Michelle's Musings

A Day

michellemuses@yahoo.com (Michelle) — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 16:02:00 +0000

It had been a hard day. She has started these horrible tantrums that exhaust us both. I can not ignore that they started as we started our 6 weeks of nomadic living. Children need structure and routine and we have (albeit temporarily and unavoidably) taken that away. I know this. Still, when she has one of her fits, I oscillate between anger, sadness and wondering what I've done wrong and how to better handle her intense emotions.

That day she had her first public fit, allowing several senior citizens at the city recreation center to witness her rage and sobs. I'm sure I was judged (yet no more harshly than I judge myself). Finally her angry sobs turned to sad sobs and I was able to hold and comfort her.

That night we went outside to play at dusk. She had already changed into her nightgown and the humid air had her hair curlier than usual.

'Chase me' she says and takes off running.

I chase after her and am hit hard with the conviction 'remember this.' And I take mental notes.

I see her curls bouncing as she runs. I hear her feet pitter pattering on the sidewalk. I relish in her giggles. I watch her silhouette as dusk fades into night: little bare feet, long blue nightgown, bouncing hair blowing in the breeze. We play chase for almost an hour. She smiles. I smile. We needed this. We reconnect and enjoy each other. We are whole again.

Years from now, I won't remember the tantrums. Memory has a funny way of removing some of the pain. I will remember playing chase with my sweet girl on a warm December night. I will remember.

Unpacking is a little slower with little ones

michellemuses@yahoo.com (Michelle) — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 21:58:00 +0000

Links

michellemuses@yahoo.com (Michelle) — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 19:31:00 +0000

This is a unique perspective on the Christmas story that I hadn't considered, but find so compelling.

This is beautiful and heartbreaking and almost makes me wish I had 7 kids.

How Not to Make Christmas Waffles

michellemuses@yahoo.com (Michelle) — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 19:14:00 +0000

The month of sporadic internet access coupled with sporadic trains of thought continues....

As we head into the Christmas season (and our 2nd Christmas in 3 years that involves a major move), I think about what memories I am creating for our little family.

I have such solid, fond memories of Christmas growing up. I remember specific ornaments and decorations. My favorite is the I heart Santa letters that invariably read I heart Satan, I heart Stan and/or I tan. Every Christmas morning we waited for mom and dad to finish their coffee and call out "I think Santa came," our cue to run down the hall to find our pile of gifts. Then we ate monkey bread and sausage biscuits. To this day we only eat monkey bread on Christmas morning.

As for our little family, I haven't really created any great tradition yet. I made the candy cane Advent calender last year, but this year have had to hide it from Little Mister. We won't really have a tree this year, since the movers will deliver our stuff on 12/16 and we'll head to my folks just a few days later.

Last year I also thought we'd create a tradition of pumpkin waffles for Christmas breakfast. I had measured out all the dry ingredients into one bowl and the wet ingredients into another. Husband generously offered to make the waffles while I played with the kids and their new gifts. A few minutes later, he called out "something is wrong with these waffles." I came into the kitchen to see the untouched bowl of dry ingredients and a steaming goo on the waffle iron that is best described as a pumpkin vanilla egg bake. As a trained food scientist, I can tell you that vanilla, eggs, pumpkin and milk do not a waffle make. I tried to salvage by mixing in some of the dry ingredients (yeah, waffles need flour and leavening) with the wet ingredients, but couldn't get the proportions right. We ended up having fruit, toast and left over muffins for breakfast.

This year I doubt I'll have the waffle iron unpacked, much less the energy to cook anything more than scrambled eggs.

Next year I will search for a good, unique recipe that can become our standard Christmas breakfast. Any recommendations?

What food is Christmas for your family? What traditions are you starting?

This post is as random as my thought process these days

michellemuses@yahoo.com (Michelle) — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 19:43:00 +0000

It's been a rather chaotic month and will probably only get more so until after the holidays. We moved out of our corporate apartment and into Husband's parent's house. Lord willing and the creek don't rise (one of my most favorite saying from my mama), we'll close on a house on 12/15. I'm trying to remain relatively guarded until we actually have the papers signed and keys in our hand.

The kids and I were back in our Ft Worth house for the last 9 days and Husband was there for Thanksgiving weekend.

