Getting Hit in the Head With a Vacuum Was Just the Beginning...

I had quite the weekend.  On Saturday afternoon, I was on the landing of the stairs from the main floor to the top floor and our 2004 (read: older, bigger, heavier) Dyson vacuum cleaner was on the top floor.  I was on my hands and knees, cleaning, when the Dyson fell down the stairs and slammed into the top of my head.  I don't know how my head did not receive a laceration because the part that hit me was as close to "sharp" as you can get.  The reason I know what part of the vacuum hit me is because the impact caused it to break off.  It scared the bejesus out of me, hurt like Hell and I cried for an hour (all the while continuing to clean.  This is a huge breakthrough because I HATE to clean but have recently found a new system that seems to be working.  I don't want to jinx myself by blogging about it, so stay tuned...).  Then the hubs and B came home and I flew into the hubs' arms and started sobbing as he repeatedly asked me, "Why didn't you call me so we could come home?" and picked through my hair in search of blood.

After my housework, the hubs and I went outside to do some yard work while B and his "brotha from anotha motha" (B's words, not mine! What the Hell were the hubs and B watching/doing during my stint as a WOHM at nights?!) played in the street. (Don't worry, we live on a dead end street with no traffic except for the residents, who expect kids and parties in the street because it is nicely shaded.)  Anywho, during this yard work, I managed to crack myself in the forehead with a rake handle and whack myself in the left ear with a broom handle hard enough that I have 2 red lumps that hurt like Hell (the vacuum and the broom left painful lumps; luckily, the rake did not and I am good with that).  Luckily, I had a mom's night out planned with one of my fav girlfriends last night.  The restaurant she picked served awesome food, cheap drinks and we had a great time.

Today started off calm enough - the hubs went out for a haircut, we went to church, shopped at Costco and Wegmans, came home to a phone message that the "brotha" wanted to get together again, he came over and he and B played nicely.  Then, I open a bottle of coconut aminos that exploded like a shaken bottle of champagne all over the hubs' white, collared, button-down shirt.  After that, I was preparing to put the pork ribs in the electric pressure cooker and thought the cooking pot was inside the cooking element (but I was wrong) and ended up pouring 2 cups of soda directly on the heating element and it proceeded to pour out the bottom of the pressure cooker, all over my counter,  I grabbed it and pulled it over to the sink to drain but it ran down and into one of my kitchen cabinets (and actually filled a steamer/spaghetti pot in that cabinet), splashed all over the floor and two cushioned, absorbent kitchen floor mats on the way to the sink and by the time I actually got it over the sink, all the soda was gone.  The hubs tried to open up the pressure cooker and dry off the soda so we can continue to use it, but it wouldn't open.  The manual specifically says not to put any liquid in the pressure cooker, only in the removable cooking pot, because you run the risk of electric shock and fire.  The hubs was of the opinion that now that all of the soda has drained out, we can just plug it in, start it up and the heat of the pressure cooker would burn off the soda.  Well, we did it his way and it worked!

I didn't get to eat any of the ribs because I had a mandatory Vacation Bible School meeting from 7-9pm.  I love the little kids.  Unfortunately, I was really late to the volunteer game this year and there were no infant, toddler nor preschool teacher slots left.  I was assigned to be an elementary school-aged leader.  Now, in the past, I have worked in the nursery (who doesn't love and enjoy the babies?) and the kitchen to provide snacks - pretty easy-breezy, fun and stress-free.  As I sat through the meeting tonight and listened to all the security procedures that, rightfully and necessarily, are in place in the world we live in, I was feeling more and more stressed out!

