mother/sister confusion

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The other day, my sister and I went somewhere together. Sometimes, we do that.

We went into a building and passed by a security guard. He looked over and smiled at us. “You must be mother and daughter, huh?” He kept smiling and continued “You look just alike, you probably get that all the time, huh?”

I smiled, but my mind was racing….. did he just….?  did he just ask me if I was her MOTHER?

Looking at my sisters smiling face. No, she wasn’t just smiling. She was laughing.

We continue on, stepping into an elevator. I’m inspecting myself in the reflection. “It’s the sweater…. it’s a total mom sweater….”. I asked one of the people in the elevator, “do I look like I could be her mom?!”  He looked confused. “NO!”, I helped him with the correct answer. “I DON’T!”.

Then he smiled knowingly, “you’re sisters huh?”

Clearly….. the first guy may have been completely blind. I don’t even remember him having eyes to be honest.

I give you exhibit A. A recent photo of two SISTERS at a play together…..

And exhibit B: 4 kids in the train at the mall. They all look under 10 to me. No mom-looking people here……

And exhibit C:

Hmmmm, so maybe I do tend to look overall more subdued. More mature in a very young and not mom-ish way. Definitely don’t look like I gave birth to that lady with the chopsticks….

And finally, exhibit D:

Oh, well isn’t that precious. She was my little bitty baby sister….. and I doted on her and probably did pretend to be her mommy back then. Just look at that little face…..

You know what? It’s really ok. I do kind of feel like a mom to her sometimes, I practiced my parenting technique on her before trying it out on my own kids…. thanks to the mistakes I made with my sister, my oldest has turned out pretty awesome.

Oh, I love that little sister of mine. Even if I am going to have to ugly her up a bit before we hang out together next time…. 🙂

 

Thai and peanut heaven

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If I had to pick a favorite kind of food, it would be Indian or Thai.

Unfortunately, cooking authentic Indian sauces requires a lot of ingredients and time and patience, most of which I lack. My neighbor is Indian and I once asked her if she knew how to make Matar Paneer, one of my favorites. She actually came over one day with a cute little bag of ingredients and cooked it FOR me. I watched, and wished I could have had the foresight to record her efforts on video because I will NEVER be able to duplicate it.

Thankfully, we have a great Indian place close by that can cater to my cravings and it’s only too spicy about 50% of the time….

Thai is another love. The peanut sauce….. it’s sooooooo good.

With my newfound calorie awareness, I was really excited when I stumbled across a recipe for Thai Chicken Skewers on Pinterest. There is this stuff called PB2. Powdered peanut butter…. it has 85% LESS fat calories than the good old peanut butter that I love eat off the spoon. Two tablespoons of powder has only 45 calories!  It’s just powdered peanuts, pressed to squeeze out the fat and oil. Anyway, that is how the peanut sauce in this recipe can taste so good, and also not kill you with extra calories. I got mine from Amazon, but I guess plenty of health food and even regular grocery stores carry it.

So here are the ingredients from emilybites.com, I highly recommend checking it, and her other recipes out.

Ingredients:

Chicken & Marinade Ingredients:

  • 3 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
  • 2 tablespoons honey
  • 1 tablespoon sesame oil (found by the Asian sauces)
  • Juice from one lime
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 teaspoon Sriracha (Asian chili sauce found with the other Asian ingredients)
  • 1/8 teaspoon of red pepper flakes
  • 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
  • 1 ½ pounds (24 oz) raw boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite sized chunks
  • You’ll also need 9” skewers – if using wooden skewers you should soak them in water for about 30 minutes before use

Peanut Sauce Ingredients:

  • 2 tablespoons PB2 powdered peanut butter
  • 1 tablespoon low sodium soy sauce
  • 1 tablespoon water
  • 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
  • ¼ teaspoon black pepper
  • 1/8 teaspoon Sriracha
  • 1 teaspoon brown sugar
  • 1/8 teaspoon sesame oil

 

It’s so fast just to throw it all together. I double the amounts, using it for chicken, veggies, tofu. Great flavor even without marinating for longer than 20 minutes.

Ready to grill…….

