1. Scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page. Check out the blue box. I've set up a Twitter account for this blog. If you tweet, you can find me at @oursunnyview. It contains a lot of the randomness that doesn't make it on here. Right now I have two followers. One of them is Bill Engvall. I feel special.
2. Oz is home, but he's working again. He's also going to be out of town all week. Weekend? What weekend?
3. The kids and I are going to go to a Halloween party this afternoon. I look forward to taking pictures.
4. M1 is no longer vegetarian. I know he did this on purpose because I now have more cans of beans in my pantry than any living person should ever have. Thankfully, those keep. I've also made him swear to finish up all vegetarian soups (and the tofu) that I had already bought and to give me at least a week's notice if he ever decides to become vegetarian again.
5. We had biscuits and sausage gravy for breakfast.
6. The horse lady has put a scarecrow in my pasture. It's bright orange and is stuck in a matching bright orange traffic cone to stand up. Every time I look out there, it startles me.
7. The light in my bedroom kept flickering after I went to bed last night. This wouldn't be an issue except that the light was turned off at the switch. After I went to sleep in the living room, it apparently stopped. No, THAT doesn't make me paranoid at all.
8. We're now getting 5-6 eggs per day out of our chicky-girls. I know they're taunting me, because when the weather finally takes a turn for the cold, they'll (more or less) quit laying.
9. I discovered the other day that if I scratch my 25-pound black cat in just the right spot, he involuntary starts gnawing on things. Like me. Or whatever is in front of his mouth. It's hilarious, and it tickles.
10. I watched "Full Metal Jacket" and "When Harry Met Sally" last night. I'd never seen either of those movies. I thought they were both awesome, and now I understand why they hired Adam Baldwin to be John Casey on "Chuck." Last week I watched the original "Ocean's 11" with the Rat Pack. Now I feel the need to see "Breakfast at Tiffany's," "Casablanca," "2001: A Space Odyssey," and "Gone With the Wind." I'm sure that list will grow, and I'm happy to take suggestions of good movies.
Have a happy Sunday, everyone!
Showing posts with label vegetarian. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vegetarian. Show all posts
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Friday, September 24, 2010
Notes from a Fried Brain
1. Having a vegetarian in the house is both good and bad. It is making me take a closer look at my weekly menu to make sure I can tweak each recipe or provide a quick, feasible vegetarian alternative for the boy, which is a good thing. On the other hand, NOBODY EATS THE LEFTOVERS. Before, all leftovers disappeared within a day or two. Now they are sitting in the fridge because the girl is at school, Oz is at work, and I can only eat so much in one day. It's perplexing, and I haven't yet worked out a solution.
2. Navy slacks for girls are a $@&#% to find. I have shopped at Kohl's, Walmart, and Stage. Nada. OK, so Walmart had some blue *leggings,* but I somehow suspect that will not pass muster. After fall break is over in mid-October, the dress code at M2's school changes, and she will only be allowed to wear navy slacks or her jumper. And I'm not paying for mass quantities of jumpers. They're pricey and can't be handed down to folks outside the school, so phththththth. Slacks it will be... if I can find them. Target, Kmart, and Old Navy are on the list to check next. Unless I say screw it all and find some online, which is a distinct possibility. I can only handle so much time shopping before imminent meltdown, and I am dangerously close to that line. Oh, and I need to find some navy sweatshirts/sweaters, too... maybe Land's End will have a sale....
3. I have stayed up till 1 a.m. or later every night this week. And every morning I wake up wondering why on earth I did it again. It's a vicious cycle that involves a lot of coffee each morning before I'm human again.
4. My mother is coming to visit for her birthday tomorrow. I'm looking forward to the photos. I'm paying to have her hair done as her birthday gift, and there *will* be 'before' and 'after' pics.
