The Children's Museum...yes, again!

This past weekend we took off for a road trip and met Jason, Lori, Matt and Lily at the Indianapolis Children's Museum. It really is the most amazing place. We had so much fun. It's wonderful to have such a fun place halfway between where we both live.

Everyone's happy in the van...Julianna had plenty of movies, Jacob had 3 hours of DS, Rebekah had 3 hours to read, and Mark had lots of coffee.

Still, it was wonderful to say good-bye to Ohio, hello Indiana.

We always get excited when we finally see it!

There was a special Lego Castle exhibit, complete with jousting.

So Much Fun!!! So lucky to have the family we do. I will never take it for granted.

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Joy

You know what I learned this week? OK, I learned a couple of things this week, but one of them was that it's pretty hard to capture Joy. I was envisioning snapping pictures capturing perfect expressions of Joy. When the kids and I got to walk to school this week in the perfect Spring weather, their expression was pure Joy. Unfortunately, they were way ahead of me and I don't think snapping a picture of their backs would have captured it. :-) Obviously, there were moments of Joy, plenty of them I'm glad to say, I just learned it's really, really hard to capture that picture I imagined. I think this picture of Jacob managed to do it though.

Next week: Expression. *sigh*

The Power We Give to Others

I read a post today, had an opinion (shock), commented it and wasn't too surprised to see someone commenting back, disagreeing with me. I commented again, based on something they had said, and they commented a couple more times, which I chose to let go, obviously the commenter and I have very different opinions on this subject, and I truly didn't mean to hijack my friends blog by airing my opinion. Sorry.

The subject was being a stay at home parent, and money, and what we owe our children. That wasn't exactly what the original post was about, but that was what my comments were about. I have really strong feelings about children deserving, whenever possible, to have a parent home with them. It's not always possible. I get that. I do think that's sad though. I think that other arrangements can be made, hopefully they'll be very good arrangements, but I do think the first choice should always be for children to be home with a parent. I'm not saying if someone makes a different choice they're a bad parent, I'm just putting it out there what my opinion is. If you've read my blog for a while, I'm sure none of this is news to you. I'm also not saying a woman should not work or have a career. I admire and am proud to be friends with many women who work, either from home or outside their home, and manage to balance it fabulously with their children. It's not easy, but they make it work so their children are still being raised by a parent, but they can continue to enjoy their work.

That's not what this is about either. What this is about is my surprise at how that other commenter made me feel. Okay, to be more accurate, how I allowed that other commenter to make me feel. I spent too much time being very depressed and crying today.

This person said there is not anything more important than money, and while I would concede the point that money is important, I don't think it's the most important thing I can give my children. That was actually the turning point for me when I realized we just are two very different people with two very different value systems. Money is nowhere near the top of the list of what I can give my children. My greatest wish has always been to give my children stability, a HOME. Losing my brother at 15, make me determined to try to give my kids everything I could. If, God forbid, anything ever happened, I can deal with looking back and regretting not having more money, I never want to look back and wish I'd given them more ME. My children have never wanted for anything. There hasn't even been much that they've truly yearned for that they could not have. When I'm talking about money here, remember it in that context.

This person talked about the anger her husband has with his parents because of the choices they made about money. It reminded me of my sister. I acknowledged that I did not know this person or her husband, but I stand by my comment that being angry with your parents over decisions they made can lead to a sad, empty life. Everyone's going to screw up something when it comes to parenting. I don't think it's healthy to spend time looking backwards, being angry over choices that were made. I think it's unfair to blame your parents, and be angry with them, to the point it affects your relationship, because you graduated from college in debt.

Yes, lately, I feel very stressed because we don't know how Rebekah will go to college. I am currently doing some home childcare and looking to provide more next Fall to hopefully be able to contribute some to her education. This woman and I have two very different ideas of what we owe our children however. She feels, very strongly, that parents owe their children a college education--debt free. I feel that that is a wonderful gift, but I refuse to think of myself as a bad parent if we are not able to give our children that. There are many, many ways to achieve what we want in life. Of course I wish we could write a blank check and send Rebekah off knowing she never has to worry for anything but studying, all is provided. Does it mean I've failed her if we can't? Does it mean we never should have had Jacob and Julianna? Does it mean I would have served my family better by building a career the last 25 years instead of building a home? I don't think so. I truly don't. I happen to think that instead of heading off to work when Jason was 6 weeks old and working for the past 25 years, I've served a more important role being here with my children, day after day, shaping who they are. I choose to believe that's worth something too. The relationships I have with my children, the relationships they have with each other, the relationships my husband and I have with each other, are all stronger by both Mark and I making the investment of having me home.

