Mom to the Screaming Masses

Making Life (Or At Least Mealtime) Easier, Volume Thirty - Four

I'm up to 94 items on the 100 Things About Me button on the right side there.  I NEVER thought it'd take so long to fill out a form about me - I'm my most favorite topic of conversation!  If you know of anything I should add to the list, let me know.

We had our last three soccer games this weekend!  I don't know if my kids will play in the fall. I can't believe I'm saying that after more that 12 years, but reason number one - I don't think I can afford it.  One of my girls plays for ACN, and that is $400 a season alone.  She did the tryouts, but missed the second day because she was puking her guts out.  I don't think they will pick her back up - and I'm ok with it.  Another one of my girls plays for Rush at $200 a pop, and she is starting public high school in the fall. I think it'd be better for her to have a season off to get herself situated at a new school.  Public schools don't have a fall season, so if she wanted to play fall, I'd have to put her back in a private league. Regardless of what comes out in the wash, I'm having the girls take part in the select and advanced tryouts this week anyway.  I can't see into the future, and have no idea what September will bring - but I'm trying to cover all bases. It's a strange position to be in - not having the money to sign them up and not knowing, for the first time ever, if we will be a soccer family. Weird.

It's also my kids last week of school - except for Allegra, who graduated last week.  Riley graduates preschool Tuesday, Emma graduates Kindergarten Wednesday, and everyone is out for good on Friday. So, no school coupled with no soccer should leave me with a bunch of free time.  Start laughing now - I know you want to.

One of the best things I ever did was buy a crockpot.  I use it all the time, especially on days that we have practices/classes/games.  I resisted making this dish for a long time - no matter how many times I read that it was good, it just didn't sound right to me.  But when I finally made it, I was stunned to see how good it was. I've put the recipe that I use most often under the fold, and a link to an amazing version on Stephanie's site as well.

Simple and Beautiful

Hey, check over at DietsInReview, where I talk sleep and the lack thereof in my life, and Ten ways to reward your hard work without food. Besides, didn't you really want to know EXACTLY how many calories are in that slab of cheesecake you crave?  AND, there's only two entries so far in the great Zwaggle contest for the summer game!

It's no secret that I have had a rough couple of weeks.  It's been stressful and cranky, and I've left large portions of happenings out of this blog, so take what knowledge you have and triplicate THAT level, square THAT number and then multiply by PI, and it'd be a ballpark figure.  Can't tell you more than that, but, ye GODS, temper tantrumming toddlers were SO.MUCH.EASIER.  I should have kept my mouth shut all those years ago.  Geesh.

Elaine's been having her own rough time.  She's developed a great perspective on it, though.  In her words...

Complicated can be beautiful and delicate and perfect, but usually it's messy and hard and hurts.  And even when it is beautiful and delicate and perfect, it usually only is for a short amount of time.  I wouldn't want to miss those moments.  But I'm starting to learn that I cannot expect to live within them all the damn time.  And when I settle down and take a deep breath, I can be startled by the beauty, delicacy and perfection in the simple moments I'm too busy to notice.  Luckily, simple moments all over the place! 

Simple moments like my daughter's absolute joy in bringing home her "toolbox" - that hard pencil case she's used at school all year long with crayons, scissors, pencils and markers.  She acted as if she was given the world when I told her, as I took it from her bookbag, that it was hers for home now.  Or seeing Emma look at herself in the mirror, nod her head and smile, and hearing her say, "I love the way I look!"  Or watching my 8th grade daughter walk down the aisle, wearing a cap and gown and knowing that the two hours of screaming that we had over the hair curling was worth it.  (Maybe.)

Share some of your simple and beautiful moments with me.  I think we could all use them.  I know I've been feeling pretty beat up this week.

The Devil is in The Peanut

Check out Zwaggle, where you can win a great game to keep your kids active and happy this summer. 

This week I took Gabriel, my food allergic kid, to the allergist for his check up.  A little background is probably not a bad thing here.

When Gabe was a baby, I couldn't figure out why he constantly had hives.  He wheezed often and had been treated for asthma several times before he was 2 - but it wasn't called asthma - it was labeled "reactive airways" so as not to alarm the insurance company.  Whatev. Call a spade a spade - when a kid gets his own home nebulizer before his second birthday, odds are pretty good no one thinks he'll outgrow the wheezing and retracting.  I quickly became very good at noticing retraction, counting breaths, using the stethoscope and checking nail beds for color, to ascertain how much oxygen he had in his system.

So, we were finally sent to the Children's Hospital, where we met the allergist who turned out to be a Godsend for my kids.  She took an extensive history and did a skin test, where my kid burst into enormous hives from four different tree nuts, coconut, and dog and cat, as well as several environmental allergens.  He also had a small positive for peanut - but it was a small one. We followed that test with a CAP-RAST to test his levels, as well as to have a baseline.  No surprises there; his numbers for the tree nuts and coconut were through the roof, but the peanut barely registered.  No matter. Any positive, no matter now small, is still a positive. The peanut was a very small allergen, and so I never took it 100% seriously - I was adamant and thorough about tree nuts and coconut - if there was even a hint of cross contamination, I knew he'd react violently and so we practiced strict avoidance.  Every food label has to be checked every time he eats it, because companies changes and safe granola bars can sport coconut the next time you buy them, even if he's had them for five years.  True story.  (Thanks so much Quaker granola bars. We really appreciated that ingredient change.)