5. My children are developing diverse tastes in music. This morning I was in a funk because I'd been up till nearly 2 and the caffeine in my coffee hadn't kicked in yet, so I set Pandora to the Rammstein station and let the kids rock out in the back seat. Two days ago, I had a discussion about J.S. Bach with M2, and M1 constantly listens to country on his own radio. Music is life. I love it.
6. I need a massage. OK, I *want* a massage. No, I've changed my mind again. The massage is a need, but getting to go to an actual spa/hotel/luxury package for an entire weekend with a girlfriend or two is a want. Let's phrase it like that.
7. I hate laundry.
8. I got an e-mail from my boss this morning saying I had passed my quarterly audit. First *I'D* heard about any audit, but whatever. It's not like I go out there and do a crappy job, so it's not too surprising I passed. I was happy that all five random reports that they pulled were at or above the 98% accuracy required by the account, and I suspected by the tone of the e-mail that there were some who did not reach that point, and I wondered what happens if you don't. I'm not going to dwell on that thought. It makes me nervous.
9. We're up to half a dozen eggs out of the chickens. I suspect only a couple are laying, given the fact that three are one shade of brown and three are another shade of brown. Or I could just be hypothesizing wrong. It's entirely possible.
10. Oz's dad and stepmother are in town this week. I've seen them twice so far. The first time, Oz had taken the day off of work to hang out with his dad, and then they picked up his stepmom and we all went out to dinner. Then the kids went to bed (school night) and the rest of us watched TV and chatted. Then Oz took them back to their hotel. And then he came home and informed me that his stepmom had missed the step from our sidewalk to the driveway and wiped out entirely. She's got hurt wrists, a massive leg bruise, and a sprained ankle. And one crutch. Oops. It's a good thing she loves us ;)
Hope you all have a great Friday!
2. Navy slacks for girls are a $@&#% to find. I have shopped at Kohl's, Walmart, and Stage. Nada. OK, so Walmart had some blue *leggings,* but I somehow suspect that will not pass muster. After fall break is over in mid-October, the dress code at M2's school changes, and she will only be allowed to wear navy slacks or her jumper. And I'm not paying for mass quantities of jumpers. They're pricey and can't be handed down to folks outside the school, so phththththth. Slacks it will be... if I can find them. Target, Kmart, and Old Navy are on the list to check next. Unless I say screw it all and find some online, which is a distinct possibility. I can only handle so much time shopping before imminent meltdown, and I am dangerously close to that line. Oh, and I need to find some navy sweatshirts/sweaters, too... maybe Land's End will have a sale....
3. I have stayed up till 1 a.m. or later every night this week. And every morning I wake up wondering why on earth I did it again. It's a vicious cycle that involves a lot of coffee each morning before I'm human again.
4. My mother is coming to visit for her birthday tomorrow. I'm looking forward to the photos. I'm paying to have her hair done as her birthday gift, and there *will* be 'before' and 'after' pics.
5. My children are developing diverse tastes in music. This morning I was in a funk because I'd been up till nearly 2 and the caffeine in my coffee hadn't kicked in yet, so I set Pandora to the Rammstein station and let the kids rock out in the back seat. Two days ago, I had a discussion about J.S. Bach with M2, and M1 constantly listens to country on his own radio. Music is life. I love it.
6. I need a massage. OK, I *want* a massage. No, I've changed my mind again. The massage is a need, but getting to go to an actual spa/hotel/luxury package for an entire weekend with a girlfriend or two is a want. Let's phrase it like that.
7. I hate laundry.
8. I got an e-mail from my boss this morning saying I had passed my quarterly audit. First *I'D* heard about any audit, but whatever. It's not like I go out there and do a crappy job, so it's not too surprising I passed. I was happy that all five random reports that they pulled were at or above the 98% accuracy required by the account, and I suspected by the tone of the e-mail that there were some who did not reach that point, and I wondered what happens if you don't. I'm not going to dwell on that thought. It makes me nervous.
