Chicken Soup, of course!

Monday I decided to make homemade chicken noodle soup.  Most everyone who knows me well know that I am not a very good cook.  I try, I really do, but frankly I have more failures than successes when trying something outside of a few good things that I make well.  I can’t make grilled cheese to save my life because I either burn it or it’s soggy and I can’t make french toast.  Scrambled eggs?  Forget it..inedible.  And I usually don’t like to cook any sort of meat unless it’s ground, because really, who can screw up browning meat?

Needless to say, homemade Chicken Soup was WAYYYYYYY out of my comfort zone.

But anyway, I was inspired and so I decided to do it.  I picked up Claire from preschool on Monday and the girls and I headed to the grocery store to get all the necessary items.  I realized that a lot of the ingredients started with the letter C, so I turned it into a letter hunting adventure for Claire in the grocery store.  We walked into the vegetable area and I told her to go look at all the signs on the vegetables and find all the vegetables that begin with the letter C and pick one to put in the soup.  I figured she would pick carrots, or celery…but no, my child went for a nice big head of cabbage.  Yum.  So we picked up the other veggies..carrots, celery, a really big onion, an ear of corn that Claire picked out, and of course the giant cabbage and moved through the store.  I let Claire pick the chicken to be roasted….yeah I figured if I was going to do this, I was going to do this right….and she picked a 4 pound, Amish Chicken that was roughly about $14.  Organic chicken = highway robbery.  I was going to put it back and get the National brand chicken that was like $4, but then I had visions of a happy chicken frolicking on an Amish farm and I had to buy it.    If it was that happy running around with kids in bonnets, it would probably be really good in my soup.

We took all our purchases, went home, had some lunch and the girls went down for a nap.  I put the bird in the oven (alas poor Yorik), and chopped a ton of vegetables.  I added them to our trusty stock pot, with the chicken stock and boiled away.  When the chicken was roasted (Perfectly I might add) I added the meat to the soup nd let it simmer most of the afternoon.  Yum.  I added the noodles at the end and we enjoyed it!

The first report from the taste testers was that it was “delicious”.  Madeline even ate it without complaining.  I suppose my first venture into chicken soup was a success.

And yes…I took pictures.  Enjoy the slide show.

Oh and 3 days later….we still have a ton left over.   Jonathan just heated up a bowl for a snack.  I think I’ll be doing this more often as the weather gets colder!

I’ve been staring at this skein of bulky, hot pink, ridiculously soft wool/mohair blend yarn that I got in a yarn swap for about 3 months now wondering what the heck I was going to do with it.  I saw this pattern on Ravelry and, well I couldn’t help myself.  All of the other hats people had done with this pattern were in Shrek green, but I decided we needed to step out of the box.

Pattern:  Ogre, My Ogre by Gunilla Levitt

Materials: 1 Skein Brown Sheep Lambs Pride Bulky in Hot Pink (I only used about half the skein)

Size US 15 16″ circular needle

Claire’s reaction is that the hat is “soft, fuzzy and has really silly ears on top”.  Works for me.  It has enough stretch to it that it fits well on her head, and on mine too!  Maybe I’ll be a pink Shrek for Halloween

Last night I sat outside on the deck and looked up at the moon and the stars on a beautiful crisp and clear night and took a moment to ponder all that has happened in the last few months.  Listening to the crickets chirp and the faint sounds of a quiet neighborhood at night, I took a deep breath of the cool air and closed my eyes.

The first thing that came to mind was my Faith and how blessed I am to have it, when so many others do not.

I thought of my beautiful family…..Jonathan and the girls….and how much love and strength they give me every day

And my friends — especially for all the wonderful times we/I’ve got to spend with Keith in the last couple months, despite getting absolutely soaked at the game this past weekend.

And for my new job.  Most of you already know this, but I started work at St. Pius as the Assistant Pianist/Organist recently.  In so many ways this is my dream job.  It came about in such an unexpectedly wonderful way - and to know that I get to do something I love and yet still get to be with the girls is a blessing in so many ways.  I’m growing in confidence every day and I know this is the first step in a life long career in music ministry for me.

Thanks be to God indeed.

