Political Ramblings

Isn't political season so fun?

I'm so OVER politics right now.  I can hardly even look at any politician's face anymore without wanting to scream.  I'm tired of the slanted articles--for both sides.  I'm sick of the accusations and the lies and the waste of money.

And I promise that I won't bring up politics anymore this year on here.  Well, unless something REALLY cool or awesome or newsworthy happens.  Otherwise, here's my little rant:

* I think it's overly ironic that a country was founded on religious freedoms has such bigoted and biased views about someone who's religion is "different".  

* I think that if a minority group is demanding tolerance, they should be practicing tolerance as well.  

* Is making 27 million dollars any more sinful than making 1 million dollars a year?  You're both still rich.  You're both still out of touch with the middle class.  We have made it so that someone from the middle class can't actually run for anything because it's too expensive.  Stop trying to fit in.  You don't.

* Could the GOP nomination be any more of a joke?

* What if, for fun, someone stood up and just talked to us like we are intelligent beings with opinions and thoughts of our own?

* This is the 21st century.  The government has NO say in what birth control, if any, I choose to use.  

* The United States should not be in the business of burning any religious artifacts, whatever our feelings towards these religions are.  We cannot, under any circumstances, stand up and declare ourselves a nation that welcomes and tolerates all if we're not going to live that principle.  President Obama did the right thing by apologizing.  It was a necessary thing and I commend him for doing that.

*  I'm surprised that seemingly intelligent, funny, hard-working women my age are waiting for their husbands to tell them who to vote for.  Do you have any idea how many women around the world would love to have the opportunity to cast their own vote?  Don't squander this opportunity.  Take an afternoon, read up on some of the issues you find important and make an intelligent decision on your own.  Don't wait for someone to tell you who to vote for.  Otherwise, why even show up?  We're not a bunch of sheep here.  

*  The idea that you can win a state's primary by robo-calling the other party's members and encouraging them to vote for you sickens me.  If the only way you're going to edge out the other guy is by recruiting the other team then you're definitely not the man for the job.

*  There is one member of the GOP that, if elected to run against Obama, I refuse to vote for.  I would cast a vote for President Obama before voting for him.  There is another one that is coming dangerously close to making that list.

*  I'm just so worked up about how we have allowed this to happen in our country.  Why are we so divided? Aren't we more alike than not?  Isn't there some kind of common ground?  What's the solution?  Why are the majority of us--those in the middle--left to the whims of the extremists?  

*  Do you have any idea how much money is spent during a campaign year?  It's astronomical.  Both sides are responsible for it.  Obama has well over $1 billion waiting for his campaign to start.  Do you have any idea how many starving children that would feed?  How many mortgages that would pay?  How much excess that is?  It's unfathomable.

* When people change their minds on some issues, it's a sign of growth.  It's realizing that maybe you didn't have all the information at the start.  If you steadfastly refuse to change your stance on anything, you haven't really matured.

*  With that being said, if you change your mind on every thing, then you just look like you're trying to buy votes.  You should have a list of things that are set in stone, no matter what.

Ugh.  I'm beyond disgusted with the election process.  How many more days do we have to endure?

Parenthood

You know how there are all these people and posts and articles detailing how amazing every single moment of parenting is?  How your kids grow up so fast and you need to savor every moment because you'll miss these little moments of joy when your kids move out?

Yeah, well, this isn't one of these posts.  This is one of those posts where I vent my abject hatred of some things--specifically two, though I'm sure there are a few more--relating to parenting that no one told me about when they described how motherhood would change my life so completely and how blissful I'd be every single day when arising to meet the new dawn with a renewed sense of love and adoration for my perfect children.

To be fair, there are a lot of neat things about parenting--like watching your children grow and mature and how cute they can be at certain times.  And that fuzzy look when they are first just waking up--unless you have to force them out of bed so they're not late for the bus.  A. just gave her first talk in Primary yesterday.  It was SO cute, even if I was the only one who could hear it and only because I was standing next to her telling her what to say.  It was still cute.

But I digress.  The point of this post is to vent my hatred towards these two things: dinner time and bed time.

Firstly, if you've been following me for any length of time,  you know how much dinner time stresses me out emotionally.  I dread dinner time.  Every night, I go to lengths to make a meal and J. will stand on his tiptoes and peer into the pan and say "Ew.  I don't like that."  I know to expect this, but yet, I still hate the whole routine.

