Didn't I just feed you kids yesterday? is a question I have been known to mumble, not so quietly, under my breath at least twice a week. We aren't a mega family by any means: two by two we go: 2 cats, 2 dogs 2 adults, 2 tweens and 2 littles make up our home. Yet I am still surprised in slack-jaw wonder late in the afternoon when it occurs to me I have to feed them all again. Again? Didn't I just feed them yesterday???? Geesh.
So this, hopefully recurring, little post is for all y'all (I've always wanted to say that...) who, like me, hate to cook on cue and can think of other things you'd rather be doing 21 times a week. Like getting a root canal or oil change...
So first off: Buy a family size tray or two of boneless chicken breast tenders (or boneless breasts and slice them into tenders)
Marinate those bad boys in a whole bottle of Italian salad dressing (or whatever dressing you have in the fridge) for at least an hour or two
grill em up
set em aside to cool
package in meal size portions for your family
freeze the rest
Dinner #1:
INGREDIENTS
Package of Egg noodles
Two cans of Rotel
Jar of Ragu Alfredo Sauce
Chicken tenders
RECIPE
Cook up Egg Noodles
Drain
Add Rotel
Add Alfredo Sauce
Add a little water to jar to shake out every last yummy drop of sauce
Stir
Microwave chicken tenders
Arrange on top of noodle mixture
serve
Yummmmmmmmmm
Dinner #2
INGREDIENTS
Rice A Roni Spanish Rice
Can of Diced Tomatoes with Jalepenos
Can of Trader Joes Cuban Style Black Beans
Cooked Chicken Tenders
RECIPE
Cook Rice according to Directions (which says to add a can of diced tomatoes)
Add can of Black Beans
Stir
Last 10 minutes add cooked chicken tenders to rice mixture
Serve with grated cheese on the side
Yummmmmmmmmmm.
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Friday, October 15, 2010
Can You Send A Grandmother To Time Out?
I think I have a sitter lined up for next weekend so The Other Mother and I can have at least 24 hours of respite. Our long term plans to travel to Texas were foiled by the needs and configuration of our current family: 13, 11, 4 and 5. Still sad about not being able to go to Texas/Women of Faith/San Antonio/hang out with Annie and Jeri and Dia and Mary The Mom and hopefully Christine and Laney - and all you cool Moms I was hoping to meet and Moms I haven't met yet and worship with a bazillion other women and recharge my spiritual and emotional batteries and not hear my name every 30 seconds and not have to use my calm therapeutic voice and have a real margarita maybe even two and yummy mexican food and start and finish a sentence to The Other Mother without one of our needy kids interrupting and deflecting and......
You get the picture.
My Inner Child is having a lay down on the floor, kicking and screaming, crying tantrum as we speak.
If she doesn't stop soon I'm going to have to send her to time out.
In Orlando.
Next March.
That's OK.
I can wait.
PS I'm a Grandma! Welcome to the world Andrew Taylor - 8 pounds 4 ounces, 19 inches long - arrived last nite at 9:08 pm. I don't yet have pictures of Amber and baby - but with her permssion will share them as soon as I can.
You get the picture.
My Inner Child is having a lay down on the floor, kicking and screaming, crying tantrum as we speak.
If she doesn't stop soon I'm going to have to send her to time out.
In Orlando.
Next March.
That's OK.
I can wait.
PS I'm a Grandma! Welcome to the world Andrew Taylor - 8 pounds 4 ounces, 19 inches long - arrived last nite at 9:08 pm. I don't yet have pictures of Amber and baby - but with her permssion will share them as soon as I can.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
I'm Too Young To Be A Grandmother!
My first and eldest foster daughter, the one who started us on this road to ruin, will soon make her Mommas Grand Mommas...and I'm not so sure how I feel about it. I've had several years getting used to the idea she is a very capable adult - for more than two years she has held the same great job in the ER of a hospital and has an apartment and fiance: an EMT ambulance driver who makes her very happy. So even though I have had many months to get used the idea of her having a baby- I'm not sure I am ready to be a grandma.