Just off the grill……

Oh, the sauce……. it’s great on everything. You can play with the proportions, make it spicy or more mild to your taste. My kids love it. I love it. Life is good.

 

I’m a sucker

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Sometimes the three year old gets in trouble. Hard to believe, I know.

Recently, I’m lecturing her on, say, the best way to clean the windows. (Hint, NOT with her tongue…) She interrupts me, and says “But do you still love me?” In a completely pitiful and forlorn voice.

And so it began. She asks if I love her. I tell her of course I love her. I never STOP loving her. We do this several times a day sometimes.

And somehow it’s developed into…. “Jenna! stop *insert behavior*!  She looks over at me, and says “but mom, I still love you!” And continues what she was doing. Sometimes she actually puts her hand on my cheek, and turns my face towards her. Then she tells me, very seriously, “I still love you…. I’ll NEVER stop loving you!” And then does what she wants…

What she means is, OK, you caught me, but look….I’m saying the right words, so I get a free pass, right?? Right???

Um… yep. Pretty much.

free spirit ?? Yea, that’s it….

Lazy and delicious dinner

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I wanted to grill something for dinner. Had it all planned in my head, but my kitchen wasn’t producing the quick bottle of marinade or BBQ sauce I required.

Pondered going to the store, decided I was just too lazy to leave the house again, and turned to Pinterest for something I could throw together fast with things I already had in my kitchen.

My laziness paid off, in spades. You are welcome. Enter an amazing, delicious, FAST marinade for pretty much anything you want to throw it on.It’s called Easy grilled chicken, and it is really great on chicken…but I also used it on zucchini, red peppers, and tofu.

The ingredients are simple

  • 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
  • Juice of 1 lemon
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
  • 2 tablespoons brown sugar, packed
  • 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
  • 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
  • 1/4 teaspoon dried rosemary
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
  • 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
  • 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves

This list is literally copied and pasted from the recipe at damndelicious.net. I did take some creative liberties with what I had on hand. Such as Balsamic salad dressing instead of balsamic vinegar. Stone ground mustard instead of Dijon. Dried parsley instead of fresh. I also just eyeballed amount of each ingredient to use, as I was still too lazy to dirty any measuring spoons…. Hmmm, I’m not sure I even used rosemary, I think I used basil instead.

Whatever. It was amazing. You can literally throw these things together and they will come out as a delicious way to season anything you want to grill. Try it!  I didn’t even have to let the food soak up the flavor, stick it all together and let the chicken or veggies sit 15 minutes then BAM, on the grill.

Here’s another gem, if you are into sweet/salty/bitter things.

My husband loves this watermelon salad I make in the summer…. I think there are lots of variations:

You need watermelon, feta cheese, sunflower seeds (I used roasted/salted), and olives. This time I used a mix of green and black. You need the kind that make you pucker when you eat them, pits are usually not removed. Just put it together according to your taste.

Yum!

 

Babysitter secrets

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I was having a conversation with my sister the other day, about a mutual friend who seems to have such conflicted feelings toward her babysitter.

Seems like the sitter is very nice, happy, friendly, responsible, and loving toward her child. He loves going over there. He is treated like family. Yet….. the friend was reluctant to leave him with her. Found fault with the way she did things, and seemed very suspicious of her.

My sister doesn’t understand how in the world this is possible. Especially since the babysitter is also a close friend of hers…and she can vouch that the girl is in fact NOT torturing or neglecting this child during the time she is watching him.

I decided to fill her in on the whole mom/babysitter relationship. At least how it sometimes goes.

For example, if you look on any babysitting site, there are ads from parents looking for that perfect person to watch their baby. But what they are asking for and what they really want aren’t always the same. In these cases, you need to read between the lines and understand that we don’t REALLY want you to love our kids. Maybe just a little, but not enough to make them love you BACK. Because then you’re competition. And that makes us hate you.

This might be a more honest look into the heart of a mom who has to work, and needs a sitter, but also hates the idea of needing a sitter, and worries about being replaced emotionally.

