Moment of Realization

Do you ever have one of those moments when you have to sit back and sarcastically say, "Well, isn't that great?" Today I had one of these most wonderful moments. Of course, right before the moment happened I was in a small state of panic running amok through the house while screaming, "ALEX!! WHERE THE HECK ARE YOU?!?" So on to the moment. I'd like to think of our house as kid/baby proof as it can be. But naturally, kid proofing doesn't always work despite all your well laid plans. The layout of our house leaves us with two exits. The front door and the back door. The front door is well protected from any clever escapee children. The handy-dandy hook and eye on the screen door (way up high) has proved useful multiple times. (Though it is only a matter of time before the monkeys figure out how to construct a climbing apparatus that leads them to the key for escape.) Now, our back door leads out through a carport that goes directly to the backyard. It is in a mud room that is off limits to the kiddos via baby gate. Well, as the story begins, we had just come inside so that I could make dinner. I went into the bathroom to help Abby wash her hands. All the while I was hearing Alex complain in the front room that, according to him, he had to "take his basketball outside and play." (Ah ha. You see where this is going, don't you?) After I get done washing miss Abby's little fingers, I go to find Alex so he can do the same. So begins my hunt. It began very simple by checking under the beds and in every room of the house. Then I hollered for him. Then I yelled for him at the top of my lungs upon receiving no answer. Enter: State of panic. I checked the front door and it was still locked tight. I checked the back door and it was still baby-gated. A wave of realization hit me when I remembered hearing Alex's plea to go outside. I stopped and listened and heard the sound of a basketball being bounced on the sidewalk outside in the backyard. This would be the part where I shot off outside like a mad mama bear. And there, merrily bouncing his basketball in the backyard, I found my clever little escapee. I instantly lost my panic but exchanged it for a sense of sheer ire. I took two deep breaths and asked him what the heck he was doing out there and he simply said, "I'm just playing some basketball, mom." I ordered him inside and explained to him that he is to never leave the house without our permission. But when I asked him how he got outside he looked at me with the 'duh' expression on his face and said, "I climbed over the baby-gate and opened the door, mom." This is the moment where I couldn't help but smile and think to myself, "Well, isn't that great?" I guess it's time to install a bell on the door so I know when these two little monkeys plan another jailbreak.

Home Photo Booth

I feel like I need to share some photos with everyone. I utilized the handy little features of my snazzy camera to take some family photos. Thank goodness for the picture delay feature, right? I am in desperate need of a family photo to grace the presence of my walls. And seeing as how going to a professional seems a bit out of the price range for the unemployed, I took it upon myself to start taking family photos in hopes of finding one that I deem worthy of a frame. I'm not sure I've found one quite yet, but here is one session. No fancy clothes. No perfect hair. No cheesy poses. Just us.

Just call me the crazy cat lady

Josh took this picture of me the other night. I was eating cheese. It draws all five cats out of the woodwork at any given time. I think this is the definition of crazy cat lady.

I'm so rarely the subject of the photos. Awesome.

Parenthood

Have you ever seen the movie "Parenthood"? Well, if you haven't, then you probably won't understand anything I'm writing about. Basically it is a movie about...well...parenthood. That sums it up for the most part. Well, today as I was watching my kids run amok through the house and outside and seeing how much trouble they can get into, I stopped to take it all in. Sometimes, when I see other people and their children, I can't help but feel like they have their act together and I don't. As I watched my kids today I saw how completely crazy they can be. (I know, I know...it's called 'being a toddler.' But still...) At one point in the day, Abby was happily banging her head into the wall to make Alex laugh and shortly after, they were both standing on my computer desk jumping up and down on my laptop. I think I really did pull a small chunk of hair out of my scalp at that point that I later clogged my vacuum with. So, as I was putting these moments into perspective, I remembered a scene from 'Parenthood'. Steve Martin's little boy has a bucket on his head and is repetitively banging his head into a wall for no apparent reason. Rick Moranis' character is asking his wife if she wants to have their perfectly behaved, and highly educated child turn out like that. I just happened to have the Steve Martin children. I really do feel like I have out of control kids sometimes. I could call them adventurous or even imaginative. But am I fooling myself? Or does everyone else out there have children who enjoy a little bucket-covered-head-banging? I suppose I will never truly know. For now, I will continue asking my kids the same question I seem to ask them at least once a day: "What on Earth are you doing?" Or my second favorite: "What part of your brain told you that was okay?"

