Slow cookin

I bought a slow cooker to try and prepare meals more often since I am exhausted by the time I get home from work. I have used it 3 times in 1 month. I think it is time to use it again! I just am not so inspired and don't know what to try and make. I see recipes online and I think they look delicious. I bookmark them and forget about them. Today I think I am determined to make something in it because it is hot and I don't want to spend hours cooking and making the house hot especially since I spent all yesterday barbecuing and playing hostess. But what to make? I have no idea. I could search through my bookmarks... but I want something to come to me. Talk about laziness huh? I also have to clean my bedroom and wash clothes. Ugh. Where are the people who will invent a robot that will pick up and fold clothes? C'mon we have a roomba (or whatever its called) invented so far!

Children

Yesterday was my son's birthday. Naturally my siblings slept over and now after helping me clean my house they have started to play guitar hero. I hear my son say "No no we should do rock & roll all night". I love guitar hero because it has kid friendly music and they actually enjoy playing and singing along. I hate to hear my sister sing "I
 kissed a girl and I liked it!" I much rather hear "I... wanna rock & roll all night... and party everyday". I don't even turn the radio on in my car when they are in it because its disturbing to hear them singing along to the most lewd songs with the catchiest beats.

I can't imagine what music will be like when these 10 & 11yr olds are teenagers. I know I will try my hardest to mix it up for them and expose them to all sorts of music... new and old.

Being a Mom

I've helped raise kids all my life. To be more accurate, I raised 4 of 9 of my siblings for the first portion of their lives. Occasionally they will tell me they remember when I used to do this or that to or for them. My mom was a baby making machine and was always pregnant it seems. I am 7 years older than the next in line and can remember from a very young age hearing my mom yell for Tums and milk. There is no more than a 2 year gap between the children. Their current ages are 14, 13, 11, 10, 8, 7, 5, 4, 2. By the time I was in high school I was getting them up and ready in the mornings, taking them to school, picking them up, helping with homework, cooking dinner, baths, and bedtimes. I felt like a mom. I've had stress far too long. Now I know how to de-stress play with my children.

I met my Hus  and somewhere along the line we moved in together. Shortly after we had his son full-time. I fell in love with him and cared for him like if he was mine. I was there for a lot of important moments. His first tooth falling out, kindergarten, 1st grade, and now second grade. We had a baby together and my sons get along so well. I love being a mom. There cant be a greater joy. Just seeing them smile or laugh tickles me. This is completely different then raising my siblings. This love is different. It touches a part of my soul that nothing else ever has. If my sons are sad I feel it. My youngest son is turning one soon and my oldest is now 7 I cant believe it.

In the blink of an eye they grew. In the blink of an eye they will be adults. I have to watch out and cherish every moment.

Grinds my gears edition

You know what really grinds my gears?
People who don't bring their shopping carts back to its bay. Especially when its very close to their cars. Lazy fucking bitches. Twice in the past 2 days I've seen a phantom shopping cart rolling at a high speed towards a car. Both times the offenders car was no more than 2 cars from the shopping cart bay. What the fuck. Is it really that hard to roll the cart to its proper place?! I wonder if this person would get mad if their own car was smashed into by a shopping cart.
Both times I pulled my cart and the flying cart back to the bay.

Cooking Aspirations

I'd love to be a great cook. I don't want to go to cooking school. I just want to be able to look in my cabinets and spice rack and say hmm what can I make with this and whip up something AMAZING. If I could I would spend hundreds... Maybe thousands on kitchen equipment I'd probably never use.

I mentioned to the hus that I want to be a great cook. He said "is your heart really in it". He knows. He knows when I really felt like cooking or baking because my food will come out superb. He knows when I just cook because I had to. My food will come out just ok. I want to be able to cook perfectly every time. I want to be able to improvise. I don't know what most of the spices taste like or will do to my dishes.

I don't know where to start. Maybe I will buy a book. I have a ton of recipes I want to try. I haven't had most vegetable and have no idea how to prepare them. I just recently tasted kale, spinach, and zucchini. They were not bad. My goal is to be a great cook. I don't know by when I'll be able to do this but I want to try. I can cook decently. I have a set amount of recipes that I have perfected but I want to expand my horizons.

Soon grasshopper. Soon.

Shopping...

I have this crazy desire to shop. I never desire shopping because nothing ever fits right and I spend all day shopping and only buy 3 things that I feel so so about. Ever since I started working where I work I have a desire to be beautiful- on the outside. I have nice-ish clothes. I dress for comfort more than anything.
I am working hard not so hard on loosing my tummy and thinning out my arms. So I shouldn't shop yet I should wait. But my feet won't lose weight right?? So I can still shoe shop. But if I shoe shop ill want to wear them but I can't if I have nothing to wear with them. See my dilemma?! Lol oh boy I gotta kick start this toning up program. I haven't been on my Wii in like a week.

Sprite

My son wants me to always get him sprite zero because it always gives u an insistant reward. I love how kids misread things and make big funnies without knowing they are.