Then at the end of the night I got together with my youth assistant leaders.  VBS participants are up to 5th grade; 6th graders and up get to be youth assistants.  All my assistants have done this job in years past.  Yeah!  They know what they are doing and can help me do my job best!  One of my assistants is an 8th grade boy who is genuine, not one of those teens who's "too cool to care" and excited for VBS to start.  When it was time to go home, he was the only one left with me (the girls had gone home because we were all done).  As a parting line, I told him, "enjoy your last week of school!"  To which he replied, "I'm actually homeschooled.  So I learn all the time."  A veteran at leading VBS, so he knows the ropes and can help me find my way and he's homeschooled, so we have that in common.  I knew right then and there that The Lord had "thrown me a bone" or, more precisely, a life raft, to not only let me know that I am not alone in caring for and being responsible for my 15 3rd and 4th graders in VBS, but he also "opened a window" after the door slamming I experienced this weekend with the vacuum, the rake, the broom, the coconut aminos and the pressure cooker.

God is good and I am so blessed to be His child!

"I Remember Nothing and Other Reflections"

I've found another kindred spirit in a new book I started yesterday, "I Remember Nothing and Other Reflections" by Nora Ephron.  By page 7, she had me; she was talking about me.  Sad that I have the same memory affliction at 30 years her junior, but comforting to know I'm not the only one.  And it's always good to be able to relate to someone and laugh about your common experiences.  Funny book so far!

Leftover Wednesday - Skinnytaste.com's Cilantro Lime Tilapia Tacos

This is a pic of one of my tacos. Please go to skinny taste.com and look at Gina's  photo - her's are pretty!

I am pretty proud of us this week!  We had very little leftover today.  We've been eating leftovers before making new meals.  Yeah us!  My wonderful friend, Julia, who shared the Grilled Greek Chicken Kabobs and Kraft Foods recipe site with me years ago, shared another recipe site with me last week: Skinny Taste.  Julia also gave me the names of some recipes she's tried from the website.  One was Cilantro Lime Tilapia Tacos.  Tilapia happens to be a staple that I keep in my freezer but I don't have a ton of recipes, so I was excited to get a "thumbs up" from Jules on this one.

Going through the fridge this afternoon, I discovered that the only leftovers I had were baked potatoes and guacamole ingredients.  I had heard about baked potatoes in the crock pot from my friend Clair last year and I've seen them on Pinterest a lot, too.  So I made 4 of them on Monday.  Awesome!  When I wanted to avoid heating the house up with the oven for baked potatoes, I just did them in the microwave.  But the quality is not there from the microwave.  I'll never do them in the oven or microwave again.  I chose not to use the potatoes for dinner tonight because they always get used up in my breakfast hashes.

The hubs makes a fantastic guacamole.   He was going to make some this past weekend, but it didn't happen.  When I pulled the guac fixins out of the fridge, I immediately thought of the Cilantro Lime Tilapia Tacos.  So the unused avocado, tomato, cilantro, jalepeno, lime and onion, as well as the tilapia and corn tortillas I had on hand, all went into these tacos.

The hubs and I loved them; B did not.  The recipe calls for 1 pound of tilapia and says it makes 8 tacos.  I pulled 3 tilapia fillets from the freezer, weighing a little under 12 oz total, and cut the rest of the ingredients down to 3/4 of what the recipe called for.  And we still had plenty for 8 full tacos.  Next time, I'll cut the recipe in half because I don't want this leftover - not a fan of reheating fish.  However, I bet the leftovers would be great cold, all on their own, or tossed in a cold green or rice salad with a vinaigrette.

I tried one other recipe from this site over the past week - Chicken Rollatini with Spinach alla Parmigiana.  Did not turn out well.  I was the only one who would eat more than one bite and I just forced my portion down.  It was totally user error, though.  Next time, I will sauté or steam fresh spinach instead of using frozen (I end up with more leaf and less stem that way) and will not put so much stuffing in each breast.

I look forward to trying many more recipes from Skinny Taste!  If you try the tacos, or if you try any other recipes from Skinny Taste, please let me know how you liked them!

Day 2 of Exercise or Why I Will Never Do Jumping Jacks Again Without a Sports Bra or Duct Tape On.

I came downstairs yesterday morning and realized I should do my "exercises" before I ate breakfast.  Yes, I just put the word exercise in quotes because, let's be honest, what I'm doing at this point cannot qualify as real exercise.  But I'm moving, and as small of a movement as this is, I wold normally still blow it off, so I'm just glad I am making it a habit.  Anywho, I looked up day 2's requirement on the list: 35 jumping jacks and 15 crunches.

