Tired Mama.com

Christmas Baking...

I'm doing some Christmas baking this week.

Yes, I know it's almost March.

But I like to bake, and so I tend to print and save quite a few recipes as I stumble across them on the internet, in magazines or in my hometown paper.

And today, as I was trying to make sense of all the papers in my office, I realized that quite a few of the pages that I had to either file or recycle were recipes.

So, I'm going to spend the next few weeks trying them and taste testing them so I can decide which ones I should keep and which ones I should get rid of.

I don't think my family or friends are going to complain if I try a few new cookie and cake recipes out on them over the next few days and weeks.

The downside of this of course, is that after a few weeks of munching, I'm probably going to have to go downstairs and get on the treadmill and uh, run.

Because by the time I finish testing the recipes I’ve saved it'll almost be shorts and swimsuit season.

And after a month of baking I'm probably gonna need to either exercise or start shopping for some bigger sized warm weather clothes.

And I hate shopping for bigger sizes.

Sigh.

 

Just pass the cookies...

I don't like coffee.

Nope.

Don't like it, don't drink it, never have and probably never will.

Now, don't get me wrong, I understand how people need it to get their morning started. My husband isn't his usual jovial self until he's made his run to Tim Hortons, but me?

I get my morning kick by eating an Oreo (okay, maybe two) every morning with a glass of milk.

And I'm pretty sure Oreos are not good for you, but that's okay because I offset that with milk, which IS good for me.

And yes, I did hide in the closet when my kids were young so they wouldn't know I was eating cookies for breakfast while I forced them to eat fruit.

And, now that my kids are older, I still eat my Oreos every morning except now I don’t hide.

And my kids, just eat their fruit and shake their heads.

Yum.

I was baking chocolate chip cookies this morning when I noticed, at the end of the recipe, they listed how to freeze the dough so that you could bake cookies later in the week if you wanted.

Seriously?

Cookie dough in my freezer would be eaten before it even had time to set.

It's sorta like people telling me what I can do with leftover chocolate or wine.

It just doesn't happen here, people.

So, just to set the record straight, we don't have leftovers of anything in this house except perhaps salad and um, squash.

And, perhaps Brussels sprouts. If I made those, which I don't.

Yeah, at my house, we're pudgy - but we're happy.

How about you? What leftovers do you have in your fridge? And, is Ketchup considered a leftover? 

There should be a law...

I think we need to put a private member's bill before parliament.

I would like to propose that we put through a law that states that Halloween candy cannot be sold until noon on October 30th and must be either consumed or disposed of by November 2nd.

Will you support me?

My hips and waist will thank you.

Sigh.

PS. I've been nominated as one of the top 25 Canadian Mom blogs in the Circle of Moms contest. If you get a minute, please click on the badge below and vote for me. You can vote once every twenty-four hours. Thank-you!

When I last checked I was #42!  Thank you, everyone!

 

600 Reasons why Moms Drink - Reason 555

My family is visually challenged.

They can't seem to find ANYTHING without my help.

What they are looking for might be the ONLY thing sitting in an empty cupboard in front of them but unless I leave whatever I am doing and stand beside them to point this out? They can't see it.

Why is that, anyway?

Sigh.

We keep the milk in the refrigerator at our house.

<Sarcasm font on> Shocking, <Sarcasm font off> I know.

Spring Break, why did you pass by so quickly?

I would like to stop and reminisce about last week for a few days.

My spring break consisted of gorgeous blue skies, warm weather, harmonious family time and laughter.

Now I'm home and while it's lovely to be here, being home also means house chores, laundry and work. So, today I give you this,

Let's just gaze at this for a few days before this blog returns back to its regular ranting programming....

Just killing time...

This morning I went to buy a cup of tea at a local coffee shop while my daughter was at her music lesson.

Although I don't go to this particular coffee shop every Saturday morning, I do go there often enough that I recognize the people working behind the counter. This morning, in my standard polite Canadian way, I asked the gentleman who was serving me how he was.

'Just killing time until I die,' he replied.

 Ouch.

He did grin at me after he said it, which led me to believe he was just looking for a reaction, but, really?

I mean, REALLY?

I guess in reality that's what we're all doing, but thanks for the cheery words at 9 am on a lovely sunny Saturday morning.

So uh, kids? Just so you know, Eeyore is working at the corner coffee shop in the north west end of my town. Or maybe he's that kid from Charlie Brown who walks around with a rain cloud over his head.

