Life after Christmas

It was our first Christmas with a toddler.  I will admit there were things that we wanted to do that didn't happen but there was grace.  Many of our decorations are in random parts of the garage which has now been remedied.  Tiny fingers made us a bit cautious in where to put things.  Miss L is fascinated by the Baby Jesus in our manger scene that can either be in the manger or in Mary's arms.  We find her in wide-eyed wonder at the scene more often than not.  My hope is that she would still have a wide-eyed wonder about it when she is 30 - the Creator of the Universe coming to dwell with us...coming as a baby.  How creative.

There had been a flutter of people talking about all the mishaps of post-Christmas chaos.  Kids snapping, toy over load, parents snapping, long days, this that or the other.  I started thinking about this a bit.  The whole holiday season is a bit like a birth.  Both good and bad that comes from the experience.  However, as my husband reminds me in many situations, it's how we opt to respond to these things in the midst of it all that will determine the ultimate outcome.  If we respond with a poor attitude rather than gratitude then a negative outcome is inevitable.

Like in the days and weeks that lead up to a birth there is a blissful glow to everything an expectant mother does.  She is happy in anticipating the arrival of the little life that she has been nurturing for the past nine months.  Sure there are days that she waddles more than other or her back hurts -- but the anticipation overrides it all.  Just when she thinks she cannot wait any longer the baby arrives.  There is pushing, huffing, maybe loud groan here and there.  Then.  Relief.   All is quickly forgotten as she holds her little baby in her arms.  Then there is the afterbirth.  If you have had a baby you know what I mean... it's messy.

All this is what I have been thinking about in terms of the Christmas holiday season -- which by the way does not end officially until January 6, folks.  (The 12 Days of Christmas refer to the days AFTER Christmas, not before.  FYI.)

There is great anticipation for the day however you may celebrate.  There are probably some aches and pains getting there.  Then there's the moment of great joy and exhilaration of the culmination of things awaited.  Then.  The afterbirth.  Things are messy.  Maybe your kids are snapping at each other and are on toy and sugar over load.

I'm not saying it has to be this way but how we respond is what we should be highly aware of in ourselves.  If our children are snappy are we snapping back at them?  Or are we redirecting their hearts back to the manger scene?

I write this more for myself than I do for anyone else.  Ultimately the manger points to the cross and the cross to an empty tomb that leads to life.

I want to breathe that on my children during this time of year...

...all year.

Dishes? But I want to save the world!

I don't really want to save the world but it was a catchy little title, don't you think?  I had to repost this from The Feast of Booths that can be found in my side bar under Soul Food. 

It's quite timely... probably more often than you think.

"Fretting makes us important. Say you're an adult male and you're skipping down the street whistling "Last Train to Clarksville." People will call you a fool. But lean over to the person next to you on a subway and say, "How can you smile while innocents are dying in Tibet?" You'll acquire a reputation for great seriousness and also more room to sit down.

Tragedy is better than comedy for self-dramatization, as every teenager knows. Think how little attention we pay to a teen who's bustling around the house with a big smile on his face, greeting parents and siblings with cheery salutations. . . . Actually, we'd pay a lot of attention and rush him to the drug detox center, post haste. But you know what I mean. Would you rather star in Hamlet or Three's Company?

Being gloomy is easier than being cheerful. Anybody can say "I've got cancer" and get a rise out of a crowd. But how many of us can do five minutes of good stand-up comedy? And worrying is less work than doing something to fix the worry. This is especially true if we're careful to pick the biggest possible problems to worry about. Everybody wants to save the earth; nobody wants to help Mom do the dishes."

―P. J. O'Rourke, All the Trouble in the World

Pork & Hominy Stew OR Posole Variation

On Friday, I made a yummy meal that we will be having again.  The original recipe can be found here.

If the link doesn't work for you let me know and I will send it to you in an e-mail.  It was pretty yummy.  A friend asked if it was posole.  I will say that growing up in New Mexico I wasn't a huge fan of posole.  Maybe it's because it generally is made with red chile and I am not a fan of red chile.  I am a green chile girl through and through.  So, after reading a true definition of posole I would call this a variation of posole.

I opted for the easy way out and used canned green chile instead of prepping our fresh which is crazy hot.  I wanted Miss L to be able to eat some, too.  However, with my modifications it was still pretty spicy.

Here are my modifications:

• 2 small cans of chopped green chilies
• I forgot the cilantro but will remember it next time!
• I had a bigger can of hominy and just used it all.  Totally fine.
• Because I had more hominy, I used a bit more salsa verde.

One time saving tip that I will remember is that if I cannot find meat that is already cubed at the store I will have the butcher do it.  With two little ones around this step was a bit much for me.  Remember to have your meat partially frozen to make it easier to cut.

Also, I used the "World Table" salsa verde from Wal-Mart.  It was pretty good over all and I wasn't disappointed at all.  Take that as a good recommendation when in the store.

So, there you go!  Enjoy!

