Dollars and Cents

One of my goals for 2014 is to get a chore and allowance program. So far it is going really well.  The girls are pretty excited about their magnetic chore chart and they have been actually doing a lot of their chores without me even asking. Let's hope that it continues.  There have been a few bumps along the last few weeks and it is more work to help them do some household stuff than it is to do it myself but I keep telling myself it is worth it.  It isn't hard to convince myself that it is worth it because I see positive changes in my children already. 

The allowance process has been pretty exciting for the girls so far.  They get $1.00 a week paid in dimes.  We bought special boxes with three slots for tithing, savings and fun money.  They put one dime in the tithing, two dimes in savings and the rest in fun money.  They are really excited about the fun money and they want to buy the movie Frozen when it comes out on DVD.  They are obsessed with the movie Frozen right now.  It is going to take them quite awhile to earn enough money so hopefully they don't get burned out waiting for it.

New Years Resolutions

I love the start of the new year.  It completely energizes me to accomplish things.  I feel the same about the start of summer and fall.  Not spring though unfortunately.  I'm obsessed with goal making.  It helps me run my life and try to balance everything.  Not very many of these are new goals.  Most of them are just things I am working on.

1. Go gluten free.  So far it's rough.  The food that I don't make from scratch tastes like dirt after a month straight of eating it.  It has already created noticeable differences in my body though so it's interesting.

2. Take supplements on a regular basis- After reading Daniel Amen MD's books I am convinced I need to try them.  So far my brain feels less foggy. 

3. Start working out- but not in January- too many lifestyle changes at once never works out for me.

4. Enroll Red Fish in kindergarten.  *PANIC

5. Finish up homeschool preschool year strong.  It's easy to get tired.  I have most of the rest of the year planned out though and I'm trying to keep it going.  Next September she will go to preschool someplace else but I still want fun things to do at home with her.

6. Make breakfast on a regular basis.

7. Continue my freezer meals.  They are really working out well for our family.

8. Up the marketing efforts at my company.  Up my game in general in my career.

9. Go skiing with my little family of four.

10. Go on more dates with my husband.

11.  Take my family to Disneyland.

12. Start saving to visit friends in Europe.

13. Wash my makeup off my face at night.

14. Do at least one art project with my kids every week.

15. Do speech therapy with Red Fish.  She is doing awesome and we are doing therapy with someone new and it is going really well.  It is mostly tiny articulation things now.  We mostly still go because it is important to Red Fish.

16. Practice reading with Red Fish.  She is so good at it but it's hard to carve out time to practice.

17. Help Red Fish through the rest of her math workbooks and reading lists.

18. Help New Fish remember all of her lowercase alphabet and recognizing the numbers 11-30.

19. Have family home evening every week.  We do pretty well on this but we can do better.

20. Help Red Fish start learning piano.

I'm sure my goals will be changing throughout the year but I like to get them written down even if I change them.

What's For Dinner This Month?

This month I chose too many complicated meals with too many ingredients.   I really should have taken a picture of the results of the day.  It was impressive. I was an extra long cooking day and I was exhausted. (It has been a long month anyway so that's nothing new.)  The major upside is that the meals will probably be better and I will be happier with them all month.  Never make too many different packs of chicken in just a sauce.  It makes for a long month.  I'm still in love with freezer meals.  My family (especially Two Fish) are as well because it means a month of happy dinners.  This month I ended up with 23 meals.  Yay.

The repeats that are loved-
Taquitos-  cream cheese, green salsa, lime, cumin, chili powder, garlic powder, cilantro, green onions, chicken, pepperjack cheese, corn tortillas, kosher salt

Baked Chicken Alfredo - This pasta (Lee Lee's was made with Quinoa pasta to make it gluten free) -http://www.ourbestbites.com/2010/02/baked-chicken-penne-freezer-meal/ With this alfredo sauce http://www.ourbestbites.com/2008/08/guiltless-alfredo-sauce/
 
Taco Soup- 1 lb ground beef, 1 medium onion, 1 Pk Taco Seasoning, 1 16 oz can corn, 1 16 oz can black beans (drained), 1 14 oz can stewed tomatoes, 1 14oz can diced green chilis, 1 8 oz can tomato sauce/paste- Bown meat and onion, drain - stir in taco seasoing, corn, black bean, tomatoes, tomato sauce, and green chilis.
Add tortilla chips and other taco topping (cheese, sour cream, avacado)

