>
They looked better like this.
But I kind of miss these.
>A simple breakfast or brunch dish from my Plurk buddy Barb in Nebraska
In a large oven-safe pan, melt a stick of butter at 425 degrees.
While butter is melting, break 6 eggs into a blender and whirl at high speed for 1 minute. While motor is running add ½ cup of milk. Then slowly add 1 ½ cups flour. By now, the butter is melted. Slowly pour batter into the pan. Sprinkle with cinnamon and nutmeg. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Check periodically to pop air bubbles. They look frightening, but they taste just fine.
Use pizza cutter to cut into pieces. Serve with maple syrup or jelly.
This reminds me of when my kids were young and I made French Toast regularly. Sourdough bread from the day-old bread store, half a dozen eggs, and a little syrup made an easy and inexpensive brunch for the family. If the grocery store had a sale we might have had bacon on the side.
As is my style in the kitchen, I’ll experiment with the Dutch Babies recipe. I might try it with wheat flour or oatmeal added, cranberry sauce on top, or other goodies. Maybe egg substitute for half the eggs, too. In spring and summer, the eggshells will go in the garden or the compost, of course.
Enjoy! My next planned kitchen experiment: Monkey Bread!
>Resolutions. Goals. Good intentions. Words.
Words?
In another trend sweeping the blogosphere, the philosophy is this: choose a word. The word will be your focus, guiding changes and progress in 2009.
G’s Cottage, the first place I saw this, chose Cultivate as her word. This is a great multi-meaning word. It encompasses nurturing, planting, growing, assisting, caretaking, and many more action words. Cultivate would fit my teaching profession and my gardening hobby and, face it, motherhood.
But cultivate is G’s word. No matter how well it might fit me, it’s not quite right.
Christine, the leader of this movement, provided a long list of words from which to choose. This list, while comprehensive, doesn’t cover everyone’s personality and/or needs. It’s meant to guide and suggest, not limit.
So far, my personal list is narrowed down to these.
Clarify: Think, act, speak clearly. Keep goals in mind: eyes on the prize, while simultaneously focused on the process. Maybe Clarity is even better.
Mastery: Aim high, don’t settle. Improvement is good; mastery is better.
Acceptance: Change is good, but accepting limits is also good. As in the famous serenity prayer, the key is knowing what I can and cannot change, and accepting this.
Willingness: Not digging in my heels, but moving ahead willingly. The opposite might be “grudgingly.” No one sets a goal of being unwilling; it seems to happen on its own. Willing or willingness would be reminders to push forward with a “glass half full” philosophy, working to make the glass overflow.
Balance: need I say more?
Health: this one is almost too broad. Physical, emotional, mental health; my own, my family’s, my pets’ health?
Action: Similar to willingness or willing, this word would remind me that thoughts and ideas are cheap. Action is where the change originates, begins, ends, and succeeds.
Later this month I’ll choose a word, a term that will guide me toward goals that make sense. One word. It will most likely come from this list, but maybe a better one will turn up. Until then, it’s back to school, back to work, and back to (hopefully) a consistent sleep schedule.
>I didn’t have enough baskets to sort laundry this weekend. You guessed it; the daughter’s home! And she brought her entire wardrobe, dirty! I think the only clean clothes she brought home were the pieces she was wearing. Add that to my holiday stresses and my PMS, and there is one unhappy mama in this house.
She’d been home two days when she asked, “Mom, are you, like, going to do laundry anytime soon? I need pants and underwear.” This was in the evening on a school night, mind you. I was worn out from dealing with kiddos too wired for learning and too old to believe that “Santa’s watching, you’d better behave.” Well, I did it anyway: she sorted out the main necessary items, I threw them in the wash, and she made it a few more days.
The day after Christmas I sorted ours and then asked for hers. She gave me a hamper full of hoodie sweatshirts, sweaters, and tanks and thin tees for layering. Almost everything was to go in the delicate cycle.
The result? Four overflowing baskets for the delicate cycle, not enough Woolite, and one cranky mama off her routine.
I’m ready for a coffee break, I’ve filled two baskets with clean, and the laundry room still looks like a tornado hit and left the contents of her closet behind. How did she ever manage to last that long without doing laundry on her own?
Last year I stocked up on underwear for the entire family with the goal that any one of us could go at least two weeks without washing clothes. I think I bought her too much!
>Then there was the year when everything seemed to go wrong around Christmas. I fought with the snowblower and lost, with the penalty being a soft tissue injury that hurt like heck and didn’t get better.
