A very, very nice day

Today started out to be one of those days I was dreading. Dreading!

Way too much to do, no time to do it in. Yada, yada, you've been there, I've no doubt. We hadn't even carved our pumpkins yet, we were definitely way behind in the list of things that needed accomplished.

Then, around 9:00, my dad called and said he and my mom were considering coming up to bring Julianna her birthday presents, take us out to lunch, and celebrate her upcoming birthday a bit.

But, But, But, rang out in my head, my "to-do" list pulsating in my head.

Wisely, instead of listening to the throbbing to-do list, I listened to my heart and said that would be great. And I knew it would. I also knew that Julianna has been really hurting about Rebekah and my parents missing her birthday. We knew we are going to see Rebekah next weekend, but we had no idea when we were going to see my Mom and Dad. This was honestly an answer to her prayers, and I knew we needed to make it happen. And I knew that somehow what really needed done on my to-do list would find a way to get done. We made our arrangements, called Jason to include him and the kids (sadly, Lori had to work), and settled in to get ready for our busy before but now insanely busy, day.

We had such a wonderful time. I love watching my kids, and today, Jason's kids, spend time with my Mom and Dad. My parents are awesome grandparents. Julianna absolutely adored per presents, they honestly could not have gotten her anything she would have loved more, and we had a lovely, relaxed, and very drawn out lunch. Very. We sat and talked and talked and it was wonderful.

After lunch Mom and Dad headed back home, Jason and the kids went back to their home, and Julianna had a mini-breakdown because instead of being able to sit down and play with her fabulous presents, she had to attend a 2 1/2 hour Nutcracker rehearsal, which would also necessitate her missing half of trick or treat.

Fortunately, that for me was a light-bulb moment. I could see that my baby girl had had enough. Obviously missing Nutcracker wasn't really an option, but I did yank her early, so she did not have to be too exhausted to trick or treat, nor did she have to miss half of it. I also told her I would make arrangements for her to miss piano on Tuesday and dance, so she could have the precious gift of time. Time to play. Time to relax. Time. Not too much to ask when you're eight. (Luckily, their piano teacher is an awesome mom who understands sometimes something just has to give; I'm not sure if dance will be so understanding, but it's a class, not a rehearsal so their just going to have to go with it.)

It ended up being the best day. Instead of being too stressed and worn out to have fun tonight, she had a blast. Now, she's looking forward to spending tomorrow night celebrating her birthday with her family, (minus Rebekah, but that can't be helped), and knowing that she'll have Tuesday to chill and play.

It feels so wonderful to follow your instincts as a mom and just do what you know is right for your child. She's had a really hard month. The palate expander is not fun, little girls can be really nasty, it's just been trying in many ways. She deserves a break, and I am so happy I can stop the world, if only for her, and let her have one.

PS: The pumpkins got taken care of, trick or treat was fabulous, and, I was right, everything that needed done on that to-do list did get done...or bumped to tomorrow, but that's the way life goes. :)

They may not have gotten carved, but they turned out pretty cool.

Julianna was Elphaba.

Jacob, Harry Potter

Hope your Halloween was full of treats too.

End of October Meal Plan

As I alluded to last week, my work situation is about to change. Big time. It's all good, and I'm grateful, but it's going to require more organization on my part. That's okay, bring it on, I'm ready. :)

Grocery shopping is turning out to be one of the most difficult things for me to fit into our new routine. It's hard to squeeze everything I need to into our weekends. I sure don't want to spend a minute longer than I need to shopping for food. So...I'm going back to an old stand-by, I'm going to try a 2-week meal plan again. Shopping for 2 weeks will help me spend less, and even more importantly right now, will free up some time. I know I'll still need to go to the grocery store weekly for milk, bread, veggies, fruit, but having the huge shopping out of the way should help. BTW--Am I the only one who goes to several stores? I shop at WalMart for the prices of basics--cereals, yogurt, etc. Whole Foods sometimes for produce and our organic milk. A local specialty store, Weiland's, (if you're local check it out, it's really awesome and it's fun to support such a great independent grocer), for meat, pork, chicken, lunchmeat, homemade soups, tons of impulse purchases, etc.; Anderson's for coffee and bread. It's insane, but I'm hooked on what each store does best and not willing to give that up. Eventually, probably in January, I'm going to play around with a monthly meal plan and shopping at WalMart once a month for the staples, then filling in with my beloved specialty grocers for produce, bread, milk, etc. Anyone ever try anything like that?

