Happy New Year!

And we hope that it's not sucking worse than 2008. I've discovered Facebook, gotten a dog, and had my first successful sell on Craig'sList. Oh, and because of psychotic cold weather, I've been stuck in the house with both kids since Wednesday. HELP! And the garage door opener broke.

We're almost out of milk, the oldest (Moose or Squirrel, not sure which) is driving us all insane, the youngest isn't much better. In fact, she just toddled off with my office garbage can!

Today was Jay's birthday. I sent us flowers and made a little cake. He would have been 36. We honestly were thinking we might get to have the big 4-0 party for him. Bummer. But, it's not too bad of a day. Tomorrow, it will have been what, 5 months since he died? Wow. I still miss him. It doesn't get better, by the way. It just gets more managable.

My resolutions for the year....
1) Get more exercise. Easy with the dog needing to go out 3-5 times a day and no fence.
2) Spend less eating out. Hard, but easy right now cause it's too darned cold.
3) Get more organized.

I think I can do those.

Meal Planning: Plan C

I have been reading Flylady.net, and fluttering along, and this month's habit is Meal Planning. I like this idea, but really suck at it! But, I do have one standby meal that's easy to do on a moment's notice. It involves boxes and cans and jars and frozen food, gasp! But, when your plan A meal didn't get thawed out enough, for whatever reason, and your plan B plan needs an ingredient that you just used up last night.... well, that's when you pull out plan C.

Take any number of preformed, frozen hamburger patties. The number varies based on how many you're feeding, what you're using it for, etc. I use two for my 3-4 person table. Use a spoon to scrape them and chop them into pieces while you brown them on reasonably high heat. Viola, you've got ground beef. See where this is heading?

Hamburger helper, spaghetti with meat sauce, I even can use this to make squaw corn, which involves draining a can of corn niblets and tossing it in with the meat and a can of undiluted tomato soup. Serve with corn bread muffins if you have time to throw together a box of them.

Yes, it's prepackaged, but it's fast. Serve it with a salad, rolls, or a veggie, and you've got a reasonably balanced meal. You can also buy those prefrozen hamburger patties cheap during the cookout season and store them in your freezer until you need them.

I have two young kids, so meat noodles and a veggie are a staple in our house. I've always said that toddlers can eat their weight in noodles.

I now have two big leftover containers filled with penne and meat sauce, ready for lunch this week. Looking forward to THAT, hugely. And the bath for the toddler, afterwards.

-Vat

Use for the Melon Baller!

In the wake of the Halloween festivities, I must share something profound. Really. All right, not really. But, when presented with having to gut and carve pumpkins for my two young'uns, I discovered a neat tool: the melon baller. Not only good for watermelon and canteloupe... it also can be a useful tool to de-seed all sorts of squash including pumpkins.

Gone for me are the days of an ice cream paddle or tablespoons... the melon baller made quick work of my pumpkins' pumpkins. Watch and see, you'll soon see an infomercial from that OxyClean guy selling a melon baller with a fancy name. It'll probably rhyme too.

Another tool worth the expense: a hand battery powered jigsaw. I used my black and decker for years before scoring a small version designed especially for Halloween. Much easier for the grunt work of carving and you also can get very nice looking details.

I also enjoy using staples... as in carpentry staples from a staple gun. Power tools rule for pumpkin decoration!

Don't forget to stock up now on those little battery run tealights. Safe for kids and long lasting. Some, you can even replace the batteries.

Happy Halloween!

And thank goodness, almost done with all the election nonsense.

--Vat

Feed Your Family Cheap and Healthy!

Better yet--- without cooking! That's right kids. All it takes is a local buffet that has a nice kids policy. My favorites: Pizza Ranch and Old Country Buffet. This really works neat if you have kids under 2 and for lunch time. Even the traditional chinese buffet can be great, just be a bit more careful here, salt can really stack up.

So, your lunch: 8 bucks. Dinner: 9 bucks.
Each kid: 50-75 cents per year, with under a certain age free.

Let's say you have two kids, one 5 and one a year old. Your cost for eating out with them?
10.50 - 11.75 plus tax, depending on how their yearly charge works. Dinner, add about a dollar.

Now, think about this... the kids get salad/fruit/veggies. Order them milk to drink instead of soda, and be smart in your choices with them especially at dessert time. All is included, and it teaches your children to take what they want but eat what they take. If you have adventurous eaters, your kids could snag the entire rainbow of fruits and veggies. Five a day, anyone?

