The End of Procrastination?

I don't know that it ever could be possible to put a complete end to procrastination, especially with young kids to raise and a house to run.  I try to keep things simple (and fail at it, consistently) and yet, the level of projects and ideas that I put off on a daily basis seems insurmountable.  Which is where the apathy comes in.  I mean, why even try if you're doomed to never succeed, right?

But as I was explaining to Jack last week in a battle royale over homework (also consistent in our house) the energy it takes to procrastinate NOT doing something, and the angst it creates, is at least equal to, if not worse, than actually TACKLING the job once and for all.

So for Lent this year, when giving up Facebook didn't seem like enough (dare I say I've actually begun to look forward to it?) I decided to take a stab at giving up PROCRASTINATING.

In the last week, I've tackled more projects than you can shake a stick at.  I'm still not one millionth of the way down my mental list, but at least my feet are moving in the right direction.

And ever one to live by a plan (because so many things cross my mind in a given moment, I could not possibly focus unless I have a to-do list)  I've made a little blogging schedule for myself, to try and stay caught up and preserve the memories we're making as we go, instead of in retrospect.

Here's the routine I'm starting with, knowing that I'll probably end up tweaking it as I go...

Monday: Something We Did

Tuesday: Something We Ate

Wednesday: Around the House 

(kind of like a house tour, but in snippets)

Thursday: Crafty Stuff

Friday: Child Spotlight

Since I want to show pictures of the house, and since I haven't taken steps to anonymize our lives on this blog, and since I'm neurotic by nature, I need to put my security defense arsenal back in place.  I know it's a pain for others, because once the blog is no longer public, it loses a bunch of functionality, like auto-notification and such.  But I actually lie awake at night thinking of that freaky Kiefer Southerland character? In that Sally Field movie?  Where he killed Dorothy Jane from The Torkelsens who looks just like my friend Jimena's sister Daniela, and I'll never get over the horror I felt when Sally Field had to listen to her daughter be killed?  And I don't want Kiefer knowing where the security system is, because I posted pictures on my blog, you know?

So a-private we will go in 3....2....1

What's For Dinner? Aunt Sandy's Pork Roast

This pork is mouth-wateringly incredible.  It's a Mallett Family, Fall Ball must-have.  I've got to confess that even though I do it exactly as she told me, it never tastes quite as perfect at when Aunt Sandy makes it.


AUNT SANDY'S PORK ROAST


For best flavor, marinate overnight. 

6 large cloves garlic, chopped
2-3 bay leaves, crumbled
1 teaspoon paprika1 teaspoon coarse salt
1 tablespoon of Crushed Red Pepper (calda de pimenta) 
2 tablespoons olive oil
Juice of 1 orange
1 tablespoon of vinegar
3lb pork loin (not the tenderloin, the LOIN)

1. Using a mortar and pestle, mash the garlic, bay leaves, salt and paprika.  Blend in the Pepper Paste or Crushed. Slowly drizzle in the olive oil and mix. Add vinegar and orange juice.


2. Cut crosshatches on the surface of the roast. Rub the paste all over the roast, pushing some of the paste into the crosshatches. Place meat in a lightly oiled roasting pan. Refrigerate overnight.

3. Heat oven at 500 degrees - roast pork uncovered for 10 minutes. Lower the heat to 300 degrees, cover the roast and bake it for about an hour or until the pork reaches an internal temperature of 150 degrees. Let the roast stand for 10 to 15 minutes before carving. 

Tip: If you are planning to serve roasted potatoes with this dish, you can roast them in the same pan as the pork.

Lent and Feeding the Hungry

Lots to post about, but I've been busy with some Lenten fasts, most notably my attempt to fast from procrastination, which is a doozie, let me tell you!  Getting lots of things done, but no time to blog them.  Soon I hope - lest I procrastinate it.

In other news,  Molly came down from bed tonight complaining of a tummy ache.  In all my years of mothering, this turned out to be a first...

"Do you feel like you need to use the potty?"  I asked.

Nope

"Do you feel like you might throw up?"

Nope.

Hmmm, I thought, scratching my head for answers.

"Um....could it be that I never fed you dinner and you're hungry?"

"Yes Mama!  That's it I think!"

Mother of the year here folks - I forgot to feed my kid.  There was food, of course - it was a 'leftovers' night and the boys wanted raviolis with garlic bread.  Molly wanted oatmeal, and somewhere between "Can I please have a drink?" and "Can I please have a napkin?" I got sidetracked.