9. We're up to half a dozen eggs out of the chickens. I suspect only a couple are laying, given the fact that three are one shade of brown and three are another shade of brown. Or I could just be hypothesizing wrong. It's entirely possible.
10. Oz's dad and stepmother are in town this week. I've seen them twice so far. The first time, Oz had taken the day off of work to hang out with his dad, and then they picked up his stepmom and we all went out to dinner. Then the kids went to bed (school night) and the rest of us watched TV and chatted. Then Oz took them back to their hotel. And then he came home and informed me that his stepmom had missed the step from our sidewalk to the driveway and wiped out entirely. She's got hurt wrists, a massive leg bruise, and a sprained ankle. And one crutch. Oops. It's a good thing she loves us ;)
Hope you all have a great Friday!
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Projects
M1 has had several projects that he's undertaken over the past month of school. Some of them, like his "Book of the Months," won't be finished for a while yet. Some of them have been simple games, coloring pages, etc. And some of them he puts straight on the fridge because he's so proud of them.
This is one of those. We were studying the Byzantine Empire, and they touched on mosaics. An art project suggestion provided in the history workbook was to make your own mosaic. They suggested religious themes, but I told M1 he was welcome to use a science theme instead - whatever he would want to hang on the wall in HIS room. So he took sheets of tissue paper and glue and spent over an hour creating this masterpiece. It is an ant hill. You can see his Beam of Joy and Pride grin here. He was even more proud that he had taken the time to contemplate composition and making sure your eye would be drawn to the ant hill in the middle, which was something we had talked about in art a week or two prior. I love this work of art, and more importantly, so does he.
Science, obviously, is his main focus. He's been working hard on learning about the planets. He knows and could have easily told you more about the planets than most second graders before we even started, but he did learn some things and is quite happy to add to his font of knowledge. (Random FYI, I found this site while writing this blog post and wanted to share because OMG awesomeness in the form of space dweeb-ology: SolarSystem.NASA.gov)
Anyway, one of the projects that we did involved mapping. Except that he wasn't allowed to see what he was mapping. It was the equivalent of mapping the bottom of the ocean or, in our case, peering through gas clouds at the land on a planet. The procedure was quite simple. Poke 12 holes in an egg carton, one over each cup. Have a chopstick on hand. For the next step, I was supposed to use checkers, but I don't have a normal-sized checker set (just a giant one on a mat), so I substituted Scrabble tiles. Then I put 0, 2, 4, and 6 in adjacent egg cups. Then M1 and I created our control stick by putting the stick into each cup and marking the height - 0 being the lowest land point and 3 being the highest.
While the control stick was being brandished wildly by the boy at imaginary miniature enemies, I removed the carton from sight and randomly placed amounts of Scrabble tiles into each egg cup. These stacks of tiles became hills and mountains.
M1 then measured each height and marked it on a chart. Once he had all his heights, we created a 'map' of the surface of the interior of our egg carton. Finally, he got to open up the carton and see how well he did. He *really* enjoyed this project!
Finally... the vegetarianism. We did break the news to Oz at the barbecue restaurant. M1 ordered a chicken tortilla wrap, which is as close as you can get to vegetarian at a place that pays great homage to meat and meat alone in a state built on ranches and farms.
Today, Day One, was a surprising success. He and M2 woke up before Oz and I and got themselves breakfasts of cereal and milk, and M1 got M2 a glass of juice as well. Surprisingly, even though it was a new gallon of milk, half of it didn't wind up on the floor! When I said it was time for lunch and opened the fridge, M1 took one look at the leftover brats and lasagna and headed for his bag of vegetarian lunches that I had bought and set aside for him. He wound up passing on those but cooked himself a butternut squash ravioli frozen lunch instead.