BBQ Chicken Salad- BBQ Sauce INGREDIENTS: 1-1/2 cups Dark Brown Sugar, packed, 1-1/4 cups Ketchup, 1/2 cup Red Wine Vinegar, 1/2 cup Water, 1 tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce, 2-1/2 teaspoons Ground Mustard, 2 teaspoons Paprika, 1-1/2 teaspoons Kosher Salt, 1 teaspoon Black Pepper, DIRECTIONS: Measure and add all ingredients to a large bowl and whisk well until the sugar has dissolved and the spices are thoroughly distributed. Add to chicken.  Freeze.  Cook chicken in crockpot in crock pot on low for 4-6 hours. Shred. For BBQ chicken salad:lettuce, corn, avocado, mozzarella cheese, tortilla strips, diced tomatoes, black beans and add a little of BBQ sauce to ranch for the dressing!

Crock Pot Beef and Broccoli- Ingredients, 1 pound boneless beef chuck roast, sliced into thin strips, 1 cup beef broth, 1/2 cup soy sauce, 1/3 cup brown sugar, 1 tablespoon sesame oil, 3 garlic cloves, minced, 2 tablespoons cornstarch, 2 tablespoons sauce from the crock pot after being cooked, Fresh broccoli florets (as many as desired)- Directions 1. Place beef in a crock pot.
2. In a small bowl, combine broth, soy sauce, brown sugar, oil, and garlic. Pour over beef. Cook on low for 6-8 hours. 3. In a cup, stir cornstarch and sauce form the crock pot until smooth. Add to crock pot. Stir well to combine. 4. Add broccoli to the crock pot. Stir to combine. 5. Cover and cook an additional 30 minutes on high (the sauce has to boil for it to thicken). 6. Serve over hot cooked rice.

Beef & Broccoli Calzone- (We made two batches of this.) 1 lb. cooked ground beef, Frozen bread dough, 10 oz. frozen broccoli, 1 cup shredded mozzarella, onion, 3.4 cup sour cream, 1/2 tsp. italian seasoning, 1/4 tsp. salt.  Wrap in bread dough.  Thaw and bake.

Lemon Garlic Chicken- salt, pepper, garlic powder, a lemon, chicken

White Bean Chilli-(2 dinners worth for my family)  1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil, 1/2 teaspoon cumin, 1 medium onion, diced 1/2 teaspoon oregano, 2 cups cooked shredded chicken, (32 oz) chicken broth, 2 cans Great Northern Beans, drained and rinsed.  Salt (to taste), 1 can corn, drained, Pepper (to taste), 1 can (4 oz) green chilies, 1 lime, juice

Fajitas- Leave chicken raw for freezing, McCormick Fajita Packet, sliced bell peppers and onion.  Thaw and cook in pan and put in tortillas.

Hawaiian Haystacks-  2 cans cream of chicken soup, 1 cup broth, 12 oz. evaporated milk, 10-12 Chicken tenders chunked.  Crock pot for 6-8 hours on low.  Serve over rice with the following topping options:  onion, celery, carrots, olives, pineapples, cheese, almonds, tomatoes, chow mein noodles, cheese, coconut, green peppers.
 
 New Things we are trying this month-
Tin Foil Dinners- 2-4 hamburger patties, White or red online, Carrots, Potatoes, Salt and pepper

Southwestern Chicken Roll-Ups- 6 (6-ounce) skinless, boneless chicken breast halves, 6 tablespoons (about 3 ounces) 1/3-less-fat cream cheese, 6 tablespoons picante sauce, 6 cilantro sprigs, 6 tablespoons Italian-seasoned breadcrumbs, pound each chicken breast half to 1/4-inch thickness using a meat mallet or rolling pin. Top each breast half with 1 tablespoon cheese, 1 tablespoon picante sauce, and 1 cilantro sprig. Roll up chicken beginning at narrow end.  Roll chicken in breadcrumbs. Place rolls, seam sides down, on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray Bake at 350° for 20 minutes or until chicken is done.

Chicken Parmesan- 4 chicken breasts, ½ C dried breadcrumbs, 1 C shredded parmesan cheese, I Tbl oregano, 1 egg, ⅛ teaspoon salt, 2 tbl olive oil, ¾ C shredded mozzarella cheese, ½ C marinara sauce- In one bowl combine breadcrumbs, parmesan cheese, and oregano. In another bowl, lightly beat egg and salt. Brush both side of chicken with egg then lightly coat with crumb mixture. Cook chicken in skillet - 3 min each side. Add marinara sauce.

