went one-on-one against Max in cooking filets 3 ways: rare, medium and well done. She had better seasoning, and her cooking of the meat was more spot-on in 2 of the 3 methods.

When the team leader singled out Max and Christine, Max was ticked off, but Christine just about came unhinged. She was dancing around like a Bantam rooster, and started throwing out some punches. She behaved in a really unprofessional way, and while the challenge was going on, she kept giving Esther, the team leader, the stink eye. I'm guessing she won't be in the contest too much longer judging by how often she panics when they have challenges.

The nice thing is that I like most of the contestants. My top three favorites are:

Alejandra, a 37-year-old architect with tons of natural talent in the kitchen;
Derrick, a 33-year-old web designer who likes to make his dishes in unorthodox ways sometimes, and it usually pays off;
and Christian, a 31-year-old stay-at-home dad who straightened his life out after his son was born and who learned to cook so that he could feed his son good food.

I'm looking forward to seeing how this season turns out, and maybe digging up episodes of season 1 as well.

The Long Hot Summer

2011-06-28T12:10:00.000-07:00

I don't know if this summer is going to be hot (although I certainly hope it won't get too hot), but it looks like it's going to be long. It's only about 10 weeks from the end of school until the start of it again in September. Still, I'm already inundated with requests to entertain Rachel and repeated bouts of whining when she doesn't get her way.

She was talking recently about how she wishes she was still in school, because she likes going to class and playing with her friends and because it keeps her busier. She talked about how all she has to do is read books, play with her Pet Shop toys and watch TV, and how is she supposed to deal with that? It doesn't sound like too rough a life to me, but I know how it is to have a job and have very little to do at that job, and it gets tedious quickly.

Yesterday we went to the library, and the act of getting ready for it took most of the morning. We ended up leaving at 11:15. But that was okay, because keeping our focus on the fact that we were going somewhere made the morning go faster, and then we killed some time that took us right up to lunch. I had her work on some spelling word practice and write in her summer journal, and then she did her responsibilities so that she could watch a little TV. I also painted her fingernails and toenails when she was ready to sit down and watch TV, and I think that helped to motivate her to get things done.

I'm trying to come up with stuff to keep her busy without me necessarily needing to be an active participant. I don't mind playing some games and spending time with her throughout the day here and there, but the demands on me to constantly supply something for her to do are driving me a little crazy, and they make it difficult for me to get my own responsibilities done. It's also tough to find any "quiet time" during the day, and I desperately need that to be a good mom. Otherwise, my fuse is much shorter and my reactions are not as kind as they should be.

I think Ben benefits from the structure of preschool, too. He adjusted to it well, and I have to admit that, even though it was tough for me to send him off so soon, it ended up being really nice having a few hours on Monday through Thursday when I could quickly run errands, get things done around the house or just enjoy the peace and quiet.

Neither child is doing well with sleeping patterns lately. Rachel keeps sleeping in and then having trouble falling asleep many nights, but if I wake her up early, she'll be a royal grouch for the rest of the day. I think I'm just going to have to bite the bullet and do that soon, though, if she keeps having trouble at night. With summer here, though, we may just have her get ready for bed by the normal time, and then read for a longer period to help tire her out. That way, James and I still get some quiet time in the evening, and she doesn't keep coming out of her room to tell us that she's having trouble sleeping, or turning her light on and being sneaky about reading when she's supposed to be in bed.

Ben has always had problems with staying awake at night long after he should be asleep. I would try removing naps, but he gets so crabby and, worse, aggressive (sometimes just downright mean) when he doesn't have a nap. Sometimes he keeps himself awake through naptime, and that can be rough, too, but he at least needs some downtime on his own in the afternoons. And I need that, too. He clearly isn't ready to give up his naps, so I may need to try to limit how long they are. That's tough to do when he frequently takes so long to fall asleep.

I'm looking forward to the two weeks of VBS in July. One is just Rachel going to VBS at the church where she attended preschool, and the next week is VBS at our church. I'll be a crew leader (for Rachel), James is helping out in various areas, and Ben will be in the church nursery while we're there. I know that it'll be a bit tiring; nonetheless, it will be good for Rachel to have something to do and will make those days go faster. After that, we have two weeks to fill, then two weeks of morning swimming lessons that will help pass the time, then a week of vacation. I think there's a week and a half left of summer post-vacation.

So that just leaves this week and next before VBS starts, and leaves me thinking about how I can make the time more pleasant and help Rachel to think more creatively about what she can do with her days.

Adventures in Cooking

2011-06-27T10:00:00.000-07:00

I was watching an episode of Master Chef the other evening. The contestants were making fresh ravioli, and I thought "Why haven't I ever done that?" It seems like it might be a little challenging to get the dough to be the right consistency and to roll it out to the proper thickness, but nothing that some practice wouldn't fix.

I decided then and there that I would in the near future make some homemade ravioli from scratch. And then I started to think about the other kinds of foods that I'd like to try making and haven't. I think it would be a lot of fun to pick a few of them to make each month and start trying out new things. Some are things I've eaten in restaurants but haven't done myself, some are cooking techniques I want to learn and some will be things that I've heard about but haven't yet eaten and that just plain sound good.

My list so far:

Fresh ravioli
Bubble and squeak
Something Irish (possibly Colcannon)
Something German - I was thinking Schnitzel and Spaetzle, but apparently Schnitzel is Austrian; I may just do that, anyway. Another one that sounds good is Hochzeitssuppe, a German wedding soup.
Brining a chicken - I've never brined poultry but have heard that it imparts great flavor and keeps it from drying out
Improving my grilling skills and increasing my repertoire of what I grill beyond burgers, hot dogs, smoked sausages and chicken. I've also never tried doing a dry rub, and want to do that.
Baking cakes and cupcakes more often so that I can improve my decorating skills and perfect my recipes for cake and frosting. Two cake recipes I found recently that I want to make: Butter Cake with Browned Butter Frosting, and Chocolate Pumpkin Layer Cake with Brown Sugar Frosting. Yum!
Cuban food - probably garlic chicken with rice and black beans. I also have a copycat recipe for Zankou Chicken's garlic paste that I really want to try. Zankou Chicken is a small chain of restaurants in the L.A. area. They have awesome rotisserie chicken and serve it with Middle Eastern side dishes, and the garlic paste is a spread for pita bread, or you can do like I do and put it right on the chicken.
Homemade tamales
Bread - James got me a book called Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day, and I have to try a recipe from it. Must remedy that one, and soon!

I'm sure I'll be adding to this list as I think about other things I want to try. Plus I have recipes bookmarked in my AllRecipes Recipe Box that I have never tried, and ones that are in my recipe binder.

I need to get busy with planning meals so that I can schedule some of this stuff in and get started!

What's Up with the Kids, Anyway? - Pt. 2, Rachel**

2011-06-26T14:00:00.000-07:00

Rachel

While going through everything with Ben, we decided it was time to find out what might be going on with Rachel. We had 3 appointments in April & May, one with just the parents and the neurobehavioral pediatrician, and 2 that included Rachel.
We also had extensive evaluation paperwork to complete, and Rachel's homeroom and math teacher had evaluations to do that pertained to her behavior at school.
Because she doesn't show attention problems at school, the doctor doesn't think at this time that she needs to be treated for ADD. He said that it may be something that shows up at a later date, or it may be that her issues are not rooted in an attention disorder.
She does have Oppositional Defiant Disorder and displays excessive defiance at both home and school. There seems to be some OCD as well.
The pediatrician recommended that we get a DVD called 1-2-3 Magic, as he has seen many children like Rachel and with even more extreme defiance find success when their parents used this method. The biggest components of the method are for parents to remain calm (and stop having their own temper tantrums in the face of very frustrating and infuriating behavior in their children) and for them to apply it consistently. Both of those are good things for us to remember. We're still working on it, but we're making good progress with Rachel and are being encouraged.
The other thing that has made a difference is that I stopped letting her have red dye 40. I did some reading up on it and saw that it can cause children with ADD/ADHD to have aggravated symptoms, and even in those who do not have ADD/ADHD, some have a sensitivity to red dye 40 that can cause them to mirror those symptoms. She still has mood swings and temper tantrums, and I'm sure she will always have a defiant streak, but the pendulum does not swing as far nor as often now as it was when I wasn't monitoring her intake of the dye. It's amazing how much difference something like that can make, and that it even has the power to bring out that sort of behavior.

It can be so difficult sometimes when we're faced with her bullheadedness and, at times, downright nastiness. But we know that she's a very bright girl who loves us, dotes on her brother and is so patient with him. She has a silly, fun sense of humor and so much creativity and imagination. She's empathetic toward others and does thoughtful things for other kids at school. We know that her strong-willed streak will enable her to stand up to peer pressure when she's older, and march to the beat of her own drummer. She is growing up to be a remarkable person.

She may be a lot of work, but she's worth it!

**Please note that I'm not looking for advice, just sharing and sometimes venting.

What's Up with the Kids, Anyway? - Pt. 1, Ben**

2011-06-25T10:15:00.000-07:00

To keep things simple, here's a recap in bullet form:

Ben

Was evaluated by our Birth to Three Center in February and found to be delayed in all areas - speech, fine motor skills, adaptive, social, cognitive, etc.
Started playgroup therapy 2x a week along with weekly occupational therapy, speech therapy, and at-home therapy with his playgroup teacher.
Made some good progress in that time, but aged out of the program when he turned 3 on May 12.
During his time in the program, he saw a specialist who noted some autistic characteristics and behaviors, but didn't feel he should be diagnosed with full-blown autism at that point and asked to see Ben again in 6 months (late October or early November).
The specialist diagnosed PDD-NOS (Pervasive Developmental Disorder, Not Otherwise Specified). It's a disorder in the autism spectrum. What does that mean? From the Autism Speaks website: PDD-NOS may be thought of as “subthreshold autism," or a diagnosis one can give a person who has “atypical symptomatology.” In other words, when someone has autistic characteristics but some of their symptoms are mild, or they have symptoms in one area (like social deficits), but none in another key area (like restricted, repetitive behaviors), they may be given the PDD-NOS label.
Ben started in a developmental preschool program at a local preschool on May 16. He made good progress in following their schedule and sitting for things like circle time without having to be asked. We're hopeful that he'll continue to do well when the program starts up again in the fall.
Progress with cognitive skills, language and other things has been slow, but we're celebrating all the little steps along the way. Last week, for the first time, he answered my "I love you" with an "I lub you" in return. Yesterday, I got to hear him do it again, and it was wonderful!

There are good days and bad days. He's a very sweet boy, but sometimes he lashes out in anger and tries to hurt us. He feels everything very deeply, which is unfortunate when he's grabbing our hair, biting or scratching us; but it's awesome when he's giving us a long, tight hug and saying our names with such love!

This isn't how we would have chosen for things to be, but we're learning to live with the new normal and to be thankful for lots of things that we might have otherwise taken for granted. The hardest part for me is not knowing how he will progress and what his future will look like. For that, I just have to continually make the decision to trust God, knowing that He will enable us and empower us for whatever lies ahead. Easier said than done, but I'm learning.

**Please note that I'm not looking for advice, just sharing and sometimes venting.

Time to Get Back on the Horse

2011-06-24T10:35:00.000-07:00

Life threw me for a loop for a couple of months. Okay, it was five months.

The last time I wrote about our kids, we were still a bit in the dark in terms of what was going on with each. I've written updates about them on Facebook, but writing blog posts seemed overwhelming, like too much work when I was just struggling to try to keep up with the day-to-day stuff. I'd been making really great headway at the beginning of the year in getting through the decluttering of areas that had been neglected for far too long, and I was starting to work on things that I'd been wanting to do for a while. But once we entered the world of evaluations and therapy, it knocked the wind out of me. Plus this might have been the grayest winter we've had since moving here in March 2006, and it seemed to last FOREVER.

I felt like I just could not get back into the swing of things, much less gain forward momentum again, for months. I was sapped of energy and motivation. I'd look around at things that needed doing and feel helpless to do them. Even had a few days where I felt real despair.

I actually went to my doctor for a checkup, not knowing if what I was experiencing was just a natural reaction to stressful life circumstances or if I might actually be going through depression or an anxiety disorder. She ran some blood tests, and it turns out that my vitamin D level was pretty low. Symptoms of low vitamin D can include depression and chronic fatigue. She put me on a 50,000 unit weekly vitamin D prescription for 6 months, and after that I'm supposed to take a daily dosage.

I've started to feel much better this week. I think that the vitamin D is kicking in, and that combined with the sunshine we've had for most of the week has helped me to find some motivation and be productive.

It has felt really good to get a lot done and use my time well. I'm looking forward to clearing away the clutter that was already in existence and that which has gathered in the last few months. It's going to be great to have the house get more and more cleared out, but we're going to have to be vigilant about ways to keep the clutter from building back up.

I was going to write about the kids, too, but I think I'll have to save that for another post.

Food Icons you can find on LoseIt!, even though they have no icon for Bread

2011-05-22T19:33:00.000-07:00

So I keep thinking that I need to write some posts to update people on what's going on with Ben and Rachel. I've done lots of mini-updates via Facebook but figured it would be good to just recap what's been happening with both children. But that requires time and thought and stresses me out a little just now, so instead I'm writing this post about the ridiculousness of icon options in the LoseIt! app.

I love the LoseIt! program, as I've mentioned before. But one thing that is weird about the app is that, when you're entering a new food not contained in the database, you can use the default icon for your food, or you can select from the available icons listed. Many a time I have entered a particular kind of bread, but when you look through the icon list for Bread, you won't find it. You can find specific kinds of bread products, like Bagel, Breadsticks, Cornbread, Hot Dog Bun, and even White Bread, but no just "Bread." (What do you have against Wheat Bread, LoseIt?) I find this annoying. Sometimes I just want to call something "Bread" and would like to use the appropriate icon for it, because I am anal-retentive.

Still, it's good to know that if I have one of the following items, I will be able to find its accompanying icon when I enter the food enter LoseIt!'s database:

Bamboo
Chestnut
Coca-Cola (yes, it has its own icon - where's the love for bread?)
Falafel
Fern
Gobo Root
Gourd
Hershey Kiss (another brand-specific item listing)
Marshmallow
Okra (yeah, that'll happen)
Seaweed (see above comment)
Seed
Spice, Brown
Spice, Green
Spice, Red
Spice, Yellow (do we seriously need 4 separate color-coded listings for Spice? How about doing something wacky and lumping them all together under "Spice"?)
Starfruit

There you have it, folks. The goofiness that is LoseIt!'s icon listing.

You Better T.H.I.N.K.

2011-03-09T23:37:00.000-08:00

Tonight I was reminded of a sermon I heard 5 years ago, right after we moved to Washington. It was at a church that we visited the first couple of weeks here. It never clicked for me, although James really liked the preaching and service style and visited there on his own a few times when I was under the weather.

One of the sermons I heard there has stuck with me all this time. In it, the pastor used an acronym to describe how to decide if we should say something. And that acronym was T.H.I.N.K.

Truthful - is what you have to say truthful? That should be pretty straightforward. But if you're not sure that what you're about to say is truthful, perhaps it's best to leave it unsaid.
Helpful - is your comment or question going to be helpful to the person to whom you are going to say, or might it hinder them in some way or be unhelpful?
Inspirational - will it bring inspiration to them in some form?
Necessary - is it something that needs to be said, or might it be wise to keep the comment to yourself? Will it cause more harm than good in saying it?
Kind - are your motives kind in saying it?

This isn't to say that you can never say something to a person that might hurt them; confronting an addict about their problem or a fellow follower of Jesus who's in obvious sin about their need for repentance is something that is a painful process but often necessary in order to truly help that person. But there are many times when we open our mouths and insert our feet, or say something that is insulting or hurtful to someone, with no thought towards a beneficial end goal or without considering "Is there a better way to say this? Am I correct in my assumptions or judgments about the situation?"

I admit that I need to live by this acronym more than I do currently, but there have been a few times when I've been stopped short in saying or writing something with the realization that it was not necessary or kind, or that it wouldn't be helpful for me to bring up ___________ to someone that was not ready to hear it. There have also been times when I've been deeply wounded by words, sometimes said on purpose and sometimes said thoughtlessly.

So take a word of advice from Aretha, and T.H.I.N.K.

So. Yeah.

2011-03-06T18:06:00.000-08:00

The past few days have been odd. It's strange to plunge into a world where your child may have as-yet-undetermined special needs. We've suspected issues with Rachel for a long time, but it's only been recently when we realized something was going on with Ben, and then we've jumped right into the therapy services that we're being offered.

My sister-in-law recommended another pediatrics office to me as a potential resource for an evaluation for Ben. I contacted them and found out that they don't do as extensive an evaluation as what Ben requires, due to his delays being in every area. But they do deal with children with ADD/ADHD, so I brought up my concerns about Rachel. They sent me a packet to complete and, once I've mailed it in, they should contact me within 3 days to schedule the intake appointments for the evaluation process for her.

Although I'm disappointed that they won't be able to evaluate Ben, it's a relief to be getting something started for Rachel. It's been difficult to manage her behavior even without everything that's gone on lately with Ben, but to try to manage both situations without professional intervention, and to keep slogging on with her in a situation that really isn't getting significantly better? That would eventually drive me to a nervous breakdown, I think.

I'm already tired of the emotional ups and downs, but I'm sure those are something that will come more into balance as I wrap my brain around what's happening and learn to live with it.

Ben's playgroup teacher came on Friday afternoon for her first at-home visit with Ben, which was more of a conversation between her and me about what the goals should be for working with him in the next few months and beyond. During that time, she brought up her concern that she believes he has autism. She isn't qualified to formally diagnose him, but she's an autism specialist with much experience. She mentioned specific reasons why she believes he may be autistic and said that she wants to see how things unfold over the next 2 to 3 weeks to see if her suspicions are correct.

Something tells me that she doesn't make that judgment lightly. She said that the physicians are Mary Bridge will be able to determine one way or the other if he is autistic and, if so, to what severity. It's hard to know how that might impact us. Giving it a name doesn't change the day-to-day challenges we've been having or change his personality, and if he is autistic, he'll qualify for additional services once he's started preschool with the public school system, which he'll do in September either way due to the delays.

I'm not that upset at hearing he may be autistic, which is odd. I'll probably cry about it at some point, but for now, I appreciate that she's keeping us informed. She said that she likes to tell parents what she's thinking so that they understand why she's asking particular questions and just know what's going on with their child.

I need life to get back to normal, although it's going to be a new normal. I'd like to start getting back to a regular cleaning schedule and then find time to tackle more of the decluttering, sorting of items, cleaning out the overload of toys in Rachel's room and other chores like that. Plus I've been collecting coupons that need to be cut out and put into my binder so that I'm actually using them and don't let that fall to the wayside. Wasted money, people!

It seems like I can't get enough sleep to feel rested right now, but I'm sure that will change over time as we adjust. It's a little tough currently, but I think we've been through a lot of the roughest parts already.

Challenges Now & Challenges Ahead

2011-03-02T14:25:00.000-08:00

So, it's been a long time since I've written a post. February was a really busy month. I hosted 2 baby showers and had quite a bit to do for each. I was supposed to take a Wilton Flowers & Cake Design course on Monday nights in February, but I ended up cancelling last minute because it seemed like too much to try to do that along with Rachel's dance class on Tuesday evenings, Awana for her at our church on Wednesday evenings, choir & worship team for me on Thursday evenings and small group at our house on Friday evenings. I decided to wait until it's summer or close to it so that activities are beginning to subside and it's not as crazy. I just can't commit to doing something every weekday evening. I know my limits.

I also had a cold and the flu throughout the month. Still getting over the last bit of the cold, which bookended the flu. Our whole family took turns passing the flu around, but thankfully only once for each of us. Hopefully we've gotten it out of our systems for a while and will be able to enjoy a good long period of healthiness.

We've been having our ups and downs with Rachel. Lots of frustration over trying to get regular tasks accomplished without drama and nagging. It's difficult to even have a conversation with her about setting goals because sometimes I can't get her to pay attention long enough to talk with her for 2 minutes. I'm still reading the book The Explosive Child and am planning on working through the process to see if it can help, but I can't imagine that it will "fix" things to the point that it will be all we need to manage her behavior. I firmly believe she has ADHD and would not be surprised to find that a low dosage of medication would bring about a world of change in how she's able to handle conversations, responsibilities, frustration, etc.