We've had a couple of accidental exposures with regards to coconut and tree nuts, and used the epi pen once.  We've had to call the allergist and hold on the line while I dictated the changes in his hives and breathing, with strict orders to be ready to call 911 in two minutes if there was one change. I belong to food allergy groups, he wears a medic alert bracelet, I call companies to see if they have dedicated nut free production lines, he knows how to read his own labels, and we carry food everywhere we go.

I like to think we know what we are doing. I can be SO WRONG. Am I at least cute when I'm cocky?

Eighty Inches

Is not the name of the next porn flick, so get your mind out of the gutter.  Does your mom know you think with that mind?  Geesh.

When Allegra was five, she had her first hair cut, and she cut 14 inches from her waist length hair and donated it to Locks of Love.  Five years later, she repeated it with 12 inches.  Mackenzie did the same twice - with 10 and 12 inches, respectively.  When Emma was four, she donated 8 inches and Riley did 8 when she was not quite four.  Today they each did 8 inches a piece, bringing our family grand total to 80 inches.

Now, Locks of Love won't accept the smaller amounts, so we chose Pantene's Beautiful Lengths, and we donated in memory this time of a very special girl - Leah Chapman.  She was the niece of our wonderful principal and she died from cancer not long ago.  (Yes, I know that BL focuses mostly on women and breast cancer, but this was the closest that we could get and I really feel very strongly about donating the hair.  I know that childhood cancer isn't breast cancer, but the sentiment is still the same.)

And I think they look pretty cute.

Cooking Failures and Flops

So, I like to cook. Not a shock to anyone who has been reading here longer than, say, a day and a half.  I'm a pretty good cook, too.  Most everything I make comes out tasty, and mostly edible, and I've been asked a time or two for a certain dish or a recipe.

I've flopped twice in recent memory.  Homemade graham crackers, and tonights effort.

Homemade pasta, a la Pioneer Woman.   

The good news is, I made a FANTASTIC sauce.  The even better news is, I know what I did wrong - rolled out the entire amount of dough at once, didn't use enough flour, and the strips were too big.  IF, and that's a big if, I wanted to do it again, I have NO doubt I'd have a better end result.  That's one of my favorite parts of cooking - trying to figure out what I should change next time to get a better result.

What have you flopped at cooking?  What do you want to master but just can't?

Making Life (Or At Least Mealtime) Easier, Volume Thirty - Three

Otherwise known as THE PARTY EDITION, with a bonus recipe for insanely fattening brownies.  Just remember to make them and take them to the Memorial Day party you are attending - otherwise, I can't vouch for what kind of shape you'll be in if you partake in BOTH of these recipes by yourself...

Before I start - let me ask you this. I was asked this past week to stop leaving two spaces between sentences - that one is allowable and two is one too many. I'm having THE HARDEST time with this - I was taught, in eleventh grade typing I and II that there were ALWAYS two spaces. Literally, every single sentence I type involves backspacing. It's driving me c-r-a-z-y to the crazy. My kids think I'm nuts - they've always done one space. When did this change?

And I'm guessing that this makes me OLD.  Whatever.

I almost always - well, as often as my mom hooks me up - have a bucket of frozen sangria in my freezer.  It comes from Tastefully Simple, and requires both a bottle of vodka and a bottle of red wine, and makes the most delightful slushie that there ever was invented. Looking on their website, I see a few choices of frozen delights, but the sangria is my very favorite. As it's a mix, I can't give you the recipe, as a few of you requested. I can, however, share the recipe for sangria that I make and bring to block parties and such. Yummy, yummy.

SANGRIA

1/2 cup brandy
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/3 cup frozen lemonade concentrate
1/3 cup orange juice
1 750 ml bottle dry red wine
1/2 cup triple sec
1 lemon, sliced into rounds
1 orange, sliced into rounds
1 lime, sliced into rounds
1/4 cup sugar, optional
8 maraschino cherries
2 cups carbonated water

In a large pitcher or bowl, mix together the brandy, lemon juice, lemonade concentrate, orange juice, red wine, triple sec and sugar if desired.  Float fruit in the mixture.  Refrigerate overnight for best flavor and add club soda just before serving.

I Believe

Please, come on over to Zwaggle and check out my new post, and keep on checking in, as there will be a big contest coming up there soon.  Also, on DietsInReview, come and see what I have to say about women in martial arts classes!

My sad news of this week led me, thanks to Headless Mom's recommendation, to a new blog.  I've read a fair amount of Issa's archives over the past few days, and this post is a direct rip off of one of her latest.