Honey Garlic Pork Chops - Ingredients: 1/8 cup honey, 1 1/2 Tablespoons soy sauce, 3 tsp  minced garlic, 2 pork loin chops, boneless, trimmed of excess fat- In a shallow dish, whisk together honey, soy sauce and garlic. Coat chops in mixture. Reserve left over honey mixture for basting. Place chops on greased grill over med high heat, close lid and cook.

Brown Sugar and Balsamic Glazed Pork Loin- Ingredients: 1 (2 pound) boneless pork tenderloin (or regular pork loin), 1 teaspoon ground sage, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, 1 clove garlic, crushed
1/2 cup water, Glaze- 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1 tablespoon cornstarch, 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar, 1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons soy sauce- Directions: Combine sage, salt, pepper and garlic. Rub over roast. Place in slow cooker with 1/2 cup water. Cook on low for 6-8 hours. About 1 hour before roast is done, combine ingredients for glaze in small sauce pan. Heat and stir until mixture thickens. Brush roast with glaze 2 or 3 times during the last hour of cooking. Serve with remaining glaze on the side.

Lasagna Roll Ups- Lasagna noodles (6 per family), Spaghetti sauce, 1 (15 oz) container Ricotta Cheese, 1 large egg, 1/3 cup fresh flat leaf parsley (aka Italian Parsley, its about 1 small handful), chopped, 2 1/4 cups freshly grated Mozzarella Cheese, divided, 3/4 cup freshly, finely grated Parmesan Cheese, divided, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper- Once noodles are cooked, drain and immediately line noodles in a single layer on waxed paper or cookie sheets.  Prepare cheese mixture (I do this while pasta is cooking) by stirring together Ricotta cheese, egg, 1/4 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper with a fork in a large mixing bowl until well combine.  Stir in chopped fresh parsley.  Add in 1 3/4 cups grated Mozzarella Cheese, 1/2 cup Parmesan Cheese and 1/3 cup Romano Cheese, stir mixture until well combine. Stir meat sauce and spread 1/3 cup evenly into a 13x9 inch baking dish by tilting pan back and forth.  Spread 1/4 cup cheese mixture evenly onto each cooked lasagna noodle, then spread 1 heaping tablespoon meat sauce along the top of cheese covered noodle.  Roll noodles up jellyroll style and arrange seam side down in baking dish Place rolled noodles in baking dish and cover with remaining meat sauce (about a heaping 1/8 cup over each) then sprinkle remaining 1/2 cup Mozzarella Cheese and 1/4 cup Parmesan Cheese evenly over roll ups.  Tent lasagna roll ups with foil (don't allow foil to rest on cheese or it will stick you just want to loosely tent to prevent the cheese from browning) and bake in preheated oven. 30 min if thaw and 60 min if frozen.

Red Stew- Stew meat,2 potatoes, 2 carrots, 1 can cream of mushroom, 1 can tomato soup, ½ pkg onion soup mix, 1 can of water- cube beef into bite sized pieces. Place in crockpot. Peel and cube potatoes and carrots. Place veggies on top of meat. Add soup and water. Cook 8hrs on high. Stir and serve.

Breakfast Burritos- Eggs, Sausage, Cheese, Salsa, Tortillas 

Boneless crockpot ribs- onion, ketchup, brown sugar, water, lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce. 

Applesauce pork chops- sage, applesauce, simply apple juice, garlic salt, pepper. 

 Garlic Pork Roast- Garlic cloves, pepper, garlic salt and roast. It's heavenly. We like it plain or we make taquitos with a white cheese (mozzarella) avocado, lime, tomato or fresh salsa.

Weekending

It has been a crazy and busy weekend.  I did an all day cooking session to get the next month's dinners done on Friday.  Who knew cooking could be so totally physically exhausting?  We have been painting our house all week trying to beat the carpet layers.  We are in the middle of recarpeting the whole house.  It's basically like moving.  We have had to pack the entire house up and move everything.  I've decided I'm not a fan of redecorating.  I always thought I liked it- I just never had time to worry much about it.  Turns out- I hate it.  This carpeting is the last step of repairing all of the flood damage.  We had to recarpet so much of the house from the flood damage that we just went ahead and did it all.  While we were replacing the flooring in 90% of the house- we needed to make sure everything was painted.  So now we are in the process of painting the entire thing.  I had help for some of it but we are doing a ton ourselves.  Two bathrooms and a laundry room to go and the whole house will be painted.   There are other things I'm going to end up finishing because now I just want the house to be finished looking.  I hate quitting more than I hate all of this renovation business.  

