Staring Ugly in the Face

Originally, today's post was going to be about the awesomeness of Miss K, our eldest daughter, losing her first tooth. With both kids tucked into bed and Hubby tucked safely away into the garage, I had just sat down to begin writing.

In the blink of an eye, today's topic changed from the wonderful happenings of children growing up and lamenting of the time already passed to musing about how being a parent forces one to either endure and become better or to break and give up.

Thrice tonight my darling girl has woken up restless teething Baby A while she was supposed to be going to sleep so the tooth fairy could come. First by jumping around in her loft bed, under which Baby A's crib resides. Second, by bawling about losing her tooth out of her tooth fairy pillow. (And Hubby wonders why I queried him on making sure she knew not to play with the pillow. Silly Hubby). And most recently, by peeing on the floor.

Yep, you read that right: Peeing on the floor! Climbing down from her loft bed over an hour past going to bed and she manages to soak the ladder, floor, toys and clothing underneath. She's yelling for me down the hall, Baby A is screaming and all I can do is resign myself to the situation.

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely adore my kids. At least up until the age of 4 1/2 when all hell breaks loose and the emotional catastrophe strikes. Constantly. I'm waiting for 6. Six years old has to be better, right?

After throwing everything into the hamper (toys included), changing Miss K, and wiping down what I could, all while holding and soothing Baby A, I came to a startling and wonderful revelation  I'm not mad. Not in the least. Where a month ago I would be snarking at Miss K over the whole situation, I find myself chuckling thinking about how the greatest adventure in life is to be a parent.

There is no great adrenaline rush packed, exciting, heartbreaking and physical endurance testing thing in life. No other way you could learn so much about yourself as a person, inside and out, good and bad, than to try and raise a child. They make you stare the ugly right in the face and never back down.

The Perfect Fluffy Pancake

At 25 years of age, I have finally discovered the secret to the perfectly delectable fluffy pancake like at Ihop. Goodbye pancake mixes and Bisquick, hello flour and vinegar!

I know, vinegar?! In a pancake! I was skeptical at first but I figured giving it one good go wouldn't hurt anything. If they were awful, well, the cats would still eat them. (And yes, I meant the cats. Our dog seems to have decided he doesn't like people food anymore... why do we own a dog?)

Anyways, back to the pancakes. This is another wonderful Pinterest find, although I've doubled the original recipe. C'mon, who can eat just two pancakes?

Ingredients: 

2 1/2 cups Flour

2 tsp Baking Soda

2 tsp Baking Powder

pinch of salt

2 Eggs, beaten

2 1/2 cups Buttermilk

4 Tbsp Butter, melted

1/2 cup Sugar

Now if you're like me, buttermilk is not something you keep on hand. Any time I buy buttermilk I'm trying to figure out how to use the remainder before it goes bad. White vinegar, however, is something I always have on hand. And often in bulk...

Did you know you can substitute milk and vinegar in place of buttermilk? Mind blown, right? Take a one-cup measuring cup, add one tablespoon white vinegar and then fill to the top with milk. Stir and let sit for five minutes. Voila! Buttermilk!

So back to the recipe:

Stir flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Combine beaten eggs with buttermilk, then add to dry mixture. Melt butter and sugar, add to mixture. Stir all ingredients until smooth (flour clumps begone!) Spread mixture on griddle and cook for between 3 and 5 minutes per side. 

I always cook our pancakes on a griddle. They turn out amazing and perfectly evenly cooked every time. These pancakes were a total hit with the kids and husband. JUST like Ihop, fluffy and delicious!

Splitting Chocolate

Like every parent, I often wonder if I'm doing enough to create an environment where my children can thrive and become worthwhile people. Am I setting the bar to high? Do I expect too much from the little people in my house? Am I letting them get away with things that will turn them into lazy, manipulative brats as they grow? Are they going to turn out as damaged as me? I think it's natural of a parent to question his or her parenting, natural to wonder what the long-lasting effects of his or her behavior and fireballs are.

No parent is perfect. 

After another bout of self-incrimination on Valentine's Day for getting frustrated with Miss K, I received the best gift a mother could have: proof that Miss K is a loving, giving person capable of putting others ahead of herself.

Miss K brought home Valentine's from school, half of which contained candy, although only one contained nuggety goodness of chocolate. She knows I'm a major chocolate fiend and she wanted to eat it herself. A couple cutesy fun pouting contests with her and Miss K let me know she would thing about it and get back to me.

Final decision? She would share it with me! I broke it as close to in half as I could, but it was definitely more 1/3 vs 2/3. Without even a moment's hesitation, Miss K reached for the smallest piece and then kissed me on the cheek. 

Heart melted. 

I'm doing something right with this girl. Even with all my mistakes and human weakness, I'm doing just enough right that Miss K might not turn out like me.

Spend Time...Together??