Daycare lunches:
Mondays--chicken nuggets, apples, pretzels
Tuesdays--grilled cheese, bananas
Wednesdays--macaroni & cheese & grapes
Thursdays--PB&J (if Matt not here), grilled cheese if he is
Fridays--pita pizzas, fruit

Friday--Taquito & Flautas
Saturday lunch--soup from Weilands Yum!
Saturday dinner--
Sunday brunch--Pancakes
Sunday (very early) dinner (Halloween & Nutcracker practice)--Abuelos (kid's eat free in costume)
Monday (Julianna's B'day!!)--ribs, baked potatoes, broccoli, chocolate cake, chocolate ice cream
Tuesday (piano, dance)--Spaghetti & Meatballs (from the freezer!), salad, Fat Witch Apple Spice Bars
Wednesday (scouts)--Beef w/Snow Peas, grilled bok choy, rice
Thursday (dance)--Chicken Gyros, potato wedges
Friday--Trader Joe's Tamales, corn cakes
Saturday lunch (OU--Rebekah!)--out, cupcakes for Jul. bday
Saturday dinner--Seared sea scallops and pasta, salad, bread
Sunday lunch (Julianna's birthday party)--leftovers
Sunday dinner--Flank steak, spinach salad, baked potatoes
Monday (dance)--Antipasta Salad, bread
Tuesday (piano, dance)--Lasagna Style Baked Ziti (I'm going to make one for piano and divide ours in half, putting one in freezer for another day) bread, salad, Pumpkin Crisp (keeps getting bumped, I'll fit it in for sure this rotation)
Wednesday (scouts)--Chinese BBQ pork, fried rice, grilled bok choy?
Thursday (dance)--Trader Joe's Orange Chicken, rice, szechwan green beans
Friday--Wonton Soup, egg rolls

Thank you so much for the feedback on my desperate cry for help. You've given me some wonderful ideas. A friend stopped by with the Dream Dinners cookbook for me to borrow. It's chockful of really intriguing ideas, I'm going to try and find some time to prep some meals to have in the freezer. Going to a DD store doesn't really interest me, but I was very surprised at how appealing the cookbook was.

I'm also going to stock up on pasta sauce, pancake mix, Hamburger Helper and Trader Joe's freezer meals that we like. Those are all great options to have on hand for quick dinners that I had basically forgotten about in my panic the other day. I also realized that I need to let go a little of feeling like I have to make a "certain" dinner for Mark. That's nice when it can happen, and usually it can, but sometimes pancakes just might have to do. :)

Thanks as always for all your support. Check out other meal plans at Organizing Junkies. Have a great week!

{this moment} October 29, 2010

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment.

I love that they live close enough for me to catch these moments.
Check out the Dinoia Family for more {this moments} captures.
xoxo
Happy Halloween

Help! I need your wisdom

Yesterday was a very full day. Very full. I watched the 18 month old and 3 year old I normally watch. I watched my (almost) 2 year old and 5 year old grandkids, and I had an hour long meeting with the mom of a newborn I start watching next week. I had a phone conference with a teacher, I made dinner for the piano teacher, I picked my daughter-in-law up from work, I enjoyed her company for a while afterward as she waited for Jason to finish work. (Yes! He has a job!! It's temporary, but you never know where that could lead.) I took my daughter to dance and watched a short Halloween show. There were some odds and ends that got thrown in there also, such as fretting that the horribly windy conditions would finish off our tree or leave us for a week without power again.

Anyway, it was a long, very full day. A good day but busy.

Foolishly, when I made the piano teacher dinner I didn't make ours as well. Normally I would have. There were a variety of reasons I didn't, but basically it was because it just didn't work to. Normally, that wouldn't have been a terrible problem, but since I pick up J&J from piano, then head straight to her dance class, dinner can be tricky if I don't work ahead. Yesterday, for a variety of reasons, I didn't work ahead.

I ended up picking up Boston Market on the way home. Not a good plan. First of all, it's expensive, $32 for dinner doesn't take long to blow the budget. Second of all, it's just not something I like doing.

I know I am not the only one these things happen to. Please help! What do you do? How do you handle those times when life blows a big hole in your plans?

My new strategy is to have some pantry/freezer meals on stand-by that Mark can make in a pinch while I'm at dance or wherever. What works for you? Do you keep meals around like that? What kind? What works?

My kids are super-picky, but I'm going to have to get past that a bit. Julianna's palate expander makes things tricky too, there's a long list of foods she can't eat right now, but I'm going to bury my head in the sand about that too.

I am going to put together 5 meals that I keep in the house at all times, type up a list of prep instructions and stick it on the fridge, and hopefully not find myself held hostage to the "it's 6:00 and I have no idea what we're doing for dinner" bugaboo again.