And of course, you make your own choices carefully too. Start with a salad/soup and use moderation with the big piles of carbs that buffets are so fond of. Behave at the dessert pizza or dessert counter. Water or unsweetened drinks, a lot of places are offering more than just diet cola now, and you're cutting a nice pile out of your calorie count.

Now, let's compare that 11.75 with the average cost of eating at a fast food chain.
Your meal: at least 5 bucks.
Two kids (age doesn't matter here): 4 bucks each.
So, we're looking at a whopping 13 dollars... and what are you all getting? Burger or chicken, fries, apples at the one that starts with M and the one that starts with B. Your sides vary at the one that starts with W, but you're still left with a limited menu.

I love fast food too, but I'd rather toss veggies and fruits at the kids than french fries. Admittedly, there is the time factor; it takes longer to do a buffet than the drivethru or even eat in in your fast food place.

Also, you SHOULD tip at the buffets, especially if you trashed your table. I throw a buck per kid if it's really bad, or at least a dollar for the toddler since half of her food doesn't make her mouth. I know, you get your own food, why should you tip? Because the corporate management takes advantage of a loophole in the food service laws that say they can pay their people 3 bucks an hour if they're 'service' personel since they can receive tips. Blargh, but that's for another post.

So, you're about even by the time you compensate for crummy workplace logic, financially, but I still think the fact that the kids get a varied, healthier diet counts for a lot.

And, if we all start making ourselves heard, that we would rather have more choices than less, healthier than apples and fries... carrots would rule, btw, we can change the world. And according to both parties of my policital system, we all want change. Heh.

Change the world, one buffet at a time!

What's lost is lost....

I feel like an entire part of me has died along with Jay. The part of me that gamed, played Playstation.... I don't even know how to show the kid how to play Star Wars Legos. Part of it is that he always handled that, that was their thing, part of it is that I don't think I can. It hurts too much. I find myself wondering if I will ever get that part of myself back. It seems like that part was the part that knows how to have fun... and it's dead too.

It was a gift to have a husband that understood completely and allowed me to embrace the parts of my life that weren't mainstream. The gaming, the Sims, the mudding, computer games. Right now, all that feels left is the mom parts; that which handles the day to day. Getting the kids to school, dressed, home, fed, bathed, in bed, to do it all over again. Is that all that will remain? Or is that all that doesn't hurt to keep alive right now?

I am sad today. What an understatement. My heart hurts. My shoulders hurt. I feel heavy with my grief, and yet, I don't cry. I am a stalwart soldier. I am Mommy. And even later, the sadness is contained. When there is no one to see me, I still am not able to let it out.

I'm sure that no one wants to read about my grief. Move on, world, if you can't handle it.

Random Messages on Yahoo

Is anyone else getting tired of the random messages on Yahoo? No, people, Hannah, Danielle, Monica, or any other person did not give you my information. Somehow you got it and thought it'd be.... funny? Interesting... to send me a message and try and get me to commit to hooking up this weekend.


Oye.

Why do people do this?
Seriously. I'm looking for answers.

Leave the Palin kid alone! Geez.

I am a Democrat. Caucused in Iowa, for Hillary, was sad when she didn't get the nomination. Etc. Ect. Etc.

But for the love of all that is holy, leave that 17 year old kid out of the politics! Geez. As if it isn't bad enough that the kid's preggers and 17, we really have to have rumors that her mother, the Governor of Alaska, faked her own pregnancy to cover up Bristoll's, AND.... that the cute baby she had is really her granddaughter. (Not to sound crass here, but does anyone know the statistical likelyhood of a 17 year old having a baby with Downs? Yes, it happens, but come on.)

Because no one in the state of Alaska woulda noticed.... maybe it was all the snow? Or did we miss the sekret clandestine trip to a third world country where the 17 year old could have had the baby AND all the prenatal care needed.... AND how did Sarah Palin herself convince her doctors to go with her on this one.

Uh huh. Sarah Palin had the kid, folks, Bristoll is now, unfortunately pregnant, but that really doesn't have a bit to do with who's going to win in November. Can we get back to what the Republicans believe is really important? Like how the war is going great and how all of the country's problems are caused by illegal immigration and we don't need no stinkin' healthcare!

It's got to be heartbreaking for that entire family to see their mental plan for their daughter's life take such an unexpected and drastic detour. Now, with family support, we can all hope that this detour doesn't become a lifetime path and that the 17 year old can pull her life back together and get it back on the road she had in mind before the little oops happened.

Children of candidates really should be off limits. This girl's getting more attention than the Spears kid.

Vatriala