Facing your own mortality is something that I have never experienced before...now. This may seem so silly to my readers out there but honestly I am having some major issues.
My belly has been having troubles for about a year and a half. Some scary symptoms and I knew long ago I needed to check with the doctor on this. I put it off...for over a year. I finally went to my family doc who sent me to a GI doc who says I need a colonoscopy.
All joking aside-cause I can hear the laughs and I am being serious here. I am terrified. I am NOT scared of the prep day, which I hear is the worst part. I am NOT scared of the actual procedure, which I hear you don't even remember. It is the results I am scared of, terrified really. I have been on the verge of tears all week knowing this is coming.
You see, for those of you who don't know, my cousin TeeSha lost her battle with cancer just a few years ago. She started with stomach problems they attributed to an ulcer, was diagnosed with crohn's disease, eventually was diagnosed with a rare cancer of the jejunum. She fought hard, had many surgeries, many treatments and lost her battle in her thirties. Since then, I can hardly even stop to think about what happened because it just tears me up inside and is devastating each time I think about it. She left behind a husband, three children, her parents, her grandparents and her sister. Not to mention all of her cousins and friends. She was one of the most outgoing, loud-in a great way- and funny persons in my life and in the history of the world I am sure. I guess you could say this is something I have never let myself deal with properly since she passed.
Now I am having belly troubles and within a week I will know if it is something serious or not. By ignoring it for the last year and a half I have avoided facing my mortality. Now I am staring it smack in the kisser and I am really struggling. This isn't a plea for prayers or advice. This isn't a pity party or anything like that. If this is anything at all it is me remembering my cousin and being real. Real about life. Real about death and real about how I am terrified of it.
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Friday, February 24, 2012
Things We Do
In an effort to teach my kiddos and give them as many experiences in life as I can, we have been up to all kinds of little art projects lately and I want to share them with you!
My kids LOVE puzzles so the other day we made our own. I seem to have an endless supply of cardboard so... We got to drawing and gluing and Mommy did the cutting and we made puzzles. They are much more challenging than the ones from the store so they both love them and the fact that we can all sit down and do puzzles together.
When I notice lots of broken and scrap crayons we sort through the crayon bin, peeling and snapping and sorting the crayons into like colors. I use a large muffin pan with 6 cups in it but small muffins would be great for those little fingers. I heat the oven to 300 and after 6-8 minutes they are liquid. I put them in the freezer to set and then we bust them up and draw! The kids LOVE this project and I involve them in the entire process so they can learn about not only color but recycling and even the science of liquids and solids. Super fun and easy!!
** Note: this pan will never be used for actual cooking again so get a cheapie from the dollar store that you can dedicated to crayon melting**
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| A Fishy Puzzle |
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| A Scuba Diver Puzzle |
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| Handmade Crayons |
When I notice lots of broken and scrap crayons we sort through the crayon bin, peeling and snapping and sorting the crayons into like colors. I use a large muffin pan with 6 cups in it but small muffins would be great for those little fingers. I heat the oven to 300 and after 6-8 minutes they are liquid. I put them in the freezer to set and then we bust them up and draw! The kids LOVE this project and I involve them in the entire process so they can learn about not only color but recycling and even the science of liquids and solids. Super fun and easy!!
** Note: this pan will never be used for actual cooking again so get a cheapie from the dollar store that you can dedicated to crayon melting**
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Sick Days
I remember sick days, when I was a child, and I remember them vividly. My Mom would always set me up on the couch with my blankets and barf bucket, sprite to sip on through a straw and she would run to the video store and grab some movies for me. Mostly she wanted me to be close to her in case I needed her, and believe me I was the puker who needed a support system!
If I wasn't puky, then she still set me up with everything I needed right next to me on the couch, my sick bed.
My Dad would call to check in a few times during the day and he would always bring me home some kind of gift. Coloring books, stickers, a barbie doll and always a candy bar. He would put the candy bar on the table and tell me that when my belly wasn't sick, and I could prove it to him, I could have my candy bar. My motivator. How would I "prove" that I wasn't belly sick anymore??? I would do a cartwheel of course! Who can do a cartwheel when they are barfy??
Fortunately for us, we haven't had many sick days with the kids. They aren't in any kind of child care except at home with me and the library and museum are probably the places where we pick up the germs we have gotten.
Today was a sick day for us and I am also grateful that it wasn't a puke sick. We are all snotty and coughy and sore throaty and full of junk. Henry is just fine but I had to ask Jon to stay home to help me today cause I was in no shape to do anything except lay in bed, or couch or sometimes floor.
This is what a sick day at our house looks like:
If I wasn't puky, then she still set me up with everything I needed right next to me on the couch, my sick bed.
My Dad would call to check in a few times during the day and he would always bring me home some kind of gift. Coloring books, stickers, a barbie doll and always a candy bar. He would put the candy bar on the table and tell me that when my belly wasn't sick, and I could prove it to him, I could have my candy bar. My motivator. How would I "prove" that I wasn't belly sick anymore??? I would do a cartwheel of course! Who can do a cartwheel when they are barfy??
Fortunately for us, we haven't had many sick days with the kids. They aren't in any kind of child care except at home with me and the library and museum are probably the places where we pick up the germs we have gotten.
Today was a sick day for us and I am also grateful that it wasn't a puke sick. We are all snotty and coughy and sore throaty and full of junk. Henry is just fine but I had to ask Jon to stay home to help me today cause I was in no shape to do anything except lay in bed, or couch or sometimes floor.
This is what a sick day at our house looks like:
Monday, February 13, 2012
Got Old Magazines??
Superbowl Sunday brought many of my family members over for the annual "Superbowl Bash" that I throw in honor of my husbands "favorite holiday", the Superbowl. I cook tons of fatty food that I don't make any other time of year and sometimes people come over and sometimes it is just us, and I still make enough food to feed 20 people!
