Happy Easter, Happy Day to You

06 Apr 2015 Leave a comment

by alightningbug in Mom Stuff Tags: ,

Well, happy day-after Easter anyway. Happy Easter Monday! I think I’m still following that plus-1 theme.

If you don’t celebrate Easter then happy Passover or happy day in general to you. Hope it was a nice one. It was nice here.

My daughter had a rather nice Easter I think. While she’s plenty old enough to be leaving the Easter Bunny behind, we rather like the morning surprise of a basket with goodies and hidden easter eggs. It’s fun. Why not keep it up? Her goodies included lots of Peeps (they have lime and orange flavored ones this year), a few Minecraft items, and an iTunes gift card. Minecraft and iTunes aren’t exactly traditional Easter goodies, but she loved these! It works for us.

The Easter Bunnies around here got up very early to perpetrate the fun, so the Easter Bunny got tired a little early. Plus the bunny probably snacked on too many sweets.

We also talk about the meaning of Easter so that we know it’s not just about bunnies and eggs. But there are all sorts of Spring traditions around the world, so I wouldn’t mind covering more of them. It’s a time of renewal.

I gave up Chocolate for Lent, and I guess now that Lend is over I can just eat it any day which will be a bit strange. I mean, naturally, I ate chocolate yesterday for Easter, but I still feel like it’s a good exercise to give up something enjoyed or make a healthy change and stick with it. So often we are ruled by our urges. So I’d like to set a new goal for myself. And I still want to keep chocolate-eating and sweets to reasonable amounts.

There were days I really wanted chocolate during Lent. I stuck to my resolution except twice when I had chocolate by accident.

The first time was after sledding with my daughter. We were near my mom’s house so we came in from sledding and my daughter wanted hot chocolate. It looked really good while making it, and it is the thing to have after sledding. Somehow in my head it just became a sweet, flavored, hot-milk beverage instead of hot CHOCOLATE. So I had accidentally had chocolate. It was only when I was halfway through the cup that my brain kicked in with “hey, it’s Lent, you gave up chocolate for Lent, you’re drinking chocolate!” So instead of having a bit of chocolate on Sunday (which, I guess, is technically not part of Lent so it’s OK to have some), I ate no chocolate that Sunday to make up for my hot transgression on Saturday.

Another time, I had a sip of Dave’s coffee without realizing he’d put Ovaltine — chocolate malt Ovaltine — in his coffee. So I tried to make up for that later too.

By the way, Ovaltine in coffee is actually pretty darn yummy. I add it to coffee myself sometimes (except during Lent).

So I was good except for the chocolatey beverages that I drank by accident. Anytime I was actually tempted to knowingly consciously eat chocolate, I did not.

I ate a good bit of chocolate yesterday since it was Easter, but not an excessive amount. My sweet tooth can’t take quite as much as it could in the past. But I was glad to be able to eat the Black Forest cake that my mom had for Easter dessert yesterday. As full as my tummy was after our Easter meal, I was still able to eat a small slice of the cherry chocolate cake with whipped cream topping, and it was delicious.

Plus there was a peanut butter cup that I’ve had in the fridge since the beginning of Lent. I meant to eat it just about every Sunday during Lent and then didn’t. So that on Monday realize I’d realize — again. And I’d have to wait another week before I could eat it. Fast forward through all of Lent and that peanut butter cup did not get eaten until yesterday. Yes, it was delicious.

General Housekeeping

22 Mar 2015 Leave a comment

by alightningbug in Construction and Repairs, Mom Stuff Tags: , , ,

Here it is – Spring 2015 – already!

My poor blog has been nearly abandoned. Thank goodness I do a better job of paying attention to our fish, cats, and daughter (not in that order) or our home would be seriously smelly. And my daughter is doing a really good job of taking care of her new hamster. How did I agree to another pet in our wee home?

To update you, dear blog, in other news I have a new car. We haven’t yet sold the good ‘ol Saturn. But I now drive a spiffy Honda Fit. So no more holding my breath that the car will start and no more Metroing to work in sub-zero temps (and not even just because it’s Spring).

Building repairs have been more or less completed in our community – though we still need to do interior work like cleaning and organizing and painting a newly two-toned wall. One section in our living room was painted a textured cocoa shade long before the repairs and the rest is newly painted the standard white that the repair guys where contracted to do. We need to do other general repairs too that can move forward now that the building isn’t being pounded on 6-7 hours a day. The community needs to take care of an ongoing rainwater drainage issue. So repairs are done but there is still much to do. It isn’t all done. Kind of like laundry.