I Believe

I believe that there is recuperative healing power in the bucket of frozen sangria in my freezer.

I believe that no morning is worth beginning without coffee.

I believe that some of the best friends I have ever live on the Internet.

I believe that my family is amazing.  All sides of it, as is evidenced by the nice phone calls and emails I received this week - and how nice it's been to spend time together.  My niece has the CUTEST baby boy and I was lucky enough to feed him his dinner tonight. And, hello - my mom VOLUNTEERED to take Mackenzie to her 7:30 soccer call Sunday morning, since I feel completely unable to face another game that early with my little kids.

I believe that everyone should exercise, every single day.

I believe in eye rolling, heavy sighs and sticking your tongue out at people who deserve it. Although sometimes I want to smack my children for this. (Cut directly from Issa, as it was too perfect to change.)

I WANT to believe, with all my heart how I want to believe it, that the economy will improve.  It's never been as tough for us as it is right now, which is leading us to make changes in our family that we've never made before - and I'm TRYING to believe that they are changes that will lead to GOOD. Even though I believe that they will scare my insides right out of me.

I believe that if I don't get more sleep, I will certainly snap as I did in February.

I believe my hold on sanity is tenuous some days.

I believe that no teacher is ever paid enough. 

I believe that occupational therapy should be covered 100% by insurance.

I believe in flossing my teeth and washing my face every night.  No matter how tired I am, I still do both.

I believe that I need a pedicure.  It is not in the budget, but I still really need one.

I believe in reading.  I read every single day, without fail, and make sure my kids do the same.

I believe in the power of cupcakes.  And makeup.

I believe that when I am aggravated or annoyed, I cook.  And I've been cooking a LOT lately. To the point that we've run out of flour, sugar, brown sugar, eggs, butter and oatmeal.  And chicken.

I believe that I do not know everything, but I desperately want to.

I believe that I hate cole slaw.  (My hubby just offered me some, which prompted this belief.)

What I Did This Morning...

And, in other news, I found out that my kids were exposed to lice this weekend. Is this week over yet?

Back To Normal. Mostly. Sorta. Kinda.

As far as I think I can be, anyway. I'm not sure I'll ever be the same again, but I am not sure that I want to be the same person - if that makes sense, and if it does to you, well, take a minute and explain it to me, m'kay? Cuz I sure as heck don't get it AT ALL.  As someone so callously told me yesterday - it's not like it was your first kid, and it's not like you knew that you were pregnant all that long.  As I told that someone - bite me.  Hard.  Before I shower, please.

I spent the past three days relaxing and eating. Eating all the wrong things.  Cookies?  Check.  Fattening dinner?  Check. I did not care and had no desire to care.I allowed myself those three days to just - be. And not think too much. Thank you so very much for your kind and wonderful wishes to me, and my family has been nothing but awesome and amazing, especially those in my husband's family who told me this weekend that they read here. (Hi!)  My husband - who is a very good guy, in spite of his unfeeling remark (for which he has since - like a good man - apologized for) - folded all of the laundry last night and then spent ten hours today cleaning the attic overhang of the birds that have nested, thrown a party, and reproduced like nobody's business. Gooood times, ya'll, there's nothing but GOOD TIMES in our house.

But Friday is another day, and with the dawn comes a new agenda.

I will be appearing on Fox43 - channel 14 if you have cable, don't make the same mistake that my hubby did last time and watch an hour of Animal Planet waiting for me to appear - "Mom's up next guys, right after the sperm whale and before the badgers - I promise!"  I will be chatting about the Big Event that I put on this weekend and hopefully not making SUCH an idiot of myself as I did last time. If you've got free time in the morning, and you live in my fair city, why don't you watch? Everyone needs humor first thing in the morning.

I had a completely back to normal day today, as I drove just under 100 miles in the space of three hours, criss crossing two cities for soccer and muay thai class and then we had a completely fattening fast food dinner and I came home to make oatmeal banana pancakes (for tomorrow's breakfast, since I won't be here to cook) and my very famous chocolate chip cookies for my son and his ever present best buddy to take to the pool party that they are attending and all.  The girls who are attending REQUESTED them.  I feel special.

But mostly I just feel - I dunno - numb.

Thoughts, Ideas and Ramblings

This is going to be a really long, angsty and rambling all over the place post.  Don't say I didn't forewarn you.And, really, I don't want to type this.  I really don't, but I need to.

Last week, you all know was a really odd week for me, full of lots of stress and lots of drama.  It was also full of one other thing, something that I wasn't planning on blogging about for weeks, if not months.

I found out, late last week, in fact just before the wedding, that I was pregnant. 

It was definitely not something that I'd planned or sought out in any way, had in fact been avoiding actively, and timing wise, it really sucked.  I had just gotten over a major injury to my leg, and had the episode with the doxycycline stuck in my throat, creating an ulcer in my throat and stomach and sending me to the ER for two sets of chest and abdominal x rays, and home on three different medicines. Medicines that I later found out were Class C, but at the time, I didn't know that I was pregnant. Which, of course, I was.