Manic Monday: Taste

I'm going to share a few of my favorite newly discovered websites.

Everything she makes looks fantastic. I just want a taste of every recipe she posts, especially these cookies. Mmmmmm!

Look how cute the cake pops are that she makes.

And now, to balance out the un-healthiness of those websites, I'll share this one. On this site you can put in your health goals and it will tell you what your caloric needs are. Then, you track what you eat during the day to see if you're on track. It's really easy to use.

Enjoy!

Manic Monday: Trip

I was watching something on tv today about motherhood and felt it was quite negative and discouraging. The women on the show discussing motherhood were doing so in an attempt to let moms everywhere know that being a mom isn't easy, and that's ok. Instead, I thought it made motherhood look difficult, miserable and unfulfilling.

But that's not how I feel about motherhood at all. I find joy in being a mom every day. Of course it isn't always easy, even a simple trip to the grocery store can be quite an undertaking with three kids. Just to make it out the door I have to find four matching pairs of shoes. And since I have a baby who likes to carry random things, like shoes, around the house, that's no easy task.

But even thinking of that makes me smile. Yes, at the time I might not find it very amusing, but after the fact, all I can think about is my cute baby walking around with shoes and putting them in laundry baskets and kitchen cabinets. It really is pretty cute to watch.

I feel so blessed every day to be a mom. I love my kids more than then will ever really understand and I love watching them learn and grow. Of course, sometimes, the way they learn may be frustrating. But when Camden asks me "why?" for the twentieth time in a row I try to remind myself that he won't learn something if he doesn't ask about it. So I try to humor him until I completely run out of answers or we get down to a cellular level in our discussion.

There's no rule book either which apparently makes some aspects of motherhood harder, not easier, as children grow. The more Jace is learning about the world and the way things work, the more he questions the rules or my reasoning behind them. But even his stubbornness doesn't make me hate being a mom. It really is what I've always wanted.

I feel so blessed to be able to spend my time with my kids. Watching them see or do something for the first time is magical. Their excitement is truly contagious. And that's just one tiny example of how incredible it is to spend a day with a child. For me, the benefits of motherhood far outweigh the less appealing aspects of it; allowing me to truly find joy in motherhood.

Manic Monday: Bird

This little hummingbird was found in our garage last summer. The poor little thing was frantically trying to get out through the closed window. I had to slide a piece of cardboard in front of the window so it would turn and fly out through the open garage door instead. I have never seen a hummingbird this close before. It was pretty cool.

Looking at these pictures and remembering that hot summer day are really making me crave summer. Oh how I wish the snow would melt.

Manic Monday: Wet

Doesn't the weather know that spring is here? I don't mind the wet weather. That's what spring is all about. April showers. blah blah blah... and all that. But the coldness of it is the part that's hard to take after getting a taste of spring. We were all really enjoying the warm weather and sunshine, and starting to get used to it. Hopefully it will be back soon. We've all got our shorts and flip-flops ready.

Manic Monday: Waffle

I waffled back and forth on some ideas for today's topic but I'm just not feeling it today...Or am I?

Manic Monday: Fire

I actually have had fire on my mind lately. That's because I have the worst sore throat I've ever had. It feels like my throat is on fire. Not at all times, I only feel pain when I swallow, yawn, cough and burp. Other than that, it is just a dull pain. But the sharp pain is so sharp it feels like I have something prickly lodged in my throat and when my throat makes any movement, it pierces it in a thousand places at once. In my mind I picture this foreign lodged object looking like an everlasting gobstopper. not the lovely round jawbreaker candies I loved as a child, but like the one in the original Carlie and the Chocolate Factory movie. Only the one in my throat is sharper and has more points.

So I spent most of the day yesterday gargling/sipping water with cayenne pepper in it to try and cure my throat. Casey swears by this remedy (even though in the 9 1/2 years we've been married, I've never seen him do this.) It made me feel like I was going to spew fire from the back of my throat when I was done, but it seemed to help a little. Unfortunately, that relief was only temporary, the pain was back with a vengeance today. If I don't start to get some relief tomorrow, I may have to go to the doctor to rule out strep. I just hope I can get some sleep tonight. Maybe I should try gargling baby Oragel instead. It would probably have a better outcome than the cayenne pepper did. I just have to see if I can find it...

Manic Monday: Candy

Candy is a huge word for me right now, not because of Valentine's Day or because I've eaten a lot of it lately. In fact, quite the contrary is true. And that's why it's so huge. I haven't eaten any candy lately, and even more shocking...I've even passed, on treats like ice cream, sugar cookies, cake, and even pumpkin cookies; now that was a tough one. Hopefully I can keep it up. It's been really hard for me to not indulge in sweets. I have a major sweet tooth and usually don't even consider passing up a fresh baked dessert. But now, the feeling I get when I turn down, or avoid a dessert is like a little victory for me.