Either way, I think I'll go to a different place to get my tea next Saturday morning.

We all scream for...

 

 

Words to Live by...

I bought this sign last week and hung in my kitchen.

Yeah, I like cookies...

 

Milk is a start, right?

Things have been a little chaotic lately.

My youngest is involved in a music festival that has been taking up all my time, my hubby has been travelling, I've taken on more work, and all three kids have school, numerous activities and their friends.

It's just been busy and because of that the household stuff has been left to slide a little.

Okay, things are sliding a lot.

I finally had a few hours free this afternoon so I started picking up around here, going through mail, doing dishes, throwing in laundry and I stopped on the way home and got a few groceries too.

Then, I got back to the house and started to put things away.

But when I opened the fridge I discovered that we had milk.

Now I know yesterday we were almost out of milk, but today?

There is milk in my fridge.

There is milk in my fridge that I didn't buy or ask anyone to buy.

That never happens.

I questioned my oldest daughter and discovered that she and her father had stopped on the way home from swimming last night and bought milk because they noticed we were out.

'It was no big deal, Mom', she informed me.

Well yes, it actually is.

You see, I've been the 'part-time-stay-at-home-Mom-trying-to-do-everything' around here for so long that I wasn't really sure what my family actually knew to do for themselves.

But now I am thinking maybe we really will survive if I go back to work full time. Maybe my family really will notice when things are running out or things need to get done around here. Maybe my family really can take the initiative for completing household chores. 

Maybe it won't be as chaotic as I fear around here.

Or maybe, we'll just have lots of milk.

Sigh. 

Tea for uh, me!

I've been drinking more tea lately.

I've never really liked coffee and since I seem to be spending more time at coffee shops these days, either stealing power and writing on my laptop or grabbing some quick social time there with friends, I feel obligated to order something - so green tea it is.

I have actually begun to like green tea so much that I even make myself a cup now and again at home.

But, here's the thing, I like my green tea straight. I mean I want nothing in it. I just want them to give me a cup of hot water and a tea bag.

So um, how does one order that?

Black green tea?

That seems like too many colors.

Green tea straight up?

Virgin green tea? 

Empty green tea?

Green tea straight?

Anyone know?

I'm tired of sputtering at the order-counter like an idiot.

Rules are meant to be broken

We have a rule in our house that you can't curse until you're twenty-one.

You can drive at sixteen, drink at nineteen and swear and vote at twenty-one. That's just the way things roll around here.

And yes, I did make up this rule when I swore once and was good and ready to swear again until my young children reminded me that I had told them that swearing was illegal.

Really? I thought at the time, I said that?

But the rule has stuck.

Tonight as I was cooking dinner I managed to burn a hole right through the oven mitt I was using and I scorched my hand.

Yes, I admit that while I was rushing to put my hand under cold running water a few choice words may have escaped my lips.

My daughters were upstairs doing homework and were oblivious.

My son, who should have been upstairs doing homework but wasn't, came to investigate.

'What did you do?' he asked.

I filled him in.

'If I burn my hand, can I say what you just said?' he wanted to know.

'Yes,' I replied. 'If you are making dinner for the entire family and burn your hand badly enough that you have to throw out the oven mitt that was supposed to be protecting you, and if it's bad enough that you're thinking about driving yourself to the hospital then yes, you may say a few four letter words.'

'Cool,' he replied and sauntered away.

Really?

Cool?

My son thinks that it's worth getting a second degree burn just so he can swear in front of me without getting a lecture?

I guess I'm stricter than I thought. 

He's a doctor, so he should know.

I found this in my home town newspaper today and I'm sharing it with you in the hopes that it'll make some of you feel like better Moms.

I am, after all, all about guilt free living.

'It’s okay to brush off the bagel that fell from the stroller onto the sidewalk and give it to your screaming child, for example, because the pavement is cleaner than the kitchen floor in terms of the types of germs that cause illnesses, said Dr. Harley Rotbart, a professor of microbiology and pediatric infectious diseases at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.' *

And yeah, when my kids were little they did probably get handed a bagel or two to eat after it had been chucked out of the stroller and yep, they all survived.

Still, I have to wonder how Dr. Rotbart knows so much about my kitchen floor. I mean it is a mess but saying it's dirtier than the pavement outside my house is a bit of a stretch.

Okay, it's a small bit of a stretch, but it's still a stretch.

Sigh.