I'm irritated that our pediatrician largely seemed to dismiss my concerns. We filled out a Vanderbilt Assessment Form, which checks for ADHD among other issues, and she had 12 out of 18 indicators for ADHD. But we circled "Above Average" for how we'd rate our relationship with her, instead of "Problematic" or "Somewhat of a Problem," because we feel we've managed to keep a positive relationship with her despite our struggles and that she does feel loved. We explained that in the comments section and said that there are plenty of days where we're at wit's end and do have problems.

But because we didn't have a particular number circled, the pediatrician says she doesn't have ADHD. I think that's bull. And now we're having to deal with more drama and frustration and difficulties while we wait for things to play out so that we can press the point and push for further evaluation or a second opinion. I could do that now, but I'd like to give the book's methods a decent shot before I then contact him again.

In regard to Ben, we had some concerns about how verbal development and whether or not he was comprehending things we were telling him. He also shows aggression and gets frustrated sometimes, which we felt was largely related to not being able to communicate as he'd like to do. We were referred by our pediatrician to the Birth to Three Developmental Center, and Ben had an evaluation a few weeks ago. It reflected that he's delayed in every area evaluated: Adaptive skills (like self-care and feeding), Cognitive, Expressive Language (what he communicates to us), Receptive Language (what he understands of what we're communicating to him), Fine Motor, Gross Motor and Social/Emotional. He's behind enough on every skill to qualify for services.

That was a serious blow to us. We knew that he was behind on some things but figured he'd catch up, and we just didn't know where he should be for his age. It didn't seem like he was all that different from the other boys in the church nursery who are close to his age.

Also, because Ben is turning 3 on May 12, he only qualifies for services through Birth to Three until then. After that, he qualifies for services through the public school district and will need to get any additional therapy through our insurance. Ben would be able to start preschool on May 12, but only for a little over a month until the school year ends, and it would be the afternoon session. He gets tired and cranky and still naps on many days, and I can't imagine that it would be helpful for him to attend an afternoon preschool session for 4 or 5 weeks while cranky. Instead, he'll be starting preschool for 2 3/4 hours a day, 4 days a week in September.

I was not planning to send him to preschool so soon and it was upsetting to think that I'd have to do so. The upside is that preschool will be of no cost to us, the teachers are trained to work with children who have delays, and they will work with us to help potty train him when he's ready. There are a lot of benefits, but that doesn't make it less upsetting that Ben is delayed enough to require this kind of help.

It's dismaying not to know if there's a cause for his delays. When a child has as many delays as Ben does, it's called Global Developmental Delay, and there's a lot of scary stuff on the Internet about causes for it or prognoses for some of those who have it. We don't know if there's a reason for it; if Ben will always be delayed, and if so, how far behind he'll be; or if he'll be able to catch up with other children his age and this will be resolved with little to no aftereffects. We have no idea what to expect.

I called our pediatrician's office and asked for a referral to a developmental pediatrician, one who is an expert at evaluating children with delays to determine a cause, if one can be determined. I just called the developmental pediatrician's office and found out that they'll send me a packet once they have reviewed the referral to make sure Ben qualifies as a patient. Then once I fill it out and return it (and make sure that it's all filled out completely and correctly), they have an 8-month waiting list. EIGHT MONTHS. Are you freaking kidding me? We have to wait a minimum of 8 months from when they receive our completed packet to even start the process of finding out if there's a major problem, and in the meantime, just sit around in ignorance, hoping that things will be okay? They mentioned that the Seattle Children's Center has developmental pediatricians as well but that their waiting list is longer.

So frustrated right now.

I know that God gave Rachel and Ben to us specifically and that we are the right parents for them and they are the right children for us. I believe that things will get easier with Rachel and that it won't always be so frustrating with her. I hope that Ben will benefit from the playgroup he's in, the speech therapy we've started and the occupational therapy we'll be starting as soon as we get a slot with a therapist. But I have no idea what to expect as far as his future goes. I don't know how fast or how far he'll progress, if he'll ever be able to keep up with other kids his age or if we need to just completely reset any expectations. I don't know if our dreams for him will be within his reach. But I adore my kids, and I wouldn't trade them for the world.

I think we're going to need to lean on God an awful lot through this. I gave my burdens to Him yesterday and really did feel them lifted from my shoulders, but I suspect this will be a regular, and at times daily, process.\

And I know that we're fortunate when there are people who lose children to terminal illnesses and horrible events, or whose children don't even interact with them and show awareness, or who desperately want children and are unable to have them. We're blessed in many ways, and I'm grateful, but sometimes I just want to wallow a little in self-pity and frustration and anger. I'm glad that God allows that, too.

Non-Extreme Couponing

2011-01-26T15:48:00.000-08:00

I've used coupons a few times in my life. I was really proud of the times I've said close to $10 on my grocery bill by using manufacturer coupons. It's great saving money on things you were going to buy, anyway. But every time I've tried using coupons, I've found myself letting coupon inserts pile up or finding that half of the coupons I'd clipped were expired when I was finally ready to use them.

We've been looking to cut down our budget where we can, and I know that groceries are one area that can really vary from month to month. I was also sure that I could save some money there by going back to planning menus a month ahead of time (which I still need to restart) and by using coupons on a regular basis.

I watched Extreme Coupons a few weeks ago. Rather than inspiring me, it freaked me out a little. These people were *really* extreme. The first woman profiled claims to spend 70 hours a week couponing, but she also has a full-time job. I'd like to know how much work she actually gets done for her job on any given day, not to mention how much attention she pays to her husband, who was clearly fed up. She has two rooms devoted to her stockpiling and had started to take over the room that was his "man cave." I personally think that's a goofy term, but I get it, and she was telling him he should remove some of his things from that area so that she'd have more room for storage. The woman had 3,000 rolls of toilet paper in her stockpile! I read that it's enough to last an average couple for 30 years. She also had things that she didn't seem to have a plan for using ("They paid me a dollar for each of those tubes that I took out of the store;" "Those boxes there are beauty products.") and was simply hoarding.

At any rate, I have no desire to duplicate that obsessive level of couponing. I *do* have a desire to save my family some money and help pay off debt sooner, and free up money for the fun things we'd like to be able to do more often. And I think with a few hours here and there (especially once I've gotten in the habit), I'll be able to do so. Some couponers use coupon clipping services, but I think I can save plenty by just using the ones in the paper. Still, it's good to get extra copies of the paper for particularly good coupons.

We already get a free city paper on Saturdays with 1-2 coupon inserts in it. I checked to see if I could get more copies delivered (as my friend Angie had done, and is now getting 5 copies for free every Saturday), but I was told it would be $80 for a subscription, and I'm not sure if that would be $80 for each of the copies (or $320 for the non-free copies total). I didn't want to pay for the extra copies if I could help it, but I did find some places in town where they stock extra copies for people to take for free. Score! I figure that since pretty much everybody in my city gets the paper for free, it's not a problem for me to pick up a few extra copies, so my plan is to now have 5 copies of the Saturday paper each week and use those coupons in my shopping.

With that taken care of, my next problem is organizing them in a way that will work for me so that I can stay on top of what I have and use those savings at the best times, and before they expire. The best way to save is by combining coupons with store sales. I've been told by friends that the easiest thing is to choose 1 to 2 grocery store for this process, since more than that becomes overwhelming, and I agree. There are coupon websites that list store prices for quite a few chains (like Coupon Mom and My Grocery Deals), and some of those websites also show you which coupons are available to go with the sale items. Northwest Coupon Lady lists the sale and value aisle prices at her local Richmond, WA Winco, which should match up with other Wincos even if the price varies just a bit. I have to test this but am looking forward to doing so!

To actually organize the coupons, I'm going to give a coupon binder a try. I've tried putting them into envelopes, but it's hard to find the ones I need and to make sure I'm using coupons before they expire. I was thinking about trying a small file box, like a recipe card box, but I think I would run into some of the same problems. Then I read this article from BeingFrugal.net on organizing a coupon binder. Some of the things I noted that I think will be helpful to me are to use a zippered binder (so that if your binder falls when you're carrying it closed up, you don't end up with coupons spilling out all over the place) and to use photo or baseball card pocket pages to sort and view your coupons. I noticed the extreme couponers on the show used binders, and I think there's some sense to it. A Thrifty Mom also has a great article with tips on getting started and how she organizes her coupons, along with a list of the section headers that she has in her binder to help her find the right coupons quickly.

I've currently got coupon inserts spread out on my kitchen table. I'm tearing the pages apart and stacking the same coupons together so that I can cut them out several at a time, then I'll get them organized. I still need to pick up a binder and the pages to go in it, but at least I can get started and start checking the sale flyers for bargains. I'm looking forward to seeing how much I can start saving by shopping this way!

I Love My Contigo Water Bottle

2011-01-21T10:33:00.000-08:00

That's all there is to it.

I've been thinking that it would benefit me to start using a reusable water bottle. I've tried a metal one before with the theory that it would keep my water colder and wouldn't taste "plasticky." It didn't. It tasted metallic. I did a little searching for a metal bottle with a ceramic liner, thinking that might taste better. I didn't search too thoroughly, but I didn't find any. And if they exist, I'm betting they're pricey.

Cut to last week when I was shopping at Costco. I spotted a 3-pack of Contigo water bottles in aqua, raspberry and a dark charcoal color. James loves his Contigo travel mug and uses it frequently for his coffee. These water bottles were cool-looking, they were in the AutoSeal line and they were only $15.99 for all three. I decided to give them a try.

This one is similar to the raspberry one we have:

Ours is a little more slender, I think, and it has a bumpy grip on the bottle near where the lid attaches, which makes it easier to hold. This one also appears to have lines measuring the volume of the liquid, whereas ours don't, but I don't miss that.

Pros:

Bumpy grip
BPA free
Thick walls keep water cool for a long time
Narrow enough to fit in car and stroller cupholders
Automatically seals closed so it doesn't spill or leak. You press a button on the lid to take a drink and release it to seal it again.
The button is easy to press and it's nice not having to unscrew the cap or lid of a water bottle.
Dishwasher safe in the top rack
Lid allows you to drink water quickly
Has a carabiner so you can attach it to bags
Environmentally friendly way to stay hydrated
The water I drink from it actually tastes good!

Cons:

Lid is heavy, which can make it the tiniest bit unwieldy when putting the lid on until you get used to it. The bottle height and heaviness of the lid might make it difficult to use in most stroller cupholders.
If you don't empty out the lid's opening, when you press the button, you can get a little blast of water (very small, just a couple of drops) in your face. Yes, I speak from experience. That's easy enough to fix, though - I just bring my bottle upright before I release the button, and that empties it enough.
Most people probably don't have dishwasher top racks tall enough to accommodate; handwashing it is pretty simple, though, and I don't mind.

By the way, you should definitely wash out your reusable water bottle regularly (every other day, if not daily) and sanitize it periodically to keep it from growing bacteria, mold and algae. A simple way to sanitize it is to put in half an inch of baking soda, then fill the bottle most of the way with hot water and close it tight. Shake it for about a minute and leave it for half an hour, then rinse it thoroughly. If the water from your bottle still tastes weird after you've sanitized the bottle, it's time to recycle it and get a new one.

The best part of my new water bottle is that I find myself drinking a lot more water, and I know that's good for me.

Hey, How've You Been?

2011-01-18T19:55:00.000-08:00

I was sitting here composing a Facebook mini-rant about magazines and websites that don't post nutritional information for their recipes (what is UP with that, Real Simple?) when it occurred to me that I hadn't posted in a while. I'm not going to post an extended rant here, but suffice it to say that people really should at least say how many calories, fat grams and carbs are in the recipes. Websites like SparkRecipes have free recipe calculators. It's what I use to find out the info when I don't have it for a particular recipe, but I think it's ridiculous that things like Real Simple magazine and FoodNetwork.com don't include that type of information already. It's not like people won't cook that food if they see the nutritional information, since many people don't really care about their calorie intake, anyway, or can afford indulgences here and there. But for those of us who do care, it would be nice if we didn't have to do the work ourselves so much of the time when it's readily available information for those who are printing the recipes.

Okay, so that was sort of a medium-sized rant. I'm sure you can deal with it.

We're in the midst of Ye Olde Unplanned Bathroome Renovation. I think it's going well, but what do I know? Yesterday was day 1, which involved ripping stuff up, basically. The toilet was removed (and placed on our front porch - as James said "Take that, HOA!"), old linoleum came out, the old tub and shower surround came out, and the damaged portions of the subfloor were cut out. Today, they cleared out the debris from the removals, cut the hole in the laundry room ceiling to take out a little more that was damaged and give it a nice square-edged area for replacing, installed new subflooring, put in some new 2x4 supports behind where the shower head will go and attached that piping to it and put in the new tub, which appears to now be connected to the drainpipe.

I'm not sure what's next when they get started again tomorrow, but I'm really hoping the shower surround and hardware go in, because I'd like to see that coming together. I don't know what else they might need to get done before that, but I'm pretty sure they'll be getting to that at some point during the day. I'd absolutely love it if they got the surround in and secured and the plumbing things all connected and the tub and shower caulked, but that may be too much to hope for.

By the way, we found out that the tub and surround were not cracked. There were two issues that combined to basically thrash the subfloor and require replacement. One was not enough wax rings under the toilet, which caused the one ring to deteriorate over time and prevent the seal from being complete. The other was something that the builder apparently did when installing the tub, which was to fail to properly seal off a spot where 2 pieces of pipe were connected. There's an inner pipe and an outer one; the inner would overflow into the outer spot, which could hold a certain amount. If showers were short enough, the water would just go back down and be eliminated. If showers were longer, the water would fill up the outer pipe, too, and overflow that, resulting in the drip that we were seeing rather severely with some showers and not at all with others. So at least we found out the mystery and this should indeed fix the drip there permanently. Our tub was technically okay, but it's 32 years old and getting rusty, so it would need replacing in the nearish future and the contractor recommended taking care of it now. We concur since it wouldn't save much, with labor to put back in the old tub probably being about the same as the new one. And this way we were able to get a tub that's a little bit deeper and roomier but still fits into the same footprint.

I was going to talk about more things, but now this post is already really long, and I'm not sure anyone is even still reading this. Are you? At any rate, I'm also tired and am going to wrap it up and move on. But I'm sure I'll be back again soon.

Call Me Ranty McRanterson

2011-01-10T20:35:00.000-08:00

Allow me to vent for a moment (or close this page and move on to something else). Today just wasn't a good day. The weather has been cold and the mornings have been dark and the days have been gray, which makes it really hard to feel rested and find motivation, which means I end up with not that much done at the end of most days. And that's frustrating.

We have the ongoing leak between the master bathroom and the laundry room, STILL. After 3 visits from the first plumbers that American Home Shield sent out, they decided upon the 4th call to send another plumbing company. Those plumbers determined that we had no leaks in our pipes or connections and were fairly certain that we have a hairline crack in our bathtub or surround, and recommended replacing both. I'm pretty sure that they are both original to our 32-year-old house, so I guess that's a good amount of usage, but it stinks that this happened after we took ownership so that it became our problem.

So we got a recommendation for a contractor who could take care of replacing the bathtub and shower surround, replace the bathroom floor, brace the damaged truss underneath in the laundry room ceiling, and redo and finish the drywall in the ceiling. The estimate was more than we hoped it would be, but probably a fair price for the work we're having done. The cost of the tub and shower was on top of the estimate. Ouch. We hadn't been planning to redo the bathroom any time soon, so this is a bit financially painful.

The contractor came in the daytime on New Year's Eve (a Friday) to take a look at what needed to be done so that he could give us an estimate. He asked how soon we'd like the estimate and mentioned Mondayish, and we said that would be fine. On Wednesday, I called him, and he called me back to give me the estimate. He asked if I wanted it in writing, and I asked him to please send it in an e-mail just so that I had it on hand. I also mentioned that we had a pediatrician's appointment for Monday and asked if he could start on Tuesday instead, since we'd discussed starting on Monday. He said that their current job was running into some complications, so he wasn't sure if they could start on Tuesday, and that it might be Wednesday or Thursday. I asked him to give me a call and let me know once he knew when they would be able to start.

That was 5 days ago, and I still haven't heard from him. No phone call to give me a start date, and no estimate in e-mail. This is a man who was recommended by a very reputable man from our church who works in construction. He also replaced all of the windows in the house of our friends, and they were really happy with him and his work. So I'm left to wonder what on earth is going on that the only time I've spoken with him is when I've contacted him. He did come on time for the estimate; everything else has been initiated by me. I don't know when (if?) he's going to get started on our project, and this makes me nervous about how things will go once he does get started. Am I going to be stuck with no working bathroom and a gaping hole where the tub once was, looking down into the laundry room, for days or weeks or if turns flaky? Is there some reason why he has been slow to get back to me? I suppose it's up to me to once again get ahold of him to see what's happening.

I hate dealing with home repair stuff as it is, and when people put the burden on me to have to do the legwork or be the one to initiate everything, it just gives me a giant ball of stress in my stomach. I don't need the uncertainty of whether or not I'll be able to depend on the person who's charging us a sizeable amount to do an unexpected repair. I want to know that the people I hire for services will actually offer me good customer service. Why is that such a problem?

Food Tips I've Found Helpful

2011-01-05T19:41:00.000-08:00

As I've become more calorie-conscious, there are things that I've been learning or of which I've been reminded. Some of them are things I've known for a while but to which I haven't given much thought, while others have been a new discovery for me. You may already know all of this, but then again, you may have forgotten or may be unaware of some of it.

Types of salad dressings vary great in calories and fat grams. The ones in our refrigerator currently range from Newman's Own Low Fat Sesame Ginger (35 calories and 1.5 fat grams in 2 T.) to Newman's Own Caesar Dressing (150 calories and 16 fat grams in 2 T. - ouch). In between are Ken's Fat Free Raspberry Pecan, Kraft Zesty Italian, a French dressing and Ken's Creamy Balsamic. Make sure you check the labels to see if the dressing is worth the calories. The Newman's Own Caesar Dressing is totally worth it, but I have to use it on days where I know I won't be eating other high-calorie meals in order for it to be worth it. Otherwise, I pick one of the lower-calorie dressings.
Additionally, I find that 1 tablespoon of dressing (and not the "serving size" of 2 T.) is generally plenty for a side salad. Sometimes I need a little more than 2 T. if it's a large dinner salad. I used a measuring spoon meticulously when I first started tracking my calories on LoseIt! I still use it most of the time but will sometimes eyeball it and make sure I'm not being overly generous. I really used to drown my salads, and I'm enjoying them more without dripping soggy lettuce.
Salad dressings also vary widely from brand to brand. I've seen 35 to 40 calories difference in "light" ranch dressings. Sometimes price isn't the only consideration, even if you're on a budget. Don't sacrifice a healthier product to save a quarter or two, especially when salad dressing can last for a long time. The same is often true with light mayonnaise, sour cream, lunch meats, cheese and other products. Read those labels!
Portion sizes are probably smaller than you think, if you haven't been paying attention lately. For example, a 4-oz. portion of meat is about the size and depth of a deck of cards. An ounce of cheese is approximately a 1" cube. Chips can be anywhere from 7 or 8 to 32 chips for an ounce of something like Fritos. When you're building that giant plate of nachos, you can bet you're having at least 2 to 3 servings of tortilla chips, and that can easily get you to 350-500 calories just as your base.
I'm a lot less likely to grab a handful of crackers, candy, Goldfish grahams (those things are GOOD) or other foods that happen to out on the counter if I know that I need to account for those calories. Sometimes I'll have some, anyway, and make sure I enter those calories. Other times, I pass on it so that I don't need to track it. Keeping count has made me much more conscious of eating things instead of absently just grabbing for something that's out in the open and looks tasty.

I truly had no idea before how many calories I was consuming. I also didn't know how many calories I should be consuming, so even on days when I thought I did well, I'm sure I was overeating by a fair amount. Thus my slow but steady weight gain over the years, until I was 40 pounds higher than I was 10 years ago. I've been working hard and have lost about 22 of that so far. I'm planning on losing another 15-20 and seeing how I look and feel at that point. I don't think I'll feel the need to lose more because I think that will have me at a healthy, and maintainable, weight and size. But once I've moved on to Maintenance, I still plan on keeping an awareness of portion sizes, how many helpings I'm eating of something and the other helpful lifestyle changes I've made to finally take off this extra weight.

New Recipes for a New Year

2011-01-04T11:37:00.000-08:00

I've been trying some new recipes lately. Partly driven by leftovers and partly driven by wanting to try new things, I've been using other recipes for inspiration and tailoring them to what I like and what I have on hand.

Here's one for Chicken Tortellini Soup. I must say, I think this turned out particularly delicious! I had most of a package of 3-cheese tortellini in my refrigerator and was looking to use up about half of a rotisserie chicken, so I made this one up. I referred to a few other recipes for proportions of liquid and spices, but then did some tweaking of my own for the actual recipe in the link. And at just over 280 calories per serving, it's a healthy, hot meal, too.

