It's just a number

Delaney and her friend were having a conversation about birthdays this afternoon. My dear nine year old said "My mom turned 43 on her birthday!" and her delightful friend said "Oh! My Grandma turned 46 on her last birthday!"

For some reason they both thought this little coincidence was very funny.

Rotten whipper-snappers.

Cheesecake on a spoon...

You really don't need a pie shell for this... it would be just as good (and lower in fat) if you just spread it on a graham cracker. I bought the chocolate version and, although it was very tasty, I won't be buying it again. It's good but not good enough to justify the fat content.

Why is it that sometimes we just can't communicate with the people we love? Teenagers are especially difficult and I find myself often living with warring emotions... regret that I wasn't more careful about how I said something and anger because I have to be so careful all the time. Why can't we have simple conversations like "Can you take me to point A at 9am on Saturday the 16th?"

Instead I get:
Kid - "Are you taking me and my friend to the city where point A is sometime next weekend."
Me - "When do you need to go?"
Kid - "I don't know.. like sometime Saturday."
Me - "What are you going to be doing?"
Kid - "I don't know"
Me - "Well, I want to know what your plans are because I'm going to have to hang around for hours waiting to take you home. But I think Saturday will work."
Kid - "We want to go on Sunday and I don't know if we are going to go to point A or maybe point D."
Me - "What?"
Kid - "Never mind! We'll just ask friend's mom to take us!"

Parenting is too difficult.

Photo by WindyPizza

Hmm...

You Should Be a Teacher

You are patient, optimistic, and good at explaining things. You work well with all types of people, and you are a good role model. Success and positive outcomes are extremely important to you. You are both a good leader and instructor. People look up to and depend on you. You do best when you: - Can see the results of your work - Are able to teach someone a new skill You would also be a good nurse or non fiction writer.

What Should You Be When You Grow Up?

Or maybe I should just have lots of friends who are teachers?

Multi-taxing

Photo by Turbojoe

Today was cold, rainy, and miserable. Delaney was sick so we stayed home and rested. Well, she rested, I decided to make good use of the time off and start our taxes. Five hours later Bob came home to find me buried under reciepts. Mountains of receipts. The little scraps of paper tell a story of 2007. I had tried to save every single receipt for medical expenses and there were a lot of them.

Adding it all up created a moment of epiphany for me. In the midst of crisis last year I think we just put blinders on and stopped thinking about money. We had to. It was hard enough to think clearly about what was happening to our family and make rational decisions about our son and his problems. Money was one worry we just set aside. Today the blinders were ripped off. One quarter of our income was spent on medical expenses last year.

In a strange way I feel better having it all reduced to dollars and cents. Money is transitory. I can weather the momentary shock of having spent so much and then be thankful for everything we do have. I wish that it was as easy to shrug off the other costs but the memories that are tied to those receipts won't be as easily erased as the debt.

Menu Plan Monday

The Super Bowl seems to be our traditional "end of the holidays" blow-out. It is the final indulgent meal in a season full of bad-for-you food. Today we start a new season of healthy eating... and the best way to stay on target is to plan ahead. Thankfully there's Laura and Menu Plan Monday at I'm an Organizing Junkie to help keep me on track!

Monday - Steak Sandwiches, Baked French Fries, Green Salad
Tuesday - Salsa Chicken and Rice, Corn and Black Bean Relish
Wednesday - Chopped Salad with Spicy Pork and Buttermilk Dressing
Thursday - Chicken Vegetable Soup with Noodles
Friday - Make Your Own Pizza
Saturday - Bob Cooks
Sunday - To be decided later...

My nutritional goal for this week is to stop drinking soda... again. It's one of my toughest habits to break.

And the winner is...

Our first weekly winner is Leeann at Is It Morning Already. Congratulations Leeann! Please send your mailing address to ginaagain@aol.com and your chocolate will go out in tomorrow's mail.

The prize for this week is a copy of a book that I have found very helpful when I'm feeling like there is nothing more to write about.


