30 Day Challenge: Day 21-A Recipe

Day 21-A Recipe. Bobby's Ritz Bitz Chicken...Actually it is The Other Mother's Brother's recipe for chicken that Bobby used at Christmas to make a complete sit down holiday dinner for 7 people at the age of nine. Really.  He had moved in with us in August of 2007 and he wanted to host his siblings at his new home for Christmas with his "New Moms".  It was lovely to celebrate with two of his three sisters and an adult step-brother and his wife.

Of course, after, we learned that in order to promote attachment and nurturing opportunties with parental figures, children with Attachment issues and parentified children should not be cooking for others or even themselves. Our bad.  We just didn't know better.  Ever since, it has been a constant challenge to rein in our little Galloping Gourmet!

Shopping List
Boneless Chicken Breasts (cut in half for serving size) or Boneless Chicken Tenders
one 16 ounce tub of low-fat sour cream (you'll use at least half and can save half for dip or another recipe)
Box of Ritz Crackers (low fat or regular)
Non stick cooking spray
Buter or Margarine

Recipe
Bobby's Ritz Bits Chicken
Spray glass baking dish with non-stick cooking spray (glass pans = easy clean up)
Start with one sleeve of Ritz crackers - depends on how much chicken you have
Crush the crackers into small bits (use a masher or crush with the backof a large spoon)

                                           Bobby shows his stepbrother's wife how to crush crackers.

Pour crushed Ritz Crackers into a shallow bowl
Pour half of the sour cream into a shallow bowl
Set aside the remaining sour cream for another recipe (we made some dip)
dredge chicken breasts in sour cream
roll in crushed crackers
place in baking dish
dot with butter or margarine
bake at 350 for at least a half hour (all depends on how thick the breasts/tenders are)

Yummmmmmm

Cool dessert idea-
" Present Cake"
After frosting cut a fruit roll up to make "ribbons and a bow" to decorate the cake like a present

30 Day Challenge: Day 19: A talent, Day 20: A hobby

Hmmm. Day 19 of the 30 Day Challenge -A talent of mine.  This wasn't as easy as the other challenges. The Other Mother said I have a bazillion of them. She said I can look at something and replicate it in some art form: she says I have good "spatial relationship stuff ". I'm not sure what that means, but I smiled when she said it. She, too, is a creator should be posting samples of her own incredible art here .

Anyhow, I do like to create art - Which is also my hobby (day 20 of the challenge) but I have not yet locked into a particular medium. For me creating almost has a physical aspect.  It's like there is something intangible brewing inside that needs a physical place to go.  

I've tried printmaking (loved it), blacksmithing (too physical on the forearms), and oils (too smelly and messy to clean up). Mostly I like watercolors, acrylics, pastels, oil pastels, fiber, quilting, writing and knitting.  Oh, and making photograph inspired landscape quilts like I showed the other day. 

30 Day Challenge: Day 18 - Your Wedding

Day 18 : My wedding. After almost 18 years together, we decided to make it legal. Our wedding took place at home, the first day of summer, 2008. Our soon-to-be-adopted son, Bobby, walked us down the "aisle" to the justice of the peace.  Our neighbors stopped by on their way out to dinner and, when they heard we didn't have music, had their twins play cello and violin in the garden.  Our foster sons*, with their mom's permission, were our ring bearers.  It was just perfect.

*no longer in care so I may show their photo

Friday Fragments

The Other Mother is at her Annual Dinner for the large Community Youth Agency she runs.  She'll be home late tonight.  I don't like being a single mother.  I don't mind the work involved...but much like swimming in the ocean, it is much more fun (and safer) when you have a buddy.

I've got like 237 emails in my inbox. I read the first page tonight, answered a few emails and felt totally overwhelmed by the sheer volume. I don't even want to read them. Maybe if ignore them, they will all go away?  But I don't want to delete them in case there is something in there important I should read. Argh. Is this how crazy hoarders start??? On second thought - don't tell me.

James Social Worker took him out for a haircut and some serious male bonding time and to talk about his future plans. He came back with a very sharp haircut and smelling good (not like cedar shavings/hamster like his usual cologne...) and even had his eyebrows waxed???? Waxed! What???? Yeah - the brows look really good, too!  I had no idea manscaping began at such an early age.  He's off on a walk now to do some heavy thinking and process what he and his social worker talked about.

Every so often I get the urge to move. Well, every time I think about my winter and my dreaded driveway. Winter I like. It is my driveway that makes me crazy.  Here, the first leaves of fall are falling and I am already obsessing  about winter.  Quietly. If I obsessed out loud this early in the season I'd surely make The Other Mother crazy. I love her too much to do that. 

So anyhow, I was thinking about winter and that I needed to move somewhere where I can have a short flat driveway and so I hopped on the internet and I found a job for the Other Mother (doing what she does for the national community youth group) in  Colorado...She's all easy going and tolerant of me looking to "expand our horizons" but she does not feel the need to move cross country to do so (even if houses are like $200,000 less than they are around here...*sigh*.)  I guess that cheap housing might not be a fair trade off for winter ten months of the year. But I'd be willing to deal with 10 months of winter if I had a flat driveway.