Honestly, I thought dinner would be his downfall. We were having pizza. There were 12 pizzas available, all sorts and kinds, including cheese. But when Oz asked him what kind of pizza he wanted, he asked for one slice of cheese and one slice of supreme. I grinned at Oz. M1 solemnly took his plate, sat down, and promptly picked all the meat (he could see) off of the slice of supreme. Then he ate the "veggie" slice.
M2 ate his discarded meat bits with relish. I don't think I'll ever have to worry about her being a vegetarian. Then again, I didn't ever think I'd be doing this with M1, either!
This is one of those. We were studying the Byzantine Empire, and they touched on mosaics. An art project suggestion provided in the history workbook was to make your own mosaic. They suggested religious themes, but I told M1 he was welcome to use a science theme instead - whatever he would want to hang on the wall in HIS room. So he took sheets of tissue paper and glue and spent over an hour creating this masterpiece. It is an ant hill. You can see his Beam of Joy and Pride grin here. He was even more proud that he had taken the time to contemplate composition and making sure your eye would be drawn to the ant hill in the middle, which was something we had talked about in art a week or two prior. I love this work of art, and more importantly, so does he.
-----
Science, obviously, is his main focus. He's been working hard on learning about the planets. He knows and could have easily told you more about the planets than most second graders before we even started, but he did learn some things and is quite happy to add to his font of knowledge. (Random FYI, I found this site while writing this blog post and wanted to share because OMG awesomeness in the form of space dweeb-ology: SolarSystem.NASA.gov)
Anyway, one of the projects that we did involved mapping. Except that he wasn't allowed to see what he was mapping. It was the equivalent of mapping the bottom of the ocean or, in our case, peering through gas clouds at the land on a planet. The procedure was quite simple. Poke 12 holes in an egg carton, one over each cup. Have a chopstick on hand. For the next step, I was supposed to use checkers, but I don't have a normal-sized checker set (just a giant one on a mat), so I substituted Scrabble tiles. Then I put 0, 2, 4, and 6 in adjacent egg cups. Then M1 and I created our control stick by putting the stick into each cup and marking the height - 0 being the lowest land point and 3 being the highest.
 |
| Control stick! |
M1 then measured each height and marked it on a chart. Once he had all his heights, we created a 'map' of the surface of the interior of our egg carton. Finally, he got to open up the carton and see how well he did. He *really* enjoyed this project!
-----
Finally... the vegetarianism. We did break the news to Oz at the barbecue restaurant. M1 ordered a chicken tortilla wrap, which is as close as you can get to vegetarian at a place that pays great homage to meat and meat alone in a state built on ranches and farms.
Today, Day One, was a surprising success. He and M2 woke up before Oz and I and got themselves breakfasts of cereal and milk, and M1 got M2 a glass of juice as well. Surprisingly, even though it was a new gallon of milk, half of it didn't wind up on the floor! When I said it was time for lunch and opened the fridge, M1 took one look at the leftover brats and lasagna and headed for his bag of vegetarian lunches that I had bought and set aside for him. He wound up passing on those but cooked himself a butternut squash ravioli frozen lunch instead.
Honestly, I thought dinner would be his downfall. We were having pizza. There were 12 pizzas available, all sorts and kinds, including cheese. But when Oz asked him what kind of pizza he wanted, he asked for one slice of cheese and one slice of supreme. I grinned at Oz. M1 solemnly took his plate, sat down, and promptly picked all the meat (he could see) off of the slice of supreme. Then he ate the "veggie" slice.
M2 ate his discarded meat bits with relish. I don't think I'll ever have to worry about her being a vegetarian. Then again, I didn't ever think I'd be doing this with M1, either!
Friday, September 10, 2010
You Want to Be a WHAT??
M1 and I went grocery shopping today. I have discovered I have to do this from time to time or my children whine about the lack of food and I gain weight from all the eating out. It's bizarre.
I have a specific route I take through the grocery store, and I've mentally threatened bodily harm to the manager several times when he moves things around. He hasn't done that for a while, though, ever since the remodel has finished, so we're at peace again. I'm sure he'd be grateful.