Poor Little A is so confused about Christmas and how Santa will know how to find her. We will have slept in no less than 5 houses between last week and Christmas.

We have packers and movers (thanks to Husband's nice relocation package), but I still have been doing a massive decluttering and clean out. Which means that I have scrutinized just about everything that we possess and decided if it is for keeping, recycling, donating, selling or trashing. I really don't think of myself as a pack-rat, but, man, we have a lot. It is amazing how much stuff we have acquired with the kids. Between outgrown clothes we are saving to hand down and too-big clothes we are saving to grown into, Little A's toys we are saving for Little Mister and big stuff like bikes, wagon, tricycles, cars and strollers, we may be candidates for that Hoarders show soon.

I've also re-confirmed how odd I am. I cannot recycle a magazine unless I have read the whole thing and torn out any interesting recipes, tips, book reviews or exercises. I have this fear that if I toss the magazine before reading, I could be throwing away the very life changing article that I need. Also, I have a really hard time parting with books. I have visions of someday having days and months to sit and re-read all the books I've once read and therefore, must keep them all. Of course, I'll be too busy reading magazines to get to those books. Yes, I am a mess.

Please hang with me for the next month and I promise I'll be back with actual posts that make actual points and required some forethought. I should leave stream of consciousness writing to the pros.

Oh, and I love the peppermint Hershey kisses. They were sent from God to make my December bearable and my pants a little snug.

Sisters

michellemuses@yahoo.com (Michelle) — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 20:14:00 +0000

Back to the BCS.

michellemuses@yahoo.com (Michelle) — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 20:08:00 +0000

It was just the weekend I needed. Sometimes you need heart to heart times with friends and other times you need one-lines and laughter. This was the latter and it was perfect.

Old friends enjoying some time away. Journeying back to the campus and town where so many happy times were had. We ate (boy did we eat), drank, slept in and ate some more. There was a football game. There was Northgate. There was KAJ ('there are drugs for that too'), Mr KAJ (GeeeeeeJayyyyyyy), the future Woodlanders and the Georgians. Funny, loyal and treasured friends.

I hope it doesn't take us 10 years to plan another get together!

Aggie Football

michellemuses@yahoo.com (Michelle) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 21:05:00 +0000

Final Halloween Pictures

michellemuses@yahoo.com (Michelle) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 02:06:00 +0000

The one picture I have of him with his costume.

Little Mister was done with his costume (see it in my hands) You want cotton candy in addition to all the other candy? Sure, why not?

Kitchen Necessities

michellemuses@yahoo.com (Michelle) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:24:00 +0000

We are living in a furnished apartment for the month of November. I brought a minivan load of clothes, toys, books, toiletries, randomness, food and kitchen tools. I thought a month was too long to be without the following:

Bread Machine
Magic Bullet
Kitchen Aid Mixer
Immersion Blender

I've used each one several times, so the were worth the precious cargo space they took up in the backseat. I should have also brought my knives and good cutting boards.

That got thinking and curious. I ask you, dear readers, what kitchen tools can you not be without?

Weekly Menu

michellemuses@yahoo.com (Michelle) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 15:50:00 +0000

Dinners:
New Black Bean soup recipe (from a Bobby Flay cookbook)
Eggs, Bacon and Toast (both my kids would eat their body weight in bacon if allowed)
Pasta with Jarred Sauce - easy night!
Chicken Tortilla Soup to use up some leftover frozen fajita meat

Halloween Pictures - part 2

michellemuses@yahoo.com (Michelle) — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 16:10:00 +0000

School Party

Frugal Friday - $5 Cooking Light Subscription

michellemuses@yahoo.com (Michelle) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:12:00 +0000

The majority of my cooking is done from Cooking Light magazine or their website. I love using their recipes as a guide and then tweak and modify as I go along.

This week Amazon.com is offering Cooking Light subscriptions for $5. I've never seen a price that low. The offer is over tomorrow.

And Then

michellemuses@yahoo.com (Michelle) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 02:46:00 +0000

The day started off good: healthy breakfast, read some books.

And then I let the kids watch a good hour and a half of TV while I looked at houses online.

And then I packed the kids into the car to meet the realtor to look at houses.

And then I schlepped the kids all around town looking at houses from 11 - 2. Yep, right through lunch and naptime. I passed back a bag of stale cheerios at one point.

