Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Unfortunately the force is not with her

This about made me pee I laughed so hard.

B.H. showed me this about a month or so ago, and I just never got around to sharing.

Someday I hope to learn how to embed these videos in my blog instead of simply linking.

Embedding is so much cooler.

Monday, November 26, 2007

Just Keep Swimming.....

Whew!

It has been a big ol' steamin' pile of constant activity here at Chez Us the past few weeks.

Beloved put up his musical production for the year at the high school where he teaches, and it was a great success. That of course has meant I have been a single parent while he put in a gazillion hours working, hence the lack of blog postings. Well...that and obsessively watching the 7th season of the Gilmore Girls on DVD. That takes up a lot of a girl's time.

The musical wrapped up just in time for Thanksgiving preparations for the huge masses of people that rained down on our home. We clocked in just over 30 people this year I believe. I chronicled my cooking adventures in earlier posts as you are likely aware. I was gravely disappointed to see that I was the only family member to actually bake pies this year. We had a boatload of pumpkin and pecan pies purchased from the local Sam's Club. Neither pie is my favorite and I flat out do not like baked goods that come from a grocery store bakery. Not cakes, pies, nuthin'! I am devout about making birthday cakes and decorating them myself such is my dislike of the grocery store bakery. My family members were arguing that the store bought pies were just as good as homemade. Take a guess which pies went first come desert time????? Harrumph! I did not gloat to anyone except BH after everyone left. I have that much restraint. Barely.

While I have negelected my own blog recently I have kept up my devout perusal of other people's musings. Lot's of interesting things going on in the blogs that I read lately. Some have given me some food for thought. One particular day or maybe it was over a few days I seemed to be reading a lot of posts about Stay At Home Mothers (SAHM). Most of those posts seemed to be about guilt, or justification. I thought I would put in my two cents here speaking as a Working Away From Home Mother (WAFHM...I really wanted an acronym! There is probably an official one out there but I am woefully uninformed if there is.) My two cents is this: Stop feeling guilty and stop feeling that you have to justify what you are doing. Because you don't have to and shouldn't do either of those things. More parents need to spend more time with their children. There is no guilt or shame in that. That time is especially crucial the first five years of life for a child.

I will not lie and tell you that I did not get a little pissy reading about this topic. I did get a little pissy and it has everything to do with jealousy and I recognize that and own it completely. If it were possible for me and my family I would walk away from my job right now, but it isn't so there is no point in "going there" as the kids say. My initial thoughts were, "Guilt?? I'll give you guilt!! Try coming home after working for 8+ hours to kids who just want to play and have some attention from you, and have every right to expect that attention but you just snap at them and start cracking the whip as soon as you walk through the door because you have dinner, chores, homework, reading aloud, showers, hair drying, violin practice, lunches to make, and God knows what else to accomplish in the two and half hours before the children must be in bed to get the prescribed amount of sleep to keep them healthy and happy. All the while knowing (because you are a professional who deals with children and what is best for them and their mental health) that you are not being the best mom you should be, but what do you let go of? Homework has to be done, people have to eat and be clean and..and...." then I got overwhelmed and had to stop thinking.

So SAHM's embrace your situation! Celebrate it! Hats off to you from me! Wish I could wear your hat too!

I think that is all I have to say about that.

In other news....my pie baking seems to have set off a very strong desire to bake within me. This is good because I have much baking in my future. #1 turns....GULP....I don't know if I can type this.....ok....here goes....10...YIKES!!! On Sunday. That means one cake (I am going totally from scratch this year!!!) Cupcakes (yup...going for the from scratch on those too!) and a batch of cookies. Speaking of cookies I made some kick ass peanut butter chocolate chip cookies on Saturday. Got the recipe from my Ghiradelli Chocolate Cookbook. Yuh-HUM!

Alrighty I think I have ranted enough for now. Hopefully I can come up with something interesting to say with more frequency over the next month.

Ta!

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

update

Ok so the pie count now stands at 3 pumpkin and 1 cherry pie that feels like it weighs 50 lbs and was baked in a 9x13 pan. I am blaming the weight on my stoneware pan. (I am pretty sure I have enough filling left to make at least one more 9 inch cherry pie, alas I have run out of ingredients for pie crust and don't feel like making a third trip to the store in two days.)

Yet to be cooked:
1 23 lb turkey
2 big pans of hashbrown casserole

That turkey weight is no typo either. I have about 30 people converging on my home tomorrow. We have another turkey and a ham that will be brought over. In my family there seems to be no such thing as too much meat, starch (I believe there will be at least three different types of potatoes not to mention the homemade noodles), and dessert.

Again I share because I thought you would want to know. Or maybe I just need to vent. Who knows, I am tired after spending so much time in the kitchen. Nice to cook though I must admit. I need to improve my pie crust skills.

Pie Countdown

The count so far:


1 pumpkin down


2 more pumpkin, and an undetermined number of cherry pies to go. (To give you an idea, I have about 3/4 of a stock pot full of cherry pie filling. This recipe takes 8 cans of cherries people. 8 CANS!!! I think I just may use of cake pan for one of the pies or I will be up until next Thanksgiving making them all, and I think I only have three pie pans left.)


Because I thought you should know.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Get in the giving spirit

Check this out. Rather apporopriate for the upcoming holidays I thought.

More later this week.

Crazy busy here.

Many thoughts running around my head that I hope to organize and put into writing soon.

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

A Little Trivia, a Little Anarchy

Today as I was on my way home for lunch I learned that today was the anniversary of the Sex Pistols first time on stage in 1975.

Apparently getting on stage was all there was to it, they were booed off before they even got to play a note.


So I say in honor of this historic day, go out and get your punk on and explore a little anarchy!


Or at the very least dig out that old copy of a copy of Nevermind the Bollocks and have a listen.

Sunday, November 04, 2007

What you get when

Two children trick or treat for an hour:

That is my large sized mixing bowl. If you think I haven't been dipping my hot little hands in that bowl which contains mostly chocolate just about every time I walk past it, then I have not done a good job sharing with you my powerlessness against all things chocolaty.

I have to go get on the treadmill now and will need to stay on it until tomorrow morning.

I just may start drinkin' and this is boring...

Yeeeaaaahhhh......

Pretty much all I have to talk about is what is coming out of this germ factory formerly known as Chez Us.

So for the past two weeks we had the stomach ick making it's way through.

This week it's STREP!

Good ol' #2 is having her annual bout a little early this year. In reality though.... strep was far better news than what we took her to the minor med clinic for in the first place. We were fearful that she had broken her arm after a fall this morning at church, and I just decided to have them take a gander in her throat since she had been complaining of a sore throat for a day or two. Also I thought it might be a good idea to mention that sore throat when they took her temp and it was 101. What with the arm pain and all they did not subject her\us to a throat culture which was mightly kindly I thought, especially since all signs point to strep, we've had it enough around here to know the deal. Luckily the arm is just a sprain. Ace bandage and no wrestling or other such activities for a week.

Now I must leave you to hang a red cross on the door or whatever sign it is you are supposed to use when your home is nothing but a host for sickly germs.

Perhaps next week I will have something other than illness reports to entertain you.

I am really hoping there is something besides illness around her to entertain ME.