More often than not, Wade will take J. aside and explain how rude it is to complain about dinner, which then results in a mini-temper tantrum and doors slamming.  By the time we all sit down to eat, dinner is marred.

The second thing I hate about parenting is the bedtime routine.  Both kids were amazing  sleepers as babies.  J. was sleeping through the night at six weeks and A. at nine weeks.  For the most part, once they're asleep, it's pretty smooth sailing.  But that's the the key phrase: once they're asleep.  Our routine goes something like this:

8:30: Announce that it's time for bed.  Both kids will reluctantly follow me upstairs.  We brush teeth and change into pajamas.  (Usually, J. opts to sleep in his clothes.  I don't fight it because it's a fight not worth having).  J. reads his two books that he brings home every night from school while A. does acrobats off J.'s bed.

As a sidenote, I'm going to confess something here that will probably garner me a straight ticket to hell.  I HATE listening to kids read books.  HATE IT!  It drives me INSANE.  I have to do everything in my power to keep from screaming every.single.night.  Just a tad higher on the hate list is reading children's books.  But I will do that any day over having to listen to a kid read.  But I do it because I think it's important that my kids enjoy reading.  And six years into this, J. is finally taking the initiative and reading by himself after I put in my obligatory 20 minutes.

8:50: Remove A. from J's bedroom and tuck her in.  Sometimes, if I'm feeling especially generous, I'll read her a short story.
8:51: Remove A again from J's bedroom.
8:52: Again.
8:53: Again.
8:54: Get bread for J. if he's eaten his dinner.
8:55: Get water.
8:56: Yell at A. to get back to bed.
9:00: Turn off the lights. Again.
9:01: Close A.'s door.  We have a childproof knob on the inside that she has yet to figure out.  Hey don't judge.  We always open it before we go to bed.  That way she can come wake me up at 2:00 am so she can sleep on the floor next to my side of the bed and spend the next 3 hours before I get up to exercise tossing and turning and poking me to put the blanket back on her because she's cold.
9:05: Tell J. to go to bed. Again.
9:06: Finish up what I need to get done for the day.
9:30: Tell J to go to bed.  Again.
9:35: Turn off light again.  Tuck J. into bed.  Again.

If we're lucky, both kids will be asleep by now.  Most nights, I can hear A. playing behind her closed door.  J. stays up and reads, and how do you get mad at a kid who is sitting in bed reading.  But still...

Some nights, they won't be asleep until after 10:30.  They don't seem to understand that I'm done at 8:30.  It takes everything in my power to keep it together for that last hour between 7:30 and 8:30 every night.  Do you have any idea how many times I glance at the clock in that 60 minute time span?  Hundreds!

Do you know what the greatest gift that I get on the rare occasion?  When A. falls asleep watching J. play Wii some time in that last hour of dread and I can just carry her upstairs and tuck her in.  On days where she's fallen asleep for any amount of time earlier in the day--she's no longer taking naps, but will fall asleep in the afternoon if you're not carefully watching her or entertaining her with your magic--she'll stay awake until 11:30.  Do you have any idea what this does to me?  There have been nights where we've just gone to bed with her still wide awake.

But, sometimes A. will fall asleep at 6:00 when I'm trying to get the last of dinner done and we can't get her to wake up (I mean, she's not unconscious or anything.  We're not just letting her lay there and thinking "geez, we can't seem to wake her up".  We just can't get her to stay awake long enough to eat) and I'll mistakenly think "Yes!  She's out for the night." only to be sorely disappointed at 9:00 when she comes padding downstairs all wide-eyed.  Oiy. How many times have we been fooled by that little trick!  Here--take a three hour nap at 6:00 in the evening.  Nice.

Please tell me I'm not the only one who hates bedtime.

Valentine's 2012

I think I have mentioned here before that of all the gift-giving holidays out there, Wade seems to hit a homerun every Valentine's.  It's kind of funny because it's such an odd holiday--eat lots of candy and profess your undying love, but some of the best gifts--and surprises--I've gotten have come on Valentine's.

This year, we were gearing up for a normal holiday when we decided, for fun, to see how old our refrigerator was.  We saw on a sticker in the very back that it was made in 1987.

1987!  I was six years old in 1987!

When we moved into our house 9 1/2 years ago, we inherited all of grandma and grandpa's old appliances.  I've hated the refrigerator since the day we moved it in.  It was old.  It was ugly.  It was never clean.

