The other reason I don't bake

While I am able to cook dinners that my family enjoys, I don't bake.

I bring fruit or "no-bake" recipes to bake sales.

My standing reason has been that my desserts/muffins/etc. never turn out right.  They don't look right, and they are either still moist in the middle or resemble a brick.

In accordance with my recent endeavors to sneak veggies into other foods however, I've ventured into baking.  The banana bread (with cauliflower!!) was a success!  (Stay tuned for another post on that one).  So, today I am baking brownies (with spinach--sshhh)!

However, I have cleaned my kitchen floor (in spots) three times.  My other problem, you see, is that I spill.  When I spill sauce while making lasagna, it's easy to spot and easy to clean.

When I spill brown sugar on a brown, hardwood floor however, it's not so easy to spot.  So I clean.  Then I hear the crunch under my feet. I get many wet paper towels and clean again.  Then I spill flour.  (Easier to see but this settles into the spaces between my hardwood floorboards.)  I vacuum.  I use more wet paper towels.  I vacuum.  There!

I put the vacuum away and come back into the kitchen.  

Crunch.

Update

My father-in-law was in surgery all of yesterday and went back in this morning but is now stable and resting.

Thank you so much for your prayers!

Behind the times

I found this link on Joshilyn Jackson's blog.  Her book, Gods in Alabama, is listed as one of 100 books by "living writers" that will "spark discussion."

I loved her book and planned to vote for it but thought I'd go ahead and check out the other 99 books listed.  I was dismayed to find that I'd only read ONE other book on the list!

I hope to check out at least a few of the books on the list.  In the meantime, I guess I'll have to start my own discussions about books that I have actually read.

Your prayers, please

If you pray before you go to bed tonight, please add my husband and father-in-law to your prayers.

My father-in-law was diagnosed with gastric cancer this summer.  He handled the chemotherapy and radiation quite well and is an excellent candidate for surgery to remove the rest of the tumor.

The surgery is scheduled for first thing tomorrow morning.  He has done so well with everything else that we are hopeful that this will be very successful.  I'm just thinking a few extra prayers can't hurt!

Thank you!

Unreasonable

My daughter is not grounded.  She is not being punished (despite what she may think).

She has been invited to a birthday party tomorrow evening.  It is being held at a facility that she has been dying to visit and, according to her, all of the other fourth grade girls are going.

So what is our problem? The party is tomorrow evening.

We have not yet ventured into evening soccer/baseball/football practices so maybe we, as parents, are just not yet in the swing of things.

Having said that, our daughter is not yet in the swing of getting up easily for school each morning.  (Not to mention the fact that she was home from school last Thursday and Friday with a fever and sore throat; she's still got a cough that won't completely go away.)

So we are not allowing her to go to a birthday party on a school night.  The party is being held across town, from 7-8:30pm.

Are we being unreasonable?  What do you think? 

 (You won't change our answer but I'm curious.  Are we the only square parents out there that have raised an eyebrow over a child's birthday party on a Wednesday night?)

Baby steps

Thank you, Writers Digest, for including an article entitled Baby Steps.

I can't write a novel in a month.

I can sit and write for 15 minutes each day.

In that fifteen minutes, I'm sure I can complete one page.

That's 7 pages a week, 31 pages a month, 365 pages a year.

365 pages might equal a book!

Try again Tuesday

I was going to post a glowing report of how well my Monday went.  I felt like such a successful homemaker as I roasted both butternut squash and sweet potatoes in the oven, had a load of laundry washing, put dishes away and entertained the baby all at the same time!  I felt even better as I pureed the vegetables later (this took a little longer as the baby was not quite as entertained with the loud whirring of the food processor overpowering the dainty sounds of electronic Baby Einstein music coming from his toy).  I got it all done before picking the kids up from school, happy in the knowledge that tonight I was going to hide butternut squash in their mac-n-cheese for dinner.

(I have decided, you see, to hide veggies in meals for all of the family members.  The kids don't eat enough vegetables and while I can't prove that any of the hubbies' more frequent colds or recent aches and pains are caused by a lack of veggies, eating more can't hurt!)

Alas, my efforts proved only moderately successful.  My daughter, who usually asks for at least two helpings of mac-n-cheese, decided last night that she "just didn't like it, for some reason."  (I did not tell her about the extra ingredient and I thought it was hidden pretty well but she knew something was different.)  At least she is the one who will eat veggies willingly and did polish off her green beans.  My son did not finish his portion of mac-n-cheese but I was moderately pleased as he noticed no difference and did eat some of it!  The hubbie just wanted pasta so he and I had spaghetti but I did not have a chance to sneak anything extra into his dinner.  (At least he does put tomatoes and black olives on his pasta.)