So, what would be on your list? What works for you? Please share.

October 25 Meal Plan

Whew! What a weekend. I hope yours was half as good as ours, because then it was fabulous. We accomplished lots (still haven't picked a paint color though, I'm paralyzed), and had lots of fun in the process. Win-win. Woot!

This week is my last week of "normal", before everything gets turned on it's ear again. I'm okay with that, I'm learning, dare I say it, to go with the flow more and relaxxxxx. I'm liking it. :) Honestly though, let's be fair, it's much easier because I'm about to be working much more, which stressful though that is, will greatly help financially, which helps me with that whole relaxing thing.

Here's what we'll be eating this week:
Monday (dance): leftovers--we've got pizza, burgers, chick-pea burgers, you name it.
Tuesday (piano & dance): Emeril's asian chicken, rice, szechwan green beans, some kind of dessert, probably the pumpkin crisp bumped from last week.
Wednesday (Brownies): Chicken gyros, fruit
Thursday (dance): I'm thinking I'll do something with the ribs that are in the freezer, maybe with some fried rice w/ leftover rice from Tuesday.
Friday: Spaghetti & meatballs?? We'll see.

Have a great week everyone. Check out Organizing Junkie's for more meal plans.

{this moment}

2010 Trip to the Pumpkin Farm

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Check out The Dinoia Family for other {this moment} photos.

Don't forget to enter my PinkTogether.com giveaway!

Pink Together

Times up! Random.org picked comment #1, Stephanie, as the winner. Thanks to all who commented. Please, keep going to PinkTogether and leaving comments to build the donations.

Pink Together. Individually we are strong, but together we are stronger. That's the idea behind PinkTogether.com, a group of 680,000+ breast cancer survivors and supporters. At PinkTogether you can share stories, post comments, and send virtual flowers to let people know you're thinking of them. You can also read positive, empowering stores from the 2010 Pink Together Survivor Ambassadors.

I think when someone is newly diagnosed with breast cancer, or when someone you care about is, it can help to hear the good-stuff, the empowering stories. That's one reason why I love the PinkTogether campaign. You can also hear their stories on the Pink Together Facebook fan page and YouTube channel and on special pink packages of select General Mills' brands.

To encourage people to post their personal connections, General Mills will donate $1 (up to $20,000) to Komen for each personal story submitted, encouraging comment posted, or virtual flower of support sent on PinkTogether.com, and for each shared message of hope posted on Pink Together's Facebook page during the month of October (up to $5,000). That $25,000 is in addition to the $2 million donation General Mills has already committed to Komen for breast cancer reasearch and education and community outreach.

To help spread the word about this wonderful program, My Blog Spark, working with General Mills, has provided me with a Pink Ribbon magnet, key chain, travel mug and drawstring backpack, along with coupons for free packages of Big G cereal, Green Giant frozen veggies, Macaroni Grill Dinner kits, Fiber One bars and Progresso soup. It was an awesome package to get in the mail, and, guess what? I get to pass one on to you. All of the items in these wonderful gift packs are from ShopKomen.com, where 25 % of the merchandise purchase price benefits Komen.

To enter, simply tell me in a comment, one way breast cancer has impacted your life.
For extra comments, follow me through Google's friend connect on my sidebar; or post on Facebook about this giveaway. Extra comment too just for visiting PinkTogether.com and checking it out. Just leave an extra comment for each of these you do. I'll pick a winner Sunday night, so you have until 9:00 PM Sunday, EST, to enter. Don't forget to leave an email address so I can reach you.

Get your mammograms, become familiar with your own breasts, nag your friends, moms, grandmothers, aunts into getting their mammograms. Do everything you can to try and raise breast cancer awareness, support early detection and stop this insidious disease. Together we can.

Incidentally, I'm following the story of a friend of a friend who is newly diagnosed with breast cancer. I hesitate to link to her directly here, I'm not sure how she would feel about that, but she linked to a list of the Top 10 Ways to Support a Spouse With Breast Cancer, a lot of it is specific to spouses, but a lot of it is just good information about how to give support to anyone struggling with this or any other disease. Check it out.

Thank you My Blog Spark and General Mills for providing me with this giftpack and the opportunity for one of my readers to win one for themselves.

Eye Glasses and Savings! Win!

Breast Cancer.

It’s everywhere right? Especially now. Did you know October is breast cancer awareness month? I’m guessing that you know someone who’s been impacted by breast cancer. More likely somebodies.

GlassesUSA.com, is an online company offering huge savings on prescription glasses. You know we're struggling right now, I think they would be perfect for that back-up pair of glasses I've been putting off buying for forever.