(That last one was probably more my fault then the fridge's fault).

But the thing I hated the most about the fridge was it's lack of an ice and water dispenser in the door.  I've been in love with this feature since I saw my first one 23ish years ago.  The idea that you can get ice and water ANY TIME and it would be cold and filtered--amazing.  You don't have to wait for a stupid Brita pitcher to filter your water.  You don't have to wait for ice fairies to refill your plastic ice cube trays.  You just walk over to the door and Voila!

So we decided to look up the average lifespan of a refrigerator.  10-15 years.  I'm sure we all have heard of horror stories when refrigerators have gone out.  My parent's refrigerator went out one weekend when we were all working on a project and hadn't opened it for three days.  By the time someone opened it, all the food had gone bad.  It was also a holiday weekend and my dad left to go out of town for three weeks the next day.

We thought maybe we should preempt the inevitable by looking for a new refrigerator now.  You know, one with a water and ice dispenser in the door.  Man, these suckers are expensive.  However, since Wade works for a certain company that makes appliances, he gets a killer deal.  And that deal may not be offered come April, so we thought maybe now would be the time to get our fancy-dancy refrigerator.

While looking at the refrigerators offered at cut throat prices, we also came across a stove.  A really nice stove.

When we finished our basement and put in our gas fireplace, we had them run a gas line to the kitchen upstairs in case we ever wanted to get a gas stove.  Over the last few months, I've been quizzing people on their stoves.  People like their flat top stoves, but overwhelmingly, people LOVE their gas stoves.  Especially the people who cook A LOT.  So when we came across this really nice gas stove in the color we wanted at a price that was really nice , it was a no-brainer.

But then, I told Wade we can't have a black/stainless steel stove and a white overhead microwave.  It will look terrible.  So we added a new microwave to the cart.

But...all we had left in the kitchen to replace was the dishwasher and it would look silly to have all black and stainless steel appliances except for the dishwasher.  So we added one of those too.

After after 15 minutes (not including the time it took to go to four different stores to look at said appliances before ordering them online and the time Wade spent freaking out over the absurdity of replacing perfectly working appliances with brand new ones because of color--a definite first world problem((a note: I had no such qualms about replacing my appliances.  I have been living with the UGLIEST refrigerator in the history of the world for the last 9 years. It's going to go out eventually, and I rationalized to Wade that it would be better  if we just upgraded now instead of waiting until it did)), they were bought and a delivery date was scheduled for the following Saturday.

It's been two weeks, and I LOVE my fridge.  I love the water and ice feature the most, like I thought I would.     I love that I can get crushed ice--just the way I like it--with the hit of a button.  I LOVE my gas stove and how it cooks things fast and evenly.  And it's level, which was a huge problem with the other stove.  And the dishwasher is really cool.  It has a feature where you just dump in a bottle of liquid dishwashing detergent and it will dole out the appropriate amount each wash cycle.  I only have to fill it up once every two months.  It's one less step I have to do to get clean dishes.  It's awesome.

The microwave is very much like our last one, though the popcorn button seems to work considerably better. And it looks cooler.

All in all, a great Valentine's once again.

Behold, a brand new looking kitchen.  Next project:  Doing something about those ugly, orange cabinets.

What's For Dinner Wednesday--My Go To Spaghetti Sauce Recipe

I had another recipe lined up this week, but Wade's grandma passed away earlier today and he was spending the evening with family.  It just doesn't seem the same to make something new for just me, so I heated up some leftover spaghetti sauce and thought I'd share that.  First though, a story...

Spaghetti and us have a very turbulent relationship.  It started at the very beginning of us--10 years ago when we pledged our undying love to each other for eternity.

My mom has an awesome spaghetti sauce recipe that I loved growing up.  Our first week married, Wade requested spaghetti for dinner one night and I obliged.  The sauce took some time, and while he liked it, he wasn't thrilled with it.  I made it again the next week when he requested spaghetti for dinner...again.  After the fourth week in a row of luke-warm receptions to my mom's spaghetti sauce recipe, I finally demanded some answers: (a) what exactly don't you like and (b) are we destined to eat spaghetti once a week for the rest of our lives?

He answered with (a) the meat and (b) yes.  Apparently, growing up, Monday night was ALWAYS spaghetti night at Wade's house.  ALWAYS.  And while we ate spaghetti maybe once a month growing up, his family lived for Monday nights.