She is already in the hospital, dialated and effaced and waiting for the little guy (baby Andrew) to make his appearance. Her last text said maybe tonight - Friday is a scheduled c-section, so we are all hoping she'll go before then. I can't wait!
She is already in the hospital, dialated and effaced and waiting for the little guy (baby Andrew) to make his appearance. Her last text said maybe tonight - Friday is a scheduled c-section, so we are all hoping she'll go before then. I can't wait!
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
I'm Seeing Someone Else
I must confess Dear Blog, there is another I have been seeing on the side. It's taken my attention, detoured my affections, compelled me in a new direction...*sigh*. We see each other every day, and sometimes twice a day. It is good. Yeah. Real good. That good.
Moodchart.org.
Thanks to Integrity Singer at Peace in Puzzles for sharing this valuable resource that has helped me objectively document the roller coaster ride of Bi-Polar Disorder.
In August, our family grew by two: a sweet little guy, age 5, with Bi-Polar disorder and some BIG FEELINGS and his little brother, age 4, whose own feelings aren't nearly as little as he.
Just as I have gotten the whole RAD thing down, we get a kid with Bi-Polar Disorder. Hmmmm. Now what do we do? How do I support him, but not his rages??? How do I set clear rules and consequences and still be loving, warm and welcoming???
I have been consumed with managing behaviors that seem, at times, to be unmanageable. Random screeching? Unfocused raging? Targeted kicking? Vengeful peeing? HUH???? What???
I am in unfamiliar territory. My nightstand is stacked high with books on parenting attachement challenged children: books like Parenting Children who Refuse To Be Raised, When Love Isn't Enough, etc. etc. But Bi-Polar? Not a stinkin'clue.
When I first came upon blogging it was in the spring of 2009. We were struggling to parent a young man with RAD who had been living in residential treatment for several years prior to moving in with us in 2008 in a pre-adoptive placment. He did not want to be adopted, and definitely did not want to be adopted by us. He amped up his RAD behaviors to help us all get the message. I was determined to understand his behaviors and help him settle into our family. I scoured the internet looking for resources and I discovered the wonderful world of blogging...that May, I started my own blog and after two or three posts forgot my passwords and how to access the darned thing..."Total noob fail" as my kids would say. I dusted myself off and started a new blog...and here I am today: 274 posts later. The young man would up reunifying with his bio-dad at the age of 12, having never lived with him before, and we would up learning much more about RAD than we originally set out to. I learned about it here - on the internet, on blogs...
I had no clue that help (and humor) was just a click away. I am grateful for all I have learned and the friendships I have forged typing away in my kitchen late at night.
I have a feeling I'll be blog surfing late into the evenings looking for other mothers' wisdom, some solid parenting ideas, and super-deluxe ninja mommy skills to help me be better meet the needs of these sweet liitle guys.
In the meantime, I raise my cup of lukewarm tea and bow my head in appreciation to all you Moms out there who are loving and parenting challenging wounded kids...so as Eddy would say to Patsy on Ab Fab: "Cheers, sweety-darling"
Moodchart.org.
Thanks to Integrity Singer at Peace in Puzzles for sharing this valuable resource that has helped me objectively document the roller coaster ride of Bi-Polar Disorder.
In August, our family grew by two: a sweet little guy, age 5, with Bi-Polar disorder and some BIG FEELINGS and his little brother, age 4, whose own feelings aren't nearly as little as he.
Just as I have gotten the whole RAD thing down, we get a kid with Bi-Polar Disorder. Hmmmm. Now what do we do? How do I support him, but not his rages??? How do I set clear rules and consequences and still be loving, warm and welcoming???
I have been consumed with managing behaviors that seem, at times, to be unmanageable. Random screeching? Unfocused raging? Targeted kicking? Vengeful peeing? HUH???? What???
I am in unfamiliar territory. My nightstand is stacked high with books on parenting attachement challenged children: books like Parenting Children who Refuse To Be Raised, When Love Isn't Enough, etc. etc. But Bi-Polar? Not a stinkin'clue.