This year my Mom and Pops headed over and brought me a plastic bag of magazines from the past few weeks. You know the type, the first half of the magazine tells you how to lose weight and look good while the second half gives you tons of yummy high calorie recipes to make!
A couple of days after Superbowl I noticed the magazines and thought I'd flip through and find all the puppy photos for my daughter who LOVES all dogs and then I had a light bulb... So me and the kids went to work.
We flipped through the magazines and Mommy cut out EVERY SINGLE picture of things that the kids LOVE. We spent almost 2 hours flipping through and cutting and laying all of our pictures face up all over the living room floor so we could see them. I found a piece of cardboard 1 and a half feet by 2 feet in size and we started sorting. Once we made two piles, we put it together like a puzzle, a puzzle that each gets to take turn choosing their piece and Mommy glues.
We had a great morning!! The kids took turns with their pictures and we started in opposite corners then met in the middle. We ran out of room and put stuff upside down or sideways just to fit it and the kids and I had a blast. We made a great big "Things We Love Collage" and it was fantastic.
They have been so proud to show each and every person who enters the house their collage. They like to point out certain things or I find them randomly looking over it during the day. It is leaning on the wall in the living room and they are always walking by it and pointing to something and telling me about it. It was a simple but fun experience and they learned alot too! I think we will do this more often but with themes: all things red, alphabet letters, animals etc...
We had so much fun with this and we hope you will too!
This year my Mom and Pops headed over and brought me a plastic bag of magazines from the past few weeks. You know the type, the first half of the magazine tells you how to lose weight and look good while the second half gives you tons of yummy high calorie recipes to make!
A couple of days after Superbowl I noticed the magazines and thought I'd flip through and find all the puppy photos for my daughter who LOVES all dogs and then I had a light bulb... So me and the kids went to work.
We flipped through the magazines and Mommy cut out EVERY SINGLE picture of things that the kids LOVE. We spent almost 2 hours flipping through and cutting and laying all of our pictures face up all over the living room floor so we could see them. I found a piece of cardboard 1 and a half feet by 2 feet in size and we started sorting. Once we made two piles, we put it together like a puzzle, a puzzle that each gets to take turn choosing their piece and Mommy glues.
We had a great morning!! The kids took turns with their pictures and we started in opposite corners then met in the middle. We ran out of room and put stuff upside down or sideways just to fit it and the kids and I had a blast. We made a great big "Things We Love Collage" and it was fantastic.
They have been so proud to show each and every person who enters the house their collage. They like to point out certain things or I find them randomly looking over it during the day. It is leaning on the wall in the living room and they are always walking by it and pointing to something and telling me about it. It was a simple but fun experience and they learned alot too! I think we will do this more often but with themes: all things red, alphabet letters, animals etc...
We had so much fun with this and we hope you will too!
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| "Things we LOVE collage" Artists: Henry, Callie and Mommy |
What makes those meatballs, Hawaiian??
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| Hawaiian Meatballs with Rice |
1-20oz can pineapple chunks in juice
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1 tsp soy sauce
1/4 cup brown sugar
2tblsp cornstarch
1cup of pineapple chunks
1 green pepper cut into chunks
20 cooked meatballs
5 oz sliced water chestnuts
2 cups cooked white rice
Drain 3/4 cup of pineapple juice out of your canned pineapples (it works out just right, if not add water to make it 3/4 cup.
In large saucepan add first 6 ingredients stirring constantly while bringing to a boil. You will notice the sauce thickening and bubbling. Once it is thick like a gravy you add the last 4 ingredients (not the rice) and mix altogether until it is hot. Serve on the white rice.
RECIPE REVIEW:
Ok folks here we go. The recipe came from a book at the library that I found while trying to add some new family faves to our menu. The kids have been getting quite picky so I am trying to find a few new recipes we can start using. The book is called, "The Everything One-Pot Cookbook", and boasts over 300 complete meals you can prepare in one dish. I was definitely intrigued!
However, if you read this recipe you may see my conundrum... If I were to do this all in a saucepan, I would have to use one that would accommodate 20 meatballs and all the rest of the chunky fruits and veggies. I do not have a sauce pan that large, if you do then kudos but I had to use 3 pots to make this meal. I am ok with that, but thought I would start with the obvious.
I needed 1 pot to make the white rice, 1 saucepan to make the sauce and a large skillet to blend it all together. Just sayin
The recipe is definitely easy enough to make and the "Hawaiian-ness" is obviously due to the pineapple that is used, but truly the sauce had a very sweet and sour flavor. I immediately thought that this sauce would be great for a stir fry with chicken and veggies as well, and will try that next time.
I make my own meatballs. However, if you check the freezer section you can buy bags of meatballs...for about $8.50! Whoa! I had 2.5lbs of ground beef, I used half of it and ended up with over 30 meatballs hence...I make my own meatballs.
I separated the meat from the fruits/veg from the rice for the kids-they hate it all being mixed of course, and served it over rice for us. Henry loved the meatballs and devoured them, never been much of a rice kid and thought that the sauce on the veggies was revolting cause it had microscopic meat chunks on it!! Callie loved the pineapple and the water chestnuts and peppers, wouldn't touch the rice and had 1 bite of meat and told me it was yucky. FAIL as far as the kids go. Jon and I liked it and as always when I try a new recipe I ask, "is this a keeper or no?" and he couldn't say one way or another...hmmm I suggested using the sauce in another recipe and he was down for it of course so we'll try again.
"My taste buds were confused by the sweet pineapple taste, I don't really like pineapple pizza for that reason, but I like this."-Jon
As any good husband should do, he will NOT complain about my cooking because he is afraid I will never cook for him again!
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