“In search of a dependable, efficient, no-nonsense sitter for my kids. Please be very kind to them, but also sometimes indifferent so they don’t start to love you, but instead always remember to love me more. No more than 3 hugs per day, which must be initiated by the child and tolerated by you. Absolutely no cute nicknames for them. Please do make them healthy and yummy lunches, but don’t cut the sandwich the special way that I cut it… and no pancakes made to spell their names. Just circles for you. If you witness a “first” moment, ignore it. Pretend it didn’t happen… save it for me. If they tell you they love you, pretend you just stubbed your toe and jump around yelling to distract them from those dangerous thoughts. Must be kind of irritable at the end of the day so they run to me with smiles when I come home.”

Or if you need visuals:

NO

YES

 

I may have experienced this myself…. so it’s possible that I know what I’m talking about just a tiny bit. It doesn’t make sense, but nothing makes sense after having kids anyway… In my own experience, I did finally come to really appreciate that the kids and the sitter DID love each other, and time made me realize that nothing-so far-has been able to replace me in their affections.

I think our friend is going through the same issue. Which sucks, but I guess I’d rather hate my sitter for loving my kids and making me jealous, than for actually being a shitty sitter. Ha, try saying that five times fast, shitty sitter, shitty sitter, shitty sitter….. can’t do it can you??

 

Another pee story

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Because you can’t really hear enough about pee, right?

There was an accident in the dining room today, as the 3 year old was playing hide and seek with her brother. A pee accident. Because she couldn’t come out of her hiding spot, so what was a girl to do?

After a tearful (on her part) and somewhat angry (on my part) discussion on the merits of peeing when you need to go vs “holding it”…. we came to an agreement. We agreed to still love each other even when one of us decides to pee our pants, and even if the other person is not very happy about it. And also that we really should take time to stop playing and go pee before it decides to make a grand entrance on a very expensive rug that your father may have a stroke over if he ever found out. She missed the rug…but it was close. Too close.

But as my husband hears the story, he seems so shocked….why did she do it?

Oh, I know.

And now for my next pee story.

I was somewhere around 5 or 6 years old. Playing at the neighbors house, and at some point realized I needed to pee. I think I was in a battle with my bladder, not wanting to allow it any power over me. I would be the one to choose my place and time of elimination, thank you very much! Not some brainless, hollow organ that can’t even stretch enough to let me finish playing a summer afternoon game of hide and seek.

At some point the urge grew from nagging to alarming. I crouched down, begging my body to just HOLD IT IN! I was doing fine, until I lost my balance, fell over and released Hoover Dam.

flikrhivemind.net

I then stood, and took stock of what I had to work with. Warm sunny day, very wet pants. Can’t blame it on falling in a puddle….. but I COULD blame it on falling in a puddle of BUBBLES! Of course, I would tell my parents we were playing with a lake of bubbles and silly me fell in. Surely they would buy it!

I still remember crying, insisting it was BUBBLES and not pee!!!  Isn’t it funny how indignant we get when someone doesn’t believe our perfectly plausible lie?

So I get it. I get that I will have to expect these moments here and there, and remind the youngest to pee sometimes when she’s doing her best to avoid it. And I’ll tell her all the stuff, like I did today, about how it’s bad to hold it in, and not good for your body etc….

What I won’t tell her is that I’ve just gotten sooooo much better at holding it. That’s right, pee, I’m totally the boss of you.

freeimages.com

3 year old confidence

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I really hope the 3 year old keeps her spunky attitude. That’s what someone said about her today, “she’s got spunk”. I am taking it as a compliment.

She had to go potty today, just now in fact…. called me when she was done. After I do my clean up job, she walks out of the bathroom singing “Hey mom, pee is #1, and poop is #2!”  She’s holding two thumbs up above her head, as she swaggers past victoriously.

I love that she’s so proud of herself and her poop.

Time for another Fix

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It’s that time again!!  Another Stitch Fix box to greet me after work yesterday….

It wasn’t AS exciting, since I already knew what was coming inside the box, thanks to the stitch fix app on my iPhone. You can scroll through photos of the items being sent to you even before you see them, and decide if you’re going to keep, send back, or even sell the clothes you don’t want on board like this, to try getting the 25% discount for “keeping” everything. So smart!!