Daddy came to the rescue and whipped up a batch of oatmeal for her.  Hopefully she can sleep better with a full belly!

Ninjago Deviousness

Stretching my blogging muscles after getting sidetracked for a few weeks....

Today Ben and I spent a good hour together reading a new book about Lego Ninja warriors and then practicing spelling some words that he asked me to help him with.  

NINJAGO 

was one

SPINJITZU 

was the other

"S" is a tricky one for Ben.  He likes to start all his letters off with a straight line, so getting the S to curve is a challenge.  He's not interested in starting at either end, I found.  So we played with different ways of making Ss and then he did a beautiful job of spelling SPINJITZU with his own funky S.  In case you were wondering, "spinjitzu" is a martial art created by Lego that morphs jujitsu with ninja tops that spin.  SPIN + JUJITSU = SPINJITZU!  And with a whole lot of Lego merchandise behind it, the line is a little boy's dream (at least THIS little boy's dream!)

I was feeling rather proud that on the first day of Lent after giving up Facebook, I spent so much one on one time with my little guy.  We were bonding!!  Not that I don't' do it every day of course, but usually household distractions are many and a solid hour to work and play together is hard to come by.

Afterward, I was folding laundry at the kitchen table while he continued to draw. I was musing about how fleeting this time is when they are little and how I need to pay more attention to moments like these.

It was about this time that Ben grabbed his great big paper with his ninja words on it and ran past me asking "Mom, where is your computer?"

As he climbed up into my desk chair and propped his paper in front of him, it dawned on me. 

It was all a TRICK to get me to spell SPINJITZU for him so that he could Google it and watch YouTube videos of Lego Ninjas!!!!

I'd been HAD!

By my four year old!!!

Devious little bugger....good thing he's so cute!

Getting Crafty: No Sew Bed Canopy

Canopy, crown, corona...whatever you want to call it, my sister has been dreaming of one for a loooong time.  But she's a Libra, with a capital "L", which means she couldn't possibly move forward on this project when there are so many choices to make.  

First of all, she had to pick fabric.  And that proved to be nearly impossible.  I mean what if ten years from now she decided to change her curtains?  Or her rug?  Or her bedding?  What if she fell in love with something SOMEDAY that she couldn't buy because it wouldn't match her canopy-that-doesn't-exist yet?

I understand her dilemma.  Because I'm a libra too, but with a lowercase "l".  I feel ALL those same Libra feelings, but I have learned to put my need for finality before my need for perfection...most of the time, anyway.

So this year, for her Christmas present, I lent Patrice my decisiveness by telling her that we were doing it, whether she wanted to or not (luckily she did!), and then dragging her to every fabric store within twenty miles (which isn't saying much, haha!) and doing the work before I left Massachusetts.

Did I mention I can't sew?

Regardless, something needed to be done.  

Here's what we started with...

A beautiful cornice that my parents had built as a gift while my sister was away, to speed up the project.   

That was three years ago.  She's got great, luxurious bedding in neutrals with a hint of sage green, so we bought fabric to coordinate with that, but it was still neutral enough that it would allow her latitude to change the room colors if she ever decided to (yeah, like that is ever going to happen!!)

Armed with two coordinating fabrics, some trim, a glue gun with fabric glue sticks and a staple gun, I went to work.  Did you catch that?  That was all we needed for our project

FABRIC

TRIM

GLUE GUN

FABRIC GLUE STICKS

STAPLE GUN

AN IRON

Step one was to fold the fabric for the sides of the canopy in half, lengthwise.  We'd bought home decor fabric measured to hang from the cornice to the floor.  It was 54" wide, and we folded it in half because it was going to be seen from both sides and we needed the pretty side facing both ways.  I had Patrice iron the seam so it would be crisp, and then I attached some gorgeous tassel trim with hot fabric glue to the side with the seam.  The side with the unhemmed edges needed to be facing the wall.

  And seriously, the fabric glue??  

That stuff is like liquid GOLD - I am beside myself that I've never used it before.  Just a dab or two and POOF! the trim was attached.  For a girl who can't sew, this is nothing short of miraculous.  A whole world of possibilities has opened in front of me!!!

But enough about the world of crafts and back to this one...

doesn't it look LOVELY?

Our second step was to staple the fabric to the cornice.  I wish I had pictures, but I was busy stapling, so you'll just have to take my word for it!  The side of the canopy measured 18" front to back,  but our fabric was purposely wider to accommodate all the pleats we wanted.  

I started by stapling the front corner of the fabric to the front corner of the cornice.  