A girl can dream - can't she?

The Middle Little is now enrolled in Head Start!  Yippee. He is sooo excited to be going to school like everyone else..but waiting until Wed, to begin is soooooo far away to a four year old.  I might as well have said "you'll be starting school in 373,654 days. If I hear "Maybe-A-Morrow-I-Go-To-School???" one more time..............at least he's stopped chanting "maybe I have a blow-knee-cheeze roll-up?"

The Biggest Little is extremely adorable and extremely challenging in his attention seeking behaviors and need for constant dysfunctional attention.  I am soooo trying to break the cycle by having clear consequences for his choices that are loving, natural and easily understood.  Easier typed than done.

I'm supposed to be buying my plane tickets for Texas - but all I want to do is make a cup of tea and break into the kid's sugary snack food treats...(again).....and then have some salty potato chips and a good cry.   

PMS???  Either that - or it's Friday.

G'nite.

30 Day Challenge: Day 17-An art piece (drawing, sculpture, painting, etc)

Maybe I'm supposed to show famous art or sculpture that inspires and moves me, but I am instead showing two quilts I created.  The first is a landscape view of the lake and islands that was inspired by a photo taken from the hill the first spring after we bought the house. The quilt is about 3 feet by 5 feet and now graces Alex's bedroom wall.

The crow quilt was inspired by the 3 realistic fake crows (made with feathers and plastic) that sat on the split rail fence in front of our house the first day we saw it with our real estate agent.  I was drawn to crows at the time of my mother's death when I witnessed my first mass crow exodus at dawn on the day my mother died.  A "crow convention" is the daily gathering at dusk and  communal roosting and early morning dispersal of hundreds and hundreds of crows.  I didn't know crows did this...I thought they hung out in thee little families of 5.... After that weekend I noticed crows everywhere. For example, there was one sitting on the fence cawing loudly by one of the two funeral plots I could have picked..so I picked the one with the crow. Silly things like that that comforted me at the loss of my mother. Anyhow, I am now drawn to crows and so created a small wall hanging that was also inspired by a pillow I saw in a catalog somewhere.  The lighting is poor - they are pecking at an ear of corn and the border fabric is sunflowers.

30 Day Challenge: Day 16- A Song That Makes You Cry (or nearly)

Day 16-A song that makes you cry (or nearly)


The War Was In Color by Carbon Leaf

I see you've found a box of my things -


Infantries, tanks and smoldering airplane wings.

These old pictures are cool. Tell me some stories

Was it like the old war movies?

Sit down son. Let me fill you in



Where to begin? Let's start with the end

This black and white photo don't capture the skin

From the flash of a gun to a soldier who's done

Trust me grandson

The war was in color



From shipyard to sea, From factory to sky

From rivet to rifle, from boot camp to battle cry

I wore the mask up high on a daylight run

That held my face in its clammy hand

Crawled over coconut logs and corpses in the coral sand



Where to begin? Let's start with the end

This black and white photo don't capture the skin

From the shock of a shell or the memory of smell

If red is for Hell

The war was in color



I held the canvas bag over the railing

The dead released, with the ship still sailing,

Out of our hands and into the swallowing sea

I felt the crossfire stitching up soldiers

Into a blanket of dead, and as the night grows colder

In a window back home, a Blue Star is traded for Gold.



Where to begin? Let's start with the end

This black and white photo don't capture the skin

When metal is churned. And bodies are burned

Victory earned

The War was in color



Now I lay in my grave at age 21

Long before you were born

Before I bore a son

What good did it do?

Well hopefully for you

A world without war

A life full of color



Where to begin? Let's start with the end

This black and white photo never captured my skin

Once it was torn from an enemy thorn

Straight through the core

The war was in color

30 Day Challenge: Day 15- My Dream House

My Dream Home????  That's easy: All the houses I've lived in with the Other Mother over the past 20 years. 

No matter

Where you are

There you are

And if

She's there too 

Then it

Must

Be home

That being said...A nice 5 bedroom, 2 3/4 bath home in a rural New England community with a great church community,  flat driveway (ours is so miserable we park at the bottom and trudge up in the winter....) Bonus features include: Woods and meadow. Near or on a lake.  Woodstove and fireplace. Hot tub. Wooden floors. Sunny side of the street so the house is bright and well lit during the day. A fenced in back yard area for the dogs and wee bairns. Lots and lots of closets and built in storage.  A mudroom with benches and cubbies for winter stuff and sports equipment. Laundry room on the main floor (not in the basement).  A wrap around porch on the front of the house.  A small covered sleeping porch at the back of the house. An outdoor shower with a pea gravel path to the back door. A bathroom with shower near the back door for muddy messes and dogs.  A daylight basement with it's own egress.  A bedroom or two on the main floor.  A small deck or patio off the main bedroom suite, Parking area for at least 6 cars (they'll all be driving someday!).  Wireless internet. Garbage disposal. Maybe one of those cool tube skylights that funnel sunlight into rooms, a skylight or two strategically placed for sunshine. A three car garage with room for all my junk. A shed for the lawn eqipment. A nice view of sunset and rolling hills and mountains. An easy drive to friends, groceries and civilization

Yeah. 

That should do it.