The Pocket Muse: Endless Inspiration, has a good balance of writing prompts and advice plus some really cool photos. For me pictures are great creative triggers. When I'm out of ideas a few minutes of flipping through the pages of this book is often enough to get me writing again. In addition to the book there will be chocolate, of course, because I'm a great believer in the brain boosting power of the almighty cocoa bean! (plus I did promise food and prizes)

Write on bloggers.

Ripped out by the roots...

Delaney told me one day that she can always tell when I'm angry. I know I'm pretty easy to read, but I played along and asked her how she can tell that I'm angry. She leaned closer, a serious look on her face, and said "It's easy Mom, because when you are upset your mad hairs poke out."

Mad hairs??? Holy crap! I knew exactly what she was talking about because every old woman in my family has this problem. Coarse little mustache hairs that stand straight out from tightly clenched, thin lips in times of stress. But I must point out that it's the OLD women that have this problem, the ones in faded black and white family photos, not young, vibrant, modern women such as myself. But after surveying my "angry" face in the magnifying mirror (these things should be illegal) I had to admit the kid was right.

Thankfully, modern women have ways of dealing with these problems.


Ouch.

February Blogging Challengers

Hi again... sick of me yet? Here is a list of everyone who has currently said they are participating. The logo is uploaded to flickr.com if you want to snag it for your blog. I had a lot of fun today shopping for prizes... More on that later.

Here's the list... and, of course, it's still open to anyone!

Leeann at Is It Morning Already?
Nicole at You Have Got To Be Kidding..
Heidi at Viking Conquest
Karen Meg at A DAY IN THE LIFE... one glass at a time
Debi at Life: The Journey
Debbie at Etc.,Etc., Etc.
Taylor at Taylor's Blog
MS Teacher at ms_teacher
Nancy at A Step At A Time

What does Fuego mean anyway?

The key question isn't "What fosters creativity?" But it is why in God's name isn't everyone creative? Where was the human potential lost? How was it crippled? I think therefore a good question might be not why do people create? But why do people not create or innovate? We have got to abandon that sense of amazement in the face of creativity, as if it were a miracle if anybody created anything.

Abraham Maslow

Today I found a place where the human potential is being lost. A place where our children are taught that only a few are capable of creation and those few elite should be the center of attention while the majority devote their time and energy to the support and worship of the minority. Where is this evil is taking place? It's a sinister place called Radio Disney.

Radio Disney seems innocent enough, with it's wholesome teenaged stars singing songs that are sanitized for our children's protection, but behind the velvet mouse ears lurks a megalomanic monster. The station plays approximately thirty songs, most by artists who also star in movies or television shows produced by Disney, over and over. In the course of two hours in the car with my daughter we heard three songs twice and one artist singing six different songs. Interspersed with the songs are advertisements encouraging kids to spend their evenings on the computer voting for their favorite song "again and again" so that it will be number one. What message is this sending? That some people are stars and the rest don't have anything better to do than to vote for them?

Perhaps I'm making too much of this, especially since I have been known to dance around the kitchen to High School Musical tunes and I know the lyrics to a few too many Jonas Brothers and Hannah Montana songs, but I want my kids to have broader tastes in music. Thirty songs just isn't enough to develop an appreciation of music.. especially the thirty that Rad Dis has chosen! Will I forbid my daughter to listen anymore? No, probably not. But after we got home I made sure she got a healthy dose of Tom Jones... just to be sure...

Yesterday I announced the February Challenge... I'm afraid I haven't come up with a better name for it... There are many people out there who are much better at this sort of thing but I've officially jumped off the cliff and I'm soaring.. sort of. I'm really excited and honored that anyone responded!

As I said yesterday, the challenge is to post to your blog every day in February but, since it's a big goal and big goals are more achievable when broken into small parts, I've decided that we need weekly motivational prizes. Since my readership is still very small I think it's pretty safe to just use the names in a hat method of choosing a weekly winner. Our prize will be posted on the first day of the week with the winner from the preceeding week announced that day also. In order to get your name in the hat you just have to post each day of that week (and let me know that you are participating if you are a "maybe" participant). Ok, that would be enough to make my head spin but the migraine I'm currently fighting has already done that so if any of this doesn't make sense to you just let me know and I'll babble on even more.