Usually It’s Jonathan that posts more “political” things on this blog. Usually I try to stay out of the conversation.  However, I am incredibly excited about John McCain picking Sarah Palin to be his running mate, and I can’t hold it in any longer.

I could go into many many reasons why I am thrilled by her nomination, but rather than list them all, I thought I’d share an article published in the First Things blog just today:

http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/?p=1161

It’s a worthwhile and somewhat emotional read, but it hits on the majority of the points as to why I’m all about Sarah Palin and her being our next Vice President.

As of today…

• I am officially employed again…part time anyway.
• 50% of our household has braces, and 25% of our household is really pissed about it 
• Sarah Palin still rocks in both of the voters of this household’s eyes
• I’m hungry, yet, I don’t feel like chewing
• It is 4 days until Notre Dame Football kicks off for the season…
• 10 days until ND vs Michigan (yay)
• Claire starts preschool tomorrow
• I succesfully have played 3 Masses at our parish, and in only one of them did my child bolt to the altar…

John Mayer was FREAKING AWESOME.  It was the best concert I’ve ever been to and we had absolutely fantastic seats thanks to Keith’s friends Amy & John.  The rest of the trip was equally as fantastic….the best birthday/christmas/birthday/christmas present ever I think!

Claire really surprised me today when she announced that she wanted to play up in her room with her new dolly that Grammy bought her at Target today.  She’s never wanted to play in her room by herself, but I told her it was ok.  In the 10 minutes she was upstairs, she came down no less than 10 times to tell me/ask me something.  And shouted a few things from the top of the stairs.  One of the things she announced is that she “cleaned her room” (I haven’t checked it out yet for validity) and that she had to go potty, to which I told her just to go.  After I heard the toilet flush, she announced she wanted to come downstairs and watch Diego with Madeline (a good thing, since I need to cook dinner).  She stood at the gate, ready to be let into the living room looking like this:

I asked for an explanation as to why she was wearing my glasses and she said “Silly Mommy, my baby needed me to see so I could feed her”

Go figure.  I guess Claire was full of surprises today.

Shamelessly copied from Erika’s blog……..and originally from Smurray.

Smurray’s sister was the physical therapist for the family whose email appears below… As a mother and as a human I feel compelled to share it with you all with hope that it will both raise flags about such an offensive way of treating a large group of people on such a large scale, as well as raise discussion on how we as individuals refer to persons with disabilities. I’ll try to get links to related articles or activities up here, too. (either that or link to Erika’s blog for those.  Ha.)

Dear Family and Friends,

J. and I are taking the time to let you know about a movie that is being released soon. “Tropic Thunder” with stars such as Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Robert Downey Jr., and Tom Cruise will be coming to a theater near us soon (LA screening is Monday August 11th and release to theatres is August 13th).

This movie has really hit home because it makes fun of people with intellectual disabilities unashamedly. To us it’s a personal attack on our son. “A particular sore point has been the film’s repeated use of the term “retard” in referring to a character, Simple Jack, who is played by Mr. Stiller in a subplot about an actor who chases an Oscar by portraying a mindless dolt.” Nice huh? We have actually been trying to get a letter written to all of you for about 5 days now, but we are so hurt and angry that we have had to use quotes to describe this movie. DreamWorks choose to promote this movie with a slogan that read, “Once upon a time….There was a the retard.” This has since been removed from websites. We are so sad that they are among a group
that has decided to make a movie about those with mental retardation to get laughs. We can’t believe that our son is still being used as the punching bag for actors and writers to get a laugh.

Below are some quotes and reviews:

“In perhaps the single most offensive scene in the film, Matthew McConaughey, who plays a Hollywood agent, speaks to the film’s main character who wants to adopt a child. “Well, at least you still have a
choice. I’m stuck with mine,” states McConaughey while pointing to a photograph of his teenage son who appears to have an intellectual disability.”