I've been exercising more too. Now don't get too excited, it's only been a few days (five to be exact) since I decided to do a better job of taking care of my body, so don't expect any kind of drastic changes the next time you see me. (In fact, I wasn't even going to share this decision with anyone because I didn't want to be scrutinized to see if my efforts are paying off or not.) Hopefully the changes I'm making will eventually have some outward manifestation to go along with them. But if not, I'll at least know I'm something good for myself.

Manic Monday: Wear

You would think I'd be used to it by now, but I was shocked when I went to Target recently and noticed that they already have quite a large swimwear display. Many stores do this type of thing. You can easily find swimwear and flip-flops in February and March, and snow boots are a piece of cake to find in August.

But that all causes problems for me. You see, I'm not mentally ready to buy swimwear when there's still snow outside or boots when I'm wearing flip-flops on a daily basis. So I wait until the weather necessitates the use of certain seasonal attire. But that's when such seasonal items are nearly impossible to find. Believe me, I've run into some problems finding seasonal items during the season they're intended for.

So I guess it's time to prepare for summer and start stocking up on summer clothing and footwear for myself and my family. Otherwise, we may all still be wearing our snow boots in June. But who knows, maybe people will just think we're getting ready for winter. After all, that's when the boot displays will all be fully stocked.

Tuesday's Manic Monday: Cloud

I just couldn't get anything on the blog in time for a Manic Monday post yesterday, so once again I have a Tuesday edition this week.

The Manic Monday word is always posted on the Manic Monday Blog every Friday. Even on weeks where I don't participate, I spend some time over the weekend thinking about the word for the coming Monday. This week was no different. But I still had a hard time coming up with anything for the word cloud.

The only thing that kept coming to me were the lyrics to Joni Mitchell's song Both Sides, Now.

"Rows and floes of angel hair
And ice cream castles in the air
And feather canyons ev'rywhere
I've looked at clouds that way

But now they only block the sun
They rain and snow on ev'ryone
So many things i would have done
But clouds got in my way

I've looked at clouds from both sides now
From up and down, and still somehow
It's cloud illusions i recall
I really don't know clouds at all"

Honestly, the only reason I know this song is because I learned it in 7th grade choir. I've had parts of it stuck in my mind at various times ever since.

In an attempt to clear my head of the incessant repetition of these words and their accompanying melody, I thought it might be good to look up a poem or wonderful quote about clouds. But before I could even google 'cloud quotes', another, even better thought entered my head while the background music by Joni Mitchell continued. I realized that with this being my blog and all, I should write a thought or poem about clouds. So...here goes.

Constant only in their ever changing shape
Leaving behind wispy trails of mist
Occasional relief from summer's searing rays
Unpredictable with surprise showers
Deity's heavenly abode

Ok, so it's quite prosaic but I still couldn't come up with much and it's been a while since I've written poetry of any kind. But at least it's mine.

Manic Monday: Cell

It was hard for me to decide what to blog about on this word. The word cell has so many different definitions, but the one that interests me the most is the definition related to biology; as in a, "usually microscopic structure containing nuclear and cytoplasmic material enclosed by a semipermeable membrane and, in plants, a cell wall; the basic structural unit of all organisms," Courtesy of dictionary.com.

Using the word cell in a biological sense brings to mind exotic sounding words like Golgi apparatus, mitochondria, endoplasmic reticulum, and ribosomes; and their accompanying cartoon drawings from a biology 101 text book. But that's not why I like thinking about cells. The truth is, I'm fascinated at how tiny and efficient the working parts of our bodies are. I think it's amazing that there are so many different types of cells with their own unique functions within the body. Even within our blood there are a variety of different types of blood cells, there are also different types of cells in our bones. Some bone cells produce new bone cells, other bone cells break down old bone cells to make way for new ones. There are actually five main types of bone cells alone. Isn't that incredible?

I really could go on and on about how unique the cells in our body are to their locations and functions but I think I'll leave it at that. There is so much about the human body on a cellular level that I find fascinating but I won't bore you with all of it. I know not everyone finds it as interesting as I do. So...thanks for humoring my nerdy side for a moment. I hope I didn't bore any of you to tears.