Ok, enough of that! Here's the big announcement:

Today is officially the first day of week one.. and week one will officially end on Sunday February 3rd. It's a nice short "week" but our first prize is delightfully long-stemmed... and yummy. It will only take three posts for you to be eligible to win 200 grams of delicious swiss chocolate in a pretty rose themed box.




Write on Bloggers!

Bye Bye January

I swore that this year I would not succumb to the January blues and, for the most part, I was successful. I haven't had much to say but at least I didn't feel like whining all month long. For the first time in years I didn't hate January, but I'm not going to miss it much either.

Sooooooo.... on to February and a CHALLENGE. I am going to post every day in February, because it's a short month and I really need a motivational hook right now, and I'm challenging all of my friends and bloggy buddies to join me. In fact, I'm just desperate enough to be willing to bribe you all with random weekly rewards. Did I say weekly? Yep, I did! While my objective is to encourage daily posting, I know how hard it is to do this; I don't want anyone tossed out of the party because they had a bad Wednesday.

Rules? We don't need no stinking rules! Just let me know you are up for the challenge. I'll announce the prize on Monday and everyone who posts daily will be entered in the drawing on Sunday.

Cold Sunday Morning...

Snow was forcast
but instead of fluffy white frosting
there is steel gray ice
the dog seemed to think twice
before rushing into the slippery yard
then returned to bed
to lick her toes
There is so much I should be doing
but the freeze has it's grip on me too
alas I have become
not a graceful ice sculpture
but a lump of sooty ice
fallen from the wheel well of
the workweek

Fifteen Fun Facts

No it's not a meme... it 's just me trying desperately to find something to blog about that won't make me want to cry or slam things around. Not that I really have a lot to cry or slam about but I'm just having a sort of emotionally unstable day... so I'm going to list fifteen fun facts about anything that comes to mind.

1. FIRST: For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology - You've got to love an organization that uses robots battles and lego building competitions to "To transform our culture by creating a world where science and technology are celebrated and where young people dream of becoming science and technology heroes."

2. Fiesta!: A party. Preferably with Fajitas and Margaritas. I could really use a fiesta right now.

3. Friendly's : A legendary ice cream shop in Massachusetts.. and other Eastern states... well, legendary if you live in my house. My husband is convinced that there is no Milkshake that can substitute for a genuine Friendly's Fribble and he has spent many years trying to create a Fribble in our not so friendly kitchen.

4. Forest: I live in a temperate rain forest. Uh, to be more honest, I live in what used to be a temperate rain forest but is now a barren subdivision with three requisite trees per house. The forest waits just beyond the fences and regularly tries to reclaim any unprotected land. You know what else lives in a temperate rain forest? Banana Slugs!

5. Feathers tickle my fancy...

6. Fleas bite

7. Fruit bats are totally cool but I don't want them in my backyard. They need to stay in the forest with the foxes, raccoons and BANANA SLUGS.

8. Flitter: This is what butterflies do. I like butterflies and will plant flowers to attract them if I ever actually plant anything in my backyard... (don't tell the forest I haven't landscaped yet)

9. Fusion: Jazz, Food, Cold... not necessarily in that order

10. Frustration caused me to yell at my husband a few minutes ago because I'm TRYING TO WRITE AND HE'S BEING TOO NOISY.

11. Feist: I'm Sorry, Mushaboom, My Moon My Man.... Lovely

12. Free : Federal Resources for Educational Excellence. This is a great place to look for neat things to teach your kids... or yourself.

13. Fred Astaire: Just because...


14. Forts, especially tree forts have always excited me. Someday I'm going to vacation here.


15. For Sure! Fifteen words that start with F and not a single curse among them. Aren't you proud of me?

Fourteen

Since it's the fourteenth day of the month I'm going to celebrate my favorite fourteen year old and his brand new look...

Before...




And After...

Off to the races...