Newsweek gave “Tropic Thunder” a glowing review, 4 1/2 out of 5 stars. They’re calling it the “funniest movie of the summer.” They had wonderful things to say about Ben Stiller, who directed, co-wrote,
co-produced and stars in the movie. The part that includes the r-word is spelled out pretty specifically: “The comic momentum doesn’t flag, the gunfire and explosions balanced by inspired riffs. One of the best
is Downey/Lazarus’s memorable discourse to Stiller/Speedman on how to win an Oscar playing handicapped characters — you can’t do the ‘full r*****,’ as Speedman did in ‘Simple Jack,’ but only the ‘half-r*****,’
as Dustin Hoffman did in ‘Rain Man.’ ”

Newsweek had the audacity to write this…Newsweek. Notice that they knew enough not to write the word “retard” in their review.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY (this was an interview…using the n-word is unacceptable, but making fun of individuals with intellectual disabilities is ok?):
The challenge with that character was to find the right line. You want to make fun of this pompous actor, but if you play it wrong, it verges on being minstrel-like. Your costar Brandon T. Jackson told me there was a scene in the script where Osiris uses the N-word and that he said it went over the line.
ROBERT DOWNEY JR.: Brandon might have saved the movie that day.
BEN STILLER: For sure. We were rehearsing in Hawaii and we got to that scene and I said to him, “What do you think of this?” Brandon said, “This feels wrong.” It was definitely a constant process of feeling it out.
CafePress… had their t-shirt pulled, “Never go full retard”….but…..this link I think is just awful, it shows all the other quality clothing they sell Its amazing that this company would “save face” to the public and say
“we have removed the offensive material” This is a dispicable company and they have proven it today.
http://t-shirts.cafepress.com/retard

Dreamworks CEO’s and Disability activists, met this past Friday for a private screening. The activists that attended this screening deemed this movie far worse then they originally anticipated. “A coalition of more than a dozen disability groups is expected to announce plans for a national boycott of the DreamWorks film “Tropic Thunder” in response to language and scenes that advocates regarded as open ridicule of people with cognitive disabilities. At issue are repeated uses of the word “retard” and the subplot involving “Simple Jack,” played by Ben Stiller.
“Not only might it happen, it will happen,” said Timothy P. Shriver, chairman of the Special Olympics, of the expected push for a boycott. Shriver said he planned to join in the picketing personally on Monday at the film’s Westwood premiere”

Our desire for our son like any parents would be to give him a better life then the one we have had. When Z. was born we made a promise to him that we would do this, and today we were shown that it is going to be harder then we thought. If you or anyone you know is thinking about seeing this film we beg you to not support this movie. Please do us the favor and pass this on to anyone you know, and ask them to do the same.

Thank you,
J. and K.

In no particular order….

1. Men’s field hockey.  why don’t they have to wear skirts?  And when did that become a sport for men?
2. Why do beach volleyball women wear bikinis where the guys wear shirts and shorts?  If the women share their stomachs with the world, the men should go shirtless. Ow ow.
3. Those wacky swimsuits.
4. Rhythmic Gymnastics.  I mean, come on.  Just allow ballroom dancing in already.
5. Curling. (I didn’t say this list was just summer olympics)
6. Steeplechase.  Isn’t that for horses?

I’m sure there will be more as the games go on.

1.  My college roommate Sarah (Smurray) started blogging.  Go show her some love:  http://smurraythoughts.blogspot.com/

2.  Madeline, my child who never would watch TV, all of a sudden is interested….but only in Diego.  She had a minor meltdown this morning because I put The Backyardigans on for Claire

3.  Claire just asked me if “I could do a job for her and go clean the kitchen”.  Hmm.  Maybe I should put her to work.

4.  I have to stop typing. My fingers and wrists are actually sore from practicing the piano for 2 hours yesterday.  But the good news is that I can now play the Mass of Light Gloria.  It only took me like 10 years to learn it.  (The syncopation is freaking ANNOYING, by the way.  I swear, David Haas does not play the piano or he would have never done this to anyone)

5.  We’re going to the HealthWorks Kids Museum this morning.  It’s free on the 8th day of every month.  Score!

I decided to go back on phase 1 of the SBD for 2 weeks.  I sort of fell off track when Keith was here (MMMM Hospital Pizza), and I was doing so well before that it’s time to get back on track again.

Ali and I are doing a SBD Phase 1 challenge to keep each other motivated. I’m really going to try to blog about it every day, and blog about what I ate.

