Pesto soup

A friend shared Nana's Chicken Pastina Soup with me in January and I've been meaning to try it, but just never seem to have chicken thawed in our house.  Well, thawed or not, I've had that jar of pesto in my pantry and I was bent on using it, but of course, I don't have pastina and wasn't really interested in adding additional carbohydrates to our dinner, so I basically left it out and it turned out great!

I often forget how fast and easy it is to use a crock pot, but this put that thought up front and center again.  The other morning, I got up about 15 minutes early and cut up 3 carrots and 2 celery stalks, then threw it into the pot with a box of chicken stock, a handful of frozen diced onion, and 2 frozen chicken breasts.  Viola!  When dinner time hit, I just shredded the chicken with a fork and added 5 Tbsp of pesto and 3 Tbsp of lemon juice.

Could not believe how much the kids enjoyed the soup.  I have learned to leave salt and pepper out of my soups since the kids seem to enjoy shaking them in there themselves, but they didn't really ask for any.  Shocking.  L even told me that he loved the broth, which I think is hilarious hearing that out of a 5 year old's mouth.  It was even better the second day!  What's the best thing about soups though?  The kids eat all of their veggies :)

Only 1 problem: pesto + pregnancy = heartburn

So, until we meet again in the fall, chicken pesto soup.  You will be missed.  Instead, I will be looking for another soup idea for tomorrow night and our potential April Fool's Snow.  I'm thinking something Thai inspired...hmmm....

Are we victims of our lives?

There are many times in my life that I've come in contact with amazingly strong people, people who have had some of the worst things imaginable happen to them, and come out on the other side, unscathed.  I know 2 sisters that experienced the same abuse, one is an amazing woman, mother, grandmother, wife, etc... that has truly made the best of her life; the other, lives life like a victim, expecting others to give her things/support since life has been so horrible to her.

It dawned on me that its all about how we approach those previous life circumstances, as a victim with expectations or as a stronger person that refuses to let those situations define who he is, that will determine our success in later life.  I myself have had my does of shitty life circumstances, many that I brought upon myself, but others that I was just unfortunate enough to have happen to me.  I am constantly trying to remember not to be the victim.

But, here is my dilemma.  I truly believe what I wrote above, that you must select your path in life, how you are going to deal with all the good and bad you come across, in order to gain what you want.  But, what about the people that say that God has chosen this path for this person.  I guess its a free will vs. determinism argument.  If I determine my destiny/happiness, how can you say that I have no control over the events that will happen.

What is making me think of this?  I thought about this yesterday when thinking about my brother's death and how each of us 5 siblings has handled it differently.  For example, my sister has found a renewed and much stronger connection with God.  She believes that it was Dennis's time to leave this earth since his work was done.  I, on the other hand, believe my brother was a victim of some cowardly jerk that just wanted to kill someone that was trying to help innocent victims.  Same circumstance, same upbringing, but 2 totally different views on what happened.  So, which is it then?

I thought about this again today while speaking with a friend that has been through more crap than anyone can possibly fathom.  She said that its unfair that she has to deal with all this stuff that life threw at her.  So, what does she do?  Should she fight to get to where she wants to be or does she just allow God's plan for her to play out?  How does she know God's plan?

If Dennis had known that God's plan was to have him murdered by an IED in a foreign land, would he really have volunteered and joined the Corps?  Or, would he have?  Or, would he have even had the option to decide?  This friend, I believe she should try her hardest to show others that she will not be brought down by the circumstances life has thrown at her, to succeed in the goals she has set for herself.  But, what if her path has already been determined?  Or, is it not the path that has been determined, just the end?

I have a minor in Philosophy, but that has not helped me to answer my questions, instead it has only served to intensify them.  Perhaps, one day, when I meet my maker, I will ask him/her what was pre-determined for me and which things I chose myself.  But, by then, it won't have mattered, will it?  So, I can only live life believing that I am in charge of my own destiny and the paths I take, no matter what litter is thrown in my way.