*Taken from: The Toronto Star - July 19, 2010

Snap, Crackle, Pop. Pop. Pop.

My boy eats cereal.

The reason I even mention this is because he's decided at the age of twelve to grow taller and he seems to be hungry. All. the. time.

Unreasonable child.

But, that said, cereal is perfect. It's easy to prepare, he eats the reasonably nutritious stuff and he can get it himself whenever he wants.

What he can't seem to figure out however is how to put his cereal bowl and spoon into the dishwasher when he's done eating.

He leaves them everywhere. On the table, on the counter, on his bedside table and today? He even tried to shove it under the family room couch.

Growl. 

Have you ever seen cereal and milk harden on a bowl after it's been left sitting out for a few hours? It turns into cement. It just gets um, disgusting. 

So, I've threatened and I've nagged him about it. I've even talked about it in front of his friends to try and embarrass him into cleaning up after himself.

Nothing seems to be working.

I should probably just give up and find myself another battle.

But I don't want to.

I've never considered myself a crazy OCD kinda Mom so I should be able to just let this one go.

Right?

Nope.

Tonight these dirty cereal bowls are really annoying me. 

Really, really annoying me.

Sigh.

Does anyone know?

How long can sandwich meat sit in the fridge before I shouldn't make sandwiches with it anymore?

If milk smells bad but tastes fine, is it okay?

Can Jello go bad?

Yes, I'm cleaning out my fridge.

Oh, and is salami really meat or is it something else?

And should I really be paying attention to the best-before-dates on salad dressing or are they just there to make me buy more?

Does anyone really know the answers to all this kinda stuff?

You know what? I think maybe this is why Google was invented.

I'd go and surf out the answers but I'm tired. I think I'll just go and find a big green garbage bag instead.

Oh, and who put Jello in my fridge anyway?

I hate Jello.

Sigh.

It's Canadian Thanksgiving!

May your stuffing be tasty.
May your turkey be plump.
May your potatoes and gravy have nary a lump.
May your yams be delicious,
and your pies take the prize.
And may your Thanksgiving dinner,
stay off your thighs!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Author Unknown (and edited slightly by Tired Mama)

Signs

I did a couple of things yesterday that I haven't done in a while.

In the morning I went to the local kitchen store and I bought some knives. I know, I know, I'm a party animal.

But, since my kids started helping me in the kitchen oh about, twelve years ago I haven't had any really good quality sharp knives as I never wanted my babies to grab one and hurt themselves. 

But this past weekend, as I was making a total mess of pealing a peach, it occurred to me that my youngest is now nine. I can probably trust them not to slice themselves open on a sharp knife.

Lightbulb!

So, I went out yesterday and bought two Henckels branded knives and you know what? These suckers are sharp.

The second thing I did was I went to Bath and Body Works and bought a few of their scented candles. 

For years if I bought candles my kids would either immediately blow them out, thinking they were birthday cake candles, or they'd stick their finger in them to see what would happen. I've also been known to forget all about a burning candle and leave the house or go to bed with it still lit.

I also can't stand the smell of a dirty diaper layered over with uh, a lavender scent or a green tree smell or some such thing.

Today? Now I have a 'Sweet Cinnamon Pumpkin' smell permeating my house thanks to the pretty new candle I bought yesterday.

I can do these things now. My kids are growing up.

Sigh.

Now, how long do you think it'll take before I cut my finger or burn down my kitchen?

I give myself about two days.

Breakfast of Champions

So, would you give your kids freshly baked (still warm) frosted brownies for breakfast?

If you're the kinda Mom who thinks this sounds like fun, then yes, of course when my kids asked me if they could have brownies for breakfast I let them eat some from the pan that I had just baked.

If you think this is totally unhealthy and only a horrible Mom would let her kids have brownies for breakfast then tsk-tsk, of course I didn't let them have any, I made them wait until dinner.

Besides, warm frosted brownies? I love brownies. Do you honestly think there'd be any of them LEFT for the kids to eat?

Okay, maybe a few. Very few. 

What can I say? We're pudgy, but we're happy.

Enjoy your Sunday. 

I'm trying hard

Okay, so if you happen to make a mistake and drive right past the window speaker at a drive-through restaurant, what are you supposed to do?

When I did this today at my local Tim Horton's, I got out of my van and walked back the few feet to the speaker and yelled my order into it. I then got back into my van and moved up in the line to the pick-up window.  

