All Work and No Play…

…Makes Mama cranky! Man cub is gone this week. The WHOLE week! He’s spending time with his 23 year old cousin in San Francisco. Yes, I too was a little nervous about that arrangement, at first, then I contemplated what that week would be like. Just my husband and I… doing anything we want… when we want… WOW! I couldn’t have said yes fast enough. Sadly, I was forgetting one small thing, I’m in summer school right now.

I figured, I’m only taking one class, just how time consuming could THAT be? I mean, I’m an excellent student so it should be fine. –Gulp- In just this week alone I’ve spent 9.5hours on homework, and I haven’t even done today’s yet. That’s 6 hours yesterday and 3.5 on Monday. That time doesn’t even include my commute into Sacramento, nor my three hour class. Yeah… all work and no play!

Today after my class I was ready to head straight to the math lab for another marathon of school work when I stopped. I asked myself just what was I doing? What was so important that I couldn’t go home, have a lunch break with my husband, THEN get to my work here? The answer I came up with was nothing. I was the only thing stopping myself. My strive for perfection was getting in the way (once again) of my enjoyment of this time off from motherhood. I came straight home after school.

That work-play balance has always been tough for me. As a teenager I was more on the “all play” side of the fence. Now as an adult I’m almost possessed with a drive to “do it all!” Neither technique is healthy. Moderation is a friend to all and one I need to call on more often. So yes, I will study and get my homework done today, but not instead of spending some relaxing time, precious stolen time, alone.


A side note:
Starting July 1st I'll be exclusively blogging here, at Blogspot.com. A great site and I'm thrilled to have them host me. Hopefully I'll also be able to back-log and transfer my posts from the last three years off Sacbee.com. We'll see if I'm quite THAT tech!

A Mighty Mama

I love it when I’m going through my day thinking I’m one bad mama because I manage to balance everything that I do pretty well, then I cross paths with a woman who makes me seem like the laziest person alive! Nothing like a little perspective to let you know your little struggles aren’t as big as you thought.

 

My summer class started this week and it’s proving to be far more difficult than I anticipated. I knew starting math back up again after a 20 year vacation would be tough, but I wasn’t counting on six hours of homework after a three hour class. Yup, nine hours of math every day! I met a woman in my class however who turned the hose on my little pity party.

 

This super mom is about my age and a veteran from the war in Iraq. Now here’s where I started to get super impressed; she has two year old twins and a three year old. She just got back together with her husband the week before school started because he promised to help her out more, (he wasn’t helping, so she walked.) She was hurt in Iraq, had brain damage from a head injury and three of her vertebras fused. She needs surgery and is on a ton of pain medication, but she works part time and is taking my kick-butt math class, PLUS another class. Oh yeah, she also lives 45min each way from school. This is the sound of me shutting up about my one stinking class, 16 year old kid, wonderfully helpful husband and very little work.

 

Now whenever I feel like what I’m doing is hard, or my back is a little sore from hunching over my homework, or I don’t feel like driving 20min to class, I think of this bad ass mama who is seriously kicking butt and taking names. She’s an inspiration and she doesn’t even know it. She’s too busy taking care of her family, working to become an RN and trying to forget the horrors of a war to know that I’m in awe of her every day. Thank you mighty mama for giving me a little perspective!

Winner?

Tomorrow I run the Nike Women’s Fitness 5K in downtown Sacramento and I’m scared. Why? Because I’ve been down for the count the last two weeks with a bladder infection that went into my right kidney. I didn’t run for over a week (AT ALL!) and now when I do my little loop around the block I can feel the setback. YIKES!!!

 

Have I mentioned in the past that I tend to be a bit of a control freak perfectionist? Just check my 4.0GPA and you’ll see what I mean. If I set my mind to a goal, like running the WHOLE 3.1 miles tomorrow, I’m not going to be very happy if I don’t meet that goal. I know, I know… just do my best, walk if I have too, and I will, but I won’t be happy about it. I’m not very good at cutting myself slack, living in the moment and just doing my best. Three things I work on daily! Tomorrow just may test that resolve.