Manic Monday: Tradition

My sisters and I decided to bring back a holiday tradition we used to do every year when we were little. We made gingerbread cookies before Christmas. It was always one of my favorite Christmas traditions growing up. We would all go to our Oma's house and make "pfefferkuchen." Our cookies were decorated simply, with almonds and rasins, and brushed with egg whites to make them shine. Oma made us all wear aprons and hair nets and we baked at her house all afternoon using cookie-cutters of all shapes and sizes. For some reasons the shapes I remember making the most were chickens, moons and circles with scalloped edges.

This year we made gingerbread cookies using traditional gingerbread-man shaped cookie cutters and decorated them with white frosting and almost every kind of candy you could think of. The funny thing was, the kids really weren't that interested while we rolled and cut out the cookies. Jace went to play with a friend, Camden took a nap most of the time while we baked, and Alek and Sophie were too little to care. So it really was like reliving a tradition of the past. It was my mom, my two sisters and me. But when it came time to decorate the cookies the kids definitely joined in the fun as you can see by their masterpieces.

Hoppefully this will be a tradition we can carry on for may years as we continue to share it with the next generation.

Alek found something to do while we were busy making cookies. He loves this drawer.

Camden hard at work. You wouldn't believe how much candy that kid ate while he decorated cookies!

His finished project and classic "the flash is too bright for my eyes" smile.

Jace really took his time with his biggest cookie. He's trying to get it just right.

He was happy with how it turned out and couldn't wait to eat it.

And here's the whole group.

I'm so glad we did this. Thanks Katie for suggesting it!

Manic Monday: Tree

If trees could scream, would we be so cavalier about cutting them down? We might, if they screamed all the time, for no good reason.- Jack Handey

I'm really not feeling creative tonight but I at least had to post something to move that hideous video down on the page.

Manic Monday: Light

Do you know what I love? Daylight Savings time. So why does it have to go away for four short months and throw off everyone's schedules and make winter feel so long...and dark...and dreary? Why can't we leave our clocks set to daylight savings time all year round and have a little extra evening light in the winter as well? Arizona does just the opposite, they don't participate in daylight savings time at all and leave their clocks the same all year round. And I don't see any reason why we couldn't do the same thing, or actually the opposite. Just something I think about sometimes in the winter when I look out the window and notice how dark it's getting only to discover it isn't even 5:00 in the evening. Sigh. Ok, my rant is over, thanks for letting me get that off my chest.

Manic Monday: Shop/Shopping

It's interesting how much my shopping patterns have changed over the years.

I used to take great pleasure in finding the perfect item at the perfect store. And this isn't particularly referring to Christmas shopping, just my everyday shopping habits. If I needed makeup or shampoo I would go to a store just for that. When I needed groceries I would head over to the grocery store; a nice upscale store where they would take my purchase to the car for me. If I needed a birthday card and wrapping paper I would go to another store just for that. And of course if I needed a copy of the newest hit CD I would go to a music store for that. And while at any of the above listed stores I would leisurely browse through the products as I did my shopping, often stopping to examine other products or read labels. It truly was enjoyable and relaxing. Maybe even fun, but it's hard to remember.

Now, however, my day-to-day shopping can be summed up in a single multilingual word: Walmart, or as a fellow Walmart shopper referred to it one day..."The Devil's Store." Do I frequent the store because I absolutely LOVE Walmart and their rollback prices? No...It's because I have three kids to pack in and out of the car and the fewer stops we have to make, the better. But I actually loathe that store. The location closest to us is easily the biggest Walmart I've ever seen. I was told it's six acres worth of store and it looks like it. It's dizzying to just be in there. Honestly my first couple of visits there made me a little nauseous. And my days of browsing and leisurely shopping are over too. I make a mad dash through the store as if I've won a shopping spree.

Hopefully shopping will be fun again someday. Until then, I'm going to try and figure out how I can fit all of my purchases in the cart so easily as I shop, but then it suddenly seems like twice as much merchandise once it's in bags and loaded back into the exact same cart.

Manic Monday: Harvest

I have a few things I've been wanting to blog about for a while now but I don't quite know how I want to write them. I still need some time to harvest my thoughts and put them into words. (And I think harvesting them is the perfect description for what I need to do. When I saw that the Manic Monday word was harvest, I looked it up. Not only does harvest refer to gathering something, it also involves the post harvest activities like handling, processing and delivering.)

So while I harvest my thoughts about a few things, here's a tag I received from my friend Jill.

Hubby Tag:

*What is your husband's name? Casey

*How long have you guys been married? Nine Years

*How long did you date? From the time we met until we were married it was six months. Three of that was our engagement. It didn't seem too fast at the time but now I see how crazy we must have looked to our families.

*How old is he? 33

*Who is taller? Casey is by about 4 inches

*Who can sing the best? Casey will openly admit that he was "diagnosed" by a doctor as being tone deaf. Since I never have been, I guess I'm the better singer.