M1 and I often spend quite a while in the produce department, partly because I insist we eat healthfully and partly because the kids actually enjoy looking at all the fruits and veggies and picking out what they want. Today M1 bargained for acorn squash instead of green beans and successfully made a case for his own personal clamshell of alfalfa sprouts. What's a mom to do? I put the alfalfa sprouts in the cart, bagged up some squash, grabbed the other veggies that actually were on the list, and moved on.
We rounded the corner to the processed meat/deli/butcher/dairy aisle, and I picked up some fish, chicken, coffee creamer (damn you, Christy), and eggs.
Another corner, and we had to swing by some of the frozen foods on our way into the bread aisle. M1 spied a veggie pot pie on the top shelf of the freezer.
"MOM! Can I have the pot pie?"
The boy does love his pot pies, and this particular one happened to be made primarily with organic ingredients.
"Well... it doesn't have meat in it. Is that okay?"
"Yes. I like vegetables. In fact, I'm going to be a vegetarian."
I almost stroked out on the floor of the grocery store with a vegetable pot pie in my hand.
"You're going to what?"
"That's why I got alfalfa sprouts, and that's why I want this pot pie. And can I have this eggplant parmesan, too?"
I recovered from my stroke, let him get the eggplant meal, and had to resist the violent urge to giggle. Then I marshalled my forces and tried to see how easily he'd break. I started with the big gun.
"You do realize that you won't get to have bacon or sausage if you're a vegetarian, right?"
He and Oz are what the children have termed 'bacon monsters.' Have bacon, will devour. They drool over images of bacon-wrapped anything. We made it halfway down the bread aisle before he was able to respond.
"Well...... *pause*...... breakfast meats are okay."
I smelled triumph in the air.
"No, they're not. If you're going to be a vegetarian, your main proteins will be beans, cheeses, and maybe the occasional fake meat or tofu... and you know Daddy hates tofu and Mommy isn't good at fixing it."
*Another pause as we finished up in the bread aisle and made a beeline through the snack aisle. Snack aisles are dangerous. As it was, we managed to get sour cream & onion Lay's and French onion dip in the cart. I swear I didn't put them there.*
"That's ok. I think I really will be a vegetarian."
That answer seriously surprised me, and I realized that even though I had started with the big guns, I really didn't have a lot of ammo. I fired another round.
"Alllll righty then... that's fine by me, but you *will* eat the dinners I have planned for this week already, especially since you helped pick them last night."
"OK, but then I'll start and be a real vegetarian. Can we get some stuff so I can at least have vegetarian lunches?"
I only had one shot left in the reserves, and it was a weak one, designed more for breaking down crumbling defenses than doing damage to solid ones.
"All right, but you might have a hard time at restaurants, you know."
"No, I won't. Most places have grilled cheese or macaroni and cheese, and there's no meat in those, and I like that stuff anyway."
I waved the white flag. We picked out some soups like tomato and minestrone made with vegetable broth, some Indian dishes, and a few other options for him to have for lunches. I made sure there would be proteins and mumbled things to myself about calling my friend Sonia, who has been a vegetarian for years and whose 7-year-old daughter is also a vegetarian, for recipes and tips if he sticks with this. I asked him if he had a reason for wanting to become a vegetarian, and he said no, that he just wanted to be one.
I'm not sure how well this will work out, especially in the long run and doubly so because he's a boy with two hollow legs. For lunch he ate a noodle bowl, salad with some of his alfalfa sprouts, a fruit cup of mandarin oranges, and yogurt. I'm going to fix the kids smoothies (vanilla yogurt, bananas, mango, and strawberries) for snack, and I think we're going to take Veggie Boy to a barbecue joint for dinner.
I think that's an appropriate place to break the news to Oz, don't you?