Zane's History class will be celebrating the end of the semester tomorrow evening with a Toga Party. The party is actually extra credit for the kids and they will be awarded points for participation and originality. They have divided into groups and are each hosting a dinner and providing entertainment. The goal is to be as authentic as possible. For some reason this idea sparked a creative frenzy in Zane like I have never seen before. He has been working all week planning and assembling things for the party, prodding the other guys in his group to pitch in, and conning his younger sister and her friend into acting as servants and musicians for the dinner. His real achievement, however, will be the entertainment. He has spent the last two nights converting remote control cars into chariots for races in the circus maximus. It was hard to get a picture that really shows how cool these are... I have a feeling the whole class will be lining up to compete in the chariot races. He already has an A in the class so I know he has done all of this for the joy of it. I love that!

Because I know you like to laugh...

This is what a 2 hour snow delay day looks like in Western Washington.

Better living through technology...

As you know... because I complain about it all the time... I am peri-menopausal, which is really just a nice way of saying old, fat, bitchy, and extremely temperature sensitive. Now most days this isn't a huge issue. I dress in layers to deal with the temperature problem. Layers do nothing good for the fat, old or bitchy problems but there's only so much you can do and comfort has to come first. So, knowing this about me, you will understand why it's so important to have a programmable thermostat in my house.

The programmable thermostat performs two vital functions, keeping the electricity bill down, and keeping my family passably warm despite my hormonal imbalances. At night the temperature drops to 58 degrees making it possible for me to sleep comfortably with a light blanket. Everyone else is wearing socks, hats, mittens and hiding under down comforters but we all sleep reasonably well. However, when morning comes, and the eskimos have to emerge from their pile of furs, a minor rebellion occurs. Shaking in their long underwear they run to the the thermostat and stab the buttons with their brittle blue fingers. Before you know it the temp rises to a balmy 72 degrees and I'm resisting the urge to strip down to my bra and panties.

In an effort to stop the madness I returned to my trusty programmable thermostat and reprogrammed it. Yes, I gave in. I told it to turn the heater on and warm the house to 68 degrees half an hour before everyone wakes up. Here's where the better living through technology part comes in.. you see, my heretofore dependable and much loved thermostat has a hidden feature called Adaptive Intelligent Recovery. It's a nice feature that insures your house will be 68 degrees at 6am by turning the heater on at 4:30! The reasoning behind this delightful feature is that people prefer to warm up gradually. There is no override, no way to ensure it doesn't come on before a certain time because the program is adaptive. It decides what it wants to do and then does it without consulting me. Apparently it is incapable of adapting to the fact that I wake up the instant the heater comes on. The owners manual assures me that the thermostat will learn to turn itself on later as soon as it gathers enough data to know how long it really takes to warm the house. This shouldn't take much more than two weeks... Obviously this technology was designed by a man.

Coffee Girl....

You Are a Double Espresso



Hey Energizer Bunny Girl! Do you ever slow down?
You're a mix of high energy and ambition, perfectly matched with strong espresso
When you want something you get it - by any means possible
You're driven, determined, and no nonsense. Which is just how you like your java.

What Kind of Coffee Girl Are You?

Energizer Bunny Girl! Ha!

I'm more like a banana slug in a pink costume being dragged through an obstacle course of daily chores.

'Nuf said... I'm off to do about five hours of "work" (as opposed to household chores), then I'll de-christmas the house, plan a menu for next week, fold the laundry, and make sure the kids have done their homework.

Or maybe I'll sit here and finish reading The Pillars of the Earth and pretend like the pink drum isn't beating.

Home again, home again....

Jiggity Jog?

How many of you thought I was never coming back?

I had three days in the vicodin fog (more about the ablation at a later date.. thank you so much for all the kind thoughts and healing vibes), 12 hours on the road, a delightful evening and morning with good friends that we don't see often enough, three days at Bob's family reunion/Stepmother's birthday bash, three days at my Mother's, and another 12 hours on the road home. We arrived at 9pm last night and I think I've been doing laundry ever since. Now I'm on my way to work. Thankfully I have a lot more energy now than I did at any time in December. I'm looking forward to getting my house back in order, my blog updated, and catching up on reading everyones blogs this weekend!