Sooo, even before my box was here, I was able to send a text to my sister:

I’m pretty sure I had a shirt with a similar pattern in middle school…. but thankfully the sister loved it and already wanted to buy it so I didn’t have to bother selling it and she guaranteed my 25% discount.

I had been very specific with my stylist, asking for cropped jeans and pinning a lot of pictures of tops I liked on pinterest, they actually do check that stuff out!

Other than the mystery cardigan with no picture, I knew what I was getting… and I was pretty sure I was going to keep it all.

What IS it about opening the box, and seeing that bundle of different fabrics and colors that just makes me want to do a little dance??? I’m happy to say that even though I knew what was coming, it’s still super fun to try things on 🙂

My instinct was right on, I liked what I expected, and bought it all so I can pass the savings on to my sister when I drop off the top she wanted. Probably my only regret with this box is that it is too much like what I already buy… I would have liked that weird blouse to have been something a little different for me, something a little edgy that didn’t make me feel like a confused adult preschooler if I chose to wear it.

So I think for my next box, I am going to ask for styles that are kind of like “me”, but different….. whatever that means!

If you check out stitch fix, let me know what you think! Oh, and use me for a referral!! I’ll get 25 bucks, and you’ll get the enjoyment of your own little fashion box to share with the rest of us 🙂

 

Sunshine blogger award

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So I was just nominated by Amanda at Just in Queso for the sunshine blogger award 🙂 🙂

I totally accept and also urge you all to check out her blog, it’s pretty irresistible…. kind of like a yummy, melty, cheesy slightly sarcastic but always in good taste bowl of queso.

So here are the rules for this award:

  1. Answer the 11 questions from the person nominating you.
  2. Nominate 11 other awesome bloggers, and give the 11 questions to answer.

Not too bad, right?

Here are my assigned questions:

1.What is your favorite snack?

So this is actually a really hard question for me to answer… because I am a shameless snacker and I don’t want any of my favorites to feel left out. Let’s say popcorn mixed with jelly beans or sour patch kids is pretty  high up there. All things chocolate of course, and homemade banana splits with plenty of m&m’s, hot fudge, strawberry sauce, peanuts, and whipped cream…. and a brownie… a brownie on the bottom.

2. Where is your happy place?

In my imagination…. it always beats reality.

3. What is a sound you enjoy hearing?

Am I too cheesy if I say something like “the sound of my kids laughter”? Also silence… I like the sound of silence a whole lot.

4. Tell us something weird/interesting about you.

Hmmmmm. In elementary school I once taped a cotton ball over my eye and kept it on all day to garner sympathy and attention from my classmates. Current weird problem is that I can’t stop swallowing my gum.

5. What is one thing you would change about yourself?

Probably my desire to change things about myself…

6. What is one of your strengths?

I’m going to say multi-tasking, and organization. God, that sounds horribly boring and depressing.

7. How is May going for you so far?

I feel pretty good about May so far…. it has seen my lose 3 lbs and let’s hope it doesn’t see me put it and more back on 🙂

8. What is your favorite thing to do with close friends?

Well this is definitely a “what if” question, as I never actually get to see my close friends. Last time I saw my best friend, we met up in the Starbucks parking lot so I could grab my girl scout cookies from her and then drive away, each on to our next duty. On the rare occasion our schedules line up… we usually spend the time asking each other what we want to do, until time is almost up and then we just go eat somewhere close and lament out inability to make decisions.

9. What’s the last movie you saw? What did you think of it?

The jungle book, I took the 2 youngest with me to see it. I liked it! Extra points for the movie popcorn mixed with sour patch kids and reclining theater seats.

10. What is your least favorite “adulting” task?

Waking up early, after I’ve stayed up reading far too late. And all the driving around crap….hate that too.

11. Tell us about a scar you have and how you got it.

Once I was riding my bike home from a friends house, maybe 10 years old. I had my bathing suit in a plastic bag on my handle bars. The bag got pulled between the fender and the wheel and instead of stopping, I tried to untangle it while I kept riding. Drifted to the side, and ran right into the back of a parked car. It’s a little hazy, but I ended up on my back with my chin bleeding. Had to ride home with a wonky front tire and blood running down my neck. I ended up with stitches, and a nice scar under my chin.