I used a similar process to come up with this recipe for Ham and Cheese Quiche. James loved it! I liked it but thought it could use some sliced green onions, probably about 3 or 4. (I left them out because Rachel doesn't like them, and then she ended up not caring for the quiche, anyway!) I only use the green parts because the white are a little too hot for my taste. Minced dehydrated onions would be also good mixed in to this. I diced a brown sugar cured country ham steak but would use a smoked ham steak next time as I think the smoky flavor would be a better blend than the sweet flavor of a brown sugar ham. I used Swiss and Parmesan cheeses but would like to try it with sharp Cheddar in place of the Swiss for a stronger cheese flavor. I still thought it was tasty but think I can improve on it with these changes. There were 358 calories in 1/6 of the quiche.

Lastly, there's Chocolate Butterscotch Fudge.

The original recipe for Peanut Butter Fudge is from Bakerella, who is always coming up with phenomenal ways for me to blow through my calories in a day. In reading through some of the comments from her post on the PB fudge, I saw someone mention making it with butterscotch chips in place of the peanut butter and thought "Hey, I need to try that!" This is a very rich and sweet fudge, perfect in small bites (and 105 calories per piece if you cut it into 60 pieces in a 9x13-inch baking dish). I'd like to try the original recipe with the peanut butter, too; I think the peanut butter would make a nice contrast. I was also thinking of other potential combinations, and one I definitely want to make is a Cherry Chocolate Fudge, using white vanilla chips and cherry extract in place of the peanut butter and vanilla. I think that would be delicious, and so festive with a red layer on the top!

Happy New Year!

2011-01-01T14:02:00.000-08:00

Once again, my blog posts tapered off sharply in December after a full month of posting in November. And the dropoff was even worse in 2010 than in 2009. Some days just felt really busy, and there were some days when I didn't have any good topics to talk about. But I'm determined to post semi-regularly, at least a couple of times a week. I need to work on my list of blog topics so I have those to draw on when my mind is blank.

As you well know, yesterday was New Year's Eve. For a long time, it's seemed like an odd holiday to celebrate. We all stay up late (or to the normal bedtime for some) so that we can say "Yay, it's the beginning of a new year!" There's not really much that's different between 11:59 pm on December 31 and 12:00 am on January 1 from year to year, but we ascribe a lot of significance to it as we close the books on one year and look ahead to a new one.

We used to go out for New Year's Eve. I think we mostly went out because we felt like we should. In fact, the year it turned 2000, we went to Disneyland for New Year's Eve. We were there all day. It was cold and rainy for much of the day which, while miserable, also kept the crowds down for the most part. But then 7pm arrived, and the crowds started flocking in. Main Street got more and more crowded, to the point that it was ridiculous to try to even think of going on more rides as we waited - or even moving from one side of the park to the other. We ended up staking out spots on Main Street with our friends and then just hanging out until it got close enough to midnight for Disneyland to start entertaining us in preparation for the countdown. Although we *did* do a practice countdown and faux celebration for the East Coast, who would be seeing Disneyland celebrating at midnight their time, 9:00 pm ours. When we were done at the real midnight, we stayed around long enough to get in a couple more rides, then drove about 2 miles to a nearby hotel and stayed overnight instead of trying to drive back home at 2am with a bunch of drunk people on the road.

Once I got pregnant with Rachel, it gave us a great reason to stay home. The year she was born, we ordered a meal to go from a restaurant (Chili's, I think) and rented a couple of movies. Got her settled in bed, then we ate while hanging out and watching the movies we'd picked. We were pretty much sold on that after we'd done it the first time, and it's become our favorite way to spend New Year's Eve. It's just nice to have an extended quieter time without the kids to enjoy a great meal together (that I don't have to cook) and catch up on movies we've missed.

The last 3 or 4 years, it's been Olive Garden for the meal. I don't care if people say it's not authentic Italian food (although they send their top chefs to Tuscany to get cooking experience from the area, so I think those people are at least partly wrong). We really enjoy their food, and it's high in calories, so it's not something that we indulge in regularly. But New Year's Eve is not about counting calories, which makes it a great time for an indulgent meal! And I must say, their Parmesan Crusted Bistecca (steak) was really delicious, as was the asparagus that came with it and the fettucine alfredo that I substituted for the garlic mashed potatoes.

Last night's movie picks were Date Night and Iron Man 2. Date Night is hilarious, and there was a sequence involving a cab that made me laugh harder than I have in some time! Iron Man 2 was darker than the first one, but it had some great character development and relationships, and a genuinely hissworthy villain. All in all, it was a really nice night hanging out with James and having grown-up time.

Make Ahead Meal Exchange

2010-12-22T18:17:00.000-08:00

I thought this was a good time to talk about our Make Ahead Meal (MAM) Exchange group. If you haven't heard of MAMs, this is how they work:

You gather a group of people who have similar meal needs as your family and whose cooking you think you'll enjoy. Our group has 6 families currently participating. We've talked about expanding a bit and have all agreed that about 8 would be our max, if we do add families.
Once a month, you cook a large batch of whatever dish you choose, providing some for each family in the exchange. You can decide the number of servings based upon the size of the families. For our exchange, we make 4 servings for each family. Counting our own families, this means making 24 servings of the dish that we're providing for the month.
Package each dish in 1-family-size packaging (aluminum pan, gallon-size freezer bag, etc.) and freeze ahead of the exchange date. Write on the packaging the name of the dish, date of freezing and basic cooking instructions.
Choose a date to gather and make the swap. We have picked the third Saturday of every month to swap meals. We each bring 5 of the dish we made, along with the recipes, and trade with everyone else, coming home with 5 different meals in addition to the one we made ourselves.
If we're unable to be there on a particular date, we make arrangements either with the host to drop off our meals ahead of time and pick ours up later, or to have another member of the group take our meals and pick ours up for us.

It's brilliant. You just do one round of cooking per month and end up with 6 meals ready to thaw and cook, vastly cutting down on meal prep time for the nights you use those meals. I've been thinking about doing more of this for our own family, doubling or tripling meals and freezing some for later use. It's great saving labor and having things ready to go without having to put as much planning into it myself, plus I've gotten to try some really great dishes that the other women have made. And I've been able to enjoy getting together and having some social time with them when we exchange.

Cookie & Candy Exchange

2010-12-13T16:09:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow night is the annual Cookie & Candy Exchange for the women from my Sunday School class at church. Many of us aren't regular attenders of the class anymore as it was a Young Marrieds class that's been going for some time and has evolved over time, as our schedules have evolved over time. But we still get together for this and other events, and some of us ladies meet twice a month for prayer time.

This is such a nice highlight of the Christmas season. Each of us makes half a dozen cookies or candies for each of the other women attending. We bring them along with a non-sweet dish to share at the exchange, where we sit and eat and talk and just have a nice relaxing time in the midst of a busy season. At the end, we leave with 9 or 10 (sometimes more) different types of holiday sweets to enjoy over the next few weeks, having only had to make a few batches of one kind ourselves! Brilliant. I love whoever came up with the idea of exchanges in the first place. And that reminds me that I haven't blogged about Make Ahead Meals yet. Next post!

This year for the Cookie & Candy Exchange, I'm making Praline Cookies with Brown Sugar Frosting. I'll bet you wish you had the recipe for that, huh? Here you go! Praline Cookies and Brown Sugar Frosting. I'm pretty much making the cookies as is, except I added more maple flavoring for a stronger maple taste. Also, last year when I made some of these for the holidays, I used a whole pecan half on the top, but I found myself eating the cookies in a way to try to get a bite of pecan with the cookie. This year, I'm coarsely chopping the pecans and sprinkling them across the top so that there's pecan in every bite.

I definitely recommend making them with the Brown Sugar Frosting drizzled over the top. If you prefer your cookies on the less sweet side, you may want to skip the frosting. Me? They're cookies! I like them sweet, and the frosting adds the perfect finishing touch. The recipe says to cook the frosting in an iron skillet. I just used a regular nonstick saucepan, and it worked fine. I added about half a teaspoon of maple flavoring to the frosting.

This year's frosting ended up with a little different taste and darker color. I think I must have used light brown sugar last year, and this year I went with the recipe's dark brown sugar. I actually liked last year's better, so I'll be using light brown sugar when I make these again in the future. I boiled it for a minute or two on the stove, then waited for it to thicken a little before starting to drizzle. Apparently I waited a little too long, because it was solidifying while I still had a lot of cookies left to cover! I had to work quickly, so it's a bit globby on some. But I can't complain - these taste pretty good!

One of These Things is Not Like the Other

2010-12-09T09:24:00.000-08:00

I have two jars of light mayonnaise in my refrigerator at the moment. One is Best Foods Light Mayonnaise:

The other is Fred Meyer "Lite" Mayonnaise:

15 more calories and 1.5 grams of fat more in the Fred Meyer version than in the Best Foods version. I don't know if the use of "lite" means "not as healthy as light but better than our regular version and we'll sell more this way," but if so, that seems more than a little deceptive.

I also have 2 light ranch salad dressings on hand. Wishbone Light Ranch is 40 calories for 2 tablespoons, while Kraft Light Ranch is 80 calories. That's a pretty big disparity.

I was never that careful a label reader before I started to track my calories a few months ago with Lose It. I'd check packages sometimes for desserts or frozen meals or things like that, but I wouldn't necessarily pick up a bottle of salad dressing or a jar of mayonnaise to see how many calories and fat grams it contained or how it compared with other similar dressings/condiments. I'm becoming much more aware that I need to check labels and not just assume that they're all roughly equivalent to one another. That sometimes results in me paying a little more for the healthier version, but I think that's worth it. It's a tradeoff I'm willing to make to lose the remaining extra pounds that I've carried for years.

Have I Turned a Little Grinchy?

2010-12-06T17:44:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure why, but I just don't feel all that Christmasy this year. I've been looking forward to this season with anticipation, but now that it's here, it doesn't feel like Christmastime.

Our tree has been decorated for the better part of a week, we hung up stockings a few nights ago, the outdoor decorations went out in full force yesterday, other decorations have been put up around the house (with some more to come), and I've been buying gifts for weeks, nay, months. And over Thanksgiving weekend, we watched Elf and White Christmas. Not to mention all the Christmas music we've been listening to. So why am I not feeling it?

It seems like I'm not experiencing the sentimental/emotional side of it. It's not that I'm busier this year than in past years. In fact, if anything, I'm less busy than in most recent years. And I don't think the opposite is true, that I need to be busier to feel like it's Christmas (heavens, no, not that!). I just feel oddly disconnected somehow.

Nothing bad is happening (knock on wood), and we've had other years where the Christmas season was full of stress and emotional upheaval and we still felt like Christmas was happening. Intellectually I get that it is, and I know that it's only 2 1/2 weeks until Christmas Eve.

Not sure what's going on, but I'd like to feel Christmas a little more this year.

Gift Giving, Part Deux

2010-12-01T12:26:00.000-08:00

Part of my problem with wanting to buy gifts early for Christmas is that I really like to give the gifts. So if I start buying Christmas gifts in, say, June or July, that's a really long time for me to wait to give the gift. It's been my goal to start Christmas shopping around that time each year so that we can spread out the spending over a longer period of time and more easily absorb it into our regular budget. I've managed to do some early Christmas shopping in the last couple of years, but not to stay on track with starting early and continuing at a regular pace. It still helps, but I'd like to be more organized about it.

The other problem with buying gifts early is that it's hard to figure out what to get for some people, and for others such as Rachel, what if she doesn't still want the Purple Unicorn Pillow Pet by the time Christmas rolls around? Or what if she requests it as a gift from Mom & Dad and decides she wants Santa to get her something else, when Santa has already bought the Pillow Pet and stowed it away?

So you see my dilemma.

Still, in 2011, I pledge to start Christmas shopping for the easy people no later than June and to buy a few things every month thereafter. I can also probably start putting away stocking stuffers early since stockings can get expensive, too, if you buy everything for them all at once.

My other thought was that I could start a line item in Quicken for Christmas spending and start diverting some money from checking each month into that line item. That way, I could shop later in the year if I need more time to come up with ideas, but the money's already "spent" in our budget and accounted for.

I Need to Get Paid for This

2010-11-30T23:41:00.000-08:00

I just spent the last hour and a half not exercising and going to bed on time. Instead, I was grading math tests for Rachel's teacher. "Why?" you ask. (Just humor me and pretend you were asking.) Because I checked off a box on a form at the beginning of the school year to say that I was available to grade papers and do projects at home to help out.

Normally, there's a longer turnaround time on grading things and I'm able to spread it out a bit. I think the snow days last week must have made for a time crunch, because she sent the papers home today and they needed to be returned tomorrow. I wasn't sure if she needed them to come back with Rachel in the morning or if I could bring them back at the end of the school day when picking her up, but I figured I'd better just get them done and sent back in case she needed them earlier in the day.

So now I'm again having a night where I won't get as much sleep as I really need, which is a bummer considering how much I was dragging today. I tried to nap when Ben went down early, but I just couldn't fall asleep for some reason. I think the time I spent resting helped because I felt better later in the day than I did for the first few hours. But I'm low on energy right now and bummed about going to bed late.

("And why are you blogging instead of getting yourself to bed?" you're now thinking. Because it's the last day of NaBloPoMo and, although I've missed a couple of days, I've made up the posts, and I wanted to finish well.)

Today was also another rough day with Rachel. She got in trouble with her teacher, too, which is unusual. Normally her behavior is school is pretty good even when she's misbehaving at home, but today involved eye-rolling and not wanting to do what she was asked. And it just got worse when she was at home. I think she's being negatively influenced by some of the kids she likes to play with during recess time. Thankfully they're not in her class, but she keeps gravitating to them during play time, and I truly believe she's picking up their disrespectful attitudes and actions. I'm praying that she'll start choosing to spend her time with kids who are more positive influences, and that she will be a positive influence herself, rather than getting dragged down. We're also talking with her often and just working on reinforcing what we expect of her and what disobedience and nastiness will bring in terms of consequences, and praying with her and not just for her.

I didn't worry about the plumbing today. There's just too much going on to let that weigh heavily on me on an ongoing basis. I can't take that kind of stress, so I'm choosing not to worry and stress over it.

On the bright side, I downloaded a bunch of new Christmas music to iTunes, ranging in price from $5.99 for a CD down to free! Yay, free! We got over 200 new songs in the past few days for about $23 plus tax, and I'm ordering another CD for $6.99 that will give us another 14 or so songs. Good stuff. Check out Amazon's MP3 store - their MP3 albums are frequently cheaper than their CDs, and often cheaper than the same album on iTunes.

And I bought a candy thermometer today. I've wanted one whenever I use a recipe that calls for cooking something to a particular temperature since that's a much more precise way to make candy and other confections than doing the water test. Plus it's got guidelines for temperatures for deep-frying, which means that I can start finding that perfect fried chicken recipe (which I'll be using when I reach maintenance mode on Lose It, no doubt). My plan is to make pralines for the first time this week so that I can take them to a family Christmas party. I'm also making kalua pig, so at least I'll have to bring if my pralines don't turn out, but I think they'll be fine if I just follow the instructions and tips given by reviewers. If you want to make them yourself, the recipe is here. I'd suggest you read the first couple of reviewers' comments before embarking on making them as they have some helpful tips to make sure the pralines turn out as desired.

Always Stuff Going On

2010-11-29T10:54:00.000-08:00

Not only is our leak still happening, now it's become a faster drip. We've got a laundry basket catching it, but we have water dripping through a knot in the subfloor, so I'm not sure if we should even keep using that bathroom until the leak is repaired for good.

Called it into American Home Shield and they're sending back out the same plumbers. I called the plumbing company and spoke to the head guy, David. He said "Yeah, Benny said he thought you needed repiping." I said "Really? He didn't say anything to me about that" and David laughed a little and said "Well, either way, you're not paying for it." Like that was the point. How about the fact that Benny felt there was another problem that he hadn't taken care of and hadn't bothered to tell me "If this doesn't fix the problem, you may need repiping"? Or how about the fact that he could have decided on the second visit that repiping was the way to go, and gotten it done, instead of having us continue to live with the drip and require a third visit to (hopefully) fix things?

Not happy about that. I hope that the third time's the charm. Otherwise, I will tell AHS that they will be sending out different plumbers and that they need to take care of the service call fee. I'd rather not have to do that and just want it fixed. I hate this kind of stuff.

Also, our heater is holding steady this morning at 64. Ooh! Just checked it and it's now 65. Hopefully it's heading to its setting of 68. 65's a little too chilly for my taste, and I really don't want to have to deal with heater repair or replacement, too.

Spinach (and Allrecipes) to the Rescue!

2010-11-28T19:57:00.000-08:00

We had an hour before we were about to sit down and eat our Thanksgiving meal when we realized that we didn't have the green beans for the green bean casserole. Gilda really had her heart set on having it, so Corey went in search of a nearby business that would have green beans so that he could run and pick them up and the casserole could be made. The down side of staying in a sort-of-middle-of-nowhere rental is that there are no major businesses, and the small businesses close on holidays. No green bean casserole.

Plan B: Corey was determined that we were having bacon, darnitall. So I went to my trusty Allrecipes.com and started to look for a recipe. I had brought a bag of fresh spinach to use in salad the next day, but I had some other salad greens, so I wondered what kind of salad I could find that used spinach and bacon.

Voila! Wilted Spinach Salad. This is not a lowcal dish by any means, but it sure was tasty and I think it made a pretty good substitution for the casserole. It's basically just spinach, hardboiled eggs, green onions and crumbled bacon with a dressing made up bacon drippings, eggs, sugar and vinegar. The original recipe called for white vinegar and red wine vinegar. The rental's pantry had rice vinegar, so I used that, and boy was it good! I think I'll have to pick up some rice vinegar to add to my vinegar collection in the kitchen.

Thanks again, Allrecipes!

Home Sweet Home

2010-11-27T23:18:00.000-08:00

Just got back from 3 nights away at a rental house with a bunch of family for Thanksgiving. It was nice getting away for a mini-vacation and spending time with loved ones. We played some board games, watched movies, got in some free step for exercise, ate some tasty meals and enjoyed conversation with one another. I had a good time, but I must say...

it's nice to be home again! No matter how great the vacation, there's something comforting about being back in your own space. And that was most apparent in Ben. He did well on the trip, but by today, he was ready to be home again. He didn't want to do pictures at the end before we all cleared out. He was all about a teary "Bye bye! Bye bye!" He was happy on the trip home, I think because he realized that's where we were headed. He seemed to recognize things as we got within a few miles of our house, and when he was put into his crib, he just stood up and kept squealing and jumping and looking at different things in his room, then squealing some more. He is definitely a boy who is all about the familiar and comforting.

We got some things put away but not all. I love it when we're able to get everything put back in its place and the laundry to the laundry room and clean clothes put away on the same day that we get back from a trip. We didn't get to that point today, but I intend to tomorrow. Plus, James got our Christmas tree out of storage and assembled it for me so that I didn't have to do it tonight and be up later. I promised Rachel I'd get it done after she went to bed so it will be ready for us to start decorating tomorrow. I know she's excited for that, and I've been waiting for this, too! I love having the trip up and decorated, and I want to be able to enjoy it for as much of the Christmas season as possible.

So tomorrow is about church, lunch, possibly a little shopping (we need a new bathmat for the kids' bathroom since we left ours at the rental house, and Family Christian Store is having an excellent sale and I've been finding some gift ideas I want to pick up there), putting away our stuff from the vacation, and decorating. And exercising. Sounds busy, but hopefully I'll be able to get those things done without feeling rushed and while enjoying myself.

It doesn't seem like we should already be getting back to normal school and work routines the day after tomorrow. I wonder if that's because we had so much snow on Sunday and Monday that I ended up picking up James from work after a few hours and Rachel from school almost 3 hours early on Monday, then they cancelled school on Tuesday and Wednesday due to continued iciness. So it was nearly a weeklong vacation for all of us. Still, only 3 more weeks of school and Rachel has 2 weeks off. It will be nice to be able to have some relaxed mornings, but I'll be working on ways to keep her and Ben entertained. The nice thing is that James has a few days off each of those weeks, so I'll really only have 3-4 days per week to fill.

Clearly my mind is full and I need to let it wind down. Maybe I'm getting used to blogging daily and have a hard time when I don't write long posts and get my thoughts out each day. Or maybe I'm just in crank-it-back-into-gear mode from returning.