On Monday, day 1, I "exercised" between breakfast and lunch, after showering and dressing, so I had a bra on.  Yesterday morning under my PJs I had on....how can I describe it, because it cannot be considered a bra.  A bra must have support, lift.  The thing I wear to bed is kinda sorta shaped like a bra, but it's a pull over and barely maintaining any elasticity.  What do you call something when it's purpose is, basically, just to sit between my boobs and my stomach?  Cuz that's what I wear to bed each night.  It's basically a layer of material that allows me to avoid the sticky, sweatiness of having my boobs sit on my upper stomach.  I wonder if it falls more in the "bro" or "manssiere" category (Seinfeld reference.  If you don't know what it means, most likely you're too young to be a fan of the show.  Go watch "The Doorman" episode from season 6.  Trust me, my use of the words "bro" and "massiere" will not only mean something to you after watching the episode, but it will also make you laugh.  And, you'll be able to throw it out at the appropriate moment in a conversation with older people and get a great laugh from us.  Now, back to my garment...)  See, moobs (man boobs) are not muscular nor perky.  They are flabby and sit on the upper stomach.  So, yeah, I had on my "bro" yesterday morning.  (Kramer and Mr. Costanza argue throughout the episode about the name - bro or manssiere.  I actually prefer the manssiere, but since bro is shorter to type, I'm going with that.  I'm giggling at the keyboard thinking of that episode.  Please go watch it if you haven't already.  It will make your life better.  You can pull the memory out when you are stuck in traffic or up all night with a sick child and it will make you smile.)  So, I debated going back upstairs and putting on a real bra or, better yet, a sports bra because I know my bro will not contain the girls when I start jumping those jacks.  But I didn't.  Cuz I'm lazy.  And I paid for that laziness.  I walked out to the living room, stood with my feet together and hands by my side.  35 jumping jacks. How hard could it be? We can do this, girls; we've been through worse.  Right?  WRONG.

I jumped up in the air, my legs parted, my arms went out and over my head.  My body reached the pinnacle of it's ascent and started back towards the ground.  The girls, however, did not.  "A body in motion stays in motion."  Remember learning that in physics?  The girls, do.  And the bigger or heavier an object is, is takes more force to stop it or reverse its direction.  It was like that moment when the roller coaster goes over the top of that first hill and you experience weightlessness.  My girls were in Heaven.  Like your average 8 month pregnant woman is when she gets in a pool.  My girls were shooting for the stars.  They could taste freedom; it was within their grasp.  But then my feet hit the ground and my girls can only stretch so far.  Like the yank behind Harry Potter's bellybutton going through a port key, the girls were wrenched back from "the light" and slammed against my chest with the force of The Hulk jumping off the top of a high-rise.  The force was so great, it literally knocked the wind out of my lungs.  "HUH!"  They hit so hard the air in my lungs actually flew out on that guttural sound.  Every. Single. Time. I landed.  By jumping jack #7, B came running into the room. "Are you OK, Mom?!" The look on his face went from concern to alarm to WTF and then pure, boy fascination at what my boobs were doing.  As humiliated as I was, and in as much pain as I was, I knew if I stopped before I reached 35, I'd never start again.  "I'm HUH! fine. HUH! Go HUH! back HUH! to HUH! watch HUH! ing HUH! your HUH! show.  HUH!"

Shear force of I-am-woman-hear-me-roar will made me finish the 35 jumping jacks and then immediately do the 15 crunches before I could stop and think.  Or cry.  When I was done with the crunches, I just lay there on the floor with one arm flung over my eyes.  Cursing my laziness.  Why didn't I just go up and change my damn bro?!  Then I started laughing.  Someone once told me, "What are you gonna do?  It's laugh or cry."  And I cry enough at movies and commercials and books.