Here are my nominees, if they so choose to participate:

  1. parental ramblings
  2. single family asylum
  3. the shameful sheep
  4. the euphoric Iraqi single mom
  5. passports and pigtails

And the questions below 🙂

1.What is your first memory?

2. Who would you never share a fork with?

3. Are you a dog or cat person?

4. Biggest mistake you’ve made (yet)?

5. What have you done to get rid of the hiccups?

6. What’s your favorite joke?

7. What did you want to be when you grew/grow up?

8. What color do you look best in?

9. Best (untrue) excuse you’ve used to get out of something?

10. Would you ever look in the mirror and say “candyman” three times??? HAVE you??

11. Do you believe in psychics?

Ok guys… I’m looking forward to these responses if you find the time or interest to play along 🙂   Thanks again, Amanda from Just in Queso, an awesome blogger and cheese aficionado!

 

 

 

 

 

Facing facts

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Until this past year, I have lived my life blissfully ignoring “recommended calories” when I felt like it. I knew I ate horribly, but figured that box of swiss cake rolls I gobbled in the darkness of the pantry would be offset by the lack of breakfast or lunch on most days.

My night snacking was enjoyable. And again, in the spirit of refusing to face reality, I chose to believe that all the crap I ate right before bed would just kind of….disappear, and I’d have a reset the next day.

Why not, that’s how it’s always worked!

I was blessed by genetics, taking after my mother who had 5 kids, never exercised, and always had a tiny waist. My hip bones stood in proud defiance of the calories I ingested.

But one day, I noticed that my scale wasn’t working right anymore. In fact, it seemed to be stuck higher than I was used to. Then it went higher. I started to worry….. and finally panic as weeks went by, and the number never went down. Instead….it crept up.

Suddenly, I’m noticing a new softness across the midsection…. at the waistband…. and I consider my options. I won’t say I’m not very interested in smart lipo. I absolutely am in love with the idea…… except I would literally be spending my kids tuition to get it, so I sigh, and consider some more.

I’m no stranger to exercise, but still struggling to fit it in the schedule with these kids, and this job, and all this other stuff going on… and let’s face it….. working out for 20 minutes, and then stuffing my face with a chocolate lava cake is probably not going to help much.

I did recently download this app, called MyNetDiary.  It counts calories, tracks weight, give access to all sorts of tips and articles about weight loss, working out etc. I started plugging in what I ate, even more motivating was the option to scan barcodes… if only I ate more packaged food… it’s so fun to scan and see everything pop up for you!

I started this about 2 weeks ago. I’ve quickly become addicted. I put in my current weight, my goal weight, my level of activity, and a date I want to achieve my goal. I weigh myself in the morning, and log my food, even glasses of water.

It really works!!  For once, I feel like I have something keeping me in check when I go scavenging for sweets, although it was depressing to find out that each starburst has 40 calories. I’m actually starting to think about things being calorie-worthy….. am I finally a real grown up?

Today we had lunch with my mom for Mothers Day. Olive Garden…. who can survive that??!!  I ate 2 breadsticks, all the while fuming about the 300 calories they were costing me. Still smothered them in alfredo sauce. Salad, a scoop of shrimp scampi from the lighter fare menu, and half piece of tiramisu.

I think I usually eat a lot more than I did, but for the first time I was aware and made an effort to eat within my limit for the day. Since then I’ve had 2 cups of tea, and more salad. That’s it. I did go over calories, but only by 161—not the zillion it would have been.

And I’ve lost 3 pounds. First thinking it’s a fluke, but it seems to be real. I love to look at the graph and see the downward trend. It’s so motivating!

Oh, I’m not going to give up my pantry snacking completely, one must have some joy in life….. But finally, I think I might be motivated enough to stick to something. And I am working out more, running in fact! (well, jogging…. in a slow and painful, gasping way). In fact, this is how I started my Mothers Day today…..

Now let’s not get all metaphorical…. it’s not representative of the “road I’m going to travel for my health”, it’s not “my life’s journey”…

It’s a track. At the rec center. I ran/jogged/walked on it. But it’s a start 🙂