The only times I've really gone crazy and painted a bunch and super organized my house is when we've been expecting a baby.  Maybe it will work in reverse?  Nest like crazy and a baby will appear?  That would make this insane amount of work worth it.  My house is going to look good when all of this is done but I'm not sure that makes it worth it enough for me.

We had to stay out of the house a lot this weekend in between marathon painting sessions. We ran a lot of errands together and hung out at the park.  We ate lunch at the mall and round on the merry-go-round.  We went to the library and picked out a stack of new books.  The girls spent 1.5 hours pouring over the children's section and deciding which ones to take home.  Books are serious business around here.

I'm not sure what the fascination with this baby headband is but New Fish has started wearing it everyday.

 We went on a hike to a nearby waterfall and gathered "rainbow leaves."  I love living in the mountains- especially during the Fall.  This hike was only a few miles away from my house.  We baked cookies.  We made collages out of the fall leaves and contact paper.  We spent a lot of time together this weekend.  We did a lot of work- paint, deep cleaning, moving things- and we played together.  I'm totally in love with my little family.

Red Fish did some leave rubbings.  New Fish wasn't interested because she already did them in school at the Buddy's house this week. 

The Books We Read

I love books and I love to read.  I have been reading recently about the topic of reading to children.  Two Fish and I  have enjoyed reading to our kids pretty much from birth.  The girls and I read almost everyday together.  We haven't been taking many trips to the library over the summer but we plan to get back into a good rhythm when the weather turns cooler.  (Too much fun to be had outdoors right now.)  Sometimes the girls will let me read to them before bed but most of the time, Two Fish reads to them for 30-45 minutes before bed.  We have around 250 kids books.  They've all been read countless times.  Certain favorites have been read hundreds of times, sometimes multiple times a day.

In an article written recently by Emily Swan PHD, she said: "Children who read a wide variety of books and spend longer periods of time reading literally get smarter. How much kids read really counts! Reading is the BEST way to increase knowledge so it makes sense that children who read often and for sustained periods of time learn more than children who do not read for very long or do not read a variety of different kinds of books. These children build background knowledge on a variety of topics and concepts. This background knowledge is key in understanding new information. Voracious readers have an easy time connecting new information to their background knowledge, making school easier and more enjoyable, compared to children who don’t read and who don’t have a lot of background knowledge."  

She goes on to describe the variety of vocabulary and background knowledge that should come from reading a variety of books.  I've been thinking a lot over the past year about the type of books I read to my kids.  We enjoy beautiful illustrations, creative stories and themes my kids are interested in.  Sometimes we get stuck in a rut though.  I'm constantly looking into different styles of learning and different curriculums (because I'm obsessed) and I stumbled on Sonlight.  I liked that the preschool curriculum was just mostly books to read to my kids.  It had science books, myths and traditional stories and rhymes as well as poetry, longer novels (we had never tried reading anything that long or with that few of pictures before),

My kids and I just finished the Pre-K curriculum from Sonlight.  We started in February so we did it faster than the 36 weeks prescribed and we didn't necessarily stick to the day by day schedule in the instructor's guide.  We read a few days a week and we didn't do any of the letter recognition activities because Red Fish already knows them and New Fish wasn't ready until recently.  Plus, we just didn't really have time with everything else on our plate. I loved the books.  My kids loved the books.  It was really good for all of us.  We read about other cultures, learned tons of new nursery rhymes, read fairy tales etc. and it made me feel like a good Mom.  These became "Mommy's special books."  Some of the stories got read twice in a row because they couldn't put them down.  So here are some of our favorites

We did not read the Bible stories or the stories from Africa all the way through.  I was disappointed by both of them.  I would skip those. There are other books in the collection but these were the ones we liked best.

American Tall Tales CD narrated by Jim Weiss- My kids have listened to this CD over and over.  It was a lifesaver on our drive to California last May.  Jim Weiss does an awesome job doing the different voices and the Paul Bunyan story was especially fun. 

A Treasury Of Mother Goose- We have several mother goose collections but this one has rhymes I had never heard before.  My kids love the songs that go along with these and pull this book out on a regular basis to look at the pictures and read through it.  My kids have become very adept at picking out which words rhyme and which don't.  It has inspired several games around our house and helped prepare them to read.  Nursery rhymes are just something every child should read.

 The Lion Story Teller Book- Definitely a favorite from this set.  The illustrations are beautiful, the stories are fun and my kids went crazy over the lion and the rabbit tales.  This one is a keeper.

The Milly Molly Mandy Story Book- This was only the second chapter book my kids have ever read.  I thought it was a little dry but endearing.  The girls adored it.  They kept pretending to be Milly Molly Mandy.