I wear contact lenses, but my eyes are definitely getting to the point where it would be really nice to have glasses to wear when I'm not wearing my lenses. Up to now I've been fine with nothing, but I'm afraid those days are numbered. Still, money's tight, and cost is definitely a priority. GlassesUSA.com offers a wide selection of frame styles for a price much below my optometrist. They also have coupons on the site to further reduce the pain to my wallet.

With as busy as my schedule is, and as tight as money is, I'm thinking buying glasses online may be the perfect solution for me.

GlassesUSA.com will be donating $1 from every sale of eyeglasses to a breast cancer organization. You should know they have yet to decide which organization, but they’re looking for smaller, national organizations that help support patients as they go through their journey with breast cancer.

If you're in need of new glasses, either as a main or back-up pair, check out GlassesUSA.com, during the month of October, in addition to the $1 donation from each sale, they’re offering a 15% discount when you use the code CancerAwareness. You can check them out on Facebook too.

This is a compensated post from GlassesUSA.com.

Freezer Bag Scrambled Eggs

So, a couple of weeks ago we went camping with Cub Scouts (don't forget you can buy popcorn and benefit Jacob's scouting account!). We were supposed to have eggs in a bag, boil-in-bag omelets, whatever you want to call it for breakfast. To say I was skeptical would be a huge understatement. I had done some internet research ahead of time and it was a very mixed bag. Some of the reports were wonderful and glowing and some were very doom and gloom. The biggest concern seemed to be about cooking in the plastic, but I have to say it seemed fine. There was no sign of the bag breaking down, no sign of the plastic deteriorating. The bag most definitely was not in danger of melting on the side of the pan and making a big mess.

I was convinced to give it a try, and I have to say, I'm thoroughly convinced. Easy, no-mess clean up, and, best of all, Jacob ate it! Jacob's not a great egg eater, but these he really liked. I like that because he has to eat breakfast really early in the morning and lunch is many, many hours later. I prefer him to get some protein with his breakfast to help him make it through. Amazingly, he's started asking to make these at home, and, just as amazingly, he's still eating them. :)

I will definitely be making these any time the kids request them and especially when we're camping. Try them. They're great for camping, but they're also really, really good for any morning's breakfast.

Take 2 or 3 eggs and crack them into a heavy-duty quart-sized freezer bag. That's really important, use a freezer bag and I would recommend a name-brand, generics could be too thin. Add a some salt and pepper, a splash of milk, a tablespoon or two of cheese, and whatever else floats your boat. You could add cooked bacon bits, cooked sausage or ham, sauteed veggies, whatever. Seal the bag up and smoosh everything around. You want all your ingredients mixed up really well. Squeeze the extra air out, and gently place in simmering water. You want the water simmering, but not a hard boil.


Let cook until they're firm and done. I'd guess anywhere from 8-12 minutes. When done, open the bag and tip onto a plate. That's it.

They looked so good to Julianna she wanted to try them too. She is absolutely not a breakfast eater, but she managed a few bites. I'm sure before long she'll be asking for them for lunch or dinner, or breakfast on the weekends when she can eat later and is more interested.

Try them out. They really are good, and fun, and did I mention no clean up?

Popcorn Time!

Once again, Jacob's Cub Scout Pack is selling popcorn.
For every box of popcorn sold, or for every military donation made, Jacob earns money to support his personal scouting. We are truly blessed to have scouting in Jacob's life. He enjoys the many activities they participate in (the picture above practicing for the October pack meeting when they had to put a pumpkin on wheels to race.)

If you'd like to order some delicious Trail's End popcorn, or send some to a military member, please head to Trails-End and enter his personal identifying code: 2599223.

Thank you for considering this, if you have any problems let me know and I'll help you out.

Updates & October 18 Meal Plan

How was your weekend? Ours was pretty wonderful. I had the day off Friday, so Mark took it off too, and we had a lot of fun. We went to Andersons for coffee for Mark, Trader Joe's for some favorites, a toy store for Christmas/Hanukkah ideas for Matt & Lily, Target; basically an afternoon of errands, then home to play. We discovered a new place for lunch that everyone liked, and they had free ice cream for dessert. That night, Mark and I went out while Jason & Lori babysat. Heaven!!!

Saturday, we went to a pumpkin patch and discovered a brand new absolutely incredible park. There's a community beside ours that has the most incredible rec center, pools and parks, way better than where we live. Mark and I laugh, evidently you can have good schools and so-so parks and rec center or awesome parks and rec center and so-so schools. I guess we'll stay where we are and drive to the parks. ;) Anyway, after our day of play, we babysat Matt & Lily so Jason & Lori could have a turn at going out. Much fun. They really are so fun to be with.