Then I stapled the back corner to the back corner, 

and the middle to (you guessed it!) the middle.

Like this...

|                            |                                |

Then I stapled the fabric in the middle of those staples so I had five staples, like this...

|              |             |               |                |

Then I stapled in the middle of those...

and the middle of those....

and the middle of those....

Until I had no middles left and all the fabric was stapled onto the cornice.

It looked like CRUD, with staples and raw fabric everywhere.  

(But I expected that!)

Step Three: 

Repeat on the other side.  

See how the stapling creates the pleats?

Step Four:

Repeat on the back

(we used coordinating fabric here, but you don't have to)

Because Patrice's bed is queen sized and has no headboard, we needed two widths of fabric across the back.  But if you have a headboard and only need the fabric to hang down 3-4 feet, you can turn your fabric sideways.  This saves a ton of money, especially if you like expensive fabric.

The final trick was to cover up all our nasty staples with some more pretty trim.  I'd intended to use the fabric glue for this, but our trim proved to be so camouflaging that I stapled it on and you couldn't even see the staples.

Sorry for the lack of a before shot.

I was in the zone and didn't stop until it was DONE.

Which amazingly, took less than an hour.

Maybe even less than a half hour.

And VOILA!!

For the detail oriented among you who noticed the trim hanging down in the corner there...I cut it off, I promise ;-)

Patrice loved it, 

I loved it, 

and I have to say,

it kind of ROCKED!  

I'm a big fan of things that give you a good bang for your buck.  

I'm a BIGGER fan of things that give you a good bang for your TIME.  

My favorite projects are ones that don't cost a ton, 

are done with minimal effort, and look like they belong in a magazine.

I've had a lot of crafts flop in my life, but this one was not one of them!

In the end, it's a total hack job, and you can tell if you look closely.

See?  The trim was so expensive we skimped and didn't take it down to the floor.

And look at those raw edges on the bottom! 

There are raw edges hiding everywhere!

I'm sure a professional decorator would get nauseous looking at it.

But it's not for a professional, it's for real life!

And it's D-O-N-E, so my sister finally has something to have sweet dreams under

after dreaming about it for so long.

Yay!

Some Furry Winter Friends

No, we haven't lost our mind and purchased any critters, though begging, pleading, desperate children make their case for them daily.  But we have had a few close encounters lately that are worth noting.

First were some friends that paid us a nighttime visit after the last snowstorm.  The children were nestled all snug in their beds and Marc and I were poking around, cleaning up the house before sneaking in an episode of our new guilty pleasure (a TV show called Revenge) when he called me over to the play room window.

This is what he saw...

Luckily, the streetlights glinting on the new fallen snow (and a spiffy camera with manual settings) let me brighten things up considerably.

It was BAMBI!!

And she had a buddy!

This is literally 15 feet from our house!

And then, unbelievably, a THIRD one snuck out to join his friends.

They all went across the street to the open field, looking for a midnight snack I suppose.  It was a regular deer party!  We showed the kids the next morning and they couldn't believe it.

Then last weekend, I took the kids on a "Mystery Ride".  Our old neighbors Mike and Kim used to take their two girls on these, and my kids were always jealous and begged for mystery rides of their own.  Once in a while I come up with one (like the time we pretended we were going to McDonalds and after picking up happy meals we drove to Starved Rock State Park for the weekend).  

The funny thing is, while they THINK they like mystery rides, they actually can't stand them.  

The suspense KILLS them!  They complain the entire time that you simply MUST tell them where you are driving to.  But if you tell them, they will cry just as loudly that you ruined the mystery!  And if you don't tell them, once they figure out where you're taking them, it's never as good as they imagined (were they thinking we were going to China?  Disney? Free toy day at Toys R Us?).

So then they cry and complain some more.

They haven't figured out yet that this is why they don't get mystery rides very often!

Our mystery ride this time ended up at a place we know well.  We used our Arboretum membership (thanks for renewing it for us, Nana and Papa!) to see a husky sled dog demonstration.  All the kids love dogs, but especially Molly.  And she has a particular affection for huskies, bringing home library books about them and asking for one for Christmas.

So being able to go pet two dozen huskies was a pretty exciting treat!

This picture is my favorite!  That's Ben, sweetly petting a pup, who was so good to let him, and seemed to enjoy it as much as Ben did.

This sweet thing has sensitive feet, so they treat her like a princess and have her dressed in special pink booties and a matching scarf.  She looked like a little bird in a nest all curled up in the hay!