There were cars ahead and behind me in the line-up. It was bumper to bumper, I couldn't have backed up without hitting someone.

What else should I have done?

And why did everyone in the line around me find this so darn funny? Yes, people were laughing at me. I think someone was even taking pictures of me with their flippin' cell phone. Wait, that might have been my kid.

Am I on YouTube now?

So, what's the etiquette here anyway?

Someone? Anyone?

Sigh.

My meat sauce is doing what?

Great.

One of the quick and easy meals that my family eats regularly is pasta with meat sauce. I serve it to them with salad and rolls.

To make a quick meat sauce I brown ground beef and then stir in the sauce.

Easy and quick. My whole family loves pasta and I can have dinner on the table in about fifteen minutes. Some nights that's even too long for me to get dinner on the table before my kids turn into bears or before someone has to be at some activity.

The problem with this meal, I discovered tonight, is that I have always used a Teflon based frying pan to brown the meat.

A few people on the internet seem to think using this pan is killing me and my family.

Yikes.

Does anyone know anything about Polytetrafluoroethylenes?

I'm almost scared to ask the question.

I need to sleep nights and I'm not sure I can handle the guilt of knowing that I've been inadvertently poisoning my family for the last fifteen years or so.

Sigh.

Anyone know anything about this? Please share if you do.

Gently.

Thanks.

Furniture is just too hard to buy

Tired Papa hates furniture shopping and I am indecisive.

For the past eight years we've needed a new kitchen table. We haven't bought one because I can't decide what I want and then when I do decide Tired Papa won't come and look at it so we don't get anything. 

This week however I am determined to buy a new kitchen table.

If Tired Papa won't look at it and then doesn't like it after it's delivered then it's his problem, right? 

I figure it'll go really fast because I won't want to be inside shopping when I can be out in the sunshine.

At least I hope so. This holding my plate on my knee to eat dinner is starting to get me down.

Sigh.

Yes, I have a teenage daughter.

So tell me, what's better?

Sending your teenage daughter out to school in the morning with a chocolate frosted Pop-Tart and glass of milk in her, or letting her start her day without eating anything at all?

Yeah, I get that a bowl of cereal, fruit, toast, juice or just about ANYTHING would be better but you wanna know the one thing I have learned about parenting?

You can't make kids eat, sleep or go to the toilet if they don't want to.

Sigh.

I want my oven mitts back. Now.

I have no oven mitts.

When I moved into this house two years ago, I unpacked a shipment coming from the UK and I know I unpacked a set of oven mitts.

A week after I received my UK shipment, the container that was in storage from our stint in the USA arrived and I’m sure from those boxes I also unpacked two sets of oven mitts.

I also clearly remember last summer, when our town was having a midnight madness event, I found the nicest fabric set of oven mitts on sale at a cute little country store downtown and I bought those too.

That's what? Four sets? Eight mitts?

So, why when I went to take a sheppard’s pie out of the oven last night and a baked macaroni and cheese out of the oven tonight was I using a tea towel?

Where the heck are my oven mitts? I have a burn on my finger now and it hurts.

Yes, I am whining.

But, who took my oven mitts? Why would anyone possible want my oven mitts and what could my family possibly be doing with my oven mitts?

Maybe this is my kid’s way of telling me to stop cooking.

It might work.

Turkey and Soup R Us

I don't blog often about my cooking.

The reason?

I'm not a good cook.

As proof I give you tonight's main dinner dish at my house - Turkey Noodle Casserole.

Now, even though I'm a pathetic cook, I don't usually go as low as using soup recipes.

But you know what? It wasn't bad, I made it in less than ten minutes and the kids all ate it and liked it.

I think I'll be heading over to the Campbell's site more often, and no, they didn't pay me anything or even send me any soup so I would post this.

I just thought I'd share the fact that I think I've hit a new low in my culinary capabilities. The really sad part is that I'm okay with this. I mean there are peas in the recipe and that's a vegetable that I got into all three kids tonight without a fight.

Hey, sometimes you just gotta go with whatever works and after the last few weeks of holiday preparations the fact that I didn't just order in a pizza is amazing.

I'm burnt out.

Bring on the soup.

Tis the Season for Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Today was the school bake sale.

Our school's grade eight class has one every year to raise money to help pay for their graduation dinner.

Since my eldest daughter is in grade eight we were more involved in the bake sale this year than we have been in the past.

I baked chocolate chip cookies. I doubled my regular batch twice and made that twice again. All the cookies I made sold quickly so I guess I did my part.