When I first came upon blogging it was in the spring of 2009. We were struggling to parent a young man with RAD who had been living in residential treatment for several years prior to moving in with us in 2008 in a pre-adoptive placment. He did not want to be adopted, and definitely did not want to be adopted by us. He amped up his RAD behaviors to help us all get the message. I was determined to understand his behaviors and help him settle into our family. I scoured the internet looking for resources and I discovered the wonderful world of blogging...that May, I started my own blog and after two or three posts forgot my passwords and how to access the darned thing..."Total noob fail" as my kids would say. I dusted myself off and started a new blog...and here I am today: 274 posts later. The young man would up reunifying with his bio-dad at the age of 12, having never lived with him before, and we would up learning much more about RAD than we originally set out to. I learned about it here - on the internet, on blogs...
I had no clue that help (and humor) was just a click away. I am grateful for all I have learned and the friendships I have forged typing away in my kitchen late at night.
I have a feeling I'll be blog surfing late into the evenings looking for other mothers' wisdom, some solid parenting ideas, and super-deluxe ninja mommy skills to help me be better meet the needs of these sweet liitle guys.
In the meantime, I raise my cup of lukewarm tea and bow my head in appreciation to all you Moms out there who are loving and parenting challenging wounded kids...so as Eddy would say to Patsy on Ab Fab: "Cheers, sweety-darling"
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Saturday Morning Snippets
Instead our highly esteemed Baby Sitter is coming from 1-4pm today so we can take a country drive and go grab a basket of apples or some cider and enjoy the swirl and magic of the glorious fall leaves and remember it was just this time of year when we fell irrevocably in love. I'm not pouting anymore. I am actually smiling.
This morning I awoke to raging, screaming, door slamming, and uncontrollable shreiking - all becasue poor James reminded Older Little to wash his hands after pooping. At 6:15 am. Fun times. So later when James and the Other Mother went to James' football game at 7 am...The Littles and I practiced what mornings are supposed to look like. It's OK to practice. James practices football for several hours, three times a week - and football is something he is really good at....So practicing morning behavior for an hour together didn't seem out of line at all. The three of us sat on the couch, loveseat and chair and read and whispered and used inside voices and napped and cuddled with the dogs. It was very, very nice. We may need to practice again.
The phrase KICK THE BUCKET has a new meaning when you have an angry pee-er in the house who has peed in his brother's bucket of bath toys and bath scrubbies the other night in the one minute he was allowed upstairs (his room is on the main floor and his brother sleeps upstairs). Silly me - I always thought "Kicking The Bucket" had to do with cows and milk and such....what do I know??? Anyhow, I knew enough not to deal with the issue immediately when I discovered it at my bedtime on Thursday- but to figure out a strategy - as this is not the first time my home has been annointed so thoroughly by this young man. If this is going to be a continued behavior, I want to get it right. So, yesterday I called an amazing RAD Mom (thanks to you!!!!xxxooo) and got some good ideas on how to manage the peeing - which is why today I am dealing with a two day old bucket of pee...fun times.
Went to the thrift store yesterday and bought Middle Little a nice "new" bath toy bucket - It is a plastic Halloween pumpkin thing and he loves it - and someone is a little surprised that this is how peeing in your brother's things turns out. Becase they sleep on different floors of the house and have diffrent bathrooms - it is easy to identify who's who's ....
In my kindest loving voice I asked him "well..what did you think was going to happen when you peed on your brother's things?" And he shrugged and looked very, very sad.
Getting the bath toys cleaned and the bucket scrubbed with the five year old at the sink was easier than I thought. He really did want to clean up and make amends. It was a positive experience for him - I am sure quite different from how it was handled with bio-family.
After I gave him the red bath bucket and said if he had more angry feelings that came out in his pee, he could pee in the bucket all he wanted...but that we were going to keep it in HIS bathroom right next to the toilet. We made the down stairs guest bath (I am embarassed to admit we have 2 1/2 baths....) HIS bathroom and told him he could pee all over there whenever he wanted, he just needed to clean it up when he was done. We explained to all the kids that it was just for him to use for now so if he wanted to pee everywhere he could.
SO now that he has permission to pee everywhere...I don't think he will......
Then we made apple-blueberry crisp together ...yummmmm. Nothing heals a relationship like cooking together.
Happy Saturday!!!!!!!!!!!!