I Gotta Get Movin'

The last time I was this heavy, I was pregnant with B.  I have got to start moving, exercising, in order to stop gaining and then start losing.  I found The Starter's Exercise Plan on Pinterest, so I started it today.  Day 1 wasn't bad at all: 30 jumping jacks and 10 crunches.  I need to start somewhere, and starting with something that's easy gave me a sense of accomplishment and the motivation to do it again tomorrow.  It's a start!

I Just Finished "I Don't Know How She Does It"!

W.O.W.  What a fantastic book!  I can't wait to talk about it with my readers who have picked it up since I started reading it.  As you know, I checked it out of the library and posted here how affected I was by just the 1st two chapters.  I was about to start chapter 26 when my own copy arrived in the mail from my brother.  My highlighter has been by my side and put to good use from then on!  Now that I am finished with the book, I am going to read it again from the beginning, so I can highlight what I want from the 1st 25 chapters!

Such a powerful book for everyone, not just mothers.  Dads, men who employ mothers, men employed by mothers, any man with a mother in his life can benefit from this book.  This is an accurate picture of what it is like.  Even I, as a mom, one who has been a SAHM and a WOHM, did not fully comprehend nor acknowledge how unequal we still are to men!  Not only in the workplace but also at home!

I can't recommend this book enough.

Science Class - Weather Experiments

We have been learning about weather in Science class for the last month, and this week we did some experiments.  We learned that air pushes up, not just down and side-to-side, with an experiment that made B feel like a magician.  We made our own barometer to see how the air pressure changes with the weather and demonstrated how a traditional thermometer works.  These experiments can be found on pages 58, 59  and 65 of  "The Usborne Book of Science Activities, Volume Three".

1.  The Pushing Air Trick
We learned that even though we don't feel the air around us all the time, it's there and pushes on everything. We feel it push against us when it moves as wind, but this experiment showed us that it pushes in all directions, even up.

B filled a plastic cup all the way up to the brim with water, then covered it with a plastic-coated postcard and pushed the card down.  He kept one hand flat on top of the postcard and held the bottom of the cup with the other hand.  Then, over the sink, he turned the cup upside down and removed the hand holding the postcard.  He laughed with glee when the postcard stayed under the cup, exclaiming. "I'm doing a magic trick!"  The air under the postcard was pushing up enough to keep it in place.

2. Homemade Barometer

To measure how much and when air pushes more than other times, we made our own barometer with an empty mason jar, balloon, straw, rubber band, tape and cardboard (cut from a cereal box in the recycle bin).

I cut the "neck" off the balloon, stretched it over the mouth of the mason jar and B secured it with a rubber band.  I cut one tip of the straw at an angle to form a point and B taped the other end of the straw to the middle of the balloon.  Then B taped a piece of cardboard to the jar.  Using a pencil, B made a mark on the cardboard where the straw pointed and checked it several times this week for movement. 

We've had a lot of rain and thunderstorms come and go and the straw has mostly been pointing down. Yesterday morning, B woke me up, pouncing on the bed in excitement, "Mama!  Our barometer is finally pointing up!  We're out of low pressure and into high pressure, finally!" It was a clear, sunny morning.  When the air pressure outside the jar became high, it pushed down on the balloon, causing the pointed tip of the straw to rise.  When the air pressure outside the jar was low, the air in the jar pushed up and the pointed end of the straw lowered.

3. Homemade Thermometer

B had been asking exactly how a mercury thermometer works.  His Nana has one at her house but we only have a digital ear thermometer.  So this experiment came at the right time.

B took a bottle out of the recycle bin, pulled the label off and filled it with water.  I added some blue food coloring to the water.  With modeling clay, I sealed the top of the bottle with a straw sticking out of it.  B put the bottle in a glass bowl and I poured simmering water into the bowl (see photo, left).

As the blue water inside the bottle heated up from the simmering water outside of it, the blue water expanded and rose up the straw (see picture, below).  As the water cooled, it contracted and the straw emptied back to the way it was at the beginning of the experiment.

As the air around a thermometer warms up, the liquid in it rises.  As the air around a thermometer cools, the liquid inside lowers.

Water inside our thermometer rising from the heated water outside of it.