We brought daughter home from school after final exams to have her wisdom teeth out, planned it perfectly for my last day of school before break so that her younger brother wouldn’t need a sitter, and voila! we had an ice storm that closed schools. Grandma saw the school closing report on TV and called up to offer her assistance. We crept across town on icy-coated streets to take La Petite to her surgery. I didn’t relax until the car stopped moving in the parking lot.
Later that day, after getting La Petite’s pain meds and antibiotics and changing her dressing every hour on the hour, I went to my own doctor and had my still aching wrist X-rayed. No fracture, luckily, but she confirmed that soft tissue injuries hurt like heck and then offered a splint and anti-inflammatories. Back to the pharmacy I went, then over to Grandma’s to pick up Amigo and finally settle at home.
La Petite’s mouth healed slowly but surely. I wore the splint faithfully for my seven to ten days, taking it off only to shower and to stretch twice a day. On Spint Day Ten we got a phone call: my father had died in Missouri.
Husband couldn’t take off from work. One of his co-workers had broken a leg, and Husband was the only other one trained to run the equipment and drive the truck. He had just been sick, too, and was dragging himself to and from work and sleeping as much as he could at home. The kids and I piled our luggage, sore mouth, and splinted wrist into Husband’s Saturn and headed south.
We survived the trip, grieved, shared memories, and stopped at my brother’s house near Chicago on the way home. I apologized to daughter for “ruining” her New Year’s Eve, and she said she hadn’t even thought about it. Son did remarkably well, given his Asperger’s. He was thoughtful and well-behaved on the trip and at the ceremony. We were all exhausted.
Then I went back to school. In hindsight (always 20-20), I should have taken time off. I taught for three days (with my splint still on, wrist aching from driving 12 hours each way), and then said I had to rest. I took two days “death days” allowed by contract, and slept. And slept. And slept.
Life is much better now. Wrist has relapses now and then, but very seldom. I don’t touch the snowblower any more, but if I need to we have a new one with electric start. Amigo and La Petite remember the trip and the funeral, but they weren’t overwhelmed or traumatized by it. They survived, as did I. In fact, the multiple trouble of that holiday and the months that followed inspired me to start blogging as a therapeutic outlet. The rest, dear readers, is history.
>Last night Amigo suggested we set our alarms and all get up to open presents together. Unfortunately, the bunnies didn’t follow the plan. Peanut was up on our bed 45 minutes before the alarm was due to go off. Husband went downstairs to feed Buttercup, and she made a beeline for the tree and began nibbling on wrapped presents. The result: one bunny back in her cage, all three bunnies fed, and a lot of laughter before we heard Amigo moving around his room in his jingle bell necklace.
Our kitchen contains an embarrassment of riches. The refrigerator has leftover turkey and fixings, the snack basket overflows with cookies and other treats, and the freezer hides enough turkey stock for three soups or stews. There might be a little wine left, too — or not. Did we really drink all the Door County mulled cherry?
In fact, I told the family that no one, but no one, can go out to eat for at least two weeks. Oh, okay, I might relent on New Year’s Eve.
Husband, the TV and movie guy, got me DVDs. I got him books. I’m sure there’s some deep meaning to these choices, but I think I’ll just chalk it up to sharing our pleasures. My DVDs are three seasons of the classic Muppet Show: I predict some fun family time in the den watching these!
Environmental and frugal wrapping went well. We didn’t buy a single roll of wrapping paper. The unwrapping process generated more recycling than garbage. Buttercup enjoyed chewing on the thick white packing paper. I’ll definitely continue this trend.
So on that note, I think I’ll adjourn to have lunch. Whatever leftover wins my appetite lottery will be followed by pumpkin pie.
Merry Christmas, everyone!
>Eggbert will whisk visitors off to the candy dish that looks like a fireplace. Sorry, the candy’s gone. You’ll have to wait for cookies.
The snowman on the left is so tacky it’s adorable. It has a light inside that changes colors from pale blue, to lilac, to white. It’s ridiculous, but really sweet. Yes, it was a student gift. How can you tell?
>In the book Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff, one piece of advice that resonates personally is this: Don’t create your own emergency.
We had a staff breakfast this morning, the culmination of our Secret Santa week and a fun get-together for staff just before winter break. The invitation always comes with a hint to make our favorite recipes. There are usually at least three different egg dishes, several coffeecakes and homemade breads, coffees, juices, and the works. Last year I baked muffins. Out of a dozen, I brought home eight.