And then I let Little A choose where she wanted me to get lunch from (at 2:15 mind you) since she did such a good job going from house to house.

And then I went through the McDonalds drive through. Thanks Mickey D for having My Little Ponies in the happy meals (and thanks to my Dad for teaching her about Happy Meals. That! Come! With! A! Toy!)

And then, in one instance, realized I became the mom my idealistic 28 year old self would have wanted to kick: harried, no make-up, sporting yesterday's hair, driving a mini-van, passing back McDonalds french fries to two kids who looked away from Clifford on the van DVD just long enough to reach for the fried, white-carb heavy, nutrient lacking, GMO, mass produced substance.

And then, Little Mister decided that the 10 minute nap he took between houses was enough. Except it wasn't. So, he spent from 3-5 being grumpy, yawning and moaning.

And then I let Little A play computer games on pbskids.org while I sat on the couch with Little Mister and watched Big Green Rabbit on repeat.

And then this song implanted itself firmly into my head and will play on repeat for the next 2 weeks.

And then I almost called CPS on myself.

But, all hope is not lost. Yes, I may have lost the contest for world's best mom for this ~~week month~~ year, true.

But then, I sang Little Mister to sleep (granted it was pretty easy since he was ready for bed since 5pm) and got to snuggle with his sleeping self and feel his sweet, cool breath on my cheek.

And then I got to watch Little A's delighted face as I read A Bad Case of the Stripes (complete with voices) before bed and smile as she asked when she could try lima beans like the little girl in the story.

And then I got to snuggle with her until she fell asleep.

And then I had a nice glass of wine and recounted the day on my trusty little blog.

And then I am going to bed!

Long Overdue Halloween Pictures - part 1

michellemuses@yahoo.com (Michelle) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 01:31:00 +0000

An impromptu visit to a local church fall festival. We improvised a costume with bunny ears from Gramma's house. Little Mister was dressed as, uh, a toddler. Who doesn't have much hair.

Weekly Menu

michellemuses@yahoo.com (Michelle) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 14:45:00 +0000

Lunches
Chickpea Salad
Garlic Bean and Vegetable Soup (recipe from chickpea bag, I'll post if good)

Dinners:
Double Potato Soup and Bread Machine Rolls
Mushroom Orzo and steamed broccoli
Mushroom, Pepper and Onion Pizza (using Bread Machine dough)
Black Bean Tortilla Soup

Five Latest Favorites - Tag

michellemuses@yahoo.com (Michelle) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 14:28:00 +0000

Tagged by Heather.

The task is to report on my five latest obsessions. 'Obsessions' is a bit strong, so I'll post on my five latest favorites.

1. Pumpkin Bread. Still making this recipe. I made some this yesterday and we've already polished off one loaf. All four of us love it.

2. Jasmine Green Tea. I love the Good Earth brand, followed by Stash. It has the double whammy of good taste and soothing aroma.

3. Healthy Eating. Now that I'm back home full time, I'm relishing in being able to cook and serve good, healthy meals again. We ate okay while I was working, but some nights I was just too tired to try new recipes or cook some old recipes that take longer than 30 minutes.

4. The pitter patter of little feet on our apartment hardwood floors. Such a sweet sound.

5. Just being a mama. Not having to split my focus is wonderful.

We're here!

michellemuses@yahoo.com (Michelle) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:37:00 +0000

Hi! Just a quick update.

We have settled into our corporate apartment in San Antonio. We'll be here for the month of November. After that? To be determined....

We'd love some prayers as we try to find a house or decide if we should rent for awhile. So far, no luck on the home buying front. We put a low offer on one, but were rejected (or, more accurately, rejected the counter the seller proposed). It's nice, but quite overpriced for the square footage. The seller is pretty adamant about keeping the selling price above appraisal price and we are having a hard time justifying paying above appraisal, especially in such a buyers market. But, we may get desperate....

We're looking daily and hoping something good will come on the market soon.

It's funny to be in an apartment again; I feel like I should be donning a back pack and heading to class. We have Little Mister sleeping in a play pen in our closet (someone call CPS) and this morning he was up at 4:45 (darn you time change), so, of course, we were too.