Stories From Around The World- I love the borders and illustrations in this book.  I didn't love every single story, some were a little weird or boring but for the most part I thought it was great for the girls to get a look  into other cultures and traditions.  This book was a favorite.

Eric Carle's Animals Animals- I love Carle and we all loved this book.  It is basically a different animal illustration with a poem or saying about the animal on each page.  It has been read repeatedly. 

The Children's Book of Virtues- Contains stories that every kid should know, like the Boy Who Cried Wolf etc.

A Children's Book Of Art- We have art books all over our house but having a schedule of themed pages helped us to actually sit down and examine paintings together.  We talked about different elements used and it inspired many conversations about art.  I am definitely going to pull out more of my art books to look at with the kids from now on.  Fabulous.

The Classic Tales Of Brer Rabbit- I adore this book.  The illustrations are fabulous.  The stories are American classics. It is so fun to read. This book has become a regular around our house.  It is a definite favorite.

Uncle Wiggily's Story Book- This is the first long novel I have ever read to my children.  I was afraid they would be bored with so few pictures (and only black and white sketches) to look at but I was pleasantly surprised.  They sat in absolute awe of the animal adventures.  They talk about Uncle Wigggily frequently.  We will definitely be reading many long books together in the future.

People- Awesome for creating a discussion on how people are all so beautifully different.  This book was a great teaching tool for my children.

The Usbourne Book Of Things People Do- Each set of pages has detailed illustrations of a career.  There are ballerinas, police people, bakers etc.  I think my children learned a lot from this book and it really got them thinking about all of the different opportunities that await them in the world.  This was a favorite. 

First Thousand Words- I would have thought this book was too juvenille for my kids, or at least for Red Fish but this might have been their favorite book.  New Fish looks at it on a regular basis.  They had a blast learning new vocabulary and finding the pictures.

The Berenstein Bears' Big Book of Science and Nature- had great illustrations and perfectly age appropriate answers to dozens of science questions.  My kids liked all of the scientific books in the Sonlight program but this was by far the favorite.

The Year At Maple Hill Farm- My kids adore all things animal so this book went over very well with them.


I'm still struggling to decide if we will jump into the Kindergarten curriculum or not.  It seems more involved and is very pricey. We may just check out some of the books it suggests.  I'm not sure yet.  We have a lot of plans this Fall.   Overall, I highly recommend these books and the Sonlight program.  It has been a great experience for all of us. It has broadened our horizons and opened us to reading things I wouldn't have read with my kids on my own.  I will definitely repeat the program with just New Fish in a year.

What's For Dinner This Month

I'm trying to get back on track with my dinners.  We've just been scrambling to get dinner on the table for the last couple of months.  I got off track with making my freezer meals for awhile.  I'm back at it again.  This month was by far my least successful month of making the meals.  I had multiple technical difficulties so it made for a very long day of cooking.  The prep work and actual preparation of all of the meals is a bit grueling sometime.  This month was especially bad. Next month when my family has had fabulous dinners every night for a month, I won't care how much work it takes.  It's just one day of cooking and it makes the rest of my life so much easier.  My family has dinner at the table, I feel like a better Mom and it is less stress on everyone.  My kids even get to bed on time when I have meals prepped. It's definitely a good thing.

I tried a few new things this month that my family has already eaten and enjoyed-

These lettuce wraps- http://www.ourbestbites.com/2011/04/asian-lettuce-wraps/

 This pasta (Lee Lee's was made with Quinoa pasta to make it gluten free) -http://www.ourbestbites.com/2010/02/baked-chicken-penne-freezer-meal/ With this alfredo sauce http://www.ourbestbites.com/2008/08/guiltless-alfredo-sauce/

I added some fresh broccolli to ours.  It was delicious.

Some new ones I haven't eaten yet-

This crock pot Beef and Broccolli- http://www.bsrecipe.blogspot.com/2012/04/crock-pot-beef-and-broccoli.html# 

This Korean Beef- http://elizabethbryant.blogspot.com/2010/05/korean-beef.html 

And a stroganoff with homemade cream of chicken soup.

A stir fry

Another Chicken and Brccoli Alfredo dish 

Ranch pork chops
Pepper Stake

There are also some favorite repeats from previous months-

*Cranberry/apricot chicken- Chicken pieces, 1 env. onion soup, 1 bottle Russian dressing, 1 med. jar apricot jam or can of cranberry sauce.  Mix and freeze.  Thaw and Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour or until done.