Today, briefly, this woman made me question what I feel is important. I'm glad I was able to smack myself upside the head and remember my values before I go went too far down that road.

What Would You Do??? Recession Edition

I enjoy reading our hometown newspaper, The Columbus Dispatch. Rebekah has a friend whose father is a columnist for the Dispatch, and his writing is amazing. Always interesting, usually fun to read. I appreciate his talent and am thankful that there is a place here in our community that rewards that talent with employment. All sounds good, right? Well...

A couple of months ago, it came to my attention, that our newspaper outsources it's customer service department to the Philippines. This makes me really angry. Central Ohio, like most of the country, is hurting economically. We need those jobs in our community. In my opinion, a department handling customer service for a community newspaper, should be staffed by people who live in that community. It does not make sense for me, irregardless of the economic reasons, to not have those jobs in our community. I know the newspaper is struggling. Recently they laid off a large number of people. I know those jobs are not coming back. I know the newspaper is fighting for it's survival, but in my opinion, this is not an acceptable way to cut costs. Employ less employees in the customer service department, if you must, increase hold times, whatever, but keep these jobs in the community of the people who pay to read your paper.

I wrote a letter to the editor, and sent a letter to the customer service department, informing them of my feelings. I put the paper on a 4-week hold, and requested someone to contact me with a legitimate reason why what they were doing was necessary and wise, or I would be cancelling my subscription. I'm sure you know where this is headed. I've heard nothing. Nada. Zilch. The sound of silence. Finally, I wrote a letter to the Feature's editor, she has a weekly column in the paper about changes to the paper itself, so I gave that a try. She did have the courtesy to write me back, but she basically said it was a cost-cutting measure as the paper fights for it's survival.

So, now what? My 4 weeks are almost up. I've missed having my local paper. National and international news has been quite easy to keep up with, of course. I love NPR and watch more than I should of AC 360 each night. Plus, I'm on the computer so often throughout the day that any real news was old by the time I read it in the local paper anyway. I do miss the local coverage, the flavor of our community however. It's creating quite a dilemma in my heart. Do I stick with my pledge to cancel our subscription, perhaps further contributing to the very real threat to the jobs of the employees who do still work there, or do I cave and begin receiving the newspaper again and ignore how angry outsourcing of customer service jobs makes me? I miss the paper, but I also really hate when companies outsource customer service. I believe that is wrong.

Still, I would hate to see the paper fold. I would hate to see talented people that live in our community out of jobs that are unlikely to ever be replaced. What would you do?

Pasta with Bruschetta Chicken

I made the most amazing pasta dish last night, so amazing I just had to share. It was inspired by a pasta served at our favorite local restaurant. I did some searching online and found a TGIFriday's copycat recipe to start with, and took off from there. It was light (tasting ;-) ) and enjoyed by all. Yum.

This isn't the most cohesive recipe I've ever written, if you need help figuring something out, just email me. Also, it looks long and sounds like a lot, but it really does go together really quickly. You can roast the vegetables in the same pan you use to cook the chicken or shrimp and to warm the oil. The salad needs to be made in advance but it only takes about 5 minutes to throw together. Very, very good recipe.

Bruschetta Pasta (6 Servings)
Make tomato salad a couple of hours in advance: Combine 8-10 large Roma or other Italian Tomatoes, chopped; 2 T olive oil, kosher salt, pepper, 1 clove garlic, minced; and 10-12 large basil leaves, rolled into a cigar and sliced.

Combine 1c Balsamic Vinegar and 1/2T sugar. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until reduced and thick and syrupy. This will take a while (20-30 minutes?). Keep an eye on it, you don't want it to burn.

4-5 good sized carrots, sliced on diagonal, 1/4" thick pieces, 2 yellow squash, sliced; 2 onions, chunked. Roast with a drizzle of olive oil, salt and pepper at 450 degrees, stirring occasionally, until tender and starting to caramelize. (This can also be done on the grill.) In the oven this will take apx. 40 minutes. Stir in 1/4-1/2 cup of sun-dried tomato slices.