Sunday, church and Sunday school, followed by another grocery store, lunch at home, a quick errand at the mall and another trip to the awesome park. The weather could not have been more beautiful this weekend. Julianna had Nutcracker practice, then we enjoyed very yummy dinner--Roast Chicken, roasted potatoes, onions and carrots, roast asparagus, field greens salad with pears and almonds and vinaigrette. Pumpkin pie for dessert. Yum! After dinner Mark took the kids for a bike ride and I cleaned up.

A perfect weekend, well, as perfect as it gets. Mark had a horrible sinus headache all day Sunday (he stayed home from all the fun), and Julianna's having a horrible time with her teeth as I type. So hard watching her hurt so much, during the day she's fine, but bedtime's horrible as that's when we turn the key and her teeth hurt for a good while after.

Still, the good definitely outweighs the bad and hopefully both Mark and Junie will feel all better tomorrow.

The interviews went well. Jason got his job. It's not perfect, but it's a place to start and he's happy about that. I'm not sure about my job yet, there's a couple of things up in the air, but I'm feeling very zen and peaceful about it all, so that's all good. However it all works out I'll be fine with.

Did you catch that the painting didn't happen? It will next weekend. We've chosen copper. I think it will be good, if not, it's only paint and we'll try again. I think I'm going to like it though.

Rebekah's having a great time at school. Check it out. I'm so happy for her.
*******************************************************************
On to the meal planning...

Do you ever stare at your cupboard, fridge or freezer and think "why did I buy this stuff?" No, probably not, but I do. Also, I am so sick of leftovers. So sick! Leftovers are never my favorite, and ever since Rebekah left it feels like we have tons of them. It's not that she ate that much, she truly didn't, I just can't seem to get my cooking adjusted to one less person.

Monday (dance)--Leftover (ack!) chicken & noodles, veggies, applesauce
Tuesday (piano, dance)--Chicken & Dressing Casserole, salad, Pumpkin crisp
Wednesday--Pork chops, mashed potatoes, roasted beets (I've never made these before, should be interesting,) Brussels sprouts
Thursday (scouts, cub scouts)--Broccoli Cheddar Soup, bread bowls
Friday!!!--Who knows and at this point, who cares! It will finally be Friday again. :)

I would hate to tell you how long it took me to put together this meal plan. Not sure why, but nothing is sounding good to me right now. I hate when I hit dry spells like this.

Have a good week.

Check out more meal plans.

My Kitchen Needs YOUR Help! PSF

A few years ago we redid our kitchen. I love some of what we did, some things I would do differently if I could. C'est la vie.

One mistake we made was in hiring the painter we hired. She did a fabulous job in our living/dining room, not so much in the kitchen. She talked me into doing venetian plaster in the kitchen, which I think I would have liked had it been done properly. There are several things wrong.

• She did not truly do venetian plaster--there's not a lot of texture to it. That's actually not all bad as it will make it worlds easier to paint over.
• She didn't seal the plaster, our kitchen is so tiny that when I cook, sometimes the surfaces take a beating. In no time flat, the wall closest to our stove was stained. Seriously, yuckily, stained. I called the painter, she told me she would redo it and seal it and problem will be solved. Well, not so easy. First of all, she did a lousy job redoing it and it doesn't match. You can tell that in the first picture, near the top you can see the "before". Second of all, she didn't seal it first, so the grease stains bled right through in no time at all, except she did seal when she was done, so now the grease stains are sealed in. Yuck.
  

See the stains? Yucky.

This is our tile.

This is the floor. I don't love it, but it works.

These are the cabinets. I love them. Unfortunately I can now see how embarrassingly dirty my kitchen is. Oops!

I can no longer live with that wall. I've talked and talked with guys at paint stores and we think we know how to "fix" things, but I'm paralyzed. I've bought the oil-based primer, but I can not pick a paint color. I've brought home literally 50 colors and just can't decide.

We live in a bi-level. When you come in our home you look up into the kitchen. Our entryway is a deep, vibrant red. Our hall outside the kitchen is a buttery yellow. We're not going to paint the whole kitchen because we're lazy, we have no time/ idea what we're doing, but we are going to paint that one wall.

What color?????

I've thought about pumpkin, a deep yellowy-brown (pulled from the color currently on the wall), red (worry about darkness and it would have to match the entryway (?), chalkboard, green (ruled out), mustard. No idea. Nothing's lighting my fire. I can not figure out what to do.