At any rate, I shall enjoy sleeping in my own bed tonight, and especially with my own pillow.

Some Things Are The Same Whether Man Or Beast

2010-11-26T22:10:00.000-08:00

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Thought this was appropriate for a big travel weekend :)

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

2010-11-26T22:01:00.000-08:00

Blogging from my phone again. We've been out of town for three days at a rental home with family, and it's been really nice spending time together. And now that we've celebrated Thanksgiving, I'm pumped to be in the Christmas season! I wish we'd been able to get the Christmas tree set up before we left town so that we could start decorating tomorrow after getting back home. But hopefully we'll still be able to at least get it set up and maybe lit tomorrow, even if we don't decorate until another day.

Regardless, I'm excited for this season and ready for it to be here!

Tardiness

2010-11-24T14:48:00.000-08:00

I hate tardiness. I hate being the tardy one and I do my best to be on time for things. Barring that, if someone is expecting me and I know that I'm going to be late, I try to reach them so that I can let them know that I'm on my way but am not going to be there on time.

To me, tardiness - whether in the workplace when someone is late for a meeting, or home when you're waiting for a babysitter to arrive, or when you're meeting up with others for a road trip - tardiness says to me that your time is more important than mine and that you do not respect me. If it comes with an apology, that helps, but it really should be prefaced by communication, especially if you're able to let me know before the expected time comes and goes. And if it comes with neither a forewarning nor an apology, you've pretty much sealed my opinion of you as rude.

I think that's why I go crazy when Rachel's dawdling results in another late school arrival. I don't like being that person and hate when the departure time hinges on a willful 6-year-old choosing to get ready to go. Although Rachel was not the reason for today's tardiness, thank goodness.

Updates

2010-11-23T20:47:00.000-08:00

I'm happy to report that we've had pretty good days with Rachel since my post last week about the truly rotten one we'd had. We've had minor behavior issues and some frustration, but we've been able to get a handle on her and get her redirected without too much drama and consequences. I'm keeping a close eye on how much sugar she takes in from junk food, since there seems to be a pretty direct correlation between her sugar intake and obnoxious, hyperactive behavior that leads to all sorts of wrong decisions on her part and a seeming inability to make the right ones. I know that countless studies have proven that sugar does not directly have an effect on behavior, but there are theories that certain things in sugary foods and the consumption of them in environments like birthday parties *can* cause hyperactivity. All I know is that when Rachel has had candy, cupcakes, etc., we see a response to it. And until she can learn to better handle how she responds after eating sugar, we'll be doling it out sparingly.

There are other factors at work besides the sugar, but those are things that will take more time to change and to train. But it's been nice to have a good stretch, and the more of those we have and the longer we go between big outbreaks, the more encouraging it is.

My car is now back from repair and feels downright zippy. It took $870, including an oil change, but that still saved us $268 by going to the dealer vs. taking the quote that Midas gave us. And we got Hyundai factory parts by going to them, too. The only downside of going there is the drive to get there and having to pick it up during certain hours, but I think it's worth the hassle. Hopefully this will be the end of the problems we've been having and it'll be fine until we do the next round of recommended maintenance.

We still have a drip happening between the master bathroom and the laundry room. I'm guessing the plumber will have to pull off more of the sheetrock to figure out if the tub drain is leaking. Beyond that, I have no expertise and really couldn't begin to guess what's causing the problem.

The snow stopped late yesterday. The streets are largely cleared, except for the ones within a few blocks of our house. But, they did come through and scrape and put down some dirt, so it's been okay. Driving to pick up my car was mostly uneventful and just a little scary coming down the hill to our house and pulling into the garage. But, no slipping! Hopefully it'll warm up now and melt the iciness away from the roads. And allow our house's heater to work more effectively - it's been going nonstop for probably the past day and a half, and it's still only 58 degrees inside. But considering that it was 10 degrees with the windchill factor this afternoon, I suppose 58 degrees isn't all that bad!

Snowy Jesus

2010-11-22T14:11:00.000-08:00

This sculpture is outside of World Vision's office in Federal Way. It seemed so odd to see him blanketed in snow this morning!

Indulgent Breakfast Recipe

2010-11-21T21:41:00.000-08:00

Paula Deen has some great recipes, but as you may know, they are often high in calories and fat. Still, sometimes you want to indulge yourself, and holiday breakfasts and brunches are a perfect time for this recipe! I served it for Christmas brunch last year, and everyone raved over it. It's a Baked French Toast Casserole with Praline Topping and Raspberry Syrup:

Is your mouth watering now? Yeah, I thought so.

I served it with a Spinach and Strawberry Salad, an egg/sausage/cheese casserole and fresh fruit. (What?! It was Christmas morning. It's not like I eat that every day.)

If you're not interested in indulging quite that much, Paula Deen's son Bobby has lightened up the original recipe. You can find his version here. His version brings the count down to 226 calories and 8 g fat per serving. I don't even want to think about how many calories and fat grams are in Paula's dish. I just choose to treat myself to it blindly on the rare occasion.

It's Snowing . . . Yay?

2010-11-21T15:19:00.000-08:00

And I'm okay with that. A week ago, I was completely not ready for snow and was dreading the thought of it. I'm a little scared at how steadily it's falling considering that it's out first snow of the year and started several hours ago. I'm hoping that there's not going to be enough of it for a while to really stick around and make driving tricky.

I think the thing I've dreaded most about it being snowy is picking up Rachel at school. I hate hate HATE having to sit in the carline and will usually just park and walk over to her and go back to the car as an alternative, but then it's sometimes hard to get back out of the parking space due to how many cars are backed up waiting in the carline. They move to the right so that people who are leaving the lot can drive down the left, but if they're blocking you in from behind, you're pretty much stuck until someone leaves enough room or the carline gets short enough to back out.

So most days I park on the street just past the school, put Ben in his stroller and walk up to the playground where we wait for Rachel's class to come out of their upper floor classroom on their way to the stairway and the front of the school. We just meet her there and walk to the car, and take off and we're done.

Not sure that's going to work so well with temps in the 30s and icy ground. If the ground's not icy and I can keep Ben warm enough, I think standing and waiting for a few minutes in the freezing temperature will still be preferable to dealing with the overcrowded parking lot, especially if I can time it so that we're pretty much just walking up to the playground as the classes are letting out. It's hard to time, though, because some teachers let out right at 3:19 or 3:20 (dismissal time is 3:20), some seem to wait for the bell to ring so that it's more "official" (and the bell rings late for some reason, around 3:22 or 3:23) and some are stragglers. Rachel's class is often one of the last to leave. I don't know if that means there are a lot of dawdlers in her class, but if so, she was placed in the right one.

Anyway, I *am* enjoying watching the snow fall. We get a lot of rain here, but snow can be harder to come by, especially some years, so it's usually welcomed by most people. I'm just hoping we aren't in for a repeat of the Great Snow of Aught Six, when living on a hill that doesn't get plowed became a serious issue. If so, Rachel just may be missing some days of school. But, hey, I won't have to worry about the carline then.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, pt. 1

2010-11-20T21:44:00.000-08:00

I saw the latest Harry Potter film today, and overall I think it was a really strong adaptation of the first half of the book. Some (possibly spoilery if you haven't seen the movie yet) thoughts:

The scene with the Death Eaters around the table at Malfoy Manor and Charity Burbage dangling above it was harrowing, just as it should have been.
How Hedwig meets her fate made more sense than in the written version, I think, as well as the fact that her defense of Harry is what gives him away to the Death Eaters. I thought it was strange in the book that they would just put her in a cage and shove the cage into the bottom of Hagrid's motorcycle.
I wish they had included the interactions between Harry and the Dursleys as the Dursleys were leaving Privet Drive. I especially missed Dudley's conversation and handshake and think that would have made a touching moment.
I would have liked to have seen more of the flight from Privet Drive and the battle that went on, but what we saw was well-done, though condensed.
Mad Eye's eye was left at the Ministry of Magic, which seemed like a big oversight to me. Harry made a point in the book that he couldn't leave part of Mad Eye there for Dolores' use, and I believe it's his taking of the eye from Dolores' office door that alerts the Ministry to the fact that there are intruders.
It would have added more poignancy to the trio's inability to return to No. 12 Grimmauld Place if there had been scenes of the warming relationship between them and Kreacher, and his increasing care for them.
The time wandering in the wilderness was handled well and didn't feel like it dragged on overly long. The book has about 110 pages covering that, and it did seem like it went on and on. I'm thinking the book editors could have trimmed a little here and there while still conveying how they were weary, demoralized and spending a lot of time doing nothing.
I was disappointed that Wormtail didn't meet the end that he does in the book. Presumably he'll die in the second movie, but I liked that his moment of mercy towards Harry is what leads to his undoing.
Dobby was awesome, totally heroic and not at all annoying. He was great when helping Kreacher to drag Mundungus to Grimmauld Place, as well as during his appearance in Malfoy Manor. And I'm not ashamed to admit that I teared up at his death.
I thought the movie ended slightly abruptly and would have liked for them to have already had the discussion to decide whether they should pursue the Deathly Hallows or the horcruxes. I thought the ending would be when they decided to go after the remaining horcruxes, somewhat like in LOTR: Fellowship of the Ring when Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas go after Merri and Pippin and there's more of a note of hope and purpose.

I think this movie did quite a good job of including all of the important pieces and depicting them well. It translated the spirit of the book without jazzing it up too much for the movie audience and including things like a dragon breaking free from its chain and going on an extended chase of Harry around Hogwarts. I'm glad that they decided to break the book into two parts, because I can't imagine what kind of choppy mess they would have ended up with had they tried to fit everything into one movie, even if it was a very long one.

Definitely looking forward to part 2 and seeing the Battle of Hogwarts happen, even though I won't be happy seeing the deaths to come. I have a feeling I may need some tissue for that one.

Darn, I Missed a Day

2010-11-19T16:34:00.001-08:00

I realized earlier today that I'd missed posting yesterday. I totally intended to post, even though I knew I was going to have a late night. And I toiled away at the other things I needed to get done, and completely forgot.

So here's post #1 for today. I'll post a second post later so that at least I'll average out to one a day for November.

And here's what I'm sharing with you:

I used to love this show, for some reason, and the theme song is still stuck in my head all these years later.

You're welcome.

One of Those Days

2010-11-17T22:01:00.000-08:00

It's been one of those days, and I'm tired and don't feel much like blogging. I'll just say that the day started out rough with Rachel choosing to misbehave. She pulled it together and we got her to school. She did alright for a little bit after school, then just went right into intense dawdling mode and not doing what was asked of her. Got her ready just in the nick of time to go to Awana at our church. She seemed to enjoy herself there and was sweet when I picked her up. I gave her a cracker snack in the car and made her some warm vanilla/maple milk when we got home, and then it all went to pieces from there. Manic behavior with an intense focus on direct disobedience while smiling. We finally got her calmed down and ready for bed, with no nightlight and almost everything removed from her bed (stuffed animals and comfort blankets) except for one polar bear, Poley, who's her special favorite. She was also aware that any further misbehavior would result in Poley going out the door for the night.

I hate times like these and wish she wouldn't choose to be so darned willful and stubborn. It's like she thrives on wreaking havoc when she gets into this particular mode of behavior, and it's so difficult to derail her from that and get back on the right track. We're working on it and we won't give up. I believe we'll win out in the end.

But sometimes it sucks.

My Love Language

2010-11-16T18:17:00.000-08:00

Christmas is my favorite holiday of the year. I love all of the excitement, joy, fun events, the music, visits to Santa, Christmas cards, yummy food, the Christmas tree and other decorations, and everything else about it. And, of course, I love celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ throughout the season and having that special worship service on Christmas Eve. It's wonderful having so many visual and audible reminders about Jesus as I go about my days!

I was thinking about my gift list today and realized that's one of the reasons that I love Christmas. It may sound shallow to say that, but gifts are my love language, so I have a reason to express my love language over and over as I work on my gift list, start buying gifts early, finish up with the last-minute ones and the stocking stuffers and then get the joy of giving them to people! It's why I put pressure on myself to find something they'll really enjoy or need and why I find it so frustrating when people make it difficult to figure out what they'd like. Not everyone needs to have an Amazon wishlist for me to know what to get, but it makes it easier if I don't know enough about their interests or hear "I don't really need anything" or "I'm not sure what to get her, either" when I'm trying to figure something out.

And it's why I have a hard time drawing the line on buying gifts for some people and have to tell myself 'Seriously, you are giving them plenty. Enough. Save it for the next occasion.' That doesn't happen with James, though, because his birthday is about 5 weeks after Christmas, so I usually struggle with the opposite problem of using all my best ideas for Christmas, then having to figure out what to do for his birthday. Or I forget that I'll have another gift-giving occasion in the near future for him and try to cram it all in for Christmas.

I'm always disappointed when I'm done buying gifts and then just have to wait for Christmas to give them away. If I had more disposable income, I think I'd just keep buying things to donate to charity and go crazy with it! Maybe one day I can do more of that. For now, I have to practice self-control, being wise with our finances and making sure I'm keeping my focus where it belongs, instead of being too wrapped up in the gifts. But I'm sure looking forward to giving them away!

I Love Finding a Bargain!

2010-11-15T21:30:00.000-08:00

I went shopping today at Once Upon a Child, a children's resale shop. I found some cute things for both Ben and Rachel, including this sweater for Ben:

It was brand new with the tags still attached and was only $8.50 for a nice, heavyweight sweater for our upcoming reputedly-very-cold winter. Cute sweater and a great deal, right?

But wait! There's more:

That's right. This sweater was from Nordstrom and was originally priced at $62.00 before 4 markdowns occurred and it finally went on to greener pastures at Once Upon a Child. Who on earth would pay $62.00 for a sweater for a 2-year-old? Obviously it's someone who has way more disposable income than I do and isn't concerned about paying that much for a child's sweater that will be outgrown in 6 months to a year.

I buy a good deal of my kids' clothing second-hand because I find a lot of great clothes that way for good prices, and you also find a better variety at many childrens' resale stores than you do by going to one store at a mall. I've gotten or seen plenty of things from Gap Kids and Baby Gap, The Children's Place, Old Navy, OshKosh, Carter's, Ralph Lauren and other name-brand clothing stores and been able to do it with one-stop shopping. I now would find it hard to justify buying all new clothes for my kids every time they outgrew their current wardrobe.

Away With You, Clutter!

2010-11-14T23:00:00.000-08:00

Along with our newfound determination to lose weight and keep it off for good, James and I have been increasingly motivated to rid ourselves of the clutter that has been the bane of our existence for far too long. James has always hated clutter, but I've been more laidback about it until fairly recently; it annoyed me, but I figured that was just the way things were with young kids and that we'd eventually get around to clearing things away.

For about the past year, we've been able to successfully beat it back in most of the common areas of our home and have kept those areas from getting too piled up and overwhelming, but we were still struggling with numerous little piles of clutter in our master bedroom and too much disorganization in the family room.

Our family room was half-painted for months, and we had a bookcase that was mostly painted but needed to be painted the rest of the way and assembled so that we could finally unload our books from their boxes in the garage. James and I buckled down and got the painting of the room finished. He completed the bookcase and moved it into place, and we brought in our books to figure out which ones we'd keep and which we'd donate.

Then James cleared the clutter from our room and moved it to the family room so that we'd have one area of clutter on which to focus and could reclaim our master bedroom for ourselves. We've been working through it a little at a time and steadily making progress, enjoying the fruits of our labor.

Tonight, we were waiting for Rachel to finish getting ready for bed. The shelves in our closet had become a place where I put things until I got around to putting them where they belong, but somehow that step of the process never seemed to happen. I'd already made a note on my to-do list to clear out the shelves and go through things, do a little rearranging and use them for organizing Christmas gifts for now and other things once Christmas is over. I've been chomping at the bit to get started, so I started pulling things off the shelf while we waited.

I cleared off two shelves, moved (with James' help) the clothing rod to a higher shelf, got rid of enough stuff not worth keeping or donating that I could fill a decent size shopping bag, came up with a big box of things for donation and gathered like items for storage (shorts - too cold right now; maternity - don't need that currently). It was so nice to make a big dent in the shelves, and I can hardly wait to get back to it and get them finished!

Getting things cleaned up and decluttered is making me feel really good, like I'm clearing away things that have been weighing me down. It's similar to how my weight loss is making me feel, and I think both are emblems of being in a time of transformation.

One last area where I'm also working on "decluttering" is in my spiritual life. The Bible study that I'm currently doing, Breaking Free by Beth Moore, talks about the things that weigh us down and keep Christians from living an effective and abundant spiritual life, not fully experiencing the blessings of a relationship with Christ (knowing and believing in God, glorifying God, finding satisfaction in God, experiencing God's peace and enjoying God's presence). We may still do some or all of these things, but we may not be experiencing them to the extend that we can because of things that hamper us. This study really gets to the core of issues that are sometimes long-standing and is helping me figure out how I can become closer to God and truly love Him as He should be loved - and how I can experience that love to the fullest myself, and be satisfied fully by Him, so that things like the love of family and friends, material blessings and activities I enjoy are icing on the cake and not the means for my sustenance. It's opened my eyes to quite a bit, and I'm praying it brings about a lasting transformation in me.

So many good things are happening as I get older! Honestly, I should have turned 40 years ago.

Clearly, I Need to Make More Time for Baking

2010-11-13T20:19:00.000-08:00

I received a copy of the book Cookie Craft: From Baking to Luster Dust, Designs and Techniques for Creative Cookie Occasions for my birthday last month.

I first about it on Bakerella's website, which is a great one to read if you like seeing beautiful baked goods and finding mouth-watering recipes for sweet things. The book basically takes the act of making sugar cookies and turns it into an art form. The first section of the book contains a number of design ideas for various holidays, such as:

Thanksgiving

This is the first place I opened up to when I got the book, and I was amazed at the beauty of these cookies! I was really hoping to make some for this Thanksgiving, but we're already going to be spending several days with family and indulging in a Thanksgiving feast. Combine that with my desire to continue losing weight, and it seems like taking cookies along might be a bad idea. On the other hand, there will be more people to help me eat said cookies, so perhaps I shall do that after all! I love the turkey with the candy corn and the big turkey in profile, although I would choose chocolate brown frosting for the turkey's body instead of black for both.

Christmas

This one gives some great basic Christmas-themed cookies and jazz them up a bit. I think I'd expand the selection of colors, especially for the stockings and the Christmas tree decorations.

New Year's

I don't know that I would have thought of making cookies to celebrate New Year's Eve, but the champagne bottle is a really cute design. I like how they used basic circle cutters for a clock about to strike midnight and a gold bauble, and notice how they reused candy cane cookie shapes for noisemakers? The hats are just triangles.

Easter

Again, creative use of circles! The Easter basket is beautiful, and so is the Easter hat made from two circle cutters. The technique on the pink Easter egg is one that was seen in the large turkey from the above Thanksgiving cookies. You use Royal Icing to pipe the basic design and flood the piped area, then use a toothpick to pull the icing to give it that cool look. I've only tried using Royal Icing once and failed miserably, but this book has some great tips that I hope will help me to overcome my aversion and become a Royal Icing expert.

Baby Shower

Wouldn't these be cute as party favors for shower guests to take home or as a treat at the shower itself?

They also have photos and instructions for many other occasions, including Winter, Valentine's Day, Mother's and Father's Day, Sports, Girlfriends Gathering and Pets.

Other chapters of the book cover explanation of the ingredients you'll want to have on hand for cookie crafting, equipment you'll use, tips for planning, recipes for 4 types of rolled-out cookie dough, tips on decorating both prebaking and after baking, websites where you can find tools and supplies for cookie crafting and more. It also features helpful information in boxes interspersed throughout (such as Make-Ahead Tips, a Cookie Craft Planning Page and Suggested Color Palettes for different themes).

I find myself itching to start making these designs, and enjoying poring over the pages of the book in the meantime.

Great Website for Calorie Counters

2010-11-12T14:46:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite recipe websites is Allrecipes.com. I've found many wonderful recipes there, and some have become favorites that I make over and over. But one drawback of their website is that not all recipes have nutritional information, and there's no nutritional calculator if you're submitting a recipe of your own.

When I started keeping close track of my calorie intake, I searched for a recipe calculator I could use for things like cookbook recipes and the meals I get from my monthly Make Ahead Meal group (ooh, future blog post!). I found one on SparkRecipes. It's a website with a huge database of health-focused recipes. Not every recipe is low in calories or fat, but the primary focus is to provide recipes for people who are looking for healthier choices. They have recipes in the Dietary Needs categories of Vegetarian, Vegan, Lactose Free, Gluten Free, Low Fat, Low Carb and Sugar Free. To give you an idea of how many recipes you can find, there are 3,898 recipes in the Gluten Free category and 2,110 in Lactose Free, to name just those two.

