Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Our Bird Sanctuary

I knew we had one nest with babies... turns out we have two more!

Uncle Mike was out exploring with Felisa today and found a turtle dove nest (conveniently located right next to my gardening tools!) with two eggs and a robin's nest in the pine tree out front. I'm so excited!

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In other news...

Bella ate beef tonight! (Shhhhh... don't tell her!) Uncle Mike took us out for dinner at the chinese place. Miss Picky was still hungry after eating only rice and broccoli and reluctantly agreed to try Ron's chicken. He assured her that it was "inside chicken" and she ended up liking it. When he ran out of chicken, he slipped her a piece of brown chicken (a.k.a. beef!) and quickly looked away. She snarfed it right down and asked for more brown chicken!

She did eat some of Grandma D's roast beef a few weeks ago which was completely shocking to all of us. She tried some of mine this past Sunday and deemed that delicious as well.

Baby steps...

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Back online...

Our modem died sometime during the night on Saturday. Without warning I was without internet and email for 3 days! OMG! How am I supposed to survive without it?!

I lived through the ordeal and apparently I have a lot more to say on the blog when I can't log on than when I can. I have back posted 3 other new entries so keep reading to see it all.

Monday, April 14, 2008

Dilemma of the Day

So I was at Safeway today picking up the ingredients for tonight’s dinner. I was hungry (apparently I wasn’t following the “never shop hungry” advice!) so I was wondering through the meat department trying to decide if I wanted to buy something even though it wasn’t on the list and wasn’t part of the menu plan for the week.

They have started a clearance section in the meat department… they put all the “sell or freeze by today” meat together now with a percent off sticker on each. They used to just have those meats in with the others rather than in a special section. Anyway, I was looking at the meat and debating whether or not to buy some.

Here’s the dilemma…

This meat is obviously not the freshest meat available.
It’s on sale.
I’m guessing if no one buys it, it will be thrown in the garbage.
What a waste!
I should buy it (and cook it of course!) so it doesn’t get thrown away but am I risking food poisoning by doing that?

Now don’t get me wrong – I’ve bought the clearance meat before without any problem. But occasionally I do wonder about the whole food poisoning, spoiled food, e coli, etc issue. And then the other problem I have with that meat is that it’s feed-lot beef and who-knows-how-they-do-pigs pork and caged-sad-chickens chicken. I don’t mind spending a bit more and getting our meat from the farmer at the farmer’s market but the market isn’t open yet.

And today isn’t the first day I’ve considered the wastefulness of having so much meat always available to buy that some of it ends up in the trash. Why are we as Americans so spoiled that we expect a full case of meat each and every time we shop? Limited supply would make the prices a bit higher but it would have positive influence on our diets and on the environment. Raising the meat so that we can eat as much meat as we want as many meals a day as we want has a definite negative impact on the environment and even on our dietary health.

We should raise as many cows/chickens/pigs as the farmland can support in a healthy eco-system alongside the fruits and vegetables (i.e. Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms). However much that is, then that’s it. Make up the rest of our diet with the fruits and vegetables we aren’t getting enough of.

Americans are spoiled and wasteful. And fat. And lazy. I’m just as bad as everyone else but today I’m wondering why and what could be done to change it.

In case you are wondering… I didn’t buy any of the meat. We don’t need it and it isn’t part of the meal plan for this week. So this time I didn’t buy any. And in the interest of true confessions… I drove my car to the community center for my exercise class this morning even though it’s only a mile away and I could totally ride my bike. I hardly ever do though – I ride maybe 10 times/year and drive the rest of the time. I ate at McDonalds this morning after I went to Safeway (I was hungry, remember?!) And even though I brought my own cup for the iced coffee (a McD’s cup that I got at the drive thru last week) in an attempt to reduce the waste, I may have made it worse. The lady couldn’t find the right size lid (no, I didn’t bring a lid but maybe next time I will) so she tried at least 5 times before she got it right. I don’t know if she’ll use them again or if she’ll throw them away. She used individual creamers and a long plastic spoon to mix the coffee. Those of course were thrown away. I did walk to school to pick up the kids but again, I usually drive even though I really don’t need to most days.

So… I am guilty. Guilty of going to McDonald’s even though I could make my own healthier breakfast and iced coffee at home. Guilty of driving places that I could walk to. Guilty of eating meat at almost every meal.

I am a spoiled, lazy American.

Basketball Superstar!

At the end of my exercise class this morning we played a game of basketball instead of going out to run a mile. We have done this once or twice before and it is generally pretty fun because for the most part, we are all equally terrible at basketball. Today two of the guys were there – decent basketball-playing guys – so we put one on each team and went for it.