I made the mistake of showing Little A the pool yesterday and she swears that she won't be cold if we go swimming. It's 70 out, which is a bit cool for swimming. But, I may get desperate. Trying to entertain two kids in a 900 sq foot apartment with minimal toys will be a challenge. In fact, I just turned around to see that Little Mister made his own fun by unraveling the paper towel roll.

Yesterday Little A looked at me at 3:30pm and said loudly "I'm boring. Let's go somewhere."

Reunited

michellemuses@yahoo.com (Michelle) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 18:26:00 +0000

Friday night. I walk into the house after a long day of meetings, flying and travel. Head pounding, body aching (I’ll realize on Saturday that I have the flu). I drop my bags at the door and head to your room.

I see you and your Dad sitting on the bed with a stack of books. Blond curls, mismatched pajamas, sparkling blue eyes and the smile. THE smile. The smile that makes me whole.

‘Mama!’ you giggle. I am now more than whole.

I change out of my work clothes, wash off the airplane funk. I lay down next to you. You nestle into me, your bare feet on top of mine.

“I've been missing you mama.”
“I’ve been missing you too.”

Because life had gotten boring and all

michellemuses@yahoo.com (Michelle) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 21:58:00 +0000

Husband starts a new job on Monday.
In San Antonio.
I will work my last day on Monday.
In Fort Worth.
We will move at some point.
And find a house.
And move out of our current house.
I don't know anyone in San Antonio.
Oh, and we must decide what to do about our unexpectedly vacant home in MN.
And we are all sick.

Whew.

Cowboy Game

michellemuses@yahoo.com (Michelle) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 19:46:00 +0000

Husband and I got the opportunity to go to the inaugural game at the new Cowboy stadium. It's impressive and we had a fun night out. Thanks to Dave and Erin for babysitting for us! Great Seats!

$14 Margarita. Yummy!

Little Mister 1.5

michellemuses@yahoo.com (Michelle) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 20:25:00 +0000

Words: Quite a talker. He loves to repeat whatever you ask. He is putting 2 words together now, like ‘bye mommy’ and ‘more cheeos.’ He can identify most of his extended family members and loves looking at pictures and telling me who he sees. Words we hear often: dink, all-done, mo (more), mommy, daddy, sissy, NO, baby, apple, oh-no, I dunno, walk, outside, NO!, raisin, softie (for his blanket), eyes, nose, mouf, ears, micky mouse, elmo, abby dabby, walrus, effant (elephant), puppy, zeba (zebra), hold you, NO, show. And an impressive array of animal sounds. My favorites are his versions of snake and elephant.

Eats: Lots of dry cereal (cheerios, wheat chex and shredded wheat are his favorites), oatmeal, steamed broccoli, pasta, peanuts and raisins, oranges.

Actions: He loves to climb and is getting pretty adept at mastering ladders at playgrounds. Granted I’ve saved his life several times, but he can do it on his own more often than not. He loves to get a reaction from his sister, whether it be by turning off her favorite show, taking a puzzle piece away from her and running away or walking over to her and bopping her on the head while she plays. It’s great. He is also really determined to get his point across. Several times he’ll say something to me over and over, seemingly roll his eyes when I can’t figure out what he’s saying and then take me hand and lead me to what he needs, be it a specific snack, toy or book. I love how much he loves books.

Things I want to remember at this age:

How he likes to sing songs before bed and that he’ll tell me no if I sing a song that isn’t of his choosing. I’ll just keep starting different songs until he finally tells me ‘yeah.’ Then he claps when I finish the song, which makes the initial rejection worth it.

How he buries his head in the left side of my neck when he is tired.

The way he happily says ‘bye’ to his day care class each day when we leave.

His fish face.

How excited he is to find a picture of a dog in a book and how he’ll usually hug and kiss it, all the while saying ‘ahhh, puppy.’

Weekly Menu

michellemuses@yahoo.com (Michelle) — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 21:21:00 +0000

I'm determined to get my act together this week, starting with planning our week's meals. As of now, I'm not traveling this week, so I plan to enjoy a full week of meals with my family.