In addition to having a big storehouse of recipes, all with nutritional information, you can also use their Recipe Calculator to enter ingredients and find out how many calories, fat, carbs, etc. are in each serving of a dish.

There's a database of ingredients to use, but you are also able to add those ingredients that you can't find, provided you have the nutritional information from their packaging. That information is then available for other people who use the calculator. If you only want to know the nutritional info on a one-time basis, you just enter the ingredients at Step 1, then go to Step 2 and enter the number of servings and click Calculate Info. If you want to keep the recipe on file, you'll need to also go to Step 3 and complete the required fields (Recipe Name, Ingredients List and Category). You may also want to input the Cooking Instructions so it's all there for you later.

I've found this to be really useful and have actually used it to find out the calories for some recipes from Allrecipes that didn't have that information. I've also used it to tweak ingredients from some recipes to see if I can significantly cut calories and fat by using lighter versions of milk, cheese, sour cream, etc., or by adding vegetables or other lower calorie foods and upping the number of servings.

This Post is Just Six Words Long

2010-11-11T23:32:00.001-08:00

Computer sucking. Using iPhone. More tomorrow.

Don't Let It Snow, Don't Let It Snow, Don't Let It Snow!

2010-11-10T21:56:00.000-08:00

I've heard several people in the last few weeks state that "they" say it's going to be a rough winter. I'm not sure who "they" are, but I sincerely hope that they're wrong. I see on Accuweather that the local forecast shows 3 days with bits of snow here and there in the next couple of weeks. That's earlier than we usually have snow, but I'm still holding out hope that it will be a fairly mild winter.

I don't mind a little snow here and there, so long as it doesn't build up in big drifts or cover the roads, partially melt, then refreeze and make it slippery all over. We live on a hill that doesn't get plowed, so icy roads really stink.

We've only had one very snowy winter since moving here in early 2006, and that was the roughest one seen around here in some time. People kept saying "It's never like this!" They also said that during the previous summer, when we had a number of weeks of temps in the 90s. We didn't believe them at the time, but after having lived here for 4 1/2 years, we've seen for ourselves that it was true. Summers get warm, and sometimes unpleasantly so when most people around here don't have a/c in their homes, but they're generally not too bad. And winters get cold and we get lots of rain and the occasional snow, but not usually enough to be a nuisance.

The first winter, though, we had enough snow happen that Rachel and I stayed home for 3 solid days because I was afraid of driving on the icy roads, and on the third evening, I told James we were going out to dinner or I was going to lose my mind. That was also the year that we had a major windstorm (I think it was 70 mph) that knocked down power lines and caused transformer problems over the entire western half of Washington. There were some areas that never lost power or only lost it for a few minutes, but many more areas that were severely affected.

We lost power for 3 1/2 days, despite being in a city of 85,000 people and situated between Tacoma and Seattle. It just took that long for them to get to everyone and get things fixed. After hunkering down for a day and a half and using up our firewood only to wake up to a temperature of 55 degrees in the house, we hightailed it out of here and went to stay with James' parents, who live about an hour away. We were there for 2 nights, then came back because we wanted to make sure our cats were okay. Shortly after getting back to town, we went to Home Depot to pick up a few things, and while there, we got a phone call from our security company letting us know that they were getting an alarm from our system. We thought "Hey, if they're getting an alarm from the house, that must mean the power is restored!" Sure enough, we drove back and could already see lights on in certain parts of the house - and it's hard to find many sights that have been more beautiful to us than that!

The next winter had a decent amount of snow, too - enough to cause church services to be cancelled the Sunday before Christmas because they didn't want people to take risks trying to get to church with, again, icy roads. But it is pretty unusual for things to be that bad.

So I'm holding out hope that the winter will just be a normal one, with cooler temperatures that make us break out the winter coats, hats and gloves, some nice snowfalls to watch out the window, and rains that come along to wash the snow away before it becomes problematic. Is that too much to ask?

Potpourri

2010-11-09T23:50:00.000-08:00

A little of this and a little of that tonight:

My Christmas gift-buying list is coming along. I started buying gifts in August, but only got a few and a few more in September. October slipped by me with no purchases, but I'm really ramping up this month. I'd like to start even earlier in the year next year and buy at least 3 or 4 gifts per month so I can spread out the expense and also prevent the stress of Christmas approaching and feeling pressured to figure out what to get.
I need to start wrapping the Christmas gifts I already have so that I don't do like I did last year and end up wrapping all of the local gifts on Christmas Eve.
This cold rainy weather we've been having has been making me very sleepy and sluggish during the day. It's tough to be productive when it's like that.
I've been doing the revised Breaking Free Bible study by Beth Moore. It digs really deep, much deeper than any other study I've done, including half a dozen other ones by her. Really gets to the core of what keeps Christians from fully experiencing abundance in Christ.
Today was a pretty good day. Ben didn't want me to leave him in the church nursery when I went to my Bible study this morning, so I just sat with him and rocked for a while until he felt better. I suspect teething has really bothered him today, but there were a number of times when he just wanted to snuggle, and that was nice. He's big on snuggling.
Rachel did well with her behavior today, which was great. Some days have been a struggle lately, and it's nice to have a day without battles. I got to spend time with both kids just playing and tickling and having fun this afternoon, then Rachel and I sat together under a blanket and read part of a Magic Tree House book.
It's hard to believe that Thanksgiving is only a little over 2 weeks away. And Christmas Day is exactly 1 month after Thanksgiving. Where on earth has 2010 gone? Why does it seem like every year goes a little it faster than the one before?
I'm supertired right now and looking forward to going to sleep, but I already know that I'm going to still be tired in the morning because I'm not going to get enough sleep. Tomorrow night, I really must make a point of going to bed early.
We're winning the war on clutter in our house, and it feels good.
Glee was only meh tonight, but I liked the music, especially "One Love." Probably going to download that on iTunes using the gift card that James got me for my birthday, along with "Hey, Soul Sister" by Train and the new JJ Heller album, When I'm With You.
I'm thinking about trying my hand at making a pendant for James' grandma for Christmas. I want to create a birthstone pendant with crystals representing the months that each of her great-grandchildren have been born and put it on a nice silver chain. The stuff I'm finding online is either pricey or looks cheap, so I'm hoping that by making it myself, I'll be able to make something that's nice in quality and a reasonable cost. I've never made jewelry before. Wish me luck.

That is all. Good night.

Lose It!

2010-11-08T23:13:00.000-08:00

Whew! I almost forgot about writing a blog post today, and I already had my topic picked out ahead of time and everything. It would have been a bummer if I'd missed one. Be forewarned that I'm about to sound like I'm selling Amway.

For a number of years, I've been unhappy with my weight. I'd steadily put on a few pounds here and there every year until I was finally 40 pounds heavier than when I'd gotten married in 1999. I didn't like how I looked and just didn't feel that good about myself as a result.

During both of my pregnancies, I'd been diagnosed with gestational diabetes. Since I didn't have a big appetite for snacking in the earlier trimesters and had to stick with a strict diet for my health and the health of my babies, I ended up about 20 pounds lighter right after giving birth than when I'd gotten pregnant. I loved being thinner and hoped to hang onto it, but I didn't take steps to do so and wasn't paying enough attention to what I was eating or making any lasting changes to my regular habits. Gestational diabetes would go away, and I'd go back to the same bad habits.

On top of that, my willpower seemed nonexistent. I'd want so much to be in better shape and to feel good about myself again. Sometimes I'd think "Maybe I'm just going to be this size the rest of my life, and I need to stop feeling bad about myself," but I couldn't reconcile myself to being that overweight. I knew it wasn't the healthiest way to live.

Some months ago, my friend Corey started to use the Lose It! app for the iPhone. And over the next couple of months, he experienced a steady yet healthy rate of weight loss - he's still using it, and still losing steadily. Soon, my husband started to use it, and he, too, started to lose weight and get into healthier shape. He kept asking me for calorie counts on things I was giving him for meals. (Frankly, I found it annoying at that point since he was the one who was using Lose It!, yet I was the one who had to hassle with figuring out calories for things he ate.) Then Corey upgraded his iPhone, and he gave me the one he'd had. When he formatted it for me, guess what was on it? You got it. So I figured "What the heck? I'll give it a try and see how this works for me."

If you're not familiar with the app, here's how it works:

You put in your weight, height, gender, goal weight and the rate at which you wish to lose the weight (1/2 pound, 1 pound, 1 1/2 pounds or 2 pounds a week).
Lose It! tells you how many calories you have each day before accounting for any exercise, and it also tells you approximately when you'll reach your goal weight based on your rate of loss, if you are consistent with sticking to the recommendation. And they have a Maintenance option that you can use to keep track of your eating once you've reached your goal, to make sure you don't start going back up again.
You track your food with the program, which has a large database of items (both generic and brandname, as well as a number of restaurant foods) and allows you to put in custom items or recipes. You also track exercise, and as you add exercise to your day, it gives you those calories back towards your eating allotment.
If you have friends using Lose It!, you can create an account on their website and connect with friends so that you can see their progress and encourage one another.

It's been a real wake-up call to me to see what my daily calorie allotment is, compared to what I was probably eating even when I thought I was doing well. I've also been much more conscious of portion sizes and how much I'm putting on my plate, even using measuring cups and spoons for some things like carbs (potatoes, pasta, rice) and salad dressings.

And it's been something that has given me a concrete goal and a super-easy way to keep track. I'm pretty lazy about that, so having to write down amounts and keep track of it myself would be much harder for me to maintain. It's also a challenge to come in under my daily calorie goal, a challenge that's been surprisingly motivating for me! i started to think "Dangit, I can DO this!"

Best of all, the program is free! The creators said they want it to be free so that it's available for anyone who wants to be healthier, which is just awesome.

I've actually started viewing fat as the enemy to be vanquished, and I'm determined that it's going down. I'm done with being overweight. Now that I'm more aware of how much I'm eating and what a burger is really going to cost me, I'm much more likely to make a better choice, or I adjust my other meals so that I can enjoy a higher-calorie meal here and there. Nothing has ever motivated me in the same way before, nor have I been able to stick to any other kind of plan previously. If you're searching for a way to lose weight and have had trouble finding something that works, I highly recommend you check this out.

It All Seems to Hit the Fan at Once

2010-11-07T21:52:00.000-08:00

We got hit with a one-two punch in the last 24 hours. First, late last night my husband noticed that a sizeable section of the ceiling in our laundry room was bowed out and cracking. We suspected it was connected to a problem in the master bathroom above, where we had been feeling a portion of the floor that seemed spongy, like water had gotten underneath the linoleum and softened the subflooring. James called American Home Shield, and as they considered it an emergency, they planned to have someone contact us on Sunday morning and come out that day if possible.

James stayed home from church and waited, and the call came just before 10:45. After talking with James, the plumber said that he was pretty sure the culprit is a leak in the seal between the bathtub and the floor or around the tub drain, and that it was slowly leaking down into the drywall of the laundry room ceiling. He didn't seem to feel it was an emergency and set an appointment to come out on Monday morning at 9:30.

We're pretty sure fixing the leak is going to involve pulling up the floor and subfloor in the bathroom. We don't know if more will need to come out, but at the very least, bringing everything back to normal afterward is going to require replacing the subfloor, and replacing the flooring through the whole bathroom, in addition to taking out the drywall in the laundry room and replacing that, too. We're hoping and praying that it doesn't snowball into any bigger kind of problem, like mold. I don't know if the toilet or bathtub will need to be pulled out to fix things, but this could turn into something big quickly. And in the month before Christmas, so it would be hard to find worse timing.

So that's problem #1. Problem #2 occurred tonight, when the washing machine showed an error code that translates to "Contact for service." It's not like the other minor codes we've seen that just require unplugging the machine and letting it sit for a bit, then plugging it back in, and everything works fine. We bought our machine when we moved here over 4 1/2 years ago, so it's way past the warranty, and we didn't buy the appliance coverage from American Home Shield (DANGIT!) since we didn't think we'd need it any time soon.

James is currently downstairs with the machine partially taken apart, working to try to fix it so that we don't have to pay someone to repair that, too. I'm trying to remain calm and not freak out thinking about all the "What ifs?"

Especially since my car has also been sounding really strained, and I'm going to be taking it in soon to see what's wrong. Hopefully something minor, but it never seems to turn out that way with car repairs, does it?

I'm starting to feel like a really tightly-wound ball of stress and have to seriously work on committing this to the Lord before I end up with stomach pains, as I tend to do when I hold onto stress and internalize things. I'm reminding myself of Philippians 4:6-7:

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. ⁷And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Praying about things probably isn't going to magically cause my car to stop making that sound, or the washing machine to put itself back together in working order, or the laundry ceiling to move back into place and the bathroom floor to feel normal. But it will allow me to deal with all of this without wanting to pull my hair out, and with the assurance that God knows it's all happening and will bring us through while granting the peace that I really desperately need right now.

Giving Thanks

2010-11-06T23:58:00.000-07:00

Since Thanksgiving is in a few weeks, I thought this would be a good time to list some of the things for which I'm thankful. I'm thankful for:

a Savior who loved me enough to come to earth and die for my sins, centuries before I was even born.
a wonderful loving husband who is a caring father to our children and who seeks to serve the Lord in all he does.
a 6-year-old daughter who sometimes drives me crazy but always keeps life interesting, who is intelligent and funny and sweet.
a 2-year-old son who lights up when he sees someone he loves, who sometimes expresses his love with a little *too* much hands-on demonstration and whose giggles are infectious.
the liquid maple trees and their vivid red leaves at this time of year - they look unreal!
music - all sorts of music, from cheesy 80s pop to Christmas songs to praise music to Hawaiian and lots of others in between.
having family nearby and being able to see them regularly.
a really fun vacation to Victoria a few months ago with our dear friends Corey and Gilda.
a warm comfortable house (and especially my warm comfortable bed).
being able to sleep well again at night and not dealing with several of coughing before I'm able to settle down.
physical health.
a weight-loss tool that has allowed me to finally develop willpower and self-control and see results that I know will last.
computers that provide opportunities for organization, communication, creativity and fun.
a church staff and membership that is striving to follow what the Lord would have us do and is growing and being challenged in how to put that into action.
the ability to sing.
trees, grass, flowers and bushes, and the general abundance of greenery in the Puget Sound area.
rain that keeps me from having to water said trees, grass, flowers and bushes for about 9 months out of the year.
sun breaks in the rain that keep me from going nuts and allow me to appreciate the beauty of the rain falling.
the double-layer pumpkin cheesecake that I'll be having on Thanksgiving.
fondue.
board game nights with friends.
Christmas.
Reese's peanut butter cups.

It was actually pretty easy to come up with that list, and I could keep going, but it's getting late and I'm down to the wire with publishing this today. Perhaps I'll do another thankfulness list in the next week or two and see what else comes to mind. Suffice it to say that I'm feeling pretty thankful!

A Little Break

2010-11-05T23:00:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow, Rachel is going to my mom's house to spend the day and the night, a Grandma/Granddaughter Day. They started doing this probably a year and a half ago, a few months after my mom had moved out of her house and into her own place. Rachel looks forward to these times, but I think I may look forward to them more!

I love that they enjoy each other's company so much that they look forward to their overnights together, but it's also nice to get a break from the drama that life with a 6-year-old girl often brings, at least our 6-year-old girl. The last few weeks have been particularly tumultuous, so it's with a sigh of relief that I'll be sending her off for this weekend's overnight. It's amazing how you can hit some really high highs and some really low lows all in the same two-week period.

While Rachel visits with Grandma, James, Ben and I will be going out to a brunch summit. (Ooh, how official-sounding!) James and I started doing this years ago but have been spotty keeping up with it, and we're trying to reestablish summits as a regular event.

What is a summit? you might be thinking. It's just a time devoted to discussing the next few months and what they entail: holiday plans, people we'd like to get together with, places we want to go (museums, zoos), restaurants we want to try, events that are coming up and things that we want to accomplish around the house. It's a way to make sure we're being organized and getting to some of the things on our mental to-do lists that would otherwise just stay in our brains and never get done amidst all of the regular goings-on in our lives.

We like to start out at a restaurant with a comforting breakfast/brunch-type meal and have as much of our discussion as we can there without either rudely monopolizing a table in a busy establishment or annoying everyone because our kids have gotten restless. Then we head home and finish what we didn't get to at the restaurant. Sometimes it also entails physically walking through the house to think about the projects, big and small, that we may have forgotten or that come to mind as we discuss things.

We've found our summits to be really helpful with making sure we don't just keep saying "Hey, we should go to that place sometime" and never actually go there. And getting all of those things out of our heads and onto paper helps me to declutter my mind and have fewer things going round and round, competing for attention. If you've read the Harry Potter books or seen the movies, I suppose you could say it's kind of like my own Pensieve, but I use it for thoughts about things in the present and the future rather than memories of the past.

I'm looking forward to getting back to regular summits. And I'm also looking forward to a yummy breakfast out!

Frustration

2010-11-04T23:56:00.000-07:00

Almost didn't make it in time today. It's nearing midnight and I'm scrambling to type so I can post and not already fail at blogging every day, 4 days into the month, because that would be sad.

It's just been one of those days. Ben was in a pretty good mood this morning and ate well at breakfast, so we headed to Target after dropping off Rachel at school. (She did mostly decent with getting ready, but it got a little bumpy for a few minutes.) Got our shopping done at Target with minimal fuss and lots of belly-tickling (his belly, not mine), then we headed home to hang out for a bit. I turned on WordWorld and Clifford the Big Red Dog for him while I got a late breakfast, then gathered things for going to lunch with James. Each week, we take lunch to him at his workplace. Rachel comes, too, when she's not in school.

Normally Ben is completely uninterested in TV, but it provided enough entertainment that I wasn't being inundated with "Snacks! Crackers! Goldfish!" every 2 minutes while I was getting lunch ready, and that was helpful. Is it wrong to wish your child was more interested in television? But I digress - he did well, then we went to lunch and had a nice time there with James having lunch in the cafeteria, then going for a walk to the lake that's on the property.

Home for nap time, but a nap didn't happen. As is often the case, he decided he'd rather jump and shriek like a monkey instead of laying down and sleeping. Crazy kid - I'd totally nap if I had the chance more often. I was able to get in some time on the exercise bike while he amused himself in his crib, then we went and picked up Rachel from school.

And it all went downhill from there. We're having some real challenges with Rachel's attitude and anger again, something we thought was largely behind us, at least until teenage hormones set in. Instead, her temper is flaring up now that she's back in school, rather than settling down like it usually does when she's back to a scheduled day and activities that allow her to get out of the house, socialize and expend some energy.

When she acts up like that, Ben gets agitated and starts to act aggressively, too, so at one point both kids were in their rooms and I called James to let off some steam and tell him what had happened so that he'd know what to expect when he got home. It's so frustrating - we have to keep teaching the same lessons over and over, and just when we think we've made some great headway, she pulls a day like today that makes us (or, at least, me) feel like we're back at square one again.

I have no doubts that we'll win the parenting battle and that Rachel will grow up to be a strong, confident young woman with a heart for God and the ability to control her temper and make right decisions. But sometimes the road ahead looks long. I'm thankful for the past three days when we really did see some strides forward in her behavior and choices, and that helps me to be hopeful for more of that. Feeling a little battle-scarred tonight, though.

Who, Who, Who Made This Owl?

2010-11-03T12:40:00.000-07:00

Okay, I know that was corny and that you already know that I made this owl. It's from the book Hello, Cupcake!, which I received as a birthday gift last year. I tremendously enjoyed looking through it and picking out designs I wanted to do. It's full of so many creative designs, and many are fairly easy to carry out, judging by the pictures and instructions. But a year passed and I hadn't done any of them. Then this year's birthday arrived and I received the sequel, What's New, Cupcake?, and I figured that I'd better get started actually making some of the designs.

Our pumpkin carving party last month provided the perfect opportunity to make some chocolate owls. I had planned to make some carrot cake pumpkins, too, but ended up having to just improvise a much more simple design of my own instead of the really cool pumpkins from the book. so I'll just be blogging about the owls this time.

