Testimonial

A few years ago, I attended a neighboring ward's Relief Society's Enrichment Activity where they discussed freezer meals. This lady blocked out one day a month for shopping preparations and clean up and produced 30+ meals for the month. She calculated the time for that day vs the time she used to take daily for dinner prep and realized she was saving herself an amazing amount of time. Also, she realized that her monetary commitment to food each month dropped drastically as well. I had dabbled around with the idea, but never really put it to use. One draw back for me was the amount of casseroles that were in her set of recipes. Don't get me wrong, I can eat me some cream of junk concoction loaded with cheese and fat any old time, but not night after night.

I have made may be 10 dinners at a given time to freeze and I always pre-cut my meat and separate them into individual baggies for each intended dinner, but that was the extent of my attempts. For some reason, I had the drive to try out her little experiment Saturday night. I started with the chicken dishes and popped out 6 meals (well, the main dish portion of the dinner at least) I guess I also should mention that there were 3 recipes that I made double batches. I then made 3 lasagnas. Since I was on such a roll I figured I would prep some more dinners. In the 3 hours I worked, I prepared 23 dinners and cleaned my kitchen and felt pretty proud of myself. I reveled in the fact that I still had the freedom to cook whatever sponanteous dish I am in the mood for or could rely on a back up as needed. I removed that annoying "What's for dinner" question and have saved hours of prep time.

In the end, I was left with the feeling of remorse for not trying this earlier and the drive to do this again and again. I can't wait to add to my repertoire so feel free to leave your tried and true freezer meals in the comment portion.

Enlarged Bonzai

When i was a little kid, I remember listening to this tape of inspirational songs while we drove in the car. Since we drove in the car frequently, we heard this tape a lot. One song made the profound point "Don't let the magic pass you by". Unfortunately, I do that way too often. The magic I regret today is not taking more opportunity to learn at college. I had so many venues to explore and I didn't. I should have taken some botany classes so I wouldn't be at such a loss with my yard.

Well, better late then never and although I have to start from ground zero, I am not afraid to try. Annoyed by the clump of plants smothering each other in a back corner of my yard, I decided to take action, pruning action. I first practiced with shapes and angles of cutting. Then I got to the heart of the matter and unveiled a potentially lovely honeysuckle tree.

I felt slightly bad for killing a living plant that actually also had its beautiful points. For example, it frequently bloomed these delicate purple flowers and stayed the same light shade of green all year round. It also doubled as cover up of those unsightly cable boxes. It had grown too wild and it was either the Texas Sage or the Honeysuckle. I chose the latter because of the cute little humming birds that seem to adore the yellow flowers. With a little grooming and proper neighboring plants, I hope to have that area be a restful oasis in the back. We'll see. I'll have to banish the fire ants first.

Super Concentration

Once, when I was at the commissary, I walked upon a jack pot. They were selling HE 2x Concentrated laundry soap by a name brand for $0.75. I'm thinking to myself, "laundry is inevitable and with each bottle claiming at least 96 loads, I could be set for life". I decided not to get too greedy and only purchased 4 bottles. I did just buy two other mega laundry soap containers just days prior.

Life was good with my liquid soap. Until one fateful day when I walked into a nightmare. My laundry room floor was covered in blue free flowing super concentrated detergent. The smell was pleasant, but that was the only positive. Baffled, I began to wonder why or how this happened. Luckily the washer was still going, or I would have been stumped til this day (or misplaced the blame onto a child). Silly me put the soap container on top of the washer instead of back on it's convenient shelf. When spin cycle hits, a veritable earthquake occurs which sent the soap toppling to the floor.

Clean up wasn't fun and I still don't think all the soap residue is gone. Lesson learn well (four times over).

Her own style

Mia always knows what she wants. Sometimes it gets lost in translation to the great sorrow of everyone. But every now and then, we connect idea to reality. Mia has been trying to grow her hair out to be as long and flowing as any girl's imagination could devise. So, much to my surprise, Mia requested a hair cut the other day. She wanted it to be "short like Talia's so it could curl". Hmmm. . . Naturally straight hair vs curly locks. I headed to the internet for helpful tips on hair cutting and Mia found the style that she liked. Posh the former Spice girl was the cut of choice. I preformed to the best of my abilities and here is the end result.