Renaming the Toddler

Dinnertime. Ugh. I tell ya what. If ever there was a time that makes me want to smack my head into the table, dinnertime would be it. It has made me realize that who ever gave children the term 'toddler' was way off. Oh sure, they toddle around when they start living the mobile life. But that only lasts a relatively small portion of their years. So I've decided that they should have named them 'dawdlers'. Every time they eat (not just dinner) it takes them forever to finish eating. But by far, dinner is the worst. I kid you not. We will sit at the dinner table for anywhere from half an hour to an hour every night while they slowly pick away at their food. And this has nothing to do with me forcing them to eat. These little monkeys get down from the table whenever they are ready. Whether they eat two bites or lick their plates clean, it's totally up to them when they are done. I sit with them until they are done because it's supposed to be family time. But they dawdle, dawdle, dawdle the evening away. So let's put this new name for the toddler into perspective, shall we? When you are taking a lovely stroll down the sidewalk, they stop every ten inches to pick something up or examine it closely. Dawdling. When you say, "Okay kids, time to go inside now," it takes them three times as long to go inside as it did to go outside. Dawdling. When you try to get them to go to bed, they find every single thing possible to distract them away from actually reaching the ultimate goal of their beds. Dawdling. Yup...I've decided to make it official. I no longer have two toddlers. I have two dawdlers.

Funday Sunday - Pizza Chicken

I have been making this (slightly modified) dish for the last couple of years because it is super quick and easy to throw together with little to no effort involved. I think it's pretty darn tasty and the kids actually sort of eat this. I don't have a vast number of meals that I can make that are both kid friendly and milk-free. I have a dandy little list that I have on my fridge and every night I pluck one of my few and limited meal ideas off of it and serve it up. Keep in mind that, though they taste good, they aren't exactly as wonderful as creamy mac-n-cheese. (Golly I miss mac-n-cheese) Unfortunately the kids don't really agree and not a single meal, short of hot dogs or chicken nuggets, is eaten eagerly. So I settle for what I have and hope that one day they will grow to love the meals. So this week I give you...

Pizza Chicken*

6-7 Frozen chicken tenderloins
1 Jar of pizza sauce (14 oz.)
Pepperoni
Sliced black olives (opt.)**

Preheat oven to 375°. Place the frozen chicken in a casserole dish. You can use as much or as little chicken you want/need and can also use whole chicken breasts if you choose. You will have to up the cook time though for thicker meat.*** Cover the chicken with some pizza sauce. Place slices of pepperoni over the top of the chicken and then sprinkle the black olives over it too. Place in the oven uncovered for 40-50 minutes until the chicken is cooked. Serve and spoon excess sauce over chicken for dipping.

*This recipe originally called for shredded mozzarella cheese that you place on top about half way through cooking, but obviously I can't use it. I've tried soy-mozzarella options, but it sort of just disappears into the sauce during cooking. Pretty much a waste of $6.00 fake cheese.
**If you don't like black olives, then you can use any other pizza topping that you might enjoy more. (i.e. mushrooms, bell peppers, or onions)
***For an even quicker meal if you are in a hurry, you can defrost the chicken in the microwave and then subtract about half of the cook time. Most frozen bags of chicken have cook times on the back of the bag, but thawed is between 20-30 minutes.

Third Time's a Charm...right?

As the old adage goes: The third time's a charm. I suppose that in many cases this is true so I can only hope that there is some good in our recent 'third time' event. Perhaps this will surprise you more than it surprised me. Once again...Josh has lost his job. He was laid off on Friday. Again. Upon receiving his phone call at an unusually early hour in the day, I was less than surprised by his news. He said that he'd gotten the news around 9:00 in the morning that he got the ol' heave ho. After the first two lay-offs, I believe that the news will no longer surprise me. And here I was thinking that the economy was supposedly getting 'better'. Either I was badly mistaken or we are having an abnormally long strain of bad luck. Since Josh's first lay-off from his three year job, I have become skeptical at best as to whether he will ever keep a job for a lengthy period of time. I do suppose that things happen for a reason. If you follow the blog, then you will know that we were hoping to find a more spacious house to move into since Josh's job was starting to look more permanent. If not a house, then a storm shelter to help us through tornado season. Nothing came up and the storm shelter fell through which made me a very unhappy mama. The one thing that really drives me nuts is knowing that Josh will be on the bench for an undetermined period of time. It's not the lack of work that bothers me as much as not knowing what kind of hope there is for getting a job. Looks like we better get used to unemployment. I feel another month of waiting around the corner. Hopefully I won't go into a massive depression and gain my 11 lost pounds back. (Jjust kidding)