girlymama

gourmet fridays: seared steak with arugula-roasted pepper salad

**Gourmet Fridays is something we like to institute when we are trying to save money by not going out to eat. I find a recipe I've been wanting to try, get the luxury of cooking a real meal without children underfoot, and we get to enjoy the results. (Usually. Unless something goes terribly wrong. Which happens.) Anyway, TRY THIS. It was soooo good.

Seared Rib-Eye Steak with Arugula-Roasted Pepper Salad
7 tbsp olive oil
2 rib-eye steaks (about 1 pound each and 1-inch think)
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
3 cups fresh arugula, washed and spun dry
1 1/2 cups sliced roasted red bell peppers, rinsed and patted dry
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 small block Parmesan cheese (about 8oz)

Rub 2 tbsp of the oil over the steaks, then sprinkle with 1 tsp salt and pepper. In a saute pan, heat 1 tbsp of the oil over a medium flame. Add the steaks and fry until seared on the outside and cook to desired doneness, about 5 minutes per side. Using tongs, transfer steaks to plate and let rest 10 minutes.

Line a large platter with the arugula. Tear the roasted peppers into large pieces and scatter over the arugula. In a small bowl, whisk the remaining 4 tbsp oil, the balsamic vinegar, 1/2 tsp salt and pepper and any juices from the steaks that have accumulated on the plate. Season the dressing with more salt and pepper.

Cut the steaks across the grain and diagonally into 1 1/2-inch-thick slices. Lay the slices atop the arugula and peppers, drizzle with the dressing. Using a vegetable peeler, shave the Parmesan cheese over and serve immediately.

recipe origin: Everyday Italian

chronicles of house arrest

So what are we going to do all day. At home. With no car. And two girls who, while doing better than yesterday, are still driving me crazy?

Humm..

7:45 - Breakfast. Grace manages to spill Cheerios down the inside of her nightgown. We're still not sure how.
8:15 - We all wave and watch our car back down the driveway with Daddy. Not to return for at least 9 hours. Mommy wipes a tear out of her eye.
8:30 - Kids settled in front of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Mommy has 30 minutes to shower and get ready for the day.
8:54 - Husband calls. Car in for 80,000 mile service. Going to cost a whopping $1,600. Power steering lines corroded, new timing belt needed, freaking headlights are out of alignment (&#^$%), among other things. Keeping in mind that my van is going in for new tires tomorrow. Commence relaxation breathing exercises. Not working.
8:57 - Look outside and notice its raining. Great. Now we're truly stuck inside all day. Decide to let the kids watch a little bit more tv while I dry my hair and try to not to think about finances.
9:00 - Not working. All I can think about is how we are no longer allowed to spend any money. Ever. Again.
9:20 - Decide to wash everything in the house, since I can't go anywhere anyway. Throw in first load of laundry. Clean up breakfast dishes while girls finish up tv show they are watching.
9:30 - Sit in the floor doing puzzles. Put Ellie in time-out for taking all of Grace's puzzle pieces.
10:15 - Finally dress Grace, who has been running around in underwear since she split her cereal. Put girls at kitchen table with paints. Load #2 of laundry.
10:30 - Snack time. Finally make coffee - maybe that will help my headache.
10:53 - Kids spill paint all over selves, table, floor. Clean up kids. Plop them in front of a movie while I clean up without "help."
11:10 - Kids quietly snuggled on couch watching Bambi. I decide to get a very, very large cup of coffee and work on my Bible Study homework in peace. Notice sun coming out - maybe there's hope for this day yet! Begin load #3.
11:50 - Start preparing lunch. Decide to go for it and pull slipcovers off sofas to wash as well. Can't remember when were last washed. By the looks of it, eons ago. Laundry will take all day anyway...
12:00 - Lunch.
12:30 - Put rainboots on kids and send them outside is sun that is peeking through clouds. Praying that they will use up enough energy to take naps.  Figure possible mud and dirt is worth the pay-off.
1:00 - Naptime. Glorious naptime. Don't care if they sleep or not at this point. Close door and tell them they may not emerge until 3:00. Before that means trouble. Go downstairs to lay on couch for a bit. Ignoring thumps and bumps coming from room above. Try to come up with a brilliant activity to make the afternoon fly by.

i'm out of ideas.

I have no idea what to do with my kids. They are driving me crazy. Its all tattletales and fights and ignoring me.
This morning, for example:
Me: Grace, take that out of your mouth.
Grace turns away, since apparently if she can't see me, I can't see her.
Me: Grace, I said to take that out of your mouth.
Ignore, ignore.
Me: Grace! Take that out of your mouth!
Actually walks away from me..... with it still in her mouth!!!
Me: GRACE SANA!! Get over here NOW!