For the first five months, I tried my darnedest to make this a happy memory--sans meat in the sauce--for our family too.  But one night, about the second or third month we were married, I cheated and opened a can of the cheap spaghetti sauce and got better raves than I had for my previous eight or nine attempts.

After five months, I threw in the pasta spoon.  I could not stomach the idea of any more spaghetti.  It was gross.  Nasty.  And I kept with that resolution up until about three months ago.  I removed spaghetti from the meal rotation--except for the rare occasion--until we had kids.  Then it made it's way back in the form of the go-to meal that everyone (but me) seemed to really enjoy.  It allowed me a night to take off from cooking, more or less, and I also got to eat something of my own that no one else wanted to.

And slowly, we started eating it once a week or every ten days.

Stop judging.

But some nights I didn't want to make another meal for just me and I would end up with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  Finally, I realized I needed to find a compromise on good spaghetti sauce that doesn't come out of a jar so I, too, could partake in this low-maintenance meal.

Enter Doug from Toastmasters.  I mentioned my love-hate relationship with spaghetti one night in a speech and he emailed me his recipe.  At first glance, it was daunting.  I'm suppose to cook it in a crock pot?  Who thinks that far ahead that they're having spaghetti?  So I tried it one evening in a saucepan.  And guess what?  It worked!

Hallelujah!

So without further ado, here's the recipe:


1 lb. mild Italian sausage (I prefer ground beef because it's healthier and I think it tastes better, but Wade prefers the sausage.  If I make it with ground beef, I'll just add it to a small pan of sauce for me and he eats his meat-free.)
2 x 28 oz. cans crushed tomatoes
2 medium onions
2 garlic cloves
1 x 6 oz can tomato paste
2 Tbsp. parsley
1 bay leaf
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. dried basil
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
1/4 tsp. pepper
2 Tbsp. cold water
2 Tbsp. cornstarch
DIRECTIONS
Brown sausage and place in slow cooker. Dice onions and add to meat with
tomatoes, tomato paste, garlic, parsley, bay leaf, sugar, basil, salt, pepper,
oregano and stir. Cook on low for 8 hours to 10 hours. (Or in a saucepan.  I haven't tried it in a crockpot yet, though I'm sure it would be 10x better in the crockpot.  I just cook it as mentioned and then let it simmer while the noodles are cooking).  One-half hour before
serving, dissolve cornstarch in water and stir into sauce. Turn cooker to high.
Cook noodles and serve.

This makes a lot of sauce and only two of eat our noodles with sauce, so I freeze the leftovers for the next go round.  I usually reserve spaghetti night for Toastmaster night and Wade will usually just open a can of sauce, so this sauce only comes out if I'm around to eat it too.

What's For Dinner Wednesday--Smothered Pork Chops

I do like me some pork chops.  Unfortunately, there are only so many ways to eat pork chops.  Here's another way to add to the repertoire.  Recipe is courtesy of The Food Network

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons onion powder
• 2 tablespoons garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon cayenne
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 4 pork chops, 3/4-inch thick, bone-in
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 1/2 cup buttermilk 
• (I didn't have any buttermilk so I made a buttermilk substitute.  Pour 1 T white vinegar or lemon juice into a liquid measuring cup.  Add enough milk to reach 1 C.  Let sit for 5 minutes.  Use as much as the recipe calls for.)

Put the flour in a shallow platter and add the onion powder, garlic powder, cayenne, salt, and pepper; mix with a fork to distribute evenly. Pat the pork chops dry with paper towels to remove any moisture and then dredge them in the seasoned flour; shaking off the excess.

Heat a large saute pan or cast iron skillet over medium heat and coat with the oil. When the oil is nice and hot, lay the pork chops in the pan in a single layer and fry for 3 minutes on each side until golden brown. Remove the pork chops from the pan and add a little sprinkle of seasoned flour to the pan drippings. Mix the flour into the fat to dissolve and then pour in the chicken broth in. Let the liquid cook down for 5 minutes to reduce and thicken slightly. Stir in the buttermilk to make a creamy gravy and return the pork chops to the pan, covering them with the sauce. Simmer for 5 minutes until the pork is cooked through.

I thought this was really tasty.  It was quick and easy to throw together using stuff I already had (minus the buttermilk, though that was an easy fix).  Yay for another good recipe.

Ready...Set...Go!