If you'd like to make these yourself, you'll need to start with chocolate (or another flavor) cupcakes and chocolate frosting. I believe the book recommends using about 2 cans, but I made some from scratch because I didn't have enough of the canned frosting. And boy, did that frosting turn out well! You can click this link to find the recipe for Chocolate Frosting from the Hello, Cupcake! book. It's thick and tastes like a semisweet fudge. You'll need to use it pretty quickly after making it since it sets once it cools, or you can add milk to thin it to a spreadable consistency if you make it ahead of time. FYI, getting a flatter cupcake actually works in your favor for these, since the owl eyes will sit flatter that way - something I figured out after I'd already gotten started with mine. I used brownie mix for mine and added an extra egg to make it more cakey, but I think leaving out the extra egg would have given me flatter cupcakes with which to work.

Next you'll take a package of Oreos and, half a dozen or so at a time, microwave them for a few seconds to soften the cream filling. Twist them apart. The sides with the cream will be the base of the owl eyes, and the plain sides will be used to form the ears:

Take the plain sides and cut about 1/2 inch into each side. If you use a serrated knife and saw carefully back and forth, you'll get a better result and less breakage:

Frost your cupcakes, getting one side as smooth as possible since that part will not be covered:

Place two of the cream-side Oreos on each cupcake and two of the ear pieces at the top:

I cut a bit off of each end of the ear pieces since they seemed to fit better that way. Then you'll take chocolate frosting in a pastry bag with a small round piping tip (or fill a ziploc bag with some and snip off a small bit at the corner) and use it to cover the ears and to make "feathers" at the top and just underneath the eyes on each owl:

Using yellow Runts candies, push one into each cupcake to form the owl's beak:

I got enough of the yellow candies in 3 bags of Runts to make 18 cupcakes. Then you'll pipe a small dot of vanilla frosting (canned, or you can make some by scaling down this recipe for buttercream frosting) onto each cream side and use it to attach a Junior Caramel (or Junior Mint, if you prefer those) to finish the eyes:

Hello, Cupcake! also suggests that you pipe a little vanilla onto the chocolate candy to make a highlight, but I found that it looked fine without it.

I was pretty happy with how these turned out, and now I'm excited to make more fun cupcakes!

The Big 4-0

2010-11-02T21:12:00.000-07:00

So I turned 40 last month. And you know what? It was no big deal.

For a few months, I had been dreading the arrival of my birthday and being FORTY. FORTY. That sounded so much older than 39. It's an entirely different decade, people! But for some reason, several weeks beforehand, I began to look forward to the day with anticipation. And I was actually excited to turn 40! How on earth did *that* happen?

Leading up to turning 30, I thought I was going to be fine with it. But I got really annoyed about leaving my 20s, and I was pretty much bitter the entire year whenever I'd remember my age. It didn't help that my birthday started out with my co-workers decorating my cube with black and gray and "Over the Hill" decorations. Nice, people. Real nice. And then a few days before I turned 31, I just decided "Eh, I don't care" and really no other age in my 30s was that big a deal. 39 seemed significant since it was my last year in my 30s, but it didn't bother me.

Anyway, I was afraid that 40 would be a year of bitterness, too, but I just feel a lot of optimism. I truly feel like I'm only getting better with age. I started thinking about women like Catherine Zeta-Jones, Rene Russo, Meryl Streep, Michelle Pfeiffer, Angela Bassett and Helen Mirren. They're all older than me, and all pretty fabulous - it was inspiring!

I've found a weight-loss method that actually works for me (tracking my eating and exercising with the Lose It app for iPhone) and has motivated me more than anything I've tried before. I've been losing weight at a steady pace and know that I'll be in better shape in my 40s than I was for pretty much my entire 30s. I've been working through a great Bible study (the newly updated Breaking Free by Beth Moore) and feel like I'm gaining momentum spiritually. I'm developing more patience as a parent. Lots of areas that have been challenges for me in my 30s feel like they've been coming together, and I feel good about myself.

I'm just so glad that a milestone that I thought would be difficult is actually pretty great!

Here We Go Again

2010-11-01T20:24:00.000-07:00

I was psyched to start blogging daily again this month, which is NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month). I have half a dozen ideas for posts saved on my iPhone (and a ton more in my head that come and go) and I had intended to start out the month with a "how I did it" post on the owl cupcakes I made for our pumpkin carving party a week and a half ago. But a post like that requires pictures, which means I'd have to take the time to decide which ones I want, insert them into the post and make sure their formatting is correct. And suddenly it's after 8:00 and I have other things to get to now that the kids are in bed, and I need to get to them if I want to get to bed at a decent hour, which I do.

This is my problem, though: I have great intentions, but I always seem to run short on time. I'll have to start setting a reminder to do this earlier in the day when I'm not racing against the clock to get something written down just so I can say I blogged today. This phase in life, with young children, is so often about prioritizing and figuring out what you're going to let slide. And it's not as if blogging is a critical part of my life, but it's fun to get back into the habit of writing regularly and it can be a creative outlet. And maybe one day I'll enjoy going back through these posts and reading about what was on my mind or what I was up to at this stage.

Rest assured that I *will* be blogging on those cupcakes in the next couple of days, along with my thoughts on turning 40 and other things I've been thinking about. I know, you're totally waiting with bated breath for the grand revelations soon to come.

(And if you're wondering where the phrase "waiting with bated breath" came from, like I was just doing, here's what World Wide Words has to say about it:

Bated here is a contraction of abated through loss of the unstressed first vowel (a process calledaphesis); it means “reduced, lessened, lowered in force”. So bated breath refers to a state in which you almost stop breathing as a result of some strong emotion, such as terror or awe.

Shakespeare is the first writer known to use it, in The Merchant of Venice, in which Shylock says to Antonio: “Shall I bend low and, in a bondman’s key, / With bated breath and whisp’ring humbleness.

So there you go.)

Behold the Delicious Cupcaky Goodness!

2010-10-26T20:55:00.000-07:00

What? What is this? An actual blog post from me? How did that happen?

Actually, with National Blog Posting Month coming up in November, I was intending to get back on the horse and post every day that month, with the hope and intention of continuing to post regularly afterward, even if it's not every day. I did really well with posting every day in November 2009, posted 9 times in December, then slowed to a trickle before I just trailed off to nothing after the beginning of June. I don't want to let that happen again, so I've started an Evernote folder on my iPhone so that I can write down blog topics as I think of them. Although often my problem is not thinking of blog posts (I frequently think "Hey, I should totally blog about that") but making the time to write them down. So I'll be developing more discipline in that area.

Anyway, my reason for jumping back into the fray a few days early is...CUPCAKES. My friend Colleen alerted me to the existence of RestlessChipotle.com's list of the 50 Best Cupcake Recipes on the Internet. Hold the phone! Amazing cupcake recipes all collected in one place? I'm so there.

I've already found 3 on the list I must try, had an idea for a fourth I want to create, and was told by Colleen about another recipe that she insists is incredible, for Martha Stewart's Pumpkin Cupcakes. How cute is this?

Her recipe is just for the cupcake sans frosting, but she recommends you use your favorite sweet cream cheese frosting to top them. I like the one that comes with this recipe for Carrot Cake. In fact, this is my go-to carrot cake recipe, except I omit the pecans and add an 8-oz. can of crushed pineapple. Yum! So moist and delicious. It's a very dense Carrot Cake, so don't expect it to rise much. It will be a fairly flat cake or cupcake on the top.

The first recipe from the top 50 list is Hummingbird Cupcakes:

These contain bananas, pecans, crushed pineapple and coconut and are frosted with a cream cheese frosting. They sound especially perfect for a spring or summer event, but I'm not sure I can wait that long to try them.

The next recipe is for Samoas Cupcakes:

The recipe starts with a Brown Sugar Butter Cupcake. You cut off the top, hollow out the center and fill it with caramel sauce. Replace the top and spread it with a thick layer of coconut topping, then drizzle with caramel and chocolate ganache and sprinkle a little toasted coconut over the top. These are not your optimal choice if you are watching your calories, but don't they sound amazing?!

The third recipe from the top 50 list is for Snickers Cupcakes:

The baker used Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate Cake Recipe, which is one I haven't tried before but will now have to check out. She hollowed out the center and filled it with caramel sauce, then made a caramel buttercream frosting to top the cupcakes. Sprinkle it with chopped up mini-Snickers bars, and you're all set.

Seeing the Snickers Cupcakes inspired me to come up with a recipe for Reese's Peanut Butter Cupcakes. I'm sure others have created recipes for that elsewhere, but I'm going to see what I can come up with to truly make it taste like the flavor of a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup in cupcake form, since often things don't translate with the same flavors when made in a different type of dessert. It seems difficult for people to get the right salty/sweet combination of a Reese's PB Cup in the peanut butter and chocolate they use for recipes. So I'll give it a go and post when I think I've come up with a winning recipe.

There's one more recipe that I found a while back and have been dying to try: Maple Bacon Cupcakes!

It's really hard to go wrong with bacon, and I do like salty and sweet together (like chocolate-covered pretzels). Plus bacon dipped in maple syrup is always delicious. I just don't see how these could turn out to be anything other than fabulous. The cupcakes have maple syrup, bacon drippings and minced cooked bacon inside, and the frosting is maple. Someone is going to be trying these out soon - so if you work with my husband, James, or are in our small group or in choir, or are part of my extended family, there's a good chance you'll be tasting these or one of the other wonderful combinations I'm discovering in the near future.

Consider yourself on notice.

LOST T-Shirts

2010-06-04T08:44:00.002-07:00

LOST may be over, but you can still commemorate its greatness with these T-shirts. I saw these this morning and just had to post a few of my favorites:
"Yes, I realize I have some Arzt on me." Gross, yet funny. Loved that moment from the series! It was so unexpected, a total shock, and Hurley's reaction was priceless. You can buy the shirt here.

Here's a retro Hurley's Dharma Diner shirt that looks cool:
Buy that one here.

And if you've ever wondered what Ezra, the Dharma shark, may have consumed, now there's a T-shirt for you, available here:

This one, for Henry Gale Balloon Tours, is subtle and a good throwback to an early season:
And finally, I was looking for a shirt that said "Not Penny's Shirt." I didn't find that, but I did find this item, which I thought was clever:

Tips on Cakes

2010-05-21T14:21:00.000-07:00

I have no idea how long I've been baking cakes. It was probably no more than 10 or 11 years ago that I actually started making birthday cakes with piping on them, but I've made cakes for longer than that. I'm guessing closer to 20 years. And yet I'm still just now learning tips that are making cake baking much easier.

One thing I just learned yesterday was that many bakers use a combination of equal parts shortening, flour and oil mixed together to grease a pan before pouring in cake batter. It causes the cake to come out really easily. I tried this yesterday, and it totally worked. Brilliant. I'll be doing this every time I bake a cake now.
I found a few tips for getting a flatter, more even cake. One is to dampen a towel, wrap it around the cake pan, then safety pin it in place. This works similarly to metallic cake strips that you can purchase, but you probably already have the right size towel and a safety pan in your house. And finally I just read today that, if you bake a cake at a lower temperature (like 300 degrees instead of 350) for a longer period of time, you will also have a flatter cake.
Using a cake leveler - I bought one of these to use for Rachel's birthday cake last year. It's a metal frame with a wired stretched between two metal posts, both of which have rubber tips on the ends. I wasn't quite sure how to use it but figured I was just supposed to push the leveler across the cake to cut off the amount above the wire. Trying to do it that way, however, just resulted in the top of the cake getting ripped up a bit, not a nice even surface. So I looked it up online and found that I was backwards. The cake leveler stays in one place (hence the rubber-tipped ends) and you place the cake on a piece of wax paper. Then you put one hand on the leveler, holding it straight, and the other on the cake and gently but firmly push the cake through the leveler. Wiggling it a bit back and forth as you push gives you a nice, even top (or bottom, if you're going to flip it over after leveling).

I guess it proves you're never too old to learn new things :)

Homemade Maple Syrup

2010-04-26T13:26:00.000-07:00

Rachel and Ben had some pancakes for breakfast this morning. As I was getting the imitation maple syrup for Rachel, I looked at the bottle's ingredients list and saw this: "High fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, water, sugar syrup, natural and artificial maple flavor, salt, potassium sorbate (preservative), caramel color." Yuck.

I'm not someone who's overly concerned about having corn syrup (high fructose or otherwise) here and there, but it just struck me that this is supposed to be maple syrup, and it contains a lot of other junk in addition to any maple flavor. I rarely buy real maple syrup because the taste can be strong if you're used to artificial, plus it's expensive. But this is one of those things where I think I need to make the change and go with the real stuff, instead of something that's loaded with junk.

A few of my Facebook friends suggested making your own syrup. I almost dismissed the idea until I did a search and found out that making homemade maple syrup is shockingly easy. Here's the recipe, courtesy of Hubpages.com:

Combine 2 cups of sugar and 1 cup of water in a sauce pan and stir to dissolve, while heating to a boil. After the sugar dissolves add 1/2 tsp of maple extract and stir it in well. When it boils, turn the heat down just enough to keep it boililng, but not boiling over. Boil for 3 minutes. Let cool and store in old syrup jugs.

That's it. Seriously, could it be any easier? You can add other flavorings to have different flavors of syrup, like strawberry or blueberry or butter rum. I love strawberry syrup on pancakes and raspberry syrup on French toast, so I'm looking forward to trying out those ones.

Homemade Pork Chilaquiles

2010-04-09T12:32:00.000-07:00

I've been wanting to try some homemade chilaquiles lately. I had a little kalua pig left in the freezer and thought that would make a great meat for the dish, so I looked up some recipes on line to get a general idea, then threw together my own version. Measurements are approximate since I was just throwing things in without measuring. The smokiness and saltiness of the kalua pig was excellent in this dish.

Pork Chilaquiles
6 servings

16 corn tortillas, ripped into strips
A few tablespoons of oil for frying
App. 3 cups pork roast, shredded
1 c. sour cream
1/2 to 1 c. mild green taco sauce
2 c. shredded Jack cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cook strips of tortillas in oil until softened. Drain on paper towels and sprinkle with salt. Mix sour cream and taco sauce together.

In 8x11.5-inch baking dish, layer 2/3 of the tortilla strips, followed by pork, sour cream mixture and Jack cheese. Top with remaining tortilla strips. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until cheese is melted and bubbly and the tortilla strips are beginning to brown.

You can easily decrease this to fill an 8x8 dish or add a little more for a 9x13 dish. It was a big hit with the whole family, and it's nice to find something that kids will eat without complaining!

Possibly the Best Cookie Bar Ever

2010-03-18T09:10:00.000-07:00

In yesterday's post about our cats of the past, there was the promise of a post about cookies. On Tuesday, the day we had to take Carol to the vet, I felt some comfort cookies were warranted. I had some yellow cake mix and a can of coconut-pecan frosting that I wanted to combine, and I went in search of recipes on Allrecipes.com using their Ingredients search, which is brilliant, by the way.

I found a recipe for German Chocolate Bars. The only thing I did differently was to switch the German chocolate cake mix for yellow cake mix. I had regular chocolate mix but wanted to try the combination of yellow cake mix with that frosting. (Side note: one of the layers of our wedding cake was white cake with coconut-pecan filling, and it was sooo good!)

It turned out to be such a rich, delicious cookie bar! It's definitely going into my regular rotation and will probably be a new gift cookie for me to make, too. It's almost too sweet with the chocolate chips, but the fact that they're semi-sweet keeps it from going over the top. I think next time I'll try making part of it without the chocolate chips to see how I like it. I'm thinking it will have a pecan pie type of flavor. I actually think this would be too sweet using a chocolate cake mix, but if you love lots of chocolate in a cookie, you may think it's perfect that way!

Here's the recipe, or you can click on the link above to go to the original:

Best Ever Cookie Bars

1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix

3/4 cup stick butter or margarine, softened

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1 (16 ounce) container coconut pecan frosting

1/4 cup milk

Place cake mix in a bowl; mix in butter with hands until well blended. Press 2-1/2 cups into a greased 13-in. x 9-in. x 2-in. baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 10 minutes; immediately sprinkle with chocolate chips. Drop frosting by tablespoonfuls over the chips and spread gently. Stir milk into the remaining cake mixture; drop by teaspoonfuls over top and spread gently to cover as much as possible.

Bake 25-30 minutes longer or until bubbly around the edges and top is cracked. Cool on a wire rack. Refrigerate for 4 hours or freeze for 30 minutes before cutting.

Of Cats and Cookies

2010-03-17T08:58:00.001-07:00

I've been a slacker for far too long. After such a promising month of posting in November and fairly regular posting in December, even with the busyness of Christmas, I've totally lost it since then. But I have a piece of scratch paper with a few topics and other things bouncing around in my head, and I'm determined to start blogging more regularly. It's not that I never have things to write about, either. It's just that I get busy with other things, then forget to blog when I do have spare time, instead wasting a bunch of time reading articles and catching up with people on Facebook. There's nothing wrong with either of those things, but I do want to write more often and need to be reminded of that when I have time on my hands. So here's my first day of getting back on track. Warning: It's a long one.

Yesterday we had to put down our cat, Carol. She was about 13, which doesn't seem that old to us because our two previous cats were about 17 and 16 when they died. The eldest, Tinsel, definitely showed signs of aging for a while before she started to really go downhill, so hers was the one we anticipated the most, although it was still difficult. She had hyperthyroidism when we found her while out on a walk near our apartment. She was skin and bones and had knotted hair all over her body. We took her home intending to find her a place with other people, but couldn't for some reason find anyone who was interested in a geriatric cat who needed medication twice a day. So we added her to our other two cats, Carol and Morticia, neither of whom was happy about having to share us with yet another cat, having already adjusted to living around one another when we got married.

Tinsel did fine for about 4 years after that. Then we moved to Washington, and she started having other health problems. In the six months from the time we moved here until the time of her death, she ended up on 7 medications. If we'd been with another vet, they might have said sooner "It's time to let her go," but the vet we were going to sometimes seemed to err on the side of overtreating and prolonging life. Even so, she started to have trouble moving around and her eating drastically tapered off. Then one morning, I found her asleep in the litter box, where she'd gotten in and couldn't get back out. One eye was really dilated, which we discovered was a sign of having a stroke. We got her out and watched her and held her, and she didn't make any attempts to move around. We knew it was time to say goodbye, so we took her to the vet, and they gave her an injection as we sat with her.

That was the toughest time I've had losing a cat. I think it's because it was the first time I ever had to really live through the death of a pet. Previous pets in my family had been given away or were outdoor cats that had gone off to die on their own, except for our family dog, who my dad had to put down due to cancer while I was off at college. I didn't find out about his death until months afterward and only saw him occasionally at that point, so while it was sad, it wasn't raw grief.

That was in September 2006. In April 2008, 3 or 4 weeks before I was due with Ben, our cat Morticia started to have really bad breath. I looked in her mouth and could see that her gums looked swollen and bloody, so I thought she needed dental surgery. I took her to a different vet and they examined her and did some blood tests. They said that the teeth might be the only problem or they might be a secondary symptom of something more major.

They called the next day, a Friday, to tell me that Morticia had catastrophic liver failure. There wasn't much they could do for her other than something risky and expensive like a liver transplant, which they didn't recommend for a cat of her age. The vet said that the kindest thing would be to euthanize her. Because they didn't do euthanizations on the weekend, it meant I needed to bring her in before the end of the day, or make her suffer through the weekend so that we could have more time with her before we said goodbye. I hated having to act so quickly, but I knew she couldn't be feeling good with major organ failure. So at the end of the day, I met James at the vet (Rachel said goodbye to Morticia at home and then stayed with my mom), and we had her put down.

I cried more with Tinsel than with Morticia, and I felt guilty about that because Morticia was "my" cat. She belonged to my roommate when I moved in with her in 1994. When I moved out in 1996, she asked if I wanted to take Morticia because her other cat, Malcolm, bullied Morticia regularly. So Morticia became my cat. After we had to put down Tinsel, I felt guilty, even though I knew it was the right thing. But there was still a little part of me that thought "Was there even the tiniest other thing we could/should have done?" I knew that there wasn't, though. She was 17 years old and hadn't been in really good health for a long time. It was time to go.

Morticia came as a shock because I hadn't expected such dire news when I took her to the vet the day before. But since I'd dealt with the process before, it didn't strike me as hard. I was sad for a long time when I thought of her and am still a little sad thinking about the cats that we've lost. But I'm glad that we've had them in our lives and gotten to love and care for them, even though this part of it sucks.

And now that brings me to Carol. We said goodbye to Carol yesterday after receiving news from the vet that her failing kidneys had gotten much worse. There weren't many options, none of them guaranteed, and all just delaying the inevitable. We knew that Carol wasn't feeling good and thought that any of those options would be keeping her around for our own selfish desires. So we took her in and stayed with her while her life ended. She fought it a bit, which made me so sad for her, even though I knew her body was shutting down. I hope that our presence comforted her. Before we took her in, I sat with her in the family room. She didn't come out of her cat carrier, but I sat next to it and petted her. She leaned into the petting occasionally and gave a short-lived purr a couple of times, but that was it.