Epilator love

I hate shaving. I hate my cousin who LITERALLY has hairless arms and legs and has little to no under arm hair. I have to shave every other day. It irritates my skin and I'm just plain lazy and cheap and don't want to spend my time shaving or my money on replacement heads. =/

I truthfully do not remember where I first read about an epilator but I do remember thinking "Umm hell no. Can we say pain?!" Still the thought lingered in my head. I used to get waxed what could be the difference? I posted on a forum about epilators and asked for experience. Every responder said NO way! Too painful! It gave them ingrowns. It was all negative. It scared me enough to forget about it for a while.

One day while on amazon it pulled up things it thinks I might be interested in based on my previous searches. There was my epilator. I started thinking about it again. Read the reviews again. But the price of a 'good' one was too much for me to bear. I kept researching over the next few weeks and finally gave in one day and ordered the Silk-épil made by Braun off of amazon. A full review of this product will be coming soon. I have used it for the second time today and actually took before and after pictures. More to come!

Cooking Adventures

I recently saw the preview for the Julia Child's movie. In it the other Julia devotes herself to cooking through Julia Child's cookbook. It has inspired me. Although I couldn't do Julia Child's cookbook seeing as no one in my house would eat most some of her recipes.

I sat with the Husband and told him my idea. He is on board to try this with me. I told him we can't verge off the original recipe. With the exception of replacing certain sub-meats with others. I totally just made that word up so let me explain. We saw a recipe for pork chops that called for ham. The Husband and I do not eat ham sam I am. So we would substitute with bacon or something else. Yes I know it is technically cheating but so what! It's my adventure to do as I please :-p

We are still working out the kinks in my plan and figuring out recipes we want to try. I hope to have a meal plan put together by the end of this month who am I kidding more like 3 months. I'm thinking maybe we can do desserts 2 times a week. I know for sure I want to perfect a Tiramisu recipe. I want it to be similar to the Tiramisu they serve in Zanaro's in White Plains, NY. It was the first time I had Tiramisu and ever since I have only had nasty kinds. I also know the Husband would like cheddar biscuits like they have in Red Lobster. Those things are goooood. Nom Nom

Currently Reading...

I am currently reading 1000 White Women by Jim Fergus.

I read a lot. Especially if I like the book/characters/writing style.

I recently finished The Help. I really wasn't interested in reading it until I started working at my current job and someone described to me what it was about and told me how good it was. It is a really really good book.

I also recently read Kabul Beauty School by Deborah Rodriguez. It was a good quick read. It is a touching story and you'll want to Google a picture of her and her husband and get updates on how the school is doing now.

I am typing this from my BB so I will add links and update my typos and all that when I get back to a computer.

Unconscious Mutterings Wk #377

1. Drug :: Use
2. Questions :: Interrogation
3. Active :: User
4. Facts :: List
5. Amount :: Cost
6. Supervise :: Children
7. Ingredients :: Recipe
8. Dentist :: Ahhhh
9. Meal :: Planning
10. Packaging :: Paper

When I blogged before I followed this. It is a nice and simple meme. If you want to play along Click Here!

Tonight

Tonight I am being interviewed by my son for a homework assignment. Am I nervous? Yes. For no particular reason other than I don't like to be asked questions about my childhood. I am weird like that. Kinda in the same way I generally don't like to be touched by people.

I want to go kayaking. I live in a town where so much is available and so many activities are a stone's throw away and I haven't taken advantage of it and now we are leaving our perfect town for a new opportunity for the Husband in 3 months. I have some serious catching up to do. ::Sigh::

Random Fact #2

Once again I was reading some Martha Stewart and I came across this fact in her "do you know?" Section:

In a recent survey by the soap and detergent association, 88 percent of the respondents described cleaning the house as an important activity. Asked if they enjoyed or disliked the task , twice as many people said they enjoy it and believe cleaning provides them with a sense of satisfaction.

Let me tell you.... I HATE to clean. I get no satisfaction from it. Sure I get satisfaction from seeing everything in its place. But that's different. That's AFTER the cleaning has ended. I could hire a maid and get the same satisfaction.

Random Fact #1

I was reading a Martha Stewart magazine during lunch today and came across this tidbit:

"In late-nineteenth-century Germany, eggs were used as birth certificates. A newborn's name and birth date were etched into the shell of a dyed egg, and the courts honored these "IDs" as proof of age and identity"


This seems absolutely crazy to me.


What did they do to prevent it from breaking?
What did they do when it did break?

Dinner time fun

My rice cooker "fell" one day and it was the Husbands washing machines fault. Mysteriously my inanimate washer can do horrible things like break plates or knock things over. The top of it is completely mangled.

See.

Well super-thrifty try to use everything til its last dying breath cheapo me is going to try and use it anyway. It still locks so cross your fingers for me.

On the menu tonight is baked drumsticks with peppers and onions and white rice with quick hoppin johnny black eyed peas. Nom Nom.

Instructions

Son: I can't get a hang of this game. Do you know how to play?
Husband: I haven't read the instructions, have you?
Son: No. (stays quiet for about 5 minutes then says...) I figured out how to do it and I didn't even need to read the instructions!

Yea... Sarcasm runs rampant in my house.