Okay, I think I'm ready to put this in writing--

This year--August, to be exact--I'm going to be doing a HALF IRONMAN!

1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run.

I know.  It sounds crazy just reading it, right?  Imagine saying it out loud!  I'm going to swim for a mile, then I'm going to ride my bike for over 50 miles and THEN I'm going to run 13 miles.

So let me back up a bit...

Last September, I was signed up to do a duathlon with my buddy M.  As the summer wore on, I was wearing out really fast.  I was also nursing an ankle injury.  I put in a pretty dismal half marathon in August followed by a half-hearted sprint tri the next weekend, and I made the decision not to do the duathlon.  I emailed the race director and she graciously rolled my entry fee to 2012.

But I wasn't really thinking about 2012 because, as you may recall, Baby #3 was on it's way.

And then December happened.  At one of my lowest points (hi, welcome to my roller coaster), I received an email from the race director reminding me of my deferred race fee and she wanted to know which race I wanted to sign up for.  And suddenly, I felt like I had something to look forward to.

I spent a lot of time considering my options--all of them.  Not just which race to do, but non-race options as well.  I don't want anyone thinking that I signed up for this thing on a whim.  I spent many hours contemplating the impact it would have on my life as well as our family's life.  And in the end, I really felt like this was a unique opportunity at a fraction of the cost and I would regret not taking advantage of it.

(I know this sounds like I put a race ahead of having a baby, but there were other factors at play.  Not just this one thing.  I'm just choosing not to share those parts).

Anyway, after much contemplation, I decided to jump into the biggest race they offer and sent back the email declaring my intentions.

Then I set about telling people.  I didn't want to just tell everyone.  There was a part of me that was afraid that it would be too much for me to handle.  The training and the actual race.  But, after a few initial balks at the idea, pretty much everyone I've told has been very supportive of the idea.

In fact, my buddy M, who I was suppose to go with last year, signed up to do the duathlon again this year.

But the most surprising thing was when I told my running buddy H.

H looked at me like I was crazy and said "you can't do it without me."

I laughed and said "but, H, you just had a baby in September.  Your fifth baby, to be precise.  I don't want you to feel like you have to do this." but inside I was thinking "please, please, please do this so I don't have to do it--the training and the race--alone."

A few days later, H called up and said "I'm serious.  You can't do this without me.  Send me a link to the website.  I'm signing up."

And that, folks, is true friendship! I'm excited and terrified at what lies ahead.  But, in the end, I will be able to cross off my list something I thought I wouldn't be crossing off for years to come, if ever.  An Ironman (Half or Full) really was a pipe dream I never thought I'd have the guts to try.

And I have the coolest friends EVER!  M. and H. rock!

What's For Dinner Wednesday--Beef Stew

Full disclosure: This wasn't the meal I made this week.  I made a pot roast.  But, part of why I chose the recipe for pot roast that I did was because it looked a lot like this amazing stew I made for A's birthday back in November.  It sort of fell flat on that count, so I'm going to post the beef stew recipe instead.

3 pounds stew meat, cubed

1/4 C flour

1/2 tsp salt

3 T olive oil

1 C baby carrots

4 large potatoes, cubed

1 T parsley

1 tsp black pepper

2 C boiling water

1 package onion soup mix

3 T butter

3 onions sliced

1/4 C red wine (calm down.  It was cooking wine).

1/4 C warm water

2 T flour

1. Place meat in a large plastic bag. Combine 1/4 cup flour with 1/2 teaspoon salt; pour into the bag with the meat, and shake to coat.
   
2. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add stew meat, and cook until evenly browned on the outside. Transfer to a slow cooker along with the carrots, potatoes, parsley, and pepper. In a small bowl, stir together 2 cups of boiling water and dry soup mix; pour into the slow cooker.
   
3. In the same skillet, melt butter and saute onions until softened; remove to the slow cooker. Pour red wine into the skillet, and stir to loosen browned bits of food on the bottom. Remove from heat, and pour into the slow cooker.
   
4. Cover, and cook on High for 30 minutes. Reduce heat to Low, and cook for 6 hours, or until meat is fork tender. In a small bowl or cup, mix together 2 tablespoons flour with 1/4 cup warm water. Stir into stew, and cook uncovered for 15 minutes, or until thickened.
   
   This definitely had some prep work at the beginning, but it was so worth it.  Kinda wish the pot roast would have tasted like this.