This has been our last two or three days. Husband is coming home to an increasingly frazzled and harassed wife. The worst is naptime. I dread naptime. This week, I'm totally exhausted and I can barely focus my eyes by 1:00. I need to lay down and rest. But, of course, the kids are causing trouble. So they get in trouble. Then 2 minutes later, they are right back doing whatever they were before. They actually made me cry yesterday. Twice.
Thankfully, this morning they are both going to school for 3 hours. So I will get my first break all week. I plan to:
1. Go get my blood work done for my OB. Needles! That will relax me!
2. Work on my Bible Study homework and do some serious praying about this, since I am feeling very overwhelmed and inadequate. And I'll get to do it all in actual, real peace and quiet.
3. Take a nap with whatever time is left over.

update: game plan
Okay. They both had a good nap. I have some activities planned for the afternoon to keep them busy. And we have a new reward chart to track being loving and obeying. And there is a lot of discipline and time-outing going on. But they seem to be getting into shape. Time will tell, when we're home all day alone together tomorrow.

wordless wednesday - seen at the zoo Saturday

baking with mama

In an attempt to be a more fun mommy, here we have: Baking with Mama!

We made fresh apple crumbles. I was looking for something they could mix with their fingers. Since there would be no spoons to hit each other with and I needed to wash the floor anyway. Also, due to my recent cravings for apples, we have approximately 1 bushel in the fridge right now.

**I took the recipe off, since I really don't want you to try it. These came out only okay. I was combining two recipies....  Still yummy, but what isn't yummy smothered in ice cream!?!?

average recommended pregnancy weight gain: 25-35 pounds.

Here are 5 reasons I will be blowing that recommended weight gain out of the water with this pregnancy:

1. Due to morning sickness, I only want to eat things that I usually avoid. Like bread. And potatoes. And all those starchy-carby foods that aren't good for you anymore according to Oprah, Bob Greene and other experts.

2. I now hate diet drinks. Hate them. I used to live for Cherry Coke Zero. Favorite drink EVER. But now, anything with fake sweeteners tastes awful to me. Crystal Light, Diet Coke, Splenda (sob!), even my beloved Cherry Coke Zero. While my Husband is thrilled, as he hates diet drinks and is always reminding me as I'm drinking that they are going to give me cancer, I miss those lovely caffeine-laden, calorie-free bubbles. I love drinks with bubbles. Sigh.

3. My biggest craving is fruit. Especially really sour apples. This may help me stay just shy of weighing more than my husband. However....

4. My other craving is Cheetos. Which will make my friends and family laugh. No, actually, it will make them fall off their chairs in hysterics. Why? Because I hate cheese. Hate it. Yet, somehow, Cheetos are just about my favorite food right now.
Woe be to the Husband who finishes off the pregnant woman's Cheetos while watching soccer because he will be headed out to buy her more as soon as the game is over. If he lives that long.
5. And, finally, saving the best for last, some genius, who I would love to personally thank, invented these:

Coincidence that these were invented just as I got pregnant? I. Think. Not.

god for real life

This post on Beth Moore's blog was a huge blessing to me this morning. Just what I needed to be encouraged about:
"God's Word and His ways were meant for real living. If we keep saving sacred practices for sacred life-moments, we will never truly see our theology collide with our reality. We may feel a tad better at church and more spiritually in-tune at Bible study but we'll never get the fact that Christ meant to infuse Himself into our relentless carpool lines, traffic jams, elevator rides, grocery store check-outs, expense reports, tank fill-ups, and family fights. If we reserve divine moments for divine situations, we are in for long waits and short visits. I don't know about you but I need Him more than that."

So fantastic. Read it, please!!!!

qualities of a mother

There are some obvious, mushy qualities that everyone talks about. Things like a mother's "unconditional love" and "patience" and "self-sacrifice" blah blah blah. But I've been noticing some not-so-sentimental ones that come in very handy in keeping sane during this little adventure called motherhood.

1. the ability to ignore things. Things like sticky floors. Fingerprints on the walls. That the entire roll of toilet paper has been unrolled and then (very messily) re-rolled going the wrong direction. That little foot that will not stop kicking the back of your seat no matter how many times you ask its owner to stop. That favorite movie or cd that plays over and over and over and over and over....

2. the ability to hold two conversations simultaneously. This usually comes in handy when you are talking on the telephone. Because you can not even see your kids all day until the phone rings. Then they have at least 6 very important questions. This may fluster some people, but a mom can take it in stride. "Yes, I'm calling to make an appointment for my minivan. No, you can not have a cookie right now. I was hoping to bring it in next week. Because I said so, that's why. Well, its making this weird clunking sound when I turn corners. I mean it, if you take a cookie you will be in big trouble! I checked under all the seats and found a bunch of stuff, but its still making that sound. Oh, you are in so much trouble when I hang up this phone, young lady. Wednesday is perfect! Thanks!"

3. the ability to survive on very, very little sleep. This is learned quite early and comes in handy often. The exhaustion does not end when the baby is "sleeping through the night." There will still be nights where you are up 6 times with your four-year-old.

4. the ability to get down and dirty. Besides the fact that you may find it seriously difficult to shower, no job is beneath you now that you are a mom. Cleaning up poop? Your job. Getting peed on? Check. Human Kleenex? That's you. Barf? Oh, yes. There will be barf. All you, honey.