It seemed to hard to believe that she was gone afterward, but one look in her eyes showed that there was no longer any life in them. I don't know if we'll see her again one day in heaven, but I hope so. I don't know what God's "policy" is on animals in heaven, but I would be sorely disappointed to get there and find out that there aren't any animals. And I don't know if we'll see specific animals, but it would be wonderful if we do.

And now because this ended up being much longer than I originally intended, the cookies will be in the next post. But believe me, they're worth the wait.

A Few Clips About Conan

2010-01-14T11:42:00.000-08:00

I think what NBC is doing to Conan really blows, but it's certainly provided for some wonderful commentary from other hosts, and here, from Conan's guest Ricky Gervais:

Parts 2-4 of his interview can be found here.

David Letterman had what I thought was a really insightful analysis:

And if anyone should know about getting messed over by NBC, it's Letterman.

Friday 80s Flashback

2010-01-08T08:57:00.000-08:00

One thing you can say about 80s music videos: they weren't boring. Plus, 80s music was awesome. I've collected a few videos here for your Friday listening and viewing pleasure.

First up, somebody was smoking something funny when they came up with this video for the Men Without Hats song Safety Dance:

Here's Men At Work's Down Under:

Next we're traveling to a different continent, Africa, with Toto:

This one from the soundtrack for the movie The Jewel of the Nile features not only an 80s hit by Billy Ocean, but appearances by his backup singers Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner and Danny DeVito. It's When The Going Gets Tough:

And one more movie soundtrack song to close out this 80s Flashback post, a song from an obscure gem of a film called Top Gun, Danger Zone:

Ah, they just don't make 'em like they used to. Happy Friday!

The Worst Cooks in America

2010-01-04T17:17:00.000-08:00

The Worst Cooks in America premiered on the Food Network last night, and I watched it today. I like reality competition shows that deal with people's skills, like The Next Food Network Star and HGTV Design Star. This falls in line with those shows, but with a twist.

Two professional chefs, Anne Burrell and Beau MacMillan, started with 24 people whose friends and family nominated them as some of the worst cooks in the country. In the opener, they were all asked to create a familiar dish for Anne and Beau to taste. 12 of the 24 would be selected as team members for the two chefs, who will attempt to take those 12 and whip them into shape. Ultimately, the two contestants to perform the best throughout the competition and end up as finalists will prepare a meal for a panel of three professional chefs, trying to pass their food off as Anne's and Beau's creations. The winner of that meal tasting wins not only bragging rights, but $25,000. Not a huge prize, but considering that these people all just want to be able to cook, it would be nice to accomplish that goal and get 25K thrown in to boot.

Anne and Beau chose the team members for their counterpart, which meant that they were actually choosing those who did the worst in the first competition in order to make the contest as challenging as possible for their competitor. I think they did a great job casting the 24 that were chosen, throwing in a number of people who were memorable and touching, and I was pretty happy with the 12 they selected.

I'm already pulling for Rebecca Hooper, a Utah mother who was in tears over her desire to cook delicious meals for her young daughter. I'm hoping she makes it far and really improves her cooking skills, whether or not she makes it to the end. You can tell how much she wants to do well and that she's not in it to win a prize. I was so happy that she made it through to the team selection and past the first challenge to create a chef's dish; in fact, Anne chose her dish as the best one for the challenge.

I'll be interested to see how this plays out and how much improvement the contestants can make before they are eliminated. Hopefully those who go home early will be inspired to take cooking courses and continue to learn, as they all seem to want to be good cooks.

I Don't Care What Your Mama Says, Christmas Time Is Near

2009-12-19T20:54:00.000-08:00

SNL Christmas Song

Alan Brady, Alan Brady, Alan Brady, Alan Brady, Alan Brady, Alan Brady, Alan Brady, Buddy Sorrell!

2009-12-19T09:24:00.000-08:00

Christmas Songs I Love, Part 2 of 2

2009-12-15T10:35:00.000-08:00

Here are the rest of my list of favorite Christmas songs. I may have forgotten a few, but this should mostly cover it. If you missed part 1, you can find that list here. These songs and the ones in part 1 are not in any particular order, but I'm numbering them for the sake of neatness and because I'm just that way.

6. Mary's Boy Child - Harry Belafonte
Hark, now hear the angels sing,
A new King born today,
And man will live forevermore,
Because of Christmas day.

A very simple musical arrangement combined with powerful lyrics make this one a favorite of mine. Harry Belafonte originally recorded this in 1956. I love Belafonte's voice on this - it's a great match.

7. White Christmas - Bing Crosby
I actually didn't experience a white Christmas until moving to Washington state nearly 4 years ago, but who doesn't immediately think of fond memories of Christmas when they hear this song? Interestingly, the version that we know is not the 1942 original recording by Crosby, but the re-recording from 1947 that tried to exactly replicate the original master, which had become damaged from frequent use. The song first appeared in the 1942 film "Holiday Inn," and was later featured in the 1954 movie "White Christmas."

8. All I Want for Christmas Is You - Mariah Carey
There's no deep meaning here, just a fun frothy love song at Christmastime. Sometimes Mariah Carey can oversing *just* a tad, but not on this song. It was written for Carey's 1994 Christmas album.

9. Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) - Mariah Carey
This song was originally recorded by Darlene Love in 1963. It has since been done by a ton of people, but I like this version best of the ones I know. Another song where Mariah Carey keeps the melisma under control and has fun with a song.

10. - O Holy Night - Point of Grace
Lots of people have beautiful versions of this song, but I like the ethereal sound of this one. It's hushed and gentle, and the phrases of the verses overlap, then it has soaring harmonies on the chorus. Just lovely.

What are your favorite Christmas songs?

Christmas Songs I Love, Part 1 of 2

2009-12-13T20:10:00.000-08:00

Since I last posted about Christmas songs I abhor, I thought I would cover the flip side of the coin today. These are songs that really touch me, that hold nostalgia or that are just plain fun.

1. Here With Us - Joy Williams
Now that I'm a mother, and particularly now that I'm the mother of a son, songs that are written about Mary's role as Jesus' mother just get to me. This one is a gorgeous song that mostly talks about the mystery of God becoming flesh in the form of a tiny baby and talks about how Mary had to "rock her Savior to sleep." Wow. What a thought!

2. Angels We Have Heard on High - Sara Groves
This is a simple arrangement of a song that's so familiar to many people. It takes out the "Glo-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o...." etc. part and turns it into a lilting praise song.

3. A Cradle in Bethlehem - Sara Groves
Sara Groves' album became my favorite Christmas album when we bought it last year. This song is one that was co-written by Nat King Cole and originally sung by him. "A mother tonight is rocking a cradle in Bethlehem."

4. When Love Came Down - Point of Grace
This is an uptempo song that speaks of caring for those in need and the wish for peace on earth. It's just peppy - what can I say?

5. Christmas Canon - Trans-Siberian Orchestra
You're probably familiar with this one, a Christmasy version of Pachelbel's Canon in D. I love the original song, and this one, too. The video can't be embedded, but you can see it by clicking here.

Part 2 coming in the next day or two.

Christmas Songs That Need to Be Pulled From Rotation for All Eternity

2009-12-09T09:41:00.000-08:00

This blog post is inspired by a discussion on a friend's Facebook page. She mentioned how she hates the song Last Christmas by Wham! You know the one, it says "I'll give it to someone speh-shull...." I cannot change the radio station fast enough when that song comes on. I hate the whiny topic of the song and the breathiness of the chorus, especially that last line. Her post lead to other posts of songs people don't like, and I heartily agree with them and am adding a few of my own:

Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer - I don't care if you think the song is funny. I find it incredibly tacky. I know that's its purpose. Really don't care. I don't like it and don't need to hear it again.
The Christmas Shoes - This is one of those over-the-top songs that's just begging you to break down in tears over the sadness of it all. I appreciate that they're trying to help people keep the right perspective about Christmas and what's important, but I don't think the way to do it is with a schmaltzy song about a little boy who wants to buy his dying mama some fancy red shoes. This one is by Bob Carlisle, who was also guilty of singing Butterfly Kisses, another one of those songs that begs you to cry because you're so touched with sentiment. It's not that I don't have a heart; I do, I just prefer that it be touched in subtler ways.
I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus - This song has a warped premise. Some little kid thinks their mommy is stepping out on their daddy with Santa Claus. "What a laugh it would have been if Daddy had only seen Mommy kissing Santa Claus last night." Because adultery is always good for giggles. Yes, I *know* it's not actual adultery because it's Daddy under the Santa Claus beard, but I still think it's weird to make that idea seem humorous to a child.
Grown-Up Christmas List - This is one of those peace-on-earth songs that just doesn't do anything for me, and it's been sung by a number of people now, so it seems like it's always playing. I'd rather hear Christmas Wishes by Anne Murray, which I think does a much better job of conveying a desire for peace on earth and love toward our fellow man.
Songs where professional singers let their out-o-tune children sing along - Yes, it's cute when kids sing and I enjoy hearing them at church or my daughter's school, whether they can carry a tune or not. But when I'm listening to Christmas music and suddenly someone's tone-deaf child is singing the intro to a song, I find it jarring. I don't know their child from Adam and am not sitting there thinking "Aw, isn't that sweet?" It's more like "Make it stop! Make it stop!" (I know, a little Grinchy of me, huh?)

On notice:

Blue Christmas, Jingle Bell Rock, Feliz Navidad - These songs are fine in and of themselves, in my opinion. It's after I've heard them 87 times in 3 weeks that they make me want to become violent.

Whew! It felt good to get that off of my chest. Any songs that you could just do without completely at Christmastime?

It's National Cookie Day!

2009-12-04T11:55:00.000-08:00

Did you know that? I didn't know ahead of time, but it just so happens that I was planning to make Chocolate Caramel Bars today for a family Christmas party tomorrow. And I was planning on serving a few of them tonight for a game night with friends. So that works out well.

The bars have a layer of oats, sugar and butter, then are drizzled with caramel and chocolate chips, with another layer of the oat mixture on top. They're very rich, and very good! If you'd like to make them, you can find the recipe here.

I omit the nuts and use the caramel dip found in many stores' produce sections in place of the wrapped caramels and heavy cream. Much easier and a lot less cleanup that way.

Now, what more of an excuse do you need to enjoy a cookie today? Happy National Cookie Day!

Ooh, Fancy Christmasy Template!

2009-12-02T15:28:00.000-08:00

Since my blog posts are now appearing on Facebook, most people are reading them there and not clicking on the link that takes them to my blog itself. But you should really go there to read this one and check out my fancy new Christmas template. I found my Santa and Reindeer template on BTemplates, which has quite a few just for the holidays alone. You can search for a particular key word/topic, look at the top downloaded templates or browse by number of columns, style and color, among other ways of searching for what you want. If you're not sure how to add one of their templates to your blog, you can check out their answer in their FAQ section.

I found quite a few other free Christmas and holiday templates at Wishafriend.com and Pyzam.com. It's a fun way to jazz up the look of your blog and to personalize it more.

Amazon vs. iTunes Music Purchases

2009-12-01T07:41:00.000-08:00

I wanted to get some more Christmas music this year, and after much debating and reading of reviews on Amazon, I decided on the following albums:

Celtic Woman - A Christmas Celebration
Vince Guaraldi Trio - A Charlie Brown Christmas
Andy Williams - Personal Christmas Collection (What? We used to hear a lot of his Christmas music when I was growing up, so it brings nostalgia and comfort. Shut up.)

We usually buy our music on iTunes, but Amazon had just given away a $3.00 credit towards purchase of mp3s, and I'd bought some new songs using their Amazon Downloader. The program adds your purchases directly to iTunes or another program/folder of your choice. It was a mostly simple process, although it didn't add one of the four songs properly and I had to go to iTunes and add it to the library manually. And for some reason, when I close it and then buy more music, I have to re-download their Downloader and run it again. That may just be a PEBKAC error, though. I'm not sure.

At any rate, knowing that it was a fairly simple process, I figured I'd do a price comparison between Amazon and iTunes and go with whichever one was cheaper. The Celtic Woman album was $6.99 on Amazon, $7.99 on iTunes. Point for Amazon. Andy Williams Personal Christmas Collection was $8.99 on Amazon, $9.99 on iTunes. And the Charlie Brown Christmas album was $5.00 (!) on Amazon and $7.99 on iTunes. Amazon won on all three purchases, and so did I, since I saved $4.99 on the 3 albums.

Out of the three albums, Celtic Woman downloaded to iTunes with no problem; Charlie Brown downloaded tracks 3 through 16 (1 and 2 were in the library but not added to iTunes automatically for some odd reason); and the Andy Williams album at first didn't show up in the downloader. I clicked "Download again" on the Amazon screen, and it went just fine and loaded in iTunes, too. So if you're using the automatic downloader, be sure to keep your purchase screens open until the albums show as downloaded there; then they should be on your computer and you can add them from their folder if they don't happen to go straight to iTunes.

I haven't checked other albums out to see if the trend continues with Amazon as the less expensive option, but I will certainly be doing that in the future when I buy more music. It was mostly painless and worth a few minutes of manual work to save that much money.

I Defy You to Stand Still While Listening to This

2009-11-30T13:24:00.000-08:00

I'm glad that this special is still broadcast and still watched by so many. On a day where I've found out that Rachel's Clifford the Big Red Dog Thanksgiving book can't be read at school because there are kids who don't celebrate Thanksgiving (because what kind of jerks give thanks, anyway?), it's nice to know that some things remain unchanged. If they ever edit out Linus' speech from the show, I think all hope is lost.

Nearing the Finish Line

2009-11-29T22:42:00.000-08:00

Well, it's day 29 of NaBloPoMo, and this is my 29th post. I wasn't sure at the beginning if I could do it, and some days I've had to stretch a bit to come up with something. If I had more spare time, I could easily find things to blog about every day, I'm sure, but sometimes I just need something I can quickly post and be done with it. I'm proud of myself for having kept up with blogging each day. I've been wanting to become more consistent with it for a long time now, and I'm hoping this is a habit that will continue. I don't know if I'll blog every day after tomorrow. In fact, I'm sure I'll miss days here and there, but I'd like to post at least a few times a week, and more when there are lots of things I feel like talking about.

But for now, I need to wind down my brain so that I can fall asleep soon and get a decent amount of sleep before starting a new week. I think Rachel will be happy to be back in school tomorrow and I'm already thinking about ways to keep her busy during the 2-week break for Christmas and New Year's. At least one overnight stay at Grandma's place will be part of that time; not sure what else yet, but I'll think of things.

Have a great week!

Way to Go, American Inventors

2009-11-28T22:37:00.001-08:00

Apparently I've been under a rock somewhere, because tonight I found out about "truck nuts." If you, like me, have also been under a rock, here is Wikipedia's definition:

"Truck nuts, also known as truck balls, BumperNuts, BumperBalls, or truck scrotums, are accessories for pickup trucks and other vehicles. Capitalizing upon the association of trucks with machismo, truck nuts resemble human testicles inside scrota of various colors."

Really, America? I mean, really? This is the country that invented the airplane, the phonograph, car radios, chocolate chip cookies (how AWESOME is that?), the digital computer, Teflon, microwave ovens, the mobile phone, video games, the heart-lung machine, compact discs, food banks, smoke detectors, the microprocessor, Post-it notes, the Space Shuttle, the Internet, GPS and TiVo, among other things. And what have we worked up to at what should be the pinnacle of American ingenuity and intellectual capabilities?

Truck nuts.

Well done.

What to Do With Leftover Turkey

2009-11-27T18:30:00.000-08:00

If you're trying to decide what to do with the turkey you have left over from yesterday, here's an excellent recipe:

Different Chicken Divan

Turkey is an easy substitute for the chicken in this recipe, which is full of great flavors like curry and garlic and french onions. I use frozen broccoli cuts instead of fresh broccoli, and it's very easy to put together. You may want to add a tablespoon or two of lemon juice to the soup mixture as well.

This next recipe uses not only turkey, but leftover mashed potatoes and dry stuffing mix:

Thanksgiving Leftover Casserole

Here's one that gives turkey a completely different spin, with diced green chiles, corn tortillas and Cheddar cheese:

Southwestern Turkey Casserole

Here's another Mexican-flavored entree, with cream cheese, chiles, jack cheese and chili beans:

Four Seasons Enchiladas

And this list from FoodNetwork.com:

Top 10 Thanksgiving Leftover Recipes

The only recipe I've tried of all of these is the chicken divan, but I'm hoping to have enough turkey to make some of the others as well, because they all sound delicious! If not, I'll be buying a turkey breast or a chicken to roast, since I now have some great new recipes to try.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-26T19:12:00.000-08:00

I hope your day was full of family, friends and good food (even if the food was just popcorn, toast, pretzels and jelly beans). This is the first holiday in a while where I felt like I had plenty of time to get things done and wasn't stressed while finishing up the preparations. Hopefully more holidays like this are ahead!

We enjoyed a nice feast with James' parents and our friends Corey and Gilda, who we've adopted into our family as extra siblings. I have to say that I was a little disappointed in the turkey; the meat itself seemed a little blah to me. I think next year I'll have to go for a name-brand turkey and maybe think about brining it, something I haven't yet tried but which is supposed to give a turkey great flavor and moistness. Everything else was so good, and I loved the double layer pumpkin cheesecake I tried for the first time. That will definitely be going into my repertoire of recipes!

It was a great day to spend time with people we love and enjoy the bounty that God has given us.

Thanksgiving Links

2009-11-25T12:33:00.000-08:00

If you have time on your hands today and would like to do some seasonal reading, here are links to sites with interesting information on tomorrow's holiday:

From Mentalfloss.com:
10 Things That Have Deflated the Macy’s Parade

From Suite101.com:
An American Thanksgiving Timeline

T he official site of the 83rd Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

From The History Channel:
Thanksgiving Fun Facts

Also from The History Channel:
Thanksgiving Fact or Fiction

From Kaboose:
Thanksgiving Activities for Kids

And finally, if you're desperately searching for a recipe, need tips on cooking a turkey or would like to see some how-to videos related to Thanksgiving, check out the Thanksgiving page on Allrecipes.com.

Odd, But Interesting and Amusing

2009-11-24T14:56:00.000-08:00

It's a busy day, so today you're getting a video:

On a side note - why does Dr. Bunsen Honeydew wear a pair of glasses but have NO EYEBALLS/SOCKETS whatsoever? That's just...creepy.

Quit Your Bellyaching Already

2009-11-23T16:09:00.000-08:00

I've been watching the HGTV's Bang For Your Buck for the last few months. A designer and a realtor take 3 rooms in homes in one geographic area that have been remodeled for the same amount of money and critique what homeowners have done well and what they would have changed to make the rooms more appealing to potential home buyers in the future. Then they evaluate the rooms to see which buyers, if they were to sell their house today, got the biggest return on their investment, or "bang for their buck." Except they always say "Let's see who got the biggest bang for your buck," which is grammatically incorrect if they're trying to say "Let's see which homeowners got the biggest bang for their buck," but they say it that way to work in the name of the show. Which bugs me.

I'd like to do some remodeling in our kitchen and bathrooms one day, and wouldn't mind turning our kitchen, dining room and living room into a great room area in my if-we-had-a-sudden-influx-of-disposable-income-and-wanted-to-use-it-in-remodeling dreams. So it's been good to watch the show and pick up tips on what brings the highest return on investments and what things are seen as cheap or too owner-specific to be appealing to most people.

For example, things that are positives for kitchens are:

A pot filler faucet over the stove
Granite countertops; poured concrete is also considered high-quality and appealing to most
Spending money on your flooring and not scrimping there, because buyers will notice; also, if you have wood flooring in an adjacent area and want it in the kitchen, make sure it matches, even if it means new flooring in the other area, too
Adequate counter workspace on both sides of the stove
Stainless steel appliances
A classic design style, as opposed to anything trendy or with permanent fixtures that draw too much attention to themselves, like a brightly colored tile backsplash

For bathrooms, some things they recommend are:

Again, no skimping on the flooring
Make sure you include a roomy tub in a master suite bathroom
A good-sized shower

In general, they give advice like "don't overimprove for your neighborhood" and "make sure the style of your remodeling fits with the rest of the home." Some of what they say is common sense advice, but it's good to get actual examples of what they're saying, and I like seeing what design choices homeowners have made.