*Italian Chicken-chicken breasts, 1 10oz can cream of chicken soup , 1 8oz package of cream cheese, 1 package italian dressing.  Thaw, bake and serve over noodles.
*Chicken and Rice Bake- 1 can Cream of mushroom soup, instant white rice, 1 cup water, 1/4 tsp. paprika, chicken.  Thaw and bake at 375º for 45 minutes or until done.  I froze mine without the water.
*Gaint Crockpot Chili- (this will feed us for 3 or 4 meals. I plan to make taco salads and other things with it.)  2 lbs. cooked ground beef, 2 cans northern beans, 3 cans kidney beans, 4- 14.5 oz. cans diced tomatos, 2 med. Onions, green pepper, 1 tsp. garlic, 3 tbsp. chili powder, 2 tsp. cumin, 2 tbsp. brown sugar, 1 tsp. black pepper, 1 tsp. salt.  Freeze and then dethaw and put in crock pot.
*Chicken roll ups-  package of crescent rolls, cream cheese, garlic, salt pepper, shredded chicken, gravy
* Crock Pot Chicken Mix-(2 dinners worth for my family) Shredded Chicken, 1 can black beans, 1 can corn, 2 cups salsa.  Heat through in crockpot.  Add cream cheese 30 minutes before serving over rice. 
*Taquitos-  cream cheese, green salsa, lime, cumin, chili powder, garlic powder, cilantro, green onions, chicken, pepperjack cheese, corn tortillas, kosher salt (This time I accidentally got Monterey Jack cheese- they were still good.)
*Spaghetti- Meat, tomato paste, tomato sauce, chopped veggies and onions, spaghetti spice packet.  Thaw and serve over pasta 
* Shredded chicken tacos 
 

Day In The Life Of A Rockstar

 Sometimes, my job can be pretty random.  I can be designing posters, trade show booths, CDs and marketing materials on my computer.  I might be picking out music styles that would fit in with our music library or figuring out a new way to market music.  Lately I've been planning a huge party, customizing one of a kind advertising pieces with wax and a custom branding iron.  The list could go on... it's a random life.  Things have been especially crazy lately and I will be relieved when this month is over.  One huge project came to a close yesterday.

After many phone calls, emails and planning meetings, a crew from Panasonic in Japan flew to shoot a music video of one of our songs written by a good friend of mine.  I was one of the violinists in the band.  The crew rented out a club downtown and we filmed all day.  It was a blast!  This Fall, every electronic store with Panasonic TVs, around the world, will play our music video. 

We had our hair and makeup done before the shoot.

 All of the band members were supposed to bring three outfits for the director to pick from.  I had one dress (shown in all of the pictures) that he liked but he told me to do more shopping.  I had to run to the mall before it closed for the night and desperately search for a new outfit.  My friend L and I found ourselves an extra fabulous, rock and roll looking drag queen to shop with us.  She picked me out some short leather overalls to wear.  Luckily, the director had me go with my original outfit, so I was able to still look somewhat like myself in the video.  It was still a fun adventure.  In case you are wondering, yes, I did own and wear those shoes and tights before the video shoot.

Rocking out!

I kind of want the red streaks in my hair to be permanent now.  Maybe feel a little more rockstar in daily life.

 Unfortunately, most of the string parts in the piece were cut due to time restraints so the director asked us to dance and rock out on stage.  It was SO FAR out of my comfort zone.  "Backup dancer #2" isn't exactly a role I ever saw myself playing so that was pretty mortifying but I tried to tell myself that the more I could get into it and the more embarrassing it felt, hopefully the more comfortable I would look.  Hopefully I was right. 

 Our band and the crew from Panasonic

My friend, the song writer and lead singer

 All in all it was a blast!  Definitely something to check off of the bucket list! 

A Freezer Full

In an effort to close the gap between the adult/mother/wife I want to be and the person I really am, I have started a freezer meal plan.  Cooking isn't my forte and meal planning is strenuous.  Every time I get on track, I get tired and distracted by everything else I am trying to accomplish.  I have admittedly been doing much better the last few months but there is still room for improvement.  I'd also like to decrease my grocery bill.  Last month I did a test drive of cooking a bunch of freezer meals ahead of time and vaccum sealing them for freshness with my friend Annie.  It worked out splendidly.

So with the aid of two of my sisters in law, I am going to start making 20 excellent entres ahead of time every month.  Then we will have 5 meals a week planned and prepped.  The other 2 will be vegetarian or eating out occasionally.  Some meals are fully cooked and just need to be dumped in a pan to reheat.  Others are ready to be put in a dish and baked.  They look delicious.  I'm so excited for dinner this month.  We emailed back and forth until we had a good list of meals and recipes ready. Then we divided up the list and brought all of our groceries up to the lake house last weekend.

In five hours of intense food prep and cooking we made three sets of 20 meals.  Everything was vacuum sealed and put into the freezer. We filled the entire thing top to bottom.  I am totally in love with my foodsaver.  Now I have a plan for the month with lists of sides etc. ready.  Wish me luck!  It will be interesting to see how smoothly things go and see what my food bill total is. 

Taco Meat- shredded chicken with lime, redwine vinegar, seasoning
Crock pot chicken mix - shredded chicken, beans, corn, chicken, salsa and add cream cheese when you finish it in the crock pot and serve over rice- makes 2 meals
Lemon Garlic Chicken- salt, pepper, garlic powder, a lemon, chicken
White chicken chilli- olive oil, cumin, onion, oregano, chicken broth, 2 cans Great Northern Beans, can corn, can green chilies, lime,
Russian Chicken  - Russian dressing (or French or Catalina, Russian is hard to find and they pretty much taste the same), apricot jam, onion soup mix and chicken breasts.
Cranberry Chicken- Russian dressing, cranberry sauce, onion soup mix and chicken breasts.
Chicken adobo- onion, garlic, soy sauce, sesame oil, vinegar- serve over rice
Taquitos-  cream cheese, green salsa, lime, cumin, chili powder, garlic powder, cilantro, green onions, chicken, pepperjack cheese, corn tortillas, kosher salt
Spicy Honey Chicken- Garlic powder, chili powder, onion powder, coriander, kosher salt, cumin, honey, cider vinegar
Sloppy Joes- 1 lb. ground beef, onion, green pepper, garlic, ketchup, mustard, ibrown sugar, red wine vinegar, worcestershire sauce, tomato paste
Chicken roll ups-  package of crescent rolls, cream cheese, garlic, salt pepper, shredded chicken, gravy
Orange Teriyaki Chicken- soy sauce, onion, garlic, olive oil, ground pepper, ground ginger, red pepper, orange juice
Tater tot casserole (makes a 9x13 pan) - hamburger, tater tots, canned milk, dried onion, cream of mushroom soup.
Yogurt chicken - chicken, ritz cracker crumbs, plain yogurt, parmesan cheese, garlic salt, salt
Italian chicken - (may be similar to Russian chicken) chicken, cream of chicken soup, Italian dressing mix, cream cheese
Creamy chicken - chicken, cream of mushroom soup, cream of chicken soup, sour cream, package of onion soup mix

Tradition & Motherhood

I've been feeling odd this week.  I tried to make a new list to replace my 30 before 30 list and I felt stuck. I had been excited to make it so being stuck shocked me.  I'm not sure who I am as an individual now that I'm in my thirties.  It was easy to make the goal list for the twenties.  Graduating from college, getting married, starting a family, starting a career, buy a house etc. The big goals and milestones were mapped out for years.  It suddenly occurred to me that I have the foggiest idea of what the big decisions of the thirties are supposed to be for me. I can think of traveling I want to do, things that would be fun but I feel lost as to what the big framework of my goals should be.  It has thrown me for a big of a loop and put me into a bit of a funk. No- I'm not upset by being thirty.  I'm not feeling old- I don't think life actually stops at thirty.  I don't need advice on how I'm still a youngster with my whole life ahead of me.  I get that.  I'm feeling temporarily lost though. I love having goals for myself as a mother but I also need to figure out some goals outside of motherhood.  I'm working on it.

Trying to separate myself from motherhood and the goals I have for my children is feeling impossible. 
 So I'll concentrating on what I do know for a bit.  I have a lot of small goals for the day to day motherhood. I have traditions I'm trying to create.  A life I'm trying to establish for my kids.  So many things I want to be for them.  So many things I want to create for my children.

My Mom and I often talk about how motherhood is a little bit different for every good mom.  There are just certain things that each Mom feels like they need to do for their kids to be a good mom.  Sometimes they are terribly inconvenient and make life a little more difficult, but it doesn't matter because doing them is what motherhood is about.  I think these special, above and beyond items vary with each mother's skill set.  For example, my Mom cooked up a real breakfast almost every school day.  She got up early to spend time with us before early morning seminary and school.  That was one of the many great things she did for us.

The current scene of choice at our house.  Hiding out someplace in a fort with a pile of library books.  I love it!