Today when I picked up the kids after school all three of them told me that they had signed me up to make cookies for their Christmas class parties tomorrow.

Yep, they all want chocolate chip cookies.

The least they could have done was sign me up for shortbread.

Packing School Lunches

I was scooting around the ‘blogosphere’ this morning and I kept coming across blogs with posts about what parents are putting in their kid's school lunches.

I have a question.

Do any kids really EAT the stuff these parents say they send?

We can’t send peanut butter or any nut products to my kid’s school because of allergies. Right now there’s also a HUGE deli meat recall going on because of a ‘listeria’ outbreak in town too.

That leaves me - what? Um, bagels and cream cheese? Great.

Kids cannot live on bagels and cream cheese alone, although I have one child who may try.

Sigh.

So, today I warmed up the pizza that was left over from Saturday night’s dinner for my son’s lunch, threw in a pear, some carrot sticks and some animal crackers for dessert. He gets juice or milk at the school.

My daughter got the pasta left over from Sunday’s dinner, another pear, more carrot sticks and chocolate pudding for her sweet tooth. She also gets milk every day at school.

My bet is all the pears come home again, unless of course they get traded away for gum or something equally nutritious.

I will keep sending fruit and veggies in my kid’s lunch boxes every day, but honestly? I think it’s fifty-fifty whether my kids’ll eat them or not.

So, I’m waving the white flag.

My children are growing. They’re not sick. So you know what? I give up.

I’ve now decided that lunch will be my lost meal of the day. I’ll force a decent breakfast and dinner on my children and hope for the best with lunch.

Besides, I think I survived my entire high school life on french fries and chocolate cream donuts for lunch and look at how well I turned out.

Oh. Right.

Okay, I’ll keep sending in the carrots too. Maybe they'll eat one or two by mistake.

Me too

One of the local 'family eating' places has their waiters and waitresses dress in blue jeans and black t-shirts with cute sayings on the back.

On Friday we went there for dinner. The waitress working at the next table was about my age and her t-shirt said,

'Yes, I'm very good in bed. I could sleep there for days.'

I thought to myself, 'Yep. Me too lady, me too.'

I'm getting old.

Sailing, sailing...

Hubby wants to buy a boat.

Me? Not so much.

If I had it my way, and we were to spend money on entertainment, I would probably rent a cottage and sit on a dock on a lake. I like peace and quiet.

Hubby, on the other hand, wants to roar around on a lake on a power boat.

Now if he wants a boat and we can find the money to buy one, well, so be it.

Just don't expect me to roar around with him.

The price of gas may keep his roaring around to a minimum and I would go out oh, maybe twice a year but that's it.

Do ya think this is a middle aged crisis kinda thing?

Anyway we spent part of yesterday wandering around the boat docks here in town talking to some very nice people about their boats.

Boaters are VERY enthusiastic about their uh, sport. Boaters can talk for a VERY long time about bow thrusters and boat configurations and uh, boat stuff.

Oy.

Give me a book, a dock and a lake. I'll watch you roar around from my muskoka chair.

Oh, and if you could keep the boat talk down to a minimum that would be good too. I'd like to hear the loons.  

I need chocolate.

I want chocolate and there is none in the house.

None.

Not even in the form of chocolate chips that I could mix with a handful of peanuts and throw in my mouth.

I may have to get in the car and drive some where to pick up something. This is not right.

But, this is what happens when your kids are old enough to help themselves to the food in your kitchen. Mine are also old enough now to use up my brownie mixes AND NOT TELL ME.

I am not happy.

Parents of babies beware! Those cute little urchins will soon be big enough to reach your treats and eat them. Enjoy those sleepless nights, at least when they're still nursing you know they're not sneaking down to the kitchen to eat all your chocolate.

Rotten kids.

Happy Canada Day!

Today is Canada Day. We're celebrating it outdoors with food, drinks, fireworks and fun with friends. I do however sort of wish that we could get this day sorted out so that it falls on a Monday. This holiday on a Tuesday thing is sorta inconvenient. 

The occasion marks the joining of the British colonies of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and the Province of Canada into a federation of four provinces (the Province of Canada being divided, in the process, into Ontario and Quebec) on July 1, 1867. Yes, I did have to look this up.

Still, Canada is 141 years old today and may I say, I think she looks marvelous!!

So, Happy Birthday old girl er, old country, er, Canada!

Enjoy your day.