Thank heavens that kids move frequently and my sister Emily is coming soon to help all the very crazy mismatched ends. I know when to stop.

Just Another Manic Monday

I confess that I am not a fan of 80's music at all, but this song appropriately described my Monday. You know the saying "Strike When the Iron's Hot"? I do and firmly agree with that sentiment. There are plenty of days when I putz around my house trying to muster enough oomph to get the basic of chores/activities done. So when my oomph arrives spontaneously, I use it for all its worth.

Monday brought normal house/kid stuff, dentist appointments, and baby sitting. No biggie. Because I felt like it, I painted our piano room, uninstalled two ceiling fans and installed two new ones, and cut Tiago's hair. By far the most challenging of all of the events was how sweaty and hot I felt and how noxious paint fumes can be without proper ventilation. Here are some before and afters of my day:






Disclaimer: (can you do that after the fact?) I understand this list isn't even a fractions of what other moms do. It just was a bit more then my usual day.

Remembered at the Alamo

After a less then fantastic restaurant experience on the Riverwalk with my dad and kids, we began our trek back to the van. About a block away from the restaurant, Tiago realized that a bathroom visit was so crucial that he began screaming loudly "I have to go potty". The only bathroom that came to mind was the public restroom at the back of the Alamo historical site a good two blocks away. Throwing Talia at my father and grabbing Tiago we raced to through the giggling crowds of people all too aware of the dire circumstances we were in. Tiago did all in his capacity to "hold" it in which in turn made the screaming louder. Poor kid, we were surrounded by running water. Suddenly, Tiago refused to run anymore and insisted that I pick him up.

Aside from the fact that he is getting pretty big, I was already carring the baby backpack, minus the baby, and Tiago squirms were making that option impossible. When we finally made it to the bathrooms, the women's restroom was packed with several ladies waiting quite impatiently in line. I shoved Tiago into the men's room and told him I would wait for him outside. The door shut and the screaming increased in intensity with the thought of using the bathroom without me. The women in line didn't budge or offer to allow a desperate boy the relief he needed. After the 3rd attempt to get him to go, a gentleman watching this show vocalized my thoughts.

"Just go in and help him. It's not like you are going to see anything."

Before I had a chance to think about the repercussions, I bolted into the bathroom, past the urinals and helped Tiago avoid an accident. It wasn't until his screaming stopped that I had the chance to think. First, that man had already come and gone and couldn't vouch for my craziness. Second, all the other men in the bathroom probably (and rightfully so) felt at least shocked if not embarrassed for my presence there. Third, I am pretty sure that it is slightly illegal for me to be in that bathroom (especially since that law hasn't strayed from the insanity of MD laws). Oh well, what was done, was done. I wish I had the courage to walk out with my head held high, but instead I quickly washed my hands and left the men and women outside with a great story to tell.

Fit of Inspiration or Delirium

When the double stroller decided it really wasn't willing to be a jogging stroller and literally popped a wheely, I felt like we had no other option but to buy a real jogging stroller. We were left with a major dilemma-what jogging stroller would fit 3 kids? None. So do we get to jogging strollers? And what about the fact that we wanted to get a jogger that could be pulled behind a bike (that we don't currently own). This is the dream:






Amazing, I know, minus the color choice. With a $400 price tag, I wasn't really ready to bite. Especially when a sweet friend loaned us a sit and stand wonder to make it through the rest of the school year and I figured we could manage through the summer with the two older kids walking while Talia got stuffed into a baby backpack. Many sore shoulders later and many plane tickets later, neither the baby backpack nor the new Joyrider were feasible.

So, last night at 8 pm, when Fernando bade me to sleep, my mind flooded with many fantastic ideas. Most dealt with my substituting as the primary chorister on Sunday, but then I began to rethink the busted wheel. I realized that opening up the wheel would reveal what really broke. Today, I put that plan into action after getting bored with painting. With a few pulls and shoves, we once again have a mode of transportation that makes me less of a beast of laden. I'll just have to tell Fernando that jogging is out of the question and Mia will have to walk.