1 stick butter, 2 cloves garlic minced, salt and pepper, melted together, set aside for flavors to meld. When ready to start cooking pasta, slice one loaf of ciabatta in 1/2" thick slices. Drizzle with garlic butter, bake at 400 degrees 5 minutes or so until toasted. (This is an awful lot of butter--next time I'm going to try 1/2, or at least 3/4 of it.)

1 lb. boneless chicken breasts or 1 lb. medium shrimp, grilled or sauteed with garlic, salt, pepper and olive oil. If using chicken, slice into bit size pieces. If sauteing in pan, remove from pan and set aside.

1 pound linguine, cooked al dente and kept warm (angel hair would also be nice)

Heat 2T olive oil with 1 clove of garlic, sliced, just until it's starting to warm. Add any remaining garlic butter, add tomato juice from salad. Toss with cooked linguine. Plate. Top with vegetables, shrimp or chicken, and tomato salad. Drizzle Balsamic reduction on top. Serve with garlic toasts. Garnish with sliced basil and Parmesan cheese.

Ringling Brothers Giveaway...

I got 4 comments from Central Ohio readers wanting to enter the Ringling Brother's Circus ticket giveaway. I assigned each a number, in order of comment, from 1 to 4. I let random.org pick the winning commenters. Comments number 2 and 4 won. So, Lisa and Susie, you're going to the circus!

Thanks for entering, I'm sorry I didn't have more tickets to giveaway.

Meal Plan

Monday--Noble Pig's Plum Chicken, sugar snap peas, white rice
Tuesday--Honey Thyme Chops, rice, asparagus
Wednesday--Pan Seared Scallops (or salmon for pickier eaters), red skin mashed potatoes, broccoli
Thursday--Bruschetta Chicken Pasta w/Roasted Vegetables
Friday--

Fast Cars and Freedom...

When Jacob and Julianna each turned three, my parents very generously bought them a battery operated vehicle. I was wondering if perhaps the time had come to pass them on, but no, definitely not. Last Sunday they played in them for over an hour. They had a blast.







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You Capture--Letters

If you happen to be here from Central Ohio, leave a comment on my Ringling Brothers Circus tickets giveaway. You could win 4 tickets to opening night of the circus.

Some of my girls favorite summer letters:


Next week: Joy. That will be good for me.

Letting go...

Julianna and I were out having fun with our Wacky Wednesday today. I've been in a bit of a funk lately, worried about life. I look at what my husband earns, and I just can't figure out where it all goes. We should have more savings, we should have more retirement, we should have more put away for college, we should have...you get the picture. It's endless, and depressing, and it weighs on me from time to time; the last week or so has definitely been one of those times.

Anyway, I try, I really do, to keep in mind all the ways we're lucky. There's so much heart break and worry out there on the internet right now. People who are hurting and scared and facing big scary problems, and I know that my worries are nothing compared to theirs. I do know and appreciate that truth, it's just sometimes that doesn't make the difference it should.

Today, Julianna and I were at JoAnn's getting some new craft supplies. We ran into one of Rebekah's old teachers. This teacher is just an amazing person. She was an awesome teacher, and when she had her first child 7 years ago, she chose to stay home and be a stay-at-home Mom. She was a wonderful teacher, she's an even more wonderful mom. The kind of person who was made to be a mom. Her last child was born with severe brain damage. They didn't know for many months, but gradually, they learned that many things they would have dreamed for their precious child will never come true. It's been a roller coaster ride for them, as it would be for anyone. They love their child fiercely, but it's not easy to have a child with so many disabilities. It's not something they would ever complain about, but their life is very different, and much harder, than they anticipated. Whenever I see her, it's just such a powerful reminder to me about what matters, and what doesn't in this world. My friend would love to have to worry how they're going to pay for college for their precious child someday. My friend would love to have plenty of "normal" worries to worry about. She probably would consider it a luxury that I even have the time to worry about these things. Okay God, message received. I'm turning it all over to you, at least I'm going to try my very best. I'll do what I can do, but I'm also going to pray, and trust that somehow it will all work out. Not necessarily how it's "supposed to", because I just don't know that I believe that, but one way or another, life will work out. We're very, very lucky in our lives, and I need to do a better job of remembering that.