**Edited to add: I wish we could just try again with the ventian, but it's really not an option. I have no idea what colors she used, nor do I have a prayer of matching it. The professional painter couldn't even match it. :(

If you're brilliant with colors and can give me your opinion, I would really appreciate it. We've got a 3-day weekend coming up. I want to get this done.

Hosted by Cecily and Mary

Today I am

Today I am,

• babysitting for Matt & Lily while Jason has a job interview. I'm praying that works out for the best--whatever that means.
• cleaning the house because tomorrow morning I have a job interview. If I get it, I will shortly be watching 2 8-week olds, plus my other situations, which is a little daunting, but I think I can work it out and it would make a huge difference to our financial situation. Praying that works out for the best--whatever that means. :)
• doing laundry, we're all running out of clean things to wear. It's that wonderful time of year when laundry goes twice as far, we're wearing t-shirts and shorts one day, jeans and long sleeves the next, but I've put it off long enough.
  
• conjugating on a statement of Rebekah's that "she's beginning to discover that people who don't believe in themselves are usually pretty special". There's a lot in that statement that concerns me. It could be nothing, it could be an example of my awesome daughter seeing the special in everyone. That's fine. It could also be my daughter falling into the trap of rescuing people, being their cheerleader, propping them up and doing for them what they won't do for themselves, and that worries me.
  
• contemplating the fact that I have to go make 2 school lunches. So thankful there's no school tomorrow and I don't have to make lunches tomorrow. I really, really hate packing lunches. The only thing I hate more is the thought of making them buy the cruddy school lunch food that they won't even eat.
• writing in my planner 4 times this next week that I will find make time to exercise. I have to start somewhere, my life is not going to get any less complicated than it is right now.
• looking forward to a wonderful weekend. I don't have to work tomorrow (well, after my interview), Mark took the day off to be with us, Mark and I are going on a date tomorrow night (yippee for adult children living nearby to babysit), we're watching Matt & Lily Saturday night, the pumpkin farm is in our future sometime this weekend, it should be a very relaxing, fun weekend.
• thanking God for all my blessings. Life truly is good.
  

It Gets Better.

It Gets Better...what a wonderful message for teens. Every teen needs to hear those words sometimes.

I think teens and sexuality is complicated. It's difficult on many levels. At our local high school there are a number of kids who have come out as gay. Sometimes I worry about that. Sometimes I wonder if some of them are really sure. Sometimes I worry that once they have a label, it can be difficult if not impossible to change that later. Sometimes though, I think back to the friends I had in high school who were gay. Should I say who people thought/assumed were gay, because back then, kids did not typically come out. Back then, they were just "different" and lonely.

I think about them a lot these days.

I think about them when I hear the number one cause of teen suicide is homosexuality.

I think about them when I watch shows like Glee, which I think does a decent job with it's gay character, Kurt. My heart ached for Kurt in this past week's episode where you got a glimpse of the loneliness he deals with as the school's lone gay teen that has come out.

I think, and I feel sad.

I believe that homosexuality is not a choice.

I encourage you to read Mary's brother's post yesterday on Life In a Small Town.

I know homosexuality is complicated. My feelings are complicated. What I do know though is that I never want my kids to think, even for a moment, that if they are gay they would be any "less than". That they would not be loved and accepted by me. I sure never want to think about them killing themselves over it.

I know with this one, like a lot of teen issues, parents are not always privy to what's in their kid's heads. I'm glad to hear of the It Gets Better Project. I hope it helps. I hope it helps kids not feel so alone, or desperate. I hope it helps them truly understand that if they're experiencing difficulty or bullying in their lives, that it's temporary. That things will get better. I hope it makes a difference. I hope it saves lives.

October 11 Meal Plan

This week will be full of leftovers. I did a lot of cooking last weekend while Rebekah was home, her one request was home cooking and lots of it, so that will take some of the pressure off the week.

I'm learning (slowly) that it's easier than I think to incorporate veggies into our diets. When I was growing up, and when we were first married, if I made a meal like spaghetti and meatballs, I would not add a vegetables. Oh, maybe a half-hearted salad, but that's about it. Now, I often add a (hopefully better) salad, but I try to add a "real" vegetable side dish as well. Friday night I made spaghetti and meatballs with broccolini. Then, Saturday for lunch we had Ina Garten's wedding soup (delicous!!!!). I added a loaf of french bread, reheated the leftover broccoloni, added a Caesar salad and cut up some grapes. Jacob and Julianna scarfed up the broccolini, everyone had salad (I think), and all the grapes disappeared. Lesson learned. My kids will definitely eat veggies, it's just a matter of me thinking about and preparing them in ways they like (no frozen veggies).