Eyes wide

Today, okay, officially it was yesterday, but regardless, it was quite a day...eye opening.  I did some CASA work and my eyes were opened to the ways of the system.  I began to simplify my pantry (which for some reason also meant that I felt the need to paint it)...eye opening. And then, the kicker; my family was interviewed by a reporter, Carolyn Davis, from the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Its not the first time we've been interviewed for a story about losing a family member to war, but it was the most informative of them all.  Typically, the reporter will interview one person at a time, to get their story, but since she was running a little late, and we are a big family, Carolyn asked if it were okay to interview us as a group.  Sure, not a problem, I told her, but I warned that she may need to speak to my parents separately. Its not really because I thought it would be uncomfortable for us kids, but because my father has never really been open with us about how Dennis's death has affected him.  I mean, we can see that he is sad.  We can see that he's hurting, but that's it.  There's never any discussion about Dennis that ever involves my dad because he automatically gets up and leaves the room.

So, Carolyn starts the interview with my brothers, A and G, and myself.  The, mom joins in.  We must have been talking for 2 hours when my dad walked into the room, stopped, and then interjected.  I can't even tell you about what, but I can tell you that when I looked up and saw him sharing, I nearly fell over.  He shared some of the ways people and government officials have shown their appreciation, and then shared his views on "the rest".  I sat there, dumbfounded, wondering who this man was that was talking.  I mean, nothing he said surprised me.  It just shocked me that he was actually sharing.  And then, the question, "having served in the Marine Corps, how does it make you feel having lost your son in the Corps."  I have wondered the same thing so many times, like does that bring him comfort, anger, sadness, pride, what?  And there it was, the gentle dad that we rarely get to see.  He kindly just explained that he's not ready to share that yet.  Really, I don't know that he's got that answer yet.  Broke my heart.  But, for just a few moments, I felt like I had my daddy back.

Love you, Dennis! You are forever in our hearts, always on our minds.

A lazy Saturday

Have you ever had a day where you 2nd guess your success as a parent, even though you've enjoyed every minute of the day?  That was my Saturday.  We really had a fantastic day: dance, sushi for lunch, a bowling party, a walk, shopping, ice cream, and then a quite movie night with my kids.  It really was great because I got to spend alone time with each of my kids, doing things they really enjoyed.  It really is a rare moment as parents of multiple children, that we get the chance to spend quality one on one time with our individual kids, but it really is fantastic when it happens!

But, by the end of the day, I was tired and not feeling too hot, so what better than a relaxing, no fuss meal.  Okay, yesterday I was intrigued with the Paleo meals, but they take so much time and energy, neither of which I had in supply last night.  Instead, we did a very simple dinner: blueberries, sunflower seeds, salad, carrot sticks and hummus, turkey wraps, and then ants on a log for dessert. The girls were actually asking for more carrots when all the food was done, so I suggested ants on a log, and to my surprise, they said yes and gobbled them down! I was shocked to see that the least enjoyed items were the turkey wraps.  Neither of the girls wanted to eat theirs, and were content gorging themselves on sunflower seeds, blueberries and veggies.

This "feast" took me all of 5 minutes to prepare, but the kids gobbled it down while we watched Open Season 2 in the living room.  The best thing about it was that the kids just kept eating the celery and carrots, no complaints.  If I would have served them with dinner, they would have sat on their plates, only to be consumed after much complaining and tears.    Not really your traditional definition of a dinner, but the kids did have chicken teriyaki, rice, broccoli and carrots, and miso soup for lunch, and L had a slice of pizza at the party, too.  They should have had plenty of the necessary nutrients to get through the day. And, if not, thank goodness for vitamins!

Paleo?

I have a girlfriend who's family "went Paleo" a month or so ago. But, my recent stint with vegetarianism filled me with much skepticism about a diet that discourages legumes and grains and encourages lean protein in the form of animal flesh.  I read a lot about how the acidity level of the human mouth/saliva differs from that of other carnivores, that we are more in line with herbivores.  Made sense.

