Outtake

I'm a little bit tempted to put this on our Christmas card because it's so funny.

Instead, it's my desktop theme, where I can giggle at it everytime I check my email.

Photo by the talented Jane Maccubbin

Fire Safety And Deeply Asleep Children

One thing I've always said about raising kids in the city is that it makes for good sleepers. Our kids, from the time they came home from the hospital, have slept amongst appalling noise. Big trucks, noisy parties, emergency vehicles, you name it. They rarely wake up because of it. When they were babies, I could vacuum and it didn't bother them, and now that they are bigger, I can put away laundry in their room while they are sleeping and not disturb them.

Last week though, I started to wonder if this was always a good thing.

Here's why:

It's pretty much impossible to use our oven above a certain temperature without setting off the smoke alarm. Maybe the oven needs a cleaning, maybe it's my bakeware, who knows. Once the temperature goes high enough, that alarm always goes off. Frozen pizza, cooked at a high temp so it stays crispy, is a big offender.

It is incredibly loud, and if I remember, I take it off the wall first. I mean, it's a great way to test that it actually works, but it scares the kids and it hurts my ears and it makes Jameson run around in a panic with a tail like a bottle brush.

The night before Thanksgiving, my husband went to the store for celery and came home with a bunch of other stuff too. He was doing something in the kitchen with chicken wings, the kids were asleep, and the smoke alarm, as usual, went off. It didn't stop either, and when I went into the kitchen, there was the hubby, standing there with his fingers in his ears because it wouldn't stop. I flapped a towel at it, and eventually he took it off the wall, but it was beeping--loudly--for at least a couple of minutes.

And neither kid woke up.

Granted, their room is on the second floor at the opposite end of the house. And we have another smoke alarm in the hallway outside of their room.

But I'm a tiny bit alarmed that the noise didn't wake them up and I'm wondering if there was an actual fire what would happen. We've talked about what to do in the event of a fire, particularly after friends lost their home to a blaze last year. But all those steps involve waking up first.

What do you think? Should I worry? Stage a test by setting off the upstairs alarm? Put a smoke alarm inside their room?

This Is Love

I love to cook. But I do not love to bake. I don't even like it.

Frankly, I detest it.

I'm not exactly sure why, it has something to do with not liking to measure things. It's pretty easy to make soup or whatever by estimating, but cake doesn't come out so well that way.

I'm not crazy about the preciseness involved in it either. My cakes tend to come out lopsided, and I've tried the freezing the cake/cupcake thing multiple times and it doesn't make a difference, I cannot frost something without crumbling the cake too.

Yet, for their birthdays, I let my children choose what cake they want, and then I make it for them.

Maureen turns five on Tuesday and her party was this weekend. She chose her cake two months ago, from a cookbook with all Princessy type stuff in it. And my mom spotted crown candy molds and bought them for cupcakes. I stayed up for hours on Friday night, melting chocolate wafers and piping them into the molds. I cursed a lot in my head, attempting to decorate the princess cake (which I still think is lopsided).

Because Maureen asked for it, and I love her, so I did it.

Happy fifth birthday angel, you're worth it.

Menu Plan: Same Old, Same Old

Not much has changed since my last menu plan. We're as busy as ever. Soccer is over, but I'm thinking maybe we'll do swim lessons next since we never got around to it last summer. Maureen turns five (five!) next week and her party is this weekend. I've been working on something big at work and it's almost ready to roll out. I'm still running and going to yoga. (Here's something that I learned. If you run 3.4 miles on a Monday, then do squats and lunges on the Bosu, then go to work on Tuesday and run up and down steps and stand for eleven hours straight, you will need a wheelchair by Wednesday.) And hey, what's that about the holidays?

I'm making an effort to stay out of a certain grocery store that is a 1/2 mile from my house and trying to make do with what we have on hand.

Here's what we're eating this week:

**Sweet Italian Chicken--The simplicity of this meal is one of my favorite things about it, but it's also tasty. I'll serve it with tri-color couscous and green beans.
**Pork Roast with Mashed Potatoes and Gravy--I love a good crockpot meal and even though it was 70 degrees today, I'm ready for some comfort food.
**Mac and Cheese Soup--This great meatless meal is an oldie from Parents magazine. The kids love it and I love how easy it is. Salad and bread to go with it.
**Turkey and Potato Hand Pies--I spotted this recipe in the latest issue of Woman's Day and it looks yummy. Plus food in pockets is always so cute!
**Pork Ragu--Also a Woman's Day recipe, this one calls for paparedelle, which I don't have and didn't see at the store, but I'm sure ShopRite will have it! And it uses my favorite appliance, the crockpot.

Speaking of ShopRite, pop on over to Potluck to check out my latest post on the ShopRite Recipe Center!

What are you eating this week?

My Gadget Drawer Needs An Intervention

I used to have one of those things on my counter that holds spatulas and spoon and stuff, on a base that rotated.

It broke a couple of months ago, and since then we've had a problem. Most of the larger items went into a Polish pottery canister that is also on the counter, but everything else had to get crammed into my gadget drawer.

Our kitchen is small and cabinet and drawer space is at a premium. A friend once told me that I'm a master at fitting things neatly into a space that's technically not large enough. But it's clearly not working now.