One thing I don't like, however, is how defensive some of them get when their choices are being critiqued. It seems that you should be prepared for some criticism when you agree to be on a show like this. It's rare for someone to make all the right choices in design, and even if the designer and realtor don't care for a particular choice (or several) in a room, if the owners like it and it works for them, great.

Some of the people seem to understand that and say pretty much just that. Others get snippy and extremely defensive, and end up looking like jerks on national TV. I'm sure they're told "Don't hold back, just give us your responses to what you're hearing." But most people have the sense to moderate themselves a little, even if they're upset, when they know they have a camera in their face.

One man got so nasty and rude in his retorts to the video evaluation he was watching that he started mocking how the agent pronounced things with her British accent. I actually deleted that episode because I didn't want to watch any more of him. Most don't go that far, but I can tell that some are getting really uptight about the feedback they're receiving. It always gets me when people expect to just have everything be candy and roses and have praise showered upon them for their brilliant design sense and their obvious perfection.

If you're that much of a baby about constructive criticism, here's a suggestion: don't agree to be on a show where they're going to give you an honest appraisal of what's going to sell and then be upset when they point out things that won't appeal to everyone.

My Thanksgiving Menu

2009-11-22T21:35:00.000-08:00

I've been working on my Thanksgiving menu and thought I would share some recipes in case anyone is looking for some good dishes for Thursday. You'll notice that I'm taking many of my dishes from Allrecipes.com, as usual.

I'm starting it with Homestyle Turkey, the Michigander Way. This will be year 7 of using this recipe for my turkey. It's a very simple recipe that uses butter between the skin and the breast meat to give the bird more flavor and juiciness. The drippings give you a good start on some very tasty gravy, too. I have a 21-lb. turkey this year and am guessing it will take about 4 1/2 to 5 hours.

Another favorite is my Sweet Potato Bake, a recipe from the Queen of Butter, Paula Deen. It is by no means a lowfat vegetable side dish; it uses butter, sugar and cream or milk in the sweet potatoes and has a topping that features chopped pecans (or walnuts, but I like the taste of pecans better), butter and brown sugar. Man, is it good! It's definitely worth the indulgence as long as you don't have this dish on your menu every week.

My potato dish is a make-ahead one that comes out really creamy and flavorful without the taste of having been in the refrigerator overnight - Creamy Mashed Potatoes II. The version of the recipe I have calls for a can of chicken broth as well. It may be a little too soupy for your taste with a full can, so try adding half a can first and then add more as needed. You can also add shredded Cheddar cheese, crumbled crisp bacon and green onions to the top if you'd like, but I find the potatoes just as good without the additions.

I'm trying a new recipe for dessert this year: Double Layer Pumpkin Cheesecake. Not being a huge pumpkin pie fan, I've always gone for other desserts at Thanksgiving. But I do really like cheesecake, and I made some Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins recently that were really good, so I thought I'd give this a try. It's something I've wanted to do for a few years now. The suggestions from reviewers are to use 3 packages of cream cheese (instead of 2), add 1/2 c. of sour cream when you add the eggs and to use more pumpkin if you like a prominent pumpkin flavor. One person also drizzled caramel sauce over the cut slices, and I may try that as it sounds even more delicious than plain!

The rest of my menu is pretty simple: stuffing (I just use boxed stuffing most years), salad, rolls, olives and cranberry sauce. Oh, and I have a Glazed Baby Carrots recipe that is really good for Thanksgiving, too, but I'm forgoing that this year as there is already plenty to eat for only 8 people!

Let me know if you end up trying any of this recipes, and if so, what you thought. Whatever you have on Thursday, I hope it's delicious!

The Craziness Has Started

2009-11-21T21:39:00.000-08:00

I went to our local "mall" today. Yes, it has a few good stores like Bath & Body Works and Victoria's Secret and Macy's, but it has way too many no-name stores and a number of vacant storefronts as well. There are fewer vacant storefronts right now since some temporary stores like Hickory Farms have moved in for the holiday shopping season, but the mall really does leave something to be desired. It does, however, have a Target, and it rules to have a Target at the mall.

Anyway, I arrived in the parking lot only to realized that everyone else has apparently decided to start their Christmas shopping. The only spaces readily available were at the fringes of the lot where no cart-return has ever been spotted, and when I'm going to be bringing lots of bags back to the car, I don't want to park far from a cart return. After driving around a bit, I happened upon someone with their backup lights on, so I lucked out there.

It was definitely much more crowded in there than usual, but I got my non-Target shopping done (I was partially successful with finding what I wanted) and then went to the craziness that is Target on a Saturday in the holiday season. The aisles were crowded and people were clueless and/or rude. I overheard one man call his (I presume) 12- or 13-year-old son a name so crass that I won't even type it here with asterisks to fill in the blanks. I thought "That can't be what I heard," only to hear him say it again. 'Tis the season to be jolly.

I spent way too much time finding or trying to find what I needed, but at least I didn't have to wait that long at checkout. Still, this is the reason why I started shopping early and why I like to do my Christmas shopping online much of the time. I've decided I'm just not going anywhere near a mall again until the after-Christmas sales are done. I don't need more of this. I want to save up my patience to use with my children, and not waste it on situations that I can easily avoid.

Behold, My 20th Day of Posting in a Row

2009-11-20T22:48:00.001-08:00

Yep, that's pretty much what this post is about. It's day 20 of National Blog Posting Month, and I've managed to post for 20 days in a row after months of mostly neglecting my blog.

This definitely helped me to get back on track with posting more regularly, which has been a minor goal of mine for a while. If I'm going to have a blog, I want to actually use it and not post 4 times and then tie up the website address forever without ever doing anything else with it. And now I know I can manage blogging along with other things I'm doing. I don't know if I'll keep up with posting on a daily basis, but I think I'll be posting at least a few times a week.

It seems like a few months ago, I was constantly thinking "That would be a good blog post," but I wasn't writing those things down and wasn't making the time to write the posts. Now that I'm fervently trying to come up with things to blog about, I'm drawing blanks.

It's like when I was in college and I had to write a paper or a speech. Pretty much every time, I'd come right down to the wire before I could come up with an idea and run with it. This was pre-Internet, so I didn't have search engines I could use to find ideas that would interest me enough, and the college library's card catalog was a pathetic substitute for coming up with topics. There were probably books around that I could have gone and gotten, but that would probably have meant spending money to buy one, and I was a poor college student.

I guess I don't really have an excuse now that the Internet does exist, so I'll have to start making better use of it when I'm having trouble coming up with something until the inspiration starts to flow again. I could blog about my kids, but we have a separate blog for that, so I try to keep the kid-specific posts on that one. Which reminds me, I have been severely neglecting that blog lately and need to start posting there regularly again. So much has been happening with the kids that I should be blogging about, like Ben picking up all sorts of new words and Rachel just being her funny self.

Perhaps my goal for December should be to post every day on that blog.

SYTYCD

2009-11-19T21:42:00.000-08:00

Last night's So You Think You Can Dance had an amazing performance of a Bollywood-style routine performed by choreographer Nakul Dev Mahajan and the NDM Bollywood Dance troupe. I've been looking for a video of the dance because I wanted to share it on here, but so far only found one clip on YouTube that contains a lot beforehand and cuts off before the dance was done.

I've enjoyed the addition of new dance styles to SYTYCD, and Bollywood is one of my favorites. It's such a colorful, expressive dance, and often full of joy. When it's well-performed, it's just a pleasure to watch.

Since I couldn't find that, here's a dance that Mahajan choreographed for season 5's top 10 finalists. I hope you enjoy it!

Good Gifts

2009-11-18T22:45:00.001-08:00

I've been having such a good time choosing and buying gifts for those on my Christmas list. I consider it a challenge to find things that I think people will truly use and enjoy. I may not always succeed, but hopefully the intent shows through.

And I especially love picking out things for James, Rachel and Ben. I love them most out of everybody on earth, and it gives me joy to think of presenting them with gifts that I've picked out just for them. I watch for things that catch their fancy or gifts that seem to have their names written all over them.

I'm really looking forward to this Christmas, since we'll have two children who are excited about their stockings and their presents. Last year, Ben was too young to really get into it, although he seemed to enjoy himself. This year, I'm sure he'll join his sister in squealing and screeching and tearing into packages (hopefully not *too* many that aren't his own), and I can hardly wait to see them enjoying the things we're giving them.

Tonight I was thinking about that, and it brought to mind Matthew 7:11:
"If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!" (NIV)

We as parents love to give things to our children and see their enjoyment and pleasure. But we can't give them gifts every day, because most children would turn into spoiled rotten, self-centered little tyrants who demanded new things constantly. I wonder if God has to restrain Himself in giving us gifts. He delights in giving them to us, but I'm sure that if I got everything I ever wanted, particularly if I didn't have to work for it, I would be just as spoiled rotten and self-centered as my 5-year-old would be.

In looking up the verse above, I found a devotional here. A portion of it says this:
He is the giver of good gifts and He never changes. Never. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. His love is not fickle or conditional, His gifts are showered on us, not because we have earned them, but because He loves to give good gifts to the ones He adores.

Every golden sunrise is a token of Father's affection. He paints the sky with rainbows and scatters clouds simply for our delight. All of creation bears witness to His love and His majesty.

If we begin to understand that all we receive in life comes as a gift from our Heavenly Father, then we will begin to look at even the simple things with awe and child-like wonder.

I aspire to be more childlike in noticing and appreciating all the gifts that God has already showered on me, and continues to shower on me, at Christmas and all year round.

Dare to Behold the Cuteness

2009-11-17T17:14:00.000-08:00

Today's post is just this video of a cat and a fennec fox, which speaks for itself:

Too On Top of Things?

2009-11-16T13:54:00.000-08:00

Every year as I'm rushing to finish my Christmas shopping and get things shipped off in time, I tell myself that it will be different next year. This year, I actually managed to bring that goal to fruition. I still have a number of people for whom I need to buy gifts, but the kids are pretty much done with the exception of a few more stocking stuffers for Ben, and I mostly just need stocking stuffers for James. My mom is taken care of in terms of figuring things out, although I'm planning to make a gift for her that's going to take a bit of time, so I need to get going on that.

I have gifts or ideas for several other people on my list and now need to figure out what to get for the rest of them, but I'm feeling pretty good. There are two downsides to being this far ahead, though:

I have a hard time waiting until Christmas to give them their gifts because I'm excited and want to see them opening up and enjoying their presents. My top love language is gifts, and I think it's very evident when gift-giving occasions occur. I even really enjoy buying things for Operation Christmas Child and items for food drives. I love to give, so it's hard for me to have patience when things are in my possession for that long. It's like they're burning a hole in my closet.
It's a letdown when my buying is done (especially for the kids) and I don't get to discover and get more things for people, particularly if I find something that would have been a perfect gift but I clearly have more than enough things already.

Still, those are minor in comparison to the pressure of finishing with Christmas purchases. It's a self-imposed pressure since most people are not going to judge me on the scale by which I judge my own choices for them, but it's pressure nonetheless. I would have preferred to have started with the difficult people, but inspiration can be hard to come by for some.

Restaurants I Wish Were in Washington

2009-11-15T17:04:00.000-08:00

Washington has a lot going for it, but one thing it lacks, at least in Federal Way and surrounding areas, are restaurants that have become favorites similar to the ones I loved in Southern California. Every now and then, I'll think longingly of one of them and wish desperately that they had one like it here. Restaurants like:

Aloha Food Factory (Alhambra) - a family-run Hawaiian restaurant with amazing food, a kitschy collection of decor and friendly proprietors who always seemed interested in how we were doing. We visited there last September, 2 1/2 years after moving away, and the wife, Betty remembered us. We got to introduce her to Ben and spend a few minutes catching up. I haven't food that compares to theirs. There's a pretty good one-off Hawaiian restaurant in town, but it's just not the same.
Versailles (several locations, but the ones on La Cienega and Ventura are better than the Universal City walk-up fast-food version) - Cuban food; they had a garlic chicken that they served with buttery rice, mildly spicy black beans and fried plantains. There are no Cuban restaurants nearby and I haven't made it to any in Seattle to try them out yet.
La Fontana (Glendale) - Italian restaurant with a romantic setting and fantastic food for great prices. They had a special where you could choose salad or soup, an entree and a dessert for something like $15, and they had a dozen or so entrees to choose from. I always got the Chicken Milanese, a breaded and lightly sauteed chicken breast with a creamy lemony sauce, served with very fine angel hair pasta and fresh vegetables. It was just a few blocks away from our apartment, and we'd go there every so often, including for one of James' birthdays. We went there for New Year's Eve the year before Rachel was born and had a nice evening out. They were busy, but they had piano music playing and it never got overly noisy. Oh, and they had really good focaccia bread, too.
Papas and Beer (Lake Balboa/Van Nuys) - this is now apparently called Salsa and Beer. I'm wondering if they were unaffiliated with the restaurant of that name in Mexico and had to change it. Regardless, they had such good Mexican food and served it with chips and a warm bean dip along with the salsa. You could get a giant burrito for just a few dollars, and their combo plates were around $5 or $6. I miss the authentic Mexican food that was plentiful in Southern California, in smaller restaurants and taco shops.
Adalberto's (San Diego, Sacramento) - A really great taco shop. I used to frequent this place in college in San Diego, and then found out that they had some locations in the Sacramento area, too. So whenever I visited my mom while she lived there, and later my dad, I'd be sure to fit in a visit to Adalberto's for carne asada chips and rolled tacos with sour cream and cheese.
Wienerschnitzel (lots of places, but we went to the one in Duarte) - There are 2 or 3 of these in Washington, but the closest one is just over 50 miles away. And that's a little far to go for corn dogs and chili cheese fries. I miss having one 2 miles from my house.
Islands (Glendale, Encino, many other places) - A fun restaurant with a surfing/tropical theme. They had really good salads and burgers, plus you could order a platter of endless chips and salsa or a big thing of fries/cheese fries and share them with the whole table. And they had Cherry Coke, mmm.
Boston Market (Burbank/Toluca Lake, Pasadena) - Another fast-foodish chain, and they used to be all over the place, including Washington. But they've been gone from this state for years. I miss being able to get a nice home-cooked-style plate of ham or turkey, garlic dill new potatoes, cinnamon apples and a tiny little loaf of cornbread. Oh, the cornbread! Sometimes I just want comfort food, and there's nowhere where I can make a quick stop and come away with such a yummy meal like that.
Rudy's Mexican Restaurant (Monrovia) - We only went to the sit-down restaurant once. Service was horrible. It took a long time to get anything and to even see our waiter, so we never went back. But they had a booth in Monrovia's weekly street fair, and I can't tell you how many times I'd get two of their carne asada tacos. Such tender, flavorful meat and a strawberry Jarritos soda to go with it. Tasty.

Now I'm kinda bummed and wanting to visit Southern California on a massive eating tour. During our Disneyland trip last September, Aloha Food Factory was the only restaurant we managed to visit. Hopefully we'll be able to hit several old favorites next time.

For Your Viewing Pleasure

2009-11-14T15:26:00.000-08:00

Today I bring you a selection of photos from Pixdaus. It's primarily a collection of nature photos but also has lovely pictures of architecture and people, among other subjects. I subscribed to the RSS feed of their daily photos for a time but couldn't keep up with it because they send so many each day. It's well worth a visit if you enjoy beautiful and interesting photography. One warning - you may see the occasional photo with artistic nudity, but I found those to be very rare. Still, if you would prefer to avoid it completely, you may want to visit the website and search for specific subjects rather than subscribe to the RSS feed.

Enjoy a view through the eyes of others:

Last Night's Survivor

2009-11-13T07:42:00.000-08:00

I can hardly believe I'm saying this, but - way to go, Russell! He's still a putz at times, but he's stopped doing out-and-out stupid things just for the sake of doing them. He's keeping the game interesting, and you have to hand it to a guy who found not one but two hidden immunity idols with no clues whatsoever. (On a side note - should they be making their hiding places a bit harder to locate?)

I was cheering for him and the Foa Foas and was almost sitting on the edge of my seat last night while waiting for and watching Tribal Council. You knew earlier in the episode that Laura would win immunity by the way they were setting things up, so that was a given. The question was - would the former Galu be uneasy enough about the possibility of Russell having found the latest idol that they would switch their votes to another person, or would they stick with their plan of taking out Russell because they thought the odds were too high for him to have found another one already? Thankfully it was the latter.

Props to Shambo, too, for suggesting that they vote out Kelly because Monica is not well-liked and does poorly at challenges. I think this is the first really intelligent suggestion she's made in the game, and I'm glad she's finally showing some strategic thinking. Plus she was a great actor at Tribal Council, looking shocked without overdoing it, and she voted with her former tribemates so that she could keep up the pretense longer and stay in on their strategy. At least, I'm assuming that's why she did it. I thought she'd vote against Kelly and show her cards too soon, but that didn't happen.

Now we're down to the former Foa Foa + Shambo against the other 5 former Galu members. I'd be surprised if Shambo flipped back at this point, so it will be interesting to see how things play out next week. Will it be a tie vote resulting in a 1-on-1 challenge at Tribal Council? Will Russell find yet *another* immunity idol? (Difficult to do with Laura and John running around after him. Here's a thought - go look somewhere else and find it yourselves.) Will there be a new splintering of the remaining survivors?

This season has gotten much more interesting with the flip-flops and two blindsides in a row. Much better than seeing one team decimated and picked off one by one.

I Think This Line's Mostly Filler

2009-11-12T14:35:00.000-08:00

I really need to brainstorm some good blog topics so that I don't keep drawing blanks and having to rack my brain to come up with something. It's not that I never have anything to talk about, it's that I'm not writing things down when I think of them. Although lately the inspiration isn't striking me as often as it was a month or two ago. Perhaps my brain got tired of suggesting blog topics about which I did nothing.

Today, though, I thought I'd talk about Postcrossing. I started doing Postcrossing last month. You sign up with the website and provide it with your mailing address. You can create a profile where you can upload a photo and share info about yourself or talk about what kinds of postcards you'd most like to receive. Then you click "Send a Postcard," and you receive the information for someone else who's signed up with Postcrossing. When you first start out, you can send out 5 postcards. Then you wait for them to be received and registered on the website by the addressee. When a postcard that you've sent is registered, you can request info to send another. As the number of postcards you've sent adds up, the number you can have traveling at one time increases.

My first 5 postcards were sent to Finland, Spain, China, France and Germany. I've gotten 4 postcards back so far, from Finland (coincidence!), the Netherlands, Cincinnati and Yonkers, N.Y. I'm enjoying making connections across the country and around the world and seeing what postcards people use to send. My plan is to put the postcards in a photo album with 4x6 windows so that I don't end up shoving them in a drawer or putting them in a pile of papers somewhere, but can actually enjoy them again as snapshots from all over.

One caveat, though - although postcards mailed in the U.S. are only 28 cents, international postcards cost 98 cents to mail. Ouch. I'm planning to pace myself so this doesn't become a really expensive habit, but I think it's a fairly cheap hobby compared to many, and it's one that builds international goodwill to boot.

Hooray for the Slow Cooker!

2009-11-11T12:54:00.000-08:00

My mom used a slow cooker frequently when I was growing up. I remember many a pot of pinto beans and ham, as well as hamburger soup and other kinds of yummy slow-cooked goodness.

Slow cookers have come a long way since then, and so have the foods that are cooked in them. I love using one because it simplifies my dinner-time routine, which is nice because that time of day can sometimes get chaotic. It's also wonderful for tenderizing cuts of meat as they cook, and blending flavors together.

Probably my favorite slow-cooker recipe right now is kalua pig. So, so good, and really easy. It's just a pork butt (or shoulder) roast rubbed with sea salt and liquid smoke, then placed in a slow cooker with water and cooked for anywhere from 14 to 20 hours, depending on how hot your slow cooker cooks. I start it around 11:00 pm, then turn it in the morning when I get up and several times throughout the day to prevent any pieces from getting dry. The meat literally falls apart, it's so tender, and the flavor is incredible. You can find the recipe here.

Two other recipes I tried recently are Slow-Cooked Chili and Beef Stroganoff. Both were made for groups, and both got rave reviews! I made the chili pretty much as is, and I though it was fabulous. To the stroganoff, I added garlic, onion soup mix and sour cream, per the suggestions of others who had left reviews on the recipe. It was really good and creamy, and the meat was tender despite only being cooked on high for 5 hours. I usually prefer to cook chunks of meat or whole roasts on low for a longer period of time, but it totally worked.

I'll be using my slow cooker more as we're heading deeper into fall and drawing closer to winter. It's a great time to make stews and soups and chili and other warm comfort foods like that, but I'll be looking for new types of slow-cooker recipes to try out, too.