 

On the plus side, both my family and I have been kicking booty and taking names when it comes to avoiding junk food. Yesterday I found myself in Sacramento at 3:00, having only had a low-fat muffin all day. I was starving and every fast food joint seemed to be calling my name. Instead of caving in however, I headed straight to Whole Foods and made some healthy choices there. I think I spent the same amount as I would have at Burger King, but had a delicious lunch that fed me right. Even though Davis is a great place for fresh, organic foods, I consider Whole Foods to be nirvana. I could easily spend hours there, and hundreds of dollars we don’t have.

 

So, I think I just need to chill out, look at my accomplishments, be thankful I’m feeling better and enjoy the day tomorrow. There’s more than one way to be a “winner” and just letting go, rather than running the whole race, may be helping me reach my goal after all.

A "Thank You" Gift EVERYONE Will Love!

It's the end of another school year and for me that means loads of teacher thank you gifts! Having a child with special needs, among many other things, means that I have many people to thank for all their hard work at man cub's school. My husband suggested getting everyone a lovely bottle of wine. Yes, that would indeed be an appreciated gesture, but it would also set us back over $100. YIKES!

I was looking for thoughtful, but less expensive idea's when my sister-in-law had a stroke of genius. "How about chocolate covered strawberries?" She suggested. I loved the idea. I have yet to meet anyone who doesn't love a good chocolate covered strawberry.

Sadly, it's still too early in the year to find the wonderful long-stemmed variety, and I didn't have the time to special order them. Luckily I found a treasure trove at the Nugget Market in Vacaville. Giant ORGANIC strawberries! They were beautiful, and on sale (I think $2.99 a lb.) I snatched up about 6lbs of them, tossed heavy cream and white chocolate into my basket and thanked (insert Deity here) for my good luck.

Being a Costco whore, I already had a giant bag of Nestle semi-sweet chocolate chips at home. I like using chocolate chips with the strawberries as they melt easier and don't clump. After Nugget, I hit Michael's for some lovely gift bags, tissue and gold candy cups. From start to finish (thank you card's included) our gifts came to about $5 per person. That's with each person getting 5 giant strawberries each that would have easily cost you $5 per berries at a gourmet chocolate store.

The bags went out today and I'm already getting rave reviews and lavishing praise through e-mail thank you's from the teachers. Interested in making some as a "thank you?" Here's how I did it:

Step 1: Place a small pot of water on the stove and heat to medium-high (6 on an electric stove.) Place a heat-safe bowl over the pot of water. This creates the coveted "double boiler" that you need to "temper" chocolate.


Step 2: Add your chocolate chips (1 cup per 15 berries) and 1/4 cup heavy cream. If you like, I also add a pinch of salt and a pinch of instant coffee. This just makes the chocolate taste a little richer. STIR!

Make sure your berries are washed and DRIED! Wet berries will clump your chocolate!

I lined simple cookie sheets with both wax and baking paper. Both did a great job of keeping the berries from sticking while cooling.

Step 3: When the chocolate is 100% melted and shiny, you're ready to start grabbing berries and dipping!

If the chocolate doesn't stick right away. Give it another minute of stirring, it may not be hot enough.

You can see my 1 giant berry in the back left where it's a little clumpy. My chocolate wasn't hot enough there.

You can either leave them plane chocolate, or drizzle some melted white chocolate over them about 1hr after the dark has cooled a little. I like the look of both together. Like a little tux! Place the berries in the fridge 1hour before bagging and handing out. This will ensure a nice hard coating. Make sure they're eaten ASAP, or kept in the fridge, otherwise the berries may turn mushy.

Sex and the Sillies (2)

Saturday night found me not in my pajamas at 6PM watching Deadliest Warrior, nor was I doing homework, cooking for my family or indulging in any of my other typical evening activities. Nope, I was all glammed up, with seven wonderful women, drinking a “Cape Cod” and chatting it up before seeing Sex and the City 2. Not to be a total bragger, but it was a perfect evening.