Most of the time, finding what I want means taking half the stuff out because it's always gravitated to the back or the bottom. The can opener fell on my barefoot the other day, and fairly frequently, one or more skewers is sufficiently askew that the drawer ends up jammed shut.

So I need some new storage options.

I try to follow Alton Brown's rule of not having items that can only do one thing. Of course, I do have some of those things, but most of what is in this drawer gets used often enough that I want to keep it. It would also be super inconvenient to relocate things to another room. I know I should get another counter top storage thing, but I'm bamboozled by all the options.

Should I get more Polish pottery so everything matches? Or should I go for something that rotates and has multiple sections for easy sorting (like the Pampered Chef stuff). Or should I just get vicious and jettison some of my gadgets?

Opinions?

When Did You Find Your Zen?

Chances are if you've been a reader for awhile, you have noticed that I don't write nearly as often as I used to. In 2007, when I first started this blog, I wrote 504 posts. I started in February, so that's an average of 46 posts a month. In 2010, I wrote 116 posts, an average of 9 a month. So far this year, I've written 45 posts counting this one, which is less than 5 per month.

I'm going somewhere with this, I promise.

I also don't write about my kids in as much detail as I used to.

Really, I write more about food and yoga these days.

It's partly because blogging about older kids is more complicated than writing about babies. I'm trying to tread carefully and not invade their privacy. I really wanted to share how my son came home from kindergarten saying he was in love with one of his classmates because "she's pretty and has nice handwriting," but there wasn't much else I could say without getting too personal.

It's partly because life has gotten a lot busier. I'm not home with a toddler and a napping baby anymore. I work about 20 hours a week outside of the home. I'm treasurer for Maureen's preschool. I write for Potluck. I run, I do yoga. I have two kids with homework and activities. And yeah, I sleep a lot more than I used to. (Parents of babies, take note. You will sleep again someday.) My life is very full. I am content, but I don't have as much time for blogging.

Probably the biggest reason though is that I've found my "mom zen." I longer feel the need to write about every single thing that my kids did, or dissect every single parenting issue. Breastfeeding and co-sleeping and not spanking were important topics when my kids were younger. And if you want breastfeeding help, by all means, call me. But I've found that the further away we get from babyhood, the less I care about inflammatory feeding discussions or sleep arrangements. Looking at Johnny's class, you can't tell which kids were breastfed and which were formula fed. You can't tell which ones were in a forward facing carseat at age one and which ones didn't get turned until two. You can't tell who cried it out and who never did. These days, I'm more concerned about what chemicals are in our food and water. I'm more concerned about raising my kids to be good people who make good choices.

Not that I'm saying being a mom is easy. It's certainly easier than it was a few years ago. Or maybe I'm just more confident or better rested or whatever to deal with what they throw at me. Apparently, 7-year-old's are angsty and emotional. We're dealing with some of that now. There have been a lot of irrational tears and a lot of foot stomping and door slamming. Maybe it's because I knew it was coming. (However, no one told me how difficult age three is. Shock of my life. Thanks for the heads up, ya'll.) Who knows, but I don't feel the need to discuss every detail of it online.

When Tracy was diagnosed, her illness put a lot of things into a different perspective. It's hard to maintain body issues over a few extra pounds when your friend's body is being wracked by cancer. It's pretty much impossible to get angry over something so small as crayon on the couch. She's been gone 4 months now and it's a reminder everyday--you never know what life will throw at you, so don't sweat the small stuff. And I'm not. Plus, I've always been an optimist. Everyday is a new beginning.

Anyway, I'm still around. Pop in when you can, I always read comments, even if I'm not posting 2.6 times a day. And speaking of comments, tell me when you felt like you really hit your stride as a parent?

Halloween Recap

Halloween is one of those holidays that I enjoy more now that I have kids. Pre-kids, if it fell on a weekend, it was an excuse to get together with our friends and drink beer, but if it was on a weekday, it was too hard to get into the spirit. Plus, I was in Target recently and they have Christmas stuff already. It's difficult to get into a holiday that only lasts for one day when the Christmas season is being crammed down your throat in October!

Anyway, this year it was fun. Maureen was super excited for weeks before the actual day, so by yesterday morning, she was practically levitating from the anticipation. We carved a couple of pumpkins that we got from her farm field trip. Johnny designed a traditional jack o' lantern, but Maureen wanted a cat. They turned out cute.

We also roasted the seeds, but the kids decided they didn't like them. I think I added too much cayenne.




Both kids did Halloween artwork at school.

I'm wondering though where all the Trick or Treaters have gone. When I was a kid, there were hundreds of us out collecting candy. Of course, we live in the city and people tend to move to the burbs when they have kids, but there are still a lot of families in our neighborhood, and I was sort of shocked by how few kids we saw out. I think most of the kids came by while we were out with our own, but we only did a few blocks, we weren't gone that long. I have SO MUCH candy left over!

Is everyone candied out from all the parties and other activities this weekend? Are there truly no kids in my neighborhood? Are people worried about predators and keeping their kids home?

Tell me: did you go Trick or Treating, and how many kids did you have knocking on your door?