I like this.

My friend posted this article on her blog and I really liked it. Especially if you home school, you may just find this encouraging. Even if you don't, it's a great article. It's from the NY Times and is about education in the USA. In my opinion, if this stuff is happening at home (whether you formally home school or just teach your kids this stuff aside from school) then you are a great educator for your kids. Enjoy.

I'll be back soon, I promise. Jack has been up to some antics and I need to share.

The time is here.

So, soccer season has started. Today registration for the league that my sister-in-law and I run opened up. We've got a great start so far and are looking forward to warm sunshine and green grass.

But that's not here yet.

So for now, it's soccer. Soccer work. Like accounting, team-building, emailing etc. Which means that my afternoons of leisure here at home have come to an end. Which means I won't be blogging very much at all. Blogging is an off-season activity. Soccer is usually a May to September gig. But not for those who work behind the scenes. For us it's a January to October sorta gig.

That's what's been happening here. I'll still check my fave blogs to read but I just wanted to let you know that I won't be around for a bit.

Tis the season...

This weekend we were planning on having friends over both Friday night and Saturday night for dinner. I was very excited to plan a menu with some of the new recipes I've been making of late.

Friday night we were having French Onion Soup, then a mixed greens salad with toasted pecans, goat cheese and a homemade sweet onion dressing. We were also having Flank Steak with Red Wine Garlic sauce and baby potatoes glazed with butter and herbs. For dessert, it was Perfect Butter and Lemon Poundcake with homemade lemon icecream with fresh raspberry drizzle. YUM!

Saturday night was Julia Child's own Beef Bourguinon with garlic mashed potatoes, fresh green beans, homemade rosemary buns and French Silk Pie for dessert. Double YUM!

But not now. Nope. Notice that I said 'was excited'. My. Kids. Are. Puking.

So plans change. Sadly, a lot of the work is done. Pecans are toasted. French Onion Soup is started. Sweet onion dressing is made. Raspberry drizzle -- ready to go. Steak ~ marinating as I type. French silk pie shell -- complete. I'm disappointed.

Tonight my daughter and I went out for girls night. We were just walking into the restaurant of her choice when my cell phone rang. (dang those things.) "MOM! Jack just puked all over the couch and Dad's not home yet." Thankfully, Daddy was just around the corner and was home in 30 seconds. My wonderful tough and rugged man did not call me home but told us to enjoy our evening. What a keeper.
We came home about 8 pm and not 20 minutes after I got in the door, sons #1 and #2 start heaving over the toilet. Nasty. And I had made them spaghetti for dinner. Double nasty. May be even triple nasty.

So....no guests this weekend. No fancy meals. Just crackers, gingerale and Lysol.

I guess it's flu season -- at least it is here.

Let it flow...

Sorry I haven't blogged for a bit. We were away last weekend with my whole side of the family at this great indoor waterpark in Michigan. It was very nice, quite new, and a whole lot of fun for all of us. It had two big waterslides, a tiny pool for little guys, several mini waterslides, and a lazy river.

My fave was the lazy river. I just floated along on a tube with my 8 month old son sitting in my lap. It was wonderful. Until my four other children would sneak up on me and attack. Thankfully they never dumped me out of my tube -- baby boy was insurance that that was not going to happen. There are 18 of us on my side of the family ~ so picture 18 of use trying to go down the "lazy" (read: wild crazy laughter, splashing and screeching) river together -- holding on to one another's tubes without letting go. The poor lifeguards were NOT nearly as thrilled as we were by our fun.

After eating out for several meals, I did not feel so good. I'm not complaining 'cause I did it to myself. Who can resist the homemade buns and sweet butter at the Lone Star Saloon restaurant? And who, pray-tell, can resist the warm garlic bread sticks and salad at Olive Garden? It's just not possible. So while I may have burned a host of calories splashing, swimming and playing at Splash Universe, I probably gained every single one of them back (plus more!) with the meals we devoured. Swimming makes ya hungry!!

Now that we're back home and into the regular swing of things, my eight month old sweetie has decided to cut another tooth. This child could NOT possibly drool any more than he already is. My sweet husband wanted to buy him a neoprene pair of jammies! It pours out his mouth. It got so bad tonight, we made him look like a little cowboy by tying a Bounty papertowel around his neck like a little necker-chief. Cute, durable and quite absorbent.

That's life here....hope yours is a bit more...dry.

Resolution Updates

Resolution #1: To Try New Recipes

Well, it's now January 26th. My goal was to try 24 new recipes this year. But, because it's going so well, I'm bumping it to 48 new recipes. So far I've made 18. I'm on a roll. And I can feel my bottom growing by the minute. Turns out I love butter. I told my kids that if I wasn't married to their dad, I'd marry butter. I did actually say that.

So far only one recipe has been voted off the island. Creamy peas are a no-go here. Not a friendly, I repeat, NOT a friendly. Who would've thought that adding butter, heavy cream and sugar to peas would be not-so-tasty? Trust me on this one.