This year I was smarter. I signed up to bring fruit. I gathered a variety of apples, pears, and oranges from the recent music department fundraiser, dropped them in a reusable but presentable paper bag, and called it done.
The fruit bag was a hit. I only brought home a few oranges and one pear. My contribution also turned out to be something my coworkers could bring up to their rooms and enjoy later in the day. I knew that any fruit I brought home would still be good; no stale muffins to be wasted. I didn’t have to bring utensils or special toppings. It worked for the healthy food folk and the dieters, too.
I took the advice to heart and managed to contribute something of value without creating my own pressure, my own stressful emergency.
At this time of year, that’s a gift.
>He didn’t stop Christmas from coming: it came!
It came without ribbons. It came without tags.
It came without packages, boxes, or bags.
He puzzled and puzzled ’til his puzzler was sore.
Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before.
What if Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store?
What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more?
–How the Grinch stole Christmas, by Dr. Seuss
I’m giving some gifts from stores (brick & mortar and online), some from my kitchen, and some from creative secondhand shopping. I’ve taken to heart the thoughts of wrapping, though. I don’t like the waste or the cost of commercial wrapping paper, so this year I’m working on alternatives.
– The bags protecting the newspaper have been red lately. Tie at each end with curling ribbon or twist ties, and the package looks like a great big piece of candy!
– Seasonal grocery bags have simple but nice graphics; cut them out, add them to the fireplace motif wrapping.
– All this wrapping material will get recycled or thrown away. Don’t get attached to it. But who gets attached to wrapping paper anyway?
– There’s always Wordle.net!
– Martha doesn’t live here. Really. And it’s okay.
This goal was born of my environmental streak. The frugal piece is a byproduct of the green, but a valid one. I haven’t purchased wrapping paper, ribbons or tags, boxes or bags. It lets me focus our budget dollars on the gifts, the keepers, rather than the byproduct that ends up in the trash. And even with my lack of scrapbooking skills, I’m having fun thinking of new ways to make the wrapping look nice.
If Dr. Seuss wrote about gift wrap, he might suggest:
What if wrapping, itself, didn’t come from a store.
What if thoughful gift wrapping meant just a bit more?
Just reuse the boxes, the ribbons, the tags.
Make use of the packaging, boxes, and bags.
If you and your clan enjoy Christmas each year,
Be nice to your budget, the message is clear.
Parent Bloggers Network and FFDA are working together to find out how families are handling this holiday season, adapting financially and in other ways to make the season less overwhelming. FFDA is an organization that provides support and counseling year round, not just at Christmas.
>Green washing of Jeans: wash first, dry last. Hang to air dry in between.
This saves time and energy by air drying the wettest of the jeans. They’ll shrink less, too, as they can now dry for a minimal time on the delicate cycle.
20 Mule Team Borax is a great invention.
It smells better than bleach, doesn’t spill (well, I don’t spill it as easily), and takes out stains well. It doesn’t cost as much as commercial detergent boosters, and the paper box is recyclable.
Detergent makers usually recommend at least double the amount that’s really needed to wash a load well.
Of course! They want me to buy twice as much of their product. Ha, ha, ha. I’m wise to this trick!
Dryers eat socks. Sometimes they spit them out later. I keep an Orphan Sock Box in the closet for socks waiting reconciliation.
This also works if one sock in a pair spouts a hole. When another pair from the same package suffers the same loss, there’s a new mate waiting. If a sock really, really doesn’t have a mate, it will eventually end up in my classroom as a white-board eraser.
Just because I do this chore efficiently doesn’t mean I like it.
I’ve learned enough tricks to get the family laundry done quickly and efficiently, get the stains out (mostly), and get all the clothes back in the closets and drawers by the time school and workweeks start Monday morning. It’s a necessity, family, not a pleasure.
Clothes must be washed, no matter what the other plans are. Fit it in.
See above. If we’re going away for part of the weekend, I’ll start sorting and washing ahead of time. If report cards are due, I’ll start a wash load, work on math grade, throw the wash in the dryer, work on reading grades, etc., etc., etc. Laundry is a good Sunday chore, too; I can fold sheets in front of the TV while the Packers are playing!
Each and every family member needs to own at least two weeks worth of underwear.
See above. If no one runs out of underwear, laundry can wait a week in a pinch. Maybe. So there’s the wisdom; make sure everyone has drawers in their drawers, and the livin’ is easy.