I think the basketball angels must have been sitting on my shoulder because I actually made almost all of my shots. Me, the world’s worst basketball player. Shocking! The other team even went so far as to say – don’t let Sheila get it. She’s too good.

Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha

That’s me, rolling on the floor, laughing till my sides split (ROFLMAO). Don’t they know? I suck at basketball!

Funny, huh?!

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Going Under the Nail

I went along as moral support for a friend who wanted to get her naval pierced. Sounds crazy and painful and crazy painful to me but hey – I’m all about enabling and riding along on others’ journeys. To me some piercings are cute and some are just weird. Shani’s will be cute once she is healed and can switch her jewelry.

So I thought I was doing an excellent job of not grimacing or gasping in horror during the actual piercing. Apparently not. As we left, she asked “was it really that bad? I heard you suck all the air out of the room”. Oh. Um. Yeah. Sorry! So much for being supportive, eh? I think that it was mainly that I was unprepared for the size of the piercing tool involved. I was expecting a needle. What I saw was a nail. Like the ones I use to hang pictures on my wall. Ouch!

To celebrate the occasion we went to Target, bought Ryan a suit for 1st Communion, and shopped around the clearance racks for any other things we “needed”. Then we hit the bar at Artie’s for margaritas, salad, and tuna. Yum!

Good food, good times, and I can say that I have reconfirmed my desire to not ever pierce anything but my ears! I’ll just live vicariously through others, as usual.

Friday, April 04, 2008

Mr. Shoe Kicker

I saw Ryan's teacher in the lobby yesterday on my way in to pick him up. She laughed and said, "You'll never believe what happened today. At recess he was playing a game. A kicking game. When he kicked, his shoe was loose and landed on the roof of the school."

Really? He kicked his shoe onto the roof of the school? Wow!

I'm not surprised though since his shoes are always always always untied. That would drive me crazy but he doesn't even seem to notice. Of course this is the same kid that walks around with only one sock on because the other one fell off somewhere (usually the near the couch) so I guess it's just par for the course.

Miss B said that Ryan was laughing about the shoe incident. Which is good. Knowing how to laugh at yourself is an essential life skill to have so I am glad to see it alive in him.

Because if we weren't laughing, we would be crying. (And maybe even barefoot...)

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Here's a Mother Goose rhyme that I always think of whenever I see him sock-less...

Diddle Diddle Dumpling
Diddle diddle dumpling my son John.
He went to bed with his socks on.
One shoe off and one shoe on.
Diddle diddle dumpling my son John!

Thursday, April 03, 2008

The Curse of the Sheets

So once again, the Curse of the Sheets has struck.

Everytime I change the sheets (which really isn't all that often and as you will soon see, there's good reasons to be afraid to do it any more often than I do) something happens. Usually it's a middle-of-the-night accident. Occasionally it's something spilled. And when I'm really lucky, it's vomit. All over the clean sheets. Which means I have to change them and wash them all over again. Most of the time it happens within 24 hours. Sometimes it takes as long as 48 hours. And it happens every. single. time. I wish I were kidding but alas I am not.

So I changed the sheets on Monday morning while the kids were at school (on another note, as usual, I vastly underestimated the amount of time it would take to put the house back in order after a few weeks of neglect). I also cleaned out the linen closet which has been on my to do list for at least a year. Good thing I got that done because that's the only thing I will have gotten done this entire week I'm sure. Plus it makes finding replacement sheets in a hurry that much easier!

Tuesday morning Felisa woke up with a fever. She wanted pizza for lunch Wed. and managed to get bits of pizza sauce on my clean white sheets (I know - she shouldn't have been eating on the bed so that one is my fault). I have met the Curse of the Sheets and I have emerged barely scathed.

But no... The Curse wasn't about to let me off that easily. The school nurse called at about 2:20 on Wednesday afternoon - Bella was in the clinic with a headache and a 102 fever. I went to pick her up (and pulled Ryan early because there was no way in heck I was going back 3o minutes later to pick him up) and brought her home. She climbed into bed. I brought her motrin and water. I went to make sure Felisa (who is still sick too) was settled. By the time I got back, Bella had managed to throw up all over herself and the bed. The bed with the Clean Sheets. Darn you, Curse!!!

And so I am sure you understand why I don't like to change the sheets too often... That Curse is a tough one!

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In other news...

I have been working on my digital scrapbook for 2007. I have decided that not only am I disorganized in real life but I am also disorganized digitally. Oy. How many hours have I spent going from computer to computer trying to track down all the pictures that I took from Jan- March 2007?! This scrapbook is going to be awesome though when I'm done!

I hope.