*Who is smarter? I asked Casey what he thought the answer was to this question. He immediately said I was, but I am always asking him questions about stuff too, so I think it just depends on the subject.

*Who pays the bills? Casey does and I appreciate it so much.

*Who does the laundry? I usually do.

*Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? I do. We tried to switch sides once pretty early on in our marriage and it just didn't work out.

*Who mows the lawn? No lawn yet. When we get our yard done Casey will mow the lawn even though he'll tease me that I should do it since I wanted a house with a big yard.

*Who cooks dinner? Most of the time that's me, but Casey cooks dinner on nights that I work.

*Who is the first to admit when they're wrong? I just can't stay mad or hold a grudge. It's too much work and I hate the way I feel inside when I have any kind of negativity.

*Who kissed who first? He kissed me first. It was quite unexpected but I was pleasantly surprised.

*Who wears the pants? Usually we both wear pants; except on Sunday. Then I wear a skirt or dress for a little while. ; )

Manic Monday: Season

Here's why I'll never write a recipe book:

I have a recipe I am really excited to share; the only problem with it is the way it's written. This is a recipe I made up so I don't have measurements or amounts of the ingredients and the cooking times and temperatures aren't specific. The only way to share it is to simply tell you what I did.

This "recipe" is for fried chicken (except that I don't fry it in a pan. I bake it in the oven but it has a crunchy outside on it like fried chicken. I think it's sometimes referred to as oven fried chicken; at least that's what we called it when we were growing up. But I didn't make this recipe up when I was growing up, I just changed some things from the way my mom made it when I was little. So...maybe it isn't a recipe I made up, it's just one that I adjusted. See why this recipe is going to be hard to share? I've been typing about it for a while now and I still haven't even started on the directions.)

Let's see if I can make this make sense.

What I used:
Chicken breasts
Mayonnaise
Stove Top Stuffing mix
vegetable oil

How I put it together:
-Pour a small amount of cooking oil on baking sheet and spread it around (just enough so that the chicken won't stick to the pan).
-spread a thin layer of mayonnaise onto chicken breasts
-roll chicken breasts into Stove Top stuffing crumbs. (I crushed them a little with a rolling pin but I left some texture there for the crunch. I'm sure if you wanted a finer texture you could put them in a blender or food processor.)
-Place chicken on prepared pan and bake at about 375 degrees until cooked through.

That's it! And they are so good. I used to make this using bread crumbs or crushed cereal (rice krispies) and it was good that way too. I would season the chicken with various herbs and spices but they never had the perfect flavor for me. Maybe I didn't have the right seasonings, or maybe I didn't use them in correct proportion to each other. Whatever it was, I just never felt like my chicken was very good. And found myself apologizing for the blandness or overbearing onion powder taste throughout dinner. This takes the guesswork out of seasoning the potentially bland chicken and the crunch of it is fantastic.

So, if you're brave enough to try a recipe with such unspecific directions I hope it turns out well for you and I hope you like it.

Smiley List
-The way Alek sticks his tongue out when he crawls
-Camden was extra cuddly after his nap
-Jace received a love note from a little girl at school
-We had Family Home Evening tonight
-My back and neck feel great after a visit to the chiropractor.

Manic Monday: Bounty

When I saw that today's word was bounty I initially drew a blank. Then I realized how long it's been since I added a smiley list to my post. So...since I've had a bounty of things to smile about lately I'm going to share them here.

-I just checked on my kids and they're all sleeping soundly.
-None of the kids had croup with the most recent cold they all had.
-All of our snow melted.
-The kids were playing outside on Friday and ran inside to tell me something with such urgency that they had me worried. What was the big emergency? They didn't want me to miss the beautiful sunset. Both the sunset and my kids made me smile on that one.
-Watching Camden play with Alek this evening.
-I'm actually getting my Manic Monday post up on Monday.
-My wonderfully supportive family.

The rest of my smiley list is in pictures.

Alek LOVES bath time.

The kids in their Halloween costumes, and the fact that Alek thoroughly enjoyed the candy bar he's holding even though we never opened it for him

Sometimes even power rangers need naps.

Trunk-or-treat.

After making this mess Camden said, "mommy, I spilled...Dat's oh-tay" And proceeded to happily eat his mess while I took pictures and swept it up.

Manic Monday: Colorful

(I should probably change the title of this post on days I don't get this done on a Monday, but at least I started it yesterday.)