 

One of my best friends had e-mailed me Monday asking if I was planning on seeing SATC2 (Sex and the City 2). I used to love the TV show, but didn’t love the last movie. I knew many of my girlfriends were big fans however, so despite the lackluster movie trailers I had made a mental note to make it a girl’s night when it came out. I guess the release had snuck up on me because it came quicker than I expected. Shockingly many of my “girls” were free that Saturday night and were all game for dressing up and hitting the town. Ok, the VERY small, un-glam town of Davis, but that’s still better than hitting the couch, right?

 

My sister-in-law ditched her hubby for the weekend and my wonderful husband chauffeured the two of us to the beautiful Seasons bar, right across the street from the movie theater. Walking into that bar to see my beautiful friends dripping in jewelry, fresh pedicures gleaming in strappy heals, wide arms and even wider smiles was better than any fashionista scene from the movie. I felt like Carrie Bradshaw meeting HER girls for fancy cocktails before a red carpet event. Cameras flew, glasses clinked and the time went WAY too fast.

 

It’s a good thing we had a few drinks before the movie because it was about as good as I’d expected. Actually, the first half had me convinced that maybe I’d be in for a surprise, but the last half lived up to my lowest clichéd expectation. Ugh is all I can say. Hearing my full row of girls giggle, gasp, howl and moan made the evening a one in a million. It didn’t matter what was going on with Carrie and her friends, we were the one’s bringing style and woman power to Davis that night.

Wake Up Call

I’d like to thank BP oil for making me take a closer look at my family’s habits. My shock and disgust at the rape of our environment has woken me up to taking an even firmer stance for my family’s health and our children’s future.

 

I’ve always been a big supporter of buying local, fresh and organic. My family has been buying organic only milk and local produce for about 13 years now. My thoughts changed on factory farmed meats and eggs about 10 years ago and I started going out of my way to find organic, free range, hormone & antibiotic free meats as well as line caught (not farmed) fish. There’s always room for improvement however.

 

Like all struggling families I’ve been guilty of buying something simply because it’s cheap, turning a blind eye to how it was produced, where it came from (how far away?) and what was in it. I don’t blame those who need to keep a close watch on their bottom dollar. I totally understand. For my family personally the savings in money just isn’t worth the risk to our health and doesn’t hold with our moral values.

 

So, what can we improve upon?

 

1) Eating out. I LOVE LOVE LOVE junk food. I keep away from it 99% of the time, but it is my true love. When we do eat out, it’s a rare enough occasion that I tend to give little thought to organic, local, preservatives, etc… with the restaurants we choose. I plan on changing that habit. I found this website, Ecovian that has listings of restaurants that specialize in local, green and organic foods. Luckily, Davis has quite a few, so I really have no excuse.

 

2) Those darn, thin, plastic produce bags! You know the ones, they rip like crazy, blow around, won’t stay in your trash (or recycling can) and trap water from your produce like crazy. Considering they’re horrible for the environment, don’t get re-used in our house, don’t keep produce well and are a petroleum product, they need to go. I have no idea why it took me so long to figure out they’re evil, but I did. I plan on buying some organic cotton drawstring sacks off Etsy as soon as we get paid on Monday.

 

3) Get to my Farmers Market and Co-op more often. I confess, I don’t go nearly as often as I should. “It’s too expensive!" I tell myself as my family heads to Subway for lunch instead. No more. It’s now a priority of mine to not only support the local economy more, but to skip the “conventional” foods for healthier substitutes that consumed less gas to get to my fridge. (Here's a great site that talks about which foods you should ALWAYS buy organic when possible.)

 

4) Eat less meat. I read recently in an article from Time.com that giving up beef saves more carbon emissions than trading in your conventional car for an electric one. WOW! Nuff said!

 

Years ago we quit buying little bottles of water and switched to a Brita pitcher (talk about saving money AND the planet!!!) Then we switched our nasty plastic Tupperware for glass. I figure these small changes are another step in taking better care of ourselves, and our world; but you won’t see me buying a hemp bikini anytime soon!

