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“Sooner or later we all quote our Mothers” – Bern Williams
So true … and no matter how many times you have said to yourself growing up “I will NEVER say that to my kids –”It will happen. I have done it. So will you. But just to prepare, here are my top five:
#1 – “Stop crying or I will give you something to cry about!” What kind of crazy person says this? Well Honey, someone that has listened to a crying/whining child for two and a half straight hours at close range.
I am quite sure that if you could use this as a torture tactic for convicted terrorists our worries in the Middle East would be over.
#2 – “Wait till your father gets home!” Because why?Who knows – we just say this hoping that for one brief moment you will think that your father is a child abusing psychopath and it will give you pause to reflect on your current behavior.
#3 - Don’t make me come up there (in there, down there, back there)” You have to be looking at the ceiling and yelling at the top of your voice to get the full effect.I caught sight of myself doing this in the stove door reflection once and almost had a heart attack.You really do look insane!
#4 – “You, you … I can’t remember your name, but I know who you are!” This one is for the mother with at least three children and a dog. Somehow the moment you want to get their attention you can’t remember the name that took you nine full months and three baby name books to come up with. This is also an effective way to give the child a complex about “self” and ammunition to take to the therapists office.
#5 – “Because I said so, that’s why!”My personal favorite – A classic in Motherland – The first time you say this is a bit traumatic – helps to sit down with a snickers bar and a diet coke for a few moments to recompose yourself.But eventually it just rolls right out there like it was …well…your mother-tongue.
Packing is the name of the game for my spare time right now- we still don’t know where we’re moving to (dream house or overpriced apartment) but we have 50 days until we move. My OCD tendencies have kicked in, I have an Excel spreadsheet with the contents of each tote by number.
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Speaking of totes, they are the greatest thing for moving since two men and a truck. My entire basement is full of totes instead of boxes because they’re sturdier, and things don’t get ruined if you have a basement flood. I bought 8 new ones in bright spring colors which will be nice if we move to the apartment, because I can leave everything in the totes for the final move to a new house. I used to move using laundry baskets, but I thought I’d upgrade to something classier.
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Speaking of not knowing if we’ll be moving into the dream house or not…did you know Experian credit scores, as supplied by them, are worthless? Yep, total crap. The numbers they gave us might as well have been 12, 1800, and fairy dust for how useful they are to a lender. Experian big fat fail.
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Speaking of crap, it as absolutely shocking how much crap can be accumulated by living in one place for three years. I’ve been slowly sorting through things in the Girly Room (aka one of the spare bedrooms) and I’m thinking I’ll be sending at least five garbage bags of crap to Goodwill. And this from an avowed de-clutterer. Yikes!
Any surefire tips to making packing and moving less painful??
Pioneer Woman I am not…I would like to say that I could cook like that if I had time, but that would be a lie…
My kind of cooking is sliding a Stouffer’s lasagna into my own baking pan stealing good recipes from others, although I’m happy to give credit to whoever I stole the recipe from, really.
This one is from my Mother-in-Law, who is an amazing Southern cook. I’ve never made anything of hers that hasn’t turned out YUM, and this is no exception. Not to mention its way easy and I usually have all the ingredients. In other words? Its the perfect recipe.
Spinach Quiche
1 Tb. vegetable oil 1 small onion, chopped 1 10-oz. package of frozen chopped spinach- thawed and squeezed to remove to remove excess moisture 5 eggs 12-oz. package of shredded cheddar cheese (mild) salt and pepper to taste
Prehaet oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 2-quart baking dish with margarine. Heat oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion and saute until wilted. Add spinach; cook until excess moisture is evaporated. Let cool.
Beat eggs in a bowl. Add grated cheese. Stir in onion-spinach mix and season with salt and pepper. Pour into baking dish, spreading evenly. Bake for 35-40 minutes, until top is nicely browned and quiche is cooked in the middle.
I’m all about pressuring myself about having kids….seriously, I research and read and go to Babies R Us and think about babies and pretty much obsess, constantly. Just ask Marmot.
But I’ll tell you what, I do NOT appreciate others pressuring me. You know I consider someone asking that akin to asking if we’re having unprotected sex. OMG! And I pretty much consider telling anyone (other than you all- and my Mom- and my bestest baby-obsessed friend JuneBug- oh, and Marmot) about my baby obsession to be a sign of weakness.
So what do I do? I pretend that I totally am not planning on kids for a long while yet.
I have all sorts of smart remarks for people who ask. The pat answer is when I finish school and we get into a house, and that usually satisfies most polite of people asking, such as friends or truly interested co-workers.
For the nosy people who don’t think school and house are a good enough answer, I usually turn to the snarky when people tell me that having kids does good things for their marriage and finances which pretty much ends it right there. Snarky response? Yes it is. Appropriate for people who have no business asking? I think so.
I’ve told only a small handful of people about my Baby Bucket List, because I usually get a snort and a comment like oh you don’t need to do all that before having kids. I’m not sure if I don’t like hearing that because they’re right, or if its because I don’t like being told I shouldn’t do something.
I know not everyone does it like this, and most people don’t put off having kids until they’ve checked things off their list…but its ok that I do it, right? I know some people who would be horrified if someone told them ohh, you don’t need to wait to be married to have kids…
Hasn’t everyone had even just a few things that they waited, or will wait, to have kids for? Or am I just a dreamer…?
…time to GRILL out four to five nights a week!! Tonight were hamburgers seasoned with Dale’s Seasoning, salt, fresh ground pepper, lemon pepper and garlic salt….a-ma-zing!
Saw this ad over the weekend, and yep, it pretty much sums up how I feel about grilling…lol
Anyone else ecstatic about warmer weather, grilling out, being outside and just plain old not freezing your ass off?!
follow the b.