Here's some really good ones and if you like, I'll send you the recipes:
-Salsa Chicken
-French Onion Soup (to-die-for)
-Beef Bourguinon (so good that I'm making it for company next weekend)
-Chicken Petrograd a la Pete
-French Silk Pie (I did actually kiss the French Silk Pie. If butter won't marry me, I'll ask French Silk Pie)
-Jitka's White Chocolate Party Mix (I made that name up myself...can you tell? But it's so good if you like sweet with salty)
-Famous Butter Chicken (there it is again, my future spouse)
-Buttered Rosemary Buns
-Honey Wheat Bread
-Italian Meatball Soup
-Perfect Pot Roast (and it actually was perfect)

These are the super duper yummy ones. The others were good too but hey, they can't all be five star recipes. I'll keep you posted. If I make it to the 48 new ones without gaining 22 pounds, it'll be a miracle. But boy, will it have been fun to get there.

#2 - Flossing My Teeth. This resolution came a little late in the game, but since my traumatic experience at the dentist last week, I have actually flossed every single day. And made my kids do it too. For some of you out there, this is just plain common sense. Turns out I'm lacking a little in that department.

#3. I only posted my one of my new years resolutions way back when I made them. Another one is to cut down on sugar. Seems silly that I cut down on sugar and UP the butter content in my life, but that's the way it is. You can't blame me. But after watching that scary movie FOOD INC., I decided I don't want to be that statistic about diabetes. So, we're drinking way more water and cutting out any juice. I've stopped buying pop. Dessert is only on weekends....except for tonight 'cause I found this fabulous recipe for a baked apple cake, dripping in a warm carmelly sauce. So good. But now we won't have anything till Friday. At least the kids won't. I need to polish off some cake.

Casual Observances.

#1. It's the end of January. This means it is time to take your Christmas tree down. If you are still enjoying sitting in the glow of those white lights in the evening, get a ficus tree and toss some lights on it. Christmas is over. I know it's harsh, but it's truth.

#2. The new design of toilet paper holders has changed my life. The old kind, as seen below:


...was very difficult for some people to change. Somehow squeezing that spring-loaded little thingy was more than some folks could bear and so they left the old roll on and sort of, carefully balanced the new roll of TP on top of the cardboard insert of the old. BUT...the new kind...as seen here:
can miraculously be changed by anyone. It seems that it has brought about a new willingness in the lazy bathroom-user to switch the rolls! This is true genius and my hat goes off to the person who invented it.

#3. Grating cheese is like, the worst job in the kitchen. I'm happy to peel, scrub, wash, stir, cut, chop, whatever. But I hate grating. Is it true that a food processor makes all the difference??

#4. In and around our city, especially at bus stops, there are these poster/ads. They drive me crazy. Not because they are bad advertising or ugly, but because of what they imply about our society. I don't think these posters are wrong, no doubt they are accurate. But if they are....we're a bunch of rude and insensitive Londoners.

They are all ads for the LTC - London Transit Commission. Short for: the bus.

Poster/Ad #1: Please move all the way to the back of the bus.

Poster/Ad #2: Please offer your seat to those who need it most.

Isn't so sad that the LTC has to use advertising budget money for these kinds of messages? Should this not be common sense? common courtesy?? This drives me crazy.

I don't have the time or the energy for a full-on rant today, but I sure would like to see one. Perhaps two of my blogging, London friends could take up this cross, 'cause I'd sure like to hear Big Liver Girl or Loudshoes go off on this one.

Anyhow, that's it for today. Just some random thoughts on life. None of them very important or thrilling, but thoughts nonetheless.

Miserable.

That's what I am. And really, I shouldn't be at all. But see, I went to the dentist today.

I don't believe in dentistry. I guess it's a necessary evil, but to me, it's just plain evil. I hate it.

It hurts. It's uncomfortable. It's expensive. It's painful. And you know what, I know pain. I can handle pain. I'm not braggin' but I had five kids sans epidural. I'm as tough as the next patient. BUT dental pain is like torture. At least with labour, once the pain is over you get a beautiful gift of a baby. With dentistry, the pain of the procedure is equal in pain to standing at the desk and paying the bill.

I had two cavities. I should know better. My excuse is that I had not been to the dentist for eleven years. No joking. E-LEV-EN. That's how much I loathe the experience. And after the mind-altering, nerve-wracking, head-rush-causing, chinese-torture-like discomfort I just experienced this afternoon, I probably will leave it for another eleven years.

So, the moral? Add a new resolution to the year's list. I WILL brush and floss like a fiend for the rest of the year and forevermore to never have to live through an afternoon like this one again.

Perhaps tomorrow I'll look back on this post and think that I exaggerated a little, but at this moment in time, I'm feeling rather sorry for my own self.