Our new microwave still works and it’s still attached to the wall. That’s a real plus in my book! Especially the attached-to-the-wall part because that was a little iffy.

Why we keep cramming our schedule to the point of overflow, I have no idea. I think I need a goal of enough but not too much of everything. My problem is that it doesn’t look like too much until we’re knee deep. I need to work on that. 

My daughter is at an all-day dance conference today, and I somehow ended up sitting in an Ikea eating breakfast after I missed the on-ramp to the beltway to get back home. I had a, “hey, look! Ikea!,” moment. I can’t complain too much. The breakfast is pretty yummy. The coffee was free. Ikea has lots of containers to help me organize things. The floor show was somewhat entertaining. 

The mom and two daughters sitting in front of me reminded me of how much young children like to use their vocal chords and not be confined to a high chair. I’m thankful the mom is keeping said child in the high chair. But the young girl is not keeping her food confined to the plate or to her mouth. So now that they’ve gone it looks like there was an egg and sausage explosion with the high chair positioned in the epicenter. That’s after the mom tried to tidy up. Somebody is wearing eggs on her pretty black Mary Janes today – inside and out. The older daughter seemed to find it all about as amusing as I did.  We are not laughing at her mom. Hugs to the mom. It’s more of an empathetic been-there-done-that. It’s better to find some humor than to feel the pain. 

I’m always a little amazed at how well people in public places can ignore other people in public – just never making any eye contact or anything. That’s what pretty much everybody else in the Ikea restaurant is doing. It’s a little surreal if you ask me. 

Now to figure out how I organize the rest of my life.



“Time-Saving” Food

23 Nov 2014 1 Comment

by alightningbug in Foodie, Mom Stuff, Recipes, Time-saving Tags: ,

After blogging about time-saving “food” here’s my take on the flip side – “time-saving” food.

Last year I broke down and joined the legions of cooks and moms who own and use a slow cooker. Since then I’ve discovered a new pet peeve. I hate to see recipes for slow cookers that label themselves, “time-savers,” but in reality are far from.

Time-saving recipes need to save time. Just because food is cooked in a slow cooker and could be ready when I get home doesn’t mean it saved time. If I had to get up at 3:00 in the morning to prep the food then I will probably be too tired to eat it when I get home. Zero time saved. Or if a recipe calls for only 4 or 5 hours of cook time, then it is not a weekday recipe that will save time. I’m not going home on my lunch hour to make dinner!

I want recipes like this:
1.) put raw food in Crock Pot
2.) cook on low for 9-10 hours
3.) enjoy!

But there are recipes aplenty that require lots of prep like chopping, layering, and cooking the food before it goes into the pot. Why would I want to pre-cook anything before I put it in a COOKER? Except maybe double-cooked pork, but that’s … Oh you know what I mean.

I get that browning adds flavor, but I wonder how much of that flavor really holds up when food is cooked in a slow cooker all day. I’ll try a comparison some time. Even if it does enhance the taste, is it worth it on a regular basis?

To save time you can start with food that’s already totally cooked like rotisserie chicken. If you shop around you can find rotisserie chicken that don’t cost much more than buying a raw chicken. These can be a huge time-saver! But you can’t feed your family only rotisserie chickens, and you’ll want to watch salt and other flavorings that might be added to store-bought rotisserie chicken. For that matter, you can slow cook your own chicken in a crock pot. Save the bones from either, put them in a slow cooker all day, strain and you’ll have a great (not too hard) chicken stock. This is one if the times home-cooked makes a big difference in taste. Freeze or refrigerate and you can use it to make lots of easy soups.

There are time-saving ways to cook food out there! But not all slow-cooker recipes are created equal.

When Taste of Home shared this recipe for Slow Cooker Enchiladas on Facebook it was the perfect example of a not-so-time-saving recipe. There was a lot of good and bad feedback:

Slow-cooker Enchiladas

Yes, it looks totally delish! And I would love to try it. But it has everything that bugs me about a “time-saving” slow-cooker recipe — ingredients that must be chopped and pre-cooked twice before the goop is then layered multiple times with tortillas in a slow cooker and left to cook for only 5-7 hours. What part of that is supposed to help with a busy schedule?