I have a specific route I take through the grocery store, and I've mentally threatened bodily harm to the manager several times when he moves things around. He hasn't done that for a while, though, ever since the remodel has finished, so we're at peace again. I'm sure he'd be grateful.
M1 and I often spend quite a while in the produce department, partly because I insist we eat healthfully and partly because the kids actually enjoy looking at all the fruits and veggies and picking out what they want. Today M1 bargained for acorn squash instead of green beans and successfully made a case for his own personal clamshell of alfalfa sprouts. What's a mom to do? I put the alfalfa sprouts in the cart, bagged up some squash, grabbed the other veggies that actually were on the list, and moved on.
We rounded the corner to the processed meat/deli/butcher/dairy aisle, and I picked up some fish, chicken, coffee creamer (damn you, Christy), and eggs.
Another corner, and we had to swing by some of the frozen foods on our way into the bread aisle. M1 spied a veggie pot pie on the top shelf of the freezer.
"MOM! Can I have the pot pie?"
The boy does love his pot pies, and this particular one happened to be made primarily with organic ingredients.
"Well... it doesn't have meat in it. Is that okay?"
"Yes. I like vegetables. In fact, I'm going to be a vegetarian."
I almost stroked out on the floor of the grocery store with a vegetable pot pie in my hand.
"You're going to what?"
"That's why I got alfalfa sprouts, and that's why I want this pot pie. And can I have this eggplant parmesan, too?"
I recovered from my stroke, let him get the eggplant meal, and had to resist the violent urge to giggle. Then I marshalled my forces and tried to see how easily he'd break. I started with the big gun.
"You do realize that you won't get to have bacon or sausage if you're a vegetarian, right?"
He and Oz are what the children have termed 'bacon monsters.' Have bacon, will devour. They drool over images of bacon-wrapped anything. We made it halfway down the bread aisle before he was able to respond.
"Well...... *pause*...... breakfast meats are okay."
I smelled triumph in the air.
"No, they're not. If you're going to be a vegetarian, your main proteins will be beans, cheeses, and maybe the occasional fake meat or tofu... and you know Daddy hates tofu and Mommy isn't good at fixing it."
*Another pause as we finished up in the bread aisle and made a beeline through the snack aisle. Snack aisles are dangerous. As it was, we managed to get sour cream & onion Lay's and French onion dip in the cart. I swear I didn't put them there.*
"That's ok. I think I really will be a vegetarian."
That answer seriously surprised me, and I realized that even though I had started with the big guns, I really didn't have a lot of ammo. I fired another round.
"Alllll righty then... that's fine by me, but you *will* eat the dinners I have planned for this week already, especially since you helped pick them last night."
"OK, but then I'll start and be a real vegetarian. Can we get some stuff so I can at least have vegetarian lunches?"
I only had one shot left in the reserves, and it was a weak one, designed more for breaking down crumbling defenses than doing damage to solid ones.
"All right, but you might have a hard time at restaurants, you know."
"No, I won't. Most places have grilled cheese or macaroni and cheese, and there's no meat in those, and I like that stuff anyway."
I waved the white flag. We picked out some soups like tomato and minestrone made with vegetable broth, some Indian dishes, and a few other options for him to have for lunches. I made sure there would be proteins and mumbled things to myself about calling my friend Sonia, who has been a vegetarian for years and whose 7-year-old daughter is also a vegetarian, for recipes and tips if he sticks with this. I asked him if he had a reason for wanting to become a vegetarian, and he said no, that he just wanted to be one.
I'm not sure how well this will work out, especially in the long run and doubly so because he's a boy with two hollow legs. For lunch he ate a noodle bowl, salad with some of his alfalfa sprouts, a fruit cup of mandarin oranges, and yogurt. I'm going to fix the kids smoothies (vanilla yogurt, bananas, mango, and strawberries) for snack, and I think we're going to take Veggie Boy to a barbecue joint for dinner.
I think that's an appropriate place to break the news to Oz, don't you?
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