Free/Cheap Summer Ideas

Greetings Moms! I thought I'd share some of my favorite free/cheap summer ideas for kids of all ages.

 

(little ones)

-Cook up a batch of homemade play dough together, then play! I like to make 3 batches, one for each primary color then let the kids mix them to see what they get. Adding colored sand also mixes things up a bit. You can also add some vanilla extract or other safe scent. It may just seem like play, but you’re helping their brains grow!

 

-Break out the art supplies. When my son was very young (around 3) he loved stripping down naked and finger-painting on an easel in our backyard. Hours of fun for free! There are many good websites with home-made paint recipes if you’d rather save the bucks and make your own. A bucket of sidewalk chalk from the Dollar Tree can = a full day of fun.

 

-Head to the library. All local libraries have weekly “story time” for kids. Get a card, stay for the story and bring home some books for your own story time!

 

-Make felt people. Another of my son’s favorite things to do when he was little was to play with a home-made felt board. ANYONE can make this! Just glue felt to a large canvas board (from Wal Mart, Michaels or another craft store.) Then you can make your own felt people, animals, family, whatever! I would just draw them on felt with a sharpie and cut them out. If you’re not crafty, you can buy pre-made shapes super cheap at craft stores.

 

-Take a Walk. Pack a snack, blanket, magnifying glass and take a walk. Even just in your own backyard. Point out nature and have your kids guess what it is. We like gathering sticks, leaves, seeds and other things to make a “fairy house” to leave for the woodland creatures when we do this. Nature is a great teacher.

 

-Involve the Pets. If you have a dog, fish, cat, bird or other pet, you could have a pet day! Make a special treat just for your pet, wash and clean their cage, bedding, bed, what have you. Give them a bath (if you have a dog) and involve the kids! It’s great to give your pet some extra TLC and a fun family activity. If it’s a hot day, your dog will thank you for the extra cool-off in the tub! (if doing this outside, make sure you check the hose water temperature before bathing your dog! Summer hose water can burn your pet.)

 

-Forget the Kiddie Pool. My son never liked those shallow little blow-up pools. Instead he loved it when I would drag out his big plastic toy tub and fill it up to his chest. (Of course, never leave kids of any age un-attended in any kind of water!)

 

-Build a Fort. Remember when you were a kid and you would pile blankets and pillows up to make a big fort? How about making one OVER the kid’s bed? You could even hang some glow in the dark stars up and camp… inside!

 

(older kids)

-Cook it up. I love planning, shopping and cooking with man cub. I learned quickly that the more involved he was with what we were eating, the better he would eat it. You can even expand this into creating a family food garden if you enjoy that kind of thing.

 

-Reminisce. Kids love looking at old pictures, especially of when you were their age. Break out the albums and let the tales roll. The same goes for old home videos.

 

-Night Walk. Nature is very different at night than in the day. Bring a flashlight, pack a snack and blanket and take a little walk at night. It's a great time to look for owls and other nocturnal creatures, then you can lay on the blanket and stargaze.

 

-Community Pool. It ain’t what it used to be! Many community pools these days have waterslides, huge fountains and plenty of fun to keep you both busy for hours. Come early to avoid the heat and crowds.

 

-Community Classes. When kids aren’t in school they can miss the regular schedule of having something planned every day. Your local parks and recreation department will offer a slew of activities at super affordable prices. Summer is a great time to try something new. Dance, art, sports, music, etc… Just be sure to register early!

 

-Juice Pops. I think making your own popsicles should be mandatory for summer. My favorite way is also the most simple. Put your favorite fruit & juice in the blender (like strawberries with a little orange juice.) Then pour into ice cube trays. Cover with foil and poke a stick, plastic spoon, etc… in through the center of each one. Let freeze and voila! Your own healthy little treat! The perfect size for kids (and shhhhh a serving of fruit.)

 

I hope these help give you some ideas. Of course, there are TONS of great ideas available at your local library. The library was a wonderful resource for me when man cub was little and I’d run out of ideas. Now if only the sun would come out we could get this summer rolling!