I wouldn’t be so bothered if it just advertised itself as a tasty recipe and left it at that. I will make time for increased yum factor on a weekend, some weekends anyway. (And I still take issue with pre-cooking food before I put it in a Crock Pot.) But the cook describes herself as a “busy wife and mother” and says this is a handy recipe. The implied saving of time – that’s kind of where it lost me.

Because in the amount of time it would take me to prepare and cook these enchiladas I could have prepared and cooked an entire Thanksgiving turkey! With stuffing! And cranberry sauce. Not all from scratch, mind you, but it would be yummy food.

The slow-cooker enchilada recipe apparently allows the author to cook dinner after lunchtime and keep it warm until the entire family is home for dinner. I’m sure it works well for people who are home after lunch and can chop, cook, re-cook, layer, and turn on a crock pot for dinner.

But what about people who can’t do that? I don’t think those tortillas will stand up to 10 hours in a slow cooker. I tried that with pasta once. It was delicious-smelling paste!

Once you cook everything as the recipe suggests, I’m worried that the tortillas will get mushy even at 5-7 hours. Maybe refrigerate the cooked goop then spoon it out and reheat in an oven, toaster oven, or microwave when you get home? You could even eat it another day. Reheating it in an oven or toaster oven could even give the tortillas brown, crispy edges and it’s probably less than 20 mins to the table once you get home. Still too much work?

With the slow-cooker in mind, the recipe is basically salvageable with a few busy-mom hacks:

1) Dump raw meat into slow cooker along with seasonings and canned foodstuffs.
2) Cook on low for 8-10 hours.
3) Warm tortillas in toaster oven or a hot pan. Or not. Or use corn chips or crispy tostadas.
4) Spoon goop over tortillas (or chips or tostadas) and top with cheese. ENJOY!

If you sub corn chips for the tortillas, you probably can’t call these enchiladas anymore. So top with some lettuce and tomatoes for a delish taco salad.

If you’re worried about how much fat may be in the dish when you can’t drain the meat ahead, then start with a very low-fat meat. OR skim the fat after everything is cooked. It floats to the top. Cook with free-range, grass-fed beef, and you’ll want to eat a lot of that healthy fat anyway.

I’m going to suggest yet another variation on this, and later I’ll post a simple Slow-Cooker recipe for Misc Mex Meat Goop. Cook it in a slow cooker and eat it how you like — in soft flour tortillas for burritos, over corn chips, in taco shells, or rolled into enchiladas and topped with a quick sauce. Real time-saving food!

Time-saving “Food”: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

07 Nov 2014 Leave a comment

by alightningbug in Food, Mom Stuff, Time-saving Tags: , , , ,

What is time-saving “food”? It’s food we might eat to save time that isn’t much like real food in one way or another. This can be both bad and pretty good too.

Busy moms need to feed ourselves and our families. Too often we have so little time that we’re left with few choices and even fewer good choices. A poor diet can make us even more tired than we might already be!

To save time I often “eat” a protein shake that doesn’t even resemble food, but thankfully has better nutrition than a doughnut or bagel. Now if the rest of the family would eat them, everything might be a little easier, but not nearly as pretty or tasty.

Some “food” looks and tastes a lot like real food, but is so sorely lacking in nutrition I have to question its validity as a foodstuff.

My mom worked for much of my childhood. She was a nurse with a schedule that often left her little-to-no time to cook a real meal.

Occasionally we ate fast “food” which was usually fast indeed. Back then fast food never meant salads. The closest things to vegetables were the ketchup, onion, and pickles on our burgers, and I usually picked those off. Today’s fast-food options are only slightly better.

As a kid we feasted on TV dinners and frozen meals. The TV dinners could be kind of fun. They have the word, “TV,” in the name – it must be at least entertaining even if it’s not that good for me, right? And there were plenty of other non-TV frozen meals with such favorites as Stouffer’s Creamed Chicken over toast. Gotta love those spongy cube-shaped pieces of “chicken.” If you closed your eyes you could practically imagine you were eating space food. Once in a while, I even crave that creamy, chicken-flavored goop, but I think Stouffer’s stopped making it. Other standards included tuna casserole, oven-fried chicken, and pot pies. At least a few of those had veggies! But they were highly processed and loaded with salt and fat. Not the healthiest choices.

When Lean Cuisine and Healthy Choice frozen dinners came along, we thought they were a bit of a luxury. Wow, not a zillion calories! See that orange sliver? That’s a carrot. Except I’m always left wondering why there aren’t more veggies. Frozen meals can be puny. They have a serving of protein, sauce, a starch or grain, and a small portion of veg. Doubling or even tripling the veg wouldn’t raise the caloric content by much and it would up both nutrition and satisfaction.

Even when my mom cooked a real meal, the veggies were usually from Green Giant and came in a plastic pouch that she’d “cook” in a pot of boiling water. It was all very ordinary. At least they were better than canned!

As a working mom today, I have a few more options. While there are even more frozen packaged meals, we hardly ever make these for dinner. They’re more often a work lunch than a family dinner. There’s just not that much food in them! We’re left wanting more. (See my sentence above about adding more veg.)

Plain, frozen veggies with no additives are often just as quick and easy as their sauce-covered, poly-bagged, microwavable counterparts, and I can make huge portions. We can eat real food instead of “food”!

For now I’m the one that’s left eating a lot of something that’s, maybe, not technically much like food. I love my meal-replacement protein shakes! I don’t mean I love the taste of them. And I sure don’t like how they look — thick green sludge anyone? But I love how easy they are to make and how packed with nutrition they can be. My favorite brand is Vega One as it’s one of the least yucky. I almost like how they taste. That’s a special kind of ringing endorsement there. But it’s packed with a good quality protein, veg, fiber, antioxidants, omega 3s, and a lot more. They’re super easy – as I use a shaker bottle with ice and water. I actually feel better during the day when I’ve had one for breakfast. When I “eat” them regularly my skin even feels better. It’s a kind of “food” not really food. It’s definitely ugly. But it’s good for me and works well with a busy schedule. Maybe I can even get the family to “eat” one occasionally.

So time-saving “food” can be good. Can be bad. And sometimes it’s what’s for dinner.

November 6, Food for Thought

06 Nov 2014 Leave a comment

by alightningbug in Foodie, Getting Organized, Mom Stuff, NaBloPoMo, Recipes Tags:

November 6, oh, November 6. You may be a lame, short post today.

I’m hoping I’ll have a chance to blog a better blog tonight. I have two issues I’d like to cover.

1.) Time-saving “food.”

And

2.) “Time-saving” food.

Yes, those are air quotes. And yes, there is a big difference between the first and second. Really each topic could be a single post, so maybe this will be two additions posts.

In the event I don’t get one of them completed tonight, I figure I can post this-here coming attraction and technically be covered for a November 6 post for NaBloPoMo. Hey, I can try, right?

For the Record: A Snail’s Pace

05 Nov 2014 2 Comments

by alightningbug in Mom Stuff, NaBloPoMo, Plant Life and Balcony Gardening Tags: , , , ,

For the record, in honor of NaBloPoMo, I’m trying to post a blog entry for every day in November. I’ve been struggling to keep up regular posts again, so I aim to fix that.

Some of these may be extremely short posts. And many of them will likely be written on my phone. Today’s will be a good example although it’s longer than I though it would be.

In other news, a couple of weeks ago we got several nerite snails for our two fish tanks. We were having some algae overgrowth, and instead of scrubbing the tanks we decided to try a few algae-eating snails. This is by far one of our better fish tank purchases.

Those snails have been busy! In our ten-gallon tank they have scrubbed the decorative bridge clean. After months of sporting greens, browns, and grays, that bridge is practically day-glo it looks so clean. I think the snails even ate some of the paint off. I hope it doesn’t make them sick. They don’t appear to have slowed down any. So far, so good. One has even moved on to the side of the tank, and there’s now a large clean section.

In our smaller kitchen tank there’s hardly any algae left at all. The striped snail scrubbed the rocks, the back of the tank, the sides … It has now moved on to eating and cleaning algae off the leaves of an artificial plant. It’s amazing!

I would really like a larger, omnivorous, air-breathing snail that I could set free in our living room.

Confessions of a Working Mom

30 Oct 2014 1 Comment

by alightningbug in Cleaning, Getting Organized, Mom Stuff Tags: , , , , , , ,

Dear anybody who was unlucky enough to stand too close to me yesterday. Sorry! I skipped my shower. Ran out of time.

I keep trying to get up earlier and earlier, and somehow there seems to be less and less time. So I used my morning for something other than bathing, OK? And I may or may not have skipped my shower the day before too. Who can say? Dry shampoo — you are my new best friend.

I also need to vent a little. Sometimes I get a little annoyed with stay-at-home moms who say they are so busy and have no time. In the past I even had one comment that I never did much. Really? I mean, I’m not saying you don’t do a LOT. I’m not saying that you don’t work hard. You do! Buy let’s try a little comparison.

Stay-at-home moms do: mom stuff, maintain their household, and volunteer stuff.

Working moms, especially work-out-of-the-house moms, do: mom stuff, try really hard to maintain their household, sometimes still manage to do volunteer stuff, and work an entire workweek out of the house.

Let’s say stay-at-home moms have an 80+-hour work week. I know. I know. Some of you would say the job never ends. It is 24-7. And that is true.

But working moms have all that PLUS a 40ish-hour-per-week job on top of it. Sometimes it’s more than 40 hours. And don’t forget drive time. Or the fact that grocery stores will have longer lines when we can be there.

So stay-at-home moms just lop 40+ hours out of the middle of your week where you can’t do any housework and see how that goes. Trust me, you’ll find time for things that you never thought you could do. But there may not always be time for a shower.

And please do not tell me or treat me like I should hire help or quit my job. If i could hire help I would probably not bother with the 40ish-hour-a-week job (at least not as many hours of it).

Don’t get me wrong I really like my job. But it is also necessary.

My “help” comes in the form of a glass of wine at the end of the day. Yesterday, after working, shopping for groceries and Halloween costume supplies, and feeding my family, I was too tired for that glass of wine. Since I missed it last night, I thought about having it when I got up this morning at 4:50 AM — it’s still kind of nighttime, right? I needed to try to put away some groceries that, sadly, did not put themselves away as I slept. That glass of wine will have to wait. I’m pretty darn determined to get that shower in!

I might even wear jewelry to work today. I always try for earrings because I look more professional, and I can put them in my pocket as I leave the door and then pop them on at a stoplight. I have gotten really good at doing a lot of things at stoplights. But necklaces don’t always happen. Necklaces or bracelets with a clasp are even less likely to happen. So pasta necklace with a 30″ inch cord, you are good to go. Unless you get tangled with something else. In which case, sayonara.

Pretty, hand-beaded 16″ necklace and lovely amethyst bracelet with a safety clasp, I am sorry. I know I’ve been neglecting you. I swear I will wear you again. You are beautiful! Always believe that. But I am much more likely to wear necklaces that are long enough that I can just put them over my head. Presto, jewelry!

So yes, stay-at-home moms, you work. You do get busy. I’ll get over the fact that “busy” may include lunch with friends at the local artisan pizza place. I still love you. I appreciate you a lot. I know you volunteer for the kids more than I do. I really hope I didn’t stand too close to any of you yesterday and cause any olfactory discomfort. I could use one of you in our house.

But right now it’s 6:25. My daughter’s alarm is ringing. We need to get going. The time that I’ve used to write this blog entry has been stolen from laundry time and maybe from drinking that glass of wine, but hopefully NOT from the shower. I really NEED that shower.

Dirty Laundry Come Clean: A Homemade Laundry Detergent Recipe

10 Aug 2014 14 Comments

by alightningbug in Cleaning, Laundry, Mom Stuff, Recipes Tags: , , , , , , ,

Several weeks ago I blogged a comparison of Fels Naptha and Zote laundry bar soaps. That’s here:

BAR FIGHT: Fels Naptha vs Zote Laundry Bar Soap.

Since then I’ve experimented with small batches of homemade laundry detergent. I’m really impressed with how well it cleans! And it doesn’t make my skin itch.

I’ve seen a lot of recipes for both powder and liquid versions. From my little batches I’ve found a couple of things that work well for me.

Powder Laundry Soap or Detergent is much easier and quicker to make than liquid since it requires no cooking or pre-dissolving. It’s also easier to store. Though keeping a small amount of liquid on hand can make a great spot treatment (recipe to come).

Homemade Powder Laundry Detergent:

1 Cup of grated*** Laundry Bar Soap lightly packed (I like Pink Zote*.)

2 Cups of Washing Soda

1 Cup of Borax

I use about 3 Tablespoons** of the mixture per load. Folks with HE machines may want to start with 1T or 2T. My washing machine is anything but high efficiency!

Grate the bar soap, measure ingredients, mix, and use. I can make a double batch with a hand cheese grater in less than 15 minutes (larger quantities will require more time). It dissolves best in hot or warm water. If you need to wash in cold water see below.

The small batches are quick & easy to make. You can double the recipe and put the ingredients in a gallon-size Ziplock-type baggie and mix by stirring and kneading it in the bag. The baggie isn’t nearly as attractive as the vintage glass I’ve seen others use, but it has some advantages. It’s super easy to mix the ingredients. If clumps start to form you can easily break them up. I keep a measuring spoon right inside and close it tightly between use, squeezing out extra air. It takes up very little space. And I reuse the same bag several times.

I found Zote and Fels Naptha at Walmart for 97 cents each. I can find Zote at my local hardware store and international market too. Check in the laundry section or with other bar soaps. Washing Soda ($3.99/box) and Borax ($3.99/box) are carried in the laundry section of many of the same stores and at many grocery stores too.

*I like Zote because it’s so economical and has a few simple ingredients. I like the Pink variety because I can see how well I’m mixing the soap with the other ingredients. Is there a bunch of pink on one side and hardly any on the other? Then I need to mix it up more. Because grated soap can be kind of “fluffy” you’ll want to pack lightly as if measuring brown sugar. Don’t pack too firmly or you’ll end up with a whole new bar of soap.

**I see a lot of Laundry Detergent recipes calling for much less laundry soap per load. If your clothing is getting clean with that, great! Use less. But if you think about it, the box of Washing Soda itself tells you to use 2 Tablespoons a 1/2 Cup per load. I guarantee if you mix it and use only 1T of total mix, you’re getting a lot less than 2T of Washing Soda in your laundry. High Efficiency washers may very well be fine with 1T since those use less water, but anybody with a regular washing machine is probably not getting very much active ingredient. Even plain water can clean out some dirt, so you should probably do some experimenting to see what works best for you. I found that to get our clothing clean in our machine I need 3T. The mix is low sudsing, and it’s still very economical.

Our machine kind of sucks (pardon my language), so it needs all the help it can get!

I like to start the machine on the Hot water setting no matter what fabric I’ll be washing. (I can switch later.) This helps it dissolve more quickly. I set the load size to Small and let the hot water start flowing, then I add the homemade laundry detergent. After the homemade laundry detergent has been in the hot water for a few minutes, I can switch the water setting to warm or cold as needed for the fabric. Then I switch the load setting to Medium or Large as needed to fill the machine the rest of the way. The detergent doesn’t have to be totally dissolved before adding clothing. As the machine agitates the mixture will dissolve even more. But the more the detergent dissolves before I start the load, the more the active ingredients have a chance to do their job.

I should mention that my washing machine lives in my kitchen. Not sitting in the middle of the kitchen next to the fridge, but it’s a stackable in a closet/pantry. So it’s not exactly the “large” size it claims to be, and it doesn’t wash as well as I’d like. But I don’t have to go far to switch a setting. If I am going to walk away I can leave the lid open so the wash cycle won’t start until I’m ready. More on that soon.

I haven’t had a problem dissolving homemade laundry soap with any temperature water — my clothes still rinse cleanly. But you can try putting the ingredients in a blender to make finer particles that will dissolve more quickly. Let the dust settle before you take the lid off the blender. Keep it dry to help prevent clumps.

If you tried the above suggestions for cold water and still have a problem with powder dissolving enough then you might try a liquid. Water in some areas may respond differently. I’ll post a recipe for that soon. Liquids also make good spot removers and may be necessary for some HE machines.

***Editing to add that about 1 inch of Zote laundry bar grates to make about 1 Cup of grated soap lightly packed. About 2 inches of Kirk’s Castile equals 1 Cup. I’d expect Fels Naptha to be similar to 2 inches of bar per 1 Cup of grated soap, but having actually measured.

Seriously Sunday

27 Jul 2014 Leave a comment

by alightningbug in Getting Organized, Mom Stuff, Writing Tags: ,

I don’t know how you got here so quickly, Sunday!

I had Friday off so I could see my daughter in a summer-camp rendition of Annie. It was a lot of fun. They did it in only three weeks so it was very impressive. Each child had a number of different parts except Annie.