WW--When Mommy's Away...

If you're here from Central Ohio, go to my Ringling Brothers Circus tickets giveaway. You have an excellent chance of winning!

The way Mark's back is going, I don't think our plans to expand our garden area this summer are going to happen. So, while Rebekah and I were off Prom dress shopping last weekend, Mark let Jacob and Julianna attack the previous garden area. They flooded it, dug in it, flung it, and just generally had a great time. :-)

Daddy declared the fun over when they decided it was time to start throwing the mud at his car. Imagine.

Check out more Wordless Wednesdays.

Meal Plan

If you live in Central Ohio, enter my Ringling Bros. circus ticket giveaway to win a family pack of 4 tickets to opening night, May 14.

It was a busy, but good weekend. For the most part, we had beautiful weather. The kids had a ball playing outside and relaxing.

Yesterday, they all cooked me a wonderful birthday dinner. So yummy. It's always fun to have someone else cook for you.

Meals this week will be simple. My grocery budget got quite busted, so now we're going to be penny-pinching to try and get through the rest of the week and a half until payday.

Monday--Burgers on the grill, salad
Tuesday--Quiche, Breakfast potatoes, fruit
Wednesday--Homemade Chicken noodle soup, grilled cheese
Thursday--Chicken Gyros, oven-baked potato wedges
Friday--pizza

Check out Organizing Junkie's for other meal plans.

The Circus is Coming!!!

The circus is coming! I am so excited. I have wonderful memories of my brother taking me to the circus when I was in my early teens. We had so much fun together. Finally, I wasn't afraid of the clowns!

The word circus just plain means fun to me, I remember taking Jason and Rebekah, but Jacob and Julianna have never been. I can't wait to take them and build some wonderful memories with them. I know they will absolutely love seeing the elephants and the tigers and the high wire acts. It will all be "Over the Top", and lots and lots of fun. The ages Jacob and Julianna are, they'll probably remember going forever. I'm even hoping to take them downtown the morning the circus arrives and let them watch the elephants parade through town from the train to the arena. So much fun!

The best news of all? Two of my central Ohio readers have the opportunity to win a family 4-pack of tickets for themselves. That's right, leave a comment on this post by April 28, telling me why you want to win, and two readers will win tickets to the Ringling and Brothers "Over the Top" show, May 14, 7:30, Nationwide Arena.

If you don't win, don't despair, you can use the code "FAMFUN" to take $5.00 of the price of tickets. Or, you can print the coupon below to save $5.00 on all performances.

Seventeen

It's a little surreal for me, having a daughter who is 17. When I was 17 I became a wife and a mother. I wouldn't change that for anything. I have been truly lucky and have a wonderful marriage to my best friend, and that firstborn turned out rather well. This post is definitely not about regret. Still, I look at my wonderful daughter today, and I can't even imagine it. It makes me wonder if I was as mature as I thought I was, or if I was as young as she is and just got impossibly lucky. The answer, I would imagine, is somewhere in between.

I had many of the same blessings she has enjoyed. I had parents that loved me very much and would do anything for me, as does she. However, she has had more stability in her life than I enjoyed, and I think that contributes to how young she is. It is a gift to be able to be young, especially in some ways, younger than your years. It's a gift that she's been given, that wasn't entirely ours to give, just as it wasn't my parents who took that gift from me. Life and circumstances made me older than perhaps I would have been at 17. Life and circumstances have been kinder to her.
Growing up in a home with someone with many problems, deep, serious problems, ages everyone. Having my brother die when I was 15 aged me. Those are facts. If it is a gift to be younger, then I'm glad she's had that privilege. I'm glad she has had that luxury of being young. I'm glad she hasn't gotten old before her time.

As I look at my beautiful daughter today, the one thing I would tell her is, it's OK. It's OK to be younger. It's OK to take your time. It's OK to be on your own timeline. Life will wait. Good things will wait. Good things will still be out there when you're ready. Do what's right for you. Be true to yourself. When you're ready, it will all be there.




Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Another year older, another year wiser?

Probably not.