I think that because Two Fish and I had those extra years of wanting kids, but not quite getting them into our family, I have spent A LOT of time thinking about what is important to me as a parent. I asked all of the parents I loved most what they thought was the most important thing they had learned about parenthood.  I read parenting books.  I'm still always hitting the awesome Moms I know up for more advice.  In typical me fashion, I made lists of things made before I became a mother.  Obviously, my list is changing as I figure this whole mothering thing out.  As my kids change, my priorities change.  It's all a learning process.  I just hope that I'm headed in the right direction.

One of the things that I often ponder is how to bring traditions into my family.  Tradition seems like one of the most important long-term bonding tools of a family.  It has become one of my top priorities.  I'm not just talking about the Holiday traditions (which I think are very important) but the day to day routine traditions.  The little things that define our relationships and become memories that stick.

Reading.  My kids get read to every single day.  Usually we do most of our reading at night but lately we have been reading a lot during the day as well.  Our bedtime routine pretty much revolves around reading books, snuggling and singing songs.

The Outdoors- I want my kids to love the outdoors.  I want them to play outside and not sit in front of the tv.  I find peace and solace and strength in the outdoors.  We go camping several times a year.  We have spent a lot of time at my parent's cabin.  We spend our afternoons outside riding bikes and we've been to the park dozens of times this summer. We just spend a lot of time outside. Somehow swimming has become a huge part of our routine.  We swam at my parent's house all summer.  We go to swimming lessons every week now.  I'm kind of surprised (but happy) at what a big deal it has become for us.  My kids are fish.  They love the water.  I love the water, so it works.

Imagination and Playtime- I think playtime and imaginary play are so important for kids.  I've really loved seeing their imaginations develop in the past year.  Red Fish has especially become more imaginative recently.  She ropes New Fish into games all day long.  I have a difficult time keeping track of who they are on any given day.  They demand to be called by character.  They could be a rainbow dolphin, a cat, Go Diego Go,  my mom etc.  Giving them time to play together is an important part of our routine.

Family-  We go to a lot of family events. We talk to our family a lot.  I try to make sure the girls know that family is extremely important to us.  I try to make sure they get plenty of time with Two Fish, I and their grandparents.

One of the many coloful paintings Red Fish makes on a weekly basis.

Art-Three years ago, I made a goal to do art projects with Red Fish on a regular basis.  She loved doing small art projects and I really wanted to throw myself into the mess of it all and embrace it.  Thus far, I think it's going great.  Obviously, from my blog posts, doing art with my kids is something I am proud of as a Mom.  Doing art projects with my kids fits in well with my skill set.  It's the easy part of mothering for me.  There is something so therapeutic and great about being able to create with them.  In fact, I think that watching them do projects and taking the time to paint and draw with them has inspired me in my work as a graphic designer, immensely.  Staying inspired is always a struggle and I have have blasted through more work the last couple of years than I would have thought possibly, in a large part due to the creations the girls make.

Music- I debate the best way to bring music into my children's lives on a daily basis.  We've mostly been concentrating on developing a love of music.  We've been going to concerts on a regular basis.  We went to see Doo's jazz band this week and it was AWESOME.  We sing all day long.  We listen to nursery ryhmes and kids music in the car everyplace we go (even though it starts to drive me insane.)  I'm trying to find time to fit in more music time where we sit down and learn new songs.  I think I might unleash my lamination addiction on song props soon.

Gospel- We are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  The gospel shapes and informs our daily lives.  Trying to develop a rhythm and focus for teaching my kids about their Creator is something I am continually working on.  We've gotten pretty good at having a weekly gospel lesson on Monday nights.  (Family home evening) We read scriptures before bed.  We try and remember to pray often together. We go to church together on Sundays, even when it's hard.  It's the little day to day things that we are working on. I've been working like a mad woman to make a set of durable gospel lessons with laminated visual aids, games, etc.  Something I can use for a long time.  I have 85 lessons made.  It was a huge project I've been working on for two years.  I'm pretty pleased with them.  It might deserve it's own post later.

Educational- Our approach to educational stuff is pretty relaxed around here.  Red Fish developed a strong love for flashcards early on I think because of all of her speech practice.  She loves to be quizzed on new topics.  It kind of cracks me up.  She has been teaching herself to read recently.  We have a pile of like 50 file folder games.  My girls are ADDICTED to puzzles. I spent hours doing puzzles with them today and I swear they never get tired of them.  We also have a computer program called Rusty & Rosy that Red Fish plays.  She loves it and it has ton her a lot.   I don't feel a lot of pressure to formally educate them because I like to concentrate on developing their imaginations etc. but they are always pushing me to teach them more.

So right now life revolves around fitting these things into a daily routine.  A sense of tradition.