25 Things You May Not Know About Me

1. I am a saucy girl. You know, I like some sort of sauce with just about every food

2. I came in second place at the school geography bee when I was in middle school thanks largely in part to “Where in the World is Carmen San Diego.”

3. I once had pet mice for a school science project that actually made it to the regional science fair.

4. I have a knack for keeping fish alive for a very long time. There was one exception and I feel horrible for traveling so much with him. (Yes, for a time my fish were well traveled)

5. I got frost nip (a step before frost bite) on my hands my senior year in college. I still feel the effects from that and I am not sure that it will ever go away. Oh well.

6. Never did I miss a varsity football game (home or away) in high school – insane, right?

7. With that, I was the only four-year letterman in football my senior year. So, yeah, it was a little awkward when the coaches presented me with the biggest trophy on the table at the award ceremony. :/ ha! (I lettered a total of 16 times in high school, including my academic letter)

8. My college degree officially was: Bachelor of Science in Physical Education with an emphasis in Athletic Training. Basically involving the watching of a LOT of sporting events and practices. I loved it. Oddly enough, I rarely get to watch any sort of sporting event anymore. Somehow I am still able to keep up on most team that I am interested in – college, not so much into pro-anything.

9. Some of the most interesting stories about college come from being a Resident Assistant in the dorms. Oh my!

10. The best part of living on the third floor of dorms is messing with drunks outside by pointing a flashlight around their feet. They never think to look up. It’s great entertainment when stuck in small town Nebraska for the weekend. Yes, I really did this.

11. I always thought that I would be the mother of all boys. I think God has something else for me to learn and I love it.

12. I almost drowned in a pool when I was taking lessons with my daycare center. I slipped off the steps and no adult noticed. My friend Jimmy, who also couldn’t swim, reached as far as he could and pulled me back to the stairs. That’s when the adults finally noticed what happened. I got back in the water that day and I still LOVE to swim. Although, the ocean sometimes freaks me out if I get too far out.

13. Once my friends timed me on how long I would laugh. I forgot what I originally was laughing at and kept laughing at the fact they were timing me. This went on for 15 minutes. For real.

14. At the ripe ol’ age of 31, I have had surgery on both of my knees and will probably need more. Awesome, I know.

15. I love to scare people (I double over laughing) and I think it’s really funny after the initial shock when others scare me – as long as it doesn’t play off of fears that people have. I just like jumping around corners and such. My favorite “scare” came from Samuel Withem (he was maybe 5?) a while back… we both laughed really hard. These are also my favorite videos on America’s Funniest Home Videos.

16. Monet is my favorite artist.

17. Ansel Adams is my favorite photographer. I know, so cookie cutter, right. But I am generally drawn to black & white. But, I would rather flip through a photography book rather than paintings…but I can totally appreciate paintings as well. I’m not a total cultural ignoramus.

18. My first opera was when I was a freshman in college and it was Carmen. Do you ever forget your first?

19. One of my favorite books is “The Education of Little Tree” – for a variety of reasons, including sentimental.

20. I don’t like cooked fruit which in turn means I don’t like most pies, cobblers, or crisps… it’s would be easier to tell you what pies I do like – chocolate and pumpkin (I know, strange) There was once recently a fruit crisp I did like, the first one ever, but I didn’t want seconds. If this makes me un-American for not liking apple pie, then so be it.

21. One of my favorite things to do is to get my wedding ring cleaned – shiny things make me happy.

22. During the last part of my pregnancies coffee tastes horrible! Yes, even my beloved iced coffee. But as soon as those babies are delivered I think my body realizes it needs the caffeine and we are back in business and things taste “normal” again.

23. I’ve never met a potato that I didn’t like. Well, except that one time at Wendy’s. Fries are my favorite. You will know you rank pretty high if I share mine with you. My friends show me love by giving me what’s left of their fries… even when I am full. Ha! “Hi, my name is JMC and I have a potato addiction.”

24. My Husband is the best thing about me.

25. I am really fine with not using my college degree. I learned a lot of life lessons during my time in college and there are certainly parts of my degree that I can use in everyday life. Seriously, though, I wouldn’t trade my life right now for anything. I am blessed beyond measure.


(Originally poted on my FB page)

Father Figure

A few weeks back a friend of mine posed a question about children's programming that included a father figure.

I was floored.

We are just entering into children's programming and I must admit that was not something that I had really payed much attention to as I saw a few different episodes of programming.  Oddly enough, I was only really exposed to those that DID have a father figure.  Well, minus Sesame Street -- which is a whole different animal...err...monster.

One program, Calliou, has an involved father figure.  The marriage is valued and you see love and admiration between the parents.  You also see multi-generational living, which I love, because the grandparents are involved.  It's not the best graphics but I love it's innocence, imagination, and of course the family dynamic.  Two thumbs up!

