Wednesday, June 13, 2012

I'm still here

My blog is much-neglected, but my children are not.

Trip still does not sleep through the night.  I am a zombie because I have one child who doesn't go to bed until 9, which means by the time I get the dinner dishes cleaned up and some other things done in the kitchen and checkbook, I'm not stepping into the shower until about 10 pm.  I have pared my shower down to no shaving and a 2-in-1 shampoo/conditioner.  By the time I brush my teeth and floss, it's pushing 10:30.  If I try to read for a few minutes before bed, it's 10:30 before lights out (and 10:31 before I'm asleep). 

Then, I am up at 1 or so to nurse Trip, somewhere between 2 and 3 with a child who either has to go to the bathroom or just wet the bed, again at about 4:45 to nurse which sometimes becomes morning.  Some days it's a little better.  Some days a little worse (like when the 1 am nursing turns into a 2 hour ordeal because of the spitting up and choking).  Basically, I am very tired.

There is drama in my non-nuclear family but let's sum it up with....ARE YOU ALL FRICKING INSANE?  I mentioned here once that we're the designated guardians in case of death for 10 children (5 families) and I speculated that the reason is because we're good parents, stable, and capable.  Well, those are the same reasons that people feel the need to be completely pathetic around us.  Because they know that we aren't going to allow anything bad to happen to their children so we will take on extra responsibility to make sure that their kids are OK.  So, you want to be immature and irresponsible and ditch your kids when you're at a party or the mall....it's ok because SarcastiCarrie and Mr. Long-Suffering will make sure little Brayd'n gets a vegetable and a fruit with his lunch and doesn't get kidnapped.  We might even quiz Tay-leigh on her letters to make sure her mind is exercised.  And frankly, I am exhausted.  But the kids are alright. 

Moving on from this pity party....if you think I am tired, Mr. Long-Suffering has it worse.  He goes to bed at 10:30 with me, and he's up for the day at 4:50 to go to work.  He has a mandatory 6:30 am shift-change meeting and he needs to have reviewed the shift reports from afternoons and midnights and researched issues before that meeting so he can present.  He also hasn't had a day off in well over a week.  It's vacation season and since the factory runs 24-7, the shifts that people take off need to be covered.  Voila.  He worked about 70 hours last week.  He'll probably do closer to 75 this week.  But then, he gets a 3-day weekend so woo hoo.

I checked my analytics.  My two most-popular posts continue to be a Peach Bellini Champagne Punch Recipe and my ever-popular Fiber Supplement Review (I'm #1 in #2!). 

I'm using maternity leave to try new recipes (I usually cook dinner mid-day when things are calm and then re-heat it for dinner).  This enchilada sauce recipe is good, tastes authentic, and is easy.  I made the enchiladas with poached chicken thigh meat, but that was so time consuming (to de-skin and remove from bone and shred...if I do this again when I go back to work, I would use precooked grilled chicken or boneless skinless chicken breasts).  Chicken thighs had been on sale for something crazy low like 48 cents/pound so I bought about 10 pounds and then had to make chicken dishes.

I made this Cat Cora Thai Chicken Salad with Cabbage.  It's basically a Thai Peanut Cole Slaw.  It was tasty.  I have this theory that if I have all the ingredients for a recipe in the house, we'll probably like what comes out of it since that means we like the stuff that goes into it.  I had all the ingredients so there you go (except the cabbage but we do like cabbage, I just only buy it when it's on sale....I bought pre-shredded cabbage).  And I used chicken thighs that I coated in corn starch and cooked in a pan with some oil (basically fried chicken).

I made this Rachel Ray Apricot Chicken.  Again, I had all the ingredients in the house.  We liked it alright, but we should just call it homemade Sweet-n-Sour Chicken because that's exactly what it tasted like (admittedly, I had added a couple of cloves of garlic and a yellow bell pepper to the recipe but the vinegar and the preserves are what made it sweet/sour...maybe omit the vinegar?).  I am still looking for a good apricot chicken recipe that is sweet and not sour.  So many of the apricot chicken recipes called for Russian Dressing and onion soup mix.  That sounds gross to me (and I don't have the ingredients in the house).  If you can direct me to a good/sweet apricot chicken recipe, I would be most appreciative.

Are there any recipes you'd like me to try?  Leave a comment.

I've been buying super cheap cuts of beef and doing various things with them in my pressure cooker too.  I have time so labor intensive is not an issue right now, but in the future this won't be the case so send link to recipes accordingly.  I still stir fry all kinds of things but I am tiring of my usual sauce (Soyaki that I buy at TJ's).  I made heuvos rancheros with vegan chorizo the other night.  We also make homemade pizza on Friday (I just started the kids on making English Muffin pizzas...I found some great whole wheat muffins at the store so I am comfortable with them making pizza).  Also, I have quite a bit of ham in my freezer (but no ham bone).

Chuckles and Bobo have been taking swimming lessons.  Bobo very politely refuses to do anything they ask.  Blow Bubbles.  "No, thank you."  Do big superman kicks.  "I don't feel like it."  Put your head under water.  "I'm too cold/tired/hot for that."  It's maddening, but that's pretty much how my entire day goes.  Chuckles was the same way at 3 except I was better at manipulating him to do what I wanted.  Nowadays, at swimming, Chuckles swims off under water and comes back 45 minutes later and tells me he went in the deep end, learned to tread water, got some rings off the bottom, and has good form in his backstroke.

Oh my....it's late.  I have to go.  Goodnight.  Look for me on twitter at 4am!

2 comments:

  1. I do love twitter.

    Anyway, here's a link to a couple of apricot chicken recipes I've tried recently:
    http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/16554/baked+apricot+chicken+with+parsnip+and+pumpkin (carrots work fine too and I left out the fennel seeds. The no-added sugar jam I used was this stuff: http://www.stdalfour.com.au/ It's just spreadable fruit sweetened with grape juice)

    And this super-basic one: http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/1534/apricot+chicken - also fine without the added dried apricots.

    And my patentedly awesome stirfry sauce is
    1 packet squeezable baby puree (plain vegetable flavours like pumpkin & corn etc works best, but I've also had reasonable meals with ones that are vegetable + apple)
    Plain soy sauce
    garlic & ginger

    (examples of the baby food are: http://www.heinzsimply.com.au/Products/pumpkin-sweet-potato-carrot)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Most purchasers can not withstand the stinging sensation which comes with this brand new technology.


    Here is my webpage; Flex Belt Review

    ReplyDelete