Friday, October 1, 2010
30 day Blog Challenge: Day 30-A dream for the future
Day 30-A dream for the future: Peace and the absence of war. Employment and equitable wages so families aren't struggling. Affordable, available health care. Supports to strengthern families so they remain intact. Well funded schools and healthy places for children to play, flourish and grow. Permanent families for children awaiting adoption. Communities that encourage interdependence and sustainability.
The dream for my future??? I'm already living it: Here in New England with my beloved and children. Reading, quilting, laughing, blogging, sharing, cooking, driving every back road I come upon, praying with a full heart and giving thanks every day for the many, many blessings I have.
The dream for my future??? I'm already living it: Here in New England with my beloved and children. Reading, quilting, laughing, blogging, sharing, cooking, driving every back road I come upon, praying with a full heart and giving thanks every day for the many, many blessings I have.
30 Day Blog Challenge: Day 29-Hopes, dreams and plans for the next 365 days
Day 29-Hopes, dreams and plans for the next 365 days. Are you kidding me??? I am just trying to get through today in one piece. If I seriously answer the question, the overall theme for my hopes and dreams for the next year is "more joys, less jobs" and our plan is to have some serious conversations about our short and long term goals (fix the house? sell the house? move? adopt? seminary?)
Like most of us who blog and read here, our lives are a constant struggle of seeking balance between the stressors of parenting and the de-stressors that keep us going. Recently, my "job" has included parenting some tough kids I have found myself putting my leisure activites aside to race around getting everyone else to their sports and leisure activies. I have drifted from the things I love and that soothe and enrich me. Quilting. Reading. Country drives. It has been too easy to get caught up in the "job" of raising a family and put aside the little "joys" that keep me going.
This morning I had breakfast with a dear friend and vented. Spewed was more like it. It was a "joy". She is a joy. I need more joys and less jobs....
I love to read. The A to Z Book Challenge was very helpful in reconnecting me to the ritutal of reading before bed. Whatever A to Z book I am currently reading gives me focus in additon to the magazines and various books stacked on the night stand that call for my attention. Every night, now, I read before bed, most nights until midnight. While the trade off for less sleep is obvious as I repeatedly yawn while reading the Littles their bedtime stories, I read late at night because I need to nourish me (even at the cost of sleep). The next morning I ruminate over a character or a plot twist or the writer's sense of place and voice. Another "joy".
This 30 day blog challenge has been very beneficial. It has given me focus to write daily. More importantly, it has given me a place to be "off duty" as a foster/adoptive/bio mom of challenging kids..... for 30 days I have, instead, been given the gift of responding honestly to a series of challenging writing prompts rather than just whining about my day. Another "joy". I highly recommend it.
Like most of us who blog and read here, our lives are a constant struggle of seeking balance between the stressors of parenting and the de-stressors that keep us going. Recently, my "job" has included parenting some tough kids I have found myself putting my leisure activites aside to race around getting everyone else to their sports and leisure activies. I have drifted from the things I love and that soothe and enrich me. Quilting. Reading. Country drives. It has been too easy to get caught up in the "job" of raising a family and put aside the little "joys" that keep me going.
This morning I had breakfast with a dear friend and vented. Spewed was more like it. It was a "joy". She is a joy. I need more joys and less jobs....
I love to read. The A to Z Book Challenge was very helpful in reconnecting me to the ritutal of reading before bed. Whatever A to Z book I am currently reading gives me focus in additon to the magazines and various books stacked on the night stand that call for my attention. Every night, now, I read before bed, most nights until midnight. While the trade off for less sleep is obvious as I repeatedly yawn while reading the Littles their bedtime stories, I read late at night because I need to nourish me (even at the cost of sleep). The next morning I ruminate over a character or a plot twist or the writer's sense of place and voice. Another "joy".
This 30 day blog challenge has been very beneficial. It has given me focus to write daily. More importantly, it has given me a place to be "off duty" as a foster/adoptive/bio mom of challenging kids..... for 30 days I have, instead, been given the gift of responding honestly to a series of challenging writing prompts rather than just whining about my day. Another "joy". I highly recommend it.
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