My daughter played an orphan, the apple seller, and a member of the Warbucks household staff. Plus she was super fun as Rooster, the conman brother of Mrs. Hannigan. A friend of hers was an excellent Daddy Warbucks.

How did I not realize until this moment that Daddy Warbucks name is ‘war’ and ‘bucks.’ Like war money? What’s up with that? I may have to look up more info on why they gave him that name. I guess it may just be the time period with World Wars and some companies doing very well as a result. But still.

Also on Friday we went out to lunch and saw a movie. So it was a pretty full day of things that we don’t get to do very often. I’ll take it! I even got a few shopping list items scratched off my list.

Saturday we did a little something fun along with some more shopping and a bit of the usual laundry dance.

Sunday is here already. It’s the last day of the weekend. Monday will be here bright and early tomorrow. Weren’t you JUST here, Monday?

I’m trying to get in my ten minutes of writing by just sitting here and plopping down some words because I don’t know if I’ll get it done any other way today. I’d like to work on a story and some Daily Prompts, but even more so I just want to manage ten uninterrupted minutes, right now, if I can. Then I’ve got more household stuff to take care of. Need to purge and organize at least some parts of our wee, dark home. Hopefully I’ll get more writing done later.

I’d really really really like to get a story done for the last Enchanted Spark Writing Contest. The end of July is coming at me at break-neck speed. Seriously, July! Slow down a bit would ya?

Adult Visions, Dirty Laundry

24 Jul 2014 Leave a comment

by alightningbug in Cleaning, Mom Stuff, The Daily Prompt, Writing Tags: , , , , , , , ,

The Daily Post’s Daily Prompt for July 23 is Adult Visions.

The day’s prompt asks:

As a kid, you must have imagined what it was like to be an adult. Now that you’re a grownup (or becoming one), how far off was your idea of adult life?

When I was about six years old I remember thinking that one day I would be eight years old. Eight seemed so old. So grown up. So far away.

I didn’t especially like the number eight at the time. I much preferred seven. Eight seemed sinister. Perhaps because it rhymes with “hate.” I’m not really sure, but that’s what my pre-eight-year-old mind thought about it.

Then one day, I turned eight years old. It was fine. I didn’t feel very old, but now all the six year olds looked really young.

Becoming an adult has been somewhat similar. I have a few aches and pains, but I don’t especially feel forty-something. I certainly don’t feel old or even that mature. I just kind of feel like me. But now when I see people who’re in their twenties they look so young. Practically babies!

Aside from not feeling especially “grown up” there are several things I didn’t expect about achieving adulthood.

One of the biggies is how busy I would be. It’s hard to manage my time and all the activities. Work. Mom stuff. Food. Cleaning. Once in a while down time is needed to reboot, but you end up having to steal it from somewhere because it doesn’t usually happen on its own.

You have to plan for your plans to change. No matter how much planning I do, events always seem to turn out different than I expected. Childbirth. Dinners. Picnics. Christmas. Travels. It’s like the line in “Harry Potter: Deathly Hallows” when Harry ask when it was that one of their plans ever worked out as they expected. (I’ll add a link to a video if I can find it.)

You still need to plan, but then you have to accept the situation when it turns out differently. That’s going to happen a lot more than you think it will when you’re younger.

The biggest thing I didn’t expect about adulthood is how much laundry there would be. It’s one of the great myths of being grown up. You think you’ll be free when you’re of age, but in reality there’s a never-ending stream of dirty clothes following you wherever you go. You’ll need to wash those.

Oh sure, you can fold the clothes and put mount laundry away. You’ll be mostly done. Maybe you can even skip a day. But unless you’re doing laundry in the buff, while your family is likewise in the buff, you will never ever be completely done with laundry. You can get the family to help, and I suppose you could hire other people. But the fact remains that you must still deal with it. Not even our cats have to deal with laundry. This is strictly a human thing.

They don’t tell you that part about growing up.

I’ll try to clue in my daughter. Perhaps her goal, as an adult, can be to someday hire somebody to do the laundry. I can help her learn how to handle the laundry situation efficiently and effectively, so that it doesn’t become a thing. I’ll plan that. We’ll go from there.

(By the way, I edited this as I thought of more things. But the laundry, it’s always a thing.)

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