Dinner was a bit rushed as the kids had gymnastics until 6pm last night.  Tuesday is the day I let them stay at the after-care program at school.  (I feel they are lucky that they don't need the childcare but they feel deprived as so many of their friends go.  So we compromise and they get to go on Tuesdays--which gives me a few extra hours with just the baby!)  So I have plenty of time to have a full, vegetable-laced dinner waiting for the family when they get home this evening!  

(Feel free to wish me luck.  It's only 10:20am--a lot can happen between now and dinnertime.)

To the drug manufacturers

Dear Drug Companies, 

Recently, some children's medications were recalled due to the potential for overdose.

While I appreciate the action, perhaps you could save some money--and children--if we just found a way to print the information large enough for bleary-eyed parents to read!

As a maternally-aged mother, trying to read the Tylenol bottle at 0-dark-thirty proved nearly impossible.  (I am only 37 and my eyesight is normally fine but after rising with an infant as well as a sick child, my eyes don't focus quite as well in the wee hours as I'd like).

Luckily I could read the dosage amount (though I already knew that as my daughter had already had one dose earlier).  With the combination of my poor memory and lack of sleep however, I wanted to check to ensure that she could get another dose at 4 hours rather than 6.  While I suspect part of the problem is that I may be contracting her cold as well, it was still excruciating trying to read the tiny print on the side of the bottle.

I know you must include all of the side effects and possible drug interactions but I would not have been able to read those, either.  Can't we include that on the insert but print the dosage information in larger print?

Sincerely,

Sleepy in Indy

Not the Same Street!

I saw this back in November and it has been sitting in my "drafts" folder ever since.  Except for the re-runs, it seems Sesame Street has changed right along with the rest of our neighborhoods!

I haven't watched SS in a few years and it'll likely be another year or so before J discovers it--I wonder what we'll be in store for then!  I know Kermit and Miss Piggy have moved to Hollywood and everyone can see Snuffelupagus now.  I wonder if the head-banging musician is still on?  Oh, I'll never get it!  Never!  Never!  Never!

Quick! Vote!

No--this has nothing to do with primary fever.

Here's my dilemma:

My daughter is getting to be as forgetful as her mother.  The problem is--my memory was FINE when I was NINE!  She is allowed to forget her gym clothes only so many times before she has to sit out--and she loves gym!  She is either down to one more time or no chances left and I just found her gym bag by the back door.  Should I take it to school?

(I'm thinking NO.  Maybe she'll finally learn and it is her responsibility.)

In the same vein, my son was sure he did not need his warm jacket today and just wore a wind breaker but I took the recycling out and it's COLD today!  (After 67 degrees on Monday and about 60 yesterday, we have forgotten it's January!)

SO--should I rescue my kids and take the gym bag and jacket to school?  Let me know but vote now--gym class is in an hour!

Laissez les bon temps roulet!

As I am nursing our son, I feel like I can't "diet" and cut out too many calories right now -- but I've got to shed these many, many baby pounds.  So--I decided to start exercising regularly again with the new year and to try to cut sugar out of my diet.

I was finally successful in having a completely sugar-free day yesterday.

My husband came home from the store with this last night.  (He found one in Indiana!)

I finished off my son's piece after he went to school this morning so I guess I just shoot for a sugar-free afternoon, today!

Light at the end of the tunnel

J went to sleep a little earlier than usual last night (after taking micro-naps during the day) and slept almost 6 hours straight!  (By the time I got the kitchen cleaned up, dishwasher running, etc., that meant I got about 5 hours of uninterrupted sleep!)

FIVE hours.  Life is good.

After he had breakfast and a diaper change, he went back to sleep--about an hour before I had to get his older siblings up for school.  So I managed to have a cup of (hot!) coffee, read a little and take a 15-minute micro-nap myself before he woke again--5 minutes before I had to get the others up!  I don't need an alarm with this little guy!

I don't know if it was the REM sleep or the fact that I've had almost 3 cups of coffee now but my morning is zipping along nicely!  I hope yours is as well!

That's my girl!

I have asked my mother repeatedly over the years to remove the curse.  You may have heard of it:  "I hope one day you have a daughter just like you!"  I got one and I get it!

Last night however, I smiled when she sent me an email telling me her New Year's Resolutions.  Here is her list:

1. Be more organized.

2. Exersize

3. Right a book