5. the ability to keep your mouth shut. Like when you want to scream "What is the matter with you? Have you learned absolutely nothing since you've been born!?!?!?" But instead you grit your teeth and say "Now what did we learn about flushing rocks down the toilet? Is that a good idea?" This really comes into play when your child starts to dress themselves. "Um, yeah. That looks great, sweetie. I would have never thought to wear those things together. Are those my socks?"

6. the ability to multi-task. This is not surfing the Internet while watching tv or ironing while talking on the phone. This is serious multi-tasking. This is cooking dinner while helping your child with homework while vacuuming while making lunches for tomorrow while doing laundry while baking cupcakes for a class party. During which you might be talking on the phone to another mom doing the same things.

7. the ability to get over it. Quickly. Get over that sickness. Get over being tired. Get over that bad mood. Get over that annoyance with the know-it-all room mother who you really, really want to tell to get over herself. Get over that lingering anger with your child. Moms have to power through and keep going. Life is too quick and too busy to stay sick/mad/annoyed for long.

8. the ability to live without privacy.  It starts in the delivery room where your sense of modesty gets stomped on by the legions of perfect strangers who will see your hoo-ha. Its never getting to pee by yourself. Its having your peaceful shower interrupted, as your child's head pops into view asking, "Are you done yet, Mom?" Its never being able to eat or drink anything without answering 20 questions about what it is, what it tastes like and whether they can have some. Its little bodies crowding you out of your own bed. Its little mouths that repeat things you say, sometimes with embarrassing consequences.

9. the ability to wing it. You can plan and plan and plan. But your day will rarely reflect said plan. Kids get sick on the day you absolutely must go somewhere important. Babysitters cancel and you're stuck dragging your kids to your ob/gyn appointment where they ask terribly embarrassing questions while your doctor (who has 3 kids herself) tries not to laugh outloud. Or your day was going perfectly normal and somehow you ended up in the emergency room wondering how many stitches it will take this time. Or you go to open that package of chicken breasts for dinner and notice a funny smell so you look at the package to discover they expired week ago. Or you forget to make dinner completely. So you put everyone in their pajamas and announce its backwards day and you're all having cereal for dinner.

What qualities do you think mom's need to have?

horrible mother

So today I gave my girls haircuts. Oh. My. Goodness. Gracie's hair is SO short. Not only should I have known that it is impossible to get a 3-year-old to sit still for longer than .8 seconds so it is extremely difficult to cut their hair straight. But why didn't it occur to me that when you cut curly hair wet is gets so much shorter when it dries?!!?!? Why?!?! WHY????

She will be telling her therapist about this some day, as she wonders why there were no pictures taken of her from September 2007 until July 2008.

Husband keeps making helpful suggestions (after his initial "What did you do to her hair??? comment) like "Maybe if you cut that bottom part a little shorter it would even it out?"
"NO!" I say "NO!! I'm never cutting her hair again!!! I'm going to take her to a salon when she is 7 and this haircut is grown out enough that I'm not totally embarrassed when the stylist asks me who gave this adorable girl this ridiculous haircut!!!!!!"

Yes, I will post a picture when she will stand still long enough.
Okay - Here she is on Saturday, getting a pony ride at the zoo. Look at those curls. Sob! Please don't throw stones at me for even thinking about touching those curls.

Here's the best post-traumatic haircut one I could get:

Not a good shot. But this video will show you why they were all a little blurry. She was a bunny, after all. And this is how much energy she has after going to ballet class and not having dessert. Can you just imagine her on sugar?

guilty secrets

Here are my guilty parenting secrets. Now, I know all of ya’ll are convinced I am perfect *ahem* so you may be quite shocked by some of this:

1. My kids have never had a swimming lesson. But I told my pediatrician they had because I was embarrassed. They've also never been to the dentist.

2. I’m really bad about giving them vitamins. Really. Bad. Seriously, if you see Dr. Field, please don't tell her.

3. They have gone an entire calendar week without a bath. Yup, that's right. Seven days.

4. I let my kids eat non-organic food. Like candy. And McDonalds. And cookie dough. And they both love to take sips of my coffee.

5. My kids call for Daddy in the middle of the night because I’m mean to them when they wake me up. Especially after 2am.
6. When Daddy is out of town, we have either scrambled eggs, cereal, grilled cheese or frozen pizza for dinner. That’s about it. This gets old when he is gone for a full week. If I'm feeling guilty about not cooking, I may compensate by taking themour for pizza.

7. My kids have never, ever used glitter because the very thought of an open glitter container in my house makes me hyperventilate.

8. My kids regularly make me cry. Not in a good way.

9. I sometimes feed them breakfast, then turn on the TV. And go back to bed for another hour or two.

10. I usually don't do all that extra stuff the school sends home for "extra enrichment." I also rarely volunteer in the kids schools because I can't stand most of the other Alpha-Moms.

There you have it. Some of my guilty parenting secrets. (That's right, I said "some" there's more that I'm too embarrassed to share ;-)