My challenge for today is that I’m going to a Pampered Chef party tonight and there is never food at those things that are healthy and SBD friendly.  I plan to eat a big dinner before I go so I can just take a nibble of whatever is being prepared.

This morning we had scrambled eggs for breakfast, and I think that I’m officially over eggs.  I’ve been eating eggs pretty much every morning for the last 8 weeks.  BLAH.  Maybe I can find a more creative way to eat them so they don’t bore me so much.   We shall see.

My goal for Phase 1, take 2, is to lose 10 more pounds.  Here goes nothing!

Instead of writing an incredibly boring narrative trying to explain where the heck we’ve been in the last 2 weeks, I thought I’d share it via photos.

Madeline has a BIG drink. (don’t worry friends, it’s water)

Amanda rocked the house as Gabriella Montez in High School Musical

“Mommy, I’m doing my ‘nastics’ in here.  Is this too dangerous for Madeline?”

(well at least she asked)

Cookie visits!  We have a great time, with the exception of the worst concert ever (at least the people sitting in front of us were nice).  He taught Claire how to ride a bike and we only had a teensy bit of medical drama (everyone is fine!)

I also finished 2 knitting project which I can’t post here until a reader receives them.

We’re back with a vengeance now!

When we bought our house, nearly 3 years ago, it was very ugly inside.  I mean, retired couple, wall paper ugly.  But the price was AMAZING and we loved the layout, and we had a free place to live, so we spent about a month changing everything on the inside before we moved in.  We painted every room, we stripped wall paper (which my niece Amanda still b*tches about to ths day…you didn’t have to help kid if you didn’t want to), we re-carpeted. changed light fixtures and tiled.  Even though it was hard work, I LOVED every minute of it.  We moved into this fresh new house, totally designed (color wise at least) by us.

Well……..3 years later………I couldn’t take the color of the ceiling in the bathroom anymore (it was green, don’t ask) so a couple weeks ago I painted it white.  I’ve wanted to repaint our bedroom since the day we painted it baby poop brown.  Well tomorrow, that same niece who whines about stripping wallpaper is coming over to watch the girls so I can repaint it…a very very light sage green.  Today I spent most of the day taping the room and cleaning.  I am ready to go at 8:30 tomorrow morning.  Pictures of course will be posted when I’m done.

I now totally have the painting bug.  I think it’s a combination of starting projects again and watching Design Star on HGTV.  Poor Jonathan.  He hates it when I get “project minded”.  I give him WAY too much information, in too short of a time fram.

Anyway, wish me luck. We’re trying a low odor, eco friendly paint from Sherwin Williams called Harmony.  Expect a full review later.

Have you seen those MasterCard commercials that feature Mr. Bill?

They make me laugh every single time.  :)  Now you can see what a warped sense of humor I have.

Madeline just popped her head over the gate (to the kitchen where the computer is) and said to me:

M:  Hi Mommy

Me:  Hi Madeline

M: I lub due.

Me;  Awwww

M:  Wheee my shoe (as she threw her shoe at me)

Other than the throwing shoe part, turns out my kids who were driving me insane 2 minutes ago, have redeemed themselves

…hurt.

The ubiquitous MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY scream that is.

Days like today I’ve heard it so much I want to change my name.

The girls have heard for most of the afternoon “There is no Mommy, there is only Zoul”  (extra points if you know what movie that came from…and Jonathan you don’t get to answer) from me.  They should be afraid, very afraid.

I guess the conclusion I’ve come to today is that the girls must nap in the afternoon for me to remain sane.  This means that I can no longer, no matter how tempting it is or how tired she is, let Madeline take a morning nap.  I always pay for it.

Anyway, now the girls are kind of sharing a book.   I stress kind of because there have been a few heated exchanges from them in the last 45 seconds.  Don’t get me wrong, they really do love each other and play well, but some days all Madeline wants to do is say NO in a very very loud voice and Claire just tattles on her.

Days like this I miss my full time job in a way.  But that way is so very tiny as I know this too will pass and tomorrow is Saturday.  Phew.

Turns out even Stay At Home Moms are workin for the weekend.