Saturday - tomato basil soup and grilled cheese
Sunday - lunch: bowtie pasta with creamy mushroom sauce, dinner: baked potatoes and fruit
Monday - beans and rice with cornbread
Tuesday - Bruschetta pasta, bread machine bread
Wednesday - Scrambled Eggs, toast (using leftover bread from Tues), fruit
Thursday - Costco Ravioli and fruit
Friday - collapse in a heap and get dinner out

Minnesota Labor Day

michellemuses@yahoo.com (Michelle) — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 15:01:00 +0000

What We're Loving These Days

michellemuses@yahoo.com (Michelle) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 15:59:00 +0000

Mama…
To Eat: Apples, tomato cucumber salad and walnuts.
To Drink: DanActive, green tea with jasmine and iced tea
To Read: I need to start a book. Any suggestions?
To Watch: I downloaded the free pilot episode of The Good Wife to my iPod and loved it. I even stayed up late (for me) to watch the 2nd episode. I really relate to the character (except for the whole husband in jail due to a sex scandal part). The being torn between being a mom and employee, and not feeling like you are fully fulfilling either role.. The working because you have to, but feeling some guilt when you start to enjoy parts of the work. The demanding job that is not a simple 9-5 gig.
To Do: Besides mother and work? Not much. Sigh. But, I am LOVING my new iPod touch that husband surprised me with for my birthday. It is truly enhancing my life. It’s great for travel (which I’m doing a lot of lately, ugh) and for laying in bed at night and reading blogs.

Little A…
To Eat: She has recently been permitted to chew gum (with our supervision) and she is obsessed. It’s become a powerful motivator, as in “ if you have a good day at school, you can chew gum when you get home.” She still eats fruit by the pound.
To Drink: Water, DanActive and, for a special treat at Grandma’s, orange juice
To Read: Any book that features a female with long hair, long dress and crown. We’re trying to expand her taste, but she is All Princess All The Time.
To Watch: Arthur on school mornings after breakfast as we get Little Mister and ourselves dressed and ready for the day. Big Green Rabbit.
To Do: Play with the posse of Barbies she got for her birthday. I played with barbies for years, so it’s amusing to me to see her playing with the dolls that marked much of my childhood. Of course, today’s barbies are much more scandalous in their skintight mini-dresses and hooker-heals. She is also really into puzzles. She’s moved onto the 100 piece puzzles and does at least one a night. Last weekend she sat at the table for 1.5 hours doing puzzles by herself during ‘room time.’ She really enjoys coloring and drawing. We do a lot of dictating as she asks me how to spell words and then writes them on her pages. She is making big strides in her sound recognition and likes to play the game where we think of all the words we can that start with a certain letter. Alliteration thrills her.

Little Mister…
To Eat: He’s a bit more finicky than his sister. He eats a lot of pasta, berries, pears, broccoli, oranges and Cheerios. He opens the pantry, takes the cheerios box off the bottom shelf and walks around the house eating and playing. He is quite protective of the Cheerios box when he has it and will close it if any of us start to come towards him.
To Drink: Water, DanActive and, for now, still nursing once a day. I think our nursing days are probably coming to an end soon as my supply is near non-existent. He doesn’t like cow milk at all. He also likes my iced tea, especially when he gets to drink it out a straw.
To Read: About the only time he sits still is when reading and he will sit for a good half hour. He loves, loves to read. He is a bit picky on his books, so we read the same books over and over: Brown Bear, Brown Bear, Polar Bear, Polar Bear, Panda Bear, Panda Bear, The Tooth Book, The Eye Book, The Foot Book, Go Dogs Go and picture books featuring animals.
To Watch: He really likes Big Green Rabbit. Big sister sits on the coffee table when she watches a show and lately he climbs up and sits right beside her for a few cute moments. Then, he climbs down and turns the TV on and off repeatedly, thoroughly enjoying the reaction it induces in his sister. This happens daily and he finds her anger quite amusing.
To Do: Read, turn of the TV, hoard the Cheerios, go for walks in the wagon, play in the push car outside, play with toys that have an on/off switch he can control. Grab whatever his sister is playing with and run, run, run (while grinning) as she chases him angrily. He’s become a bit of a troublemaker and I alternate between finding it cute and frustrating. I refer to him as my little gremlin. He likes to open the Tupperware cabinet, meticulously take out every lid and dish and then leave the kitchen. While I’m cleaning it back up, he takes out all the wooden puzzles, dumps them all over the playroom floor, and then moves on. He’s lucky he’s so cute….