It's my birthday. My firstborn, a natural brat, greeted me this morning with "Happy Birthday Old Lady". Thanks, I needed that. Aren't children just precious? Even if they are (almost) 25? Of course, at 43, I do not consider myself truly old, whereas at 43, he will be. :-)

All right, that's it. That's all I've got. I'm another year older. Nothing to see here. Moving on.

Um, I think I blew this one...

So, Julianna and I were out to lunch yesterday for our Wacky Wednesday. Out of the blue she asks me if the Easter Bunny is real. I said, "That stuff came from somewhere, didn't it?"

She said, "Oh". Then, a few minutes later she said, "Jay says he's not. Jay says it's your parents."

I said, "Oh. Weird."

She let it go at that, as did I. I'm just not ready for that, and I took her willingness to drop it as a sign she's not either. Still, it threw me. I've been a Mommy for literally forever, and I've never dealt with this. Ever. I'm so not ready.

Rustic--You Capture

This week's You Capture assignment was Rustic.

I included this, unedited, because I couldn't believe how fake it looked. It's a close-up of our neighbor's fence, shown below.

Rustic? Not sure, but I love this shot on our old fence.

Next week? Letters. Hmm....

Susan Boyle

Need a feel good story? Unfortunately, I can't embed this, but it's really, really worth clicking over. Amazing. Really. I promise. Check it out.

Britains Got Talent: Susan Boyle

The Seder Plate

This is the Seder Plate that Rebekah painted for us. It suits us perfectly, with one caveat. We have never had lettuce on the Seder plate, never even heard of doing it. That's all right, we pretend a chicken bone is a shank bone, so it gets that one right. :-)

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Easter

Rebekah had a wonderful time in Chicago. She loved everything they did, the Sears tower, Millenium Park and Blue Man Group were definitely part of the highlights. Unfortunately, she came home sick, but better to come home sick than to be sick there. She's really starting to bounce back now.

We had a wonderful Easter. We went to an Easter Egg Hunt at church, my parents came up and threw the kids an Egg Hunt here, we ate and ate. It was a good time. It was the first time my parents have been able to attend church with us at our new church. The kids thought it was a lot more fun to have Grandma and Grandpa at church with us. We all had a wonderful weekend together.

Unfortunately, Sunday afternoon Mark's back went out, again. He's seeing a chiropractor. I've always been highly doubtful about Chiropractory, as has Mark, but if it works, I will be very, very happy for him. He's extremely miserable right now.

Jacob, and friends, in his Easter finest.

I absolutely loved Julianna's dress. I picked out several then let her choose, I think she did a great job choosing. Just what every little girl wants, a dress she can twirl in.

Unfortunately, I don't have a dressed up picture of Rebekah. When we got home from Easter Brunch, Rebekah went to change for the Egg hunt, too late we remembered we hadn't gotten her picture before church. There had been a slight shoe emergency, and when a girl's upset about her shoes, it's not the time to snap a picture.

Jacob and Julianna got to be in their first sack race.

I also learned some things this Easter...when you bake a from scratch, homemade Angel Food Cake, let it cook thoroughly. Really important. Really. It's not fun to clean up all the partially cooked Angel Food Cake that glops out of the pan when you turn it out to cool.

Another lesson? ALWAYS use the guard on the mandoline. Foolish, impatient me, who thought she knew better, darn near almost cut my finger off when the potato slipped. Stupid. How deep does a cut have to be to require stitches, any way?

My heart's still breaking for Mike and Heather. They bury their beautiful Maddie today. They're definitely in my thoughts and prayers.

Passover

I love our Seder Plate. It's not the fancy-schmancy one I always dreamed of having...it's better. Rebekah painted it years ago and it always brings back such special memories.

This year we succumbed to the temptation to do "Seder light". We used the kid's Haggadahs. Jacob and Julianna both got to read this year, that was a real bonus.

Julianna's come such a long, long way with her reading.

The great Afikomen hunt. (Find the matzo, win a prize.)

It was a good night. I'm exhausted from cooking, still melancholy, surrounded by children who aren't feeling well, but trying oh so hard to feel how lucky we truly are. Even with all the worries on our plates, and we've got a few big ones rolling around here right now, I'm ever mindful that we are so very, very lucky.

Heather and Mike are very much in my thoughts and prayers.


Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek