mrtl

Menu Planning

To break up some of the monotony of dinners around here (aka bean burritos), I've challenged the girls to come up with new meal ideas. Hopefully this will also help their willingness to try new things. One can hope.

Last night, our "breakfast for dinner" night, Jem wanted to make blue blueberry muffins with sprinkles. Not horrible, though I can't say I'm looking forward to blue poop.

Tonight Bug chose to make spaghetti and meatballs, but she wanted to make the spaghetti look like birdnests. We adapted a recipe I found online. The birdnests were a little crispy, since the meatballs were already in the oven at a higher temperature. Next time we'll just fashion the nests in little bowls and skip the cooking part. We'll also have to make the nests bigger; since they were only big enough to fit one meatball each, my plate creeped me out a little with its staring.

I am both shocked and thrilled to report that Jem ate meatballs. It was after ketchup appeared on the table, but she ate them and announced that the snowballs were nummy and she wanted more snowballs.

A Post with Just a Little Complaining About Chocolatelessness

Today was harsh. Bug was totally onboard with the thought of moving in with Jem, so after mister mrtl took off the fun began. I moved three dressers (two already in the room but still requiring removal of drawers), dismantled, moved, and reassembled one bed, pushed a couple endstands back and forth before deciding to use other furniture for their purpose, tore apart the interlocking foam floor squares from the playroom and reassembled in Bug's room (now referred to as the "toy room"), scuttled a multiude of toys from the playroom to the toy room, all while juggling the girls around to keep them out of my way and remembering to feed them! (And I also ran the dishwasher and did all the dishes. This is me in single-mama mode; it's disgusting how productive I get. I'm now working on a room-by-room list of things I want to do over the next five weeks. Sanity is telling me not to add any kind of painting or wallpaper removal to it. mwahahahahaha)

The time after the kids go to bed will be the most trying. I had planned to pull out the "Biggest Loser" DVD tonight, but my legs and back are telling me they done had enough. My body has been trained to have something the kids can't have after they're asleep; that chocolate orange is haunting me. Maybe I'll just have a cosmo. Of course, then I may get a little weak-willed... will have to think this through.

I'm currently distracting myself from the multitudes of chocolate downstairs by harrassing mister mrtl in IM about bringing home the Labels for Education off his microwavable soup. He's terribly resistant over the idea of doing something so difficult, and is questioning my seriousness over bringing home the container if he can't get it off. For the duration of writing this, there's been a long pause. oooh! A ding. Let's see his retort! Further questioning. Doesn't he realize how much the Chunky labels are worth? Dude. Just bring them home and there won't be any trouble. As if.

+: Before bath tonight, Bug offered to read Jem a story while she sat on the potty. Girl read the entire book, only getting caught up on one word: laugh. We agreed that this was a really good word to know. I'm sure she won't forget it.

Distractions

I'll be needing plenty this month, between mister mrtl's departure and my lofty d³. (The avoidance of chocolate was made much more difficult to accept with the realization that the Terry's chocolate orange Santa left was still unopened at the house. Mister mrtl graciously offered to take it with him, but wouldn't promise to bring it back unadultered for us all to share. pshaw)

Distractions for me come with projects. I'll be taking on many this month, and there will be some begating (use of "begating" with respect to Bill at Poop and Boogies) involved. The first project, moving the girls into one room so that the other room can be dedicated to toys, will involve a lot of furniture rearrangement (all planned out and found to be mathematically possible with my Photoshopping skills - yay me!). Drawer space will be available once I clean out all the clothes that no longer fit and switch the home of the spare sheets and blankets.

This particular project is leading to the goal of getting the treadmill out of our bedroom. Currently our family room is smothered in toys, begating the girls' room rearrangement. Moving the treadmill will hopefully be a motivator in getting my lazy ass on it. Follow the logic here: Currently sit on ass on couch. Moving treadmill a few feet away from location of lazy ass = higher likelihood of getting lazy ass on the treadmill. No? Bigger motivator: 20-year high school reunion this summer. Egads.

A Daring New Year

As said before, resolutions don't agree with me. I'm going to try a new tack: the double doggie dare. We'll see how I do with monthly challenges.

For January I'll be going without cookies, chocolate, and pie. Cake and other goodies are included here. There is one exception, for National Pie Day, on January 23.

When I told mister mrtl this plan, he doubted me. He doesn't think I can go the whole month without chocolate. I had to remind him of something I told him years ago, that I love him more than chocolate. Since he'll be gone this month, surely I can go without chocolate as well.

I'm not looking forward to January, but the gauntlet is thrown down and I have accepted the challenge.

It is important to note that I am not giving up reality television or alcohol this month.

Going Out with a Bang

I am about to explode. This is NOT a good time of year to be hanging with the 'rents. Mom mom is baking almost constantly, and so I have been eating treats almost constantly.

Again, I'm not trying to make any resolutions for the new year, but considerable effort will be needed to counter the effects of this trip. It's almost a good thing that mister mrtl will be MIA for a while, lest I feel encouraged to walk on the treadmill in the wee hours. Note to mister mrtl: The treadmill really needs to come out of our room.

I was going to give Bug some equal time in pictures today, but I'll need to dig around for some that deserve inclusion. In the meantime, let me share the amusing conversation just overheard between Bug and Pop Pop. Apply obviously fallacious voice to Bug.

Pop Pop: Ugh! What's that smell?
Bug: Hahaha! It wasn't me!
Pop Pop: It smells like something died in here!
Bug: I don't know what that is.

Candy Fest 2008

I like candy! I eat it! In my mouth!

Today we had some guests over to decorate gingerbread cookies and mock gingerbread houses (made with graham crackers, that is). More candy went into mouths than the cookies. You see above that Jem had quite a few M&Ms on her cookie; more were added, along with some gummy bears, before she scraped it all off with her spoon. I'm sure she tried to eat the cookie, too, but those things were petrified. I won't be sharing the recipe unless someone needs one for ornaments.

The houses came out fabulous. Bug had a snowman in her lush, green yard, but she ate it. I put her cookie there but am finding it creepy after watching "20/20" tonight.

She didn't eat her tree, but donated hers to Jem after Jem inhaled hers. I'm not looking forward to the sight of green poop.

Post-inhalation remark: Mommy! I sticky!

This was my first time having anyone over to the house since moving here; it's odd to think that I was having friends over at least once a week for a while there in Alaska. I just haven't felt that comfortable here, and haven't felt the house was ready for visitors. I need to get over that, and am glad that today went so well, and that I pulled it off. I've turned into quite the slacker, you see, and was stressing out so much over the list of all the little things that needed to be done before our guests arrived. Not only did all of that get done, I had time to relax with a great cup of coffee and bake the gingerbread men at the last minute. Bug was in charge of the cookie cutter and managed to place a clump of brown sugar just right to give me a snicker.

I named him Wee Willy.

Now before anyone tries to argue with me, saying that it looks much more like a belly button, or that I must now know what a penis looks like, let me share with a clear example that there must be something in the water here that allows people to see things that aren't really there.

Dude was eating shelled peanuts at Logan's the other day and damned if he didn't find Jesus. Dude's insane. It's obviously Jack Black.

Damn You, Pie

So tired, and just about to go to bed, when on comes a show dedicated to pie. I'mahafta watch it. But I so need sleep. Tomorrow morning is sure to be crazy with last-minute preparations to have some Mamas over with their iddy biddies to decorate some gingerbread houses.

Which reminds me, unearthed in an old cookbook was the following. Bug and I made a great batch the other day to serve as landscaping for the houses. We didn't bother with the gumdrops, figuring our guests may appreciate decorating them themselves.

Gumdrop (or not) Trees

Utensils
Cookie sheet
Large bowl
Large saucepan
Long-handled spoon
Kitchen scissors (or not)
Glass (or not)

Ingredients
4 cups Cheerios
32 large marshmallows or 3 cups minis
3 TBS butter or margarine + extra
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp green food coloring
Small gumdrops

1. Grease cookie sheet with butter.
2. Put Cheerios in large bowl.
3. Heat marshmallows and 3 TBS butter over medium heat till marshmallows melt. Stir till smooth. Remove from heat. Add vanilla and food coloring.
4. Pour marshmallow mixture over cereal and stir gently till cereal is coated.
5. Rub some butter on your hands and divide mixture on greased cookie sheet. 2/3 cups will make 6 parts. Shape each part into tree shape.
6. If desired, cut gumdrops into slices with scissors. (Dip scissors in glass of water to keep candy from sticking.) Press gumdrop slices onto the trees.

From Betty Crocker's Cookbook for Boys & Girls 1978

Are You Distracted?

That was the intent, since I would rather go to bed than try to think of something to write. 

I haven't changed this blog's design in over three years. The hills were chosen because it's too flat here.

Tomorrow...

... there shall be pie, and for that I am thankful. Amongst other things, of course. But the pie? That's pretty great on its own.

Have a happy Thanksgiving, everyone. May you be stuffed with love, happiness, and sweetness (and not all of it comprised of pie).

If you are so inclined, stop by tomorrow. I'll have a special Thanksgiving surprise here for you. mwahahahaha

Hungry Man Is Calling

We're in trouble here. BIG trouble. If mister mrtl doesn't stop bleeding real soon, Thanksgiving in the mrtl household is doomed. DOOMED!

::bloody tangent::
The dry air has not been good to mister mrtl's poor nose. Random bleeds today have been prompted by such acts as doing laundry, eating Mexican, watching football, and driving. He's going to bed with a puppy pad on his pillow, for real.
::end bloody tangent::

This morning I discovered that we didn't have enough of the just-add-water mix for our Saturday pancakes. No problem! I pulled out Fanny Farmer and whipped up a batch while Jem held my leg, whining and begging for food because she's so used to the immediate gratification of instant mix that waiting for scratch pancakes was akin to starvation. When the pancakes started smoking menacingly close to setting off the smoke alarm, all hell broke loose. To satiate the hungry little monster, I started flinging whatever food I could find at her. The kids ended up with a smorgasbord for breakfast: toast, bagels, cereal, yogurt.

Mister mrtl typically does all the heavy cooking, but no way is he going to be left to this task if leaning over a pan is going to cause a gusher. Since I can't even remember the last time I cooked anything outside of my standard faire (most of which requires a microwave), I shudder to think of the outcome if I'm cooking for the holiday. We need to make this meal as idiot-proof as possible and then some. I'm not sure that I could even be trusted with mashed potatoes. We do have Potato Flakes, don't we?