Most of those who read this blog probably know that I'm a nurse. I'm an RN and my days at work are spent caring for babies. My shifts are split between the well baby nursery and the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) with most of my shifts lately being in the NICU. It's an interesting place to work and I learn so much every time I'm there. Upon learning where I work, most people tell me how fun it must be to hold babies all day. While I have to admit it is better than any other unit in the hospital, I only wish it was as simple as holding babies all day.

For the most part it is a happy place to work. The nursery is decorated with baby themed wallpaper, complete with a colorful border that contains teddy bears, building blocks and ABC's. The babies in the nursery are healthy and the parents are usually thrilled to have a new baby, so it's a fun and pleasant place to work. Except when it isn't. Unfortunately when something goes wrong, it's the nurse who has to break the bad news to the parent since we don't have a doctor in the nursery at all times. So little things like unstable temperatures and blood sugar issues, and even infections are primarily taken care of by the nursing staff. But there's nothing in the world like telling a parent who had the expectation of a healthy baby that there's a problem. It's even worse to see the expression on their face the first time they see their baby with an IV.

When problems are more severe or ongoing, the baby has to be taken to the NICU. The parents of full-term babies with unexpected problems seem to have a more difficult time adjusting to the idea of having a baby in the NICU than parents of premature babies. Parents of a premature infant usually have at least a little bit of warning of what's going to happen when the pregnant mother goes into labor early or has other complications making delivery necessary before she reaches 37 weeks gestation. That's not to say the parents of premature NICU babies have it easy. Their babies are sometimes so tiny the parents are afraid to touch them and often can't at first.It's heart-wrenching to watch the face of a parent seeing their baby in the NICU for the first time. Their tiny, precious baby, their whole world, attached to monitors, tubes and sometimes machines that breathe for the baby. Watching and knowing all they want to do is envelop that baby in a tender hug but many times all they can do is place their had on the warm plexiglass of an isolette, occasionally reaching in to touch their tiny fingers. And I can't imagine how much the mother's heart must break the day she is sent home from the hospital without a baby in her arms. Then the parents come to visit in half hour increments for feedings throughout the duration of their baby's hospital stay; often weeks and sometimes even months.

So that's what my job entails. I don't get to simply hold babies all day. Instead, I'm feeding babies from bottles that are almost as big as the babies themselves and changing diapers that wouldn't even fit on an average sized baby doll. I'm starting IV's in veins almost too small to see, only to see the look of sadness on the parents' faces when they see that their baby has a new IV. I'm the one called the "mean nurse" as parents reassure their screaming infant when I stick a baby's heel to check the blood sugar. I also have to be the timekeeper who tells the parents when their half hour of holding time is up and the baby needs to be placed back in their bed until the next time. Oh, how I feel like the bad guy when I have to do that.

Even thought there are many things about my job that make it difficult, it's all worth it when I get to walk a baby to the front doors of the hospital and watch the parents drive away with their healthy, growing baby. The look on the parents' faces that day makes up for everything it took to get them there.

Manic Monday: Bite

Here's a list of a few of my favorite things to bite into.

-A caramel apple, the apple has to be a Granny Smith; best combination of sweet and tart.
-Cauliflower, it has the most unique crunch to it.
-A sweet, juicy peach.
-Corn on the cob, I love how the kernels pop into my mouth when I bite them.
-Warm, chewy brownies.
-Celery, it gives the best crunching sound.
-Rice Krispy treats, best combination of crunchy and chewy.
-Grapes that are so firm they burst in my mouth when I bite into them.
-Homemade rolls when they're just the right amount of buttery, flaky and moist.

Smiley List:

1-I really got to learn a lot today at work.
2-Alek giving me raspberries on my cheek.
3-Camden insisting he's not tired only to fall asleep in the car less than ten minutes later.
4-Jace is sleeping well at the moment, despite the persistent cough he's had all day.

Manic Monday: Moon

Can I do Manic Monday on a Tuesday? Of course I can, it's my blog. To be honest, Monday is a really hard day for me to blog since I usually work every Mondays from 3-11 PM. Even if I do make it home before midnight (to get something blogged before it's officially Tuesday), I'm definitely not at my sharpest at that time of day. I considered staying up last night to get this posted on Monday but was too tired. So here is my belated Manic Monday Post.

Moon

I think it's interesting that the moon is often associated with spookiness, especially at this time of the year. But I think a night without the light of the moon is far spookier than a nighttime sky lit by the gentle glow of a full moon. In fact, I've always found the moon to be quite cheerful.

As a child I always liked to look out the window and see the moon when we were driving at night. I loved the way it seemed to follow us on our way as if to say, "I want to come too." And I loved the way it was always peeking out from behind trees and clouds as we went, giving the illusion that it was sailing through the starry sky, determined not to be left behind.