Another program was, Sid the Science Kid.  This is from the Jim Henson Studios (think Muppet's, etc).  I like this show in general for older kids.  Miss L likes the music in general when they sing.  While the dad is n-involved here he is made out to be a big goof-ball.  It's sad really and it was something that I had picked up on while watching before the "father figure" question had been put forth.  There is even a song about how cool the mom is when Sid and his mom are driving to school.  Catchy, yet odd at the same time.

The show, Arthur, was put out in the conversation but I never have seen it.  Are there others that you out there in blog world can think of as well?  I think about this more as I watch different programming or think through movies that we might let the girls watch in the future.

As for Sesame Street, that is more of a community living.  Back when I was watching Sesame Street for my own "educational purposes" there were more family units involved which have since gone to the wayside only making appearance once in a very great while.  On top of that, if you didn't know about it from back in the day you may not put it all together.  However, there is some other education value as we are seeing Miss L interact and even start to count along... even if it usually is only to three and we still have ten lemons left to go! ha!

The lack of fathers in our programming is telling of our current society.  Think back to programming, children's or otherwise, father's were present, normal, involved, fun, etc.  They were heads of their household showing leadership, decisiveness, and manhood.  They generally were not mamby-pamby men.  I am thinking even I love Lucy, Leave it to Beaver, Happy Days, Brady Bunch to name a few.  Oh how far we have come from that time period it seems... and it wasn't all that long ago!

Art imitating life or life imitating art?

Sigh.

She's Here!

Well... she's been here for almost a month now.  She arrived about two weeks after my last post.  If I thought I had issues with blogging BEFORE two kids I am not sure what will come of this space.  A ghost town along side the information superhighway?  Maybe.  Or things will just be sporadic.  It may be best to just have this e-mail you when I update :)

Just for clarification, these are not her feet.  I am pretty leery of posting photos of my children on the Internet anymore after stories from friends and Facebook fan pages.  If you want to see family photos (and I am not opposed to having people I know on that site) let me know and I will invite you to where we have our photos hosted.  It's free for you but I can control privacy a whole lot better there. You can just look around to your little hearts content. ha!

In the last post we had a baby pool going and there was one response there and there were several on another social networking site.  Here is what was posted:

Tessa - August 24, 7lbs 12oz, 11:30 PM
Luma - August 26, 7lbs 13oz, 4:00 PM
Actual - August 27, 6lbs 9oz, 7:09 AM
Lisa - August 31, 7lbs 11oz, 4:30 PM
Renee - September 2, 6lbs 14oz
Beth B - September 3, 7lbs 3oz
Alaina - September 4, 7lbs 2oz, 7:01 AM
Mom - September 9 or 10, 6lbs 10oz

Overall, my sweet friend Luma wins the pool and a little something fun.  Technically we went beyond her guess but I was in labor on the 26th and she is the closest overall.  Alaina was the closest on time (good job!) and my mother-in-law was the closest on weight.  Maybe we'll do something for the others.  We'll see.  But for now...  CONGRATS LUMA!  ha ha ha!!
 
One or two people have already asked for all the gory details of the birth story (I know, Tessa!) and I need to write it out anyway for the baby book.  So, if anyone else wants to know let me know and I will send it to you.
 
I have other posts rolling around in my head but for now... I must go grocery shopping.

20 Months, 35 Weeks, and a Baby Pool

Today, Miss L is 20 months old.  It's hard to believe at times.  It's funny to look at her newborn pictures and try to remember that baby.  She is full of personality!  My favorite thing is laughing with her when she gets up in the morning or after nap.  She's usually quite happy.  I love watching her want to help me around the house -- it doesn't matter what we are doing she just wants to be a part of it all.  What fun adventures are in store next?  I love being  a mom for sure!

Today, I am also 35 weeks along in my pregnancy with Miss A.  There have been times that I have thought that this pregnancy would NEVER end.  I think part of that comes a) we found out super early that I was pregnant and b) the valley heat really sucks it out of you!  So, here we are.  We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our newest addition.  It is thrilling beyond all belief that we have this little blessing coming now.  At the same time it's incredibly scary.  You know, it's a mixed bag of wonderful emotions.

While some folks would say that we probably have another 5 weeks in front of us we could easily be heading off to the hospital next week.  You see, Miss L was born at 36 weeks to. the. day.  There was no medical reason that she came early other than she was ready.  We have heard and read that many mothers tend to deliver around the same time.  Yes, I know there are exceptions to this.  We have also read that breech babies can come early for whatever reason.  Miss L was breech which resulted in a cesarean section.  So, while we know we could be waiting another 5 weeks for Miss A's arrival we are just getting prepared for an early visit from the stork.  I think I will pack the hospital bag tomorrow. ha!

So, I thought a baby pool would be fun!  Leave your guess for date and time -- and guess her weight, too.  Miss L was 7lbs. 6oz for a reference point.  We may have a gift card incentive to a favorite coffee place if you play along...ahem.  :)  My due date is officially September 15 for those that want to know that information.  I will post this on another social networking forum so you can enter there if you want... but only enter once, please. 

Oh, and of course, we will keep you updated as to when she arrives!