This week, things are hectic as usual. Tonight, Julianna has dance at 5:30 (maybe by the end of the year I'll have figured out how to cope with that better), then Jacob and Julianna have to be at the school board office for a presentation by 6:45. We should be home by 8:00. Crazy! Tonight will definitely be leftovers.

Monday--leftovers
Tuesday (piano & dance night)--Spicy Orange Chicken, rice, sugar snap peas, some kind of dessert
Wednesday (scouts--brownies & cubs)--maybe more leftovers, we have fajitas, or maybe flounder, rice and green beans
Thursday (dance)--Shrimp Scampi, Caesar Salad
Friday--Date night (woohoo!) Jason's babysitting, we'll be off somewhere to have fun. :)

Hope you all have a good week. Check out more meal plans by Organizing Junkie.

Learning...

Our weekend was wonderful. Some great things happened, some awful things happened, but it was still wonderful. Rebekah was home, so that was really, really nice. Mark was (still) sick so that was not nice. Mark was attacked by yellow jackets so that was really, really awful.

Why wonderful? Welllll, I learned this weekend to stop apologizing for our family. You see, once upon a time, I was very proud of our family and the choices Mark and I had made. Once upon a time I knew without a doubt that we had made good choices. Once upon a time, I knew it didn't matter what our bank balance was, it mattered that we were raising good people surrounded by love. Once upon a time I was very, very smart.

Ironically, blogging eroded that.

Somewhere along the way I bought into the idea that our family was different. "Different" being code word for strange. Somewhere along the way I bought into the idea that because I hadn't finished college and established a career there wasn't value in the choice to be at home raising my children, that it was somehow a default, therefore not worthy. Somewhere along the way I bought into the idea that the only thing of value was our bank balance, retirement accounts, size of our house, etc., and that everything else came last. Somewhere along the way, I bought into a load of crap, and I can't even explain how it happened.

And then, this weekend happened.

This weekend, I remembered that it may not been exactly what I would have planned, it's truly a wonderful plan, for us, to have our children exactly as they are. I love having a 26 year old, an 18 year old, a 10 year old, and an 8 year old. Truly, I wouldn't change a thing if I could. My kids are closer than many siblings and I feel as though I've given my kids the greatest gift I could have, they know they are loved, not only by Mark and I (although, unfortunately that's a gift that not all kids receive), but also fiercely by each other.

This weekend where my oldest drove to school to pick up his sister not just because Mark and I were working, but because he wanted to. This weekend he chose to take his little sister to a concert and to spend time with her, not because he had to, but because he wanted to. This weekend I got to witness how much love there is between the two of them and when you see that, you know you did something right.

This weekend Jacob and Julianna spent hours together playing play-doh. Imagining, creating, having fun together, arguing free, just enjoying each other. Again, when you see that, you can feel you did something right. (Even if those moments are not exactly everyday.)

This weekend I began to see my family again. These weekend I found my pride again. This weekend I realized (remembered?) that even if it never gets better than this, this is pretty damn good and a lot to be proud of, and way more than a lot of people ever have. This weekend my eyes were opened to how wonderful my children are, what good people they are, how successful they are in every way that counts. This weekend, I relished in how much I love my hubby, I enjoy sharing my life with him, and even when he drives me absolutely crazy, I love knowing he's always there and I love counting on our life together.

This weekend, I think, I got my mojo back.

Friday!

Here's some Friday randomness, for what's been happening this week.

• Julianna's adjusting, slowly. She's able to eat and drink now, which is obviously a huge, and very welcome, improvement. She's extremely slllllooooowwwww though. Which is not good. Breakfast has always been a challenge for her, it's gotten much, much worse. She barely eats what, for most people, would seriously be three bites. I'd gotten into the habit of urging her on reminding her constantly to keep eating. As I found myself wondering this morning if this is how eating disorders get started, I realized I have to stop. If she gets hungry from not eating, she's a smart girl, she'll (hopefully) learn to eat more. It's hard, but I'm officially letting that one go. Yesterday was really hard for her at lunch. School called me, she has a tool that's similar to a mascara wand that she can use to poke things out from her palate expander which she hadn't taken to school. I think we were both hoping it wouldn't be necessary. Anyway, it was, and even with me helping her it still took us a good 5 minutes or so to get it cleaned up. By the time I got there and helped her, lunch was over and she had barely eaten. I have a feeling she's going to lose some weight with this whole thing. I keep telling myself it's only been a few days and she's come a long, long way. Hopefully someday it will be normal for her, just in time to get it off, lol.
• Jacob's too funny. We were watching Undercover Boss this week. ( I love our DVR) I don't always let the kids watch it, but this one was with the executive from Great Wolf Lodges. I knew they'd be excited to see the water parks, live vicariously and all that, plus I wanted them to see a woman CEO. They did enjoy it, but at one point the CEO comes face to face with a frog used in one of their programs and she jumped back, shuddered and said she can't stand reptiles. Jacob looked up, clearly disgusted, shouting out, "and she went to college". At first I couldn't figure out what he was so upset about. Then, it became clear, she went to college and called a frog a reptile, not an amphibian. He's such a funny kid.
• Mark's sick. I feel bad for him, truly. However, he's also making me nuts. Definitely more a reflection on me than him. Evidently I deal better with sick kids than sick hubbies. :)
  