But, what I cannot deny is how great my pregnant girlfriend feels and looks.  And, she inspired another friend of ours to give this Paleo thing a try, meanwhile, 2 other women I know are doing the same thing.  The results?  In one week, these 3 ladies lost 4, 4 1/2, and 5 pounds.  They all seem to be doing really well on it and I haven't really heard many complaints at all.   Can't help it, but I'm inspired to give this thing a try.

The thing to keep in mind though, is that this is not really a "diet", instead, it is a lifestyle change.  I still have many questions, like:
1. Is this safe for children?
2. Is this safe for pregnant women?
3. What about all this meat?  Is there a way to reduce the amount of meat and up something else?

Regardless, my kids had grains during breakfast and lunch, and my previous weight loss "travels" have taught me to limit my grains to once a day, so I decided to make a Paleo dinner of turkey burgers, roasted asparagus, and a salad with cucumber, sunflower seeds, and avocado.  I pretty much knew straight off the back that the kids would only eat their obligatory 1 spear of asparagus, C would only eat the cucumbers, and J would only eat the sunflower seeds and avocado, so I decided to put some veggies in the turkey.  This is not a new concept, obviously, but I wanted to see what I could hide in there tonight.

I decided to go with the yellow summer squash I picked up the other day. No one in my family, besides me, likes it, so I was intending on finding a way to fix it so that they would eat it.  What better than to puree it?! Into the food processor it went with an orange bell pepper and an onion.

The mixture was ultra wet, but I went with it anyway.  To the turkey, I added the puree, ground mustard, Worcestershire pepper, and an egg to help hold them together.  Here was dinner:

The kids LOVED the burgers and had 2, which really shocked me.  I think the flavor of the bell pepper overpowered the subtle flavor of the summer squash.  They dipped their burgers in ketchup (which I'm sure is not Paleo-friendly), but I'm okay with that.

Paleo dinner #1 was a success.  I must say that I will not go full boar with this as we will still have grains of some sort once a day, but I will be more thoughtful about the food I put on the table for dinner...well, when I'm not feeling like a complete lazy bum like yesterday ;)

Simplification: Kid's toys and clothes

What to do on a snowy 3rd day of Spring?  Why not tackle this week's Project Simplify hot spot: Kids' toys and clothes.  I did take care of most of the toys and the girls' clothes a week or two ago, so this was supposed to be a breeze.  Besides doing my big boy's room/clothes, and taking care of some hand-me-downs the girls had received, I decided to finally let go of the stuffed animals.

Stuffed animals were a huge problem in our house (until about 7 hours ago) because of my inability to get rid of them.  The kids wanted to keep some, but not the ones I wanted them to keep.  You know, the ones they got on the days they were born and the ones that had some kind of meaning to me, like the Sandra Boynton inspired ones that I got for L because we used to love to read them together when he was a baby.  Here's what we started with:

All of this was shoved in my kids' stuffed animal box.  Scary!  Here are the steps we took to manage this mess in less than 30 minutes:

1. Put all non-stuffed toys where they belong.

2. Take all of L's stuffed animals out.

 3.  Allow L to choose his top 5. This was hard for him, he even cried because he knew who got him what and didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings.  Such a sensitive boy.  But, he did it!

Chicken Little did not make original cut, but since P said, "oh, I like Chicken Little," L decided to keep him after all.

4.  Put the remaining stuffed animals out for the girls to pick their top 5 and 2 baby dolls each.

5. I selected some learning toys/baby toys for Q and C, since they weren't going to be picked otherwise.

6. J picked her favorites.

7. The gross ones got trashed, including the white and pink lion because his hair was previously singed in the dryer.

8. C picked her favorites.

9. Our top picks found their less crowded home back in the box.

10. Our rejects were shoved in 2 garbage bags for donation.

I must admit.  This was easier than I thought it would be because I finally came to the realization that my kids are not babies anymore, and as a result, there is no need to save the gifts they received as newborns and with which they never played.  I even got rid of my teddy bear from 4th grade, my collection of pandas, and a Gund bear that I received in college as a gift from my big sis.  