A little six year old princess figured out what this sign said, 

and Mommy didn't hear the end of it ALL DAY.

This is Kiera below.  She was a bit skittish, so her owner gave Molly and Ben fistfuls of cookies to help  convince her they were friends.  

She was no dummy, peeking inside Molly's jacket looking for more!

Jack refused to wear the hat I brought him, leaving it in the car.  He then stood in the shade by himself  complaining about how cold it was.  Meanwhile the rest of us were huddled with the crowd in the sunshine where it was an easy 15 degrees warmer.

He's lucky his Mom loves him and shared her scarf.  You *know* he was cold if he was willing to look like this!

Kinda reminds me of that really odd TV show Boobah, by the makers of the Teletubbies

eek!  weird!

But back to the pups!  We got to learn about huskies, and why they need jobs to do, and how much they love pulling sleds.  While they were being hooked up to their harnesses, we got to hear them howl LOUDLY about how excited they were - they didn't stop howling until it was time to go!

And then the sledding started!  Due to lack of snow, they didn't pull sleds, but other contraptions designed to mimic the sledding experience.

This picture is the best I got.  

Sometimes you win, sometimes you get pictures to embarrass them with in front of future dates.

This was that kind of day.

After all the excitement (and freezing temperatures) one little sled driver passed out COLD, fourteen seconds into the drive home.  

Not counting the whining, crying and gnashing of teeth at the fact that they didn't actually bring HOME a husky...it was a pretty fun afternoon!

No Regret Baked Potato Soup

Photo from Cooking Light

This is a recipe perfect for game day or any party.  It originated at Cooking Light magazine but I tweaked it a bit to fit us.  We used it at our Holiday Open House this year as a vegetarian option 

and it was gone, baby, gone!

The amazing thing about this recipe is that it not only tastes good, it is actually, unbelievably, good for you too!  There is not one speck of butter or one drop of cream, but you'd never know it.  My estimate is about 250 calories per cup including a tablespoon of each garnish.  (for comparison, Outback Steakhouse's baked potato soup is over 500 calories a cup!)   It would be even lower if you substituted chicken broth for the milk (Weight Watchers and Panera both do this and it shaves 100+ calories off the total) but then it wouldn't be vegetarian, or as creamy.

1/26/12 - UPDATE!
I thinned out my soup for leftovers this week with vegetable broth and it was DELICIOUS!
Possibly even better than the original!
Next time I make it from scratch I'm going to cut the milk in half and add 3C broth, saving 90 calories per serving - WOOT!!

So the next time you have potatoes for supper, make a little extra and save it for some baked potato soup later in the week!!

No Regret Baked Potato Soup

2/3 Cup All-Purpose Flour

6 Cups 2% reduced fat milk
OR 3 Cups Milk and 3 Cups Vegetable Broth (See Update above)

4 Russet Potatoes, baked and mashed

(reserve the skins for another use)

1 Cup reduced fat shredded sharp cheddar

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

1C reduced fat sour cream

1/2C chopped green onions

In a bowl whisk together flour and milk(and broth, if using) until no lumps remain.  Pour into a large pot, and whisking frequently cook over medium heat until thick and bubbly (8-10 minutes).  


Watch your soup carefully through this stage!  The price to pay for not starting with a buttery roux is that the milk wants to stick to the bottom of your pot.  So every minute or two whisk the heck out of it while it's cooking and lower the heat if it's starting to stick.

Once thickened, add the potatoes. I'm a big fan of my immersion blender (and my kids are weirded out by lumps) so I like to whizz it up a bit to smooth it out, but it's not necessary.  In fact, if you're a fan of lumps, you can cube some of your potatoes with the skin still on and add them in that way.

Add salt, pepper and cheese, stirring until the cheese melts.  Reduce heat to LOW and stir in sour cream and green onions.  Simmer on low heat for 10 minutes (do not boil).

Serve with extra cheese, green onion, sour cream and crumbled bacon for garnish.

Common Sense Reminder:  If you put bacon on top of your soup, it's no longer vegetarian. ;-)

Speaking of bacon, crumbled bacon from Coscto has changed our lives!  It tastes real because it IS real, and it's got no nasty preservatives or fillers like imitation bacon bits.  I'm sure one could argue that bacon by it's very nature is full of preservatives, but I'm in my happy bacon bubble and I can't hear you (lalalalala, fingers in my ears)!!  It's so great with this recipe because you don't have to coat your kitchen in bacon grease to have that little pop of WOW! on top of your soup.