• Rebekah comes home today!!! So exciting. I will be spending my day doing laundry (no, not hers, just catching up), cleaning, grocering, baking cupcakes, making Barefoot Contessa's Wedding Soup; spaghetti & meatballs, scribbit's Bread machine bread; and watching 3 children. Ack! I may have set the bar a little high on this one.
  

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend, whatever it entails.

Wednesday

So, how's your Wednesday going? Mine? Not so much. Julianna woke up today with her mouth covered in dried blood. Yesterday getting her palate expander on was really rough on her. She has a bad canker sore on her lips and the lip stretchers they used greatly bothered it. Plus, she still isn't able to eat or drink so she's dehydrated and that isn't helping. I tried to force her to eat or drink a bit this morning, and I mean a bit, she had maybe a dime-sized piece of a bread and butter sandwich, which she ended up throwing up right away. :(

Poor baby. I feel so helpless. I have no idea how to make this better for her. Hopefully she'll adjust quickly now that we're nearing the 24 hours mark. She's home from school today. Until I can get her eating and drinking I don't think she'll have the energy to do much of anything.

Mark came home from work sick this morning. It might make me a wee bit crazy that when I'm sick (as I have been the past four days), life goes on, but when he's sick, life stops. Yup, call me envious, I'll cop to that. I'm feeling better today, not much choice really, Julianna needs her mommy in good shape, hopefully he'll be better soon too.

Yesterday when we were at the orthodontist, I wasn't happy with the way Julianna was treated. I felt like she was treated like just a body in a chair--could have been anyone, get her in, get her out. Julianna was gagging and having a hard time, at one point the vacuum that they use was in the back of her throat by her tonsils, activating the gag reflex even more, and the tech wasn't even paying attention. Not happy.

So, this morning I called the ortho office, asked to speak to the office manager and let her know how I felt. She was very nice and properly upset about it, and assured me it would be taken care of right away. I'm not trying to cause trouble, I really don't like to do that, but mess with my kids and watch me react. I don't take well to that at all.

Hope your Wednesday's off to a good start. I think we're going to go for survival mode on this one. Just get through it, tomorrow's bound to be better, right?

Anyone else have a child who's had such a hard time adjusting to a palate expander? Any advice? I'm all ears.

October 4 Meal Plan

Big week around here! Or not. We'll see.

You see, Julianna's scheduled to get her braces and palate expander on Tuesday. Should I say brace? Right now she only has 1 permanent tooth on top to work with, but they felt they needed to get started as soon as possible. Unfortunately, she has 2 very large canker sores in her mouth and I'm not sure if we're going to go ahead or wait until they're gone. Julianna gets lots of canker sores. Ouch! Anyone have experience with this? I can't figure out why she gets them. She doesn't eat a lot of citrus, I truly have no idea why she gets them. Anyway, if we go ahead with the braces food for the first few days will need to be nice and soft.

Finally, at the end of the week, Rebekah will be home for the first time since early September. I.can't.wait! It will be wonderful to be with her again.

So, here's the plan for the week:

Sunday dinner: Brats, German Potato Salad, applesauce Chicken nuggets & noodles for J&J
Monday (kid's presentation, dance): Chicken Cacciatore, pasta, salad, bread
Tuesday (piano, dance): Chicken & noodles, wheat rolls, pumpkin bars
Wednesday (brownies):
Thursday (dance & cubs): Crockpot Shredded chicken sandwiches, broccoli rice casserole , canned green beans
Friday (Rebekah!!!!): Pork Roast, potato pancakes & applesauce, brussels sprouts (unless she wants to pick something else, which is completely fine. )

Check out more Meal Plans at Organizing Junkies.

Thanks for all your support last week. It helps a lot.