Then, on to L's room for some much needed TLC. Here's what I had to start with, along with 2 bags of hand-me-downs, and the clean laundry I needed to put away:

This was such a pain in the derrière.  I thought that I had previously organized the clothes, but when I got into it, I realized that my organization turned into clutter when I started to add the clothes that were now too small for my big boy to the mix.  There were also Christmas lights in L's closet, toys and shoes.  Goodness.  This took me 3 hours between moving things, sorting and refereeing the kids.

Step 1. Sort into size piles.  All of the clothes from the closet and dressers got invited to this party.

Just a sample

Step 2.  Had L try on some socks and clothes who's sizes were a mystery to me.

Step 3.  Put all the clothes away.

The future clothes are out of reach in size piles and his spring/summer line is in easy reach.  Very happy.

Step 4. Bag the clothes we are handing down to friends.

Notice the additional stuffed animals which joined their friends in the garbage bags downstairs.

I could not believe the shear amount of clothing I was hoarding that didn't even fit L anymore, including the tuxedo he wore to my brother's wedding and for Christmas last year.  If I had known, I would've gotten rid of it sooner. Actually, now that I've typed that, I realize that I was hesitant to do anything until I knew if we were having a baby boy or girl.  So, goodbye to you, small clothes.  Now, I'll just need to go buy L some new undies since I noticed that most of the ones he was wearing were 1 to 2 sizes too small.  Oops!  Sorry, dude!

Then, I simply repeated the process in the girls' room.  This time, it was quicker, easier, and involved putting the small items in the attic.  All pictured out by that time ~ lucky dogs, you.

Sense of accomplishment!  WooHoo!  

All of that work made us hungry, and what better than to fight Mother Nature and have a spring time dessert: lemon bars.  Yummy, especially when you pair that with veggie burgers, sauteed spinach, and fresh veggies. It makes for a fantastic end to a less than beautiful Spring day.

Planning new beginnings

A busy day today, all focused around new beginnings: kindergarten and a new playground.

Seriously, if the military wants to learn methods of non-violent torture, they should really take a lesson from our school district.  Today, it took me over an hour to register my son for Kindergarten, and I still have to go back to the school to drop off a utility bill to prove we live at our house.  Here's the thing.  I called the school on 3 previous occasions, and receive no information as to what needed to be supplied at registration, and if you don't get the newspaper, you don't get the knowledge.  Luckily, my girlfriend called me this morning to give me a heads up as to what needed to be brought.  Problem: last week, I took care of my paper clutter.  This means that I didn't have a single utility bill in my house, they've all been shredded.  I brought 9 different forms of proof of residency when 3 were needed, but since none were utility bills, my son's registration is on hold until one is supplied.  If you know me, than you know that I just can't handle stupid people or stupid policies.  This is a stupid policy.   Of course, I had to call the superintendent and complain.  Grrr!

I also took the kids to help plan our local YMCA's new Kaboom! playground, sponsored by our favorite major corporation, MetLife.  The kids each drew a picture of their ideal playground and shared their wishes.  L wanted a castle/dragon playground with lots of spinning pieces and things to climb on.  J wanted her's to look like an airplane (don't ask me why cause I don't know) with swings.  I thought that was it.  The kids shared their visions and I thought we would just come back on build day, but of course, there was more to this deal.  The sucker I am, ended up signing up to do the recruitment of the 16 Build Captains, 250 volunteers, safety staff, and prep staff of 30.  Let us not forget the 30% drop rate, so those are just the base numbers I need to have.  Didn't I just say a couple of posts ago that I needed to reduce my schedule and simplify my life.  Hmmm...guess that will have to wait until June.

With all I vent on here, though, I must say, I really do love my life.  I love my busy schedule, though I often have dreams of simplifying it.  Let's just say this venting is cathartic.  If I didn't do it, someone might die, and it wouldn't be me ;)  hehehe...j/k