Recently, I decided to try my hand at playing match maker. For future reference, I am never trying that again! The two definitely hit it off and are well on their way to possible being in a "serious" relationship, which is wonderful news because they are super cute together.

The downside was listening to my friend bemoan the amount of time this new guy was able to spend with her. Let's recap the week:

Saturday: Flurry of texts ensues between me & both individuals, all while I'm trying to spend time with my husband, kids, and a birthday party. A triple date is set up for the upcoming Saturday to meet & greet in a non-awkward situation. Finally, they decide it is okay to give each other their numbers and my phone goes blissfully silent.

Sunday: They decide to meet each other at a local cafe/grill because Saturday was just too far away. Everything seemed to go okay, girl friend texts wanting to say he called it a "meeting" and does it count as a "date?" 

Monday: Girl has plans that night so boy visits her at work for FOUR hours.

Tuesday: They try to make plans to visit tonight but boy has previous engagement which he offers to move to Wednesday as girl has plans Wednesday. Boy switches plans and then girl can't do it because she made other plans for Tuesday. Girl then gets upset because he changes his plans back to Tuesday and makes other plans for Wednesday. 

Wednesday: Wine tasting for SIX hours(!) getting to know each other. They have the "we're just friends" talk and it gets emotional. (Does he like me? Why does he kiss me if we are just friends?) 

Thursday: Boy stops by girl's work for a couple hours then they go out to dinner. 

Friday: Boy wants to spend time with girl but needs to go home and shower after work. He doesn't want to drive all the way back out after because it will be rush hour. 

Now fast forward to Friday evening... girl brings up that usually guys spend more time with her when they are first dating. As in, she isn't feeling that he is pursuing her so he must not really like her. 

All I can do:

http://11thscreen.com/2011/03/how-you-say-what-you-say/

It is at this point that I feel it is necessary to point out to my wonderful friend that she has spent more time with the prospective boyfriend that she isn't even officially "dating" yet than I have with my husband! From my math, she has fifteen hours give or take an hour. 

Hubby and I? .........Well, I think we have about eight hours of time spent together without racing after two children. 

Sunday: Both kids are in bed and lights out by 8:15 pm. Hubby and I clean to find our floor, kitchen table, kitchen sink... We do manage to sneak in two episodes of The Big Bang Theory (Total: 40 minutes "together" not cleaning)

Monday: I leave as soon as hubby is home from work to go babysit. Since babysitting got done early, I accept an invite to go spend time with girl (above) for a birthday party...until 2:30 am. (Total: 0 minutes)

Tuesday: Hubby has school after work so does not arrive home until 8:15 pm, just after both kids go to bed. I have a kiddo coming over the next day so I'm busy cleaning until about 10:30 pm. Hubby went to bed about 9:30 pm. (Total: 10 minutes)

Wednesday: Hubby arrives home and I leave to run an errand for a project I'm trying to finish. Flurry of activity until kids are in bed at 8:00 pm. Hubby and I decide it's Veg Night and watch The Big Bang Theory until bedtime. (Total time: 2 hours)

Thursday: Hubby has school after work so does not arrive home until 8:00 pm, again, just after both kids go to bed. He then helps me to make our new area rugs (project post to come!) and we finally make it to bed at 11:00 pm. (Total: 3 hours if you count working on a refurbishment project as Time)

Friday: Hubby comes home with more seam tape so I can finish carpet project. Kids are in bed at 7:45 pm!  We proceed to watch Law & Order while we both work on motorcycles in the living room. (Time: 2.5 hours if you count mechanical work as Time)

So at the end of the week, Hubby and I have spent just over 8 hours together IF you count refurbishment projects and mechanical work as "time together." If not... well then we have roughly 3 hours.

Clarifying moment in our marriage: We need to spend more time together! We really need to stop and focus time with each other where we are not doing other things and only half-there. I remember when we were first starting to date that Hubby would come over every single night and we would just talk. For hours!

When you have kids, life gets hectic and things get out of control. To make a marriage survive, the two individuals must spend time growing together as a couple. If they don't grow together, then they will just grow apart.

Meal Plan: February 2013

Finally, back into the swing of things with monthly meal planning and prep.

*huge sigh of relief*

The holidays threw our family for a loop and it has been helter-skelter trying to get back into a routine. I have been absolutely lost without a meal plan to go off of. 

On a positive note, hubby now understands WHY I started doing meal planning in the first place! What a mess at 5:30 pm trying to figure out what to make with random ingredients in our house while acting out children have us bouncing off red line. 

Eesh! No more, no how, no thank you!

So, in all of it's grand splendor, I present to you our February 2013 (dinner) meal plan!

I (also) plan on getting some of these recipes loaded up in the next few weeks so that will make my wonderful plan more applicable to my readers. Things to come, things to come... (adding to I-really-need-to-do list)